Saturday, December 25, 2010

Sledding on Christmas Day - Robert

Robert had never been sledding and he said he loved it. We definitely need to get him a better rig though.

Sledding on Christmas Day - Halie

Halie going down the little hill all by herself. She LOVED it and I think she would have tried the big hill alone if we'd have let her!

Sledding on Christmas Day - Me

Here I am, at least 16 years since the last time I went sledding.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Old Faithful Soon to be Retired

So this is the comforter set that Robert and I have had for our entire marriage. The throw pillow collection has changed over the years, but the comforter has been a constant. It was the only one we could agree on back then and I have loved it. It has lasted and served us well for 8.5 years. But alas.......I believe it's time has come.










It works out well that it's becoming full of snags, holes, and worn areas because I was ready for something new anyways (and no, I didn't put those holes there on purpose just so I could redecorate, lol!).

I've come across a few pictures in the past year or so that are along the lines of what I'd like to do. I like a few of the elements in all of these pictures, and they are the inspiration for a bedroom makeover. I'm going for a sort of simple cottage type feel with lots of white and touches of red, with a mixture of patterns to soften it up.




(I love the curtains in this one!)








I'm excited because the other day at Home Goods I found my first two pieces to help me get started.



I'll let ya know how it all turns out. : )

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

What's My Style?

For a long time now I have wondered how exactly to classify my decorating style. I love love love to decorate, rearrange, pull together some theme or another, etc. But over the years my style has changed from Americana, to colonial/primitive, to.....???...some kind of eclectic hodgepodge I haven't been able to put a finger on. I've always had a love for antiques and no matter what my current style was it always included antiques of some sort or another. I love the idea that something so old has to have a story behind it. I love to imagine who might have owned it and what kinds of things happened to it along the way. But I wouldn't classify "antiques" alone as my decorating style, as there is such a wide range of styles of antiques. I love things that are used, but not necessarily old, too. I love laid back and comfy, chipped, worn furniture, and I love the idea of repurposing something in a new and unexpected way.

About a year ago I found a book at Michaels or JoAnns, can't remember which, called Junk Beautiful, and immediately fell in love with it. I perused those pages over and over again, and even visited their website. I felt inspired by what I saw, but still I didn't have a label for myself. The book has been in my magazine rack ever since.

Then a few weeks ago I found a magazine called Flea Market Style. I quickly flipped through it and knew right away I would love it. After scouring every page multiple times and spending hours, literally...many hours, visiting blogs listed in the magazine I have come to realize that........drumroll...........wait for it.........I am a Junker! Ta Da! A label! The idea of taking what is essentially "junk" to someone else and finding a new purpose for it that looks beautiful and creative in my home is SO me! I can't say that I have very many things, (I do have a few though) in my house at this moment that fit in this category (I'm more of a Junker at heart), but I feel so inspired to do more with that idea. I love the things I've come across in these blogs and I can't wait to try some of my own projects.
There are still different styles of decorating within the "Junker" category, and I've yet to exactly identify what mine is. I know it's not the French Provential style that's so popular, although I think it's pretty, it's just not me. My style leans more towards Comfy Casual Farmhouse I guess.

Now maybe you're thinking, "Junk? Junker? What in the world?" But let me enlighten you. I've included just a few pictures of many inspiring Junker style projects I've found. Let me know what you think, and share with me what you think your personal decorating style is.



(LOVE this as a desk area!)





(I've seen many uses for old window frames, but this was a new one.)


(A greenhouse made with old windows, cool right? Or should I say "hot?")

The following three pictures are the progression of a project. Picture #1, a $1 lamp from a garage sale......

Taken apart, spray painted, rewired.......

And made into a beautiful new light fixture. I've seen very similar ones sold for $150 in country style decorating magazines!

Now do you understand? : )

Saturday, October 23, 2010

A Lovely Fall Evening

Where we live, out in the country, we don't have much for paved areas around our house for Halie to ride her bike. There's only the dirt/rock driveway, which she can do but it's a little difficult and frustrating for her, and about 10 feet of concrete at the front of our house. So, she has never had a good opportunity to really ride her bike for any length of time or significant distance. So Friday evening, instead of going to a restaurant to eat like we usually do, we picked up a pizza and drinks and went to a picnic area up on the dike around the lake. After a yummy supper we took a leisurely walk while she happily rode alongside on her bike. I think she was amazed at the freedom she felt of being able to just ride and ride. She had so much fun!




It was such a beautiful evening, sitting by the water, feeling the cool breeze, and just enjoying being together as a family. By the time we left the moon had risen, there was a chill in the air, and we left as a contented little family.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Added Blessing

I already felt like I had a blessed life, but as of September 10th I feel doubly blessed! Our sweet baby boy, Robert Burl Cantrell, III came into this world. Everything went smoothly with the delivery and we are praising and thanking the Lord for a healthy lil' man! I am so grateful that the Lord saw fit to answer our prayers for a boy. I'm not worthy of anything, but for some reason He blessed me anyways.

(Almost 4 weeks old)

Big sister, Halie, loves her new little brother so much and is a great helper. Sometimes too much of a helper. : ) Burl loves her back and listens intently when she talks or sings. I can't wait to hear his giggles when he watches her silliness.






He has been such a smiley baby right from day 1 basically. I love to see his face fill up with his huge grins. Now at 1 month old they're getting more frequent, and happen more in response to something rather than just randomly. This morning he was laying on his play gym checking out a dangling toy bug. He reached out and hit it, it jingled, and he lit up with a big ol' smile.

I just can't get enough of this lil' Chubby Bubby!

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Happy 3rd Birthday!

Halie's 3rd birthday week started off with taking cupcakes to share with her friends at the library story time. Instead of the usual cupcakes, we made Rice Krispie Treat cupcakes. I had seen the idea in a magazine and thought they were really cute. We used the Cupcake Pebbles cereal that has little sparklies in it and topped it with pink frosting and sprinkles.




The kids really seemed to like them, although that doesn't really show up in this not-so-great picture, lol!


Mmmmmmm!!!


On her actual birthday, which was Thursday, she requested pancakes and eggs. We made chocolate chip and birthday sprinkle pancakes.

It was her day so I didnt' do much housework, I just let her choose what she wanted to do and I tagged along. : ) She watched a video, went outside and played with Mimi and played on her slide and swing, we played games and read books. A fun day!


For dinner, we took her into town to McDonald's (or as she calls it Old MacDonald's).


Before we got there we stopped at Winn-Dixie and let her go in and pick out a birthday balloon.




She got a happy meal and when she was done eating she ran off to the playground. She had been SO excited about that part all day long!


After some play time we let her open her gift. We kept it small and just got her two little things since she had an actual birthday party coming up and also, we'll be getting her a new bed and bedding set for her room soon. She LOVES to sing so I thought this microphone would be perfect.



We ended the evening with an ice cream cone! Her daddy helped her out a little, but she ate most of that all by herself!



Saturday of that week we had her actual birthday party. She really loves the pool and August in Florida is just too hot to do much else, so we had a pool party. My goal was to keep it low key since I'm 8.5 months pregnant, but still make it cute, colorful, and fun. We used Great Grandma Staffa's pool and kept it really small with just a few family members.


I decorated with a pool party theme and used lots of bright colors that coordinated around beach balls. The banners were from the dollar store and I also got several punch balloons from the dollar store and clusterd them together as part of the decorations. I thought it turned out kinda cute. When the party was over, the balloons doubled as a party favor the kids could take home with them.


I bought bright colored, big, lollipops and put them in a bucket of sand and surrounded that with oversized sunglasses as the centerpiece. Again, both of those items doubled as party favors for the kids.




I found this cute pool party set online.



Gift table.

To keep everyone comfortable, we arranged it so that the ladies and kids used the pool first, then all the men came and joined us for a pizza lunch, cupcakes, and gift opening. After that was all completed, the mommies took the kids home for naps and the daddies and grandpas stayed and swam for awhile. It worked out good that way.


Emma and Halie, FINALLY getting brave and using the floaties all by themselves!



She LOVES to jump in!





Isaiah, Emma, Halie, and Josiah





Instead of spending extra money on ordering a cake done by someone else, I decided to do the cupcakes myself this year. The little sun toppers were actually rings and also doubled as party favors. : )




I saw the idea for these flip flop cookies on a "beach towel" in a magazine. I was only planning on doing the cupcakes just to keep things simplified, but these were just too cute to pass up!







Cousins having fun together.






Birthday girl!!!
I have always chosen the theme for her parties, but I think next year she'll be ready to choose for herself! : )

I'm No Seamstress, but........

I don't claim to be any sort of a seamstress at all. I know my way around a sewing machine just enough to do a straight, basic stitch. I've been known to tinker here and there and make basic valances and such, but nothing more than that.

With a new baby coming along I was looking at nursing covers (something I didn't use last time around, but wish that I had made use of) and came across a pretty basic looking one that was selling for $10 plus shipping. I didn't like any of the fabrics they had, and I thought to myself, "I think I could make that for about the same price and then I'd have a cute one that I actually like." So I perused JoAnn's one day and came across this cute boy fabric with dump trucks. I liked it because it's fairly neutral, not too "It's a boy!" looking (pastel blue with footprints), but not so theme specific that I would come to hate it after a few months.

I was so upset with myself because I walked off and forgot my 40% off coupon. I could have spent several dollars less, but oh well. In the end it came to be about $10. I bought a yard of fabric and a yard of coordinating ribbon.


I had Robert haul out my ancient Singer sewing machine that Grandma Cantrell gave me, and I set to work. It's not perfect by any means, and I think I should have made it a little wider, but all in all I think it will be functional. And if it's not wide enough, maybe just maybe, I'll attempt another one.


I do have a bit of fabric leftover and I think I may try to make a couple of burp cloths out of it. I'm feeling ambitious. : )

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