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Cutest Baby Alert!

WARNING:  The photos you are about to see contain images of the cutest baby around.  These images may cause uncontrolled Awwwwing or giggling.  Please resist the urge to squeeze those adorable cheeks.  Remember...these are just photos and the computer screen does not squeeze easily.

Luke at 2 1/2 Months

He is just so yummy!

First Harvest of the Season

My little container garden has yielded its first little harvest of the season.  I've got some lettuce, spinach and basil which I used to make a couple "big" salads this week.

I also used the basil to make some pesto.  I marinated a couple chicken breasts in the pesto and broiled it (still out of propane for the grill).  I added the leftover chicken to the big salad, which made it all the more tasty.

Do you remember the rocking chair I painted?  Here it is up on my front porch.  I've been to several stores and I can't find the exact pillows to help set it off.  Originally, I was thinking about a green and white stripe.













Yesterday I was looking online and found these pillows at Target.  They are quite different from what I had in my minds eye, but that's what I think I like about them now.  Very different.

What do you think?

New pictures of Luke soon.  He's just a smiling fool.

Doily Candle Jars

This week I spent some time jazzing up some baby food jars.  Krissy has kept a crazy amount of baby food jars which she uses for candle holders. In fact we used them on the tables at Mikey's Open House.

They are very cool just the way they are, but I wanted to try dressing them up a bit.  Here's what I came up with:

I used taupe and white colored paper and one of my border punches.  I liked the way they turned out.  Simple but  a little elegant.  I need to try and figure out how to start the border punch at the same point on each side.  I'm going for 10 of these across my mantle.

A Real Struggle

Friends...I need your help.  I've been thinking about something for a long time and I need to decide whether it's finally time.

It's one of those major life decisions that one should never make on ones own.  And to tell you the truth, I am more than a little stressed about it.

Should I...shouldn't I.  And if I do...which one should I choose.

I just need to dive and tell you what's been on my mind.  Quit beating around the bush and just go for it.

Here goes!  I've been seriously thinking about getting my hair cut.....short!  What's your first thought when I say that?  No, don't do it or Yes, sounds like fun.

My situation is this.  I've been having it shoulderish length for a while now and although I like it, I'm happiest when it's pulled back in a twist or ponytail.  Why?  Oh, who the heck knows, but I know I just hate dealing with hair.  So shorter hair seems a natural.

Plus I have a little head and face, so short hair works for me.  At least I think it does.

Spent sometime on the ole Internet and found a few styles and I need you to help be decide.  My stylist, Sebastian told me to bring in a picture of something I liked and we can work off that.

Please look through these styles and then tell me which ones you like or don't like.  You can even tell me I'm crazy for even thinking about this.

Style #1

This one would probably be a good transition from medium length to shorter length...but since I have pencil straight hair I would need to curl it.  Might be more work than I really want.  Plus, I think this "do" requires thicker hair than what I actually have.











Style #2


 This one is a little more stylized and I think I might be able to pull this off.














Style #3

This one is very cute and should would work with my thin hair.














Style #4

This seems like a style my hair could pull off.  I also think it's a style that I could actually do every morning.













Style #5

Here's one's that's super cute...but very dramatic. Do I have the guts to do this one?













Style #6

Here's a more messy, punky style.














Style #7

I think this is a longer version of Style #6, which I also like.

Now I need your help.  Take a look at the styles and let me know in the comments, which one you like the best.  If you need a reminder of my face shape...just visit my profile page.  

The "do" with the most votes wins.  You can also say don't cut it if you think I'm totally delusional.  I am really counting on you.  

A Lovely Surprise

I have this lovely cousin named Kelly who lives in Arizona.  If you want to know a little more about her, you can read this little post I did about her last year.  You can also go and visit her blog Searching Seashells.

Today, I wanted to share with you a picture of the beautiful necklace that Kelly sent me.  It was such a treat to get in the mail.

 Isn't it cool.

I did manage to take a picture of it around my neck, BUT...I learned that there is no amount of retouching that iPhoto can do, to fix the neck of a 50 something woman.   Eh, scary.

Thank you Kelly.  I've already worn it to work and to Mikey's graduation.

Robin Hood Movie Review

Robin Hood


Grade: B+

Please don't let the flurry of bad reviews stop you from seeing, or in the future, renting this movie.  Sure they play a little liberally with the traditional storyline and the WWII style landing craft are a bit much, but this is still is one really good action adventure film.

In this version, Robin Longstride (Russell Crowe) is a highly trained and brave archer in the army of Richard the Lionheart.  Through a series of events, Robin returns to England masquerading as the recently deceased Robert of Locksley, an aide to King Richard.  When he returns to Locksley's home to return the dead man's sword, he finds a family and town much in need of their missing son.  Robin is asked to continue to play Robert in order to protect the land and towns people from the evil Godfrey (Mark Strong) an advisor to Prince John.

The battle scenes are terrific and I'm pleased to finally meet a Marion (the always amazing Cate Blanchett) worthy of Robin Hood and the legend they created.

I also enjoyed seeing Max von Sydow again as Sir Walter Loxley and Matthew Macfadyen as the Sheriff of Nottingham.  Mcfadyen played Mr. Darcy in one of my favorite movies...Pride and Prejudice.  This current role is a dramatic character change.

The Open House!

I think the Open House was a great success.  We probably had 50ish friends and family come by for a visit.

I have to do a shout out to my "girlfriends" for hanging out long enough that we got in some great visiting time.

The tent, tables, chairs, tablecloths and centerpieces worked out great.  The herb pots gave a nice masculine look which was perfect for the boy.

Went with balloons there were his school colors...which should have be navy and vegas gold, but unfortunately the party store only had traditional blue and gold, which gave the festivities and UofM feel (Univ. of Michigan) and around these parts that is a real no - no.  Only after I ordered everything did Mikey mention..."why aren't we going with a green and white".  Since he's going to State in the fall, that would have been a great idea and I would have not needed to answer a bunch of questions about "why we decorated in UofM colors?"

I ordered way too much food and we are all going to be eating Kruse and Muer pasta for the rest of the week.  Which, isn't a completely bad thing.  There food is the BEST!

After the pre-party pictures, I got wrapped up in the event and didn't take another picture.  I did the same thing at Caity's shower.  I have to remember to always ask someone to be picture taker at these events.

The worst part about no pictures, was that I didn't get one of the cake.  So disappointed.

Krissy took this photo to Meijer's (Mikey, age 4):

Now you are going to have to use your imaginations here, cause this is all I have left of the cake:

Just imagine this photo in the middle of the cake.  Well done Krissy, very funny cake.

(There is a very small chance that Caity got one of the whole cake, but she was pretty busy with Baby Luke, that I'm thinking...not.)




I am also disappointed that there are no pictures of Mikey and his friends.  Such a wasted opportunity.

Nevertheless, it was a fun party and a good ending to 12 long years of school.

Thanks to BW, Richard, Krissy, Jason, Caity and Rick for everything they did to help pull off this party.

Finally!

Well, he made it!  He actually graduated.  There were times this past year that I wasn't sure this day would ever come.

The graduation ceremony didn't start until 8pm, so by the time it ended it was dark, so I'm not really happy about the pictures.  Oh well, the point is the event, not the pictures.

On...to the Open House.  Wish me luck.

Open House Project

As I may have mentioned, Mikey (aka Stinky) graduates from high school (hallelujah!) this week and his Open House is on Saturday.  I've been working on a project for the centerpieces that started with painting some clay pots.  The pots started out looking like this:

And ended up looking this this:












I then planted each of the pots with a variety of herbs.  Why, herbs and not flowers you may ask.  I don't know.  I just think I like herbs better and thought Mikey might might prefer it.  (Who the heck am I kidding, he won't even notice).

The next step was to create little herb signs for each of the pots.  I started with a bunch of plain wood sticks:

And with the help of some paint and a few of my stamps and ink pads, I turned them into these:

And....drumroll please,  here are the finished pots:

Again...I doubt anyone will even notice these little signs in the grand scheme of things, but I like them.  (Caity & Krissy will notice, but that might be because I've been talking about this for days.) 

I promise to share some photos of the finished tables when they are done.  

Hopefully, they will have tablecloths on them.  I ordered some last week and haven't heard a thing since.  Friday could mean a panic run to Bed, Bath and Beyonce for 90" round tablecloths.  Keep your fingers cross that the white ones arrive on time.  

UPDATE: THE TABLECLOTHS JUST CAME THIS AFTERNOON. YEAH!!

Luke...Again

Luke is two months old today and a week ago I got to babysit him while is lovely parents went to a wedding.

We had a fine time...he basically ate, slept and pooped.  Classic baby behavior.

Happy two month old birthday Baby Luke.

Summertime Projects

I been actually accomplishing a few small projects lately, which makes me feel very happy and less like that I'm drowning in a sea of nothingness.

First thing I did was paint my rusty, chipped mailbox.  To be honest, I really should have just replaced the  mailbox, but I would have had to figure out how to drill holes into my brick.  Seemed easier to just paint the old one....event though it's all rough and chipped underneath.  I did do some sanding, but I didn't have the right kind of sandpaper.  Finally, I just painted it as is.  From a distance, I'm completely fine with it.

(Please don't click on the picture.  It only blows it up and shows all the flaws.)

Next on the project list was painting a wood rocking chair that's been sitting on my front deck for several years.  I oil and clean it every year, but it was just too dingy to freshen up anymore.   Out came the white paint and here are the before and after shots.

Before

After

I am very happy with how the chair turned out.  Once I get all my flowers done on my deck, I'll show you the whole effect.

The final project was to dress up the clay pots that I'm using as centerpieces at Mikey's graduation party.  I just did a little change, but I think it really gives them a more finished look.

Before

After

I have since planted each pot with different herb or group of herbs.  Decided against doing flowers for Mikey's party.  I thought all the green herbs would be more manly.  (Ha!)