Mid-Summer Check In

I had high hopes of being a consistent blogger this summer, but between my job, and my family, and general summer craziness, it’s been a week or two {or six} since I posted last.  Here’s what I’ve been doing instead of blogging:

We recently did an extended family photo.  Anyone ever involved in that kind of madness will understand that it is a huge undertaking.  Huge.  (…but also crazy and fun!)

I came out of running retirement to run a 5k with my husband and 3 of my kids.

The bees are doing extremely well in their new surroundings.  On a low note, all of their success must be getting to them, because I got my first bee sting since we began keeping bees.  So not fun. 

If you follow me on instagram, you know that we adopted a baby robin for a few weeks.  It grew and learned all sorts of neat tricks and the kids were all sad to see her go…and even sadder when the cat found her a few days later…

I made pies for Father’s Day.  The cherry was better than the apple.

Jefferson turned nine!

Ammon turned 6!

We’ve had a great time playing in the water and running with the neighborhood kids. 

Summer dinners are the best!  We make ours with lettuce, turkey, and whatever else we have on hand.

We’ve been boating, and swimming.  So fun.

We are still loving our new home, new neighborhood and can’t get enough of the sunrises here.  So pretty.

And of course we celebrated the 4th of July with food, fun and fireworks.

In June, I got to go to the Parade of Homes.  This is one of my favorite things to do with one of my favorite friends.  Neither of us are architects or interior designers, but during those 3 weeks, we become home and design experts.  This was one of my favorite homes.

Another reason I love the Parade of Homes is that I leave feeling so inspired and find great ideas to try in my own home.  I’m hoping to share a few of the many pictures I took of the awesomeness that abounded really soon.

We also took a quick trip to San Diego!  Man, I love that place.  Especially Coronado Beach.

     

And I have been reading.  In the car, on the plane, on the beach, anywhere I can grab a minute.  I just finished reading

 

and am now reading:

I hope you are all having a great summer!

Orange You Glad It’s Summer?!?!

While perusing Pinterest a while back, I stumbled upon this fun idea

from the girls at

for end-of-year teacher gifts.

Cute, simple, and fun, right?

So I printed the tags right away, and then got thinking how much fun it would be to give this to my kids’ teachers with some mandarin oranges or cuties, instead of candy.  So I went to the store and wouldn’t you know it, mandarin oranges are out of season, and they were all out.  So.  Not being one to just take the easy road and get the candies shown in the picture, I wandered around the store collecting orange things to put in a box or basket instead.

I already had the boxes, but they were the wrong color, so I also bought some orange spray paint {aka the best stuff ever invented…not necessarily just orange, but spray paint in general} and made them orange to go with the theme.  I also had on hand some orange tissue paper, and then added Orange Crush, Orange Sticks, some orange pencils, and some actual oranges.  We stuck in the cute printable, and voila!

A  super cute, slightly-less-simple, fun idea for end-of-year teacher gifts.

Happy Summer!

The Evolution of my Front Porch

Sometimes, I see something at a store that I like—but leave it, and then keep thinking about it and envisioning it in a certain space.  When that happens, I know that it is something that I will like for a long time.

That is what happened when I saw these chairs.

I first saw them about 3 weeks ago, and immediately was drawn to them. 

But they were more than I wanted to spend, even though they were a pretty good deal for the type of chair.  So I left them.

And kept thinking about them.

Fast forward two weeks.

I was cleaning up a little in the backyard and decided that I was going to get rid of some of my wicker pieces.  I had a set {that was given to me} that was in kind of rough condition, but still has a few summers left, that I put on an online yard sale.  Within a few minutes I had multiple offers, and it was soon gone.

Another wicker loveseat that was in better condition but still needed a little tlc, I also put on the site, and again, had multiple offers and made 3x what I paid for it at the thrift store!

By then I was on a roll and decided to try to make enough to buy the other chairs.

So I put my bench rocker on the site and again had a zillion offers right away, and made way more than I spent on it at a yard sale last summer.

So I learned a few things here.

1.  Sell in season.  For example: in the springtime, people are super-starved for patio furniture.

2.  It is okay to price things low.  Be sure to price them higher than what you paid for them, and be realistic in what they are worth, but low enough that they will sell quickly}.

3.  ALWAYS put obo when you list something on line.  It means that you will take the best offer—lower OR higher.

3.  Never pass up something that you like at the thrift store or a yard sale that is a great deal; if you get tired of it, you can most often sell it for more than you bought it.

In the end, I made more than enough to buy the chairs that I wanted, even though it was hard for this bargain-minded {ie cheap} girl to pay full price for something—and even though they were a great deal at full price.

I brought them home, and although I originally planned on painting them white, decided on black in the end because I thought they looked better with my front door.

After painting them, I sanded and stained them and then placed them on the porch.   {photo credit for the super cute shot of my backside goes to my 4 year old daughter Bella}

I love that they are super comfortable, and exactly what I wanted in the space…which is another lesson: sometimes it is worth it to get rid of all of the not-so-perfect inexpensive pieces of furniture, and pay just a little bit more to have something you love. 

  

 

I

Happy Memorial Day!

 

…a day to remember the men and women who “gave the last full measure of devotion” for our country.

Visiting Teaching Message {May 2013}

Conference Preserves are back! 

For those of you who are new, a year ago I created Conference Preserves to keep and share thoughts from General Conference with the sisters that I visit teach.

So many of you enjoyed creating and giving the preserves, that I put together another batch for conference last fall, and now have a new batch for April’s Conference.

If you would like to make your own set of Conference Preserves to give or to keep, here’s what to do.

First, Print the thoughts.

 The links can be found here, here, and here. 

I used some cute paper that was white on one side, and printed on the other side.  You could use any paper—plain, printed, white, colored, or cardstock—whatever you want.

Cut the thoughts out along the dotted lines, then fold in half.

Place in a jar, add a sweet treat, and affix the label  to the top of the jar, {I used my scalloped circle punch, but you can just cut it out with scissors} or punch a hole in it and tie it around the top.  You can also add a ribbon or decorate it any way you would like.

Happy Visiting Teaching!

P.S. If anyone is interested in printing a 8x10 copy of any of these thoughts, please e-mail me and I will add a link to that thought here.

So Berry Nice!

My daughter’s sunbeam teachers are moving.

She loves them so much and will miss them, so we put together a little good-bye gift. 

While I was making it, I realized that it might be a good idea for teacher gifts at the end of the school year, so I decided to share, in case anyone else was looking for an idea.

It’s a very simple idea:

1. Buy some berries.

2. Print this card.

3. Sign it.

4. Tie a ribbon around it.

5. Give it away!

Have a great day!