I know, I know...it's been too long since my last post. Before I had children, I used to wonder why my friends who did have children were always so busy. Now I know why!
We finally finished our front sitting area, and it looks great. It looks so clean...the girls can play in that area now without getting dirty. And, best of all, I never have to weed that sucker again! There's about 3 inches of stones with commercial grade landscape fabric underneath - NOTHING is coming up through that!
Sorry the light is kind of harsh in these pics...I took them early in the morning when that side of the house gets full sun.
We left the dwarf mondo grass in front for a break in all the stone.
I love my little seating area at the other side of the garage. I have string light/lanterns hanging in that crepe myrtle for lighting after dark. I didn't plant my cypress vine early enough for it to cover than trellis this season, but it'll completely hide the downspout next year.
With all the stones, it reminds me a little of a zen garden. I wish we'd done this years ago! Thank you, Jon, for working so hard on this!
Last week Savannah decided she wanted a haircut. She said she was tired of it taking me so long to brush it...I also think she wanted a "do" just like her friend, Morgan. She got a shampooo...
Sitting under the hairdryer...
Scarlett has to do everything that big sis does.
It looks really cute, and she loves it. It is certainly easier to take care of at this length.
Doing homework
Random pic of Scarlett before school last week. She LOVES her little denim jacket.
Moe with his head out the window, enjoying the crisp, cool air this morning. No, I wasn't driving when I took this...we were sitting in the drop off line at school. Moe rides to school with us almost every morning now.
Here's a sneak peak of my latest project. I decided to get rid of the huge tv armoire in our bedroom and have Jon mount the tv on the wall. The room looks so much better (and larger) now...that armoire didn't work with the bedroom furniture Jon gave me for our anniversary a couple of years ago. It also cuts down on my housework...that thing attracted dust like you wouldn't believe! Anyway, with the armoire gone, we needed somewhere to put our dvr and dvd player. I decided on a floating shelf with kind of a "reclaimed wood" type of finish. So I picked up a wood panel at Lowe's and went to work trying to age it.
For the stain, I put a piece of steel wool in a jar of vinegar. I added a rusty nail for the heck of it and let the mixture sit for a couple of weeks. You can see the color of the bare wood here on top, and around the edges you can see the color of the stained wood.
It didn't come out quite like I wanted. I was hoping for more of a gray, weathered wood look, but it actually came out looking kind of red. I guess I shouldn't have added that rusty nail. In an effort to fix the red tint, I sprinkled baking soda all over the surface, then I sprayed the whole thing with vinegar. I let it sit for a few hours and rinsed it off with the water hose.
Better after all that. I really should have left it out in the sun for a couple of weeks to really get that weathered look, but I'm just not that patient. So I left it sitting in the sun just long enough to dry out completely, then I finished it with 3 coats of wipe-on poly. We've installed it, and it looks great. I don't have the cord situation taken care of yet, so you'll have to wait a few more days to see the end result.
