a little bit of monday randomness

I've been a little slim on the posts the last 2 weeks. I guess I will blame it on the heat. Does summer make everyone else lazy too or is it just me? Honestly, I have really been enjoying some relaxing time with my family that I don't normally have and the computer just hasn't been my priority. I hope all of you are enjoying a little summer laziness as well.

Here's a little bit of randomness from our summer so far....

*1. The little man has discovered the magic of our steep driveway. He is totally amused with throwing any object he can find and watching it roll down. Usually he uses a ball, but he's found that strollers, ride-on toys and his push mower all roll down in an equally amusing way.

If for some reason he doesn't have a toy nearby, he picks holly berries off our holly bush and throws those down the driveway. Very resourceful - I'll give him that.

*2. His Grandmother gave him this bubble mower for Easter. It's definitely become one of his favorite toys. He likes to mow the grass just like Daddy.

*3. I've been sewing a lot. Mostly clothes for the little man. Aren't these applique tie shirts so fun?  I may have went a little overboard and made him 4 different ones. An almost 2 year old can never have too many tie shirts, right? :)

I made him this whale applique shirt too. I used blue linen from an old pair of my pants and this pattern from Jones Design Company. I love the way it turned out! (I made the little seersucker shorts too).

*4. Our garden is flourishing with all this rain we've had lately.

*5 And I have eggplants!! I am beyond excited as this is my first time to grow them and I love eggplant!

*6. I just finished reading this book. Which might be another reason I haven't been blogging as much. Instead of staying up till midnight on the Internet, I stay up till midnight with my nose in a book. It's a great book. If you grew up in the south or consider yourself to be a southern girl or have ever been to Charleston, SC and loved it, you will like this book.

*7. The little man has a new hobby of attempting to wear adult shoes. This morning I was washing dishes in the kitchen and I turned around to see him walking in a pair of orange, mens size 10 flip flops. This afternoon he decided to give my Hunter's a try. I can't help but laugh. The picture below is a little blurry, but I love it anyway.

 Life with a toddler is never dull :)

*8. Last and probably the most random. Peach Crisp is my favorite summer dessert. After making it twice in  the last 2 weeks (don't know why I didn't take any pictures), I've decided that it is best eaten cold, right from the fridge. I know everyone likes it hot, straight from the oven. But I'm telling you, give it a try cold. You couldn't possibly be disappointed.

florida vacation - part 1

We spent the last week in Florida visiting my family, playing in the sun, enjoying the beach, eating lots of delicious food and relaxing! It was so nice.

I think I will be editing our vacation photos for the next month though. I took so many. Here are a few. I had trouble narrowing them down, so a few is probably an understatement. Here they are!

Looks more like North Carolina, than Florida huh? My parents did this amazing patio renovation and they built this waterfall. Nothing better than that noise of rushing water while you relax in a lounge chair and soak up some sun.

The little man loved the new patio and spent most of his waking moments out there.

He's in that stage where he wants to move everything and put it somewhere else. Everything has it's place, in his mind. This day, the place was his baby pool.

He piled everything in the pool, including rocks from  the waterfall and his mini adirondack and then sat down to enjoy his work. As you can tell, he was very proud of himself. He makes me laugh.

When I was pregnant with the little man, I dreamt of babies with blond curls and blue eyes. Sometimes dreams do come true ;)

My brother-in-law and sister went crabbing while we were home. They brought all the crabs to my parents house and shared their feast with us. Apparently the little man LOVES crab. We were all a little shocked when he practically attacked Kyle, stole a soft shell crab right from his hands and devoured it. I wish I had a picture, but I happened to be shopping at Ikea when it all when down.

I did get one of the fam enjoying steamed crabs later that evening.

My Grandmother lives just one street behind my parents and she has a great pool. We spent lots of time there. The little man loves the pool. This was his first experience with swimmies.

He also enjoyed eating Cheerios, poolside.

Love the little legs dangling in the water.

The little man, leaving the pool and dressed in his lobster tie shirt for the 4th of July festivities.

That's all for the first half of our vaca. I had to split it in to 2 posts. Too many pictures! I'll be back with the rest soon!

Hope you all are having a wonderful summer and enjoying a few relaxing vacations too!

happy 4th of july!

I hope everyone is enjoying a long holiday weekend with family and friends!

We are in Florida visiting my family. My mom and I made this 4th of July outfit for the little man and I love the way it came out! More details on that coming soon.

Happy 4th of July!!

a little bit of random for good life wednesday

This post is a random assortment of the things that make me happy......

First and most important, the little man. His favorite summer past time is playing in the hose. He would stay out there all day if I let him. I love watching him explore. He is the happiest when he is outside, roaming free and making lots of messes!

Second, is this little fabric envelope I made. The tutorial came from one of my favorites, Emily of Jones Design Co.

My sister's birthday is this month. My parents gave her a Kindle, so I decided to give her an Amazon gift card so she could buy herself some books. Gift cards aren't all that exciting to give, but the little fabric envelope makes it more fun!

I have no idea why I didn't take any pictures during the process of making my envelope. It never occurred to me that I would put it on the blog. It was a fun, easy project that I highly recommend.

Oh and P.S. I changed mine up a bit and used a different flower than Emily did for her envelope. I used her gathered flower tutorial for my flower and I love the way it turned out. I like it so much that I think I am going to make another one of these flowers to put on a headband.



And last but not least, I love getting mail! I look forward to checking the mailbox everyday. And packages?? Oh packages are even more exciting! So today when this showed up at my door it felt like Christmas!

In case you're curious, among the packages were 1 - the amazon gift card for  my sister.  2 - a few rabit skins toddler shirts I ordered for the little man. 3 - another amazon package of items for our trip this week (mainly DVDs to keep a certain someone happy on the 9 hour car trip). 4 - the best of all....my fabric I ordered from Calico Corners to make pillows for my recently slipcovered couch!

I hope you are enjoying your Wednesday! Sarah is having problems with her server so I'm not sure if she will be hosting her "good life wednesday" party or not, but I'm participating anyway. :)

We leave for Florida on Thursday so I may or may not be around the rest of the week. I hope everyone has a great 4th of July!!

leg dilemma - i need your opinion!

Do you remember my first slipcover I made? Remember those cute little wooden legs I found when I ripped the original old skirt off the chair?

Well I still love the legs, but the color was starting to bother me. I felt like the brown was too dark and heavy for the light paisley print. I found myself staring at them all the time wondering if I should paint them or possibly add a longer skirt to my chair or maybe just leave them alone?

So a few nights ago I grabbed my chalk paint and went to painting to see if I could improve them. But I'm still not sure. {Sorry about the pictures. It was night time so I had to use my flash. The white isn't quite that bright in real life}



So I need your help! What do you  think? Do you like the white? Should I sand the white off and go back to dark? Or neither? Is it maybe that there is too much leg showing and I need to add more skirt to my slipcover? I would love to know your thoughts!!

a little bookshelf and a chalk paint review

If you haven't heard the buzz about chalk paint by now you have either been living under a rock the last couple of months or you just don't read enough design blogs. ;)

Either way you should check this stuff out! No sanding, no priming, sticks to any surface, leaves an amazing matte-looking finish. Perfect for vintage-y, french inspired pieces.

I've been dying to try out my chalk paint since the minute I bought it 2 weeks ago. Unfortunately I didn't have any vintage, french inspired pieces lying around that needed paint. I did, however, have an Expedit bookshelf from Ikea in black-brown (their creative name for the color, not mine).

I bought it several years ago, when I was in a dark furniture phase and the husband needed some more book storage (history nerd). What was I thinking?! (About buying this bookshelf, not marrying a history nerd. He's pretty great, despite his history nerdiness).

via Ikea



Anyway, its fit all  the specifications for a chalk paint makeover. Laminate surface that I am too lazy to prime or sand, dark color needing an update, etc, etc. So I went with it.

And here's what I got.....

 I wish I would have taken some pictures during the painting process, but it was night time and dark and they probably wouldn't have turned out very well.

Overall, I really like the chalk paint. They are definitely right. No sanding or priming required. This paint stuck amazingly well to this cheap laminate with no problem at all. Very impressive. It is a little different to work with. A little thick as far as paint goes, but once I started dipping my brush in a tiny bit of water that helped a lot. It dries to a beautiful matte finish just like they say. They recommend that you wax chalk paint to protect the finish (instead of using poly). I haven't waxed it yet, but I'm excited to try.

I did a little re-decorating after I painted it to try and make it less "book-heavy." (I wish I had a before picture - it was ALL books and hideous! I would love to stack some of my vases or glass bowls in  there to break up the books, but putting anything breakable at that level is not a good idea when you have a wild toddler running around.

The only non-breakables I could find to use were a few wooden bowls. I filled one with some various spools of twine and another with some linen napkins. I couldn't even finish snapping the pictures before he was grabbing twine and napkins!

See what I mean?!

Have you chalk painted anything lately? I would love to hear your thoughts and/or suggestions!





Linking up with Sarah for Good Life Wednesdays!

summer gardening

I love summer and every year I look forward to filling our garden with plants of tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, eggplants, blueberries and more! There is really nothing better than growing your own food. It's one of the coolest things to watch a little seed grow into a bush and then have blooms that grow into delicious fruits and vegetables. And there is nothing like fresh produce picked right from the vine. Nothing from the grocery store even comes close in taste.

So here are a few things I'm growing right now.....

Tomatoes

More tomatoes (I think we have 6 different varieties this year)

Cucumber blooms with little baby cucumbers

Growing cucumber

Blueberries

Eggplant blooms

Have you ever grown eggplant?

This is the first year I have tried and I am in love with their blooms

So beautiful.

I am anxiously awaiting harvest day. Hopefully it's coming soon!