two weeks left

August 21, 2013April 6, 20202 Comments

we still have two weeks of summer break left around here.

although i am ready for the kids to head back to school, i am thankful {while i watch others send their kids off to school this week} that i still have two weeks to suck the marrow out of summer.

on monday i received an email from one of the moms from our friday playgroup. although we haven’t met for a playgroup in a year we still send group emails out to each other on a pretty regular basis to get together with whoever can make it whenever they can. she said that she was planning to go to the enchanted forest with her kids and wondered if anybody would be able to meet them.

my plan for tuesday was to go to oak’s park for the preschool rides, but when i saw her email i decided that the enchanted forest, where we had never been before, was just what we needed to kick start our last two weeks of summer!

my prince and princess…

poor miss muffet…

my sillies…

heading into the hansel and gretel house…uh-oh!

on to wonderland….

down the rabbit hole…

and, a little tea party…

have to admit, Alice in Wonerland is one of our favorite movies…it will be seen on an outdoor movie night someday.

looking in on the seven dwarfs house…

the squirrels were making the beds…

and, then there is this…

it’s supposed to be the witch from snow white and the seven dwarfs…

little red riding hood…

at the shootin’ gallery…

comedy theater in the woods – pinocchio…

miss jill and cade…

and, nola…who invited us to meet them!

the western town where reece had his “favorite part of the day”…

and, one of the “free” slides the kids get a chance to ride on with a genreral admission.

this was an awesome day for our 3-6 crowd…under 2 was not able to do much, and over 8 would probably be bored.

we will go again next year and change a few things:

admission averages $10 for anybody between 3-50 years old

you can bring your own food, so be sure to pack a lunch or snacks

you can re-enter the park with a stamp, so leave you lunch/snacks in a cooler and go back out to eat it (or bring it back in)

all said and done, it was a great day away from home and a spectacular kick off to our last two weeks of summer!

home is..waiting until the last minute.

{whatever craft weekend} part 2

August 15, 2013April 6, 20201 Comment

So, I hear that Meg and Kimberlee are hosting Whatever Craft Weekend Seventeen this weekend!

Who’s going?!

Here are my pictures from Whatever Craft Weekend Sixteen…

friday, may 31st

When I arrived at the house it was like a dream come true.

It’s bright, fun, and full of personality!

I bought a print of the sunflower and bee photo…just waiting to find the perfect spot for it in our home.

A lot of what I have chosen to do in our home came as inspiration from the Craft House.

After exploring and snapping photos, we were called to dinner. Erin and I were chatting up in our room and Megan had to come up and get us!

Kimberlee is a fantastic cook and an incredible person.

After dinner, we moved into the workroom to make our ruffled aprons.

There is just so much happy everywhere!

I finished my apron and then stayed up until 2am with Erin while she worked on hers.

saturday, june 1st

Mornings are gorgeous in the Craft House kitchen…

and out on the porch.

We ate a wonderful breakfast and headed out to shop! I started backwards with my posts, so you can read about shopping here.

After shopping, we had a little bit of downtime before getting back to crafting.

The rest of the evening was spent on our crafts, eating, and chatting the night away.

Up until 2 am again…I am not a night owl, but I will stay up late for good friends and crafting!

sunday, june 2nd

Another fabulous meal, photos, and back to the airport.

It was an amazing weekend that I will never forget.

Beautiful home.

Even more beautiful people.

Meg and Kimberlee, if you are even in need of a helper, give me a call! I will come back in a second!!

home is…a once in a lifetime.

{our home} restyling

August 15, 2013Leave a comment

Thanks for your input on the rug…I promise to let you know which one I choose with a post here soon!

In the meantime I have been getting the house put back together…

Of course, it takes me longer than the “normal” person because I have to “restyle” everything as I put it away…in the kitchen.

Or, I decide to run to Target because our laundry room, which never had a rug, needs a cheery aqua rug!

Of course, trying to keep the kids entertained makes lots of new messes as we go along!

Ben needed a new rug by the back door so it wasn’t too slippery for his old legs (yeah, i need to clean the glass, too).

And, yeah, we needed a little back to school countdown decoration in the un-dining room.

So, you can see, it just takes me a bit longer to get things back to normal. We’re getting there…one mess at a time!

home is…always changing things up.

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{our home} under foot

August 12, 2013April 6, 20205 Comments

Last Friday we had new floors installed on our entire first floor. They turned out beautiful, but I am now on the hunt for a good area rug for our family room…

…something we can snuggle up on next to the fireplace…

…something that adds color and whimsy to a mainly beige room.

I tend to gravitate towards organic patterns like flowers and paisleys…

you can see my favorites on the Pinterest board I created.

Which one do you like the best? Let me know after you go check them out!

home is…something new under foot.

{whatever craft weekend} part 1

August 11, 2013April 6, 20202 Comments

Do you remember when I said I would tell you the story about the time an Instagram friend whom I had never met in real life invited me to be her guest at Whatever Craft Weekend in the middle of nowhere Kansas?!

here it is…

One evening in the middle of February I got a text from my Instagram friend Erin (some of you may know her as @tweetpotatopie).

It wasn’t completely out of the blue because we had traded a few texts prior to that, but this one said, “Call me as soon as you can!”

It was somewhere around Reece and Lorelai’s bedtime and my phone battery was about to die, so I asked if I could call her in the morning.

She said that she would text me the next day if she still needed me.

The next day rolls around and sometime in the afternoon I receive another text to call her. She also tells me that it will be well worth it!

I was intrigued and called her right away.

We chatted briefly. It was so fun to put a voice to a face that I had seen for months on my phone!

Then, she asked if I knew about Whatever Craft Weekend.

OF COURSE!

She said her “number” was picked and she wanted to know if I would like to go with her!

WHAT?!

I was in complete and total shock.

I was in tears. I couldn’t stop shaking, smiling, and crying.

I. WAS. GOING.

Of course, I had to run it by Ryan, but it was pretty much set in stone.

My name had been on the list for over a year and was resigned to the fact that if I ever got very, very lucky I MIGHT get to go.

Man, did I get lucky!

3 months later…

There we were…two Instagram friends who had never met in real life picking at the barn at Whatever Craft Weekend in the middle of nowhere Kansas!

I’m starting in the middle of the weekend because it was easiest to start with the photos from the barn.

I could have snapped photos there all day.

In fact, this is just a small sampling of the photos I took that day from my Nikon.

Rows and rows of rusty metal and worn wood.

Some of my very favorite photos were taken with my iPhone, but I will save all of those for a post of their own.

It would have been dangerous if I had been able to bring back more.

Erin and Megan drove down in Erin’s suburban and they filled it up!

Isn’t it beautiful?

I’ll be back soon with more about the rest of the weekend…until then, you can read Meg’s post about it.

Oh, and Erin, she is just awesome. I’m glad to now call her more than just my Instagram friend. She is a blessing.

home is…making new friends.

life at the lake

August 7, 2013April 6, 20202 Comments

the kids, my parents, my sister, my niece and i spent a week at lake pend oreille in beautiful northern idaho.

the first night, reece was throwing his hook into the water…

by the next day, he was catching fish all by himself with one of topher’s mepps spinners!

uncle buzz and aunt michele have tons of water toys at their lake house…

reece and sasha got out on the jet skis with topher and uncle buzz…

while lorelai played on the beach with meme.

reece also go out on one of the hobie cats with uncle buzz…

and meme got some time on the water, too.

my 95 year old grandfather was up there with us, too. he couldn’t make it down the stairs to the water, but enjoyed the view from the patio…

my parents rented a house for all of us about 6 miles away and we ate dinner there every other night…it was a way for all of us to have some quiet time, but we still had a beautiful view of garfield bay and the lake.

i ran three times while on vacation…this was my halfway/turn around point on my first run.

and, here is where it ended (near the house where we were staying).

running errands by boat is awesome…

on sunday, topher took my sister and i into town by boat so we could do a little birthday shopping for sasha. the girls rode into town with us and back to my aunt and uncle’s house with topher.

reece and sasha made the trip back to town with topher to pick us up.

returning to the lake house, we were greeted by these two little dock dogs…lily and elmo belong to my cousin and his wife…

that’s my cousin, greg…

and, this is his beautiful wife, natalie. our first visit to the lake was for their wedding last august. they just celebrated their first wedding anniversary! (you can see the posts from their wedding here, here, here, and here)

we took the boat out to watch greg on the air chair…he makes it looks way easier than it is.

you can see topher on a jet ski in the background…marley, who is the original dock dog, was sad that she couldn’t come on the boat, so he took her for a ride on the jet ski.

i can’t wait to see the go pro video of all my cousins giving it a try next week (we missed their visit by a week…maybe we can all be there again together next year)!

we celebrated the kids birthdays…july 5th, august 1st, and september 8th.

and, watched the baby bald eagle…

watch us.

the days of playing on the lake melded together…slow, relaxing, fun…i have more photos and video on my phone that i think i will need to add in another post.

looking good for 95…

we took the boat into town for dinner and were joined by my cousin and his wife.

uncle buzz, topher, meme, and aunt michele…a good looking bunch that make this family fun possible.

seriously, life is good at the lake.

saying goodbye is hard, so instead i say, “see you next time.”

home is…one of my happy places.

hello

July 18, 2013Leave a comment

computer is still not quite working.

and, after our return from new york there was all kinds of craziness.

for now, i just wanted to say hello.

hope you are all doing well.

we’re enjoying some lazy summer days until we take off for another vacation!

home is…looking up at the trees.

cousins

July 6, 20134 Comments

you know what i have learned in the last month?

heat, humidity (low or high), mosquitos, and i don’t get along.

but, cousins, cousins get along…always.

we’ve had a lot of cousin visits this summer.

we are currently visiting ryan’s family in new york.

and, just two weeks ago we were in colorado visiting my family.

cousins on my side of the family…

cousins on ryan’s side of the family…

and, all of our kiddos cousins.

cousin’s are like long lost best friends.

you know the ones where you haven’t talked in years and you pick up right where you left off?!

yeah, that is exactly the kind of friend a cousin is.

older cousins.

younger cousins.

first cousins.

second cousins.

first cousins once removed.

cousins are just awesome.

home is…cousins.

he made me a momma

July 5, 20131 Comment

happy birthday to the boy who made me a momma six years ago tonight.

mommy loves you very much…you are the best big boy ever!

{our home} summer kitchen project

July 1, 2013April 6, 20204 Comments

shortly after i returned from whatever craft weekend (which i promise to write about soon), i decided it was time to paint the red walls in our kitchen white.

i asked my instagram friends what whites they have used, but was too impatient to wait for all of the suggestions and decided to go with the pot of cream from behr (the sample on the far left).

reece was still in school, so lorelai and i got to work.

it was an instant transformation on the walls, so i thought, “why not paint EVERYTHING white?!”

soon, i was testing the paint on the cabinets and drawers…on the hallway walls…and in the playroom.

and, i LOVE it!

it has already made our kitchen seem bigger and brighter.

it’s been A LOT of work, though. i will not be posting any kind of “how to” about this project because i am winging it…i’ve watched videos, read numerous how to’s on my own, but until i actually got into it i had no idea what i was getting into.

the good news? the bases and drawers are all painted.

the cabinet doors have been tricky for me to get a smooth finish on, but i’m working on it…one door at a time.

i think we will be adding new floors to the first floor, too.

think oak laminate plank flooring.

this is one of those BIG projects that we didn’t have time or resources for that i wrote about in our home tour on life made lovely.

sometimes, you make the time and find the resources to get it done.

and, we are.

home is…hard work and patience.

stephany taddeo

home is what you make it