Flashback Friday - Summertime Album

I don't have a house flashback this week - I just don't have the pictures ready, so I decided to do something a little different. Do you remember THIS ALBUM that my SIL made and I won through our reunion auction last year? Well, I forgot to share what I did with it, so here is a quick update. I filled it with pictures from last year's reunion and gave it to my in-laws for Christmas this past year.

I had too many pictures to choose from, so I ended up using Flip Flaps to add a few extras to the front AND back of the album.

And here are the pages, full of lots of fun memories!

The picture on the right page here is one of my favorites - I was lucky to capture Trevor mid-air, but most of all I just love the look on his face - I wish you could see it closer!

Thanks for looking and joining me on this quick flashback!

Flashback Friday

The big house project is DONE!!! The entire outside is painted and the deck is finished - Hooray! We think it looks great - here is a look at the changes our backyard has made over the last 6 years. Here is part of the back of the house - BEFORE:

and AFTER:

Here is our little helper on Tuesday as we were finally finishing up painting the house - doesn't she look cool ;-)

Can you tell what we've done over the last six years? Well, first of all, you may notice the tree is gone - that came down shortly after moving in. It was a crab apple tree, and it was rubbing the roof and causing damage to the shingles. Plus, Brianna was just one year old when we moved in, and she loved to pick up the dropped apples, which were sometimes rotten, so it had to go! I really didn't want to lose the only shade we had in our back yard, but I was glad to get rid of the mess. Here are the girls helping David remove the tree - they loved getting rides in the wheel barrow:

In the summer of 2008 we installed this adjustable awning from Sunsetter which added some much needed shade in the summer time.

In the summer of 2006 we re-did the deck. Here is the half under the tree - before we bought the house:

There was a step down here and this part of the deck sloped towards the house, plus the gutters didn't drain away from the house properly, so that had to be fixed. We made the deck all one level which seemed to increase the size of our deck - David added benches which has been great for extra seating. I don't have pictures from 2006 when we first did it, but here it is this week, which is pretty much what it looked like when we first fixed it. David did a minor update to the far right corner and we had to repaint the entire thing this year.

Also in 2006, on the other side of the deck, he built an extension for the grill so it doesn't take up extra space on the deck. He also added this privacy wall with lattice. There is some sort of plant that continually climbs and grows nicely on it - I just wish I knew what it was! I used to think it was ivy but a friend of mine set me straight. Are there any plant experts out there that want to help me put a name to it? Right now it's not completely filled out yet, but by the end of the summer it will cover the wall. This wall is where the poor birds built their nest - can you see how it was probably easy for a predator to access?

And here is our back fence - I still don't get the windows in the fence - and unfortunately, they are still there ;-P

When we fixed the deck in 2006 we also built a little spot for the tramp as you can see in the picture below. This is a common view from our backyard - the hot air balloons often land in the field behind our house - it's fun to watch.

Thanks for joining me on another flashback - stay tuned to see the rest of the house! I still have the basement, and the front of the house to share!

Another Peek - and Blog Candy!

I showed you this little peek last week...

...would you like to see some more? I hope I'm not spoiling it too much, but here are some shots of some of my favorites parts of my 'top secret' project! Any guesses what it is?

Blog Candy Info: I am cleaning up my craft room and have a stash of goodies for one lucky winner who comments on this post. Plus a little something extra to the first person who correctly guesses the most (or all) CTMH products used in these pictures (paper pack, stamp sets, accessories, etc). I will draw a winner on June 12th - good luck!

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Flashback Friday

This week's flashback is one of our other bedrooms - this one has always been our 'baby' room since it's the smallest. Here it is before:

And then after a quick coat of paint:

Then we personalized it for Brianna:

And then my mom made these fun window treatments which inspired the ones that I made for our Master Bedroom. This isn't a very good picture but it's the only one I could find!

Then just before Brailee was born, we painted it again, just in case we had a boy. So it was Brailee's room, and now it's Trysten's room.

Thanks for joining me on another Flashback! If you missed my past House Project posts and want to see what else we have done, just click on the following links:
Upstairs Bathrooms
Bedroom 1
Kitchen/Dining Room

Living Room
Master Bedroom

End of Year Gifts plus a Sneak Peek!

So much to do, so little time! I am so glad it's summer, though! We're looking forward to our daily bike rides and playing in the water. It's finally warm and feeling like summer - we had quite a few cold days over the last couple of weeks, but lots of needed moisture, so we can't complain. We just need a few nice days to finish getting our house painted! Anyway, on to my artwork post for the day...week...month, we'll see how that goes. Plus, I have a new flashback scheduled and ready to post tomorrow, so stay tuned! Hopefully next week we'll have some deck and house flashbacks and updates ready to share!

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So I've mentioned before that I'm quite the procrastinator. This next project just confirms that ;-P The girls' last day of school was last Friday - I started this project on Thursday! Luckily it was a quick and easy one so they were able to take them to their teachers Friday morning - at least I did better than last year! So Thursday I had no idea what I was going to create - I went through my craft stash and found two wooden stars that I thought would be fun to alter. The ideas started flowing and I got started. Then I went online looking for a fun quote or poem for teachers and found this Starfish Poem that I'd seen before and just thought it was perfect since I already had the star theme going.

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Can you tell the Splendor paper pack is my favorite - it's the only one I've played with so far! Here is the star I made for Brianna's teacher. Brianna's favorite color is blue, so I used a lot of the blues from this paper pack. I used a fun chipboard door from the new A-Door-Ables collection, I just used my brayer to color it with Moonstruck ink - then I added some fun dots of Glitz™ Stardust Glitter Glue to the Stickease and frame.

I added her school picture and she wrote her name and school year inside the flap.

Here is the one I made for Kaylee's teacher - Kaylee's favorite color is green, so I used a lot of the Topiary from the Splendor kit.

I used the Glitz™ Stardust Glitter Glue again to accent the Stickease butterfly and the stem to make it stand out from the rest of the green. I accidentally messed up the top as I was stapling the hanging ribbon to the back (I didn't exercise any patience and let it dry enough before I turned it over) but I fixed it before we gave it to the teacher.

Brailee had a pajama party with her little friends on the last day of school - they had popcorn, watched a movie and played a little. We made the following goodie bags for her friends. We made little coloring booklets using the Playday stamp set, and we made new crayons out of our old broken crayons using mini muffin tins. I recently bought a Crayola Crayon maker that the older girls used to make lots of fun crayons for their classes, but I loved these heart ones that we have made many times before.

And now for my sneak peek if you've stuck with me this long - you may remember a top secret project that I was working on at the end of May. I had a deadline of May 21st to get it done, which I did - barely! I worked on it after the kids went to bed at night until 1 in the morning - I started the night of the 19th (didn't I mention before that I'm the worst procrastinator) and got it done the next night. I had a couple of months to think about it, so it's only my own fault that it took me so long to get it started. I actually had a lot of fun with it and I'm super pleased with how it turned out - I can't wait to share it all with you! Here is a little peek - any guesses what it is? I will post a few more peeks before I reveal it all. Can you see I've used another door from the A-Door-Ables? Those things are so much fun!