Memorial Day BBQ Fun

On Memorial Day I worked on the yard in the morning and then we went over to my brothers house in the afternoon.

The guys BBQ and we sat around chatting.

Check out how adorable my niece is! I knew to get a picture of her quick with the flower on because they don't ever stay on for long.

I can't wait until she gets just a little bit bigger and I can bribe her with cookies.

It was really too cold to swim but the kids braved it for a bit.

I think they might need some bigger equipment.

The baby getting some kisses from "Snookie"

And Rocky

Rocky is a mastiff puppy, he's only a couple months old. Sweet as can be. He has such pretty coloring.

My parents brought ice cream cones and rootbeer for rootbeer floats for the kids. My niece LOVED it.

 

It's super nice when you aren't the one that has to clean them up :wink:

We left a bit early since I was tired and freezing. My sunburn was hurting too. 

What do you think? This is two days later. It's so gross I'll leave it small and you can click on it if you dare. I still can't believe I got that burnt in just a couple of hours in the morning. Must invest in some new sunscreen ASAP!

In The Garden

I spent most of the holiday weekend on my hands and knees or on my little garden cart rolling around my yard. It was so neglected. It's looking so much better now.

I have a lot of pictures but I figured it's my blog so I can post them all if I want right?

I have a half wine barrel by my front door with this lavender in it. My friend gave it to me when she moved out of state. The huge carpenter bee love it. It hangs out there all day buzzing all around. Kind of freaks everyone out with it by the front door. I might move it at some point but I really like watching that big bumble bee flying around.

Out the front door. Took me forever to pull all the weeds that were growing in the bricks (that's water on there from the hose). I'm starting to think mortar is a good idea. 

The left side front bed is looking really full.

My Shasta Daisies are really filling in on this side. This is the first year I haven't went out and bought a bunch of plants. 

Before I cleaned up the front area

Took me a long time to get the side cleaned up. SOME DAY I'll have a gravel drive way there. And the bricks off the porch.

My hibiscus looks itty bitty now. I'm just so glad it finally came back after freezing this winter. From giant to baby.

After I cleaned up the edge along the front. I had moved that geranium under the tree to the spot on the left. Apparently I didn't get it all. Now that the hibiscus isn't hiding it it's ok there.

I did buy a few petunas to stick around for some more color. I still need to plant them.

The other side isn't quite as full

I'm loving my big yellow Indian Blanket Flower right now. Isn't it gorgeous??

Before I cleaned out the alyssum (don't mind Trevor there he was wearing his dad's t shirt because he was sun burnt)

After I cleaned it up.

I had an empty spot from a plant that froze so I thought I'd try the strawberry planter my mom gave me there. I transplanted the strawberries from the back yard, we'll see if they make it.

The side mess.

Oh what a mess. Gave up on the bushes I never got planted.

 .Cleaned up, just need to mow. Eventually there will be no grass in this area. (and a brick area in the triangle)

My helpers 

My mom gave my brother a table of hers and he gave me his. I kind of like it on the porch. It's a nice place to sit and look at the garden and enjoy your breakfast.

Linked up at

Book Club Sunday On The Island

Sunday we were going to go out on our friends boat but they couldn't get it running. It had just been serviced but one of the engines wouldn't fire up. They brought it over and Scott and Allen fiddled around with it for over an hour and couldn't get it working so they finally gave up and told us to just come over for a BBQ later in the day. 

Which worked out good for me since I was going to miss book club to go on the boat. Quick change in plans there and I was back to book club.

This month's book was On The Island by Tracy Garvis-Graves.

I just love the cover of the book. It looks like such a nice place to be. But imagine being stuck on an island for YEARS. Just you, and a teenage boy who you were going to tutor for the summer. I don't want to say too much about the book because it will give things away but it was a really great read. It's like $2.99 on amazon too so totally affordable.

We had book club at the lady's house that is the artist. One of the gals took some pictures and put them on Facebook so I snatched them to show you guys a little bit of the room. I swear this woman is so talented I was kicking myself for not taking my phone in the bathroom with me so I could take pictures of the awesomeness!!

So we sat in the little cafe area again. I think she has another name she calls it but wow, every time I go I just want to sit facing a different wall so I can see all the stuff I missed the last time.

Everything behind me is painted. There is an actual cabinet on the bottom with a few things on it (and on the right) but the rest is just an illusion. 

This was looking to my right. I spent most of my time looking out the "window" There is actual trim making the window edges but everything else is painted.

(and two of my book club ladies!)

There is trim in the middle of the wall and wall paper on the bottom but I'm not sure that's not painted on too.

The pictures behind my mom and another book clubber are her husband's framed art work (also an artist). She seems to rotate those around a bit so sometimes those are different to look at too.

Look at this big box of chocolate she had! Not the best chocolate in the world but entertaining.

AND she made a lemon tart. Delicious. 

It will be almost a year before it's her turn again but I need to remember to actually take a bunch of pictures so I can show you how amazing it is.

Happy Reading!

You're going to eat WHAT?

I've been so busy at work this week. Making me earn my money!!
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The other day at lunch I saw the most disgusting thing. Someone that works in another department came in to eat her lunch. She took a can of tuna and crumbled up a chewy granola bar, threw it in the bowl with the tuna and then topped it off with a pack of fruit snacks.

HOLY HELL!! I don't know what scares me more. The fact that this woman eats this? Or that she has three daughters and might actually feed them something like that. Makes me want to puke just thinking about it.
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 I picked up pizza for dinner tonight after working all day. I need to go to the grocery store and I just didn't really feel like going (hey it's not a tuna/granola/fruit snack combo!). The boy that was waiting on me had obviously gauged his years but didn't have any gauges in. Not sure if it was because they weren't allowed or what but man it's hard to talk to someone without staring at their ripped up ear lobes. I hope this fad goes out before any of my kids decide to rebel and ruin their perfectly good ears. Some plastic surgeons are going to be making a lot of money some day sewing that shit back together so it looks nice.
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Trevor and I have been riding bikes every night. We did miss one night earlier this week when I had to go to town and just didn't have time to squeeze it in before it was dark. It's been super windy here the last few days. Today when I got off the bike my legs were like jelly. Hopefully it was enough to burn off that second slice of pizza I talked myself into. (I did get someone to throw away my favorite kind of cake that had been tempting me all week on the table at work-small victories!)
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My mom brought over some tables and chair for Jessica's party next weekend. I guess I should really start planning that. Like NOW. Or maybe later, I'm kind of tired.

Record Nostalgia & Cup Cake Stand

Well tonight I paid for Jessica's dorm deposit. She has two roommates too. How did they decide on each other? They all sleep with fans on. So not making that up.

She got her cap and gown today too. She has the rest of this week and next and graduation early Saturday morning on the 2nd. Then we are going to PAR-TAY. Should be fun. Well, after my house is clean and my yard looks nice.  I think I've had more parties in the last year than I have the whole time we've lived here.

In other news, I had an order for another cupcake stand last week. This one was just for pink rick rack so I found records with pink on the labels. Fun stuff. One of the thrift stores that I go to has a ton of records. I just sat on the floor and pulled them out until I found good ones. I bought extra because I always look on eBay to make sure it's not some rare record worth a bunch of money before I glue them together! Nothing too exciting in the batch I bought. Here's some quick before work pictures.

I want to buy a record player. We used to have one but gave it away and the kids ruined the needle on my old Mickey Mouse one (need to get that fixed as soon as I figure out how/where to take it). I think it would be fun to buy a bunch of random records at the thrift store and listen to them.

I remember when I was a kid my Dad and Step mom had a large collection of records (and an 8 track converter that went into a cassette player in the car!). They had them on wood and cinder block shelves. My Step mom was making thrifty look cool before it was all over Pinterest :wink:

I only had a few records growing up. Well I had a large Disney collection that my mom still has. The full size records with story books (like the ones in my Etsy shop)

My Mom's Grandpa John had signed me up to receive the records in the mail (like the book clubs they do now) without telling her. The first record came not too long after he passed away. My Mom just made me a list of them the other day and there are 30 of them. Pretty cool gift! She's not ready to turn lose of those yet even though I keep asking for them. Maybe when I'm 40 I'll be old enough ;)

I also had a bunch of the little 45's that were Disney stories too. I still have those and my Mickey Mouse player.

I only had a few "grown up" type records. Michael Jackson's Thriller, Betty Riot, Bruce Springsteen and I think a Cyndi Lauper record. That's about it. ALL were gifts.

The 80's were more of the "cassette era" I think!