a funny thing happened on the way to a garage sale....

i love subdivision sales...lots of houses in a small area.  shannon and i hit one up a couple of miles from me on friday.  friday is trash pick up day up the road from my house....on the way there we saw a 

huge pile of furniture tossed in a heap in front of someone's house....

hmmmm...

we had to stop.

i'm glad we did....this is what we found

a twin headboard and footboard

another headboard

a picture frame

a couple of chairs

 that were in pretty bad shape, but i just want the legs

i know this one is broken but i think if i cut it off just below the break i could still use it as legs for a coffee table or spares for another chair.

they have a pretty shape....

and best of all....free!

the last piece was this dresser.  the drawers were broken or missing but i 

think it would make a really cool bookshelf.

i love the size and i love the design on the front sides.

and it's solid wood...

i think this one will be cool when i'm done with it.

the van was full before we even made it to the garage sales...but we wanted to hurry up and get there 

so we had to have some of the people hold our goodies until i could unload this furniture at home

but free is good....

i will share what we found at the garage sales in the next couple of days.

here is a sneak peek...yuk!!

signs of spring.....

it was a long time coming...it was a very long, cold and miserable winter this year.

everything that blooms is two to three weeks later than it is supposed to be.  

but...

around here, there are definite signs of spring....

i took a few pictures this morning around my yard....

the sun is shining,

there is dew on the grass.....

and the tulips are blooming at last.

yesterday was beautiful to, albeit a little humid, but warm and sunny enough to have 

a picnic with our neighbor's family under their nice big and shady tree..

complete with a quilt spread on the ground and my newly painted picnic basket....

did i mention that my lovely neighbor angie has 6 kids?  three are adopted and three are their born children...five boys and one girl...

i watch tessa while shannon is in school but she is home by lunch time so they joined us too!!

and the boys entertained us with their spectacular feats of 

swing jumping....

i think that's what you call it....or maybe it's called 

"catapult yourself from the swing seat and land on your face" jumping.

thankfully, no accidents. this time.

 the tree branches are now flowering

 the rhubarb that we planted last year is growing like crazy....

in fact, i made some rhubarb blueberry crisp already.  mmmm-mmm

happy, ever so happy, to have warm weather again.

now if we can only get past this weekend and early next week where the weathermen have predicted highs in the mid 50's.

 ....again.

sigh!!!!!

we have new babies.....

well, one baby so far....and a cracked egg.

i checked the grill today and this is what i found

 scraggly hair (feathers?), 

 unopened eyes,

and a huge yellow mouth....

looking for mama to feed it worms....

if it wasn't so ugly, i would say that this baby bird is cute.....

but man, this bird is uh-gleee!!!!!!

i will check tomorrow to see if any of the other eggs have hatched 

because i don't want to stress mama out...

they take my breath away....

scarlett

and tessa

are so lovely..

and this is why...

one who looks just like her mama and one who looks just like her daddy

is it any wonder why those girls are so beautiful???

 what a beautiful family.

and they know how to have fun too!!!

we were lucky to have two very nice weekend days.....in a row!!!!  

and i was lucky enough to be able to capture it on mother's day for them.

i love you shannon, jason, scarlett and tessa.

Happy Mother's Day.....

to all of you beautiful moms out there...make this day a fun and relaxing one.  

my boys made me breakfast this morning.....

austen made a face out of the food on my plate.....and poured my orange juice into my favorite tea cup.....

have a happy, happy day!!!!!

a photoshoot with a three-year-old....

mama was in school yesterday so tessa and i, having a beautiful morning weather wise, decided to have a little photoshoot.  as they usually do, the shoot started off wonderfully....

she was active and really didn't want to sit still for me.  

that's okay though, i love capturing children in action...

when she did sit down and pose for me

 she was breathtaking!!!

 sigh!!!!!

 a little hint for anyone who wants to get a few good shots of a child???

 give them something to hold.....a branch, a stick, a leaf or in our case, some spring dandelions..

but things started to go south when she stepped into the mucky pond with her shoe on and i hollered for her to step back...

 apparently, i offended her

 so she refused to cooperate with me any longer....

 and gave me the stink eye

until i suggested that we go into the house and make some chocolate chip cookies..... 

 so easily bribed.......

another furniture redo (challenge)...

this one will be a challenge.  my friend lisa wanted a storage cabinet for her kitchen...sort of a free-standing pantry.  she found one that she liked at ikea.

but it was $350.00.  i told her that we could do better...way better.

so she found this cabinet on craigslist.  for $35.00.   just imagine two doors attached and two shelves on the bottom. it was the right width, not the right height.  before i started sanding it, the finish looked like this (the middle part).  it is pressed board and a fake finish.  you know the kind.  the piece of furniture that comes in 6 long flat boxes and has to be put together with an allen wrench...

the owners used it as a tv cabinet so the back has a big hole cut out of it. 

 i plan to use beadboard for the back and add another shelf to the top.

we are adding feet to the bottom.  her dad is going to build an "L" shaped brace for each corner of the bottom to attach the feet to so this will raise it up and to add some interest.

stay tuned for updates.....  :)