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.....  :)

sweetness.....

the girls spent last weekend with us, along with my niece allie.  on friday night, we watched "tangled" and tessa informed me toward the end of the movie that she wanted her mommy and she wanted to go home.  she does that every time she spends the night with us....i guess it's just a stage even though she is the one who wanted to spend the night in the first place.  we just tell her that she can't go home and she is staying.  she cries for a while and then....

she snuggles in and falls asleep.
scarlett, on the other hand, loves spending the night, comforts her little sister when she has these little breakdowns and always just goes with the flow.  she was asleep before tessa was.  i look at this picture of how absolutely angelic they look, and my heart just goes pitter-patter!!!  i love them so much...
{you too allie  :) }
and yes we are snuggling under blankets and the girls are wearing winter jammies because even though it is now the month of may, michigan thinks that it is still february or march temperature wise....

the triangle table......

.....or jetson's inspired furniture....

 this is the most recent project i have been working on for my friend lisa....and yes, she has been keeping me busy for a while...(thanks lisa) 

 this triangle shaped table was in pretty crappy shape but the wood on the top of the piece was really pretty once i had it sanded down.  i don't usually sand down to bare wood because i usually paint the whole piece but the inlay style of the top was just too pretty to cover up.

 i love the mid-century modern style of this little table....so cool, so retro!!

 lisa wanted to use this piece in the same room she is going to have the green bench

in so she wanted it painted in the same eden green paint.  

 

(please ignore the crap on the floor...i'm not very neat when i'm working)
this time, i stained the top and sides of the top and bottom shelf with minwax jacobean wood stain...

 it really brought out the inlay pattern.

 she loves the distressed look so that is what i did to the paint on the bottom shelf.

she wanted the top to be a little darker so i mixed black paint and glaze and gave it another coat.  

with a coat of paste wax, it looks great.

uh-oh......

austen was at baseball practice yesterday and slid into second base.....and sprained his ankle.

 but he sprained it in the weirdest place.....just below his ankle on the top of his foot....weird!!

 i know it looks like bruising above his ankle but that's boy dirt....along with dirty boy toenails that i made him clip before i took these pictures....it didn't help.  :P

and wouldn't you know,  he has his first track meet tomorrow....they have missed 3 track meets because of crappy weather....he is also supposed to have another baseball practice tomorrow after his track meet...

looks like that's not happening either....

if he is anything like his mama, this is just the first in a long line of ankle injuries that he has to look forward to!!!!

tgim........

thank goodness it's may....

'nuff said!!!