Life Lately

I've had a bunch of little things I have wanted to post about lately, but the motivation to do a bunch of separate posts is nonexistent so I'm just going to cram them all into one and give you lots of pictures to sum up life lately. :)


Here we go!

First up are two little thrifting makeovers: a little $2 mail box and $4 bread box.

 A good scrub, a few coats of white spray paint, and some tlc and this box has helped cut the mail clutter and finish off our little "command center".

Before- hook missing

Before

I used a tiny screwdriver to remove the hardware on the box.

I would have preferred wood filler to even out the missing hook, but this is what we had.

Let it dry, lightly sanded it- all better!

A few coats of spray white paint & primer in one.

After!

Love our command center!

A good scrub, some white spray paint, and two new swanky knobs and the bread box was brought back to life! We love this thing and it is now one of my favorite things about our kitchen.

before

plain jane knobs

Hello gorgeous!

Knobs came from Lowe's

 On May 11th of this year I got to help host a baby shower for a friend I have had since Preschool! She and her hubs welcomed a sweet baby boy to this world on 05/24 and I loved being able to help get them ready!

Outside. Before the rain. :(

Sweet little favors my twinsie made!

My gift- a diaper wreath!

About the diaper wreath- it was so easy! A little time consuming, but will be my go to gift for baby showers now. :) The diapers are tied with balloon ribbon around a duct taped pool noodle (we couldn't find a wreath form large enough and the noodle was only $1!) and I got the idea to make a little pea pod out of the washcloths from Pinterest. Everything is tied on except for the blue ribbon that came with a sticky tag and I did have to glue gun the "G" in place.

floating tea lights, lime slices, baby's breath, clear vases and blue mason jars were easy and beautiful decor!

I had to take the opportunity to snag a picture with mah man. We don't take enough together!

Y'ALL! My twinsie and brother in law made this beautiful cake! It looked and tasted incredible!

 We have lots more babies in our deck garden now!!! Can't wait to try out zucchini lasagna and eggplant parmesan and pickling cucumbers- and don't even get me started on the tomato sandwiches!

Baby zuchinni

Our better boys are growing like weeds!

Teeny baby green pepper

Lots of baby cherry tomatoes!

All cucumber vines on deck! :P

sweet williams flowers on the left, basil in the middle, stevia on the right. love my herb box!

Finally, I can't wait to spend a few summer days being lazy with these two-

Such a hard life being spoiled rotten

Until next time,
-A

Christmas Cheer

Has it already come and gone?!

The day after Christmas always brings with it a certain amount of sadness. I blame it on my mom. No offense to her (different strokes for different folks), but when we were little Christmas decorations came down on Christmas Day. I wish I was kidding. Granted, we were up at 4am celebrating Santa's arrival and departure so when later afternoon came around and my mom and dad would make the switch so we could spend the afternoon with him and my grandparents, my sister and I felt like it had already been 2 days. It was still an abrupt ending to come home that evening or the next morning and see that life was 'back to normal'; that all the Christmas magic was put up in the attic to wait out another year.

Now that I have my own home, my love and I draw out the Christmas cheer as long as possible. I'd probably keep decorations up longer if it weren't for getting back to teaching so early in January.

Regardless, I tried to document a lot of our cheery moments this year on Instagram. I realized if I made my own hashtag I could see all of those moments at one time. So- until I can get good pictures taken of our holiday home and posts written about what we've been up to to share, I thought I would revive my poor, neglected blog with some warm fuzzies courtesy of Instagram- (Followers welcome: ajatkins4120).

I kicked off my decorating with my Gingerbread Scentsy in the kitchen!

First fire of the year. No stockings hanging- safety first! (Thanks Dad!)

The tree in all its clearance decor glory. I love my tree!

I handmade our stockings this year. I love them.

White silk and spice. Y'all. It's good.

Autumn's first Christmas!

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care.

Another view of our tree.

So glad we get to take time in the year to celebrate our reason for living!

Our wreath. I'm not sure I like the 'a' hanging in the middle. Will tweak for next year.

Someone special got an early Christmas present! Free iPhone 4 upgrade!

Good stuff. Given to me by one of my students. I <3 my church!

Went with simple brown kraft paper and decorative tape this year.

Three sweet snowflakes. We're adding icicles next year.

Christmas lab- turning Poinsettias into pH indicators!!

We spent our last day before Christmas break at school making snowflakes for Sandy Hook children.

First morning of Christmas break!

Someone got a little too excited with his gift... we still can't find the head. Poor hedgehog.

We couldn't wait to give all these presents

Waiting for Santa

The Year Without a Santa Claus- He's Mister White Christmas, He's Mr. Snow!

I made this for my nephew. And it was too small. Boo!

So pleeeease, celebrate me home! Beginning our Christmas festivities!

New tradition- Movies on Christmas Day. We saw Monsters, Inc in 3D. So good!

So, that was a quick run through of our holiday week! I'm looking forward to doing a recap of our Fall (I was horrible at keeping up with this blog. Sorry!) and editing the pictures from Christmas I got to take with my early Christmas present: my new Nikon SLR! Hurrah!

Until then,
-A

To All You Ghouls and Goblins...