Backyard Oasis

Do you love a good campfire?  We do!  Once the weather starts to get nice out you can bet where you'll find our family on any Friday or Saturday night.  Yup, around the campfire in the backyard! 

I LOVE me some campfire!  I love the sight, smell and crackle of a fire.  Of course the kids favorite part is s'mores!  Ooey, gooey chocolate, marshmallow and the crunch of graham crackers.  Yum!  But I think my favorite part of a good campfire is the great company - always makes for great conversations and friendships.  :)

Last weekend my husband had some time off work so he did some work in the yard.  I had no idea what he was up to, but I was pleasantly surprised.  :)

Here is a before picture of the small ring surrounded by river rock.

Before

A quick trip to Home Depot to pick up the blocks to get started.  The cost of the block was about $36. 

First up is to dig out all of the ashes from the numerous fires we've already had this year.  Then he wanted to make sure he had a good base.  The first row was placed a couple of inches in the ground. Don't forget to make sure it's level!

Once the first row in set in place, the rest is easy!  Just add the next layer making sure to keep it level and alternate the bricks so you don't have a "seam" all the way up.

The firepit is done, but the best part is still to come....  Enter SAND!!!  2 Tons of sand to be exact!  My husband has a work connection to some excavators so he got the sand for $5/ton + $40 delivery fee.

We LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the ocean and beach and someday we will live near it.  Since we couldn't go to the beach, we brought the beach to us!  It's so great to be able to dig your toes in the sand and just picture yourself on vacation.  Then you open your eyes and realize that we're still in MN...  Oh well, someday.  :)

after

The whole project took a total of 4 hours and it was just under $100!  I was at work and came home to this little backyard oasis.  I love that my husband took pictures of the different steps for me.  He thought it would be a great addition to the blog.  Isn't he the greatest?!?!  I think so.  :)

Backyard Oasis breakdown:
Approximately 4 hours
Landscaping block - $36
2 tons sand - $10
Delivery fee - $40
Total cost - $86

Much cheaper than a vacation to the beach.  :)

Of course we had to try it out the first night.  Excuse the beverages in the picture...  I forgot to mention that's my husband's favorite part of campfires.  :)

Do you love to enjoy a Friday night around the fire?  I couldn't think of a better place to spend a Friday night with great friends. 

Animal print love

Hello Monday!  Whew, we had a busy weekend with a little "staycation" that we had planned.  Basketball season is over so now was our chance to take a weekend and just go to a hotel with a nice pool and relax.  We went with 3 other families and the kids all had a blast!  They were so worn out from swimming and enjoying the water slide.  Not much got done around the house, but I'm okay with that.  :)

I did get a small project done thought last night.  My daugher decided that she no longer wanted her loft that we built a couple of years ago.  We dis-assembled the loft and brought in the queen size bed that we've been storing "just in case".  (This is a phrase that I use often, but my husband dispises...) 

It's all set up in her room, but now we don't have any bedding that goes with her decor.  She's 12 and LOVES her animal print - I mean really, what 12 year old girl doesn't?  Even I still love me some animal print!  Needless to say, I was on a quest to find some zebra print for her room.  I thought a zebra comforter might be a little too much for the small room.  I found a great deal on a zebra print sheet set at Walmart yesterday so I threw it in the cart.  20 minutes later a lightbulb went off in my head and I decided that I could buy a twin size set and use that to re-upholster a headboard that I was storing yet again, "just in case".  Perfect!  The twin size sheet set was only $7.98, how could you go wrong?!  I used the fitted sheet for the headboard and I'm going to use the flat sheet for curtain panels.  I even had some excess material from the headboard to make some fun throw pillows! 

It turned out so cute and she loves it!  I'll show you some before and after pictures soon.  Now we just need to work on adding some accessories and getting some fun stuff up on the walls. 

Just another reason...

Hello!  We had a great weekend filled with events and now we're back to the grind.

Today my 12 year old daughter had her last band and choir concert of the year at school.  I was really looking forward to hearing how much they've improved over the year.  Earlier this month I made sure I could take a late lunch to get there in time for the concert and then return to work to finish out the day.  I arrive to work this morning only to find out that the nasty bug that has plagued our office the last 2 weeks has taken it's toll on my co-workers.  This left only me in the main office and unable to take a lunch, much less leave to attend the concert.  :(  I just hope she isn't too disappointed and will forgive me. 

This is just another reason why I want nothing more than to leave the rat race and be a Full Time Hobbiest.  My family, kids and home should always come first and today I couldn't make that happen. 

Bieber Fever

Let me start out by saying, I do not have Bieber Fever, but I do have an 11 year old daughter - enough said... 

My daughter, Olivia shares my love of creating anything and everything and we have a lot of fun doing projects together.  She's been asking me to help her make a Justin Bieber shirt.  Sure there are a gazillion JB t-shirts on the market, but she wants to make her own, one of a kind instead.  I love the way she thinks!

This week we were on a quest to find a plain black t-shirt.  Believe it or not, this was not that easy to find.  I checked Target, Walmart, Shopko and came up with nothing.  We had some time to kill on Tuesday and decided to run into Michael's.  Why I hadn't thought to go straight to a craft store is beyond me!  Needless to say, they had plain black t-shirts along with every other color you can imagine!  And they were on sale - 2/$5.  We snatched up the black and then grabbed JB's signature purple.

I had purchased some heat transfer vinyl a couple of months ago and just haven't had the time or a project to try it on. 

I buy most of vinyl from H & H Sign Supply and have been so happy with them!

I used my Cricut and Sure Cuts a Lot (SCAL) to create the image.  At the last second I had the sense to realize that I need to reverse the image for it to work properly.  Thankfully SCAL makes it easy with a simple click of a button.  After the image was cut I got to work weeding out the unwanted vinyl.  Last step was to iron it on to the purple shirt. 


Front of shirt



Back of shirt

 Simple and inexpensive project (only cost about $5) and it turned out so stinkin cute!  I'm not sure what's cuter - the shirt, or the 11 year old in the shirt! 

Linking up to:

New front entrance!

A couple of years ago we decided to paint the house a beautiful red color that I absolutely LOVE!  What I don't love so much is the mauve door that remains...  I hate the color mauve to begin with, then add a newly painted red house and YIKES! 

Every time I walked through that front door it drove me nuts!  But, life gets busy and you find other things more important to do - like watch your child's soccer or baseball game.  Slowly you learn to live with it until you "have time". 

Well last weekend I finally "had time" to tackle the front door! 

My husband was gone that weekend so I didn't even attempt to take the door off.  I just taped the window panes and hardward off and got to work!  I did rough up the surface a little bit so the paint could adhere better.  When I finished the first coat I thought, "What in the world were you thinking painting the metal door?!  It looks horrible!!!!"  I thought for sure I'd be out buying a replacement.  : / 

Keep calm and carry on...  With every coat it looked a little bit better.  The panes on the window are plastic so they really tested my patience.  Eventually I won the battle with them too! 
It took several coats, some patience and a small brush, but it's done!!!

Now I really need to get some fall decorations out there!  Maybe some mums, pumpkins and gourds?  I love fall and can't wait to get the decorations out! 

I did pull this little itty bitty fall wreath out.  It's not quite enough, but it'll work until I get to Hobby Lobby to find a new one!

Have you painted a door recently?  How did it turn out?  What was your process?  I'm certainly no expert on the subject so I would love to hear your experience. 

Linking to:

Bathroom planning

So now that the bathroom is partially demo'd I need to have a plan to put it back together!  At first my husband was just going to replace the tub/shower with another tub/shower.  He insists that I requested this at some point and was a little confused when I mentioned the option of a tub and then tiling the shower area.  I guess we were both a little confused...  The tub/shower combo was fine, but just that - fine.  No Wow factor there! 

The hubby is on board to do the tiling and now it's on to the fun planning stages!

THE PLAN:

Install tub
Tile the shower walls
Paint the walls
New shower curtain - I have been searching and searching, but haven't found the one yet.  I may have to use the white one until I do...
Frame the mirror
Add new artwork, shelving and accessories

I recently fell in love with blue/gray rooms with rich wood tones and crisp whites.  Here are a few things I was thinking about:

I think I may need to buy some samples to try on the wall.  This way I can see how they look at the different times of the day.

Here is a quick before pic of the space:

I'm so ready to have our main bathroom back!  It's been a long couple of months with all four of us showering in the basement mens bathroom.  I'm hoping we'll have a chance to get started this weekend!  Somehow life always seems to get in the way.  I will shower in the basement a few more weeks if necessary.  4th grade football games, birthday parties and family time are all too important! 

Check back soon for updates! 

Surprise renovation

Hello there!  I hope you all had a great Labor Day weekend.  I was a bit under the weather so I didn't get as much done as I had hoped over the long weekend.  Oh well, I guess the list just got longer for next weekend! 

So a couple months ago I discovered a crack in the floor of our tub/shower in the main bathroom.  It is 30+ years old, so I guess it's probably about time to be replaced anyways!  (Hopefully my husband doesn't think I need to be replaced since I'm 30+...  ;)  Anywho, the tub was inevitably going to need to be replaced and just when I didn't want to spend any more money - trying to save for a bigger renovation people!  We've limped along by all four of us using the shower in the basement.  Not the best of situations, but things could be a lot worse.  :)

Well little did I know that when I came home from work yesterday I would be confronted with my daughter hanging a sign -

Closed for Construction!

And behind the door this is what was awaiting me... 





Eww!!!  Look- no don't- at the hard water stains.





Yikes, what a mess!!!



Surprise!!!  The new tub/shower is here and ready to be installed.  I love surprises, just not sure if I like a surprise renovation...  Don't get me wrong, I am thrilled at the idea of having our main bathroom working again.  I just could have had the bathroom all cleared out and made the job easier had I know. 

The to do list just got longer!

• Install new tub/shower
• Replace linoleum with tile - maybe?
• Paint the walls
• Add fun accessories

I'm thinking maybe a blue/gray color I fell in love with in an office at work.  I've been looking for a place to use it in my house and here it is!  Homburg Gray from Sherwin Williams. 

Have you had any surprise renovations happen at your house without your knowledge?  I'd love to hear how they turned out!