Party Like It's 1776

Fourth of July is quickly approaching, which means it's time to get a little decor up around the house. I've always loved the fourth of july, and I think it's one of the most under-appreciated holidays. This year, I decided to make this canvas. I have to admit, I wasn't clever enough to come up with the saying on my own, I saw it on some cups at Pier 1 and immediately thought it would look great on a canvas.

Confession: This canvas was a Vino Van Gogh painting gone horribly wrong. I can craft all day long, but make me paint a picture of trees starting with a blank canvas and I promise I will fail. I just started the project by giving the canvas a couple coats of white spray paint, magic I tell ya! I wasn't about to let a perfectly good canvas go to waste. 

Do you ever decorate or do anything special for the Fourth of July? 

Check out my wreath from last year here.

If I have time, I may even squeeze in a few other patriotic projects.

Wine Cork Garden Markers {and our first garden}

This year, we planted our first garden! I call it my salsa garden because I have every intention to ma ke all kinds of yummy fresh garden salsa with these vegetables. We planted tomatoes, green peppers, jalapeno peppers, red onions and cilantro. We still had some extra space, so we also planted cucumbers, lettuce, and parsley. Neither of us have really ever had a garden, so we can't really be sure we will have vegetables by the end of summer. We have just been watering the plants every night and things seem to be growing quite well. 

I decided I wanted to put in some garden markers, so I pulled out my wine corks, skewers, and a permanent marker. 

I simply wrote each vegetable on a wine cork with my marker, and then stabbed a skewer into the bottom of the cork. Within minutes, I had fun garden markers ready to stick into the dirt. 

And now we wait! Hopefully we will have vegetables coming out of ears in no time. 

What do you usually grow in your garden? 

I'm kind of regretting not throwing a few strawberry plants in there. There's always next year, right?

Have a great weekend!

Vibrant Adirondack Chairs

Today I am sharing with you a project that I have been dying to complete for over a year!
Over the past few weekends, Adam built me these wonderful Adirondack chairs for the backyard, and I just finished painting them this week (just in time for the BBQ we are hosting on Sunday). Hooray! 

We used Ana White's book, The Handbuilt Home, as a reference to build these beauties. It was pretty inexpensive to buy all of the supplies, and overall took Adam two afternoons to build both chairs and the table. Once they were built, Adam sanded them down so they were ready for me to paint.

Speaking of painting, I had one heck of a time deciding which colors to go with. We spent Memorial Day weekend up north on Long Lake, and talk about immense amounts of brightly colored Adirondack chairs. One cottage had a row of chairs painted every color of the rainbow. It was to die for! Each cottage we passed had at least a few brightly colored chairs sitting in the lawn overlooking the water. I debated for-ev-er and each color combination seemed just as perfect as the next. Blues, yellows, pinks, oranges, greens. How was I ever going to decide?! I ended up narrowing it down to a few options and let Adam have the final say. He's a good decision maker when I am too indecisive. What can I say, I picked a winner. We finally decided to go with blue, green, and pink. I primed each piece, gave each piece two coats of paint, and used a spray sealer for some extra protection since they will be outside all summer long. 

I am thrilled with how they turned out, and even more excited to be sharing them with you!

What colors would you paint your Adirondack chairs?

Angel Berry Trifle

This Angel Berry Trifle is the perfect summer dessert. It is light and refreshing, and the perfect dessert to take to a backyard barbecue. My mother-in-law has made it for the past few summers and it has to be one of my favorites by far. The recipe makes a ton, I cut the recipe in half and it still nearly filled my trifle bowl. I like it with strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries, but you can put in any fruit you'd like.

INGREDIENTS:

1 bunt size angel food cake (or two loaves)

16 oz. of strawberries raspberries, blueberries

2 small packs of vanilla instant pudding

3 cups of milk

16 oz. of cool whip

DIRECTIONS:

1. Cut angel food cake into small pieces.

2. Wash and cut fruit as needed.
3. Mix milk and pudding, then fold in 8 oz. of cool whip.

4. In a large bowl, layer starting with 1/3 of the cake, then 1/2 the pudding mixture and 1/2 the fruit.

5. Repeat cake, pudding, and fruit layers, with the final layer being cake.

6. Top the cake with the rest of the cool whip and decorate with fruit.

yummmmm. 

Happy Monday!

Landscaping The Backyard

When we first moved into our home, we were so excited about the size of our backyard! It needed a little bit of work, but we saw (and still see) endless possibilities. The yard was wide open on three sides, the pine trees went all the way to the ground, and aside from the grass, there was not much life back there.

The fall after we moved in, we enlisted some family to partake in "Tree Fest." Although it sounded enjoyable, it was a lot of work. We cut down a beautiful large pine tree on the side of our house. I was sad to see it go, but it was planted wayyy too close to the house and was resting on the roof. During this time, we elevated the pine trees in the backyard to give them a cleaner and healthier look.

After "Tree Fest" came "Fence Fest" and let's just say our parents now know to stay far away from any "fest" we come up with. When we decided to get our Lucy Lou, we knew a fenced in yard would come shortly after. After spending the entire winter keeping her tied up whenever she was outside, we knew that as soon as the ground thawed, we would be putting up a fence so she would have room to run. Last April, we finally got our fence (see picture above). We also made other small improvements last year, such as pulling up all the brick for the patio and attempting to flatten it ("Patio Palooza"). Adam also built us some beautiful steps to get to the patio. When we moved in, there were concrete steps on the opposite side from where the sliding door opened. The previous owners made some funky steps just to be able to get into the backyard, but lets just say it looked awful. 

THIS YEAR: We decided to edge and mulch around the two big pine trees. We were hesitant, simply because we were afraid Lucy would spend too much time in there, either digging, pooping, or chasing squirrels. We didn't want to spend the money if it was just going to make a mess. 

Well, we decided there was only one way to find out. After two afternoons and 5 trips to Menards later, we finally finished. And my goodness WHAT A DIFFERENCE!

We were able to splint some of the plants from our front yard, and got a few more from my parent's and our wonderful neighbors. The bench Adam built for our balcony when we lived in an apartment finally found it's home too! (I have since added some flowers to those pots as well)

We planted a whole lot of hostas and day lillies. We also have a few fern and I planted some tulip bulbs from some blooms I had inside this year. I love all the green out there now, especially against the mulch instead of dirt. I just can't wait to see some yellow, too!

And guess what?! Aside from the occasion ball landing in the mulch, Lucy learned to stay out of it very quickly. Success!

Has anyone else tackled some big landscaping projects while the weather has been nice? 

Friday Five- My Love For TJ Maxx

I haven't done a Friday Five in as long as I can remember, but decided to give it a go this week. 

I am sure this is a crazy question, but have you been into TJ Maxx, lately?! So many things to buy in that store, I have to tell myself "NO" to at least half of the things I want to buy. Although I usually bypass the clothing section (for my husband's sanity) when I go in, I like to take my time and see everything I possibly can. Everything from purses to shoes, home decor to dog accessories/toys. 

Check out my purchases from just last week!

1. Picture Frames

I can always count on good ole TJ Maxx to pull through when I am looking for some fun new friends, and last week was no disappointment. I bought these frames to put in my office for $6 and $7. What a steal! 

2. Colorful Drinking Glasses

These glasses just scream "SUMMER!" I can't wait for some wonderful weather to have a relaxing day sitting on the patio and sipping out of these bad boys. Not that I needed anymore drinking glasses, but for only $10 I just couldn't pass them up. This purchase definitely elicited the eye roll from my husband, but I don't even care.

3. Dog Bowl

This fun little dog bowl was mine the second I saw it! Forget that it might be slightly too small for daily use, it's perfect for post-run ice cubes and when I spoil Lucy with wet dog food occasionally. The best part: it has a rubber bottom to minimize slippy across the kitchen floor, and it was only $4.

4. Pig Potpourri Holder

How cute is this pig, seriously? I'm not usually one to purchase animal figurines, but the hearts did it for me this time. The potpourri smells pretty good, but I have a feeling this little guy will be sticking around much longer than the potpourri lasts.

5. Sports Bras

Oh my gosh, TJ has a huuugee selection of sports bras right now! I snagged one of these off the rack because of its $10 price tag, but quickly realized that wasn't all I liked about it. These are so soft and so comfortable! I ended up going back for one in every color I could find. Lucky for my wallet, they only had three colors. 

I also was able to find some great yoga pants while I was there, but those didn't seem exciting enough to share. Their workout section right now is to die for, I had to get out of there while I still had some money.

Have you been scoring any great finds at TJ Maxx, Marshalls, or Home Goods lately?

What are your favorite things to shop for while you're there?

In other news, I am hoping to have some fun posts ready for you guys next week!

Happy Friday!

Framed Monogram Wall Decor

I suppose you could say this blog is long overdue for a simple craft project! I have been out of school for about a weel now and have been loving the vast amounts of free time I have. But for some reason, I've been having a hard time getting back into the routine of blogging. Don't get me wrong, I love blogging, I just feel like its taking me a while to get my creative juices flowing again after being gone for so long. 

So here's a simple project to get things going again. 

I think I may have already touched on how much I love "M"s, but here is more proof that when it comes to initials, I just can't stay away. I made this Framed Monogram using pretty much all supplies I had on hand (don't you love when that happens?) except the M, which I purchased from Hobby Lobby for less than $2.

I found an old frame from my collection of garage sale finds and spray painter both the frame and the M. Once it dried, I used some scrap fabric hot glued it into the frame. Once the fabric was secure, I hot glued the M to the center and hung it up,

So, for less than $2, I made a fun new M for our house. Success!

Happy Thursday!