MMM....MESSY

The mess was worse by the end.

TEA FOR TWO

Tea with Hailey.

Enjoying the one day of sun this past week. I think this was Tuesday.

FLASHBACK FRIDAYS

Uncle Jason to Violet.

MY FUTURE'S SO BRIGHT...

Besides eating off paper plates for a few days we ate once or twice. We had Chili's friday night and Violet refused to take her sunglasses off. She wore them the entire meal.

NEW COUNTERS!!!

It took us 4 1/2 years to finally get the counter tops we wanted. We picked them out a month ago and they were finally installed this weekend.

To save money we tore out the old counter tops. It was pretty easy since the old ones were only screwed in place and not glued.

The hard part was getting all the caulk off the tile back splash. The caulk had a gritty texture to it and was hard to peel off. We ended up using a caulk solvent that softened it enough to scrape. Of course we had to apply this three or four times. But it did the job. So we were out of a sink for about 5 days. This made for some creative cooking, eating off paper plates and rinsing out cups and utensils in the bathroom. Kinda gross I know.

But here they are all shiny and new!! It totally makes the under cabinet lighting we had put in when we had the house built, totally worth it.

And here's my new giant sink. No more double sink that I only use one side of. I could get both dogs in this if I wanted! We also picked out a new faucet.

We decided the shorten the islands counter top by about 5 inches. It's meant to have bar stools but we don't have any. So the counter top hangs out just a little bit and it's not so obnoxious.

We are now thinking of adding wainscoting to the island, corbels and painting it a light grey. We should probably replace the outlets and outlet covers with grey ones too.

MOTHER'S DAY & BIRTHDAY

It feels like it's been weeks since Mother's Day. Things have been a bit hectic around here. Chris's dad has been in ICU since last Friday and was finally moved to a regular room yesterday. So he has much improved and we hope he'll be going home soon!

For Mother's Day I got a Finch bird house and we went Heartland Nursery to buy some plants. Chris got the post in the ground for it last Sunday but we haven't had a chance to paint it or add any of the plants around it.

I got new lamps for my birthday a couple of weeks ago because they were seriously reduced. They are much nicer and brighter than the lamps we had.

FLASHBACK FRIDAYS

Aunt Karen to Violet

WHO ARE YOU?

We have a new bird living in our backyard. We discovered a small nest in our tiny evergreen tree in the back yard about 2 weeks ago. We then discovered a blue egg in it, then a couple days ago we found a tan colored egg. We were a little confused as to what was going on. We thought it was a robins' nest and learned that they can lay blue and tan eggs and the can lay them a few days apart. We've never seen a bird in this nest. Last night I noticed this bird fighting with two black birds and hopping around on our back fence near the evergreen tree.

I looked him up and he's an Eastern Blue bird. He's a little larger than a finch and has longer legs. I looked up what colored eggs they lay and they are same color as Robin eggs. Now it makes sense why the nest is so small.

Here's the nest tucked inside the tree.

The nest on our deck that I took pictures of a while ago is now empty. We came home one night to find the two eggs that were inside on the ground. The nest was a bit messed up too. Not sure if another bird tried to take over the nest and dumped out the eggs or maybe there was some kind of fight. So we just left the nest up there. Maybe some other bird can use it.

BUSTED

I caught Violet unrolling all the toilet paper. I left the door open and she took it upon her self to try and wash her hands and play with the toilet paper. She's crying because I snuck up on her and startled her.

I made her put the roll back on.

She put the roll back on but shoved all the toilet paper, that was still attached to the roll, in the trash can just below the toilet paper roll.

SAY WHAT? WEDNESDAYS

This morning while sitting at a stop light I heard,
"go mama, go mama geen". Apparently she was in a hurry to get to school.

SCREAMING LESSONS

I mean swimming lessons.

This morning was our first swim class. It'll last a month. It wasn't really all that bad. She mostly whine cried. We decided to sign up along with our neighbor who has two girls one 4 and one 2. I thought this might help Violet knowing there were people there that she knew, and I think it did.



Crying.

More crying. Mainly because her ears got wet.

Is that a smile?

Oh, another smile.
By the end she was in a better mood. That is until the instructor told us to dunk them. Thought that was a bit much. We didn't go all the way under and she wasn't to happy about it. We'll save dunking for the last class.
On the way home she talked about Addi, Gillian, and the big water. Maybe next week she'll be a more into it.

FLASHBACK FRIDAYS

Dada and Grandpa Grine to Violet.

THANK YOU ICE CREAM MAN

Violet has discovered the ice cream man.

All gone. Now I'm all sticky.

WHAT'S IN THE STUDIO?

Here's a little bit of what Chris and I do in the evenings after Violet goes to bed. We call it job number 2.

I just finished this commission piece for the top of a couples wedding cake. Based on the Owl & the Pussy Cat story. Stands about 8 1/2" tall and the base is about 6" wide. www.robynfabsits.com

Chris just finished the cover to Meatshakes. It's written by a friend of ours and they are in the process of pitching it to publishers. Meatshakes is kinda like a mix of the Wizard of Oz meets McDonaldland in an H.R. Pufnstuf world. www.chickenhare.com

BEARDED IRIS'

My purple bearded iris' are going crazy this year. These were from our old house and we brought them with us. I had them in pots till 2 1/2 yrs ago when I finally planted them here. along the garage. They have easily tripled in size since then, and this year we have more flowers then ever. I'll probably have to separate them this fall and move some else where.