Memorial Day Weekend

First, I have heard from some of you that you are having trouble posting comments. I have too, on some other blogs that I read. I have no idea why, but sorry! And if you don't know if you're having trouble because you never post a comment, please remember that my second love language is Words of Affirmation.(behind Acts of Service) :) Just sayin'...

We had a lovely Memorial Day weekend. We started it off with our annual tradition of placing flags at the MD state veterans' cemetery. I've written about it before, and as always it was a touching and meaningful way to begin the weekend.



making sure each marker was clean before placing the flag

 

Dave had spent part of last week down in Georgia for the 20th anniversary commemoration of the Persian Gulf War. After the ceremonies during the week he travelled to Toccoa, GA, where the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment trained for WWII. He didn't want to miss the chance to run up Curahee. 3 miles up and 3 miles down. If you've seen Band of Brothers, you know just what I'm talking about (If you haven't seen Band of Brothers, SEE IT.).

After placing the flags Saturday morning we headed home to watch the first episode (again) of Band of Brothers. We spent parts of the weekend watching it and are going to finish it up this week.
We were done with the flags and the movie so early that the boys were in the pool before noon! Spent the rest of the day splashing and playing outside.

Sunday was church and more pool. Dave wore his dress blues to church to honor those who served. He looks so handsome all dressed up. I love my man in uniform. :)

And Monday was the church picnic. I came up with this great idea to make s'mores brownies for the dessert I was bringing. Everything was going just fine.....I just needed to toast those marshmallows a tiny bit more before I took them out of the oven. DO NOT FORGET WHEN YOU TURN THE BROILER ON HIGH.
The were pronounced "not servable" but I did get some great reviews from the boys on the size of the flames....

 It was another scorcher and we hadn't planned on staying at the picnic very long. We ended up being there over 3 hours, though--it was so fun hanging out with everyone. I'm excited to report that Nick felt well enough to play volleyball AND soccer. His mom hovered around him the entire time giving him drinks and making him take breaks (she's such a worry-wart...) but he did great.



staying hydrated



taking a break

always with the little ones

Fun, fun weekend. We wrapped each night up with a late-night swim and s'mores fresh off the fire. (not burned)
Hope you all had a great weekend as well!

the Mice Will Play (if they could think of something good to play)

Hubby's away this week and NORMALLY I would have dived into a big project the minute his boots marched out the door. This snuck up on me, though, and I don't have anything ready to go! Well, there is one project I am considering for the pool area, and I do need to plant flowers, but those can be done while he is here. I need to use the time he's gone to work on some of those huge, messy projects that require a couple nights of cereal for dinner and paint smudges on a lot of stuff, sometimes including a cat.

I'll show you a couple of things I've done this past week, I suppose. And maybe it'll inspire me to do something bigger.

I got a great little pedestal table for twenty bucks on craiglist. Bought it off a young soldier just moving here whose wife asked him if they could get a REAL dining set now. Things go full circle.... :) It was hunter green on the bottom and an oak-y color on top. Not bad, but not what I was looking for.
I sanded it down to remove most of the stain on the top and just enough of the paint off the base to allow new paint to stick, and voila!

We used to have a little bistro table from Pier 1 there. It was fine, but this one is so much better. It's a little bigger and will work great in a kitchen nook if/when we move and feels like it belongs.

I left the top kind of stripey. I know it may not appeal to everyone, but I really wanted it to have a worn, unique look. I left some areas with the oak stain, took some all the way down to bare wood, and left others in between.

Cleaned the whole thing with my TSP surface prep spray. Then I stained the top with a walnut stain that I let sit for a good 15 minutes before I wiped it off. Two coats of stain and 2 coats of polycrylic.

The base is black spray paint! Satin finish. I distressed it a little bit here and there and then wiped some of the stain on the distressed parts. I may do one more coat of that.

I'm thinking a white geranium would be pretty in that spot. And now even I like to sit there and have breakfast!

I also finally finished Joshua's knight tunic. Here he is as King Edmund (I know--I like Peter and Caspian better, too. It's an ongoing discussion around here..)

Finally, these are not mine. But isn't it a great idea? I am thinking I could whip this together in an afternoon--the floor of my closet will be so happy!



epbot

the season of spring
weather seems to sing
lovely lovely days
are coming our ways
-from "The Season of Spring"
by Mencita Monoi Angel

Last Week

Joshua and I went to our final performance in our Kennedy Center series. This one was a class given by 5 members of the National Symphony Orchestra on rhythm. I like the NSO classes especially because they have an instrument "petting zoo" before the performance and the kids can try out the instruments they'll be seeing.

Friday night was the final Pack Pow Wow of the school year (I love all these "finals!"). Our den presented the Cub Master with the lamp I showed you in a previous post and they got to run the gauntlet of older Scouts as they moved up to Bears!

Saturday Nick helped with a friend's Eagle Scout project, Dave took Joshua to an awards picnic at church, and Alyson and I ran errands. No pics of any of those...

Sunday afternoon we went to the Massing of the Colors ceremony at Fort Meade. It's an annual tradition, celebrating the units at Fort Meade and honoring the fallen.
This little guy was very interested in the whole event.

Here is some of the ceremony, as recorded by Joshua:

Snacks at the end were an added bonus:



More science experiments. In this one, Joshua made his own thermometer to understand why the liquid in the tube rises.

And, yep, I got more free shoes. :) Gotta love product testing!

Sew Many Crafts, Sew Little Time....

I've been busy this spring--cleaning and crafting and sewing and re-doing things.
Here are some examples:

Do you remember this lamp I posted about a month or so ago? I got it for 4 bucks at Goodwill. I also scored a brand new almost-drum shade there for $3. Here's how it turned out! I LOVE the fabric--got it at Jo Ann's and it just makes me smile. :) It's a part of my craft area makeover, which isn't quite done yet. I'd show you the in progress pictures, but you'd be in shock at how messy a crafter I am . Instead I'll just show you some close-ups.

I'm not entirely thrilled with how the shade came out. I wanted more of a roman shade look. The problem was that the room is in the basement and I didn't want to block the natural light. I also wanted to be able to see the sky when sitting at my sewing machine. So I ended up making it more of a pleated shade. I do like the bright colors, though...

This is an inspiration "cork" board I made with an old frame. Spray painted it white, then used corrugated cardboard with a layer of craft foam for the back, which I covered in orange burlap. Love it!

My husband asked me recently why I am continually winding twine and yarn around things. I am obsessed!! Seriously, it is fun and mindless and turns out so darn cute. I got the bowl at Goodwill for a couple bucks and think it looks so fun up on the shelf.

I haven't just been working on my craft area, though. Here are some other things I've finished lately:

I've made a gazillion of these pretty felt flower pins. I wear them ALL the time! I always wear a cardigan out, now that everyone has their air conditioning on, and I pin a cute flower on to jazz it up. I've gotten lots of compliments on them. They are super fun to make.

These little woven bracelets take about five minutes to make and look adorable with jeans and a t-shirt!

Our cub scout den had the honor of presenting our Cub Master with a thank you gift for all his hard work this year. The boys created the card at a den meeting and I put together the lamp. I got the original lamp off Craiglist, removed the orange paper shade and recovered it with khaki fabric that resembles the cub scout uniform. Iron-on letters and I used liquid stitch to attach the ribbon trim.

 I covered the base with twine (I told you!!) then glued on little figures representing the different Cub Scout ranks and attached a Cub Master patch. We presented it last night and he really liked it.



This last project isn't finished yet, but at least one cushion is. I'm recovering the cushions on our patio furniture--dont you LOVE the fabric? I am so in love with the beautiful aqua fabrics that are out this year. They make things look so fresh and clean!

So that's it. Still a lot to do, but now you have a good idea of just what I've been up to the last few weeks.... 

I'll leave with with a quote I read recently:

One craft project, like one cookie,

is never enough....