I Want to Take You Out to the Ball Park! {Indians Ticket Giveaway}

Last year I had the opportunity to attend a picnic and an Indianapolis Indians game courtesy of the Indiana Family of Farmers and guess what?! I have up to 8 tickets for one lucky family to the June 11, 2012 Indians Game against the Rochester Red Wings at 7:05 PM (Gates open around 5:30 PM). Not only do you get the tickets, but you are invited to dine in the picnic area for a cookout provided by the Indiana Family of Farmers.  You can't beat free food and entertainment in one of the most beautiful cities.

Here is how you can enter:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

You have until June 3rd to enter and the winner will be announced on the 4th.

Garden Woes and Wows

Last Friday when I checked on my garden I noticed that a critter ate half of my plants! So far we have lost a whole tomato plant, sweet pepper, most of a broccoli, half of my carrots, and some ripe strawberries.  We have seen the culprit, a cute, furry rabbit.  I bought some Havahart animal repellent that cost $16 and was dismayed to wake up the next morning and see that the buffet was open again!  After a little research I decided that we need an enclosure and headed off to Lowes for some wire and bird netting.  This only cost $15 dollars and so far has worked at keeping our friend away. I have seen him the last two mornings, but he has hopped away empty handed.

Since we are on the subject of gardening here is my attempt at a container garden.  I have two of these on my porch.  I love the yellow ones!

Fields of corn is a familiar sight around here.  I love open, flat fields of growing corn.  This is what home looks like to me.  My mom would always say, "knee high by the fourth of July" when we would drive by and I hear myself telling my kids the same thing.  

Memorial Day

I am so thankful to be an American and for all of those who fought for our freedom.  I also love the parade of flags that a local church puts out to remind us of that freedom.

                       Happy Memorial Day!

Adding Color to the Playroom

This is one important room in our house. Actually the availability of a playroom was a deal breaker when we were house hunting.  I have a desk along one wall that I use as a sewing table, but I am not sewing as much these days and decided to make this into a work are for the kids.

My vision was a pair of parson chairs with funky fabric.  I was inspired by this chair.

Source: onejoyfulhousewife.blogspot.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

My mom had these chairs in her garage.  

They were a little dusty and a lot of ugly, but they were FREE!

I know that I said I would never upholster anything again after the wing chairs, but I found the perfect fabric and it is motivating me!

This is the fabric for the back of the chair.

Source: fabric.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

And this is the front and seat of the chair.

Source: fabric.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

A few weeks ago I purchased this slipcover for the couch and it has made a HUGE difference. The room is so vibrant now.  The funny thing is I tried to take a picture of the room with the new slipcover and sat on one end of the desk and it came crashing down with Bob and the lamp flying off. Bob is o.k. but the desk needed a little repair and I guess I need to go on a diet!

Source: target.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

Look for the full reveal later this summer...

Reworking a Space

Last year we finished the living room and this is what it looked like.

I needed to clean the windows and that required moving all the furniture along the window and this is what I ended up with.

I think I like it. I love that the windows are not blocked. The room is a little beige, but someday we are getting dark laminate and I hope that will warm up the floors.  I am on the manhunt for a table between the chairs. Here are a few that have caught my eye, but really I am looking for something used under twenty dollars that I can repaint.

SOURCES

Strawberry Scones

I like to experiment on the weekends with breakfast foods especially now that I have eliminated Toaster Strudels and frozen french toast sticks.  My baked doughnut skills are slowly improving, but we still haven't reached the "perfect" donut that makes you forget about the bagged white powder ones.  This morning I made these scones.

Source: garlicgirl.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

The claim is that you can make these wheat strawberry scones in 30 minutes and you can!  The only modification that I made was substituting half the flour for unbleached white.  I am not a huge scone lover. I made Ree's awhile back and although my sister and her family loved them I did not.  For some reasons these hit the spot. Maybe it was the fruit?  I added whipped cream to ours.  My kids love watching me make whipped cream.  If you have not whipped your own you are missing out. 

Last Day of School

Today is Wyatt's last day of school! He is a little sad and a lot excited!  I am a little apprehensive and excited too.  Our school district adopted a balanced calendar so the kids will start on August 1st so really it is not a long summer.  Wyatt is dressed up for a school wide luau. Thank goodness for Party City!

Kitchen Bling

As you know I have been planning a kitchen facelift for awhile.  There has been a lot of discussing and dreaming, but we have not moved any closer to our goal.  Well, we are a smidge closer. This is my new faucet.

 This is what I had before.  

It amazes me how one little thing will change the space.

Source: decoratingcents.blogspot.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

Originally I was going to go with bar pulls for the drawers and mushroom knobs for the cabinets and then I saw Andrea's gorgeous kitchen and decided that longer bar pulls were what I needed and she was awesome and shared her source for the pulls.

Interknobs

I was able to purchase 27 pulls for $48 and that included shipping.  These are the same pulls found at the big orange box for a fraction of the price.  I am so excited to have pulls!

I was also planning on adding bead board to the island and painting it white, but I have decided to keep the island the same color and add board and batten.  

This is my inspiration island:

Source: realsouthernliving.blogspot.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

We have purchased the paint sprayer so now I need to choose the paint color.  We want to go a little more black than the bathroom cabinet color.  Any suggestions?

DIY Granola Bars

I love granola bars, specifically Quaker Chewy Chocolate Chunk, but I do not love the ingredient list and decided that I would try my hand at making some. This is the recipe that I tried with a couple of modifications.  I used unsweeted rice puffs and added chocolate chips to the dry mix which gave them the chocolate color.  These were so easy to make and Wyatt and I can not stop eating them!  

How Our Teacher Gifts Turned Out

Earlier this week I showed you the Pinterest inspired teacher gifts and now I am going to show you my version!  Some were easier than others!

Monday

Quench Your Thirst

Cost $7.49

Tuesday

One Smart Cookie

Cost: None- I had everything on hand.

Wednesday

Blooms

Cost: $10.70

This counts the three dollars worth of pencils that I hot glued two times to the vase and they kept falling off.  The pencil vase was a fail, but fresh flowers are never!

Thursday

Thanks a Latte

Cost: $5.00 

Friday

Fingerprint Keepsake

Cost: $2.00 for the frame and stamp pad

I was inspired by this Etsy find and created my own using this tree and little photoshop. I was able to get all the students' fingerprints when I was at the school decorating the door.