Happy Memorial Day!

God bless America!

Land that I love!

For My Dad on Memorial Day

My Dad is the best dad.  Ever.  Sorry, but he is.

My Dad was drafted into the Army during the Vietnam War.  He served in Okinawa, Japan for two years.  To me, that thought is terrifying.  He was away from his family in a strange country for TWO YEARS.  He was barely out of high school.  This may sound stupid, but he is my hero.  In fact, all men and women who serve and have served our country are my heroes.  I love (LOVE) my country and the fact that my dear old dad made sacrifices in his life for it makes me love it even more.  I wish I had a picture of my dad in his uniform here at my house.  I'll have to work on that.  He was so handsome.  If you ever read this Dad, you still are pretty good lookin'.

To all of the men and women who serve and have served our country, thank you.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart.  You keep us safe from dangers we will never know of.  You watch out for us and our children as we sleep.  May God bless and keep you and may God bless American always.

On a side note, I might not post much in the next few days.  The handyman husband is on summer vacation and we'll be enjoying the free time.  So, if there is anyone (hello?  is there even anyone out there?) who actually reads this blog, I might not post for a couple of days.  If there actually is someone out there who reads this, please leave a comment!  I would love to hear from you!

Happy Memorial Day!

Such a Tease

This...

is what my handyman husband is working on in our basement.  It is by no means done yet, but we are excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  We'll share all of the details as soon as it is done.

The Big Boy Room

Henry's room was previously a guestroom.  After Oliver was born, we slowly started turning the third bedroom in our house into his "big boy room."  Our theme of this room started after I found some quilts on clearance at Target. 

We again went with a nautical theme for this room.  My husband loves boats and I loved the quilts.  The coverings for the dresser, desk, and side table are place mats that were on clearance from Pottery Barn.  The lady there looked at me like I was crazy when I only purchased three.  I didn't tell her I was using them for my little boy's bedroom!

The dresser and desk were from my in-laws.  I love them.  The desk was actually a vanity but we took the mirror off because it looked somewhat girly.

The letters on the wall are from Land of Nod and the window treatments are from Target.

These star hooks were made by my parents as a Christmas present for the boys.  They were inspired by some Land of Nod hooks sold a couple of years ago. 

Our house might be small but it is full of character, which I love.  Henry's room has these cute little built-in drawers.

I just completed this gallery wall a couple of weeks ago.  I filled the frames with various boat pictures, Norman Rockwell prints, and some Currier and Ives prints.  My favorite is the print, "A Day in the Life of a Boy" by Norman Rockwell.

The cross was made by my dad years ago.  I never really found a place for it until I was working on Henry's room.

The buoy's are from TJ Maxx.  The little bookshelf was a garage sale purchase from last summer.  The lady we bought it from said it was from Pottery Barn Kids, but I can't validate that.  I'm going to believe her, though!  The rugs were an Ikea purchase years ago.

The number four pillow was from Pottery Barn Kids.  I bought two on clearance (again with the clearance!) a couple of years ago.  It matches perfectly with the quilts!



That should do it for our Henry's nautical-inspired, big boy room.  I know you see this theme around quite a bit, but I don't care.  It works for us and we love it.  This room is still a work in progress and that's okay.  Maybe someday we can find a different rug, like one that isn't green.  Time will tell!

Our Date- Five Years in the Making

Jason and I met in October of 2000 in college.

I thought he was cute and not obnoxious.

He thought I was pretty and nice.

We got married, bought a house, and along came Henry.

People say that you should still have "dates" with your spouse after you have children.  We didn't.

How could I leave my firstborn?  See you later, dating.  I'm not leaving my little boy.  After awhile Oliver came along and we did not have time for a date!

Anyway, we decided last summer that we had known (and loved) each other for ten years and that caused for a little celebration.  We were also celebrating five years of marriage.  We had my sisters and brother-in-law watch our rascals and went out for a night on the town.  We were just a little excited.

We went out to eat here.  The food was lovely, the atmosphere was fantastic, and my date was adorable!

This picture was taken after we gorged ourselves.  Yup.  Gorged.  Also, we were looking into the sun, so this picture is a little dorky.

After we ate we took a walk along the lake and looked at the boats.  It was a beautiful evening.  The temperature was perfect!

Yeah, we love boats.  We do live in a Cape Cod, after all.

We had a wonderful evening!

I love you, Jason!

Living Room Crown Moulding

Our living room used to look like this.

Only with furniture.

It was kind of ugly.  To us, anyway.

I would describe the color of the woodwork in our house as orange.  We knew it had to go.  And those doorknobs?  Yeah.  Beautiful.  Those were out as well.

 

A couple of weeks ago we moved everything into our dining room so that we could get this room painted and looking much less orange.  The color of the room before was a dark brownish tan.  We moved into our house five years ago and hated the color then.  We knew we wanted to paint it, but could not ever decide on a color.  After we bought our couch last year we finally settled on a color.  We chose Oatland Subtle Taupe by Valspar.  It is a signature interior semi-gloss.

The boys are always such troopers when we do projects.  They love tools and watching us work on projects.  They also did some of this:

We started out by painting the ceiling and then moved onto the walls.  The color on the left is the new paint.  Isn't it brighter and cheerier?  Our living room is TINY, and the dark color made it so cave-like.

After we finished painting the walls, I moved onto the trim.  This picture was taking with only one coat of paint but the difference is so amazing to me.  No more orange!  Hooray for small miracles.

Here is a picture of our crammed full dining room.  Nice, eh?

Here is my handyman installing the first piece of crown moulding.

During the moulding installation, we used this handy tool.  It is a crown moulding support and is made by Rockler.  Since there were only two of us, this tool made the job super easy by holding one end of the moulding in place while I held the other side.  Jason was free to do whatever he needed to do to get the piece of moulding nailed into place. 

This is a close-up of my husband coping the moulding.  That's right, folks.  No cheating here.  We're anal like that.  :)  Let's just say that the folks at This Old House would be proud.

Here are my two boys, happy as clams while playing on ladders.  Also, I forgot that I'm not supposed to ask Oliver to smile because this is what I get.  Nice smile, Ollie!

Aww.

Three walls complete!

After we installed moulding on all four walls, we caulked the filled nail holes, sanded, caulked the edges, and then painted.

Here is the completed room before we moved in the furniture.

Here is the completed room!  This project was a big undertaking but we are very happy with the results!

I am still on the lookout for curtains, but for now the brown ones will do.

Even though our living room is tiny, it appears bigger because it looks cleaner and brighter, don't you think?

I am linking this up to: 

Metamorphosis Monday on Between Naps on the Porch!  Check it out!

View Along the Way