Random Thoughts by Beth

I realize my once regular posting habit has become highly irregular this summer (things should go back to normal in the fall:)), and as a result I feel like I have so many things to write about.  More thorough posts will come in the future.  As for now, here's a quick run down on recent happenings in our world.

1.  After a brutally hot July, our forecast looks like this for the upcoming weekend:

I am so excited!!  It's time to do a little bit of staining, I think:).

2. The website for Scotch Blue Painter's Tape has a fun little gallery with great project ideas using painter's tape:)!  You can see my hopscotch rug on the Scotch Blue Gallery here (look under the 'Family Crafters' tab.  My chevron curtains are on the site as well under the 'Interior Designers' tab.

3. Even though we had a horrible case of Japanese beetles around here this summer, my roses are still thriving somehow:

4. The $10.74 train set the Lucky found on super clearance at Target and gave to Charm for his birthday is AMAZING:)!.  It's got an airport and gas station with $10/gallon gas and a fire station and post office, and I think I love it as much as Lucky and Charm do:)!

(It's like we made our factory cart to fit this train set perfectly!)

5.  Lowe's is having a big lighting clearance sale.  I found this gourd lamp base for $6.24.  If you are needing any lamps or hard wired fixtures, you may want to stop in or check online.

6.  I got a new purse.  It's not black or brown like I had talked about here.  Here it is:

It's super bright red, by Emma Fox and I absolutely love it.  I bought it at TJ Maxx last month.  Here's a link to the purse.  It's made out of really nice leather, and I usually wear it cross body, although it can be carried by hand too, and the lining is just adorable.

7.  And finally, guess who's coming back to the Twin Cities?  The kind folks at World Market must have finally read my letter:)!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!

It's Looking...

....really pirate-y around here as of late:

Have a Great Weekend!  Watch out for Sharks:)!

July is Flying By!

Whew, this month is flying by.  I can hardly believe how hot this summer has been and how fast the days are going by!  The last few weeks, I've been spending a good amount of time with el Charmo and this white potty:):

He is doing tremendously well, with no major battles.  He even asked to use the potty while running errands a couple times this week.  I'm sure we'll continue to frequently remind him to use the bathroom, and we'll continue to use some positive reinforcement (stickers and hugs and jelly beans have been working as of late), but we are well on our way to potty training success, and it feels good!

We've also been busy working on accomplishing some reading goals with Lucky and the aid of workbooks like these:

She has her phonetics down and knows tons of sight words.  We continue to work with 'sounding out' words and she's making progress every day!  Super, super exciting stuff.

In other exciting news, I had my 6 month post-melanoma check up with no new issues!  I'll continue to be followed regularly and often, but all seems to be going well on that front.  Wear sunscreen everyone:)!

And on the blog/home project front, I have to be honest that I've neglected things for the last few weeks to better focus on our family's needs (and let's face it, there is no way I'm going to paint or stain anything outside when it's 95 degrees out.  I can hardly breathe when it's that hot much less move enough to shake a spray paint can:)), but we have accomplished a small project or two around our house like making a second curtain rod for our dining room and two more painted chevron curtain panels.  Here is how our dining room is looking now:

It actually feels finished to me.  Now it will be interesting to see how much time passes before I want to completely change the look:).

We've also been spend lots of time planning a big basement update (Here's another, more recent post about our basement.).  We are meeting with subcontractors to plan the addition of a wet bar and a fireplace surround with side cabinets.  As we finalize more details, I'll be sharing our progress.  Currently, our homework includes finding a built in microwave for our wet bar so cabinets can be made to size around it, and we need to decide on a wood species and stain color for our cabinets.  After those decisions are made, we'll be able to place our cabinet order and wait about six weeks for them to arrive.  The real fun will begin in late September:).  Here is our 'inspiration' image for our wet bar area, though ours will have different finishes and a slightly different cabinet layout as well:

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And another big project we've been thinking about these days is planning a big ol' pirate themed birthday party for Charm, who is turning three next month and has yet to have a 'real' birthday party with relatives and friends and cake and a treasure hunt:).  I've been searching the internet to find some fun party ideas...it's going to be fun!

Homemade Pirate Eye Patches made using this tutorial, and these items:

(Felt, Steam A Seam Sheets, Headbands and Embroidery Floss)

What have you been up to lately?  Is your summer flying by too?  I hope you are all doing well!

Happy Birthday America!

I hope you enjoy a wonderful day filled with a little fun:

Marilyn Monroe, Amy Winehouse, Cher and Sonny

Me, my brother and my sister:)!

The Newly Crowned Queens of the Sixth Annual Doe Fever Party!

A little more fun:

Some yummy patriotic food:

Star Berry Dessert

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And some amazing fireworks:

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Happy Fourth of July!  Enjoy the day, stay cool and don't forget your sunscreen:)!

Bill's Patio Cushion Solution

Bill has good ideas all the time, but this particular idea has removed a big annoyance in our sun porch and my parents' sun porch, and perhaps it will help you too:)!

Here was the problem:

Slouchy outdoor furniture cushions are so annoying!  After you sit for awhile, you slowly slip down in your seat.  I was seriously considering replacing the outdoor furniture that's in our sun porch (and was originally purchased for use on the enormous deck at our old house) with a normal couch and chair pair since our sun porch is fully enclosed.  And then my parents were having the same problem with the outdoor chairs in their new sun porch up north.  My mom asked us for some help in solving their chair slipping issues and gave us some peel and stick velcro to help with the problem.  Except she still wanted to be able to flip the cushions over from time to time, so the velcro would have to be placed in a hidden location.  We thought about putting the velcro on the very back (not the bottom, but the back) of the cushions or finding some matching fabric to make some tabs to loop around the back of the chair frame.  We weren't sure velcro on the back of the cushions would hold, and it would be lots of work to track down matching fabric and sew tabs.  It was then that a light bulb went off in Bill's head, and he asked my Mom for some of this:

It's a non-slip rug pad.  Bill cut pieces to size and placed them on the chair like this (pictures below taken in our sun porch:)):

And now the chairs in my parents' house and our sun porch stay put:

Hallelujah!  It doesn't get much easier than that.  No finding matching fabric, no sewing tabs, no velcro sticking or anything!  I should mention, that I don't believe the non-slip rug pad would hold up well to the elements, but if your furniture is in a covered porch or patio or if you regularly bring your cushions inside or in a storage bin when not in use, it would work really well.  You could even put a few stitches through the non-slip rug pad onto the bottom of your cushion so it would stay in place when you store the cushions.

Does anyone else get as annoyed with slipping patio furniture cushions as I do?  Does anyone else have any easy peasy methods to keep patio chair (and couch) cushions in place?  

P.S.  You definitely don't need much non-slip rug pad to do this.  I bought a huge 8' x 10' piece at Home Goods for $30 because we had several rugs around the house that needed some non-slip rug pad action underneath them as well, so I bought one big rug pad and cut it up to meet all of our needs:)!

Stool S.O.S.

I hope you are all having a fantastic week!  I'm in desperate need of some stool advice.  Here's the background:  I've been dreaming about woven counter stools with backs for our kitchen since we moved in.  I specifically had these stools in mind:

Elana Banana Counter Stool

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I like the woven look, the comfort of a backed stool, and the fact that they are much heavier duty compared to our current backless stools which tip over on a fairly regular basis thanks to our monkey children:).  The problem with purchasing these particular stools is that the nearest World Market is about 4 hours away, and they charge some pretty ridiculous shipping rates.  For example, for 4 barstools, I would have to pay $60 shipping and $80 in surcharges.  The other problem is that they dropped off the website for several months, so I figured they must have gone out of stock or become discontinued.  

They popped back on their website a couple weeks ago, however, and I was able to track down a 'free shipping' code, so I ordered up 4 of them using my some of my garage sale fun fund:) and excitedly waited for them to arrive.  When I opened up the first of two huge boxes, I discovered that the wood legs were darker than I was anticipating and the color of the sea grass didn't work as well with our granite as it did in my head:

I panicked for a bit, but decided to pick up one of my 'back up' stools for comparison:

Kubu Counter Stool

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Sold by Pier 1, the Kubu Counter Stool is gorgeous and made of grey rattan combined with even darker legs.  The grey colored complements our granite better, but I'm concerned about how well it would hold up.

I took this picture of a headboard made of the same material at Pier 1.  One of the fibers was snapped, and while it could be 'repaired' by taking a piece of a koobo basket (Target sells these) and gluing it into the broken area, I'm not sure I'd want to be worrying about that happening on a regular basis.  Also, the legs of the Kubu stool are almost black, and I don't love them against our cherry cabinetry and floors.  

The stools cost about the same amount, and we could return the World Market stools on an upcoming trip to a town that has a World Market, but it would be a nuisance.  I've been looking for stools with backs for years, and I prefer woven stools to pleather or wood versions.  Perhaps a metal stool would work?  Does anyone know of any alternatives in my $130/ stool budget?  Do the World Market ones 'work'?  If they don't work, is it the color or the woven pattern?  Has anyone tried staining banana leaf before?  Perhaps I could achieve a darker/grey color with a little stain and solve my problem.  Or I could go with the Pier 1 version and sand/stain the legs and pray it doesn't break?  Should I return them all:)?  Sometimes, furniture buying is the worst!!  If only I could custom order everything:)!!

I so appreciate any feedback you can provide.  I'm anxious to make a decision and move on to the next project!  

P.S.  I just found these:

Tolix Bar Stool

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...though they probably cost a fortune!!

P.P.S.  Have a fantastic weekend, and if you live near a Cherry Berry, check it out if you haven't already.  It is frozen yogurt heaven!