Red Hummer in the Living Room

Here's that darn big ass hummer I mentioned. Ben asked, and he received. Thank you Grandma, I bet you had no idea it was this big! Hunter loved it until he found out it moved and Ben controlled it!

Hunter, our eating machine.

Just some snapshots to document Hunter's HUGE meal last weekend at the Old Country Buffet: He ate eggs, sausage, bisquits & gravy, french toast, jello, cucumbers, peaches, honeydew melon, 1 1/2 blueberry muffins, and oreo cheesecake, etc. He was just so much like a big boy eating with this big ol' spoon in his booster seat. Pigged out little porker.

Day Trip to Gurnee

We went to Gurnee last weekend; Ben rode this train while we were there. Hunter would have no part of it.

We noticed Winterfest was on while driving through Lake Geneva, and we could not believe how many people were out there ice fishing!

New Coffee Table.

Actual post date Tuesday February 5th, 2008.
Picked up this nice piece of history at my local antique mall this last weekend. I LOVE it.

Cabinet Rehab

Actual post date Tuesday February 5th 2008.

So, I finished the cabinet I have been working on. I bought it off Craigslist looking like this. I had many choices... I could have kept it like this, distressed it further, painted it any color, stripped it completely and stained it. In the end, I decided to paint it a rustic green color (as I already blogged about). I once had the white shabby chic look throughout my house, but with little bys the look is just NOT practical. You can see the trim is coming off, so I removed it all together.

My tools:

Removed the sticky paper lining they had in there...

Toby watched in awe.

I found these decals under the paper... various spanish scenes, burros and sombreros.

All the lining is removed now, and I'm disapointed to find the spanish decals are not as aesthetically pleasing as I had hoped.

All done! Here is all painted, and in position in our bedroom:

I painted portions of the inside, but left the terra cotta color on the doors. I put a coat of water-based poly over the top to seal it up. You can see it houses everything nicely, with room for more. I think I'll store my sewing machine, fabric and knitting and embroidery goodies in here, too.

Fuddruckers

The precious angel-boy I babysit, Joey, gave me and the family a generous gift certificate to Fuddrucker's for Christmas. Talk about the greatest gift! I hadn't been to this place in years. For those of you not local to one, this place serves massive hamburgers on fresh baked buns. They have great fresh cut potato fries, and a decent milksake, too. Tonight I had chili, and it was pretty yum, too. The boys have loved our multiple visits (3 times on one gift card!). Can you believe my kids love a chocolate milkshake? LOL.

I was so glad I remembered my camera this time. The restaurant itself is filled with memorabilia, mostly classic cars, elvis, and blue's brothers stuff. The boys seem to enjoy the quirky decor. Last time we were there Ben looked up and said, "Mom, cars don't go up high. Ladies don't either. Just airplanes." Tonight, when we walked in, Ben asked, "Mom, who is that guy?" in reference to an Elvis statue in the foyer; as we rounde the corner he anxiously wanted to know who the blue's brothers were as well. Once at our table, Hunter said, "Up. Car." as he noticed the decorated ceiling.
Here are a few items near our table I enjoyed:

Something about this picture of Elvis makes me all sorts of excited. I might want to frame this in my house?

This is an old bed headboard used to divide tables. Cute idea.

I wanted to get a picture of Ben by the wall of Elvis paraphenalia. Remember his grandma predicted he would be born a blonde-haired blue-eyed Elvis; I blogged about that here.

Hunter thinks, "Okay, mom, sit down so the guy can bring my milksake already!"

The milkshakes arrive and all is right with the world:

My bubbies even held up his own glass for a little while.

Dad and Ben topped off dinner with a race. Ben informed me they ran over dinosaurs in their race car. Cool. Hunter took a quick spin, too.

After dinner I ran in the Grand Opening of the new Hobby Lobby by us. SIMPLE JOY, people. I went in last night and got garden trinkets, a few pieces of scrap paper, a $3 set of foam stamps, and a book on embroidery for beginners. Tonight I ran back in grabbing an angel statue for the garden; Ben picked it out last night, and I felt bad for not buying it, so I went back for it.

The event went something like this: We're walking up and down the aisles in awe of the 40,000 different garden statues, mirror balls, flower pots, metal decor, etc. Ben says, "Mom, what are all of these naked kids?" Me: "They're angels, Ben. These are statues people put in their garden. Should mommy get an angel for our garden?" "Oh. Okay. You should get this naked one reading a book, mom. I like that one." "Okay, Ben." Moments later I spot an angel holding a bird in her hand, and I can't help but put the book-reading one back, and buy the bird one.

So after my trip back there tonight we now have two. Could be worse, huh? By the way, for those of you who are not parents yet, this is MOTHER GUILT. It eats me alive somedays.

I also went into Home Depot tonight to get paint for the armoire I bought off of craiglist this week. Theo and Brent brought it home to tonight. I am so thrilled. The armoire is solid wood, slightly primitive, with a scalloped trim on the bottom, two doors, and a large drawer on the bottom. Right now it's white, but soon it will Ralph Lauren Cottage Green, (on my computer screen this color looks quite different than it does in real-life), hopefully with a black glaze in the crevices, and a nice satin topcoat by the end of this week. Lots of preparation to take place as far as sanding and such. Plus, I have to get some new drop cloths, the ones I have suck. In the end this baby will house my scrap stuff. Happiness.

Hope you all have a great Thursday!

Scrappin' Hunter

I scrapped some pictures of Hunter from around 11 months this week. My little bubbies isn't so little anymore. He sais a few more words this week, including belly, car, ears, and hello. He's making "r" and "l" sounds for the first time, and his words have more than one syllable. He also said, "shit," thanks to daddy. More to come on this...

Happy Spending

This is the new TV we've been dreaming about forever it seems. We have the same TV since we moved to California many moons ago. Our new TV is a Samsung 42 inch Plasma. So happyily we'll have functioning in HD by the Superbowl... anyone local need a place to watch the game?

And this is the moment I've been waiting for. For the last decade or so I've coveted mini-bentwood twig chairs, only dreaming of the real thing. I also have several bentwood plant holders, etc. You've probably figured out I'm bound & determined to live in a log cabin someday. This furniture will be in my lodge garden someday. So thrilled I ran out in the -15 degree windchills and did a little happy dance as Theo and Brent unloaded it.

See my glee?

Came with a coffee table, side table, sofa, and rocker (where I'm sitting above).


I bought a lacquer to protect the pieces from the elements. Come spring this set of furniture will be on my back porch. Yipee. I am happy dancing on the inside and out.