Almost there

We are about 75% done with the deck! The stairs and railings are the only thing left to be put back together with screws. The front smaller deck has been painted with just some touch up that needs to be done. Then the back deck railings are finished(except for the stairs) and I have to do the main floor of the deck which I am hoping to do today. I swear the weather better hold out and no freak rain storms in the middle of the night!! Hopefully today we will finish the back deck.

Front Deck BeforeFront Deck After

The excitement is rising around here, 6 days and my daughter Angela, Michaela and Alex arrive! Gary and Jim are driving up from California so they will be in a week, then everyone else will either arrive Thursday, Friday or the day of the wedding. We are ready to have our feet hit the ground running and I've promised myself to take as much help as I can get!! We finally found a GREAT recipe for cupcakes/cake and I even found some reasonably priced edible butterflies to go on a few of them, if you are ever looking for them be sure you go to Sugar Robot. She is wonderful and very helpful!! I will post the butterflies when they are all decorated on top of the cupcakes and cake.

I was at my local Michael's a couple of days ago, picking up a couple of last minute things to finish the archway for the wedding. I was delighted when I walked up to the clearance shelf and found this.............

a new cartridge for my slice that I purchase this past spring! Ya, look at that price $9.99!! Yep, regular price $39.99 and this is one of the new designs that came out in June. So excited!!!! It is going to be so nice to be have some wonderful sayings!!

A little Creativity


As I am getting my creative mojo back it is leading me to feel whole again. I am slowly picking up projects that should have been done long ago instead of starting new ones.


One of the projects I have been wanting to do for a long time is recover a pair of stools I found at an estate sale years ago. I bought the pair for around $5 each over 15 years ago! They have been looking pretty ratty so I found some nice canvas fabric and took a week recovering them both. Fabric cost was under $15, buttons were all on clearance so it brought my total for both stools to $30. Not bad for a solid piece of furniture that gets fought over who gets to sit on them!


Before....remembered to take a picture of them after I had already taken them apart.

After.....I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the silver buttons!!
I can feel overwhelmed with things that need to be done just like anyone. It is like once I say I am going to work on something, I tend to beat myself up over not getting it done or putting it aside for something else that I deam more important at the time. I'm glad these only took a few days and made me feel better. It helped me to begin to see the putting it off mode I have been in. Now if I can just finish redesigning my blog......hhhmmm that may have to wait until the kids go back to school!

Happy August!

It has been so hot the past few weeks! It makes me just want to stay in doors, even if I need to go grocery shopping. I'm happy that the last two days it has been in the mid 70's, a total relief. We even had a little bit of rain.

A few weeks ago I stumbled onto such a good deal! I went to my local nursery looking for a few flowers that I could possibly add to the backyard for the wedding. I was so happy to find that all the flowers were 75% off!! So I purchased a $190 worth of flowers for $50 to add to my garden. What a blessing. They are now all filling in quite nicely and will look wonderful for the wedding which is in 4 weeks.

So speaking of weddings........The invitations to the wedding are out.

The bouquet and boutonniere are made. I only need to work on the archway and a smaller bouquet to be able to be thrown, which will be happening this week.

The recipes given to me have been tried for the cupcakes and I have learned that all cake recipes are not made to be cupcakes!! So, I have been searching for a recipe that could be used for both cake and cupcakes. I have finally found it and it is the most wonderfully recipe I have used in a long time. I will be using it for a long time to come, it is right up there with the Red Velvet cake. You can find it here.