the next couple of weeks are filled with birthday parties, a family holiday, photo sessions, art deadlines, kitchen renos (among all the others we’ve started) and just simply enjoying the last bits of summer before the kids go to school.

so i’m taking internet-time-off to be the best mama i can right now.  things always run more smoothly when i’m present.

see you all in a week and a half or so.

for 11 years this girl has been teaching me how to be a mom.

the verdict is still out whether or not she’s been successful.  ;)  ha!

happy birthday baby.

a field right now, but within a years time… their home.

i know. adorable right?
and it just keeps coming.

it was great seeing you guys again!  enjoy the country!

in the meantime, i wanted to share a couple of my cartwheels contributions from this last week…

a little button frame to spruce up my new sewing station…

and a layout using the new vol.25 overlays….

okay.  time to get to work.

have a great weekend everyone.

one month to make sure i know what i want.

right now we’re going with these upper cabinets…

source unknown

with glass pulls.

and these countertops (on cabinets and island) with those half moon pulls, this sink and faucet…

source

hoping it turns out like it looks in my head.  i ordered the sink yesterday, so it’s starting to be real.

my biggest worry though…. is where to put stuff.  for 10 years i’ve had only 4 little drawers for cutlery, oven mitts and such.  now i’m going to have so much more space.  i have no idea where things are supposed to go.  where do i put my plastic containers?  my pots?  i have a feeling i’ll be rearranging often.

and now for the wows.  avert your eyes if you don’t want to be part of the pity party.  ;)

so in the meantime, while i’m waiting for my kitchen and for my bathroom tile to be cut, i’m working on the laundry room.  it’s really frustrating to not have the funds to do stuff though.  most people would just go buy cabinets or call a cabinet maker and be done with it.  unfortunately i have to use my time in between running after three kids, making meals, taking care of the yard, cleaning, etc. and less than stellar building skills to hodge podge something together myself.  sigh.  and then it just takes forever! oh well.  it just seems that there’s no time to work on the house when your living your everyday life in it.

case in point… i started renovating the bathroom in april.  :(

and we’d love to make concrete countertops for the kitchen but are trying to be very realistic that we just won’t have the time.

sidenote: we checked out countertops on the weekend.  seriously??  it would cost over $7000 to have nice quartz or granite counters for the kitchen.  that’s crazy to me.

i just painted a cabinet for the laundry room.  i’m going to add some trim and molding and spruce it up. we hauled it upstairs, and now we realize that the door is warped and won’t even close!  so all that work for nothing.  not sure what will happen now.  :(

i think the problem is that i just want to get to the decorating so bad.  but i can’t.  because after 10 years we’re still working on the “bones” of the house.  :(

we have grand plans for the yard too , but don’t even know where to start, it’s in such bad shape.

some days the end of our renovating journey seems so close.  and then other days it’s miles away.

still super thrilled to be participating along with all the other super talented people.

here’s my layout.

thanks again, elle, for the wonderful opportunity.

i can hardly believe it, but it’s true.

we got home tuesday night (last week) from a week away and wednesday morning i woke up to phone calls and emails that the shoppe site was down.  virus.  great.  (course that virus has come back in the meantime, but, whatever)  :(

totally putting a damper on my day.

and then i got an email from cheryl at cartwheels in my mind asking me to join their inspiration blog/magazine. ummm… yes please!  a site totally dedicated to scrapbooking, photography, home decor, organization and all things crafty.  it couldn’t be more dreamy.

i’ve been floating on a creative high since that morning.  but of course i lost some sleep that night too… worrying about how i’ll contribute to the already fabulous team there.  shh.  don’t tell.

i actually had plans that morning to go out to the creek and take a picture of myself doing a cartwheel for this post.  but let’s just pretend that it didn’t happen because i didn’t have anyone to take the picture. not because i thought i’d pull something!  ;)

so, if you haven’t stopped by the site you really should.  it’s updated multiple times a day and there’s some really cool stuff happening there!  i’ve been enjoying it since it started, and it’s sooo cool to actually think i’ll be contributing to it!

(overlay sponsored by vol. 25)

we finally set a date and watched the weather all day.  numerous emails later we decided to push it up a couple hours to avoid the clouds that were rolling in.

as soon as they got here it started raining.

we waited it out.

as soon as it stopped we ran out to get started, determined to get as many family shots as we could before the rain started again.

and we just got started with the kiddos…

when it started to rain again.

so, we’re rescheduling (again) for a child session.  :)  and hopefully that’ll be the last time!  ;)

i marked a lot of these items down and i still have more to list, but i wanted to get some out so that i could justify making some new goodies.

enjoy.