Celebrating the 4th of July

I pray that you all a had safe and exciting 4th of July! Ours was very low key, but very enjoyable. It was Little Sisters first Independence Day and I couldn't help but to get her all dressed up in Red White and Blue to celebrate.




And a few pictures of Big Brother and Little Sister together...why is it that 2 1/2 year olds are so hard to keep still and get pictures of?!?!




This is a picture of my kiddos holding the flag that was given to me from my Grandpa's funeral 11 years ago. Although my children never had the privilege to meet him, I can still honor him and his memories through the stories I can share. My Grandpa was the best and I am so very thankful for him and all the men and women who have fought to keep this country free. Thank you to the Founding Father's who took the risk of being traitors in order to establish a nation based on Christian principles, and most of all, thank you to the Lord for allowing the United States to continue to be free for as long as we have been. It may not be a perfect country, but there is no better country in this world!

DIY Floating Shelves

One of my favorite stores is West Elm...notice I didn't say my favorite store to shop at, but one of my favorite stores. The reason for this is they have awesome products but I usually can't see myself paying the expensive price for them. So I look for ideas and search for ways to bring their designs into my own home. Well I had my eye on these shelves for a really long time...



For Mother's Day my hubby tried to surprise me and order two of these off of ebay. Well long story short, the seller did a terrible job and I only received 1 shelf a month later and then had to return it to even get a refund for the 1 I didn't receive. After looking at it, hubby decided that he could build them himself. And tada! Here they are (even better then what I originally wanted)!




So here is what you'll need

* 1 x 4 x "8" board (you will need to change the length to your own need)
* Table Saw
* Drill (Hubby said a Drill Press is best if you have one)
* Wooden Dowels
* Screws
* Paint

First we cut the board into the lengths that I wanted for shelves. The lengths I chose were a 3', a 22", and a 20". We then cut each shelf so that we had a 1" and 3" segment.



Then we pre-drilled four holes in the 1" section. Two for the screws to be attached to the walls and two for the wooden dowels. (Hubby says if you are not using a Drill Press it's easiest to clamp your 1" and 3" pieces together and drill your holes attached so that they match up for your dowels)

Glue your wooden dowels into your 1" section and then attach to your wall.



Slide your 3" section onto your 1" section.



Now you have yourself your very own floating shelf!



To give you an idea of cost, WestElm.com sells a 2ft shelf like this for $49.00 each. On Ebay we were able to find them for around $30.00 each. We were able to build these three shelves for a total of $10! Pretty Awesome!

I love the finished product, now I can't wait to find cute little things to fill the space! (Note that I just placed a few things up to give a more finished look, these are not actually what I plan to use, but I will post pictures when I'm finished :)

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My Apologies

My apologies to all my readers for my recent absentee, apparently I decided to take an entire month off of my blog. Many things happened this past month that contributed to my neglect, some good and some bad, but I'm back and ready to get back to posting!

As a quick recap of what I've been up to the past month, here are a few pictures...

Four Wheeling Fun with Daddy



Little Sister Learned to Crawl



Pirate Fun at VBS...

Also, whenever I say "VBS" Big Brother responds with "TBS, very funny"



And how can summer be complete without some good ole' messy ice cream?!?



And in crafty/redecorating news, these are a few of the projects I have completed

The upper shelf on my hutch (the only shelf complete, but I'm getting there)



Some coffee table decor



And my $5.00 Cream Can find that I was able to revamp into something totally cool looking! (Bonus = When I was able to strip off the wall paper and three layers of paint, I revealed that it was from a dairy in Tulsa...I just moved from there last year!)