Bricks

Whew. The weekend of 25 people is over which means that I can soon resume focus on the blog and trek at a more leisurely pace. I couldn't believe how many hours it took to sort out the garden, but it's about 80% finished and it feels like it will be smooth sailing from here. I'll show you what I've been up to when I can, but for now I'll leave you with a very minimal (very minimal...) sneak peak.


After getting bored and frustrated with the densely grown jungle, I decided that I had to break away and do something more creative than digging and sorting and moving. Ack I felt like I was going in circles for days with all of that. So I wandered around the yard and noticed that we had some bricks out in the back corner, left by the previous owners, and I remembered seeing a few stacked up in the garage. 15 minutes later and I had a sun. It wasn't intentionally made into a sun, but I stepped back and noticed that it looked like one, so there you go. Simple but cute and it makes me smile. :)


Okay, well off I go. More soon.

Still Here

Hey friends! Sorry I've been absent. I have a new work schedule (only 4 days a week!) so you'd think I'd be around more, but it seems that March-May is always a busy time for me.

I'm working on a huge (okay, not huge...gigantic) garden overhaul and it has pulled away a lot of my time. I think I'm on wheelbarrow load number 70 by now, no joke. But after spending many days digging, pulling, hauling, rearranging and chucking, I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel! For this portion of the makeover, anyway.

I'm somewhat crunched for time with this project, not because a Wisconsin summer only seems to last as long as a popsicle in July, but because we are hosting 20-something relatives for a 3-day-long party this coming weekend. Woah. My coping strategies will be as follows: coffee, super secret bee-line escape routes to my bedroom, a collection of earplugs (note to self, pick up some not so obvious flesh colored ones on the next shopping trip), and, of course, beer and/or jello shots. I hope they bring some orange juice ones; I can't imagine eating green jello before noon. Hmm. Maybe I should work that in. 

Disclaimer: I would do this Houdini escape move with any shindig that lasts this long...not just the ones that involve the fam. And I picked up on the earplug trick from my mom at a very young age.

So yeah. That's pretty much it. Maybe I'll post a few sneak peaks in a couple days. :)

Vintage Sheets & Pretty Matchboxes

So along with the chair that I found at the rummage sale last week was also a set of vintage sheets. I love vintage sheets. I asked what size they were, hoping that the answer would be "queen" because I'd love to have these in my room, but I didn't get that lucky. Instead was a stack of twin sheets & a duvet, times two.

So, of course, I bought them. $3 per set. We have 2 twin beds in the guest room and it would be nice to have matching sheets. I need to get some "feather blankets" as the cute old woman kept referring to them as to stick in the duvets. For now I'll just wash them and wait for said feather blankets to go on sale.

A few days ago on Creature Comforts, Ez posted about some cute matchstick notebooks made by Kara, who is an intern at Fossil Blog. The post reminded me that I never showed you my own matchbox covers. I made them out of decorative paper and some giant boxes of matches that I found at the hardware store. $2 and 10 minutes is a pretty good deal for this level of gratification. Sometimes it doesn't take much, my friends.

They are cute enough to leave out in the open, which is good for me since I don't tend to put my stuff away when I'm done using it. I thought that they could make good gifts for the right recipient, too. Maybe a box of matches and a nice summer candle or votive holder. 

My parents will be staying with us for the weekend, but I have to work on Saturday and Sunday. Bummer. That's the one bad thing about my job- almost every weekend is filled by work. But that's okay...I feel like it makes me stronger, haha. While all the M-Fers (that's Monday through Friday-ers, not Mother Fuckers...) are waiting till Friday to go to the bar and stay out late, I wait right along with them (so I have somebody to go out with) and then I suck it up while hauling canoes and kayaks around during the hot summer weekends. Yeeeaahh. Thankfully my parents will be here this evening and I don't think I will be getting too shot-happy this eve.

Rummage Sale Season

Last week was the the village-wide garage sale in Cross Plains, a small town about 10 miles away from our house. This particular town has lots of old houses, and my number one rule when rummaging is to stick to the older neighborhoods, as they always have the best stuff. I have yet to find anything awesome in the new construction 'hoods- it seems like that's where all the baby clothes and plastic furniture seems to end up. And let's not get into the pop-up Mary Kay stands they seem to have (that's still around?!).


Admittedly, I got burnt out pretty early on and only hit about 12 sales. The town kind of goes in two hundred ways and all the mismatched neon signs pointing in every possible direction were a little dizzying. But I did find a few small things, including this sweet weathered wicker chair, which was one of the things I was hoping to find! That rarely happens, and at $5, I thought it was a good deal.

I have big plans for the area that I'm going to keep it in, although it seems that I have big plans for everything, and that, my friends, is a bit of an issue. Damn you Martha Stewart for making me want a beautiful everything.


Hopefully the storms hold out long enough for me to finish the project. If not, I do have an indoor thing I've been working on. Tomorrow should be a good day. :)