Before and Afters

I love when people post before and after shot on their blogs. These might not be as exciting but I'm happy with the results.

We've had this old bench that was my parents. In the before shot I'd all ready spray painted most of the cream/rust covered bars. Now all our outdoor furniture is the same colors so I'm happy about that.

Above I bought three ugly frames that had some great designs to them. I hated the colors so I took my spray paint to them. These would also be cute in bright colors but I wanted them for a photo wall I'm doing downstairs in black frames.

Below is my April POTM.

Tad and most of my family think the doors are dumb but I like them and so does Nikki. If I explain they're for Tad's brother's wedding reception people accept them though (No, Tad's brother is not getting married, I wish just so I could help with decorations). I'm not sure if the after photo looks better because I weeded everything, added weed barrier and bark and all our plants are green and growing but the after looks good. I like the doors because then I'm not looking at all the mismatched fences.

Also right after I finished this project I got a new book in the mail. I felt good about my decorating and came up with some more ideas (insert Tad's eye roll here).

60th Party

I actually completed a POTM in time. I guess I really didn't have a choice in this one since it had to be done on May 29th. Well it turned out so much better than I could have ever expected. I was so worried about the food assignments and how people would react to all the decorations and help I needed that day but everyone was so nice and didn't complain once. I even had my 2 uncles (one is mayor of the town and the other is a total cowboy) making the coffee filter garland.

For each of the 8 tables I had 6 various jars that I filled with flowers. I was devastated when the flower guy went to the wrong Costco location but no worry he'll be there at 7 AM on Saturday. Saturday at 9 he wasn't there but he'd be there right at 11 AM. Go back to Costco at 11:20 AM (absolute latest time I could stop by before going to Idaho) still no flower guy and it's Memorial Day weekend. I wanted all white flowers and I still think it would have look best with all white but plans had to change. It was also fun to have about 1/2 of the flowers coming from my yard.

Here is the corsage I made for my Grandma, it really looks so much cuter in person. I loved how it turned out. I found the tutorial on Project Wedding and then modified it a little bit from a bouquet I saw that had strips of burlap in it.

My mom had the whole family put together letters to my grandparents and then she had it made into a digital scrapbook and then bound into a book. This is my aunt, Nalene and she looks so much like my mom.

Menu

BBQ Beef or Pork Sandwiches

White Chocolate Strawberry Trifle (I need to get a picture of it because it's really is to die for)

Nutella Cupcakes (my latest addiction)

Southwest Black Bean Salad

Artichoke Dip and Baguettes

Fruit Kabobs

Costco chocolate and carrot cake

and many other desserts and salads

Another thing at the party that was the big hit of the night was the photo booth. I got pictures of every single family member. Tad made the quote chalkboard and we had fun putting silly sayings on it. I might have to drag it up to the reunion.

It was a lot of fun to get ready for but was also a big relief to have it over and see that it turned out so well.

Not sure what my June POTM will be but it won't be anything compared to last month's project.

May POTM

The April POTM is so close to being done. If there had been good weather it would have been done. Hopefully this weekend because so far all my weeknights are full.

It's May so time for another POTM. This one has a definite deadline - May 29th. It's my grandparents 60th wedding anniversary. I decided to take over and I'm planning the whole thing from the decorations to the food. I've decided I want it to be nice and not a touch of redneck. This might be quite a challenge given my family. I've got all the decor and most of the menu planned out. I'm a little worried about passing out the food assignments because I'm worried there might be some backlash.

Here are the invites I did for the event. I was a little nervous when my mom mailed out another 30 invites. So far that's 70 invites that have gone out so I'm hoping I can pull this off.

So this month I might be asking random decor/food questions. Speaking of questions - so we usually just steal wi-fi from our neighbors. Well whoever it is has closed up shop. So I'm curious who your internet provider is and how much? I don't want cable or phone just internet. Let me know.

April POTM

Not sure if I'll have any readers after yesterdays little prank.

Last year I would do this thing where I'd do a project each month. Some were failures and some were successes. Well this project is inspired by the 4th photo in this wedding set that is from Style Me Pretty. When I saw that door I instantly thought of the old doors I have sitting in my garage. So my project is to take those old doors. I have to find a 3rd one and put them all together to make something similar to a room divider. Except these aren't going in my house but out in a corner of our yard. So my goal is to just get the doors together in that corner.

Later on I really want to make a living wreath which is pictured below. I always thought these were the coolest things but would never put them on my door because I figured it would ruin your door. Well now I have an old door out in my yard I could hang it on. Who knows this project might be a total failure. I won't be doing the wreath till probably June since it can freeze clear into mid-May.

POTM August/September {Before}

Last Winter we spent a big chunk of change to get rid of 4 huge cottonwood trees that were just moments from falling on our house and totally destroying it (this isn't an exaggeration). Each branch was as wide as most tree trunks. So 3 trees are gone and 1 trunk remains but there is still bark and mulch and weeds and over grown rose bushes. My project for the next 2 months is to clean up this strip and get grass planted where it isn't all ready. It might not look that bad but it is. The whole area is about 50' x 8'. I also want to kill all the weeds growing in the cracks of our driveway and sidewalk. Hate that!

This is probably the worst area of the driveway. It's all weeds, dead grass, that remaining tree trunk and then on the side of the garage is lawn waste, swamp cooler and old riding lawn mower. I want it all gone and by the end of September it will be. There still are some huge logs in our driveway and those might have to stay but everything else will be gone!
See all that crap against our house, that's bark from those huge trees. I want to stack that on the side of garage where the lawn mower and other waste now resides.
This shot doesn't look so bad but trust me there are tons of weeds in that grass and all the rose bushes need to be trimmed.

Yikes! I'm really not looking forward to this project but I told myself in January it would be our first project for the yard. I might have to dig up some pictures when there was even more bark crap because it seriously covered this whole section at least 3 feet deep everywhere.

POTM July

So I made these really cool before and after shots side by side but I have no clue how to rotate them, so turn your head.
Some of it doesn't look very good and I need to organize some more but seriously it's so much better and the fact that you can walk in there without following a trail is great.

In the back corner is all our outdoor summer stuff like camping, kayaking, mt. bikes stuff. Then the shelves hold pots, potting, soil, etc.
I moved one of the book shelves in there to this little area next to where the garage door is and put all the toxic yard stuff on the top shelf, then car cleaning stuff, then yard tools on the next two shelves, then seed supplies under that.

I've all ready got my next project planned but I'll have to post on Monday since I'm running to girl's camp.

POTM June {Before}

Last month Tara Whitney did a Project Of The Month (POTM). I loved how much hers turned out, you can see it here. So I wanted to do something but mine will probably mostly be cleaning or organizing projects. You're supposed to post the before pictures on the 1st of the month and the after pictures on the end of the month. Well whenever I would remember to take pictures it was all ready dark so I finally got around to taking pictures which hasn't been a problem since I hadn't even started on the project.

This is our garage aka glorified Tuff Shed because it's so small unless we own a Smart car a car can't fit into there.



We had to get all of our lawn furniture out over the weekend and it all ready looks better so maybe I will accomplish this project on time.