House Updates

We have attempted many "do-it-yourself" projects as of late. And . . . you will notice that many have been re-done multiple times, due to error, accident, mishaps, dislike, or simply because we like painting our kitchen 5 times.So . . . here it is. Ryan installed these lights. We went with the smaller ones, because they add enough brightness and because we have lower ceilings. He did a great job installing them. The last item to complete is the paint on the ceiling. We hope the painter will return our phone call this week.
These are the colors we have chosen thus far. Our master bedroom is being painted in a lighter blue/aqua with a deep chocolate brown for the color. Our bathroom is in the same colors. After we take our family pics this summer, we will reframe everything in the family room and do some vinyl lettering on the wall. I also hope to do some vinyl lettering on the kitchen wall just below.
My friend Emily helped me make these pillows. Yes, they're very homemade, but I'm really excited about how much money I saved and the fact that I achieved a little bit of sewing.



These two are the last to be completed and then, it will be on to curtains. I'm still searching for fabrics. Luckily, my friend Emily has a really good eye for these things, so . . . I'm excited with how they'll turn out.
This is the yard project we've been working on. We ordered top soil mixed with compost and then, added stones. While the project sounds simple, I assure you I made it more difficult.
I dug out two feet of clay from our flower bed. To my rescue, came two neighbors, assuming a pipe had broke in our yard. We added some clay back into the two foot hole (which took me literally all day long with three patient little boys) and then, we added in the compost, mixed soil. My neighbors thought I was completely nuts during all of this. Anyway, this is what it turned out to be. I think 5 different neighbors ended up contributing to the efforts to save our yard. We have wonderful neighbors.
And this is the flower bed. We've had rain the last few days, so the ladies aren't looking too bright. That and the majority of them DIED because they were planted in CLAY. Sadly, we completely lost our roses and our stocks. I knew the stocks would die, but I thought for sure they would last longer than this. The marigolds are mostly dead-headed right now, so that's why they're lacking.

If I can talk Ryan into it, I'm going to head to the nursery on Monday and hopefully, add some more pinks and purples to the bed. I hate that we finally have this rich soil and now everything is dead. Anyway, like I said, "We're project-ed out!"