Creative Do-It-Yourself Ideas and Inspiration for Your House and Family. Currently making _______________.
Did you have a restful weekend? As much as Joe tried (or I tried to coax him) to relax, he found ways to work. We snuck away to my grandparents’ cabin in Wisconsin for a couple days and soaked up the summer/fall goodness.
Activities included the mandatory games of Phase 10, walking around the lake, boating, giant garage sale in the city of Siren, Shell Lake Days, and plenty of stories and laughs. But by Sunday afternoon, we were right back to fixing up the yard and boat.
It’s gonna be a bumpy ride.
These days, we’re trying to get the most out of each summer night. We’re on the lake 2-3x/week and squeezing in any and every outdoor activity possible.
Although I love summer, I love fall just as much and can’t hold back my excitement for all things autumn. Look, the foreign exchange students are already back in my building! Saint Paul Prep School is now in session.
I got the first day of school jitters this morning just seeing them 🙂
Back to summer…
At last! You may remember that we put in irrigation a couple months back. And we did reseed the back lawn as well. But that’s about it. It already looks better, but was in a pretty sad state. We always brainstorm such great plans for the back, but they never seem to come to fruition. The back is primarily the hangout for bonfires, hammock nights, and the bunnies’ playground. Yard work is now underway! (I know, I know. Summer’s almost over. shhhh. Don’t tell the lawn.)
It’s already August, but summer is just getting started! We refuse to go quietly into fall. Hold your horses, autumn. We’re hanging onto summer as long as we can! These last couple weeks have been a whirlwind of sun, sand and sanding. I’ll start with the fun stuff.
We went camping in Alexandria, MN and spent a lot of time on the water!
July has been fun, but August looks just as bright! This week we’ve got some legitimate updates, some random things, and some cute things… So let’s just dive right into them, in that order.
I’ve purchased a lovely new plant. The YMCA was selling them for charity, so I picked it up for $10. I seem to do ok with tropical plants, and nothing else.
It’s called a Sago Palm and is not really a true palm at all! It’s doing well so far. (2 weeks)
Like Scottie Pippen. I don’t know what’s up with the hoops references; we just finished softball. (My team lost first round in single elimination playoffs last night. Meanwhile my brother’s team took the championship in his league — Way to go!)
That will be the great debate of our generation. Does it depend on where you were raised? Whether you grew up around more corn or more beans? Is it a midwest farmer thing? I’m not quite sure…
But it has crept into the cities and city slickers pay big bucks for these lawn game sets. Luckily it’s not hard to make your own set! You just need a couple 2×4’s, some paint, screws and plywood. Joe, my brother and I made a set for my parents’ birthdays. Since they always want to play, but never had the game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0shG9zC6oU
Yep, we’ve done most all of these fixes. Clean the gutters is on my to-do list this weekend. Along with pretty-up my car and do some lawn care. Ahhh this weekend is a projects weekend at last. We’ve been crashing company picnics, family parties and obstacle courses this past week. Here are some fun highlights:
My Grandma Sally gifted me this beautiful corner curio! I’m so happy to take it to a good home (Joe’s!) I’ve put a couple things in it so far, but still need to acquire some worldly treasures to display inside. I know these pictures are sub-par, but hopefully my new phone will help with future photo quality.
What, the neighbors called? Oh ok, we better turn down.
In full disclosure, we did this way back in October. Some of the details of the process are a bit fuzzy in my memory, but I’m sure Joe could replicate it in his sleep. This is by far one of the most-used spaces of the house (yard). So the speakers were a huge upgrade.
If anyone wants to listen to music outside, they only need to bluetooth their phone or mp3 player to the sound system. You can even leave the phone indoors — safe from the water. Volume control is an arm’s length away. Nice for the wintertime. We did this all in one night, so bare with me on the documentation. Should have taken notes, goshdangnit!
Started with a standard outdoor pair of speakers.
This is a totally made up recipe on which, I admit, I went a little mad sciency. They turned out pretty good, so I thought I’d share with any sweet teeth looking for something to bring to a picnic… or fiesta. They’re not very patriotic, but that ship has sailed. America let me down in the World Cup. Then again, so did Mexico.
