Creative Do-It-Yourself Ideas and Inspiration for Your House and Family. Currently making _______________.
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.
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.
Contrary to popular belief (of you guys), we do more than just work all the time. In fact, we even relax once in a while! We can prove it. Yes, we do take breaks. Yes, we both work a lot. Yes, working on things qualifies as fun for us. There is a season for all things: Work and play. But right now, the season is summer baby!
We had another fun weekend. Peppered in between a grad party, a birthday party and US futbol (whoop!), we spent a weekend ringing in the first day of summer properly. Here are some photos of rock climbing and boating on the first day of summer 2014.
Since Joe’s boat is still in the shop, Pam and Carl were naive kind enough to borrow Joe their pontoon. (Just kidding, Pam, you know Joe is a very responsible young man.) We had a hoot last weekend with the following toys and tricks. And we returned the fully insured boat back in one piece. (In case you’re wondering if this tale has a tragic or happy ending.)
How bout those wheels? This pretty much sums up the spring. On-the-go. The grass in the front and back yards is looking great, thanks to all the rain lately. So far this spring we’ve been camping, Joe went to the WI Dells, I’ve been playing softball, and we’ve been just generally staying up with grad parties, birthdays (lotsa birthdays), and yard work.
Maybe this needs to be a series. Summer gets busy, but the projects don’t stop. They just fold in around grad parties, cabin weekends, weddings and BBQ’s. I’ve been playing softball every Wednesday and Joe’s been jetskiing his heart out. My baby brother just graduated from college and is in France. I’m so proud of you, Luke! I’ve been following his jazz adventures here and I can’t wait to see his photos.