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)
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.
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.
So you see. Here’s a photo book I put together. Have you made one of these before?
Glad spring is joining us in the upper half of the US. I think Joe is done working in Tampa for now. Just in time for spring projects.
Remember that phone call we got about the ceiling leaking? Flash forward. We have the situation under control now and learned a few things about how to handle an ice dam. Firstly, we should have seen the signs. They were written on the wall roof. We know the deal now and have to say, it’s not so much fun. A little preventative maintenance is much better than a whole lot of cleanup.
Looks a little something like this: