Happy Easter!

 This Easter we had Normily and David & Susan (...Dasun? Days inn?) stay with us for the weekend and it went by way too fast.We did have a lot of fun though! I tried to use the real camera more:

Love Sushi...abstaining from meat on Good Friday, also our 13th wedding anniversary!

 Eustace being Eustace...trying on a mumu,

Playing in the game room.,I was reading ancestry info in my Easter bunny pajamas.

 The kids taught Emily & David how to play Ticket to Ride :)

 Emily's first time dying Easter eggs !

 John cooked everything for us...a roast, a ham, manicotti, green beans, Norman made mashed potatoes, mom brought lasagna, it was all really good!

 Choochy has an attitude already...

 David was teaching Eusty some new moves

 Emily had to endure the kids mixing all the dyes and redunking lol. I could tell she has a little ADD/OCD tendencies with organization!

 Then it was time to have an egg hunt in the back--they all really enjoyed that!

 Poor Lucas is always so obedient--he was upset because he didn't have many eggs as we had asked him initially to leave the easy ones for the babies. We let him go all out the next round :)

 Frankie (and Susan) got sleepy, but we played some fun rounds of Pictionary!

 Lucas was the best artist

 A group effort of a flamingo :) 

 A good start in the AM..heading to mass

 Lucas by his own choice, gave up all video games for Lent. He was a trooper! So he was very excited to see the new Zelda in his basket :)

 Olivia chose to give up recreational reading (she loves to read). She had to read for school, and could otherwise only read books about saints, Jesus or the Bible. So she got "Ella Enchanted". I love that she is so into reading now...I am very proud as she would be only completing 1st grade in public school, but she is almost starting 3rd grade and loves to read chapter books. Oh and she loves sock monkeys :)

 This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad!

My mom wasn't able to join us on Easter sunday, and she is getting over a bad cold, so here's a recent and pretty picture of her:

Stuff for the Cabin #7

 I bought this cool old chair at a yard sale for $2. I finally sanded it down, painted it and used this cool fish wrapping paper to decoupage on the seat.

The Foundation

The builder sent me this photo this morning--the foundation was done and the walls were to be poured today, but it snowed last night haha. Pretty exciting y see they already excavated the lot and removed the trees they needed to. Can't wait to see more!
I however did not have a great morning after that...I had my quarterly nausea attack when we started school and it got so bad I violently barfed green vomit a few times. Feel better now but have no idea what's wrong, since they have already done an upper endo and a HIDA scan that were clear.  I go in next monday. I bet they will suggest just removing my gallbladder to "see if it gets better". No thanks.

Stuff for the Cabin #6

Here's our office full of amazon purchases for the cabin...from kitchenware to bedding, to bathroom stuff. Things we still need to get are the fridge, wine fridge, dishwasher, microwave, toaster oven,stackable washer/dryer, (going to wait til we close on construction), rugs, window treatments, sofa/sleeper, arm chairs, and island stools.

    I looked through my photos from our trip last year and developed these large prints, for which I bought Hobby Lobby frames (50% off!).

 Overcast Lake Pactola

 1880 Steam Train view

 Above: Mt. Rushmore, Below: Our Cabin Lot in 2016

 The View at Custer State Park on the way home

As you can tell, i'm really anxious to put all this stuff in their place at the cabin. Not looking forward to carrying much of it upstairs, but at least it will probably only be once; this wood furniture should last decades. 

Stuff for the Cabin #5

Craigslist--found old wooden headboards (2 Queen, 1 Full, 1 King--the 4 twin bunkbeds are being custom-built into the walls). I plan to clean them up, possibly mod-podge something on that first one, and mount them to the wall. And then that's the dining table we got. 

 We got a large oak dining table set off Craigslist recently, and it was in good condition, but covered in pet hair, spider eggs and webs....I cleaned the wood up with Murphy's Oil, and vacuumed what I could. Then I bought 4 yards of this pretty fabric (may not be cabin-y, but I like greens) and reupholstered for the first time. I used a staple gun, but I bought staples that were too long and couldn't fully go into the wood, so I had to hammer most of them down.

 And the finished product:

Stuff for the Cabin #4

I went to some yard sales and scored some nice furniture for the cabin, including a large wooden armoire w/ large square coffee table/chest, a double night table, a single night table an old wooden chair, a towel rack, some decor and this little lighted pine tree. We are only buying hard (clean-able) surfaces used. We are going to fill up a storage unit so it's ready to move once the cabin is completed--the builder just got his first draw of money to start excavation!

Piece #1: The Double Night Table

This thing was $15, and looked kinda cool. Upon taking it home, I found it to be fairly dirty inside, with pet hair all over. I scrubbed it, and removed the backboard, to replace it with a new one cut at Lowes. I put an adhesive liner on the inside and painted the sides. I put new wooden feet that I painted chalk white.

 For the doors, I thought those white stripes were tape residue, but it was where the cheap papery outside had peeled off so I had to paint over. I decided to use the supply of rustoleum I had.

 I also put new clean hardware (they were old, dirty and rusted), and added these cute knobs from Hobby Lobby. These were the first table legs I picked out but it didn't fit the style at all so I went back and got these chunky wood ones I like better.

 I decoupaged this wood pattern (59 cent scrapbook pages again!) on the top surface and the door panels--adding a few coats of mod podge so it would seal it from water damage.

I plan to put this between the Queen & Full beds in the bedroom 1:

Olivia's Doll Chair :)

 Olivia got this cute wooden chair at a yard sale for $3.

She chose a red acrylic paint, and a heart wreath stencil to use my chalk white paint. 

 She plans to use it for the monkey doll her Grandma Hodge made :)

Making Stuff for the Cabin 3

 $7 serving tray from Ikea. 

 I got a can of "Sage Green" Rustoleum spray paint, and it didn't work :( I called the company to see if I was doing something wrong. They sent a brand new 6 pack out right away! and I love the color and ease.

Then I took an old book from Lucas & Olivia's 1st grade reading lessons. It was originally published in the 1950's so the lessons are really cute and deliciously politically incorrect haha. So then we needed to age them, and so I dipped them in coffee/water but they didn't change much so I blow dried them and John had the idea to spray them with strong coffee and it did the trick. I dried them a bit and mod-podged away.

Making Stuff for the Cabin 2

Next, we have a really cool old wood coffee table, John inherited from his paternal grandmother Helen. When we first married (nearly 13 yrs ago..) I saw some spots that were worn, so I sanded it, and then dumbly painted it black and added fabric. It didn't look right and we have kept it in the garage. I cleaned it off and sanded it with Olivia:

I put a coat of this white chalk paint, and...it looks like I painted white over black. I was going initially for the distressed look, so I was going to sand the edges to age it...

But decided to paint another coat and loved it again!

 I had searched for unique wrapping paper to decoupage to the surface, but decided on these 59 cent sheets from hobby lobby that felt cabin-y:

 Plaid and...hay lol

Making Stuff for the Cabin

 I got these side tables for $4 at a yard sale.

 Olivia and I sanded the legs down.

 This was my first adventure in decoupage...I tore pages of highlighted quotes from The Imitation of Christ (circa 1500s). Then outlined with black paint marker---so easy! I sealed it with more Mod-Podge and Polycrylic.

 Then I put a coat of this pretty sage paint.

 Then I picked these knobs at Home Depot. I think that is a very cheap way to add a lot to furniture. 

 Repeated the steps for 2nd table. I can't wait to see these in the cabin. I hope they start conversations for our renters! It's my way of forcing people to read one of my favorite books.