Party at the Pickett's

Sometimes alliteration just gets the best of me.

Anyway, in order to celebrate the end of summer Bill and I threw a little barbeque last night. Since we're still on limited funds (2 weeks until real paychecks start!! Maybe that's why I'm so ready for school to start!) we provided burgers, hot dogs, buffalo chicken dip and mac salad. Since we have great friends, we ended up with a lot of delicious additions - including oreo brownies. Yum!

I also didn't want to spend any money on decorations for the party. We have plenty of stuff in the house and I just brought it outside for the evening.

I started the decorating out front with a simple sign to let the guests know where we were. It also served as a polite warning to watch that Simon didn't try to run away as they came in!

 

We set up four different seating areas, aiming for shaded places for people to sit since it was a bit of a sizzler yesterday.

We set everything up and took pictures in the afternoon while the sun was blazing, but by five o'clock the majority of the yard was shaded and perfect for the party.

The deck is always set up as a nice conversation area with comfy outdoor furniture. You can also see the EZ Up and the table umbrella are up in an effort to provide more shade. 

Of course I put little centerpieces on each table.

The main outdoor dining table was lantern themed. These looked great once it was dark and the candles were lit. All three of those came from Home Goods a few years back.

The coffee table had more of an outdoorsy theme. Yes, that is a moose arm wrestling a bear. Bill and I picked that and the mini Adirondack chair up in a little shop in Indian Lake. We're still debating whether the moose or the bear would win in an arm wrestling match! If you squint, you can see a couple of the birch candle holders that Bill made for me. They go with everything :) 

I corralled things on the food table to make it look pretty. I started by using a table cloth that I had made for my sister's bridal shower. The paper plates and napkins went into a basket. I love these napkins - another Home Goods find.

Craft tape wrapped around a cylindrical vase made the perfect spot for the forks. In an effort to use what we had already, I had to use some red forks. I was a bit disappointed that they didn't match the rest of the table decor!

Right after we moved in, Bill put in horse shoe pits on the far side of the yard. I thought it would be nice for people to have a place to put their drinks while they were playing, so I stuck these drink holders in the ground. It's just a Progresso soup can, a few washers and nuts, and a threaded metal dowel. I made these before we spent the week at the lake in July. They are super handy and the perfect size to hold the beverage of your choice. There's one on each end of the horse shoe pits.

Here's the view of the yard from the horse shoe pits. The guys set up a game of Kan-Jam in the big open space too.

I strung some white Christmas lights along the railing of the deck to add some lighting and ambiance once the sun went down. I'm pretty sure they might become a permanent fixture out there. I didn't remember to take pictures of them once it was dark out, I was too busy enjoying everyone's company.

I'd say we ended the summer on a high note. It was so fun to spend a relaxing evening with so many of our friends. This might just make going back to school a little easier. Maybe.

What is everyone else doing to wrap up the summer? What's your opinion on the bear/moose arm wrestling debate?

Thanks for reading,
Kathleen


Linking up to: Simply Designing

3 & an Anniversary Tradition

Today Bill and I are celebrating our 3 year wedding anniversary!

 

Our wedding was beautiful, although I do wonder what would have been different if Pinterest had existed back then! By the by, I thought my photographer was a little nuts when he asked me to hold my flowers up like this, but I must say that this could be my most favorite picture ever. 

The traditional gift for the third anniversary is leather. We have stuck to the traditions for the first two anniversaries, and although I was willing to ditch the leather idea, we decided to stick with tradition. We are currently on the hunt for an inexpensive leather recliner for the living room. I don't want a big, bulky recliner - I told the guy at the furniture store that it couldn't have all that extra fluff! I'll certainly keep you posted when we find something that is in our price range and fits my requirements!

Even without Pinterest, I managed to start a cute tradition to mark our anniversaries. It actually started on our honeymoon to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic when I took this picture:

(You might recognize that picture from this stenciled photo matte tutorial.) 

For our first anniversary, we took a weekend trip to Boston and spent a few hours at a beach about an hour outside of the city. As we were walking down that beach, I thought it would be cute to take a similar photo, so we did - this time including the "1 year."

 

Now of course after I did this two years in a row, I had to continue the tradition. Unfortunately, we spent our anniversary at home last year so I had to improvise. Instead of sand at the beach, I wrote our name and date into dirt in the back yard.

 

Luckily, we're went up to a local lake today so I was able to write in the sand again, but I wonder what I'll end up writing in over the next 70 years! I also want to start displaying these photos somewhere in our house. They're not doing me any good just living on my computer! I'm thinking maybe in our master bedroom. Obviously I'll need to have space to expand since this will go on forever. I'll certainly keep you updated when I made that decision. Just add it to my list of things to do!

How do you celebrate your anniversary? My sisters watch their wedding videos to remember the day. I also put my wedding dress back on for about 5 minutes and make Bill take my picture... even Simon dog looked at me like I was crazy for doing that last year! Anyone out there trash the dress? I just couldn't bring myself to destroy mine. Who else ate the year old wedding cake on their first anniversary? Ours was surprisingly delicious! Please share your anniversary traditions with me in the comments. I'd love to hear what everyone else does!

Thanks for reading,
Kathleen

The Great Outdoors

When we first looked at this house, it was February and there was a ton of snow in the backyard. We knew that there was a deck off of the living room and we could see that the yard was pretty large, but that's about it. We had no idea that there were any issues with the yard.

Once we moved in and the snow melted, we were left with this:

Yikes. Luckily for me, Bill had a vision and works his rear off. Last summer, we painted the deck and rails gray. (What can I say, I have an affinity for gray!) Bill also took the rail off the near side and extended the stairs so we were left with a large opening. We've also had loads and loads of soil delivered to fill the large hole where there used to be an above ground pool. This year, we finally have grass growing there and you can hardly tell that it used to be a gaping abyss.

I'm so excited that our deck now looks like this:

I think that all of the furniture came from Target over time. I bought the two wicker chairs for the porch at my old house. The other matching chair and loveseat are also from Target. I got a great deal on them last August - both pieces for $100. Amazing.

We added the potted plants today. Hopefully I'll be able to keep them alive long enough to bloom! You can see how to make the birch candle holders here.

Down the steps we have a large concrete patio. The dining table and grill live down there, along with a planter box that Bill built last summer. I can't wait for those grasses to grow and provide some color.

In the far right of the picture above, you can see the wooden swing that used to be in the back right corner of the yard. We moved that pretty quickly after we moved in because Bill thought that space would be perfect for a fire pit. We bought one of those "Fire pits on a Pallet" and installed it in about 15 minutes. We then had a bunch of river rock delivered to complete the space.

Bill says that the next project will be trying to get grass to grow throughout the main part of the yard. It's been a challenge with a dog that uses the whole yard as his urinal, not to mention that most of the yard is in full sun for the majority of the morning and afternoon. I'll leave that yard work up to him. I wouldn't want to step on his toes!!

I'm not sure that I'll ever call any space in our house "done," but the backyard is shaping up quite nicely! I'm so grateful to have a husband who takes pride in the yard and does all the manual labor. I hope you're all that lucky! Enjoy the weekend :)

Thanks for reading,
Kathleen

The Bathroom is (Almost) Finished!!

After what seems like the longest six weeks ever, our bathroom is almost finished. Its completely functional now, but still needs the accessories. Basically, the hard work is done and now I can do the fun part of picking out a new shower curtain and towel bar... fun times!

Six weeks ago, after demolishing what was there, we had this:

And now we have this!

Try to ignore the fact that there are no doors on the vanity and the toilet paper is sitting on the counter. Those are just minor details after all the work that went into this space. We hired someone to do the sheet rock and tile the floor, but we Bill did the rest. Well, I painted and did some little touch up things, but Bill did the majority of the work.

The wall color is Newburyport Blue by Benjamin Moore, and I'm in love. Originally, I wanted to paint the walls navy but with the dark tile, I decided to lighten up just one shade. This was my first time using Benjamin Moore paint because I'm usually too cheap, but I'm a convert now. Even with this dark color, it only took one coat of paint. It was well worth the extra ten bucks!

The tile is 18 inch square charcoal gray porcelain tile that we found in the discount room of a local tile store. We lucked out because we didn't need a lot of it - the room is only about 4' by 8'. Bill chose the light gray grout and I think it was a great decision.

We left the shower and tub intact from the start. It was just replaced before we bought the house and I think it's only been used twice since we've lived here. We also reused the crown molding and just repainted it white. I love how it really finishes the room.

The toilet, vanity, and medicine cabinet were all from Lowe's and both lights were from Home Depot. We were fortunate to find a nice vanity that would fit in that tiny space!

The room is looking very masculine right now, but I'll girlify it one I buy the accessories. Yes, I just used the word girlify. Good thing I'm not an English teacher! I'm also trying to figure out what to put in the corner next to the vanity. Its about 18 inches wide, so its a decent little plot of space. We definitely need more storage in here, so it'll have to be something that will do that job. I'll keep you posted on that progress, along with the other pretty details to come!

Bill and I are both relieved to finally have the bathroom functioning again. We have two other bathrooms in the house, but this was the guest bathroom so its nice to have some place for guests to go instead of our master bathroom. This was our first major renovation and I have to say that it was successful! I don't think we'll be tackling any big projects again for a while. We need a rest from the big things, but I'll still be working on other things around the house - you can count on that!

Who else has tackled a full bathroom renovation? Isn't it gratifying to pick out exactly what you want, instead of just living with what someone else picked out? I love it :)

Thanks for reading,
Kathleen

Outdoor Updates & The Completed Mantle

We were lucky when we bought our house that the previous owners had done a lot of landscaping and maintained the curb appeal of the home. We have good bones to work with. Over the past two years, we've been much more consumed with projects on the interior of the house than the outside.

In the fall, we had a new driveway put in. It was a big ordeal and quite expensive, but well worth it. We also transplanted some irises from my sister's house last year that have spread and bloomed beautifully. We inherited a few rose bushes that are very hardy and those are blooming now as well.

Over the past month or so, Bill has been working on improving the front yard. None of the changes were expensive, but they each had an impact. First, he painted the railings on the front stoop. The railings were originally green, but we decided to freshen them up with crisp white paint.

It's a little hard to see because of the reflection of the flag in the door, but I made a wreath for our front door similar to the one I made for my Grandma's birthday. I included our house numbers on ours for a little added functionality.

Bill is not a big fan of painting, but while he had all of the painting supplies out he decided to paint the fence that faces the road as well. Its a wooden picket fence that hadn't been finished, at least not well. This obviously took longer than the railings, but it was also worth it. You can see it peeking through on the left side of the house in this picture:

Last week, I shared how Bill and I took this show our tools on the road to redo my sister's mantle. We left it like this:

Then my sister primed and painted it, so now it looks like this:

I think it looks great! She's still on the hunt for a large mirror to go between the sconces, but it looks fabulous right now. The best part is that she loves it and it checked something off of her busy pre-wedding to-do list. Glad we could help!

Lastly, Happy Memorial Day! Thank you to all the men and women who serve this country everyday to protect our freedom. After spending three days touring Washington, DC and witnessing an amazing full military ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, I am especially appreciative for all of the sacrifices that have been made so that we can live the lives that we do.

Thanks for reading,
Kathleen

Got Wood?

Then you need a wood stacker, clearly! Yesterday I mentioned that Bill cut down a few dying trees around our yard. I even got some cute birch candle holders out of the deal.

Last summer, we installed a "fire pit on a pallet" in an unused corner on our yard. It's great and we love having fires up there. Usually, Bill would just stack the wood for the fires up against the fence, but that wasn't very effective or pretty. Bill is handy at building things and he can figure out a plan easily. He decided to build a wood stacker to hold all of the wood from the trees.

According to Bill, he used 2 x 4's and 2 x 6's. The 2 x 4's were for the uprights and the angled supports and the 2 x 6's were for the bottom box and then top plates. He built a box for the bottom that was 13 inches wide and about 6 feet long. The length can vary depending on your needs. He then attached the box to the uprights and added top plates for support at the top. Then he cut the support pieces for the bottom at 45 degree angles and attached them with his new Kreg jig.

Of course, Bill used pressure treated wood since it will be outside all the time. This will allow it to stand up to the elements better. It was a pretty simple construction process and it's so useful!

 I didn't really understand why we needed this at first, but it's nice to have a place to put the wood instead of just piling it along the fence.

 Don't mind all the dead grass and dirt spots. Maybe we'll take care of that this year too. The list never ends!

Thanks for reading,
Kathleen