I'm Stumped

I'm excited to be working on a new project soon that I've wanted to tackle for a while. What I thought would be easy turned out to be a bit more difficult than I thought. Getting my hands on a stump has been like a scavenger hunt to say the least. I put my dad and grandpa up to the challenge because I knew I would end up with a really good stump if I put them on the task. My dad ended up getting a great sized stump from a golf course that wanted about 30 perfectly good trees cut down. While it makes me sad to hear that these trees are being cut down, I am now the lucky owner of a gorgeous oak tree stump. I will need to drive back home to pick it up but then I'll be working on my masterpiece. Here's what I plan on doing with my new stump - turning it into a one of a kind end table. I am still dreaming about the possibilities but it'll be gorgeous once it's done. In the meantime here's some inspirational photos to look at.

In addition to the gorgeous stump, I LOVE the galvanized headboard and wood planked walls. The gray and yellow accent colors are awesome as well.

Another view.

A different twist to the stump. Turning it gray made it oh so chic. There isn't anything in this photo that I don't love. The lines and upholstery on the chair has me drooling along with punches of yellow and gray.

A close-up of the gray end table...I'm seeing a gray theme here.

Credits: Remodelaholic, Three Men and A Lady

Landscapers - HELP US!

I felt really good after my last post on Thursday because the backyard was really growing and I was thinking I may have a green thumb after all. It appeared that the garden, flowers, and plants were doing really well. We do however need some help and we had landscapers come on Saturday to discuss some work we needed done. Nothing too difficult but we needed someone who knew what they were doing. We needed our lilac bush, evergreens, and cherry tree trimmed and while they were at it we needed new mulch put down. Not difficult but having someone do the physical labor is music to my ears. So I showed them around the yard and was very proud of everything growing. Until.....I learned that one of my perennials that I thought was growing like gangbusters was actually a WEED!

Can you see the difference between the weed growing in the front and the actually perennial in the back? I was utterly embarrassed and wanted to crawl in a hole. They were really nice about it but they were amazed at the size of the stem - we are talking 2 inches thick! And to think that I watered and nurtured that weed to about 3 feet tall! Yet another reason why we need help.

Here's what it looks like with the weed removed. It was hard to pull out and needed to use a shovel to get out that bad boy.

And there she is -the largest weed every known to man! The landscapers will complete the work within 2 weeks and the sooner the better, we need some help!

It's Growing Like a Weed

We planted a veggie garden again this year and I learned from our first one that we planted last year that practice makes perfect. While it grew and produced lots of veggies last year, I learned that cucumbers grow like weeds and you need to make sure they don't take over the whole garden therefore they get planted on the end. I planted the veggies and flowers about 4 weeks ago and they are looking good. Thanks to my composting neighbor, I got some great compost to add to the garden and we have only used rain water to water the garden - thanks to mother nature and our rain barrel. I also visit the garden everyday and share my words of encouragement - so far it seems to be working. The first thing I do when I get home is give Tanner lots of love and then we head to the backyard to look at all of our growing veggies and flowers - it's a very therapeutic thing to do after a stressful day at work. Who knew I would learn to love weeding and watering flowers? 

Potted Flowers on the Deck

The largest cucumber plant - notice I'm "training" it to grow vertical this year!

Tomato Plant

My Tomato Turvy - only 4 weeks and this thing is growing like crazy!!!

These look funny but it sure works.

I like to plant things differently to increase my odds of getting lots of goodies.

I even have 5 tomatoes so far!

What do you think? Not so bad for a girl with a brown thumb. I planted cucumbers, different kinds of tomatoes including cherry, basil, dill, green and yellow peppers. Hopefully I'll have lots to share towards the end of the summer.

Lots of Change & Time for Vacation

You probably have been wondering - where in the world is Melissa these days? Life has been a little crazy and all of this change has me in a bit of a rut. Unfortunately the company that I work for had to lay off 1600 people which was a huge and utter shock especially since it's a successful and profitable company. I understand the reasons behind the decision and I agree it's the right thing for the future, but boy has it been tough. I'm happy to say that I have been retained and actually moved into a new position. When was it effective I asked? "Well immediately".....hugh?!?! I am one that LOVES change but I feel like the rug has been pulled out from under me and I have zero control - there lies the issue. I lost many of my co-workers who I had very close working relationships, lost 1/2 of the sales force that I once supported, and I started a new role immediately. I hope I don't sound like I'm complaining because I'm ecstatic about my new role and overjoyed to continue to be employed during these tough times but gosh - this girl needs to catch her breath. Survivor's guilt is a real thing and watching people walk out the doors carrying boxes everyday has been a bit much. Did I mention that I had to cancel my vacation in the midst of all of this? OK, deep breath Melissa....regroup and move forward. As a result of all of this change, my hubby and I are planning on taking a "real" vacation - far, far, away. Here's some of the locations we are thinking about. Can you guess where they are? The pictures include 3 different countries. The first person to guess 2 of the 3 countries will win a $20 Starbucks gift certificate - who doesn't love caffeine? Bonus: help us pick from these 3 locations and we'll bring back a souvenir for you! (Hint: they aren't the first place that may come to mind so dig deeper.)

Gosh - there are so many places I want to go and so little time.....please help us!

The Shirts Off Their Backs

This past weekend my husband and a couple of his friend's headed down to St. Louis to see the Cardinals play the Milwaukee Brewers. Yes, another guy's weekend but after a HIGHLY stressful week of layoff's at work, it was really nice to be at home and do whatever I want whenever I wanted to. Anyways, they were having a "Shirts Off Their Backs" promotion at Busch Stadium and so David bought a couple of tickets and ended up winning out of 20,000 tickets sold. He wasn't sure what that meant but he knew he had to be in a designated spot in the middle of the 7th inning. Well they ended up going down below and got to draw #'s to see which players game jersey they would each win. While he didn't draw Pujols number, he did get a really good player - Ryan Ludwick #47!!!! He was ecstatic and he said besides the day he married and the day we got Tanner, it was the happiest day of his life. Wow - glad we can check that off our list now. Luckily we had some friends at the game that snapped some pictures while he was on the field. Now if I had been there I would have taken about 100 more!

Beautiful picture of the field from David's seat

A really close up view after winning the raffle and getting ready to go on the field.

Nothing like front row seats for a couple of extra innings.

And here's the signed game jersey that was worn the whole game. I envision it being framed and ending up on a wall in our house sometime in the future. In the meantime he likes to show off the autograph and the dirt on the jersey from the game. Mr. Ludwick is a dirty boy!

David enjoying his 15 minutes of fame after getting his jersey from Ludwick.

Getting to meet a couple of the players too.

David has been a Cardinals fan his entire life and I was so happy for him to have such a once in a lifetime moment down at Busch Stadium. I was so happy for him but I really was sad that I wasn't there for his baseball dream to unfold for him. While he was enjoying time at the game and on the field - Tanner I were sitting in the dark with no electricity! Sure do love those thunderstorms!

Memorial Day Parade

We had a busy weekend - Cubs Game, boating at the lake, a BBQ gathering, and the Memorial Day Parade. I have a lot of pictures but in memory of all of those who have fought for our country, I thought I would share with you pictures from our local Memorial Day parade. It started 45 minutes late because of a rainstorm that passed through, luckily we had a great place to take cover from the showers. It finally ended and I have to say it was a pretty good parade. My favorite part was all of the dogs that they had in the parade. Many were available for adoption too! Tanner was asked to participate in the parade but his lazy mama couldn't commit to being up on Monday by 10:00 after a margarita party at the house. It turned out to be a good thing because he wouldn't have liked the rainstorm!

The parade was full of the different parts of the Medinah Shriners - my hubby's favorite was the coolers on wheels! He has found a hobby for when he retires!

We hope everyone had a great Memorial Day! We are truly blessed to live in such a wonderful country with all of the freedoms we have.

HGTV Green Home 2010

There is only 16 days left in the HGTV Green Home 2010 giveaway and I can't believe I haven't shared it with all of you. Maybe it's because secretly I think the less people that I tell about the giveaway, the better my odds are of winning this home! Not only would you win this beautiful green home in Cape Cod, but you'd also win a new GMC Terrain, and $100,000!!! Do I have your interest - if so visit the HGTV Green Home website to enter. Just remember me if you win and keep the guest room ready for me to appear at a moment's notice.... Oh wait, it only has 2 bedrooms? I'll just stay in the tower or the laundry room - no worries!

The wrap-around porch is the one thing I dream of having someday. You don't see them very often where I live so I'll probably have to venture down south to make this dream come true.

I love the white wood walls. Normally I'm not a huge fan of white kitchens but this one is gorgeous. I'd love that double oven too.

I love the hanging chandelier that is made out of an old factory metal basket.

Why didn't I think of that?

The Laundry Room - My favorite room of all!

If I won this house I'd even be willing to do ALL of the laundry and not even complain about it. I'd feel like Martha Stewart in this laundry room/mudroom/recycling center.

The queen size bed would be the first thing to go but I love the soothing shades of blue.

Gorgeous!

Is that a cool bunk bed for kids or what? I slept in bunk beds as a kid but I can promise you it wasn't this cool looking!

My second favorite room - the tower!!! I would hide in here for hours reading, napping, and blogging. How cool would this be.....

Remember that you can enter the giveaway daily but only for the next 16 days so make it count. However if we aren't lucky enough to win remember that there are many things you can do to live green as well. This home may have been certified with the gold standard, but there are little things that you can do to make a big difference.

A Mother's Day Floral Daytrip

For Mother's Day I took my mom to one of my favorite Greenhouse's - Dieder Farms in Buffalo Grove to pick out a hanging plant. I picked this place because they have the largest, most beautiful hanging plants you ever did see. When we walked in, my mother went crazy! She was so overjoyed that it took her a while before she could pick the winner.

After my mom picked out hers, we then found the perfect hanging plant for my MIL and then another for myself. I'm hoping that this time I can keep it alive longer than a few weeks. I didn't realize you needed to water them so much.....live and learn right?

Happy Mothers Day Mom and MIL!!! We love you both and hope the flowers bloom all summer long for you.

Happy Birthday David!

David celebrated his birthday this past Friday and he told me about a hundered times that he wanted a Pastel de tres leche (three milk) cake for his birthday. That's all he wanted! He even "hacked" into my blog to post the recipe that he wanted me to use after a bit of research after the best receipt. Well it sounded like an easy request until I realized I would be out of town the entire week and wouldn't get home until Friday afternoon. I made it home just in time to rush to the grocery store and get the cake in the oven before he got home from work. While the cake was baking I had about a 1/2 hour to run into my craft room and whip up a really cool birthday card for a really cool guy. I literally had the card in the envelope and was sealing it shut when he walked in the door!

For those of you unfamiliar with this cake, it's a spongy, delectable cake that oozes a sweet milk from within. You bake the cake, let it cool, and poke lots of holes into it and let the "milky" substance slowly soak into the cake. The milky topping in this recipe used included evaporated milk, sweetened condenced milk, heavy whipping cream, vanilla, and rum. Interested in giving it a try? Check out the recipe I used here. Enjoy!!!

The birthday boy eagerly waiting to dive into his cake!

Happy Birthday David!!!

Our Home Improvement List....keeps growing

and growing and growing but somehow the budget hasn't grown. Each spring we get "the itch" to spruce up our house and usually that means work outdoors because we are pretty happy with the indoors. First it started with doing some landscaping in the front yard. Then by designer friend came over to see the landscaping plans (thanks Peg!) and recognized right away that the landscaping was only a means for covering up the front porch/steps that are simply hideous. The landscaping project then became a hardscaping project with the front steps and porch. I've always dreamed of being able to sit in the front of the house on a porch in the summer under the shade of our gigantic tree. We got the plans and it was a tad more than we were planning on spending but I think it would be a great investment to the curb appeal of the home when we eventually want to sell. I keep visiting http://www.hgtv.com/ to get some ideas and I can't stop thinking about that darn porch that would be so inviting. It's not out of the question but we really need to think this one through.

In the meantime there is nothing like a Sunday morning with the newspaper in hand and the DIY channel on TV. After a few hours of all of these DIY shows, I think my husband got the itch and next thing I know he's tearing off the boards on the side of our deck. Holy %$#& is what I thought at first. The previous owners invested in a Trex deck but they never finished it properly and the warped boards on the sides are just such an eyesore. In addition we need to add railings for safety - so far we have only had 1 visitor fall off but it's something we really need to do. David has been working on the design all day and they actually have lots of cool options....if you have a hefty budget! We are trying to find a good compromise and David is working on getting quotes this week while I'm away.

Then next thing I know we are at Home Depot getting quotes on a screen door for the front door. We did some research ahead of time and knew we didn't want one that we had to change out the screen and glass every season but one that was part of the door and fullview. Once I found the one's at HD with the lead glass it was love...I know but there are so many finishes and little details you can incorporate into the standard door. I'm really excited about finally having a nice breeze coming through that door in the spring, summer, and fall. They are coming to measure and place the order this week and since it's a custome order it'll take 7-10 days but we should be enjoying it by mid to late May. We also will get up to a 30% tax credit to boot, I like that alot too!

These are just a few things on the list but it seems like it keeps growing and growing. Anyone else working on their home improvment list as the weather warms up?