summer + arm accessory sneak...

a while back i shared a link on facebook, 1970's summer, which brought back a ton of childhood memories. i thought it would be fun for the kids to have a similar experience as we did growing up.

i love the concept and ideas and so far, we've accomplished a handful of them... i'm not sure if we could actually get number 4 done though. the amount of money it costs to see a movie is pretty hefty... really wish we had a drive-in theater though; that would be awesome! and believe it or not, i've allowed them to eat an awful lot of junk/candy. my gosh, the excitement on their faces when they ask if they can have more than one ice cream sandwich or eight cookies or a few packs of pez kids candy is so cute. not to mention they've quenched their thirst by drinking a full pitcher of pink lemonade in one day, insane!

i have not seen both of my babies since Saturday... Tyler's buddy Ace, slept over for two days and they couldn't bare to be apart, so Ty is hanging out w/ Ace and his family for two days. Corinne is also hangin' w/ her bestie for two days, celebrating her friends birthday. she even packed extra clothes just in case the opportunity came... hehe, love it! they come home today and i can not wait to see them and hear about all the fun they've had over the past few days.

and i've been spending ample time at my workbench creating some new arm accessories that i am really excited about. hope to have them listed in the shop over the next few days... by the end of the week for sure!

...enjoy your Monday!!

this month | life...

i haven't been around on the blog much at all this month. we've been staying pretty productive on a regular basis. some days i look forward to just relaxing w/ nothing on the agenda. and we all know it's not going to slow down anytime soon until after the holiday's have passed... sigh!

here are some images of what we've been up to most of this month...

 

xo...

what's going on...

and yet again, Monday arrives quicker than it needs to...

after a great weekend attending a family reunion in Va Beach, the kids and i had planned on spending our Monday in our jammies... (well, i'm in lounging clothes since i went to the gym this am...) doing whatever we want; being semi-productive around the house. i had no plans of sitting at my computer all day today. instead, i got a little carried away and decided to make a few changes to the blog, which takes forever! i added a new chevron background banner, some pointed sidebar buttons and enlarged some sidebar images, etc. the font used on the banner is marmellata jam. it's still a big transition coming from typepad to blogger. i'm happy w/ blogger, just need to learn how to navigate better.. the new changes still need some tweaking. thinking of adding a few simple brush elements to the white strip across the banner... we'll see. but so far so good. i like the overall look and feel much better... for now it will do.

it's the last month of summer and we are enjoying every last minute of it. keeping our days simple, productive and fun, w/ a few lazy days in between. the past seven days we've enjoyed the pool w/ friends, bowling, painting, admired the sky after a thunderstorm, baking treats, played outside, collected all the school supplies and soaked up sunshine at the beach...

good times... xo!!

while the kids were away...

the parents will play... well, sorta. it was more of us taking care of that long to-do list...

after arriving home from dropping the kids off at my parents, i was glad to see my Gossamer Blue package arrive... i practically ripped it open, ha...

wore my new capris and we drove up to Ikea to pick up towels that were on sale for $1, ha. yes, that's what we did on July 4th...

on our way from Ikea, we stopped to check out the new Fiat 500... love how it rides and handles the road... tempting!

weird celebrating w/out the kids home. instead of setting off our own fireworks, we watched them on tv... felt so old, lol...

finally killed the hornets nest that has been growing crazy fast for the past several weeks...

excited to see Hobby Lobby finally carrying project life goodies :)

laid out how the tile back splash would look and mentally prepared ourselves to do this install ourselves...

on the market for a kayak...

we celebrated our 11th anniversary w/ dinner at my favorite Asian resto, Miso's...

the man steamed cleaned all the carpets in the house. this was totally needed...

i spent a full day gutting out both kids bedrooms/closets. this was way overdue...

after a year of renovating the kitchen, i finally put up a fresh new color on the walls. and yes, it took me that long to figure out the color... Spa by Behr.

we grilled ribs for the first time ever. i made a homemade bbq sauce that was out of this world and the man cooked them perfectly on the grill.... we were in heaven!

our next door neighbor was super kind to give us her old basketball post... we cleaned it all up w/ a power wash and spray painted the pole. our little surprise for Tyler...

goofed off in the photo booth after watching World War Z... LOVE LOVE that movie!

spent some time w/ friends after baby Lily was Christened. so happy to be apart of her little life...

xo!

a very nice and productive eight days w/out the kids... this is something i think we need  to do every year... a little quality time alone w/ the man and to be able to get stuff done around the house that we haven't been able to do when the kids are around.