Bon Voyage!

I had so much fun doing some arrangements for a Bon Voyage party a few weeks ago...

 I went to AAA and got some maps of California for free and tore them to fit around the wine bottles, tied with some twine, and added some flowers:

 Maggie made this banner from old maps:

 The venue was awesome...a new bar in an up and coming part of town...lots of woodwork!

 The hostesses with sweet ME who is going to do a short travel-nursing position in sunny California! :)

Birthday Girl!

I really can't believe that it has already been a year since our lives were changed by a beautiful little red head! She is a joy and adds so much happiness to our family! We traveled down in the rain today to celebrate EM's first birthday!

Wow! How the time flies!

 The whole family with the birthday girl!

 This little girl loves her daddy:

 Mommy and Daddy with the birthday girl:

 Red heads!

 Sweet baby girl you are growing up so fast! I have to brag on my sister...she made and smocked EM's dress! She is so talented!

 Aunt RuRu

 Auntie Tat:

 Uncle NaNa and Aunt Laura:

 Three generations:

 Granddaddy:

 Grammie and Grandaddy:

  Pops and Grandma J

"Here comes my mommy"

 Thomas invited everyone to join him in his fun game of "splish splosh"

 Thankfully, we had a covered pavilion area out back to keep us dry in the rain!

 This picture says it all! She is so special to us! :)

 Two aunt "Katies"

 Uncles!

 Baby girl is not so sure about what all this fuss is about! :)

 We told Thomas to show her how to do it, and he surely did! :)

 Of course, she had more fun playing with it than eating it!

 Uncle Will and his friend Casey:

 Thomas's sweet little friend Naomi:

 EM was so sweet opening her gifts! She loved this little baby from Grammie and Granddaddy:

 Aunt Laura picked out the cutest little tea set...EM's first one! She took a cup out of the box and did this:

She is so smart, and just the cutest little birthday girl I have ever seen! :) Love my sweet baby girl!

Another Project!

It seems like summer would be a perfect time for one's creativity to take a vacation, to just sit back and relax with a book in one hand and a glass of tea in the other...but that is not the story in my world. It seems like every time I finish one project, I find another one to do! Having an ongoing project has become a norm in my life, which means that I stay really busy!

So, here's how it all started: I have been spending a lot of time on my deck these days, and as I was "working" one day, began to get a vision for some out door lighting. We love entertaining on our deck, but the lighting is really poor. I thought it would be fun to add some bistro lights strung somehow around the deck. And that's when the idea took off thanks to google. I found this picture with a tutorial and used that as my spring board. Of course, mine had to be a little different because it was for a deck and not a patio, but you get the basic idea:

[source: Bright July]

 So, with my new project in mind, I took off to Lowes where I spent about 2 hours being helped by 5 different men! Gotta love Lowes' customer service! :) I picked out 1/2 inch electrical conduit pipes, but the 10 foot pipe was too long, so a really helpful employee offered to cut them to the 8 foot length that I needed.   I rounded up the rest of my supplies and then the real work began. It didn't go as smoothly as I anticipated with the tools I had at my house...

 ...so I went to my parent's house to use some power tools! (I keep having to borrow my dad's drill...probably just need to get one of my own!)

 I measured where I needed to drill a hole for the hook and screw (about 3 inches from the top)

 And then I started drilling...

 My parents were watching my brother and sister-in-law's dog, and he kept wanting me to play fetch while I was working on my project, so I would stop and throw the ball every few minutes...

 This picture cracks me up...the battery was low and it wasn't drilling easily...that's the look of frustration...

 Once the holes were drilled, I attached these hooks...

  Spray painted all 4 poles:

 Once they dried, they were ready to attach to the deck railing. I didn't get a picture of the hardware I picked out, but it worked perfectly. It was a bracket that cuffed the pipe and screwed in on both sides.

 Here is the deck before:

 And here are the poles and lights hung:

 In celebration of summer and the other lighting project complete, I cooked dinner and had some friends over to enjoy the ambiance! Unfortunately I didn't get a picture with everyone here, but I did capture the finished product:

  I love how it turned out!

Looking forward to many more nights enjoying the new lighting!