Training a Cucumber

Okay… get your minds out of the gutter!  I promise there’s nothing dirty about this post except for the soil and compost the cucumbers are planted in.

Anyway, as I mentioned before, I’ve decided to try growing some mixed vegetable containers this summer.  I was most excited to see if the cucumbers would grow (I’ve never had any success with them in the past thanks to the deer… apparently cucumbers are one of their fav’s).  And since I was blinded by my excitement when I planted them, I didn’t stop to think about what I would do with the vines when they began to trail out of the pot and all over the patio. 

So when the vines began to flop over the sides of the pot, grabbing hold of everything else in sight like a scene out of Little Shop of Horrors I decided that something had to be done. 

I took some jute twine, tied it to the mini trellises in each container, and then wrapped it tightly  around the posts of the pergola.  Next, I took the little “feelers” sprouting from the cucumber vines and wound them around the twine, training the vine up the post.

 

Super easy!  And it solved the problem of the vines eventually taking over the patio like wild kudzu!

While I’m at it, why not give you all an update on how the other veggies are doing.  Everything else planted in the containers seems to be coming along just fine… especially now that they’re not being choked out by the “death grip” of the cucumber vines!

Now… who’s ready for a salad?  I know I am!

Bailey’s Big Girl Bed

I can’t tell you all just how sad it is to be typing this post.  My baby isn’t a baby anymore... she’s 100% toddler.  And last Friday we decided it was time to convert her crib into a toddler bed (I know… we’re crazy for doing this so early). 

We chose to do it because we’re going to be traveling this summer and won’t necessarily have the option of a crib/pack and play, so we wanted to try to prep her for things before we go.  Also, in August she’ll be moving up to the next class room at the day school and she’ll have to take naps on a mat on the floor.  So we figured that sleeping in a toddler bed at home would help make this transition a bit easier on her.

Here’s a picture of Bailey’s crib.  She’s been sleeping here since she was less than a week old… sniff, sniff.

Thankfully the process of converting the crib to the toddler bed was really easy (it’s definitely more emotionally taxing than physically taxing).  I just removed two screws and took off the side rails.

Then Craig got to work assembling the safety net mesh bed rail we bought to keep Bailey from rolling out of the bed.  He made sure to secure it really tight so that there’s no gap between the rail and the mattress for Bailey to potentially get stuck in.

And this is what her crib toddler bed looks like now.  As far as what Bailey thinks about it… well, the jury’s still out on that. 

The first couple of nights and mornings were tough (especially the first night where she didn’t fall asleep until midnight!).  Thankfully though, each passing day seems to be getting progressively better!

Happy Birthday Maelen!

Saturday we celebrated Maelen’s 2nd birthday!  We headed over to the Spangler house for pizza and swimming in the pool. 

Bailey wasn’t a big fan of the pool at first… in fact she was pretty clingy and whiney about it in the beginning…

…but by the end of the party she seemed to be pretty happy just to sit back, relax, and take in all the excitement around her!

We had such a fun time.  Can’t wait to do it again next year.  Just kidding… I wish these babies would quit growing up so fast!  Still can’t believe Maelen is already two!

Silhouette

So I decided to jump on the silhouette bandwagon (thanks to a little inspiration from my friend Holly).  I bought this old frame (which was a mirror in a past life) for $2.00 at a church rummage sale back in March and instantly knew what I wanted to do with it… make a silhouette of Bailey! 

So I took it home, cleaned it up, and gave it a couple of nice, even coats of red spray paint.

Then I snapped some pictures of Bailey and used this process to make my silhouette.  The process was a little tough thanks to all of those pesky pretty curls on the back of her neck and my beginner-level experience with Photoshop… but I think it turned out pretty well.

I had a piece of oval glass cut at a local frame shop and cut a backer out of foam board.  I traced the shape of the glass onto a piece of scrapbook paper which I then cut out.

Next I used an acid free glue stick to mount my silhouette on to the scrapbook paper, sandwiched the scrapbook paper between the glass and backer, and then placed it all in the frame.  Then I used a glue gun to secure everything in place.

And this is what I ended up with.  Isn’t it sweet?  I just love it!

Now… I just have to figure out the best place in the house for it.

Mumford & Sons

Tuesday Craig and I took off of work early and headed to Asheville, North Carolina for the Mumford & Sons concert.  Thankfully, my sister Erin was in town to watch Bailey for us while we were gone.  The sold-out show was held at the Asheville Civic Center Arena and we were two of the lucky few 7,000 people who managed to get tickets!  Which meant we ended up standing in a really long line waiting for the doors to open (even though we got there way early to try to avoid a line).

 

But it was totally worth it!  The show was general admission, but we still managed to get some pretty awesome seats.  We figured there was no point in trying to get on the floor in front of the stage (I mean there were at least 1,000 people in line in front of us), so we came up with our seat-finding strategy and sprang into action as soon as we got through the doors. 

The show had two openers.  The first was Matthew and the Atlas. 

And the second was The Low Anthem (click here for videos of both of the opening bands). 

Both bands did a great job getting the crowd warmed up, but Mumford & Sons was definitely who everyone was wanting. 

And they, of course, didn’t disappoint!  They played for almost two hours and performed songs off of their album Sigh No More, as well as, songs off of their upcoming album which will be released in a couple of months.

The show was awesome!  They are all such high-energy performers that you can’t help but tap your toes, throw your arms up in the air, and sing along.  Unfortunately, I can’t get my videos to upload to share with you all, so you’ll just have to take my word for it.

 

For the encore performance they invited both opening bands back onto stage to join them in covering the Avett Brothers’ song Go to Sleep, which was really cool since the concert was being held in the Avett Brothers’ home state of North Carolina.

 

 

After this the openers left the stage and Mumford & Sons closed out the night with their song The Cave.  Definitely a great way to end the night!  Too bad I can’t share the video of it with you… it was amazing!

Installing the Floors…

…in the kitchen and family room turned out to be a lot of work (which we were totally expecting).  But the hard work definitely paid off in the end!

As mentioned in a previous post Craig and I decided to install our new carbonized, strand-woven bamboo floors ourselves to try to keep the overall cost for our big kitchen/family room renovation project down.  Since our house was build on a concrete slab we had no choice but to glue down the new flooring.

Before we could start installing things we had to “prep” the old floors by patching the holes where the old base cabinets used to be and leveling out some of the high spots (most of this we could do with a sander, but some areas actually required Craig use his router to take the old flooring down by as much as 1/4 inch).  We also had to prep the new flooring by opening the ends of the boxes and letting them acclimate for three days prior to installation.

Once the prep work was done we were ready to install.  The flooring guys at Lumber Liquidators told us that it would probably take us 5 days to glue down the 1000 square feet of flooring that we bought (not just for the kitchen/family room, but also for the hallway, living room, and dining room). We decided to take advantage of the long Memorial Day weekend to get a 3 day start on the installation. Thankfully my parents were able to come up and help. My mom kept Bailey entertained for the whole weekend while my dad helped Craig and I with the floors.

Before we started we opened up several boxes so that we could pull a mixture of planks for each row to be glued down (to make sure that we got a nice, random mix of colors).  We also laid out our first couple of rows to make sure that we had the color combination that we liked.

Then Craig measured things out, snapped a chalk line (to use as our guide for the first row) and began spreading the glue.  While Craig worked the glue down the line, my dad and I started laying the planks.  We had to be extra careful to keep the rows straight (or it would throw off the rest of the flooring) and tap out any of the gaps.  After doing this we taped the rows together (to try to prevent any gapping or movement) and then rolled the new floors over with a 100 lb. roller (to make sure the boards had good contact with the glue). 

The glue had to set for 24 hours before it could be walked on, so we had to do the work in sections (so we’d have a path to get in and out of the rooms).  By the end of weekend we had completed the kitchen, family room, and about 1/2 of the hallway.  Not bad for three novice flooring installers!

And now that the flooring in the kitchen is done we can move in the new refrigerator and dishwasher!  Which means we’re one more HUGE step closer to being finished with the kitchen … unfortunately we’re still far from getting the whole house back to normal since we still have to rip up the old carpets in the living room and dining room and finish installing the bamboo flooring throughout the rest of the house (with the exception of the bedrooms and bathrooms).

Oh well… there’s always next weekend!  Anybody want to come visit help install some floors?  We can pay you with pizza and beer!  And hey… you would be learning a new trade in the process!  Doesn’t that sound like a fun way to spend a weekend?!?

Copy Cat

My friend Holly always has such creative ideas when it comes to decorating.  She even has a blog dedicated to all of her thrifting finds and crafty ideas. 

A while back she made an initial pillow (pictured here) by sewing/gluing buttons onto a pillow she found while thrifting.  I always thought it was a cool idea so I decided to make my own. Hopefully Holly doesn’t mind me stealing copying her idea!

For the last several months I’ve been keeping my eye out at yard sales and thrift stores for a solid-colored, slip-covered pillow.  I finally found this red one at a thrift store for $1.00, which I thought would add a nice pop of red on the sofa in the family room.

I used Microsoft Word  to select a typeface that I liked and printed out the letter “L” really big.  I then cut out the “L” to use it as my template to guide me as I sewed.

Then I rounded up all of the necessary supplies (pillow, “L” template, needle & thread, buttons, and scissors), removed the pillow cover, and got down to sewing (being sure to lay my “L” template on top of the pillow periodically to make sure things weren’t getting too wonky or unevenly spaced). 

And this is what I ended up with!  Pretty nice, huh? 

Definitely a pop of color for the sofa!  Don’t you just love it?  I know I do! 

And thanks so much to Holly for being my inspiration!  Keep the craftiness coming!  Now, what other ideas of hers can I steal borrow?