Memorial Day Weekend

Sakes alive it was hot this weekend!! It felt more like the 4th of July than Memorial Day but we still had a fun and productive weekend. By productive I mean we finally got our swamp of a pool (long story) cleaned out and filled (I'm betting it will be a $400 water bill) and our new pump installed. The hubs did 99% of the work and I played with Jonah. I don't know what I would do without my hard-working hubby to get the yucky and hard jobs done around here.

We also did a lot of this.....

Needless to say the sprinkler was a big hit!



I can't wait till we can get in the pool too! Hopefully this weekend!!

We also went to our local town's Eagle Fest. It is basically a small carnival in town based around our town's civil war park, Ft. Donelson and the Eagles that have nests there. Jonah could only ride the carousel and he wasn't too excited about it. We finished off the evening with homemade lemonaide and a funnel cake. Yum!!

I hope everyone had a great weekend too!!

New pages....I am so behind!

I am way behind on Jonah's second year scrapbook! But I am starting and that is what's important. He will be 2 in a little over 2 months so I have got to get on the ball!! I have made some progress and here are some recent ones I've done using the free 2011 page templates from the Shabby Princess blog.

I just added my own paper on some and just left them "as is" on others. I use Photoshop Elements too by the way. I really like how they are turning out. Now I just need to keep up the momentum!

Random Thoughts & Memories

I don't have enough of anything going on to warrant it's own post so I'm just going to combine a bunch of random stuff into one. Hows that sound?

1. Our spring has been busy! Probably to some people it might seem calm, but for us we have been busy. Between weddings, showers for weddings, new babies (of friends) and other family happenings....it has been crazy...but really fun. And just when it seemed like we were going to have a break come June, my brother proposed to his girlfriend of 4 months (one of my BFFs) and they set the date for August 11th of 2012!! Wow! We are so happy for both of them and I know it will be a beautiful wedding. More details to come.

2. My Mother's Day gift from Jonah and the hubby was a complete flower bed on the other side of our front yard. I also got some double knock-out roses too! Love how it all turned out.

3. We go on our beach vacation in 4 weeks!! I am stoked but I still have several things on my vacation to-do list to check off before I can feel ready to go.

4. Our little stinker is getting so big on us. Here are some pictures I took of him playing with his kitchen over the weekend. I love him to pieces.

5. I am too blessed to be stressed!!

How To Make A FB Cover Photo/Collage in Picasa

I hesitate to post this tutorial, one, because it's my first ever tutorial and second, I am sure there is probably another one already out in the blogland that is better. But I am going to just throw this one out there and hope it helps someone.

I reluctantly moved to the new world of Timeline on FB. I have not put up a cover photo since moving because it is really hard to get any photo I already have to look decent all blown-up on the top of my profile. I really like the look of a collage with words on it up there so I set out to make my own.

I use the free Google program called Picasa. It's free to use for editing photos and such. You can get it here.


STEP 1: Open Picasa and pick out which photos and paper you want to use in your collage/cover photo. While you have a picture open you can hit the little green "pin" symbol to keep it in the bucket at the bottom.

STEP 2: Once you have all your items selected and "pinned" down, go to Create (on toolbar) and then Collage. It should pile all your items on a blank, white background. Then under Settings (on the left) click on the drop-down box and choose Add Custom Aspect Ratio. The box below will come up. Enter 851 x 315 and name it whatever you want. It will save this aspect ratio for next time you need it.

STEP 3: Choose what setting you want the collage to be. I always use Picture Pile but you can choose other items under the drop down box at the top. If you want to make a picture the background just right-click on it and choose Set as Background. You will probably want to remove the original picture once you set it as a background. If so just right-click and choose Remove.

STEP 4: Move your photos around until you like how they are laid out. Be sure and remember that FB puts your profile pic in the bottom left corner in timeline. So you will want to be sure not to put anything important in that area or it will get blocked from view.

STEP 5: After you have the layout you like click Create Collage (bottom right of screen above) and Picasa will open up your collage like the view below. Now you can add text to your collage and do other adjustments. Once you have everything like you want it, click File-Save-As and save it as a jpeg. Then just go to FB and upload your cover photo!

I hope you found this helpful if you have Facebook. I just love Picasa and you can do so much with it for a free program. Just let me know if anyone has any specific questions or if I've left something out and I will try to help.

Family Visit

Last Saturday we loaded up (along with my brother) and headed to visit family that live about 3 hours away from us in West Tennessee. We do not get to visit them very often now that we all have busy lives of work and raising family but we try to go a couple times a year. This was Jonah's frist trip down to see them (at 21 months old). I wish we could have gone before now but it was just never in the cards.

All of my late father's family is from McNairy County (Adamsville), Tennessee. My family owns a lot of land down there and they ran a pig farm for years (up until they sold out recently). It is a lovely little town that reminds me a lot of the town I live in currently. Growing up we would spend a week in the summer with my grandparents there and usually visit at Christmas too. I have a lot of fun memories playing with all my cousins. It was hard to go and not see my Nanny there this time as she passed away right before Jonah was born.

My brother Kyle went with us and this was his first trip back to visit since getting out of the Navy in December. He was stationed in Japan at the time of my Nanny's passing and did not get to attend her funeral. I know it was hard for him to not see her there this time either. I am glad that they all got to see Jonah and his little personality.

It was a fun trip and here are some of the pictures I took while we were there.


Here is a picture of all the guys. My three Uncles, Kyle, Michael, Jonah and my Grandfather.




All the family that was able to come visit. Two of my aunts here too.
My Aunt drives a school bus an Jonah is obsessed with them right now. He loved getting to drive it. He thought he was big stuff!


One of my Uncles bought this "Rat Rod". It was very interesting to say the least. The idea is you take a big motor and frame and just kind of piece it together with whatever you can find. They are kind of a novelty or conversation piece. He bought this one like it is here. I took several pictures because it was so neat/funny.
 







I will cherish this photo of Jonah and my Grandfather. Jonah finally let him hold him long enough for me to get a picture. My Grandfather is a great man that I look up to and I have a lot of fond memories of him. He is a big jokester and cut-up and always has some wild story to entertain us with. He also is a Christian man and used to preach many years ago. He loves to garden and was always an innovative farmer back in the day. He raised 5 children along with my Nanny and he has endured much heart-ache in those years as well (the loss of a son, a grandson and his wife). He also is a WWII veteran and loves his country. He is still very active (still drives) and is sharper than a tack. I hope we get to visit him many more times in the years to come.

Front Landscaping

Last Thursday Michael and I were off and had big lofty plans for the front flower bed. When we bought our house the previous owners had planted lots and lots of shrubs and greenery in the front beds. It was crowded in there to say the least and these are huge beds. Also they had a lovely (and expensive, so we've heard) weeping cherry tree planted right smack-dab in front of one of the windows on the house. We lived with the way things were for 3 years and we decided this year was the year to clean most of it out and do what we wanted.


This is the closest picture I could find that shows the BEFORE of the front bed. I took this right after our front window was shattered during renovations....long story....all is well now. :)

Here is after we cleaned out the hedges from the beds.





 The hard-working hubby ready for a busy day of landscaping.
 I guess this is a good spot to mention that we had it all planned out (in our heads) of how this was going to go. We planned to get up early Thursday and head to town to get our supplies. We were planning to put down black plastic weed barrier and do pea gravel in the bed. However, we ended up doing the total opposite after visiting a highly recommended nursery in a neighboring town. The wonderful and knowledgeable lady that owns the store quickly convinced us that black plastic was not the way to go. She recommended we do mulch (at least 6 inches deep) and lay down a special herbicide weed controller before planting. We ended up coming out cheaper going this route anyways and she says she uses it on all her commercial jobs. Time will tell if the weeds stay away. I will keep you posted. Anyways here is our truckload (she even gave us a whole yard of mulch free) of mulch for our project.
I ended up picking up 3 of the most beautiful hanging plants at the nursery too.
We were planning to dig up our neighbors Nandina plants. However it ended up that she had a different species of Nandinas and not the ones we wanted. So we made a second trip to the nursery to get 3 new Nandinas. We love the color they give year-round and that they stay low to the ground vs. regular boxwoods and hedges that we had previously.
We also picked up an Azalea bush (my first) that our nursery friend recommended I could actually plant in a container (as long as it is large enough).
This is the herbicide she recommended putting down in our bed before mulching. It was about $13 for this huge bag.
Another freebie she gave us was a pack of these organic feeders for plants. You just put them under the plants before filling in the dirt or just slip them in the side of any containers.
     AND HERE IS THE AFTER!!!










We love how it turned out!
All of the monkey grass was reused from what we had before. We also reused the two larger Nandinas on each end and added the three smaller ones in between. The shepherds hooks were a deal bought at the end of summer for $1 each!!




We still aren't sure what we are going to do with the bed on the left side of the door yet. We will probably plant more Nandinas like the other side or maybe make it into a sitting area. We also are thinking of adding a wooden trellis up the wall in the space between the door and the window on the left. What do you think? Any ideas?


Based on time and money in the next few months we may repaint the shutters to a darker blue (almost black tint) and we would love a new front door (the ones we've priced are $150 - $300). But we may just end up painting the one we have for now. Anyone else doing any curb appeal this year?