A few glimpses into our wildlife garden.  Here a baby mourning dove decided to sit with us while we ate dinner.

Next, I cannot take credit for this beautiful photo.  My husband captured it while I was at work.  Just wish those water lilies would bloom into the evening.

Mother's Day 2012

I know I am a little late in posting this one, but I did not have a chance to present my mother with her gift until just a few days ago.

I created a collage of photos of "my family" for dear ol' mom.  I got the idea from a post I found on the Better Homes & Gardens site and saved it to my Pinterest account.  Then I just personalized it to match some of the colors in mom's house and viola!

I found this great paper for the background at Hobby Lobby.  It is heavy stock with these little pearl accents around the edges.  That really dress it up a bit!  Now, I just need to make one of these for our house!

Father's Day 2012

Here is the card I sent to the fathers this year in honor of all of their love and support.  We were not able to be with our fathers on the actual day, but sent them a copy of "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand.  Good read, even if you don't particularly enjoy reading about history!

DIY Outdoor Chair Project

I don't do this often, but I saw four pretty good looking wicker chairs at a neighbor's house being put on the curb for the trash pickup. They appeared to be in good condition (meaning the wicker was still intact). And, they were still sturdy.

I left to get my sidekick (a.k.a. my hubby) for his opinion and we came home with them a few minutes later. We found out from the original owner that the chairs came from Pier 1, and she just did not want to take the time to refinish them.

These are the original chairs. The white paint was chipping off pretty bad, but we knew that was fixable. I took a steel bristle brush to all of the chairs to get rid of all the loose bits of paint. Then I cleaned them good to loosen any additional bits of paint.

Next was the big decision...what color should we paint these? We used Rust-Oleum's 2X Painter's Touch Gloss in Colonial Red.

Yes, I said Red! We are thrilled with how they turned out!

The last step was selecting some cushions for the chairs. After checking several locations, we ended up back at Pier 1 and found the Angelique Foam Dining cushion and a yellow lumbar cushion to finish off the look.

Now on to the glider....

Even after the rain storms of life....

...there is His promise of hope!

Cherry Blossoms

Ever since I lived in Washington D.C., I have had an appreciation for the beauty of cherry blossoms. My husband decided to plant a cherry tree four years ago. He has been so disappointed over the last few years when it did not bloom.  This year however, our patience was rewarded as our little tree finally provided us with a magnificent show. Bravo!

Girls' Night Out (continued)

I created two banners for our Girls' Night Out event.  After dinner we came back and continued celebrating.  I created these two banners for the after party.