Weekend Progress...

The first thing on our list this past weekend was to dig up the dead cherry blossom tree and return it to Lowe's. While we were there, we picked up crushed stone for the fire pit and 4 more cinder blocks to extend the wood pile.

The empty hole which we checked for grubs and found nothing. The Japanese beetles didn't come from the tree, just choose this one to eat first. They have now moved onto our Maple tree we planted this past spring :( 

We filled the entire third pallet. I'm getting MUCH better at stacking, which I'm sure you can tell by just looking at the pile. The newer left side is much better than the right. I have however joined the top (after re-doing some of the left side) so that I can now stack all the way across in layers. I am standing behind to show scale for you :-)

We still have more to go, but one of the huge piles of wood on the other side of the driveway is now gone!
(I will add a picture to show you along with a pic of the finished fire pit as well. I just realized I don't have pics of either of those things)

Searching for Fabric

We use a combination of 2 sets of dining room chairs.... they are fairly similar, on purpose of course, but they have different seat coverings that are showing wear. I want to re-cover all of them in the same fabric to unify them.
 I've decided that I don't want to get matching curtain fabric - too matchy-matchy for me, but rather I want to find a complementary fabric and design that will wear well with the room.

This shot is the closest to showing you what each seat would look like. The fabric was one crazy sale at JoAnn's last month but I couldn't bring myself to bite the bullet. It feels a bit adult to me. LOL! I know that's funny sounding since I am an adult, but I'm not sure I'm that grown-up yet... that makes sense doesn't it?

The hunt continues!

Some pics from Oliver & Melissa's Summer Travels!

Oliver and Melissa have taking to spending part of every summer camping out of the truck and traveling across different areas of the country. This year, they did a mostly west coast trip - with a quick flight up to NH for a quick visit with family!

This was taken in Yellowstone

Re-fueling after Death Valley

Looking back at a storm in New Mexico.
I confirmed that what looks like the start of a tornado on the left side of the road is
 really a bug smudge on the glass! So no worries!

Oliver looking out over a canyon in New Mexico.
The background is so beautiful I keep thinking it has to be fake!!

There are many more that they've taken, but these are a few they shared while on the road, so I knew it would be ok to share them with all of you!

Liberty Day @Fenway

Around the middle of June, Matt and I spent the day @Fenway with friends Billy and Ashley in celebration of 100 years of Liberty Mutual (Matt and Billy's place of work) which was a pretty cool day! But the reason they chose Fenway is that Fenway is also celebrating it's 100 year anniversary as well!

It was just humid enough that our camera phones didn't do too well. Most of the pictures of the day are on Ashley's camera - but I wanted to give you a taste of the day!

To say it was a great day seems a bit of an under estimate. Liberty employees and their families were the only ones in the park and they opened everything to us but the private boxes. All food and drink (no alcohol) was on Liberty as well. We came home with a collector's cup and 2 baseball hats that started filled with ice cream :-)

Catching Up! .... But, maybe still behind

I am waaay behind on this blog thing. So I'm catching up using pictures, because luckily, while I may have stopped posting them, I didn't stop taking them!

Oliver, Melissa, my parents and I all got to celebrate my Mum's birthday together this year.  We spent the day hanging out, playing lawn games (I totally rocked this the 1 game I played!) and catching up since we hadn't all been in the same place since Oliver and Melissa got married in December.

The course was marked by wood that has been chopped but not stacked. Whew! The stacking is almost another whole project in itself!

You can see the start of the stack Matt and I started just before everyone showed up. I weed whacked  an area just off the 'lawn' and we set up concrete blocks and pallets that then we started stacking the wood on. Since then we have picked up 2 more pallets that need to be added since there is just so much wood to be stacked.

A turtle cheesecake with candles ended our BBQ - that I confess I did forget to take pics of - but it's really the dessert that counts in my opinion! 

My first attempt at gluten-free cupcakes. Yes, I have been gluten free for 3 weeks now. Along with my crazy allergies, it's quite the strange combo that I have to remember to look out for. The good news is, these were AWESOME! 

So everyone ate the cheesecake (not me) and my cupcakes until we were all stuffed!
The evening ended with a picture show on the TV from Oliver and Melissa showing us everywhere they've been so far this summer on their trip. I think this is the third year they've spent most of the summer camping out of the truck and traveling around the country.  

Mum set up her sewing for the few days she was with us so she could keep working on personal  projects and gifts (KEL! the quilt looks amazing!)

With more than 1 machine, each is set up for a task so she can move right down the line while piecing quilts together. I have to say that the technology with the newer machines is pretty darn amazing! They can connect to laptops and the internet to download projects and embroidery patterns - crazy, right!

In other news, our cherry blossom tree is on it's last legs....

It was doing very well until we found out that it had grubs and japanese beetles eating it. sigh. So, it's going back to Lowe's and we will replace it in the fall from a local nursery. (we've also started treatments for the rest of the yard so the grubs and beetles don't spread)

I loved the deal we got at Lowe's, but the grubs and dying tree is not what I had planned.....

Oh, my car! It has a full pallet of stones and metal ring for our fire-pit. 

I think this is the lowest it's ever been, even with all our moving and the crazy stuff we used to pack in it.
I was nervous getting home - luckily the store is less than 10 miles from the house.

So here's the finished product! It was fairly easy to put together and since Matt got us a deal thanks to a mis-labeled price tag (woot!) it wasn't a huge dent in the budget - gotta love that!

It looks so small from the house! but it's 30" across and we plan to add a bit of hardscape around it in a few years when we do the patio at the bottom of the deck stairs. I think it will be a lovely satellite fire pit!

Family has all gone home. July 4th has come and gone. Work is getting busier as we head towards full integration - ie, the 2 companies computer systems are being merged and improved, all forms are changing, the website is changing, and the back office systems will be changing as well.
I'm taking everything week by week for now. It's been a great summer thus far and I hope it only continues!!

Updated/revised to-do list

Since we are halfway thru 2012 (it's flying by, right?! it's not just me?), I decided to re-visit my huge-o to-do list and cross off the stuff that has been finished!

Updated/Revised To-Do List 2012

Spring/Summer:
change 2 lights in dining room to 1 chandy (chandy already purchased)
purchase and install roller-shades in last 2 upstairs bedroom/study
clean-out all file cabinets on second floor
cleanout basement storage
re-paint my study around doors and windows
move curtain rod in my study
paint front door
re-cover seats on all dining room chairs
electrician: put dimmer switch in dining room and re-do all 3-switch plates
new QUIET dishwasher
raised beds along back of house w/ hydrangeas
garden bed edging along garage w/ bigger lilac plants
A bonfire to clean-up yard waste and deadwood
powerwash deck and re-stain and seal
repair painting table (w/Dad's help)
design basement for finishing (w/Dad's help)
backyard shed installation
we've also added - shower door purchase and installation in master bath, fire pit in the back yard and powerwashing of the house

Fall/Winter:
storage system for shed
walter filtration system for house
re-seed yard and yard extension
plant bulbs at edge of yard along woods
purchase dining room wall storage (helps to empty basement storage)
sell current wine rack
purchase and install garage overhead storage
empty and finish basement
chopping wood for fireplace
air-exchange unit for house


Possible 2013/2014:
outdoor patio around bottom of deck stairs (grill moves off the deck)
walkway from driveway around lilacs to outdoor patio
finish satellite fire-pit out in yard extension
boxwood border along far-side of yard and down driveway
plant flowering shrubs on inside of yard edge
back-up generator for entire house
new sofa for living room
seal metal bar supports and possibly re-level kitchen bar