Kitchen Addition

This was Noah after our long weekend.

There is a few things I would like to note about this-
1. He fell asleep on hardwood floors- no pillow or blanket

 2. His shorts are semi-wet still from swimming in Mona Lake after baseball all day.

3. His arms are in a very peculiar position. I wonder what he was doing when he fell asleep.

4. He still has chocolate sundae on his face from our treat for the ride home.

I love this kid.

But I feel as tired as him today. I stayed up a little too late last night. If you saw my post from yesterday you could see the project I was working on. I started it a little late. 10:00pm. Scott wanted nothing to do with it. He wanted to relax a little and then head to bed. He told me it would take a couple of hours to put my project together. I scoffed at him.

Well, he WAS wrong. It didn't take two hours. It took FOUR hours! (shhhh, don't tell Scott)

I bought a kitchen island for my birthday. I envisioned building something or buying something made from reclaimed barn wood. But I went for practical and got something NOW that can make more storage for our sad little kitchen.

I was tired of having the silverware tray sitting on top of the cabinets. It looks and feels so much better now. The folding table was no longer working as an island (but we were so grateful for it B & K!). It is so porous that any spill would get sucked into the table never to be removed. Not really but it was difficult to keep clean.

Here is the before.

And the after.

 A work in progress still, but much improved.

Isn't she pretty?

And the next step is to move the sink cabinet into place....

 

...and get rid of the utility sink. Although I've been loving how high it allows me to pile my dirty dishes..haha.

 

 Now my utensils have a drawer. The boys were a little confused, but they'll get used to it.

Now I have more space free on the counter(top of cabinet :))

Another view. And another step closer to a functioning kitchen.

I'm loving it. Now to take a nap.
Thanks for looking!

Birthday Happiness

I had a great day. Beyond great.

We didn't do anything spectacular. But we did go out to eat which is not happening much lately.

I also shopped a little. I spent my birthday money. And a little extra.

I love this but it isn't what I had envisioned for my kitchen originally. I need storage and I'm tired of going with out it. And this will last me until I know what I really want (probably a lot longer).



Doesn't everyone spend late night hours putting furniture together?
Oh, just me? Oh well.

More pictures to come when it is finished!
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Baseball Busyness

We had a very long weekend- but an exciting one.

It was absolutely full of baseball. We had our second tournament in a row. This one was only in Muskegon- so not too far.

My oldest is on the 12U team and my second and third boys are on the 9U team (which is coached by my husband).

This is the first year for our 9U team and they are a little inexperienced. We haven't won a game yet. That is, until this weekend. It was our last game on Sunday morning. We already knew we wouldn't go any farther in the tournament- win or lose. It was one exciting game. It came down to two outs and the tying run for the other team was on third base. We had a nerve-wracking play but made the out and won by one. It was awesome.

After this game we went to watch the 12U play in their championship game. They had an awesome morning game earlier in the day. They were down 2-9 at one time but came back to win it in the end. It was pretty amazing.

The 12U ended up winning the championship game and took first place. It was awesome.  My dad, brother and his girlfriend even came to watch.

I got some action shots of my oldest pitching to end the game.

And here they are collecting their medals.

We were right on Mona Lake so the team took a dip after it was all done. The weather was perfect for it. The lake temperature must have been in the 70s. It felt so warm it made me wish I had my suit.

So today I stayed home and didn't do much of anything. Mostly relaxed and tried to recoup from the weekend.

What did you do this past weekend?

Burned

Literally.

For those that follow me on Instagram (angiegayle10), you may recall a post with this picture.

I stated something about tanning my legs. I was kind of serious because the bottom part of my legs never really get any sun.

I did not realize at the time how much sun I was really getting. It had been cooler for most of the morning. Then my oldest played three baseball games in a row. I sat for a long time watching intently. My other boys were running around and barely got any sun.

I got burned bad. Here are my legs now. These are obviously not the shorts I was wearing all day.

 Ouch!

And it wasn't just my legs. My arms, chest, lips and nose got it really bad.

We have another baseball tournament this coming weekend. I will be bringing sunscreen.
Rookie mistake.

Lamp Makeover

Do you remember my $1 garage sale lamps?

These are it.

 

They were in pretty rough shape.

I cleaned them up with chlorox wipes. There wasn't much I could do about the cracked shades.

I went to Jo-Ann's and picked up some fabric, spray paint and trim. I had a gift card so I didn't have to spend a dime.

I'm not sure what the problem was, but the spray painting didn't go very smooth. Maybe I didn't get them clean enough. I picked yellow spray paint and a white, patterned fabric with black trim.

As you can see the paint wouldn't stick in some places. I'm not sure why. I did nice light coats but it always separated in those areas.

The color isn't really true to the color of the cap. It came out more like a butter yellow but the cap is much more vibrant.

 

The lamps look darker in the house.

I didn't take any pictures of the process it took to get the fabric on the shade. I used spray adhesive and it was kind of a frustrating job. Unfortunately the shade is cracked and broken in places and you can see it through the fabric. I used my hot glue gun to put the black trim around the top and bottom.

But not too bad for $1 spent and $15 spent on a gift card.

I've only got one shade done. Now to go do the other.

T-Shirt Fun

I went to Jo-Ann Fabrics last week to have a look around. I ended up getting some things to make over my garage sale lamps I shared with you at the beginning of last week. More on that to come!

One of my boys had their wallet with them and wanted to get something. After showing him lots of different options he decided he wanted to make a T-shirt. He bought a plain black shirt and found a decal he liked.

I'm not exactly crazy about what he chose. But it was better than a diamond studded skeleton.

I helped him position the decal and then iron it in place.

He loved the outcome and had to put it on right away.

Even though he was wearing navy mesh shorts with it. And then we went to a baseball game. Oh well. As long as he's happy.

On the agenda for the coming weeks-

Get the craft/school room organized so the boys have a space to do some creative things. And me too.

Book Stack

I tend to go overboard at the library when summer arrives. I have visions of all this free time where I get lots of reading done.

It's a little unrealistic but that doesn't stop me from loading up my arms with lots of goodies.

I do have more free time during the day right now. But we are still just as busy in the evenings. That should slow down after baseball ends next week. It will only end the weekday games because we will have quite a few weekend tournaments still to come. Grrrrr.

Anyhow, so here is my stack I've got going on. I like a mix of different genres, as you can tell.



I like to have books that I can just skim to gain a little more knowledge or just for some eye candy. And then some that I really dive into and study. There, of course, has to be a good fiction novel. I am loving Lynn Austin right now.

What about you? Have big reading aspirations for the summer? What are you reading or have read that you love?

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Pentwater Garage Sales

Like I said yesterday, we happened upon a town wide garage sale when we were up north.
Could we love Pentwater any more? Why, yes, we could.

Now I admit. I'm kind of a house stalker. If you leave your curtains open at night you can be sure I will be looking. Not at you. But at your house.

Garage sales are just another way I can see lots of houses up close(r). And in Pentwater there is plenty of houses I would love to see better.

So, some of the garage sales I got out to look at didn't look that spectacular from the road. But the house looked amazing and I just wanted a better look.

I did actually buy some things too. There were plenty of things I wanted but didn't get. This cabinet was one thing I wanted so badly but didn't get.



Bad picture, sorry. The homeowner was telling me the history of this piece. It was ordered from the Sears Roebuck catalog and came shipped in a flat box. It cost $3.50 at the time. It was hinged in a way that you unfolded it and slid in the glass panels and that was it. It was marked at $160. Too much for me. Very sad.

What I did get were these lamps.



I know, I know. I just bought lamps. But these look like they could be awesome with a little work. They were marked at $1 each. But she gave them to me for $1 total without me even asking. What do I have to lose?!

At another garage sale we saw some older beach chairs and pulled over solely for them. The boys sat in them to try them out. The guy told them it was their lucky day because they could have them for free!



They are okay the way they are but the fabric is starting to come off on one. I think I can easily fix it or give them a makeover with new fabric.

The last thing we got was a sporty sweater for my oldest. He liked the bright yellow color. $.50.

Total spent - $1.50

It was fun. On the way home we came across a pop-up camper for sale. It was a great deal and so very tempting. Especially because the mice at my dad's house have probably shredded ours completely. But just not a good time for us right now. I had to remind myself that other good deals will come along when the time is right.

I love garage sales. And Pentwater.

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