Tablecloth'n

Hope you had a great weekend! We sure did, but we also got a lot accomplished!

We are about to have a house full of family for the 4th of July (so very excited).
My brain has been thinking of ways to make the house comfortable and enjoyable for them.
We will have 4 kids 6 and under at the dinner table.
I have never used a tablecloth on my kitchen table.., but I think it may be the way to go.

During parties, I often fear for my wood table with just a natural finish/protectant.

My table- only I have it in a discontinued grayish stain

This is what my tablecloth search has come up with..,

Via

Via

via

Via

Via

What do you think? Which one would you choose?

Currently on my radar...,

The patio project is almost complete.., we just ordered a french door (It may take all summer to install!)
and next up is designing the pergola!

I am about to pull the trigger on a few things..,

a fire pit 

A few to these

A couple of chairs would be nice

I wouldn't say not to a few pillows

Some baskets full of olive or lemon trees would finish things off!

Wish me luck!!

Vegas baby.., I mean Vegas with babies

We love to travel. We live in the middle of America.., There are no great weekend get aways.

Getting out of here on a routine basis is a must for our family.

For O's first spring break- we met my parents in Vegas.

The hiking was fantastic!

I really wanted to find a souvenir but I just couldn't do it!

The Bellagio- it smelled like it looked..,
Which made me wonder- how much flower smell do they pump in there?

Ellie was not impressed

my current favorite outfit

The aquarium

Only pic I took on the strip.., Maybe because E kept asking if princess lived there(?)

Hoover dam was amazing!! 

I look away for one second and this happens!
Climbing a cable..

Ellies curent fav outfit

Loving some brass detail

We were able to leave the kids one night with my parents.
Lance and I had a date.., just like old times in Vegas before kids..,
But we were home by 10.., too exhausted to stay up later!
Ha! I guess kids will do that to you!!

Spring photo dump

 Early spring according to my phone..

We got some exciting mail

This girl rocks my world!

She found a pony named Gus.

(don't worry, he doesn't mind)

And slept in her big girl bed

My original baby went to sleep.

I am still so sad.

Owen gave Gus some love.

They are sad too.

I did some antiquing. Love the orange bench, but I wish there were two.

I could see them in a leopard print.

(the gold table above was pretty killer too)

No fooling, I am still running in the rain, sleet and snow.

But spring came to my table.

Every girl needs a pair of wings.

Owen hasn't enjoyed the spring either.

He did however, feel the need to put a tattoo on his face.

Happy weekend y'all!

My rug

Remember when I went on and on (and on)  about my love for Kilim rugs. That week I had purchased one, but then never said much more about it.

I got it from the ebay seller TurkishKilim.

Honestly, I can not say enough good things about the rug or the seller. Don't you love it when that happens?

This is the rug I bid on.

I was the only bidder (yes!) on a Tuesday afternoon.

No Joke, the rug was here on Friday. 

It came from Turkey!! That is some fast shipping!

I have heard that these rugs can arrive very dirty. So I was prepared to give it a good cleaning once it was here. I even called the carpet cleaning company.  However, when I received mine, it was really actually pretty clean. I went over it with a steam cleaner, but didn't get much!

The rug is so beautiful and big, almost 8x10! The colors in the ebay picture are pretty true. It has lived all over the house but has finally landed in E's big girl room (reveal to come!).

These pictures were taken when there was a lot of natural light, so the colors appear more saturated than they really are.

I still follow TurkishKilim on ebay and I would buy from them again. Currently, I have my eye on

this one, this one and this one.

What do you think? Would you ever buy a rug from another country off of ebay?

etsy love 3.17.2014

Hi friends! 

Hope you had a fantastic weekend.

Things are finally starting to feel like spring here, yay!

For this weeks etsy love, I thought I would share something I currently have in my home.

Last December, I came across this custom cross stitch people at Uncommon Goods.

I loved it! Unfortunately, it was out of my price range.

So naturally, I went to etsy and found something similar (here).

Anette was a dream to work with.

She did such an awesome job!

I was so impressed, I even got one for my sisters' family.

I love this snapshop of our family.

But, things are changing.

Our kids are growing.

Lance no longer wears glasses.

And our little black dog, Macy, is very sick. We know our time with her, is limited.

Can you tell I am totally smitten with it? 

Something I will cherish forever!

The sweet potato project

Remember when I mentioned this potato project? 

I showed lil'O the youtube video. 

He decided to recreate it for his school science fair.

We started with this.

We had 2 Organic sweet potato's (one from trader joe's and the other from whole foods) and one non-organic from the grocery store.

We put them into water.

Where they sat on Owen's dresser for 3 weeks.

The organic sweet potatos grew sprouts. 

{To be honest, the TJ's potato grew less sprouts. It had been sitting in my pantry for a few weeks.., perhaps this had something to do with it?}

The non-organic potato did not grow any.

My little scientist at the fair.

He had a lot of fun with this project.

We are planning to continue with this experiment..,

We'll let you know what happens!