Fourth of July 2012

I can honestly say that Fourth of July 2012 is one of the BEST 4ths our family has had.  We were blessed to have Kate and her boyfriend Travis come down for 4 days to celebrate the 4th and Kevin's birthday on the 6th. They arrived around midnight on the 3rd and we ended up sitting up and talking until almost 3 am, so we ended up sleeping through the Main St. parade...(all but Kevin who got up and rode his bike down town to see the parade...he said it was fabulous and we definitely missed out!...oh well next year!) but made it down to the beach a little after 1 pm where we spent the entire afternoon and evening until after the fireworks.

Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate with us and it was overcast all day. Luckily however it wasn't cold until it got dark so we still were able to be in bathing suits and shorts very comfortably. Since moving to this wonderful So Cal beach community in May we have only had 3 overcast days and it was too bad that one of them had to be on the fourth. Kate and Travis had their hearts set on working on their tans at the beach!!

The one bonus for me was the opportunity to take some GREAT pictures. Since Kevin, Kate, Kyle and Travis all have light blue eyes....they are all very sensitive to the bright sun and I typically get a lot of squinting and shut eyes when I try to take pics of any of them out in the bright sun. However with the overcast day...there was no squinting and I was able to get some fabulous pictures. 

For example I LOVE LOVE LOVE these pictures of my two beautiful children Kate and Kyle. It has truly been a joy to see their relationship blossom into what it is today. They truly enjoy each other and it is wonderful!

 

Here they are looking out at a trio of dolphins that were jumping and swimming just off the coast! Unfortunately I was unable to catch a shot of the dolphins though.

 

Kate and Travis have now been together for a year and it has been so fantastic watching these two. They are so wonderful together and it Kevin and I both agree after spending more time with Travis again this weekend...he is a WONDERFUL young man and we are pleased with this relationship.

 

 

Kevin and Kyle enjoying a sweet father/son moment.

 

 Another shot of Kate and Travis

Kevin and I

Kevin lights the fire in our little Weber. 

 

 

Kyle enjoys an afternoon snack and a whole lot of being silly....

 

 Kyle and I

 The kids just "chillin"

 Kate just "chillin"

 Kevin just "chillin"

 Since moving here Kyle has become a total fish in the ocean! He LOVES to boogie board. He has taken a few surf lessons but enjoys boogie boarding more. I found this wet suit for him at a garage sale for only $40. It's a nearly new O Neil wetsuit and a thermal undershirt that sells for nearly $300 new! Although the water has warmed up a lot due to the currents coming up from Mexico, Kyle still prefers to be in a wet suit.

Sunset over the pier..even on an overcast day it was still beautiful.

 Right before it got dark, Kate decided she wanted to go boogie boarding with Kyle without wet suits. They had a blast!

 Here they are after a fun time riding waves. I love the sunset in the background.

 Promptly at nine pm the firework show started! They shot them right off the pier and the pictures don't even begin to do justice to the incredible firework show we enjoyed.

 Kate and Travis enjoying the fireworks.

 The show went on for about 30 minutes and then it was time for Kevin to ride his bike over 2 miles to go get the car! There was approximately 300,000 people on the beach for the 4th of July and Kevin dropped us and our stuff off in the afternoon, went and parked the car and rode his bike back to the beach. When the show was over he rode his bike back, got the car and came to pick us up. Next year we have already decided that we are getting to the beach at 7 am and getting set up so we can get a spot to park in the lot near the beach. 

I hope you and yours had a wonderful 4th of July!!! We sure did.

Fourth of July Decor

I love decorating for all holidays and 4th of July is no exception. I started my decorating at the front of our house by putting out a little decorative flag in the landscape and hanging a floral arrangement on the front gate that enters our courtyard.

I've had this wrought iron hanging basket for many years and have changed the floral arrangement in it many times. 

I bought the red white and blue silk flowers at Michaels and arranged them in green floral foam that I pressed down into the basket. Then I filled up the basket and covered the floral foam using floral moss. I finished up the arrangement by adding 2 American Flags and some french wired  ribbon to hang the floral basket. 

One of the things I love about our house is the all white galley kitchen. Because it is separated from the rest of the house I can decorate it in any color scheme I want and not have to worry about it not coordinating with the family room decor. I put away all the orange and yellow decor and put out all of my red white and blue decor for the 4th. I'll leave it all out for the entire month of July and then change it back to the orange and yellow decor for August. 

These little boxes were hand painted by my Mom. The little American man with the flag is from Michaels.

I bought this star at Home Goods a few years back.

Using the same ribbon I used in the floral basket arrangement I hung this cookie mold from Pampered Chef. I've had this for many years.

I found this darling tin pitcher with the No. 4 on it at Michael's this year. Using more floral foam in the bottom of the pitcher I arranged red white and blue flowers and tucked in a flag.

 

Here is another little box hand painted by my Mom, a little fabric flag that belonged to my Mom and my Susan Branch Summer book. Cook Books make great decor items in your kitchen. Notice that I always cluster decor items in groups of 3. It is most pleasing to the eye to group your decor items in odd numbers and a cluster of 3 is THE most pleasing to the eye.

Here is another little American man that is attached to a round box (from Michael's) and 2 more of the little hand painted boxes my Mom made many years ago.

Here I took a small mason jar and arranged several American flags in it. The little tin standing "America" is from Home Goods last year and the hanging American themed star  is also from Michael's a few years back.

I LOVE this wrought iron corner shelf unit. There is the perfect little "nook" in our kitchen where it fits like it was made to go there! I purchased it about 15 years ago at Ross Dress for Less in their home section. In fact, almost all of my decor comes from discount stores like Marshall's, Home Goods, TJ Max etc. These stores get deliveries twice a week and there  are so many treasures to be found at such reasonable prices. In fact recently I saw a vase at Home Goods that was $14. Then I saw the SAME vase at an upscale home boutique in Chino Hills for $49.99!!  There is just simply no reason to pay those kind of prices. To be honest the owner of the boutique probably bought the vase at Home Goods and marked it up to sale at her/his store!

 

Lastly, here is my little wooden country flag. I've hung it inside and out, but this year it looks great int the kitchen.

I hope you have enjoyed this tour of my red, white and blue kitchen! 

Courtyard make over

 BEFORE! As you can see this planter near the table was an over-grown jungle!

AFTER !!  We removed a few of the "ugly" and snail infested shrubs, pruned the two trees and purchased 3 shade loving shrubs, including my favorite flower, hydrangea.

This sweet angel statue used to be in my parents yard in the house I grew up in up in Atascadero. I think it looks so good here.

hydrangea....my favorite flower

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The shrub/tree you see to the left is usually covered in bright pink flowers and attracts humming birds. They are flying around out here drinking the nectar from the flowers constantly. I thought it would be fun to hang a bird house here and see if just maybe a humming bird will make a nest in there!

This plant was here when we moved in. We hung up the little wall mounted fountain that was my 30th birthday gift from Kevin. This is right outside my kitchen window so now I can hear the water flowing in the fountain all day and I love it.

      BEFORE!
 Notice the brick planter that runs along the front of the house underneath our bedroom window? It was filled with this overgrown white/silver, dusty shrub. Also TOTALLY infested with snails....and hiding landscape lighting!

Here is another shot of it to the left of the picture. An overgrown, unsightly mess.

I woke up yesterday morning and decided to tear out all of the white/silver shrubs and plant flowers. It was a HUGE job and I was quite grossed out by all of the snails I encountered...but the results are completely and totally rewarding and Kevin LOVED it! I surprised him with it when he got home from work yesterday. 

I chose three kinds of bedding flowers to transform this planter area. Can you believe these beautiful landscape lights were just buried underneath overgrown shrubs? 

I also adorned the area with the other angel statue that was given to us by my parents. This angel used to be in there yard in Atascadero.

 One thing we were sure to do was to put down some snail bait around all of the new shrubs and flowers we planted. Both the front and back yards have a snail issue and we are just doing are best to get rid of them.

Dreams Come True

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This past week I decided to decorate the hall way in our new house with a few family pics. Instead of just hanging them the way I always have I thought it would be fun to use some small ledge shelves. 

I bought these little shelves at Target for $10 a piece. They come with directions for hanging them and I was proud of myself for getting out Kevin's battery operated drill and hanging wall anchors, using a level and doing this whole project on my own. (trust me he was happy too!) These are the kind of projects I would usually enlist his help in, but I decided to try it on my own and the results are so rewarding!

 

 

I was also proud of myself for coming up with a solution to the "thermostat in the middle of the wall" problem. I knew that hanging a bunch of family pics around the thermostat would look ridiculous. Therefore I found this "Dream Come True" picture that is basically a print on a canvas. I found it at Marshalls for $12.

 

The thermostat sticks out 2 inches from the wall and the canvas has a 1 1/2 inch "hollow center". Therefore it worked perfectly for just propping the picture on the shelf and resting it at an angle against the wall. The picture completely encloses the thermostat AND gives the collage of family photos a title which is DREAMS COME TRUE. I love this title because if you look at the photos around it there are images of dreams coming true for our family. Kate with her long wanted dog Lily... Kevin and the kids at the beach (which reminds us that we live at the beach now which has been a dream of Kevin's and mine for many years.) When I need to turn on the heater, I simply remove the art piece, adjust the thermostat and put it back.

In addition to the Dreams Come True canvas I also added a few pieces of interest by propping up 2 different shells and a bird figurine. 

Since I already owned the frames, shells and bird figurine, I just developed several recent family pics, purchased the ledge shelving and the Dreams Come True picture. Total cost for this project was under $60. If you wanted to re create a project like this, you can buy black, wood frames at Walmart for under $4! Additionally the Dreams Come True canvas art is only ONE of several canvas art pieces I've seen out there. Check out Marshalls, Ross, TJ Max, Home Goods, Tuesday Morning or Big Lots  for your best deal. I've also seen them at Pier One and World Market...but you'll pay twice the price there. I've seen all kinds of sayings, quotes, "family rules" and pictures of birds, butterflies, etc etc. This kind of art is perfect if you have something sticking out on your wall you want to cover such as a thermostat.