so far...

summer has been good so far! not amazingly peaceful by any means, but certainly not the whine-fest i had been dreading. we gave into the pool membership pressure (you have to go about 17 times to make it a 'good deal' money wise), so we've been to the WG pool a lot. we've done a few things on the summer to-do list with moderate to high degrees of success. we've had VBS this week, tons of therapy (speech & occupational) for julia, lots of dinners with friends... and i was worried we would get bored!

here are a few pictures of summer so far...

the mermaid tails... not nearly as cute as these on etsy, but sufficient for an afternoon with scissors & fabric glue.
they are reversible so there is no fighting over who gets the pink one & who gets the blue... smart mommy, yes?
we bought this table for $200 on craigslist.... yes, it's huge & i'm SO excited to be done with refinishing it soon! it could probably seat 20 with all the leaves in (and people who don't mind being cozy with each other), which is a big change from our little 4-6 seater with the awkward legs that are always in the way. more pictures of the table to come... whenever i finish it.

since we have a huge table now, i had to get a bigger rug! found this 8 x 10 plain outdoor rug at Target for $60... great price, right? so it's boring... and i'm going to paint on it. i'm a little nervous, but i've read 100 tutorials online- how hard could it be?!

see that faint pattern? i think it's called a Greek Key pattern. anyway, i'm planning to color that part in dark blue- similar to the color on our dining room walls. actually, not just similar- i'm going to use the same paint since i have almost 1 gallon leftover. pictures of this project to come as well... hopefully successful pictures, not sad 'look at the rug i ruined' pictures. : )

i've also been busily cooking recipes i get from Pinterest! this one is originally from this website. it calls for tomatoes, but our friends that ate with us have a child with a tomato allergy & i left them out. it was great without them, but i bet they add a lot of flavor!

yes, that's a whole chicken in the background. i've never done it before, and i have no idea why- so easy (and inexpensive) to buy a wholechicken & stuff it with garlic & herbs & season it! less questionable sodium content than a rotisserie chicken, too.

we've also been hitting some garage sales! julia (and matt, of course) scored big with all the Cars characters for $5- she loves lining them all up and then taking a few select cars to bed with her.
i hit it particularly big with an estate sale find of 8 older mason jars for $1-$2 each! even the large ones- all but 1 with the original glass fitted lid. and some ironstone, some glass plates, and a funky old shelf that i'm going to repaint & put in our family room. pictures of that project later!
this was less fun... i was blending up some slow roasted tomatoes for a soup & i exploded them all over my kitchen. this picture doesn't do it justice- it was in every crevice of the window trim, and our tiered fruit/veggie basket was completely covered. and i scalded my hand. huge bummer, but the soup turned out really well!
last but certainly not least- my free adirondack chairs! i found these beauties (yes, there are 2 of them) while out running on sunday morning! they fold up nicely, are very sturdy and are such a unique style- i LOVE them! i had 2 offers to buy them from me, but i'm just not parting with them, ladies. now, if you want to rummage in my basement for random decor & furniture items to buy... well, that's a whole other story. and probably another 'home goods swap party' in the near future!

lest you think my life is all sunshine and roses... here's what i see most often:
and i quote, "mommy, take a picture of my face because i am not happy and i think it's because you hurt my feelings."

happy summer, friends.