Fourth of July at the Park

We were not planning on going to see the fireworks in the next town over, which is Port Angeles, WA. It was just too much for this prego mama that late at night.

It was a beautiful day. We picked up a few groceries and enjoyed some ice cream cones at our local market. We brought the groceries home and put them away, and went off to my favorite park, Carrie Blake park in Sequim. There's a couple great playgrounds and a beautiful pond where you can feed ducks. The park offers more than that, but that's our favorite parts.

Sequim has a sister city in Shiso, Japan, and the stone lantern in the middle of the pond was a gift from that city. This is one of my very favorite spots in Sequim.

I am trying to get back into hobby photography. It's good for my mind and soul. There were so many things to take pictures of. It was like being in a beautiful candy shop!

I hope you enjoy these photos. I really just love capturing the beauty of nature.

Cleaning Oxidized and Moldy Aluminum Window Frames

I've been meaning to clean the window frames in my bedroom since August of 2012. Shame on me. They are aluminum and covered in white crud (oxidized) spots and mold. Now that I am getting around to painting the bedroom in the near future, I was determined to take care of as many details as possible, and this really needed to be done.

I was cleaning out my laundry room (part of the total house overhaul) and realized that I had an S.O.S. pad in there. I figured it was worth a shot because it is course and might scrape of some of the crud and mold on the aluminum. I had no clue it would take off all of it! I didn't even have to wet the S.O.S. pad! I was like "Holy Wow!" I accomplished this with just a few swipes.

I have a lot more of the frames that need this treatment, but this discovery needed to be shared with the world.

So if you have aluminum window frames, just go out and get yourself some S.O.S. pads and just wipe off the nasty stuff.

It's seriously that easy.

Filling a Picture Frame With Magazine Pages

This might be a temporary fix. I just really needed something to put in the frame!

I recently put a bookshelf in Willow's room, because after two years of living in this house she still didn't have one. On the same day I did that project I ran across a frame that I got at a yard sale. I figured it was perfect because now I can make the bookshelf project feel more complete by adding something fancy and fun at the same time.

I didn't have any family pictures to put in the frame, so I thought for a second...then i realized I had a bunch of magazines that have tons of pictures in them. So I grabbed a stack and started going through them.

I found some really fun pages, with funky stuff on them, but I decided to go with a theme. I ended up choosing flowers.

I tried a couple different combinations...

Ultimately, I chose three kinds of flowers.

I trimmed the pages down, and used scotch tape to set them in place in the frame. I replaced the back of the frame, and ended up with this:

I am trying to decide whether I want to hang the frame vertically or horizontally.

I can easily replace the pictures whenever I want to. I know I will find better pictures to put in this frame, but it's better than it being empty!

Willow was very pleased with her new bookshelf and pretty pictures. I'm glad I could do something to make her books more accessible and to make her feel like Mama truly cares about her books and her bedroom.

A Bookshelf for Willow

With baby Josiah's due date fast approaching I have been in super nesting mode. This is a good thing considering I still hadn't gone through all of the previous homeowner's belongings that were left behind when we moved in two years ago! It's time for changes.

We did a lot of work on Willow's room, but she was still lacking some storage. One thing that was definitely not functional was a basket full of books. I mean, how can you find the book you want to read when you have to dig through a basket? 

I love this sturdy basket that I got at Ross, but I will probably use it for a toy box for Josiah. It was time to give Willow a bookshelf. I really wanted to do a cool pallet wood project and get all "Pinteresty", but unfortunately I don't have a sawzall to cut the pallets up with. So I'm working with what I have on hand.

This is the shelf that is going into Willow's room because I don't care for it in my room, it's the perfect size for the space, and I need to get Josiah's nursery ready and this shelf is taking up space on his nursery wall. I don't like the dark color of the shelf, but it was Chris's grandparent's and I won't paint it because of that.

Here's what the corner in her room looked like before I realized that I had a bookshelf for her to use! Total "Duh!" moment for me last night. Yeah, and total kid's room picture...

We went through all the books, and Willow is donating all of the ones stacked in front of her. The rest go on the shelf. Very proud Mama!

It took me a little while, between getting supper made, grocery shopping and chores, but I got the books on the shelf and just added some of her cute things real quick. I also put some pictures in a pretty frame to put on top of the shelf, or I might hang it on the wall above the shelf. I'm just not sure yet.

It's 9:10pm, and I am DONE working for the night! These projects take a lot out of me, so I'm wiped!...but I do have a small post coming up about the picture frame project.