I haven’t been blogging so much lately, but I have a good excuse, I promise! It’s just that we have been so busy lately. Busy running to the park, playing in the sandbox, going on photographic scavenger hunts (fun!), and generally whiling away the time in a lovely kind of way. This has been such a sweet time with my four little buddies.

We like to go on walks and talk about the trees and flowers. I quiz the girls about the names of things, and they get a kick out of beating me to it. Nothing makes me smile quite like a toddler skipping beside the stroller and yelling, “Oh, look Mom! I see a snowball viburnum!” We have played this little game for quite a while now, but it is just this year they are good at it. We are scouting out Hawthorne trees a block away, and trying to beat each other to finding forsythia bushes (“Mom, who is Scythia?”), lilac, allium, petunias, bleeding hearts, spirea, willows, peonies, daisies, vinca, birch, lupines, buttercups, and any other things that I might know the name of.  They are truly delightful little friends.

Seeing my kids grow up is one of the sweetest things – it gives me the kind of feeling you get in the winter when you finally get into bed and you can’t stop wiggling your feet because you are so excited to be there. It is just a total and complete joy. But we have been doing other things too!

A couple weeks ago I bought a ridiculous little cabinet at a yard sale for $15. It came with the five spindle pillars that went from the top of the cabinet to the ceiling (think entry-way half wall divider kind of thing in a ranch home ). Although it was not too hot of an item, I just got a feeling about it. I was pretty sure we could cut off the spindle things and make them into legs for the table top that has been haunting our garage. Well, we could! My champ of a husband whipped it out for me in no time. And pickled the whole thing, and finished it off. So here it is, our new table, and this one has leaves!

And yes, if you were wondering about that hot pink business back there, it would, in fact, be the other half of the ranch home divider (visit this page to find out beautiful properties similar to this in and around your neighborhood). So, my kind husband filled the holes on the top, painted it hot pink for me, and then let me lay into it with a faux bois paint finish. Yes, I did. I love it! Although this color choice was originally intended for the girls’ room, we are enjoying it out here for a while. And what is funnier is that inside this handy cabinet is all the children’s clothing. I fold clothes on the dining room table, and just open the doors up and put things away as I go. I told you the living was easy! But let’s go get a closer look at that ridiculous thing:

And now you know that about us. My husband got a big bang out of this technique and says it is a good thing we don’t have more time on our hands or faux bois could become to our home what chipotle was to the chain restaurants in the 90’s. But don’t worry – we aren’t quitting – we already have another project lined up for this!

Remember that hexagon granny square afghan? Well, I decided to skip the middle color and join as I go. Check this out – looking pretty splashy isn’t it?

I am pretty much loving this. I still have 30 or so hexagons that I haven’t joined, and a whole lot of yarn, in some cases still waiting to make an appearance! But speaking of yarn…. yes. Speaking of it. Well, there is no real way to introduce this bit of hilarity, so here is the picture. And I warn you, there are more coming.

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