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Tuesday, September 27, 2016

DIY - Pallet Coordinate Sign

Hey guys!  Guess what?  I actually finished a project AND I'm blogging about it!  Woo-Hoo!  I mean - dishes need to be done, laundry needs to be put away and toys need to be picked up, but I'm making this little-old-blog of mine a priority right now.

Why not, right?

Okay, so, here's the deal - my neighbor, who lives just two doors down, recently had the outside of her house re-sided.  One day, as I was gawking, spying, ahem - driving by, I noticed a particular pallet that was different from the usual pallets that I had been used to seeing.  This pallet was large-and-in-charge and it was exactly what I had been wanting!

As I drove by, I also noticed my neighbor was outside talking to one of the construction guys about her house.  The little voice in my head said, "Marie, go get that pallet!  Do it!  Dooooo it!"  So, I put the car in reverse and asked away.  Next thing I knew, one of the guys had walked it over to my house and he had dropped in my yard - and thank goodness for that, because this thing was heavy!  I eventually dragged the pallet into my garage and then there it sat for the next couple of months.

 I, every so often, would attempt to pull the pieces apart by myself (using tools, of course), but it never worked.  I was certain I needed to take up professional bodybuilding if I was ever going to get this thing apart.  Ultimately, I enlisted the help of Jon to break apart the pallet.  He used his manly muscles a handy dandy crow bar and a hammer to break it down...okay, okay...and his manly muscles!  ;) ;) ;)

So...moving on - the fun part...

I wanted these pallet boards to continue to look very rustic.  I was striving for organized chaos.

I picked out my four favorite pallet pieces, turned them upside down, found two pieces of scrap wood and nailed the pieces together.  Easy.  No husband assistance there.  Boom.

#girlpower

Next up, I brought the newly-nailed-together sign inside the house and I began to stencil my little heart away.  You guys, I stenciled for longer than I care to admit, mostly due to centering issues, but I'm soooo happy I took my time because it made sponging on the paint, which you'll read about in a second, that much easier.

I stenciled on our four favorite and meaningful places in Michigan.

DIY - Pallet Coordinate Sign - www.familyandthelakehouse.com

Finally, painting had begun, and with my nifty little sponge in hand, I sponged one number or letter at a time.

Once again, I was looking for imperfections.

DIY - Pallet Coordinate Sign - www.familyandthelakehouse.com

The sign was really coming together and like I said before, the fact that I had previously taken my time and stenciled my little heart away made the sponging/painting process fly by!


Lastly, I added the "degree" and "quotation" marks.  I didn't want these to be too bold, so a Sharpie and a cilantro seasoning cap to the rescue!

#thissignsmellsdelicious

DIY - Pallet Coordinate Sign - www.familyandthelakehouse.com

 That's it and DONE!

Want to see it?

Tada!

Well, you still can't see the bottom coordinates, because I've yet to hang it up higher above our entertainment unit (right now it's leaning up against the wall) but you get the idea.  ;) ;) ;)

DIY - Pallet Coordinate Sign - www.familyandthelakehouse.com

What do you guys think?  Would you make a Coordinate Sign?  What places would you incorporate into your sign?

Thanks friendship!  ;)

Marie

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Our Summer Recap - 2016

Summer is coming to an end and I must admit, I didn't do a very good job of sharing all our fun times with you guys as they were happening.  Mostly because we were crazy busy, but also because it seems as though my blog has had a couple of mini-dos attacks, or so I'm told, and I had no idea what to do about it!

From what I understand, a mini-dos attack occurs when a person sits around and attempts to hack into blogs and tries to shut them down for no other reason than to do just that.  Ugh.  No, my blog wasn't compromised, but the random 1,000-1,500 view spike, all at once and from one place, was enough to make me feel uncomfortable and annoyed.  I was told when this type of attack occurs, a hacker can somehow "view" a blog about a million times and that would be enough to shut it down.

As a result, I changed all my passwords, I've been backing up my blog regularly and I've thought about, and looked into, switching over to be self-hosted with BlueHost and blog over on Wordpress for added protection.  I'm still thinking about it, but I'm just not sure if I'm ready for a transition like that.  Anyhoo, I'm going to stay here and keep doing what I'm doing and hopefully, *fingers crossed*, I stop getting attacked.  If anyone has any information on this kind of thing, please help a girl out!  :)

But that's not what you came here for, right?  Let's get to the good stuff.

Prepare yourself for a lot of pictures and just be happy that I didn't post all 234,345,634,375 of them!

It all started here - with our little getaway to our favorite summer vacation spot!

You guys, our summer was filled with lots of fun!

Check out Henry's face.  I can't even.


Our summer was full of lots of love...


...some theater...


...and it was sometimes messy.


It was exhilarating...


...cool...


...and of course, educational (taken through a window at our local Kindermusik class)!


Our summer was filled with all-things-summer, of course.

Including getting wet...while wearing socks...


...attending parades and eating lots of candy....


...and bike rides.  Lots of bike rides!


Our first putt-putt golf occurred...as did our first go-cart rides.


Let's not forget about all the boat rides!


We went to the movies...with Eliza's shoes on the wrong feet.


We visited the library for their weekly events...


...............some events more amusing than others...............


We run up and down our local sledding hill.  Mostly so Mama could have a break. ;)


I became a Godparent!!!


We went up north to visit my brother and his family for our niece's birthday.


We hung out with some besties...


Henry and Eliza became brave little swimmers.  In fact both kids can now swim the width of our local pool without a life jacket!  #soproud #checkitoffthelist


Our summer was filled with more bike rides and a visit to Zionsville, Indiana.  It's so pretty there!


Our summer was filled with anticipation.  Henry received his teacher/kindergarten information.  It was getting real...

#messyhairdontcare


But first, we visited the dentist...



#nocavaties


  Our summer was filled with preparing for the upcoming school year...


#ohmyheart


Eliza was also getting excited for school at her pre-school open house.  Look at that pose...


We went on the Parade of Homes and pretended this mansion was our house...


We played video games with our favorite cousin!


We packed up and ventured up north for one last summer getaway...


...we played hard...


...we giggled...


...we became pirates...


...then we sailed our ships home to play in the lake with friends...




We took a few more dips in the lake and before we knew it, it was time for school to begin!

Stay tuned...  I may actually blog about our first day of school!

*gasp*

Thanks for stopping by and catching up, everyone!

Marie (AKA Worst Blogger Ever)