Oscar

The Lovely Baby has arrived! Oscar Nicholas Eichman was born on 7-11-11, yes, Free Slurpee Day! Our little fella already knows how to make an entrance.

We have spent the last week staring in amazement, snuggling, changing diapers, feeding, changing diapers, feeding, snuggling and falling in love!

Although, I am going to take some blogternity leave, I can tell Oscar is dying to get a paint brush in his itty bitty hands.

The Lovely's

Water Feature Obsessed

What kind of home owners would we be if we didn't obsess over our own home improvement projects. I am wrapping up the week with none other than our new water feature...again! So proud, so so proud!

It all began with our poorly placed sump pump, flooding the sidewalk and making our neighbor's yard soggy.

So the digging began...

Materials were gathered...

Progress was being made...

and plants have been strategically placed. 

What is everyone looking at? The truth is we stand around and look at our water feature a lot. Water level is monitored, rock placement is observed and curb appeal is admired. Fun times at the Lovely's!

BEFORE

 NOW

Lazy Hanging Doesn't Pay

One of the first projects I tackled when we moved into our house in December was hanging a wall of frames from Ikea in our living room. 

Lookin' good, huh? Well, what I didn't tell you is that I didn't mess with the hardware that Ikea includes with each frame. There was wire and clips and it looked all too complicated for this girl. So, I just hang the lip of the frame from the nail, easy cheesy.


Six months later it turns out that this shortcut was not such a good idea. Due to the weight of the frames they started to gap on top.

It was not easy capturing the magnitude of the problem by photo. As you can kind of see, you should not see the edge of the mat underneath the frame. Now imagine laying around watching TV and being able to see all 8 mat edges peaking through. What's worse, I caused the problem due to my laziness in the first place.


So, I did what any pregnant control freak would do...I recruited Henry to help me fix it:)


We bought some new hardware for the job...

Henry measured and I cut the wire...

The pics are all back where they belong- gap free!

Water Feature Featuring More

Over the hot and humid holiday weekend, Henry persevered and made progress on our water feature. 


This is where we left off  (do you like how I say "we"? We are a team after all)...

We needed about 40 big border rocks and found them at our local big box hardware stores for approximately 1.40 each. We decided that instead of spending our pennies on rocks we would steal them...from ourselves...

Henry did some reworking of our backyard beds and we reasonably scrounged up enough rock for the border of our new water feature...

Next comes the planting. The big Hosta in the back is from our own side yard that nobody sees. We plan on taking more from that side of the yard in the future. The smaller Hostas in the bin come from the neighborhood parkway, the area between the sidewalk and the road. The road is being redone and the construction crews are ripping up everything and tossing it in a dumpster- except for these lucky Hostas!

 Looking good...

More Henry! We want more!

Gallery Wall

Gallery walls all over the World Wide Web these days and shucks, I want my own gallery wall! Who doesn't have gobs of frames laying around? I do, I do. I prepared as much as a girl like me prepares:)

Here is the space for our future gallery, naturally, right?

My preparation...I gave a few frames a coat of paint and moved all the frames to the landing.

and started hanging. Here is a tip that some, perhaps wiser, people would give you...trace all of your frames on paper and hang them on the wall first for placement. There are moments that I wished I was wiser- but who has the time? I could go into labor any minute and I had a gallery to create. So, I just started somewhere in the middle and figured it out as I went, that's what works for me.

Plan Shman...Check it out...

I included artwork from close friends and a filled a few frames with special photos.

 Empty frames? I figure, get 'em up and fill 'em later.

I plan on filling a few vacant triangle wall areas with smaller frames, cute treasures or maybe some letters. Time will tell, but at least the framework has been done (he he, get it? framework:)

psst...Due to one huge hole mishap,  I had to break out the plaster once. Only one time, so don't be afraid.

Throw some goodies in a cute bucket!

Potluck? Bring what you have! No need to shell out the green for a festive treat to share, just throw it in a cute bucket...

I made two kinds of mini muffins...and now I must take a little time to sell my product:

-One Pop Stop. No need for napkins and crumbs, just pop one in your mouth.

-Healthy Junk Food. I used real butter, sea salt and organic eggs...come on! those things matter, right?

-Cute Bucket. You might have to eat a gallon of ice cream first, but then a cute dish towel will complete the package. (Psst, I put a few towels on the bottom so I wouldn't have to bake a million mini muffins)

Who can resist?

Tweet Bird Wreath- Take 2

When my first Tweet Bird Wreath turned out so cute, I couldn't help but make another.

Tune in tomorrow for Tweet Bird Wreath- Take 3. Just joking!?

P.S. Check out Whipper Berry and Tip Junkie and Home Stories A2Z