A Shady Project

I think I might have mentioned at some point that the rental house has no backyard privacy. This is what the backdoor opens up to:

Having been a country girl for the past eight years, I could not handle the lack of privacy. So after a long and unsuccessful search for the perfect shades that I had in my head, I decided to make shades myself, my way (which does not involve sewing)

Fabric:

Adhesives (I ended up using LOTS more of the Heat n Bond):

Tension rods to hang up the shades - we can't drill on the porch structure, so we had to get creative:

I measured and cut the fabric and then glued the side seams with the invisible stitch:

Then folded it one more time and ironed it on using the seam tape:

Then did the same for the top and the bottom and glued it using the seam tape:

Leaving enough space for the tension rods to fit through:

The ends of the top and bottom hems were coming undone before the shades were even up. So I sewed it by hand to secure the edge of the seam:

Here are the before and after!

Originally all the sides were going to be covered - but it might be a little overkill... Did I do this all on my own, you might ask? Well, no! I had helpers!

And there you have it! My first official "crafty" project!

Last Week's Project

Last week's project was:

That's right, cleaning the fence - all 350ft. (give or take a few).

Note that the picture above has not been enhanced at all. It is shown with all of it's true colors. Quite amazing, I'd say.

Clean House

Today our poor house got a good cleaning. Both inside and out. Inside involved the usual washing, vacuuming, and dusting but for some reason this week there was an overwhelming amount of dog hair everywhere. I am quite thankful for my super Dyson vacuum cleaner (highly recommended to all who have dogs, or allergies, or just want to invest on a super awesome, powerful vacuum).

While I was inside doing all that, Norm was outside cleaning the porch railing... the wrap.around.porch railing. 

Step 1: Spray wood with diluted bleach

Step 2: Scrub with brush

Step 3: Rinse

Step 4: Repeat until completed

For obvious reasons, the dogs were barricaded in the back yard. Although they hung out by the barricade so they could watch Norm work. Here's Pellet hanging out:

Then there is Cali. She can't do normal things, always has to be the obnoxious one:

Here is a "before", "during" and "after" the cleaning. Amazing! 

Our railing is super white and shiny now. It's borderline painful to the eyes...

Non-Typical Campfire

The other day we went to Hallowed Hawk Farm – Eric and Kerrie are good friends with farmers/owners Dory and Miguel. They were going for a cookout to the farm and invited Norm and I to tag along.

What was planned:
Dory and Miguel were providing tuna steaks, salad and munchies (olives, cheese, avocados, plantain chips). Kerrie and Eric were providing burgers and buns. We were providing s’mores fixings. We were going to have a great night by the campfire chatting and laughing and everything that goes along with it – like possibly scary stories and peeing in the woods.

What actually happened:
We got to the farm and helped Dory pick blackberries and that was fun. As we walked up to the campfire/cookout area we started hearing thunder, looked up to the sky and noticed the dark clouds rolling in. Confident that the storm would go around us and determined to have a good time, we settled in.

Within 20 minutes the wind picked up, we pulled up the radar and saw that in fact we were in the path of a severe storm.

So we quickly gathered all the belongings into the cars and got in the cars to wait out the storm. About 15 minutes later – which involved the falling of quarter sized hail – the storm calmed down. The guys ran to the fire pit to save the burgers that had been left while we were waiting out the storm so we could eat.

It actually never stopped raining, so we huddled at the back of the cars to eat during the light rain. As soon as the rain picked back up, we went back in the cars.

While we sat in our car and Dory and Miguel sat in their car we figured: why not back up the cars to each other so we can still spend time together and chat? So we did:

And that’s how we spent the rest of the evening.

What ended up happening was nowhere close to what was planned – I don’t think we could’ve planned the unplanned scenario even if we had tried. The evening was perfect the way it was: all huddled underneath the old tarp surrounded by lighting that lit up the big sky as we wore our damp clothes.

Just like last night, quite often our lives play out differently than what we have them planned out to be. We are dealt cards, have to quickly figure out what the best play is and keep moving forward.

Unlike last night though, we often fight (and fight hard) the unplanned scenarios of our lives instead of being flexible, trusting and enjoying those moments. We get hung up on what things are supposed to be like instead of making the best of what the moment currently is.

Summer Fun

Summertime brings fun things like being outside in the 102 degree weather and fearlessly playing with water. 

The other day we were outside hosing off the backdoor rug and apparently providing entertainment for Cali: