Best Buddy Walk

Today we participated in Central Indiana's Best Buddy Walk. 
We dragged our teenage boys out of bed this Sunday morning which, believe me, is quite an acoomplishment! 


Other members of the "clan" showed up and we headed downtown. It was cold and damp. But we were doing this for a great cause. 


Our son, Sammy loves his buddies. They take him bowling, to the movies and shopping. This is fun for a young teenager to have peers to "hang" out with.  It is a great program and we, as parents of a special needs child, truly appreciate it. 


So here we are before the start of the race, actually I am taking this picture! My husband Mark, Pam, Ryan & Katy, Alan 18, Sammy 15 and Joe 15. (Hannah and Michael are trying to get ready for the Wedding so could not be with us). 

Sam has a collection of cars in the front pocked of his hoodie, this is a normal thing for him...he loves his Hotwheels and Matchbox cars!!! And he does smile a lot...just not in these pics!!!

Here we are bundled up and ready to go! 

We finished the 5k walk without being rained on...just a little sprinkle. We did get spread out a little as Sam insisted on marching ahead of us accompanied by a young lady friend!

After, we all had a lovely breakfast at La Peep before heading home.


A fun time and thanks to my wonderful family for taking time out of their weekend to show their support! 


Hugs,
Mandy

A BRIDAL SHOWER

What a fun day we had!  So many laughs and a few sweet tears... Great food and great company!


Here a some fun pictures of a special day for a special young lady.  The wedding is just around the corner we are all involved one way or another. 


Here is my lovely future daughter-in-law, Hannah.

Let the memories begin....

Hugs,

Mandy

LOOK WHO CAME FOR A VISIT?

Early one evening something caught Mark's  eye outside the window in the family room....it was a deer...it was about 10 feet from the window....of course my camera was back in our bedroom inside my handbag...isn't that just typical??? Anyway, I rushed back with it and managed to snap this shot. 

 (The brick half moon raised bed is actually a gas fire pit...wonderful on cool spring and fall nights...don't  know if we'll get to enjoy it much this year though, our winter was so mild, the mosquitoes are going to be horrendous!).  

Our young visitor was not alone...

 Lola, our Dutch Shepherd

(Picture taken on Christmas day!) finally realized that we had some visitors/intruders and proceeded to tell us exactly how she felt about it! ..the deer just stood there...quite funny actually, but after a minute or two, they scampered back to the woods, long white tails wagging behind them...

We often see the deer come out of the woods at this time, but usually they stay quite a distance away. This was the first time they had ventured so close to the house. 

We are so lucky to have a nature preserve right on our back step. The wildlife is a treat. We have seen foxes, coyotes, turkey vultures (yuck!) lots of bunnies, ducks and the dreaded geese (I don't like them...there are too many of them and they poop everywhere...Lola chases them away for us.)  lots and lots of birds and deer of course . 

Thanks for popping by,

Hugs,

Mandy

SPRING VIGNETTES

March is upon us, and here in Indiana the daffodils stalks are pushing through the mulch and reminding us that the spring season is upon us.


I just did some very simple additions or changes to the already existing vignettes...I like change, believe me but when I find something that works I tend to stick to it until I am absolutely sick of it!!! With work, teenagers and trying to sell a house, this seems to be working well for me too!


So, main rooms that got "hit" were the main living areas: Kitchen, dining room and a wee touch in the living room.


Kitchen table: Boot tray, corks (hmm...wine consumption.....but many years worth!!) 

cabbages (not real! but garage sale purchases last year), spring green hydrangeas (on clearance)

chicks and nests (had a long time).

Kitchen mantle: Large blue eggs (a few years old and realize I need to remove labels...!), broom brush bunny (Goodwill last year).

Kitchen Hutch:
Cabbage bowl (last year Ebay - dirt cheap), ceramic bunny (old) cloche filled with eggs, croissants and artichokes (all stuff I had),

cabbage plates (Goodwill last Fall), cabbage jug (Goodwill last winter).

Dining room:

Centerpiece: Same old basket from sale last year. 
filled with 3 wire baskets (Tuesday Morning) full of gourdes, decorative balls and two large decorative eggs (Michael's). 

Plate wall: added a couple of cabbage plates (had for years), two large white plates (Goodwill last year) and two small french label plates (Tuesday Morning). 

Living room: 

I tweaked the mantle. Brought back orange Japanese Lanterns and 3 cool handmade brown artichoke looking stems (World Market), painted an existing cardinal orange and added milk glass etc.

That's all folks!!


Hugs,
Mandy
Linking to:

http://frommyfrontporchtoyours.blogspot.com/

lbratina.blogspot.com
nominimalisthere.blogspot.com
www.theshabbycreekcottage.com/

CRAZY SHOES

One of my twin 15 year old teenagers, Joe,  is in the High School Musical, "Pippin" this week and may I add, with pride, that he is one of only a few freshmen selected to perform.

Anyway....the teachers asked each student to do something with their shoes to make them wild and crazy looking. So we grabbed a pair of Alan's (older brother) old shoes. I mean, these things were o l d! Soles worn through, bits and pieces starting to fall off them....and....worse still, he still wore them.....o f t e n.....well trust me....NO MORE! Cos' look what I did to them!

As soon as some of the other students saw Joe's shoes they wanted a pair...so yesterday, I worked on 3 more pairs.....a very large pair for one of the young men, David, and two smaller pairs for a couple of the girls, Daisia and Abbey. Abbey's were a really small pair of practice dance shoes...

And here is what they turned into after I spent 4 hours on them and crawled into bed at 2:30am!!!!

And one of the girls did a great lace on Joe's shoes...need to copy that!!!

The premier was tonight....I hope they all held up and that everyone did well!

Think I'm going to myself a pair for tennis!!!

Oh and to make a lot of you feel good, this is what my laundry room looked like this morning when I got up...ugh!

Hugs
Mandy
Joining

http://twenty-eight-0-five.blogspot.com/
http://www.atthepicketfence.com/
http://frenchcountrycottage.blogspot.com/
http://commonground-debrasvintagedesigns.blogspot.com/

FINALLY! PAINTED BAR CHAIRS

Yup they're finally done....(actually they've been upstairs for a couple of weeks but haven't had a chance to create a post on them....), the dreaded kitchen bar stools that hubby asked me to paint and I happily agreed to take on remembering how easy the dining chairs had been see that post here are finished.

Here they are before

And here they are down in the basement waiting to be painted

Now I don't have any of the actual paint process...but I can tell you it was painfully slow and tough...see those lovely craftsman style spindles?

8 of them on each chair and then there are another 6 on either side along the bottom

Anyway...there are lots and lots actually 80 in all...with 4 sides a piece...phew!!! and let's not count the legs etc... Sanding, painting, sanding (aging), staining and two coats of poly later...

Close up

I am happy they are done...really happy!

Thanks for visiting,

Hugs,

Mandy

Linking to:

projectqueen.org/
http://astrollthrulife.blogspot.com/
http://athomewithk.blogspot.com/
http://www.myuncommonsliceofsuburbia.com/

http://frenchcountrycottage.blogspot.com/
http://twenty-eight-0-five.blogspot.com/

WINTER BOOT TRAY DECOR

I haven't shown you my kitchen table boot tray centerpiece yet and as we are already February and here in Fishers, Indiana we are having our first real snow fall of the winter (!)  I thought I'd better get this post out there!

I took this picture at dawn the other morning, that poor tree to the left of the photo has a serious case of coffee deprivation!

I love this one! 

Oh and here's a couple of other little vignettes

Thanks for visiting,

Hugs,

Mandy