Retreat Advice

I'm helping plan a women's retreat for the early Spring of 2010. We have our date, location and main speaker. However, we need some help on what to do during our "off hours"!! I would love to hear from You, about what some of your favorite activities, seminars, etc. were at your women's retreat!

Two things to keep in mind:

1. We will likely still have snow on the ground!
2. The women attending will range in age from college to grandmothers!

Here are some pics from Timber Wolf Lake, where we will be staying! Timber Wolf Lake is a Young Life property in Michigan. Let me know if you are interested in attending!

How Your Garden Grows

Our garden is growing! We were away this past week (this should explain the lack of blogging)! Anyway, my husband and I were both curious as to what our garden would look like! We had harvested some beans the week before we left and we knew they would be going crazy!! Thankfully, I had a neighbor pick some for her family to enjoy.

When we got back I picked our first three zucchini. I heard they grow like crazy, so I'm on the lookout for some yellow squash and zucchini recipes. Also, does anyone know how I can freeze them?

I also picked some hot peppers! I will be chopping those and freezing them for my homemade salsa. We have a number of tomatoes on the vine, but none are ripe.



Also, I was so excited to see some sunflowers growing! I think next year I will plant an entire row. They just seem to be the ultimate garden flower!!

Do You B&B?

Do you stay at Bed & Breakfasts? This past weekend the hubs and I were up North at Traverse City. We stayed at a B & B the Aberdeen Cottage. It was so much fun!! It might have something to do with the fact that I love breakfast so much!!!



This was the third time that we stayed at a B & B. All three were so different, but we enjoyed them all. Who knows, maybe we will open up a B & B once we retire!

Here are my questions for you:

Where do you stay when you are on vacation? (local chain, B & B, time share, etc.)

What was your favorite place that you stayed?

Got Paint?

The other day I mentioned that I was working on some projects. So here are a couple of things that I worked on for our master bedroom!



First of all, remember all the little hints that I gave when I mentioned that I went antiquing? Well, this is what I bought..... an old window for above our bed! I must say that I heart windows!!!! Since we have such a high wall in our bedroom I needed something to give it a little more dimension.

The window did not start out black. Here is what it looked like before I added a little elbow grease and some black paint. Of course, I tried to add the roughed up look to my painting technique! Need to keep the old look'n old!!



Here is my second paint project for the room. I found these two paintings at a local thrift store for $2 each! I thought they would add a little character to my room, plus a little splash of red. However, I wasn't that wild about the golden color of the frame.



So, I picked up a can of spray and tamed down the color. Here is what they look like now!



I don't know why I waited so long to use spray paint!?! I think I'm hooked!!!

Summer Fun

It has been a fun summer! We have had so much fun just hanging out this summer, celebrating the 4th of July and visiting with extended family!! Here are some of our recent pictures!



The past few years we have celebrated the 4th of July with a late afternoon picnic with friends. One of the favorite new traditions is ending the meal with homemade icecream!






While the cousins were visiting we decided to make our own homemade icecream in the bag. This was a first time for all of us. With just a little half and half, sugar and vanilla we enjoyed a cool treat in minutes!!


I've been working on a couple of simple projects that I hope to post about real soon!

Can't Wait!!

As I was writing this post in my head, a number of titles came to my mind, "Nine Pillows," "The Romance is Back," (this was appropriate since yesterday was my ninth anniversary)and "Missing Red!" However, since my bedroom isn't finished, the title needs to be "Can't Wait" because I couldn't wait to share with you what I have been up to!!




For those of you who read my blog on a regular basis, you know my master bedroom has been on my mind ever since I first posted here. I have been a busy girl! A little consumed at times, but I've been trying to keep a proper perspective on things!!

I'm almost embarrassed to admit this, but I ended up taking two different road trips with my girls in search of the perfect bedding! I loaded the DVD player into the van and promised the girls we would eat out! We were off, one day to the Pottery Barn Outlet and the next to a store that carries Pine Cone Hill Bedding. The funny thing is, I didn't purchase any bedding! At the PB outlet I purchased a new shower curtain and a pillow form. The pillow forms are a great deal and I always pick up a couple when I travel to the outlet.

After all of this I ended up purchasing a plain white quilt and shams from my local Pottery Barn store. I decided it would be easier to purchase some fabric for throw pillows and then I would have the option for change during different seasons. This was much easier said than done. I finally found this fabric at one of the local quilting shops. It is the House Collection design by Annette Tatum! I never would have guessed that I would have gone with a blue and brown combination. However, the "brown" color reminded me of milk chocolate!

So, I ended up painting the bedroom Sleepy Blue by Sherwin Williams. What an awesome name and so appropriate! Then, I started up my sewing machine. Yes, I now have nine pillows on my bed! Count em, Love em all!! I even made my own matching pillow cases. I looked on line and found some patterns on how to make pillow cases. They were so easy, and I think I might have to do this in the future.



Lastly, I made my bed skirt! Again, I chose my inspirational brown fabric for this project. With a high bed and a foot board, I find it much easier just to make a bed skirt. Yes, that is a step-stool that I need on a regular basis! No laughing!!!!



I still have a number of things to do in the room including my antique project, hanging pictures on the walls and figuring out my window treatments. I would love to make some flowy window treatments, but the reality of needing to purchase 12 yards of fabric, might put a little damper on things. I did see that Ikea has some panels at a very low price, but they are unavailable on line. Has anyone purchased or seen these treatments? Just wondering if it is worth another road trip?

Earlier, I mentioned that I'm "Missing Red"! I ordered some fabric samples from Calico Corners, mostly in there Candy Apple collection. However, I'm loving my room so much, I don't know if I will want to switch things up come fall. We'll just have to wait and see!!!