I've been working on the front windows and door.  It's tedious work to get the old paint off.  Shocker, I know.  There's about 3-4 layers of chippy paint and I've been alternating sanding with the heat gun. It's slow but satisfying progress.

I am feeling nostalgic this week.  Last night, the girls were so excited to tell me that our gigantic rose of sharon tree was blooming.  It occurred to me that this was an event we missed last year because we didn't live here when it bloomed.

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One year ago, our family was living in a two bedroom apartment while our house was being renovated.  I was in the last stages of pregnancy, panicking about getting the house ready for us to live in, plus readying for the baby.

My feet in baby's room, 3 weeks before d-day

One year ago, I would take the 3 girls with me to the house, toting movies and snacks to occupy them while I painted.  There was only one room that was clean enough for them to sit in to watch movies and I did my best trying to contain them there so they wouldn't get in the way of the construction crew.  Plus, face it, I didn't want them to "help me" paint.  I wish I was that kind of person, but I draw the line at handing a 3 year old a brush loaded with paint.



Also, the house had no plumbing so there would be no potty breaks (I say potty breaks because I'm a mom to young kiddos. Others may refer to it as "restroom breaks").  Also, it was July in Wisconsin so it was extremely hot.  Also, the house had no air conditioning so it was stifling, thick, sawdust-ridden air inside the house.  Also, most of the painting had to be done in the windowless master bedroom because it was the only spot I could paint to keep the sawdust off the wet paint.  Also, I was 8 months pregnant.  Also, I had my three other children with me. Also, it's worth mentioning twice that THERE WOULD BE NO POTTY BREAKS WHATSOEVER!!!!  I wasn't going to quit painting, pack all the kids into a car and drive to a bathroom every hour.  Just not going to happen.

It was misery, folks.  I took breaks here and there to get fresh air and keep sanity, but I lost all pleasure I had in painting.

Anyway, we all lived through the month of July and were able to do a short vacation up north before baby arrived.

Those some crazy veins, Laura.  Darn that pregnancy blood volume expansion!

a.) photoshop my enormous bulging hand/arm veins out

b.) also photoshop out the paint on my arms and hands

c.) make it look like I just had a manicure

Thankfully, Megan agreed even though I was being neurotic and captured this sweet moment:

It's a tradition for our family to go to Bastille Days in downtown Milwaukee.  There's live music, artists, dancing, entertainment, great food galore and a guy that walks around with a lizard.

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I have been thinking a lot about what to do in the sunroom of our house and within the past two weeks, I think I finally have a plan.

The room feels a little formal right now with all the woodwork (that I have yet to refinish) but I do have a very cool tribal rug in there.  I also was able to find a very sad looking parsons table at Restore this week for $8!  It will likely find a home in there as well.

I was absolutely inspired by this photo:



I think this look would work nicely in our formal entry space to let people know right off the bat that we don't take ourselves too seriously around here.

The wallpaper is Fireworks by Albert Hadley.  I wasn't willing to purchase the wallpaper because it would likely be insanely expensive (because that's just what happens when I really like something) and also I think it may be discontinued.  I began researching some diy stencil ideas and found this:



And then I saw Jenny post about it today and confirmed it for me that I should go ahead and rock the look.

So here's my plan.



The good news is that I already own all this stuff!  I just have to make the stencil and paint.  Which, face it, will take hours and hours but at least it's free, right?

4th of July week was ridiculously fun.  As a mommy, it's sometimes just fun, even necessary, to just have an all-out, run the kiddos around kind of time.  We did Summerfest and the zoo. The girls camped with their cousin and actually made it through the night in a tent.  We went to a wedding, to the Madison farmer's market, ate at the best Laotian restaurant in the world, celebrated a birthday & anniversary, and went to two fireworks shows.

We did parades.  Yes, that's plural.





 And Marielle vigorously ate her weight in watermelon.

I just found a great app.  So great, in fact, that I actually paid for it.  First time for everything, I guess.

It's called Waterlogue and it's available on the App Store for $2.99.

After some trial and error, I found that the best candidates for these photos are closeups without a lot of background detail.  You can choose to add a border if you like.






There's a chance that I may be become obsessed with this app and every photo I post to Facebook or Instagram will be a watercolor.

Love this!