Random Friday

1. Flowering baskets.
      Since we've moved in, I've been wanting to put up hanging baskets on our front porch. But for the past two months, we've just had some pitiful chains hanging from the top of the porch. So the other day since my dad is here, we made a trip to Lowe's and bought some pink vincas and white petunias, potting soil, and some hanging baskets and made our own. It makes the house look so much more homey. Plus, a ton of the plants around our house are flowering and it looks so pretty right now. 

2. Newsroom.
     I am so excited about this TV show. The first episode aired last Sunday, but it's been replaying on HBO pretty often this week. I really liked the first episode and am so happy that I finally found a scripted fictional show to watch this summer. I am so tired of all the reality shows, like The Bachelorette, Big Brother, The Glass House, Hell's Kitchen, and all that stuff. Here are some things I loved about the first episode: the quick, smart dialogue, the mystery behind the main character's past relationship, and the excitement surrounding the characters as they gather all the info on a developing news story (in the first episode, they are breaking the news about the BP oil spill of 2010). As a journalism major and former newspaper writer, I sometimes miss the research and digging to find all the information behind a story so this show was really fun for me to watch. The show has gotten some bad reviews from the media, but that's to be expected considering this show hit on the fact that the news media has changed a lot in the past few decades (for the worse in many cases). 

3. Sew what?
       This week I worked on one of the projects from my For the Makers craft box. I made the poppy fields pouch (on the left below) and then I went to the fabric store and bought some fabric and another zipper so that I could make another pouch (the one on the right). I'm still not the best at sewing, but I had a lot of fun making it and I'm getting better at making my stitches straight and even. I have two more projects to make from my box, a hanging luminary and a flower hair pin. I highly recommend For the Makers if you or somebody you know love making crafts. 

4. Cravebox. 
      Cravebox is a newer subscription box that has various themes each month. This summer, Cravebox is offering several special edition boxes that you can enter to win. You can sign up to be notified when the lottery to win a certain box is open and then you can decide whether or not you want to try to win it at that time. If you win, then you are charged $10 for box. I entered to win the Summer Spruce Up cleaning box and got it for just $10 the other day. It came with Mr. Clean Bliss cleaning gloves, Bar Keepers Friend cleanser and polish, a coupon for a free box of Glad tall kitchen bags, Sprayaway Glass Cleaner (best glass cleaner EVER!), and a Dawn Duo Sponge Cloth. It was actually pretty awesome because we were cleaning up the house before my parents came into town and I had just been saying that we didn't have any cleaning supplies when we checked the mail and found these goodies. There are four other special edition boxes this summer if you want to try for one: Summer Beauty, Pet Lovers, Summer BBQ, and Back to School. Check it out here.  

5. What's on my Nook.
      I'm currently rereading "Hourglass," the first book in the Hourglass series by Myra McEntire. The second book "Timepiece" came out a week or so ago, but I thought I needed a refresher before I started to read it. Here's the synopsis: "For Emerson Cole, life is about seeing what isn’t there: swooning Southern Belles; soldiers long forgotten; a haunting jazz trio that vanishes in an instant. Plagued by phantoms since her parents’ death, she just wants the apparitions to stop so she can be normal. She’s tried everything, but the visions keep coming back. So when her well-meaning brother brings in a consultant from a secretive organization called the Hourglass, Emerson’s willing to try one last cure. But meeting Michael Weaver may not only change her future, it may change her past. Who is this dark, mysterious, sympathetic guy, barely older than Emerson herself, who seems to believe every crazy word she says? Why does an electric charge seem to run through the room whenever he’s around? And why is he so insistent that he needs her help to prevent a death that never should have happened?" If you're interested in starting the series, now is a good time because the first book only costs $1.59 on the Nook and Kindle. There are a lot of books that are going to be released this summer that I'm interested in, so stay tuned as those are published and I'll let you know more about them.

6. More paint choices.
      The paint dilemma has gotten more confusing now that we've put some paint swatches on the walls in our kitchen and living room. We tried out the paints I mentioned last week and also two from below: Moonshine and Gray Horse. These two paints are more cool grays while the others are warm grays. And the sad part is I can't even choose whether I want cool colors or warm colors. And the funnier part is that I like one of the cool colors best in one room and one of the warm colors best in the other room, but they don't look good together so we can't choose both of them. Ugh. Eventually we will make a decision. But right now it looks like a gang broke into our house and graffitied our walls. 

7. Cute Owen Pic of the Week. 
      As I was cleaning our guest bathroom the other day before my parents came into town, Owen kept following me around trying to get into the cleaning supplies or pulling out his bath toys over and over. I left the room for a moment to get something and when I came back, Owen had discovered a roll of paper towels and was literally tossing it around the room. He was having so much fun that I had to run get my camera and take a picture. 

8. Peek-a-boo Farm. 

     If you are the mother of a toddler and have a Nook, Kindle, iPhone, etc. you need to buy the app Peek-a-boo Farm. Owen loves it. He first played it on my cousin Johanna's iPhone at Christmas and when I found it on my Nook the other day, I just had to buy it. Basically Owen taps on the doors to an animated barn and then the doors open to reveal a farm animal that makes a noise and then a child's voice says the name of the animal. Owen loves playing it and it is so cute watching him use both hands to "open" the doors of the barn. It is a great way to occupy him (relatively) quietly for a few minutes and I think it would be really great for traveling. And the little kid voices are so cute. But don't let your kid grow up saying "wooster."

9. Newest renovation to the house. 

     While my dad was here this week, Tim decided to work on yet another upgrade we wanted for our house: a garage door opener. We had to have our garage door fixed by installing new springs before they could do it, but now we have a garage door that opens with a remote and once we get it all cleaned up in there, we can park our cars in our garage. Yay! They are also breaking down a room in the garage that makes it so you can't park two cars in there. I think they are secretly enjoying destroying it with saws and crowbars.