let there be photos, lots of photos

i'm so tired of bare walls! with our house on the market, i'd really done a lot of packing up and de-personalizing our house so buyers could "picture themselves living" in our house. well, now that we can picture ourselves living in our house for a few more years, i'm very excited to get to personalize our space again!

i've had issues with what i wanted to do for the staircase wall every since we moved in back in 2007. i had continuous searched for inspiration and ideas and finally, i found this courtesy of Pinterest....

this inspiration comes from the cutest blog, forevercottage--check it out here. i love the personal aspect of this gallery. photographs mixed with memorabilia and family touches. so, i took this to heart and started digging my packed away personal items. i gathered and hunted for about 2 weeks. i repainted frames, bought a few new ones and distressed some old one's. i found some of our wedding photos i'd never hung, one honeymoon room door key from the tutweiler personalized with our names and wedding day, a old photograph of my grandparents and lots of other great items. here is where my gallery wall is right now....

i love the lab bust on the wall instead of picture of our lab--although, when i find a good one it's going in a frame to be added too! i still have some room to add more items as i continue to unpack all the personal stuff in the attic. for now, i'm most happy with where the gallery is and i'm working on  few more. glad to have my house back! Pin It

Back to School, Blogging, and a Contest....

There has been a LOT going on in the Carle house. We have taken our house off the market, done some personalized decorating and DIY projects, have made some new friends, lost a friend unexpectedly, acquired a cat & decided to keep the cat, have a Kindergartner in our midst, and many, many other things I want to share with you. I'm going to try to do better at posting consistantly--I really have missed it!

On that note, I wanted to share our First Day of School photograph which won us a $100 gift card to PearTreeGreetings.com, one of my favorite sites. This is a photo collage I did of Jackson's First day of Kindergarten using InstaCollage....

How cute is he?!?! He is attending Southminster Day School in Vestavia and it has been AWESOME! His teacher is Mrs. Crowson and he has 15 classmates. The monkey was a gift from his teacher on "meet the teacher" night that is his friend to ease him into his new room and school. He really does love it and I LOVE having him ride with me everyday.

I'm super excited that we won the contest--I was very surprised when I got the e-mail. They are announcing all the winners soon and I'll be sure to post on the announcemen so you can see all the other cute Back-to-School pictures. Pin It

Little Sluggers

Each Monday night for the past 6 weeks, we have spent an hour and a half at the boys T-ball practice/game and I must say, it has been some of our funniest (& hottest) times spent with the boys. They enjoyed hitting, running, and fighting over which child would get the ball. At times, they enjoyed either picking the weeds while standing in the field or kicking the dirt awaiting the ball. And, at each game they have absolutely LOVED shaking hands with the opposing team and having snacks with their teammates. Jackson has taken to T-ball more than Macklin, but I think that can be attributed to age. He has been focused and really determined to get the rules down and do a good job. Macklin has enjoyed being in the mix and all the snacks! It has been a really fun time and I'm looking forward to many nights of T-ball (& baseball) in our future. Tonight is our last game so I wanted to share some of the cute pics from our first season of T-ball....

Go A's!!

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Green Thumb

Confession--me and plants just don't get along. I buy them with the best of intentions (i.e. keeping them alive) yet, I never seem to succeed. So, I've grown accustomed to the artificial kind that I can use to decorate--just dust and forget about for a few months with no water needed.

Recently, while on one of our weekend trips to Lowe's, we thought it would be pretty neat and educational for the boys if we grew a vegetable & flower garden (as I stand in the aisle laughing uncontrollably on the inside). I admit, all the cute little seed packets absolutely appealed to me and although growing something myself seemed like an enormous task, I was game for the challenge.

Rather than an in-ground or a raised bed garden, we opted to start small and assess our progress. We purchased four Jack Daniels whiskey barrels and selected our seeds. We decided on cantaloupe, carrots, cucumbers, grape tomatoes, green beans, green onions, radishes, Roma tomatoes, squash, sunflowers, tomatoes, and zucchini. We planted and waited. And waited, and waited all while remembering to water our seeds (HUGE accomplishment). Here is a picture of one of our garden barrels....

How awesome is that?!?! We are more than excited as we actually grew something we can eat and use in our house. Here are some of the Instagram photos I took of individual vegetables and sunflowers....

Aren't these super cool?!?! We've successfully grown cucumbers, grape tomatoes, radishes, squash,  sunflowers and zucchini. Some of them aren't quiet big enough to share in a photograph just yet, but I will share as soon as they are bigger. So, the point of my post is that even when you face something you've never ever been successful in doing before (keeping plants alive), try it in a different manner (growing a vegetable & flower garden) with a new outlook (teaching the boys the importance of growing something); you just may surprise yourself! I know I sure did!!

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Gift of Time

Birthday gift to myself--the gift of more time. How does one accomplish such a task? Well, for me the first step is letting go of the long hair! I've had enough of the 2 1/2 hours needed to wash, blow dry and flat iron my hair each time I wash it (who has that kind of time, especially for hair)! So, I did a bit of research and decided to donate my hair to Locks of Love. One of the teachers at the boys daycare did this a few years ago and I thought it was the neatest thing. It requires a ponytail at least 10 inches long so it can be processed and turned into a wig. I admit, it took me a bit of time to make the appointment, but I'm so glad I did it! I've needed a change for sometime and with some twisting of my stylists arm (she loves long, curly hair because she doesn't have to fix it everyday), but I finally convinced her to put my hair into 2 ponytails and cut it off. It was liberating! I will work to get some better pics, but here it is. Happy Birthday to me!!

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Best Friends

Meet Emma, Jackson's very best friend. She recently moved to Georgia and even though they are in different states, they remain best friends. We took a trip up to Gadsden yesterday to visit with Emma, her daddy & grandparents and these 2 had the most fun. We went to Tigers for Tomorrow (great habitat for wild animals), swam, enjoyed lunch and riding on the 4-wheeler. It was hard to leave since they had so much fun. We miss our Emma, but know that these 2 will be best friends for a very, very long time!

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DIY--Retro Travel Bag

I have been assembling a collection of sewing projects I'd LOVE to tackle sooner rather than later. One of those is this really chic Retro Travel Bag featured in the latest edition of the AllFreeSewing.com courtesy of Riley Blake Designs Blog. I know so many of you are sewers so I wanted to share this with you in case you are looking for something new and fun for your next Summer project. Get the full instructions here. Pin It

DIY--Recycled Materials Beach Bag

With a week long trip to the beach just around the corner, I've been looking for some ideas on making a cute beach bag. I can never really find what I like (at the right price) so I've really been contemplating  making my own. While I'm not a good sewer, I saw this really cute idea and pattern that I thought I may actually be able to pull off. I wanted to share it with you in case you too, are in need of a super cute, custom beach bag. The pattern and instructions can be found here, courtesy of Found In The Ali Blog. Enjoy!

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Color Inspiration--Fresh Squeezed ORANGE

As with each new season, the arrival of Summer gives us all the chance to add something new to our interiors. I really like the use of bold color and with ORANGE being my favorite, I just had to share this awesome room inspiration.

Some people would be nervous about using orange in a room, but remember that you don't have to paint the walls orange (although I did in my dining room). Why not use it as a quick pick-me-up for your room by introducing it in throw pillows or painted side tables, such as in this room. How refreshing is this room? Just as refreshing as a glass of orange juice. Go, decorate and be BOLD!


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Meet Edwin

The boys, especially Jackson, have been asking begging for a kitty for a very long time. So long, that the name of the kitty comes from a cartoon they really never watch anymore (unlike a little over a year ago when that's the ONLY cartoon they would sit still for). So, we're trying out this kitty--meet Edwin. We adopted him from a friend and are trying him out for a week. If they boys don't keep up their end of the deal, he goes back. He's on "kitty loan", I told them. Wish us (and our lab) luck!

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Water Logged

When I say we're water logged, I mean it! I believe the only time we weren't in the water this long Memorial Day weekend was when we were sleeping. It was a great weekend with family and friends and we are excited to get this summer started. Can't wait to post some of the CUTEST pics of the boys enjoying the water! More to come...

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Easter 2012

Easter this year was one of the best Easter's we've had as a family in a long time. I credit that to our return to our old church, Dawson Memorial Baptist Church. Ray and I went to Dawson when we were dating and we attended pre-marital classes there before we got married. After we were married, we attended the young marrieds class and met some really great couples. Then, life sort of took over and we decided we lived a bit too far to drive to Dawson every Sunday so we opted to have "church on the couch" for some time. Some Sunday's we'd even have "church at the gym" and watch Dr. Fenton's message on television while working the elliptical.

After moving to our current house, we visited several churches in our community to grow our faith and to get better connected with our neighbors. Although each of those churches were great churches and unique in their own way, they just weren't home for us. So, a few weeks ago we decided to return to Dawson and we couldn't be happier. This decision comes at a time in our life and marriage where we need faith and a church family more than ever! Let's face it, raising children and having careers can be time consuming and stressful. We feel like we've let our faith suffer and we have made a decision to mend ourselves with our Dawson church family. And, we know our decision was the right one because Jackson & Macklin couldn't be happier! They LOVE Sunday school and have adjusted better than we expected.

Once we got home from church, we had Easter lunch together and enjoyed hiding (and finding) Easter eggs and our Easter baskets. It was a great Easter Sunday! Pin It

Ready for Big School

The title of this post is how Jackson feels about Kindergarten--me, not so much. I know it's a great milestone and that he's going to have so much fun and GROW UP so fast, but I couldn't get out of that cute library and away from all that paperwork fast enough! Mostly because I knew I was about to loose it and cry like a baby and I didn't want all those women to think I was a crazy person!! Also, because as I was sitting there working on all his forms, I started remembering all his baby moments and I realized those were gone, we will now start to have big boy moments! I think that's the part I'm the most sad about. I remember holding him in the hospital and never wanting to put him down. I remember bringing him home and starring at him for hours just watching him sleep (and leaning down to make sure he was breathing). I remember him walking with his laughing lion for the first time, him saying his first word (ball) and all the other things that go with becoming a mommy and watching your little one grow. Now, he's embarking on this new adventure and although yes, I am sad, I am  also happy too. Happy for him. I know he's going to meet some great new friends and learn so many new things and Kindergarten is so much FUN! He's ready, now I just have to get myself ready!! Pin It

The Carle Cowboy's Western Celebration--Part 2: All the CUTE Guests

I have to admit, when I decided to plan a joint birthday party for the boys this year I was a bit nervous. Then, once I decided to have the party at our house, I was even more nervous. Let's face it, a lot of planning goes into any event, but when it's your boys birthday party and it's at your house, you will stay awake around the clock (if needed) to make sure it turns out as close to perfect as possible (I know my friends with girls are laughing and saying thank God she doesn't have girls)!

Well, most of my planning was done on-line with the help of many blogs and party sites (those links to come) and a few hands-on help from family and friends. And, there weren't too many sleepless nights (hard to believe). The guests had an amazing time (kids AND adults) and the turnout was spectacular with just over 70 people in attendance. Check out all the fun our party guests had and come back tomorrow for more party details.

  

 

 

Everyone had a rootin' tootin' good time and I'm sure all the outlaws were plum tired when they got home!

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