Halloween {Digital Scrapbook}

Sahlin Studio and Brittish Designs just released their latest Project Mouse collab kit, and I couldn't resist buying it right away this weekend while it’s still on sale. I downloaded it last night, and tried to print the cards for a paper Project Life page, but I couldn't get my printer to work. Hubby just completed some computer upgrades on my laptop last week and thought it was working when he left for California for the week. He came home today (YAY!), but I haven’t put the pressure on him to set my printer back up yet. Since I was anxious to use the kit, I tried it out on a digital page tonight, using Halloween pictures from last year.


I bought the entire kit here.  Even though the kit is part of their Project Mouse collection, I don’t think most of the elements are specific to Disney – just a fun all around Halloween kit!

Go here to see some of my other digital scrapbook pages.

Linking to: Simple as That

A Month in Photos {September}

       September came and went and I really didn’t take too many photos. How did that happen?!?  In fact, as                    I write this, I just realized that I snuck 2 photos from October into the September collage.  Oops!

Camping in northern Minnesota
Celebrating hubby’s birthday
Water balloon fights
Fall Festivals
More camping
Projects at home

The Simple Things

Some of our best friends came to visit last week. With the addition of our children, our lives have sure changed! I’m sure we had no idea when we met, that 18 years later we would still be great friends and spending our afternoons playing with our children in the backyard.

The Last Few Weeks {InstaFriday}

Here’s what we have been up to the past few weeks – I’m MomsGonnaSnap on Instagram if you want to follow along!

It has been tricky finding time to put this post together each week, but I do enjoy having our day-to-day lives documented, so I’m gonna try my best to share IG photos at least monthly.

Playing in the backyard. Life is good!

Have you tried any of the flavored Oreos?  I had to buy them! The birthday cake ones are much better than the banana split ones.  I definitely prefer the original version best though!

It’s officially fall in Minnseota!  Loving all the colors! (This was the middle of September before this tree turned RED)

The tire swing gets some great use by the neighbor kids.  Apparently rollerblades also work great in the grass…??  Shoes are over-rated.

It took some time, but I finally finished up these nightstands for the basement. Lesson learned, when using white chalk paint, you should still use primer. It was a never ending paint project!!!

On a family movie night (most Friday nights) we introduced Anthony to Goonie’s. We had forgotten so much of this movie and it was fun to watch it again.  As I mentioned yesterday, the basement is usable, even though it’s not finished yet…

We went to a traditional shrimp boil at a friends. This meal was AMAZING!!  Shrimp, Andouille sausage, potatoes, onions and lots of spices with Louisiana hot sauce. Seriously, it was crazy good!  Then we introduced them to Cards Against Humanity. It was a fun night!

Again, this is fall. Our neighbor’s have the perfect tree.

We parked our camper in Grandpa’s shed a few weeks ago. It’s always an adventure to explore Grandpa’s shed. He has been collecting things over the years and he stores a lot of things in his shed. Including several old tractors. Anthony likes them!

The boys on Grandpa’s tractor – aren’t the cute?!?

I thought they were both gonna kill me when I suggested we stop for a few pictures by a corn field. I think hubby was worried that someone he knew would drive by and think he was crazy. We were surrounded by corn fields, so it just seemed like something we needed to do.

Here’s a better picture of the trunk/coffee table I mentioned yesterday. It was a flea market find and we just spray painted some casters to match the finish. They raised it up off the floor to the perfect height for the couch.

My computer… So with all of my playing in Photoshop and all of the pictures I take, my computer became extremely low on memory and space. The first upgrade is complete (doubled the RAM) but now I’m waiting on a new hard drive (to double the storage). I’m not in the market for a new laptop yet. We are saving our money for vacation, not a new computer. (Beautiful sunny beaches, here we come!)

We had some good friends visit this past weekend. Their son is 2, and he loves to play with all of Anthony’s old toys. His love for cars is adorable. Anthony did a great job playing with him!

While working on some projects, hubby found a walking stick on one of our windows!

Oh Jimmy John’s… Anthony LOVES JJ’s and can eat an entire sandwich!  He and I have a nearly weekly dinner date night on Wednesday’s before piano lessons. We often end up at Jimmy John’s. The #5 unwich (lettuce wrap – no bread) with hot peppers is my favorite!

That’s a quick snapshot of what we have been up to. 

What did you do this week?


Linking to: Life Rearranged and Lauren Elizabeth

Basement Update

It’s been awhile since I have shared about the work we are doing in our basement. Why? Well, because summer took over and life happens. The last update I shared was in July, so it’s been awhile!

It really hasn’t felt like we have accomplished much, but when I look back through the pictures, I can actually see a few updates! I had to use our point and shoot camera since we are having issues with our DSLR. Hoping to get that resolved soon!

What’s that? A couch? Yes, yes it is. It has some great texture – and a fun little herringbone pattern. Pretty sure that once the couch arrived, all basement progress ceased for at least a month. The basement officially became usable. If only we had TiVo in the basement… Netflix and Hulu will have to do for now. The coffee table is an antique trunk I found, and then we added some castors to raise it up a bit. It really should be a little bigger, but it will do for now.  Better pictures coming soon (maybe!). Oh, and ignore the lack of decorating. I pretty much just carried down a few things that have been pulled off display upstairs, and then set them in the vacant spots downstairs. Still waiting on the doors, shelves and crown molding for these cabinets…


I found this cabinet at Nadeau in Minneapolis. Fun fact: it was full of little Buddha’s in the store. They even gave us one to bring home! The little bench with the W pillow was made by an Amish carpenter about 12 years ago. It fit well in our first home, not so much in this one. Thinking a coat of paint might help…? It has great storage, and I’m not ready to let it go yet.


I am super excited about this table! I found it at a local flea market. It has a cast iron drafting table base with a solid wood top. The crank actually works, so the table height is adjustable. Our plan is to use this as a family game table, and then as a high top bar table when we have company. I just haven’t decided what to do about stools yet. The cardboard underneath is because the base is cast iron. We plan to put some kind of finish coat on the underside of the feet so that the table legs do not leave rust spots on the carpet (assuming there is ever moisture in the basement). It will eventually move over, invading the treadmill space. Not sure what to do about that beast. I use it too much to let it go, but we just don’t have a great spot to put it.


The trim around the patio door is newly finished. In the last month I painted the patio door (one coat of primer, 2 coats of paint) and then last week hubby put the trim up around the door. It’s amazing how finished it makes that corner look! Now I just need to prime/paint the screen door. Also going to try painting the little pieces for the alarm system (the little brown rectangular piece in the upper left corner of the door).


This is my absolute favorite part of the basement. If only there were doors, shelves and molding. Patience…??  What’s that?!?


The wall color looks crazy blue in this next photo, and not at all accurate, but I wanted to try and capture how the lights spotlight the fireplace. The painting over the fireplace is too small, but I had to fill the space with something I already had. What better to use than an oil painted that was hand painted by my Grandma! She also made the vase that is sitting on the hearth. She was very artistic and I miss her a ton.


Some other basement progress not shown in these pictures:
1. We found a bedframe for the bed in the spare room – no more mattress and boxspring on the floor. Our guests have appreciated the upgrade!
2. I painted a set of nightstands that I found on Craigslist. Right now they are extremely poorly styled (like most of the basement) with teeny tiny cast-off lamps that used to live in our master bedroom (10 years ago). If I’m honest, one of the lamps still needs a lightbulb. Maybe I will take care of that tonight…?
3. Construction on the bathroom vanity has begun! Slow and steady. I should probably start looking for the perfect paint color…
4. We have been researching surfaces for the bar counter-top. My choice would be granite. Pretty sure hubby is happy with whatever we choose, as long as it is cheap. Ugh. That means that granite is out. At this moment, I think we are going to try pouring a concrete countertop. This could get interesting!
5. A decision was made about part of the trim that still needs to happen on the stairs. It’s just waiting for paint and installation.
6. We picked up some rugs for the bathroom. The shower and toilet work, so it’s usable, but you just can’t wash your hands yet… We have hand sanitizer on the shelf :)

The weather here in Minnesota will soon be taking a severe turn for the worse (remind me why I live here?!?), which means we need to prioritize some of the painting that needs to happen. Last winter I had a painting station set up where the couch is sitting, and it seems like I was completing some phase of trim painting several times a week. This year I need to do all of the painting in our garage, and it’s not heated… yet… Guess I will be working on painting as much as possible over the next month…

I am hopeful that I will have more exciting basement updates to come soon. Updates would come faster if we had some volunteers to help us make progress.  Anyone interested??