House Stuff.

Here are a few more house pictures.  

 Well, to be real honest we had to cheapen up our flooring. . .by quite a bit.  Luckily, we spoke to this lady at the Home Depot in Liberty.  She showed us this really cheap vinyl flooring that we could install ourselves!  So, we bought some for the office to give it a try.  I can't believe how easy it went down and how great it looks!  The only down side I see so far is that it is a bit slick.  It is Trafficmaster Resilient Allure flooring and the color was country pine.  $1.59/sq ft.  Cheap!  

 Here is my kitchen sink!  It is by Kohler and I LOVE it!  I really wanted the Rohl by Shaw or whatever you call it. . .but it was twice as much as the Kohler for the same look.  

I am happy!!  We bought it along with our appliances and other bathroom fixtures at Fergusons in Lenexa, KS.  Ask for Averie.  She is the absolute BEST!  

 Here is Collie putting down the same type of flooring, but a different color in my Craft Room.  I LOVE how it turned out!  This color is Limed Oak.  This color had to be ordered.  The Country Pine we picked up off of the shelf.

 This is pre-airconditioning in the house. . .we were wiped out!  This is the playroom floor and it is also the Limed Oak.  

And here is our porch. . . or at least one side of the porch.  I love it.  What a great birthday present it was!  Brent Vanderford did it and he used a gray dye in the concrete, so hopefully it will keep that dark, painted porch look!!!!  

In other news. . . .Close to My Heart's annual Convention is next week, July 12. 

 I am so excited!  

I must admit, that I have been on sort of a paper crafting hiatus for the past little while.  

I did make some graduation cards in May, that I have yet to mail!  Sorry girls!  

But that is just about it.  

I am spending my time on the house and packing.  

I know you all are getting sick of hearing about this. . . but hopefully I will be a little more settled in the next month or so and we can get back to business!!!!

Anyway. . . back to the Convention. . . I WILL be following all of the updates that will come pouring in on July 12.  They always give some more updates later, but that day will be the big reveal of the fabulous new products.  Just follow me on twitter or my facebook page to see the latest news.  I may even post here, if I get a chance!  

I will also have the new catalog in my hands sometime later in the month.  

Can't WAIT to see it!  

They never disappoint!

Until then, stay cool and I hope you are having an awesome summer!

Paint, Floors, Fishing, and Rocks.

I just noticed that is has been almost a month since I last posted an update.

Here is a little of what has been going on. . . 

All of these photos were taken with my iPhone. 

 Brady standing on the partially built rock wall #2 in front of the house. Collie has fretted over what to do in the front of the house to divert water, make it easy to mow, and to look good.  I think he succeeded.  I will show the finished wall later!  I haven't uploaded those photos yet.  

 Trying to pick the perfect shade of gray.  

And let me tell you, there are WAY more than 50 shades. . . .  :)

We did manage a fishing trip on a Sunday.  Can you believe how big this frog is above?  There were tons of them!

There were several Red eared slider turtles basking on these trees.  

This is the same kind of turtle  as our little turtle, Franklin.  

Hope he makes it to be as big and happy as these guys.

  Brady excited to be fishing and to show off how good of a fisherman he is!

 Mom caught another fish!  

 Brady not so happy that his mother is out fishing him.  He had to give up and pout for a few minutes.  He is used to being the star fisherman.

 Later, Nanny and Pa joined us out on our little island.  Here Nanny and Brady are having some good luck fishing off of the point.

 Joe Burkhardt and crew installed our Red Oak hardwood floors for us and they look amazing!  He will come back once the painters and carpenters are done and finish them!  I just wish we could have done hardwood in every room!  I LOVE them!

Hopefully another month won't go by before I update again!  Our move in date for our house is August 1 and I am getting stressed to the max.  I am very excited too. . . just lots to get done before Aug 1 and that isn't very far away!  Wish us luck. . . .and for some rain, please!  Our crops REALLY need it!  

Wedding Card Teacher Gift and Update.

 I can't believe today is the last day of school!  Wow how this year has flown past!  I am so sad for Brady to leave Dear Elementary.  I just can't imagine there is a better school out there.  The staff is absolutely amazing.  I am sure his new school, Sunrise, will be equally as great.  Just can't believe how fast he is growing up.  


The card above I made for Brady's teacher, Miss Penning. In just a couple of weeks she will be walking down the aisle.  Everything is from Close to My Heart. 
 Here is a list of the items I used.  Besides drying time for the LIquid Glass, I made this card very quickly.
die-cut cards and envelops
Florentine Paper Pack
Florentine Stickease
Color-ready alphabets ( I think they are retired, but check the clearance section on my website.)
Garden Green, Chocolate inks
Liquid Glass
Foam Tape
Colonial White Ribbon. (retired)

Don't mind the mess, please!  I purchased these cups at Walmart for a very decent price.  Then I cut out tags from some Cosmo Cricket Paper I had on hand.  I glued them to Cranberry Cardstock.  Punched a hole.  And tied a ribbon to the cup.  Voila!  A cute and easy tag!  I filled the cup with candy.  Hope the teachers like them!

Here are more of the tags.  The Cannonball is my favorite!  

A long while ago, one of my friends mentioned she had this cool sink in her barn and it could be mine, if I wanted it.  Of course I did.  And it took me many, many, many months to go and get it.  

I had our builder look at it to see if it would work in our laundry/mudroom.  His first words were, it looks like it came straight from a barn!  And it did!  He called it the prettiest sink he has ever seen and said we better lock the house up tight, now.  I think he was being a comedian.

I wonder what he thinks of my cleaned up sink now?  I used some Goof Off I purchased at Walmart to remove some spray paint overspray that was on the front of the sink.  It really worked great and came off very easily.  I just absolutely love it.  It is perfect and I feel so lucky I was able to have this sink.  Thank you so much, Stephanie!  I definitely got the better end of the deal on our "trade"!  

Here is a view of my Craft room.  They have all of the doors in and the trim just about finished.  Though, as I am typing this, they are probably already done!

I just noticed in this picture, the trim above the door isn't finished.  I will have to find another picture to add to show the trim.   

 Here is a little visitor to our hill we encountered as we were leaving the other day.  

 This is a very tall pile of dirt in our backyard that Brady loves to play on.  The tractor and trailer on top looked pretty cute.  He has toys scattered all about already.  You can definitely tell where he has been. . . in the house and out!

Apology.

If I still have any blog readers left at all. . . let me just apologize to you!!!! I have been utterly horrible at updating my blog lately. The reason why is this. . . .

This is our brand-new house.

I am so excited about it. . . BUT it has been consuming all of my time and all of my thought processes. 

And I believe it will continue to consume me for quite some time!

I can't say that I will get better about posting, but I sure hope too!!!

I thought building a house would just be a dream come true.  And it really is.  BUT, I didn't anticipate the amount of stress it would cause on me.  Maybe it is just me, but I have been totally stressed out about it!!!  

But, I am excited.  We have lived in very cramped quarters for a long time waiting for this time!!!!

I always hate to apologize for my lack of blog posting, but I hate NOT mentioning that I have been absent from my blog for almost a month!!!!  

OK. . .hopefully my next post will be way more exciting. . .

Burgesses Build a House.

I have something very exciting to announce!

We are building a HOUSE!  And we officially have walls!

I am so excited. .  .though I alternate between being excited and wanting to throw up.

We have been talking about this for the past ten years or so.

We are only doing this once.  

And due to the very poor farming season, our dream house has been greatly downsized.

Each day when my husband comes home from a bad day of picking crops, the house gets downsized even more.

BUT. . . 

I finally will be able to STOP complaining about the high river and moving out of our house!  We are going to be high on a hill and if the water gets us there. . .well, then we are ALL in trouble! 

 Here is the crew taking the forms down.

 Loading the concrete forms up.

 This is the garage.  You aren't supposed to see the room beneath it, so forget you saw it.

Just another view of all the concrete.

We have already made some mistakes and it sort of makes us sick to our stomachs.

But we are moving on.

The plumber is coming this week to finish the rough in of the plumbing in the basement.

Hopefully, the flat work guy will come this week too.

We have had absolutely beautiful weather and I SO hope it continues.

I am busy getting the loan (minor detail), pricing roofing, windows, doors, siding, etc.  To me, this isn't the fun stuff.  I am ready to pick out cabinets, paint, furniture. . . ya know. . the fun stuff!

So many decisions.   I hope you bear with me as I blog about this from time to time.

Now, off to enjoy some sunshine!  I have been in front of this computer WAY too much today!