Take a Stand - inside a Paula Rae

I stopped by a Paula Rae cottage last weekend

to look at the beautiful white trim she always does.

I LOVE Paula Rae homes.

Not only are they beautifully crafted,

but she always has them so charmingly staged.

Everytime I go to one of her open houses,

I end up asking if I can buy some of the staging furniture -

I tried to buy this rustic buffet piece off of them.

Unfortunately I always get told no,

as her staging furniture is not for sale :(

So anyone who knows us,

knows we built a new home last year.

 (Sadly, not with Paula Rae -

let's get real, I can't afford her!)

We've had our share of difficulties,

as building can really be a nightmare.

Our last battle seems to be over our trim.

I loved white trim so much in the Paula Rae's

that I decided to go with white trim in our house,

however it did not turn out as nice as it looks here.

Ours in fact looks awful.

Our builder had never done white trim before and it shows.

So as we fight over how to fix our trim or replace it,

I went back to look at the trim in the 

Paula Rae homes that first inspired me.

This is what my trim was supposed to look like.

I don't even want to show you what it DOES look like.

Luckily I can't take any pictures right now anyways -

it's too depressing.

Sometimes I get tired of the fight and just want to give up on

figuring this out. It's absolutely draining.

But then I remember that we would be the ones getting screwed

and we're going to have to sell this house one day,

so this has to be figured out now.

Got any lengthy battles you just want to give up on?

Whether it's incorrect charges on a phone bill or potty training -

sticking to your guns can be hard sometimes.

Hang in there and fight the good fight!

Easter in LP

We made a trek down to Long Prairie for Easter

and got a chance to see lots of family.

With so many people around,

there were more than a few cameras.

Since I'm still suffering through life without one,

I made sure to put as many of their pictures on

my computer as possible before we left.

Here's Walt & I with Adam's three stepsisters,

and my sister-in-law Ann and her 2 girls Emma & Ally.

Walter got a chance to meet his

Great Grandma Gustafson for the first time.

Walter's middle name is Gordon, just like his daddy,

after his late Great Grandpa Gordon Gustafson.

4 generations of Gustafson.

It also was so nice to get to visit with our sweet niece Ally.

If this is the first you've seen of Ally,

you may want to start here.

I hadn't seen her since my visit to the

Children's Hospital in February.

I'm not going to lie, my eyes stung with tears for a second

when I saw her sweet face without hair.

But after hanging out with Ally and her big sister Emma for

a few days it was easy to see
she is doing great and is still full of spunk.

On Saturday the girls and Walter did some Easter egg dying.

Ally's sweater had to come off so it didn't get stained.

You can see the port in her chest that she gets her chemo through.

She was so excited she'd just toss the eggs into a color.

She made a few messes, but we didn't mind.

Here is the finished product.

Getting all 3 of these kids to look at the camera

at the same time proved to be an impossible feat.

On Sunday the girls hunted for

Easter eggs in their pretty dresses.

Walter decided to sit the hunt out this year
and opted for a nap instead.

That tricky Easter bunny hid eggs all over the place.

After making a big loop around the house and

collecting all of the eggs. . .

 the girls were pretty happy with their findings.

Great Grandma Leora came by to visit.

She couldn't believe the size of this kid!

Walter got to try one of Grandma Marilyn's jello eggs.

Safe to say he liked it.

As always, it was good times in LP!

Walter's 1st Easter

I dressed him up in bunny ears.

Introduced him to the Easter Bunny.

And helped him find his Easter basket.

Then he got to play with all of his new stuff,

but he mostly liked playing with all of the eggs.

Before long he was swimming in them.

And of course, trying to eat them.

Happy Easter from Walter!

6 Months

Walter had his 6 month check-up last week.

It seems like just yesterday he looked like this.

Where has the time gone?

Here's my big boy now.

He currently weighs more than most 1 year olds - 

at 21 lbs and 6.8 oz he's a solid little brick

and in the 95th percentile for weight.

This kid doesn't miss many meals.

He's 27 inches long, which puts him in
the 67th percentile for height.

Everyone always comments on the size of his giant cheeks,

but his head circumference is only in the 71 percentile
at 44 cm around.

He can roll back and forth with the greatest of ease,

sit up on his own and has discovered that he can scream.

He still only has the one tooth,

but at the rate he's drooling - more are on the way.

A Little Antiquing

My mother and I recently made
a trek over to the Moorhead Antique Mall.
I wasn't intending to buy anything, but they
ended up having 2 items I couldn't walk away from.
Here is one of them -

It seemed like they were doing their best to hide the

beauty of this leaded glass window, by draping a bunch

of crap on it and leaning knick knacks against it,

but I saw its potential.

The first thing I noticed was the

cool color of the darker green paint.

It looked like a
fun shade of the
green I've already
got going on in my
kitchen/dining room, 
so I immediately
thought it should
hang in my dining room.

I was a little reluctant to spend the money,

but the guy who pulled it out for me to look at

offered to call the seller and see if they would accept a lower price.

What a great idea!

I wouldn't have thought of it on my own,

but since he offered to do it - why not let him?

I got another 1o spot knocked off the sale price

and took that baby home.

Isn't the pattern of the lead pretty?

Funny thing is -

once I got it home

I fell in love with it for a whole different reason.

You'll have to stay tuned to see the surprise

of this beautiful window and find out where

it ended up hanging in my house.