Summer has officially arrived and we kicked it off with a family getaway to Incline Village in Lake Tahoe. It was fun and tiring at the same time. We had a few days of June gloom that could have put a damper on the mood of the trip however we made the best of it and had fun anyway. When the sun came out, we were very happy. Nothing beats the crystal blue waters of the lake and the crisp clean air in Lake Tahoe. It's a beautiful place to be. The best part of the trip for me was that it was an O'Connell family reunion (my Dad's family). My Dad and his four siblings were all there with a number of my cousins and their kids. I grew up spending Summers in Lake Tahoe with my cousins and aunts and uncles and it had been a number of years since we had a get together in Tahoe. So it was great to be back with everyone. I'm bummed I hardly got any pictures of the group but here are a few. Sophia with my brother Billy and his girlfriend Chelsea Sophia and Dada Loving the sand and frigid lake water Sophia, Bailey (Brandon's girlfriend), and Lauren Brett and I My cousin's wife Brynn and their daughter Cici Brynn with my cousin Matt's kids My aunt Karen and cousins Mike and Sean My … [Read more...]
Archives for June 2013
Fabric Flowers
You have probably come across these rolled fabric flowers on Pinterest or maybe you have seen them in a store. They aren't the easiest flowers to show you how to make. I tried to learn how to make these through a tutorial I found on Pinterest and couldn't quite follow it. So, I'm going to try to show you the most basic way I found to make them. I apologize the pictures are terrible. I'm on vacation. I took these the night before I left and rather than wait until I get home to re do the pictures, I thought I would go ahead and post them now. Step 1 I would practice with some fabric you don't care about. I cut a two and a half inch strip of fabric about a foot and a half inches long. You can play around with the length of the strip of fabric. The longer the fabric, the larger your flower will be. Step 2 Fold the strip in half. Step 3 Fold the end of the fabric to create a ball shape. This will be the starting point and center of the flower. Use hot glue to secure it. Step 4 Twist the fabric around the ball. As you twist, use hot glue to hold the twist in place. Continue around and around until you are satisfied with the size of the flower. Glue the end of the fabric to the … [Read more...]
An Eventful Weekend
It was an eventful weekend for our family. There is nothing more rewarding and valuable than spending time with people you care about. That was what this past weekend was all about. First we celebrated Brandon, my stepson's high school graduation and Sunday we enjoyed Father's Day together. The graduation was great. All of Brandon's family came to honor his big day. There was a lot of excitement, joy, and celebration. It was an important milestone for Brandon and I'm glad we could all be there for him. Father's Day was another great day of time spent together. I wish I would have taken more pictures. The boys played golf. Sophia and I played at the park and later we had a great dinner and opened presents. … [Read more...]
Wood Pallet Sign
This last weekend my husband and I worked on another project using what was left from the wood pallets we used to make the pallet shelves a couple weeks ago. We decided to make a wood pallet sign with our last name on it. This wasn't hard to do. My husband did what I would consider the hard part. He pulled three pieces of wood from the pallet. He measured the wood to the length we decided would fit well on the wall. He cut the wood according to the measurements. He nailed three post on the back of the sign to hold the three long pieces together. He applied two coats of dark red spray paint. Once the paint was dry, he sanded it to give it a rustic look. I picked a font I liked from my computer (I used baskerville font, size 600), printed out the letters, then cut them out. As you can see, I messed up the e. Using a pencil, I traced each letter on the sign. This part was a little tedious but not too bad. Next, I painted the letters an eggshell white color. I had to go over the letters a couple times. This is what the wall looked like before. There was a framed collage of pictures. Here is how the wall looks now. I'm going to do a post on the chalkboard I made that is below … [Read more...]
Allen’s Gift
I’ve been thinking of how I will say it, how I will turn someone’s life upside down as I move from patient room to patient room. Room one holds a gentleman that is having trouble getting his diabetes under control and has diabetic kidney and eye disease as a consequence of his over indulgence. My second patient, who has known coronary artery disease has been experiencing chest pain over the last week, awakening him every night with “an elephant on my chest” in a pool of sweat. “Luckily he is not currently having any chest discomfort,” my nurse tells me. I scan the list of my morning patients; hypertension, follow up labs, complete physical exam, back pain, trouble swallowing, shortness of breath, abdominal pain and weight loss. Then it’s lunch with a stack of lab results, adjusting blood thinners, pathology reports and back to seeing my patients at 1 o’clock. Then I see Allen on my schedule! There it is at 1:30 pm. FOLLOW UP RESULTS. The young man is in his late 20’s, is engaged and has the whole world in front of him. Except I’m going to tell him in the most tactful, gentle, and compassionate way, that he likely will not be around in a year. That all the planning he … [Read more...]
Pallet Shelves
Pinterest is full of awesome ideas for using wood pallets. I had never really heard of wood pallets before I started looking at Pinterest. Or maybe I had and just not payed attention. Anyway, ever since coming across these great ideas on Pinterest, I've been wanting to make something out of wood pallets for a while now. Where do people get wood pallets? I had no idea. I asked my friend whose husband is a contractor and he brought 3 wood pallets over that were in really good shape. Once I had the pallets, I had to figure out what to make. I've been wanting to put shelves up in our living room, so I thought we could try and make pallet shelves. And if they didn't come out good, we could just buy them. So I recruited my husband to help me make shelves from wood pallets. I shouldn't say, "to help me" . He did all the work! First, my husband used a hammer to take apart the pallets. He laid the wood out that he would use for the shelves. He used two slats for the top shelf and four for the bottom. He measured how long the shelves would be and cut the wood accordingly. He cut smaller blocks of wood to use as support for underneath the wood slats he put together for the bottom … [Read more...]
