A BIG Day with a BIG DOG!

The 5 Year Itch

With bad news comes good news...-we've been in this house for 5 years now which in "olden days economy" used to mean that after 5 years or 80% loan to value of your home (whichever came first), your PMI would drop off. Hold still-that rule is NO LONGER. BOOOOOOOO. So we will continue to pay a needless extra $150 each month-thank you to all the morons who purchased more "home than you could afford", thus hosing the rest of us over. Whew-sorry, needed to get that off my chest. So with 5 years in and our anticipated day a speck of dust in the wind, I decided to make my OWN good news. It looks like this:

WOOOOOO-HOOOOOOOO!!!! I've been itching to get rid of this faux ceiling since they DAY WE MOVED IN! What on earth were they thinking? Less square footage=a good thing? Not so much!!!! So, with my 12 foot ceilings back in my kitchen, I am one step closer to a home with no sign of the 1970's creeping in. THAT makes me a happy camper :) I wonder what Mike will say when he gets home???? he he he. Better just leave it a surprise. No need to irritate him while he's at work. lol

Which brings me to another note about our 1910 house-the dad gum fence. Though I'm sure it's not worthy of even that much of the term "fence". Fine craftsmanship went into this puppy whenever they built it-probably sometime in that lovely 70's era again. Note all my favorite parts:
1. NOT ONE SINGLE FENCE POST! NOT ONE! Instead-they used things like metal plumbing pipes-AND it appears that whatever size was left over and hanging out in the garage was going to suffice....

years of winter wear does this to a make shift gate....it starts to sink and fall over...fun stuff

then there is THIS gate-again, held together with plumbing pipe. Also note the board that has been "pieced together" because splurging for a $2.50 board would have been drastic right? They attempted to piece together a part of the top of the gate also, as you can see-it didn't work out so well. This gate is also sinking so.....the lock broke off-all on it's own (LOVE that Ellensburg wind) and now it is being held shut WHITE TRASH STYLE-so the doggies don't escape.

yet another angle of the favorite fence-this is another corner where someone took great pride in their work....NO POST-just 2 L Brackets! Good times people-good times....

Another white trash fix-but not from us-pretty awesome! If you look closely you'll see the fence boards are being held up by old paint-no no, NOT nails.....PAINT! The nails have wiggled their way out ALL ON THEIR OWN-no joke. This fence is possessed-PUUUUUUUREE craziness. So here's the Kristi plan: we attempted beautiful vinyl fencing-but that's all it is PRETTY-TERRIBLE quality and TERRIBLE prices! We had it assembled and with the first sign of wind, kids &/or dogs= 3 sections were cracked-gone-POOF! SOOOOOOO irritating! So out with the "new" and in with the "old school" but we're doing it KRISTI style. Visualize: Good ol' cedar lattice top panels from your neighborhood Home Depot....get rid of that NASTY lattice of the past that is hanging along the top-replace it with vertical planks...concrete a BUNCH of actual pressure treated fence posts in the ground, splash on a little white wash paint.....and you'll have to wait for the reveal in the spring-duh-I'm on a major budget people! :) But the idea is to go from this:

to a look something more like this:

who wants to come help????? Any takers???? :)

Thank goodness for the good "bones" to the actual house or else I would have called this place "the Money Pit" forever ago!

It Has Begun!

I couldn't wait one more second....it's time for Halloween folks! Here's what I've been up to-crafting away:

I LOVE me some Dollar Tree goodies! Black Crows, & skeleton heads-I just glittered up the little ones with a little help from the Martha Stewart glitter collection! I was going to do the big one too-but I think I rather like it "skull" color....I ordered the "Wicked Witch" vinyl lettering for $3 and put it on a $2.50 plate charger that I recently found at good ol' craft warehouse-a steal! Then I found the old beat up looking book (which is actually a box) at Michael's on sale for $4, put a little vinyl lettering on the spine and VIOLA! A Hocus Pocus book of SPELLS! My kids are LOOOOOOVING it!

Thank you Dusty's Nursery Gift Shop for the super cute BOO blocks that I have loved for the past few years. I found the cardboard witches hat at Craft Warehouse & decided she needed a little glitter-thinking about adding a dark purple velvet sash to it still though..... 

found this at the bottom of my halloween box! Didn't get to use it last year because it was on backorder from Scentsy-so it was exciting to see it when I had forgot all about it!

Stay tuned for further updates to this post regarding, the halloween crafting madness around the Martone household...

Fruits of their Labor

Took all the kids' pumpkins out to do an impromptu photo shoot this morning....a full 30 mins of fun before Bryce had a meltdown over his missing sippy of milk. Good times.

Bryce & that curly mop....time for yet ANOTHER hair cut....boy does he love his "Dash" hair though!