LeClaire and the Zoo

Back to share a little more about my weekend! Saturday after walking in Race for the Cure, Trent and I decided to check out the yard sales and shops in LeClaire. It was the town yard sale days! It was getting close to noon by the time we got there so a lot of them seemed to be a little picked over, and we didn't leave with much. But we also checked out a few shops we had never been to. Like Antique Archaeology - the shop owned by the American Pickers themselves.

Anyone else watch the show on the History Channel? We live about 35 minutes away from LeClaire, and I had always wanted to check it out since I love that show. The main people from the show (Mike, Frank, and Danielle) weren't there unfortunately, but it was still cool to see it in person.

It was a lot smaller than I thought it would be (maybe because it was really crowded with lots of people who were out yard-saling and wanted to check it out too?)

We just looked around, we didn't buy anything. Anybody want a fox head for their wall?

There were some pretty cool things in there. Lots of motorcycle memorabilia of course, lots of oil/gas signs, and if you've seen the episode where Danielle drives the clown car and it breaks down...you might recognize it sitting outside the shop. (It's so tiny!)

It was fun to finally be able to go here. Maybe we'll come back when we know Danielle and/or Frank and Mike are in town so we can meet them. Haha.

Le Claire is actually a really cute little town with a nice downtown area right by the river. There are lots of little shops, and it's historic as well. We checked out a couple of other antique shops, like this one below, called Grasshoppers -



There were tons of gifts and antiques, but my favorite part was the basement, which was full of wine. We even tried a little Strawberry Rhubarb wine (A little too sweet for me)!

The last place we stopped in LeClaire was another antique shop, Mississippi Cottage Antiques -

This was one of the fanciest antique shops I think we've ever been to. Very high quality stuff, which of course comes with higher prices! I didn't get any photos inside.

So after a long day of walking in a race, then yard saling and antiquing in Le Claire, what else did we do? We went to the zoo. Yep, just to hang out some more. Haha. Actually, I wanted to see my favorite friends - the giraffes.

They are my absolute favorites, so I'll spare you the 5,000 photos I took of them.


But aren't these flowers gorgeous, too??


As you can probably tell, Saturday was quite the busy day. So yesterday was spent laying on the couch watching movies all day. I. did. not. want. to. move. Haha.

Race for the Cure

Yesterday was a busy day! We did the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in the morning. It was our fifth year in a row walking in the race with Trent's family, and it's always a lot of fun. There are a lot of special reasons we participate and make it a yearly event. Breast cancer hits extremely close to home for Trent's family and we continue to remember his mom, and celebrate all the survivors.

After the race we checked out the sales during Yard Sale days in LeClaire and made a stop at the zoo. It was a fun-filled day! Unfortunately I was wore out by the afternoon and my knee was killing me! I didn't make it out to Trent's uncle's for the bonfire. :( Maybe next time. Hope everyone's weekend is going great! I'll be back with more pictures from my weekend tomorrow. For now, I'll leave you with some of my favorite race day photos.

 

All of us (Thanks for letting me borrow your photo, Sandy! Haha! ;) )

So much fun! We hope to continue to do it many years to come!

Go For A Walk?

Last night our dog Saleen was getting antsy so we decided to take her on a W-A-L-K. That is literally how we have to say it when she's around because, as you will see in this video, she gets super excited every time we mention any form of "going for a walk." Just watch and you'll see what I mean:


Yes, the girl loves her walks. One second she'll be calm, then you mention the word, and she immediately runs for the door. Anytime we even have the leash out, she goes bonkers. I guess any excuse to see the outside world when you're trapped in the house all day is always good, right?

Our Rose Bush

Our Knockout Rose bush by the porch is blooming! Pretty little magenta roses.

Thanks to a good trim in early spring, the blooms are growing nice and full. Makes me want to plant some more flowers along the side of the house...I've been thinking hydrangeas and hostas. :) We already have the leftover bags of mulch. Just need all the plants!

Wire Plant Stand Makeover

My mini painting project is complete! I've been waiting for a nice afternoon to do another outside spray painting project, and Sunday proved to be the perfect day. I present to you, my new and improved wire plant stand!

Here's how it went down. After Trent got home from work, we finally got around to painting this old wire plant stand that had been sitting around at our house being all but useful:

The plant stand - BEFORE

I have no idea where this thing came from (I think it was Trent's parents'), but it was old, rusty, chipped, and in need of some love. I could just see the potential in this little guy and wanted to add it to my summer porch decor. Enter Mr. Valspar in this pretty turquoise color:

I stood at a safe distance while Trent sprayed the stand with the all-in-one primer and paint. It took about two coats total, with one additional coat on the underside. In the end, there was even more paint left in the spray can - so it only took one can to complete. (Thank God 'cause I only had one anyway!)

Here it is after just one coat (It took two coats total to make sure it got full coverage and was extra shiny):

Once it was all dry, I added it to my porch! And couldn't be happier.

It was a super easy afternoon project. Now I have something else pretty to look at on the porch. Along with all of these beautiful blooming flowers:

Thank you, days of nonstop rain! Just makes for less things I have to water. :)

Psst - I'm linked up to House of Hepworths, The Pin Junkie, Tatertots and Jello, Natasha in Oz, Suburbs Mama, and I Heart Naptime this week!

Our Laundry Room

Considering I stayed home all weekend and did four loads of laundry, I've kind of been thinking a lot about the laundry room the past few days. Our laundry room is on our "back porch" - a small, fully enclosed room on the back of the house, which isn't heated or air conditioned, and is not in the best shape either. It has a concrete floor and is painted red, which is not really my style at all. If I could, I would paint it a light blue or green, or even a sunny light yellow. But we're not really doing anything with paint in there until after we can fully remodel. I try not to go back there often (unless of course, I have to do laundry, or take our dog Saleen outside).  I haven't posted any photos of our laundry room yet, so I thought I would share a few on the blog today.

Mind you - the only pictures you will see are on the washer/dryer side, since the other sides are not pretty, trust me! This room needs to be gutted, like most of the rooms in our house. We have big plans, but for now, it's mostly storage and it's pretty much always messy. So for now, here is our pretty washer and dryer:

Our washer and dryer are both Samsung. We actually bought them as a set on Craigslist when I moved in, in 2010 - they were only a year old, still had warranty information from Lowe's, and had only been used a few times. They were pretty much as good as new, and we got them as a set for $900, which was an awesome deal, since brand new they would have been probably twice as much. The girl we bought them from actually turned out to be the cousin of a friend of ours. She was originally asking $1000, but I asked if she would take $900, and she said yes, so they were ours! We've had them for about 2 1/2 years now, and they have worked perfectly! They were one of our first big purchases for the house.

You can see that I added the basket I got for $10 at Marshall's a couple of weeks ago. It was just sitting in my office, so I thought - that should definitely be in the laundry room. It will certainly come in handy in there. The potted plant is a fake one from IKEA. I love the texture of the pot.

I made this sign for the laundry room not too long after I moved in - it helps me remember which settings to choose for towels/bedding and then for clothes. :) I seriously still look at it every time I do the laundry. Haha.

The other day I had the idea to add my DIY skeleton key art to this room, since I still hadn't found a place for it yet. I like it in here for now, since it adds a little more personal touch to the room.

One thing I do like about this room is how sunny and bright it is - There is a screen door, along with three windows in this tiny little space. I can't wait to redo this room and put in some cute little floral curtains, or bamboo blinds (they will probably always be open though!) I would also love to put a wooden top over the washer and dryer (like John and Sherry at Young House Love did in their first house), so it's all one big surface.

Someday I will post "before" pictures of this entire room. Someday. Once I get over the red walls, newspaper on the ceiling, gross cement floors...and once it's in the process of being torn out. Then maybe. :)

My Weekend

Happy June! Just dropping in. This weekend has been pretty noneventful for me. Trent worked yesterday and today, and I've just been staying home and getting some things done around the house - i.e. dishes, laundry, rotating clothes out for summer, etc. So exciting, I know! I've even managed to sneak a few Hallmark movies in there. You know I'm a sucker for Hallmark movies...

This is my favorite picture from the weekend. Taken on Trent's iphone. Curled up on the couch watching a movie.

Our peonies have been doing well with all the rain we've been getting. We have a peony bush out in front. They're white with a hint of pink.

Our purple flowers out front are also getting really big, and I checked on the vegetable garden yesterday - It's been too muddy to plant the rest of our seeds, but the plants in there currently are all growing, and the seeds are starting to sprout. We've got netting over the strawberry patch, too, and they still seem to be doing well.

I'm hoping to have a small outdoor painting project completed after Trent gets home today. I need his assistance. :) I will hopefully blog about it this week. Stay tuned!