House FULL of "Graduates" :)

First up! Taylor, graduated with her Associates in Sciences with a 3.75 GPA!  That's our Girl!

 

This is Liz, Emily and Tay on Graduation Day! Sweet Suite mates!

 Here's the roomie Emily! You are welcome in the Mingolla Kingdom ANYTIME! We are proud of you too!

And THIS is Lee. Tay's BF. He lives in Springfield MO.

Next up..........Izabella, "graduates" to the 5th grade!  Can't believe she's about to hit double digits!  She also graduated with Straight A's. We could not be prouder of both our girls!

 

 This is Izzy's BFF, Emily!  These 2 are like 2 peas in a pod!  Funny girls! But Emily doesn't like to smile, THIS is what they like to do!

 

Congratulations girls!

Jump Rope for Heart!

That's OUR girl!!!

Happy Mother's Day!

Dear Mom, 

I love you so much that if it wrapped around the world a gazillion times, there would still be more to come. Every Mother's Day, I thank you for everything you've done for me for as long as I have been alive, adding on for the present year. Mom, to me, you are like a diamond. You shine bright, everyone loves you, but no matter how much they offer, you are still worth more. I love you so much and thank you for the gift of being alive with a great family. Happy Mother's Day!

Love, 

Izabella

D.I.Y. Pot Rack

So, I made this a long time ago, but it's still one of my favorite and useful things in our house. and SO easy.

I've always wanted a hanging pot rack, but WHY are they so expensive?  Well, I decided to kill 2 birds with 1 stone. I also needed some kind of window covering for the one window in our kitchen and somewhere to also display our shot glass collection. I got a riser, what they make stairs out of. I measured our window and added about 4-6 inches on each side to account for the brackets and the window casings. I bought 2 generic brackets and painted them  and the riser bright white, as in trim white and glossy. Then, I simply got some hook screws and drilled 11 holes in a row right down the middle of the riser and screwed them in. I hung the brackets, put up the riser, which now serves as both a pot rack AND part window covering and voila! There you have it. I now have a place for all my pots and pans to hang and somewhere to put all the fun shot glasses and other stuff I didn't really have a home for. I just love it and it's super handy, we use it every day! I don't think it cost me more than $20 total.

P.S. I just put up the new bamboo roman shades yesterday. We replaced those old faux white wooden ones. These are a much better improvement!

MY motivation!

 So...in my D.I.Y. mode, I have made myself a little motivator. Some may say that the scale or the fit of your clothes is what they go by. I agree, but there is something about this and it's really motivating me. I want to be able to move as many marbles each week as possible. I weigh every Monday and that's IT! Not every day, that would just drive me crazy! So far, I'm down 6 lbs. and I can't wait to see what next week brings!

$15 dollar laundry room makeover!

You may not believe me but seriously, I didn't spend more than $15 to redo my laundry room (closet). I had some left over paint from Izabella's room makeover and I got a wild hair one weekend after being inspired by my new found love of Pintrest! I spent $6 a piece for the new knobs. Aren't they cute? boxer shorts and a t-shirt!

THEN, I found this cute idea on pintrest for your socks that are missing their matches. So simple and it's kinda become wall art now! and it's always changing. I'm still working on putting the saying above the socks... Department of Missing Socks...no sock, left behind...

I also have been meaning to make myself a window earring holder like the one I made for Taylor's room makeover. Well, I finally got around to that too!  I think it turned out just as cute as the one I made Tay, minus the cool doorknob that it hangs from ...

I added hooks to the sides and bottoms to hold the earring that don't fit in the screen as the ones shown. I just love it and it's become the artwork for our bathroom as well. and BTW, I think this above only cost me about $35 total to make, including the vintage window. :) I love it!

Who KNOWS what I'll do next....I'm in a D.I.Y. DO mode! We just got some new bedding for our bedroom and I have a little something in mind for the artwork that Tay got us while she was in Barcelona. Turns out it matches the new bedding perfectly and I'm working on an idea to hang it above our bed. I'll put up pics of everything once I've figured out exactly what I want to do there. Anyway...ENJOY!

Izzy's Manga Anime`

So...being an artist runs in the Mingolla family. Steve's Uncle Dom was an artist and many of you have seen the black canvas of his that we have in our home. Our niece, Britt, is an art major and an amazing artist. I've seen her do a black and white version of the famous Audry Hepburn painting, that you would swear was an original. Steve is also quite talented. He's made handmade, one of a kind, Mother's Day cards for his mother for over 20 years now. They are amazing. I tell him he should make a coffee table book called "Letters to Mom" or something, they are very funny!

Well, Izabella also...has the gene! You may remember that when she was in the 3rd grade, her teacher submitted some artwork of her's to the county and she won first place in the 3rd grade. Anywho....she's been into manga anime lately and has been doing a really good job on her own. Just recently, she's started saying that she wants to live in Japan one day! When we were at the last festival at the park we met some people that own a play up the road from us and they teach art and music to kids. It's called Play, Music and Art. It's so much fun for her and they even have a couples thing where they send the kids next door to the Karate class for a couple of hours and the adults get to drink a bottle of wine while you paint something. We're soooo going to do that.

Izabella came home tonight with her first completed project from her art class. They made their first cartoon strips. SO cool. See for yourself....

This is the first draft after her rough draft....

This is the final draft.

Now, I took pictures of it close up for each panel...from start to finish so you can see the detail...

Their next assignment is to work on their eyes and how to make them look more "real" so I've taken a few shots of her first attempts. 

I REALLY like this one!

Cool, huh? She's working on her "signature" this is a revised on I noticed here. I like her other one better, but she's developing as an artist, who knows where this can take her. She draws all the time.  We have several of her things up in the house and I have 3 more that I need to get up and framed, I love having her artwork around us. I can't wait to see what she brings home next.

What's in a name?! :)

Taylor and I have been working on this since November and we've managed to keep it a HUGE secret. 

I love surprises! 

She has wanted to add Mingolla to her last name since she was about 15. Everything boils down to timing and the time has come. Here is the letter she gave her Dad, Grandma and Papa this year for Christmas. 

We are proud to introduce to you....Miss Taylor Rae Buck MINGOLLA!!!

Happy 20th Birthday Taylor Rae!

Happy Birthday Sweet girl!  we love and miss you and can't wait to see you!

Christmas 2011 Parade

Photo slideshow customized with Smilebox

Izzy's Guitar concert!

We finally got the guitar to GA!  and Izzy wanted to do after school guitar lessons so we did that, too!  Here is the result of those lessons. We'll see if she wants to do it some more....

Note: go to the bottom of the page first and turn off the radio player I have on.

First song......WIPE OUT!

Next up......THRILLER!

and then there was.....MISSION IMPOSSIBLE!

and then there was this.....do YOU know what the song is?

and lastly......CAROL OF THE BELLS!  (This was her and Helen Marie's favorite of them all!)

Their instructor, Jonathan, said that they were actually his best class and that from going to nothing more than holding a guitar to this is a great achievement.

Tay sees her room for the first time!

Taylor's home!!!!!!!!!

Room makeover can now be revealed!  Happy Birthday Taylor Rae!!!!

What I started with...blank slate!

What she came home to......

TA-DA!!!!

This shot is the same angle as the one at the very beginning of this post showing you what I started with.

I took Steve's drafting table and made a vanity / work space for her here. The mirror was old and had some oxidation on it so to salvage it, I painted it black and put some polyurithane on it to make it shiny and then bought some wall decals in the form of a dandelion and put them over most of the problem areas on the mirror and then had them "blow" across the walls to the right and left of her mirror.

I made her a place to hang her earrings and play the role of "art" on her walls. I bought an old window ($10) and then put window screen on it with nail heads and hung it with green burlap ribbon from a crystal door knob. I bet this entire project cost me $15 tops. and it's so cute and functional. I need to make one for my

myself. 

 

  This is a close up of how the dandlions look on the wall. I love this color so much, it's like a buttery avocado!

 

We can't let her forget where she's from....

And THIS....believe it or not, was Izabella's changing table. I took off the top, sanded it down, painted it and put on some new knobs and vio-la! a brand new piece of furniture. This is where she'll put her TV and I'm going to get a piece of plexi to put on top of it to save it from scratches and I thought she could put pictures under it, too.

These are the 2 sayings that are hanging on the wall behind her bed....

And remember this? Because I did Tay's room, Izabella was jealous so we re-ARRANGED her room and now it's like a brand new room all over again...........

I love you Taylor Rae, you've been a blessing in my life and contiune to amaze me every day! 

Love, Susan

NOW........................... when will Mommy and Daddy get a makeover?!

Sneak Peek.....

Taylor wanted a sign on her door like the one Izabella got when I redid her room, so here you go!

All the hard work is done, now it's decorating time...the FUN stuff!  I love this green! 16 more days until she comes home and gets to see it! (hint...the sign has all the colors that are in the bedspread)