Summer Fun

It's finally summer!  But with the pool parties, baseball games, and cookouts comes heat.  In Atlanta the heat sometimes gets unbearable.  I am such a wuss when it comes to being hot.  I hate it.  HATE it. 

Saturday we took our sweet Lucy out for a little playtime in the creek off of the Silver Comet trail.  We love going down there. It's so secluded that it feel miles and miles away from civilization.  It's kind of a hike to get there, but it is totally worth it.

Lucy, our 10 year old lab, transforms into a puppy again - swimming and fetching her tennis ball in the water.  It makes my heart happy to see her like that.  Here are some pics from Saturday's adventure.

 

 Do you see the cross?

Old ruins from the cotton mill that stood there.  Sherman destroyed it during the Civil War.

 Happiest dog in the world.

  

  Best friends

Hope your summer is off to a great start.  I have lots of projects coming up that I can't wait to share with you... one involves this beauty. 

 

 

Yes, I finally scored a card catalog.  Best part? It was free.  Can you believe it?  I squealed with excitement the first time I saw her. She needs some major cleaning up, but when I'm done - she will be good as new!  I can't wait to fix it up.

 

Are you planning any big projects this summer?  Let me know - and send me pics.  I would love to feature them.

Have a great rest of the week.  Talk soon, friends!

xoxo,
Brandi Nell

Sadie Annabelle Gray

Hi Friends!

Happy Friday... even if it is the 13th!  I have great news to share.  The newest member of our family was born on Wednesday.  My sister, Brittney, gave birth to the sweetest BABY GIRL! I am so thrilled!  The sex wasn't known until her birthday!

  

 Welcome to the world, Miss Sadie Annabelle Gray!  

She was born on Wednesday, April 11th at 11:05am.  She weighed 5 lbs, 15 oz; and was 19 inches long.  She is made of 100% pure sugar.

  

 

Mommy, Sadie, and Daddy are all doing great!

  

And Aunt Brandi Nell is in love with our sweet Sadie Belle!

Talk soon, friends!

xoxo,

Brandi Nell

This Totally Rules!

Hi friends!  I trust y'all had a great weekend.  It was one of those wonderful Spring weekends in Atlanta that everyone just loves.  Ours was a jam packed one with friends.  I'll be sure to share some photos of the race we did later this week.

It dawned on me that I never showed y'all what the Hubs made for my sister's baby.  I still can't over it.  We got the idea from pinterest of course :) Here is the original pin. 

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It originates from Emily A. Clark's blog. I love her blog. It's a definite fave of mine.  Be sure to go and check it out!

Don't you just love this grown chart?  I saw it and thought, "HUBS SHOULD TOTALLY MAKE THAT FOR MINI!"

So here is what you need:

1. 1x8 wooden board

2. Measuring tape

3. pencil

4. black paint and paint brush

5. number stickers (from local hardware store)

6. Lots of time and patience

7. Stain and sealer

Here's how it works:

 

Buy your 1x8 board.  This will be your ruler.  We like the knots in them, you can choose one with or without knots.  

Measure out inches on the board. Every 12 inches is 1 "inch" (foot in real life) on the ruler.

After you mark each inch, you will then go back in and paint them, making your "inches" stand out a little further.

Once your paint dries, you need to stain your board.  After the stain dries, you add the numbers beside your "inch" marks. Note: this takes practice and patience.

While this project takes quite some time, it's totally worth it.  Check out y sister's face.  She was totally surprised and excited to have this priceless growth chart.

 

To make the growth chart accurately work, you have to hang it so that the "first inch" mark is exactly one foot off of the ground.  

I can't wait to see my niece/nephew grow up.  It will be fun to look at all of the little markings over the years!  Such a sweet gift from the hubs.  

If you are interested in ordering a ruler (because you are like me and don't have the patience to make one yourself), feel free to shoot me an email (brandi.wigley(at)gmail.com)!  Hubs is taking orders :) 

Hope you have a fantastic week! Talk soon, friends!

xoxo,

Brandi Nell

Spring is here!!

Hi friends! The weekend went by way to quickly. I need a weekend to recover from the weekend!

On Monday I shared the transformation of our new front steps.  I still love looking at them. It’s the small things that make me happy.  

As I mentioned before, that was only one of the many projects we worked on last weekend.  Home Depot made a KILLING off of us in just a couple of weeks.  We ended up visiting the store a total of six times between the two of us last weekend.  Luckily, we live right down the road from our local store (and the Home Depot Headquarters). With the steps finally getting a face lift, we needed to plant some flowers!

I love HD's flower section... apparently so much that I needed to bring over half of it home with me! 
 

As soon as I got home, I went to work. I pulled all of the weeds so that I could start fresh.

I decided and blue, yellow and of course RED flowers for the front yard.  I love planting red flowers every year.  I think they go well with my front door and flag :)

I also decided to do a stacked planter by the front door after seeing this on Pinterest last week.

I knew I wanted to do something similar, but a little different. We bought these guys instead of the regular clay ones.

 

We stacked them using bricks then we poured the soil around the bricks to make them sturdy.

The next step was easy... I just planted the flowers!  I love how it turned out.  Even better than the Pinterest version!  So pretty!

We also added a hanging plant.  The house looks so much.  BRING ON SPRING!

I love all of the color!  If you look really closely at the left door, you will see my little Parker man peeking out.  I love that munchkin!

We hosted my sister's baby shower on Saturday.  I'll share pics for the shower later this week.  I can't wait to show you what Hubs made for the baby.

Have you done any Spring planting?  I would love to see pics! Hope you all have a fab week. Talk soon, friends!

xoxo,

Brandi Nell

New Front Entry Stairs

Hi friends!  Happy Monday.  I hope y'all were able to get out and enjoy this beautiful weather.  Minus the absurd amount of pollen in Atlanta, this weekend was perfect!  I spent the entire weekend outside sprucing up the house.  We got so much done that I get to break it down into a few posts for you.

The first project I am sharing with you is one that has been needing to be done for a very long time. I'm embarrassed that I let it go for as long as I did.  

These were our front entry stairs.  This is what you would climb to get to our front door.

 

These dirty, rickety, and disgusting stairs weren't very welcoming to our guests.  Something needed to be done a LONG time ago.

 Those little dots? Remnants of some green outdoor carpeting that used to live on the steps.  YUCK!

 Hubs removed each one of the treads.  He then measured, cut, and replaced each one.  I got busy power-washing all of the remaining structure.This only took me a couple of hours.  Woof.

Once the new stairs were cleaned and prepped, I was able to stain them.  I love the way they look now.  The entry way is so much more inviting, right?

 

Like I said, I can't believe we waiting so long to do this.  It only cost us around $100 and it makes so much more of an impact.  

I can't wait to show you what I did with all of this:

 

YAY for Spring!  Did you do anything fun this weekend?  Get any big projects done?  Hope y'all have a great rest of the week! Talk soon, Friends!

xoxo,

Brandi Nell

Pup Love

Hi, friends!  Happiest of Fridays!

I just wanted to share my love for my fur babies.  I think my Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram friends probs get tired of me posting so many pics of my Lucy and Parker.  Today I thought I would subject you to their cuteness. They bring us so much joy.  I mean how could you not love these faces?

 

My Lucy Elisabeth is almost ten years old, but she still acts like a puppy. She gives me this puppy face All.The.Time.

Parker Riley is my special child.  We spoil him rotten.  How could we not? Look at that face!

Yes, we like to dress Parker up in funny outfits.

Lulu loves to go on car rides.

Such a sweet girl

Snuggle Pup

They aren't always angels.  Yes, they had gotten into our bag stash.  I have no idea why, but they were proud of their hard work.

Yes, this is in my dining area.  Yes, I realize that some people think it is a bit much. Yes, I love it.

The end.

Hope y'all have a fabulous weekend! Talk soon, friends!

xoxo,

Brandi Nell

Guest Blogger: Feed One Another

Hi friends!

Happy Tuesday!  I'm a guest blogger on Cumberland Community Church's daily devotional blog, Feed One Another.  Go check it out... just excuse the spacing issues.  HA!

Hope everyone is having a great day.  Talk soon, friends!

xoxo,

Brandi Nell