Beer Can House

You read that right, Beer Can House!!!  Houston is so awesome.  John Milkovisch was the brain behind the operation, although he must have had one amazing wife to let him do it all. 

View from the street.

Mailbox.

Original state of the house.

The story behind the Beer Can House at 222 Malone started simply with a man who enjoyed beer and transformed his yard with stone and concrete because he didn't like to mow the lawn.

And here is the culprit that started it all.  The wheelbarrow that hauled the stone, concrete and supplies.  I love how they have put it on display!

Everywhere you turn, there is something whimsy and fun.  You cannot help but smile when you walk around the property.

He didn't decorate with just beer cans, but boy are there a lot of marbles and beer bottles too!

Marble Fence.

After John covered the grounds, he started on the house. 

Beer can siding.

Rear of the house.

Quote from John.

Close up of his beer can wind chimes that adorn the house from the roof.

Walking around and hearing the wind chimes, you could feel the love.  Not often do I find so much metal and concrete to be comforting and relaxing.  I wish I could have met John.

The one thing that I take away from visiting the beer can house is to keep creating what makes me happy.  I want to leave a legacy that represents me and no other.

Check It Out

A while back I got an e-mail from Amanda over at Smart Blonde and Crafty.  She was inspired by my DIY Bird Feeder so much that she decided to make her own.

The one above is the inspiration, to check out Amanda's take you will need to check out her team's amazing Spring Magazine.   Amanda and Kelly know how to put together a beautiful spread.  You can find their take on this amazing project on page 12-13.  I am also mentioned in the Blogs We Heart on page 17.

So, go hop on over to Smart Blonde and Crafty for lots more spring inspiration.

If anyone else has been inspired by my DIY Bird Feeder, I would love to see it!

Artists Collaborating

For Valentine's Day, I decided that Maben and I needed to collaborate to make my husband's gift.  Maben has taken an interest in drawing.  He comes home with a lot of paper from school, covered in drawings of stick people depicting our family or Star Wars and lots of Angry Bird scenes.  I know most of these will find their way to the recycle bin, but I really wanted to save at least one.

So, I had Maben draw a picture of daddy and write out daddy as well.  He is growing up too fast, it's no longer daddy, just dad.

I took his drawing and glued it to a sheet of copper and cut it out with a jewelers saw.  I mounted it to a scrap block of zebra wood (oops, I meant marble wood) and now there stands, "Dad."  

It turned out amazing!!!  I have immortalized my husband through Maben's 5 year old eyes.  I can't think of anything more perfect.

I hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day and leave you with one of my all time favorite quotes.

Striving for Greatness

I have learned a lot about myself in the last year and a half since taking the plunge and trying to lose weight.  It's been a long hard journey, but I wouldn't change it because of the lessons I am walking away with.  I often felt during this journey that I was alone when all I wanted was to surround myself with people striving for the same greatness that I knew was possible.  I wanted to be healthier, stronger, and smarter.  Because of this I started a Fitness Group within my MOMS Club.  There are several of us that have taken the plunge and are doing a Biggest Loser style challenge that will last 9 weeks.

Last night I stayed up late because I wanted to give each one of my ladies a little card of inspiration.  I love quotes and so many of them are so inspirational and can really lift and change your attitude.

That is one of the things that I have learned during this journey...your attitude towards your goal will determine if you reach it. 

I am hoping that when any of these ladies get discouraged, that they can look upon the card and feel inspired to keep going.

Some Pinterest Love

When I first found out about Pinterest there were two things that went through my mind.

1. I already spend enough time online...this would be the ultimate black hole of time sucking.
2. What a great idea!  A place that I can store all those fantastic ideas I want to do.

 Well, I am on Pinterest and am glad that it hasn't completely sucked me into it's black hole of time sucking.  I don't spend as much time as I initially thought I would, but more than I would like.  It has inspired me...quite a bit.  Seeing all those great ideas gets my mind churning about all the great things I can do, I just need to leave the computer and do them.

And for those of you who have no idea what I am talking about, Pinterest is a website where you can basically catalog all those photos of things that inspire you and you can organize them as you see fit.  Then they are all available to inspire others and gives you a nice neat place where they won't be lost.  It's really, really cool and has totally cleaned out my bookmarks.

Here are a few of my Pinterest faves to share.

From etsy.com

From saltwater-kids.com

From ambrosiagirl.com

From instructables.com

So how many others out there in blog land are pinning?  If you want to follow my pins, you can do so here.