My much-anticipated wonderful Texas Spring has come! It is warm and windy and totally enjoyable, the kind of weather that makes you slow down, breathe deeply, and praise God for His creation!

Since Mike is taking grad school classes and has daily homework from training at work, we have been spending our evenings at home. He has been studying hard and it gives me an excuse to stay in and work on some projects. I LOVE crafty projects, whether its to make our home more of a haven or to give to someone. either making them for people or to make my home more of a haven, and here are my two most recent completions.

A couple of months ago my grandparents gave us this old milk pail. Grandpa said that when he and his brother were growing up on the farm, the two of them used to carry it down the hill, milk their cows, then carry it full of milk back up the hill to their house. They have one by their front door that Grandpa had painted - it started out gray and rusty. S we decided to paint it a rusty red like he had. How special to have something in our home that has so much family history to it! Here it is by our front door.

Here is the other project I just finished. Mike and I picked out two of these little end tables from Hobby Lobby, but they only had black. We bought them and decided I'd just paint them, so off to the paint store we went to pick out the color we wanted them to be. The rug is also a little new and we just love how the orange turned out and how it matches the rug. Now we just need something to warm up that empty space on the wall! Lesson learned: listen to the advice from the paint store guys. The man who helped us had suggested I spray paint them - it would be a lot faster, he said. But I wanted flat paint and so painted them by hand - 4 coats, and the paint has a bright sheen after all. Next time, I'm spray painting. :) I'm so thankful for the experience, though, and we're really happy with how they turned out.