Meet Me in St. Louis

This was Heidi's idea to put the wrought iron above the sign. It looks awesome!
Spray Paint: $3.41
Ribbon: $2.55
Curtain Rod: $4.80
Picture Frame: $15.00
Heidi's Joy: Priceless




This past weekend was spent in St. Louis with my wonderful sister Heidi! Originally, I'd been trying to talk her into coming up here, but after finding out Micaela had a solo competition, I decided to visit them instead. Brennan, Nolan, and I left Poplar Grove Thursday afternoon and arrived there just after 5. Micaela and Marissa didn't know that we were coming, so when Mickey answered the door and saw us, she screamed so loud that it scared Marissa, who thought something bad was happening. I forgot how much I love surprising people! With Brennan playing with Marissa and Micaela taking Nolan, that left Heidi and I to talk. She was telling me how much she hated her living room and that she really wanted something new on the wall. (It was really, really boring- Blank White Walls!!) We decided that we would spend the weekend fixing up her living room. She didn't want to spend a lot of money, so we wanted to use what we had. Last year, Steph gave Heidi some framed scrapbook pages for her walls, but Heidi didn't like the color of the frame. She also had pictures on the mantle framed in a color she wasn't crazy about. After much thought and debating, we decided that we would paint the frames black and do a kind of "rod works" look. A few trips to Hobby Lobby, Home Depot, and Target later- and a whole lot of work, this is the result. Heidi loves her new living room and I think that we did a great job in making it look great.



Also, I just wanted everyone to know that I have a very awesome niece Micaela. She played an extremely hard piece of music for her solo (something I wouldn't have been able to play at her age). Her tone was beautiful, her tonging was nearly perfect (double tonging is so hard!), and her high notes were not pinched. Even though she received a II for missing some notes, I felt that she should have deserved a I. I'm so proud of you Micaela!!!!