Bee Happy

The house next door to us is empty and the owners have been (slowly) remodeling. They tore an addition down a few weeks ago and found this happy little bee family and their hive.

I had to get a few photos. I love how diligently honey bees work...and they don't sting, so that's a major plus!

This little bumble found it's way in front of my lens as well. I guess he was jealous of all the attention the other bees were getting.

Poor Bumble.

I grew the most beautiful array of sunflowers this year and I think they were a major source of pollen for the bees. Every flower was full of little bees working away.

Except for this one, which had a single lonely Bumble.

Poor Bumble.

I was lucky enough to have a conversation and lovely visit from this pretty blue butterfly too. He's a bit of a show off though, he kept flaunting those gorgeous wings and colors for the camera. I bet I took 20 photos of him alone.

I love spending time in my backyard, taking in the sights and the smells and the beautiful sunshine as it's setting in the west. As simple as it is, it's one of my favorite places to be.

Wouldn't you know that one of my favorite places and one of my favorite things could be turned into a gorgeous color board. I may have to do our bedroom in these colors. I just love them.

Just a reminder...

Siding Nightmare

Jeremy and I have planned on siding the house since we bought it. We feel like if we tried, we could probably side it ourselves, and have pretty much got it in our minds that we don't want to pay someone else to do it. We've had plenty of friends volunteer to help us when the time comes who have at least some experience in siding, so we feel like tackling the project shouldn't be too hard. (So it usually goes, right?)

We priced some siding earlier this week and got a rough idea as to what it could possibly cost us. Menards is offering 11% back on all purchases this week, so we're really considering trying to buy right now. One would think that the hardest decision would be color (which isn't the easiest decision, let me tell you!) but planning WHEN to buy seems to be the tough part for us. We also will be buying new gutters and such too.

It's super stressful to try and make a decision like this. Buying right now could potentially save us a few hundred dollars, which would be wonderful, but we also feel rushed and uncertain under the time crunch. We're really, really, really hoping that the money we got back from our tax returns will cover all the costs and we'll still have a bit left over but we're not sure. It seems like everyone has something different and some other price to tack on to what we thought was a final price. Has anyone else ever tackled a siding project? Any tips or tricks to make it easier?

Wish us luck in this adventure! I'm pretty sure we're really going to need it!