On The Homestead

For the last three weeks I have been waking up at 5:45 each morning.

I wouldn't say that I qualify as a morning person....I am more of a 7 am person, so this is a change for me. 

But...my friend had started walking and she kept talking about how good it was making her feel, and how she had so much more energy and...blah, blah, blah...anyway, I decided to give it a go. 

Since Penny was born I just haven't felt super productive. At first it was because I had a new baby. But...well...my baby is about to be 2 next month. So then I started thinking that I had something wrong with me, so imagine what my Google search lead to...thyroid problems, low blood count, pre-menopausal?! The more I thought about it the more I realized...I could totally blame this on my kids! I pick up after 8 little hands.

All. Day. Long. 

(Most of the week it is 10 little hands) 

And..and Penny is a stage 5 clinger. 

Don't even get me started on the week I had to hold her hand while she ate every meal. It was a doozy. 

So I thought to myself...Self...because addressing ones self is always important...you need more time. 

So I made more time. 

At the butt crack of dawn. Trust me it is not pretty, but it is effective. 

In three weeks time this is some of what I have accomplished with my extra time. (Besides not so jiggly thighs.)

  Estate sales have become my new friend. I love them. 

I bought this beauty from a recent estate sale I went to.

It smelt like Old Lady and I am sure that at one point Blake thought about whether or not he needed to ship me to the nut house when I brought it home.

But I was insistent.

I was going to make it pretty.
Mind you, it would just take a lot of paint to do so. Luckily we have no shortage of paint at our house.

Ta-da! See I told you.

Bunch of naysayers.

It has found a much needed home in our bathroom.

Before we were using a shoe shelf...shudder..to hold the stuff in our bathroom. Because, for lack of a better word, the storage in the bathroom is craptastic.

Collective sigh.

Better.

Some other gems from estate sales?

Bottles and an old iron.

An old piano stool,

that rocks my world, and makes me feel like I should be playing dungeons and dragons all at once.

For realz. 

Tell me these claw feet with glass don't remind you of something...

something like this, by chance?

I spray painted this little guy.

Evidently I didn't have enough of a garden feel going on in our house.

I also have given baking bread a go.

I used this recipe from Pinterest.

Have mercy.

I tried a cinnamon raisin variation the other day but I liked the original better.

Not that that has discouraged me. I am going to try jalapeno cheddar next week.

Speaking of jalapenos...our garden is coming along quite nicely. One morning I went out and weeded for 2 hours. Granted that makes it sound like our garden was overgrown...because...well...it was. 

So far we have only gotten 3 zucchini off of our plants but there are some tomatoes, jalapenos, carrots, and squash that are all trying to grow.

I also just got the mother load of apricots from a friend of mine.

Since I have already made apricot jam this year, I decided to go for apricot fruit leather.

I am not sure about this.

If it ends up being nasty I will either force feed it to my kids or I will throw it away. The apricots were free so I wouldn't feel so bad.

Evidently because I am long winded today I will leave you with this:

because sleeping with our glasses on is also evidently something we are doing around here.

In case anyone cares:

I have made this, this, and this--all are really good.

I have made this, this, and this--just OK. 

Pinterest, Blogs and Other Inspiration

I know that I am not alone in the love/hate relationship I have with Pinterest.

On one hand there is just a whole lot of information, pictures, ideas, crafts, and food. 

On the other...it isn't that original if you find something on there.

Some things are a hit and a some are a miss.

Like these cookies.

Cute? Yes. Colorful? Yes. Tasty? Not even a little bit.

I got most of our teacher appreciation gifts and end of the year gift ideas from random websites.

This is what I made for Gavin's teachers.

Including a French variation for his French teacher.

Actually Blake printed out one for me that I may use as a Christmas countdown this year.

Since Laney's teachers weren't sure if they were going to be teaching next year you treated them with candy stuffed into soda bottles.

A variation of this idea.

I also made a Chrysanthemum Mirror. 

I originally got the idea from this blog, but I have seen it on Pinterest too.

It wasn't terribly difficult to make, just a little time consuming and frustrating at times. 

After I had hand painted all of the spoons I decided that I wanted it to have a little bit of sheen to it so I chose to spray paint it with a clear gloss. 

I chose poorly. 

The spray paint made the paint wrinkle up. It was a very sad day. Although you can't tell unless you get up close to it.

Another project that I just made came from a trip we took months ago to Las Vegas. when we were there we went to Anthropologie. On the wall inside the store were nails with yarn wrapped around them spelling out "Home Sweet Home." I was so enamored with it. I just thought it was so cute. So, I bought some finishing nails so that I could do something similar at our house. Months went by and then I painted our upstairs and didn't want to ruin the new paint by putting a bunch of nail holes in the wall. So imagine my delight when I came across this pin on Pinterest.

They used a pallet as the back to the letters instead of using the wall. Well, I didn't have a spare pallet but I did have a old part of a fence to use. 

I painted it, and this last weekend Blake cut it and hung it for me.

For now it is happily in our living room. 

Sitting beside it are some vases I made, by pouring paint into them.

I am always surprised at how creative people can be. 

I am not very good at thinking up things on my own, but like my Mom always says "I'm a good copier."

Things They are a Changing

I really like our house.

Granted it does not belong to us, but that shouldn't matter...right?
I have a theory. I think that if you don't enjoy where you are you won't really enjoy anything else either.
As we have lived in the house a few things have changed. Most of them I have just done on my own, without asking. Perhaps not the best approach, but I figure that you can't get mad at someone for making things better.
Maybe you can.
I haven't had any complaints yet.
Lately I have been feeling a little sorry for myself. I didn't like our decorations anymore, we don't own a house that I could redo, a lot of my friends are changing things and I was feeling stuck. So what quicker way to redo something?
Paint.
It might be my BFF.
I am not even kidding.
Before.Baseboards before.After.Although the living room paint really looks like the color in this picture with Canon.This is the color of the dining room. Basically the same color just a lighter shade. I repainted all of the baseboards and around the windows. I also took down the old lady valences that were above the windows. I changed out our green lamps for white ones that were in our room and moved the pictures that were on the wall down stairs to upstairs.
When I was done I just sighed.
It feels better.
It feels clean.
Our kids are pretty used to me painting things. Penny had the hardest time. She just continuously said
"Mom! wook." "Mom! me." "Mom! head."

The living room color is this if you wanna know.

It's Begining To Look A Lot Like Something

I had good intentions of posting prior to Christmas. It didn't happen so now I am playing catch up. Such is life.

On our tree some of my favorite decorations are the old vintage ones. Every time I look at them I smile. Nothing says Merry Christmas like Kermit the Frog a la 1980. Last year my Mom gave us a bunch of Santas that she had collected over the years. I like seeing them all lined up on the shelf. They bring back good memories. The kids decorated their own tree this year. They did pretty good although, the ornaments have migrated as the month went along.

New Additions & Thought Of You

I would like to think that I am pretty happy with our house.
I like the stuff that we have.
There are times that I want new stuff, but that is normally overlooked because I don't want to spend the money.
But my friends, there are exceptions to this rule.
Pillows that look like grass?
Where do I sign up?

Mushrooms?

Yes please. White gnome?
Where have you been all of my life?Two owls?
Top notch.On a totally unrelated note.
I have got a few emails lately from friends. Most of them say something along the lines of
"Saw this and thought of you"
Consider me tickled pink.

Exhibit 1 from Natalie:
Que Bueno. The best cheese sauce ever. I love it, especially by the flat bed full.

Exhibit 2 from Carolyn:
Mushroom containers while spotted out Thrifting.
Very retro.

Exhibit 3 from Meghann:

Edible Mushrooms. Courtesy of this Etsy site.

Exhibit 4 from Julie S.:

My friend Julie went above and beyond with this one.
Not only did she think of me when she saw it, she also bought it and gave it to me.
Above and beyond I tell ya.

Thanks for thinking of me.
It makes me happy.