Father's Day & Sneaks all rolled into one

This is the card I'm planning to give my dad tomorrow made using July's kit. Normally, I'd make a card using up supplies from past kits so that I could show you the whole thing, but I'm limited on scrap-space here at the apartment so the only thing I have is my July kit. I'm majorly using my stash!

Inside it reads:

Dad,
Thanks so much for all you have taught me (or tried to teach me :) through the years. You have been an example of patience, yet not tolerance of wrong. You have shown me what it means to be honest and trustworthy. When you make commitments, you mean them. When you make promises, you keep them. When you agree to do work, you do it. Throughout my life you have sought to make decisions to benefit your family spiritually rather than materially. You have taught me so much and molded me into the person, daughter, wife, friend, and worker that I am, and I am grateful.

Happy Father's Day,



And, my last little sneak.

TGM - bathing in a tropical paradise

If you've been following my blog, you know we had to move again, this time into an apartment while we wait for our farmhouse to be remodeled. Well, yesterday was that day (moving day #2 this year).

While I was at VBS last night, Greg was home with pink eye, I asked him to pick up a shower curtain liner and some rings so we'd be able to take a shower this morning. He has a way of spending waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more than he should when he's asked to pick up one or two things and getting waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more than I ever ask for at the store, so I told him these 2 items should cost about $3-5 together.

When I got back home last night, I didn't bother to check out the purchase because there were too many boxes to unpack, so it wasn't until this morning I learned that I would be bathing in a tropical paradise.

What's funny about this is that at any other point in our marriage or living arrangements, I probably would have flipped out and told Greg there was no way I'd hang a beach scene in our bathroom for our company to see, but at this point in my life (and it's a crazy life right now), I actually thought it was funny and I was happy to hang it up.

When I thanked him for my tropical oasis, he told me it was either that or pengiuns, and that he knew me well enough to get the tropical oasis.....LOL.

So, while I was taking photos of our staycation this summer, what was behind curtain #1?

I was just going to take photos of him and never post them, but I couldn't resist. When I wash my face, I generally think that it's relaxing and gentle, but doesn't it look like he's inflicting pain upon himself?

(if this photo is removed later, you'll know that G saw it and had me take it down....heehee)

proud owner of a door

I had been thinking for some time that I wanted to use a salvaged door somewhere in our house and after seeing this in Better Homes and Gardens (June issue, I think), I decided we could use a door going from our breakfast area into our mudroom.


I know it's going to be a room that's used lots and lots. We already used that area of the house (even in its un-remodeled state) to pull off our rubber boots and pick ticks off the dogs, so I want that mudroom to be accessible but able to be closed off so our company doesn't see our muddy mud-room.

Last week, we were in Nashville for the Garden Tour and while we were waiting to meet Amber and Trevor, Greg and I ventured into an antique store. They had lots of things I wanted (of course), but this was the thing that really caught my eye.



It's an old screen door with a metal grid and it's in perfect, used condition. It doesn't even have a knob for the door, which is good, because after talking to our builder, we can choose to make it a regular swinging door, or make it into a pocket door (which due to space, we will most likely choose).

I like that this door can close of that muddy mud-room and hide our mess, but it's still transparent enough to see through when someone's there. What do you think?

newness

Several of you have already noticed my new blog design. Didn't Amanda do a fabulous job? She's done several blogs that I just loved, plus she's an amazing scrapper, so I was ecstatic to have her give me an update.

We now have a geese infestation at our farm. It started with just a couple goslings and I'd say, "awwww, how cute." But, now, it's turned into a traffic hazard and a mess of, well, mess. But, I still say, "awww, how cute."

At this point, I must point out that Greg (in all seriousness) calls the goslings, "Gosselins." This is just another typical Greg moment that keeps me amused from day to day. Anyone know where he got "Gosselin"? Well, we've quit watching that show, but apparently the vibes are still seeping through.



And, probably the reason you're here is to see my sneaks for Studio Calico's July kits.

This one contains all items from the main kit plus the acetate paper from the DIRECTOR's CUT add-on.


This one is a sneak of my favorite layout I've done so far this month. And, it's a 2-pager, too!!!
All the items except for the camera stamp are in the FIELD NOTES add-on.

disheveled

Normally, I feel very "pulled-together" but this week, I've just been off, so I'm warning you, this post will be random.

My nose is clogged, my ears are stopped up, and I've finally relinquished and will be going to the doctor.

To top that, on Monday, we'll be moving into an apartment as we await the remodel of our farmhouse. If you had asked me a year ago if I'd ever be in an apartment again, I'd have laughed in your face. I am a true home-body and I don't like loud music, people walking above me, parking 300 yards away from my front door, so apartment life and me just don't agree. But, hopefully I won't be there much as I'm dividing my time between the farm and the office.

Yesterday, we had a third calf born at our farm (I'm only counting the ones born alive now), and we have 2 more to go this year, so things are looking up.

I'll leave you with a few photos of our children :)

tour de farmhouse part 4

I'll start today with the bedroom you first come to at the top of the stairs. It's actually a fairly good-sized room, but you wouldn't know it because of the house that's sitting in the middle of it.

Cute idea and let me tell you, the mice LOVED it. Lots of evidence of that.

Not practical for us, so this is a must-go.

The next room you come to in the hallway upstairs is this room.

Yes, it's another case of red-paint meets sponge. But in this case, there's two closet doors sticking out into the center of the room. We have an idea for this, that's too much for me to explain right now, but just keep this image in your head because I'll be posting progress to this room. We plan to use it as a TV/play room.

This is the bathroom that's connected to that red room above. VERY interesting texture on this wall: sponge techniqe + sand does not equal Tuscan Villa. Not sure the look that the previous owners had in mind here.

Onto the hall bath. Again, the same technique with a different color paint. I can already tell this will be a fun sanding project....

The next room is a large bedroom painted blue and green.

And, the final room is a small, and I mean small, bedroom that the previous owners used as a play area. We plan to put the twin beds that were in two rooms at our old house here in this room. I'm thinking a trundle bed to the left of that window.....or maybe the right. I'm not sure. We'll see once we measure. And, as nice as the faux-painting is, that will be covered over as well.

For some reason, I don't have photos of the master bedroom and bath. I know I took them, but I've searched and searched to no avail. I will be back next week with some photos of the destruction.

tour de farmhouse part 3

The moment you've been waiting for (I'm positive) has arrived. Today, we take the tour of the living room, kitchen, and laundry. Suh-weet!

I showed this photo earlier, but I'm showing it again to give perspective. The living-room has a decent-sized entry from the front, but now I want you to notice how the front door is off-center from the office to the left and dining to the right. No, this is not the angle of the photograph, the front door is actually a foot closer to the dining room. No worries, though. We plan to scoot the wall of the office out a bit and even up those door frames. Easy fix!

Looking in from the kitchen to the living room. It's actually a long, skinny room, so it'll be a challenge for furniture placement, I'm sure.

Out the back patio, there's 2 sets of double doors. I think that will be VERY nice in the fall to open those up.

Here's a sideways view of the room....and look at that nice mantle. What are those? Nails sticking up???? Ouch! I'm sure the previous owners had a use for that.

Gotta love the brass fan.....

Here's a look into the kitchen from the living area. Here's what I see:

• A wall unit with broken doors and deep enough to park a semi in
• A beautiful brick chimney that's covered up with drywall
• A perfect excuse to do some demolition

Truly, we plan to knock that wall out (the one with the wall-unit) and open up that space from the living to the kitchen. We also plan to uncover that fireplace and show off the brick.

Now, for the laundry. This will be quick as there is exactly 5.8 inches of floorspace in here. Just kidding, but it is small.

Luh-hove the mustard-colored walls. Another awesome sponge painting adventure in here. The cabinets in here are actually the nicest in the entire house (once we cleaned up all the detergent that was spilled), so Greg plans to take them to use in his workshop.

The previous owners left the washer/dryer (well, that was part of the deal). What wasn't part of the deal was the 2 loads of clothes (one in the washer, one in the dryer) and all the socks in the drawers below, which the mice appreciated. After about 15789898238724 loads of Clorox-only, the washer and dryer have been deemed fit to actually clean clothes instead of infusing a musty-smell into them.

From the laundry into the kitchen, this is the view.

And, from the living into the kitchen. Our one main plan in this area is to connect the garage to this kitchen. It's just to the right of the wall you see here and will be easy to do as it's all under roof now. So, that's in the works.

Oh, and the view out that tiny window is the best view of the entire property. Remember the rainbow I posted earlier? That's the field. We're going to remove those upper cabinets and add some more windows here so we can enjoy that view a bit more.

And, last but not least, this is the wall that backs up to the chimney. Staying with my philosophy of "Why would you have drywall if you could have awesome brick?" theory, that wall will be stripped to expose the chimney and the stove will be placed on that wall. Yay!

Again, please feel free to leave comments or ask questions. I'll be posting about the upstairs bedrooms and baths tomorrow.

tour de farmhouse part 2

If you read my previous post, please be assured that dirty walls, nasty carpet, scuffs, stains, and mouse droppings do NOT show up in photographs. So, if you think I'm crazy for wanting to gut the place, I'm not. I'm just a clean person who likes to live in a clean house (sans mice).

That's my disclaimer, so here goes.

This is what you see when you step in the front door: a modest entryway, the edge of the steps and the living room.
And, if you were to stand in the living room looking toward the front, this is what you see.


Okay, now we're back at the front door and we're pretending we just walked in the front door. Look to your right and you'd see this red astrosity, that we are planning to use as an office/scrapbook room.

Yes, red paint and a sponge are definitely to blame for this. But, in better news, I found 2 gallons of unopened red paint that I was able to sell in the yard-sale for $1 each. Score!

Looking out of the office and across the entryway is the dining room which was attacked by the green-paint-monster.

On the other side of the wall on your right (above) is this hallway (below).

It's quite narrow and very uninteresting, so our plan is to knock that wall out and open up that whole area with a few columns for support.

Got any ideas or comments, feel free to post them. I'll be back tomorrow with the living room and kitchen.

tour de farmhouse part 1

What's been keeping me away from scrapbooking lately?


There's this massive project I have right now, namely remodeling the farmhouse we recently purchased. When we bought the place, I shared these photos with you, showing just a sampling of all the junk that was left by the previous owners. After weeks of digging through the rubble, pricing it and putting it into 2 yard sales, we're about $800 richer and now we can actually see the house we have to work with.


First, a tour of the outside.








The screen door doesn't shut all the way, it just flaps in the wind and it mucho-annoying. The columns are rotting, so they will need to be replaced as will the red-deck porch. We do plan to replace all the siding as there's some damage in places plus lots of mold.

As you can see, we at least need to replace the right side of the roof :)

Major leaking in one of the upstairs bedrooms helped us make the decision to get the tarp up sooner rather than later.

We also plan to replace the country-blue shutters. You can't see them very well here, but they really need some work.


ahhhh...There's the mold I was talking about and the blue shutters. Actually, for the mold to show up in this photo, that means it's really bad, because I've noticed all the bumps, dings, and nastiness generally hasn't shown up in my photos of the house.



The photo above is the left side of the house and the photo below is the right.

And now, our hangout:

From the left of the back porch (which is really the right-side of the house if you're looking at it from the front), you can see directly into the pasture the cows are grazing in now and there's a waterer within view so we get to see them fairly often sitting on the back porch.


It's wide and long and covered and so relaxing, well, minus the rotting floors, moldy siding, and the fact that we have absolutely no time to relax.....

Still, it's my favorite place on the entire property and one that I envision us using quite often. We have big plans for this area.

I'll have inside photos tomorrow, so check back then.

garden tour

Since Amber and Trevor moved to Nashville, we've been horrible at getting together. Last month, after a visit to Jack's BBQ, we decided we'd set a date every month to get together and they'd keep their eyes and ears open for events in Nashville. Thankfully, this weekend was the Garden tour and Amber secured the tickets. The proceeds benefitted Monroe Harding in Belle-Meade.

Here we are at mine and Greg's home. Remember the farmhouse we were renovating??? heehee
The copper gutters on this place cost more than our entire house, I'm pretty sure.

Some of my favorite flowers on the entire tour. Anyone know what the one on the left is?

Another favorite. Can't remember what this one is either. It's really a shame I went to a garden show and I haven't retained any knowledge.

Now, this one was never labeled and I saw it at 3 houses. Anyone care to tell me what this bush is?

It was a wonderful day. The weather was gorgeous and the gardens were beautiful. At one house, we asked the owner about the upkeep and she has a gardener come twice a month for 8 hours each time to do all the trimming. Ah...if only....

For the rest of the week, I'll be posting farmhouse photos as we're in full-on destruction mode. Please check back each day for updates.