Sweet Sixteen

She turned 16 yesterday. And yes, I am aware how beautiful she is. Her father does own guns. Her personality is just as beautiful. So proud of the woman she is becoming. Also, one of my best friends. 

Obsessed Much Mondays: It's OK to be lazy

As we are nearing the end of our summer...I feel myself really wanting to get as many projects done in and around our home as possible. But that is actually a double edge sword. My mind is going in a thousand directions, and it is really tiring! Sometimes, I need to allow myself just to stop and relish in this season. 

Enjoy the fruits of our labor... and just be still.

Summer, when I was growing up, was all about being outside... playing..  and sometimes just good old-fashioned laziness. But these days, it's like keeping up with the Jones'. So and so are going to the pool everyday, or are taking all these vacations.... I really just want my kids to be bored like we were when we grew up! Actually one of my favorite "mom" sayings is "If you are bored, than you are a boring person." (my kids HATE when I say that)

Being HOME is my favorite place to be...and living on a {mini} farm, there is SO MUCH TO DO. To me, we live in a vacation spot. I am aware of the fact that some families that live in the city or in town love to go camping or other vacations to get away from it all. Well, we are away from it all. So, no need to go anywhere, right? 

Having the animals to tend to and play with is just the start of it. 

The exploring of nature and all it's beauty (we live next to a wooded area that has a bike trail and creek running through it)


The sense of pride and accomplishment when eating from your own garden that you planted yourself

The chance to build something yourself, and just let yourself be creative. We need that time to let our minds wonder, to sit and daydream. Getting in tune with yourself and Mother Nature is good for your soul. 

I will try to remind myself of these things as this summer is whizzing past. 

And I hope my children look back and see that their summer was not wasted, but the exact opposite.  

This was part of my Summer Series called Obsessed Much? Mondays. You can read all the other Mondays in this series by clicking HERE. Or at the top of the page, the tab called "Obsessed Much". 

Painted Tree Stump in 7 Easy steps

Thanks to all of you who emailed, texted, commented, and called your condolences over losing our Hershey-Girl. She was a sweet and loving member of our family and will forever be missed!! We've never had to deal with losing a pet like this yet, so new territory for us, and will take a while to "get over", if it's at all possible. 

Now, I need to focus on fun stuff....
I wanted to show you all how easy it is to make a Painted Tree Stump side table. I showed this in our Living Room Summer Tour. We named him Scout, because every great thing needs to have a name! Ha!

First: Get a talented, handsome husband to make a stump level-ish for you.
 (Don't mind the beer can...hey, whatever it takes :)) In his line of business we have access to plenty of stumps. I recommend you dry it out for a while in your garage, and this will also make sure any bugs are gone from it. 

Second: Try to come up with a design pattern that you like. I knew I wanted something "Tribal" looking. I played around with some different patterns until I got the look I wanted. I really love the colors of brown, black, and white together, so this is what I designed

I also measured the stump to see what dimensions I wanted each row to be.

Third: I placed the stump on a drop cloth and picked out paints, it's actually pretty unpainted....but I didn't want a natural stump here. I used Annie Sloan's Old White (because I just love that white, and it's all I had on hand), and just black and brown acrylic paint that I already had also.

Fourth: Measuring and drawing the lines, this was a little time consuming...but so worth the look you get! Then I started with the white and painted one stripe at a time. 

Fifth: After painting the white and black stripes, I drew on the pattern. I DID NOT want this step to be perfect. I just eye-balled it, with no measuring. To me, the Tribal look is supposed to be imperfect and free-hand looking

Sixth: When the pattern was painted on, I thought this would be complete, but I decided I wanted a defined line between the stripes. So for that, I got out our trusty wood-burner. If you don't have one, you could skip this step. But we love wood-burning and use it often.

{I asked the Baileyhusband to help in this step so I could take a picture, besides, his hands are cuter than mine}

Seventh: If you have wood floors, I recommend using felt (or something else like it) on the bottom of your VERY HEAVY new side table. I hot-glued it on. I like to rearrange often, and this was a must for us to protect our floors!

Now the stump is ready to be used as a very stylish side table! I am so completely in love with this table and can't wait to see all the places it will end up in our home. 

I have had fun adding some accessories to it over the couple weeks we have had it. 

So, what do you think? Easy enough, right? Be very careful....it is addicting, and now I want a tree stump in every room! I think a plain green (my favorite color) is in my future...and I would love one painted with a fun, girly pattern for one of the girls. The possibilities are as endless as your imagination. Have fun!! And let me know if you tackle one of your own, I would love to see them!  

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Obsessed Much Mondays: Sweet Hershey

We are officially home from the fair, and boy WHAT A WEEK! When we arrived home late yesterday, my home looked like a tornado had hit. Between packing the camper and the kids finishing up their homemade projects...things were just strung across the entire house! 

I am a little late then normal to get out this week's "Obsessed" blog post...but with good reason. 

As we are cleaning up, re-organizing our life, getting things back to "normal", and the children being completely exhausted, we are also riding a very large emotional roller coaster. We have finally come to the realization that we are losing our beloved Hershey.

{She is always getting herself into some sort of trouble}

Hershey-girl was our first family pet, and has lived with us for almost 14 years! She is totally in love with Baileyhusband (she has good taste), and follows us around while doing chores EVERY day like it is her job! She also loved to chase the boys around and stay with them while they played in the sand until dark, like a little watchman.

She has survived being run over as a young pup and survived being taken to the dog-pound after she ran away once (I found her huddled in a corner of a cage at the Animal Rescue League, looking SCARED TO DEATH, needless to say, she never ran away again!! :). And now we are saying a very sad good-bye to her. She is having trouble getting around, wobbly old legs, and has cancer.  

Today, I am watching her (and sometimes following her) walk slowly and weakly around our farm. It's almost like she is saying good-bye to all her favorite places and all the animals. Usually she would be laying on the cool garage floor with the fan blowing on her. Especially today, because it is finally a HOT day. But nope, she is being a stubborn old thing... 

A vet is on stand-by, for when we have finally gotten brave enough, and to love her enough to say GOOD-BYE. So today, yes...I am ObSesSeD Much over our Hershey-Girl....we love her.....

A Budget -Friendly Camper Re-Do: Our Style

Last summer, on a whim, we purchased a camper...off of Craig's List...the night before we were going to use it! 

When we go to the 4H County Fair, we thought it would be fun and economical to just stay there the whole week instead of driving back and forth multiple times a day, tending to our cattle that we are showing, and in between fun fair activities. 

This little beauty was a great find, and a steal! It's a 1998 Dutchmen, and was taken care of by it's one owner and actually barely even used. So home it came with us!

We stayed in it that first week, but it didn't feel like ours. The cupboards were full of stuff that wasn't ours, and the colors and patterns were circa 1990's. We began to dream up big renovation plans! I even looked to Pinterest with my board titled "Camping in Style". 


But when it came time to actually start renovating it, we began to get a little nostalgic about this cute little camper. The wood wasn't really that bad to live with. The floors were easy to maintain. The brass (and there is a lot of it!) was growing on us. With a few cosmetic changes and our own accessories....it feels more like "us". 

I kind of let the camper tell me what style looked best with it. I brought in one of my favorite wedding gifts: A wedding Ring Quilt, and it just looked right at home in here. So that was the inspiration that I went with for the whole look. 

We will probably only use this a couple times each summer, and nothing screams "Summer" to me more than quilts. 

I love having the restraint of a tight budget, it is more creatively challenging. And I LOVE a challenge!

New window treatments in the bedroom were a MUST, I was going to make some,but found exactly what I wanted with these simple sheers from Target.

To balance all the girli-ness, we brought in some roughness via vintage coffee sacks. I had quite the growing collection of these, and after getting over the initial shock of cutting one up, I love the look it adds to the windows!!

Now, the window above the dining table was the biggest challenge! I know, I know...not a big deal in hind-site. But I had this "vision" of a deer rack hanging. 

After several nights of begging Baileyhusband to hang those suckers, he finally did. 

And they came crashing down as soon as we let go!

The wall paneling would not hold those heavy things! And if you could picture a grown woman hissing a fit, stomping her feet, and crying out to the decor Gods...well, that wasn't what happened. (well, maybe)

So, for posterity sake, I had Sierra hold them up for you all to see what it should have looked like. Cool, huh? 

After thinking about it for a couple days, and thinking "what in the world can I hang there that will cover that hole we made and be light as a feather??"

Well, duh, FEATHERS! We have plenty of them around here. And you know what? I like this better than the antlers....so THERE, decor Gods!! Now this is my favorite window in the camper. 

We also added burlap and rope to all the fabric panels. Amazing what a staple gun and a glue gun can accomplish! Burlap + Rope = A match made in heaven.

{One of the panels, before and after}

Some super cute, handy accessories, and we can use this as our second home! Because I always need to have fun things to look at as well as them being useful! 

Real herbs from our Farm Garden, these will be handy when grilling or making sandwiches at the campground!

Here are some before and after shots to see some of the changes:

There you have it....Our finished little camper remodel. 
It is not very fancy by any stretch of the imagination, and truth be told...it could be a little bigger, with bunk beds, a larger bathroom maybe. But, we actually adore this little gem. 

As I sit, typing this on my quilt in the bedroom, looking out to the trees surrounding our campground....(the family is down tending to our cattle in the barn)...I cannot be happier with our choice to save money and buy this, and make it home-y with our own unique style. 

 To quote one of my favorite bloggers, The Nester, 
It Doesn't Have To Be Perfect To Be Beautiful! So I hung this sign proudly.

I am a list maker, here is a breakdown of what was done/purchased:

* Burlap and rope added to cupboard panels with staple gun and hot glue

* Coffee sacks stapled over old window treatments

* Sheers purchased for bedroom windows, there are 3 windows. I only bought 3 panels and cut them in half length wise, and trimmed the bottom to fit the short ceiling height. (From Target)

* Baby crib sheets over kitchen benches, which also turns into a bed for the kids. So they work double-duty. (cheaper than a new slipcover. Purchased from Babies R Us)

* Quilt covering sofa-bed (over a fitted sheet), already owned

* Bedroom quilt and bedding, already owned

* Homemade feather garland over window in kitchen and homemade "Be Inspired" banner above bed.

* 2 seagrass rugs (Target)

* Magazine/mail holder baskets on wall (purchased new from Target)

* Feed sack pillows and other pillows from my hoarding stash

* Framed feed sack in barnwood, made by me

* Sheepskin throw/ rug (purchased from Ikea)

* All other accessories were just found around our home

I hope you enjoyed seeing into our little home-on-wheels! We are so excited for the chance to use it this summer/ fall season. 

Until next time.....

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