My Living Room inspiration

Well, we did get our floors down this weekend (in the living room and hallway), but it's MORE of an undertaking than we had originally expected. Here is what the room looked like BARE:

It really does make our woodwork look even more plain and boring..can't wait to see what we come up with for the new trim. You see, BaileyHusband and I are kind of fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants designers. We get a crazy idea in our head of something new that we would like to do and it turns into a snowball effect. He always uses our master bedroom as an example. About 9 yrs ago, we were on a vacation in Florida. We stayed at a condo that had a KING SIZE BED. When we came home to our little Queen size mattress, the husband quickly decided we NEEDED a King. Little did he know that it meant a whole new furniture set, then we needed new bed linens (duh...:), which meant new window treatments, etc...you get the picture! So I knew our idea of a re-vamp of our living room would not be any different!

1. First came the beams

2. Now the floors

in progress....

3. Next will be the trim

4. New window treatments

5. Changing the lighting

6. Painting the ceiling fan

7. New Rug and Pillows :)

8. New stair banister and railing

9. I'm sure I will think of more.....

Already I feel like we are in a vacation home, doesn't feel like ours. Hard to believe the difference it makes with just new flooring! The house is still torn apart, all the leftover stuff is tucked into all the bedrooms and our entryway. Meanwhile, I have been gathering inspiration for what I want my living space to feel like.

Here are some images that I am drawn to:

Gerard Butler's movie room

Dennis Quaid's Living Room

Diane Keaton's Spanish Style Home 

Gerard Butler's Loft Living Room
I just want to move right in to Gerard's loft....don't even care if he stays too! :)

Wendy Bellissimo's current living room

Although I LOVED Wendy Bellissimo's living room in her home that is shown in her book "Nesting". One of my all-time favorite design books.

I am loving denim right now....

We are definitely keeping our existing furniture. So with our 2 large brown sofas and large "Antique Heirlooms" armoire...I think I might make burlap curtains similar to these:

And  hire  beg my mama to help me make denim pillows...and hunt down a seagrass rug for the summer feel I am after. I will cozy it up with faux fur and a large frieze rug for the colder months.

I will try to not have this be the ONLY thing I talk about for the next month....after all, I should be doing some other projects around here. JUSTSOEXCITEDICANTSTANDIT :)

If you got all the way down to the end of this rambling post, thanks!!
~Kim~

They're HERE

They are FINALLY HERE.....

one of the two piles

And soon they will be here......

...here....

and here.......

There is currently hardwood floors in this entry way and in our front room, but since it was laid 13 yrs ago, and not our favorite...we are doing the "un-thinkable" and tearing it out and replacing it!! This goes against everything I stand for, but I promise that we are donating it and it will be recycled. This will allow a seamless transition from the foyer into our Great Room.
But I CANNOT WAIT to remove our berber carpet...although it has been very kind to us and our very messy family....the germ-a-phob in me wants a more clean-able surface :)
After years of dreaming of this...months of talking about it....and weeks of shopping for it......we finally found what we were looking for in price, quality, and looks with this product:

Since the forecast is calling for rain...I have high hopes that BaileyHusband will get these down this weekend! Our deadline of getting our projects finished is quickly approaching!!! (First party is May 19th)
And there is still lighting to hang, new trim to be installed, etc. SO MUCH STRESS!!! (but the fun kind of stress! :)

Here is to a good prosperous weekend!  ~Kim

P.S. Please continue to pray for Little Landon. He is being such a brave, precious little guy!

Little Landon

We have some dear friends that have been going through the un-imaginable, their 4 yr old son was just diagnosed with Stage 4 Neuroblastoma and starts aggressive chemotherapy tomorrow. Little Landon is a sweet little farm boy with so much spirit...we are praying constantly for his healing and strength for his parents and sisters! We have had the opportunity to get to know this family better because of our love of miniature herefords. They purchased 2 calves that we had bottle fed and raised here at Irishman Acres. And then recently our bull, Ken, "fathered" a calf of theirs. Landon promptly named their new calf "Hawkeye".

Landon and Hawkeye

My heart is heavy and my thoughts are consumed with Landon and his family. Last summer, at our annual 4th of July party, Landon's mother was thoughtful enough to be "photographer for the day" and took some amazing pics of our party. I wanted to share some awesome ones of little Landon....

Helping me do chores

Landon gathering eggs

Cooling anyone that walked by! :)

Giving some love to Jetta

Landon's mama, Suzanne (with the camera bag)

Suzanne got some great shots of our fireworks!

Little Landon

Dear God,
Please show your love and mercy on this family! Give them strength and hope to get through this with an unwavering faith in you....we know you are right there beside them holding their hands.....Amen

Grand Central Station

I don't know any mom that hasn't complained at one point or another of laundry, shoe/coat storage (or lack there-of) and yearning for that perfect MUDROOM. Although, my mudroom/ laundryroom is anything but perfect....it has made our lives so much easier. It all starts with the first room that most people see when they come into my home, you see, out here NO ONE uses your front door...no, lets walk through my messy garage and be greeted by the messiest room in our home...AWESOME first impression!

I now have a room that (when clean) I can not be so embarrassed when people walk through! I do have quite a bit of Longaberger baskets to my name because I used to be a consultant. So I allow myself this one room to use them all in. I like the look of them with all the other colors: barn red, tin, and white wood work.

This is a very small room to get so much stuff into, 8ft x12ft. And it needs to house all of the following:
*Multiple family member's hat collections
*Mud boots
*School bags and jackets
*Winter hats/mittens/ scarves/ etc.
*Dirty clothes baskets
*Cleaning supplies
*Bulletin board of schedules and activities

Oh...and the washer and dryer....:)

My favorite part of this room, besides all the natural light it has, is the wall of StrongBarn tin. We have the opportunity to salvage material from farms and barns when they are being demolished....we re-use and recycle things as much as possible. Most of our out-buildings have been made from recycled material of old barns.

Now if only this room stayed this clean every day........

Better go put all the stuff back that I took out of the room to make it look good for pictures...
~Always the truthful~ Kim

Catch and Release

Since we had celebrated Easter earlier in the season with my extended family, we spent the actual holiday doing much needed farm chores (go figure)! After doing a clean-up of cow-lots, we decided that we need to get REAL about training our 4H calves. We purchased Crimson and Clover this past fall and I have been so impressed with my daughter, Sierra on her interest and attention she has given these very wild creatures!! When we brought them home to Irishman Acres, they had never been touched by humans. We are proud to say that you can now pet them....now time to "train them for bath-time".

BaileyHusband walking Crimson

Sierra walking Clover

Being that they had never had a bath or even been properly walked...it was amazing how the process of watering them down (with cold hose water) and soaping them up actually was....but this was the calm BEFORE the storm.....

After they were properly washed...my dear BaileyHusband advised Sierra to untie Clover and take her to another tree to dry. With no gloves on and a very wet rope, poor Sierra held on to that wild monkey for as long as she could...and sadly I have no pictures of all the fun that followed...I had to discard of my camera to help chase down the heifer and then later the same thing happened with Crimson, yep, we didn't learn the first time and had a re-enactment with the second one!
Mistake #1:  Taking them out of their pen
Mistake #2: NOT wearing gloves
Mistake #3: Ever trusting a cow

It did take a little cooling off of BaileyHusband, but now we are laughing about it and how naive and dumb these wanna-be farmers can be!! :) We have so much to learn!

While I did have my camera out, I took some pics of my grandmother's lilacs that (after 13 yrs on this farm) are finally blooming that they should!

I can just smell them looking at these pics...I love this scent!! Nothing compares to the REAL scent of lilac, candles and sprays that try to replicate this are too perfume-y. I just wish they would bloom all summer long!

Hope everyone else had as much fun on Easter as we did!
Love- Kim

Party Planning 101

Happy FRIDAY!!!
With all this beautiful weather we are having, comes my wanna-be party planner/ designer/ stager self.
I've been trying to get inspired and creative for our first party of the year: our daughter's graduation party!
Since this is a first for us, I have no idea what to expect!? But I at least have a plan (somewhat)...my inspiration is this:

Can you see what I am going for? Denim, daisies, barnwood and burlap! A whole country girl THANG, y'all :)
CaNnOt WaIt for this shindig...and praying for great weather so we can have this on our back porch!
If we move this inside due to bad weather, my nerves will be shot, and my house will have to be totally re-staged...but I will have a plan for it just in case!

Love- Kim

Our calves

I have been hard at work getting our new calves registered with the American Hereford Assoc. We are getting their ears tagged this weekend (poor babies). I had the fun of trying to get pictures yesterday of the shy little gals. This is the best I got....

I also got a good shot of my sweet Carly Jo, she was letting her sister babysit for her while she tried visiting her boyfriend.....

But he is being kept away for now...Ken, we have a love/ hate relationship: I love him, he hates me!

I know he needs a good bath, hopefully soon Baileyhusband can get that done. (without my help!)
I sure do love my miniature herefords, it will be hard to sell those sweet little babies, but I know we only have 10 acres here at Irishman Acres, and we need to make room for next years' babies!
I recently found a blog  www.ThePioneerWoman.com and bought her first cookbook. She is soooo much like me in being a reluctant country gal, everything still being new after 13 years here. And loving EVERY minute of it!!

Kim