What Summer Looks like around here

SUMMER IS HERE! 

Since today is the first day of summer, officially, I want to document what ours looks like. Owning a small farm is always at it's busiest right now. The County Fair is next month and we are bringing 5 of our last year's calves with us. So taking care of them, to get them "show ready", is a full-time job in itself. The kids have homemade projects to complete and show in front of a judge also. 

This time of year is really fun, because BABIES....

We had a record number born at Irishman Acres this year....8! And one Mama had a set of twins!! Now Baileyhusband has the daunting task of picking out this year's baby daddies and figuring out when to breed our cows. I told him that he is a cow pimp.. HA! 

The yard, landscaping, etc has always been a huge passion of mine and has become kind of another hobby for me. Mowing our acreage, planting and watering our flowers....and making sure our porches and patios are pretty and cozy (of course). 

Our back porch/ deck has finally received some TLC in the form of fresh stain, and new furniture! (Just don't mind the broken umbrella! It still does the job of keeping us shaded :) And we've already spent a lot of time out here. Even in the morning with my cup of coffee, there is not a better view of our farm than on this porch! 

I looked high and low for an affordable, yet SOFT, outdoor rug. And ultimately used what I had stored in a closet. I've had this rug forever and was gonna throw it away, why not just use it outside? I'm not sad if it only makes it this year out here, and it was FREE! I do bring it in if it's gonna rain, but not a big deal at all. Making our back porch cozy and inviting makes me want to spend more time out here, and draws us all out to rest at night after the chores are done instead of just heading inside to watch TV. 

Our playground is next in my project list, it has not been touched this spring yet as you can see. Our annual big 4th of July Party is coming up and this will look a lot better by then. As well as our sand volleyball...the weeds sure have taken over! 

Our farm is getting something that I never knew I always wanted....a greenhouse! It's actually a gift for our son, Wyatt, he is extremely passionate about horticulture. He and dad are building this (when time allows) and I will definitely be documenting the process here on the blog and can't wait to see it completed! 

In another post, I will show our vegetable gardens that Wyatt has planted and is tending to daily. I'm so glad he is so passionate about this and getting a greenhouse will help him start his seeds even sooner. 

And soon, I will also be posting a summer tour of our home, I realized so much has changed around here and cannot wait to update our Home Tour tab at the top of this page. 

I hope you all are having a great start to your summer....

How to Style Your Shelves

                      

I've recently come across Laurel and Wolf , an online interior design service, and I was challenged to show off a "Shelfie" and how I designed it. I thought that it sounded like a great post to reveal one of my personal shelves we keep in our living room. It's a place we showcase all of the graduates on both sides of our families....so basically all of our nieces and nephews. This is getting so full, however, that when the next one graduates I may be finding somewhere else to display them! 

I was given this awesome graphic to follow if you are new to styling shelves:

So now I will break down how mine were done....

STEP 1: TAKE INVENTORY

These are all of our beautiful nieces' and nephews' senior pictures. I usually use frames that I have on hand, and I love mixing up the finishes. Wood, black, and silver are my favorite mix. Which leads to step 2....

STEP 2: CREATE A COLOR PALETTE

Along with the frame finishes, I used the colors that are naturally found in our home....blue, green, and cream. It keeps the shelves from becoming too busy looking even though they are completely filled. These colors were brought mostly with books. 

STEP 3: BEGIN WITH BOOKS

Books add that level of interest and height to our shelves that are sometimes overlooked. Whenever I am doing styling at home or at someone else's house, I always include books. And in this case, I use them stacked by color. 

The basket of books houses most of our proof albums we get from photographers, it's fun to keep them handy to look back through. Baskets are a great filler on shelves, and a handy catchall when cleanup is needed quickly....ha! 

STEP 4: ADD IN ART

The "ART" in this case is our actual photos of the kids. So this is the part of it that gets tricky for me. I like to mix up the colors of frames, the height of the pics, and because I'm a glutton for punishment and am a little OCD....I didn't want any siblings or same family members being right beside each other. 

I added a picture of our wedding day to the top for height, and because of our large family and all the pictures we have of them, this is the only place we have to put a photo of US. (also, the church we were married in has so much meaning to me, and is showcased beautifully in this picture. The books next to it are bibles that belonged to my parents and a hymnal from this church)

Almost done! But you can see that there is something missing. It needs some fillers and some softness. 

STEP 5: TURN UP THE PERSONALITY

Feathers and lace....two of my favorite design accessories. 

STEP 6: TAKE A STEP BACK

Look at your shelves, do they tell the story that you want them to? Is there something missing? I see that there is something missing on the top shelf. I added in some nests after these pictures were taken for this post. But I am always moving, rearranging, and tweaking everything in this house. 

I have the cutest little rattan boho shelving unit that I picked up at a garage sale earlier this month, you can see it on our Instagram. I cannot wait to style those. 

And by the way, Laurel and Wolf's Pinterest is a new obsession of mine. And this new to me website and blog is a great spot for ideas and inspiration! Please click on over and see for yourself....

I'm off to more baseball games today, I think this busy part of summer is almost over. I have some fun posts planned for the next couple months and, hopefully, if I'm organized enough I can keep this going throughout the school year. 

Thanks for coming onto this little blog of ours, and reading the random thoughts of this busy mama who loves her farm and is obsessed with design!

Boho Graduation Party

I honestly cannot believe that my little girl has all grown up and ready for this great big world! Now exactly half of my children are leaving our nest and this Mama has mixed emotions about it all. There is something so amazing to see the child that you have loved, taught, healed, kissed, looked after, worried about, prayed for, cried over, fought with, obsessed about... (you get the idea), looking at you with her big brown eyes and declare that she is an adult. Um, excuse me?? And I just want to say THANK YOU to all of my friends and family for putting up with this crazy woman I became while wanting EVERYTHING to be perfect for her Graduation Party~ Breakfast in the Barn. 

We, and when I say "WE" I mean Daddy....my amazingly patient husband, finished this new little project on our farm just in time for the big day! Nothing like a huge deadline looming over us to get it finished. ( I highly recommend deadlines such as this :) 

THANKS DAD!!

When I planned our other daughter's grad party in 2012, we had it on our back deck/porch. Well, even though it was pretty, it was kind of crammed and this time around I wanted it more spread out. And this daughter has a little different style....so a Boho Party in our new barn was what needed to happen.

Now before you declare me a horrible photographer, in all of my craziness of the day, and because my REAL camera was being used to take pics with all of the guests and the graduate as they arrived, I took most of them with my cellphone, ugh, when will I learn??

We used vintage windows that I picked up at various antique stores and junkin sales. I see great things for these in the future! 

We showcased some of Sierra's favorite dreamcatchers that she has made and blankets, pillows, rugs, tapestries, and decor that are her signature Boho look. 

The guests signed a book called I Wish You More and got to leave their wishes for her.... I still haven't signed it myself, too emotional......

I have had these old sofas in our basement, loved on old relics, that I've hoarded. But now they had a reason to shine...and added to the eclectic vibe we wanted. 

I purchased these chairs and this table from World Market. Which will eventually be on our back porch. Ordered them online and I love them even more than I expected to!! 

This next seating arrangement was a way to hide a huge pile of barnwood that we have stored in this barn. So I made a long bench out of it with some quilts and pillows. Sierra's crate/storage chest that was a past 4H project was a great coffee table.  

I cannot tell you what a dream come true this was for us to give a party in this barn for our little girl High School Graduate. And as fun as it was to show these pictures to you all, guess what? I did not take ONE SINGLE PHOTO of the food table!!! Well, a lot of work went into it and I'm so mad that I don't have anything to show for it....we had donuts (20 dozen!), scrambled eggs, sausage links, bacon,  fruit, coffee, and orange juice. I guess it was all yummy....mother and hostess of the day didn't get one bite. HA! 

And to quote one of our favorite new songs by Tim McGraw....

"I know you have mountains to climb, but Always Stay Humble and Kind"

Sierra, you will do great things in this life, graduating is not the end, but a beautiful beginning! We could not be more proud of the athlete you are, the friend, sister, daughter you are, the performer/ singer you are, the Honor Student you became, and one of my best friends. Congratulations baby girl! 

Hey, maybe I just found what I should write in her guest book!? 

Our Recycled Water Trough: an Update and How-To

Good Morning! 
There has been a lot of interest lately in our recyled water trough. 

{our living room 3 years ago}

I first posted about it when I needed help in figuring out where to put it in our home and to showcase what we were showing at the fair. You can see that original post HERE.

Recently, Country Lifestyle featured the photo above from Pinterest. And it has generated a lot of questions and requests for a "How-To". So I am going to attempt to articulate without sounding completely un-knowledgeable about all things tools! And trying to find pictures from 3 years ago was quite a challenge. 

Our son, Wyatt, along with Daddy's guidance, made this as a 4-H project. It's original intention was a tack box for when we show our cattle at the Fair. And we have actually used it down there....I will show pictures of that later in this post. Some of these pictures were taken during the making of it, and others have been taken now with it in our home to show more details and instructions. 

This is the stock tank that we used, it was purchased before we had our automatic waters for our cattle. It had become rusted and not safe to use, so we decided to use it for a totally different purpose! You can purchase a brand new one at Tractor Supply. (It's a 100 gallon for those needing to know the size) 

Using old barn wood that he nailed and glued together, he placed it on top to measure the size of lid needed. He then cut it out with a jigsaw. 

A mama side note: Wyatt looks so young and adorable in this picture! He is wearing safety glasses and was monitored by Dad the whole time! 

 On the back, 2 pieces of barn wood were attached to make a good base for the hinges. (which were also old and recycled...seeing a theme here? haha)

On the front is a used latch we had lying around and spray painted it brown to kind of match the rusty hinges on the back. The paint has kind of chipped and warn off over the years, which I don't mind. I love that this is not perfect. Which makes it perfect!  

Wyatt also likes to wood-burn, so he made a sign to put on the front with our farm name. (this is my favorite part!) He then bolted it to front. 

After cutting holes in the sides with a drill to the size needed, old ropes were used for the handles, which were just zip-tied on the inside. You can see from these current photos that this trunk is now being used as pillow storage in our bedroom! 

The final thing that was added were casters to get this big bad boy around easier, and to me, everything should have casters! 

{at our 4-H County Fair}

{Proud Wyatt with his project}

Can you believe that he just received a blue ribbon for this? Apparently the judge requested that there be a safety closing hinge on it to prevent injuries. Even though it was hurtful that this didn't go on to the State Fair level, we do have to agree that safety comes first. So if you are reading this to make one for yourself, please add a safety hinge! (We still haven't, and haven't had any accidents however)

And to prove that we have loved and abused this.....here are some ways that we have used this workhorse...all of these are from our Instagram page, under the hashtag #ourwatertrough....

At the County Fair as a tack box

In our front room as a Christmas tree holder

 In our living room with our many looks over the last couple years

{a little too tall as a coffee table}

 And in it's current location, at the end of our bed

The funny thing is that it is not, and never really was for long, in the location that it is in the picture that is going around Pinterest, and now Facebook! So I hope this helps those that have asked me to show more details about how this was made. It isn't for everyone to have a recycled item from a farm in your home. But I love objects that make a statement. I love quirky. I love recycled, repurposed, re-used. I love to organize and store things. And most of all, I love my son and ANYTHING he makes! And I'm sure that I will have to fight him for it when he grows up and leaves our nest! 

{our living room 3 years ago}

And if you have one of these water troughs sitting around your yard or farm, and don't want to make a storage piece for your home, you can always use it as a pool like my boys have done. This is another tank we have and I am always dreaming up ideas of how we can use repurpose it! 

Thanks for stopping by my little blog, I hope you come back to follow our journey of our everyday busy life on this hobby farm of ours, and watch as I learn and love making our home into our sanctuary.