Obsessed Much Mondays: Barn Sale Goodies

Welcome to another addition of Obsessed Much Mondays...where I tell a story and share pictures of what has me so obsessed at the moment. Because we all tend to get obsessed with things, and I love getting things off my chest and sharing it with all my friends. Haha!!

This past weekend, I focused mainly on the upcoming Barn Sale. Summer life is always mixed with a lot of projects, 4H things to accomplish (getting the cows to be "show-ready", kids' homemade projects, etc), activities, sports, Bible School, hopefully a family vaca squeezed in....the list goes on and on! And with our Bailey Barn Sale, we are even MORE crazy, I mean busy! 

So, Marci and I thought it would be fun to show some sneak peaks of what we have been working on....and because some of our friends and customers are chomping to see some goodies!! We can't show EVERYTHING, we want some things to be a surprise when you come shopping on JUNE 20th! 

So in no particular order, here are just a few handpicked goodies....

This is a future wine rack....seriously some beautiful wood, it is still in progess, but oh so cool! 

I have been working on these Vintage inspired Science Posters, if you haven't seen them in person, they are my new favorite design element....there are about 10-12 different ones available for this sale. 

Some junkin treasures..These items are STAPLES in our home. I love sap buckets. I use them as large vases and there is a hole on the back of each one,which are fun hanging on a wall. And of course, crates, they are perfect caddies, trays, or shelving on a wall! And these ones are beautiful. 

Marci will have several of her ever-so-popular wood-burned and painted treasures. Including this amazing lazy susan....

Handmade vintage-inspired food signs.... I actually want several of these for myself! 

There will be several of these reclaimed wood signs , and this one is MY FAVORITE, I'm sure you can guess why!?! 

Our talented husbands will again show their creativity with quite a few of their designs. This repurposed wire spool is an awesome coffee table. 

And what is a Barn Sale without several Barnwood Frames to choose from. These sold out quickly, so we will have more to choose from this time! Here are just a few.....

I have hunted down some amazing seed sacks which are being made into pillows. These are just samples of what they will look like. (These are mine!!) Someday, I hope to learn to sew, in the meantime my Mama is a great help in getting this accomplished! Thanks Mom! 

My daughter, Sierra, has started her own little crafty business called "Sierra's Dreams". This is a photo of her first dreamcatcher she had made as a 4H project last year. On another post I will highlight all the beautiful ones that she has created since this first one. She will have her own display at the Barn Sale, I am one proud Mama, and you all will LOVE what she has created!! 

Marci is a Junkin Queen, and has so much fun junkin goodness to show, that I could not get it all photographed....the photo below were some of my favorites that she has shown me. Ya'll, I want EVERYTHING....

There are a few other friends that will be selling their goodies also. I don't want to spoil all the fun and show you too much! 

But there you have a little peak to hopefully spark your interest! Having a summer sale is turning out to be so much fun. Hopefully the weather is nice that day so we can have a lot of our displays outside. But if not, the shop will be full and a nicely shaded place for you to do some shopping! There will be so much furniture, repurposed junk, vintage treasures, homemade items, candles, signage, frames, pillows, so many fun things for you to start (or finish) a gallery wall in your home!! 

Please make sure to follow the barn sale on Facebook, you can get to it by clicking HERE.

And I will be instagramming it all also, you can follow that by clicking HERE, or clicking on the hashtag #baileybarnsale. 

Now, I better get some more work done, we have less then 2 weeks left!! 

These logs are calling my name to make something beautiful out of them......

Obsessed Much Mondays: Form over Function

Now that summer is in full swing, and this is our official first Monday, I would like to bring back my little series.... 

This is a fun way that I can share what has been on my mind and what I've been obsessing about! 

You all know that I love everything about this little farm of ours, we take pride in this place and hope to never take for granted how lucky and blessed we are. Doing the yard work has always been my thing.......pulling weeds, landscaping, mowing, perennial gardening, potting flowers, and just generally keeping up with the daily tasks of making our place beautiful! 

Baileyhusband is a hard worker and Summertime is his BUSY season, he also takes care of our cows for the most part and does all the BIG jobs around here like building things, repairs, planting our vegetable garden, using the weed-eater (because I'm convinced I will lose a leg), etc. Even though most of the yard-work is happily left to me..one thing that I cannot touch is OUR BARN....or more accurately, our BARNYARD.....

See how beautiful it is in that photo? This is truly a magnificent building built so carefully by my talented husband. But folks, this is not how this looks as of today. That photo above was taken in our first fall after completing the Barn. So picture perfect....and if you look closely, you can see the top of Gunnar's head in the doorway! He's a little taller now! 

I have this constant battle with the husband about FORM over FUNCTION. You see, I want everything to just be pretty, especially this amazing structure on our property. I mean, it has been the backdrop for some amazing photos...

  

But in those photos, I hid a little secret, which I will (reluctantly) show now.....

You see, we show cattle at the County and State Fairs, and this IS an actual working barn. There needs to be a place for the cattle to get washed.....

And a place for them to get looked at safely by the vet.....

And the man in charge doesn't mind the grass (or weeds) growing in here a little so the cows can get a snack when waiting in line to get a bath.....

BUT I WANT IT TO BE PRETTY TO LOOK AT!! And so the argument goes....

I know that ultimately, I cannot and will not win this battle. Our cattle are a huge part of our farm, and we love them!

 And to take care of them, there needs to be all of this mess....

So there you have a little glimpse of the nuances of our marriage..haha! He thinks that our farm doesn't need to be pretty, just functional. And of course, I think EVERYTHING needs to be pretty! 

Please tell me that I am not alone in this?? But I will share something that I am proud of....this weekend we had a group of friends over that had never seen our home and farm. I brought them down to the barn for a full tour of our livestock...and later that evening I remembered that I didn't apologize once for overgrown weeds/grass or the way the barnyard looked in general! So, somehow I am either getting used to the fact that it won't be this showplace of a yard, or just hoping that the rest of our yard makes up for it! :)

Anyway, this is what I have been obsessing over lately....time for me to go tend to my pretty flowers and fluff the pillows on our porch! Thanks for stopping by friends!! 

Obsessed Much Mondays: OUR OWN SHOP

{Via FoundDesign.co}

Yes, you read that title correct....we are opening up our own shop! Now, before we get all carried away with jumping up and down, and high-fiving, or clapping...it's an ONLINE shop! (I fooled you, didn't I?) Although, since I was a little girl, I dreamed of my very own Brick and Mortar shop, it is just not in the cards for our busy schedule. But have always been considering the next best thing.

{Via Curious Sofa}

I fulfilled some of that dream last fall with the Bailey Barn Sale, and have a ton of other items needing/wanting a home, and to be honest...we love making things and would like to sell them! Doing something I love, and hopefully making a little extra cash, is a win-win! 

{Via AtticMag.com, not sure of original source}

I have been doing my product research and have some more things to work out, so hopefully in the next couple weeks it will be up and running! All the images I am showing are ones that I've been collecting on a "Secret" board on Pinterest for a couple years, for the day of opening my very own shop. I love each of these images and go visit them often :) Yes, always have been a little obsessed with all things homemade and vintage. 

{Via Perfectly Imperfect, the world's most "Perfect" shop}

I know what I want us to make and sell...but would love to hear from all of you...what would YOU like to see us sell? If you don't know us, we make things out of barnwood, repurposed farm-y items, numbers and letters, feed sack pillows and framed sacks, and I have so many other ideas with all of our feathers!  You can feel free to comment at the end of this post, on our Facebook Page (make sure you "Like" ~Irishman Acres~ on Facebook to get all the updates), private message, or email at baileywife98@gmail (dot) com. 

So, my dear friends, this is WHAT has me Obsessed Much? this Monday....

...besides the fact that school starts this week....(What the What??) Summer has come and gone by so fast, I think that I am still waiting for it to actually start :( 

This series Obsessed Much? Mondays was a really fun part of my summer, and I am thinking about continuing it. Would love to hear your thoughts on that also... As always, find me on our Facebook page, on Instagram (where I share more of our daily life), or see what inspires us on Pinterest. 

I want you, yes YOU, to know that I appreciate you as a reader. Blogging is a fun hobby and is a great tool to get to know other people. I would love if you could please share this little ol' corner of the internet with your friends. 

I hope later next week to share other "Big News", and hopefully be a little closer to getting our shop up and running....until then, wish me luck!! 

Obsessed Much Mondays: Hospitality and HOME

This Monday's obsession? Our home and hospitality.....

Lately, it seems, there has been a slew of reasons to have parties and get-togethers. And one thing that I truly love is sharing our home. My children, on the other hand, do not like the fact that they have to help clean for such events! (cue the dramatic fights discussions) But, in the end...they all agree that it is worth it. 

I recently co-hosted a baby shower at our home for our niece. It was so much fun! And I think it was a success...

When there is a party at our home, even if it is a birthday for one of my children...I plan it out and make it as festive as feasibly possible like it's my job! 

What I NEED to get better at is the day to day hospitality....learning to let go of the perfectness that my home does not have on a day to day basis. When someone comes through my messy garage and into our even messier mudroom to enter my home, my head turns red with embarrassment.  I don't always have my garage door closed, so I think people take the shorter route into our home...but I really wish that they would take the prettier route onto the front porch and into our entryway.  I know down deep that people don't care, and it's not about having a perfectly put together home...it's just about sharing it and making them feel welcome! For some reason I don't have the same anxiety over dirty dishes....because there will ALWAYS be dirty dishes in my sink. So, if you are reading this...and you are coming over to my home, come to the front door for a more prettier entrance but don't look towards the kitchen sink. (kiddingnotkidding) Sorry, got off track, moving on....

I was so excited when the lil baby mama wanted to take her maternity photo-shoot here at our farm. It was so much fun to do, and even though I am not a professional photographer, I think they turned out pretty good. It helps that Irishman Acres has some amazing natural backdrops....

I believe in sharing your home. It's a reflection of who you are. I take pride in the fact that Baileyhusband built it, and together we raise our family here. I love making it feel all comfy and cozy and home-y. Inside and on the outside. Yes, I am a little OBSESSED with it actually....this home is my playground. 

I secretly wish that I could make a living at this. HOME is my passion. I love helping family and friends turn their house into a home. Not by pushing my style onto them, but by helping them find theirs. I am working on a post about our style and what I call it....that will be done soon, I hope. 

It wasn't always this way. When we were first married, we had a ton of things happening. We started a family right away, Baileyhusband started his own business, and we built this house.(all within the same year!) It was all quite overwhelming and we were just trying to survive. 

Now, our hobby and passion is making our life here at Irishman Acres into something beautiful that we love to share. It is not a bragging sort of sharing...it's a form of sharing that artists do with gallery showings, or singers do at their concerts. We feel that we are lucky enough to have a little piece of paradise, and it was all given to us by the Man above's sweet blessing and compassion! So, why not share it? 

I'm a fan of dreaming and planning, and we dream and make lots of plans. If the Lord is willing, maybe someday we can make a little income with our home and farm....don't know how yet...but it would be nice! ;)

Today, we are sharing our home with three little visitors that are ages 3, 2, and 1. They have stayed here at Aunt Kimmi and Uncle Dum Dum's for the whole weekend, and let me tell you that it was a quick reminder to us that after not having a toddler in our home for over 6 years, you quickly forget what it is like! 

There are plenty of ways to practice the fine art of hospitality in the near future....my sister's daughter will be staying with us while she attends a local college and we have been busy getting a room ready for her, while doing a little switch-a-roo with our oldest daughter. And I have my co-workers from school coming over tonight for a little time together before school starts. 

So, there you have it. My obsession for this Monday has been about sharing our home.... from our FRONT DOOR! ;) 

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".