Obsessed Much? Mondays

For this second edition of Obsessed Much, I want to share that I am totally and unapologetic-ly obsessed with:  THRIFTING 

Thrift stores...you know these places that were so taboo years ago....Goodwill, Salvation Army, flea markets, garage and tag sales.....

Yep, these places are the new "IT" stores :) It is now cool to shop second-hand. No-thanks to the song "Thrift Shop" by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis . Ya know, the song that says I'm gonna pop some tags? I recently found that I had a few hours to myself, and what is a mama to do? Well, one man's trash is another man's treasure (come-up) fo sho. (that is me trying to talk slang....I'm not cool enough, I know!)

Anyway....here are some treasures that I found recently

{I think it's a soap dish, at least that is what I will be using it for :)}

{Tea cups made in Germany, love these!}

{these will be spray painted and added to a wall soon}

{metal bowl, don't know WHAT I'll do with this, but had to have it}

{This MADE IN INDIA hand painted dhurrie rug, SERIOUSLY PEOPLE!?}

All these things pictured below were thrifted. The barn frame was purchased with a not-so-pretty-picture inside. I bought the seed sack and just popped it in the frame. And that mountain scene?? Love it...bought frameless (for $7.00) and I kind of like it that way for now. 

I also bought some crisp clean white pillow cases, which were turned into these (by my daughter)

And remember this re-do?

It might be hard to see in the picture below (from my cell-phone) but from a church garage sale I found all these things...totaling $20. Those big strands of beads? $1 for all of them!!! The pizza board? 50 cents! The most amazing things are found when not even looking for them!  

{75 cents for  the vase and $1.00 for the dried hydrangea bundle}

I have also purchased several items that I am currently using for little make-over projects and cannot show at this time (teaser), but also bought the following unpictured items:

A couple pillows (did you know that people get rid of perfectly good pillows with ugly covers?) Yep, feel them next time you are thrifting, if they are feather down inserts inside...snag them up. Couldn't beat the $2 a piece price tag! Mine had zippered covers, threw those away and have a great insert for a new homemade pillow!

An unloved lonely dining room chair for $4.99. That was four dollars and ninety nine cents people!! One day, my daughter will be moving out and would like mismatched dining chairs, yep, score!!!

And 4 semi-scratched 8x10 frames. With a coat of fresh paint, they will be masterpieces on any gallery wall!


Here are some other helpful hints I use when thrifting:

1. Don't shop with SPECIFIC things in mind...you generally will not find them and leave disappointed and empty handed. Instead, think of non-specifics: a fun lamp, some accessories for your bookshelf, a piece of furniture that you could re-purpose, maybe something fun to hang on a gallery wall. 

2. If you don't know about something or aren't quite sure if it will work for you. Leave it, walk around the store, think about it. If you STILL think it's worth the money, BUY IT. It is probably only a couple dollars...so not a big deal. But if you don't buy it, someone else will, and it will haunt you forever. (kidding, kinda) If you love it, you WILL find a place for it, I promise!

3. Know your own style. This is hard for some. But don't buy something that you know is not "You" just because it is cheap. And I also keep friends/family in mind when looking around. This most recent shopping trip for me resulted in me re-styling my sister's family room. For a total of $35, she has a new summery look. (I will get back over to her house and show pictures someday soon)

4. If you like the style, but not the color, re-do it with paint, fabric or whatever trips your trigger. 

{A very long table runner that I'm adding my favorite Aztec-y look to, purchased for $1.00}

5. Just have fun! Bring a friend or sister or daughter or your mama...or enjoy the alone time!


When given an afternoon and a little money in my pocket, I will always choose to go thrifting! You never know what kind of treasures you can find!

{Always on the hunt for vintage crates and globes}

Painting our bookcases WHITE

We built our home in 1998-1999, when the "popular" color of stain was this honey oak color. Now....not so popular. Or remotely our taste. Like, I hate it. (sorry if I offend anyone who still has this and likes it)

 ALL our woodwork in this home was that same color of stain. The trim, the kitchen and bathroom cabinets, and these built-ins in our front room.

For the last couple years, we have been working on transforming this home of ours into the style we now call our own. And the woodwork and old stain of yesteryear has been slowly leaving....room by room. 

The new hardwood flooring, the white wainscoting and white trim, and some furniture additions...this room was getting there. But those bookcases. Not my style, but trying to work within a budget, I decided that some paint would work wonders. 

We purchased Bulls Eye 1.2.3. Primer...this stuff is MAGICAL! And then we went with Pittsburgh Ultra Interior semi-gloss White paint. (which happens to also to have primer in it, we didn't want to paint a thousand coats!) 

And now, I am much more happy with the look in this room. 

Here are the shelves while I was trying to style them. You can see that the walls needed some touch-ups.  

Adding white into our home, definitely helps in brightening things up around here. This front room serves a multitude of purposes. This is our LIBRARY, HOME OFFICE, READING ROOM, and MUSIC ROOM. 

Our house is, for the most part, designed with neutral (nature-y) colors. This summer I have had a little fun adding some color to this particular room. I am working on a summer tour of our home for a later post, if the sun ever comes back out so I can take decent pictures! 

So stay tuned for what this whole room looks like for the summer. But for now, here is the side-by-side (before and after) of the shelves...

Love them! Now, if only our kitchen cupboards were just magically painted by some wizard...now THAT will be a much bigger project!! Hopefully some day!

Obsessed Much? Mondays: A new summer-time series

Mondays are a bit of a bitter-sweet pill to swallow. And even though it is summer, they are still hard. Sundays are family days, and really the only day we have Daddy home...the life of a construction man!

 I am starting a little summertime series here on the blog called 

There are so many things that I obsess over...and I can just here my teenage daughters say, "Obsessed much, mom?" These are fun things that I either obsess over at home , while shopping, eating, crafting, etc.

To start things off...this week (actually, EVERY week), I am OBSESSED with:   COWS

{my favorites: Clover and Carly Jo}

This was a NO-BRAINER for anyone who knows me. You all know how OBSESSED I am of my cows. My Instagram feed is full of pictures of Carly Jo and all our other cattle here at Irishman Acres! 

Growing up in a bigger city, and even have lived here in the country for most of our marriage, I am still amazed by the beauty and personality of our cows. We do tend to spoil them....our vet has even teased us about probably giving our cows bottled water. (I wonder how expensive that would be?) 

I do know, that being around them, giving them attention, brushing them, giving them baths, keeps them extremely tame. 

Tame cattle are important when a vet comes for checkups

{Carly getting an ultrasound}

When they give birth, and are as tame as Carly, she doesn't mind me being right there taking pics and helping her baby stand! 

{minutes after giving birth}

Meet baby Carolina! She was born on Friday...and I got to witness it! This is Carly Jo's 4th calf, it is funny how she has had a heifer (girl) every other year. So we were hoping that this was a girl. 

{almost all clean and dry}

{trying to stand}

Shortly after being born, the calves try to stand up (with the Mama's help and encouragement). Carolina was having a tough time on the concrete in the barn...so I moved her outside. 

{so much easier outside}

{Mama's watchful eye}

I think that I stayed down there for about 2 hours watching this miracle and documenting this with my camera. 

{baby's first meal}

I know that many farmers just laugh at me when they find that I am totally obsessed with my cows...but these are more than just cows to us....they are our pets. 

And Carly Jo was the first farm animal that I have ever had to pleasure of loving...she was our bottle-fed baby, and has the personality of a puppy! 

{Carly- when she first came to live at Irishman Acres}

So, when people will ask "obessed much?", about our cows...I would answer YES! And so glad that I am! :) 

I think this will be a fun series every Monday..and hope you don't get too bored listening to the rambling of this Baileywife! It won't always be about our farm animals..I am a home-loving-obsessed-wanna-be-designer, so some weeks I'm sure it will be about home-y stuff. 

Linking up to: From the Farm Blog Hop

A thrift shop re-design

Recently, I spent an afternoon (alone!!) shopping. I found myself at a thrift store and snagged a ton of great deals! This tray was one of them.

It was in decent shape, besides one of the handles being cracked, and was a very sturdy piece...just not my style. 

I know from experience that Annie Sloan Chalk Paint (ASCP) covers ANYTHING, so I thought that I would try an experiment. You see, that black and gold pattern was actually a paper covering. Seeing that I have no patience...NONE, ZERO...when it comes to crafting, I want something done fast! So ASCP it was! I used Old White, it is my go-to color for everything. I just painted over it all. 2 coats and it looked like this:

It looked too plain, so I came up with an AZTEC-Y design on paper

After cutting it out, I couldn't decide what I wanted to dominate, the black or the white, so I laid out both ways

And ultimately decided I liked seeing the white more. I traced the pattern on

I did this project while drinking a pot of coffee, so my unsteady hands and black paint were not a good combo, but think it turned out alright anyways. Perfection is never my intention! :) 

I just used black craft paint, then I did put clear wax over the whole thing to help seal and smooth the chalk paint.

Next, I used some black leather strapping that I had on hand, this can be purchased at any craft store. And just hot-glued those things on...super simple!

I love how this tray turned out! Aztec designs are so popular right now, and I like how they look in our home. 

And just because the inside of my home doesn't have good photo-lighting, I tried to prop it outside, you can see that my paint job isn't perfect...who cares, right? It just adds character! :)

Did you see that little arrow in the photo above? I had aztec/Indian on my brain and happened to find the perfect feathers in our yard yesterday! 

This is where it ended up....for now

I'm sharing this on: Jennifer Rizzo and Liz Marie Blog 's Linky parties

Class Dismissed!

Summertime is officially here, and I feel like my A.D.D. is kicking in BIG TIME!

Just like any busy mom, there are 40,000 things on "the List" that we would like to do or accomplish over the summer. And since I work for a school, the summer is my time off. I am so excited that I don't even know where to start on "the List"....so I just sit and read or play with our new puppy instead! 

This is the newest addition to Irishman Acres...meet KODA....and if you know us at all, this was the furthest from any creature we thought we would ever own! But just look at that face!! He was 3 months old when he came to love live with us, so almost potty trained....and we are completely smitten. He is a "designer breed" called a Teddy Bear. (A Shih tzu and Bishon Frise mix.) 

So for now, I have a list of things that need accomplished, and I thought it would be fun to write them out here and see if they will get done....and hopefully I can share them as I go! 

1. My niece is moving in with us at the end of the summer because she is going to a local college. I am over the moon excited about this, but have to get a room ready for her!! And the only room we have is currently being used as a craft/ decor storage room...actually just a messy catch-all, but storage room sounds better. So I have my work cut out for me....moving things around and getting REALLY creative with my storage! 

2. We purchased a really cool work bench at an auction last fall and have been wanting to bring that into our home somehow, I think I know where we are putting it, but have some re-arranging of things in the room where we are putting it and maybe some painting....CANNOT WAIT, but won't share any more info until I know for sure that it's a GO! :)

Working on my outdoor spaces: 

3. The chicken coup and enclosure has been on my radar of needing some TLC. I have started on some interesting things there and will share those soon. (and when I say "interesting", I mean it is interesting to me and maybe other onlookers, but I really think that the chickens could care less. But I think it should look pretty, and so it shall! :)

4. I have some additions to our back porch this year, and am almost done getting it camera ready....but it still needs some sewing projects completed, lucky me that my daughter took a textiles class this year and will be my little design intern! (hahaha, said in an evil cackle) 

5. There is a water feature that I have had on my honey-do list, well at least my honey-help-me-please list! Baileyhusband is extremely busy with work these days and I feel so guilty asking him of things, but hopefully sometime before our big 4th of July bash we can get this thing accomplished. 

6. We have added a strawberry patch and herb garden to our farm, and it is so cool! 

I posted it on our Instagram page, you can follow along HERE. So, we have quite a large amount of crops to tend to and will keep my boys and I busy this summer! 

And there are a slew of projects in my brain for our home, and our new-ish camper. We purchased a 1998 Dutchman RV the night before we went to the county fair last year, so we really only have used it that week. And now I am in the process of making it our own by getting rid of the 90's mauve look, and adding in our style. This is a fun project that I will be sharing. 

So I will say adios for now...I need to get my A.D.D in check and get something started (and finished) around here!!