New Beginnings

My mom commented to me that she noticed I haven't written on my blog in while.  "I know", I told her...I've just felt overwhelmed for so long and everytime I'd sit down to write a post, to list a project or to just tell you how I feel, I'd start to feel even more overwhelmed because it seemed like one more thing on my To Do List. 

But today I felt a little more together. Don't ask my why. It's not like the holidays aren't crazy enough, and my son has been sick for more than a week with no relief, even after a trip to the pediatricians office.  But, I have some BIG news I've been dying to tell y'all.  We finally purchased what I would like to call our "dream" property.  It was something that we just sort of stumbled upon when we were back in Nebraska at our in-laws.  My parents were there visiting to, so I can't imagine a better setting for such a big committment. We aren't able to move there just yet, as our house is still for sale and you know the whole decrease of value thing...blah, blah, blah. So this summer we may end up renting, but right now we are continuing to leave it in the Lord's hands. He knows what's best for us and we are trusting in that.  

Now, about the property. :) It's about 40 acres, with pasture valley's and draws, corn crop and a large metal shop for the dear hubby. Right now it only has a mobile home sitting on it (a newer one, so not an old one), but very small, but livable...for a while.  We are excited to finally be able to build our dream home...someday.  But for now, it's perfect and more than what we ever expected to be ever to have.  It's a perfect place to raise our kids, our in-laws live there, my parents may retire there and all of my relatives are about 3 1/2 hours away.  I'm kind of excited, because although the trailer is small and it is only temporarily, it's causing me to use some mad design skills to make this place work in order for this family of 4 to be able to live and function in there. 

So, here's a little view of our new home. :)

I loved talking with you again...it made my day!

A BIG Thank You

Some of you sent me some emails recently and I am so sorry I am slow on replying. It seems I hardly get to the response items anymore since I'm never on the computer very long (I know, crazy)...busy with relatives visiting, working on home projects in between naps, enjoying the time at home with my little ones and working on molding myself into the wife and mother the Lord desires me to be. I want to THANK YOU for your prayers and I LOVE hearing your stories and experiences. They make me remember what's really important in the big picture of this blog and your stories give me a new faith, a new hope and a sense of friendship that has developed with this blog. PLEASE continue to send me your comments, prayers or just plain chit chat...I never tire of hearing from you!





Image Unknown

Nebraska or Bust

It is a beutiful fall season here with the leaves changing and the amazing weather we've had and it has been super crazy around our household lately. My parents just left this morning from a 2 week visit and I am definately going to miss them. I hope that one day we can all live around each other again. I'd love for my kids to grow up with grandparents around...I loved having mine growing up. I still remember my "special jar" of m&m's that my grandma kept for only me in the cuphoard :)

We're on our way this week to visit the in-laws in Nebraska and maybe do a little real estate shopping.  Still no bites on our current home, but we are continuing to pray for guidance and the Lord to open the doors elsewhere if that is His desire...I know He knows ours. But I also want to be content here as well, if His desire is for us to stay...even if it's for a short while.

The wagon picture below I took today while we were driving around looking at the trees turning. They had this wagon in their front yard...now I REALLY want one too. My husband, being Mr. Cowboy that he is, noted that he always wanted one in his bedroom as his bed when he was little. That got my design wheels turning...Tate just may end up having a bed that looks like this someday. That is, if he ever has a bedroom big enough for one :)

The leaves, they are a turning...and beautifully as always.

"The person who insists upon seeing with perfect clarity before he or she decides never decides."

It Just Makes Scents

Hi All, I hope you all had a great holiday weekend! I wanted to share with you that I am now a Consultant for Scentsy. I'm not one to join and sell items, BUT I've used these for years and I love them, they are AMAZING, long lasting, great quality, affordable and it can be a great income for you as well.
Let me know if you are interested in Scentsy, it's warmers, scents, scent buddies (which my daughter loves) or the income potential side of it. It's a great opportunity and is so much fun working with all the great ladies involved! The new Fall/Winter 2011 line is out and it is full of new fun scents, including ones ready for Christmas, new Men's scents (I love the worn leather one, which my husband is ordering for his truck) and some beautiful new warmers!

See it all here!

New and Upcoming

Things are finally starting to get into a routine now that Tate is five months old. As far as my daughter being three and a half...that's another story. :) BUT, I do have some exciting changes that will be up and coming for the business side of things. Over some time, you'll start to see some new changes...

New Logo and Blog Layout
Website featuring Portfolio, Services, Contact Info, etc.

Easier searching throughout the Blog (i.e. Navigation Bar, Tags, etc.)

And of course...more projects, design, life and all sorts of fun stuff!

So bear with me, I'm working on getting all of this in the works and it is definately turning out to take a lot longer than I anticipated. Juggling two kids, a husband, church, work and having any sort of fun, is a lot of organizing, sleeplessness and prayer time. 

I'm so thankful to all of you and your comments, emails and prayers over the last few months. I can't begin to tell you how amazing it feels to know that all of these people not only support you, but pray for you, take the time out of their life for you and look forward to your blog posts!

Now What?

Its official.  This week we put our home on the market. We feel as though this chapter in our life is continuing, and we don't see it necessarily continuing here in Colorado. We've wanted to try to move for a long time now, so we decided to put the home on the market and see what happens. I know, I know...everyone says "how can you even think of doing that in this economy?" I don't have the answer to that. But, I do know that my God is bigger than the economy. He's bigger than any future I can even begin to dream up for myself. He's bigger than my boss, my husband's boss. And because He's bigger than all those things, we've put our trust in Him, and only Him. Will it turn out the way we hope? I can't tell you that, but I do know that whatever happens, whatever doors he opens and closes in our lives, we trust that He knows best, knows more than we know, and knows the desires of our hearts. I truly believe that. He puts those dreams and desires into our hearts and helps us work on harvesting those desires.  I do pray that our home sells and that the Lord opens the door for us to leave, but as with all things, patience is a virtue and I trust that whatever His plan is, at the end of the day, it will be the best thing for us...because it's HIS plan, not mine. Now, off to
practice patience...something I don't have very much of. :)

Fabric Cadabra

Oh how I wish I could just speak some majic words and all of my projects would be complete and lovely. But in the mean time, its work, work and some more work as we are trying to put some finishing touches on our home to put it on the market. It also means some updates to some of the decor and where better to start than with some nice textural linen fabrics. Here are two of the ones I just received from Ballard's and I am swooning over the texture and quality of them. 

A nice blue linen stripe...

and a chocolate calisto stripe...

These are such yummy fabrics and I can't wait to use these soon!

Sorry posts have been so "non existant" lately, but we're SO busy with our house and trying to enjoy the good weather while we have it, it has been pretty hard to update you on  a regular basis. But hang in there with me, I promise you won't be dissapointed!

Microburst or Tornado

A few weeks ago, we had a storm of wind come through, which they call Microbursts, due to we live at elevation of 8,500 ft. Anywhere else and I think they'd just call it a tornado. We didn't get any damage to our house, although we would of loved to make a roofing claim since as I type, my husband, his brother and dad are all reroofing our house, since it hasn't been done in about 15 years. We're ready to TRY to put it on the market, so this is just one of the few things still needing to be done. Darn the luck, that some of our neighbors got to file claims, but not us. But in all, we feel very blessed that we are all ok and that no one in the County got hurt due to this storm. Things can be replaced, but not lives. 

Trees down everywhere, even the old ones with deep roots.

Down the street from us, the High School lost their roof.

New barn colapses.

Aspens down everywhere, especially up high at tree line. So many were lost. 

I've been ordering fabrics for a few upcoming projects and some new udpates to the home. I'll post details later this week. Hope you all had a great weekend!

Ottoman Resources

Thank you all so much for your comments and emails regarding my blog post, The Blessed Wall. I felt so much love from all of you and you will never know how much I appreciate all of your words of encouragement and your continued prayers.

In the midst of all of that, Beckie over at Knock Off Decor

featured the Ottoman Tutorial that my husband and I had built last summer. Thank you, Beckie! I received such a huge response and so many emails of others requesting where I found the furniture legs.

I found them on Ebay, but unfortunately, it was over a year ago and I'm not sure that store is still there. I just did a search for caster furniture legs and browsed around until I found the style I wanted, so you may want to try that. If I ever come across some like them again, I'll be sure to post them your way. Thanks again for all of your blog love and support!! Talking and getting to know all of you is what makes this so much fun, so keep the comments and emails coming, I so look forward to them! And if you're a new follower...WELCOME!

The Blessed Wall

"You have got to be kidding"...This was my response yesterday morning when I awoke to this. In June. Almost July.



So this pretty much sealed the deal for me. Yes, we will indeed still try to move. The only thing that has kept us here this long is our home. With the market so bad, we're not sure if this is an option right now. But we are definately going to try everything in our being to make this move...trusting that the Lord knows the desires of our hearts. But this snow was actually the smallest thing that happened yesterday.

I hit a wall. No, not literally, but emotionally. I hit my all time low yesterday and by the time it was noon and the baby decided to be fussy all day and not wanting to sleep, my husband picked up the kids, loaded them in the car, and said to go sleep and gather myself. I think he seen how serious this had become. I've still been trying to adjust to the thought of having two kiddos instead of one, especially a new one that doesn't like to sleep or nap like my first one did. I don't function when I have no sleep...with no way to catch up. So as I laid in bed crying my eyes out, one because I was so tired, but mostly because I suddenly felt like a failure as a mom. A weak mom. Thinking, "how can i do this, I am failing, I am not being the mother that my kids and my husband need me to be".  So after I caught up on some much needed sleep, then drove over to my brother in laws to pick up my kids, through all of the tears still falling, the Lord revealed this song to me...

I've been ashamed, and I've been put down
Head in my hands, my life on the ground
Left heaven to save, liars and thieves
Sinners like me, your blood sets us free
But who am I, that you would remember me?

Take what I have left my Savior
Take me with you from this cross
When I leave this life completely
Remember Me.

It hit me. Showing me that even though lately I've felt like He was so distant, He was still there. He was still guiding me. I just didn't see Him, because I was too busy looking the other way, being busy. So I laid it at His feet and left it there. Not to continue to dwell on it, but to praise Him for bringing me to my knees.

Then after a blessed night sleep, with my baby sleeping through the night, It reaveled to me this morning, that one big reason I always feel so overwhelmed and out of control, is because for the last 11 years at the office I have been organized. I am no longer organized. I fly by the seat of my pants daily...and in turn it has caused chaos in my home, in my husband, in my kids, and in me. So I decided to do something about it. I'm organizing. No, not just putting things in bins and labeling them. But oraganizing a schedule for myself daily. Carving out time for my quiet time with the Lord, time with my kids, time to clean, time to blog, time to work on home projects, time to develop and brand my design business, time to plan meals. Yes it sounds like an OCD kind of thing, but this I have discovered, is how I roll. I feel better when I know what to do that day, so I don't make my bed, about in tears, thinking..."where do I start" everyday and beating myself down for not getting it all done. And when it doesn't get all done, crawling into bed and feeling blessed for being able to be there for my family. So...this is what is next. The organizing of my life. The life that the Lord has blessed me with as a wife and a mother.

Thank you, Lord for Remembering Me.

Miss Olivia and Her Fight For Cancer

Please keep Olivia and her family in your prayers. She is my husbands stepmom's grandaughter. She is a great example of God's blessings to us!!

 

Shiny, Frizz Free Hair? Yes, Please!

That's what I was up to last week. I made my way to the city to get a Brazilian Blowout. No, not a brazililan keratin treatment that some salons offer, but the actual Brazilian Blowout. Let me tell ya...this stuff is AMAZING! Post shower, my hair is shiny, frizz free, lays almost perfect, including taming my cowlicks (im not sure how you spell that, so i'm going to do the sound it out preschool thing ;)...all while having some great volume. The real test? Today...went to the pool with the kiddos and hubby, then jumped in the truck and went to Grand Lake for the Art Festival...grabbed some lunch...came home and took a nap...and it never really looked any different from when I first combed it...and that's all ive had to do with it so far. Not to mention, no more tangles when I'm out of the shower.  They say the curl will stay nicely too, so that's my next attempt...but so far...I'm.In.Love.

Aged Metal Letters Tutorial

Hi All, Hope your having a great summer so far. It has finally stopped raining (and snowing) for a few days here and I'm starting to get adjusted to having two little ones instead of one.  I've been trying to get Tate's nursery completely finished, and these letters for the wall are part of the last few things. I figured at the rate I'm going, I'll probablly get it done just in time for me to change it again when he needs a big boy room.  These were super easy and I am IN.LOVE. with the finish.

I fell in love with these weathered zinc letters from Restoration Hardware...but at $69 each, it was out of the questions...on to Plan B.

I started off by purchasing these letters at Joann's. 

Painted on a coat of black paint.

Then I broke out some other paint that I had...Ralph Lauren's Metallic Paint and some Acrylic in Burnt Umber. I used the same RL paint in my Sunburst Mirror Tutorial.

Using the RL Metallic, dip your paint brush and in a circular motion, half hazardly put this on top of the black paint. Do only small sections at a time, as this dried almost immediately.  Using a paper towel, rub in a circular motion and rub the paint in further. Then check your OCD at the door.  There is no perfection here.

Then using a sponge brush, I blotted on VERY THINGLY and VERY SPORATICALLY the Burnt Umber Acrylic. This gave it the "worn and weathered" look, like the antique rusted letters you dig for at the flea market.  This is where I started to fall in love with the finish.

He's learning, picking this stuff up as he watches mommy.

Gorilla Glue some hanging hardware on the back and they go up on the wall in the nursery. You can stack these as well if you have ledge shelving, but I wanted them directly above the crib, so this was the option I chose. 

(yes, I still need to paint the cord covers on the wall)  

I love how they turned out. You can see more of the Nusery Here. 

Linking up to these Parties:  The Shabby Chic Cottage, Beach Cottage, Remodelaholic, Funky Junk Interiors, The Shabby Nest