Sarah's room details

Thank you for all the super nice and validating comments about Sarah's room (both here and on Facebook)! I thought you would enjoy a bit of info about the process.

But first, my sources:

Wall Paint: Behr Sandstone Cliff, Behr Possibly Pink (closet and niche), Behr Powdered Snow (ceiling and trim)
Mural colors: (All Behr colors) Possibly Pink, Egyptian Nile (green), Gallery Red, Contemplation (blue), Dusty Mountain (gray from my living room), Donegal Tweed (yellow from these projects). I mixed colors together and with white to acheive the different shades I needed.

Flooring: Ikea TUNDRA laminate (white wasn't listed when I went to link so I'm not sure if it is still available...?) We choose this because it was only $1.15/sf. At that price we can change our minds in 10 years and we don't have to feel guilty about it. For now, it brightens the space tremendously and I'm pretty happy with it! It isn't real wood, which I would have loved, but it was significantly less expensive.

Rug: Cozy Shag Rug from Home Decorator's Collection. I'm totally impressed with this rug. It is super soft. I got one for Eva's room also.

Chandelier: Thrifted, Craig's List

Bed: Thrifted, Antique Barn, Bozeman, MT.  The bed is a 3/4 size and I had to buy a custom mattress, which I found at US-Mattress.com for less than I expected custom would cost. It did end up making the bed a little more expensive than I initially thought, however. 

Bedding: Target, Threshold Collection

Desk, Chair, and Mirror: Thrifted, Craig's List. I bought these as a set. 

White cupboard: one we purchased a few years ago and Home Again in Utah. 

The Mural:

You may remember that I based the mural off of a paint-by-number painting I found on Etsy ages ago. I saved the digital photo—I don't have the painting. 

I took a photo of the wall in Sarah's room after it was mostly empty. Then (in Photoshop) I pasted the painting in the file and determined the layout. To get it to fill the wall I needed to repeat the image, but I didn't want an exact mirror. I flipped the image, rotated, and rearranged it a bit. 

I then borrowed a projector to cast the image on the wall. I had to do this in two sections because I couldn't back the projector up far enough (something to be aware of if you want to cover the entire wall). I then traced the image as well as I could and marked each area. (I used a simple code: LP, MP, DP= light pink, medium pink, and dark pink, etc.) I tried to keep the colors as simple as possible. I purchased 4 colors of paint, and used gray, white, and yellow that I had on hand. I mixed the rest. (See paint colors listed above.)

This is the cutest picture ever:

Eva wanted to help paint so I gave her a paintbrush and a cup of water.

This is what it looked like after I painted the background. I traced the roses but free-handed the background. 

Mostly this project was fun, but it did get tedious after awhile. I can't imagine doing a more complicated picture. I used latex paint for mine (not sure if it would be easier to use acrylics or not) and each color required two coats. Doing everything twice definitely made things more tedious. If I did this very often I would want to find a type of paint that would cover in one coat. I used a smaller artist brush for much of it.

Painting the furniture:

The desk sat in our garage for some time, so it was pretty dirty. Aside from that, it was missing hardware and was scratched up. 

The matching chairs and mirror were in similar condition. 

I decided try Annie Sloan Chalk paint for all the furniture. Her paint isn't cheap and it is somewhat hard to come buy. I bought the paint at the ONE place it is sold in my whole state, four hours from where I live. (Don't worry, I was going there anyway :) Unfortunately they didn't have one of the colors I wanted and I had to find an online retailer that sold in the US (the Annie Sloan site doesn't). 

I painted the desk and night stand in Pure White. It definitely requires more than one coat over darker colors. I painted the chair, mirror, and bed with Duck Egg Blue, and it covered well in one coat. You have to apply a wax over the paint, which wasn't difficult, but I did think it left things feeling a bit... waxy. It might be better after time or with a good buffing.

The bed took forever to paint. In hindsight I might have been better off trying to spray it. As it was I went over each and every spindle 3 times with white, then duck egg, then wax. This paint is ideal for a distressed finish, but I wanted a cleaner look and didn't want any of the wood to show through. 

Here is the desk with it's new coat of white and adorable new knobs. I think it turned out great. The thing I've learned about kids is that they love to collect "things". This is a great spot for her to display her treasures. It is contained to one spot instead of all over her room, so it satisfies my minimal tastes and her treasure-seeking heart.

I just got word that the curtain fabric I ordered has arrived. Hopefully I can get those done soon. And then onto Eva's room!

Sarah's room reveal!

Sarah's birthday came . . . and went. Sarah was gracious enough to allow us until her birthday party this weekend to finish and we just made it by the skin of our teeth. She moved in on Friday night, 10 days after her birthday. (Refer to the previous post for before pictures.)

This project was all-consuming. At least Sarah can't say we don't love her-ha! My house has suffered for it. The piles of laundry and layers of dust are highly embarrassing. It was good to have a deadline to keep me motivated though it. The mural and furniture painting took the longest, so I am hoping Eva's room will go a little faster without so many of those types of projects. For now, I need a break. 

Loving her huge new window! I've ordered fabric to sew curtains (you know, because I apparently can't do anything the easy way in this room).

I took these photos before we moved all her toys back in. I love it all minimal and sparse, but it isn't a very fair representation of reality, I'm afraid. This corner with the mirror now holds her big Barbie house and castle and baskets of toys.

This niche is where the sink used to be. Sarah adores her new desk. 

I plan to sew a curtain for the closet as well. I would LOVE to build (or buy) a closet system to make this space more functional, but that will have to come later. 

The white floors are so clean and fresh and they make the room look huge. Having one bed instead of two helps also. Another favorite is her new rug. It is unbelievably soft—so soft she wants to sleep on it!

I'll do another post with a few sources and details. Chow for now!

Sarah's room reno begins

Actually we have made very little in the way of progress aside from moving her things out of the room. Today marks 2 weeks until her birthday. Yikes!

Here is her room before:

Not long after this photo was taken we moved a second twin bed into this room. It only gets used occasionally for sleep overs and when we have extra company and need to move one of our other girls into this room. The twins needed new mattresses terribly, so about a year ago we invested in two new ones. But more on the beds in a bit. 

This photo shows the old casement window. You can't tell from this photo, but one of the glass panes is broken, and the others are cloudy from condensation between the panes. When evaluating what to do we pulled the trim off and discovered the cranks no longer functioned. With the cost of replacing the glass and trying to find cranks for old windows, we opted instead to replace the entire unit with a big picture window (since there is another functioning window in the room). We have the new window in and it is so light and bright!

We purchased white laminate flooring from Ikea last spring to replace the carpet with. You can't tell here, but this carpet is original and quite stained and dirty at this point.

Also on the list: scraping the popcorn ceiling and retexturing it, painting everything, and adding new baseboard and casement to everything. Much of the baseboard was missing anyway due to the heat registers that were removed 3 years ago.

We are keeping the chandelier! I am definitely going modern in this house, but I like a few ornate and girlie touches mixed in. I don't think it hurts to mix styles to make things more interesting and lived-in. 

The closet doors don't work well and stick out so far into the room, so I plan to remove them. I would like to make grommet curtains to hang (with tie-backs) there instead. I would also like to add more shelving and rails and more functionality to this wide open closet, but that will have to wait for another day.

The built in drawer unit is awesome and means we don't need an additional dresser. I was undecided on whether or not to try to remove the trim and change the hardware to make the look more modern. I'm leaning toward leaving it as-is (besides freshening it with paint) because I think it fits the girlie rooms. What do you think?

This built-in vanity is going to be pulled out and a desk will go in it's place. I have some fun ideas for this area and I already have desk that I purchased on Craig's list. It came with a chair and mirror also. I think every kid needs a place to display their treasures and special art, and this nook will be her space (rather than tacked all over the walls)! With a bathroom right next door, I feel a desk area is way more important than a personal sink.

This photo was taken after we started stripping everything out, but it highlights one of the dilemmas I was fighting with. While I liked having 2 beds (and we had just invested in new mattresses for them) it just made the room feel crowded and furniture-heavy to me. Removing the closet doors to the right would help, but I still felt like it was crowded. And it is really a big room. 

We have an old farmstead here with a mobile home parked on it. While we've had a couple of people stay there off and on, it has been vacant for the most part. My dad had purchased it from an old couple and they left quite a bit of junk in the out buildings. One thing I noticed several years ago was an old iron bed (sort of like this). I knew it could look great painted a fun color but I didn't have a good use for it at the time. 

But wait... I could make it Sarah's bed, and make a trundle for underneath and use the second mattress! (Buying a new bed/trundle combo would be expensive, and you have to use special trundle-sized mattresses). Alas, I could not find the bed. It had disappeared! To who-knows-where...

So, I decided to push forward with the two twin beds. I wanted to paint them white and thought this would be the perfect excuse to try Annie Sloan chalk paints. The one AND ONLY source for these paints in the entire state of Montana was in Bozeman at the Antique Barn. Well, as it happened, Mom and I were planning a trip there this past weekend for the Parade of Homes tour! Perfect!

After I found my can of paint and wax, we of course took a few minutes to peruse the store. They have such a great selection! The back room was dark but I still peeked my head in for a look-see and.... uh-oh. LOOK at this beautiful turned-spindle bed!!! Only $165! 

I wisely left it behind, only taking a little phone photo with me. 

But then I couldn't stop thinking about it! It was the answer to all my problems! (And the source of a few new problems, as it turned out). We had brought my mom's car with us and it was too small to carry the bed. My brother-in-law was going to be working in Helena (halfway between Bozeman and us) this week, however, so I was able to talk him into picking up the bed for me. While I waited for him, I discovered the second problem. It was a 3/4-size bed (slightly smaller than a full), as antique beds sometimes are. But with Lee on the way I decided it was too late to back out so I asked her to shave $15 off the price and bought myself a bed.

Yesterday I met Lee in Helena and brought the bed home. I had considered trying to modify it to accommodate a full-sized mattress, but in the end I decided to order a custom mattress online. It will cost me a little bit more, but in the end I think I will be happy not to have to change the bed shape.

Speaking of changing the bed, I got the side-eye from my dad when I mentioned I was planning to paint it. Sorry! But the wood look isn't what I'm going for! I'm going for something like this:

Jenny Lind from Land of NodIt's going to be perfect! It will give Sarah so much more floor space, and we she can still share it with a sister or friend when she needs to. I was planning to sell the twins to offset the cost, but they were given to us by my in-laws and it turns out they can use them again. We are still hoping to the sell the almost-new mattresses though. After seeing Sarah's old quilt in one of her baby photos and realizing her bedding was almost 8 years old, I had decided it was time to replace that anyway. In fact, I had just purchased 2 new duvets and duvet covers and 2 sets of sheets. I returned it all and traded it for one full-size set, which saved me money as well. With that the custom mattress doesn't sound quite so bad! Now I'm just crossing my fingers that it will get here quickly. They said 2-3 weeks.... 

One more thing:

I have been inspired by paint-by-number murals like this one and this one:

Camp Wandawega nursery muralI want to do one in Sarah's room based on this vintage paint-by-number I once found on Etsy:

Should be a breeze to complete by my Oct. 1st deadline, right?

This is what is on our list:

install new window
remove sink vanity and demo out soffit
figure out what to do with plumbing stubs
raise vanity light
scrape popcorn ceiling
retexture ceiling with mud
patch walls above vanity
paint ceiling
paint walls
paint closet and desk niche different color
paint mural
lay new flooring
install new baseboards and casement around doors and windows
paint trim
paint desk, mirror, chair, and bed with chalk paint and wax
cross-fingers and hope Sarah's new mattress arrives
find a rug to buy
sew new window treatments and curtain for closet
decorate! 
Somehow plan Sarah's birthday party in the midst of it.

We have started fall seeding and are planning to tear up our yard also. Nothing much. Wish me luck! And please do weigh in on my dilemmas. 

first day of (pre)school

Today was Eva's first day of preschool! It is hard to believe that only 3 short years ago I was delivering Sarah to the very same school with a baby carrier in tow. 

I suppose I should be teary and sad that my baby is at this milestone already, but really I am just happy and excited for her. She is so ready for some new experiences. She will just be going two mornings a week for 3 hours each morning, so she won't have too much time to miss mommy.

So how did she do? Great! She was a little scared when her dad left her there... "Stay! Please stay, Dad!"....but got over it quickly. When I picked her up she marched up to me with a big smile on her face, then turned around and gave her new teacher a big hug and a kiss. So cute. 

I completely neglected to post the obligatory first-day pictures for my older kids as well when they started a couple of weeks ago:

They are both enjoying their new teachers so far. Abby is in 5th grade and Sarah is in 2nd. Growing fast!

In other news, we moved Sarah's things into Eva's room a few nights ago. She wanted to stack all of her mattresses together to sleep on, and even requested we tuck a pea under them. Request granted! She has been a little cranky these last couple of mornings... so just maybe we have a real princess on our hands... ?

This move means Sarah's room is all cleared out and ready for a big reno. We are really hoping to have it done by her birthday (October 1st) which is approaching much too quickly. Wish us luck!

So for those of you who stick around and read this blog for the house posts, I promise lots of juicy details for you starting next week. We have more than one project up our sleeves! 

Happy weekend!

Big Sky Country

They don't call this Big Sky Country for nothing. I took so many sky photos this past month that they warranted their own post.

August life in photos

I was enticed into doing a photo-a-day challenge on Instagram for the month of August, and it turned out to be so much fun! It was so fun to have prompts to take photos of things I wouldn't normally think of. As such, I have more photos than I normally do documenting our life last month, which turned out to be a good thing since I didn't blog or use my big camera much at all!

Here are all my photo-a-day photos (and then some. I marked the photo challenge prompts with hashtags):

1. Stocking up for harvest dinners. 2. Ty pulled a snake out of the shop! Fortunately not a rattler. 3. Hail storm devastation near Bozeman, MT. Disheartening. #yellow 4. Swathing canola #faraway below our house  5. we call this #red beast "Frank". 6. Playing in the back of the grain truck 7. The power went out right when I was starting to cook harvest dinner. I cooked it on the grill instead and it was awesome! 8. Cutting the mustard #midday 9. At the end of the rainbow is a field of gold! We were almost done when this photo was taken. 

1. Abby's 4-H sewing project 2. Eva's #closeup 3. Back to school shopping #diagonals 
4. #selfie  5. I #love this kid! This was taken in Belgrade at Tom's 20th class reunion picnic. He's getting old!
6. We had an awesome visit from Tom's Aunt Tari and Uncle Pete and had a blast showing them around our farm and hometown.  7. Our Missouri River  8. #taste  9. Slowly painting all of our blue trim brown. It's going to take awhile. It's a big #home!

1. Cousin sandcastle contests! #play  2. Ilona and Sarah  3. Hannah and Abby and their matching H&M shorts
4. Sacked out #stillness  5. A very hungry caterpillar #touch  6. Fun to decorate with these old Reader's Digest #books and their colorful covers.  7. My rock garden #floral  8. My grandma's old typewriter #something old  
9. Eva's #smile

1. Eva has grown nearly 2 inches since I made this growth chart! #numbers  2. Iced coffee #my fave thing  3. I love this Olivia book. Eva's favorite lately. #white  4. The endless cycle of laundry. #circles  5. Off-ramping for the weekend to celebrate the end of harvest. #sign  6. Eva again (oops) just because she's cute.  7. Farmer Tom brought me flowers. Straight from the field. 8. Sunflowers from our cover crop.  9. Harvest arrangement. 

Hello, September.

Today I am going to force myself to sit down and try to remember how to blog again. I have so many thoughts—plans—ideas floating around in my head I hardly know where to begin. Dreaming can feel very unproductive and I guess at some point a person has to just buckle down and do something. Anything. Lots to do. I'll try to get into some of these plans/projects in upcoming posts. 

I am honored and amazed how many people have told me that they read this blog. I therefore feel terrible when I've neglected to post for so long and dearly hope all you of you will stick around through my dry spells. My absence here is easy to sum up with just one word—harvest. It might just be that August will always be a month of hiatus on this blog. But don't give up on me!

So, harvest. 

This year will be remembered by the seemingly constant stream of breakdowns we encountered. It left everyone feeling a bit cranky and anxious about being behind. Five or six weeks of harvest drags on long enough, and everyone gets a bit edgy trying to get the crop in the bin before bugs/wind/hail gets to it first.

Imagine having one of these tires go flat. It cost us a day's work and a few grand$$$. Ouch.

This was before harvest but (Tom is going to kill me) imagine getting stuck so bad you have to go fetch the wife and the tractor:

Despite all the hiccups, in the end we got the job done!

I spent the last week (plus) of harvest on the combine because our hired help had to go back to school. Truthfully, I enjoyed this reprieve from the long days of playing housewife, house mom, and slave to the kitchen. My mom carried the extra burden of watching my kids and doing all of the cooking. At some point I helped harvest each of the following crops:

 clockwise from top left: mustard, lentils, spring wheat, and canola

Cool, right? Here is Abby posing in front of a mustard field: 

And Eva eating dinner in the field: 

The kids are always happy to see their daddy for a bit during dinner. Heading out for a combine ride:

All in all, we had a good outcome. The worst of the hail storms missed us and we had enough rain to make things fair pretty well. Now we are working to get our hay sold and delivered and will be prepping to do our fall seeding soon. Never a dull moment!

Back with more soon!

Stampin' Up! Convention Part 2

It was a huge highlight just seeing old familiar faces staying the course and smiling as ever. With that many people I missed seeing a few.

In this post: Fun to see what my ex-coworkers and amazing designers did with the fabulous main stage graphics (color-changing LED screens hung like banners) and 25th anniversary themed decor.
A new product was released called "Undefined" that allows one to carve their own stamps. It was fun to see what other's created and my favorites were the dog and minion right next to each other.
Lots and lots of inspiring samples- one could spend their entire time photographing them all and I think many did! I however, spent (too much) of my time at the City Creek shopping center across the street. This Montana girl misses the selection.

And finally, slightly unsuccessful selfies with Charlet, but at least we have something to remember our time together. Thanks again, Charlet, for inviting and hosting me! Your craft/guest room was the bomb and so are you!

Stampin' Up! Convention

I am going to attempt to post more from my phone since I tend to use my phone camera so often. I am limited to 8 photos this way, however, so this one will come in two batches.

When I left Stampin' Up! to move to Montana, I signed up as a demonstrator in order to maintain some contact with the company I'd dedicated 10 years of my life too. I casually sold enough to meet my minimums but was starting fizzle out and wanted to put my time toward new passions. Before I could drop, my long-time friend and ex-coworker Charlet had contacted me to ask if I wanted to attend the 25th anniversary convention with her. So, I persisted for one more year and registered!

Many of my 10 years working at SU! we're spent beside Charlet, but often our time together was filled with stress and obligation. It was so fun to have this time with her with no other agenda than fun (and shopping!) We both had earned some time to ourselves without toddlers in tow and made the most of it.

The convention had nearly 6000 attendees this year and it is difficult to describe what it is like to be among that much energy. Even though I wasn't really there for business reasons, I still found plenty to entertain.

In this post I've featured: Crowds! Giant main stage! It was so funny to see how many have embraced technology in such a few short years. Tablets and phones abounded and when a cute project flashed up on the big screens, thousands of small screens were in the air taking photos of it. Tweets and Instagrams flew and we navigated our schedule with an app. Loved it.

Also in this post: nail polish in the newest ink colors, and pictures beside some of my earliest catalog accomplishments. Lastly, lunch at Settebellos (always a favorite of mine). I didn't get a photo but we also had dinner at my all time favorite Thai restaurant (Pawit) with dearest Friend Paula. Food tastes soooo amazing when you don't get to have it very often. Absence truly does make the heart grow fonder.

rough week

It has been a rough week on the farm. 

It kills me to report that our sweet Benton pup was run over and killed. He had the unfortunate habit of following us out of the yard sometimes. We would often have to stop and load him up to bring him back to the house. This time Tom was in the big grain truck and didn't realize he was still running along side. An all-to-common but devastating side-effect of farm living. 

It was very hard on Tom, as you can imagine. And Abby took it especially hard as well. She has such a tender heart. I suppose in a way its good for kids to learn about the brevity of life this way. We all have to learn that lesson somehow.

You may remember we brought him home at Christmas time, so we didn't have near enough time with him. Darn it— we didn't even really get him past the annoying puppy stage! We were nearly ready to have him fixed and were talking about enrolling Abby in dog obedience for 4-H. He had the makings of a great dog.

I did do my fair share of fussing about this dog.

I didn't really want a puppy to start with. We paid through the nose to get the breed we wanted. Then there are the vet bills and extra dog food expenses. We suffered through a lot of night wakings and cleaned up the usual puppy messes. I couldn't stand the extra dog hair and had to kick them outside. Our yard was constantly littered with junk he would tear up and drag all over. He got into our garbage. He dug holes in our grass. We could barely walk out the door without fear of almost getting knocked off our feet from his exuberance. I would take him on runs with me and constantly feared he would be bit by a rattle snake becuase he would run nonstop through the fields chasing birds. I had to pull a swollen tick off of him (ewww!) My windows were constantly smeared with mud and dog slobber. I don't know how many times I said to myself "never again will we have another dog".

And yet. 

Here we are with a big hole in our hearts. How is it we fall in love so fast? We are worried for our dog Mia and are sure she will miss him dearly. She was the reason we got a second dog. She was scared of riding in the truck, scared of going in the garage, refused to use a pet door, and barked at everyone who drove in the yard, especially the UPS man. With Ben she was a different dog—slept in the garage, rode in the truck, and used the pet door with ease. When the UPS man comes now she doesn't bark (she just stands and watches as Ben climbs into the truck to get his dog treat. Then she happily excepts her own treat.) It will be interesting to see how she reacts to those things now. 

Forgive the sappy post. This is my photo tribute to our sweet Benton.

R.I.P. sweet buddy.

Eva turns 3!

Almost a month has passed but our little Eva turned 3 on June 11! Those of you who know us or who have read this blog for awhile are familiar with that crazy string of major life events that started with a surprise (and tumultuous) pregnancy, Eva's miraculously healthy arrival, and our move to Montana immediately after. Eva's birthday's will always mark the anniversary our our big move also, and it seems very hard to believe that 3 years have already passed!

These days Eva is more fun that ever and we are so blessed to have her as part of our family. She is funny and intelligent, if not a bit sassy, but we love her personality. Have I mentioned that we finally boarded the potty train? We tackled it before our big Memorial weekend trip and I'm happy to report she is doing fantastic with it. None too soon since I have plans for her to attend preschool in the fall.

When I asked her what kind of birthday cake she wanted she simply said "blue". So I came up with the theme idea myself, stemming from her love of umbrellas. She is often seen sporting an umbrella and saying "I not Eva, I Mary Poppins!". 

I almost forgot to take a picture of the decorations so this one is a bit of an afterthought!

A recipe for "cloud cake" was floating around Pinterest so I thought that went nicely with the theme.

It wasn't my best decorating work, but at least it tasted good. It was basically a from-scratch angel food cake with coconut on top and I'm sure I could have made an equally good cake from a box in half the time. I'll never learn. 

Eva is funny—it has always taken her quite awhile to warm up to people. She is just now finally coming out of her shell a bit. It also can take her some time to warm up to things. We have given her new books, clothes, etc. and have gotten the response "I don't need it!" Only after a few days will it turn into her favorite toy. I wasn't sure how she would react to her new birthday presents so I warned everyone in advance.

We bought her a new trike and she had no trouble warming up to it. She sat right down on it while she opened the rest of her gifts.

When she opened this new dress from Nana she had to try it on immediately and model it. And never take it off.

And I loved her reaction here:

But her cousin Colter figured out that the tissue paper was the best gift of the night.

And then she was off.

With a few lessons from teacher Roxie she has been riding her trike like a pro. We have been keeping it inside for now, until the point she gets so crazy that I'll have to touch up and repaint every wall. So far she hasn't been too destructive. One of the benefits of having girls! ;)

There is one more Eva-ism I have to document. When you ask her how old she is she will hold up 3 fingers and say "This is "W!". If you try to tell her "no, it's 3!" She will argue with you. She has some sign language videos she watches in the car, and she is absolutely right about this. Three fingers (in the middle) as we typically hold them up is the sign for W. The sign for 3 uses the thumb and first 2 fingers. No problem. Except now when she is counting something with three things she will say "W" instead of 3. Ha!

Happy Birthday Eva! We love you!

road trip

Hopefully you all had a happy Fourth! Today just finally sharing a few photos from our Memorial weekend trip to the Northwest. Beautiful country and I would happily go back every year if I could. This time we only had a few short days so before you could say "Schools out for the summer" we packed the car to the gills and headed out.

After a long day on the road we were happy to arrive at our Seattle hotel. While Tom and I have seen Seattle a number of times, we thought the girls would enjoy a little time to look around.

Our hotel had a nice little view of the space needle, which is as close as we got.

Looking down at the street from our room Sarah said "This just doesn't feel right". Only 3 years on the farm and our girls were feeling a bit lost and overwhelmed in the city!

The next day we wondered down through Pike's Market and down to the wharf.

We passed on most of the usual tourist activites after seeing the price to ride up the space needle and the lines at the acquarium. We chose instead to enjoy this new attraction:

Who wouldn't want to ride a giant Ferris Wheel on the waterfront! It was a nice long ride and the spectacular views were well worth the short wait in line.

Sarah was pretty terrified at first. 

But after a bit she settled in and enjoyed the ride.

After our morning on the wharf we stopped for a bit of shopping (oh, I could have shopped all day with the stores they had) and dinner with a cousin we headed up to Lynden to our main desitination—to visit Tom's brother's family. 

We did have a minor detour around the freeway bridge that collapsed on our route the day before our trip. Crazy. But oy, did we enjoy the scenery on our way!

Once there it rained, rained, rained (not surpirsingly) so the kids just enjoyed each other's company playing around the house.

When the rain let up we headed out to the coast community of Fairhaven. They had a festival going on, so the town was busy busy, but we parked and walked down along the waterfront.

Watching the train go under the bridge beneath them. An awesome sight to see that power rumble underneath your feet! 

Sweetest cousin Sofia. I want to bottle her brown eyes and dimples.

And such a lovable boy, Eli is. He and Sarah are sporting matching toothless grins. But Eli wins in the adorable freckle department. We enjoyed so much hearing him play the piano as he is doing amazingly well for his age! Natural talent.

Speaking of talent, Petra has more than enough to spare in the kitchen. Yum. 

And baby Lucie showed off her new talent for us—walking everywhere!

There was a kayak race along the path we walked. We enjoyed watching and encouraging them as they neared the finish after rowing all the way from Vancouver, B.C.! 

The next morning we played at their neighborhood park. Lynden was an impressively well-manicured Dutch community. This city park alone was just amazing. They are quite fortunate to have it just a short bike ride from their house.

Clark cousins lined up by age!

We ended our visit there much too soon, but nevertheless headed 7 hours south to Lebanon, OR (south of Portland) to visit my aunt and uncle. The extra miles were well worth it!

The girls got acquainted with another cousin.

And they had a blast playing in Aunt Marilyn's beautiful yard.

Eva took a liking to Uncle Bob. Maybe he reminded her just a little bit of her Grandpa Rog? Tom had a great time joining Bob for a tour where he works at the airport.

We sure miss having Bob and Marilyn around the farm, so it was well worth the detour to spend the night with them!

One final stop on the drive home to see Multnomah Falls. 

Always worth the stop, even though it was cool and wet. 

Turns out we brought the cool wet weather home with us to enjoy for the next several days. The rain was badly needed on the farm. So, like I said before, we would happily make this trip to the Northwest every year, especially if we can lasso those rain clouds and haul them home with us!

May Life in Photos

Now that it is July (what?) it seems like a good time to talk about what we did in May, right? Ack! My intention has been to do these Life in Photos updates at the end of every month, but life has a way of pushing forward like a train engine and never stopping for us to catch up. School let out right before Memorial weekend and instead of having lazy summer days we have only been busier. 

I hate it when I have to neglect this here blog so I will do my very best to catch up. So. May.

The Missoula Children's Theatre comes to our town every other year. It is such a great opportunity for the kids. They spend every night preparing for week and then put on a fantastic production. This year it was the "Secret Garden"—Abby played a goose and Sarah a flower. 

Abby has taken quite an interest in basketball this year—which is great considering her height. She has really developed in her coordination and understanding of the game. She participated in a couple of 3-on-3 tournaments this year, both of which her team won. She also won a lay-up contest! The photos above are of her little team (all fourth graders). Both Abby and Sarah have done some basketball camps since school got out as well. We are happy to invest in this interest because it is a well supported sport in our small community!

Just some random life photos... the kids don't stop growing and changing, especially little Eva! She is such a joy to have in our family. I will post about her 3rd birthday here soon! The photo (top middle) was the first rain we got in a good long time. The state of things was getting concerning until the clouds opened up around Memorial weekend and didn't stop until we had several inches of rain. Sooo wonderful!

On Mother's Day we enjoyed a lunch buffet and some cuddling time with my newest nephew, Henry. He is a total peach. Top left: Every year the K-2 grades do a Muffins for Moms performance. So much fun! This is Sarah with her little buddy Casha.

And how about a pet update? This is our "puppy" Benton who just keeps a-growin' (even since these were taken) and still insists on sitting on my lap. Ha. When we get home from somewhere and open the car door he will wiggle his way ALL the way on to my lap to greet me. He likes to ride around the farm with us too, but if we let him into the cab he always ends up on my lap. It's a little ridiculous trying to drive when I can barely see around him. I do enjoy how much of a love bug he is (the reason we wanted this breed) and he is starting to outgrow some of his puppy annoying-ness. Mia, our sweet older female, is so patient with him, as evidenced by the photos above. Sometimes his exuberance is not easy to take (who wants to be chewed on all the time?)

Now lets talk about those weathered deck boards and chicken wire railing, shall we? Projects everywhere. 

I'll be back soon with more updates (I hope). Still to come: our trip to Washington over Memorial weekend, Abby's dance recital, and Eva's 3rd birthday!!! I've had a few other projects up my sleeve I hope to share about soon also. So please don't abandon me and my sporadic posts. I love having you to share my adventures with!

entry progress

Hello and happy Thursday to you! Our girls finished up with their school year before the long weekend, so we decided to take the opportunity to get away. Last night we returned from a 6-day, 2000-mile road trip to the west coast! I would love to have all my photos downloaded to share, but before I spend the time to do that I need to get caught up on the unpacking and piles of laundry that await. I prepared this post before we left, so I will leave you with this for now and will be back next week with more. 

Remember what our entry way used to look like? It featured this slate planter. The dirt didn't exactly smell fresh and I was always afraid the cat would use it as a catbox. We were glad to get it out of there as there were a couple of rotten floor boards underneath. (We saved the rocks to use for a future outdoor project). 

The hallway looked like this:

And now it looks like this:

I've have been spending some time painting doors and trim recently, so it is nice to finally be able to show you the changes in this area! The biggest thing we did in the entry hall (besides replacing all the doors and windows) was to remove the closets and cupboards that were there before. Now we have a "landing strip" for our gear as we go in and out. Admittedly having this all out in the open isn't always fantastic. It does get stacked pretty deep with coats, backpacks, and shoes, but it sure beats the piles of stuff on the floor. Kids just won't take the time to put everything away in closets.

This is where I did the rest of the stenciling that I mentioned in my previous post. For shelving we actually purchased an IKEA Expedit unit. Everyone in the family has a basket to hold their sunglasses, gloves, etc. My dad built a shelf to go across the top. Then we simply added a strip of baseboard molding to attach the hooks to. We have purchased oak boards to build a bench, which I will stain to match our kitchen cabinets and shelves. The bench here isn't quite tall enough or wide enough, but it works as a place holder until we can build one. 

It is so nice to have freshly painted trim and doors and new windows. The fridge is a bit of an eye sore, but we love having an extra fridge and this is a pretty convenient place to have it. 

We replaced the front door quite awhile ago. This is what it looked like before, after we had started demo.

The old door wasn't in very good shape and didn't seal well. The side windows were even worse- they weren't even double-pane insulated glass. They were basically very scratched-up plexi glass held in place with wood stops, and had lots of dirt and condensation between the panes. We couldn't find a stock door/window unit to fit the space, so we ended up buying the door and glass separately. It meant we had to do quite a bit of trimming around them to make them look nice, but it is finally done. And painted!

I wanted the front door to have weight and presence, even though it is mostly glass, so I painted it Behr Black Bean. It is an off-black with green undertone. A glass door like this certainly isn't for everyone, and it wouldn't be for me either if we lived in town, but out here we don't have to be too concerned about privacy. I like to have the light stream in and it is great to have the view out to where the guys are working. If I ever feel like I need more privacy I might explore the options of frosted window film.

While the inside looks finished, the outside—not so much. I have a lots of scraping and sanding to do before I paint it (and ALL the exterior trim) dark brown. 

Now if I can just keep this little guy from jumping up and smearing all my glass.... :)

I have lived with my new entry rugs for awhile now, and I must say that I love them.

They are indoor/outdoor rugs from Dash & Albert (purchased from Wayfair, but they don't seem to have this pattern right now). They have a huge selection of patterns to choose from, and they are fantastic for an entry because they clean so easily. I usually just vacuum over them, but when I'm mopping I often run my mop over them as well. You can even take them outside and hose them off. 

Little by little... progress is made! It is so gratifying to look at before/after pictures like this and see how many things we have transformed! It's like playing the game "How many differences can you count?"

measuring up

I've seen various versions of Growth Chart rulers floating around Pinterest, including this cute one in the photo above from here. Most of them are done on a piece of wood that can be taken down and moved with you. Smart. 

But I had a built-in piece of wood that seemed perfect for the job, and after all, we don't plan to move. It needed a make-over anyway. The wood end cap on our fireplace was stained a lighter color and didn't match our new cabinet color.

A perfect spot for a growth chart!

I didn't take any in-process photos because I wasn't completely sure it would work out. And it certainly isn't perfect. I decided to do a reverse effect and let the wood show through where the numbers are. To do this I printed the numbers out on a full sheet of label stock and cut them out with an X-acto knife. I cut strips out of the same label sheet with a paper cutter, and then cut them to length. First I sanded the board really well, then I then carefully measured and stuck the labels to the board.

In case you are wondering, yes, it is accurate—at least to about 1/8", which is close enough for measuring height. I measured very carefully! :)

After my labels were in place, I painted 3 or 4 coats of chalkboard paint. This is where I erred. I should have primed in addition to the sanding. I had bubbles in my paint. This may or may not have happened anyway, I'm not sure, but it was very apparent afterwards when I rubbed chalk over it to season it. By then it was too late to sand and recoat because I had removed all of the stickers.

The other problem is that the stickers didn't come off very easily and paint bled under them in places. If you look closely my lines aren't perfect. But life is too short to worry about perfection. Good enough. 

After taking these photos I decided to clean all the chalk off, which makes the bubbles much less apparent. I still like the matte black finish, even if it doesn't function as a chalkboard. I mark the heights in pencil anyway because I don't want them to rub off. The pencil marks are a little hard to see on the dark color, but that's okay with me too because it stays looking clean.

I only wish I'd done this sooner! Abby is already 5'2" at 10 years old. Crazy. It will be interesting to see if the other two are even close. So far the tallest mark is at 6'3" (my brother). Any taller and my little dinner bell interferes with the measuring... but oh well, the dinner bell has been here forever and it will stay for nostalgia sake!

Beyond the growth chart is a little niche leading into the living room. It used to look like this:

Crazy, huh? We still plan to put a desk/command center here for me to use for cookbooks, my laptop, and school paraphernalia. I'd like to have my dad help custom build it to look something like this with little niches and closed storage, but he is a busy man and I might get impatient and find a solution I can piece together with stuff I can buy. Depends on which comes first—time or money. 

In the meantime, the wall was in rough shape from removing the mirror that was glued to the sheetrock, so I decided to stencil it using this stencil from Cutting Edge Stencils. The process was quite easy and it was less expensive than the Woods wallpaper I love. The main reason I bought the stencil was for an area in my entry that I will show you in an upcoming post. That area I painted with dark over light, but since I already had this spot painted dark gray, I stenciled light over dark and it turned out just fine. I used regular latex wall paint and a foam roller. I would definitely try this technique again—much easier than hanging wallpaper! 

oops, I did it again

And this time there might have been a little blood involved.

Not really. But it's a good story. Read on.

So, I have a bit of a Craig's List habit. Looking through my previous thrifting posts I'm realizing that there are quite a few things I haven't even told you about. Hiding the evidence? Uh oh—classic addiction symptom. Actually, too many of my Craig's List finds sit around in storage until I give them enough TLC to be proud of them. Maybe I'll do another post to show you the ones collecting dust. But for now, the newest acquisitions are sitting proudly in my living room exactly as-is:

Bam: a pair of 50's mid-century upholstered chairs.

I knew I eventually wanted a set of statement chairs—my leather sofas are functional but boring—to round out the seating in our large living room. I figured it would be a down-the-road investment since I had more pressing matters in mind (a rug). But when these beauties popped up, I couldn't resist. 

I spotted the ad on Wednesday last week and immediately responded, "I want to buy these! If I pay full asking price, will you save them until I can come get them?" I did a little research, and the brand (Tomlinson) appeared to be an American company. I figured they were probably worth quite a bit more than the $200 asking price. 

But I didn't hear back.... and didn't hear back.... and figured I'd lost out on them. However, that Saturday morning I noticed the ad was still up and decided to e-mail again. This time I received a phone call right back. She said she had received an offer but it was for less than she wanted, so if I came and got them that day, I could have them. So we packed up immediately and headed in to get them.

This is where the story gets interesting. Later I received this text on my phone:

"Joellyn, this is Kristi [my cousin]. I was going to buy the chairs you are buying today. She said she sold them to a lady from Ft. Benton and I knew it had to be you! Aren't they amazing? I can't wait to see what u do with them. And if u decide u don't like them, call me! :)"

O.K., small world. I had a good chuckle over the coincidence, but then I just felt terrible. Even more so after I found out that the seller had actually accepted Kristi's offer and she was on her way to pick them up when she called to say she had a better offer! I assure you, I did not know this when I picked up the chairs. And she did make me pay full price. But that was pretty sneaky business on her part.

Luckily Kristi is a cool person and very gracious about the whole deal. ;)  Later she texted me asking me if I was planning to have them reupholstered. She said,

"I thought they'd be so cool with black and white pillows. Like those ones from Ikea."

Which I happen to own. 

"Wow! Well even if u don't like those pillows on it u better post a pic so I can see how they look :)"

Least I can do. Turns out, I do like them with the pillows. The original backs on the chairs are made of a hard (almost crunchy) foam. Replacing them with the pillows makes them much more comfortable.

My initial intent was that these would make a great reupholstery project. I could picture them in a burnt orange tweed of sorts. Something with attitude and a vintage vibe. However, the upholstery is in great condition considering its age, and for now I am quite happy to live with them as is and enjoy the happy orange pop of color. 

If you are curious, the info I have indicates these chairs are from Tomlinson Furniture Company, the Sophisticate Line, and this is the Casual Chair No. 4648. Tomlinson started in 1901 in North Carolina.

life in photos—March/April

I haven't been very regular with posting lately, but not because life has been dull. Life is made up of little moments that add up to a whole lot of busy. 

I like the weekly/monthly photo dumps others have been doing. It seems like a good way to share those little moments that in themselves don't seem to warrant an entire post. Here is my version to catch up you up on our life happenings:

Clockwise from top left: The girls in their Easter outfits from Grandma ~ Eva counting peas with daddy to determine germination rate (spring seeding has started!) ~ A visit from Ash and Annie and celebrating Ash's birthday with a chocolate cherry cake ~ A rare (but funny!) grumpy face from Brandon. He wasn't feeling so well, but mommy makes it all better ~ Kitty Zoe sunning in the living room ~ Eva enjoying lunch

We were able to make a super quick trip to help my nephew Oliver celebrate his 3rd birthday and meet our new adorable nephew Henry! He is darling, calm, and content. I could have held him all day long.

Last but not least, a phone photo dump. Clockwise from top left: Henry's knuckle dimples ~ My phone is full of shopping photos. Anyone else do this? Makes me laugh. I'm always shopping alone and taking photos to show my family later. This month was all about shoes- Tom's boots, Abby's basketball shoes (she is playing in some 3-on-3 tourneys) and Converse for Sarah in hopes that she can't wear through the rubber toes! ~ I finally hung some adorable animal prints in Eva's room that I purchased on Etsy ages ago. The girls rooms are tops on the list of priorities to re-do. Blue carpet be gone! ~ A ski meetup with the Dykstras and our last ski trip of the year. Halfway between us. So much fun! ~ Eva is my littel buddy and I love that I get to spend my days with her ~ stamp class ~ Sarah sign painting for Cheerleading ~ Abby won the county spelling bee for 3rd and 4th graders! So proud.

baby bumpers

I got a raised eyebrow from the cashier at the dollar store when I came through to buy just one pool noodle. But one was all I needed.

Voila~ counter bumpers! Eva has reached the perfect height to crack her head on the edges of our kitchen counters. One collision too many sent me looking for a solution. I know this won't make any fashion statements, but that's what makes this great—I can just pop them on and off. 

March madness

Thought I would drop in for a quick hello.

Sorry I've been absent for awhile. It's been a blah "blah-g" lately. Oh well, it seems to go in phases like that for me.

I just found out today that Google Reader is going away! I'm not happy about that. Blogs have completely replaced magazines for me as a means for inspiration, and I need a good way to keep them organized and easily accessible. Do any of you use an aggregator for blogs? If so, what do you recommend?

In other news, the rental apartment project Tom has been helping my parents with is wrapping up.... just in time for spring farm work to kick into high gear. It doesn't leave time to tackle any big projects in our house, unfortunately, but instead of despairing I've been trying to focus on smaller bite-size projects we can chip away at. And projects I can tackle on my own. I even have a "punch list" going of things to finish up- all color coded and prioritized.

My dad took one look at the list and said "good luck!", which is a good indication of where his mind is headed. I'm vowing not to be discouraged. But why does the last 5% of projects drag on forever? Hopefully I'll have some progress to share with you soon. In the meantime, I'm trying to fit in lots of spring cleaning. I even detailed the inside of my car. Which is saying something, believe me.

In one last random note, I ran across these cool creations made from vintage saris. I especially like the camel for some reason. It would look fabulous in an ethnic inspired room! From here while it lasts.

busted up

Funny story–

We have been trying to ski as much as possible since its an outdoor family activity we can do in the winter when Tom isn't so busy. While Eva is young I stay behind much of the time, and when I do go I've been renting equipment, figuring I'd invest in some when I'm able to go more often.

Tom and I recently discovered our old (we're talking 20-year-old equipment from high school) ski gear in my Dad's shop—gear we'd thought we'd ditched when we left college but Dad saw fit to rescue. Of course, they are old straight skis that nobody uses anymore, but I thought my boots would be worth a try. I tried them on and they felt pretty good, despite the fact that was 3 kids ago and my feet have grown.

So last Saturday I decided to give them a test drive on the slopes. But as we were gearing up, a piece of the boot broke off, taking a couple of buckles with it. I shrugged and trudged off to the rental shop, a little disappointed that I wasn't going to be able to save money on boots after all.

After the day was over and I turned in my equipment, I slipped the old boots back on while I waited for Tom to pull the car up. While I waited I looked down and noticed the left boot had a crack in it also. Then I took a few steps to the car and the entire front of the boot popped off. I took a few more steps and the right boot did the same thing!

They literally busted up into pieces within seconds until I was left with this:

Now picture me feeling all put together in my new name brand ski pants and then watching my ancient brittle boots literally fall apart before my eyes. It took my pride down a few notches.

But then we had a good laugh over the pieces. At least it didn't happen on the slope!