February 2011

{this post was started Friday morning and I thought I would publish it Friday morning but now it’s Monday and I’m just now done!}

I love when it rains at night but the sun is shining in the morning… just wonderful! Unfortunately, I had to spend a few minutes outside at 4:15 am, when I heard the thunder, and was afraid the quickly approaching storm would wash out my seedlings and drench the toys and shoes that I knew were still scattered across the patio. So in a partial state of slumber I was up, outside on our patio at 4 am picking up  seedlings, toys and shoes that I feared were about to get washed out. It was a successful retrieval, but unfortunately I’ve been up ever since!

Some friends of ours {Suzanne & George} own and run a family farm called Gaucho Farms. Last week my mother-in-law and I headed out with the kids to see their new lambs.  And my goodness, as you will see, they are just precious. George and Suzanne raise and breed Katahdin sheep {which are hair sheep, not wool sheep}. Suzanne is a wealth of knowledge and I loved learning all about what they do and how they operate.

They keep all the pregnant mothers together until they give birth then they separate them to a smaller pen with their babies. If they don’t separate them they steal each other’s babies. Suzanne explained that usually they have twins. Most of these ladies were busting at the seams.

I felt especially sorry for this sweet girl, I told her that I felt the same way when I was pregnant. And then I prayed it wouldn’t be much longer for her because she was wider than she was tall and I was afraid her little legs might break.

George and Suzanne also have chickens and a wonderful winter garden. We had a great little visit, the kids were in heaven! If you’re local and interested in any of their produce, eggs, and dare I say lamb I’m sure they’ll be happy to accommodate you, their website is gauchofarms.com.

Now before I go I thought it would be fun to share a few of my favorite things from pinterest this week. I don’t know if you know about pinterest but it’s a wonderful tool for creating an online bulletin board of the inspiration you find across the web. I’d tell you all to hurry over there and sign up, but apparently they are in beta and now have a waiting list, but you should get on it because it’s a fun little place bubbling over with eye candy. Now, I will admit that I have to have a heart evaluation every time I get on there… reminding myself to be inspired by what I see yet still grateful for all that I have.

So, for this Friday afternoon I thought I’d pull one image from each of my boards.

::Photography Inspiration ::

In light of recent adventures in camping…

::Products::

Aren’t these cool!? I’d much rather bring two totes than 6 reusable shopping bags that I ALWAYS forget to bring with me.

::The Great Outdoors::

Lovely….

::Kids Rooms & Stuff::

Love the yellow and green…

::For the Home::

Painted floors, the door, the lights, and that print… love it all.

::Sewing Inspiration::

Love the elastic at the waist…

::For the Office::

So resourceful….

::Fashion::

Like the tee,  jeans, belt… well, I like it all… not sure about the shoes, but I can’t see them well.

::Inspiration::

LOVE both of these…

::Mmmm Food::
Seriously, does it get any cuter that this???

::Party Time::

If I ever have a party like this, you all will be invited if you promise to take a balloon with you when you leave! 🙂

::Airstream Love::

Yes, I have a board just for Airstreams & campers… so much fun!

{Now it’s Sunday and I’m picking back up}

My mother is a saint and has been helping me fix up our master bathroom for the last 2 days. When I say fix up, I mean the two of us in there together puttying and painting and laughing often at ourselves because it’s a little tight in there. Ideally I’d set her up outside with a comfy lounge chair, tall glass of iced tea, and a stack of magazines… but that would mean I would be inside painting all alone and  well I know she wouldn’t have it and honestly, I need her help because I HATE painting. I do it, I try to enjoy it, but it is what I imagine is going on in hell around the clock… blazing fires and people cutting in around trim. Our bathroom is just getting a little face lift because it was SOOOO ugly. I mean, seriously ugly, birds that looked like white flamingos on the wallpaper. Anyway, they’re gone now and this makes me very happy!

We’ve had a great weekend and the highlight has been being able to attend our church’s annual missions’ conference with  speaker Steve Brown. I don’t know if there are any Steve Brown fans out there but if not, you may quickly become one from the comfort of your home or iPod. His voice is captivating but more captivating than is voice are his words, words that flow effortlessly from his mouth. He’s funny, honest and a  humble sinner saved by grace. He encouraged us Friday night to “smell like Jesus”, to radiate the love & grace of Christ in all aspects of our lives. Sunday morning he was back with more encouragement to weep with those who weep… really good stuff!

{now it’s Monday morning… this post has taken 3 days}

Sorry about the cruddy phone pic… I’ll snap some real ones later.

About 2 years ago I had draperies made for our playroom and have been waiting ever since to put them up. In case you didn’t know drapery hardware & rings {especially if your window is SUPER wide} can be really expensive. We didn’t really need draperies so I just waited and waited. Finally, a few weeks ago, I bought a drapery rod on ebay, a Restoration Hardware one that I knew would be perfect. Then I bought rings at Lowe’s and spray painted them to match it. The drapery rod was a good deal, but still expensive because it’s 120″ wide… and can I just tell you that the rod I’ve been waiting for two years for came in a box filled with popcorn and I threw away the stinkin’ finials with the box. Insert a few cuss words of your choice here. Well, I never saw them in there, the seller tells me they were in there and it’s basically my word against his and these days I wouldn’t be surprised if I did throw them away. Anyway, long story short, more finials are coming to me at a small cost. I feel almost the same way about hanging draperies as I do about painting, but when I hit studs on all three brackets I threw out a few fist pumps {for the Loerkes}. So the draperies are up {waiting for UPS to bring the finials} and they were well worth the 2 year wait! I used to not mind hanging draperies until one time Justin and I installed draperies for some friends of ours and once we had them all up we stood back to admire our work and watched as they ripped out of the wall, anchors and all… it’s been a year or so and we can finally laugh!

Again… poor quality picture but you get the gist… fun, funky playroom fabric with blackout lining so our guests, who sleep in our playroom, can sleep ’til noon if they so desire.

Ok, wrapping this up…

one last thing, do y’all like kids in raglan sleeves?

Rover has this “rooster” shirt and I love it on him, wondering about trying a raglan sleeved t-shirt for Honey Bee Tees, any yay’s or nay’s out there?

Happy Monday!!!

Watched a little rover eat a s’more? It might be the sweetest, stickiest, and by far the best entertainment we could find around here tonight. We started on the floor but quickly realized the table was better suited to handle the stickiness!

ps- That’s Mom in the background… she’s back! 🙂 And I hope to see you rovers tomorrow.