Fall

 Things are changing a lot around here...

it's been a crazy month.  

My son started school this fall going a half day to kindergarten and after meeting with his teacher we  decided to move him to full day....

 I wasn't really ready for that one...So now he's gone all day and I get to enjoy Mighty by herself...

 And my husband's job was affected by the government shutdown so that definitely rocked our "normal" this month...

 Mostly I'm trying to enjoy fall...

Thankful for my family and the beauty that God created on this Earth for us to enjoy.  I don't really love winter but I do love the change of seasons.

And there is so much there if you just look...slowing down is hard for me.

My brain is always in high gear ---

full of family and responsibilities, serving at our church and creative ideas of new things I 'd love to make or do....

 But just this morning I read "Be still and know that I am God..."  

So glad He is...

Chickens

Oh our crazy chickens....

They are getting big &

this group is pretty nutty....

 So they fit right in around here....

every evening the newer group of chicks tries to roost in our hedge...

 So while our two grown chickens go right into the coop and settle on the roosting bar; they are still bullying the smaller ones around some.

My husband goes out every evening after we put the kids to bed and gets all 9 of them down one at a time....

This innocent looking, fluffy cheeked Americana leads the pack and settles on a nice, sturdy limb by herself..

the rest of them try to follow by piling on top of each other on another branch...

which slowly sinks towards the ground. 

They are a riot to watch....

But we're hoping they outgrow they're roosting in the hedge

New Baby Chicks

I think this photo speaks for itself...

He is over the moon right now...

They are sweet little balls of fluff...

We decided to order from the Hatchery so we could buy pullets...

They already have little personalities...and are getting used to their new home.

We ordered 10 this time --  After starting with 5 or so the first time around and losing almost all of the first group we decided to start with more this time....

Hopefully they will all make it but we'll probably lose a couple along the way...

We'll see...

Vintage Egg Basket

My first purchase from the Peddler's Mall where we have our booth...

We have enjoyed raising the chickens and getting fresh eggs....the photo above is Little Red.  She is the last survivor from the second set that we bought.  None of the first set made it 

(and three of the five were roosters)

And this is Miss Goldie who is so friendly and has the perfect disposition for the kids....

We get two eggs a day sometimes one and lately none....but I have been on the hunt for egg baskets since we started getting eggs.

 While checking on our booth the other night I spied this little treasure up on a shelf in a booth across the aisle....

 I couldn't pass it up!  I don't think I've ever seen one this size.  They are almost always large

....so I had to make my first purchase

I love it....and will probably still buy a larger one at some point this year while flea marketing.

We ordered baby chicks with our sister in law over at Red Barn Revival, and they should be here in a week or so...

can't wait to see the new babies...

50mm Cannon lens

 I got a Cannon 50mm lens for my Rebel T3 for Christmas....mine is the 1.8 which is the lower end model. 

Apparently this is the way your eyes see things.  There is no zoom so you have to physically move around to get closer and farther away....

But it makes life really beautiful ;)

  Check out lego swimmer girl!  My son bought his sister two lego people 

(they come in sealed packages so you don't know what you're getting when you buy them)

Both of which turned out to be girls....

 I've been playing around quite a bit taking an obscene amount of photos of anything and everything I can find.  And using the manual setting to try to teach myself about f-stops and shutter speeds....

I'm not really into editing my photos on the computer.  I've seen alot of great photoshop tutorials and I know you can do some really cool things.  I just prefer not to mess with them too much....

Here's my favorite thing to photograph...

Blue Dog her favorite book for nap time....

And this one who constantly amazes me...

insisted I open my gift (from him) BEFORE he opened his own from Santa...

at only 5 years old???

Makes me a proud momma....I feel blessed...

Annie Sloan's Chalk Painted Floor

Our contract on our house ran out a week ago, and we've decided to just let it rest for awhile.  With the house not being for sale I thought it would be a great opportunity to do something messy----

and big and dramatic :)

 This is our hallway floor...which used to look like this (below) it actually doesn't look bad in this photo but keep scrolling....

 You can see how dirty this gets being a hallway and pretty high traffic area.  This carpet has been here since before my husband bought the house (as well as the carpet in the kids' room....more on that later.)

 Brace yourself if you're a fan of having carpet....I would have hardwood flooring in my whole house if I could choose.  Carpet just holds all kinds of nastiness....And right about here I was thinking maybe this wasn't such a good idea....

 (Grandma comes to get the kids each Tuesday in case you're wondering how I could get this done with two little ones!) I pressed on....and now I'm glad I did.  I found some sort of little worm like critters LIVING between our hall and dining room....the kids' bedroom carpet will be leaving us SOON...

 Not too many staples, and the hallway is a small area...actually prying out the tack strip was more difficult because of the baseboards being in the way.  

 It was in pretty good shape.  Some paint spots here and there.  I would have loved to refinish it.  But with it being the hallway, and having the kids we'd have to be out of the house.  And we have different floor in the dining room and a third in the bathroom so I wanted something different to break it all up.

 

A nice wash (half water + half paint) of ASCP in a mix of Paris Grey and French Linen....and if you look closely you'll see my pattern laid out in pencil....
I just painted it all by hand without taping.  It goes faster and I wanted it to be aged looking anyways. It will get PLENTY of wear and tear being in our house....

 The second color is a wash of Old White....

 I distressed it all lightly with 100 grit sand paper 
And after that with a damp rag (I did another post here on distressing furniture with water )....if you choose to use the water I find that having a large bowl of water to rinse your cloth in frequently helps.   And I wring my cloth all the way out.  It will seem like nothing is happening for the first few seconds and then all the sudden it will really start to come off.  So work carefully at first....

And I finished up with a Polycrylic top coat in case you're wondering.  

 It's water based like the paint and I'll be able to mop it.  And mostly I already had some :).....

I know Annie Sloan sells their own lacquer you can apply to finish flooring and seal it up.  We'll have to add some sort of toe strip around the baseboard and do some finish painting to the woodwork that was hidden by the carpet but overall I'm wishing I'd ripped that carpet out a LONG time ago!!!

Medical Cabinet Repurposed

 Back in the spring we went to the Springfield Flea Market, and it rained the whole day...

it was soooo cold.   Hard to believe now that it's 100 degrees :) 

I spied this little wall hung medical cabinet and thought it was just a really cool piece.  I originally planned to hang it above the toilet to store our towels...

that, of course, was before we realized we were going to have to pretty much redo the whole bathroom....

 So it was pretty rough looking...we took it apart and my husband sandblasted all the metal hardware. I decided to sand it down a little bit and use a dark stain on it followed by a coat of polyurethane.  This is the only "before" photo I took...and I'd already stained it.

 So as we were working I was thinking this would make a great spot for ME---only one thing missing  right now, and that's the mirror but I've got something in mind.

 Our bathroom is small about 5x9' so this is just enough to be a spot to sit down.  I'm thinking that my fan can be mounted to the wall too ---

just haven't decided if I want to do that or not....

 This folding chair is my favorite out of all those we've bought....

I was thinking more along the lines of a small stool...maybe metal...

Not sure but I'll know it when I see it

 

 the room is coming along nicely...baseboards are in and it's all painted and floored and caulked....

 The last thing is the sink...and some storage.....but I'm loving the way this looks!!!  And feeling better about getting it wrapped up...

Allure Vinyl Flooring

The bathroom remodel continues...

My husband got all the drywall patched and sanded so I was able to paint.  

I used the "White Ballet" color from Valspar that we used in the kiddos room last year---Mostly because I had a whole unopened gallon!

If you've ever tried to pull up old linoleum you know why we decided to lay down sheets of thin plywood first :) We filled our gap between the tub and old floor with a piece of this too before laying the large sheets down.  I planned on using our Allure vinyl flooring in the Hickory color/finish.

 I was right in the middle of flooring when the storm hit and the power went out.  So I planned on getting up Saturday morning to finish it up ---only  we got a call to show the house.  After cleaning all morning they apparently didn't even show up.  

Saturday evening I got to this point ---only needed about 3-4 pieces to finish.  Which we were  expecting.  We'd specifically checked to make sure it was available before we started.  My husband went to get another box at Home Depot only to be told yes, the display is still there (and it's listed online) but they don't have it on the shelf.  You have to special order that and it takes 7-10 days to come in:)

After my husband tells me all this, I remember that my Uncle laid the same flooring in their house when we did our dining room/ kitchen, and he MIGHT have enough pieces to finish it up....He did....

I persevered!!!! It is finally all down and looks really great considering it's linoleum.  

This is definitely a great flooring option for a little bit less than a laminate or ceramic.  And we get sooo many compliments on ours.  It's one of the first things people notice in our kitchen/dining room.  

And that room gets a TON of traffic....and other abuse---see photo below :) We've had it about 3 years I think and it still looks great.  It's also very quiet....some laminate floors can be a little noisy or echo-y in large open rooms.

So all that's left is EVERYTHING :)  A new sink....caulking around the edges of the tub....baseboards...but we 're getting there...