Mondays always kind of make me blue. I love weekends with my family and I dread Wrexy going back to work for the week. This weekend was no exception…we had a really fun time celebrating him.
Sawyer is kind of like her mom and gets really excited about events and functions so we decorated a little for daddio. Surprise, surprise, I know. She wanted to throw him a cow birthday party but we were in Denver that weekend so we decided to throw him a cow Father’s Day!
Moooooooooo
The cards at the top are bidding cards they use at the sale barn and then I just found a cow template I liked and made the bunting.
Cow gift tags, too
More bidding cards turned into silverware holders
He was so cute and appreciative of all of our hard work. I went to take everything down last night and he asked me to leave them up one more day. So many reasons to love that man…
On Saturday, we did a little shopping and then ran to town to celebrate the birthdays of two sweet friends from church. The second party was a pool party and we got in a few good minutes of swimming before the storm clouds started rolling in. The kids are both little fish so it was a lot of fun. If we lived in town, we’d be at the pool every day, no doubt…
On Sunday, the kiddos surprised daddy with sweet shirts that we ordered that said, “I love my daddy.”
Wryder was still a little tired from the parties the day before and was none to excited about having his picture taken.
I am not loving mommy right now…That’s a little better
He did, however, take seven steps on his own! YAY! He might just walk yet!
Beautiful girl!
All in all, it was a great weekend. We took daddy to eat a yummy hamburger, got a root beer float and then let him take a three hour afternoon nap. What’s better than that?!
I feel so troubled…I can’t find the before pics of the living room anywhere! I’ve looked on two computers and a flash drive – what happened to them!?
Close your eyes and imagine white walls…and then pick up a rag and smear some yellow brown paint in a circular motion on said walls – THAT would’ve been the living room. The floor was fine and the wood work was good, it just needed some paint!
After:
Our living room changes a bit from time to time, both in arrangement and details. It’s shaped really funny and I’m always arranging and rearranging trying to find the setup I like best. This is where I’ve landed for now. Things are decorated a little on the Americana side – summer just screams that to me.
From the kitchen…Other side, from the kitchen…From the north wall…
I have lots of little vintagey things displayed in crates that are kind of fun…
The stars are old carpenter’s rulers that Wrex shaped into stars for me. I swiped the July 4th printables off a Pinterest site and added some touches of red and turquoise.
Thank you, Pinterest!Indeed…
I found this gorgeous fabric at a yard sale this past weekend. It’s thick, red-striped canvas and totally reminded me of Old Glory…
Americana…
Wrex built this tree for me out of scrap wood and it’s one of my favorite things in the room. I keep thinking I’m going to get sick of it, but so far it hasn’t happened.
I used flashcards to make the bunting…
and scrap fabric to make this wreath stand out a bit.
This is command central for all things preschool/Cubbies/blogging/bill paying, etc., can you tell?!
A lot goes on in this little corner!
We made this chicken wire bulletin board and have been using it as a prayer board for a few years now. It’s just a simple reminder to intercede for the people we have tacked up there…
Where the blog magic happens…
I love these Ikea hanging systems. So handy!
We made the big star out of yardstick around Christmas and I threw it up there for summer. Our TV stand is an old dresser we bought from some friends. We sanded it to rustic it up, added some funky paint and fabric and voila – I love it!
Our light fixtures in the living room are old minnow buckets we found at a flea market. They, too, are one of my faves!
I hope you enjoyed our little living room tour! We’re headed to enjoy some summer outside!
The kitchen is the most popular room in our house…probably because we spend a lot of time there. Between three meals and two snacks, plus prep and clean-up, some days I feel like I rarely leave it!
Aside from the flooring, this room didn’t need much attention; it mainly just looked dated…a little paint goes a long way…
Before:
After:
We painted all of the cabinets a soft white, added a dishwasher, painted the walls and put in new flooring.
A little brighter, yes?!
I left some of the cabinets exposed to show off some of my fun dishes and glassware.
I LOVE fun dishes!Color!Wrexy found this set with a pitcher for me – love them!
We got this refrigerator from my brother. It had been in storage and was pretty scratched up so I painted it with chalkboard paint. It’s a fantastic place to write scripture or reminders and it gives the kids something to do when I’m cooking.
Think on these things…
Wrex made this mason jar chandelier for me when we lived in Denver and there was no question that I was hanging it here, as well.
Isn’t this awesome?!?It’s one of my favorite things in the house…
Wrex also made these wire baskets that I placed above my cabinets, along with a few other fun, vintage finds…
He’s pretty handy…I also have a thing for flour sifters…Rusty goodness…
My other favorite thing in the kitchen are these giant letters.
Indeed…
They were from the old Ogallala Livestock sale barn sign and they let Wrex have them when they updated their signage.
We used an old pallet for a dish display…
Yes, more dishes…
an old tool box as a silver ware holder…
and a peg board as a electrical box hider/utensil hanger.
It’s handy!
Our kitchen table is butcher block style and is banged up and scarred and for this point in our lives – it’s perfect…
I love that everyone likes to gather here, I just really wish we had a dining room. We have a big family and we love to have everyone over and our small space makes that difficult. One day…one day…
Oh man – how cool is this!?I’m seeing this in the kids’ bathroom one day…I LOVE these fireworks lights!HeheheWho’s having a girl?? Let’s get that shower started!Make. Me. Cry.What a cool art/memory piece!Love the tractor table but I REALLY love that wallpaper!Gorgeous sink…I am now on the lookout for an old bike wheel…And a cuckoo clock I can spray paint – this is awesome!
Oh, mudroom – how I love thee! I desperately needed one at our old home and this place is no different. It’s amazing what gets swept up out there…thankfully, it doesn’t end up in the house.
This room wasn’t in horrible shape but did need a little TLC. The ceiling wasn’t finished and it definitely needed a coat of paint, but besides that we didn’t change too much. We had some boards to replace and some trim to put in, but we kept the floor in this room. Brown hides dirt, yes?!
Before:
After:
Fresh paint and our appliances…
Wrexy built me a table to fold and sort laundry on (which I love)…as well as the missing sock clothesline. We ended up putting galvanized metal on the ceiling to tie it in with other pieces of the house.
Functional – just what I need!I love my apple basket laundry hampers, even if they’re always full…
We made a clothespin chandelier and I absolutely love how it pops in this room!
Seriously adorbs, yes?!
I made this chalkboard/note holder at our previous home out of an old window from the farm. I love it so much it had to live here…as well as the cool caricature of Wrex and I.
The fun wall!
Wrex built a bench/cubby/coat rack – a necessity for us!
We have a few coats…
This room could’ve been in worse shape and us never have fixed it and I’d still love it just because it’s a place to kick off dirty shoes and undress and redress and house baby chicks and kittens and hairless dogs and keep all of those things out of the rest of the house! Our front door rarely gets used…and I’m totally ok with that.
Oh, friends…I think we’ve recovered for the most part. We’re still nursing sunburns and a few scabbed over blisters but other than that, we feel human again.
When we moved into our home three years ago there was no yard. The “front yard” was basically just packed down dirt, which we then used as a driveway for a few years.
See? No grass…
We had planned to lay sod the first year we were here but we got busy doing all sorts of other things outside like cutting down dead trees, building fence, removing old fence, etc. and it never got done. The next summer, a handsome newborn slowed us down but this past weekend we made it a priority!
We started by leveling a place for a sidewalk that would lead from the driveway to the front door, as there never was one. I wanted a cute, curvy sidewalk, but it was a little faster and easier to just make a straight one…and I’m all about fast and easy!
A long way to go…
Thankfully, the ground was soft thanks to the inch of rain we’d had during the week so it made the weeding and leveling a little easier.
Concrete going in!
Our neighbor and his grandad came and helped us float and level the sidewalk and we were so grateful that they did!
One section done!Drying…Ta-Da!
We were really pleased with how the sidewalk turned out…it just kinda makes you want to rip out all of the old concrete around the place and start over!
Next, it was time to level the yard area and it get it ready for sod. This took a while…a long while. We finally finished about 6:00 on Sunday evening and got to actually lay the sod. We’ve decided that laying sod is easy; prepping the ground for sod is not.
Cute helper with her shovel…Looking good!This man is a MACHINE!WOW!
It looks soooooo nice (sans the seams, of course) and was totally worth feeling like we did on Monday. 😉 Sawyer has already taken advantage of a few barefoot walks and some sprinkler play.
Cute!Greeeeeeeeen…
We got flowers planted and our other lovely neighbor came down and bladed our driveway! Seriously, the place is looking good…except for the rest of the acreage that needs mowed again since we were a little busy with this project…we’ll get there.
Bring on the summer…and all of the rest of the projects on our list!
We are smack dab in the middle of an outside re-do, so I’m gonna keep this short and sweet so I can help lay some sod. EEP! Pray I don’t get too much dirt under my nails before the baby shower I have to get to this afternoon. 😉
The stairs in our old farmhouse are steep. The last person that came to visit said, “I don’t think I’d call these stairs – I think I’d call them a ladder!” I wish I had a picture before I painted the hand rail and the wall, but I’m sure you can imagine that lovely purpleish color that’s been in the bathroom and kids’ room, yes?! The stairs in and of themselves weren’t horrible, just a little plain…and dangerous.
Before:
Not horrible, just nothing exciting…
The first thing we needed was a gate of sorts. With Sawyer’s room being upstairs, we did not want her falling down those steep stairs so we needed it be sturdier than a baby gate…and more aesthetically pleasing.
Wrex found a pallet that was narrower than normal and had slats that were really close together. We added hinges and a lock and the gate was born!
After:
Isn’t the awesome?!It lays flat against the wall when not in use…
We then decided to give the stairs a little pizazz using fabric and wall paper paste. Wrexy measured and cut all the rectangles and I “glued” them on to the stair faces. I absolutely love how they turned out!
Don’t you?!
I still hate those ugly black skid thingies, but alas, three years later and they’re still here. I’m kind of itching to redo the faces again with different fabric. We’ll see what I can get Wrexy talked into…after the sod gets laid.
As much as I love our bathroom, I love the kids’ room even more! It started out just as Sawyer’s room, obviously, but we decided we’d like for them to share a room for a while so we could all be upstairs together. (Our home has two bedrooms upstairs and two bedrooms downstairs.)
One of Wrex’s biggest desires for our home is peace…and the room sharing didn’t really result in a lot of peace. Wryder is a really light sleeper and no matter how much training we did or rules we had, it just wasn’t working out. He was waking up a lot, which would wake us up, which would then wake sister up and peace was hard to find. We separated them for the time being but hope to revisit the room sharing thing soon.
Before:
When we moved in, this room was probably in the worst shape. Between the paint job and the fact that the previous tenants put carpet upstairs by gluing it to the hardwoods, meant that we had some work to do.
View from just inside the door. See the glue tracks from the carpet?And, again, that paint job…Closet and it’s paint job. Are you seeing a theme?
After:
We put in wood flooring and painted everything pink, of course. The walls in this room are thin and strange and the ceiling had a lot of visible joints, so we added faux beams to break the room up a little and hide those seams.
***This room has changed a bit in the three years we’ve lived here, so some pictures are older, while some are newer, but you’ll get the idea.***
Ta-Da! Told you it was pink! This was when it was just Sawyer…
One of my favorite parts of the room is this little chalkboard. This door is the entrance to the upstairs crawl space and looked kinda silly just hanging out there, so I added some chalkboard paint and the paint cans as chalk holders. (This was prior to the last can being hung).
Isn’t it cute?!
We decided to take the closet doors off and leave it exposed and I really like how open it is and how it turned out. The dresser is one of my favorite things in the house. I painted two drawers and mod-podged maps on the remaining two – cute and easy!
Who doesn’t love maps?! And shoes, for that matter…
The rest of her room is just lots of pink and colorful things that we love and cherish.
Shelf with things she’s made or things people made for her…These books were two of my mom’s favorites when she was growing up which she then gifted to Sawyer…Artwork from her Aunt Dessa; an interpretation of one of her 3 month old baby pictures…Oh yes, bows are important to us.I love this sweet little rug…Glider and friends…how cute is that bear pillow I thrifted?!My mom’s baby blanket…another treasure.This little rocker was my mom’s, then mine, now Sawyer’s…I bought this baby quilt at an auction. I LOVE all the colorful, vintage fabrics!
The ceilings upstairs are really pitched so I knew I needed a really shallow light fixture. I had Wrex shape me one out of wire and then I took strips of scrap fabric and ribbon and started tying it on.
Love how this turned out!
Once Wryder moved in, we didn’t want the poor boy to have to live in a totally pink room, so I painted his half white!
It’s not pink!I made these from some thrifted frames, spray paint and some scrapbook paper.Love my little WD…His little nook…We used these old grain elevator cups as storage…How cool is that toy box?!These little guys were in Wrex’s nursery when we was a little guy – awwww!If you haven’t read the Little Blue Truck you NEED to!
There are soooooo many fun things in this room (to me) that it was hard to know where to stop and start for this post! Sawyer told me her favorite part of her room is her bed and Wryder, well, he replied in Cantonese and I’m not sure exactly what it meant.
When the Lord provided our little house on the prairie here on the eastern plains of Colorado, we were thrilled to have a place to call home…but home needed a little work. Mostly paint. It’s so…what’s the word…interesting?? the paint colors people choose and the previous renters had chosen some interesting ones for sure. Ahem.
We painted every space, put in new flooring in three rooms and spiffied up the others, built shelves and got creative and just had a grand ole, exhausting time!
Today, I thought I’d give you a little before and after tour of our bathroom. It was the smallest and easiest for me to throw together this morning. 🙂
Before:
This flooring was just stick on tile…See that nice paint job?!Yes, that’s duct tape…
As you can see, it needed a little work. We replaced the flooring, bath tub, sink and painted the walls. As weird as it may sound, it’s now one of my favorite rooms in the house!
After:
We’ll start at the bottom and work our way up. We chose a vinyl flooring that was water proof, not just water resistant. We kinda figured we might have a little splashing in here from time to time. This is my favorite flooring in our house, hands down.
New flooring…
We replaced the old sink with one with a much smaller vanity that takes up far less room and hung a new mirror.
New sink…
We painted the walls a pretty, Tiffany blue and the wainscoting a soft, creamy white. I found these super cute printables and framed them and Wrex made the mason jar storage.
Wash. Brush. Flush.
Our bathroom isn’t huge and there’s not a lot of storage so we’ve had to get creative. Wrex made these barnwood shelves for the short wall and I love this hanging system from Ikea; cheap, chic and functional!
We make it work…
We replaced the bathtub and then got to work on the shower walls…they are the best part of this room. I had seen one similar in a magazine one time and I fell in love. Thankfully, Wrex agreed to give it a try and we both love how it turned out. It was far cheaper (and easier) to install than tile and much more unique; it’s quite the conversation piece.
Galvanized metal…So shiny!Isn’t it neato?!Pretty, pretty…
We are so pleased with how it turned out! It’s been almost three years and the colors and shower walls still make me smile every time I see them. Let me know what you think about it! Log in later in the week and we’ll take a peak at another transformation we made…there were a few! 😉
It’s 6:45 on Friday morning and I’m sitting in bed, blogging and eating a banana. Apparently, the letter of the day is ‘B.’ I kid, I kid.
I mowed and burned tumbleweeds yesterday and my sinuses are paying for it today. Ugh. Wrexy left for work around 5:30 and I was up popping Advil, allergy medicine and Sudafed. At this point, I think I might survive the day.
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We’ve been working on our basement this week. Our house is 100 years old (no really, it is) and we have an outside storm cellar/crawl space that we’ve been wanting to get situated for a while now. You know that I’m hoping that the severe weather season is a mild one, but in case we do have to spend extended time down there, it would be nice to have a clean, clutter-free space. Wrexy framed in a room, installed a door, put up new lights, and we’ve been shop vac-ing 100 year old dirt for days. It’s gone a lot faster than I thought it would and we’re about done!
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Sawyer has recently taken a liking to “chip tacos,” also known as crunchy tacos. (She likes mexican food of about any kind, especially chips and salsa – girl after my own heart!!) We cooked some up for lunch yesterday and I made some pinto beans to go in/with them. I put her beans in the bottom of her taco and as she was eating her taco from the top down, she noticed them in there.
Sawyer: “Oh, look – beans!”
Stef: “Yeah…it’s like a little bean family in a canoe!”
She played/ate her little canoe (what was left of her taco shell for a while) and then I hear…
Sawyer: “There goes momma!”
I look up to see what she’s talking about…and it’s the beans! She grabs two more and says, “Come on, dad, let’s go together!” And another and says, “Wait for me guys!”
She was totally giving life to the bean family and it tickled me to no end! She’s a funny girl!
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While mowing yesterday, it was a little breezy. Every time I headed north, I found myself huddled down in my sweatshirt and when I turned south, I reveled in the soaking warmth of the sunshine. I found myself saying, “I just want to face the sun…” And boy, do I. I want to live a life facing the SON; I want to keep my eyes fixed on Him. I don’t want to be shaken or moved or distracted or pulled elsewhere…I don’t want the world to speak to my soul louder than Him. I want all Him, all the time…..
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Wryder is such a funny little guy. He really does bring us so much joy! He is into everything and it is so fun to watch his mind work and explore and figure things out.
The other day, he had it in his head that this cat was real.
Look at those eyes…
You could just see it in his eyes! He finally finished up lunch and I let him touch it and he was shocked…and a little pleased. We definitely have another animal lover on our hands.
Meow!
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He got several toy trucks for his birthday and he loves to play with them, of course. I found this construction vest at a garage sale this weekend and I think he looks adorable in it!
What a sweetie!
He had so much fun dumping legos…until about 12:45 and then he was ready for nap!
Please let me in!PLEASE!
Sawyer was, and is, a fantastic sleeper but Wryder takes the cake! Kid naps for 4-5 hours a day and sleeps 13 at night – woooooo hoooooo! (I know, I know…I should never complain about being tired…but I am…and I do…)
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Today is “fun Friday” but I really have no (firm) idea what we’re gonna do to make it “fun.” I suppose we better start with breakfast…I hear little bodies a stirring.
He was so cute and appreciative of all of our hard work. I went to take everything down last night and he asked me to leave them up one more day. So many reasons to love that man…
We sure love our {cow buying} daddy!
