Lifestyle

We took off for my business trip on Saturday morning. We did not get in a huge hurry to leave. By the time we dropped off a tractor at the neighbors, stopped and said goodbye to my mother in law, and dropped something off at my daughter’s, it was probably at least 10am. We had kind of hoped to leave more like 8 am. We plan, God laughs. We decided that we weren’t going to stress over it and take things as they came. I think everything was going pretty good. I forgot my toothbrush but remembered before I needed it, so I grabbed one at a gas station. No biggy. For supper, we decided to stop at a Pizza Hut. Gimme a deep pan, pork sausage any day! Well, the one we stopped at wasn’t the kind you eat at. You take it with you. So…I go in and order. They say 20 minutes. There was no public restroom in Pizza Hut, so we decided to go somewhere and come back. Hubby wanted to go to the gas station. I thought the Rite Aid across the street looked like a better option. Hubby didn’t want to walk all the way to the back of the store to find the restroom. I said the gas station looked sketchy. He was driving, so he won. And this is what I was greeted with inside…a homemade “restroom” sign and whatever that was for the handle on the toilet. It kind of looked like a coat hanger, but it was stronger and thicker than that. Almost like a hairpin leg. But I did not get up close and personal and look it over. S K E T C H Y! Don’t you agree? We got our pizza and got back on the road. We stopped somewhere in West Virginia for the night around 10pm. The motel was nothing to brag about either. Stains and cigarette burns on the comforter. But it was cheap, and we were done for the night. Nothing too exciting on the road until our trip back home. Again, we had planned loosely to leave around 8am. But we got started chatting with some of the peeps that were still there and saying our goodbyes and next thing ya know, it’s noon before we got on the road. Grabbed lunch and here we go again, heading for home. Things went fine until almost 6pm. We didn’t have an exact plan of when we wanted to stop for the night. I was beat so I could have stopped anytime and just slept for 24 hours straight. Around 6pm, we came to a halt on the interstate. We could see flashing lights up ahead but had no idea what was going on. Cops and highway department trucks were coming and going to whatever had happed up ahead, but we were stopped. I cannot imagine how far back the cars had to be lined up. At one point, hubby got out and talked to a semi driver and asked if ok if he relieved himself on the other side of his rig. He said I could too, but I decided to hold it a while longer. We sat there for two hours. Some of the cars ahead of us were starting to get turned around and head back the interstate, going the wrong way. Then a highway department guy stopped and told us we could turn around and go back the way we came and take a detour to go around an end up on the interstate again. He didn’t give us a lot of details, but he said that two prisoners were being transported. They were in shackles and handcuffs. Somehow one of the prisoners busted out a back window and hurled himself out of it while they were going down the interstate at 80mph. He escaped out of the vehicle only to be hit by another vehicle. I can’t find any reports on this. It seems kind of hush-hush. But it sure makes you think. I’m pretty sure he was convicted of murder and was being transported to where he would spend the rest of his life. Was he trying to commit suicide? He surely didn’t think he would survive hurling himself out onto the interstate? What did the other prisoner witness exactly? What if we had been a minute sooner? Would we have run over the prisoner on the interstate? So many unanswered questions. The news reports are very vague. One of those things we will never know the answers to. The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful. Thankfully. We drove a few more hours and checked in around 11pm and got a good night’s sleep. I did see some working phone booths that morning! I have only seen maybe a shell of one, or if it had a phone, none of it worked. I picked it up and listened for the dial tone. Sure enough, it worked! I didn’t know there were any still in existence! We made it back home by 7pm Sunday night. Exhausted and happy to be home and surrounded by our three fur babies. I think they missed us.

One question people ask me a lot… “Where do you find your furniture to repaint?” So I thought I would do a little post covering just that! When I first started, like not even started, really, I used to go to auctions. A brand new auction house popped up about 5 miles from my house! I was beyond thrilled!!! My husband, maybe not so much. I was buying furniture and things to repurpose before I even painted one piece of furniture. I was like a woman possessed. And in the beginning, things were sooooo cheap! I’m not sure if it was because the auction house was new, or the whole painting/repurposing thing had not fully taken hold yet. At any rate, at one of the auctions, I left with three truckloads of furniture for well under $100! I was hooked! $5 dressers and vanities! Oh, how I wish that were still the case! Anywho…that is where I started buying my furniture. Auctions. But it really didn’t take long, and I no longer needed to go to auctions. Which was disappointing, on the one hand, because I enjoyed going to them. But on the other hand, the prices weren’t as good anymore either. But I had built up quite a stash. Once people realized what I was doing with all the “junk,” a lot of them would Facebook me and send me pictures asking if I was interested in this or that. Some free, some cheap, some I paid too much for. I had to learn to say “no”. Fast forward to when I had my store. People came in all the time, wanting to sell me pieces. At first, it was kind of awesome because I didn’t have to go anywhere to get it, it was coming to me! But that didn’t last too long. I honestly didn’t need any more until I worked through more of what I had on hand, and the store kept me so busy I didn’t have much time to work on furniture. So “no” became a lot easier unless it was something I was needing. Currently, I have furniture in my garages, carport, a few things in hubby’s shed, a barn, a house, another garage, a bin, and a semi-trailer. Stop the madness! Honestly, I plan to go on a purging spree as soon as I can. I’m sure I’m over some of it by now, lol, it is ridiculous to have this many places to look for things. I’m actually planning to clean out the house and garage we rent very soon and hopefully work it into the storage areas here around home. Fingers crossed. I also love to look at thrift stores. Though I think their pricing has gotten crazy high. Goodwill, Salvation Army, etc. If you are keeping the piece for yourself, you can stomach the price, maybe. But if you are trying to make much profit, it just isn’t really there. Estate sales are another way to go. I haven’t really been to very many of these, but I know it’s another option. I haven’t had time to go in years, but you should be able to get better profit margins at garage sales. I would love to try to make it to some this coming season, but I really don’t need to. I have more than I need already! Some days I think that I have so much there’s no way I could get through it all in my lifetime! I think that about covers it! All the places I have gotten furniture over the last 10+ years of hunting! Good luck on your quest, and may the odds be ever in your favor!

Have you ever been looking at a piece of furniture and wondering if it was good enough to flip? I am going to tell you how I make that decision! And sometimes, it just depends on how much work/time you want to devote to the piece. In the beginning, I would buy just about any piece of crap as long as it was real wood! I don’t do that much anymore. Sometimes it is worth it to pay up a little and save yourself the headache. I try to stay away from particleboard. I have done a hutch or two that was made out of it, and it was fine. I honestly didn’t realize it was particleboard until after I got it home. If I have that much trouble figuring it out, then I’m not afraid to go with it. But when you can see the particleboard disintegrating and crumbling everywhere, keep walking! One thing I forgot to check for the longest time was all around the bottom of a piece. Sometimes the piece has been stored in a garage or basement and has been soaking up moisture from the bottom and sometimes the piece is still ok. But other times the legs are rotting. If you can cut the legs a little shorter and get rid of the rotten part, then go for it. If the rot goes too high up, you may still be able to salvage it, if it didn’t get to the mainframe. Can you remove the legs entirely? And add new legs? Or ball feet? Sometimes the moisture will warp the sides of the piece. Especially if it has veneer. In my experience, it is best to walk away if that is the case. I don’t know of a way to fix that other than taking that panel out and replacing it, and that is not in my job description! If the sides are ok, but the back is all warped, you can still be in the game. Just pop the back off and replace it. I usually use luan from the lumber yard for this. Just use the old piece to measure or trace onto the new material. And If it is the back to a hutch, I have covered those with fabric before with beautiful results! Sticky drawers…not a deal-breaker. This could be for different reasons. Is it in a damp area? If it sits on a heat duct or just in your house for a while, and gets to completely dry out, it may shrink back and fit fine again. It’s incredible how much humidity can wreak havoc on these pieces sometimes. And sometimes you have to sand down the area where it is sticking or shave a little bit off or rub some soap or wax on it to get them moving well again. If the top is shot, like busted up, warped, and beyond repair…all may not be lost. If you can pry off the top easily, that may be the answer. You can get pieces at places like Menards in sizes like 18”x48” that you could replace the bad top with. They come in several sizes. Or, you could put on a couple 1×12’’s, or whatever size you needed. Is the top completely stained with markers and gross to look at? Not a problem. Just use a good stain blocker like Dixie Belle’s Boss before you paint to keep the stains from bleeding back through. Those are all the scenarios off the top off my head! I’m sure there are more, but this gives you plenty to think about and look for!

Do you have any old vintage drawers just sitting out in your garage? Or barn? For example, the main frame of the dresser was not repairable, but the drawers were too good to throw away?  And now you don’t know what to do with them?  Let me show you some of the ways I have re-purposed them in my home and maybe you will be inspired!?  I sure hope so! This is one of my favorite ways to use one on your wall.  Yep, I said wall.  First of all I cleaned it up and sealed it and then I hung it on the wall!  Some old drawers that are built right have a lot of weight to them like this one. I used screws and went directly through the drawer into wall studs in several places, making sure that the screws would be hidden by pictures or knick knacks once filled.  I knew I wanted to use a clock and I had one that was the perfect size.  I tacked in a small nail and hung it where I wanted it. The rest was just all things from around my son’s room. I really need to get up to his room and rearrange it, but you get the idea of what I was going for here. The next old drawer was not very deep.  I did the same thing with this one.  Cleaned and sealed. This one hangs in my bathroom.  I bought oil rubbed bronze cup hooks and spaced them out evenly for hanging some of my necklaces from.  As you can see, some of my necklaces are a little long, but that doesn’t bother me. This third one I am showing you hangs in my office.  It is another huge one that I adore.   Cleaned and sealed and screwed right into the studs in an inconspicuous place.  Then I just put some of my home décor in it. This drawer I did during my “everything painted black and distressed” phase.  Just added a little shelf and turned it on its side.  I used black spray paint and sanded and sealed it and screwed into the studs.  As you can see, it’s not hard to hide the screws. I just about forgot this little one.  I made it several years ago.  Not exactly my style anymore, but it’s fine for now.  I mod podged some fabric into this one and added a flower.  It hangs in our bedroom and holds remotes most of the time. Lastly, I used at least one or two drawers in my pantry for organizing and keeping some things together. And I have a really tiny one on my desk with my prescriptions in it. As you can see there are so many, many uses for these old dresser drawers!!  I didn’t even scratch the surface! Here are a few more ideas from Pinterest to keep the creative juices goin!!!

My son’s bedroom needed a lift.  Like badly.  We added that room to the house years ago.  We tore out the flat roof and made a bedroom there.  Once done, it was actually our daughter’s bedroom until the 2 of them decided to switch.  Being the girl, she needed the room that had the bathroom attached! And her old room had the perfect area for my son to set up all his “farming operation”.  Win, win. In the beginning, the room was painted all with with just a simple border around the middle of the room with pink flowers (roses I think?) on it and a tan carpet.  It was pretty blah looking back.  But she also had a gorgeous comforter with those same flowers on it and it was adorable.  I’m pretty sure we still have that comforter in the closet actually.  And then my son moved into that room.  All we really did was put a farming border up at that time.  Fast forward and my son was 16 and the room was in desperate need of some updating!  Honestly, he really didn’t care.  It was way too much work and he would have rather left it alone.  But…momma had a vision… One night I was up in his room and a couple of his girl friends came up to see what I was doing and they ended up helping me tear off some of the border.  That gave me the jump start I needed to get going!  There was no stopping this from happening now! To separate the bedroom from the play area (because he was 16 now, after all) we put up old barn doors and actually mounted to an old track from one of our barns.  Love it!!!  It rolls so nice and hides the back area when needed.  My son and one of his friends actually named that part “The Man Cove”.  They put a recliner, love seat, and a TV in there.  Silly boys.  But they had a lot of fun.  The worst part about the barn doors is that when he opens or closes them, it sounds like thunder downstairs!  Oh well, they look awesome!!! On the opposite wall from the barn doors, we put up barn siding.  We got it from our neighbor.  The pieces were in pretty bad shape, though.  There weren’t enough good pieces to go all red or all gray so we alternated colors.  To hide the rough edges of the barn siding we put a shelf all along the tops of the boards.  For the ceiling, we used corrugated tin.  I have another spot in my house that I would like to do this with, whenever I can get Hubby talked into it! We went with a weathered gray wood laminate from Menards for the flooring.  Love it.  I would do it all over again. I painted his desk red.  It had actually been my husband’s grandpa’s desk.  It had a glass top so I slipped a bunch of pictures of Brendan under the glass.  Most were of him on the farm doing what he loves. The red side table next to his bed belonged to my grandma, so we were able to incorporate two family heirlooms into the room.  I absolutely adore mixing the antiques (especially when they have meaning) and the new together. For his dresser, I just painted the main frame red and kept the drawers wood.  I didn’t want to overdo the red.  So that’s the gist of it!  How this one room went from being nothing but a flat roof, to our daughters room, and then to our son’s room!  I’m sure I have pictures of when they built the walls up and formed the room, but I won’t bore you with those!

Okay, it’s been a few years since my kids graduated High School, but I stumbled across these pictures the other day and I think they are still relevant and may help you plan your student’s graduation party or at least inspire you in some way!  Even if your theme isn’t farming, I think there are enough ideas that you can make your own! First of all, you probably need to nail down the date and venue.  The venue was easy for us,  our machine shed. Next, I figured out what theme so that I would know how I wanted to decorate.  I really didn’t have to buy much since we farm.  I did rob a lot of pictures and décor from our house, though! For my daughter, we simply went with the school colors. For my son, we knew he was going to farm so we went with a farming/country theme.  I had so much fun doing it.  Making signs, making icing, making cupcakes, setting up photo area, ordering banner, basically making it special.  Lots of preparation went into this celebration! Let’s start with some of the things that can and need to be done ahead of time.  Printing pictures, ordering pictures and/or simply putting them in frames. I used framed pictures to set around most everywhere. We also had the large banner made up ahead of time from Walgreens online. Mints are also something that I did up ahead of time and froze.  The little cream cheese kind.  Always a huge hit.  Very tedious and messy but they are a family and friend favorite around here! I can’t remember now if I froze the cupcakes ahead or not.  In my opinion, freezing them ahead and thawing them completely before decorating adds moistness!  Whenever I get the chance to freeze cake ahead, I do it! We spent quite a bit of time clearing out our machine shed to get ready.  In addition to the tables we already had, we also borrowed some from our local seed company.  You could probably borrow them from your church or other local organization, too. So once we had the shed under control, I figured out where I wanted the food tables, drinks, cupcakes, cards, photo op area, etc. I did a little gallery wall above the food table. For all the random, candid photo’s, I strung jute on pallets and used small clothespins to hang them.  We made a small table out of straw bales and a barn door to put out Jenga pieces and asked people to write a memory on them and had a vintage tool box for them to put them in.  His graduation cap was displayed here with his senior pictures for guests to pick and choose from to take home with them. We also had a very small table, with pictures of a couple of our loved ones, who we wished could have been there with us. For the banner, we went totally redneck, lol.  We had it on the bale forks, clamped to a barn door.  It seemed fitting though! Another slightly redneck thing we did was for the beverages.  We filled a loader bucket with ice and filled it with pop and water.  Nothing is too fancy for us! For the picture area (which barely got used by the way), it was a mix of old doors, old window frames, metal cans, a little wagon, barbed wire, and straw.  For the food, we had bbq pork (we bought it so we only had to heat it up), baked beans, cheesy potatoes, chips, cupcakes, mints, nuts, and homemade ice cream. That was my son’s graduation party in a nutshell.  I’m sure I left some things out.  We did have his graduation gown hanging from a tractor mirror and his senior mug was on display somewhere, but that’s the gist of it! I so hope you found some inspiration in there somewhere! Here are some options for the Jenga blocks, jute, and clothespins! Supplies This list contains affiliate links, if you make a purchase I make a commission, your price stays the same. Jenga Pieces – https://amzn.to/38hOubm Mini Clothespins & Jute Twine – https://amzn.to/2OIiTHW

Heya!!!  Today I am wanting to share some of my absolute favorite Instagrammers!  Their pictures just grab me and pull me in!  They make me look at every detail and try to figure out how I can bring just a little bit of their “look” into my own home! They make me want to make over everything in my home except my office!  And that’s because I did it last year in this whole white, muted, neutral, chippy, woods, antique sorta way!  I think I was first in awe of this style a few years back.  Is it farmhouse?  Is it country? Is it country chic? French country? Shabby chic?  A mix of all of the above?  All I know is that I love it.  I used to be all about color.  I live in a “legit” farmhouse, lol.  Meaning my house is on a farm, and we actually do farm.  Legit, right?  I’m not sure why I felt the need to put that out there…  Anyway…we have remodeled our home, room by room, over the last 25 years.  In the beginning I painted walls and cabinets, and changed curtains, changed throw rugs, put down peel and stick flooring and basically anything and everything I could to make it homey. If I remember correctly, I believe our bathroom was a kind of sky blue when I moved in. With horrible plastic tiles falling off.  I also remember peach throw rugs in there at some point.  And a mint green.  And purple/lavender at one time.  It is currently mustard.  I still like it but I do see it becoming white within the next year sometime. I have a dark wine color in the laundry room currently.  It’s so small that I probably won’t do anything with it and no one really sees it.  Maybe after I get the rest of the house caught up. I have a turquoise wall upstairs that used to be my scrapbook room.  I’m thinking I will move most of my clothes up there sometime and call it my walk-in closet or dressing room.  Unless I can purge enough clothes to keep them all downstairs.  The jury is still out on that one. My kitchen.  Well.  The cabinets were a dark walnut stain when I moved in.  One of the previous renters had painstakingly stripped the doors and stained them at some point.  But they were so dark.  I wanted to brighten things up.  So I painted them. PINK.  Yep, you read that right.  This was the early 90’s and pink/mauve and country blue were VERY in.  And to top that off, I’m pretty sure I used some lovely country blue contact paper as my backsplash.  Good Lord why am I telling you all this?  Our home has went through many, many, MANY changes over the years.  Some of them quite hideous.  And yes, there was even sponge painting involved.  I even did it on my daughters dresser set once.  Base color was yellow, with pink and lavender sponge painting on top of it.  Hid-e-ous.  Well now, anyway.  We were all in love with it back then. I guess I tell you all of this because the look I am into now is so far from my colorful past! I am on my way to neutralizing the majority of my house as soon as time allows.  I have been stock piling some small antiques. Wood boxes, corbels, etc.  But I have to paint the walls first.  I can paint furniture all day long but I absolutely detest painting walls.  Just in case you can’t envision the look I am going for, here are my current favorite instagrammers who are already decorated the way I want my house to be when it grows up!  It will probably be out of style by the time I get it done, but a girl can dream! In no particular order: thelittlewhitefarmhouse – https://www.instagram.com/thelittlewhitefarmhouse/ For this photo, what grabs me the most is probably the locker cabinet! I have wanted to do this in my house since i saw this photo a year or two ago! I even have a locker cabinet, but i just can’t make it work. My husband’s desk is going in that spot in my house. I’ll have to use the lockers somewhere else 🙁 burlapandrust – https://www.instagram.com/burlapandrust/ For this photo from Burlap and Rust, i absolutely adore the big black sign with the white lettering! Annnnd the little boxes on the wall! I’m not sure what the sign stands for in this picture, but for me I could use the 4 (because there are 4 peeps in my immediate family), and put an H at the top, and Huls & Co in the middle! I may just make a sign like this on a live one of these days! rachel_thepondsfarmhouse – https://www.instagram.com/rachel_thepondsfarmhouse/ The ponds farmhouse…I love this big wide open space. The crisp white against the black stair railing. The wood door and wood hutch next to the white walls. jandcfarmfinds – https://www.instagram.com/jandcfarmfinds/ J & C farm finds. I love the black. The black pumpkin. The black lamp without a shade, showcasing its black wire frame. The bathroom sign. I would really love to see the other side of the room also. Looks like i see some tin on the ceiling and some pallet wood on the wall? farmhousefor8 – https://www.instagram.com/farmhousefor8/ Farmhouse for 8 has me looking for campfire marshmallow tins every time i hit an antique store! And the sleigh as a coffee table is an awesome touch for winter, with the little Christmas tree and vintage thermos! thefoundcottage – https://www.instagram.com/thefoundcottage/ The found cottage. Do you see that massive hutch in the background? LOVE it. And the coffee table is pretty cool, too! thecottonshed – https://www.instagram.com/thecottonshed/ The cotton shed. An old trunk. Some vintage boxes. Gorgeous old window. And i am always a sucker for an antique fan! patina_pine – https://www.instagram.com/patina_pine/ Patine pine. Love the white hutch and how it’s decorated with the greenery cascading down one side. And the lovely leather chair with it. velveteenandgracega – https://www.instagram.com/velveteenandgracega/ Velveteen and grace. I love the simplicity of the desk and all the antique goodness used to stage it. I need to see if i have any crocks that small laying around, now that i think about it 🙂 houseonwinchester – https://www.instagram.com/houseonwinchester/ House on Winchester. This one stopped me dead in my tracks the first time i saw it. The chandies. The shutters used as a headboard. The big print on the wall. The rug tying it all together. Just gorgeous. athomewithjessidee – https://www.instagram.com/athomewithjessidee/ At home with Jessi Dee. I’ve more recently happily stumbled onto this one. I love the white chippiness of the table paired with all the vintage wood molds. And the other wood goodies and the dark bowls on the bottom shelf. Such a cute vignetter. bigfamilylittlefarmhouse – https://www.instagram.com/athomewithjessidee/ Big family little farmhouse. The lockers grab me immediately. I may be slightly obsessed with locker cabinets at this point. I also love the way they have it styled. And the home pillow in the wire basket is cool, too! nuckingfutsjen – https://www.instagram.com/nuckingfutsjen/ Nuckingfutsjen. Her name alone makes me smile! But getting past that…i love the door hanging on the wall! The chest for the coffee table. The big print on the wall with the black background and white lettering. Aren’t they beautiful? I hope you see the gorgeousness in these like I do!  Is this your style, too?  Feel free to follow any and all of them!  They have no idea that I am writing this post, but their Instagram posts just give me all the feels and I just want to share with you the ones that make me drool!! And if you aren’t already following them, you should be!  Aren’t they amazeballs????