A Farm Girl?

I'm not exactly one.  More like two weeks of crazy, inspired self sufficiency in which I start ripping out kitchen walls, crafting from someone else's garbage cast offs, and buying chicks by the double baker's dozen to the other two weeks of dragging myself around and having freak-out-I-want-to-shop-for-shoes-in-a-pretty-store days.  

All this and I want my coffee too.  Yeeesh.

*I should put links in to quickly direct you to those particular posts but THIS is one area of life where my organizational skills have completely tanked.  My apologies.  Most days this blog is a choice.  The other one?  Educating my children and actually being mentally and emotionally present more than just having my body in the room so I'm doing my best to choose to BE there.*

Anyhoo....This is a great blog.  They're doing a Farm Girl Friday Blog Fest.  *could NOT get the button to work so here's a boring ol' link.*

I found it through - shocker - an online friend from the homeschooling forum I'm part of.  I'm trying to remember the exact context of the connection - maybe using egg shells.  Or was it that freak out time I cracked an almost ready to hatch CHICK into our cake batter?  "Happy go back to Spain, Auntie Joy" cake.  Ummm....THAT was gross.   And cool.  And really gross.  And became the Science lesson for the day.  And GROSS.  Did I blog about that?  Hmmm...I'm not finding it.

For your viewing pleasure - or really gross/cool side.



This is how I prefer to have my fresh eggs.  You can't say we aren't learning as we go.  We're getting 10-14 eggs a day. 

  

FYI:  Anyone who buys eggs from me, rest easy as the rooster is dead and gone.  (Riley's school lesson was a long one that day.  Practical though.)  No more fertilization even possible.  Whew - that and we now candle every egg we find that didn't come in THAT VERY DAY.  With the flashlight app.  On the iphone.  In the dark bathroom. 

We maybe need to get out more.  Or just realize we're something in between a farm family and an urban one and enjoy the ride. 

Upcycling

I've seen a few projects I've wanted to tackle and due to life - spending $$ on them is not an option so I'm scrounging around and working with what we have. 

I saw feed bags a few months ago and then found a tutorial on them.  Ha....I have bunches of those from our chicken feed.  One day I had a few hours and wrangled the girls into helping me.  (cooerced and bribed more like - they weren't digging this work thing)  It was educational. 

Janelle helped me quite a bit when the instructions just. weren't. making. any. sense. to me.  Natalie Faith was the picture taker extroadinarie and Charlotte Joy just kept grabbing at stuff being right in the middle of it.  Riley took a couple of random pics but was mostly enjoying his time before FRESHMAN year started in full force. 

Usually sewing is something I avoid like the plauge until I have a strike of 'this looks simple enough'.  About a fourth of the way in I remember why I hate sewing.  My girls heard a lot of "FOR THE LOVE...." and "ARE YOU KIDDING ME???"  I'm sure this will train them up in the way they should go. 

Whatever.

Anyhow - here we go.  A project.  In pictures.


Wash bags after cutting them to about 22" with the 'picture' centered how you want it.  *I* wasn't that exacting.  Shocker. 


Dry in sunshine - we had SUNSHINE!!!


Then - start sewing. 

Get excited because you're actually 'crafting'.  Baby's excited too.


And keep sewing.

 
She keeps laughing.  At me?  Hmmmm......

Then - pull it out and say, "WHAT the heck???"


And continue to say "WHhhhhhaaaaatttt?"  At some point, Janelle helped me visualize what the tutorial was trying to explain.  Yeesh - was I confused.

It's beginning to resemble a bag.  Charlotte is helping also known as yanking on mom's hair because it's right there.



Handles were scrounged from old curtain tie backs I wasn't using but couldn't bear to throw away because they were RED.  :)


Oooohhh - (this is inside out by the way....)

TADA!!!!  The big bag. 

And the shortie one - this is what you get when you screw up the first time around and keep wacking off the messed up bottom but want. to. get. it. right. before. you. give. up. entirely.  :)  Handles are brought to you by old car seat straps that we'd had to cut when we were in that accident to prove we weren't going to use the car seat anymore.  Nice and strong, just shorter.  Perfect fit for the short bag.  It's like I'd planned that. 


End result.  :)

One is now the libary book bag and the other is 'all the stuff I have to cart to the car from the house in remembering to take back to people or places.  Very handy. 

Here's the actual tutorial if you want more specific instructions.  Let me know if you get confused.  I'll send Janelle your way to help you. 

Faith

PS:  Yes, they are blue.  I have yellow bags in which I will make up the REAL, going to do a great job on them, bags.  These were practice bags and have worked well for a start up project. 

Mud Room

I've always wanted one - a room specifically designated for all that 'enter the house' mess that comes with bodies entering. 

We don't have one - but a couple of weeks ago (yes, I'm behind) that is what my kitchen was.  I was taping and mudding.  Who knew how much fun that stuff is?  It's like making mud pies as a kid only with something you can actually use after the fact. 

Here's the blank canvas....so to speak. 













Ready. Set. Tape. 













These spots were slightly akward in that our celings are pretty high without those soffits in there and even with the step stool, I was having to be pretty careful and stretch to reach. 




















This picture I thought was funny. 

That would be my husband's shoe print.  On the ceiling.  He's uber talented, I tell ya.  You get fun surprises when you repurpose materials.  :) 

Playing in the mud....



Basically ready for paint.  This was about 3-4 coats of mud.  I can't remember how many days in.  OBVIOUSLY it's not gorgeous.  It was going to be behind cabinetry so I wasn't going for glamourous.  I *do* love that we chose to do a 'textured' look on the walls that you do see.  Imperfection at it's most perfect.  There WILL be a blog about that as soon as my thoughts become somewhat coherent on the subject.  Hasn't happened yet, though. 

It was one more step down the 'redone' kitchen yellow brick road.

Random bits: 

After waiting for that all to dry, I attacked it with paint one evening at about 10:30pm.  I don't recommend it.  Especially if you've been excited about breaking into that can of red paint you bought A YEAR AGO.  It may or may not come out looking like a giant Rasberry blew up on your wall and you will freak out slightly, apologize to your husband, and have nightmares. 

Yikers. 

It looks better now - 3 coats later and with a giant white cabinet in front of it- but wow...it was dicey there at first. 

Another sneak peek.  Here's the backsplash we're trying.  I love the look of it...just not sure if it's *too much*.  We both prefer simple and well...there's a lot going on there. 

I Hijacked My Husband's Saturday

One of many. 

This was two weeks ago.  As we were sitting there quietly enjoying our coffee in the sunroom on a Saturday morning, I said, 'Hmm....I bet it wouldn't take too long if we just....'.

Snort.

And we were off.....













Salmon colored cabinetry???  Guess what year. 

Amazingly, it seemed as though these wood cabinets were held on only by two screws and about 28 layers of paint.  Weird.

Cabinet out.  

"Do the soffit smash.....".

Yes, he's practically Atlas.  

No. More. Soffit.  WHOLE LOTTA MESS.  Dang.

SuperAlan - able to leap stoves and cabinetry in a single bound - and reach into long stretches of drywall to fish out the honkin' screws that were holding up the ginormous microwave. 



Here's a pic of the boys bonding over drywall installation.

And there went the whole weekend.   



A New Word

I'm slowly working my way through a book.  A Different Kind of Perfect  Writings by Parents on Raising a Child with Special Needs

Honestly, as I crave information regarding Down Syndrome on one level, the other end of the spectrum is running and screaming in the opposite direction with my fingers stuck in my ears and singing, 'lalalalalalalalalala' at the top of my lungs as off key as possible to keep the reality of it from paralyzing me.

So in trying to be more mature - I'm reading about it.  Some.  Warning:  this a really freakin' hard book to read.  I HAVE to be in the right frame of mind, state of heart, mode of coping to even pick it up.  It's good - but h.a.r.d. - and I'm learning I get slightly blindsided by the hard in the midst of gathering info and that ticks me off a bit. 

The other night I was reading before bed and came across a new-to-me section.  I read it.  Stopped.  Backed up and reread it.

Displacement.

"If you've ever kicked your desk after getting yelled at by your boss, or snapped at your husband because you accidentally burned dinner, then you've experienced displacement. 

One of the 'side effects' of anger, displacement occurs when we shift the focus of our anger from its original target onto an object or person less threatening or more convenient than the original source."

Erch. I started laughing.  Like crazy woman laughing as a lightbulb dawned on me.  I'm not kicking desks or snapping at my husband (too much, I hope) but.....Oh. My. Kitchen.

Well...at least my displacement is productive in the end.  *crossing fingers*

"We don't do Art class in our home school."

These words actually came out of my mouth in speaking to a teacher who is giving some Art classes during the summer.  I had signed Natalie up so she could get some real instruction on how Art is done. 

Later that afternoon, she and I worked on finishing a project we started, oh, when we were moving in LAST year - the downstairs floor. 

It's concrete.  We ripped out the carpet as it was nasty in color (blue) and condition (water damage).  We knew we didn't want to put carpet down as it's right off the laundry area and with a daylight basement...well, we felt like doing that would be begging for some kind of flood.  (We've already had a few so we were right!)  Enter concrete stain!  GREAT idea and fun...although when we moved in there was a list 5,987,564 items long, I was hugely pregnant, and Alan was leaving for a two week trip to China.  Needless to say, we did the essentials and not much more.  We almost finished the floor. 

There's a learning curve to every new skill and that one was interesting.  Texture, product, technique, quantity.  We figured out how we liked it then wound up running out of stain.  Life got busy, crazy, and complicated so we didn't get back to it.  Those undone bits have been driving her nuts (and me...but I'm able to ignore it better) so I made it a personal goal to FINISH that floor this month. 

Enter a couple of sick big kids, no one available to help me rip out the soffit in the kitchen, Charlotte taking a really long nap, and Natalie and I available to GET IT DONE. 




As we were working away, those words I'd allowed out of my mouth that morning came back to me and she and I laughed pretty hard.  We don't do Art class......snort.  Apparently we're too busy doing BIG, artistic projects, we don't do a 'class'.

One.....Step.....Closer.....

Last weekend we put together the last bit of phase #....something in the kitchen.  It's almost better than I imagined.  :) 

Shelves are going up!!

Here is the installer extrodinaire.  Side note:  you *must* have one of these in order to rip out cabinetry, actually get things put back together and have anything remotely inspiring to blog about. 

LOVE IT!!!!

The view from our garage entry door.  

See that little bit of mudding up there that is still wet?  Did you know that if there's a ton of humidity in the air, it will take days for that stuff to dry?  Well....I needed something to do this week anyway.  Paint is on the agenda.  

Honestly, this is coming together REALLY well.  I'm actually pleased that we're doing it in pieces, which is huge growth from my just-get-a-project-finished-so-we-don't-have-to-live-in-Limboland-anymore way of doing things in the past.  Not only is this helpful from a money standpoint, but we are dialing in what we want where based on how we LIVE in this space.  Novel concept, I know. 

Some things we're able to repurpose.  For example:  see that cabinet on the right of the stove????  It used to be between the sink and the refridgerator.  It was going to be a temorary patch until we implemented actual cabinetry but as we were putting this side of the kitchen together again, I realized that not having anything next to the stove may lead to a broken dish.  Natalie and I have both gone to set something there due to sheer habit.  As we almost dropped part of dinner, we were able to laugh and say, "Guess what I almost did?!"  So...enter previous temporary fix.  Alan and I love the way it looks and, amazingly enough, will fit perfectly with our planned high cabinet unless my measuring skills haven't improved any from the last experience. 

Certain other elements are just falling into place.  We're realizing that with our awesome-found-in-the-depths-of-the-shop-sink, we don't really need a side cabinet between the sink and the fridge, so at some point in the near future, we'll be moving the sink over a bit, realigning it plumbing wise, then that will open up another space on the left side of the sink for another LONG stretch of countertop.  HAPPY DANCIN'.  

Yet, as with everything lately, this is subject to change.  If it's not nailed down that is....





If You Give a Girl a Kitchen with BLUE Countertops....

she's going to want to have a remodel to go with it. 

Progress has been made.  Progress is a loose concept around here.

It's gonna be.....

Since a picture is worth a thousand words (which is why we think IKEA uses pictures instead of words in their directions...) here is a photographic telling of the story "The Cabinetry that Didn't Fit".  Enjoy.



"It was so straight forward on paper."



Yep...more blue countertop coming right out.



Out it comes.  It took more muscle than we thought.  30 layers of paint is better than glue.

What's behind door #1???

Hmmm.....

     

PLENTY of space now!!!


CHECKING to see that it would fit BEFORE we secured anything to the wall.  Smart.





Long and lean...:)




Heavy Metal




Ooooohhhh.......



Aaaaahhhhh.....

What the pictures don't tell you is that this took an entire day.  Just. This. Part.  My husband is amazing.

Someday soon (hopefully) the end pieces, other side, and floor will be done.  I'm not holding my breath though.  It may be a while.