the chronic fluffer

do you girls ever get yourself into a bigger project than you bargained for? 

yesterday, i had the goal of rearranging a few things around here, simplifying a bit, i guess. 

fluffing, if you will.

i always start with such great aspirations, but when the project rolls into the afternoon and your family is starving for lunch at 2:00pm, it's time to take a break.  (note: i don't like stopping in the middle of things)

so that's what we're doing here.  taking a break.  don't we look so happy?  :)

yah.  i had an off day, and i forget a lot that the spirit in my home depends mostly on my attitude.  yikes!

i can only dust, vacuum, rearrange, repeat for so many hours.

don't get me wrong, i love doing it, but sometimes what should be a blessing turns into sort of a burden.

like all of these 'extras' that i've been collecting for years are SO fun, but they overwhelm me, too.

i'm really trying to simplify and sell a lot.

i've toyed with the idea of an etsy shop, but i'm not sure i could handle that at this point.

why don't you all come over and go through my treasures?  i'd LOVE to share with you. :)

as you can see, nathan had the day off yesterday, and instead of being able to relax, he had a list a mile long to do.

we woke up super late and me, sort of on the wrong side of the bed.

i get these ideas in my head of what i want the day to look like, and when it doesn't happen, i get cranky.

and sometimes, it overtakes my attitude for the whole day and i am just one big selfish hot mess.

we made it through though, and my amazing husband 'almost' finished the ramp to the chicken coop{they're coming thursday!).

he used the old boards from our falling down deck to save money, but as many of you know, 

repurposing boards takes a lot more work than buying new.

you gotta do what you gotta do. 

while he was outside slaving away, the girls were picking wild blackberries and sharing them with me.  :)

they were sooo yummy.  :)

i started my fluffing in the kitchen because my countertops end up being the collection spot for mail, junk, food, etc.

i'm sure that happens to you, too.

the lighting in my home is pretty bad, so pardon the dark pics. 

just envision them crystal clear, mkay?

this is by my back door.

as you can tell, i love ironstone, old flour and feed sacks and worn wood. 

utilitarian pieces are my fave, too.

i love the patina(honey, that's for you) of old wooden spoons and well used kitchen accessories.

yellow, crackly ironstone is my fave.

can you find what doesn't belong in this picture?
remember that song?
"one of these things is not like the other?"  lalala
yes, the beaming orange countertops.
i'm pretty sure that God gave me these for a reason and is teaching me some major patience with them.
i am pretty OCD and i like things a certain way.
like a pretty-in-my-mind sorta way.
although i get compliments on them all the time, butcher block or soapstone, even cement, is calling my name.
however, they are clean and in very good shape, so i am thankful for that.
they have really grown on me, but i still fight against them a lot.  :)

moving on to my entry way.
i just added a few summery things to make it fresh and happy.
they look a little different even now, because as the day went on, i kept adding and subtracting.
OCD.  don't ever wish for it, peeps.

well hello kitcat!

wouldn't you agree i need this or this to hang above my toilet?  ;)  so cute!

 and this is in my dining room that also serves as our school room.

and that's a little tour of my escapades from yesterday.
do you like to fluff your home, too?
i should mention that i am so truly thankful for all that God has blessed me with.
i not only have a wonderful home and family, but He has allowed me to enjoy pretty things, too.
i know that they aren't truly important, but just an added bonus and blessing.

i'm checking the bad attitudes at the door and claiming(and giving) grace today.
because boy, do i need it!
have a lovely day, sweet ones.

xo,
mary

i'm joining alicia's party today!

love that girl!

sweet summatime

hello, girlies.

today i'm here with a little summer fun!

i wish i could say that i was being fun today, but my attitude needs a little adjusting, 

so we'll just talk about the fun things that we want to do!

we got a little headstart on some things(SHOCKING!), but that's okay... it just leaves more time for more fun!

here is a list of things that we have already done,  and hope to maybe keep doing...

and here is a list of things that we want to do...

what are your plans for the summer?
i really don't want to be too structured around here, but at the same time, mama needs her sanity!
like today, for instance...ahem...but we shall not go there.
this list is supposed to be happy!  :)
hopefully we will find that balance between lazy summer days and
some type of schedule and organization.

i'm takin' my list over alicia's to see what everyone else is going to be doing.
come on over!

happy summer!

xo,
mary


p.s.  dear super smart mamas...how do you really spell garage saling anyway?
saling???
saleing???
either way i was too lazy to figure it out...it IS summer after all. :)

happy day project:::setting goals for the summer

this is what my fingernails have looked like a lot lately.
i'm not one who likes to get dirty, but when the job calls for it, i neatly dig in.  :)
we have been spending an incredibly large amount of time outside lately, busily working on our landscaping and gardens, as money and time allow.

***school is still in session over here and seems to be lingering on like the nasty black bean smell in my fridge(no joke), but ya gotta make hay while the sun shines, right?***

God has been so good to bless us with the desires of our heart.
one of those desires was/is to tidy up the outside of our home.
and as i'm sure you know, it's not cheap!
we live on a dead end road with only one person past us, but we want to be good stewards of what He has given us, and be a good testimony to out friends and neighbors.
we also want to use the land that we have to raise our own food, and live off of that for the summer.
in a few days, we have SIXTY chicks coming.
Lord help us!

i'm joining alicia today  for her summer goals/list happy day project.
the challenge this week was to make a list of your summer goals.
here are a few of mine.  or most of them!

1.  keep working on my landscaping/rock edging and keep up with weeds

this is the front of our 70's ranch that i have been working really hard on.
i  love beautiful cottage like gardens with simple flowers that pretty much take care of themselves.
my plan is to plant a few more things over here, and then let them do their thing.
i have spent hours collecting rocks and making this border with them.
first i dug out the edging, lined it with cardboard, put each rock in snugly, and then filled it back with dirt on one side, and mulch over the top of landscaping felt on the other.
i do not want weeds to come up here!  :)

2.  plant herbs in herb garden and use them!

we recently embarked on the journey to making a raised bed garden in our front yard.
or, a potager, as i like to call it.  (nathan rolls eyes)
actually, this whole project can all be accredited to my husband.
he is the master planner carry out-er.  :)
we grabbed supplies, hauled them home, and i'll let the pictures say the rest.
this leads to me to my next goal.

3.  plant, maintain, and USE fresh garden goodness and continue to make the 'potager' pretty

i would like to add a focal point to the center of this area, add pea gravel eventually, and make it a beautiful work of art in our front yard.

my goal really should be, "work on patience", because it definitely will not happen overnight. 

4.  keep up with my supplements and experimenting with protein shakes

i am a die hard supplement girl so this one will be easy for me, but eventually  i would like to share some of the recipes for shakes that i use and love.

this chocolate peanut butter protein shake was a hit with my whole family.

i really want to devote a whole post to our faves.

please remind me to do that!

5.  continue running with my man

goal: 12 miles a week

6.  eat 90% raw food

no sugar

pray  hard

i want you to know that eating raw is totally do-able, but it doesn't have to happen overnight. 

i started about three months ago,  and have slowly collected recipes and ideas.

i don't do it to say that i'm a raw foodist or vegan, but it really is so true that i feel more alive when i eat live food.  great concept, huh?  :)

i avoid dairy, meat, sugar, gluten and really try to stick to raw fruits and vegetables only.

my exceptions are organic corn chips and sprouted bread.

oh!  and we ate out at a mexican restaurant last night and i ate EVERYTHING that i shouldn't have, so i am a normal person.  :)

people come before food, so if we are eating at someone else's house, i eat what they serve because it's not that important and i don't have health issues that require this type of eating.

i hope to share some of the recipes below with you, too...let me know if you're interested in any of them!

and let me tell you...i am a recovering sugar addict(like from last thanksgiving until february, i think that's all i ate. :/   hello detox!).

like i really, really like chocolate and sugar, but it became a problem, so it's just better if i stay away from it. then i don't crave it.

did you know that your taste buds are new every 7-10 days, so they are easy to retrain?

so far, i have made a raw chocolate tart, halvah, and i eat a lot of fruit to curb my sweet cravings.

carob candies sweetened with barley malt make a good substitute for sugary candies, too.  :)

most importantly, i want to take good care of this temple that God has given me and that He dwells in.

i don't think i honor Him when i treat it poorly by gorging myself with junk.

eat to live, don't live to eat.

7.  cover up outside and wear sunscreen

i don't wear this hat to be cute, that's for sure!
i have super sensitive, fair, freckled skin, and i've been burned too many times VERY badly.

hat: check!  sunscreen: check(gotta order it)!   long shirt to cover my backside:  check!
this one might be hard for me.  i'm trying hard, sweet husband of mine!

i'm seriously going to need a lot of prayer to keep this up, but i know i can do it!
you know why?

 ^"I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."

Phiippians 4:13

what are your goals for the summer?
you know, one thing i forgot to mention is meal planning and getting a  good GINORMOUS calendar.
i'm not a great list maker, but i need to become one.
grown ups shouldn't miss dental appointments and always be late.
i also cannot afford to run to the store every other day for food.  that gets crazy expensive!
someone wanna help me meal plan?
starting is half the battle for me...drifting off into unknown territory is scary.
like when did this happen?
i used to be so good!!!  :)

i hope you have a great rest of the week, darlings!
i'm off to do laundry and plant those heirloom tomatoes.
so exciting!

xo,
mary

craftaholics anonymous:::how i pinned it and did it:::silhouette necklace

or...this post could easily be called, "the day i cried over spilled milk a necklace."

but first things first.
good morning, lovelies!
how was your memorial day weekend?
our was.....well, a little sketchy at first.
let's just say that even though i'm a grown-up, i act like a child sometimes when i don't get my way, and things are less than fun around here. :/  boo to me.
thankfully, i have an amazing husband, who loves the Lord, and God intervened and rescued the day.
yay!
i woke up to...

army men on the kitchen floor:::beautiful skies:::i dug out my flags for decor:::and we went for a run at the track as a family

{also in there was a grad party and a cookout at my besties, but i kept my camera phone away for fear of being called a 'paparazzi'.  AHEM...sophie!  :D  love you, girl!}

now onto the REAL reason that i have you all here today.


i'm not even going to ask for a raise of hands and ask who likes to craft.
i'm pretty sure that all of you have an inner love and desire to create.
to make something beautiful.
to have the satisfaction of a job well done.
for a project to turn out.
i happen to love to craft and create, but hadn't really done a whole lot of it for the past few years because of
general busyness and raising my kiddos.
i tend to get off in my own little world when i create, and with four kiddos always being hungry or needing something, i just set aside my craftiness for a while.
well, it turns out that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, and my girlies love to craft like their mama.
with pinterest at your fingertips and beautiful things swirling around the whole DIY world, what's us girls to do?
MAKE SOMETHING!
or several somethings.
honestly, my girls are a huge drive to our creations.
they have the fair coming up, and they also sell their seasonal creations at a local shop in a nearby town.

anywho, this leads me to this pin that had my heart all a flutter.
i mean, like, i really, really loved this necklace, but seeing as it would cost over $200 for my four kiddos, it was out.of.the.question.
i started perusing the internet for options and found this tutorial.
thus began my adventure in silhouette making.
and my love hate relationship with ICE RESIN.

how i made a silhouette necklace

first, i took pictures with my camera phone of my children's profiles in front of a sunny window.

then, i edited them in picmonkey{HELLO! new collages!}.
i simply adjusted the contrast and exposure to make them as dark as i could without losing detail.
then i pasted them all in a word document and made them all the same size.  i am old school here, folks.
i printed them off and then glued the images to a piece of black construction paper and cut them out carefully.
VOILA!
i had my template. 
all i had to do what to shrink them down to the pendant size.

once i had them printed the correct size{see left  pic above}, i used the template from the bezels that i bought from hobby lobby to cut them the correct shape of the bezel{pendant}.
this gets tricky because you need to cut your picture as neatly as possible smaller than the actual size of the bezel, BECAUSE, the picture has to be taped with clear tape and sealed so that the resin doesn't sink into the paper.  i realized at this point that i cut like a kindergartener.  not for the faint of heart, i tell ya.
the nester does a much better job at this tutorial, so go there and watch the video she has posted, too.

fyi.
the above ad is a lie.  they claim you can 'make one ounce of resin withOUT measuring, just push and stir???'
i beg to differ, peeps, but maybe i'm just plain 'ol crazy.
moving on...

if you are wondering why the one pendant of my eldest looks different, it's because while i was at michaels, i spotted this, and really liked it.
it sure made it easier to do elly's.  no gluing, or resining, and i like the 'collected' non-matchy look of the pendants all together.

so while the above picture looks grand, after i poured the resin and painstakingly waited the three days for it to dry.
it didn't.  they were a sticky, non hardened mess.
:/
not sure what happened there, but it must have been the fact that the resin doesn't always come out in equal parts{hence my accusation above}.
OR...maybe i didn't stir it enough, although i followed the instructions perfectly.
needless to say, i cried.
like a big 'ol baby, i was so disappointed that they didn't turn out, so i put them away and vowed to never even look in the direction of the resin again.

but first,  i gouged them out like a real grown up would do.

on memorial day, nathan offered to help give the resin a go one.more.time.
i hesitantly agreed, and re-cut all the pictures, taped them all back up, and lovingly eased them into their bezels...again.
he carefully mixed the remaining resin and poured it into the bezels.
i was covering my eyes and praying the whole time.  :)

after we he poured, he poked out any air bubbles and covered them with a glass bowl so nothing would settle in the wet resin{live and learn}.
six hours later, they had begun to harden.
and today, the third day{needed for curing}, they are beauuuutiful and they look even better than the first ones that i did.

and THAT is how i we made a silhouette necklace.  and cried about it.

if you want to make one of these, but you are too scared to try the resin, you can also purchase these.
the glass cabochons fit the bezels perfectly, and look very nice.
the glass magnifies the image a little and all you need is the bezel, the cabochon, and glue! :)

the end.

oh!  and because i had the silhouettes on hand, i framed them{home goods...GO!} for my bedroom that is in the process of being 'freshened up'. 
i am SO happy to have these done.
it is so very special to me to have my children captured like this at this very moment of our lives.

i'm linking up with alicia, and her happy day project of pinned it and did it.
we didn't know it at first, but we were both doing this at the same time.  #GreatMindsThinkAlike
she made a simply amazing necklace, and hers turned out on the first try.  #Jealous
blessings to you all!
i'm on laundry lock down for the rest of the day.

:::this verse blessed me last night at church:::

"My goodness, and my fortress; my high tower, and my deliverer; my shield, and [he] in whom I trust; who subdueth my people under me."

Psalm 144:2

xo,
mary

a mini break and more happy

i'm not gonna lie, girlfriends.

running uphill against the wind was challenging this morning.

the thermometer read a brisk 37 degrees, so i surely didn't repeat my mistake from the other day.

hello, sweatpants and sweatshirt!
if only i could clothe our perennials who are hanging on by the skin of their little teeth to survive this cold front.

my husband wasn't able to go with me this morning, so it was a little boring until i got to this...

it seems quite fitting that the town we live in is named hillsboro.

can you just imagine the Artist as He stretched forth His mighty hand, 

and painted this beautiful canvas for us to live in and enjoy?

breathtaking.

so yesterday the kids and i took a mini break and decided to skip school.

everyone else is doing it, right?

that's actually one of the things i love about home school.

you can take those little breaks, and just make up for them later.

since we aren't taking an official 'spring break', we decided to head for the hills and enjoy the beautiful day.

henry was blessing me with flowers. :)

we headed to the co-op in the town where my man works and enjoyed some yummy food.

i indulged in white bean, potato and kale soup, a hummus wrap, and some tea.  it was delicious!

they took a sun dried tomato wrap and loaded with hummus, cukes, carrots, red pepper, kalamata olives, feta cheese and spinach.

you should make it!

i definitely plan on it. :)

we also went to good will and hunted around for a while.

i sort of wanted to buy this plaque because of the message, but i wasn't in love, so it stayed.

i do love me some good will, but it seems like the prices just aren't as good as they used to be.

maybe i'm a serious cheapskate, but $4.00 for a used shirt is high to me. 

i'm all about the $2.00 bag sales at our local thrift, though.

now THAT'S a deal!  :)

do you remember last week, when i posted about our easter garden?

my friend, alicia, has a little happy project series going, and the first challenge was to visit a nursery and buy a plant.

the next week's challenge was to drop it, and do it!

we were supposed to drop something that we were doing and do something for someone else.

this is really hard for me, i have to admit.  the dropping it part, that is.

i don't like leaving messes, or having my schedule interrupted.

i know that sounds terrible, but i'm working on it!

God wants me to be available for Him at any given moment, so this was good for me to reflect upon all week.

when i saw this recipe that carissa had pinned, i knew i wanted to try it.

the girls and i got busy making a double batch and we baked one of the batches that day for supper dessert,

reserving the other for another time.

the next day, we were headed out to hunt for a rock for our garden, and i thought about this giving plate that someone had given me several weeks ago, that had been sitting on my stove, waiting to bless someone else with it's message.  then i thought it might be nice to bake up that extra batch of dough, and pass the plate along to a friend up the road who is such a sweetie.  {that was the whole point of the plate anyway, to refill it with goodies and pass it on.}  i was just waaay behind in the process!  so, while the kids were waiting for me outside, i baked up the batch of cookies and we deviated from the plan {a little} to bless my friend that day. 

i want this whole, drop it and do it philosophy to stick, so i'm going to keep practicing, 

because i need it. :)

it truly is more blessed to give than to receive.

don't you agree?  :)

have a wonderful, happy day!

xo,

mary

linking up with alicia