Am I the only one?

It's Friday the 13th today.
I'm planning on having a fabulous day.

Dust and diamonds

Lots, and I mean LOTS, of dust.
Kids, dirt and shovels ... at least last week it was.
This week is suppose to be rain. Let's see if we have mud.

Moments of diamonds in the rough?
Lots, and I mean LOTS, of them.

Getting me ice cream

Do you try clothes on over the clothes you're wearing?
Or do you head to the fitting room?

We did it this way. Anna got a comfy shirt and I left the one I'm wearing in the store.

I have a problem with finding clothing I like. If I wasn't such a spend thrift .. it might not be a big problem. I wear black. I wear gray. I wear jeans. I have a closet full of dress clothes, but not much in the middle. I want these pants! They look so comfy and cheap!

And ... I would need to eat lots of ice cream to make them fit.

So much for that.

I'm heading to North Dakota for Easter.
They have a thrift store that treats me well every time.
Wish me luck.

Just a swingin’

Last summer sometime, when it was croaking hot, we worked on this porch swing. I had purchased one off some online thing and it probably sat in the backyard for several years. Hubby even moved it to the new house for me. Then he told me that the wood was too shot to even hang up the swing. Well, shucks! He figured it should be able to hold the weight of several generations in one sitting. I think it does now! 

The arms were redone and the body of the swing is made of 2x4's. Seriously sturdy! We hung it out on the back patio and I never got around to finishing it up until last week.

White porch and floor paint from Sherwin Williams is my go to paint for almost anything now. Very hard drying paint for furniture and seems to last very well. The challenge is that the swing also gets rained on when weather happens here. Admittedly, that doesn't happen too often, but it does!

While laundry was spinning, or something equivalent was happening, last week, I added a bit of paint to the ends of each piece of wood. We prepainted before putting the swing together. And then it sat. Why does that happen?!

Anyway, added a wee bit of paint. Sanded some more to make all of it look a bit older than it actually is. Then came several coats of sealer. Now it should be weather proof and easily cleaned.

I know. I have a little white paint on the black metal. I did use some serious tape when I painted and it still got away from me. It will wear off over time and if it doesn't ... I really don't care.

We can still sit and swing our cares away.
Swing our babies to sleep.
Swing just because we all should spend some time on a swing.

Happy Weekend!

Little loves

Here they are!
My precious grandcharmers.

Anna rolled into town last Saturday evening after trekking across the country. We thought she was driving alone with her kids and had no clue that she had extras on her ride. Bridget had hopped in with her three littles as well!!

We have had some times of kids not getting along so well. Is it the ages of these kiddos that make togetherness a treat right now? I don't know what it is, but I love it! Sunday they were all here and it was laughter ringing everywhere. Thankfully, I have a yard that is a great place for them to play. There are 7 boys in that group and 5 are old enough to appreciate a shovel mixed with dirt.

Paisley wasn't feeling so well and was not cooperating with the attempt to get a picture of all of them.
And, of course, I didn't notice all the shadows until we were past done with the business.
God bless photographers who can make a tribe like this sit still for a minute.

Yogurt ... oh yeah, I got this!

Landscape rock, transformers and cars. 

Is there really a need for anything else in life?

I don't think you can understand the depth of my appreciation for this home of ours.

This is what I want. This is what I need.
Okay, sometimes I really just might need complete silence and other times it might just be a nap.
Other than that, what I really want is the ability for my grandchildren to play here. To be children here. To explore. To create. To live as children ought to live. Creatively and at one with the earth God gave us to use.

These three heads are the firstborns of three of our children. I share the firstborn thing with them. I wonder if they will all be alpha children. Each of them has siblings. Each of them walks by a littler one having a momentary problem/challenge and soothes. Each one will have, or already has,  frustrations galore when their projects are interrupted. Each one is going to be an example for the younger ones. They just don't know it yet.

For now, their job is to play.

Imagine how fast 20 years flies by in life.
20 years from now I'm going to sit them down in the dirt and retake this picture.

Whew!!

Just in case this is difficult to read ... it says:

empty spaces. fresh palettes.
ready for inspiration and creativity mixed in with
a little pinterest
and a whole lot of elbow grease.

come see me in april!

This is our third bedroom that I have nicknamed the Dungeon because it was so dark.
You have to know me just a little bit.
I would live in a place where no windows were covered, the doors wide open and sunlight streamed in everywhere.
I really wouldn't care if I ate dinner with the sun shining in my eyes.
So .. dark spaces aren't my thing.

This room has lost its angled/sloping ceiling which I really didn't mind but hubby did.
We added a window to make it a legal bedroom (at least I thought it needed one) as the existing window now faces an enclosed carport.
That window will never see direct sunlight but it will get light!
Can you just see plants of some kind hanging in front of that window? Or maybe a desk that goes all the way from wall to wall?
Seriously. Call it giddy.

I moved boxes of fabric to the garage. There is stuff stowed everywhere else around here for the moment because the room is filled with loved ones for the next 3 weeks!

The ceiling will get scraped clean of popcorn at some point when we are ready to attack it again and the last ceiling fan to be replaced has been sitting in the garage for months. When there's a deal ... you snap it up.

And I get to play in there! I have all kinds of ideas pinned on Pinterest and they are all rather budget conscious ones. A long desk made of pallet wood for example. Getting hubby to bring home pallets from work might be another problem but I'll accomplish it somehow. Then there is the dust collecting black Ikea furniture. I am so over dust! Do I replace it with something else that costs another half an arm or leg? Or ... do I chalk paint it white? Or .... this is how it goes folks. Lots of those thinking and dreaming moments.

Can't wait to get started and share with you!

That white cabinet thing? A queen size murphy bed that has storage on the bottom for most of the bedding and pillows. Serious lifesaver!