Adding Character with Transom Windows

I thought I'd share the latest lil project @ "the farm"

This is the doorway to the pantry area. We call this area in the house the "drop off" as all of our messages, notes, keys, wallets, and purses are left in that area. Notice my new 'schoolhouse light hanging in there as well?! I absolutely LOVE schoolhouse lights right now!!!! This is before the transom window and mouldings went up.



Here it is in progress.

Isn't it sooo pretty?! I love how it adds character and charm and creates the 'older' home feel I'm looking for. It's still in need of some paint, but it's looking great!





The Stairs-Continued

Here are the after pics

The Stairs

One of the first major renovation projects dad has done in the new house...

Say Hi Meggie!

 It was our plain old halfwall staircase that we knew.... okay... I KNEW... dad had to get to work on immediately.

It cost a pretty penny but was very well worth it.

One day, these stairs will have wood instead of carpet on them. The look I'm trying to achieve for the house is rustic, traditional farmhouse. I'll post the after pics soon. Stay tuned.

Note: 

Before we moved in, our PC took a dump. Then the kids broke the ancient laptop we were relying on for our everyday use. Daddy just got a new laptop and I haven't bribed my computer smart brother yet to install all the fancy gadgets on it, including Photoshop! So... until then.... you'll have to put up with my ugly so-so pics.

The Nursery Reveal- Part 3

So here are the final pics...

The Nursery Reveal- Part 2

So here are some more pics that I promised (better late than never).

Sarah showing how hard we're working, haha.

Ben likes to help daddy but loud noises scare him!

The Misisng Tooth & The Nursery Reveal- Part 1

Before I start this nursery post, I have to brag about Emily. Such is our life... Emily... always on a constant mission to find a very important something that she has misplaced; something so important, so valuable, that she's hidden somewhere so well that not even she can find it. My very beautiful, easily distracted, very forgetful child is trying her best to make baby steps towards 'change'. And although they are very, very tiny baby steps, she is still taking steps nonetheless. I need to remember this, especially when I start losing my patience! With that said, remember the tooth?

You know, the one from last week?

Well, it turns out that Emily placed the tooth in a little plastic sandwich baggie and put it under her pillow so she wouldn't lose it.

Then...  she lost it.

She forgot where she put it twenty minutes prior.

She retraced her steps and still was unsuccessful in finding that damn little yellow tooth.

I gave her 10 different suggestions of where to look. Each time she ventured off to search in said spot, she would return to me even more upset and discouraged than before. Finally, right before I was about to start pulling out my hair give up, I suggested she look under her pillow.

Instantly, she broke out in smile. A very guilty, gosh I feel dumb looking smile. Because, then she remembered she put it there, so she wouldn't forget. She excitedly ran upstairs never to be seen again for the rest of the evening. 

I, for one, enjoyed the last few minutes of peace and quiet before I tucked myself into bed. Taking one last sip of my red wine, I re-lived the last thirty minutes of tooth finding chaos and enjoyed a quite moment of boasting. Proud of myself for saving the night. Thinking to myself .... "God, I'm good. No daddy on earth has mommy skills like that. I am a hero. At least for tonight!"

Okay, that' not really what I thought... I really thought to myself, "SH*T (pardon my french), why didn't I think of that damn'd  pillow sooner? I'd have saved myself and her a whole lotta crying!"

Okay, on with the nursery reveal....

The Nursery is Done

The nursery we've been working on is DONE!!!! D- O- N- E......DONE!!!!

We finished just a few minutes ago...

Speaking of Lemonade...

Before I start this post, I wanna thank everyone for all of the kind comments on my last entry. It meant so very much to me and even brought me to tears. I thank you for that. I needed that. I was having 'one of those days.' You know what I mean? Okay. on with today's post. Where was I.... saying my girls love selling lemonade is such an understatement! They beg me to do it the second after homework is completed. In fact, they are preparing the lemonade to sell as I type. Now that the weather has warmed up, I'm sure I'll be hearing even more nagging begging from them. They've pretty much outgrown their current stand and daddy noticed this the other day. Do you know what that means?

Mudbench and other crafts

Daddy built mama this mudbench. She's been wanting one for a quite a long time now. It makes organization much easier in such a large family.

He used lots of mouldings to give it character and the feeling like its been there for years. I am loving it! He's so awesome. He did this in 2 days. However, while he was building...Ben was breaking.

Here's the final product. I framed some of our favorite pics and put them at the top. We have baskets for the shoes and each child has their own hook.

I plan on making a seat cushion for it. But its good enough for now.

The girls and I were bored one day so we made these cute flowered hair clips.

We hot glued diamonds in the middle of each one.

We made enough for each girl and even had one leftover. Elizabeth gave it to her teacher.

I made myself a camera strap cover. I don't like the look of the ugly plain old black with the brand "CANON" written on it in big letters. I had envy for the ones I've seen other photographers walking around with. So here's my attempt at making one because I refuse to pay someone to make it for me.

It came out really cute. The best part is that daddy doesnt want to use it because it's a lil

too girly for him. So now the camera is all MINE!

While we have been busy crafting... Ben has found a new place to play!

This kitchen drawer is his favorite new spot to sit in.

A friend at work showed me how to knit and crochet. I've been making baby beanies. This owl one is my favorite one so far.

And for St. Patricks Day, the kids and I made daddy and his coworkers some green cupcakes. We hand delivered them to the hospital.

Aren't the x-ray hands cool?!

That's it for now. We are going off track soon. I've got a list of things to do while we're off to keep the kids busy. But, if you've got any ideas for us- please send them our way. We want to stay busy.

Our Crafty Daddy Builds a Craft Room

Daddy has done it again...

Look what mommy had him build us kids...

Now, we have a place to go and do our homework and make crafts!

Thank you, daddy!

Mommy was the designer, she found several inspiration photos and sought advice from the professionals, mom and nina! She told daddy just how she wanted it and he got to workn'! He must really love her. We are having fun with our cork boards and even more fun with the chalkboards. Papa likes it too, he even left some messages on there for us to see when we woke up in the morning. See those bins attached to the wall, those are from Ikea and they hold our scissors, erasers, pencils and markers.

If you look closely in the picture above you can even see that each desk has it's own individual light that shines down onto the desktop. Mommy hung some clocks in there that display the different time zones. We are loving this, now we know what time it is in London, New York, and Tokyo.

This magnet board and those circular containers above it are also from Ikea. Those containers were found in the kitchen area, they're really meant to store spices! The magnets were ordered from Ebay.

We even got some wood floors in there!

Daddy you rock!