Oh what a Mess! Country Signs and shelf

So today, since I had to miss church. (my baby Isaiah is still sick) I was trying to decide what I wanted to post.  I was looking back through my photos and found where I had taken a picture of the sign I had made out of the left over pallets from the bathroom wall project...

In my past post you can tell that I talk a lot about messiness, and well, boys! They make messes! My girls too, guess I shouldn't let my boys get all the credit.  So I made a sign to explain our mess! 

I took the pallets and used Liquid Nail (I Love this stuff) and put it between each one and placed it between the saw and my chair outside and let it sit over night to glue together.  I also took 2 small pieces of wood and screwed it down the back side to help it to stay sturdy and together.  I added a little metal bracket to the back to hang it.  I used paint markers to write the words on the front.  (my handwriting is not something you would see on pinterest, but hey its about being messy!!) so anyways, this is it!

This is hanging in my office, so I built a little shelf for underneath it to hold bills and such. 

AHHHHHH......IDEAS NEEDED

That's what I think about when I think of a new year! A loud scream.  The reason I think that is because my brain is usually on overload at the beginning of a new year.  How many of us fall into that same ol routine of feeling like we need to start everything anew, everything fresh, loose weight, revamp our homes, lives, ect.  That's what I fall into.

The last 3 days I have been confined to the house, which I'm usually at home, but I mean confined to the inside of the house because I've had a sick one.  My smallest has had a virus and boy its been one.  He has felt pitiful.  But during this down time I have been able to work on 13 years worth of old photos of all the kids to try and make photo books for us to look at anytime.  I have made this horrible habit of saving them all on memory sticks and saying well one day I will use them all to make books.  Well, the day arrived and boy am I wishing I had been making these so called memory books all this time.  I have loaded over 2000 pictures into accounts.  Ughhhhhh ..... anyways, looking back into these books I see how I've done the same routine every year, gain, loose, change, redo.

What happens when we run out of ideas? Well, that's part of why I wanted to do this blog.  I hope that I will have people to actually read and take a look at it and put in their ideas!  Kinda like pinterest, but here where lots of other mamas can come to one place and say, "Hey, there it is, a easy idea lets go with that!" That's why I am posting foods and crafts that are EASY!  I want my kids to remember me having fun and doing things around the house and not thinking man all she did was work herself to death and we just have old pictures to show for it.  I want to start next week with clean eating and a better attitude about the way I do things.  I want stuff to be healthy but easy.  I want your ideas!!! I need others to help out with easy good foods, or crafts!

We all know that you can look on pinterest and get tons of ideas, but how many of them are nowhere near as easy as they look, OR you click on the picture and there is no instructions!! ughhhh.   Well, I hope that someone out there feels my frustration and will want to post some ideas here to get us started... I'm excited to see what this new year is gonna bring!!!
Post any ideas in the comments below.

PRIVACY CURTAIN---BATHROOM

Today, I'm posting more from my Master Bathroom.  My bathroom is not very large, but I consider it my little safe haven.  Its where I can go to get a few quiet moments if it gets crazy with the kids, I pray there (my war room is in there).  If you have seen the movie you know what I mean, if you haven't GO see the movie, its excellent!

So I like to take extra time changing it around or doing little special things in there, its a bathroom/closet.  When we built the house it was supposed to be a door into my bathroom, and then about 3 foot down and door into my closet from off my bedroom.  I said, "What, that's crazy?" So I had the wall solid just a door into the bathroom and then a opening from the bathroom into my closet, that way I don't have to walk out of my bathroom into my bedroom back into the closet to get clothes!!!! Whew, I'm tired now!

Hugh? Maybe I should have left it that way, more steps on my fitbit???? hahaha anyways, there was a plain opening there which was great, but sometimes, sometimes, we would forget to lock the door(oops) or my children would forget to knock, oops again.... And this mama was getting really frustrated over the wide open spaces, if you know what I mean.  So I decided with all this curtain project stuff going on that I would sew a little curtain that would give the bathroom a little style AND privacy, you know how I am about 2 birds, one stone right?  So I did the same that I did for my kitchen project with different material once again from Walmart and a tension rod.

I thought it turned out right pretty! I have another picture but its a little dark, still dreary and raining here. 

It matches the pallet wall pretty well too!

I added this little shelf after Christmas.  I love the ones on Pinterest and with all the pallet work that has been going on lately, I had thought about making one, but I didn't have to, this was a Lovely gift that my mother-in-law bought me for Christmas! Isn't it cute? I love it!

DIY CHRISTMAS TREE SKIRT

Are you wanting to change your Christmas Tree Skirt to make it have a little more country appeal but don't want to spend much?  That's always the name of the game for me anyways.  I went in a few stores and would see such pretty ones like at Cracker Barrel or just anywhere that would cost 30 or more.  I didn't really want to put that into it since we were trying to just pay for Christmas! So of course I improvised.  I went to the famous place I love, Hobby Lobby and purchase a roll of burlap, and a large K letter. Which you can also see in my kitchen from my turnip greens cooking post. Once I used it for this project I placed it in my kitchen as decoration.  (2 birds, one stone! YES!)

Ok, so anyways, I laid my old tree skirt face down and folded the burlap up on the edges.  I had to use a total of 3 strips.  Once I had cut the extra off I used straight sewing pins and attached it to it.  I didn't sew it on like I had planned because the original skirt was pretty nice and I figure if I ever get tired of the burlap I can just take it back off.  Once I pinned it all the way around I cut out the hole for the tree and basically like I was making a pattern made it the same size of the original skirt.  I took some of my daughters white acrylic paint covered my wooden K and pressed it into the skirt.  I loved the way it turned out for our little country Christmas tree, which was a white pine this year.  I also took some of the remaining burlap and made a wrap to go around the tree bowl to give it a finished look!

I think the roll of burlap was around 9, the letter was 2.50! Not bad for a new looking skirt.

What do you think?

NEED SOME FUN FOR KIDS ON A RAINY DAY?

Around here when it rains for days straight like it has (huff, huff) we need something fun for the kids to do.  Especially boys that drive you crazy when they can't run in and out of the woods to hunt.  Well, something for them to do when they are coming in to get dry from running in and out cause mine still do even when its raining, yay mom--:(

The kids like to run back and forth to the taxidermy shop because its at the end of our driveway, but even when things slow down up there and not much is going on in the house(in other words, mama is cleaning and they don't want to be found) they get bored and want something fun to do.  So we bring the hunting in doors.  We have always set up tents with them.  Inside and out.... but as little bitty ones the girls had this huge pink castle tent that they played with until it fell apart.  They would spend hours in it, watching movies, coloring or playing hide and seek.  My oldest is 12 and she still likes to play in anything like that.  So for Christmas this year the boys were given a deer blind so now that's what we do on a rainy day.  They put it up last night on the front porch, it was a instant tent, now today in the middle of the living room with sleeping bags its a instant club house.  So if your kids are driving you crazy because they are stuck inside you can try this, they will love it!

DRESSER/CHANGING STATION TO VANITY

This is another post that's kinda old.  I did this project back in the summer time but wasn't blogging at the time but did think to take a picture.  I love how on pinterest you can see all these old dressers changed into a sink by cutting a hole and sitting a vessel sink on top.  I really wanted to do something like that, but this was gonna be for my girls bathroom and of course they wouldn't take care of a antique dresser the way a adult would (makeup, fingernail polish remover, yikes!) so I decided to use something a little different.

When Kylah was born in 2003 it was very popular to get these dressers that had the changing station area built on top. It was long on one end, high up on the other to put a basket for diapers and wipes. It was really cool to use at the time with all 4 of my kids especially as a space saver cause the changing pad laid right on top.  Anyways, I decided that it would be neat to use this piece of furniture for them cause it was something that they had as a baby.

Not the best picture I know, but hey I wasn't blogging at the time and just wanted to take a before and after picture to see if it would turn out.  So I started off sanding it really really well to get the coating off the top so the paint would adhere good.  Once I sanded it, I cleaned it off with a old diaper cloth to make sure I removed all the sawdust.  I purchased black furniture paint from Lowes and started with a coat.  I let that dry 24 hours, lightly (I mean really light) sanded it again the next day and painted another coat of black.  My hubby bought some spray polyurethane from Lowes and we took it outside and sprayed a coat on it.  Waited 24 hours, lightly sanded and I brushed the polyurethane on this time.  I did this about 3 times to make the coats thick because I know how messy my girls are.  I still would like to go back and add another coat or two just to give it a great thick shine but I haven't done it.  We bought a vessel sink from Lowes for 80 and a friend of ours cut the hole for the sink.  So for the paint, sink, some new nobs(lowes) and polyurethane we have about 100 in our sink instead of 400 to buy a new sink and vanity, YAY!

We also had our friend to build a little magazine rack that matches the cabinet to put books in.  You don't have to do that, but it looks pretty cool, like a old milk crate.  We did purchase a vessel sink faucet, I can't remember exactly what it cost, but with that you could go as expensive as you wanted to depending on how fancy you wanted it to be.  We choose a little more modern one for the girls to make it look like young tweens :)  We had to use some small screws to hold the top drawer closed because of the hardware to the sink underneath, but the 2 lower drawers are still usable for pjs and what ever else you may would want to put in there.  

I bought all the hardware for the bathroom to match off of Amazon it was way way cheaper than Lowes.  It looks great and is very durable. Let me know what you think!

Some Good Ol Turnip Greens and "Debiled Eggs"

Ok, so yes I meant deviled eggs, but that's not what my Isaiah calls them.  He calls them Debiled eggs...and he Loves them.  I swanny I think he could eat a dozen all by himself.  After I got off my soap box today about being a good mama(see earlier post) I decided I needed to get outside and pick some turnip greens for supper.  We love the things.  I wanted to try a different recipe that Kylahs art teacher had told me about.  I have always cooked them with bacon or oil, but tonight I wanted to do something different.  We always have the same things when I cook them, cause they just compliment each other when you fix them together as a meal.  I have the greens, the eggs, cornbread, and mashed potatoes.  We sat down with it being cold outside to all this warm food and it gets quiet for only 5 mins.... long enough to take a deep breath.  So since the greens were so good I decided I would put this recipe in a post.  Now my amounts are gonna have to be adjusted if you are cooking for a smaller family.  Mine is for 6 people, but I also fix them to freeze cause we will eat them all year long until time to plant again next winter.  My greens still look good out in the garden and they are smaller this year so they are like baby organic greens.

They are so pretty and green even though the weather has been kinda funky!

Isaiah working to help me get the big cooking pot full!

The chickens waiting to get some greens too!

I bring them in and wash them... wash them really good cause they have dirt, bugs and grit in them.  I wash mine twice. 

Then I start the boiling. Be AWARE your house will start to stink, just a heads up if you have never cooked greens.  Its kinda hard on the measurements cause I fill my pot full when I'm picking but I would say its around 3 pounds of greens. But I've never weighed them to know for sure. 

I put them in a pot of water and bring them to a boil.  

Once they are boiling I add 3 tbs of salt and 1/2 cup of Cooking oil

 After they boil for around 20 mins I added 10 cubes of the Beef Bouillon.  This gives the greens a great flavor.  Once you have added all the ingredients and they are simmering, let them cook for around a hour time.  They will be good and tender.
If you were doing a smaller pot, that was say for 2 people I would only use around 3 cubes.  You can add them 2 at a time if you taste it along the way to achieve the taste you like.  My kids ate them up... Said they were the best greens we've had yet.... That makes this mama happy, especially since my oldest boy didn't really care for greens, but tonight cleared his plate!

If you decide to fix them let me know how they turn out!

Reciepe: If you are gonna freeze some

around 3 pounds give or take of greens

1.wash and clean them

2. bring to a boil

3. add 3 tbs of salt and 1/2 cup of veg oil

4. let boil for 20 mins or until they are withered.

5. add 10 cubes of beef bouillon

6. let simmer for 1 hour