My Heritage

So...the picture in the Header of my blog is a curious one?! Yes? Well it is a picture of my Grandma with her sisters, goofing around. As far as I can tell, they all got together after church on Sundays and took a bunch of great candid photos. I discovered these after my granny died, she was the last one of her generation so all I can do is speculate about the pics. I am so thankful to have found these, they are a treasure to me. You know, one of those things that you would grab in a natural disaster. I miss my Grandma a lot, a day doesn't go by that I don't think of her. She was the strongest, most independent women I know. That is saying a lot. She was born in 1921 and independence was something that was not encouraged, so she is my hero. Just when I think that my life is hard, or things aren't going the way that I want them to, I think of her and how she helped forge the way for her daughters, grand daughters and even great grand daughters! Love you Granny!!!



Isn't she the most beautiful thing ever? Sometimes I think that I might have been born in the wrong era. Do you ever think that?

So cute! If I wouldn't have found these, I never would have known how she felt about my Grandpa once upon a time. To me it's like a fairy tale.

When I go to flea markets and garage sales and see someones old pictures for sale it breaks my heart. How could NO one in the family want these gems?

I want to know how you all display your family heirlooms? Give me some ideas!

Happy Halloween!!!

Kim

Back Porch... with My Handy Helper

With good intentions....

Did I mention that I have a Lab pup, and that she loves to chew pumpkins? Yes well, her name is Sadie and she does love to get rid of any new intruder to our yard or porch. {Sign} So as you can see in my photo, my pumpkin is more than a little scarred up. She chewed the top off of the last one I tried to use as a prop. So if it isn't hard enough to come up with new things to photograph and show off,  I have my handy little helper making my job a little harder.

Here is a picture of my back porch with the over watered mum and chewed up pumpkin...enjoy! LOL!

Here's the little angel.....deceiving isn't she?!

Kim

Halloween Party Ideas!!!



Good Morning! I am helping a friend get ready for a Halloween party on their new little farm. It is so much fun although I have spent a HUGE amount of time on Pinterest getting some great ideas, and I want to share all the great ideas that I have found!

unknown

thesimplylivingblog.blogspot

marthastewart.com

parents.com

patinawhite.typepad.com

pinkslipstyle.blogspot




Aren't they all so cute!!!


While I was trying to get this post together my husband called me and told me my horse was out! So I had to take a little break and try to coax her away from the alfalfa bales. Carrots always work! She's a good girl, here's her picture. Her name is Weather Permitting but we call her Weather Girl. Isn't she cute? Do you get interruptions like this during your busy work day? I will take these kind of breaks any day! :)
Kim

Halloween Mantel

Good afternoon! I don't know about everyone else but I am sooooo ready for some beautiful fall weather! Here in Kansas it has been super windy, hot and dry. Blah. So I have been doing some Halloween decorating and dreaming of  a cool crisp fall. :) I finished up my 2011 Halloween mantel. I did it on a very small budget, the window was 50 cents at a garage sale, the twigs I found in my yard (my trees are taking a beating in this wind). I spray painted the twigs black with a can of spray paint that I had stashed away. The crows came from Dollar Tree along with the gray cheese cloth, and the glittered chip board letters came from the clearance basket after Halloween last year at Michaels. I glued them to the vintage book pages and hung them with some jute string that I already had. I love tulle! I used the black here and there because it adds a different texture. So that makes the grand total just under five bucks! Yea! I also wanted to thank Michelle at {Primp} for featuring my Spooky Halloween Wreath, unbelievable! I had a small panic episode when I saw it yesterday, you made my week!!!

I am linking my mantel to:

Everyone have a wonderful Thursday and visit the links above and see what kind of wonderfully creative people we have in the blog world! Amazing!!!

Kim

Living room tour

Good Monday to you all! Hope you had a fantastic weekend. The family and I made a trip up to Manhattan Kansas for a great college football game. We (the wildcats) won by one point and it was an exciting game. So since I have nothing prepared for you.....I will show you a few photos of my living room that I have taken over the last couple months. I don't know about you but I am constantly rearranging, purging, moving furniture in and out of my house. My husband thinks that I am craazzzyyyyy. I just get sick of staring at the same four walls. :)

My kids pics layered on an old barn door.

My grandpa's hat with coffee filter flower.

Spoon stamped tag!

Happy Thrift Shopping

  How often do you get to your local Goodwill or thrift shop? I try to hit a few of them every month

 or so, more often once the kids get back into school!  Yes!  I usually find some ironstone platters or bowls, every once in a while I will hit the jackpot. Well this was one of those times! I came out with a half price extra large trophy cup! It is the one with the lions heads on the sides. Hold your hats......I paid ten whole dollars! I was and still am giddy! It has a beautiful patina and is about eleven inches tall. I got the other smaller cup while on a long weekend trip to Texas with the hubby last year. It is a trophy for javelin throwing in 1916. So cool! So... I am officially on the trophy hunt....which means I will never find another one again! It is the thrill of the hunt that does it for me!

                                                                                      

                                                                                        
                               
             
                                                                                              
                                                                                     

                                                      

                                                  

Upcycled Porch Posts

Good Morning! I just wanted to show you guys the end result of  these recycled porch posts. First of all I had to pull them off of an old, falling down farm house. It was so sad to see that old farm house like that but I thought if I can save just one thing from that house and put it to good use in my home I will. So risking life and limb I saved these little pieces of history. Oh and I would like to add that I knew the owner of the property and he gave me permission to take anything that I could load up myself! I might have grabbed a few more things but that is for another day! ;)

I cut them to three different sizes and sanded them down a little, used some finishing wax on them. I stuck some Dollar Tree candles on them and now use them as a center piece on my farm house table. I have had them on a crocheted runner, but at the present time I have them on my garage sale extra large silver platter. Love love love it! I really like the contrast of old chippy paint and the silver tray.

Have you done some crazy farm house porch post saving lately? LOL!!! Tell me what you have done in the name of Upcycling......
Kim

Spooky Mantel

 This is my mantle from last Halloween. I made several different themed buntings because I wasn't entirely sure where I wanted to go with my decorating. Now, looking back at these pictures I think I have too many things going on. What a difference a year makes! I will post my 2011 mantle in a few days.

I am kind of liking the candy corn one, maybe it's the colors but I am really digging it! Tomorrow I am officially getting into my stash of Halloween decorations in the old milk barn....full of spiders....and webs!!!!Eeekkkk!
Wish me luck!
Kim

Halloween Wreath

So.... my daughter H and I made this super cute Halloween

crow wreath today. I had everything we needed stashed in my craft room.

(See hoarding isn't always a bad thing!) Anywho, I love it and can't wait to

work it into my Halloween mantel. Halloween is one of my fav holidays

so naturally I want to "jump the gun" with my fall decor every year!

What did you do creative this weekend?

Kim