Happy Memorial Day! This post is for Jennifer!

We had a good day!  Here is an update of some things around here since I haven't blogged in a while.

Its

One of these is not nice and she ran me up the fence this week.  They have horns.  I still love Hereford cows best though!

The kids put out flags this morning.  Festive!

I sold a chair on Craigslist and bought these!  Love them.  

These opened up this week.  Hollyhocks.

See those naughty chickens?  The lambs love them.  They sit on their backs.

Casey built this for the kids this afternoon.  We had the swings from long ago. Hadn't seen them in 4 years?  Next we want to put reading nooks up in the trees to hold bean bags .

Casey also put this together for me today.  I know, he got a ton of stuff done.  Loved having him home.  His first Memorial day to truly have off since I have known him!

Ruby potty trained HERSELF this week. YES!

I am among the million other women who are having a love affair with burlap!

And back to my living room.  This is clean laundry, but I had a talk with myself WHO CARES!

And then we sorted through clothes--ugh.  But, good news,  we found a lot!

Ivy's New White Bedroom!

We whited this room out.  

This was out of the old opera house in Las Vegas, NM.

This room went from dark 1980's to looking like a normal room.

It may not seem like we did much, but the trim was so dark it was almost black.  These shutter doors are so much prettier.  The white splotches are on the photo, but not really there in real life.

Ivy painted both of these mirrors.  She was happy to have white walls if she could add whatever color she wanted....

This is the fan that was in Ivy's room before she talked her dad into switching it out.-just to show you waht we were dealing with!

One room down and 10 to go!

Kitchen still in progress...

This is some paint I already had...

Sometimes it works better for me just to take all the options away and use what I have instead of too many choices...

Still much work left to do.  And for knobs?  I am waiting to see what my mom has in her arsenal.

a nice mess

Dancing in the living room... 

Shaking oh yeah -a-a-a

Layers

favorite spot so far

We are moved!

This is an old pic of Fort Sumner.

Here is where I would post a picture of our new (to us) home.  However, I don't know where my camera is.    We are all moved in, now I need to start painting!  First we have to get all the pecans picked up from the back yard.  It is covered in pecans.  Our puppy, Pippi, loves to eat them so we renamed her Pecan Pippi of the Pecos. (As we  now live on the banks of the Pecos River.)  Yeah!

Pecos River

Yes, this is a town.

Fort Sumner is famous for Billy the Kid.

 

It was established as a reservation to hold  both Navajo and Apache Indians who were marched across NM  "The Long Walk."  It is a horrifying tale.

This is the Bosque Redondo Memorial dedicated to those whose lives were lost on the reservation and "The Long Walk."

Forward Motion!

Most friends who read my blog know that we are getting ready to move and start a new business.  (Casey's Windmill and Well Service).  Whats hard is being at a stand still.  We have sort of moved some stuff, everything we don't need.   Anyway, I really need forward motion to keep me going.  I am not finding that right now, so its pretty frustrating.  Don't get me wrong, there is plenty, and I mean plenty, to do.  But, I work best under pressure, so I am not doing it.  So that is what is happening around here.  Plus, we were back to school this week, after a 3 week break that was suppose to be really fun, but really wasn't too great for the most part.  (again because of the lack of forward motion.)  Does this make any sense at all?

So, since we are moving soon, here are some more home pictures just because...

I like to bring weeds in the house as much as possible.

I love crazy quilts.  The deep colors and textures of all the fabrics put together.  These are mandatory at our house in the winter!  BTW, Casey made this bed for Ivy, she is letting us use it until we move to Fort Sumner.  He is quite the craftsman, it is iron.  Someday he will make me a iron canopy bed I am hoping.

A very spare bedroom for quick clean up and relaxed sleeping (wish it helped anyway).  Trust me, I need all the help I can get to relax, it runs in my family we are not relaxed people.

I will say that the minimalist look that I am going for is easy to clean up and dust.  I love it when everything is put away and tidy.  This week we cleaned on Thursday, and have somehow managed to keep it pretty picked up over the weekend.  It is so much more relaxing when there is not junk everywhere in this house.  Especially since we have all been sick with fevers and colds.  ALL of us!  At least this way we can get it all over on one weekend and not stretch it out over the entire rest of the month and into Feb.  I HOPE!!!

So when we move, I am going to have many many huge garage sales at our new house.  It has a garage attached and is in a community where there are people!  Both of these things are helpful for successful garage sales  right?  

Stop by our blog next week to see the quilt we are working on....

Some corners of our house....

This piece has a neat history.  My mom redid it about 20 years ago, and then redid it again this year and gave it to me.  Love it.  Its paint job is beyond words.  Casey found the shed one day during shipping when he was helping a neighbor.

With my neutral phase, I have sometimes wished these were white.  Isn't that stupid?

One of my  favorite things, trouble is I bought it for one house and it hasn't had a great home since.  Might have to design a kitchen around it.

Very heavy

This was mine when I was a little girl, it went all over to college apartments, San Antonio etc.. Now its Ivy's

Ivy's desk....

Love this grey!  This is from my favorite store, Roughrider Antiques

My honey gave this to me for Valentine's!

back porch, simple old board from some old homestead (I bought it :( ) and added hooks, have a two more that are cool,  one of my favorite ideas for a simple home

Hattie's room at one point, she never slept here, then it became Clay's room...I just added it because I liked the pictures of a clean spare room.  This is past not present.

My kitchen a year ago, like it better now, no more TQ.

and this is the reality of our home, that stuff is baby powder

This is Ivy's room again, the only chandy in the house.  Here is to many more chandy's someday.

World's longest hallway?

Here is the deal, I am thinking of taking the trays down and painting big huge chalk boards with big huge lists for my kids to help them remember  some of the household rules, chores etc....  Should I do it?  Or will it be ugly? I can't decide.

The rug in this hallway is 20 feet long, there is an extra 8 feet it doesn't  cover.

A Little Ranch Living Room

The living room covered in linen sheets.  Ivy cleaned it up for me today.  We just need to do mirrors and windows.  Check out the finger prints.

I found this chair at Salvation Army.  A store in Santa Fe went out of business and donated all their stuff they had left over.  It is as cool as it looks, I love it even more because it wasn't very expensive.

Do you see this!  Get it in the wash please.  Country, kids  and white couches, are you crazy! (well at least I can wash them, if  I just would.)

This was my Valentine last year.  Hubby cut off the legs to make it an appropriate height.  It use to be a prayer bench?????

This wood stove wasn't very well thought out by whoever put it in.  Its too hot in this tiny room and  this house does not have a good flow.  It's rooms are boxy so the warm air stays right in here cooks you while the rest of the house freezes.  I don't have a better solution though, besides sticking an antique cook stove there, adding on a huge living room and making this one a dining room.  Yes, that's all, no biggie.

Am I boring you yet?  Hey, btw this house looks better in photos than in real life.  Kind of like a homely girl that  is photogenic.

Another white couch covered by a linen sheet.  I actually really like the look.  I understand it.

No I am not fixin' to paint.  I had to break down and buy some linen sheets to cover my white couches because I don't want to wash them all the time.  Our living room is right off the kitchen and its sometimes hard to get faces and hands washed before they invade other rooms.   I love the way white couches look, but I have seriously considered getting some RIT on those babies or staining them with coffee.