First day jitters!

Ivy is going into the fourth grade and  Clay into 2nd grade.  Good luck to my babies.  Do your best!

Last Day of Freedom

School starts tomorrow!  We'll see how public school works!  I think the kids are going to have a real good time....As for this mom, we will see.  I am going to have to get my lunch packing thing going on....

Hattie's outfit, designed by Hattie

Berry face.

Graham crackers anyone?

This just cracks him up...

Crowd control.

Birthday and Fair Weekend...

Clay turned 8 on Aug 17!  Happy birthday!  His first bb gun.

He has been baiting flies with ham slices and then shooting them off the ham...

Our handsome boy with a little peanut butter on his chin....

Ivy modeling her skirt and tote bag at the fashion show.

Her partners in sewing...

At the sale!!  Both lambs got 2nd place and she got to sell one of them.

These are the generous buyers who bought her lamb.  She got $1800+ add ons!  This fair has lots of buyers, not just one per kid!    It is so humbling how the community comes together for this.  It is also sad that so few kids do it anymore.  

Pre-fair baking day = big big mess and some yummy snacks.

These are some 1st place cookies.  I guess the secret is in the sifting...

1st place biscuits....

Ivy made Clay bake with her, so she doubled everything and he had his own batches to whip up...

Aspen, our Ext. agent let the little girls show the lambs in the boosters pet show.

I think these little ladies will be showing lambs as soon as they can.

Dreamy Whites giveaway...

My favorite blogger, Maria, from Dreamy Whites is doing a generous giveaway from her online shop.  So pop over and take a peak if you like.....

http://dreamywhites.blogspot.com/

Auntie's Beautiful Garden

Flower Explosion

This garden is perfect for the house!  What a talent!

All around this cabin is cottage flowers, cosmos, 4 o'clocks, hollyhocks, roses, mx sunflowers.

Yes this is New Mexico!  Believe it or not.

Ugh! Our Garden...

This is the worst garden I have ever had!  Things just keep dying..Even the marigolds, just before they started to  bloom up and died.

There used to be potatoes here... The pumpkins are dying now..The green beans up and died...The squash is now almost dead...The sunflowers are now dying as well.  The only things doing well are whats in the shade.

Sunflowers as the focal point.

Even the zucchini is weird this year.

One more Ivy Pic...

New glasses!

pretty!

Shabby Chic Bedroom...(sorry, a little obsessed w/ project)

Before:

One day I was sort of in a mood, so I told Ivy to pick any color and we would paint one wall in her room.  While we liked it for a while, it was fun.  We got sooo tired of it....You may like it better, but here below is what we did for her birthday!  Can you say DECLUTTER?

After:

Ivy's room is nearly done.  All we need now are the curtains! (to cover up the ugly windows until....)

This took serious restraint.  It was hard.  But now I want the rest of the house just like this.  

All we have in here is what you see and a white trunk.  The closet holds a dresser....I kept wanting to add things, but Ivy  knew she wanted it really spare....On to spare the rest of the house, hooray!

Before the before!  

Ivy's floor....still working

At some point we will put new wide trim around the floor.  Maybe when we do new windows in here???  I wanted to pain these floors white,  but hubby said NO WHITE!  So I made him pick the color.  Its a nice muted brown...

This is Valspar concrete paint in satin sand.  I think we'll love it!

Cool in the summer, cold in the winter :),  but that's what rugs are for.  Ewe the carpet was nasty! Now I am off to wash windows and whip up some white cotton curtains???  Tomorrow we will move things back in.

hot dry july days.....

Ivy had a birthday!  Now she is 10! (This is her new friend Rose, another 4th grader!)

We are busy with 4-H projects, this is a photography shot of Ivy's.  Isn't this a cute little thing? Love this shot!

Been wanting to do a post threatening all the custom farmers in the world with this tractor!

Ivy is going to take cow pictures throughout the day to evaluate the lighting.  These cows are supermodels.

And there she is, fixin to charge!

This is what I have been working on....a sneak peak.

And another sneak peak.  Oh I can't wait till this is done!

Good Friends

Mod Podge fun....

 A little designer paper and glue....and not going to show too close up of a pic....

before