One Day.....

Oh one day, I will stay on top of my blog, write/type all about my "woe is me" days. One day.....

So a lot goes on here at the "homestead" (we're not a farm, per say, so we call ourselves a "homestead"). We have chickens......

 15 of them to be exact, all hens. We love them... 

Then, we adopted two, yes two, German Shepherds. Because that's always a good idea when you already have a full house :)

This is Lyla (left)and Meeka (right). We love them too....they keep things, ummm, fun.  

AND THEN, Hubby decided he wanted to finally make public his side hobby, gun stocks and woodworking. So, Barnes Stocked and Loaded was "born". 

I do have quite the talented husband. I have been trying to use Facebook primarily for our advertising, you can find us here, Barnes Stocked and Loaded. I will add our website as soon as I'm finished. 

So, the real reason for my post. I LOVE PINTEREST! Like borderline obsessed stalker. (probably like most) I make Hubby so mad when I find stuff and insist on recreating what I have seen. Sometimes I'm successful in achieving what I set out for. Our kitchen being one, post of another day. But today, I want to share with you, our awesome book shelf! 

This was completely free, made from the original rain gutters we found in the garage, left behind from the previous owners. 

We left them,unpainted, and just clear coated over (so no original paint would chip off). 

CHECK OUT THAT HARDWARE! LOVE IT!

This project was completely inspired by this "pin" I found awhile back, Rain Gutter Bookshelf. These are nice, DO NOT GET ME WRONG, but I like mine more. :)

 I love reusing items, especially found here at the house, to create something usable for our family! 

Trick or Treat?!

I can not believe we are already into almost our second week of November! Where has this year gone?

We have already trick or treated (which I was hoping to skip this year). With all the house stuff going on, I didn't have time for Halloween costumes. I usually make them every year and this year, it just wasn't in the plans. So, my trusty SIL came over with her stash of costumes....and I dug out the famous scare crow for Princess T....and here we go!

We have Darth, Batman, and the Scare Crow. My Mom and I put the Scare Crow costume together for C's first Halloween. N wore it for his....and you get the point. 

Since we live outside of town now, we had to drive in and park this year. On the left is my crew in action! They all had so much fun. To the right, the local ice cream shop was handing out treat bags, so we stopped before heading home. T is SOOOO into Frozen (which she loving refers to as "Summer".) and "Anna" and "Elsa" were there handing out candy. So of course, we had to get our picture taken. We have to look at this picture at least twice a day....




SCHOOL..........
So along with life, there has to be time for school. I found this AWESOME geography lesson for the US. 8 for Each State  maps everything out for you. We get the weeks lesson lined up Sunday night...and we have had a blast so far! We are a couple weeks behind and now have taken off to learn about Thanksgiving and Christmas (history, geography, and science (baking) all included!) BUT we did Delaware already...and all three kids had a blast!

We even through a little Lego time in! One of the project was to build the Delaware Bridge. Well, C took the lead the night before and built his version. (pictured below).

I think he did a really good job on his own. 

Using pictures we found on the internet, we made our version of the bridge. It was trial and error to get everything together, but I think we did a pretty good! I'm not the buildy one, Daddy is, but we wanted to do this all on our own!

So here they are....our finished bridges....We even had to build a little car to drive over the bridge. 

Don't worry about sound....Nothing exciting to hear! lol 

Up next....The flooring in the kitchen and downstairs bathroom. Here's a little sneak peek.....

Free child labor! 

Where does time go?

     Where has all the time gone? I was so excited to start up my own "helpful" blog two years ago, then life just happened! I didn't have as much free time as I thought I did...nor do I now. :) 

So in the last couple months, we have moved, started up a new school year, and ran into the joys of home-ownership! Those of you with this great pleasure, will be able to relate when I say that we had to replace our furnace AND run plumbing lines to our septic tank...

But here she is in all of her glory....metal grandma awnings and all! But we couldn't be happier. :) 

There has been some fun projects with our new house, just recently we pulled up the carpeting in the downstairs. 

Hubby and I can't take all the credit for single handily tackling this project, my wonderful SIL offered a helpful hand, in exchange for taking the basically brand new carpet off of our hands. :) 

This was the easier of the two rooms. I just realized I never took pictures of the hallway or the living room. MUST GET ON THAT! How will I look back on my memories?! lol

The floor are in pretty good space. We have only one bad spot (where we think a leak had happened from the roof) so be sure to check back for Hubby's floor redo. The kids and I will be on vacation during that time. :) 




Oh, look! I found a before picture of the living room! I will mention this many times, I LOVE my new staircase!!! I can't wait for Princess T to walk down those steps in a beautiful gown! (Or me, if I can't wait that long. She is only two)

I need a catchy sign off....I'll work on that too! 

We're WILD about Babies!

 So, I guess babies are all the rave right now, because beside my own, I had a hand in two other baby showers this summer. This one was one I threw for one of my SIL, who after three beautiful little girls, finally was blessed with a boy. Eddison James was born July 3rd, 3 days after ToriLynn.

Here are the favors I did up. They were so simple and inexpensive to make. The boxes I got at the Dollar Tree (12pk for $1) and the elephant and giraffe are Sizzix Dies. The "grass" was just colored card stock and Martha Steward "grass" scissors. We just filled them with animal crackers! I also did these for a friend's shower after ToriLynn was born. Her little man, Xander, was born in Aug.

 





The little jars are full of yummy fruit dip, that went along with the fruit skewers I did up. (and did NOT take a picture of) I wrapped baby food jars with blue vellum (left over from invites) and punched labels from open card stock that I used for the background of invites.


 



This was a casual shower at my other SIL's house, so that they kids could come and play in her beautiful backyard. So, I doubled the outfit gifts as decorations. We just hung them on a clothes line with different colored clothes pins. We didn't play any games, but we did draw Thank You envelopes for door prizes. Here is the Lotto Wreath I did up that morning as I was walking out the door! :)


 

So by the end of the year, our family will have welcomed three new little ones to the gang! Two boys and a girl. My BIL's wife, is due in Dec. Although I'm not making anything for the shower itself, I'll be sure to post pictures  Her Mother and Aunt run a party planning business and her Aunt is a photographer. So I'm TOTALLY excited to see what they have planned! :)  
 

The New Addition!

Eddison James 

July 3rd 2012

6lbs 12oz 20in

Not the only one that has Bad Days....

So Shawn and I celebrated our 7 yr anniversary this year (7/17/05). Because we had just had a baby and babies are expensive (even before they're born! lol) I tried to find something that would be nice for him, he's kinda hard to buy for, and homemade! I have been obsessed with Pinterest since I found it, so I did a little searching. I came across this: a Bad Day Box!

Patrice (Cropsy Turvy) was having a yard sale, and I HAD to have this box for $.25. Had absolutely NO need for it when I bought it, but came in handy very quickly! lol The paper I covered it with, I bought on clearance at Michael's. It screamed "SHAWN" (literally) when I found it and again I HAD to have it, with no real purpose for it at the time. I knew it would get used, eventually.

 My next stop was the Dollar Tree. I went around and picked up little things that Shawn either likes or I thought were cute.

I put an index card in the top inside, explaining what was in the box and why. I included Nutty Buddies and Cinnamon Pop Tarts, a little energy boost drink, Double Mint gum, "Sugar Daddy" chap stick, A Million Dollar candy bar, lighters (because although I would love him to quit, he has yet to kick the cancer stick habit), and a personal ABC book. I bought ABC flashcards (also from DT) and wrote on the cards themselves. They came out pretty nice :)

 This is the poem I put on the front. He got a real kick out of the box and I had a lot of fun making it! It sits on his dresser (mostly collecting dust), but I catch him every now and then catching a glance at it and smiling! Mission Complete!

My Welcome Back!

Life has been crazy busy the last couple months! We welcomed our Sweet Baby Girl, ToriLynn, on June 29th. 7lb 11oz and 19 1/2 inches long! What a blessing! Trying to balance three kids, a husband, a dog, and now a cat takes a lot more time than I thought. School has started and now our family is somewhat on a schedule.








I would like to feature something I found while on my "leave"! I came across an app (for my nook) that I absolutely LOVE! Its called PepperPlate. This is a recipe keeper, menu planner, and you can even build a shopping list from the different recipes you choose. You upload your recipes from you computer (which then sends them to your mobile device) and then you can take them anywhere you want! This app has been a true life saver and just really great! Below is the website, so you can set up your own. Did I mention this app is FREE! How does it get any better?! Let me know if you try it out and how you like it. Or if you need any help! Have a great day!

Pepperplate.com

Disfunction!

This menu was to help me be on top of making dinner every night, but I have failed! I forgot to take the chicken out Monday and didn't remember until time to make dinner. I was very busy on Pinterest! lol

Anyway, our Crispy Coconut Chicken was good. I tried to limit my spices, because of the kids, but may have limited too much! And I have never used Panko crumbs and may not be a big fan. Not giving up on them yet, we're going to continue to work on our relationship! lol The sauce was a HUGE hit! Nicholas (our 2yr old) eat it by the spoonful! And I may never have to go back to the "Lobster" restaurant again! I really think that's the only reason why I go.

On the Menu tonight, Cheeseburger Pizza! I'm really excited to see how this goes. My kids like hamburger anything and Nicholas always wants pizza (even when he really doesn't!) Below is the link for the recipe. Please remember that if you tried it, comment and let me know if your family enjoyed it! Thanks and Happy Cooking!

Cheeseburger Pizza!