mother hen

     So, it's been a minute. I honestly started posting a lot of things onto Instagram and got more feedback, faster! If you want to see my daily decor and making's check it out. I'm going to try to get back to posting on here Mondays and Thursday. The key-word there being T R Y.

     That being said, I haven't had any negative experience with IG and it's users this far, but I came across someone today who did. She has a very great hand painted sign business on Etsy and she does so to provide some income for her family while being a SAHM. She has a limited quanity restock every so often and with almost 50K followers, she sells out FAST! Like super fast. She warns of this beforehand. I have yet to try to snag a sign, but I admire from a far like any good IG stalker does. Anyway, I didn't see said negative comment, but she posted her own graceful response which got me a thinkin'.

    First off, I wanted to reach through my phone screen and give her a hug, because SAHM life is frankly exhausting. Then on top of that owning a business, I'm sure, is even more exhausting. She listed several chores she does on the daily, to which I smiled because I'm lucky to accomplish 1/2 of my list ... which is about 1/2 of her list! Second off, this negative commenting person obviously hadn't read the signs, because they're all God related or something of that nature, to which I rolled my eyes. Lastly, why is every thing a competition? In life, in motherhood...

    I'm sure there is some yoga pants wearing- ACTUALLY yoga going, perfect hair and make-up wearing, health food eating, classroom mom, who does this all while working 9-5 and rocking it. Really, I'm sure. Be it just on TV or in my dreams, she exists. Should I envy her for that? Maybe a little... No. No, I should not. Should I invite her over to learn all of her deepest perfect mommyhood secrets? Yes. Will that change the fact that I am a non- attending yoga pants wearer with a messy-bun and mascara on from last night? Probably not. Will that take the spoon out of the can of chocolate frosting that I eat while crying in the bathroom after a long day, at which some point I should have been handed "World's Worst Mother" award? Definitely not, I'll offer a spoon though. Mostly because there's always something we can learn from eachother, A L W A Y S- people. 

  I often find myself comparing my life, my mothering skills, to others. It's exhausting and self-depriciating, but it happens. Pinterest, IG, other mom's, it's everywhere. "How to be the perfect parent" "What you're doing wrong" "What you should be doing" the list goes on and on and on. My kids are generally happy, they're well taken care of, they're loved and that's what should matter. Not what time they go to sleep or nap or wake up, not the fact that they ate stale Cheeto's (let's face it, it happens), not the fact their socks rarely match. NONE of that matters. What matters is you try your best, even if your best for the day isn't your best day.

  So when you see that perfect mom coming out of yoga, maybe in all reality she's there working off her chocolate frosting from the day before.

rumor has it

Hello everyone!

     This week has been pretty mellow and I do apologize for the lack of interesting posts. If you're wondering why I always post so late in the day, it's because the tiny humans I'm required to take care of often times make bedtime a giant game in which case I NEVER win. So here we are at almost 10 pm and after 52 ' snacks ', 24 refills and exactly 129 trips to the bathroom, I need the equivalent of those in glasses of wine and I'm still wondering what to write about ... Frankly I got NOTHING accomplished today and was just happy everyone was fed and bathed at some point, but me ...that mom life.

     Right now I'm currently working on some sign designs for the shop & browsing business cards. We will be at our first show in February! I'm not %100 sure on the launch date for Etsy, BUT I am leaning toward the beginning of March! Over the next two weeks, I will be sharing what type products you can expect to see at the upcoming market (with dates) AND on Etsy -via IG. Depending on feedback, I may be offering a give away or two for our grand opening! Make sure to follow along on IG or subscribe for email alerts so you don't miss out!

Have a great weekend and we will see you back Monday!

Olivia

    

DIY cotton wreath

Hello!


     I don't know about you all, but Mondays come too fast and for me they fly by instead of drag on. First off I'm happy, but kind of sad, that the mystery mutt and her owner have been reunited and our house is restored to its regular crazy! She was really a sweetheart and slept the entire time she was with us. Luckily her owner was just as sweet and SO thankful to have her back. Okay, back on track- A few days ago I stumbled upon a cotton wreath someone had made out of cotton balls, a vine wreath and craft paper. Saturday night, against my better judgment I stayed up way too late trying to conquer this project. I'm not sure when my Saturday night excitement became crafting, but I assume somewhere between the first peanut and the second. I'm okay with it. Anyway, the supply list for this is basically nothing!

• GLUE GUN & GLUE STICKS
• GRAPE VINE WREATH ( I purchased mine at Wal-Mart for around $5.00)
• BAG OF COTTON BALLS (These I had on hand, but from the Dollar Store $1.00)
• CRAFT PAPER or BROWN PAPER BAGS (optional, I didn't use)
• BURLAP (optional, for hanging purposes)

     I didn't take step by step photo's, but trust me, it's self-explanatory. The whole reason I started this was because I did not want to purchase the faux cotton stems at $6.00+ a piece OR the dried cotton plants from Hobby Lobby that are right around $10.00. Let alone buy a cotton wreath, if you haven't checked the prices on those , yikes! First off, you're going to want to put your favorite Netflix series on because step one is the most tedious. In order to get the fuller look and as close to the faux cotton as possible, I took the cotton balls and stretched them. Which sounds fairly simple, but it was not. I chose to group approximately three cotton balls per "fluff" on my wreath. So once you have finished your entire Netflix series of choice, you are ready for step two. If you choose to add the craft paper or paper bag to the bottom of your "fluff" , I would suggest you do that now. I would assemble the "fluffs" and glue the paper straight onto the bottom of each individual "fluff". If you're confused about this - Pinterest, my friends. I didn't have craft paper or bags on hand so I opted out. Third, you will need to start to pull a few sticks out from your wreath. A few here and there will be plenty. Finally, after you realize 10 years of your life is gone, you are ready to attach your fluffs. I honestly had no plan for this step other than to place them randomly. I put some on the ends so they would stand out and some tucked into the wreath itself. I would recommend you put the glue on to the wreath and NOT onto the fluff. Ouch. To be frank, I got lazy and stopped gluing the pieces on and started more or less shoving them onto the branches...that resulted in me putting the fluffs back on the wreath after I got it hung up (USE THE GLUE). I used some burlap ribbon to hang on an old ladder and voilà!

     I promise it's not as bad as I made it out to be.  That's all for now! See you back Thursday!

dogs, garbage, we take it all...

Hello, again!


 I know today I promised there would be a picture of a stunningly perfect window collage on my wall. However, life happened and what didn't happen was that collage wall. In case you're wondering why it never came to be, let me give you a run down of my day... While I was ever so graciously slaving over a warm breakfast of toaster waffles for the kiddo's, my son started screaming bloody murder. Naturally, I thought someone had broken an arm or leg or lost a limb. When I came bursting into the room and realized there in fact had not been any causalities of the extremity sort, I was relieved, partially upset I stopped inhaling my coffee, but mostly relieved. He was looking out the window clearly very distraught about a small dog wandering around our house. She was obviously freezing to death, probably hadn't eaten in days, scared and lonely (see how my thought process works before caffeine?). Considering I had never seen the dog in our area before (we have a lot of dogs that wander aimlessly in our neighborhood) I decided to wait and see if she would attack my fiancé who was unknowingly working on something by the garage. There she went, right up to him, but no attack. The coast was clear. I threw on my boots and ran outside, flannel pj's and all (the neighbors inevitably thinking "there goes that crazy lady again"). She followed me right inside and made herself at home, on my pile of clean laundry. Hmm. She helped herself to our dog, Angus', food and water. Angus' was not very hospitable and is still pouting about our new house guest. 12 + hours in, no tags, no response to FB posts or flyer's and tomorrow we will see if she is chipped. 1 stray dog, + 2 smitten toddlers - collage wall = one exhausted mama. I don't think there is anything we won't take in... be it junk, garbage or animals.

We did tear apart our dining room table bench because I thought the legs would be perfect for a mini farm house table for the kids. Tyler did some constructing and with some stain and chalk paint the table was born! Then I decided I liked the table as a coffee table and that the kids will have to share, for now. Bottom is after assembly + dark walnut stain, top is chalk paint before distress and wax and middle is final product! I will find time to take a better picture, for now, bed.

dining room

Guys, FINALLY got rid of my burgundy walls in the dining room. Honestly, I was obsessed with the color scheme the previous owner chose when we moved in. It was a lot of tans and burgundy/maroon, which was great for primitive décor and I even painted my upstairs to match. Overtime, I absolutely came to despise the burgundy dinning room and now my hideous upstairs hallway. I picked "useful gray" by the HGTV line, not too dark & not too light. So today was the day and let me tell you, it was a very long and exhausting one. How do you paint an entire dinning room with two toddlers to watch? Do you take them to grandma's house for the day? Nope. Do you bribe a friend to watch them in exchange for Starbucks? Nope. Do you build a small barricade to try and keep them out? Yes, but that too will fail. This is what you do...  You arm them with mini-roller's, drag out every retired sheet in the house to line the floors, you pray that God has a sense of humor and you brace yourself. You also laugh, A LOT and not because all the things they do are funny. You laugh because you are trying to prevent yourself from crying every time their sweet little greasy fingers leave not so sweet, but equally as greasy marks all over your wet paint. You laugh again because what should be a completed wall is a mural of poorly illustrated Mickey Mouse heads and monster trucks. Then when its all said and done and they're FINALLY sleeping, you smile. You smile because although the walls are painted one solid color now, their little handprints and your poor attempt at cartoon characters is still under there somewhere. Then you may cry, because you realize you're overly tired and getting emotional, lol. ANYWAYS, I wish I would've taken a picture in the day light, but said toddlers prevented any extra time being spent in there. I will also post a picture when all my stuff is put back and touch ups are done. Here's the general idea, excuse the floor and again I'm no photographer. I will be spending the rest of my night catching up on The Bachelor and watching The Hills reruns ...

my story

Where to start? My name is Olivia. I am a mommy to two blonde-haired, blue-eyed cuties! I am a lover of all things junk, coffee and Johnny Cash addict, I like to decorate and paint.. literally everything and if eating pizza is wrong, I don't want to be right. I am engaged (insert sappy story of your choice here) (really I hold him against his will & force him to help with renovations and dirty jobs). We moved to our corner farmhouse over 3 years ago and are just now getting ready to start in on the projects we have envisioned since day one. I know, slackers! We have in the mean time, had two wonderful kids and I have recently changed my career to stay at home mom / want to be interior designer/ furniture flipper/ pizza aficionado. All the credit in the world to the moms that can rock it all, you may come over anytime! I am brand spankin' new to this blog business so bare with me as I stumble through these first couple of posts. I hope to inspire people as I post about our journey to bringing this farmhouse back to life.