pray for my mama...

Well girls, I am heading out of town this afternoon. Tomorrow is a big day...for my mom...and for me. She is going in for surgery very early tomorrow morning. It is a scary kind of surgery, so I cannot say enough prayers and cross enough fingers and toes to help ensure she makes it through ok.

I love this woman. More than she will ever know. I am her last child...number 8 in the line-up, and born 9 years after all my brothers and sisters. I think that has always given us a special relationship. I am 35 years old, and when she introduces me to someone she still calls me her "baby".

Secretly, I love that.

And I love this photo of her...and this is how I want to think of her today. Young, in love and so much ahead of her in this life.

Please, say a little prayer for her.

I need her to be ok.

Oh pottery barn, how you inspire me...

It was a long day today...it was soooo cold and cloudy and we were in the-middle-of-nowhere Iowa working on the "barn project" again today. And the wind?? What the heck, I felt like I was an extra in the movie Twister!! Just so you know, it is VERY hard to handle 16 foot long, solid oak boards in 30 mile and hour wind. Ugh. But so worth it, because that wood is going to make some gorgeous furniture!

 (If you are just tuning in, the meat-and-potatoes of the story is that my hubs and I are taking down a 100-year old barn to salvage the wood and galvanized roofing for some new additions to our inventory for our little furniture biz.)

So anyway, where was I??

 Oh yes, long day...cold...windy...blah...blah. I jumped under my down comforter the minute I got home because I was frozen to the bone. I was toasty & warm, reading the Pottery Barn catalog that came in the mail today when I a mini-freakout when I turned to page 95.

I instantly fell in LOVE with the vintage-inspired wood lockers that were staring back at me.

So, since I am a resourceful girl...I swipe their ideas take inspiration from their gorgeous full-color glossy catalog, draw up some plans, buy some wood and get to work building my own!  In all honesty, I saw something similar to these on a blog last year, and have been wanting to build a set ever since! Seeing these just gave me the boost I needed to get to work!

Soon, my husband will be off of work for 3 weeks!!

I could not be happier...because look what he is going to be building...

I am trying to get everything photographed for my upcoming Etsy shop...but I have to take a little time out so we can build and finish a few of these vintage-inspired wood lockers!

I am in LOVE with them!

I don't have anywhere to use them in my home at the moment...so we are building them just for the fun of it. Just because we love building and creating and painting furniture...so crazy, right?? We really need a hobby that isn't like work...but we love it so much, we just don't want to do anything else!

Hmmm...maybe I should offer a pair in my Etsy shop, just for fun??

Goodnight, my friends...I'm off to curl up again under my cozy down comforter to see what other things Pottery Barn is going to make me dream about tonight!

Oh, and my hubs just yelled to me from the other room...plans and a shopping checklist are already drawn up for the lockers!

I love that man.

Blue River Cottage

Beth, over at The Stories of A to Z woke me up with some gorgeous eye candy this morning, so I just had to share! The lucky girl toured this beautiful home in Norfolk, VA...and let me tell ya...if it wasn't already sold, I just may have called a moving van and headed South!

This house is A-MA-ZING....to say the least!

The inside is full of beachy goodness...white painted moulding like I have never seen...a kitchen that is to die for...a staircase that  I swear I would not complain going up and down 100 times a day...serioulsy, go take a look. I'm gonna stop typing now and go pay it a visit again myself.

Pop over to Beth's blog to take a peek of the inside...



Enjoy!

you can call me "Red"...

I have never really been into Halloween. I could take it or leave it, really.

We usually build a fire and watch a couple of movies.

I am not the girl that gets all dressed up for a night on the town.

Usually.

But this year was different.

You see, my hubs LOVES kids. He loves entertaining them...he is "that Uncle". You know...the c-r-a-z-y one that all the kids stick to like glue at a family Holiday. The one that plays football in the backyard with all the nephews on Christmas day...it doesn't matter if it is snowing, raining...whatever...yeah, he loves every minute of it.

He just loves making them happy.

Every year he volunteers to coordinate and decorate part of our local museum that hosts a Halloween event. The museum has a little historic town behind it and he, along with a bunch of friends, decorates and hands out candy at the Police Station in the town. I usually help him with the decorating part, but I have never actually been there on the day of the event.

But this past Saturday we decked out the building, loaded the car with candy and headed to the museum for one of the best days I have had in a long time!

Somehow he even managed to get me in a costume...


I



And for all you funny girls out there...I am NOT the one of the left.

Ha. Ha.

It was so much more fun than I expected! The kids that were there had a great time, the museum is so quaint and cute...I could move there with all those cute little old buildings and houses, I swear!

It is such a great event for the kids in out town. They get to come out and spend the day with their parents playing games, going on a hayride, dressing up for a costume contest and stuffing themselves with all the candy they can get their little hands on! Just a good old fashioned fall party with all the fun of Halloween mixed in.

I am so glad I jumped in and did it this year! Even if I did have a serious case of "hood hair" all day.

If you decide to celebrate, I hope you have a fabulous weekend! And if you dress up...I wanna see pictures! I am already planning my costume for next year, and I need ideas!

Happy Monday, friends!

I am off to paint a few pieces of furniture today. I have clients waiting, and I have been lazy long enough!