Georgia or Bust.....

On Sunday night we changed our plans and headed south as fast as I could get the car loaded!! The younger boys and I had originally planned to leave this coming Friday but when I saw another snow storm headed in our direction - WE LEFT!
When we left our house at 7a.m. Monday it was 5 below Zero! When we arrived at my sister's it was 55 degrees! Today - it looks like we have brought the cold weather with us because it is now very cold here and windy!!! AAARRRGGGHHHH!!!
At least we are cooped up in a different house with our cousins - that is much more fun than being cooped up at home with our mom!!!
Fun, Fun, Fun!!!

More Snow Pics

Thankfully, we only have 2 snow shovels and since all the boys came outside with us -I didn't have to shovel anything!! So - I took a bunch of pictures of what the snow looks like now that it has been snowing for 2 days straight!


Thanks to the snow plow we have quite a fun mountain in the front yard!








Take your eyes off the cutie pie smiling at you long enough to notice the HUGE accumulation of snow on top of the picnic table....

Shiloh LOVES the snow! She was almost completely covered and had to jump to get thru it!

The tree branches have so much snow on them they are hanging way low!

The snow reaches the bottom of the swings!

MORE STINKIN SNOW

I am so tired of all this snow! It has been snowing for almost 2 full days now and we are officially 'Snowed In' this go round of storms!

Lasy night Stephen and Alex were outside for a little bit and shoveled the driveway, had a small snowball fight and made a couple of snow angels!

The street had just been plowed so the 2 of them laid down and made snow angels!

There is nowhere else they can make snow angels because the snow is so stinkin deep!

This what we woke up to - after it snowed all day Friday and all night!

It sure does look pretty!

After lunch Stephen went out again - can you believe how deep the snow is.......


This is what it looks like out the back door onto the deck! We cleared off the deck before this storm started so this is all from the new storm this weekend!!










Danny and I are headed out to shovel the driveway again - I think he has done it at least 4 times today!! He still is hoping we will make it out of here for church tomorrow! And he will have to go back to work tomorrow! They actually closed Target today so Danny got a snow day today - that was a nice suprise!!!

My hubby just told me that it is supposed to storm again on Tuesday - I am leaving with the boys and going to FL till May!!!

MoRe Snow...

I want to move to Florida and get as far away from all this cold and snow - I don't like it anymore!! It was fun the first time we got 2 feet but this is what? the 3rd snowstorm? or the 4th? This cold weather sucks!!!

I am done whining now......got it out....thanks

Getting Shanty with it......

It is show and tell time and I am gonna show off some of the things I made guided by Shanty 2 Chic!

I have been going a little crazy ever since I sat up till all hours of the night and read every single blog post from shanty2chic!! I have been to quite a few different thrift stores looking for wooden candle holders(cheaper than buying new ones at michael's) and glass jars to make a couple of the things they have posted. i am in awe of how creative they are and I love how other peoples creativity get the ideas going in my own head!!


This is the first official project i did following the rules from shanty 2 chic!!


This bookshelf was my grandma's and it was your standard stained wood with a poly finish. Blah! I love the little shelf and I love that it was my grandma's so the girls gave me some ideas.....
I spraypainted a primer over the finish so I didnt have to sand (worked out rather nicely) then I used this gorgeous turquoise color I had left over from painting my bedroom(yes - my bedroom walls are this color and the accents are RED - love it!) to paint the shelf. I got out my 80 grit sandpaper and gave it some aging then I applied my smoke ralph lauren glaze to complete the shanty.....
I love how it turned out!!!

I did learn a few things from my own shanty2 chic experiences (copying this idea)I would love to share with all of you....so you don't make the same mistakes I did!

None of my stores had Gorilla Epoxy so I had to use Loctite. It came with this great nozzle thing that mixes the epoxy for you - don't use it! It didnt really mix it and I had to redo my first attempt at gluing with epoxy! The second time around I squirted it out onto an old piece of wood, swirled it together with a plastic fork and applied it using the fork - much better results were achieved the second time around! I also did the duct tape trick the girls recommended the second time around! This stuff really works - it is pretty amazing!



Make sure you read all the info on their blog about each product before heading off to the store! I went to Home Depot 3 times for the glaze. The first time I was near there and so I went in to get the glaze and the guy was like - it doesn't have any color to it you need to tint it and I was like huh?? So I left empty handed but I did now know it was going to cost me $15 for a pint of the stuff!!



Trip #2 was the day after christmas. I went in got my glaze, completed the rest of my shopping and came home. Yeah -I can finally start my projects!! No - I then read something about the tint color and realized I had not read all the details and I had forgotten to get the glaze tinted. Trip #3 back to HD to get the glaze tinted! Now - I can get started on my projects!



The Shanty girls use the smoke tint but I did read another blog just recently who uses the tobacco. I think it is darker and I might like to try that color glaze too!


I used my acrylic paints to paint instead of spray paint - it is cold outside and I would never get it done if I did use spray paint. It took a couple of coats and I kept trying to get it perfectly covered - until it dawned on me that I was gonna take sandpaper to it anyways and if it wasn't perfect - it would be okay!



This is my version of the jOy plaques. I have wanted this word somewhere and thought this would be perfect! I love it! I still can't decide of I like it without the burlap or not????

I have done 2 show and tell posts today because I have been rearranging and redecorating since I put away all the christmas stuff and that involves being creative and lots of paint around my house!! So - you will see where Pray ended up in the next post.....

Show and Tell #2

I didn't realize how much I have been doing until I went to post for show and tell today...I have been a little bit busy but having fun!!! It is so much fun to reorganize, redecorate and rearrange after all the christmas decor ahs been taken down...fun, fun, fun!!!

This is where my shanty piece of work ended up! The hutch was moved from the kitchen into the family room and it needed some decor. So....

This is where the bookshelf i talked about here ended up. also in the family room.

This table has needed a special spot since I prettied it up last summer. So - with a little hutch movement we have a new home for the table! And the fantastic shelf wall thing I found at a yard sale last weekend.

The wall shelf was a very country blue color that does not fit into my decor but with a little antique white, some smoke glaze and 80 grit sand paper she turned into quite a nice shelf to display my pics of old schoolhouses and my funky chickens!

the round frames I also found at the yard sale and gave them a nice coat of heirloom white spray paint. They are displaying Winslow Homer and Beethoven - our musician and artist that we have been studying in school! The big picture is the picture by Homer that we have been studying for a couple weeks now - it is time to change it! I love including school stuff in the decor because homeschool is a huge part of our lives but our house doesn't have to look like a class room!

my hubby heard this word and said I want you to paint that and put it up in the house. so - 3 months later - here it is! every time i see the word there is something new i think of that we are victoriuos over and it just speaks of God's amazing work in our lives!!

we hung it on this little wall that you pass under as you walk down the hall and into the kitchen!

i painted the wood and then decopauged different pieces of scrapbook paper onto the board that the letters fit on. The letters are chipboard that I spraypainted black and then decopauged to the paper. i think it turned out cute and fun!

the wall of bookshelves in the kitchen also got an update after the decor was put away!

i love pigs and I have a new infatuation with funky chickens and roosters - maybe it is from living in the country! the silhouettes were an idea I got from a blog last year some time. easy peasy to do! and that empty space in the middle turned out to be the perfect place for our ocean box we made in science today!

the new lantern(the crack in the back piece of glass got me a discount at Ross) paired with my $2 pig is on the top of the left bookshelf.


this is what's on top of the right hand shelves. the flag was a father's day gift a couple years ago and i just painted the little sign over christmas break.


i have been collecting colorful and old glass vases for a couple years now and every once in a while i find a vase that i like that doesnt fit into the collection or is too big to go with the others so I put them in other places around the house - like here!


this stuff is on the other side of the middle shelves! my version of the shanty apothecary jars with an old schoolhouse pic I love because on the chalkboard is written - I will obey my teacher.

The other pic is stick figures of all the boys fishing - done by a friend of mine who has some amazing talents!

i filled the jars with sand i have had from our favorite beaches. my hubby asked me to do something like this a few years ago and the sand has been sitting there waiting for the perfect spot to put it...here it is!! i still have to paint the top of the back jar black and add it's tag but until i get it done it will sit right here!


i made this big fork about 2 years ago. i cut it out of mdf with my jigsaw. it has been ina closet since i made it and i finally put it on the wall about 2 weeks ago! for some reason i have been hesitant about putting up all the things I have made or painted.


a bench from a yard sale that cried out for some chicken fabric and some new paint. the barrel i found at an antique shop - LOVE IT!

well - that is it for now and probably for awhile! coop starts back this week and we have some catching up to do in school so my playing days are over....till I get another great idea I just have to do!!!

Show and Tell

It's wednesday and that means time to show off....YEAH!!! I am in th emiddle of a couple projects that I can't wait to show off so I thought I would link you to some of my older posts that I did before I had a place to share my show offs!!!

http://justalittlehouse.blogspot.com/2009/08/busy-busy-busy.html

http://justalittlehouse.blogspot.com/2009/06/ive-been-painting.html

http://justalittlehouse.blogspot.com/2009/02/i-finished-it.html

As I was going through old posts I realiezed I have been blogging for over a year now - wow. That seems long to me!! It was fun to go back through and see all the things we did! I will have to do that more often!!!

Show & Tell

I do love this idea and have been anxiously awaiting this week's Show and Tell to show off what I did with the nativity and O Holy Night I purchased from I Show Off.

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This board is leftover from some bookshelves my dad and I made over thanksgiving. I painted it balck and then sanded it down. I learned a cool technique to crackle so I tried that with the white center. I think it turned out pretty nice! When it was all dry I put on the vinyl and then put a clear coat over all of it!
to do the crackle effect: just use regular old elmer's glue!! i dont know what the actual crackle stuff you buy looks like when it is done but this worked well enough for me so I have done it a couple of times now!! i forgot to take pics during the process - sorry!
step 1 - paint your base color - the color you want to show thru the crackle - Let Dry
step 2 - apply elmer's glue to cover the whole area you want to crackle. not thick but not too thin just a nice coating
step 3 - let it dry but not completely. it will be just a smidge tacky
step 4 - put the top color on top of the glue. do it in one direction. don't keep applying to make it thicker. you are going to want to cover in one stroke going in the same direction and then do the next stroke. the more you go over it and the thicker you make the paint on top the less it will crackle.
dont hesitate to email me with questions - you will be suprised how easy it is and how fast it works! you should see it start in a couple minutes!


I love these nativities and knew I wanted to do something with them so...I bought them! She was nice enough to size them down a little for me so I could put them on this star as an ornament. I traced the star onto a piece of wood and cut it out with my jigsaw. It required a little sanding and then I painted!

on the back I wrote the different names that were prophecied in Isaiah 9:6.

I have a red one on my tree and Ijust love how they turned out - cute!!!

I am looking forward to cruising around all the other show n tell's!!!

Snow......Glorious Snow.......

the Grand Total at our House was 20 inches after snowing from 5pm Friday through about 8pm on Saturday

I love the way the snow looks on the wreaths...so pretty!

of course it would look even prettier if I didn't take a picture of the broken window that is duct taped!!


Stephen and Ben headed out at 830 and we didn't hear from them for at least 3 hours!!

the snow started falling harder again about lunchtime

after lunch daddy had shoveled the driveway and walkway and built some nice walls for the boys to climb on. thomas finally headed outside after lunch...

the snow was a little hard for Thomas to walk in....

Thomas and Shiloh had fun in the snow although I htink Shiloh had more fun than Thomas!

Big Brother walked outside and immediately fell over too!

This is the first mound of snow created by our neighbors clearing their drives and the snow plow. The mound has since doubled in size and will provide hours, days and weeks of snow play for the boys!


The boys wait for the snow plow to come through and create this huge pile of snow for them! This year our neighbor had a little bobcat out here shoveling his drive and dumped all the snow in this pile for the boys!!

As FUN a sthe snow is - I am about to go crazy from all the clothes and towels laying all over the kitchen so they can dry in between plays! I am soooo grateful that everyone but Thomas can dress themselves!! Oh how it is the small things in life that make me happy!!

It is beautiful outside with all the snow covering evrything.....Thank you, God - you Rock!!!