The Chicken Whisperer...With A Side of Ham

The chickens love this girl! 

They run to her...

...and will follow her anywhere!

Welcoming Fall In My Entryway

I bought this (cheap but sturdy) cabinet at Goodwill this summer so we could have a place next to the front door for sitting to pull on boots.  The doors hide grown-up work boots and off-season throw blankets.

For the summer months, I piled my Peruvian bright striped pillows in front.

 We call this the "boot basket", although it holds the kids' tennis shoes too.

I thought the basket looked summery enough on its own, so we left it bare.

The trees are finally starting to change colors around us, and the Fall weather has started,

so we started bringing Fall inside too.

My only rule for decorating as the seasons change:

"Use only what we already have around the house" ...

aka "Spend no money."

I wrapped the boot basket with a textured piece of fabric

and secured it with two pieces of twill tape tied together. 

I moved the bright striped pillows to the back and covered them with another piece of fabric, then piled the brown pillows in front with a green wool one that I borrowed from my bedroom.  Isaak helped me choose some branches off a tree in our front yard, and we stuck them in a bottle that we rescued from the recycle bin.

And my pumpkin pillow?

Why, yes, it is just an old orange cashmere sweater stuffed with a pillow!  

I tied the sleeves together at the top and stuffed the ends inside, then wrapped a brown washcloth around the knot for a stem.  Then I borrowed a scrap of felted green cashmere from my daughters' craft supplies, tucked it in next to the knot, and called it a leaf.

Fall has officially arrived in my entryway!

Not-So-School Desks

Months ago (and months and months...) I picked up these two mis-matched old school desks at a thrift store.  I brought them home with the idea that they would get incorporated into a really neat little area in our attic; a writing nook with bookshelves and cozy reading spots.

Unfortunately, that area still only exists in my imagination, so they moved from the truck straight into the garage.

And sat there for months.

Then one day last month, since I was already wearing painting clothes, I dragged them out of the garage, cleaned them off, and prepped the one I wanted to paint.

I papered and taped all the wood to protect it from over-spray, shooed away the cats and the kids, and went to work.

One can of black spray paint and a few minutes later, I had an almost matching set of desks!

When the paint was dry, the desks moved...

back into the garage.

Last week, I finally had a chance to work inside, and I created a spot for them on our landing.

My two oldest daughters promptly claimed them and filled them with paper, notebooks, pencils, and dozens of unfinished stories.

It's not the cozy little nook in the attic that I'd imagined,

but it'll do for now!

Almost...But Not Quite...Done!

Not so very long ago (although it sure feels like it!), 

our house looked like this:

It was less "log house" and more of a "brown-house-with-bumpy-walls" kind of look.

Now, after a very busy, labor intensive summer,

it looks more like this:

A lot more of an "Oh look, a log house!" kind of look.

Although it looks done, it's not really, because I'm still spending insane amounts of time doing this:

masking and then sealing the checks in the logs.

But we're almost...just not quite...done!

Reading Record: September