Mrs Egg’s Table

My friend, Jenni, moved to Eureka Springs last year, and just opened up the cutest shop called, The Lovely Ambition Mercantile, and it’s right on Main Street  in downtown historic Eureka Springs.  Jenni approached me about putting some handmade items in her shop and I jumped at the opportunity! Everything with Jenni’s touch just glows. She has a creative eye that can’t be matched.  I knew if I was going to be brave enough put something I made out there for sale, her shop would offer the best odds at success. So I went for it, and delivered my first batch of creative works a couple weekends ago. 

20 minutes after she opened the shop doors for the first time ever, Jenni sent me a text. I made a sale! The first sale was my art! Well that’s just as exciting as it gets. 

Or so I thought. Seeing something I created in a display window just blew my mind. Selling 3 more items the first day of business REALLY blew my mind. Am I really doing this? You betcha. Why not? 

Here are a few things I made and a few pics from my first trip to the shop (Quincy and Kristi A came along and were my support sisters) 

So a week later, I received another order and now my kitchen has transformed into “Santa’s workshop” for the day while I have fun creating. 

Good views to welcome gratitude month.

This is my view at the corner on the days the children ride the bus home. It's beautiful and makes me happy. The kids greet the cows (that they've named) as they pass them in the morning and afternoon. 

I had an hour and a half to myself in my house on Saturday. Aaron took the big kids to see Hotel Transylvania 2 and Sloane took a nap. I got some little things done in the basement storage room. This broom hook set was leftover from a kit I used in the laundry room and garage and this seems like a nice place for it. 

I still haven't completely updated our 72 kits but I am making progress. I've added a ton of first aid supplies, flashlights, and hot hands, and last summer's flip flops. I found some hooks in the garage that I had in Corbin's closet in our old home, and repurposed them to hang the 72 hour kits in an unused corner and free up some shelf space for preschool supplies and food storage. 

It's getting to be a functional space, finally. Each bin is for a different preschool week/theme. 

Yesterday, Aaron called everyone outside in a hurry. Hundreds and hundreds of ladybugs crawled all over our home and deck! They were everywhere! Must be s sign of good luck. ;)

Here's the progress I made in just under 2 hours of moving rocks on Saturday. It's not as hard as expected (I say, after only making a teeny dent in the pile!) and the result will be so worth it. No more front yard mudslide!! Hooray! 

I got to be the camera holder/clicker for Katie's family pics last night and was blown away by the view at Lake Rayburn. We never go to this lake and it was just down the road from our old house. Well done, Bella Vista. Well done. 

Caps for chemo is going strong at our house! Here's the latest finished hat. I started this one when Reese was 4 and Quincy was 2. I love that it will go somewhere purposeful. 

Katie came by yesterday while Sloane was napping and we knocked out the rest of the front rock and stained the deck in less than 2 hours! 

I took these pics this morning so nevermind that it's already covered in leaves. ;) 

Can't wait to get my rocking chairs back out there and slap a wreath on my front door...which I am painting today! 

Oh speaking of painting, I painted my kitchen walls yesterday while soren was at playgroup. Aaron and I discussed that we both had just become used to the unfinished drywall look in that corner. It wasn't bothersome or offensive to have bare spackle, but now that it's painted it is really pretty and looks as though it's always been there. To me, that is the sign of a successful remodel. It is a nice thing to know that the sliding door project is officially finished. And look at that cute little redhead photobombing in the corner. I love him. I have a good view, today. 

Progress report: where I've been this week

I saw this:

And now I'm dying to finish our porch (aka my "outdoor office") so I can spend some time out there enjoying autumn before it gets too cold. I miss slow and simple afternoons on my porch swing. 

Life is far from simple, right now. 

Taking a break is impossible, but I am making time for a few distractions that allow me to be creative and bless my home and family at the same time. It's the best I can do. 

Some free lumber (it pays when the good folks at Lowe's know you. One of my favorite managers followed us out to the parking lot and gave Soren a toy car, too. They must've missed us! ;) 

Anyway The door to the chicken coop broke and needed to be repaired to keep the hens safe. Since I had already gone to the trouble of borrowing an air compressor (mine gave up the ghost a few months ago) and the nail gun was already hooked up, I decided I had no excuse to not finish this project already. It only took 10 minutes and is so functional. This project has been on my to do list for THREE YEARS. WHY didn't I do this  sooner? It's so functional now. Function makes life easy, and easy means more time to do important things

After the peeling porch, we'll paint our peeling door. I picked up these color samples. Why not go a little bold for awhile? 

Which one? 

It rained friday morning, so walking was canceled. Sloane took a morning nap and I grabbed the bin of photo hanging supplies and went up to the girls room. They have like a million things they want on the walls, but since none of them match or have any coordinating style, I haven't put them up. I also don't care for the periwinkle paint in the room left behind from the previous owners. But let's be real, I'm not painting their room anytime soon, and I decided that it's more important for their room to be a place they love and for their walls to speak their personalities, than for the room to be pinterest perfect. It took about an hour and the girls were SO happy when they got home and saw it. I also finally added hardware to and hung up the mirror they got for Christmas, and put up a bulletin board by the desk for them to save and display artwork on. 

It's such a gorgeous day. I got the trim band wall paint shaken for the kitchen  slider project that's been unfinished since May. I keep thinking I will find energy or time to knock it out. I need to stick to things I can do in under an hour. 

I scored this huge mirror for $10 at a thrift store a year ago. It had no hardware on it, but I finally attached some D rings and got it on the wall with some monkey hooks. I want to paint it, but can't decide if I want to stick with classy white, or do a  wild color. 

Don't judge the messy dresser top. That's life, right now.  It drives me crazy. I'm working on it. 

The other piece of art that input up in my bedroom looks a little silly in the photo: all alone on that big wall, but it's an 11x14 +frame and doesn't feel lost in real life.  We have plans to move a chair or settee to that corner where I can hide and read a book. 

My friend Jocelyn brought by this cake and hung out for a bit the other day. I love her. I felt no need to entertain, no need to be or feel anything I'm not feeling. No forced smile, because it came to me naturally just having her over. She's so so so good at reminding her friends that they're loved.   She just reminded me that I'm not marooned on a forgotten island. When friends who knew you back when you felt like YOU tell you you can do anything, that you're valuable company, a good mother, a good friend, a worthy cause, strong, capable, funny, whatever, it's so much easier to believe them. 

So, I ate my cake with Mr Saunchy and hung up pictures in the girls' room. It made their day. That made my day.  It feels silly to write about working for peace on a day when I'm feeling so calm and good. But that's anxiety and depression for ya. Good days are so great it's hard to imagine you felt like worthless crud or couldn't stop crying or convince yourself to get out of the house just 12 hours ago, because the good day is just SO good! And hard days are so hard you don't reach out or give yourself grace or take a much needed break. You just hold on and get through them and then feel kind of dumb when you boldly talk about them later. 

Moving forward: artwork brings me joy. I'm happy to see it attached to a wall vs propped on the mantel. Hey, It only took me 6 months! 

So does this new gigantic magnetic glass calendar that arrived today. It's so pretty and empty. That will change tomorrow when the pens arrive. Can't I just ignore it and pretend all this blank space is our September schedule? Look at those beautiful empty boxes! If only it were real.  

My hope is that writing things on a physical calendar will accomplish a few things. Most importantly, help Corbin. Transitions are a challenge for Corbin so I hope that if he can SEE what the week/day looks like, it willgive him a feeling of control over our family schedule. We are big-fat-calendar-in-the-kitchen people now. It was bound to happen eventually with a family of 7.

Other progress: I hired someone to get the greenhouse put back together. It's such a relief to have it assembled. Can't wait to use it! More to come...

The porch project is making progress too. We hired a teen to work with Aaron scraping paint and I worked on it a few times while Sloane napped and soren rode his bike the other day. It's coming along. 

I'm also working on enrichment this evening, a table display for refreshments for a fireside on Sunday, and a class on preparing for General

Conference that im teaching in Metfield Branch next week. More to come...

State of the Art, Art of the State

I've been dying to do something creative lately. My latest creative project (crafting a baby) has been pretty time and energy consuming, and other than the tiny human I'm growing, I haven't really made anything in months. Ok, I haven't done ANYthing in months.  I saw these and couldn't stop thinking about them. But on etsy these bad boys are going for anywhere from $45-$80 EACH plus up to $70 for shipping. Forget about it! DIY, baby.  I needed to make a California, Utah, Idaho, South Carolina, Wisconsin, and an Arkansas for my walls, stat! 

My friend, Carly, met me in the lumber yard at Lowe's yesterday and we got our craft on while the kids played all day. They had fun, we had fun, and the results are fantastic! 

For this project, We used cheap pine 1x3's, and cut them into  17 1/2 inch lengths with my chop saw. It took 15 six foot boards to make 12 "squares" for states (a set of 6 for each of us, apparently we move a lot). The boards weren't "rustic" enough so we painstakingly (but worth it!) took wood chisels and an electric sander to each piece and distressed them all. I would recommend buying furring strips instead of raw lumber if you want to do this project, because theyre already sort of garbage-for-lumber quality and you'll save a lot of time with distressing. 

I should have taken a photo of the back. We attached them together with two 1x1 furring strips cut to 16 inch lengths.  There are two of them running perpendicular to the horizontal boards. 3/4inch screws probably would've been a better idea, but since we were mass producing these suckers, we opted for nail gun and air compressor and they assembled very quickly. 

We made a cocktail with some grey and walnut stains and they're drying beautifully in my garage. 

Now I  trying to decide whether or not I wang to paint the states, or spend a zillion hours doing awesome string art like these ideas:

If I go for (easy) and just paint them, I might do a string heart on our "city" in each one. Either way, there will definitely be a string art W added to my wall very soon. 

We pla to finish them next week. I'll post pics! 

Dressing the naked walls of this house

I've had a difficult time making up my mind deciding where to hang things in this home and result has been 6 months of barren walls. Today I took Corbin to school and said, "No more!" to the non-personalized spaces. I can always move things around if I change my mind about them later. For now, photos are going up! 

Guys, hanging pictures on a stair well is no joke. I found myself teetering precariously with hammer or drill in hand a few times and decided this task was not for the faint of heart. Our family pictures, on the other hand, are totally a joke. The last time we took portraits, Quincy was 18 months old. Soren didn't even make the "wall of shame" as my parents would call it, and the only evidence of Corbin's existence are the newborn pics I added up there. For family pictures, I'd like to be outside, ButI really love the white backdrop for the kid portraits, and need to just find a place that will take some, and throw them up there. Curse Picture People for closing their business! It was too easy while it lasted. Aside from a few minor adjustments and replacing the mattes, I like the way it turned out. And I also like that there is no longer a huge stack of frames piled up in the corner of the play room. One corner at a time...

I really need to remember to wait until nap time to do stuff like this. Soren followed me around like a little buddy and handed me all the things I wasn't holding. It was adorable until he tripped on the tile and busted his upper lip open. Blood everywhere! That poor baby. Where's his mother and why doesn't she watch him? ;) he looks extra kissable today with his fat lip. 

I also got around to dressing some shelves and hanging the growth chart I made. I thought I would love that some of my milk bottle collection is on display, but I already feel like the shelves are crowded. They'll stay like this for awhile and be thinned out as soon as I get the shelves built in the loft.

My friend Carly dropped off this cute craft the day after I miscarried and I just love it so much. Maybe I blogged about it already? It seems like I did, but I'm losing it so just in case, here it is (again). It says, "life does not have to be perfect to be wonderful." I love the message, I love the thoughtfulness behind the gift, and I love the pretty reminder to love life and all experiences it offers me.

The word "sea" also has some significance. A reminder to both Aaron and I of our coastal upbringing, a reminder to take our children to the beach and let them be messy, sand covered, and care free while they soak up our favorite place. And the pun lover in me appreciates the homophone "sea" that also reminds me to "see".  Last month we focused on gratitude and of course, had a horrible month with a broken leg, never ending winter storms, and a miscarriage to boot. My extended family also climbed a mountain of hardship last month and I really had to cling to gratitude to help me get through some awful days.  The "sea" in silver letters remind me to take a good look around and "see" the silver lining of my beautiful life. I live in a sparkling ocean of goodness and when I just remember to look, I see the shining sea of blessings and swim in waves of happiness. 

My plan is to get the children's artwork up tomorrow. It's going to require a ladder and some serious balancing, so if I actually do it, I will post a picture. 

Finishing touches

Here are a few pics of projects we've done lately.

1) Well it took about 5 coats of paint with primer, but the bookshelves are finally white.  The whole room is so much brighter now.  A BIG thank you goes out to Kasey, Katie, and Angie for coming over for a late night paint party. I didn't really like my bookshelves before but I totally love them now.

 2) Blinds are up in Corbin's room and in Reese and Quincy's bedroom.  Goodbye ugly blackout curtains!  I was completely debilitated on the sofa the day my dad installed these for me. I am so grateful for his help and compassionate service.

3) I've been busy organizing my preschool supplies. There are about 15 more bins where these came from and each is filled with all of the curriculum for a week's theme.  For example, last week's bin has the large plastic bugs, the small plastic bugs, the bug puzzles, the bug flash cards, bug catching kits, bug stamps, and the bug puppets.  All of my curriculum is printed and filed so I can easily grab a folder, and the associated supply bin and I am ready to go!  It wasn't until I started this system that I realized how much preschool stuff I have.  Holy moly. I can't wait to have a real classroom in our next home.

4) Ding Dong the fence gate is done!  Credit behind this masterpiece really goes to my dad for creativity.
The left side of the fence is a 15 foot gate on a wheel that swings open for access to park a boat or trailer or rv or whatever in the side yard, but the right side also opens easily as a person gate so you don't have to push the huge gate open every time you need to get to that side of the backyard.  Brilliant!

 The backside of the gates.

 Ta da!  My dad and I worked our tails off yesterday and finished the person gate. It makes me really happy to see it finished finally! woot!

6) Baseboards and trim.  Remember the door we installed 2 summers ago? Well, I finally got around to adding trim around the door frame (it still needs to be caulked and painted) and putting the baseboards back up along the back wall of the dining room.  While we were at it, we put the baseboards back up in Corbin's room along the wall that had to be repaired after the great flood/carpet installation a year and a half ago.  

If you haven't noticed a trend already, I'll tell you that it takes me forever to put the finishing touches on big projects.  It's always little stuff that gets left behind.  By the time I am done with the hard stuff, I am usually so burned out on the project and/or up to my armpits in another one that the little things are forgotten.  This month I'm trying to focus on fixing or finishing little things that would totally bug me if I were looking at a house to purchase.
Evidently, there are lot of little things that bug me.
And so the list goes on...