Furniture Galore

Jake has been busy making more furniture. He made this new table top this last weekend. He kept the table legs from our old table and just made a new top. It only cost about $30 to make! It looks so great in our kitchen. Our old table was mostly white, so this dark table really adds a lot to the space. He made the bench too. He made that a while ago when Megan first moved here when we needed more seats around the table. It really works out great. He stained the table top to match the bench. They are a great pair.



Next we have a little end table (or night stand). It was made using leftover tiles from his work. It is so cute. This is one of my favorite things that Jake has made. Everytime I look at it I just think "Wow, that really looks nice."


After Jake made our new bed, we needed a new thing for our TV to go on. We needed something tall since our bed is so tall now. Jake just whipped this up real fast. It is exactly what we needed. I love having custom furniture made. Can't get any better than that! Now if he could make us a new couch...

Tie Dye!

We had a party yesterday. A Tie Dye party! I love tie dying. I haven't done it in probably 4 years. I told my friends to buy white and come over. We all bought cute little white dresses for our girls, but I am too afraid to dye mine. I want them to turn out perfect - so I guess the best way to make sure they turn out perfect is to not dye them at all - right? I am glad I didn't though. A few of the color schemes turned out different than I thought they would. Now I have a better idea of what I want. I guess I just needed a little practice first. I knew this would be a messy project, especially with kids, but the mess pretty much stayed on the tarp. I am thankful for that. I was afraid someone would walk through the dye then walk into the house. That would be a disaster! It turned out to be really fun. After the kids squirted the dye for a minute they got bored then ran off and played with the hose the rest of the time. Which was nice because it left us to do the real tie dying. Everybody's stuff turned out very cute and colorful. Now I just need to get the courage and dye those little white dresses.

A few of the items. Megan's tank top. A couple pillow cases (Sierra did the pink/orange swirl pillow case). Sierra's panties and a shirt I did. Cute eh?

Part of the crew doing some tie dying.

The Artist

Yesterday during quiet time (in my room), Sierra got into my markers and colored. She colored all over herself, on the carpet, my bed spread, the new bed frame Jake built and on the dog. When I walked into my room there were purple and blue scribbles everywhere. It was kind of cute. Luckily it all came off.

I like her toenail painting job.

If you look closely you can see she colored on Daisy's eye.

The New Bed

Last weekend Jake decided he was going to build a bed for us (It's about time). Our old bed was just on blocks of wood with a makeshift headboard. He had it built within a few hours, but it took almost a week to complete with all the different steps it takes to get the finish he wanted. He did a little each night after work, let it dry over night, then did a little more the next night after work. Luckily it didn't rain the whole week. Just when we were ready to put it in the house a storm started to blow through. We got it in the house just in time. I looks great. Sierra thinks it is the coolest new toy ever. Megan that we have a parent bed now. I am super excited. It looks awesome!!!

Just built

We put on Jake's Secret Aging Concoction then sanded most of it off. This gives it a black weathered undertone.

The finished product.

Another angle

I bet your jealous

Because I have three pretty princesses living at my house.

Nevada City, Montana

My dad and Lael came up to visit us this weekend. On Saturday we all went to explore an old mining ghost town. We drove down to Virginia City and hopped the no. 12 steam train to Nevada City. Sierra loved riding the train. She said it was her train. It was fun to see the old buildings. A few of them had furniture and cool antiques in them. Some of the houses and buildings were set up how they were back then. The girls had fun (and were surprisingly good even in the heat). We all had a fun time.

I believe this was Brewery Street

This is a two story outhouse. It was for the hotel.


Taking a Break

More Nevada City Pictures

More of the town.

An old house. A house with siding was always more desirable than a log house.

Jail

One Crazy Storm

We endured one crazy storm yesterday evening. You know it's bad news when the power goes out before the storm even hits. I was outside moving the sprinkler and saw a huge line of thunderheads coming. I could tell it was going to be a bad storm. I have never seen clouds that like before. When the storm hit we had hail balls about the size of large marbles pounding down with constant thunder and lightning. The wind was just ripping - I was seriously waiting for some of our trees to fall - luckily they didn't. Our neighbor, the farmer, had a surprise waiting for him after the storm - the top of one of his big trees broke off and landed on his fence. The storm was so intense - I was sure our cars were going to be dented up - which they weren't. But our garden has a different story. It was completely destroyed. Everything was shredded by the hail. The only thing we have left is whatever peas we haven't picked (that the deer didn't eat). There were so many leaves all over the yard - it looked like fall only with green leaves instead of dead leaves. I even saw a few trees around town this morning that didn't have a single leaf left on them. It was actually sort of exciting. But after the storm there was a huge and very bright double rainbow. My fav. The power was out for about 4 hours so Jake, Megan and I sat around the table with a candle and played a few games of Yahtzee. I am very glad the power is back on and extremely glad that I don't depend on my garden for my main source of food.

Whats left of our corn (and peas - although the peas were all eating by the deer).

Pumpkins. I was so excited to grow pumpkins this year.

First Hair Cut

Sierra had her first hair cut today. Megan cut it for her so she would look just like Cinderella - at least that is what we told her so she would sit still. She just got a little trim to look nice for family pictures this weekend (at the Evan's family reunion). Thanks Megan! She does indeed look just like Cinderella. :)

Jake Of All Trades

Maddie's dresser. Maddie didn't have a dresser and was in desperate need of one - especially with all of the new clothes she got for her Birthday. I found an old dresser at a yard sale for $10. It was pretty ugly and well used. A bunch of the drawer fronts were broken or very dirty. So I brought it home for Jake's weekend project. We took off the drawer fronts and sanded the whole thing down. We stained it using one of Jake's favorite techniques and colors. We used leftover flooring Jake had from a house he just finished for the drawer fronts. I love the rough cut circle sawn wood. I love her new dresser. I am very happy to finally have Maddie's clothes organized and put away.

The old drawer fronts. They have made a happy home in the firepit.

Here are a few cute pics of the girls.