Pinterest Picks of the Week

My favorites from the last week of inspiration on Pinterest.  Hope you are gathering lots of inspiration as well!

Pom Pom Bib Necklace From Little Miss Momma

I really want to make some of these.

An amazing book wall and striped ceiling from Made By Girl

I am falling in love with maps and globes!

I love these exposed stone walls from House and Home!

Super fun playhouse.  I want to build one of these!

Hotel La Montaña Mágica. Huilo-Huilo, Chile

How cool does this place look?

Love these colors!

Love this bookshelf and the color.  Oh my.  Its just delightful!

I love getting to know about all of these fun blogs, websites, and places around the world.  Can't wait to see what you find!

Return To My Country Girl Roots

This week I returned to my country girl roots.  I went blackberry pickin' on the farm.  Although I went all by my lonesome I had a lot of fun.

First things first...Turn off the electric fence.  Especially important for me, because I've always been a little afraid of it and it had been raining A LOT.  I didn't want to test the relationship between electricity and water.  I hear they are really close.

 Second, put on some boots.  Clay mud is nasty.  So I wore Momma Jackie's boots.  I don't have any farm boots anymore.  I need some.  I can remember as a child going to The Tractor Supply Company and getting to pick between the red and yellow rubber boots to wear on the farm.

Isn't the queen anne's lace beautiful!  I love it.  We used to pick it all the time while we played on farm while my Dad worked.

My mom's domestic blackberries weren't as ripe as I thought they were, so I went on the search for our wild berries.

I used to love swinging on these as a kid.

Found them falling into the pond.

The problem with wild blackberries are the THORNS!  Ouch!

And let's not even talk about the chigger possibilities.  I immediately showered after my pickin' to avoid those little boogers.

Blackberry picking is fun but painful work, but the pay-off is well worth it...Blackberry Cobbler!  Yum!

Photo found here.  Sorry forgot to take my own picture.  I was busy eating.

Here is my recipe:

 2 cups blackberries   

(Or whatever you have.  I don't measure.)

1 cup sugar

1 cup self-rising flour

1 cup milk

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter

I cook the blackberries on the stove in a small pot with a little bit of sugar and a little bit of water just to make it a little saucy.  Bring it to a boil then turn it back and let it simmer just a bit.  Maybe 5-10 minutes.

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix equal parts sugar, flour and milk.  Melt stick of butter in oven in the pan.  Pour mixture into the butter greased pan.  Pour blackberry mixture into the center of the pan.  

(Confession:  Last night I forgot the butter.  I know what a terrible cook and blogger.  And honestly, It tasted delicious.  Better than usual.  Take that for what it's worth.)

Bake on 350 degrees approximately 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve with Purity vanilla ice cream.

Delicious summer treat!  Enjoy!


(Sorry guys and gals.  I can't get the fonts etc. to work correctly.)

On the Hottest Day in June...

On one of the hottest days in June, we decided to landscape our poor un-landscaped house.  Luckily, we had my Dad's help.  I'll admit the boys did most of the work and I was more of a foreman doing other little spray paint projects while they worked.  Imagine me and spray paint...I've been becoming a little obsessed with it.  But back to the bushes...The boys went all out to do it correctly and not skimp on any corners.

Landscape paper and pins and all.

3 loads of mulch.

The brick walk way has been begun...

We have a friend who owns a landscape business and he recommended this concrete glue.  We got ours at Lowe's for like $3.96 a tube.

Using a guide line the edging went in perfectly.

The outside of the house is finally done!  Well mostly minus the sidewalk but I call that done compared with where we started.

Painting is Not for the Weary

Brandon and I with the help of my family thought it would be a good idea to tackle the biggest project we've ever attempted by painting the exterior of our house.  Yes the e-n-t-i-r-e outside of our home...with paintbrushes.  You heard me.  No spray gun (couldn't figure out how to work it).  No rollers (didn't work well with the textured siding).  3" Paint brushes.  Sure we live in a small place but it was a crazy undertaking folks.  Luckily I have the best parents in the world who happily joined us on several occasions to help.  

Sorry to be graphic once again but as a reminder...
The Before:

Side bar:  Please note the beautiful gingerbread decorative molding on the porch.  I say with deepest regret that it is no longer with us.  It lived a good life but did not withstand the pressures of being transformed with the house.  I hope to one day pay homage to it by returning new decorative molding to the porch but alas now I can only mourn its loss.

Choosing the color:

Our house was painted in these stripes for at least a week.  You would think it would be embarrassing for the neighborhood.  Let's just say on hand it was and on one hand we fit right in.

Painting is messy.  But lucky for us, everyone embraced it.  When you decide to paint an entire house with paintbrushes, its all hands on deck.

Sure... when you get my family together for any project, monograms start flying everywhere.  So I should of known when Cara decided it was important for the mailbox to get a make over as well, she would assign Camille the task of monogramming it.

She free-handed it.  Pretty talented sis I've got, huh?!

The finished exterior paint:

Minus the porch.

Next....for the landscaping.  You thought the difference between 

...

these two are huge.  You just wait for the landscaping.