spurts...

Surely, I am not alone in my marathon 'get stuff done' sessions.  I just wish I got the urge for such marathons more often!

With Savannah's birthday slumber party looming,

and the arrival of Shawn's dad and wife in a few weeks for Ty's baptism...

I really wanted to complete a few tidbits of decor in Savannah's room, which also serves as our guest room for visiting family and friends.

Pardon the following photos... it was rainy, dreary, outside and the lighting was poor, very poor... that's my story and I'm stickin' to it!

Savannah does not want curtains... she is stubborn on that fact!

She gets it from me, I overall do not like anything on my windows... but I understand the need in bedrooms and bathrooms, Savannah does not have the same understanding.

The views from her bedroom windows are beautiful, she sees no need to cover them.

She is a morning person so she loves the early morning wake up call too.

So I finally got her to agree to some gorgeous aqua linen panels.

Giving her some cover, for modestly issues, whew!  No need in scandalizing neighbors :)!

I simply hung the panels from some adorable ceramic knobs, with twine ties... being careful to cover as little of her window moulding as possible (another reason she did not want window treatments)

Then, right in the middle of hanging the panels... I get an idea.

I bought this vase years ago, loved the shape, but it has traveled all around my house.  Location to location, never quite finding the perfect 'home'.  I think it is because the stain on the wood was quite orangey and never looked right with anything I already have.

As I was adding some twine to the curtain panels for hanging... for some crazy reason I remember this vase in the attic and thought that it would look great on Savannah's trunk... WRAPPED in the same twine!!

Love when something in my mind's eye turns out beautiful.

Savannah's loves it!

Since Savannah seemed most agreeable on that day... I ran with her non objections and pulled out some of my other treasures in the attic.

The vase is now cozied up to some antique crocks.  And you can see in the first photo an old corbel and quartz on the ledge, a beautiful branch leaned in the corner, antique frame, and my old pickle jar with a cherry tree branch.  This nook is done.

Since I was on a roll, I directed my attention to Savannah's chair.  Do you remember this y.u.m.m.y. creation from several months ago?  This has truly been a dream purchase.

She reads in it everyday!

It came with 4 matching linen pillow, I let Savannah go 'shopping' in my collection of fabrics, because we wanted to recover the pillows... and add a few extras.

Savannah did not want any of the pillows to match.

Blue is her favorite color.

I worried that the aquas, chambrays, and grey blues may not work... no need to worry!

Her choices in fabrics were perfection.

Disclaimer, I can not sew worth a flip.  But I can fumble through small projects... so fumble, fiddle, faddle I did!  Whew!  I did a different trim on each pillow too.

These were may favorites!

The pompom trim was tricky to work with, there are beautiful velvet ribbon bows (Savannah is NOT a bow gal but she didn't revolt on me) on the back of that pillow.

The aqua pillow is amazing, and I found this grosgrain ruffled trim (Savannah is NOT a ruffles gal but she bit her lip yet again) and could not be more thrilled with it.

Brace yourself!

Could the ties on the back of the aqua pillow be more fabulous?  I think NOT!!!

Love the brown/cream giraffe... had to use it.

PS - a symptom of ADD is that one obsesses over things that truly have little value to the overall picture or final outcome.

Why do I obsess about the BACK side of pillows?

I must analyze this further...

To finish out this reading nook, I added an antique stool with my favorite antique fan... it really works too!

And Savannah needed a place for her mEEEEEEllions of horse and barn bum magazines,

so I used this rustic tray and she can toss her throw on it too.

I need to make one more pillow for her bed,

paint a few of her favorite words on the wall above her head board,

and a few finishing touches in her bathroom.

Then, she will officially have the most completed room in the house.

Final pictures to follow, hopefully I can meet my deadline of February 4th, the arrive of Grandpa & Char.

Not to mention all this has to be done AFTER I finish the final projects in the Carriage House so Misty can finally move into the Guest Loft Apartment... aka future B&B!

eggcicles

 Our chickens produce more eggs than we can eat most of the year.

During the winter they produce few, if any, eggs.

So I freeze excess eggs to use during their nonproducing times.

 

I originally bought icecube trays but our eggs were too large for the little sections.

I found these perfect containers at the dollar tree, bingo!!

I freeze the eggs in these containers. When I run low on containers, I can pop eggcicles out of the containers and store in ziplocs.

Then when I need eggs I put the frozen eggcicles in the fridge and they defrost quickly. 

So, the hens are taking a hiatus but we still have plenty of fresh eggs, yum.

Looking forward to getting some more chicks in a few weeks to keep the eggs a comin'.

Our rooster got 'munched', so sad... going to get another rooster... love the doodledooooo!

Cooper

Meet Savannah's birthday present.

Awwww!

Poor, pityful, bundle of fur...

Cooper would have you believe that he was abandoned, left all alone to fend for himself,

in the back of the cold, lonely, truck.

Stuck in a truck, how truly sad.

But the real story would be...

he already has us wrapped around his precious little border collie paws.

And we simply put him here to make sure he was safe.

Whilst we hoisted the worlds largest armoire up through a second story balcony (prior post).

So... see?

No need to whimper and cry so convincingly Cooper.

You were rescued eventually.

And I'm sure all the neighbors within a 10 mile radius were glad we finally saved you from the mean ole truck,

for all the ruckus you raised!

OH dear... I just can't watch

Back in 2002, we were living in our first home and I needed a large armoire for our master bedroom to hold our TV and tons of extra storage items.

I found the perfect 'beast' at an antique store.

It measured over 5 feet wide and over 7 feet tall... I knew my only obstacle was whether it would fit up our staircase... I didn't dream what an obstacle it truly would be.

We opted to pay for movers to transport the armoire to our house and then manuever it upstairs.

Getting it to our home, no problem.  Getting it upstairs, HUGE problem.

The movers actually refused to attempt it.

Knowing we could not get a refund, we sent the movers on their merry little way and fretted over what we would do with this beast.

Shawn removed the top moulding, which is nearly 8" on its own, and also removed the doors... removing tons of weight.

Then we did what any Mayfield in this position does... calls in the brothers to help!

It was a monumental effort of positioning and hours later, the armoire was in our bedroom.

Several years later when we were moving to the farm, the process was reversed and my brothers claimed they would NEVER, EVER move the beast again.

So this brings us to now.

I have had this beloved armoire sitting in storage, and now in the bottom of our Carriage House for almost 4 years.

We needed it upstairs in the future B&B.

I even had a niche built for this armoire, I love it and want it up there so bad.

Fact was that I truly feared that it could not make it up the turn of the stairwell... de ja vue!

So I went to Shawn with my Plan B.

We knew it would fit through the double french doors... but how in the world were we to hoist it up there.

We had a time crunch... the faux balcony was going to be installed later this week, and if were to get the armoire through the french doors... we had to do it NOW!

I told Shawn that I thought we could rent a 'lift' from a rental company... he ran with it.

 Nothing fancy about this lift.

It actually has to be maneuvered by a hand crank, whew.

 

 Shawn, Savannah, and Christian methodically thought this through and slowly attempted this massive hoist.

Where was I?

Trembling in the house.

The fact was, once this process began... I got really, really, scared!

I didn't even care at that point if the armoire came crashing down from that thing...

I feared I had put my sweetheart and babes in terrible danger.

 

Shawn said it went smooth as buttah!

No hiccups, smooth planning, slow movements.

 

 Watch out kitty... it isn't a sure thing YET!!!

 

 Finally, it was IN!

Christian ran to get me, I seriously was in the house refusing to look out back even once.

It all went well, and fast!

My heros!

 

Now I have some serious sanding and refinishing to do on this beauty.

I can't wait to see it painted and reassembled... have waited 4 years for this day.

I will be back to show you the final result.

no business like... sNow business

Please pardon yet another snow post... but us Alabamians rarely get to dabble in this stuff.

And YES, we do realize this is a small amount of actual snow,
but we choose to see the 'glass 1/2 full'!

Classic sidewalk doodles, snicker!

This was the extent of my freezing temperature/snow rendevous.

The attention spans of my 2 boys is not adequate enough to make snowmen the tradition way...

rolling small snowballs over and over again as they grow in size.

Nope.

So they packed snow in a bucket... packed, packed, packed.

Whaaalaaaa... Bucket Man!  So much fun was had!

Not rain, or sleet, nor falling snow...

Not even a double ear infection and blown eardrum,

{which our doctor said was the worse case she has ever seen!!}

and definitely not a scolding mom...

can keep Savannah away from her animals and the great outdoors.   

We had miserable temperatures and 2 days of snow last week.

I had to insist on Savannah packing her ears with cotton balls and wearing heavy duty earmuffs,

cause that girl is an outside gal no matter the weather or temps OR current illness.

And so I surrender, and tell her to go on out and get her fix of farm surroundings...

and that rebel took her camera and leisurely strolled around, taking pictures,

gorgeous shots YES, but she seemed to conveniently forget about those ears of hers!

Those ears that were so awful our doctor shuttered at the site of them, those ears that mocked the first round of antibiotics... and demanded the BIG HONKIN' antibiotics!

And yet she came back in, after over an hour of freedom,

gleefully showing me her 'captured' gorgeousness.

Rolling her eyes at me because I tisked her!

No respect I tell ya!

My love

I awoke this morning to these lovely flowers.

Next to them, a white envelope addressed:

"to my Bride"

And a card, which read:

I just wanted to say good morning, my love,

and let you know

I have a feeling that it's going to be

a wonderful day!

In fact, any day that begins with you

always seems to turn out great.

It's true that we can't be together every moment,

but when we aren't,

no matter what I'm doing,

happy thoughts keep me company...

thoughts of love... thoughts of you.

Remembering all the special times we've shared

can put me in an "everything's right"

kind of mood

that lasts all day long.

And thats why

I just wanted to say

good morning, I love you,

have a wonderful day.

I know I will.

I always do - 

because of you!

I love my groom!
To this day... he takes my breath away!

And why today?  Any special reason?  Anniversary?
Nope.
He simply said he had been thinking of me a lot this week...