Winner, winner, chicken dinner.

But this is so much better than chicken dinner. Does it taste like chicken? No. It tastes like the BEST MOST EPIC GIVEAWAY EVER. EVER. And I want to be the winner. I might even get Robin to cook me some chicken.












That's right peeps. Mandi from Vintage Revivals could come HERE and help give my house a makeover. Talk about exciting.

Our cute little house.

Our Turf. For which my blog was named.

Oh, and Bella.

So my dearest Mandi, This is the room that I want to makeover.

Our future living Room AKA Mandi's project!

There are 4 big pieces of furniture in this one little corner...

You might be thinking to yourself, "Self, why does this woman's bedroom look like a thrift store?" Well until our bedroom gets moved upstairs, none of this furniture has a home. Some might see it as crap, but I know that if you are a fan of Vintage Revivals, you will fully appreciate all of its' potential!

You also might be confused because it looks like a bedroom. Well, it's about to become my living room.  For lack of funds to renovate the upstairs, our bedroom took up residence in the living room. This pushed our living room into the entry/what we think should be a dining room. Don't ask, this house is weird. That's what you get when your home was built in 1882:)

Upstairs in progress! Hooray! 

On to all of the crap  treasures that I can't wait to redo/use in this makeover!

Can you say gorgeous!?!

Thrift store- $20

My mirror collection just itching to throw itself on a wall.

This sweet trunk! 

Goodwill- $10

My copy-cat-ed-Mandi's-credenza credenza

See the post HERE.

It's being under-utilized and stuffed behind other furniture.

These absolutely amazingly vintage chairs! I also have the table in storage.

This makeshift bookshelf I painted.

Great pair of chairs just begging to be painted and reupholstered. 

The Bee (Thriftstore)--$10/each

This desk. I love the detail on the top (part of it's covered, but you can see the twisty's on the right)

Thrift store--$20

I'm planning on sticking this in my craft corner. What? Did I say craft corner?! I never thought the day would come!!

The following are pictures of our current living room, just so you can get an idea of some of the things we have to work with. 

See the brown throw pillow on the right? This is what it's hiding...

That's a patch the size of Colorado. Hole under it courtesy of Bella. 

She has since grown out of that phase.

Reasons Mandi would love coming to see me:

• Buena Vista, CO is beautiful.  What an amazing destination!

No, this is not from a magazine...I snapped this baby.

• I do hair. Mandi, I will hook you up!
• I need some major motivation! My house could be uber awesome with your help!!!
• I have some TO DIE FOR CRAP that could be fantastic
• I don't have any super cute kids to bribe you with like some of the contestants, but I am an aspiring mother. So this is what our future baby might look like...

"Pick my future mom!"

Wow. Kinda scary...but truly not as bad as I thought it'd be. Do you see the facial hair on my husband? 

I guess maybe it would have been better to just give you the puppy eyes...

Bella says "vote!"

So what is your job is in this whole shebang? voting! Polls open Sunday, May 1st. Click on the Epic Givaway button above, find my link (#86, which coincidentally means trash) and there will be a star below it for you to cast your vote. 

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!


Voting Instructions!


1. Click on this big yellow button below.







2. Scroll down to the end of the page (you will see a bunch of thumbnail pics--those are entries) and find my link. I'm #86 Winner, winner, chicken dinner. 
3. Click on the [*vote] symbol below my link! It's that easy! 
You will know your vote has been counted when the page refreshes.
Again...THANK YOU SO MUCH!!

Eyebrows

I find eyebrows fascinating. They can completely change the look of your face. Brows frame your eyes (which apparently are windows to your soul...shouldn't your soul have pretty window treatments? Wow, that was cheesy). I have a few friends that I force to come get their eyebrows shaped by me. (You know who you are;) I love doing it because they leave my chair looking like a totally different person. And it makes them think I'm a total rock-star. Which I am of course.

Now if I could just get them to come see me before they turn back into bushes.

A Trail Ride I would never take.

What is wrong with this picture?

Is it absolutely terrible that I want to pack my spray paint and go on a midnight excursion ending in an addition of the letter "W"?

The best part is that there are probably 7 more of these lining the road, and this is the only one with a spelling error. Like they had been spelling it for so long that all of a sudden the correct spelling escaped them. Also, it's been up for over a year. Their friends are awful for not telling them...it's like not telling someone they have a booger on their face. 

So to sum up: This sign represents a red-lighting, booger-faced, misspelling, genius of a business. But it's always good for a laugh.

BV Roastery Art Show

Ok, so this post is LONG overdue. For those of you that don't know, I paint. I love it.  I hung a show in the Buena Vista Roastery in February.

 It's April. It was a fruit themed show, which will become fairly obvious once you gaze upon the beauty of these photos. I must give credit where credit is due.

 My good friend Sharon Clark at Smitten Photography took these beautiful pictures (however, I did have to scan them into my computer, an act for which I'm sure Sharon would slap me. So I don't think the color is up to par. Sorry Sharon:)  She is insanely talented, so if you have a wedding coming up or an abnormally cute baby (or even if your baby is ugly, she will make it look cute) please hit her up.  She won't disappoint.

Now that I am done singing her praises, without further ado, I give you my [insert creative name of your choice because I didn't give it that much thought] show.

Hope this was a great source of enjoyment for all of you. It was for me. Minus the completely stressful 2 weeks that I threw this together in. It was still good to pick up a paintbrush.

DIY Credenza

This is Jane. See her in all of her majestic beauty. And this is after I had already removed her gi-normo handles which were her crowning glory. (Yes, gi-normo is a word. It's my word) I know you want this hunk of wood. No? Well you will when you see what I've done with her.

Jane. I feel like this is a before shot for "The Swan" or something.

Now I'm feeling sort of sad because I didn't take any pictures whilst (?) I was doing this project, so you don't have anything to go by. But it was pretty easy.  I got the idea from Vintage Revivals, my most fave blog ever. Check it out if you want to be inspired out the whazoo. 

1. I wiped it down with a damp cloth. If you find a piece of furniture that was born in the 70's, chances are it has a few cobwebs.

2. I filled the holes that i didn't want to use for handles with some spackle. While I am not sure if this is correct, it worked for me.

3. Spray Primer. I used Krylon no prime spray paint in white. Then I used Krylon Spray Paint in Ivory all over the dang thing. 

4.  Ralph Lauren Faux Glaze in Black Silk.  SUPER EASY.  Just brush on in small sections and wipe off to your liking. I had to order this from a specialty paint store because Home Depot has ceased to carry it.

5. Put on knobs from my favorite store in the whole wide world, Hobby Lobby.

TA-DA! A super fantastic piece of furniture that all your friends will drool over!

Total cost--- $10 for Jane (I found her at a consignment shop), $9 for spray paint, $9 for knobs, & the initial investment of the glaze which I barely used any of. ($15/quart)

$28!!! 

A-Mazing. 

Republica Dominicana

That is where I spent my spring break. I went with YL to a spend a week building on a camp there called Pico Escondido. It. Was. Awesome.

It was such a great experience. Everything. Including the whole 'not being able to understand a lick of Spanish so I result to hand gestures and speaking loudly' American way of dealing with immersion. It also made me resolve to learn Spanish. I think I'll Rosetta Stone it.

We went to the camp to help build on it. Our projects included building a stone path (Really fun! Think gigantic puzzle...) and staining, sanding, and varnishing bunkbeds for the new dorms they are building. The boys on the trip also poured a slab of concrete for the floor of the new dorm. 

This is a section of the path that we made. Yes, I welcome pats on the back.

This is a spot we were particularly proud of. Lizzi found this rock 

and we just had to use it. 

We worked so hard. But it was so worth it to think of the future of the camp. All of the kids that will walk that path, or lay in their bunk crying out to Jesus. It was such an privilege to get to be a part of Pico Escondido's history. 

These are a few pictures from around camp. I had told myself before going on this trip that I would be a good picture taker. I got a gigantic 'F' for fail. These pictures don't even come close to doing the camp justice.

This is an overlook of the pool, and you can see the gym in the distance.  Note the beautiful stone pathway. Everything there is so aesthetically well done.

The fire pit. More of the stone path we laid. 

Happy Campers after a delicious meal.

The most common form of transportation in the DR. It's not uncommon to see 4 or 5 people crammed onto one of these things. I saw a family of 4 on one with the mother dangling her baby off the side. Talk about safe.

Little Andee Q. Love this face.

And this face.

And this one.

Leaving camp:(

We got to stop at a market on our way to the 'Debrief' site. This was the only picture that I snapped, but I thought it was a pretty good one.

Maybe a touch inappropriate. But quite hilarious. And totally proportional. 

For our 'Debrief' we got to go stay at a resort in Santo Domingo. It was the most beautiful beach I have ever seen. White sand, crystal clear bluest blue water calmly lapping the shore, the sun warming my face. I know all you Coloradans are drooling:)

Sunrise on the beach.

Overall, I had a spectacular time. It helped me realize how big God is. He doesn't just work in my little town, or just my state, or even just my country. He is alive and well in the Dominican Republic and all over the world. 

This is the post that never ends, but I just have one closing statement.  I bought a bunch of candy in the airport on the way home (you know, duty-free and all that jazz). Bella was the one that ended up getting to enjoy it all. Literally all of it. Wrappers included. And a tube of chapstick. I wouldn't be surprised if I went out in the front yard in the morning and was greeted by a multicolored sprinkle-topped confection that she pooped out all over my turf. That dog.