Open House Tour Childrens Bedrooms

Well, it's Thursday and that means the 4 Moms and 35 Kids Open House Tour.  This week we venture into frightening territory!  My children's bedrooms can be....well let's just say....um natural disaster areas, unsafe for man or beast.  But lately we have been working on their rooms and we have seen some improvement.  Especially in the Little's room.  Wait let's back up and start in the beginning.  Don't forget to tours other bedrooms at Life in a Shoe.

While the kids worked on making their rooms presentable I made bread..yum.  It had been awhile since I had made bread. I think the kids missed it, they ate three loaves in about 2 hours!! 

Is there anything better than hot bread slathered with peanut butter and syrup?  Well maybe chocolate!

Ok, let's start with Ileighs room. She has a tiny little room and she is the only one who bunks alone.  We would put Elsah in with her but there simply isn't room.

Ileighs' bookshelves are what you see when you first enter her room.  They are full of all her beloved books and trinkets.  You can see her keyboard and her fiddle.  She is very good at piano and getting there with the fiddle! 

This is her spoon collection I'm not sure how many she has but this is only some of them.  They are from all over America as well as many countries of the world.

Here is her "old pictures" shelf. 

Who is visiting ILeighs' room?  Why it's Elsah Doe.  She loves to come and chat with her sister.  You can see Ileighs' hope chest and what we call "the Granny Chair".

If your brave enough we'll venture into the "Littles" room, oops Donagan just informed me that at 10 years old he is not a little and the only reason he does not room with the older boys is because the "littles" need him to help out with all their stuff.

The boys all sleep on these bunk beds.  Donagan on top and Rohan and Ferran on the bottom.  You can't see them very well but the quilts on the beds are all made by my Mom.  She does great work, I am so proud of her talent!

Donagan and Rohans' dresser.  The drawers are labeled so the boys know where things go.  So in theory they could put away their own clothes.  Well we all know how often that happens, mostly Ileigh or I put up the stuff!

Here is the shelf unit that holds all the boys important items that they don't want to get broken or chewed by babies or puppies, not that that ever happens in our home!  Below is Ferrans dresser.

Ah....here is the bright spot in the room, Elsahs little corner.  Mom made the quilt on the bed as well as the one on the wall.  Her triple bunk dolly bed was mine, made by my Daddy when I was her age!! 

The older boys consented to just two pictures of their room!

Kegan just recently refurbished his computer desk, I think he did a great job!  He stained the wood and spray painted the metal!!

Quinlan and Kegan have bunk beds too and they are forever switching who sleeps where!

This is part of a mural Dane is working on in their room, a Piratey theme!

So that's the children's rooms here.  They did a pretty good job, I think they were passable for this tour! 

Oh, I couldn't resist this pic of Elsah Doe, she loves her dollies SO much.!

Have a great day!!

Potluck Saturday, YUM!

The Common Room is hosting a Potluck recipe link-up.  Ahh...... potlucks, I have been to many and brought food to some....now that we home church we don't get to potluck much anymore!  Except on Sundays when we get together with my mom and dad then we sorta potluck I guess, one of us brings dessert and the other does the main dish.  Anyway we still take dinners to folks with a new baby or family who've lost a loved one.  And this is the recipe I usually make:

This is one of those "throw it all together, no measuring, taste it and see if it's right" kinda recipes, I will try and give some amounts though!
Pueblo Chicken
1 chicken boiled, de-boned and chopped.
or 2 large cans of chicken
While the chicken is cooking, prepare 4 cups rice, you can use Minute rice if you  like.
When the rice and chicken are done put them in a large bowl and add 1 16 oz container of sour cream, 1 or 2 small cans diced green chili, 1 can Rotel, or some of your favorite salsa, 2 handfuls grated cheese, 1 can diced olives, 1 onion diced (my mom would add 2-3;), Add garlic salt and regular salt and pepper to taste.  You can also add Cumin, yum, I LOVE Cumin.  Stir all and taste test, to see if you need more salt, ect.  This makes a TON of casserole, It will feed my family 1 1/2 times.  Bake at 350 for about 45 minutes.  This freezes nicely, and can be made a meal with torillas and salad!

Well Folks, We Have a Winner!!!

Barbara was correct!! It is an old Phonograph Player!!  It is an Edison Diamond Disc Player to be exact! 
It was made sometime between 1916 and 1924.  It sounds fabulous!!  We are having a great time listening to the 35 records that came with it.  The records can only be played on an Edison machine and they must be played using a diamond stylus.  They are a 1/4 inch thick and can be found rather readily on ebay.  We know our player is not period accurate for the 1880's but we think it will make our little farmhouse feel like home!!
Barbara, email me and let me know where to send your Mini Lantern!  Since there were only two other entries, except for an anonymous we decided to send both Kate and Mountain Home Quilts a Mini Lantern.  So if both of you ladies would email me with your addresses I will get your lanterns in the mail!!
Thank you to all who entered our first giveaway, we had great fun and hope to do many more contests in the future!
mamadear27 at gmail dot com

Open House Tour Master Bedrooms

Hello,
Welcome from Kelly Korner!  Enjoy our Master Bedroom Tour!


Check our our First Ever Giveaway HERE

It's Thursday and time for the 4 Moms 35 Kids Open House Tours.  Today is Master Bedrooms.  Let's just say I am so late getting this post up because our master bedroom is the place where everything gets left or put so that the living room and dining room look nice, so our bedroom required a bit of work!  Be sure to stop over and see the other Master Bedrooms at Life in a Shoe.

Here is what you see as you come in the door.  The quilt on the bed was made for me by my Mother, because she loves me!!  And I bugged her for it!  It's called ......um......um......Oregon Trail.....Ah!  Stitches on the Oregon Trail!  It's been a long day and I've gotten about 6 hours sleep the last 2 nights due to little children and their deplorable sleep habits!  Anyway enough about me.  The tree on the right side of the bed was in this house when we moved in, I have tried to make it thrive, but it insists on dying a slow death.
The picture above our bed is "The Accolade".  I can't remember by whom, and the baby is asleep in there.  Dane and I got it for each other for Valentines day several years ago.

We just love it!

  This is the view from my side of the bed.  You see our dresser and Octavians bed.  This crib has served all of our children and me.  Yes, that's right this crib is 30-- something years old.  A couple kids ago my Dad refinished it and it looks great, ready for a few more.....maybe!

Ok, over by Octavian's bed you look this way and see our supplementary bookshelves.  They hold our ever decreasing dvd collection and some old magazines and some of Dane's technical books.  The door on the right is to our bathroom, which you may not see..sorry. 

This is my side of the bed.  The dresser is old, I'm not sure how old though, Mom, do you know?  It was my Grandma Frankie's, this dresser holds Octavian's clothes and blankies and some of my things.  See that black case over on the left, that's my Autoharp, don't know what an autoharp is?  Well let me show you.

Here we are, an autoharp is a folk instrument, they have been around for about 100 years.  You push the cord buttons and strum the strings.  I'm not good at it, I've never had a lesson, I just play around at it when I have some spare time, which isn't very often!  I can play with Dane on a few songs, though. 

Hey....a Quinlan on our bed, how'd he get there? 

  This is our doorknob to our bedroom, it came from, well you can probably guess, Grandma Frankie's, front door.  I was so happy Dane could make it work for our bedroom door.

Thank you so much for joining us on our little bedroom tour.  Have a great weekend and don't forget to enter our Mini Lantern Giveaway!

"What am I?" Contest Giveaway!!

EDITED:
Wow, we have had some really great guesses.  Although one guess is closer than the others.  Ok, here's some new pics hopefully they will help out!  This antique carries someones name, it is mechanical and it can soothe the soul!

Recently our family came into possession of a fabulous antique. Instead of just telling you about it we thought it would be fun to make a contest out of it!!

Do you remember the 'What am I' photos on the back of children's magazines? They were super close-up shots of everyday items. It was fun to try and figure out what you were looking at. We have taken some very close up shots of our new find and you get to guess what it might be. The first person to leave a comment with the right answer will win a Mini Dietz type Lantern!! Then on Monday we will randomly draw one name from all the comments and that person will also get a Mini Dietz type Lantern!!! Isn't that exciting?  You can enter as many times as you like, but it must be with a guess as to what the pictures might be!


                                                                      THE PRIZES

Aren't they cute?  And they really work too!  Your just dying to get one aren't ya?  Ok, here's our extreme close-up photos...................

Any guesses?  If you all can't guess after a few days I do have more pics and I could be persuaded to give some hints.  OK, have fun!

Preeesenting.........Dane the Banjo Man!!!!

It's good to know we won't be without music while we're back in time!!  Here, Dane is playing Wildwood Flower.  We recored this version to post on Daily Frail dot com. Dane learned to play by watching Patricks Daily Frail lessons and by reading his books!  Thanks Patrick!

By the way, something exciting is coming up soon, stay tuned!!

A Living Room Tour

Welcome from Kelly's Korner, I hope you enjoy our Living Room Tour

It's time for the 4 Moms 35 Kids Home Tour!!  Today is Living Rooms.  Be sure to see all the other fine homes at Life in a Shoe.

The first week was the Outdoor tour, last week was Kitchens!

Here is a the view when you enter the front door, the first thing you see is the Music Wall.  Danes banjo, Kegans mandolin, Donagans guitar, there's also a scrub board and small guitar there too for when the littles want to join in.  Dane LOVES his banjo and is very good, in this humble wife's opinion.  He longs for us all to play together some day.

You also see our screen and dvd player, Wii and assorted other electrical stuff!  Oh, and the fish and my dog India, in her crate!

This is the view from the master bedroom, here we have Dane's big chair, our leather couch, and some child back there down the hall.  We LOVE our leather couch and chair, they are perfect for a family our size.  I don't know why we didn't get them sooner.  These were bought last year at a black Thursday sale.  We got a great deal on them!!  And they still look brand new, which is saying something for this house!

Here's a better look at the furniture. The sheepskin on the couch is a favorite of the kids they call it "huggy-ruggy" and fight over it on movie night!  You can see my sewing machine, I would love to have  a sewing room, but since there isn't an extra unused room sitting around I prefer the living room for sewing, I can still be a part of what is going on with the family, and get some work done in the process.

This is a shot behind the couch, we left the castle and blocks the littles got for Christmas here quite by accident, but they love to play with them back there.  They are allowed to play quietly while we have read alouds for school, or when we are watching a educational video.  By the way our TV is just a screen we use it for movies and Wii only no real TV.

These are the bookshelves that flank our wood stove, they hold about half of our families books!!  You can see our Easton Press book collection on the top shelves.  Having good quality books to pass on to the next generations is very important to Dane and I.  As soon as you finish reading one of these books you may very carefully write your name and date in the front, we hope to have a great family history recorded in these books!

Our wood stove works great, too great, most of the time it runs us out of the room because it's so hot!  But we're glad we got it, it's nice to not have to depend on the propane man for heat!

This is really the entry way, but it's all just one room.  The shoes go on the shelf, the coats hats and whatever else needs hung go up on the hooks.  Dane and I made the hook board a couple of winters ago, after we put it up we realized it needed to be much longer!!  It looks fine now but when every ones coat is up there it's a crowded mess!  We really love our giant clock, but sadly it will not be joining us back in time, as it's run by battery!
Well, that's about it for our living room, not very big or fancy, but we sure like to spend time together in it!!  Oh, you'll notice our walls are all pretty dark, I love these colors, my house can look like fall anytime of the year!!  plus you can't see all the finger smudges and assorted things that get smeared on walls by small children!!  Although if they get bumped you do get a nice white mark!
Have a wonderful day,
Misty

Sweet baby Octavian and my sweet doggie India sharing some quality time!