when one of your very best besties calls and says they bought

a farm, a real farm- surrounded by corn fields- with barns and a windmill...

you can't get there fast enough.

: )

***i may be moving my photography biz further north so

i can utilize this picturesque slice of heaven for

my backdrops.

our friends maggie, brian and daughter josie moved the same

weekend as our daughter, so it took me another week to

get to the farm, but the wait was worth it.

i took so many photos i didn't even know where to start to

show you how fab their place is.

i grew up on a dairy farm and this wide open space is going to

be such a wonderful place for them to spend their days.

the big red barn. complete with silos and a cupola.

and there's a windmill.

need i say more?

oh there's more. : )

this is their darling red brick house. there has been an addition added on the

 right side of the original farmhouse that makes it spacious and modernized in the best

possible way. things like new windows and air conditioning...

there's also a big jetted tub in the new bathroom and i've been

in it!

umm, yeah, a cobblestone sidewalk~

 and the original front entry. their master bedroom is now behind that door.

mags and jos were about to pot up their new red pots when i arrived, so i watched

and of course took pics.

the addition includes their kitchen and living room. i forgot to get the other

angles, but there are enough cupboards for 3 kitchens, and i'm eyeing the big center island

thinking it's going to be great for baking christmas cookies.

one cozy corner of m. and b.'s bedroom

when they looked at the farm for the first time, this framed horse

poster was in a barn. the previous owners left it for them and

now it's cleaned up and in their bedroom. : )

*rumor has it that a horse or two and chickens will be living

on the farm someday soon. if maggie has her way, she'll be rescuing every
needy critter in the county.
: )

this is josie's room. she's got the loft bedroom and she got to

pick her new paint color. 

*when you're a girl and you're 6~it's pink all the way baby!

this little tin bucket was a yard sale find i brought mags.

jos in the big tub

so, there's 8 or 9 outbuildings and two beautiful fenced pastures for

whatever lucky critters get adopted. 

one of the pastures

a cool old corn crib 

this to die for building has a future as a "big girls play house". yes, us girls

have plans to clean it up and make it all cottagey and fab inside.

~ all day sweet tea parties perhaps?

this is the ceiling of brian's he-shed. the girls wanted it, but the

big meany got in there and filled it with tires and guy stuff first!

we're scheming about making floral curtains and putting window boxes on it

so he'll just give it up.

; )

there was all kinds of interesting old stuff left in the buildings.

(just ducky for junkers like us).

lots and lots of old horse tack.

this big ol' pole barn is what it's really all about for brian. you should

see all the toys and campers, trailers and guy gear it holds!

the day they moved in the family got 2 baby kitties. this is nina.

she's everyone's favorite. so mellow. their dog practically licks
her to death and she just lays there and purrs.

happy as two peas in a pod over their forever home~

daddy-daughter 4-wheeling with bailey running alongside.

"sprinkles"

"nina"

one of the first things maggie said when she called to say they got the farm was:

"i want to be a real farm wife. i want to learn how to make pies".

well, guess what we did when i went to visit?

she was so excited about learning to lattice the top crust that she could

hardly stand it!

i also taught her how my gram made "rollies" with the leftover

pie crust~ yummmmm

if i were an itty bitty kitty, i'd be real happy about

my forever home too.

life is good on the farm you guys,

& i couldn't be happier for our dear friends.

marge, the next time i come can i stay for a week!?

i'll bring food! and fun new magazines! and flowers from my garden...

oh and bed prizes too!!

enjoy the 4th of july holiday friends and

don't forget to take some pictures.

(and remember, it's all fun and games until someone looses

a finger. be careful with the fireworks)!

xox b.

hey hey! happy friday~ i hope you've had a great week.

ours included over 3 inches of much needed rain and

i've got a whole bunch of random things i'm going to blog about today.

~just go with it k?

nothing big's been happening here, just a million little things.

 it's the million little things though that make up my days and turn into years.

it's just us~being a family. working, playing, teasing, disagreeing, figuring it out,

cleaning up dog hair and weaving our days into a life.

******************

in may i turned 58.

 that's a lot of years, but i pray that i stay healthy and get to enjoy lots more. 

one of my very best friends (who lives a couple hours away) was in

chanhassen the day of my birthday, and even though we were out to dinner

with the fam when she stopped by, look at this delightful chair full of fun

that was waiting outside my front door when we got home!

opening gifts from the kids~

and then saying what i always say: "oh hey wait, let me take off my glasses". lol

adria cleaning up something at the sink 

plus two large dogs in one small kitchen.

sarah and cole, helping celebrate birthdays~

i thought i'd show you a couple before pictures of the table i fixed up for chris and adria.

it was in really good shape overall, but i think the previous owner must have

let kids use it for crafts because there was a lot of paint smears, glitter glue

and food stuck on it. adria didn't care if i refinished it or just painted the top and

cleaned up the rest, so i went with the painting option.

there are two more leafs for the table and 8 chairs so they can entertain a big

bunch of people now.

(i used annie sloan's old white chalk paint on the top).

some long overdue yard projects are getting done this spring,

a biggie was cutting down 3 HUGE willow trees that were messy and

starting to die.

lars worked really hard cutting down about 2/3 of them and

then we called in the experts to finish and avoid limbs

falling on our neighbors garden shed.

i'm grateful that it wasn't my husband or sons perched at the top

of this tree! see how the top has just been cut and is falling?

lars starting this monster project. dude may be 60, but he can work circles

around a lot of younger guys if he wants to.

it still kind of looks like a war zone in the backyard, but we're working on it...

next up was getting a new picket fence around the back patio. we couldn't

find a wooden one like the old one, so we ended up buying the vinyl kind

that never needs painting. i guess that's not all bad huh?
*i haven't taken a picture of it all installed yet.

cole has been driving a hand me down truck for many years. it had rusted out to the

point that it was straight up ghetto and very loud. the heater hadn't worked right since before
 he got it...

 he finally decided that he was due for an upgrade and

his smile here pretty much says it all.

sister was here the day cole got the pickup, so she and cole's girlfriend

sarah (on right) hopped in to check it all out.

us girls approve.

while lars spent the day of his birthday truck shopping with cole, i got a small

party together. he loves his dog so much that when i went to get a 

60th birthday balloon and saw this huge brown dog, i knew i had to get it.

the dog broke it's leash and floated up to the vaulted ceiling and hung there

for about another 3 weeks bringing me some good joy.

: D
(you can't tell by this picture, but it's a two story high ceiling here).

salted caramel chocolate cake.

"get in my belly".

turning 60 was a bit hard for lars. 

honestly he was glad when the day came and went and 

he could just get on with it.

- his smile says it all too. haha

another good friend cooked dinner for some friends and i recently and had

us over to her new house. 

aren't these pots that flank her front door fabulous?

(she planted them herself.)

i've never had this blue plant she put in them. anyone know what it is?

here's cheri doing what she does best. cooking with love.

her new kitchen is dreamy and no one deserves it more~

while outside for a garden tour, i got this picture of the girls.

and of course, i'm gardening. what would our life be like without flowers?

really, really sad and colorless i guess. every day brings something new that's

blooming or starting to poke through the soil. i water and i weed and

i take pictures. i can't stand not to share some of this loveliness.

sister brings me these farm fresh eggs when i see her. 

(lucky, lucky us).

this might be the most random blog i've ever written, but i just had snippets of
this and that, not enough of anything to do a whole lot with, so i decided to just 
throw it all together and serve it up.

*call it my blog hotdish.
: D

cheers to a gorgeous weekend dear ones,

b.