Almost Gypsy Soul

We've all seen the iconic windmills of the eastern plains providing water for livestock and families alike. I grew up in a house which water was provided by a windmill. Luckily the wind blew enough that we were not frequently without water, but it did happen. Not a good way to start off the day....needing a shower and no water because the wind hadn't blown enough. Boo. Last summer Assistant Pack Leader and I went to a farm sale (and we didn't tell Mike). We were the proud owners of a 6 foot windmill and a 8 foot windmill.....driving a Ford Danger. Let me tell you, that just doesn't work. So with little regard to our pride, we called Mike to come rescue us...with a 1 ton flatbed pickup. This is what we envisioned   And thanks to John and Mom visiting and being agreeable to home improvement projects, I ended up with this Nailed it!

For some reason this year I really had the urge to get some Halloween decorations and dress up. Since I don't really have any friends to go out to the bar with and I wasn't sure what other opportunities I would have to dress up , I decided to take matters into my own hands. I bought a really giant spider, a spider web tablecloth, a flickering orange porch light and invited some people over for a Booze and Boos Bash. Since most of my friends ride bikes and the fall weather has been incredible....it was amended to "Bikes, Booze and Boos", luckily one of the trails at the Wilkins Peak Trail System is called "Better Than Dead"....could it fit any better? Unfortunately the weather did not fit. The wind was blowing about 40 mph and the ride was cancelled. Pinterest helped me nail some party food and decorations.....although most would probably sufficiently serve as the "NAILED IT" variety. My costume was a big fat question mark for a whil...

If you remember back when I decided to join the Pay It Forward movement I got at least 5 comments and consequently 5 chances to pay it forward, to make someone's day with a surprise gift. So I've been working on this post for about over a year to share with you what I thought these people would most love getting in the mail from me! #1 Fellow blogger and OSU alumni, Amy - If you guys don't know Amy you are missing a gem. Check out her blog and get to know her a little better! I followed accounts of her proposal, engagement and am looking forward to the accounts of her wedding day....both from her and Football Fan. She lost her dad in a car accident in 2011 and I know she might miss him a little extra on her way down the aisle. So for her pay it forward, I thought she might like a bouquet charm so that her dad could be with her on her wedding day. Congratulations on your wedding Amy, I wish you forever happiness! # 2 Fellow blogger and OSU alumni, Tiffany - Tiffany...

Christmas is the second most wonderful time of the year....sorry, July 4th is my absolute favorite holiday. What does Christmas look like around here this year? 1. I like to buy Christmas stuff right after Christmas because its so cheap....and this year when I opened my decorations box, I had some surprises that I had forgotten about. BAM, brand new tree decorations this year! 2. If you are on the angel tree and you ask for cowboy boots, you pretty much get everything that is on your wish list. I'm a sucker for kids that don't want video games or iphones. 3. I finally have outdoor Christmas lights....complements of the after Christmas sales! 4. My nativity set.....only took me two years and bribing my friends and family to help me finish it, but I have a nativity set....that I painted and its awesome! 5. Don't forget the seniors. I love the Angel Tree and picking out gifts for the younger generation that needs a little extra boost around the holidays, th...

If you remember my table dilemma you can only imagine the anguish of trying to pick out dining room chairs. Of course most people pick one chair and get 6 of them. Lucky for me my table is not big enough for 6 chairs.....so that was on my side. However, I thought tables were expensive....try buying chairs. So I ended up with the hodge podge of chairs and I'm happy with that. It matches me, it matches my life, it lets me not have to make one big decision on what chairs to buy.  I bought a set of parsons chairs from Target....of which I cant' find a picture of online. So maybe with my final post of dining room chairs I'll show you them (whenever I get the last one done). But on to the ones that I made over......with a little pintrispriation. Pinterest inspiration This chair from Pinterest inspired the makeover for my 2 chairs that I found at Serendipity in Limon while I was home for Memorial Day, and yes that would be Memorial Day 2013. I may or may not have a prob...

I had a table in college from I think the 50s, then I had no table for a very long time. This was all fine and dandy until I would invite people over for dinner and had no place for them to sit! As I set out on operation dining table I didn't realize just how difficult this would be. I couldn't find a single table that I liked, could afford AND fit in my house! So I decided I would just build a table, can't be that hard, I built tons of furniture in high school shop class and oooooo, think of the money I would save over buying those cheaply built, overpriced things they were selling in the stores. What did I learn through this project? barnwood is not as easy to work with as solid oak I miss the tools that Schmidt had in shop back at ole' LHS when you think you might save money by doing it yourself....you probably won't I will name this the procrastination table.......I built it in a day, then proceeded to take a year to finish it. excuse my awesome ph...

I spent my 4th of July helping out my co-worker by supervising a high school boys basketball team's concession stand at the youth rodeo that is held every July 4th in Farson, WY. On my way back to town, the radio advertised a photo contest and I thought, well maybe I should enter....I don't know what I might won't win, but I should still enter. So as soon as I got home, I looked through my Wyoming photos (I should really take a few more!) and uploaded the following photos to the contest. Hey, ya can't win if you don't enter, but if you'd like to help tip the scales my way visit the website and vote for one of my photos! The rules for the contest were pretty easy All photos must be taken in Wyoming  All photos must be “family friendly” in order to be entered into the contest  Photos can include any type of photo from landscapes, action photos, underwater, glamour , wedding, architecture etc.  Must upload all photos on website  Any person can submit photo...

[Linking up with Stephanie @ Beautiful Mess ] I'm an Oklahoma State fan, you can't live in Stillwater for any amount of time and not love you some orange. I'd argue Oklahoma, but there is no doubt one of those "other" fans reading this who will try to prove me wrong. Now, I'm not a crazy fan, I'll watch a game, but I don't know every player on every OSU sports team since the beginning of time. I like my orange, but I don't (or never did) have season passes for any season. So I guess yeah, some would say I'm not a fan but whatever. Music Man is a Wyoming fan and he does know every players name for every team since the beginning of Wyoming Cowboys (and usually the OSU Cowboys) so it goes without saying he wins those fights, but I think that is mostly a guy thing (and Football Fan, Tiff) so again....whatever. Wyoming fans are pretty serious fans! I love watching Wyoming fans watch Wyoming football....its great! Ok so the real point of this...

Music man made me pine stools to match my coffee table that I got for Christmas. It probably nearly killed him to do OSU on here....he's a die hard Wyoming fan. So I decided that there were a few Pinterest projects that I wanted to give a try with hair-on hide. I was warned by several friends that hair-on hide stools weren't as good as they seem as the hair will all rub off. I went ahead and did it anyway....I still have enough hide I can recover when it all rubs off. So here is the finished product of my cowhide bar stools. And a project for the rest of my hide?......Can I master this one? Thoughts?

NASCOE is our employees association. At each area or national meeting a scholarship auction is held to keep funding in the various scholarship funds that are available to NASCOE member's children. Each state in attendance is asked to donate items to the scholarship auction. I volunteered to do our scholarship item when we went to San Fransisco for the All-West Area Rally. After cruising Pinterest to decide what could fit in a suitcase (mine to get out there and someone else's on the way back), I settled on this cute horseshoe windchime. My horseshoe windchime even has authentic Wyoming horse poo in it :) I don't do things halfway ya know..... And another little side note....that JB Weld was one bad A!!!!! Here is my finished chime......now to get to work on one for my little homestead.

I've seen several of my friends post pictures from their adventures of painting at various bachelorette parties and bridal showers. I was amazed that I don't have one single friend who isn't an accomplished artist! When Colorado Transplant Friend told me about the Arts Council's plan to bring Painting with a Twist to Green River I said to count me in! They chose Starry Tree for our masterpiece. When i showed up I was very disappointed to see a blank canvas staring back at me......and I mean blank! What the crap?! Where is my paint by number.....mine will never look like the "example" Here you can see the progression of my masterpiece....I think the most important thing is to finish the step and then put down the paint brush....anything I tried to "fix" yeah, that wasn't a good idea! On the left is the "professional painting" on the right is "the most professional painting" (that is mine in case you are confuse...

 [Linking up with Jamie for What I'm Loving Wednesday] I'm LOVING my Colorado Transplant Friend and pottery! My Colorado Transplant Friend gave me an awesome 30th birthday gift! We made our own pottery pieces at a cute little place called Pottery From the Heart over in Green River. At Pottery From the Heart you pick your own piece of raw pottery from their collection and then get your creative on and start painting. If you plan ahead you can order in pretty much any piece that you want to decorate. It was pretty hard to even decide what I wanted to make. I finally settled on a casserole dish (I know my OK boys are pretty surprised that I would choose something to do with a casserole, hey casseroles are good for the soul) and Katie chose a really big platter. We can't wait to have a get together to cook in our new dishes!   All finished and ready to be fired. We can pick up our finished pieces in 3-5 days and I.can't.wait. to see the finished product! ...

[Linking up with Jamie at  This Kind of Love for What I'm Loving Wednesday!] I'M LOVING..................I Brake for Yard Sales (An HGTV show from Lara Spencer, a GMA host) "Hoarders are welcome." ~ Lara, on finding the best yard sales So I might watch too much TV since this is this is the second tv show that I have written about for WILW.....sue me. Lara re-decorates for her friends and family refinishing, reusing and re-purposing yard sale, thrift stores, estate sales and dumpster items. There wasn't any dumpster diving on this episode and I can't even tell you how much disappointment I will have if she doesn't pull something out of the dumpster on this season's show! She loves garage sale-ing so much she wrote a book about it! I LOVE people who are so creative and can turn junk into masterpieces, especially in the name of saving some moo-lah. However, as with most HGTV shows that are all about re-purposing junk....still WAY out of my pri...

If you can pin it, you can do it! I got all crafty this year for Christmas and some of my best creations will show up on this blog periodically. Here is a super cool lamp that I made for Bryan (one for my house is currently in the works, that is how much I loved the finished product!) I started out with an clean, empty Pendleton bottle (very important part is making sure its empty, you will have plenty of friends who want to help with this step). Then I picked up a great burlap lampshade at Target and ordered these cork lamp kits from amazon.com. Amazon is my go-to shopping location! I ran around town and picked up some chocolate brown acrylic paint and some kiddo's play sand. Trace the silhouette onto the lampshade (I used a Sharpie) and paint it in with acrylic paint. It will take a couple of layers to fill in the burlap. Fill up the bottle with play sand and make sure to shake it around because it will settle. Pop in the cork lamp kit stopper, add a light bulb and the...