Just a little lagniappe

During the month of November, we read a Scripture and do a craft or service project every night. It is so important for us to remember the true meaning of the holiday season. For Thanksgiving, the focus should be on thanking God for all of our blessings. By reading Scripture about thankfulness and doing service projects, we are able to focus on God.

I made a day-by-day list of activities and scripture in order to keep me organized. The more organized I am, the more likely I am to follow through with my plans! I also make a supply list and buy EVERYTHING that I need for crafts and service projects before we ever start. All of the crafts I have chosen are on my Pinterest board, Thanksgiving crafts. I take no credit for thinking up all these cute ideas!!! Each year, I find new ideas to replace old ones. I like to keep some of our favorites to do every year, though!

This is a picture of a paper plate pilgrim and Indian. In the background, you see our Thankful Leaf Banner. Each day the kids wrote down something they were thankful for on a leaf and we clothes pinned them to a ribbon. It turned out really cute and made them think about all of the blessings God has given us!

Hannah is posing next to an array of crafts! It's hard to see, but in the background are our leaf turkeys made out of real leaves! Right next to her are her paper plate pilgrims and Indians!

Last year, we added in reading from Rush Limbaugh's book, "Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims," because I believe it is so important to teach our children the true story of the pilgrims and all of US History. I want my kids to know that our country was founded on God and His principles.

The Living Area

When we began looking for house plans, I knew what I wanted. I love windows and porches. I like to be able to go from the front of the house to the back. I don't like split bedroom floor plans. And, I did not want the laundry room to be a main entrance to our house. Well, that house is not out there! So, my dad drew our house plans for us...making it the PERFECT floor plan. The living area is a large living room, dining room, kitchen combined. We added a play room upstairs at the last minute which gave us the opportunity for a beautiful staircase in our living area.

Our fireplace is made of old brick from a building that was torn down in Downtown Newport. It is located in our dining room. I saw a Pioneer Woman episode one day and her fireplace was next to the dining table. I thought that was so cozy and had to have it in my house!

The main area is where I really incorporated Junk Gypsy style! Although some of my junky finds are just that JUNK that I happened to think looked cool! But, most of it has some sort of special meaning to me! That makes it work in our house!!

On the mantle I used old blue mason jars, vintage pool balls in a jar, Nancy Drew books, and an oil lamp! The oil lamp was Brett's grandmothers and I read and collect Nancy Drew books!

Who doesn't need a glitzed up old decoy? The home of an avid duck hunter definitely deserves one!

An old ladder with coffee burlap bags draped on the rungs.

It's football season, y'all!! Woo Pig Sooiee!

I LOVE the way our stair rails turned out. They are made of old rusted rebar!

I found several old fruit crates on ebay, but then I found these new ones at Walmart! They were MUCH cheaper and I plan to stain them to look old!

I found this old chair at an antique store in Mt. View and just painted the lyrics "And I think to myself, what a wonderful world" Then, I decorated it with an old lantern and a bible story book that was my dad's! The turquoise door is an old classroom door from Newport High School!

This barnwood and tin hutch was the perfect find! I have decorated it with an old gas can, mason jars, a Handy Andy tool kit, an adding machine, and quilts! Very rustic and junky!!

Bless Your Heart!

I'm a computer teacher, so this vintage keyboard is perfect!

These old burlap seed sacks were an incredible find!! Searching on Ebay, I was ecstatic when I found a rice seed sack from Newport, AR and a soybean sack from Diaz!! How cool? Then, when I showed them to Brett, he told me that Buck Hurley is the man who helped his grandpa get into farming! Wow! That made it even more special!

I wanted my living area walls and ceiling to be barnwood. When I began researching barnwood, I discovered that A) it is expensive and B) it can have bugs and mold. That's when I decided to try to make new wood look like old wood. I found a grey paint and hand stained ALL of the boards on our walls by painting the board and wiping it down with a wet washcloth! It was well worth the work!! The ceiling boards were created the same way but we used an off white paint to stain the boards. I love how there are knot holes and imperfections! It really looks authentic!

That big blank wall going into the hallway?? I have no idea! Any suggestions?? I'm waiting for the perfect inspiration, I guess!!

Do you all see that little punkin who snuck in my picture?? She thinks I'm taking a picture of her!!

The Kitchen

This kitchen is PERFECT!! It turned out just the way I wanted! We hung barn tin on the ceiling in the kitchen just like the porches! I was scared to do this, but I am so glad we took that risk!

The REAL Living Area

In Newport a screen porch is a NECESSITY!! The mosquitoes are crazy here! Our house plan had a wrap around porch so we decided to just screen in the side and back of our porch. We had a cable run to the screen porch so that we can watch ballgames outside while grilling!

The ceiling of our porch is rusted barn tin that was on a barn on our farm!

This old bench is actually out of a duck blind that Brett has hunted in his whole life! I plan to add pots of mums in the fall and geraniums in the summer!