First Peeks from the Creek Party!

I guess I should explain why I call the creek house the Creek Party! First of all, it's a weekender kind of place. It's about 30 minutes outside of Birmingham and it's a family place. My husband has a huge family and he and his cousins have been working on this property for months! My vision for the house is that everyone will come out and play (party) every weekend! The main reason it got the name is because a year ago, we were selling the property on the other side of the creek and my son wanted to have his birthday party out there. We were going to camp out and canoe down the creek. I started a pinboard on Pinterest to gather all of my ideas! You know, s'mores buffet, tent invites, the whole shebang. Next thing I know, all the lots have been sold and my hubby decides to tell me we bought the property on the other side of the creek and we are going to build a cabin! Now, I started pinning cabin ideas to that board so I could keep up with the ideas! The Creek Party! was born.

I post about it all the time on my Lucysinspired page and I get questions about where and what I'm talking about. We have been working on it for several months and I have been out there a thousand times. I was usually so busy, I forgot to take pictures. Plus, it was all junked up with dust and generators and dumpsters! The floors upstairs were finished over the weekend and we needed to pick out the concrete stain color, so we made a day of it and went out to the house! I took my good camera and my iphone. I wanted to do a few sneak peeks on Instagram and do an official blog post when it was all done. I was just asked where a picture on facebook could be pinned from. Got me thinking about giving you all a little teaser! Here are just a few of the photos I took today.

This was taken standing inside the kitchen. Those beams were LVL beams and I was UPSET when I saw them! I wanted everything to be reclaimed. I couldn't quite find beams long enough for this room and they decided to go on without me. My brother, Charlie, was the contractor on site and he gave me the idea to clad the beams with barn wood. I wanted skins that were the same size as the LVL beams. Again, couldn't be found. I finally gave in and went to Southern Accents and had Shane pull the barn wood for me. These were skins from barn wood. It had been milled so that it was the same thickness and width. It was perfect! It's been a few weeks since I was there and when I walked in today, I was so impressed! They looked GREAT! What do you think?

I also love that rusted tin ceiling. The wood on the ceiling in the kitchen is pick wick paneling. I knew this room would be able to handle a lot of texture with the tall ceilings. I feel like the sheetrock is the perfect backdrop for all that beautiful texture! I can't wait for you to see the floors! #imgiddy

This was taken looking into the kitchen. You can see the seams from the barn wood (if you look closely). The painters are coming tomorrow to finish up the kitchen walls and put another coat on everything. We also decided to paint the floor in the loft red AND the stairs going into the basement! This photo is of the floors. OH MY GOODNESS! I'm in love with them!! They are hickory and very wide planks. Purchased from Southern Accents.  We just put a good clear coat on them to bring out the natural colors. That beam in the center of the room is an octagon. I've never seen a beam with 8 sides! Garlan sent me a picture of it one day laying out at the wood museum. I had to have it! I am such a sucker for something unusual. I can always find a spot for it somewhere! We used the ends of it as brackets for the fireplace. You can find a huge selection of beams.....you guessed it, Southern Accents! There's a lot more to show of this house! Can't wait to share it with you!

Junk Gypsy finds at the Tractor Graveyard

We travelled to Tennessee this weekend for Emma's gymnastics meet in Knoxville. Emma got a 2nd place medal on Trampoline! Yay!

My Mom wanted us to go to the tractor graveyard on Saturday for me to pick out my birthday present! We really wanted to do that, but we had NO room in the car to bring back a dead tractor! haha. I want a grate from the front of a tractor. You know, a rusty, crusty one with a lot of cool colors and chippiness! It's funny that we go to the tractor graveyard to get this since Johnny, her husband, has a farm FULL of old rusty cars, tractors and OLD farm tools. Since I'm thinking about what that tractor graveyard might have had for me, I thought I would share some photos I took out at the farm last Spring.

I wish I knew how old this was. Johnny is the third generation of this farm, so it could be from the late 1800's or early 1900's. Can you believe that tree growing out of it??

 The grill on this truck is one of my favorites. I love the white and rust colors!

I love how this truck looks against the grass, wheat field and sky! It's like the perfect photo shoot!

Most of these vehicles were hauled out here to rest in peace. They have been here....for a long time! They were all driven by someone in the family and have lots of memories. Some people save Christmas cards, Johnny saves cars and trucks! He does take parts from them to fix other cars! (at one time he did)

I do love this one. Can't you imagine him driving that one around thinking he was something! According to my Mom, he was! (wink)

This is my favorite truck on the farm. It has the best colors. I have pictures from all sides and with my kids climbing all over it! That tree coming up through the front is awesome!

I want to make this into a table. There is no telling how much it weighs, but with pretend there isn't a tree growing out of it. Then put a piece of glass on top. Voila! I need a chainsaw!

My favorite truck out there. It reminds me of a cow!

This is from a Ford. I love the idea of creating words from individual letters. Check out my facebook page. My cover photo is from a sign that says Cullman Apothecary. 

 This is a wooden box on the back of an old tractor. I love the colors here and would totally rip this off if I knew someone named Oliver! I want to say this is from one of those 1800's tractors,

This made me laugh. I think these ladies are on lots of trucks still moving up and down the road, but they were rusty and I found them adorable!

Molly's Salad on a Stick

BCS Championship game night was at Molly's house! She is one of our favorite cooks. Ok, she is the best cook! We all love to go over to Molly's house to eat. It's a new year. Most people started their New Year's Resolutions to eat right on the first. Those of us in Alabama started ours on January 8th. There was a game that called for tailgate food. Luckily, Molly thought of an easy way for us to eat a salad! Alabama vs. Notre Dame was the game of the year!

We had salad on a stick. Stop it. This was my favorite! It was amazing! 

 She had it arranged in a bowl with the lettuce, bacon and tomato all on one stick! Drizzle a little dressing on top and it's ready to serve! 

  Just pop a salad in your mouth. Oh, you could totally dip in dressing. 

GREAT idea for a salad at a tailgate!

 Meet Chef Molly and her sous chef, Emma. I think Emma wants to learn to cook. I guess we will go to Molly's very often this year! 

 I LOVE this photo! I have no idea what the score was at the time. If this was the first touchdown or the last. These two boys love Alabama football. Can you tell? I think they were getting ready for their

 end-zone celebration dance!

It Snowed in Alabama!

I am humbled by the beauty of this house everyday. 

I couldn't wait for the kids to get out of school. I sat in the den watching the snow fall, waiting on the schools to say they were getting out early. I never got the call. I made an executive decision to go get them at 2:30. Wouldn't you know, it quit snowing. After we went home to get warm clothes, we headed over to John Connor's best friend, Reynold's house. He has a hill! On the way over, we noticed the snow was melting minute by minute. The sun was actually peeking through the clouds! We haven't seen the sun in a week!!! There was a little stress that we had missed it. 

As you can see, it wasn't a lot of snow, but it was enough to play in, make snowballs and have fun!

 Someone is going to be in trouble with that snowball!

 Sorry, Marie! WATCH OUT!!

She can handle those boys!

I love that girl's smile! Isn't it electric?

 These two are always laughing!

So thankful for best friends and snow days! 

Repurposing Old Architectural Pieces

I never watch tv. Ok, I do, but only when it's freezing outside! It's freezing outside here in Alabama. We do not get a lot of cold weather. I'm not a fan! I would rather be outside playing tennis or building something in my barn. Gah, I keep lying! When it warms up, I will be in the barn building all kinds of cool things! We moved in and I filled that cute barn up quickly. I haven't built many things, yet! Now that I have time to play, it's just too cold to get out there and clean it up!

I have been recording Rehab Addict, The Bronson Pinchot Project and today watched two episodes of The Salvage Dawgs. I love all this old, salvaged architecture! It's amazing what can be recycled out of old buildings.

You find them everywhere. Some are sentimental for family reasons. Others belong to the government and everyone can't agree on what should be done with the building or maybe someone is planning on remodeling and just can't afford it.

My Great-Grandmothers house is an example of the first. Her old farm house is falling apart and has been taken over by animals. It's been empty for 30 years. It is sad that no one has taken care of it. It still stands up on the hill with so many memories of Easter Egg Hunts and playing in the trees.

The public buildings sit for a long time. The government wants to try and use them for something else. Then vandals take over and it becomes an eyesore. There was a building in Anniston that needed to be torn down.  A fire destroyed a lot of the building and no one wanted to put the money into it to build it back. It sat there and deteriorated. It was dangerous because the floors were rotting and people were going in and could get hurt. I got to go by and take pictures because there was talk of it being torn down and salvaged. The politics got in the way and it was torn down with a wrecker ball. The doors, bricks, and beautiful ornate pieces were all destroyed. There are so many beautiful things in old buildings that need to be salvaged. They can be used again. Can you imagine what it would cost to have the character you see in old buildings?

 I had the pleasure of working with Southern Accents when they disassembled the Gay House in Montgomery. There were a couple of stories that ran in the papers in Montgomery and Mobile. The home was built in the late 1800's. It changed hands several times and was a rental when it caught fire. The owner at the time of our demo had dreams of rebuilding, but the economy wasn't good at that time and he couldn't justify the cost. The team took a couple of days to get everything out that could be salvaged. There were some amazing pieces. You can read a little about a connection with the Gay family in this post on Southern Accents blog. It was a cool reunion in the end! We also used a lot of the wainscoting in the Green House! You can see how the pieces were re-purposed in these pictures before the house was complete.