Fossil Rim

I took the kids to Glen Rose, Texas the other day to check out the Fossil Rim Wildlife Center. It was a boring 2-hour drive but it turned out to be worth it. We got in for around $35 total (including one large bag of feed) and it took about 2 hours to drive through the park at 15mph or less... actually, most of the time I didn't go over 5mph because there were plenty of animals in the middle of the road.

The kids loved it. They took off their seat belts and went back and fourth between the windows checking out the different animals. For half of the time, James stood out the sun roof and thought that was the coolest thing.

The animals got SO close! Some, a little TOO close! I kept the windows rolled down for the most part but when the Emus approached us I was quick to roll them up and drive a little faster!

When we approached the Zebras they were so funny. We had about 5 or 6 surrounding my car at one point and helping themselves to inside the window. One Zebra decided to "sample" my drivers side rear view mirror. He started munching on it like it was a piece of candy! What did I do? I rolled down my window a little and said a firm, "NO!" as I pointed my finger at him and then rolled my window back up really fast. Apparently, Zebras don't really know what "NO!" means! All I could do was creep forward in my car careful to not hit any of the other animals standing in my path and get that crazy Zebra to let go! Thankfully, there wasn't a lot of damage. There are a few surface scratches and a tiny speck of paint chipped but that's all. It could have been a lot worse I guess.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from our adventure!

Haha, a huge deer approached the window and started sticking his head in and James was right there beside him. Shauna grabbed James and swung him back as they were screaming and James started to roll the window up with his foot. It was one of those, "had to be there moments".

It was a LONG but fun day!

Latest Decor and Craftiness

Things have been so crazy lately. The summer has been in full swing for a good month and a half now and as much as I am enjoying the busy activities... it is HOT outside! Texas has been sitting at 100 degree weather for at least two weeks in a row and no signs of cooling down any time soon.

So back in March I mentioned that Ben and I were working our way to become debt free. Well, we became that much closer a couple weeks ago when we paid off Ben's car! We weren't planning on paying it off until the end of July but we were actually able to write the check a month earlier! Woohoo! The title should be in the mail any day now to make it official! Now all we need to do is kick Sallie Mae to the curb. I do not like her and have lived with her long enough. Once she leaves our life (in no more than 15months) we will be FREE! :) - minus the modest mortgage in which we will pay at least 20% down and have a 15yr. fixed rate.

Here is a framed quote I made out of our credit cards :) - yes, I chopped up all of our credit cards and did something crafty with them... probably the only thing they are good for. If you are familiar with Dave Ramsey, you know his quote: "Live like no one else so later, you can live

like no one else."

We had a very bare wall in our bedroom (always the last to get any kind of decor, sadly)

so I made this banner out of scrapbook paper and twine.

It's fun and a good temporary space taker-upper.

A little peak of our dining room area. I was pretty proud of how clean it looked so I had to snap a couple pictures. I love clean but I tend to make messes.

My sweet dad gave me this vintage bed frame that he bought at a flea market. He welded it into a quilt rack and was planning on painting it etc. He never got around to it and decided to give it to me, knowing that I would love it... and I do love it! It's perfect for my small collection of quilts. The two above are my finds from Canton and McKinney Trades Days and the 3 on the bottom are family quilts.

Another angle of the same space...

When we went to Missouri, I found this beautiful antique medicine cabinet from a flea market. It was just plain stained wood which was nice but I knew I wanted it to be bright and cheery. We took it back to my best friend's house, sanded, primed, painted (Kyrlon Ocean Breeze), sanded and glazed to achieve the finished look. I couldn't be happier. I LOVE it! I will eventually put it in our entry way (when we have a house) to collect keys, mail etc. We shall see.

Keeping it real:

This is what the table looks like on a typical day... As you can see Toby is totally comfortable. I usually always have some sort of project going on and for some reason I can't keep a clean work space.

Speaking of project... here is one I just finished today.

I cut out all 50 states by hand, one by one...

Traced them onto 50 different kinds of scrapbook paper and cut those out...

Then, I mod podged them onto an 11x14 canvas...

Finished product!

I love it so much! It was very tedious and took quite a bit of time but it was totally worth the effort! I got inspiration for this project here and her