Posts Tagged ‘cale and meg’
LIFE: Nursery Design Bits
It is safe to say that “nesting” has completely taken over Meg’s brain. We swear she has cleaned drawers that have not been touched in our 4 years of marriage! We’ve learned that somehow when you are pregnant it’s easy to convince yourself that your baby will really care about the wall color and/or what stuffed animals are available to snuggle with. Either way it’s been a good motivation to get on top of the nursery as well as other household chores we’ve had on hold since… we moved in! 
Originally we were going to do an entire room with whale/sea decorations (see Meg’s pin board) but decided that, that could get a little crazy REAL fast! As much as we like whales we didn’t want a character themed nursery. Instead we settled for more of an “Adventure” theme. You know… sailing the seven seas, traveling the world, bugs, and a variety of other whimsical things. This was an intentional design decision because we wanted to create a room that our little guy could grow into, not out of in the next few years.
Since we live in a very small farm house (yes, our child is sharing a room with the washer and dryer) we we’re very intentional about not just filling his room with a bunch of “stuff”. Looking at the list of registry “must haves” recommend by Babies”R”Us it’s easy to see how this happens to so many people. Instead we were very intentional about the items we registered for and used most of the toys and cards received as gifts as decor items. This made decorating very inexpensive and more personalized. We love the fact that we can look around and see the many ways that all of our friends and family have contributed to the nursery decor.
(PS If you look closely you might find a sneak peak of our baby boy’s name!)
We looked at several mobiles but thought it would be fun to hang some of our shower cards and favorite art pieces (in miniature form) over the crib to create a custom mobile. This was an inexpensive way to support and purchase prints from local artists, utilize the sweet words spoken over our baby from friends and family, while giving us the flexibility to change things out in the future.
(Hanging Mobile Picture Frame: Blue Seven; 5 Step To The Left Of Your Right Hemisphere Postcard: Samantha Lamb)
(Bow Tie: Handmade from our “Manly Baby Shower“; Leather Baby Shoes: Vintage from Meg’s Dad; Oklahoma A-Z Animal Print: STASH; Oklahoma Cuddle Monster: DNA Galleries; Elephant: Sassy Nasal Aspirator; Plush Boat: Collected Thread)
We wanted an easy storage solution that could evolve depending on the needs of our child and the future function of the space. Cale whipped up this simple 9 Frame Storage Solution from lumber we had leftover in the shop. All the baskets we found were to expensive for our budget so Meg covered used diaper boxes and spray painted them with orange stencils (DIY coming soon… still waiting on a few more boxes)!
(Wellington the Duck: Scentsy; Embroidered Plush Bunny: Custom Gift, Whale: Handmade gift from Meg’s mom & grandma)
In case you don’t remember the BEFORE crib shots we got rid of Bambi and settle with a nice blue/gray base. Cale thought it would be a fun accent to spray paint all the metal pieces orange. As you can see we carried this color combo throughout the rest of the room painting the metal window hooks, coat hooks, and shelf brackets orange as well.
(Wooden Rocking Horse: Vintage gift from Cale’s cousin)
We love books, especially children’s books, so we thought it would be fun to display their covers like pieces of art to fill the space with color. This little shelf Cale customized and set it nice and low for little hands to be able to reach along with a functional placeholder for hanging tiny hats, toys, coats, bath towels, etc.
We snagged this authentic canvas maps with sea creatures and ships as a $10.00 Groupon!
Remember this insane Shaker Style Rocking Chair that Meg’s Aunt found at a Garage Sale for $20.00?! Here is it in it’s completed state! She did a BEAUTIFUL job re-finishing it (Check out her other finished pieces at Ollie Belle Home Decor).
All the sudden those late night rocking/lullaby sessions don’t seem SO bad? Right!?
Our inspiration for the map display came from this really simple Hanging Map DIY at Smile & Wave. Thanks Rachel! 
Josie is STILL trying to make since of all this change!? She’s gonna make a great Nana Dog (you know, like on Peter Pan!?).
Our friends and family filled out this fun prediction calendar for the baby’s arrival (Meg’s not counting any guesses after the 20th… at least for now)!
Oh and of course… here is the shot we probably shouldn’t show. Definitely not “pin worthy” but it’s how we roll here on The Farm! We’re actually using one of the Pedestal Drawers as a toy box. It’s all about making your space work for you and designing it in a way that meets your design aesthetic AND functional needs. Honestly, we are doing cloth diapers so rooming the baby with the washer and dryer might work out after all?!
Meg and her grandma made curtains out of Painters Drop Cloth’s and surged the curtain edges orange to continue our accent color throughout the room.
You would think that re-decorating ONE room wouldn’t take months and months but we are both designers and definitely have our opinions on how things should go down. It’s always a lot of work and a lot of trial and error but in the end it’s ALWAYS worth it. We are really pleased with the space, especially with what we had to work with. It’s crazy to see the transformation of what once was a shared office space is now the place our little man will rest his head. It’s been a process but one we’ve enjoyed and feel like we’ve given our boy a room not just filled with “stuff” but “stuff” with true meaning and function.
What is your favorite detail of the room?
Have a due date prediction you’d like us to add to the calendar?! List your estimated date, weight, length, and time of day in the comment section below!
We’ll keep you posted!
39 weeks AND counting!
From the Farm 
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LIFE: 4 Years of Adventure
Over our vacation Cale and I celebrated our 4th year of marriage. Our favorite anniversary tradition is to watch our wedding video and to remember where and how this whole adventure started.
It holds us accountable to our vows and the covenant we made to each other and before God.
To be honest this year has been one of the hardest years of our marriage. Not in the since of fighting or not getting along. This year we lost Cale’s dad to cancer and so we’ve been through a lot of emotional ups and downs.
More so than usual.
LIFE: Early Vacation
With our first baby on the way we have been going back and forth on taking a summer vacation. We have so much to do around the house, prep for baby, on the garden, etc. It’s a little overwhelming.Ok, a lot overwhelming!
But then this opportunity came up to spend a week at the lake with Meg’s family and so we decided to throw all caution to the wind and go for it! And to be honest, we are so excited to leave our “to do” list behind and spend a week with family, playing cheesy board games, sleeping in, and taking time to realize how much our life is about to change (in the most beautiful kind of way!).
Here’s to a week of no internet, no cable, slow cooking, and easy living. We’ll see you back here next week!
Happy Memorial Day!
From the Farm
LIFE: 4 Weird & Interesting Things You (probably) Don’t Know About Us
May 31st will be Cale and I’s four year wedding anniversary. I cannot believe we have been married for that long. Our marriage is something that has truly gotten better with time and with that has come certain things we have learned to love and respect about each other (for better or worse right?!). Some of the things are sweet, like how Cale is a really great helper around the house, while some of them are just plain weird! Either way it’s the small things that have made marriage so much fun and given it so much character over the last four years. These are the things you can’t stand and yet you love about that person. These are the things that make marriage to your significant other so interesting (ladies you know what I’m talking about!) and without them life would just be boring.
LIFE: Bye, Bye Bambi (And Other Life Parallels)
Since we found out last week that we are having a BOY it has been full on baby mode at our house. We are getting more and more eager to meet our little guy. Meg’s starting to feel him move more and also finding it harder to get around. It’s really frustrating when your body won’t let you do what mentally you feel like you can do!
Yep, we’re in full baby pre-prep. And maybe we should have been in that mode a couple of months ago, but we’re trying really hard to slow down life and enjoy the last few months we have together as Cale and Meg. Soon we’ll be adding another name to that list and although it’s exciting we feel like we’re saying bye to a lot of what we knew. What was normal. We’re saying bye to sweet moments of sleeping in on Saturdays, and being able to catchup with friends on a whim.
Josie’s still trying to figure out what is going on…
I’m saying goodbye to my feet. The next time I see you will be when I’m holding our little man.
And we’re both saying goodbye to Bambi.
That’s right, Cale didn’t think the crib design was manly enough (I don’t know why?!) so we are painting it gray with a touch of orange!
We’ll fill you in with more photos later. Can’t wait to share.
But until then, we’re prepping for baby. As much as we can!
From the Farm
LIFE: Oh Boy, It’s a BOY! :D
When we first moved into our farm house, nearly four years ago, we had a lot of work to do! We live in the house that was homesteaded by Cale’s family in 1910. We don’t have central heating and air (thank God for window units and gas heaters!), our bathroom kinda protrudes out of the rest of the house layout since it was a much needed upgrade to the original house design (in place of an outhouse), and the second floor no longer exists (featured in the photo above). Apparently Grandpa Woody lost his leg and his wife didn’t want to go up stairs and have to clean the top floor (cause back then you cleaned the entire house instead of shutting off the entire top floor for the general public), and so they had the farm hands take the second floor off! 
You could say it’s definitely full of “character”… so much “character” that my mom freaked out the first time she came to visit us because of it’s wonderful “character” (and much needed work)!
It’s taken a lot of vision and foresight to make this place home. I’m not gonna lie the first year we lived here I didn’t put anything on the walls because I myself was unsure of really making this place “home”.
But now, I love our little farm house. I love our first home and the amazing opportunities that have come up because we’ve chosen to live in this old house. Some of our “designer” friends come out to visit and think we are a little crazy. They prefer pristine white apartment walls, white washed wooden floors, and the sounds of the city. But at night, when all you can hear is the bugs and the frogs I swear it’s pure magic! It’s then that you realize what makes this place so wonderful. I often wonder what type of history has lived in this space before us? What were the children like that ran around this once working farm? Oh what fun stories I’m sure these walls could tell!
It’s beautiful, and I can’t think of a better place to raise our first son! We may not have very much installation in our walls (that is what extra blankets and footed pajamas are for!), and it’s true that our child will share their first bedroom with the washer and dryer, but it’s home.
It’s the place I will become known as “mom”, and Cale as “dad”.
Looking back it seemed like a tough decision to stick it out here, but we are so proud of this simple life we’ve chosen. All “design” chat aside, it’s everything we’ve dreamed it up to be. We cannot wait to see what our farm house will sound like with a little boy running around catching bugs (or chickens) and coming in and saying “I didn’t do it!”.
Bring it on little baby boy! We’ve been waiting for you.
From the Farm 
PS The photo above is an original family photo (and one of my personal favorites) of our farm house with Cale’s Uncle John as a little boy. Apparently he liked to carry the chickens around as pets.
LIFE: Easter Weekend
Two weekends ago Cale worked at the Architecture firm till late on Friday and all day Sunday.
Two Saturdays ago Meg’s ankles swelled up for the first time (21 weeks and counting!) from cleaning out the milk barn all day and, helping Cale cleanup the yard and flowerbeds from a long winter.
BUT this Saturday, we had our first big bonfire with friends.
This Saturday we got lost under our favorite tree (in front of our house) playing old school yard games.
Killed about 300 301 Mayflies (RIP).
Took the tops off our cold frames and built a third raised bed (bring on the hot weather plants)!
Went to our first Easter Sunday service with Little Noodle (Meg cried).
And added venison to our fall menu (taken from a friends night cam on our family property)!
It was a beautiful weekend and just what we needed to remind ourselves what all this “work” is for. There are a lot of people who love the idea of owning land, but it’s also a lot of work! Your weekends are full maintaining and updating the property, on top of working a full-time job, running a home based business, staying on top of household chores, and all that other stuff you have to do as an adult. There are small moments we relish the idea of a city plot where mowing takes 30 minutes (with a push mower), but then we have weekends like these and we’re reminded just why we could never live anywhere else.
Here’s to many more summer nights under our favorite tree, slow Sundays with family meals, and wondering how it will all be different next year when we have a little one running around.
Happy (late) Easter Weekend everyone!
From the Farm
2012 Garden Checklist: April
If your plants are anything like mine your cool weather greens are going crazy in this wonderful spring weather. Good amounts of rain and cool afternoons have made for some amazing growth in my asparagus and broccoli, even my radishes (a new attempt in my garden) are growing in leaps and bounds. But with this wonderfully gradual spring we are already seeing the first blushes of summer. So here’s what we need to do to stay ahead of the heat and on course for harvest.
Click HERE to download our 2012, April Garden Checklist!
I hope these little tips help make your gardening a little easier, and greener this year. I know I’m headed out this weekend to mark some of these very items of my list. So here’s to lush gardens, great harvests and green thumbs!
From the Farm 
Lesson #2: Work Smarter Not Harder
This week we’re sharing lesson #2 in our series about running your business around your home life instead of letting your business run your home life. Figuring out how to work smarter not harder (thanks for the title James!) has been a very important lesson for us and something that we are still working on implementing. In order to work smarter not harder you first have to recognize that even though the marketing world would tell you something different there is no right or wrong way to do this. It honestly starts with knowing your own lifestyle and business perimeters and setting up tasks to help you stay within those boundaries. This will look different for every person, every family, every business. If you are single you may not mind working late into the night and if you are a mom you may find that you get your best work done early in the morning before the kids are up. Either way, you figure out how to work smarter by first recognizing what daily tasks are foundational elements to establishing a satisfying home life for you and your family.
Start by asking yourself what are the day to day tasks that have to be done in your home life? As fun as it is to dream up the perfect home life at the end of the day what stresses us out is the stuff that everyone has to deal with; chores and all that responsible adult stuff! More often times then not it’s the daily tasks of running a household that can easily distract you when you work from home so it’s important to figure out what those daily tasks are and how they align themselves up with your preferred lifestyle.
For me (Meg), my list looks like this:
Based on the list above there are four categories that are important to me and the home life I desire to have:
- Chores
- Marriage/Immediate Family
- Personal
- Social/Friends/Extended Family
By going back through the individual pieces that make up each category I was able to establish simple, everyday tasks that have helped me meet and maintain a healthy and realistic balance to my preferred lifestyle:
LIFE: Happy Heart Day
I think it’s safe to say that Cale and I are pretty much hopeless romantics. We love, love. True love. The kind that is not easy, the kind you wait for, and fight for. The kind that proves fairy tales can come true.
It was Valentines Day, 2006.
High class design in overalls. It's the simple life of a farm through the eyes of a couple of crazy designers. We call ourselves Green Couch Design and we are Bringing Design Home.
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