Logan Wolfram

Enjoying Life for Dessert

I think God lives in Montana

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We made it here yesterday safe and sound.  Uneventful plane rides, well behaved kids, and still a full part of the day to spend once we arrived.  We got to Kalispell at 1:30 and spent the entire afternoon just enjoying the view and exploring around.

View from the porch. That’s the Flathead River below and Glacier Nat’l Park in the distance.



Can I just tell you that I have cried like 5 times or more.  The view from just the porch is so majestic I can’t even begin to put the words in any sort of order to accurately describe it all to you.  We took probably 100 or more pictures already yesterday and now this morning something weird is going on with our camera.  THIS is not time for an “Error” to be turning up on our camera.  We’re hopefully going to see if we can find a camera shop tomorrow and get things checked out.  Cross your fingers and say a prayer for me huh?
Little Bit and I were exploring rocks in a tiny stream yesterday on my aunt’s property.  Even just the river rocks are a hundred different colors.  God bothered to color the river stones here.  He is SO creative!  When I see a place like this and I think about my God, I am bowled over by his creative love for me.  He could have made the earth flat and all the same…but he didn’t.  He made it stunning.  He made it more poetic than even the poetically inclined.  He made it all for us…just to enjoy.  I am inclined to think though that God might live in Montana…at least he is this week for sure.
I wish I was poetic.  Really…I wish I knew how to weave words that inspire and invoke the emotions that a place like this leaves you feeling.  Breathlessness.

The sun doesn’t set til late here and the light coming across onto the mountains is just stunning.  At one point last night there was a rainbow, the valley was illuminated in the most golden light, and I made the comment, “The only thing that would complete this perfection would be if a train came around the bend at this exact moment.”

Another view from the porch. The river is just to the left
Not kidding…. “Whoooo….Whooo…Whoooo” off in the distance.  Un-freaking-real!  Check this out.




Really….unreal.
I’m going out to enjoy the day.  Will try to post more later.
– Logan
Now the question lingering in my mind is how on earth do you adequately appreciate thanks to the people providing this opportunity?  This cabin and the 100 acres around it belong to my aunt and uncle.  They are letting us stay.  “Grateful” is a word that falls short this week too.  Words are clearly not gonna cut it this week…let’s cross our fingers and hope that my camera will magically fix and that my pictures can describe for you better than my fingers on these keys.

Montana Bound…

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So, tomorrow I’m finally gonna put my new kicks to work because we are headed out to Montana for a little over a week.

I hope that the state is ready for us!  And more than that, I hope that the passengers on our flights are ready for our kids.  Oh my words…do you remember my last flight with my 5 year old and 15 month old lap child?!  If not, go HERE for a refresher…let me just say that I don’t know if you’re ever really prepared for travel with children no matter how well prepared you think that you may be.  I’m just asking the Lord that our travel be on time and uneventful….I’m under no illusion that my kids would actually sleep or sit perfectly quietly, and there are certainly other miracles I’d rather the Lord attend to than that!

I’m hoping to post a few times while I’m gone, but in case you don’t hear from me every day, just know that it’s because I’m trekking around out west!  I’m so excited I can’t even tell you!  If I was really awesome I’d have scheduled some guest bloggers while I was gone I suppose, but I didn’t…only occasional awesomeness can be expected from here I guess.

I’ll do my best to keep you posted on our trip in all of it’s snow-capped mountainous glory at least some though.  I’m pretty excited to escape this unbelievable heat wave that’s been sweeping through the South lately too…50’s, 60’s, and 70’s here I come!  Can I tell you how pumped I am that I don’t even need to pack shorts…and how much more excited I am because that means that I have a week hiatus in the middle of summer from shaving my legs!  Oh yeah…I’m getting granola on you all.  Don’t worry, I won’t let the pits get out of control though…that’s just nasty.

Anywho, I’ve got to finish packing…there are suitcases and clothes spread all over my room!  I’m determined to pack all 4 of us (and our gear) into just 3 suitcases since each additional one is $50 each way…um no thanks.  Do you know how much chalk paint I could buy with that money?!

Happy trails friends!

31 Gifts Giveaway Winner!

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I bet you’ve all been wondering who won the super fun bag from Thirty-One Gifts?!

Thank you to random.org for generating a completely random number, and that comment was…

#32 Chris and Katie said…
The large tote is my fave! I want it!!!   
So, Chris and Katie…Congratulations!  It appears that the large tote must have wanted you too!
Also, the second winner selected by random.org to win 20% off of your total order was….
I follow Life For Dessert on Google Friend Connect!
If ya’ll would send me an email to LifeforDessert at gmail dot com with your name, address, and emails then I’ll pass your information along to Lauren so that she can get Chris and Katie’s bag in the mail, and Kenan’s discount applied to an order!  Congratulations to both of you!
If you’re super bummed that you didn’t win, which I always am because seriously, I never win anything, don’t be dismayed!  If you order this month then you can take advantage of the following special and still get your tote!

 
Thanks to everyone for entering and I’ll host another fun giveaway soon!  Help Life for Dessert reach 150 followers and we’ll have one for sure then!  It’s fun for me to line up great giveaways and who doesn’t like winning something free and clear?!

Congratulations again to #32 and #7!


Giveaway!!! Tote from 31 Gifts!

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I promised you a giveaway once I reached 100 followers on here, so here goes making good on that promise!
My amazing sister-in-law, Lauren, is a consultant for 31 Gifts. You may know about them because they make some super cute and stylish purses, accessories and products to help organize the lives of busy women and their families. Or you may not know about them at all, so consider this your introduction.  
31 Gifts makes loads of fun items to meet the needs of just about anyone!  Their mission is “to celebrate, encourage and reward women through offering quality products and an outstanding opportunity to become successful business owners.”  They have tons of great patterns and anything can be personalized. 
Today, we’re giving away this great multi-purpose tote!  I’m always on the look-out for any good sized bag to get all of my gear around and half the time I end up grabbing a reusable grocery bag…which is not cute.  This bag though is perfect for a trunk catch all, grocery store tote, pool or beach tote, sports equipment and many more!  The tote is wipe-able material so perfect for all the fun crazy stuff you do will your kids!  Check it out!
This giveaway will end at noon tomorrow, Friday June 10th.  And here are the rules for how to enter.

Mandatory 1st entry – Check out the 31 Gifts catalogue and come back here and leave a comment with the name of your favorite item.

For additional entries:

  • Follow Life for Dessert on Google Connect and tell me you did so in the comments section
  • Follow Life for Dessert on Facebook and tell me here that you did it
  • recruit friends to follow Life for Dessert and when they enter, tell them to put your name in their comment with their item selection so that I can credit you for each recruit
  • Follow LifeforDessert on Twitter
  • Repost this post on Facebook or Retweet on Twitter (1 entry for each action) and let me know what you did.
  • Like 31 Gifts on Facebook HERE and tell me you did so

I’ll also be randomly selecting a second winner who will receive 20% off of his/her favorite item for purchase.  I’ll announce the winners tomorrow, so get commenting!

PS. If you have trouble commenting on here for any reason, I will count comments on the Facebook page as entries as well!

Milk and Cookies…

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My friend Emily at Crisp Interiors sent me a link today to this and I just HAD to share!  So thanks Em for sharing and to  Family Chic for this creative dose of fun! 
 
I’m mad about cool bottle reuses and this one is seriously topping my list of fun ideas right now!  
 
Milk and cookies…
 
Reuse green Schweppes Ginger Ale bottles with just a straw and some store bought butter cookies. How fun is this for a party of for any afternoon snack?!  I’m thinking you could also do lemonade and lemon cookies, chocolate milk and EL Fudge, or if you’re feeling super crafty make some fun shaped sugar cookies and poke a hole in the middle to make room for the straw before baking.
Your kids will think you are especially fun for this!  Imagine doing it with Christmas cookies for Santa.  Possibilities are endless!  If only Oreos had holes in the middle!!!

 
I also think this would be cute with any other glass bottles you could save…mini coke bottles, club soda bottles….cute cute cute!
Hope you’re having a great day!

Food for Thought…The Unqualified…

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Have you ever thought to yourself…
“I really need to get in shape so that I can go to the gym.”
If you’ve ever been to a gym at a low point in your fitness regime (meaning, you haven’t been in ages and your butt is about as flat as the exercise bench…or your belly is about as round and mushy as a Bosu ball)…then I’d be willing to bet that you’ve seriously considered doing some running for a couple of months and THEN coming back to exercise in the company of others.  
If you’ve never had that thought, then consider *THIS* the part where I just kicked you in the teeth because I’m jealous of your round butt and flat abs and superior perspective. 
Seriously though, what is it about thinking we have to get ourselves in shape before we can really get in shape?  Or thinking we have to get our lives “on track” before we can even talk to God?
Have you ever been in a place in your life where you thought to yourself… “What a mess I’ve made.  Once I get things straightened out I’m really going to start praying again….or going to church again….or whatever?”
I heard a really cool thought the other day…
Oftentimes, the very thing that we think disqualifies us for work in the Kingdom of Heaven, is actually our most qualifying attribute.
Most of you know that I have lost 2 babies.  In so many ways, God continues to redeem those losses by allowing me to breathe life into others who are walking a path similar to my own.  The very loss, struggles, and pain…some of my many “disqualifiers”… are some of the things that I continue to find God using most for good as I continue to step forward in my life.  Because I’ve walked a hard road, I can see some of what that road could look like for other people…I’m aware of a need, and thus I’m more equipped to help meet it.
Maybe you’ve dealt with addiction and think that keeps you from being worthy of even coming before a perfect God.  Maybe you’ve horribly wounded a relationship and think that keeps you from being able to pour into others.  What if you had an affair, does that keep you from ever being able to have a good marriage again, or perspective for maintaining a marriage?  Perhaps you have lost a person in your life and think your overwhelming grief for months or years disqualifies you from being able to ever share laughs or joy again.  Maybe you think that your own failure to triumph over anything nullifies your ability to have wisdom for others.  I don’t know what your thing is, but we all have something.
“What you are determines what you see…
and what you see determines what you do.”
And we all see things differently.  We notice pain in others differently, we notice joy differently, we all have differing perspectives on everything because we’ve all walked different paths in life.  But our different hardships don’t disqualify us from doing good, but rather we are empowered because of wisdom gained from walking through hardships.  When you have walked through a particular fire, you’re more equipped to help someone else do it too…and perhaps do it even better than you did.
I don’t know, I’ve been thinking about this for a few days….running back in my mind to my failures, my inadequacies, my struggles…the things that I’d think could get in the way of me living a life that is pleasing to the Lord.  You know…the stuff that I’ve crapped up.  And I keep noticing the same things as I retrace steps and rethink processes and directions I’ve taken…I learned something each time, with each thing.  Some good stuff and some bad stuff, but no matter what I learned, I’m more aware of those things in life…in others.  I’m more aware of how to encourage someone, to help someone, to meet a need.  My disqualifiers make me more qualified to overcome than if I hadn’t dealt with them in the first place.  I remember a post I wrote some time back HERE, and there was a quote I’d just heard that said…
“You can’t overcome something you never underwent.”
And I’m reminded of that thought again:  That the things I’ve undergone make me even more qualified to overcome again…and again…and again…and to be used for great things for God because of them.
I don’t have to be fit before I get started on fitness.  I don’t have to be perfect before God can use me. Just think of all the time we waste… deferring what could be present greatness as we prepare to actually achieve it in the future.
I’m qualified just as I am for greatness NOW…
and SO ARE YOU.

I’ve Been Commissioned….

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Remember recently I told you about a new kind of paint that I’d ordered called Annie Sloan’s Chalk Paint? If not, read about it HERE. Well, the paint arrived few weeks ago and I’ve had a blast messing around with it lately.

I painted that china cabinet there on the left (I’m not showing you the finished product yet because I still need to get a piece of glass to put in the front,) but I promise, it is gorgeous!  It’s a combination of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Paris Grey and Old White.

Just yesterday, I guess I got a “bee in my bonnet” (as my mom likes to say) and started a painting another dresser, as well as an end table… that I was commissioned to do!

Can I just tell you how fun it feels to say that “I was commissioned” to paint something for someone?! Oh my words…does my ego a world of good! No worries…not overpuffed, just feels nice to have someone else like what I’ve done enough to want me to do it for them!

Check out this table though. I am so pleased with how it turned out in the end… and the owner, well she was so excited about it that I got even more excited!

Excitement is contagious you know?!

I’m not one of those people who can “play it cool” when I’m excited either.

I really do promise you though that one day I’ll forgo my overwhelming urge to start a project prior to taking a “before” picture.

At least this time I got a picture before the stripping agent had completely done it’s job. Even with the stripping stuff making it cloudy on top, you can tell that this table had a seriously orangey finish on it…which is what the owner hated. She was going to get rid of it, and I suggested to paint it because it is a super cute little table.  She was thrilled with the idea and I took it with me at the end of our appointment on Friday.  When I got ready to paint it, I realized that I couldn’t bear to completely cover the really beautiful inlay. I figured that worst case scenario, I’d strip the top and it’d still be ugly…and then I’d just paint it anyways. But if things went in real life the way that they were in my mind…then this was definitely the way to go. Strip the top and paint the legs.

You all know most certainly by now that some things in my life do not always go the way that they do in my mind. Remember my awesome craft project the other day?…yeah, case in point.

Once in awhile though…I get it right. This time was thankfully one of those times…especially since it wasn’t just my own piece I was messing with here.

There really wasn’t anything wrong with this table before…it just was a color of wood that the owner didn’t love.  I’m more of a dark walnut kind of gal myself, so that’s what I went for here. A couple good coats of Citristrip stripping gel (actually smells nice), some scraping off of nasty gooey finish, a good cleaning and then about 3 coats of Minwax dark walnut stain.

The base was painted with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Chateau Grey, distressed with a sanding sponge to my liking, then finished off with a combination of Annie Sloan’s soft waxes in clear and dark brown. I waxed the top with a couple of coats of the dark brown and then one last clear coat to protect it.

I told my client that if she ever wants to get rid of this table, I can find a nice home for it…
in my house.
Don’t you just love a semi-BEFORE and AFTER?!

Glory hallelujah…It’s Extreme Makeover: Table Edition!
 
If you’re thinking that you might want to try the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, I HIGHLY recommend it.  You don’t have to sand or prime before applying it which saves LOADS of time.  Also, it has the most creamy texture and goes on so smoothly, and I should mention that a little goes a pretty long way.  Sanding it off with just a sanding sponge is a piece of cake (if only my feet were as easy to get smooth!)  It’s more expensive than just a can of Oops paint at Lowes, but if you’re an instant gratification sort of person like I am, you’ll appreciate seeing faster, and more beautiful results with 1/3 of the prep work.  If you like sanding and priming though, have at it…glad you enjoy the tedious part. 
I’ll have more of my adventures into chalk paint fun coming up to share soon, so stay tuned!

 

Baby Baby…. Nursery Decorating…

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I hope you all don’t think I’ve been a total slacker today!  I promise that I haven’t.

This morning I had a design consult with a client to decorate her new baby’s nursery.  Have I ever told you how much I love decorating a nursery?!  Well, if not…

I love decorating nurseries.  

Hands down, they are my MOST favorite rooms to design.  I love them for so many reasons, but the number one reason is that I love the time and care people take to create something beautiful for a new baby.  For me, it’s the first thing that new parents do for their baby to say “I love you” before the baby even arrives.

I’ve also found, generally speaking, that most people will take the time to address even all the little details that really complete a nursery as well.  That makes it particularly fun to “do” nurseries for me.  To have a vision with a client and see it through to completion…it’s very satisfying.

So that’s why I wasn’t around earlier today.  I’m also going to be helping these particular clients with some other areas of their home as well which will be really fun.  They’ve commissioned me to refinish a changing table, and today I took a small end table to give some new life.  I got to work on that this afternoon while my kids were resting.  It’s going to be awesome.

In all this thinking of nurseries today, I just thought I’d pick back through a few of my old nursery pictures and show you.  Baby LOVE….

This one above was obviously for a baby girl.  All of the bedding in this one and all of the ones I’ll show you below were custom made.  One of my favorite things about decorating nurseries is picking out loads of fabrics and textures.  The rug above was custom as well and it was so gorgeous, I just can’t tell you!!!  This client really liked mixing vintage and new together, so it was right up my alley as that’s my natural bent as well.

Ok, now these clients didn’t ever find out what they were having and wanted to make sure that the bedding and window treatments that we used could be reused for multiple children.  Custom bedding is an investment, so I wanted to show you how a few tweaks here and there with the same bedding can feel really very different for each child.  (In this case 3 children!)

Recognize this one above?!  Yeah, it’s my most favorite one yet…probably because it’s mine and every single thing that went in that room was exactly what I wanted.  18 months after completion and it’s still my favorite room in the house.

This one was Tid Bits nursery in our old house.  When I took these pictures back 5 years ago I apparently hadn’t finished everything int he room as evidenced by the empty sconce shelves on either side of the mirror above the changing table.  Oh, and see…I reused my glider up there in both of my boys’ rooms and just recovered it.  (Just a tip…recovering a glider like this one with removeable cushions is much less expensive than a fully upholstered chair.  I only need 4 yds of fabric and it’s about $150 to have it all recovered professionally…as oppossed to perhaps 8 yds of fabric and $300 upholstery fees for a fully upholstered chair.)

Well, I just thought I’d take a trip back down memory lane for fun.  I’ll of course show you pictures of this nursery I’m starting on as soon as it’s completed!

Enjoy your weekend!!!

PS. Spell check isn’t working and I’m going to eat dinner finally…so if I missed a lot along the way…please be kind and overlook it?!

Glamping….I Think I’ve Been All Wrong…

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Just last night I learned a new word…

Glamping. 
And not only did I learn the word, but now I want to do the thing.
When I was a kid my parents took us 3 different times “Out West” in an RV to tour around states we’d never been to and camp in national parks along the way.  We went to places like Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, South Dakota, and Montana.  And when we toured around, we rolled Winnebago style.
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This one above might seriously have been the exact one we had a couple of times.  
The Minnie Winnie.  
My sister and I used to sleep in that part over the driver’s cab, and it was fun to ride up there even though we weren’t allowed to do it very often.  I have good memories in the Minnie Winnies…good times…good times.
My mom always said tent camping wasn’t really her thing…and more than that I’m not sure it was my dad’s thing either.
I like it though, and so does my Hubs.  Tid Bit has done it a couple of times and we’re gonna camp in Montana in a couple of weeks with some friends with both of our kids and their 3 kids as well.  Tent camping…5 kids under age 7…good times….I think….maybe…hopefully.  I am confident though that we will not be glamping.
I’ve realized today with this new addition to my vocabulary that apparently I’ve been doing it wrong all along, because there’s nothing about “Glamping” that I don’t think I’d like.  No…scratch that…that I don’t think I’d LOVE!
Glamping = Glam + Camping
Allow me to show you what I’ve run across….glamping goodness to be sure.
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Vintage Cottage Camper
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Yes…I think I’d like glamping.  It looks so wonderful that I bet bugs don’t even come in your tent when you Glamp.  I bet coffee serves itself to you in bed when you Glamp.  I bet you sleep well and don’t have a sore neck when you Glamp.  And I’m sure that I’m now just coming up with new reasons to say the word….Glamp.  Do you think if you’ve already done it before then you’ve “glumped” or just “glamped?”  Either way…I’ve not done it at all.  But I will…even if it’s in my back yard…
I will go glamping.
So now I have to ask you all…do you camp or glamp?  And if you do it with kids then show me some comment love and give me some tips on how to make it as fun and painless as possible with a 5 year old and a 16 month old?!  I think though that “kids” and “glamping” may not be allowed in the same sentence….for sure one likely interferes with the other.
By the way, my new favorite thing might just be Pinterest.  You really must check out Pinterest.  And you can check me out on Pinterest HERE. Pinterest is a place where basically you can create boards of loads of your favorite things with links to where they came from.  So for say recipes, you “pin” the picture and it links to the recipe, crafts…pin a picture and it links to the tutorial.  It’s fabulous, but you have to be invited to do it.  So if you want to be invited, send me an email with your name and email  address to LifeforDessert dot gmail dot com and I’ll send you an invite.  You will love it.  It’s where I found and compiled all of the above glamping.

Tales of a Lesser Woman: Burn Baby Burn…

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And no…I don’t mean the “Disco Inferno” type of burn either.  I’m talking sunburn…

Like what this was a few days ago…

In case you were just wondering to yourself…Yes….I did win parent of the year this year.  Probably because of my attention to details like oh…sunscreen on your 5 year old’s back for water play day at school. It’s peeling something fierce and he asked if that meant all of his skin was coming off.  WOW…seriously, someone give me an award…I am so awesome!
Really though…I cannot tell you how horrible it feels to realize that my inability to think a situation through fully landed my poor sweet kid in an aloe ridden dermatological hell.
Bear with me as I explain (not excuse) myself here.  Water play day…last day of school…bathing suit AND tshirt on…sunscreen slathering before leaving.  
Do you see what happened?  I was thinking that he’d wear his tshirt during the play time (NO IDEA why I thought he’d do that), so i just greased him in SPF50 all the way up to everything that was covered.  And then when he took off his shirt at the play day, it didn’t even cross my mind as I watched him have a blast with all of his friends.
It wasn’t until we got home and saw in the dim light of inside the house that his poor back was lobster red and he said his skin felt “glazing hot.”
Bugle please…the awards are being presented….and the following award goes to Logan Wolfram….
Awful I tell you…I felt just awful!
So today, when we went to meet friends at he pool, you can bet your bottom dollar that I didn’t forget a full slathering of sunscreen today! It’s 90 degrees here.  And as we like to say here in the deep south… “That ain’t rite!”  It’s just June 1!  Unreal.  I think I might get to be more friendly with our pool AND our sunscreen this summer than ever before if it’s gonna be like that!
Oh, and one more thing… I did give in and let Tid Bit have his lemonade and cotton candy stand yesterday.  Thanks to a few very generous customers he made about $10 selling treats and crafts….all to go to Haiti.  That sure does make a momma proud!
 

I was just giddy that he wanted to write the sign….so stinking cute!  Of course I had to spell it all out, but I’d say he did a pretty bang up job.  And the hydrangeas on the corner of his stand there…yeah, that was his idea!  Just like his momma…it’s all in the details!

Happy Hump Day!