Out with the old...

It's no secret that I love my Monster Truck. I've blogged about it before so I wont bore you again.

Hubby (I love him too!)for Christmas, bought me parts for my beloved truck. He fixed my interior handle that had broke and left me to roll the window down and open the door using the exterior handle. Not too bad of a problem except for when the windows freeze up, which is common in the winter, so I'd have to exit across the passenger side door. That isn't too bad either, I just got curious look at the gas station.

And the grill was messed up with my deer encounter and when I turned on my brights, I would be coon shining in the trees.

This is how you straighten a bumper.

These are the old parts.

I'm not the only one in the family who does outside work in jammies.

Ta Da! You can see where the duct tape was holding the old light in place.

Other than the little dent in the hood (where the buck hit with his antler), its as good as new!


I adore him and am so lucky he loves me.









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No, we didn't get a cat, the girl has another pet sitting job and took this picture with my camera.
"Hi Spooky!"



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I'm so proud of myself, I did my first successful link at the top!

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Q: For all you bloggers out there that are way smarter than me. I just got a Gurneys seed catalog in the mail and there is a $20 no strings coupon. Do you know if there is any thing weird with their seed? Chemically altered or what not? I like free but not if there are health risks. If you know, please let me know. Thanks bunches!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

I have exactly 52 minutes to be at my MILs for our Christmas celebration. I had to make time to send out good Christmas wishes to you all.

The only way I had time to post this was to DELEGATE! I normally don't, not that I'm a control freak, maybe sometimes, but I have a hard time asking for help. Not this year.

The kids decorated cookies, helped bake and clean. Hubby is doing dishes as I type, guaranteed nookie later me thinks.

I even had the girl take pictures of the things I made as gifts, before SHE wrapped them.

My niece wanted jammies and a matching pair for her American Girl doll.

$1.75 in flannel, a pack of boys white t-shirts, added a simple applique,

I couldn't find any newborn size t-shirts so I bought a tiny onesie, cut and hemmed the bottom, added a matching applique as the big one. So for less than $10, I have a gift she actually requested.

I made pillows for all the moms. Stepmom requested a "Hi Chick" pillow, my mom has Guineas and they had little ones this year, so I winged a Guinea Mom and baby pillow. My MIL just got a pillow declaring our love. The artist in me wasn't very creative at 7:00am.

Tomorrow we have a morning Christmas at my Dads, and we are hosting an afternoon party with my Mom . I have much more food to prepare and now I have 41 minutes till the party so I'd better go.

Oh yea, Great Grampa got out of the hospital this morning (he'd fallen) and he will be there tonight!

Sending love to you all,

Merry Christmas!

Dreams really do come true.

The kids and I have been dreaming of a snow day since early December, today was the day!

It was perfect, we got to tack on one more day to our winter vacation.

We love snow.

I couldn't stand it and had to get out early and take a pic of the snowy house,

and the man on his tractor plowing the driveway.

and the snow covered coop and run.

Everything was covered with our 8" of snow!

Hubby went to work, they decided to close. Yay snow day!

The snow gives us all a good excuse to go outside.

To get firewood,

to play,

to plow again,

to make yellow snow,

see,

to scratch,

to snuggle with mama,

to nap,

to take pictures.

Reluctant Tour Guide

Enough with the sewing and talk about shows, I know you need to see what's been happening with Hammy.

Hammy is my Silver Spangled Hamburg Roo that has a huge comb that reminds me of a desert flower.

Also who I suspect is daddy to Uno.

Normally he likes to chill in the winter run with the girls.

Other times he LOVES it when I catch him and get all paparazzi in his face.

He really isn't being shy, he's just showing off that big beautiful comb.

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He's not all looks though, he can be a big help around here.



He's great at hauling in firewood.



Making sure other roosters are wooden.




Playing Vanna to my new bag.



He loves to help trim the tree.
This is one of our new tacky lights http://sugarcreekstuff.blogspot.com/2007/11/random-musings.html from this years garage sales. .25 cents, boo-yah.


He also likes the cactus ones I found for $2 at the thrift shop, since his head is all cactus-y.





After all that work, he really likes just hangin' with T-Bone,
thinking guy thoughts.



He mostly like to show his girlfriends the best place for a dirt bath.



Jacuzzi anyone?

You can't win em all.

I had to set up and tear down my space myself, which turned out well. I made sure nothing was too heavy. The kids met me once school got out and helped hang bags.

We got complimentary soup or chili and the most delish assortment of desserts to choose from before the show started. So nice.

I did turn a small profit but talked to some vendors who didn't even make enough to cover the cost of the space, so I am grateful just to have come out a bit ahead.

My fashion model strutting her stuff.

My wheel rack worked great. I had both sides filled and could still move it with ease.

I'm glad I have quick reflexes and good peripheral vision because the jerky lady tried to clobber me on the head, twice with her sign.

Here's what I learned:

I do better at art shows than Christmas craft shows. That crafters are some of the nicest people. And you all are so kind with your words of encouragement. Thank you.

The gal next to me Andy, knits these beautiful children hats and has the cutest kids, actually stayed and watched my stuff while I took the shuttle to get my truck, even though it was 1:00am and she had a plane to catch the next morning.

And this vendor across from me, Kim, who makes goat milk soap and the cutest mittens from used sweaters, loved and bought a llama bag from me. She had pictures of her goats and llamas on her farm and suggested I make more and do some fibre shows. I just may look into that.

After about 8:00 pm, I was bored so this is how I spent my time..

No more shows for the rest of the year. I'm loading all things that I have left on my etsy shop and getting ready for Christmas. Whew!

If you are in town tonight...

stop by and say hi.

http://users.salineschools.com/~olsonb/

If I seem stressed, please give me a hug.

Sewing my tooshie off

Well not literally.

I get nervous before a show, especially one I haven't done before. I have that jittery, sweaty armpit feeling. The good thing is, jittery means energy. The bad thing is I have sweaty armpits.

Here's what I've been working on.

I made a fun funky chicken bag.

Yep, the chicken is a pocket.

A couple of green patchworks.

I sold out of my skull bags at the last show....

so I made a few more.

Now you may be asking yourself what is a rapidly approaching middle age, bordering frumpy, farm lovin gal is doing making skull bags.

I got a skull remnant and chopped off the heads, it's like playing paper dolls except with fabric and they sell. Plus they are fun to make.

I also found this cub scout shirt at the thrift shop, so I made another bag.

This fabric was from the line of Anna Maria Horner fat quarters I bought in October. http://annamariahorner.blogspot.com/ I couldn't bear to chop it up so I just quilted the flower and used more of her fabric for the bottom and back. I pieced the tote handles and used...

Linda Lum Debono fabric that she sent me last month, thanks again Linda, http://lindalumdebono.blogspot.com/, for the lining inside. I added my label and it's ready to go.

Now I like the bags I make, otherwise I wouldn't be able to make them. Sometimes though I end up making a bag, intending on selling it and I just can't. I WANT TO KEEP THIS ONE! It is speaking to me.

It also goes with the scarf I made last year.

This is bad, I NEED to sell things, not keep them.

Money vs. New Bag, hmmm.

The kids may end up with an imaginary Christmas this year.

Thanksgiving Stuff

I hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving. I'm a kid of divorce so I'm used to traveling from house to house, toss in a husband and his family, well you can guess that holidays are never spent in one place or very relaxing. I'm used to it so no big.

We had Thanksgiving breakfast at my sisters house for my Mom, she is only 2 miles down the road and my kids love it there. For my Dad, around the corner at 2:00 for lunch/dinner, linner?

Cooking was easy for me, pie crusts for quiche and bread started for home made rolls the night before, then up early to finish it all.

Saturday was at my MIL's for another linner. My Hubbie and Son had Hockey at night, so that was only a few hours spent there.

My MIL had a birthday on Wednesday so of course I had no gift to bring on Saturday morning. You guessed it, the queen of all things last minute had to run downstairs to the sweat shop and come up with something.

So I made her an art quilt. My MIL happens to be the Queen Mother of her Red Hat group so her snow lady needed a red hat with purple gloves. I know this picture is at a weird angle because I was trying to get the light from the window and not shade it too much with my giant head.

My MIL is also the queen of shopping, so I have to get creative and come up with things she doesn't already have. She really liked it.

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My last craft show if the year is this Friday night, http://sites.salineschools.com/users/olsonb/,

so if you don't hear from me much this week, it isn't cause I don't love you. ;-)

What's a girl to do?

I've got a new coop, the chickens love to free range but winter is coming, they need a chicken run.

The pluses, nice door and ramp. The minuses, the window opens out so I can't block it, I have no cash to spare, and hubby is up north hunting so I'm on my own.

More pluses, I have a shovel, post hole digger and the ground isn't frozen yet.

I've got an old swing set frame. Who doesn't?

I had to bury the legs a couple feet down as to not block the window.

I can add this old chain link fencing I have lying around, another plus.

(this stuff is so heavy, my back took awhile to recover)

Ugly green tarp to seal it up against winter blizzards.
(that's in the plus and minus column)


Works for me.



I'm hoping this run is temporary, and in the spring I'll have some cash and help to build a proper run. But for now, the chickens have a snow free zone for scratching and exercise. They even have the space under the coop too!


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Thanksgiving's tomorrow so I figure I'll be busy then so I'll post some things I'm thankful for today.


I'm thankful for my built in can and make do spirit and a strong body to get the job done, even though my inner lazy person is telling me to go inside and rest.

I'm thankful for scrounged stuff.

I'm thankful for my little farm with my chickens, it's just enough to keep the farm girl side of me happy.

I'm thankful for my family of four.

I am thankful we have a holiday that focuses on a feast, I love to eat.

I'm thankful for bloggers who I learn from and laugh with.

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Happy Thanksgiving.