Happy Leap Year

We are in the thick of another snow storm. We haven't cleaned up from the last one yet. So I am leaping, at least in my mind, to greener times.

I have a pretty large garden that I for the most part work myself. I love it, NEED it and spend just about every waking, good whether day out there as soon as the ground allows. My goal for my garden is to keep my family in fresh veggies most of the summer and into the fall only then do I put extra away. I didn't can much this season due to my busy (unplanned) show schedule. I was lucky to get invited to 2 extra art/craft shows last fall. I did freeze some surplus veggies though.

Not much is left, I have 1 bag of pea pods, 1 bag of beans and quite a bit of pesto left.

We love the pesto.

The chickens get most of our household food scraps but things they cant eat( potato skins, coffee grounds, onions, grapefruit rinds, etc...) go into the garden compost. I'm lucky that the Chickens make tons of treasure for the garden in their own special way.

One of my mini compost baskets that I space throughout the garden.

I know what my show schedule for the year is so I'm planning ahead. This spring I plan on planting a little more produce for fresh and to put up for next winter.

And growing some more for the kids roadside stand.

Oh Sheet

Vintage sheet collection.

Lucky me. My sis called had errands to run asked if i wanted to go and since we live 2 miles apart on the same road and I had the back of my truck filled with recyclables, I said "I'll drive".

Doing mundane things is way better with your sister (friend, kid, pup, lover).

I like shopping at Meijer due to the fact they have hormone free milk and we drink 5 gals a week. Also they had ham, potatoes and onions on sale and i was craving scalloped potatoes. So I told myself I couldn't write or read blogs(you ladies are too interesting) until dinner was ready and in the oven. I might be able to squeeze in a nap. I'm feeling much better but have been getting worn out easy.

So while my sis was in Bed Bath and Beyond I went into Michaels and found some cheap, soft yarn for the hat I want to make....

and lucky me I had a very old Micheals gift card in my wallet and it had some $ left so I got it free!

And I can't resist buying soft vintage sheets at thrift stores/garage sales so I made some bags last night. I hope they sell at the Teacher Convention. I cut out tons more so I know what I'm doing tonight.

Inside pocket.

These are so soft, reversible and can be washed over and over and no wrinkles.

I lovingly call them my bags of sheet!

Back to our regular scheduled programing

I am so happy that spell check is back! I've been having to dumb down my vocabulary while writing (not by much mind you) because I am not confident in my spelling and going and getting the dictionary seems like so much work.

I told myself no blogging, reading or writing until I finished sewing something. I start something, get distracted, the phone, laundry, computer, passing butterfly, whatever. Then some new fabric calls to me and I am left with unfinished work. I got some new stuff in the mail and I am not letting it distract me!

When I do anyting artsy fartsy it usually has a cartoonish edge. It drove the instructor in this drawing class i went to nuts, Oh well. So I am drawn to colorful, fun, sometimes kid related in the fabrics I choose. I had to have the frogs! And the Heather Ross fabrics are so charming and sweet and sooooo soft. You my darlings will have to wait.
I had been looking for heather Ross fabric locally for quite some time, no luck, found these at plumtickledfabrics.etsy.com/ She's nice and helpful for someone new to buying online and the prices even including shipping are comparable to my local quilt shops.

So today I actually finished a bag for the Teacher Conference. See it's all teachery.

See what I mean about my vocabulary.

and teachery tissue packs

on the tissue pack rack!

We were hit with about 6 more inches of snow, so I'm off a' shovelin.

Spell check isn't happy to be back here.

Ignore previous post

Can any of you relate to when you aren't feeling quite back to snuff, have a mountainous pile of laundry, a show fast approaching, big time mother issues (i know i shouldn't gripe it's just at my age its sad), then you read articles that make you feel worse about the world and you know there are people out there who have it waaaaayyy worse which just makes you feel more crappy, instead of bucking up and taking action you write a lectury blog about water bottles. What the? That's not me. Forgive please.

I am feeling way better now, not that much on my poor me list above has changed but my attitude has. First there is Joanna to blame who just bought my chick bag on etsy, I don't know her but I still love her, HUGE THANK YOU, and having a supportive hubbie helps and last of all a wonderful sister who shares many of the same mother issues and will listen till I beat a subject to death and has me laughing in the end. (sounds like an Oscar acceptance speech)

I promise to try to only use these keys for good and not evil from now on.
Update: I deleted the post. It was spreading and I'm too embarassed to let it live on!

Well that sucked!

I thank you for the well wishes sent my way. Listening to some one tell about their illness is dull,(the exception is someone with a real chronic illness) it's even more boring for me to talk about it so I wont. Since I have nothing interesting about my week, I'll just post some last summer photos.

I love our pond, but it is hard to get a fish to pose for a photo.

We have 2 carp in our pond, they help to keep it clean. I call them Thing One and Thing Two, and they are over 3 feet long, not the prettiest of fish....

....but when going for food they have the cutest lips!

Maybe I'll label this post fish lips, maybe not.

I got the Flu

101 fever yesterday, 100 today. The girl luckily is back to school, but got a bloddy nose on the way to the bus stop. What a mess. I'm just glad I'm not barfing. We'll chat soon.

5 day weekend

The kids had a long weekend, thank you Goerge Washington. So we......

Stacked more firewood.

Plowed the driveway.

Looks good.

Can't have all work and no play.

Our version of a sleigh ride.

Our pup loves his frugal toy, it really is his fav. When one laundry jug is chewed up and ready for the recyle bin, a "new" one is ready for play.

I caught Bratty in the act.

Fresh from the factory.

For some reason the crotch in Hubbies pants is the first thing to go. I don't ask.

I just fix.

Not as good as new, at least not indecent.

I finished 3 more bags for the show.

Monday the girl and I suspected colds were in our future, so we ran errands, hit the library, I saw this hat and checked out the book, so during Idol last night I practiced the double crochet stitch on cotton yarn. Now I have a new dish cloth and the stitch mastered. Now the search for just the right hat yarn.

So my girl and I do have colds, she's home for the day and we both feel like caca poo poo. Good thing she got Sponge Bob DVD's at said library and I was productive this weekend so I don't feel bad about veggin.

Confessions of a Trash Picker

I am a trash picker. I have been for years. I have a huge list of items I have rescued from the curb. In our family we like to call them curbside treasures. One I'm proud of is my fashion model which I've bragged about before.

Here she is in the garden earning her keep, modeling an apron.

The cool gal from Henbogle ( I still haven't figured out the link thing but you can go to the sites I love and click to her site) talked about this topic on her February 12th blog. I left a comment and she requested a photo of my dresser drawer bookshelf I made. So here are many photos and the story behind it all.

My home, if you climb the stairs to the upper floor, has a bathroom straight ahead. To the left and right are my kids bedrooms. There is a small landing with not much room but I invisioned book shelves on both sides. We have tons of childrens books and I figured it would be nice for the kids to just walk out and pick a book at bedtime, also saving valuable floor space in their rooms.

Very narrow.

One side is deeper than the other and I was trying to find a bookshelf narrow enough to fit the shallow space. I didn't have any luck size wise or price wise. My husband is a busy man with many projects of his own. I am an independent woman and only ask for help when absolutely necessary, but my building skills are piss poor. (sorry if i offend, but it's true) I didn't want a bookshelf that looked like I built it.

I live on a beautiful tree lined, semi rural, dirt road. One of the bad things about it are not so nice people come out here and pitch their trash on the side of our road instead of throwing it away in a proper way. Not nice. Luckily people on our road take pride and it usually doesn't stay for long.

One sunny day quite a few years back, I was driving home on our beautiful tree lined road and saw a crappy, particle board dresser with a pile of other house hold items strewn about. But as I mentioned before, I am a trash picker and hit the breaks. The dresser and one of the drawers was wrecked but 5 of the drawers were fine. I put the dresser on it's back, took the good drawers and emptied them into the dresser and stacked the rest of the discarded items on top. I'm not strong enough to lug and dispose of the junk but I can at least make it a little neater/easier for someone who can.

I took these drawers home and when I get a wild hair, I have to do things right away.

First I screwed the drawers together using the holes that were in the drawers for the handles. Lucky for me the screws that were in the handle were pointy so I didn't have to scrounge for just the right size and amount of screws.

I made sure to use the holes for the bottom side of the "shelf" so the screws would be covered by the books.

Once done, the "shelf" was very wobbly since they were only connected in the center.

I scrounged some trim pieces from hubbies stash and covered where the 2 drawers connect to make it purdy. I put the flat side up so it would be level with the shelf.

On the side facing out (remember it's fitting into a corner) I ended up using 2 bigger trim pieces to cover the joints of the drawers and to make it look nice. With all these it made it very sturdy.

I used nail filler and caulk to fill nail holes and gaps. I primed it with about 2 or three coats since the particle board sucks in the paint. I never did get around to painting it, I couldn't decide on a color. Someday.

It fits!

I got together with my dad who is a builder and made one with scrounged lumber to make one for the other side. (pay no attention to the messy books) I still need to prime and paint that one. Someday.

I liked this project because even a gal with piss poor building skills with good tools, can build a sturdy, straight bookcase that even impressed the real builders in the family. I also saved a bit of trash from going into the landfill. Best of all it was FREE!

Happy Valentines Day!

I'ts also my husbands Grandfathers' birthday.

Happy 88th Grandpa!

Party at his place tonight. I made him more freezer batches of split pea soup. His Fav.

I also mass produced cookies for all my other loves.

Gettin' your sugar fix yet?

I like sugar cookies, I like red hots, but when you combine them together, I don't know what happens but it is pure magic. Lucky for me the kids don't care for them (crazy) so those babies are MINE!

I wish you and all your sweeties a Happy Valentines Day.

Good News

For me at least. My internet was down for most of the day so I actually cleaned my house. WOW, It looks good! Just don't open any closet doors. Then I made a date with a friend to go fabric shopping tomorrow, it didn't take much convincing, she wants me to do a Bag Lady bag for her with specific colors. And then lovely voiced, computerized lady talked me through getting my internet service back up. Maybe I'll send flowers.
I just received word that I got in 2 of the 3 shows I applied for. Not the extra one in March. I think fate was saying 2 shows in less than a week might be too much for me. But my big November show that I love and a December show I've never done are good to go. So I have 5 for sure shows booked for the year. I'm hoping to find at least one more for the summer.

Ok, my spell check still isn't working and now I can't up load any photos. I guess I'll put those flowers on hold.
Maybe I'll change the title of this post to boring.

Sunny Siberia

It's 2 degrees with a -17 wind chill, but WE HAVE SUN!!!! I can at least sit in a sunny window and dream spring may eventually come our way.


Thank you for the Lucky love. It means a lot to me and my girl.

In spite of a busy schedule, I worked a bit this weekend, stitched some faces down and assembled the out side.

Quilted around. Tons more to do.

I not only have a show in March.....

I got my invitation to do Saline Summerfest Craft Show again this year. I loved that show.

Last summer.

The ladies in charge are so kind, they treated me like a guest, not all shows do, and its in August and I was so delightfully sweaty and hot. I miss sweaty and hot. And I love doing shows in my hometown.

I had 6 comments on my 100th giveaway post so I took the easy way, I'm kind of lazy that way, rolled the dice and commenter #1 wins! Congrats Farmgirl_dk.

Well I'd better get back to work.

Take care.

Lucky

I have lost beloved pets before and losing a chicken isn't the same, but it still hurts.

I don't know what happened, last night I tucked the girls in (thats what I call it), head count, secured the back door, Plucky was next to her best pal on the perch, wasn't ill or anything.

This morning I found her on the floor wedged behind a feeder. I'm assuming she fell off the perch, panicked in the dark and her little heart gave out.

She was in our first batch of chicks four years ago. Our first green egg layer.

It was hard to tell my daughter who picked her out and named her.
I took her inside and cared for her last winter when she had an impacted crop and we bonded.

Lucky liked to come up on the deck and visit.

She was curious but dignified. She wouldn't get in the swarm of chickens even for a treat. She would stand out of the melee and wait for me to give her some goodies.

She hated moulting, it was like she was embarassed about having a bad feather day.

I took this photo four days ago.

Oh Lucky, the hen house wont be the same without you.