Highs and lows

Have you ever had a few days stretch where you have incredible things and shitty things all mixed in together? Thats been my last few days.

I had some major downers in my extended family, which I wont get into, but it had me stopped in my tracks the entire day on Tuesday. I am slowly getting out of that funk.

Usually I plant my entire garden much sooner than now but we have been having weird weather in Michigan lately so I waited till last weekend to do the warm weather crops. I planted on an 80 degree day. The next day plummeted and we got a killing frost.

I lost 4 of 7 Zucchini plants.

Half the row of potatoes are blackened. I am hoping some make it.

I lost 8 of 12 pepper plants.

The worst is all my tomatoes i started from seed are gone.

Giant CRAP!

Ok now for my annoying habit of looking at the bright side of the coin.

I should be able to replace most of the veggie plants by purchasing already started ones from the market.

The pumpkin I let rot out by the clothes line is kickin with sprouts.

Check out my future strawberries but pay no attention to the weeds.

Lookie what I harvested today.

And the best news of all.....

I recommended my best friend (the amazing water color artist) to the woman coordinating the art fair space I'm at and.....

WE ARE IN THE SHOW TOGETHER!!!!!!

I am happy beyond words.

This was us at a show we were both at last fall (I have no idea who that lady on the left is but she looks nice).

At this point whether I have a successful show or not is irrelevant because it is going to be so much fun. When we get together it's like we are back to the giggly girls we were at 14.

Great Weekend

We had a wonderful family weekend. Before i get to the details i just want to say that this morning we went to our towns Memorial Day Parade, every time those Veterans walk by and we all stand clapping and cheering, I cant help getting choked up and a little teary just thinking what those brave men and women have gone through and what the new enlistees (they walk too) may go through as well. God bless them all.

I planted peppers, hot and sweet.

Zucchini.

The girl planted beans.

We teamed up for the cucumbers.

The tomato seedlings we started were more than ready to go outside.

The boy and i planted those, we put them under milk jug greenhouses because of the wind. We also made mini compost bins to give the tomatoes a boost during the growing season. We planted one big tomato plant I had bought at the market so we wont have to wait till the end of July for our first tomato.

T-Bone turned 6 on Saturday so the girl made and hung a banner, baked and decorated a cake (we forgot to take a pic). She also made T-bone a dog friendly "cake", a dog biscuit with peanut butter "frosting". We cooked out on the fire pit and the dog was oblivious about the "party" but we sure enjoyed it.

I have heard, from the egg council, that there is no difference between free range eggs and store bought.

SAY WHAT?

Well we chicken people know better and I have the proof.

These eggs I boiled for deviled eggs tell a different story.

Notice the halos.

The boy built obstacle course type things for his rumble robot.

Pretty slick.

Remember my old freebie shelf....

....i got around to painting it and will be a great display shelf in my shows, light weight and painted white.

It was hot today so the girls were just hangin out.

The six week old partridge rocks and the 4 week old dark cornish.

Awkward looking stage.

I think I guessed right on my free exotic when I thought it was a Silver Spangled Hamburg.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/21218499@N08/2338487631/

What do you think?

I just don't know if it is a roo or a pullet.

Thoughts and prayers go to the people hit by this weekends tornadoes.

I'm better, thanks.

Thank you, wise women who calmed me down on my previous post.

I figured out a schedule, it seems to be working.

The house is still standing, the family seems fed and happy.

And this week i made....

Twelve new bags, plus 2 more started and waiting.

One is going to a niece for her 10th birthday, she said she wants to start a collection of purses made by her relatives. Is that the cutest thing ever!

I finished 16 tissue packs and 15 more are started and waiting.

I also made a toe sock chicken.

It is mostly hand stitching so I worked on this and the tissue packs in the car during the boys' soccer practice.

I love that face.

The problem I have is that toe socks are hard to find, so there may not be a lot of these guys.

At quitting time today, I stepped out to greet the bus and all the chickens were by the porch...

....under a bush....

....and under the Honeysuckle.

What were they hiding from?

These two scary ducks.

What a bunch of chickens.

On the walk home from the bus,
our "Indian Dog" was on the trail of some small creature.

Yes, I said "Indian dog."

He is part of the Blackfoot Tribe.

Have a great Memorial Day Weekend.

I'm Freaking!

I am for sure going to be in the show. AAAHHHHHH!!!! I'm excited and terrified all at the same time. I'm excited because this is the show of shows and never thought I'd be there other than to shop and be inspired. Terrified because its so huge, 4 days and I will never have the inventory I'd prefer to have. I average 2 to 4 hours per bag and the last 3 days I have gotten 8 finished. If I average 10 per week,if I'm lucky, that is only 80 on top of the 100+ I have. I do have some art quilts, aprons and tissue packs, but still.

I am freaking.

Then my next show after that is 3 weeks later. Oh what have I gotten myself into.

Just keep breathing.

The kids have less than 3 weeks of school, lots of field trips I volunteered for, we have 2 summer trips planned before the show, I have a big garden waiting to grow, weed, harvest, process. Not to mention the 25 meat chickens I have growing in the coop. Then three more big shows in the fall. WHAT WAS I THINKING????

Another thing stressing me out, I got on the scale this morning, which I don't recommend, and I'm only 5 pounds shy of being my heaviest WHEN I WAS PREGNANT!!!

Oh yea, our tenants moved out of one of our rental properties, left it a mess, including 2 large aquariums with DEAD FISH IN THEM!!!

Guess who usually cleans and paints them?? It's me.

We so need to get it rented soon because I don't have the cash to pay for another home.

Ok, I'm going to think of the positives.

We are all healthy. That's really good.

The weather is supposed to get warmer. Yay!

I'm loving making these bags from my leftover scraps. Fun and frugal.

Oh I figured out why my pictures were less than clear. You have to periodically wipe kid fingerprints off the lens.

Ok, so my good list is pretty good.

How do full time working moms do it?

Art Auction

I had so much fun at the Art Auction.

I talked to so many artists and saw many artist friends.

I also won the bid on a piece I was wanting to get.

The artist is Catherine Thursby, I love her style and she has the most adorable shop in AnnArbor. http://www.redshoeshomegoods.com/ I cant say enough good things about her. I am just thrilled to have one of her original pieces!

The lady who won the bid on the bag I donated, showed up with another bag I made and had bought it from the gallery I used to sell from. She said she is starting a collection! She is officially my new best friend.

Ok, the best thing about the day was this woman I slightly knew from our daughters being in Brownies together years ago, asked if I would like to be in the Ann Arbor Art Fair! This art fair is a 4 day show, one of the biggest in the country, has been going for 49 years and I never even thought I had a chance of being there. I haven't worked out any details yet and don't want to jinx myself, but the thought is making me giddy. {{{{AND NERVOUS}}}}

If I do get in I have less than 2 months to get ready and if I make the inventory I feel I need, I will have to sew a minimum of 5 bags per day, 6 days a week. So if you don't hear from me much, don't worry, I'll be in my basement/sweatshop, neglecting my home, garden and blog, but hopefully not my family.

So this morning I finished two bags I had started and made this patchwork.

Is it bad of me to say that I love it so much? Sometimes I have a hard time selling certain bags and this will be one of them.

Get back to work!

Well.....

What do you think? Up there^. I don't know why this is such a dilemma for me,

I can change it whenever I like.

I don't have much new to chat about so I thought I'd put on another fish video for your viewing pleasure.

Soccer weekend and I'm hoping to finish planting the garden weather permitting.

Have a great weekend.

So far....

...the chick bag photo is in the lead (last post).

I'll give it a day or so to get more votes, also because I'm trying to get tons of stuff done since I am childless until tomorrow morn.

Yep, the boy left for Washington D.C. on Tuesday, 5:30 am and I dropped off the girl today for Toronto at 4:30 am.

So I'm taking this time to crank, after I got my early morning nap.

Speaking of chick bags, I was working on 3 last night, finished one this morning which I'm hoping load on etsy soon. I'm setting the other 2 aside for my next art show. I realize it isn't till August, but if I don't start now, how busy I get with the garden and kids in the summer, I wont have enough inventory. Plus I have 4 shows between August and December and won't have enough time to work on new things for that many shows. (If my sales are good, knock wood.)

I'm hoping to plan it better than I did last year. I had 2 surprise shows that I was invited to be in with only a months notice, the $$ was good and I loved doing them but I didn't harvest enough food from the garden to make me happy. Making money is nice, but if you have to spend it away due to lack of time, what is the point.

My camera is on it way to Toronto so I swiped hubbies, tons of bells and whistles that i have no clue how to use, but look at how crisp the picture looks. Me likey.

I have a couple of ideas that I am working on, so a good camera is nice. Now I just need a new color ink cartridge. It will have to wait till tomorrow when I run into town. My Mom and I are carpooling our errands, she has a little gas friendly PT Cruiser so the Monster Truck can stay home.

So of course anytime I'm in the yard doing anything, the girls have to come and check out the sitch. Bratty was pecking at the beads on this art quilt. Bad Chicken.

So it will be just me and my man in a quiet house tonight, let the nudieness begin!