Sewing, Sewing, Sewing....

I got the patio swing cushions and canopy DONE! And I am very pleased with how it all turned out. :) You will have to wait for pictures...I will take some when it warms up a bit and I put them back outside on the swing. Right now they are living behind my couch!

Today I was thinking about organizing my plastic Wal-Mart bags and, since we stopped using paper towels, organizing my "rags" who were living in a plastic Wal-Mart bag in the pantry! So I found this site and made three bags...one for the Wal-Mart bags, one for rags that are to be used and kept, and one for rags that can be used and thrown away. I already had the fabric and ribbon, so it was a quick easy project. She has a lot of neat projects on her site...go check it out and get your sew on! :)

http://makeitandloveit.blogspot.com/2009/01/grocery-bag-holder.html

My awesome Hubbs is in town right now getting a board and some hooks to hang them on the pantry wall, as well as some other things. Currently there are nails in there to hang things on and things are always falling off the nails or the nails themselves fall out of the wall. It will be nice to have stuff stay put.

I started onion seeds a few weeks back. They are doing ok, but for some reason I don't much care to start them from seed. Go figure because I love starting everything else from seed! I think this year I am going to do an onion experiment...plant some onions from seed, some from local sets, and some from local plants to see what does the best. Maybe I can get out of starting them. I'll have to post again about what is going in the garden this year. I have everything picked out, all seeds in hand, and a schedule made to know when to start them and when to plant them. However, tonight we are supposed to get a couple of inches of SNOW. Bah humbug. Come on Spring...I miss you!

Ok, I am off to cook some supper. :) have you been up to?

I'm So Excited! And I Just Can't Hide it!

I won! I won! I won Jayme, The Coop Keeper's, book give away. I get a signed copy of Pioneer Woman's new cook book! And here is how it got signed - please pay particular attention to the picture of the Rocketdogs next to the boot. And pay attention to the Rocketdogs in this post too. :) Jayme loves her Rocketdogs. And her Rocketdogs LOVE being photographed. They outshine any and all other footwear.

I am also excited because GASP...I just learned that you can paint old laminate counter tops to look fancy and new. Think granite! Think updated look! Think beauty! Think something tat will resemble the gorgeous new counter tops I saw in Lowe's the other day! So in the near future, I plan to update my kitchen AND bathroom counter tops! I am so excited! :) I will try VERY hard to actually take pictures! I so suck at that part!!

Happy Thanksgiving! :)

Knitted Babe, Tree Frog, Pickle Jars, Sun Tea, (and a Picture of Me!)...

This is the first tree frog I have seen this year! And he was hanging out on our picture window which made for an interesting picture...can you see him? If you click on the pictures they will enlarge.

I saw sun tea jars at the store the other day. I was tempted to buy a couple because we LOVE making sun tea! But really, we are pinching pennies and squeezing George til he screams (don't we sound mean? LOL) and on top of that, I have never had good luck with them because the spicket part always ends up leaking. And they do require more cleaning to keep the spicket and lid crevices clean. So I thought I'd come up with something at home and "make do". Let me tell you, it was fun to be creative and the pride for my accomplishment was much more satisfying! Not to mention money saved. I remembered I had saved these giant pickle jars, which turned out to be the perfect size for sun tea jars. The only problem was that I haven't found an effective way to get the lids to stop smelling like pickles, so using them was out. I didn't want to use plastic wrap because of the chemicals and waste. So I thought 'reusable' and sewed the edges of two small squares out of left over material scraps. I tied them up with some cotton yarn to keep them in place while outside and ta da! They work wonderfully! They are easy to pour from and are easy to clean. And they are pretty to look at sitting on the deck too - bright, cheap, and cheery.

I got my first knitted babe done and my daughter loves her! She named her Cassi after one of her sister's friends. I have three more to make at least...one for my other daughter and for two of my nieces for their b-days. I will probably make a couple for Christmas gifts too, I know a couple of more girls who would love them. I sewed her a little pair of undies and a quick dress out of fabric scraps. I still want to add more hair underneath the hair that is there, but my little one was anxious to love on her so she is good enough for now. And she drags her EVERYWHERE! And she buckles her in when she goes in the van with us. I just realized something so I have edited this to add that if you click on the picture of the doll sitting on the shelf, to her left is a picture of me with my husband! Since I have never posted a picture of myself, I thought that might get you all excited. ;) LOL The picture frame says "It's not the destination, it's the journey." I love that frame.

The Dirty Divas are doing great! The are growing fast and are loving their new home and yard. Herding ducks is not an easy task but it is funny....it took three of us forever to get them to go up their ramp! They are so neat because they move as a flock - so they'd go back and forth past the ramp then under it, and repeat. A time or two we have just give up and caught them and put them in...it was easier that way! Last night we went out late to put them to bed and they were already inside on their own. The nights we herded them it was earlier in the evening and we wanted to get them put up. I think we'll just let them put themselves to bed and then go close them in. We have been getting a lot of rain and they enjoy it. I am ready for things to dry out so I can get in the garden. And I am ready for some sunshine! These grey rainy days make me tired.

Seedlings and Cold Frame and Green House Building Update....

The tomatoes and peppers are doing great! I think I need to transfer them to individual pots soon.

These are experimental...Morning Glory vines and Moon Flower vines. This is the first year I have grown either, so I wanted to try starting some indoors. They are doing really well. I hope they continue to!

Ok, remember this picture of the canopy frame from an old wagon that I found here on the farm and planned to re-purpose as a little green house?

My AWESOME husband has transformed it into this so far....

This weekend he will attach the door and plastic and it will be done!!!! I think it is fantastic! he's a talented man, for sure. :) I have never had or used a greenhouse before, but I am going to learn!

And this is the Captain, my hubby, with the almost finished cold frame, propped open. The lid is hinged. Doesn't it look wonderful? All that is left to do to it is to attach the plastic to the lid. We had wanted to use plexiglass, but he priced it and it is just not in the budget right now. I think the plastic will be fine for now. Rain may be an issue if it pools on the plastic, so we'll have to keep an eye on it. I am just thrilled! :) I will post pictures of them as soon as they are finished.

There is a Farmer's Market meeting tomorrow night that I am going to attend. I have never been a vendor, and I don't have anything specific to sell there (yet) but I think it may be in our future so I am going to go and see what it is all about. I think it will be fun!

Ducklings - I just checked the calander and it is approximately 26 days until their arrival!

Have a great night! :)

Recent This and Thats.....

Treasures found in the basement...8 storage containers with lids, a large strainer, a thermometer, and a glass cotton ball jar with lid.



We cooked and ate duck for the first time...and we all loved it! The only problem was one duck was barely enough for our family of 5. Turkey or chicken is much more economical.

This is that naughty dense flat wheat bread I spoke of before....

This is the double batch of homemade playdough we made for my daughter's preschool class. It was my month to make it.

Here is the recipe....

2 cups boiling water

2 packets unsweetened Kool-Aid (makes it smell fantastic and the color is so bright)

4 tsp Cream of Tarter (I buy mine in bulk at the Amish store)

1 cup salt

2 TBS oil

2 cups flour

Mix all dry ingredients well while the water is boiling. Add the oil to the boiling water and mix well into the dry ingredients. Let cool and then knead until smooth. The keeps for a long time in a ziplock.

My beautiful oldest daughter all dressed up for the Courtwarming dance at school.....

If you look close, on her ring finger is a silver Chastity Ring (or True Love Waits ring, whichever you call it). In case you are wondering, no, they don't make matching silver Chastity Belts. I asked. ;)

Making fresh juice from juice oranges....putting the peels in the kitchen compost bucket (Check out this blog for a wonderful idea for orange/citrus peels! ) and the finished product.

Today I did our taxes in my jammies. Is there any better way to do them than that? :)

The Scavenger Hunt...AKA Our Re-purposing Journey

The farm we live on has been in my husband's family for four generations now. The main house was built by his great grandparents. The stairs to the basement were being poured the day that Pearl Harbor was bombed...and I have heard that story, as well as many others, only about a zillion times and I still love hearing them. My Father In Law is the type that can't hardly throw anything away, someone might need it someday. (He can't seem to put anything away either, but that's another story!) At first, it was annoying with piles of this and that around the farm...I tend to be anti-clutter. Now I am thankful for his habit!

There are outbuildings, of course. Among them a big barn, a hog barn, 2 big sheds, little sheds, and a chicken house. I only recently ventured out to the hog barn for the first time to poke around and man, did it get me excited! In it I found an old wood door. And it still had hinges! JACKPOT! It will become the lid to the cold frame I am building. That inspired me to go on a scavenger hunt to see what all I could find to work on my new endeavors. Hubby and I jumped in his truck and around the farm we went.

In a large shed, a pile of all types and sizes of building wood. That will make the rest of the cold frame as well as other things, like a frame for the seed starter. Fencing for the chicken house was found. Materials to use for a duck pen, found in the hog barn. In an old stove I found racks to use for drying. In the old red barn (picture of it on the right), lots of well rotted cow manure and on the top level straw bales. In the shed, a florescent light fixture to use for the seed starter I am building. And my absolute favorite (and I must take pictures!) is the top cover to a horse wagon - it is a steel frame that is going to make a wonderful my-first-greenhouse! We also found shovels, shovels, and more shovels as well as rakes - can never have too many of them around. And there are a whole bunch of big black mineral buckets that I have already used one to start a compost bin and plan to use several more for that purpose. I'll post as these projects get underway.

I have to say, I now am looking forward to cleaning out the basement and the attic! There are generations worth of stuff there and it will be exciting to see what we find and see what we can use or re-purpose. Our trip around the farm and our time will save us a ton of money and it was actually a great fun "date" for hubby and I. I look forward to doing it again! And quite frankly, all these empty farm buildings have the wheels in my head going...

I'd love to hear your scavenger hunting and re-purposing stories!