How my Mind Works ~ Think "give a Mom a muffin"

The day I delivered my 84 year-old Dad some home cooked meals, I gave myself a reason to visit two stores while in town. 

Pssst!  You're gonna need a cup of something to sip and read through this today, ha ha!

I went straight in, bought what I needed, and headed for the front of the store.  I was in the last store before returning home.

I raced down the aisle, hoping the speed would burn more calories, but came to a halt.  The clearance shelves.  Yikes!
There in front of me was a beautiful kitchen rug.  The kind you put in front of your sink.

Happy Homemaker Monday

Joining Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom today.

.....from the handiwork journal

Finished a navy headband for my oldest daughter.

Finished these knitted dishcloths to sell.  They are almost restocked for the next craft show.

Finished another mug/coaster set.

Finished a set of elf boot cuffs for Youngest daughter.  I'll most likely adjust this pattern for a shorter top on it, and round the top round in white vs. green yarn.  Small bells will be sewn onto the tips of the red part too.  Or possible leave them as they are, and give buyers an option prior to a craft show.  I guess you could glue on pom poms too.  It'll be interesting to see what Youngest wants on hers.  She can't wear them to school, but can elsewhere.  This pattern is for sale at Etsy by AllieCatsHats (not an affiliate, just sharing).

Started this scarf for an order for a Christmas present.

Current dishcloth on the knitting needles.

Current lapghan on the crochet hook.

I got a set of boot cuffs crocheted to sell.  New pattern.  I started a second set for a Christmas present as well.  This pattern is online for free at Crystalized Designs.  The only problem selling boot cuffs?  Not everyone can wear the size they make (most have one size).  I love the elf boot cuff pattern, because the designer included a size chart, so they can be made for calf size.

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In light of my panic attack (coyotes lurking) yesterday morning, and yes I was in my PJ's and bathrobe, I let my ladies and stud muffin Sparta (chickens) in the coop.  I didn't even take the chance to put them in their run.  They were pretty mad at me.

Tater Tot wasn't happy with me either (Jesse).  He loves to roam, and is never on a leash.  He was on a leash all day and hated it.

Most of the morning I was out looking for one of the barn cats.  I hadn't seen her and that worried me, but she later showed up.

Cheeta Puff (Tiger) has had so much anxiety with dogs (Mia is a cat chaser) in the house again, he was throwing up all over, and would not leave the utility room.  I felt so bad for him, so I snuck him into my room to get some lovin' time, while I crocheted.

I baked a new recipe.  It's from a healthy dessert site online.  I'll be sharing if it tastes good or not.

Christmas Handmade 2009

The summer season is the perfect time to get handmade Christmas gifts made. Especially the smaller ones. It's too hot to crochet a large blanket when temperatures are in the 80's. Here is a photo of crocheted slippers the girls will get in their stockings. I do have to measure their feet for accuracy, and they know they are getting them, but they still have to wait for them. I found the pattern in a farm magazine from the tractor supply store. I happen to see the magazine when I bought the chickens a new feeder, and had no idea that crochet and knit patterns were in the magazine. I believe it was about Mary Jane's Farm magazine. If I locate the pattern on-line I will be sure to post the link. There was both crocheting and knitting patterns for this easy slipper.

I found the buttons at a craft store in clearance. Shop around and watch for great deals before buying to keep your costs low.


CROCHETED LIP BALM HOLDERS

* Pattern #1
* Pattern #2
* Pattern #3


Update: I just made my first crocheted lip balm holder. They are so easy and cute to make. I'm using leftover slipper yarn and making a matching lip balm holder for each of the girls. I'll have to get really creative for homemade gifts for a 17 year old boy.

Pretend Snow Day ~ Homesteading Tidbits

The snow did not arrive as the forecast predicted.  The wind came with a small bit of it, and that was it.  I had Saturday night and Sunday to do whatever I felt like - no demands, no errands, no schedule, pretending I had a few snow days. This morning we have a -9° wind chill.  The bitter cold has moved back in on us.

Grab of cup of coffee or tea.  It's a long Monday morning ramble. . .

Weekend Updates

Youngest Daughter had her Halloween party.  She even had candles that drip "blood."  Orange lights were up, blinking light candles going, scary movies playing etc.  With all the company over, and another daughter here for a visit, Mia got a case of the "zommies."  Every rug was turned up, ha ha!  I wish I got it filmed for her Mom.  So funny.

Saturday morning we woke up to cold, rainy, and windy weather.  Hubby had to work all weekend, so I couldn't even do the major deep cleaning projects (need the extra muscle to move stuff).  Oh darn (ha ha!).

Daughter had one friend sleepover, and Hubby was working his double shift, so I whipped up some larger homemade biscuits and cooked some homemade sausage patties for egg/sausage biscuit breakfast sandwiches.  I used my largest biscuit cutter and it worked great.  I just have to make the patties thinner next time.  Yum!  I even saved some for Hubby.

So....

Had a long talk with the ladies and gent first thing, and told them if they don't start giving me some eggs they're gonna be in the stew pot soon.  Then again, they do deserve a night break after all that work this year.

I then had to fetch wood from the barn, one arm-load at a time.  All the wood on the porch was wet.  The wind blew the rain under the roof and "poof" saturated the wood.  Oh well, I got extra steps on my fitbit.

I fired up "Big Red" and drove to the library and did a major book drop off, and majorly big pick up.  Daughter picked out some movies for the weekend.  Free movies are the best kind of movies you can get.  We love supporting our little library too, and love to see me (ha ha!).  Hubby loves it, because I am not filling the house with purchased books too, however I do love my own little stash and need some crochet and knitting books yet.

I lugged 3 full tote bags inside to return, and only took one filled bag home this time.  On the way in, I saw a huge rack of free magazines.  On the way out a lady was standing in front of it (small enclosed entrance-way), so not wanting to stand around and wait, I talked myself into walking right out the door.

I baked sorghum cookies, giving us a dose of iron, copper, vitamin B-6, magnesium, potassium etc.  The sorghum I buy is locally grown and sold at an apple orchard we get some supplies from (not apples, they spray).  Anyway, they were delicious.  I'll bake them one minute longer next time.  These do not taste like gingersnaps.  Almost like a sugar cookie maybe, but no strong molasses flavor either.

I cut strips of netting to embark on restocking the most requested item I sell - dish scrubbies.  Each one takes 20 yards of netting (cut into a couple of strips) to crochet.  I'm all out of blue, so these are the colors getting made.  Next requested item is knitted dishcloths, then the pot holders.

Sunday the dogs woke me up at 3:30am.  I checked all the perimeters and saw nothing, but 20 minutes later I heard a 4-wheeler of some sort pull out of the field and ride past the house.  The temperature was about the same - 38°F and more rain.  No wind in the morning though, so that was nice.  The sun was even out in the morning hours.

Hubby slept most of the morning, as he worked the graveyard shift all night.  Mia missed him so much she slept at the bedroom door until he woke up.  

Today it's a warmer 40°F thankfully. 

It's only Saturday and...

I got a call about 11am-ish Friday morning, and when I couldn't understand our 20 year-old, I calmly asked if there was a policeman there.  She put him on the phone.

An hour later I was with her in the ER at the hospital.  I drove despite pain in my ankle, because she had no one else to be with her and get her home.

Her car was totaled, but she came out with bruises and a small cut. Thank God she had nothing broken.  Thankfully, I calmed her down, got her to even laugh, and got some knitting done while we waited for x-rays and other tests.

I got her home, then myself home, and foot was back up.

We got a call this morning at 6:30am.  Our daughter (my step-daughter) was at another hospital with our youngest grandson.  

He had passed away. I feel like I'm in a bad dream.  Our hearts ache right now. I have yet to tell our youngest, who is very very close to our young grandson.

Hubby is on his way to that hospital (doctors are looking for the cause of his death), as my foot cannot handle the walking and I do not have a walker, wheel chair or even cane right now.

The family could really use some prayers.  

Black Friday Husband Funny ~ More so My Own Funny

If you follow my blog, you probably already know I detest Black Friday.  I detest the overload of wasted paper stuffed into my Thursday newspaper.  I detest the stores attempt to lure in the craziest people, and today, you are liable to get shot while shopping on "black Friday."

"Look honey!" he laughs throwing the entire ton of store flyers at me, "look at all those black Friday deals!!"

Literally, the flyers weighed down a sink hole in my bed.  I was trying to crochet and rest before retiring, and he has to do that to me?

(He laughed, and laughed)

The rest of the night, while sipping our loose leaf organic sleep tea, and attempting to relax with a good TV show, we were bombarded with blurps of black Friday songs, commercials and more commercials - blech!  What a way to ruin the night, I thought.

During every commerical, I'd look at hubby.  He'd be smirking and holding back a chuckle.

I could not sleep after that, and for other reasons.  Finally, I fell asleep about midnight.  Then my son woke me up by taking our lab out at 2am.  I fell back asleep.

Then it happened.

"BEEP, BEEP!"

My cell phone woke me up. It was 4:30am.  I looked at the phone.  A text message.  I better check it, you just never know if it's an emergency.

"Seriously!!" (after checking the message)

I wanted to throw that phone at the wall and smash it, or stab it with my knitting needles.

When hubby woke up, and made us eggs for breakfast, I told him about my night.  When I got around to sharing the part about my text message, he burst out laughing.

"That is SOOOOO funny!" he laughed, and laughed, and laughed.

You see, the text message was an alert from some store, telling me about the first black friday deal they were having.

Hmpf!

Oh, he's still laughing about it.  

         

   

Moving along and tossing out. . .

There is nothing to harvest in the garden, but the rain is speeding that process up for us.  I know that I will be very busy out there when it dries up ha ha!  However, the rainy days are speeding up my indoor progress.  

Sorry if these cleaning/purging posts are boring.  It was a long time coming.  The big purge/clean.  This is a long post, so you may want to grab a cup of coffee, ha ha!

 My indoor purge/clean up is moving along.  I checked off another area off my clean it list, so that leaves two more areas.  

I will need the assistance of my husband for the last two, as it involves putting some tools and fix-it items away.  The garage will get a complete do-over this year.  It's just not on the "do it now" list.

Anyway, at one point in my early life, I was really into freelance writing.  I had articles published and kept articles in files.  I still had poems I wrote at a kid growing up.  I tossed those.  We got a chuckle out of some of the poems, but I can't believe I still had those.

In that box, and I kid you not, was a bag with brand new rolls of crepe paper for our youngest daughter's grad party (that never happened).  It was still in my office when we packed up the entire office area in the kitchen to cut up the floor and repair it over a year ago.  

It's all been boxed up to donate, tossed, or filed in the right place. 

Like I said, I didn't want to handle stuff twice, so I am cleaning/purging it all as if I was moving.  I ask myself, "would I move this to a new home" and it really helps the deciding factor.  Toss it, donate it, sell it, or give it away free.

I have "divorced" myself from so many craft supplies, and to be honest, it feels great.

I have heard from the recovery place, where I donated my craft supplies.  The women are knitting blankets to gift family when they visit, they are making jewelry, and they used wall paper samples to cover binders.  I'm so happy they are enjoying the supplies and finding uses for it all.

Stay tuned!  We both finally had a conversation about this bookshelf.  I bought it almost 12-13 years ago for $15 at the thrift store.  It was used for craft supplies until now.  It is solid wood, so we decided to keep it and paint it with whatever paint we have on hand, and put it in the spare bedroom upstairs.  

Just ignore the dust, but look at that new growth on Mom's cactus!  I will give it a shower when it gets watered again.

Our youngest daughter has left her career as hair stylist/nail tech.  It became too difficult in the financial world, and she has already started a new job and loves it.  She may go back to hair down the road, but in this world and day and age, you need a steady partner in your life to support that sort of job.  We are proud of her regardless.

Unplugged

Hubby and I finally took off to go camping.  It was a very much needed break from "life."

While camping the first night, my youngest daughter cut this comic from the paper we were reading.

We all got a good chuckle out of it....."sounds just like you Mom," the kids said.

 Day 1 of teaching the younger two to fish.  This wasn't the best location either.

We had not camped all year, and my 10 year-old could not resist to build and eat a triple-decker s'more.

Every meal was cooked over the campfire, and we loved it.

The girls enjoyed their marshmallow madness, hot chocolate both mornings.  We had very nice cool sleeping weather.

 This was our Sunday morning breakfast - cinnamon bread dipped in egg for a delicious french toast, sausage patties and hash browns that were browned with our garden onion and green pepper.  Yum!

This was one of our dinners - organic chicken breasts, and garden potatoes with onion and butter.

I spent one evening, by the campfire, knitting blocks for that blanket that has yet to be finished.

One morning this cardinal stopped by to sing to us.  He was up on a very tall tree, but in between me and the campfire smoke.  I was disappointed in the clarity of my photos, but was happy to see it, and so was my 10 year-old.

Second day of teaching the girls to fish.  We located a better spot to fish.

Our 13 year-old daughter holding her first fish caught by herself.

Our 10 year-old daughter holding a stick that she hooked.  We tried to stay longer so she could catch her first fish, but we were really getting hungry.  We'll have to take her fishing again.

We also hiked and put new wild flowers in our wild flower press.  This one was a new one.  According to the book we took along, is Jerusalem Artichoke.  There is a story behind this one, but I'll share that another day.  It's very tall too.  Some were over 6 feet tall.

We read books and magazines, and played games by the campfire.

I snapped this photo, and later realized it looks like an animal trying to get out of the water.  

We packed up, only to head home and wash all the laundry. We came home with some very funny stories to remember.  I still cannot tell people the story about the camper, without cracking up laughing.  I'll share that in tomorrow's post.  I think I made this one way too long for readers.






 

Random Tidbits ~ Pumpkin Hummus

The carrots are all out of the ground - 7.7# more. I got them all out after a day of rain, but it was so wet out there.  I could not pull dead plants, and then the rain returned this morning.  With a vengeance.  This puts all garden work, and barn work to a halt.

Rain, rain, and more rain

I'm posting without any photos for the first time in a long time.  It rained the entire day yesterday.  All day long, dark, dreary, and the type of weather you'd want to curl up with a book or crochet.

We ran errands.  It was miserable driving weather, but we did.  I was upset, only because we were rushed for time, I forgot to grab my crochet work. 

We had a 1 hour drive to get to the bank we needed to get to, and I forgot my stinkin' crochet.  I was beside myself.  Wasted that time, but enjoyed talking with Hubby.  He thought it was funny I was so flabbergasted I had nothing in my hands. 

We accomplished our stops, and I came home without my new circular knitting needles.  I'll have to drive in another direction, on another day to search for them.  I needed a US size 15, and they only had up to 11. I will have to find a Jo-Ann Fabrics to find them I think.  Our store in the "big city" closed years ago.  Nothing is easy to get to when you live in the boonies.

We returned home and had this crazy idea we'd go dancing.  The band Hubby hired for my surprise birthday was in town, but not playing until 9pm.

We crawled in bed and took a nap to prepare.

Or so we though we were preparing, ha ha!  I had ideas for what to wear, and we were both excited. 

Until we lost our excitement and decided to eat dinner in bed, watch netflix and turn in early, ha ha ha ha!

I'll regret not going dancing, but I'm sure they will play again in our area.   

We are now both well rested folks, and I'm feeling much much better, so sleeping in and napping yesterday helped.  It's very wet out, so we are limited to outdoor work, but Hubby has truck repairs that he never got to yesterday.  I am not sure what today will entail, but the fact we are healthy, and rested is a bonus.

Adding to Hubby's to-do list, is fix my Grandma's Christmas tree.  The ceramic one.  The cord needs replaced.  The original cord has been on it since I was a kid.  We'll be taking at least a look at it and deciding if we can even replace it.  I'm not even sure we can still purchase the light bulbs for it anymore.  I guess we'll be finding out. 

Fields are flooded today, and we went from a 58° day to a 37° morning.  I'm sure I'll be sloshing through wetness to get to the barn today.  Or rowing out there in the boat, ha ha!

Braided Rag Rug, Heart Wall Paper Note Cards and More Projects

We weren't really snowed in yesterday, but we did get snow.  It was perfect for sitting down in front of the wood burning stove, and to start braiding a rag rug.