Sunday Breakfasts.

Sunday breakfasts are often later than usual, and they usually last longer than the rest of the week.

 And that's just the right pace to set the stage for our day.

Pleasure Reading.

Pleasure reading is a good thing.

May you have a little time this weekend to snuggle in and enjoy a good read.

Thrifted. Birthday. Randoms.

1) Thrifted

A tervis Tumbler cup.  This beyond fantastic set of 10 thick, huge, heavy dishware with a hand painted pattern for our Fabulous Gilly.  Two camping mugs and a firkin.  I don't remember the exact, but I think it was between $12-14

Sequence for kids, a cloth doll book, a brand new box of plaster of paris, farm boots, four blue vintage dishes, a tape measure.  $5.00
2) So...birthday fun.  Not only did I get to spend it with these monsters...

Eating delicious food that I didn't cook, enjoying flowers my little boy insisted I have.

But, I also found an offer that one couldn't refuse for transferware.  I mean selling for a dollar a piece is a real steal when you can re-sell them for $20 a plate.  And I just so happened to have birthday money (thank you!!).

And now my cupboards are all vintage transferware.  All ranging from $0.35 to $2.00. Even my kids eat off of them for that price!  I love this stuff.

3) Randoms.

- I hate hate hate teething.  

- The best part of January is all the birthdays=cake in the house for pretty much a month.  Yes.

- I'm still working through the winter squash and pumpkins. Thankful.

- My sewing machine has been going.  Stuff to share soon.

- I'm still going with my own sourdough starter challenge.  How about garlic bread?

- My new hair.  I donated 12 inches yesterday. A somewhat blurry selfie, but you get the drift.

And with that, it's Friday...have a happy one.

BOG Made: Square Baler and Wagon

Another BOG made toy.  It joins these:

It joins these other homemade toys for the kids from the BOG:
trains,
trucks, 
car, 
airplane 
  barn,
dumptruck.
bunny pull toy
Kids table and chairs
tow truck. 
Tractor

Here's his tractor from before and the new accessories.  How beautiful is this set?!

 The square baler.

 And the wagon.

And I don't know why I haven't taken any pictures of these in action.  Let me tell you, they get PLENTY of use.  Because, you know, January is haying season in Maine.  Getting a jump start on filling the barn, apparently.  Thanks BOG.

Homesteading Where You Are: Make

Week 2 in the seven part series is today.

If you missed last week, check here for the introduction.

This week's prompt is "Make".  Oh, I love that word. "Make".  If you're a regular reader around these parts, you know "making" is what I do.  Food, lots of food.
 
Desserts, lots of desserts.  (AND lots more food stuff....I'll get into that next week!)
 
But also clothes
 
hats,

diapers,
 
outerwear,
 
toys,
 
stuffed animals,
 

games,
 
home furnishing , patterns (click here),

 quilts.
 
Goodness, that's just the start.  Look at the tabs above to see more of that which I have created.  Making is what I do.

Now, let me take this chance to knock out a couple misconceptions/questions I seem to get regularly.

1) "Wow, you're so talented." I am not.  I always fire back that I'm without doubt not more talented than others.   I have been at this creating gig for a number of years, I just keep learning and adding my knowledge.  Most of what I do is self taught and not hard.  Nothing I do is so challenging that you can't do it too.  I always say be brave enough to try and have the patience to complete. That's it. Totally do-able.

2) "Where do you find the time?"  I always find time for making things because that's what I enjoy.  Yes, life is busy with work, two littles and the critters to care for.  But, I don't watch TV.  Instead, I try to carve out a little chunk of time every week to create. Sometimes it's naptime. Sometimes it's evening. Sometimes it's in the passenger seat of the car as we go someplace.  Sometimes it's with my kids participating.  Sometimes it's 10 minutes. Sometimes an hour.  Rarely more than that at this point in my life.  Even just a few minutes here and there adds up and projects do eventually become completed.

3) "Are you making that for the blog?"  No.  I do not "make" anything for my blog.  I do take pictures of things I do for my blog, but I don't make anything specifically to post.  I live my life and create as I am inspired.  If it's something I want to remember or I think others might enjoy, I do post it.  But if I spent my time thinking of things for my blog, blogging wouldn't be fun any longer.

4) "Don't you get sick of making bread/making yogurt/sewing little quilt squares again and again, sanding, etc?"  Most of the time, I don't get sick of making things. Even if it's the same thing again and again.  To me, there's nothing like the excitement of an idea, the process of doing, the admiration of what was completed and the enjoyment of using/consuming that what was made.  It's exciting to learn something new and it's comforting and peaceful to work on something familiar. I like each part of the process of making most things, so I don't get tired of making.  If I did, I might take a break from doing it, but I'd soon return.

5) What are you working on next?  Oh goodness, I have a list. As always.  I have two more pieces of furniture I want to refinish in the near future, as well as others in the distant future. I want to repaint our guest room. I want to create something spectacular to spice up the look of our new and improved bedroom. I have a chair that needs to be reupholstered. I have a few more toy ideas for my kids.  He wants his own apron.  I want to make her more dresses.  If she ever gets hair, I want to make bows. I'm working on making our barn into a kid friendly play zone (slowly).  I want to make cold frames out of old windows.  I want to create something with my pictures to give the hallway a pop.  I want to make some more cinnamon raisin bread (hey, I never posted that, did I?!).  I want to get over the fear of dunking bagels in water before baking them (it gives me the heebie geebies!).  I want to make soap with the milking goat we hope to get. I want to make a programmed conveyor belt that delivers laundry to drawers so I don't have to lift a finger.  Hey, a girl can dream, right?  No shortage of making on my end.

Let me hear from you now, what are you making? And what are you hoping to give a whirl?

And my dad makes lots and lots of great stuff too.  I'll be posting more of his creations tomorrow.  Don't miss it! :)




And do check out these other fantastic Homesteaders.  They will surely have lots to tell you.

Daisy, at MapleHill101, currently homesteads with her family in the suburbs of Central Florida.  Her vision is to move to a more rural property in North Carolina later this year and continue fostering a self-sufficient lifestyle, which includes chickens, a large garden and a permanent clothesline. 

Mary, at Homegrown on the Hill, lives in Southwestern Ohio with her family on a 5 acre homestead. Their goal is to be as much self sufficient as possible. In helping with this goal, they raise a big garden and keep chickens, rabbits, and cattle for food.

Staci, at Life At Cobble Hill Farm, was bitten by the homestead bug in 2006 and although she began her homesteading ventures in a rented condo, is now homesteading on less than an acre in Upstate NY.

Sue – at The Little Acre that Could, shares her body with an auto-immune disease, and life with her husband. They live in a once-working Victorian farm cottage now bordered by a modern subdivision. She has dreamed of homesteading as long as she can remember and continues to strive toward that goal in rural Atlantic Canada.

My love for you is BIGGER than an ELEPHANT: Baby gift

For the last couple weeks, I have been spending every spare second creating.  Not for my kids this time, but for my best friend from my childhood.   Well, not really for her, but for her BABY!  Oh, how I love babies. So squishy and snuggly and warm. I love her little baby already, and I haven't even met him yet. 

And what I must do for those I love is create.  And that's what I have been doing a lot of.  The theme I was going for: "My love for you is BIGGER than an ELEPHANT."

First up, I made this elephant. The pattern is from Soft Animals A to Z by Carolyn Vosburg Hall.  I bought it for a dollar some time ago at a thrift shop (naturally), and just dove in. He has a sweet matching tail, that I failed to capture.  He's made of fleece and is oh-so-soft.

 I love him.

I made a fabric basket (basket pattern here, if you want the elephant templates, ask and I can post).  And I busted out my watercolors for a card.  Haven't done that in forever.

And then I made a cozy little pillow (I have the elephant templates if you want them, just ask!)
 
I added matching fabric to the top and painted elephants on a magazine rack/book holder.

 And added this great book "Meet me at the moon", about Mamas always coming back.  And then bought this little rug that ties it all together.  I usually don't photograph something like this to share, but I did take a picture of the finished gift.  It really was a special couple of weeks, spending hours upon hours creating, while simultaneously thinking about that sweet boy. 

 I do love giving homemade gifts.  I hope that sweet baby will love his cozy little nook, created by someone afar who loves him already.

More Snow

I was *just* saying that our snow disappeared. 

No worries.

It's back.

I mean, it's January in Maine.

Of course it's back.

Doesn't bother us one iota.

My plan for the morning was to get 8 loads of laundry folded. That's right.  Eight.  (That's what happens with out with trying to finish presents before it's time to give them and traveling out of state for the better part of the weekend).

That laundry stared at me.  And I tried to tackle it.  But the out of doors called to me. 

So I followed.

And we had a grand, grand time making a snow fort with a five gallon bucket.

 Well, really Adrian and I.  Audra sat in the middle of things....either watching things or eating snow.  We all know who she takes after.

Anyway, once it was done, Adrian decided he had to have dinner guests.  Kammie was the first guest.

And then goats were the next dinner guests.  Naturally.  Of course, I was in charge of letting them out while they prepared the feast (grain).

 

 Here they come!

 Feast enjoyed!

 This house/farm hasn't seen this much action forever.  It feels right, making memories here.

 Thankful for the joy seasons bring to our lives.