Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Book Drool Time! aka Current Book Crushes

And My Current Book Crushes Are..... Drumroll.....


I would like to draw all of these things, all of the time.
Note to self: I should draw more, I am going to draw this evening.

I wish our farm was cool enough to have a book like this.
Oh wait... it is! 
Then where's my book??

I made a paper airplane for one of the boys at the DC today.
It kinda flopped.  I feel like this could help a lot.

I badly want an instant camera. 
Someone please tell my husband.
Before our anniversary next week.
Except I want this one.
With some film please.
I don't want much do I?

This could very well possibly be my other dream job.

And because although my Dad is super cool now,
I can only imagine how hip and cool he was at one time. 
What a cool boombox.
I really just wanted to say boombox.

These books were found on the fabu website of Chronicle Books.

Thank you

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Summer Fun Bracelets

These are the absolute cutest bracelets and they are so easy to make and literally cost pennies.  Not even pennies if you already have the stuff!  If you have a Pringles can, white paint, glue and tissue paper... you're set!

Slice your Pringles can, I used a serrated knife, in to one inch or inch and a half strips.  Next, using white craft paint or white spray paint or whatever kind of base coat paint you have, just make sure it is white.  While your paint dries, cut or tear pieces of tissue paper in all sorts of fun colors.  One inch by two inches seemed to work the best, depending on how wide your bracelets are.  Next, Mod Podge on the bracelet using a paint brush, one section at a time, and place pieces of tissue paper on the glued area.  Go over the piece with a little more glue.  Also glue the inside of the bracelet and fold the tissue paper in.  Allow bracelets to dry and your new summer accessories are ready to hit the runway!











Thursday, May 24, 2012

giggle box garden

Finally!  The garden at the DC is planted.  Tuesday afternoon the tiller came down and before I knew it, the Mr. had tilled up a good spot.  It is not as big as our garden at home and the plants will be a little closer together.  But it's our garden.  We will dig in it, play in it, watch it grow and soon enough we will be eating lunch from it!  We planted corn, zucchini, squash, black cherry tomatoes, watermelon and flowers. 

I had a seven year old friend with me this week. Yesterday, she helped plant the garden and helped to make the garden markers. We used wide mouth canning lids and painted each veggie on them. Then poked holes in them and hung them by stakes made from coat hangers. So precious! I actually think we mixed up the squash and zucc this morning. I'll have to rearrange when I go back down to water this evening.

The seeds were soaked overnight.
 We had a plan.... and stickers!
 Corn... in an Easter egg.

 So cute.
 And I helped.
 Use a good sized nail for the hole.  Make sure not to nail it to the floor!
 Just snip a dry cleaning pants and you have a ready made hook on one end.
 I gave them a quick spray of top coat to the paint wouldn't wash off in the rain.
Plus it gave them a little shine.

 As for me... I don't miss my old office life one bit!
We look like glamorous spies... don't you think?

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Summer Sheets Make Me Feel Fine

So I ask you... is there anything better than sliding your tired body between a set of cool, clean, crisp,  bed sheets after a hot summer day?  I think not!  To lift that flat sheet above your head while making up the bed and daylight comes shining right through.  I have a few that I can plainly see the windows in my room through.  Fabulous I tell you.  You can have your 1000 thread count Egyptian cotton, I'll take my oldies that came from other people across Tennessee and beyond.

I will tell you that if you go the vintage sheet route, I am pretty sure it is a sin if the flat sheet actually matches the fitted sheet.  Or the pillowcases for that matter.  One of my sisters says that it would drive her bananas if her bedding didn't all match.  HAHOOEY I say!  Nothing matches on my bed... except for the Mr. and Mrs.

The best places to find vintage bed sheets are at yard sales, estate sales and thrift stores.  Most of the time at yard sales you will only find the flat sheet.  And at the thrift stores you are more likely to find matching sets that include the fitted, flat sheet and pillowcases, if you are lucky.  Sometimes they do have separates that you can dig through and maybe come up with a pair.  I recommend finding yourself a good, soft, neutral color fitted sheet that anything will go with.  Then, let the hunt begin for poppies and cabbage rose filled top sheets! 

I have made something for you.  It is a printable cheat sheet for bedding.  Just right click and print the picture below or copy and paste with my permission.  Keep it with you when you are out on the hunt flipping through sheets on a garage sale table.  Some sheets will have the tag that says Twin, Full or Queen, but some will not.  They will only have measurements of the sheet.  And you will look so smart to know exactly what size you need.  You may fall in love with your new sheets now. 

I only hope that you are lucky enough to have a clothesline to hang them on. 


These are a few of my favorite things... fa sho!


Thursday, May 17, 2012

Chicken Coop Karma

I am one of those people that feels that karma will bite you.  And you never really know quite when it may until it has.  I don't know why my brain works that way.  When something "off" happens I will automatically think "it's because of this or that."  Well... Chicken Coop Karma has hit the farm. 

Since the big move, from behind the shop to in front of the shop, we have been letting the hens browse around outside the coop occasionally during the day and only when we are at home.  The first day I let them out was last Friday when I was up at the shop cleaning the kiddie slide that came from my Mom's for the DC.  I was a nervous wreck, making sure they didn't go far out of my sight, like a little mother hen myself.  Little did I know that there could have easily been a predator watching the whole time and probably was. 

Since then they have been out a couple of times in the evening.  Tuesday night I was sitting with Shaun in front of the shop and one of the Dominicks came running up to me wanting a snack.  So I gave her some bites of a tortilla and when I was turned talking to Shaun she jumped up in my lap!  Talk about chicken feet tickling your leg! 

Yesterday Shaun was here, working in the shop, and let the Spice Girls out.  Which is what I call them... the Spice Girls.  I knew better than to name something we may have to eat one day but I couldn't help it.  She gets in my lap for crying out loud!  How can you not name her?  We have Salt, Pepper, Nutmeg, Paprika, Cinnamon and Butt Rub (the lazy non-laying hen).  Anyway, Shaun came out of the shop and found a scattering of black and white checkered feathers next to the shop with no chicken in sight.  It is sad but either Salt or Pepper is gone.  And I immediately thought, we took one (the rooster) and now we lost one.  I know it really doesn't mean that, it was probably a hungry hawk or owl or coyote.  But I do miss her already.  She was sure a good laying hen.  Salt or Pepper... whichever one she was.  I am going to let the hens carouse this evening and I will know which one it was if she does or doesn't come running when she sees me.

I don't know if this was her or not.  They were almost identical!   

Monday, May 14, 2012

Bird Watching: Theme Day

Well I totally started off this post about Butterfly theme day and got the sucker half written and realized I had already posted butterfly day!  Goofball!  What I haven't posted is Bird Watching theme day.  This was a fun one.  Once again, I chose a couple of bird books from the library, a couple of coloring pages, and two crafts for table time.  It becomes a lot to squeeze into one day but I will get used to it once I have more kids at the day care and realize I can slow down a bit.  These themes can actually last all week and a topic such as bird watching would include an outing on Friday to actually bird watch.

Here is a bit about what I put together.




 These are bird feeders made from orange juice cartons. 
I tried painting them a solid color ahead of time but it didn't work. 
Due to the wax coating, the paint just scratched off. 
So I cut out and glued on card stock and painted just the tops.
You cut a square hole leaving enough space at the bottom to hold in bird seed.
 Decorate, then punch a hole in the top and string some yarn through for hanging.
 For the binoculars, I used toilet paper rolls glued together and punched holes on both outsides and strung yard and tied it so they would hang around your neck. 
We decorated them with craft paint and they were good to go.
Nothing fancy... just fun!

Friday, May 11, 2012

Discoveries at the Creek

I sewanee, if I don't visit the creek and woods on our farm at least once a week, I have seriously missed out on something.  There is so much going on down there that eyes never get to see.  I went for a walk the Sunday before last and then again this Wednesday.  The things that were blooming a week and a half ago were finished blooming and there were new things that had popped up everywhere. 

On this past trip, it took me halfway down the creek before I paid attention to my surroundings.  Too much on the brain.  Plus I was returned a wild orchid that I had found last fall and brought in.  It lived in a tiny glass bud vase on my kitchen window all winter.  It was loose in the fall and not knowing if it would die over the winter I thought it best that I take care of it.  So it went back to live with it's friends. 

The moral of this story is, if you don't take time to stop and see weird stuff in the woods, you're going to miss it.

Please do not ask me what the devil this is.  They were growing all around this one tree by the creek.
I can't even explain them.  Are those seeds?  Is it a conifer?  So odd.
 See what I mean.  This is blurry, I know, but even if it were a clear picture... I still wouldn't know what it was.
 I spotted these only in a certain area.  So pretty :)
 This is up close.  So cool.
 Tadpoles are starting to look like frogs.  Some of them. 
 Back with the other kids.  Awe.  Makes me want to go check on it right now.
But it's night... and dark down there.  Not that I haven't thought before that I couldn't find my way in the dark down there.  I know I could.  I tried it with my eyes closed.  But I'd have to have a flash light to see it.  I am rambling.  Must go to bed.
 Whoever saw a iddy, biddy flower growing on the end of a blade of grass like this? 
This flower is so tiny.  I am not even kidding.

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

How To: Plant in a Dump Truck

Not a BIG dump truck!  Just a Tonka one!  I got my dump truck at Trash and Treasures for under five dollars a few years ago.  It is an oldie and doesn't have near the paint on it as it once did, but it's a goodie and just precious with flowers and greenery trailing out of it's bed like it is ready to deliver the goods! 

Now, these toy dump trucks may sound simple to plant in, but if you have one or want one like this on,e you will notice that there are only three sides to the bed.  And the bed of the truck is where the plant goes.  So what is a dump truck driver to do?  I went to the woods and dug up two handfuls of moss.  You can find decent, usable moss growing in lots of areas like around a creek or in the woods and sometimes even around the base of a tree.  It is not at all difficult to dig up but you need to dig down a couple of inches just to where you bring a little earth with the moss. 

You also need a plant.  Virtually anything would be precious.  Vincas, petunias, portulaca.  This is the second time I have chosen this particular plant for my dump truck.  It is called Torenia or Wishbone Flower.  It can take some shade which is good for where I have it on our porch because it only gets morning sun.  This plant will bloom and bloom for the whole summer.  It just fills the back of that Tonka truck like no body's business! 

When it comes to watering your plant it will need to be done every day or two.  Just water it when you water everything else.  Depending on what kind of plant you use, it may require watering more often because of the size of the bed.  When you do water, the water will trickle down the bed and water the moss too before it drips out the end of the bed.  So cute.  OK here are the pics.  Holler if you have any questions.

 Dirty Shirty
 Just place the moss at the end... like so... to hold in the goods.
 Always use a layer of rock on the bottom for drainage. 
I chose smaller rock because of the lack of depth in the dump truck.
 I use a healthy mix of the good stuff and the cheap stuff when it comes to potting soil.
 Make a dent in the soil where your plant will live and tuck 'er in.
 Nuggets not only offer moisture retension, it makes it all purty.
This bag is under three dollars at Wal-Mart and it will last a long time!
 Awe!
 This gardener is holding a dump truck she seems very proud of!
 This pic is from two years ago when I got the purple flowers, but the same plant.  It really filled and spilled all around the dump truck and was very unique. 
Please pardon the Farm Bureau plug!