More Snow & Crafty Fun

Good Afternoon! Snow, snow, snow is falling! Again! Its absolutely beautiful though I know there are some that don't feel as happy about it as me and I get that! I just look at it as a beautiful part of nature and tranquility and peace! Our shovels are getting a workout this year.  Sooooo...trying to keep my mind active so I don't go back into sadness over the loss of Mom. Its hard to adjust to life without her. I've been doing a lot of crafts to stay busy. I made the above faux food bread loaf. It's made of spray foam insulation. Then I painted it, added cinnamon & raisins and a few more touches and I think it came out cute! I had bought one and it was intriguing how the lady made it so I tried.  I also did the muffin below with sesame seeds. That was also done with spray foam insulation. Have you tried this method? It was fun but you MUST wear gloves or the spray foam insulation will burn your fingers slightly and it does not wash off! Added the printed tag, ribbon and rusty star. 

With some aluminum molds made by the tin foil company I made some wax hearts! You can see the finished one on the mat. I have them drying in several colors. I also made some salt dough hearts with an old fashioned cookie cutter that I have to paint once they cool off from the oven.  

 Just keeping busy. If my mind is active I don't let myself go down into the depths of sadness I feel . I miss Mom so much. We have some fun things we are looking forward to this year and I am staying focused on that. I've had a couple of recent trips to Amish Country which were great and definitely inspired my crafting. I'm curious to see what new trend for prim and country decor will be for Spring. 

I'm starting to see the days marked for "Chick Days" which is the opening of the chicken season! That's always exciting.I get fliers and email notices.  My husband and I go to them at Tractor Supply and various Agways so its fun. It also means Spring is coming soon! Not sure if I'm adding to the flock though. I seem to lean more towards rescues, My last four chickens were all rescues.That's where my heart is. 

Not much else happening here. I have dvr'd all the OLD Columbo episodes from the first 5 years 1971-1976! I love them! They've become my guilty pleasure next to reruns of Big Bang Theory. They were such good shows and I love seeing the older stars in them. Fun to watch. As a kid, we watched Columbo every Sunday night! When Mom moved in, she and I had started watching them and I've kept it up!

Anyway, I'm excited that there will be book #4 in the Amish Fiction series by Amy Clipston. Its part of the Amish Market series and its called the Jam & Jelly Nook. Each book reminds me of being in the Bird in Hand Farmer's Market when I am reading them because it takes place in an Amish market. The series starts off with The Bake Shop, followed by The Farm Stand, then comes The Coffee Corner and next up is Jams & Jelly Nook. Excellent series. Speaking of the Bird in Hand Farmer's Market, the butcher in front makes a great ham loaf and i get some awesome Lebanon boloney to bring home!

Have a great Friday and I hope you have a great weekend! I have fixed the comment button feature so all is well again if you'd like to leave a comment and don't forget to become a follower!

Snow Pattern

Good Morning, well...late morning! I hope everyone is well. I hope your family is healthy and that you are able to get out a little now that some rules have been relaxed. Although maybe the snow is holding you back now! LOL We are for sure in a snow pattern and I heard this morning we are entering a polar vortex! I love all things weather. I'm a weather nut. I just never remember the weather people(when I was a kid) using these terms to the public when they reported the weather like polar vortex or thunder snow! It's interesting. Anyway, I'm that crazy person who has four weather apps on my phone. its just fascinating to me. OK enough rambling....

I was excited to see I had a new follower. It's funny that I know from the stats that many read my blog but seem to forget to hit that "follow" button so if you are one of my readers, please hit the button. I appreciate it!

So here we have dug out from our last storm the other day. Expecting several morning within the last ten days. My son worked 90 hours plowing for our town this past week so he will be very happy with his paycheck! I hardly saw him.

My husband gave our steps a fresh coat of polyurethane and we bought these stair reads with a matching area rug for the steps. They weren't affixed when I snapped this picture but they look so good!! The steps look so pretty in a vivid brown cherry stain! I like it better than the stain we had on them al these years. This brought them to life!

So here are two of my Amish dolls. I have a pretty big collection and I still collect them,  try to get one or two every trip to PA and at least one Raggedy Annie. And i still love Teddy Bears whether or not they are Boyds or Bearington or whatever.,,,. I painted the little bench they are sitting on. And I was just thinking how much I miss AC Moore since it closed because they had smaller wooden projects to paint and they were very inexpensive. Even though I can buy wood items from Hobby Lobby or Michaels, AC Moore was another place to see a good selection. I did actually get a cute unpainted tray to paint with a little heart cut out in the handles at Dollar Tree! Dollar Tree has really expanded their craft department! They even have yarn now. 

Speaking of Dollar Tree, I popped in to get baking pans, actually a metal loaf plan to use for a faux baking item I am making using the spray foam insulation method. It has now hardened and I will be painting it tomorrow and making it look realistic with raisins and cinnamon an paint. I will show it when it is done. A fun project! 

Here's a photo of Miss Pretty napping. Don't you wish you could sleep so soundly? LOL

And last but not least, introducing my new parakeet Pepper! Isn't he adorable? He's just a baby!

Time for me to go! I have a friend coming for coffee and cake at 1 and then I am making a salt dough potpourri pie! Well, the dough for it....stay tuned!

SNOW!

Good Snowy Morning! February 1st and we are starting it off like many of you across the country~with a big snowstorm! It started last night here and it started slowly but soon picked up speed. It's supposed to snow till tomorrow night. These photos are from very early this morning. I wake up at about 4:15 every day. I took these photos at about 6:00 am.  I just don't sleep alot; never did! I love the mornings. It's my favorite time of day. 

 Thank you for all the comments about my Mom. It is very hard to adjust to her not being here but i have great support from family and friends. Its just a void. That feeling of loss has settled in. I keep busy though with many projects going on. I have been working on spray foam insulation faux foods..have you seen them? I'll show you when I'm all done with them. I'm trying them! I haven't done them before and today I have to paint them and make them look like real breads and muffins! I have bought some from some talented crafters on Facebook but I thought I would give it a try. Fingers crossed.

Next up is a salt dough pie. I have made salt dough ornaments and bowl fillers many times but I want to do a pie! You know, if you don't go out on a limb and try something new then life is just hum drum! And if you don;t keep creating, you end up just PLANNING and not doing. Not this year!

I've been wanting some stair treads on our stair case and we added some! My husband just wanted to make the stain darker than what we had so he did that. It's more a light cherry instead of a medium color that we had. These stairs are in two parts. One going up, landing and then the rest of them. I love the treads. I didn't want a runner. What do you think? The hardest part was keeping the stairs clear from the cats running up and wrecking my new stain! We used a big screen to clock them. They are so curious. 

The chickens have resumed laying eggs again! They had taken a break over the Winter to rest their bodies which is a common. I was surprised to receive a few this week! We have packed our coop with straw for them and they are snug and cozy. They love their home so much. I made them curtains for their coop window which I'm going to hang  in the Spring. This is one small part of the coop. and just a few of the girls!

Happy Birthday to my son tomorrow! Turning 22! I can't believe it.  He's a hard worker and he's actually out plowing right now. He's works for the Town and loves his job, loves his girlfriend and is just a great kid...I mean a great MAN ....oh what the heck! He's still a baby to me!