Celebrating Birthdays & Welcoming Babies!

Good Morning!

Hope you had a great week and weekend! March is always a busy month for us because my birthday, my husband's birthday and my daughter's birthday all occur! And we like to celebrate our birthdays! We had a few very lovely family dinners and even a couple of lunches with friends to celebrate. Getting old isn't all that bad!

March also means "Chick Days" so Billy and I have been visiting all the Agway's and Nurseries that have chicks. They recently opened Long Island's first Tractor Supply too so we made the rounds and from one of our favorite places, we purchased these babies. They were born March 6 and they are thriving!

I'm also excited to say that one of my rescue Polish chickens laid her first egg for me! That's awesome news because it means she is adjusted and happy here with us in her new home! Go Priscilla!!!She was very vocal about laying her egg and we made a big deal about it!

March also brings the Flower Show at Hicks Nursery. If you have followed me in the past you know that Hicks has played a big role in our family activity. We visit them several times a year for different events and I personally have visited since childhood. Hicks is a Long Island landmark. The Flower Show never disappoints. These are just a few of the photos I took. The displays are incredible and their flower combinations are breathtaking.  The walk through all the indoor displays was a great way to spend a rainy Sunday! Inside it was sunny Spring! I went home feeling like I should take all the Easter stuff out!

We also went to an Islanders Game, our favorite team. We try to go to as many as we can. My son goes to MANY! :)  he bought my husband and I tickets for our birthdays and we went as a family again! We try to do that a few times a year. Otherwise, Caitlin and I just go with my son or he goes with his friends. Lets go Islanders!!! Hockey is a big part of our lives!

Do you make a corned beef & cabbage dinner for St. Patrick's Day? I bought my corned beef the other day and will pick up another this week! I bought a good size one but have to still get my cabbage. I make an awesome Irish Soda Bread (so I'm told!) and will be making a few loaves this week. I make mine sweeter than most but not overly sweet. I love St. Paddy's Day! You don't have to be Irish to love it!

Well, I'm going to get ready to start my day! I hope you have a great one too!

Three New Girls

Good Morning! I thought I would get in a new blog post before I start my day of errands. Wednesday is the busiest day of the week for me. I try to schedule as much of Mom's appointments and other needs on Wednesdays and Thursdays. This week is a quieter one as she has no additional appointments so that frees me up to spend more time to take care of my new babies!

I adopted three new girls from a lady who has many chickens and discovered that these three sisters were getting picked on. These are Polish chickens and have big furry feathers on their heads but as you can see they were attacked and their feathers were pulled out. Well, now they are safe in my chicken coop in a secure area where they can heal and just be happy chickens! Meet Priscilla, Clementine and Beatrice!Maybe by the Spring the feathers will have filled in more. Here is a picture of Clementine before the other chickens bullied her:

But even if the feathers don't grow back, we love her anyway. Beauty is within! My chicken boots have been a blessing through slush and my wet yard.  Our snow ends up turning into rain which then turns into mud. I'm really looking forward to Spring. 

I went to the thrift shop yesterday and was lucky enough to find another P Buckley Moss print! Signed and dated! That's the second one! 

I'm so happy. What a great find. I hung it in my parlor. Every time I go, I find great treasures.

We are supposed to get snow later but just an inch or two. I made this turkey breast yesterday and today when I get home I am going to make a big turkey pot pie with the leftovers. I find we like turkey soup and turkey pot pie even more than chicken soup or chicken pot pie.

Thinking of taking out some Easter and St. Patrick's Day décor this weekend. Easter is so late but I'm happy about that because of the flowers! Hyacinths and daffodils and the warmer weather of Spring!

That's about it for me. I hope you have a great day!

What's New?

Good Morning and Happy Tuesday! Hope everyone is doing well. We are watching for some snow coming tomorrow afternoon/evening. Its been amazing that we are almost through February and have had no major storms or even much snow! We'll see what happens but so far people are calling this the "Winter that Wasn't!"

We spent a beautiful weekend in the Poconos visiting my husband's sister and her husband. The weather was perfect and we had a great time just visiting, driving around their community and going to an awesome aquarium!

Little black bears and deer wander freely and we were watching for some. This trip I didn't see any but usually we do. It was so peaceful and beautiful. It was just a wonderful trip and my sister-in-law bought me this beautiful Americana doll:

We went to this great store called Boscovs. Its a department store that had everything! There are other locations in upstate New York too but this one we visited in Scranton was terrific. I bought a new braided rug for my bathroom and a few other goodies. I really enjoy visiting there and we will be back in the Spring as we made some plans with them.

I'm getting so anxious for Spring and getting out to visit the various "Chick Days" at all the Agways on Long Island and at Tractor Supply. I am also waiting to hear back from a lady who has to rehome a lopp eared rabbit she has that lives in her chicken coop. He can join my bunny Chestnut in my chicken coop! What's great is because my coop has two sides, I can keep the males separated but at least they can communicate. I think Chestnut misses his two brothers who have passed away over the years. I'll let you know.

Well, I have a bunch of things to do today so I will say goodbye for now!

Saturday at my House

Good Morning! Windy and roar here today! I'm watching the weather to see if we get snow on Monday night into Tuesday....or will it turn to rain because we are on the coast....time will tell. January and now February has not been a healthy time for our family. After various colds and my ear infections, my son and daughter each tested positive for flu last week. We've been back and forth to the doctor and hopefully we are turning a corner at this point. My daughter runs a high fever. She always did; even as a baby. As soon as she got sick  UP WENT THE TEMPERATURE! Although my son is 20 years old and not surrounded by children, he still caught it whereas my daughter is in 8th grade and every one of her friends has suffered recently so it was inevitable. We'll get through it. In the meantime they can always depend on their momma to take care of them. We have a weekend trip planned for next weekend so I hope all will be well.

I'm excited that Spring is coming and always in Spring is the various "Chick Days" events in the Agways and a few nurseries. We like to visit as many as we can though I prefer to purchase from one in particular. We plan to add some more now that my coop is so much larger. I'm looking at the various breeds to see what I'd like to purchase. We currently have Silkies, Plymouth Barred Rocks and one Rhode Island Red.  I am also a "chicken rescue" as a friend of mine who trains service dogs and does rescues often hears of injured or abandoned chickens so since my success with the rescue of my Gertie, my name is now out there as a rescue for Poultry! Below are photos from last Spring of three of my girls peeking in my sliding doors. Nosey girls!

So my son celebrated his 20th birthday! I can't believe it. We celebrated at PF Chang's for dinner. His girlfriend came down from college for the weekend to celebrate with us.  He also celebrated at his favorite place~a hockey game! We love our NY Islanders with all our hearts and go to as many games as we can. I've been to a couple this year already and my son has hit twelve since the season began . He recently went to Washington DC to see the Islanders play the Washington Capitols. So much fun. Here he is (in the beard) with his gal (dark hair) and his friend Paul who was home from college on break and another friend. A few days later and hit with flu but at least he wasn't sick on his birthday.

So here's the fabric I bought from Hobby Lobby! Going to make some time to work with that today while I'm taking care of my sick kids. I also have some cooking to do. Meatballs and baked ziti are on the menu. A good meal on a cold, windy day.
Enjoy your day!

Deep Freeze Thursday

Hello Thursday!

Thankful my home is warm! Compared to other parts of the country I guess waking up to only 3 degrees is not so bad considering how everyone in the mid west is suffering with the cold. The wind chill makes it feel like minus 13 so says the news. I took the above photo yesterday after a snow squall. 

Looking forward to the weekend as it is my son's birthday. We have a family dinner planned for Friday night at the restaurant of his choice. Reservation was made. I'm happy that even though he is turning 20 (!!!) we still get to have a lot of family time together. I'm so grateful for that. 

I have plans to get my craft room cleaned up so I can start working up there again. My husband made me a beautiful work space but since Halloween crafting I haven't really spent enough time straightening it up to do more crafts! I have so many ideas and I'm not letting my self start any of these new projects until I get it just right. All I need is one full morning! But I get distracted and stop mid way! Or my daughter offers to assist and we end up doing a craft! or playing with our supplies! Take it from me, going to Michaels after a holiday pays in a  good way. I have a good amount of supplies. I just need to clean so I can create! My son gave me some flannel shirts he doesn't want anymore and I'm already thinking of making those cute flannel pumpkins I saw! or apples....see! I get distracted!

So I had some awesome finds at my favorite thrift shop the other day. I actually only go to one thrift shop and I always find good stuff. The other day it was exceptional. I came face to face with a numbered art work from one of my favorite artists, famous for her Amish drawings and paintings, P Buckley Moss! For $3 I came home with this:

When I entered the store, the two older ladies who always greet us said "today everything is 50% off!" Yahoo! Here's more of what I got!

An adorable retro receptacle of some kind. Is it a laundry hamper? a garbage pail? a storage bin? Who knows. Now it just looks cute in the corner of my laundry room! 

This scoop was originally from Pier One Imports and still had the sticker on it that said $19.99. It had a candle I didn't care for so I disposed of that and added my own battery candle and potpourri. I got this for a $1 or $2 ...I can't recall now.

Whenever I see this type of pottery, I have to buy it. And you would too if you saw each bowl was only .25!! They had two, I bought two!

I also got a nice basket for my bathroom, and two lamp shaded candle lamps...a few more things and my grand total was $14! 

It was a good day! Here's wishing you have an awesome Thursday and stay warm and cozy!

Monday! Monday!

Happy Monday! 

Well this weekend went by pretty quickly! We are still passing among us various colds and sniffles; not sure what else I can do as a Mom to prevent it! I clean all the surfaces, prepare good healthy meals, change the bed linen very frequently as I have heard it's a germ magnet...we wash our hands alot...Can't think of anything else. I think my daughter is the carrier from school where EVERYONE is sick all the time.

I hope you had a great weekend! After a visit with very creative friends on Friday, I was really excited to start sewing and made a few little things. I have to finish them but it has been so fun to work with fabric again. I've been doing mostly embroidery so this is a refreshing change. I made a few throw pillows with a stamped image of an Amish couple. I'm currently making a table runner for my livingroom. I just started that. Nothing too involved cause I really don't do the best job! I try though!

I want to make a few new things for my bedroom. My husband just repainted the walls from a light green to a light tan. Our comforter is black barn stars so I think I'd like to make a few things to match. On my next trip to PA I have to get my new window treatments to match the comforter. 

Waiting for our first big snow too! Surprisingly we haven't had a major snowfall! Usually my son's birthday is always under snow! His birthday is February 2nd (next weekend) and almost always when we go out for his birthday dinner, we have had to shovel the driveway! Well, we are going out Friday night and we'll see what happens! 

On the menu this week:  my Mom loves minestrone soup so I made her some. We have to be careful with what she eats so thank goodness she loves vegetables and I can make some good meals for her that she enjoys. 

That's about it for me! Every Monday I go on the website for Lakeside aka as LTD to see what new stuff they post! I love their products so much. I order quite a bit and I've never been disappointed. If you don't know about the site its www.lakeside.com   lots of fun stuff! 

Have a great day!

The Week After

Good Morning!

I'm finally almost 100% recovered from a nasty double ear infection. I was down for four days. Literally DOWN! On the couch, in bed...it was awful. And now, one week later, I am getting everything back to normal. In a couple of days, it's amazing how behind you can get on every day things. I'm just about caught up though and today I am looking forward to a breakfast out with some wonderful people!

I've been burning these wonderful melts! I bought some at Jake's in Amish Country and I received some for Christmas. My house smells delightful! Have you heard of them? I can't wait to get other scents when I go back!

And speaking of Amish Country, I received this great gift too! Simple, plainly explained recipes that are easy to do! I already have a few marked down that I want to try.

It's been very cold here and yet we haven't had any accumulating snow. That's surprising. My son spent last weekend in Washington DC to see the Islanders vs Capitals hockey game and he also toured all over Washington DC going into what he could. He said the Capitol building is breathtaking!

Well, I wish you a great Friday! I just wanted to post quickly so you know I'm here! My plans for this weekend are to get busy on my new sewing machine! And make a couple things out of that Amish cookbook!