Spring Weather

 

Good Morning! What a beautiful Monday! It's still cold but it will be warming up later today. I love these days leading up to flower shopping. I feel like we emerge from hibernation and start to get our property ready for planting. The chicken coop got a good cleaning, our new fence is up and we are preparing for our new patio with paving stones. I'm very excited. We have almost completed everything we've wanted to do! I hope the weather cooperates!

I've been doing a few little projects~nothing big. I found these wood flowers in Dollar Tree and they totally reminded me of the wood flowers very popular in Lancaster right now so I painted some of these! I also did some decoupaging and a couple of retouches of some outside decorations I had that needed paint touch ups.  

I am really surprised at how Dollar Tree has expanded their craft section! It's amazing. Not only wood projects to paint, but yarn, paint, all kind of things. Granted things are on a smaller scale but then again it is a DOLLAR store!

What's everyone doing for Easter? I have to buy hyacinths! It's what Easter smells like to me! and tulips and daffodils! I still make my kids Easter baskets too! I need to get a few more things. I don't put just candy in and I have to admit that as they get older being creative is a challenge but I always come up with ideas besides gift cards...

So I don't think I will be adding to my chickens this year. All of them are getting along so nicely I would hate to upset the bunch with a newbie UNLESS I find a rescue. Then I will. As we work in our yard, the chickens chatter at us constantly! It's so funny.  

Well, I just wanted to check in and say hi! Let me know what you're up to!

Is it Winter? Is it Spring?

Good Morning! Another beautiful day! A little chillier than yesterday but it certainly feels like Spring is in the air! So will it stay...they say no...they say we have probably turned the corner on Winter but...well, it feels like Spring today so I am going with that! And when the sun is out, the chickens feel like the one in the above photo! They were loving the sunshine yesterday. Giving themselves dirt baths and just languishing in every ray they could find! They are very entertaining.  I did my deep clean of the coop on Sunday. That's when I take every blade of straw out, wash the interior walls, sweep it out completely and add completely new straw. Even though every day I do  poop pick up, its still nice to get in there and put all the new good smelling straw and hay in! I do this in the Spring and Fall. My chickens are healthy, happy and free of pests. And the girls are starting to lay their eggs again so that' s awesome. 

I had to get this mug after i had bought a yellow one that says "Peep Peep"; how cute is this? 

I have a giant pine tree on my property that drops a ton of pine cones. Look at this cute craft to use them! I will definitely be picking them up from my lawn and using them! I love when I can use things I find on my property.

If you've gone to Lancaster County along Rte 340 in Intercourse, then you know this sign! Its my favorite! This time of year more and more stands are opening up! So exciting. I love Winter for the beauty and the coziness of it but I love the Spring and Summer for the farm stands and markets!

My husband is buying a smoker and we are designating an area in our yard for the bbq and smoker and a small backyard kitchen. We've been planning it for a while. Just a simple area. We are so excited for it and I've been looking up alot of info about smoking. I never knew you could even smoke desserts! We pretty much settled on the Pit Boss upright smoker because we don't need the combo with the bbq. Who knew you could do so much with it? I just thought it was meat and jerky! 

Well that's about it for me today! Time to get some laundry done and feed the chickens. Then I'm going to start my Sunday sauce..which I didn't get to do Sunday. I made braciole for it and I want to get that going for dinner tonight. If you don't know what braciole is it's a thin cut steak (very thin) like flank steak pounded very thin and rolled up with a delicious filling. I do bread crumbs, lots of garlic and locatelli cheese! Then you close it up with either a toothpick or string and brown it in olive oil and more garlic, which is the base for your sauce! After it's nice and browned, start making your tomato sauce! and the meat will cook nicely in the sauce over some time.. Not too long as the meat is thin so it cooks fast.  I've been cooking early and I enjoy the longer evening! 

Have a great day!
 

Welcome March!

 Good Morning Friends~ I love Winter! But I have to admit that when March comes, I can't help thinking about Spring. There are so many things I enjoy about the Spring season. 

But before I go on about my Spring plans, I have been working around the house and straightening up some of my favorite things around here including this tree. My kitchen tree with little utensils, cake molds, plates, and little things like rolling pins and wooden pies! Well, I took it all apart and added fresh lights and just added/removed some things! I just ordered some new ornaments from Debi Sightler of Debi's Wood Treasures in South Carolina for a 4th of July tree!!! I'm so excited! They should be here tomorrow and I have a new tree just waiting for them! The wooden ornaments are adorable and say things like "1776" and "Old Glory" and there are flags, etc. I'm going to keep it in the foyer for Memorial Day through end of August when I start to Fall Decorate. Then it will be moved tot he parlor. I don't usually take my trees apart. Plus since I have a lot of Americana in my house, it goes with the decor. 

So I don't know if I ever mentioned it but I'd like to introduce you to my Grand Kitty, Tito! My son and his girlfriend adopted Tito eight months ago. He's a Bengal kitten and he LOVES his Grandma and Grandpa :)  He is named after the NY Islanders player Anthony Beauvillier whose nickname is Tito. He's such a cutie. I can certainly see myself being that crazy cat lady someday. Just wait...I'll probably be blogging about being a cat lady someday!

So....SPRING!!!!! Some Spring plans I have are the flower and garden show at the big nursery we have visited all our lives, called Hicks in Old Westbury, NY. We look forward to it so much for some planting combinations. It's a fun morning and I always take lots of photos.

 My other guilty pleasure is all the "chick Days" events. We have a total of seven places we visit to see the chicks, buy some new things for the coop, see the vendors of chicken products and just feel like a real live FARMER :)    I'm always on the fence about getting more chickens as my group gets along so well and I hate to disrupt the tranquility BUT adding new ones over the years has worked out. I think I prefer rescues over chicks but my husband always falls for the baby chicks and says "the coop is plenty big for all of them." but then he teases that it's me wanting all the chickens!!LOL Seriously it is so much fun...well it is to me! I know some people may not think looking at chickens is a dream day but I do! and Spring is also when we start the prep for our gardens. My vegetable garden has expanded quite a bit. I do a large amount of lettuces and I do a about 6 other veggies. When it comes to flowers, we visit several favorite nurseries. It's great that we can buy some wholesale too as business owners and we keep our plant shopping local. Except if we go to PA then I like to buy plants from the Amish stands. I know we have a couple trips to PA in mind so we'll see. Its just a fun time of year. 

Well, I hope you are planning for Spring as well! All the seasons offer us something fun and interesting, don't you think?

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!

Starting 2021 Differently

 

My Mom. I miss her terribly. She passed away December 20th at the age of 90, and its been devastating. So this year I have to learn a new normal. Yes, I know that's an overused expression with the corona virus. The "new normal." Well, for me its about adjusting to not seeing or speaking to her every day. She was a huge part of my life and lived with us these last two years. Her condition necessitated constant care and my whole family helped. And it was worth it for the best Mom I could have asked for.

To start 2021, I am reading, sewing, crocheting, cooking. I have six new books to read, new yarn and a small cross stitch project. Plus hockey is back and I love hockey so much! Thinking of my garden this Spring and hoping for a few good snowstorms this Winter. We have to look ahead! We have to look forward.Thats what Mom would want.