If she takes a picture of a kitten, she’ll want to take them home.
It’s tempting to keep a few but not this time.

Pulling some pics from the computer.
These were taken a few months back. A lazy day. We just soaked up some sun and spent time lounging in the grass together. Of course, most of the crew was there, including our furry friends too.

Do you have moments as a mom where you can actually see your child evolve and grow right before your eyes? That a spark in them has been lite and you can see it in their eyes. Hear it in the voice. Even their personality and attitude seem to shine a little brighter.

This was one of them. I watched six very excited but nervous kids hop on a horse picked for them. This wasn’t the first time for any of them to be on a horse.  It was the first time for my children to go on a trail ride. No one holding the lead, no arena to contain them. No shelter of the barn walls. No parents. Just them, the horse and the guides.  We watched them walk out, a little uncertain of themselves. They came back with a new confidence.  

I had locked my keys in the car and had to wait for my husband to come rescue us. Surprisingly the time was well spent. The kids chatted and talked about the whole experience. Silly things that the horse did, the beautiful woods they walked through. The scary moments, that they conquered. Bouncing on the balls of their feet, wondering when we can do it all again. I think I enjoyed watching them, seeing them, feeling the positive energy coming off of them more than they enjoyed the ride. And that’s saying quite a lot. I’m marking that moment in my mental calendar as a day I will cherish. A day I actually seen them grow.

It’s good to be a mom.

The bunny thing started off with making this pom-pom springtime animal tree. It has been something I’ve wanted to do with my kids for a while. It was something my mom did with us growing up. Each Easter she would get out the pom-pom animals and we would hang them on her pussy willow branch tree. My childhood ones where much bigger and fluffier as they were handmade pom-poms. We didn’t get these made in time for Easter but next year they will be ready to pull out and hang up to bring in the season. They are a very simple. Glue a couple large pom-poms together. Take 2 small pom-pom and glue onto the face for the rabbits cheeks. Cut the ears, eyes, nose, feet out of felt. I used Fabric-Tac to glue them. My favorite glue. Take a needle and thread and put through the middle of the pom-pom, tie a good knot. Leaving enough string to hang the little cute critter up with. If your making homemade pom-poms make sure the yarn that ties all the pieces together is extra long so that another knot can be tied at the end, leaving you something to hang him up on. I almost forgot, another pom-pom for the rabbits tail of course. When making the duck or chick it’s just 2 pom-poms glued together and felt parts. The kids really enjoyed this project and it’s funny seeing how each comes out unique.

Then we had the real baby rabbits thing happen. The kids were so so so excited to have found them. Rescued them from the chicken pen and a hen pecking at them. They so wanted to keep them. I completely understand how they felt. If you have ever held one that fits easily into the palm of your hand, you’ll know what I mean. Part of me even wanted to keep them. They begged, while I sat there looking at them. Then I gave them a little information, even went online and showed them. Gently highlighting the “they are wild, hard to hand raise, easily stress out and the out come is not usually good” part. They finally agreed that the mommy should raise them and back to the barn they went. This was not done without tears. These sad feelings of having to let them go brought back memories of past pets that had passed away. More tears. None the less, I was glad they made the right choice and all on their own. A good lesson to learn. Being spontaneous and taking on something can be a great things in it’s place. Sometimes you need to think things through, weigh your choices and then make a wise decision that is good for everybody. They did that.

I started making a little quilt for my youngest, who really wanted to keep the rabbits. It’s not fully done as my sewing machine tried to eat the fabric. Tearing up my bobbin holder, I think that’s what it’s called? The quilt will be small enough that she can wrap up her easier to take care of stuffed rabbit. Stuffed toy rabbit.
If anyone is wondering,  the bunnies are doing fine. They come out at night jumping and running around.  They seem to be getting faster and bigger by the day.

Oh camera, I’m so glad you were with me yesterday. It was one of those days. I woke with an ache in my head that only grew stronger as the day went on. I sort of walked around with a Duh look and a Duh feel to me.  I was thinking that not much was done or accomplished until looking back.  I truly see now why so many people journal their days in pictures.  It’s not just nice to have, memories to keep but something to really see. What I thought was a painful and not much happening day was something quite perfect despite the throb.                                                                                                                                          It started out with us dropping my husbands lunch off and then running over to feed our friends dog while they are away on spring break.  A little eye candy while we were there..the beautiful garage door.

On the way back we took the country roads. I felt drained from the pound between my eyes and didn’t feel like driving at normal speeds. The kids thought it was great because they assumed we were lost. Causally snaking along the back roads I would stop when ever something eye catching was spotted and let the kids jump out and take pictures of them. I guess through the kid’s eyes we were on a photography assignment in the wild yonder.  A cow gave us quite a show. He would take a step back and a step forward. Moving his head in a funny way. We sat and watched him for a while narrowing down ideas of what was wrong with him. Maybe mad cow or stuck on something. One of the kids even chimed in that he was dancing to the car radio that was on. That’s when we saw the stick that was leaning near the ground and he had stepped over top of.  We couldn’t see it until we zoomed up with the camera. Cow giving himself a good ’Ole itch it was. The moment was funny and entertaining while it lasted.

We headed home and I took a nap. A much needed nap. Then it was on to prepared the barn for chickens. Pulled out all of stuff that hasn’t been used in a few years. The kids worked at that. You would have thought they were redecorating their own rooms because of how much enthusiasm they had. My son even made a pulley contraption that opens and closes a small door for the chickens. That way we don’t have to go all the way into the barn and into the coup each morning and night to let them in and out. Plus they can go straight from their coup to the outside grass. No hens wondering around inside the barn making a mess.

 A bit of canoeing. Testing if an oar or a shovel works better.  Results: Shovels moves you faster but  a serious work out on the muscles, oar takes you where you want to go and it’s a whole lot easier.

A bit of bubble blowing. It wasn’t the best day as the wind took the bubbles away so fast we just got a peeks at them before they were gone.

Finding nature as it is.  Beautiful and harsh all in one. A pile of fur or more specific a bunny tail and a could have been robin.

And to think I would have passed this day up as not much of day. Sad really, to think I would have overlooked all this. Yeah..my camera, I’m so glad it was with me yesterday.

Our cat here, as if on cue posed for the upcoming holiday~Halloween. I just had to share this silly little critter picture. Some of you may remember this little boy’s story and how he came to be in our care.

Have you guys pulled out your coats and mittens, yet?  It hard to believe it was in the 80′s just a couple days ago.  Seems fall has arrived. It has me in the mood to bake pumpkin pie and nibble on pumpkin rolls. Smell spices in the air. Pull out the apple cider and Halloween decorations. Curling up in the evening with a good book, wrapped in a warm blanket that’s straight out of dryer. Simply fall joys.

What’s your favorite part of fall?

Thanks Lacie for getting on to me and telling me to get my behinny back at my blog.

Well, I’ve been up to some painting. Some rough drafts of some ideas I have. One being some Christmas cards. I know it’s way early for that, but I had these ideas and just had to put it down on paper before I forgot. I really like them. Fun and silly. In time of seriousness we all need a few things to put smiles on our faces. Carefree and light hearted. Right now there is alot of seriousness going on at our house. We have no water and haven’t for over a week. I’m so thankful for the friends and family that live near by. If it wasn’t for them, I would have had to get a membership at the Y in order to take showers and Wendys would probably banned us from ordering water every again. We have been having problems with our well and it’s looking like we may have to dig a new one. (insert sad face and sagging shoulders) One good thing that comes from this is my arms. Yeap, I’m sure I have more muscles in my arms from carrying 5 gallon buckets of water from our pond to the house. I had been wanting to toned them up any way, they were starting to get a little wiggly. The pond water is for flushing toilets if anyone was wondering. No drinking tadpole water for me, I’ll leave that for the fish.

My sister also moved not that long ago and it’s near me! I’m so thrilled about this. We started this Motivation Monday. She comes over every Monday and we watch Heros together. Here’s the catch. We have to have some progress on an art project we are doing. If one of us doesn’t, then we have to sit in the back room and work on it while the other one is watching the show. We also fix a healthy supper and just inspire each other with our silly ideas. She is working on some painting that I’m so excited about everyone seeing. Seriously!!! She is an amazing artist. I’ll give you just a little idea without giving to much away. They have something to do with Fairy tales and mother goose. However with a very unusual twist.  It all feels like play to us and we are loving it.

On a total random thought. Did you know Hedge Apples, those weird lumpy and bumpy large ball looking things that grows on a tree are suppose to be good for keeping spiders away? That’s what we hear so we have put some under our house to see if it works. It’s starting to get cold and those little creepy eight legged critters always come in to warm themselves. I don’t feel to hospitable when it comes to thing with more than 4 legs.

Hope everyone had a great weekend.

We had a wonderful one. Saturday was the birthday and cookout. All the kids had a great time. I’m glad at times like this to have a very large back yard. We had kids on our go-karts, the older ones where on the dirt bike and 4-wheeler. Even the men had to show off a time or two. The other kids were in the canoe & tube. Then after one of the girls slipped off the tube while trying to get out, it started a whole new idea. Swimming. They are braver than me, because there is no way, I’d swim in a pond.  They felt like they were at a regular camp ground. We even thought about camping out but with the storms in the forecast we decided it was best not to. Lucky for us the weather was perfect.

Some of the family that came, stayed all night. Some that lived close by came back over Sunday and we did it all again.  We grilled out again as well, making potatoes and bacon pouches. DELICIOUS.

You take a piece a foil, make sure it’s large enough to fold once you have all your food in it. Lay it flat and fill each pouch with…

 Potatoes. I like them sliced long ways. My sister-in-law likes them in circles

Bacon, cut up into small bit size pieces. It’s easier to cut if it’s been in the freezer for a while but not frozen.

Onions. Diced

Seasoning salt, a fair amount.

You can also add things like green peppers and mushrooms.

Fold up the pouches nice and secure. Place on hot grill with the lid shut. Turn them over during cooking. Sorry but I don’t remember how long we left them on the grill. Once they are done, take them off and add shredded cheese and sour cream. 

The hit at the party was our furry pets. The kitten, who is fearless. He is only about 4 inches tall but will actually chase you down, trying to grab at your ankles. He is hilarious. And the other hit was Ollie. I have to admit I was a little worried about how he acts to strangers. He is not barky like a lot of schnauzer are. He may bark once when someone rings the door bell but that’s about it. If he’s really wound up and playing hard or trying to get your attention. He will do these really weird noises. He does a ya ya ya sound where he changes the tone as he’s doing it. I know he’s trying to say something, but I have not a clue what. He’s famous around here for his weird BURRRR sound. I tried to look on youtube for a schnauzer who does a similar sound but didn’t find any. Maybe he’s wishing to be a Scottish terrier and have that wonderful Scottish accent. The thing I was worried about was how he LOVES strangers. We have really been working with him and his greeting manners. But with all those people, I thought for sure we’d have a crazy dog on our hands. He was a little excited at first but I had the people not pet him until he was sitting nice and quiet. Just after a couple people he was a total gentleman. No running in circles around there legs with his tail and whole back side wiggling. No jumping up on the people and whining to be held. He never jumped into anyone’s lap unless invited but with that said he was in every ones laps all the time, which is his favorite place. Several of them couldn’t get over how you can hold him cradled in your arms like a baby. He loves it and goes totally limp and relaxed. He will even fall a sleep like that.  I just wished I had gotten him a little trimmed up before the weekend.

I was very worn out yesterday so I just puttered around. I did organize my bloglines and add some of my favorite blogs. Hopped over to flickr and organized the rest of my pictures. I was planning on taking some pictures of several craft books I’ve had for a while but never posted about. When I was on Flickr, they were having a upload hiccup yesterday so the books will have to wait till later this week. The next thing I need to hit is my poor blog. I did feel good to get those things cleaned up.

This is also a first for me, machine quilting. Well, machine quilting anything bigger than about a foot big. I tried the straight lines, it wasn’t working for me. So, I did the the swiggley, wiggly, no real pattern lines. I had so much fun. That part I really loved. I actually was a little disappointed that it ended. I guess that means, another quilt is a must in the near future. Practice makes perfect, and I think practice with this is really the only way to learn and become better at it. I can see myself freehand machine quilting anything and everything for a while. Now, I really want to get my hands on one of these! The part I had the most trouble with, was keeping the speed of the needle correct with the speed I was moving the fabric. I wanted to move the fabric to fast and the peddle not fast enough. I ended up with loose threads at times. I did have to do some seam ripping to fix it, but not nearly as much as when I was working on the quilt top.  This postalso help me out a lot when it came to the best way to handle the bulky quilt while quilting it. Rolling it made it a lot easier to handle. As soon as the sun comes out I will take a picture of the whole thing. It is quite gloomy, rainy and gray right now. I was lucky to get this one picture to turn out.

Oh, and if your wondering. It’s a king size quilt. I had to find an over-sized king flat sheet to fit the back. Now, that part I did not like doing at all! Lining and smoothing out the 3 layers. I’m guessing because it was so big but it took me several tries to get it. And since I have other quilt planned for the future, I’m going to go out and get me some of these pins so that they don’t bunch up the fabric as easy as the straight ones will.  I also used Amy’s suggestion in her bookas flannel for the lining. I liked the idea. Thin but snuggly warm. My kids, as well as myself like to curl up under a heavy quilt.  It reminds me of grandma’s hugs as a child.

And this little guy has came into our care. He was found in a family members garage/barn. If I understand right, he was somehow in the wall. The only thing we can guess is, a wild mommy cat was moving her kitten and accidentally dropped him. Then she couldn’t reach him?? We never could find a mommy cat or the rest of the little ones.  So, I was called and ask if I would take him. The kids of course were excited about it. I couldn’t say no, to such a tiny fluffy little thing. My daughter had been wanting one for sometime, as her other cat had passed away due to the neighbors dog. He was a sweet dog in all other ways, but he hated cats with a passion and had chased it into the road.

Soon to be baby birds. I do love birds and eggs. 

And what about that cute little mouse that Jen has given away. And she was worried about people not knowing since she is new to the blog world. WOW Jen!  Because she had such a huge amount of people stop by, she has decided to do another giveaway. Go take a look.

 These chairs were a great find at a yard sale, for only 2 dollars. I liked the idea that they were sturdy and there was no paint on them. Stripping paint is not my cup of tea. I’ve had them for a while and decided to get them out and fix them up. This is the very before.

This picture here has one coat of paint on it. It will take seveal more and I have covered the seats. The fabric is suppose to look like leather but if you feel it,  it’s real soft. Easy to clean too.

I originally bought this fabric to cover these seats. I had a fair amount left over and then it hit me. This would make a cute fall purse and this button I bought last year from Molly would be the perfect embellishment to add to it.  Molly by the way is having a sale on herr buttons. I have bought several myself and love them. Can you tell that someone is always wanting to get in on the action when I’m taking pictures? I personaly like to see that little hand that she sticks in there. 

This doesn’t have anything to do with the craftness but as I was making supper last night. I seen 3 little sparrows sitting on my arbor waiting for mommy to come feed them. It was something nice to see. The mommy sparrow is not that afraid us and when she see and hears us throught the window she does seem to really care. Even the banging of kitchen pots doesn’t worry her.  We think it’s the same ones that have been nesting under our siding for the last couple years. We have tried several things to get them to build a nest in a tree not the nooks and crannies of our house. They always seem to find the tinys little hole and they seem to be very determined to build it here.

See Mommy bird feeding baby birds?