some sunshine in our lives

It’s continued to be hectic and unpredictable here, and some reorganizing of priorities (particularly in regard to my farmette) need to be done, but the past week has included plenty of bright spots as well. I’ve been working on Plum Street Sampler’s Favorite Font Sampler but there’s not enough done to merit a photo, so instead I’ll show you what I sent to my Easter swap partner:

The little box features an older pattern by Oubliette and some pretty gee-gaws to give the box a more feminine look. The other stitched piece is an adaptation of a design from sub rosa’s blog, finished as a lavender-filled Easter egg with a pocket for storage of little treasures. I prettied it up using some gorgeous coordinating chenille from Vikki Clayton and a bit of vintage lace I had. My partner liked buttons and charms, so I added some of those and some finishing bits, as well as some local treats (handmade soap and maple candies), some Easter cookie cutters, and a great kit from Shakespeare’s Peddler.

Thanks for visiting!

it has been a week

… that I don’t want to repeat. Ugh. But some good stuff happened, too!

Walter is getting used to his new home and I’m (hopefully) getting the hang of this bottle-feeding thing.

Two of the Brabanter chicks hatched. This is another Dutch breed and is exceedingly rare.

And I received my Easter exchange from Samplermakers from Autumn. Wow, I just finished mine yesterday (right on the deadline) and I see I need to add some more extras – mine was terribly under-packed in comparison! Thank you, Autumn for a lovely heart pillow (such a hard finish for me!) and wonderful Easter goodies (the chocolates were loved by the kids!).

I hope everyone else is enjoying the start of spring! Best wishes to all!!

day nine – stitching is for the birds

Actually, stitching is pretty fabulous, but it’s about birds, thus the title. I’m making progress on Primitive Bird by The Goode Huswife. It might not look like it to some of you amazing powerhouses who crank out gorgeous samplers quicker than I can thread a needle, but for my catch-as-catch-can stolen moments of stitching, I’m pretty satisfied.

But much more exciting is the arrival of my Blackbirds Designs Exchange. My partner was Carol Bowers and tomorrow I will be a good girl and try to find her blog so I can link to it. (I have tried tonight, but the BBD exchange blog doesn’t have a link that goes to her blog, nor did she mention it in the notecard accompanying the stitching.) This pincushion she made is amazing. My evening photography skills do not do it justice. The stitching and finishing and the little accents, like the button, rusty pin and bell, are so utterly perfect that Barbara and Alma really should hire her. The subject she chose,  and the colors, are so utterly me. And then look at the amazing personalization on the back! Love it! 

atchoo!

Isn’t this cool? The kids love it. Patti and I had a great time in Belfast this past Saturday – we spent the whole time stitching outside in the sun! And … I came home with this wonderful Halloween treat. Thank you, Patti!

The kids have had a few days off school due to the holiday weekend and a teachers’ day so we have tried to enjoy the fabulous Indian Summer weather. Yesterday, we headed to a new-to-us location: the Lamoine State Park. It was so beautiful – you can bet we’ll be back!

I’m taking a brief break from sneezing to type this, so I’ll keep it short and get back to making the most of my allergies. Have a great day!

fun in the sun!

We have had a long spell of sunny, hot weather. It’s been glorious – but I have to admit that we need some rain. What’s that? Me, wishing for rain? Well, the blueberry harvest needs it … and my tomatoes are awfully dry despite my attempts to keep them hydrated. I’ve been toting about 30 gallons of water a day down to the barn and beginning to develop shoulders like Conan the Barbarian – but today, Niek (finally) fixed the outside spigot so we now have a hose (approximately long enough to reach Whitneyville, LOL!) down to the barn. Because Mother Nature has a wicked sense of humor, the skies immediately clouded over and it looks like we’ll finally get that needed rain.

Our outdoor babies have gotten big under the warming rays, and I do so love watching them every day. Our little Barnevelders down in back (not shown in any of these pics, sorry) have begun to crow – naturally, of the 8 I bought 5 are roosters! Speaking of roos, here’s a super handsome Ancona strutting his stuff.

I’m not sure what this little rooster will grow up to look like, but for now he is certainly a funky chicken!

Rowen’s developed a great way with the animals and they’re always happy to see her coming. Here she is with Emily, our 5-year old Nigerian Dwarf doe.

Speaking of strutting one’s stuff, we may have done that when we took friends from Holland on a long walk through the trails in Roque Bluffs. We somehow wound up on one of the longer trails rather than the short one we intended, but the kids were very good sports about it.

Keeping out of the sun, but staying warm, our current batch of babies are doing pretty well. I received 10 Delaware chicks by mail the other day and they didn’t seem to fare the trip too well. Two of them are not looking as good as they should, but hopefully a few days of rest, water, and food will set them right. I also have several baby Guinea fowl and a dozen chicks that I’m holding for a friend. (Please don’t think I fail to keep the birds clean – I clean them daily, but at this age they are very messy!)

and in today’s mail delivery …

I signed up for the Samplermaker’s Stash Swap, thinking it would be fun. I was unprepared for being totally spoiled by my partner Lynn - would you take a gander at the goodies she sent?! My good heavens! What a great exchange, and what a great group. Lynn, thank you so very, very much. I feel utterly pampered and deliciously decadent!

I fear she might feel shortchanged by what she received in return. I did try to meet her tastes in repro/vintage fabrics and finishes by picking several finishing fabrics, a few ornament cuts of linen, vintage buttons, and some French and Belgian lace I bought while we lived in Holland.

Keep cool and have fun – and thank you so much for sharing a bit of time with me!

time to palaver, big-big

Okay, it’s time to slow down. I say so. Enough running around and trying to do things 24/7. From here on, it’s all about the kids, slowing down to enjoy what makes this season special, laughing and even lounging. I have one more medical appointment to take my mother on, one more out of town business meeting, and that’s it. You’re my witness – I refuse to sign up for one single additional obligation until 2011!

To launch this relaxed period, we enjoyed dinner last night at the home of some new friends. They have three kids who are the same genders and ages as our younger three and, even more astonishing, the kids really like each other! So while the kids tore their house apart enjoyed some boisterous play, we chatted and nibbled at some lovely appetizers. We are all four avid readers and it turns out that both Jay and I are re-reading Stephen King’s Dark Tower series and that we’re both currently on The Wolves of Calla (to explain my rather odd title, LOL).

I baked bread and made crafts for Saturday’s Solstice Fair, which has kept me extremely busy these past weeks. It was a lot of fun to hang out with local crafters and artists for the day and to meet (or re-meet) lots of wonderful people. I sold about as much as I spent – because of course the other vendors had fabulous goods and I couldn’t resist all that temptation. Here’s a little peek at some of the goodies I took along. I also took along some cards I made using old National Geographics, and sold a few of those. The bread sold out entirely, which was really flattering.

And after the craft fair, we had a little tree-decorating party at home. There was dancing and singing and plenty of silliness. It was a lot of fun, and I love how the tree looks this year. We didn’t bring all the mass-produced ornaments from Holland, so there are fewer ornaments and the handmade ones really show up beautifully. After Arden and Rowen finished playing with the garland, there wasn’t enough of it left to put on the tree, either, and I like the simpler look that the tree has without it. We opted for a fairly small tree this year, which I think was a good idea. Niek still had a job hefting Arden up high enough to put the angel on top, LOL.

During Mom’s exam this afternoon, I plan to finish addressing Christmas card envelopes. When I get home, I hope to curl up with some selfish stitching … and look where I’ll be keeping my needles. Warning: I saved the best for last! I received my end of the Blackbird Designs exchange from Irene and I’m in love! I can’t bead with any degree of skill, so the beaded border amazes me. And look at the delicate shading, and the over-one stitching! Irene wrote that she hopes I’ll like it – well, Irene, I LOVE it!!! Thank you so much for a gorgeous exchange that I’ll treasure always!

If I don’t make it to the stitching later today, it’ll be because I joined Arden (perhaps finishing the last pages in The Wolves of Calla), who really knows how to spend a dark & rainy day. Best wishes to all for a wonderful day!

slowing down for Mother Nature

This is what I woke up to yesterday. Gorgeous, isn’t it?

But it was also sort of devastating. The snow was incredibly heavy, and there was over a foot of it, so it did a lot of damage. There are tree limbs down all over the property … and my chicken run is completely collapsed (the weight of the snow built up on the mesh “roof” and it all collapsed inward, dragging the wire “walls” in, too). It was heavy & hard to shovel, too, and after almost two hours of that, I know what I’m talking about.

But hey, seeing the kids enjoy it made it all worthwhile. (Or close enough, LOL!)

We also enjoyed a fine pakjesavond on December 5th. On that evening in Holland, Dutch children are visited at home by Sinterklaas or one of his helpers – usually a surprise visit in which the guest of honor isn’t actually seen, although the kids are always sure they caught a glimpse – and given candies, cookies, and gifts. Sinterklaas sent one of his helpers all the way to Maine to ensure that these four Dutch kids didn’t miss out on any joys of the season. We had to sing loudly while Niek played piano to make sure the gifts arrived at the right house! The kids also made “surprises” for each other – a tradition in which a small gift is encased in an imaginative package and accompanied by a poem. Max’s fairy tale castle for Rowen was hands-down the best of the bunch!

Arden spent part of the day introducing one of his older monkeys to his new Pillow Pet monkey. He found the snow a little too challenging to get around in  … short legs, you know.

I finally finish-finished my overdue exchange piece and got everything wrapped up and out in the mail. Phew. I hate being late, but once in a (great) while, it just happens.

The girls, despite being coop-bound, gifted us with 13 eggs yesterday and have been holding steady at about a dozen a day so far this month. Our Buff Orpington who has been unwell without actually being ill went back into the coop this weekend after a full week as a House Chicken. Once the darned snow melts off a bit, I’ll see what I can do about their outdoor run. Or, if it keeps snowing, I’ll build a new snow fence on the front side of the building.

The kids are back in school today and after a no-show appointment from a new volunteer, I decided to get busy with some bread. I’ll be selling bread at a local Solstice Fair this weekend and now have 4 different varieties of baguettes rising: plain, ryeberry, pumpernickel, and wheat bran. I suppose I should make some cookies to welcome the kids home from school this afternoon, too, shouldn’t I?

Rigby and Lola, after some excited running about, decided that the best way to spend snow days is cuddled up together in the living room. (Of course they are not allowed on the furniture, but does anyone listen to me?) Wishing you and yours the comfort of a snuggle buddy on a snowy day.

a day well spent

Today I received the gift of a day. A day, you ask? Well, yes; I was signed up to volunteer at a local fair/fund raising event and a mere hour before I was to begin, someone called the house to say that they were rescheduling the event due to the possibility of rain showers. I’d never heard of something being called off at the absolute last moment like this, especially when the sky was blue and sunny, but I didn’t complain – I really needed a day, after spending all day yesterday working on my homemade version of a chicken tractor! Being a good delegator, I set the kids to chores straight off.

Nick and Rowen had to clean the mudroom, as 98% of the junk in there is from them. Arden tried to help out, too. Although the cleaning often took second place to the playing, in the end they didn’t do too bad of a job.

Max cleaned the kitchen and I promptly messed it up again by baking bread. Oops. But it’s good.

And Niek, after looking over my attempts from yesterday, decided he knew how to build a better mousetrap … or chicken pen … and set off full of energy and optimism.

Ahem. Sometime after lunch, something happened and when I looked out again, he was making progress in reverse. So tonight there is still no chicken pen. I took The Dude and his chicks a salad and a bunch of fat slugs in place of croutons to make up for yet another day indoors. (Here’s a bedtime photo of them that I just ran out to take. Aren’t they cute?!)

I decided to part with a number of our Barred Rock chicks because we had twice as many of them as any other kind, and I’d had a dream about letting the chickens loose by mistake. Always listen to your subconscious! A local farmer/business woman has had some incubator problems and was all too happy to buy my surplus. So we now have a trimmer flock and I swear I’m beginning to get to know their personalities. (I had to change this photo of them in their new box to black & white because their red heat lamp turns everything garishly red.)

The Black Australorps are incredibly curious. They’re like kittens in that they forget their fear when confronted with something new.

My one Blue Lace Red Wyandotte is so laid back. You can really see why this is such a fabulous breed. Here she is with a Buff Orpington. I had to adjust the color because of the interference from the red heat lamp. She’s actually a gorgeous silvery-blue right now.

Brownie, the Golden Polish, is oh-so-regal. Doesn’t she (or he) look like some sort of Slavic aristocrat with a puffy fur cap?

The keets, on the other hand, don’t want anything to do with me or the camera. This little one is saying, “Don’t point that thing at me!”

Here’s my personal favorite from the Barred Rocks. Her black is noticeably lighter – sort of a Primitive Black, LOL. All the Barred Rocks seem to enjoy being held and babied.

And then there’s the Buff Orpingtons (the yellow ones) who are kind of the bosses of the flock. They’re a tad bigger than anyone else (except the Wyandotte, who is several days older) and they’re a little bossy about keeping everyone else in line. Real rule-followers, you know?

And do you remember that I stitch? Or used to, before poultry madness hit? Well, my Independence Day exchange finally arrived so I can show it. This is from Mary Garry’s Seasonal Mementoes. I’ve stitched it over one on a great piece of fabric (25 ct Floba) I received from Violarium when Leena was running a special. This stuff is the best for over-one stitching! I was going to cover a wee box with the finished stitching, but do you think I could find the danged box I’d set aside for this when it came time to finish it? It’ll turn up one of these days, right? I finished it as a needle book with some great overdyed wool I bought locally and a piece of white wool felt from Vikki Clayton. I put in a few red, white, and blue pins for fun.

do i still stitch?

It’s been awhile since I picked up my needle and floss for more than a few short minutes at a time. I think I’ve stitched the word “garden” on one of the samplers I’m designing … pretty sad progress. But these summer days are so full, so fun … by the time the kids are in bed, I’m ready to head there myself. Luckily, I’m fortunate enough to have an excellent partner for the Independence Day exchange and can enjoy this charming Bent Creek design (Uncle Sam Flatbed) that Sharlotte sent me. What adorable finishing, too!

Perhaps my new order from Vikki Clayton will gear me up to spend a couple of hours with my needle – can you believe this scrumptious silk?? It’s her new (to me, at least) Primitive Barn line. I’m in love with it! And I picked up a fat quarter of the 32 ct Creme Brulee linen – I loved it in 36 count; it truly goes with everything and makes anything stitched on it just pop right out. And I picked up a new subscription – this issue has a great design by Elizabeth Ann Talledo that I simply could not resist.

But if I’m a little tardy in getting back to stitching, you can’t really blame me when you see what’s been taking up my time … can you? The chicks are utterly adorable, and so are the kids.

Although it’s raining today, we’ve been outside every spare moment we can find. The kids’ homesteading garden is already coming up with three lettuce mixes and dill. Also doing well are my odd assortment of healing plants (Calendula, stinging nettles, & wormwood, to name a few), the container-planted veggies (including bell peppers, eggplant, and heirloom tomatoes), and the huge Italian herbs container. The garden isn’t doing that well – the existing garden spot might’ve been great 10 years ago, but the maple and apple trees growing around it put it too much in the shade now. And the older chickens have also made it their own private salad bar. I’ve learned a lot from the experience, though … like chickens and gardens don’t mix! LOL! Next year, I’ll put into effect all the great stuff I’ve learned this year (in a new location), add a healthy dose of composted chicken leavings, and voila!

Perhaps the Independence Day exchange I sent out will arrive at its destination in the next day or two and I can show you something I’ve stitched … other than the word “garden”, which really isn’t worthy of a photo. Till then, thank you for continuing to visit with me!

it wasn’t a blackfly that bit me

Maine is stubbornly proud of its blackflies, and I’ve fed a few of them during my gardening exploits. There’s even an active group here in town that dubs itself the Maine Blackfly Association – this is an old poster of theirs that I bought because I like the artwork so much.

But it wasn’t a blackfly that bit me today. Even though the weather was ideal for gardening, Arden and I spent the morning in the kitchen baking up a storm! We got enough biga (a sort of starter for Italian artisan breads) ready for eight or more large loaves of bread (from The Italian Baker), made maple walnut brownies (recipe from a supermarket-issued magazine), baked oatmeal peanut butter chip cookies (making a few changes to this recipe), and some chocolate chip cookies (from this recipe)

Part of our reason for being indoors on such a stunning morning may have been because Arden and I are just getting over something of a bug that’s had Arden up day & night for 2 days and myself feeling distinctly poorly. Knock wood, we’re the only two who have had it. Today also seemed like the right day to get Arden started on potty training. He’s very proud of his big boy undies and has been very excited to try sitting on the porcelain throne. He’s going around now in his undies and his rubber boots and it’s completely cracking me up. I’m not going to share a picture of that, but trust me, it’s hilarious. Instead, here’s Arden totally cracking up this morning before breakfast.

On a stitchy note, there’s a lot going on – though none of it involves me actually stitching. I received my Blackbird Designs exchange from Patti and wow it’s gorgeous!! The mysterious holes at the bottom are to hold thread rings which will arrive in the  next day or so, Deb tells me (Deb is Patti’s finishing guru, and she does an amazing job!). Patti, I really love this – it’ll take a place of honor!

I also received a little order I placed with Mary Kathryn to celebrate her anniversary. I simply cannot resist her sales, what can I say? I have the companion piece for this and in my mind, the two of them are already stitched and hung, LOL!!

And here’s a stash haul from Katrina. When she listed The Alphabet Tree by TGH, my eyeballs nearly popped out. I’ve tried to get this on eBay for a long time but the price keeps topping $25. So here’s that, plus several of the tombstone series from Chartmakers that I was missing, and a particularly lovely BBD that I’ve long admired. I should be embarrassed but I’m not. These are all utterly fabulous designs and I don’t know how Katrina managed to part with them. But let’s not mention it to Niek, okay?

Well, who thinks tomorrow might find me in my garden? I hope your day is wonderful, whatever it brings!