TIFFANY...Your rugs done!

From a pile of thrift store sheets.To stripped and sewn

To crocheted with a big blue hook


To a finished rug for Tiffany!

Send me your address Tiffany, theres a rug on the way :)

Week In Review

Well it's been a busy week here on the Trailer Parks Farm!

Mike has been busy working on the deck, even through yesterdays snow and rain.

Lucky #6 certainly is a trooper, and he does great work too!

Wyatt, much against his wishes, but after accepting a twenty dollar bribe unwillingly gave in to a hair cut last night. We are pleased to report that he does have ears and a forehead.

Here he is, clean cut and pissed off.

I decided to get busy on Tiffany's rug this week.

Here is the process so far.

From sheet to strips to sewn strips to ball0sheet.

One more sack to sew and I start crocheting.

My Sister sent me a care package of my FAVORITE products!!

Melaleuca makes the BEST soap products I have ever used in my whole entire life and thats NO lie.

After using them I can't go back to using anything else.

So that's SIX dish soaps, a bar soap, shampoo (the best) liquid mint hand soap and a candle!

Really, there is no way to describe to you how wonderful these products are, you just have to try them yourself.

Thanks Julie :)

Then, yesterday in the mail came a gift from my BBF MamaHut, AKA Buddhas Mountain Momma (rings like a John Denver song doesn't it!) Margarita foot cream, body lotion and a special top secret ingredient hand scrub AND one of her wonderful made by her on the mountain heaven scented reed diffusers!

How lucky am I!!!

Very lucky thats how!

K, I have a rug to make.

Ciao'

Pooter

I just wanted to share a favorite quick and easy after dinner clean up tip...

Yech, snow : (

Check Her Out

OMG, yesterday was Andrea's Birthday and you outa see what she got from her family!
I swear, you will be SO jealous.
Go look...
Swamp Suburbia

Follow Feature on Blogger

I just found this posted on the help site...


We are in the process of integrating with Google Friend Connect, which may temporarily affect the Following feature for some users. Specifically, users who already use Following and Friend Connect may notice missing blogs in their profile, as well as a decrease in the number of public Followers on their blogs.

This is because we have set these users to "anonymous" to avoid linking the profiles of Blogger and Friend Connect users without their permission. They are still following privately and will able to make themselves public again.

After the official launch of the Friend Connect integration, we will communicate with the affected users and instruct them how to reset their relationship to public. To reiterate: the number of Followers has not changed, and we believe that the launch will improve the visibility of your blog and community. We will post more details on Blogger Buzz as the launch approaches.
— LATEST UPDATE ON MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2009

HELP!

Whats for dinner tonight?!

Stranded With...

I have been tagged by the Queen!

“Your ship has sunk. You have, of course, been stranded on a deserted island. You have salvaged a copy of the King James Version of the Bible and a copy of the complete works of Shakespeare. Nothing else.

“The very next day you find one of those Arabian Lamps in the sand. Of course, you rub it and, of course, a rather grumpy Genie appears.

“‘Let’s get this straight - there is a recession going on. There are restrictions on the three wishes now. I don’t do water or air transport now so no boats, planes or magic carpets. As for electronics, forget it. There isn’t the infrastructure on this island.

“‘I can let you have one book and I mean one VOLUME, one essential item and one luxury item. Now hurry up and make your choices, I have to get to those five other islands you are going to nominate.’”

Ok, my book would be....

Because good manners are always in style, no matter where you are.

My essential item would be...

Because Donettes make me happy.

And my luxury item would be...

The Love Sac, because if I have a good book and donettes I want to make sure I have a comfortable place to sit.
An eight foot bean bag chair should do it!

Now, I tag the following...

Venom

Raders Out Loud

Fat Cat Crochet

Swamp Suberbia

Is It Just Me

It was a Dark and Stormy Night...

Remember the Wal-Mart baby movie?

The one where the girl is pregnant and she and her jerk off boyfriend get in a fight and she doesn't have anywhere to go so she lives in the Wal-Mart and then she has the baby and names it Americus and gets on t.v and wins stuff blah blah blah...

Remember that movie?

A story written about that girl's life and we all know it.

We either bought the book or saw  the movie

We laughed, we cried, whatever.

Now, I read quite a few blogs and I'm just wondering why some of these peoples  stories aren't books and movies.

Is it because of blogging?

Is it because blogging is more anonymous?

I have thought for years about writing a book, but I'm to afraid that as soon as I sum evrything up in a book something REALLY big will happen, like Wendy would get hit by a bus driven by someone in the Witness Protection Program, someone big like Hoffa, and the government would pay me millions in hush money and I'd live out the rest of my life on my own private Island surrounded by little people in grass skirts catering to my every whim and partying with the likes  of Elton John and Martha Stewart.

Missing Wendy terribly of course.

Thats why I haven't written a book yet.

So why doesn't anyone else around here write a book?

Amy wrote a cookbook and had it published.

Ron has written two books and had them published.

Ron and Amy, if you don't want to get up in front of everybody and talk about it that's fine, but how was it writing those books?

Has anyone else written a book?

How do you do it?

Do you have agents?

Publishers?

Whats the scoop?

I'm Baaaack....

Okokokokok....
I know, I've been slacking.
I haven't even been around to read my usuals.
I'm trying to catch up though :).

Here's what's been going on.

Mike has finished demolishing the deck.
It looks amazing.
He has done such a good job so far, I can't wait to see the finished project.



We have been cleaning the yards, replanting tree's and bushes and just tending to general maintenance after a somewhat nasty winter.

I have also been struggling with Maisy New Dog.
I am totally not the get a pet don't keep a pet kind a girl, but poor Maisy is giving me the fits.
She has turned our somewhat mindful well behaved group of mutts into an out of control pack.
Chaos has reigned since the day she arrived.
She is completely unresponsive to her name, even with a treat in your hand and full pockets.
We can not call her off of anything, chickens, goats etc...
Once she starts to run theres NO stopping her.
Mike and I followed her through the pasture for an hour this week trying to get her back on the right side of the fence.
My fear is, she will get in with the donkeys and be stomped, or worse yet, get out on the road and be hit.
So, here's my dilemma.
Do we find her a new home (remember, she is already a two time used dog) or deal with it?
We have tried working with her on the basics, sit, stay, come...... nothing, nada, no go.
What does one do when faced with a bad dog dilemma?

Tiffany

Happy Birthday Tiffany!

And you thought we'd forget :)

And The Winner Is......

Tiffany!

Congratulations Tiffany, send me your info and I'll get busy!

Your adress and two or three color choices and I'm on it like a bonnet :)

Good Times!

Ok, here we go!

The Birthday weekend was a blast :)

Wyatts BFF came from Washington to spend the weekend with him, can you believe it!

They had a great time digging for treasure (and finding a long ago buried poodle in a metal roller skate box) and pacing the perimeter in search of skeletal remains (maybe dinosaurs) and removing the teeth with pliers.

Good times huh?

We took Wy and his posse to his favorite restaurant for lunch at Super King, it's a chinese buffet.

Translation, all you can eat sushi, doughnuts, chocolate pudding and ice cream.

Grandma ate an octopus, and trust me, that was a show stopper.

But, the pièce de résistance was when Wyatt's tooth fell out in his general tso chicken

Yesterday was his real honest to Gawd date of arrival so we celebrated with a trip to Toys-R-Us for a Pokemon Wii game and a homemade cake.

Don't worry, I don't plan on giving up my non-job for professional cake decorating.

Mike has made great progress on the deck demolition, on schedule and under budget.

George (old fat shih-tzu) is in for a desperately needed scrub and shave today.

Wyatt is on the couch I think suffering from celebration hangover.

Low grade fever, sore throat and body  aches.

I am contemplating poking my swollen ingrown toe with something pointy.... and then thinking not.

I'll have to wait and see how sore it gets.

Thank you again for making it such a fun day for Wyatt, we'll be back tonight with the winner!

You!

I'll have more to say later, but I wanted to take a minute right now to say thank you for all your Birthday greetings for Wyatt yesterday.

What a great thing to turn ten and feel like the WHOLE world knows about it.

It was really exciting for him to read your comments all day, you made him feel very special.

Thank You,

Wyatt's Mother

!!!CELEBRATION!!!

Today is Wyatt's TENTH Birthday!

And... it is the second anniversary of the Blog!

It seems as though everyone is doing a "my first post" post, so who am I not to follow along...

I started blogging to keep in touch with my family after moving to Oregon to care for my Grandparents.

It was cheaper and less time consuming to do one update to everyone once a day, but I really had no idea about the concept of "blogging" until last summer when I started reading a few blogs here and there and found out what a GREAT community this is.

So today we're having a party here at the Parks Farm!

Everyone's invited to share in our celebration, so grab a fresh cup of coffee,

and a yummy piece of homemade cake.

Because I'm sharing Wyatt's past birthday posts and celebrating the anniversary of the Blog :)

Theres a gift for everyone, so don't forget to take yours when you leave.

But first, there is one thing I need to say...

Happy Birthday Wyatt, I'm sure glad your ten because I don't know if I could of stood one more day with a nine year old!

#1  First Day of Eight

#2 Later During the First Day of Eight

#3  Second day of Nine

Now, since this is a celebration, I am going to take advice from my BF (blog Friend) Angie and have a 

GIVE-AWAY!

Tomorrow I will put everyones name who leaves a comment today in a bucket and have Wy pull a lucky winner!

What will you win?

A rug of course : )

Once you win, all you need to do is choose your colors and I will get busy on a special rag rug just for YOU!

As you know these rugs take a little time to whip up, so you will need to be patient, but I promise to have it to you ASAP. 

Ok, so tell your friends and tell your neighbors, tell your friends neighbors, tell everyone that today Wyatt Parks is Ten and theres a party at the Farm!

CountDown!

Custom Countdowns & MySpace Layouts

Blog Watch 2009

Something big is coming on Monday.

Watch for it.

Be Mine In The Nick Of Time

last night at 8:00pm we realized nobody bought valentines for Wy's school party today.

Not a big surprise, pretty much par to the course actually.

Panic ensued.

What would become of a cardless Wy...

Would he be shunned, his reputation forever scarred?

Should he play the Jehovah card and claim religious freedom from the valentines?

After careful consideration, we decided it was up to Wyatt to save his own bacon and get to work.

By 8:35, he was making cards, personally illustrating each one and writing the heartfelt message of "Your Awesome" in twenty-four folded construction paper notes.

He pulled it off.

He was able to remember everyone's name except for that one kid, who he will see today and finish off the last greeting before dropping them all in their proper boxes.

Things get pretty touch and go when your a nine year old nearing bed time with a dead line.

~Happy Valentines Day Everyone!~

Home Remidies

This list was sent to me by my iSpouse/Brother-in Law.
When my Sister is home, he's my Brother-in-law, when she's gone he's my iSpouse.
That means I email or iChat him every day and remind him to take out the garbage and feed the cat.

AMAZING SIMPLE HOME REMEDIES:


1. AVOID CUTTING YOURSELF WHEN SLICING VEGETABLES BY GETTING SOMEONE ELSE TO HOLD THE VEGETABLES WHILE YOU CHOP.


2. AVOID ARGUMENTS WITH THE FEMALES ABOUT LIFTING THE TOILET SEAT BY USING THE SINK.


3. FOR HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE SUFFERERS ~ SIMPLY CUT YOURSELF AND BLEED FOR A FEW MINUTES, THUS REDUCING THE PRESSURE ON YOUR VEINS. REMEMBER TO USE A TIMER.


4. A MOUSE TRAP PLACED ON TOP OF YOUR ALARM CLOCK WILL PREVENT YOU FROM ROLLING OVER AND GOING BACK TO SLEEP AFTER YOU HIT THE SNOOZE BUTTON.


5. IF YOU HAVE A BAD COUGH, TAKE A LARGE DOSE OF LAXATIVES. THEN YOU'LL BE AFRAID TO COUGH.


6. YOU ONLY NEED TWO TOOLS IN LIFE - WD-40 AND DUCT TAPE. IF IT DOESN'T MOVE AND SHOULD, USE THE WD-40. IF IT SHOULDN'T MOVE AND DOES, USE THE DUCT TAPE.


7. IF YOU CAN'T FIX IT WITH A HAMMER, YOU'VE GOT AN ELECTRICAL PROBLEM.


DAILY THOUGHT:


SOME PEOPLE ARE LIKE SLINKIES - NOT REALLY GOOD FOR ANYTHING BUT THEY BRING A SMILE TO YOUR FACE WHEN PUSHED DOWN THE STAIRS

Bringing Down The Deck

Under Construction!

Things are changing here on the farm!

Mike is working on taking down the deck and getting ready to rebuild a new one!

Here's a before picture so you can follow along with the progress.

Work in progress.

Here's for all you pig lovers, a close up of Pearl!

That's all for now, but later I'll share some rug love and a step by step how to for anyone who want's to make one of their own.

Up to My Ears in Sheet

Since all I did yesterday was talk on the phone and strip sheets nothing exciting happened.

Today all I'm going to do is sew sheet and talk on the phone, so again another dull day on the Farm.

I want to give a big Parks Farm holler out to Georgie for the FloMo in her Q&A yesterday, and also to Venom for her touching tribute to ME yesterday! 

Thanks ladies, may the Bloggy Gods shine on you today and everyday.

Oh Sheet!

I  just got home from town.

I went on a "sheet run" to the thrift store across town.

50% off!

If anybody needs me, I'll be cutting and sewing for a few hours.

Don't forget Aunt Flo, she can't answer if you don't ask!

Thank You

I woke up yesterday morning to an incredible surprise in my email.
A friend I have never met gave me one of the most beautiful gifts I have ever received.
Ron drew this portrait of my son.
I did not ask him to.
It was a true gift from his heart to a friend he has never met.
I can not begin to imagine what inspired him other than a picture of a little boy with his best friend on a beautiful sunny Saturday afternoon.
He captured the joy that is Wyatt.
I'm not quite sure how to say thank you and have it sound as sincere as it is felt.

Thank you Ron.
Thank you for a beautiful gift that I will always treasure.

This is from Wyatt..


Hello My name is Wyatt Parks and my Mom showed me the picture that you did of me.
I think it is amazing what you can do.
Thank you Ron, I think you are a very good artist.
I also like art and I wish you could teach me how to draw as good as you.
Please write back.
From Wyatt Parks

Saturday Update

Well, I went to town and the thrift store did not have even ONE set of sheets.
How dumb is that.
When I got home I found out Mike had been called to work tonight so I decided to forgo the stew and make greasy taco's instead.
Mmmmm, a good greasy taco is hard to beat!

Wyatt's friend Shannon is here today and they have had a great time playing hide and seek in the pastures and barnyard all day.
They tried to talk me into taking them to the beach.

Whatever.
Here's a picture of them getting ready to go on a walk.



Ok, this is a video I made of Bart the Wonder Dog and his bucket yesterday.
I know, it's really a planter but it's close enough to a bucket for Bart.
Maisy is our new used dog and doesn't like to play unless Bart is playing in which case she's all over him.
Pooter is the fat Shih-Tzu with the fresh haircut who has more fun just making noise.

Speaking of noise, please excuse the hundred times I say "get it Bart" and "ready!"

That's the "little house" that they are playing in front of.
It was the original farm house on the property and the house my Grandparents lived in when they built the "big house" from one of the turkey barns.
Nobody lives there now, but it was the house that I came home to when I was born :)

Ok, so without further adoooo......
Heres Bart!

Saturday Morning Post

It's Saturday morning and I think we have a busy day ahead of us.

Mike was stacking wood below the deck on Thursday and saw the the deck was rotting.

Bad news since it's a BIG deck, and really rotty.

So he's going to tear off half of the old deck and rebuild the other half, hopefully bypassing the need for building inspections and permits.

Cross your fingers.

We're having the breakfast of champions here on the Parks Farm this morning, maple bars and Hostess crunch doughnuts.

My motto is if your going bad, go big

I'm off to the store later today for some fresh veggies to make stew tonight.

I don't think theres anything better than the smell of stew simmering on a cold afternoon.Throw it together with some hard crunchy on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside fresh bakery bread and you have a great dinner!

Kind of makes up for breakfast I guess.

While I'm in town, I think I'll wheel into the thrift store for some old sheets and hook up a crazy colored rug this weekend too.

Questions up at Ask Flo, be sure and check it out!

Introducing Aunt Flo

Ok, I'm really excited about the new blog addition, Aunt Flo!

Aunt Flo is where to go to have all those pesky questions answered without embarrassment.

You can ask Flo anything, if she doesn't have the answer, she'll either find out or make one up.

Now, we need to get this site off to a blazing start, so if you don't send in your own questions, I will just make some up and sign your name to them.

Lets have some fun with this!!

Ask Flo

Chewable Pampers

Nothing exciting in my life, so I give you this...

Hundreds Attend Global Warming Protest

This was sent to me by my friend Lindy.

I think a few of you can relate right about now!

So and Sew

Wyatt had his first official origami class yesterday!

It was a good turnout and they learned the basics of paper folding, and then Wyatt moved them all along into swan folding.

They were only able to get halfway through so Wy packed everyone's work into his totes and loaded the totes in his ten dollar Wal-Mart wheely suitcase and will bring it all out again for the next class.

I am so proud of him.

My Mom came out to the farm yesterday and gave me a sewing for dummies class.

I  learned how to clean and oil the machine, thread and wind bobbins and go forwards and backwards with different stitches and tensions.

Listen to me when I tell you it is much easier when you have some clue as to what your doing instead of just making it up as you go!

I see lots of rugs in my future, and maybe even some aprons and crazy white trash quilts!

When Wyatt got home he was so excited over my new found knowledge of all things sewing, he was quick to remind me that his Aunt Julie had given him a sewing machine a few years ago. It's the sewing machine that her now twenty four year old son learned to sew on. 

We went and dug it out of the shop, cleaned it up and it sews like a dandy with Wyatt at the wheel!

He calls it the old rustbucket, but it's in tip-top shape and I can't wait to see the things he creates.

Super Boring Weekend

Well, another weekend come and gone....

I started and finished my first rug on Friday, but I don't like it so I'm going to rip it out and do it over.

I went to the thrift store and bought some old soft cotton sheets, brought them home and stripped them, sewed them together and  crocheted them into a rug I love.

Doing a rug that way is a lot of prep work, especially when you (Mike) have to move the sewing machine into the living room so you can still see the t.v and then figure out how to run the thing because you never learned how to sew.

Mike had to give me a few lessons of things that he remembered from watching his Mom sew.

The last rag rug I did, was made from strips about 1/2 inch wide and about 5 inches long and then latch-hooked through some holy backed stuff.

It took forever but the results were great, I want to do another one out of t-shirts.

Wyatt's friend Leanne was over for the weekend.

She's always fun to have around and Wyatt LOVES having friends over.

We had pizza and ice cream for dinner and pop-corn and Jell-O for breakfast.

Good times.

Speaking of good times...

I called and canceled my lady parts appointment on Friday.

I just about had myself worked into a nervous frenzy over the whole thing and that was after I took a "mothers little helper."

I knew I would launch into meltdown mode which is why I popped a downer, but who knew it would be so bad.

I think I need to start out slow.

Baby steps.

Not go in for a mammogram and hoochogram at the same time.

My biggest fear is that I have some sort of crazy crotch and they're going to talk about me in the lunch room.

Do they all look the same?

Can you have "wrong crotch?"

What if mine is SO astoundingly different that they have to stop the exam to take a picture to send to the AMA?

The only thing that gives me comfort is that I have been married six times and it's never been mentioned before.

None of them ever said, "Well Marilyn, your a heck of a nice girl, but you've got one crazy crotch..."

I can't talk about this anymore, I'm starting to break out in hives.