Summer's Here!

Knock knock.
Who's there?
SUMMER!

We didn't have a very bad winter so I can't complain about the snow and the ice and how I had to walk to school uphill both ways in a blizzard.
And spring has been perfect and so far today summer has been great.
But.
It's supposed to get hot.
And I'm to fat for hot.
And you can't run the oven and make brown butter banana bread and chewy fudge brownies when it's hot.
And in the winter when it's cold I can run the fire at full tilt and set my electric blanket to inferno, but in the summer when it's hot all I can do is push the hot air around with a cheap fan and soak my feet in a mixing bowl full of ice.

Oh well, I can handle it.
It's worth the wilting because in the summer we have this...

And this

and this

and this

and of course, this summer, best of all, we have this...

The Neighbor.

I think it's going to be a big fat fun filled summer for sure!

Tune in tomorrow when I will be discussing plus size fancy pants wedding wear.

Peas.

Itch Free Post

Dear Colgate,

Really?
Really?

I blame you for my thirteen year old son brushing his teeth with Cortisone on the last day of school because Cortisone has always looked like Cortisone while Colgate is always "improving" their product and packaging and in the process ended up with toothpaste that looks like itch paste.
Thank's a lot Colgate, you owe us.

I didn't work on the upstairs yesterday.
I think I will today.
No promises.

I made No Peek Chicken for dinner yesterday.
It was really good except next time I make it I will use thin sliced breasts instead of hunk-o-breast chunk of chicken because I really can't stand a big wad of chicken anymore.
You already know everything about store bought chicken so I won't even go into it, all I'm saying is that I only like thin sliced chicken and if I were any kind of stand by what I say kind of gal I would be growing my own chickens for dinner.

Moving on.

I made Brown Butter Banana Bread for dessert and almost fell out of my chair dead it was so good!
I'm not even kidding.
It was DeLiCiOuS

I think the brown butter frosting is what makes it.

Or it might be the sour cream in the cake.

Whatever it is, it will knock your socks off.

And you can get the recipe here...

Lifes Simple Pleasures

The Neighbor just walked in, gotta go!

Peas.

This & That

Have I ever mentioned that our entire house is wood paneling?

Ever?
Or have I maybe mentioned it a bazillion times?
Have I ever mentioned that I want to paint but I can't get anyone on board with that project and usually when I say "I" or "we" it doesn't mean me it only means Six because of my stupid shoulder and rotten back.
Have I also mentioned that not only is every wall fake wood, but every window covering is plastic wood as well so one feels as though one is living in a make believe box.
And that the pretend wood grain in the blinds is the same color as the faux wood walls and even goes in the same direction so if hallucinogenic drugs were legal someone would definitely end up on a bad trip.

This weekend I did what I could do with my limited nonexistent budget and bought some outdoor bamboo shades.

Not the dark ones, the light ones, although I think they look dark in this photo but I had to be carfeful with the photo angle or I would have got the flystrip and the garbage can in the picture so the lighting isn't the best.
Anyway, they look GREAT and they let light and air in but keep out the really hot heat and they don't look so same woodish.
I am also visualizing them with my freshly painted buttercream walls.
Pretty clean buttercream walls devoid of dog tail mud spray.
You know, pretty clean buttercream walls with high gloss shiny white trim and denim slipcovered sofas with lots of colorful tassled throw pillows.
Pretty huh :)

In case you missed in on Pinterest or Facebook, I made my own Fabreze this weekend!

I got the idea from Life Family Love and it was SO easy and SO inexpensive.
Just a little fabric softener, I used Downy Citrus Spice.
A smidge of baking soda.
And hot water.

Smells just like the real thing!

Today I'm going to try and finish cleaning the upstairs.

It's also Wyatts LAST day of school!!

Did that song "Schools Out For Summer" just blast in your brain?

Mine too!

I love summer.

Peas.

A Girl Can Dream...

I started working on the outside upstairs storage junk out of sight out of mind room yesterday.
I'm telling you right now it's going to be a big job.
You see every time we clean and organize one room or closet in the house a portion of the things we cleaned go to another space in the house and right now we're down to two spaces and those are, the room above the garage and the outside upstairs storage junk out of sight out of mind room and today, well yesterday is the day I started to take care of it.
The problem is, where do you put all the stuff that you have already moved all over the house?
There is stuff up there that has been in every single room of this house.
The stuff you don't want but can't get rid of.
Like a toaster oven or popcorn machine or antique empty bottle of booze in the shape of a horse and rider.
Ugh.
I have an antique dress form that my mother gave us that Wyatt drew lady parts on.
What do I do with that?
A badly drawn pornographic dress form?
Maybe I'll just put a dress on her and cover up her colorful breasts.

So this is what I have in mind...

Or this, something fun and colorful.

Not a shabby chic pale room with a white couch and chandelier.

Very pretty, but not for me.

I want a room that will inspire.

Click here for curbly craft ideas

See where I'm going with this?

Bright and cheery.

The sad part is, right now I have to walk past this...

To get to this.

Oh Mannn.

This is so not my dream room.

But it will be!

You just wait for the new improved craft room where dreams are bonded together with hot clue and glitter sprinkled with love.

I just have to go unload the dishwasher and clean the toilet first.

Peas.

Try It, You'll Like It!

Last night I made banana pudding.
Well, actually three nights ago I made banana pudding.
From scratch.
And it was so gross I almost barfed cried.
So I gave it to the chickens and to be perfectly honest, I wouldn't be at all surprised if they only ate it because they didn't want to be rude and hurt my feelings.
I followed the directions to a tee, but I don't have a double boiler so I improvised and put a pot on a pot and the pot boiled but the pudding didn't set it just turned grainy and gross.
So I bought some instant banana pudding and tried again and oh. My. GAWD.
It was sooooo good!
here's what it looked like before we got the giant spoon in it...

And here's what it looked like after I got the giant spoon out again and dished some up for breakfast...

I know you're going to think I'm just making this up, but I have never ever in my whole entire life had banana pudding.

I've seen it at potlucks, but the bananas are always brown and oogy so I've never taken any.

Well, that will teach me to judge a dessert by the color of it's contents.

I can not believe I have lived twenty-ninesomething or more years without ever eating banana pudding.

I have a LOT of catching up to do.

I am still working on this rag quilt.

The Imperfect Homemaker didn't take this long and she says right there in the title of her blog she's imperfect and it still didn't take her three weeks to finish her "easy" rag quilt.

Remember I cut out all my red squares...

Then I cut out all my fish squares...

Then I cut out all my batting squares...

Then I x'd all my red squares, fish squares and batting squares together...

Then I sewed those squares together into lines...

And now I have to sew more lines...

And then I have to sew all my lines together...

And then I have to cut it all up and make it look easy fast and raggy.

Don't say it.

So this is where I am so far...

Remember, I'm using sheets for my first one because I'm STILL learning.

My fancy sewing sister sent me a rag quilt christmas kit and I thought "oh that's so nice, a kit".

Like summer camp quilt kit.

Wrong.

It's more like a Betsy Ross or some other professional sewers chiristmas quilt kit.

You know, like something they'd work on in between baking quiches and building log cabins.

Whatever, I'll get to work on that as soon as I finish my Goodwill sheet bin fish quilt and banana pudding from a box for breakfast :)

Peas.

Spring Abounds!

Well, I guess Spring has finally sprung on the farm, and it is definitely a big year for babies!
We started out with this guy...

Even though he came a few months early we're still counting him as this years addition.

Then came Butch... Followed closely by four more that looked just like him.

Then Olive with her four little kittens.

~no photos yet~

And Mary Ellen the Muscovy is sitting on another clutch of eggs due to hatch any day and turn into a passel of these...

And the turkeys Wills and Kate or Wills and Roy or Kate and Louise are growing up and almost ready to leave the garage.

And Penny and Steve have a nest filled with eggs nestled safely in a stack of hay hidden in the barn.

And then surprise of all surprises, Rita hatched a great big beautiful baby llama yesterday afternoon!

Isn't she something...

We have to do all the baby business today, but we think she is a bouncing baby girl and we're calling her Roxy.

This morning when I went up to the barn to do my morning rounds Buddy ran out to play with her and they were running and frolicking in the tall spring grass while Rita looked on taking in the madness of her brand new baby rolling around with a soaking wet, barking mad, slightly manic border collie.
It was quite a sight :)

I haven't finished my rag quilt yet but it is coming along slowly.
Lot's of cutting. Lot's of cutting. Lot's of cutting.

Yesterday was our anniversary.
Six and I have been married seven years now.
That's officially more years than I have had husbands and a record breaking amount of time for each one of us in any given marriage.
I cross my fingers this one lasts till' I'm dead.
So far we're having a pretty good time and the outlook is good.

Peas.

Project Post

Happy Wednesday that seems like Tuesday!
We had a very fun busy weekend spent at home (my favorite place) just doing stuff like not sitting in traffic and sitting in rocking chairs instead of camp chairs outside of a wet tent.
Just kidding noimnot I love camping noidont.

I had the BIGGEST surprise EVER on Sunday night when at 9:00 pm the neighbors mother called to tell me there was someone parked outside our gate with their headlights on honking their horn...
So I told her to go investigate and she did and it was my friend Cheryl from Washington!!!!
Since it was a surprise I had dishes in the sink and dog hair on the carpet but I didn't care because I was so happy to see her face!! :)
We shared pictures and talked about sewing because as you know, that's what sewers like me and Cheryl do.
We talk about sewing.
I think I forgot to show her my bathmat.
That I sewed.
Anyway, it was so great to see her and I can't wait until she comes back at the end of summer!

I made this a few nights ago.

It's a pursebagtote made from a chicken feed sack!!

Now I'm working on this rag quilt from Imperfect Homemaking

Her recipe calls for pretty fabric squares but all I had laying around was sheets and I figured since I use sheets to make rag rugs I could use them to make rag quilts too.

So I started cutting.

And cutting.

And I'm still cutting.

Red squares...

And then I'll cut some fish squares...

Later on when I'm an expert I'll buy real fabric.

My other new favorite thing is bottle trees and I'm going to have Six make me one.

I need to figure out what comes in blue bottles and start drinking a lot of it because I think I'll Six will need about twenty or so bottles and then I'm going to have Six plant it right outside our front door!

Isn't that pretty?

I love it and there's a long history about them that you can read here.

Are you watching the Hatfields & McCoys?

Are you loving it?

We are LOVING it!

Peas.