End of December...

 Hello. Thought I better update this blog. I hope everyone had an awesome, amazing Christmas.

This is my table, set for Christmas dinner with my family. I love these dishes. They are very old. Homer Laughlin. Some of them were here in the house when we bought it. I've had them on the shelf in the dining room all these years. Never have used them. A few weeks ago, I was in the mood to clean! And throw stuff away. And give stuff away. My sister and her oldest daughter were here and they came over and took about 10 boxes of stuff just from the dining room alone!! Oh, it feels good to get things out of the house and clean.

So I took what was left off all the shelves and cleaned everything. All the pottery, dishes and cookbooks. (Which my niece took one whole shelf of cookbooks!) And fell in love with these dishes all over. But I only had 4 plates and saucers and only 3 cups. My mom and I were out last week and saw a thrift store next to the grocery store and decided to go in. And I found 5 of these plates and saucers! For only $2.00! Of course I had to have them. So I have 9 plates and 8 big saucers. I still need cups and bowls and little saucers. I will keep looking.

         And my little wooden Christmas tree my husband made me last year. It was just perfect for us.

                                       Some greenery and red berries and candles. Just right.

                   You can see here how my shelves look now. There's 1 whole shelf empty! So nice.

                           I also cleaned out the 2 cabinets. The one on the left has nothing in it!

And here is my flooded property. The water was gushing from the back yard, around the side of the house and out to the pastures. Just a flooded muddy mess. Everywhere we looked, water. You can see the pond to the left of the coop and to the right.

                    This is the garden, under water. Ponds and rivers and lakes all over this valley.

This morning, while I was cooking breakfast, my husband walked in. He asked what I was cooking. Ham, he asked? Really???

And these chickens. They like to come stand (and poop) on the front steps. The only real dry spot on this farm. And it gets sun here. See the 2 headless roosters? They need to be headless and in the pot! Darn roosters. All they do is stand under the windows and crow. All day! Ugh!

So we had a good Christmas here. I really didn't get in the Christmas spirit til we left my mom's Christmas eve and went to look at lights. We drove up Missionary Ridge and went across the interstate to the other side. Never have I done that before, and I've lived here 37 years. It's beautiful up there! The houses are gorgeous and really old. We got to the end of that road, where Greenwood comes up and over and down the other side. And got stopped at the stop sign by a Christmas parade. There must have been a hundred police cars and fire trucks, all with their sirens going. Busses full of people wearing Santa hats. A huge long limo, with Santa in the back seat, all lit up. It turned out to be a fund raiser parade for St. Jude's Children"s hospital. So fun!  On Christmas Eve. It was so warm too.

Then we when downtown to see the EPB building. Every year they do all the windows with scenes for Christmas. It's so pretty, all lit up.

It was then that I wanted to go get a real tree and decorate my house. But it'll have to wait til next year.

Our 2 oldest grand daughters are here with us. We have done some shopping. I am not a shopper. Especially when it's raining. And yesterday was horrible. In and out of the rain all day. No fun at all. Today is beautiful. Blue sky and lots of sun shine. But tomorrow, it starts again. I think we have enough rain, thank you!

Can I slow down now?

 I have been so busy these past few months. Getting ready for holiday markets. All the preparation and making and loading and unloading. Setting up and taking down. Loading back up, then unloading again. It is a lot of work, these little markets. But so fun and I really enjoy them. I love meeting new people and finding kindred spirits. I love talking to "goat" and "sheep" people. Making new friends.

But I am tired! And Christmas is next week!!! OMG! Really?

So I am going to slow down and take it easy for once. I am going to walk slowly. Eat slowly. Enjoy this time I have right now. Look at the sun rises and sun sets. Like yesterday morning. I had to get up early to get to Mrs. T's for the day. Walked outside to feed the masses and saw this. I had to stop and just look. Then I ran in to grab my camera and start snapping all these amazing pictures of God's awesome art work. Just amazing and beautiful and awesome. And it was like this all the way around where ever I looked too. I really want to be able to see the little things in life. Not be so rushed and hurried like I usually am these days. Be more like a turtle, not a rabbit.

                                               This was just a few minutes later. Just beautiful.

 



                                                        And still a few minutes later.

Hello. It's me.

I've been watching some of the funny parodies of Adele's Hello. I love that song and could listen to it all day.

So here's the start of mi parody. It's about chickens.

Hello. It's me. Up here on this hay bale, laying eggs for you to eat.

That's all so far.

Middle school Christmas concert.

 This was my middle grand daughter Coryn"s last middle school Christmas band concert. She'll be in high school next year. And I heard her say she was probably going to join the high school band! If so, she will be the first to do it. Both my girls were in band all 3 years of their middle school. But didn't do the high school band. And Chloe, the oldest grand daughter, didn't either. I really hope Coryn does, because Dade Co. High is a really good band.

Her band teachers  are married and are the teachers for both the middle and high schools. There are also several little bands and groups in both schools. Most are student led too. Just a really good strong band.

The 6th grade played first. Oh my, I could really see a huge difference in 6th, then 7th. And 8th was just amazing! Like a real orchestra. And one of the trumpet players had competed in a national competition with over 200 other trumpet players and got 2nd chair. Pretty impressive.

Coryn is 2nd to last in this picture. With the long blond hair.

And she's the one with the hand in front of her face here. Not good pictures. I couldn't get her attention for a few minutes.

                                                           And here's the whole band.

             Coryn Fiona. She so cute. 13 years old already. And a middle child. I am too. I am SO proud of her!

Just some more wooly things. And dinner.

 I started spinning this pretty roving I got at SAFF from Heelside Farms. It's Border Leicester. It's looking like blue jean material as I spin it. I got 2 big rovings of this. And 2 darker blue rovings.

Isn't this pretty? Now I'm not sure what to ply it with. I have some white Marino I need to spin, so thought about plying that with this. Or just spin another bobbin of this and ply together? I would get more if I used the white with it though. Any suggestions?

And I've been making dryer balls the past few days too. I added colored wool to the white as I was carding it. I think they turned out cute. But smaller than I usually make them.

And for dinner, I made the sausage, kale and potato casserole from the new Taproot magazine that just came out. It is good! So glad I made it. I had all the ingredients, except Worcestershire sauce, so I used a little bit of organic soy sauce. Really simple recipe. From Ashley English. She has a blog called Small Measure. Check it out.

Saturday is the Bazaar Christmas Bazaar at Grace Episcopal Church in Brainerd. We get to go set up Friday afternoon. I am so glad. Because it's about 30 miles from here and takes SO long to unload and set everything up. Then I think I am done. I cannot hardly believe that 2 weeks from today will be Christmas Eve. Good grief, where has the time gone?

Hot off the wheel!

 I just finished these 2 skeins of a wool-alpaca blend yarn. The larger skein is 140 yds. It's $24. The smaller one is 96 yds. and it's $18.

It's really soft and pretty. I blended some black alpaca with the white wool.

This would make a nice soft warm hat, cowl and some gloves for someone special. Or for yourself. I can ship anywhere in US  in a flat rate box for $5.95.

Eggs and fire wood.

My hens have started laying eggs on top of the big round hay bale! I love it. It's so much easier for me. Usually I have to bend way down to get eggs out of the nest boxes. Or climb up on things. Or crawl under things. Just to get eggs. So I am ok with this nest spot. I love my girls.

And the fire wood fairy came Monday. You can see here how much wood we've used so far. He filled it back up with already seasoned wood. We have a great wood fairy.

In line...

 at the scratching post.

Silly sheep.

Working...

 on some needle felting today and tomorrow for the Holiday Markets coming up the next 2 Saturdays. I know, I always wait til the last minute. I work better under pressure. I like doing it this way for some reason. When I have a long time to think about something, I don't like it.

The sheep. All these are made with my sheep's wool. The all black sheep is from black alpaca a friend gave me though. But the inside is my wool. It's so soft. I love alpaca fiber. I still have not spun any of my alpacas though. I will soon.

And some pin cushions so far. I love making these. And dryer balls too. But they take so long for me.

What are y'all working on these days? And Christmas gifts yet? I do believe that's what my family will be getting. Something wooly!

So yesterday and today the sun is out!!!! The winds blowing today, so hopefully it and the sun will dry us up here. It's freezing too. We had to start a fire up in the wood stove yesterday. Got to about 32 last night and is still cold. But no more rain til next Tuesday! And then just a little.

My sister and niece are heading up here from S. Ga. today. They'll be going to the markets with me to sell some of their things. Heidi's been working like a crazed woman on all kinds of cool stuff to sell. Can't wait to see her and Audrey and her things. And we are having our Thanksgiving dinner Sunday! Yay!

Tonight....

It's December 1st?

I cannot believe how fast this year has gone by. Crazy fast.

We have not had our wood stove on for about a week now. It's not been all that cold. Although it's been raining since Sunday. Just wet, wet, wet, everywhere! I do not like all this rain. I think since I have all these animals I have to keep fed and dry, it's harder on me. And I can't seem to find a good pair of much boots. I got some black rubber boots that go  about half way up my leg. But when I where shorts or capris, I get mud slung all over me. They're not tight boots, so I also get hay and dirt inside the boots too. I'll keep looking.

I just tried to post a picture but I got this box that popped up saying in order to select an item from my online storage, I have to sign in. That's Google. So I tried all that and still nothing. When did this happen?

I think it may be time to change to another blog site.

Holiday Markets.

 I went back to Cloudland Station this weekend for a Holiday Market. It wasn't as big as the one last month. But still fun. I sold a lot of soap, 3 hats, a cowl, some head bands, 2 felted owls, dryer balls, and salves. Did pretty good. This is my booth.

My friend Stephanie let me borrow some of her things for displays. I love this wooden rack and the tins.

My Cedarwood Christmas soap. Isn't it pretty with the cedar on it? And it smells like Christmas too.

                               I sold the 2 hats in the middle!!! I'm making another like the one on the right.

So if you see anything here you'd like, it's all for sale. Just let me know. I will ship it to you!

I'm here in my studio this week, making more hats, needle felted sheep and pin cushions and dryer balls for the Holiday Markets and the Chatt. Valley Nazarene Church in Flintstone, this Sat. And next Sat. at Grace Episcopal Church in Chatt. If there is anyone local, come on out! Or come up from wherever you live. There will be so much see and buy!