Lost and Found Again

I lost my MOJO.....for doing anything for the last few days. Chores were a chore, all I got done on Sunday (in the house) was 11 loads of laundry....but they still aren't folded. We are living out of laundry baskets....

But today...I found it... I think.

I got home from work and tied up all on my own.....all 5 calves. And Oreo (the black calf standing behind the red calf in the picture below) had lost his halter so I managed to put it on all by myself (which took considerable effort as he kept backing away from me). This is only the second time the heifers (pictured above) have been tied up since....January.....

I roasted a chicken for dinner from my local meat butcher store (well...to be honest....I cheated....the chicken was precooked, but I had to heat it up, cut it and serve it) which the kids LOVED. I really hope Todd isn't hungry for chicken when he gets home, as there ain't much left.

And I started on this while the kids did their homework and read:

Which hopefully will turn into a table topper for Easter when I get 2 more squares done....which will be tonight if I can keep things rolling along.

See ya,

Kris

Calf #2

We survived the weekend. My house is NOT as clean as I would like, I haven't touched my flowerbeds but.....

last night we had a second calf on the ground - ANOTHER heifer.

We also finished up moving steers, heifers and everything else around, and Jessie's two steers are now ensconed where the horses used to be (and the horses are outside until September).

The horses do have a shed to get out of the weather, and here in a couple weeks they would quit coming in anyhow, so we just speeded the process up.

2 more calves to go at our house, 1 more at my brother-in-laws house, and we are DONE!

Kris

1st calf of the season

is a heifer. And a BIG heifer too.

She'll be brown and white, just like her Momma.

4 more to go.

Kris

pictures taken at 6:45 a.m. - hopefully they aren't to blurry!

RIP Abby

Last Sunday, Abby took off across the yard chasing a rabbit. She made it oh....100 feet or so before having one of her seizures. She sort of came around, but not really. So we carried her to the house and put her in her cage (we were going away for the evening) with some warm blankets. We sat with her for a little bit, and she seemed to rally. We went to my in-laws for dinner, and when we came home she was gone.


Tyler summed it up the best she died chasing a bunny, and now hopefully God is letting her CATCH the bunnies since she wasn't able to catch this one.

She would have been 12 years old on August 11th. I think she had some great years....

Kris

Getting Ready....

...for another full weekend - although this time it's entirely MY doing.

I just realized - Tyler's birthday is next Sunday, the 5th (my little boy cannot POSSIBLY be 6 next week), and we are having his birthday party. So that means I really need to clean, both inside and out. While I'm not holding my breath that we will be able to be outside for the party, I'd like to have some of my flowerbeds cleaned out (which I neglected to do last fall) so at least everything looks all nice and neat.

And we have a steer and 2 heifers to wash and dry and walk this weekend to start getting ready for a show on the 19th. Let's just say - we were originally taking the steer. Then Jessie says "if we are driving all the way to Wooster for 1 animal, can I take the heifer too? How convenient she forgets the fairgrounds is 15 min. away. Our response was if she is walking fine for you, we'll think about it. Then TYLER says - hey, if she's taking 2 animals - I should be able to take my heifer. Ugh. But as Todd said, we have to start working with them regularly here at some point - might as well be this weekend as he's going to be swamped at work as soon as the farmers start planting their crops.

But, I have 2 of my swap presents ready to go in the mail - I'm dropping them off this afternoon at the post office. And here's another little table topper I made last night. I tried to go wonky on it, but....it's not very wonky. But I like it....

Have a great Friday!
Kris

Let Down...

....well, I'm back and actually, have been back for about an hour. Talk about quick - we got up there at 10:15 and were walking out by 11:30. Went to Panera's for lunch and came home.

It was fun but.....there really wasn't a whole lot of quilty related things to see.....I think out of all the exhibits (and there were at least 100) there were only 15-20 quilt shops....

But I did buy some:

My sister brought some:

And I saw this cute little table runner/wallhanging. I think I'm going to try and find the pattern to make it. Of course, one shop had it up as a sample, but didn't have a pattern:

So now I'm off to sew for a little bit. Guess I'll have to break down and do some shopping online shortly.....

But hey....it was still a day off work and a day away from home. So that was a good thing!
Kris

I'm off....

to the quilt show. I have my meager supply of cash, the checkbook and my debit card are at home and I know what I want.........(well, I know what I WANT and I know what I can afford:))

Here is a look at last night's project:

Have a great day!
Kris

P.S. no calves yet - due dates on 3 of them have come and gone, they are all wider than they are tall at the moment, but hanging on to their babies:(

Blah.....

I have a few swap deadlines fast approaching (think 3 within the next week), so yesterday made this cute little table topper for 1 of the swaps. All out of scraps and pieces on hand:

It will be winging it's way to ____ shortly - hopefully the recipient will like it!

My sister and I are headed to the Sewing Expo at the IX center in Cleveland tomorrow. Ought to be interesting and fun.

Other than work, and soccer, and finishing the hayloft in the barn - there hasn't been a whole lot going on around here. I'm just waiting not so patiently for spring! It's supposed to be in the 50's with rain today.....

Kris

Moving along

We are finally getting things done around here...things that have been on the "to do" list for oh....8 or 9 years.

Saturday I had to work - board meeting and all - which took ALL DAY LONG. I left the house at 8:45, and got back about 4:15. In the meantime, Todd worked til noon and then did this:

He moved all this hay (172 bales) up into the newly finished loft by hand.

Then Sunday we started right in building this hayloft. All that is left is the floor to put in.

Last night Jessie had soccer practice - and it was COLD out there. So I thought that for dinner I would make hamburgers and cauliflower on the grill. Only problem - I don't know where the propane tank is for the grill. We last used it at Thanskgiving to deep fry the turkeys. So cook on the stove had to do for last night.

And this is as far as I got on my Bears in the Farmhouse quilt along! It would have gone better if I hadn't sewn the 1/2 square triangles on most of the rest of the blocks on backwards. So I've become friends with my seam ripper. Again.

Todd said just to leave them and finish it, no one will notice, but I would. At least all the little triangles are all sewn together, I just have to sew them to the RIGHT sides of each striped block.

Tonight we are finishing the hayloft, and working with Jessie's steer and heifer. And Tyler's heifer as he has said he'd like to show her too here in a month.......

Kris

Another week..

I have so wanted to get some sewing done this week - but it has not been meant to be!



Let's see.....Monday night Jessie had soccer. Tuesday night she had girl scouts AND tutoring, Wednesday night the kids had 4-H, which went on FOREVER due to they were electing officers. And there is 160 some kids in our 4-H club. Thursday night she had after school tutoring (our school received a grant for 8 weeks of after school tutoring in preparation for the Achievement Tests coming up in April and Jessie was 1 of the 100 kids choosen).



In between times, we've been working on the hayloft, which is FINALLY done! Now we just need to move the 170 some bales that we have left from last year up into it, then we can build another pen in the corner of the barn where we've been storing the hay and we should be good to go.



Tonight we have her 4-H beef advisor coming over to help her with her steers and her heifer, and we have to go pick up another grooming chute for the steers that we are buying off of someone whose kids are out of 4-H. And tomorrow I have to work from 10-3.

What's on everyone else's plate for the weekend????
Kris

Vintage Sheet Love

How bout a little vintage sheet love to brighten everyone’s day???

These:

Or these:

Or this, which looks suspiciously like a set of sheets that my sister and I had growing up (the one on the right), which is why I brought them at Goodwill for on Jessie’s bed…….

Since one of her sets of sheets was looking like this:

All of these were picked up at the Goodwill in Ashland, Ohio for the grand total of $19.22 - and one of the employees saw me coming in and said "here comes the sheet lady again." But seriously - can you find such cool looking sheets in the stores nowadays?

Sad that I didn't even make it through half of the rack of sheets before I had my arms full (and I have a policy with myself.....when my arms are full - I stop). But I'll go back here the first of April for some more....

Warm

It was warm yesterday. So warm (69 degrees), that this is how I dressed to do chores while Todd was at fire practice:

Yes, not very practical shoes for doing chores, but I don't have to go in the pens with any of the cows, and I can stay out of the way of the horses when they are coming in. In fact - if we try to "catch" them they run the ohter way - if we let them come in on their own, they walk right in.

Jessie bedded up the steers while I dumped their feed in and they ate.

Aly and Mittens (Aly is Jessie's and Mittens is Tylers) were waiting on me to feed them:

The cows were pigging out on hay - no babies yet - hopefully today there will be one:

And the chickens were just being themselves last night:

I tried to take a picture of the horses, but it was too dark.

I didn't get any sewing done last night - the late night the night before caught up with me, and I was asleep by 9 or so. Good thing the kids were in bed by 8:15!

And (and you all will LOVE this one!).....Todd took the baby quilt into the fire department. Well Earl (proud daddy) being excited and all promptly opened it and got so excited, he had to show the quilt to everyone, call his wife and make her bring the baby down to the department to see it....one of the other preggo mothers happened to have stopped by to drop her hubby off....and not knowing who made the quilt made the comment.....I really hope no one makes us a quilt for the baby......that's just too old fashioned for my taste....

Todd says we aren't under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES making their baby a quilt. I don't know....I think I'd like to make her one like Jacquie makes - they certainly aren't old fashioned!?!?!

Kris

FINALLY....progress

With it being 55 here at home Monday afternoon, I so wanted to be outside.





But instead, I forced myself to finish up the quilting on this quilt and sew the binding on to the fronts of 2 quilts:






So last night I worked on handsewing the binding down on the baby quilt while we watched 24. And while Jessie was at her first soccer practice for the spring season.

Then I washed the baby quilt for our friends (and was up until 12:15 waiting for it to come out of the washer. But I used the basting spray on it and it is red so I didn't want to send it off stinky and with a chance it could bleed when she washes it).

Tyler was not real thrilled that I was using "his" fabric - and that I didn't put the dalmation print on the back of his quilt. I think I'm going to go back and buy the rest of the bolt of dalmation print if it's still on sale - for the second firefighter twin size quilt I am making.


But it's done and it's on it's way - 2 more to go.

Tonight night Todd has fire practice again, so I am going to work on my Bears in the Farmhouse quilt. The deadline for this next step is next Monday - so I'd better get a move on it.

Here's to a 66 degree day that we are supposed to have today!

Kris

Monday

We had a fun weekend. I didn't get much "quilting" done (I got enough done that I can finish up tonight), but I've gotten lots of everything else done over the weekend (which included totally boring stuff like laundry and cleaning).

But, with 59 degrees and sun yesterday, who wants to be inside!?!?!

So I cleaned out my pond, picked up sticks out of the yard and then we worked on building this:

The first barn we put up shortly after moving here....we never put a hay loft up. So hay has been stacked on the floor EVERYWHERE. With Jessie's 4-H projects starting to move ahead full steam, we need a place where she can work them inside out of the wind, rain, excessive sun.....so we are going to put this hay loft up in front of the horse stalls, clean out this barn and then we can set up lights and grooming chutes in here. The horses were not thrilled coming in last night with this in front of their stalls......let's just say they don't like ANY changes to their little world.

Now if it would just dry out and green up.....we'd be in full swing around here!

Have a wonderful day!
Kris

So blessed

Thank you Nikki!

The details of blogs chosen for this award:

"These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kindbloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interestedin self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbonsof these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated.Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this awardto eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include thiscleverly-written text into the body of their award."!

I will pass it on to:

Gina, Kristie, Ana, Angie, Amy, Janice, Judy

Thank you Angie!!:

"This award acknowledges the values that every blogger shows in his/her effort to transmit cultural, ethical, literary and personal values every day. Now, I invite you all to stop over and give Angie some love, today especially.

The rules to follow are:

1) Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person that has granted the award and his or her blog link.

2) Pass the award to another 15 blogs that are worthy of this acknowledgment.

I'm going to pass this on to:

Nikki, Gill, Lib, Carol, and Patty

And Thank You Janice!:

I'm passing this one on to:

Warren, Arizona, Audrey, Ana and Carol.



And this one I'm sending out to:

Mel, Lisa, Gizmo, and Rene

Thank you Carol and Mel!

This award is given to those whose blogs are full of sweetness, thoughtfulness, and kindness. :o)The rules are as follows:1) Put the Berry Sweet Blog Award logo on your blog or post.2) Nominate 5-10 blogs that show sweetness, thoughtfulness, and kindness.3) List and link your nominees within your post.4) Let them know they have received the award by leaving a comment on their blog.It's always so hard to nominate blogs because there are so many wonderful blogs out there. However having said, that I've picked the following to receive this award.

I'm sending this one out to:

Millie, Miriam, Dawn, Em, Lisa and Sarah and Valerie.

I'm sure there is someone I am forgetting - and I apologize if I have forgotten someone! If you visit regularly or I visit you regularly, please feel free to take one!

Kris

Preparing for the weekend

I finally decided to take my fall flowers out of this crock and replace with some spring ones. Have to get more yellow flowers (I think they are forsythia) but they are cheerful right now. Can't have them on the floor - Midnight thinks they are his personal toys....

We are supposed to hit 50's both days this weekend with sun.



I'm working my way round to everyone - but I had a busy day at work, errands to run after work, and I'm making whoopie pies for Todd, which he requested a couple weeks ago. Thanks everyone for your wonderful comments!!!

An easter penny rug I made.....12 or so years ago....

We've got a busy weekend planned between the quilting I want to do, the house that the fire department is burning down, and Sunday afternoon after church we are building a hay loft in the barn to make room for the grooming chute inside for Jessie's steers and heifer.

And I did find fabric for the backing of the firetruck baby quilt - a dalmation print! On sale at my LQS for $3.00 a yard - which was a wonderful find.

I'll be back! Hope everyone enjoys their weekend!
Kris

And....P.S. I still have not unpacked all my "everyday decorations".....one of these days I'll get round to it, but not right this minute. Guess I'm just not in the mood......hehe

Spring

I am normally not a procrastinator - but it is turning out to be a very good thing!

Way back when (OK - the Saturday after Thanksgiving) I packed away all my "everyday decorations" in preparation of pulling out my Christmas decorations. Yes, I have 11 large Rubbermaid tubs of Christmas decorations plus the Christmas tree.

Well, the Christmas decorations came down the Saturday after Christmas, and I have yet to put back out my "everyday decorations." Todd asked me last night if I were "going Amish" in that there is not much of anything out on my shelves or hanging on our walls. My response - I'm thinking about what I want to put out and where to put it all.

Of course, it would help if I would actually remember what I have in the way of decorations. But he doesn't know that I cannot remember - so all is well on that front. So this afternoon upon getting home from work, Tyler and I decorated for Easter (I did bring that box upstairs oh.....about a week and a half ago......at least it's not still sitting here right?)

And here are a few of my favorite Easter things:



My $7 Jo-Ann Fabrics lighted 4 foot Christmas tree -

that I found rustic eggs for at the local junk shop - for $2 an egg.

I only brought 4 - figuring I'll go back here in a week or so and get another 4 or 5.

A wool penny rug table mat that I made oh.......10 years ago maybe?

Hopefully tonight (after the kids go to bed) I can get out some more of my favorite things again. Then this will lead to also having to clean the house.....we'll see how far I get:)

Kris

Basting Spray

I got my basting spray last week, and decided to try it out tonight.




I spray basted this quilt right after work - one word of caution - when the directions say to use in a well ventilated area - they aren't kidding. Hopefully the smell is gone from the office when I get there in the morning tomorrow:)



I started quilting right when I got home. I'm quilting this one in a straight line grid pattern. I know it's for my Mom, and she likes the meander free motion quilting, but I don't think my arms, neck and shoulder are up for it at the moment. After sleeping on my side wrong for 2 nights running aggravating the pinched nerve I have in my neck - lets just say my prescription pain pills are my best friend at the moment.







I love how the spray is holding the layers together. I did trim the backing and batting down to just a 1/2 inch bigger than the top after smoothing out all layers - but so far it hasn't shifted at all.





Now if I just knew how to sew in a straight line without having to mark up the top, we'd be doing good. But I have 3 quilts to quilt this weekend, so.....I guess I had better get busy, right?



Have a great evening!
Kris