Window? Check.

Because you lucky ducks have been following every excruciating detail of our kitchen remodel, I wanted to show our new kitchen window. Lo and behold, I remembered to shoot a before picture.

(**Do not be alarmed. Please remember this is a work in progress. What you see here will not be the final result. Orange, grimy, icky black dried gluey stuff, etc. . . that will all be gone soon. Again, I repeat, do not be alarmed.)




Truman was happy to get in on the love. He saw it as his chance to become an indoor cat. I quickly put an end to their love fest though. Razor and Blade had work to do and sometimes those guys can be slower than government highway workers!



Voila!






Isn't it beautiful? Blade did an outstanding job and I am forever in his debt. After all, not only did he put the new window in but he gave me two new outlets. Outlets people! It's a beautiful thing in a kitchen. I fed him, kept his coffee cup filled to the brim, praised his handiwork and made him a Gooey Butter Cake but still owe him. Thanks dude.

-dana

Beautiful beguiling buttons

I'm on a real alliteration kick lately. It was a toss up between "beautiful beguiling buttons" or "beautiful bewitching buttons". My fingers nearly typed "beautiful beguiling bewitching buttons" but I thought that was overkill.

So anyway.





Tomorrow for art class with the fifth through eighth graders I'm planning on making paper. We have been studying fiber arts and so far have done weaving, leather crafting, batik designs, yarn pompoms and for our final project we are going to make our own paper. Cool right? Don't shrug your shoulders like that. Those middle schoolers will do enough of that for the both of you.




But in my thrift store hunt for screens for the paper making process I happen to run across these captivating clasps. (**Alliteration rocks my world. Maybe I need to get a life.)









I'll have to hide these from Boo and Licious. Cause they'll want them. Cause they will put Elmer's glue all over them and stick them on paper. Not this time girls. These are all mine.

-dana

Soooo keeping this

Every stinkin' iota of anger disappeared after I read this.

And, besides, if my only problem is that they bicker back-and-forth, shouldn't I consider myself lucky?

-dana

Thrift score

It's been a coon's age since I have found anything worthwhile at a thrift store. But lookie here.



I know it seems to be a rather unassuming old hard shell blue suitcase. But, ever since seeing the magic work of Julie over at Jane's Apron I have wanted to try my hand at sprucing up an old case.



I've had this little scene for awhile (from a thrift store too) and it seemed like a perfect thing to use. Now the case is all gussied up and my girls have the perfect going-to-Nana's-to-be-spoiled-like-the-little-princesses-that-we-are suitcase.


That is if I take out all the vintage fabric that I also recently scored. Yards and yards of several different prints. I've got plans for a patchworky quilt. Maybe with some Flea Market Fancy fabric thrown in too. Sounds like alot of cutting. My least favorite part.




-dana

Who knew ducks drool?

Strange things happen at Easter time. Astonishing, bizarre, curious, erratic, idiosyncratic, peculiar, perplexing, uncanny, and weird things happen at Easter time. Don't believe me?

For starters, ducks drool. If it may please the court, Your Honor, I'd like to have this photograph marked as exhibit A.



I happen to have photographic evidence of other unexplainable Easter happenings as well. Your Honor, may I present exhibit B. It contains proof that even though your child begs and begs and begs to hold a duckling, she will try to hand it back nearly as soon as you give it to her.




Then to this whole Easter egg hunt phenomenon.



Children fly around the yard in search of plastic eggs containing candy. They can run so fast and squeal so loudly and with such a high pitch you would think they were being chased by the wily Easter bunny himself. I present exhibits C, D and E.







I rest my case.

-dana

Craftin' down the bunny trail

(**Easter bunny hand puppets)



(**refrigerator magnets. What?? You don't make refrigerator magnets at Easter time? Well. Hmmm. What can I say? It was a craft frenzy. We couldn't help ourselves.)



(**Easter bunny bookmarks)


(**I tried to convince the girls that these beauties didn't need decorating. But they wouldn't hear of it.)



(So we dyed and decorated until every fingernail was pink, purple, blue, yellow, orange or green.)




(**And, today we are going to the local feed store to hold some baby chicks.)


(**Cause we're crazy like that.)

-dana

Back to adventure racing news

A few weeks ago Razor competed in the first adventure race of the year. It took those rascally race directors ages to get the final rankings figured out but in the end Razor is pleased with the results.

They placed 1st in the 3 person masters division. (Masters = add up all the ages of the 3 team members and it must total more than 120. Don't you dare call them old farts. I tried that once and it wasn't pretty. I still have a scar.)

Overall, they were 16th out of 74 teams.




I snapped this right after they crossed the finish line. Keep in mind that he hasn't slept in more than 28 hours. He's been biking, running, paddling, trekking, cursing, freezing, aching and starving for at least 24 of those 28 hours. Ain't he cute?



Yes, that is all their gear. You gotta love their support crew. They too have to stay up all that time and be sure to have all the right gear at each checkpoint. I mostly love the support crew because I'm not on it.



And really, doesn't this just sum it all up? Poor guy.

-dana

Oh the suspense! The winner is . . .

Whew! What a flurry of activity around here yesterday. Let's see, I got the kids around to school. I was a substitute teacher for a first grade class so I had to get out the door too. What a day. Man, first graders can be a . . . What?? ::blink:: ::blink:: You don't care about that garbage you say? Humpf. Fine. See if I care.

Ok. I understand.

You wanna know who won the quilt.

I already briefly explained that Razor devised a plan to assure that every entrant was assigned a number. And, extra numbers if they had earned them. That was the hard part. Luckily I had been keeping up with who had posted and sidebarred me so as to know how many extra entries each had earned. So, last night it was really just a matter of sorting through and assigning each entrant the appropriate number of numbers (I'm so technical in my descriptions. I bet NASA has gotten a hold of this and will be calling soon. Like totally!) and then adding up all those numbers so that I could put an ending integer into the random number generator thingy and pick the winnerS. That being said, at the closing time of the contest (7:00pm US EDT) there were 1142 comments. Add in 1990 extra earned entries from all you little lovelies and that makes a grand total of 3132 entries.

So without any further ado . . .



Number 89 was Kathy at Mommie Marzie. Congratulations girl! Email me at dana@oldredbarnco.com to claim your prize.

BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE!



There are two winners of the $35 gift certificate to my website Old Red Barn Co. and those go to:

#432 which is Amy of Vintage Fern. How cute is she? Gonna have to check out her Etsy shop soon.

#738 which is Elizabeth of Pigtails and Snails
Lovin' your header on your blog! Both please email me at dana@oldredbarnco.com to claim your prize.


BUT WAIT THERE IS EVEN MORE!!!

I understand the a "random number generator" is random. But, just something in my gut tells me that "random" cannot possibly include the first or last entry. I mean come on! No self respecting, good-for-anything random number generator thing is going to pick number one or, in this case, number 3132. So . . . . . drum roll please . . . . .

Number 1 (Karrin Hurd) and Number 3132 (Distressing Delilah)

You gals have $25 gift certificate from Old Red Barn Co. !!! Email me at dana@oldredbarnco.com to claim your prize.

Finally, I really and truly want to thank each of you who took the time to stop by and leave a comment. How humbling for me. How thoughtful of you all. I will keep this big stack of printed out comments and read them when I'm feeling blue. I think Sally Field said it best when she said, "They like me. They really like me." Isn't that what she said?

-dana

P.S. Wait there is even more. Look for more quilt give aways here soon. Well, maybe. No, okay. Seriously. I'm sewing one now.

Times up!

It is now 7:00 pm US EDT and the contest for the quilt is now over! I've printed out all 1,142 comments and am tallying all the extra entries you smarty pants people earned. Razor has devised a comprehensive, complete, utterly time consuming and absolutely worthless. . . opps . . . um . . . I mean brilliant method of assigning each entrant a number (or series of numbers if they have earned extra entries) so that we can then use a random number generator to pick the winners. Such mathematical feat should be done by morning. An image of Matt Damon in the movie Good Will Hunting just popped into my head with him saying, "How do you like dem apples?"

Check in first thing tomorrow to see if your the lucky winner.

-dana

Before you go

Never fear! If you are here to enter the contest for the quilt giveaway then you need to read through this post and then mosey on down to the next. The next one down gives you all the details on how to enter and when the contest ends.

BUT, before the contest ends and everyone packs their bags and hitches a ride on the next train out . . . er . . . uh . . .what I really mean is that while I have such a captive audience I want to share a blog that you should visit.



Tipper of Blind Pig & The Acorn
is a new friend of mine. New because I met her last summer. New because I learn something new about her every time we talk (or I read her blog). And, new because this is a friendship that I want to last for years and year and years.

Her blog is new. Check it out because if you're anything like me you'll devour it and then keep it up just to listen to the music.

-dana

P.S. Not blogging this past week has been killing me. I have so many things to share . . . not the least of which is the fact that Razor's team came in first place in the 3 person masters division of the race I was telling you about. And, I have been going berserkly crafty. And, it seems spring has decided to tease us a bit. And, I've made more butter. Oh. ::Blink:: Am I blubbering on and on? Sorry. Once this contest is over I shall return you to your normally scheduled programming. Amen sister. Even though I don't have a sister.

Giving away a quilt!

I feel like shouting it from the mountaintops . . . TODAY IS THE DAY PEOPLE OF THE UNIVERSE! YES, TODAY COULD BE YOUR LUCKY DAY!

Okay. So that is a bit overly dramatic. But, this quilt give away contest has been a long time in the making. And so many of you have graciously helped me promote it by posting about it on your own blogs and telling everyone you know about it. Including your Great Aunt Lucinda's first cousin Corletta. And your Orkin man. And your gynecologist. So without any further ado, let's get this party started, shall we?



As you know, I am going to give away this quilt.



And I'm also going to give away TWO $35 gift certificate to my natural body care product company Old Red Barn Co. So, go take a look around and see what you may want if you are one of the lucky winners.



This quilt is made entirely with fabric from the Katie Jump Rope line designed by Denyse Schmidt for FreeSpirit fabrics.





The pattern is from Kari Ramsey of Fresh Cut Quilts. It is called "Wild At Heart". If your interested in checking out this pattern or other great patterns from her line just click on the highlighted words above. They will take you to her blog and/or her email. I may have to try her "Shortnin' Bread" pattern next. Hmmmmmm. Can you hear the wheels turning?





100% cotton top, back and batting. Machine wash and dry. Use it or put it in your closet . . . just please don't give it to the dog.



Worth playing for? (I feel like Jeff Probst of Survivor telling the castaways about the reward challenge!)





All you have to do to enter is leave a comment to this post. You still are free to promote it on your own blog. You earn FIVE extra entries into the drawing if you post an entry about it in your blog. You earn and ADDITIONAL FIVE entries if you put the quilt give away graphic into your sidebar. If you don't have a blog just tell everyone you know to enter and to leave a comment. If anyone mentions that you sent them then you'll get an extra entry (but that is for the blogless of the world). Yep, even your gynecologist counts. International bidders are totally welcome.

The contest will end Wednesday, March 19th at 7:00pm EDT. Get your comments in before then. I'll announce the winner Thursday, March 20th sometime in the morning hours. The winner will be selected by random draw.

Good luck!

Edited to add: Wowzers! I am overwhelmed by the response. I make it a practice to respond to comments that are left on my blog and to visit your blogs. However, I still have laundry to do, bathrooms to clean, errands to run, noses to wipe, bruises to kiss, groceries to gather, emails to answer . . . I think you get the idea . . . so I may not be replying to every comment or visiting every blog. (Rest assured though, if you posted about it and/or put it in your sidebar of your blog I'm giving you your extra entries. What a pain in the batootie. But I'm doing it!) After the contest is over and the dust settles, however, I'm hoping some of you stick around. It is at that point that I'll reply, visit and breathe. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you everyone! (I must admit this all makes me feel a bit rock starish. Well, minus the spandex pants, big hair, tour bus and groupies. But you know what I mean.)

-dana

Better butter (Post #199)

Made the butter today. Thought I was slicker than snot and first put the aforementioned fresh cream in a large mason jar. Figured I could shake it until it became butter.



That lasted about 15 minutes. My arms began to ache.

I transferred it to the standing mixer. It mixed and mixed and mixed. And, then it mixed some more.





At this point I googled "how to make butter". Well, who knew that the cream needed to be at room temperature? Umph. I just let it mix and mix and mix and figured eventually it would do it's thing. About 40 minutes later this is what I got.




Now we're talking. Yellow butter. White buttermilk. Bingo!



Ain't it purty?




Tasty too.

-dana

P.S. Tomorrow is the big 200. Be there or be square.

Farm fresh (Post #198)

Just the other day I was lucky enough to find a source for local milk. Yep. Straight from the cow.

This is part of the farm.



And, this is the very barn where the lovely Guernsey is milked.



Razor and I were so excited we practically did the happy dance right there at the farm. And we sooo took a big swig on the short drive back home. Mmmmmm-mmmmm good! Like creamy delicious ice cream right in a glass. I poured the cream off the top (nearly 3 cups) and plan to make some butter with it today.

What a delicious life.

-Dana

P.S. The photo of the Guernsey cow is not my own. Rather an image that popped up on Google when I searched for how to spell Guernsey. Just keepin' it real. We didn't get to go to the barn and see the cows but we plan to soon. That is when you'll my see photos of the bovine beauties.

Twiddling thumbs (Post #197)

So, I was kinda waiting to report Razor's final standing in the Checkpoint Zero adventure race but the race directors haven't yet posted the final rankings. Sheesh. Don't they know that this blog has been at an absolute standstill waiting. Twiddling thumbs. Still waiting. Whistling softly. STILL waiting!

Not to mention that I'd like to hurry this along and get to post #200 so I can start the contest for the quilt give away.

Ok. Those rascally race directors don't seem terribly moved by my words urging them on so I guess I'll post three different versions of the same photo of Boo. Can't decide which I like better.





Sure do like her though.

-dana

Anxiously awaiting updates (Post #196)

These guys have been racing for over 24 hours in horrendous weather conditions. The Checkpoint Zero Race Central website
is slow to update so I'm sitting here anxiously awaiting news. I do see that last year's winning team dropped out . . . you know it really sucks if that team quits!!! (And I hope they had to withdraw for something like equipment failure and not because of injury.)

The waiting for news part is always the worst. I just kinda need to know that he is alright. He is doing something that he loves which makes me incredibly proud. I'm rambling.

I need to go plan a carbohydrate filled meal for when he walks in the door.

***UPDATE*** THEY FINISHED THE RACE AROUND NOON TODAY. WAITING ON OFFICIAL RESULTS TO SEE FINAL RANKINGS. HE IS NOW HOME. SORE. SLEEPING. AND, WARM.

-dana

Post #195 Adventure Racing Man

Razor is racing in his first adventure race of the year. 30 hours of hell . . . er . . .uh . . . I mean sheer adrenaline and fun. Just don't think about the freezing overnight temperatures. Snow. Sleet. Rain. Blisters? Pah-shaw. Muscle cramping. Oh please.

This is the stuff dreams are made of people.

But, please know that I will be planted safely in warm pajamas, slippers, hot coco and cuddly quilts tracking him here.

Full report come Sunday. Dude. That is a long time from now. Hope he remembered his long underwear.

-dana

Thank you toast

She was eating her toast this morning. Viola! That sucker finally came out.

-dana

P.S. I'm seeing some of you post about my quilt give away. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Number 200 should come sometime next week so the contest will begin then. Post number 200 will have all the nitty-gritty.

Nearing 200

Here soon I will reach my 200th post. Considering I didn't know a thing about blogging and wondered if I would even stick with it when I started it about a year ago, I'm pretty amazed that I'm nearing 200. No doubt my mother is astonished. When I originally told her I was going to start a blog she asked what exactly that meant. Then she did the trademark response of someone who thinks your an idiot and doesn't know what else to say . . . she said, "Well, that's interesting." Interesting in deed. She reads it daily thank you very much.

To celebrate I'm going to have a giveaway. To celebrate 200 posts. And, to celebrate spring. (Please don't let the mere mention of "S" word jinx it. I really, really, really need "S" to show up and stick around!)

Da-da-daaaaaah. Drum roll please.



I'm not ready to actually reveal the quilt, establish the entry guidelines, yada-yada-yada. But, I will tell you that if you help me promote the giveaway then you'll get your name entered into the drawing multiple times! If you post a blog entry with my quilt give-away graphic and link to me here, I'll enter your name five additional times into the drawing. If you post my linkable give-away graphic in your blog sidebar then I'll give you an additional five more entries. So, what if you don't have a blog? Send people my way and have them say that you sent them in their comment and I'll give you an extra entry for each person that visits and comments that you sent them. Make sense?

Why all the work to promote the prize?
Mostly because I love, love, love this quilt and want it to find a good home. A home that loves quilts as much as mine does. A home that will use it and cherish it and not put it out as an extra cushion on the dog's bed. But, really the main reason is because this sucker took me forever to make.


Oh, and there may be second and third place prizes as well.
















The contest won't begin until my actual 200th post.

Anyone gonna play?

-dana

Will she or won't she?

Will she or won't she pull that tooth?




She looks a bit like Nanny McPhee.

It has been hanging on for days on end.




Look at that face. She is not pulling it anytime soon.

-dana

Let there be (new) light

The next step in the multi-step, multi-tiered, multi-intricate, multi-planned, multi-generational, multi-stressing-me-out process of remodeling the kitchen occurred this past weekend.

Old light over the kitchen sink.



New light over the kitchen sink.



Old light over the kitchen table. Again, I apologize for my severely lacking memory. I totally forgot to take a "true" before picture here. I only snapped this photo after the fan blades had already been removed. Sheesh.



New light over the kitchen table.



In the course of putting these new lights up Razor had to call on his good buddy (whom you may remember from his roofing adventure last summer) whom we will continue to call Blade. I only change his name here to protect his innocence. He is a handy guy and if his name were made public knowledge he would never be available to help us . . . er . . . uh . . . I mean to get anything done around his own house. Razor desperately needed Blade's help because most all of the wiring crumbled to bits as soon as they were touched. ::Deep cleansing breath:: Plus, I thought it was painfully obvious that since Razor (my everlasting one true love) was doing some electrical maneuvering that it only made sense for him to put some new lights up in the hallway and living room while he was at it. Thank goodness Blade read a book once about electricity stuff.

Anyhow, we now have the new lights up in the kitchen. If that dark circle of light bulb burned wood around where the new fixture over the sink attaches to the ceiling worries you, don't bother! It will soon be painted a lovely shade of red.

-dana