Party on little cowpoke

Birthday parties are fun. Especially when the little colt has it at his horse barn.










Party on little cowpokes.

-dana

Would you believe?

What would you say if I told you that these little angelic beauties like to play in the dirt?






Well they do. Like, for real. Totally.






Each spring a farmer friend brings his tractor down and tills our garden area. And, each spring the girls fly out the door to see who can get their feet in the dirt first.




Licious won this year.



And it seems Jezebel doesn't like dirt between her toes nearly as much as the girls. At least she gave it a try.




-dana

Beloved blueberries

Wouldn't it be funny if every word in every post title began with the letter B. NO?? ::Blink:: ::Blink:: Clearly, you don't get me.



These blueberry bushes have been a real labor of love. They have been dug up from my parents' house, transported here, potted up and painstakingly tended to for a year, then transplanted outside. Last year was their first year in the ground and wouldn't you know that a mid-April freeze destroyed all hopes of fruit.




There was a freeze last week but we had each bush covered and carefully protected. Our peach trees weathered the freeze fine too. I can almost taste the blueberry pies right now. Peach pies. Blueberry ice cream. Oh, I could go on and on. And maybe I will. . . blueberry jam . . . blueberry pancakes . . . peach jam . . . blueberry muffins . . ..

-dana

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