Home Sweet Home

With the move nearly complete, I'm thinking where furniture will go, how many boxes their are to unpack, what quick fixes we can do, etc. I'm also thinking "How the heck am I going to blog?". Which leads me to tell you that this is my 99th post. So, in keeping with blogging tradition, I'd like to have a 100th post giveaway. I've decided that once the move is complete and the computer is back online I'll have my 100th post, giveaway and all. Here is a picture of the house. She's a little sad looking, with lots of weeds in the yard and really lacking in TLC on the inside. I'm hoping we can revive her. She is 117 years old, after all, and starting to show her age. See you at my 100th post!

The Beat Goes On....

Platycodon (Balloon Flower)

Amongst all of the mayhem that is moving.......Boxing, wrapping, sorting, stacking, lifting.

All of the fatigue, emotional ups and downs, decision making.......

Lysmachia (Gooseneck Loosestrife)

Life goes on in the garden.......

I'm in a BLUT (blogging rut)

Have you ever heard of being in a "blut"? I just made that up, but I think it will catch on. Before you know it my new word will be in the dictionary. Right along side "bling". I'm in a serious blut here lately. I can't think of anything to tell you that would be of any significance. Do you want to hear about how I'm living underneath stacks of boxes and piles of dirty dishes since we're moving and I feel like I'm meeting myself coming and going? Or how two nights ago, while hosing off the muddy slip-n-slide, I turned my ankle on the garden hose and wound up laying completely flat on the ground with a torn up knee and a very sore hand? Not to mention the knee shaped ruts in the yard the girls left while using the slip-n-slide. You don't want to hear things like that. What about how it's been 100 degrees here, literally, for 4 days straight? That's not interesting. I'm trying to forge through this blut. So, this is me attempting to entertain and inspire.


I took place in Silkie Sue's Freestyle swap in May. Actually it was supposed to be May, however, I sent mine out the beginning of June. Here is a little sampling of the things I sent off to my swap partner. A little bird since I'm a complete bird nut, as you know. I just used inexpensive craft felt and drew my own bird template.

A little flower brooch that pins on. Super easy and quick.

1. 2" x 14" scrap of fabric folded in half and ironed.

2. Use a running stitch along the raw edge and gather into a flower shape.

3. Stitch the flower shape in place in a circular fashion, careful not to go through the front of the flower. Don't cut thread until you're done with step 4.

4. Sew on the pin.

5. Cut out and glue on a little felt circle with fabric glue and place it over the pin to hide it.

6. Let dry and you're done.

I also sent along some knitted dishcloths, chocolate covered sunflower seeds (Kansas is the Sunflower State), and a Wizard of Oz magnet. I wish I had more time to do more of these types of swaps. I didn't get anything from my swap partner yet, but maybe she's just a procrastinator like ME!!!

Pictures coming soon of the new old house.

Movie Night

My husband and I signed up for Netflix about 2 months ago. We have the $4.99 plan. We like to watch movies but are not "movie buffs". Rarely does a movie evoke emotion in me like the movie we watched last night. The movie is "Marley & Me", based on this book:

Marley and me is rated PG, however, there is quite a lot of cussing and married bedroom talk, so I couldn't recommend this for small children. It would good for older ones to see how love can endure, however. This movie was fair throughout the first half. A few chuckles from the couch, but nothing hilarious, in my opinion. What got me about this movie was the last 30 minutes.

If you've not seen it and plan to, I give the ending away in the next paragraph. It's nothing that's not predictable in a dog movie, but nonetheless, I felt you need a warning before reading on.

I had lots of different dogs growing up. My parents raised dogs and we had lots of breeds, big and small, and lots of dogs had to be put to sleep for various health reasons. It happens. I think every dog I'd ever lost came to mind at the end of this movie. I could feel their fur again in my mind. Each one had a different texture and softness to it. I cried like a baby at the end of this movie. Greta, Josie, Dusty...names of favorite dogs from my childhood. If you've EVER loved a dog EVER you must see this movie. Really makes me want my own "clearance puppy".

Hi All

Thank you all for your lovely birthday wishes on my last post. Here are a couple of my birthday goodies. The left one is from my hubby and daughters and the right one is from my mom and dad. Does any one know what kind of chicken the white one with black spots is? I've looked inside the book and cannot find it.





Here is a taste of "The Field Guide to Chickens".




Anybody ever seen these??!!! WEIRD.




I've had a lot on mind lately, hence the sporadic, lackluster blogging. A couple of things of note going on in my little world that I thought may help to explain this unpredictability:

1. We are moving. To the country. Not just on a paved road on the edge of town kind of country. The home town of 1500 then nine miles on gravel out to the middle of nowhere kind of country. The move will take place over the course of the next month or so.

2. We are down to one employee at our little flower shop and we've been working 6 days a week for 5 1/2 years. We've been interviewing and collecting applications for about a month and think we've finally found someone that knows what they are doing and can help facilitate some much needed time off. She starts on Wednesday. I hope. I hope she doesn't change her mind. Or find a better job. I really want this to work out. We really NEED this to work out.


It's an old stone house that has been in my husband's family from the get-go. His Great, Great Grandparents built the house on the ranch in 1892. Lots of changes need to be made to make it more up-to-date. Gold shag carpet upstairs, 60's lighting and panelling throughout. It's going to be a lot of work. Every house we've owned has been a lot of work. This will hopefully be the last. It is exciting and terribly scary all at the same time. I've wanted to write about it for a long time, but have just recently felt confident in the definitiveness of our decision. It's a big step. It has a screened in porch and lots of room for gardening of all kinds. I hope to get pictures soon.

Stay tuned...

Happy Birthday to Me! ~ and Dad

Dad and me on our birthday, June 5, 1976.

Do Not Worry

Matthew 6:25-30

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?

Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.

Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.

Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?"