So Sorry

Hey everyone!!! I know I promised you guys recipes and some new crochet patterns this month, and I truly have a stack of recipes, and patterns I've written, and I swear I'm not coming up excuses for reasons why I didn't get them posted.  Both Frank and I spent most of this month sick. We got whatever that nasty gunk is that's been going around. I had it twice as long as Frank did unfortunately. My congestion was so bad, that when I would lay down because I was feeling so bad I had to lay down before I fell down, everything would drain to one side of my body, and then when I sat up, I had to stay in the upright sitting position for a good 5 minutes before I could stand up. I still have a little bit of congestion that gets me at the end of the day, and my nose holes are sore still from all the nose blowing I had been doing.

In other news, I had to break down and buy a new sewing machine a couple of weeks ago, thank goodness for an Amazon Prime membership. I would have to say it's the best investment we have ever made. It's already paid for itself, between the movies, the free shipping and the discount prices. I was working on quilting a scrap quilt that I made to get to know my new sewing machine, and for the first time in my sewing career, I actually ran my finger under the sewing machine needle!!! It went all the way through, the tip of the needle came out a good 1/4 inch of the other side of my finger. I don't know how I didn't panic, and how I kept calm enough to raise the needle out of my finger. Frank grounded me from my sewing room for a few days, and I haven't been up to finish my quilt. (Although I've decided that my finger doesn't hurt much anymore, and I can type with it with no problem, so that means I'm healed up.)

Our Neon is almost over the repair hump according to Frank. It's in the shop right now, there is another sensor that is being replaced, and the final engine mount is being repaired, and whatever is wrong with the break line is being fixed. (All I can say about the break issue is, thank goodness that it went while I was sitting in the driveway, and not when I was halfway to the grocery store, or while Frank was on his way to work) After about 3 months of research and saving for a down payment, we got a new car. I think I know more about vehicles than I ever wanted to know. We knew we were going to want something with all wheel drive, but something that got good gas mileage. I was comparing cars against each other, and reading reviews, and stats, and learning about problems, and longevity, and the list goes on. My list started out with 56 different vehicles. Who knew that I would have that much of a choice, it ticked off so slowly, and it came down to 2 different vehicles of the same make. It came down between the Outback Subaru, and the Subaru Forester. The winning car was (Insert drumroll here) The 2017 Outback Subaru. We got it this past Thursday, and I'm not going to lie, I absolutely love it!!!! Considering children are not off the table for us, no matter how we become parents weather it's natural, scientific, or adoption, we still want to be parents, and I like knowing that I have a vehicle that will be a great family vehicle, with safety ratings that are completely awesome.
   
So!!! Now you have been caught up, and I promise you guys, I do have recipe's and patterns coming your way. Once I figure out my electric quilt program, for quilt designing, I'm hoping to have some quilt patterns to share with you all as well!!! So then, this little farm blog will have a little bit more of everything!!!!

Happy New Year

Greetings my fellow readers!!!! I'm so happy that the new year is here, and that we can get a fresh start on things. Nobody can deny that 2016 was a rough year, it wasn't all bad, but it was indeed rough. It seemed like everything kept breaking, and going wrong. However, some of the breaks were for the better it would seem. Having to replace our Washer and Dryer, we got an HE, and monitoring my electric bill, it's actually using about $40 less worth of electricity a month.  So, even though it seemed tragic at the time, it was kind of a blessing in disguise. (I will admit though, it was really kind of sad, because Frank's parents bought us that set when we bought this house many moons ago)
We've managed to keep the Neon going, and are probably going to be putting it in the shop again here soon, and getting something else fixed. We're going to try and limp it along for as long as we can. Our plan is to get something with 4 wheel drive, that sits up higher than a car, but isn't huge. We've been looking at the crossovers. The plan is to have as big of a down payment as we possibly can, so that we can pay it off as fast as we can. We actually managed to pay off a bunch of stuff last year, and I really love not having a lot of payments.

I have been writing new patterns to share with you all, and I have them in many different drafts right now. I think you all will enjoy them. They are fun, and fast. I'm going to attempt to post a pattern a month for you all. The first one won't be posted this week, mostly because I have a bunch of stuff going on this week, but I will have it up before the month is out!!! I've also been trying new recipes, and I have a huge stack of them to share with you guys, and I'm going to try to share at least one a month with you guys as well. I know that last year my posting got rather minimal, but this year, I'm going to try to do better. This blog is a fun hobby for me. I love writing, and sharing, and I truly hope you all enjoy my rambles.

Well, that's it for today, Until my next post! Have a great week, and a Happy New Year!!!!

cleaning up

Well hello again!!!! I've had to do a major clean up of my sewing/craft room. It was so out of hand that when I went in there to get some yarn to work on a pattern I'd been writing to share with you guys, not only could I not find what I was after, but I realized when things came tumbling down that it was time to gut that room!!! Once I got started, I ended up throwing out 5 bags of stuff, and filling many bags and boxes of stuff to donate to the thrift store. I'm very close to being finished in there, and will be in there working on many things this weekend!!!! I have several sewing projects that need to be finished, and several more that need to be started. 

At this point, the way our year has gone, I'm thinking that I'm not going to be making any promises to have any new patterns, or recipes to share with you all before the year is out. I honestly wanted to have so many things for you all, but life just kept getting in the way!!! However!!! Once my workspace is clean, and workable, I am positive that I will hopefully have so very many things to share with you all!!!!

So, if I don't check in with you all before the end of the year, I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas, and a very Happy New Year!!! I hope 2017 is much better!!!!

What a year its been so far

I don't know about you all, but 2016 has been a rough year. Not like horribly the world is ending, we're losing the farm, the dog died kind of year, but a year where stuff just keeps happening. My poor Farm husband has had to have multiple gum surgeries, and it looks like he has one more in his future, and hopefully it will be the last one, and then he can be done with that.
My mother in law had gotten a bit of an infection and had to be on IV antibiotics, and we are almost done!!! We're so very close to being done!!!! But we are really far behind on the buildings and the farm stuff. So, we will be bringing in a little bit of help here in the next couple of weeks as soon as we get ourselves turned around and reorganized.
If our help is good, and we can get caught back up quickly, we will be able to finish butchering, and then get our replacement birds so that we can get things up and moving the way we want.

Anyways, I saw in the news this morning that Florence Henderson passed away!!!! That was rather sad...we have lost a lot of big named stars this year that were well known for their roles. I was really sad about David Bowie, and Alan Rickman. I'm hoping that we don't lose anyone else this year.

Well, I'd better pop off of here for now. I didn't mean to ramble, and honestly, I wasn't quite sure what exactly I had wanted to say, I guess I just wanted to pop in and say a little something so that you all knew I wasn't ignoring you all.

Time to go feed and water the critters before the sun goes down on me! Hope you all are well!!!!

Crochet Dishcloth

Hey there!!!! The day's not over yet!!! So if you have been waiting for that new pattern I promised, here it is at last!!!! This is actually part of a 3 piece set that I've written. I thought that I would start with the dishcloths, because they work up just so quick and easy!!! I loved making these once I got going with it. I'm probably going to have lots of these in my kitchen in the near future. Each one of these uses just over half a ball of cotton yarn. and an H hook.

Directions:

1. Chain 30, sc in second ch from hook. *dc in next st, sc in next* repeat across

2. Ch 2, dc in first sc *sc in next dc, dc in next sc* repeat across

Rows 4-25 Repeat rows 1 and 2 alternatively, finish off at end of row 25

Yes! It's just that simple. Sometimes, the simplest things turn out to be the prettiest. These truly are pretty in person!!!   Here in a few days, I'll have the next part of this set double tested, photographed and shared!!!!

Enjoy!!!! And I hope you and your families all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!!

Monday

I had planned on having a pattern up before the weekend was over, however the testing took a little longer. I need to wait for daylight to get some photographs taken. It will be up tomorrow however!!!!
For now though, I'm having hot tea and am snuggled up with the sibes!!!

Coming soon

Hey my followers!!!! We really have had a lot going on here in our personal lives, that has kept me a lot busier than I'm used to. My mother in law has required some antibiotics by IV, but thankfully there is only 2 weeks left of that. She's doing fantastic, and I will spare you all the details. But the whole family has pulled together to help her in her recovery,

So, I've been working on a crochet pattern to share with you guys. Right now, I'm double checking that pattern, and will hopefully have it up for you all by the Sunday night!!! It's nothing overly exciting. I wish I could design as fast, and big and beautifully as Sara Zimmerman over at Repeat Crafter Me, that woman is a serious inspiration to me.  She just leaves me completely awe inspired with her use of colors, yarns and textures!!!!

Anyways, I'm taking Sam to the groomer this morning to get him straightened around. His fur grows so long and fast on the backs of his legs, and his belly, that if I don't keep up with the grooming he ends up rather matted, and I can't get it to brush out. Unfortunately he has a couple of spots like that now, and I need to get it taken care of before it gets any worse. Luckily he loves going to the groomer. Although, we are using a different groomer today. The lady that I had been taking him to had to retire due to health problems, and she really did a fantastic job with him. But I completely understand why she had to retire. Today we are going to the groomer at the Vets office. This guy is really good as well. He's who we took Nikki to during the last couple of years of her life. She hadn't needed a groomer before, but as she got older, her grooming needs changed significantly due to her joint problems, and other things. She loved it there so much, that when we would go to the vets office for her regular visits, or shots, or general stuff, that she would try to go back to the grooming area. I really think she liked the heated bed pad they would put her on. I'm positive it felt great on her joints.

My diet is going quite well by the way! That's still going. I joined a gym in town, and I'm loving it. It's really quite the sweaty workout in there. I'm not sure if it's the heat, or if it's the fact that I'm working out in a way that I don't get to work out  here at home, but whew. I go 2-3 days a week.

I can't remember if I told you all or not, but we did get our second house for the chickens. We seriously need to get it set up before too much longer. Once we get it up, the plan is to run all of the birds down to the new house, and let them in there over the winter. Then, we are going to do a super cleaning of the one we have now. We will take everything out of there, and scrub the ceiling, and walls (it's dirt floor, so you can't actually wash that, just dig it out pretty good). Once we get that done, the plan is to sand the rest parts, and then are going to give the inside a paint job with some paint that will prevent rust. I'd like to paint the outside to look like a barn...but I don't think Frank is as keep on that idea as I am, so maybe just spray it off really well, and paint it the same colors it is now...brown and tan if it needs it.

Well, that's about everything that could be exciting on this end of things. I have a pile of recipe's to share with you guys, and as I said, I do have a crochet pattern to share with you guys that I've been working on, and I WILL have it up this weekend!!!!!

So, that's it better jump off of this computer, and get my rear in gear!!!!