This is REALLY scary!

About 6 months ago, I radically cut my paid work hours to be available to help my husband with his new business. Since then, I've been trying to find ways to earn money, while still being flexible in my hours -- not an easy task in this economy!

I've done lots of thrifting and estate-sale-shopping with my friend, Bargain Hunter. I've bought and sold on Ebay for years (okay, so I've bought more than I've sold -- who's counting?) but started selling on Etsy in October. I'm having so much fun! I find that I enjoy doing this more than just about anything else.

But, here's the scary part... My friend Bargain Hunter and I were talking about our dream to have a booth in an antique mall. She found out that our favorite local mall, Livingston Antique Outlet, has a few coming available in February and March. BH wants to get one of them and share it. We figured out that we'd have to sell just 13 items each to make the monthly rent. And LAO gets great shopper traffic -- you can hardly find a parking place there on the weekends and there are always lots of shoppers at other times of the week, too. The idea of doing that, though, is REALLY scary to me -- but exciting, too!

What's funny is that, in her last post, BH blogged about how scared she is to sell on Ebay and Etsy -- that's a piece of cake! I'm totally freaked out by the idea of selling in a mall! How can two friends who have so much in common have such different points of view?

So what do you think, dear readers? Should we give it a try for 6 months or so and see what we can do with it? Is it too late to begin doing something you've wished you could do for 20 years or more?

Pretty scary stuff!

24 Days of Advent - Day 21 - Christmas in the Kitchen

We have lots of Christmas in our kitchen -- probably because, like most people, we spend a lot fo time there! Here are some pictures of our kitchen Christmas

A large bottle brush wreath
A shelf with old gift boxes and various Christmas kitsch
The shelf over the stove -- more kitsch
(I wonder how many tinsel trees I have?)
Handmade Christmas tea towels - not easy to find

The top of the hoosier cabinet -- more kitsch
(do you sense a theme here?)

A little pennant from Christmas, Michigan
Lots of angels -- mostly Gurley candles

24 Days of Advent - Day 20 - Too Much to Do!

Yes, dear readers, I've missed another day of my advent blogs. Which brings me to another time-tested Christmas tradition -- having just too much to do! How does this happen? Christmas falls on the same date every year and I know exactly what needs to be done to get ready, so how do I end up so overwhelmed at the end?

There are just a few things left to do . . . baking, icing 3 batches of cutout cookies, wrapping gifts, cleaning, doing laundry and running errands (while still keeping up with work and scheduled meetings). And, oh yes, leaving time to stop and live in the present (NOT two or three days ahead) and think about what we're doing this for. As a special friend said in his Christmas letter, we celebrate "a humble Birth that blesses us all". That's a good reminder to me (and all of us) to keep our celebration humble, as well.

24 Days of Advent - Day 18 - A Christmas Baking Miracle

A few years ago, we redid the kitchen and put into motion a Christmas baking miracle. I have just 4 words to describe it:

KitchenAid mixer & convection oven!

24 Days of Advent - Day 16 - Christmas Lights

Remember when you were a kid and your parents would bundle everyone into the car and you'd all ride around and look at Christmas lights? (Think choruses of Oooooohhh and Aaaaaahhhhh)! We all loved the gaudiest, brightest and most tacky displays -- there just couldn't be too many reindeer, elves or snowmen!

That was always one of my favorite Christmas activities (and, truth be told, still is). Our own display is modest by comparison to lots that we see, but that's okay.

The wreath on the front of the house was made by my dad about 30 years ago.
The candles by the front door are from the 1960s -- I have 2 sets, but only use one. It's too bad I can't figure out a place for the second set!

The lights on the gate (affectionately called the Divorce-Gate around here because my dragging it home almost led to our divorce!) look great, but aren't very bright because we're good green citizens and they're LEDs.
I made the star out of bamboo sticks, zip ties and lights from directions on Martha Stewart's website. Of course, like everything else here, Santa and the Snowman are old -- both thrift finds that turned out well.

The trees ( to the left) were made by my dear friend Kally out of tomato cages, lights & grapevines (many *thankfully* cut from my yard) and given to me when she moved.

And there is the unwritten (but still mandatory) rule that the Christmas tree MUST be visible through the front window! Okay, so it's over to the side, but you can still see it . . .

24 Days of Advent - Day 15 - Baking

Every December, the Kitchenaid comes out to stay on the counter and the baking begins. I love to bake, but we live in a 'heart-healthy' household, so the good stuff is made only once a year. My sons say I'm 'in the zone', because baking becomes an almost daily activity.

This year we won't be seeing the big family groups that we usually do, so I'm really cutting back:
a triple batch of cutout cookies, chocolate covered pretzels, a double batch of Mexican Wedding Cakes, Spritz cookies, Hermits and some kind of chocolate cookie to be named later.

My grandmother's Hermit recipe -- still great!

A few cut-out cookies, waiting to be iced!

24 Days of Advent - Day 3

Today's picture is an Econolite Christmas tree -- one of my favorite things! Heat from the light underneath warms the tree and makes it turn. It's simple and nowhere near mint, but lovely (and hard to find).

24 Days of Advent - Day 2

This is the second day focusing on Christmas at our house! I've always loved reading and books in general and began collecting antiquarian books when I was in high school. So it's no surprise that I'd like to collect Christmas books, as well. These are just a few of them -- we put them on the music stand of the piano (out of reach of the dog's mouth)!

The one on the left is a small book from 1913 with beautiful illustrations of the verses of Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, published as a gift edition.

The 1912 book on the right is Let Us Go to Bethlehem, a book of essays about the Biblical chapters dealing with Jesus' birth. It's a gift edition, too, but it would be pretty heavy reading!

The blue Christmas Carols book is from the 1952 and each carol page has a great illustration to go with it.

My favorite one, though, is The Golden Christmas Book! If you've never seen it, try to find a copy and check it out. It's full of stories, puzzles, carols, coloring pages & games, as well as the story of Jesus' birth. We had this when I was little and my sister and I worked through every page and activity. I still have my original one, but it's pretty well 'loved'.
My favorite part of this favorite book is right inside the front cover: a tissue paper Christmas tree! Okay, so it doesn't look like much to our tech-savvy eyes. It was pretty exciting when you're just a preschooler, though!

24 Days of Christmas - Day 1 - Nativity

I'm shamelessly copying another blogger by doing this but, hopefully, she won't mind -- imitation is supposed to be the highest compliment! I'll have a Christmas post each day with pictures from my home or items I'm making for Christmas (if I ever have time!)

Because Christmas is all about the birth of Jesus Christ, my first pictures will be of our nativity set. This was a gift to us from my in-laws for our first Christmas -- it's something they did for each of their 5 children. Just as Christ was the cornerstone in their lives, they wanted Him to be the cornerstone in ours.
I've added lots of characters to the set -- one a year for many years. Especially dear are the chicken & other fowl and the dog who follows the shepherd.

The gold glittered pine cone in the stable's loft was a 'gift' for baby Jesus from my oldest son at age 3. The ivory soap, painted cone & pine cone trees around the stable were all made by one of my guys in preschool. As the ivory soap 'greens' and glued on stars have fallen off over the years, each tree has become more precious because of the little hands that made it.
If you look back at the first picture, you'll see that baby Jesus isn't in the manger. It looks a little odd for the whole month of December, but it's our family tradition to put him away and then get him out on Christmas morning and say a prayer of thanksgiving for Him before we do anything else. As a matter of fact, that's not a bad thing to do every day!

Eggs!

Here are today's eggs -- what a variety of shapes, colors & sizes they are!

The tiny white one is the first egg laid by PeeWee. You can see her in the picture of all 13 girls below -- she's the little meanie marked with the red arrow.

The olive colored egg at the top is from the Aracauna marked with the green arrow. I've named Olive (short for Olive Oyl) because of the color eggs she lays.

I have no idea which of the old girls is laying the GIANT eggs (the one at about 3:oo in the bowl, but they all have double yolks.

The robin's egg blue Araucana eggs are almost round.

I just included this picture because I think the look on her face is funny -- her name's Marie (after Marie Antoinette). She's very friendly, likes to be held, is really curious & thinks she's the queen of the world.

A Nighttime Visitor

For the past 3 nights, this little green tree frog has been on our front door. He's just a little guy -- 1" long -- and he's so cute! The first night he visited, I tried to pick him up (if you know me well, you know I can't resist holding frogs and toads) but he hopped away -- about a foot per hop -- pretty good for a little guy! Now when he comes to visit, I just look at him and leave him alone.

The little frog from inside the house

Not the best picture -- the chair is a reflection; he's not King Kong!

Boo Hoo!

I'm not a 'lucky' person. . . I never win anything and seldom find bargains. When I was up north, though, I found the most lovely off-white Franciscan Coronado salad bowl (the big serving bowl, not an individual one) for $8! It sells in most places for $45+. I was so excited and snapped it up! We've been using it as a fruit bowl on the kitchen table . . .

. . .until Sunday afternoon. I picked something up off the table, it got caught in the tablecloth and the cloth and the Franciscan bowl ended up on the floor.

Here's a stock photo of what it used to look like (only in matte off-white):
Here's what it looks like now:By the way, the table in this picture is the old kitchen table from my growing-up house (my parents replaced it when I was little with a MODERN fake wood formica table and black upholstered bus-drivers' chairs). I mostly remember it being in the basement and my grandmother and parents using it as a work table. I found it in my aunt's basement last year & grabbed it (though my family all thought I was nuts). I so love it (complete with one of the old red plastic upholstered kitchen chairs) -- it makes me happy every time I see it!

Anyway, back to the point. I'm gluing the bowl back together one piece per section per day (so the glue can set). I've already joined 7 or 8 pieces, but it's a painstaking process -- it's a good thing that I have lots of patience and enjoy a good puzzle! I'll post a picture when it's all finished. In the meantime -- BOO HOO!

I like cicadas

I know that lots of people are creeped out by cicadas (17 year locusts) -- both the way their shells look and the way they sound. I like them though!

I'll never forget climbing in my favorite tree in the front yard when I was bout 8 or 9 and putting my hand on a cicada shell. I was so freaked out that I almost fell out of the tree! Ever since then I've been fascinated with them and the sound of their droning takes me right back to my childhood.
Every year, a few of them emerge at the base of the pine tree right next to our house. We hear them for a few days and sometimes see the shells. Two days ago, I got to see an adult right after it had emerged! It was so cool that I had to take pictures and share it.

The just-emerged adult

The shell, left on a leaf

I don't know why I do it, but I always save the shells that I find. I think it's a little sad that a creature lies dormant for 17 years, only to emerge and live for 6 weeks. Maybe it's a throwback to the shell that almost drove me out of a maple tree all those years ago.

One woman's trash...

Last weekend Jim and I made a fast trip to a sale at a home I'd been to before, where the lady had lots of vintage items, priced well. It turns out that her husband passed away earlier in the year and she's getting rid of lots of stuff, on the way to selling her house & property.

I got a great little toy sewing machine that will go to Crit (and, hopefully, little Lil will learn the joys of sewing on it).
I also got an old (1960s) quilted plastic sweater box for $1, that I really like.
Jim got a director's chair with Pioneer (like the sound people) on it that the lady said was only given to the roadies and performers of rock bands like the Who. When I asked her how she got it, she smiled (quite coquettishely) and said "that's a another story".

The greatest treasures of all, though, were absolutely free! I saw some swan planters outside of her barn and asked if she'd sell those. She said, "Oh, honey, you can have those! There area 5 of them and they're all cracked because I keep hitting them with the lawn tractor. . . I'm not very good at that. . ."
So I took them! There was a male swan, 2 females and 2 babies. I used the male and one of the females in my flower beds. You can't tell they're plastic (and not cement) until you get close to them and you can't see the cracks at all. Here's the way they looked before and after:

Before

AfterThis is the ultimate in GREEN (reuse, repurpose, recycle)! What have you rescued or repurposed lately to use at your house?

Nobody here but us girls!

There's peace in the hen house again! My roosters (2 Araucanas and 1 Red Star) were lovely to look at, but getting to be too much for my girls. On Wednesday I took all 3 roosters to a lady in met at the feed store who finds home with 4H kids for unwanted fowl. She assured me that the kids would continue to raise them until next year's fair, where they'll show them as 1-year-olds.

One of the Araucanas -- the baddest man in the coop!

I won't miss the Araucanas at all -- they were both already mean, aggressive and loud and making everyone's lives miserable. The Red Star, though, was a real sweetie and I was very sad to give him up. He was so gentle -- when I went out and sat by the chickens he jumped right up into my lap! I know, though, that sooner or later his rooster nature will come through, so keeping him would just be putting off the inevitable. What's disappointing, though is that Red Stars are 'sex-linked', which means that the male chicks are a different color than the female chicks -- there shouldn't have been a mistake made at the feed store! I'll just be more careful double checking that the lady there picks the right chicks next time.

Mr. Nice Guy and his girls

Now it's time to wait for the eggs to come & the girls to earn their feed -- maybe in September!

Movin' On Up...

Cue The Jeffersons' theme song, 'Movin' On Up'. . .

Today the babies moved in with the old girls, and it was an exciting day, indeed!

I haven't updated about them in a long time so here's a quick catch-up:

Remember these little cuties
and their two-level chick-o-miniums?

Well, they quickly outgrew their brooder bins and
we put the Aracaunas in a cardboard box home
(Turner found this FASCINATING).
Then they outgrew that and we put them in a chicken wire circle in the barn.
When they started having nightly (and then daily) jailbreaks,
we decided that it was time to move in with the big girls.

Today, we created an open chicken wire playground beyond the chicken run so that they could all meet on turf that was no one's territory. Then we allowed the babies access to the door of the chicken coop. You can see how that went!

Belle was very interested in them, but they were afraid to leave familiar territory.

Finally Jim got into the circle and chased them all into the chicken coop. When they finally went outside, I'd expected the big girls (especially LaVerne, the Black Australorp) to pick on them, but there was no bloodshed or fighting (at least not yet -- they haven't all had to find perch space yet!

As you can see below, they keep themselves in 3 flocks!
The big girls are in the foreground,
the Araucanas are in the middle
and the Red Stars (and PeeWee) stayed in the run.
They've stayed almost exclusively in their flocks all day.
In the end,
after an afternoon of sweeping and scraping chicken poo off of lots of surfaces,
we got our barn back!
Now the next step is to find a home for the 2 Aracauna roosters
*****
Anybody interested?

What's Blooming?

Spring has finally sprung (though it's still too early to put out the tender plants). Here's what's blooming in the garden -- though a few of these actually bloomed in the past couple of weeks.

The forsythia I got for Mother's Day 2 years ago
bloomed for the first time this year!

The cherry tree (not that we'll get any of the cherries)

Apple Trees (I love standing under them & listening to the hum of the bees)

Lilacs

Ferns

Bleeding Heart (both pink & white & fringed, as well)

Creeping Phlox

Bluebells

Flowering Almond

Brunnera "Jack Frost" (one of my favorite)
guarded by Artie Mosquito, a Tom Coates creation

Dead Nettle

Trillium

The first Irises

Weeds, weeds & more weeds...

Thanks for going on my garden tour!