Back to School, A New Friend, and a Giveway

What a summer!!  We finally got the outside of the house done!!

Celebrate!!

 

 

The kid's rooms are repaired after the window installation!

Celebrate!!

Now need the deep clean.

We (husband) are now painting the front room. 

Kind of miss my rustic red wall but I think the new colors my husband picked will be good and a nice change. 

Kids went back to school!!

 I am trying not to be too excited but some peace and quite will be nice.

I will try to catch up with everyone over the next few weeks! 

Celebrate!!

The kids left me a little note, bon-bons and a six pack of Diet Pepsi to Celebrate their first day back to school.  They even thanked me for a great summer!  Poor things...they really worked hard this year. 

This cutie was painted by my new Etsy friend Amie of Willow Tree Designz. 

She bought a couple of patterns from me not to long ago and was quick to paint this up.  I love to see how others take a pattern and make it there own.  She has a cute shop that you will want to check out.

Thanks Amie for sending me this photo and for allowing me to share it. 

Well what better way to Celebrate then to have a quickie giveaway!!

Click on him to read his description. 

Just leave a comment on this post and I will draw a name on Saturday.

I need the rest of the week to play!

Enjoy your day,

Barb

A Week in Review....

What a week...started off good!  We went 4-wheeling with my sister and her family up in the mountains by Park City.  But the smoke from all the fires in Nevada and California have blown our direction and it is a hazy mess.  So the view from the mountain tops was not as clear as we had hoped.  All in all a great time!

The Old Farmhouse Gathering is having a Fall into Thanksgiving Celebration.  This is always a great way for me to go shopping by participating in the celebrations and making treasuries!

Got my new lap top computer on Tuesday and this is were my week kind of went down hill...not being the smartest about computers (or really anything for that matter) my poor brother was the victim of my computer issues.

So for then next 7 hours we tried to get this laptop to connect to the Internet by wireless.  It worked great with the Ethernet cable (new vocabulary word for me) but we could not get it to work without.

Now my brother is pretty smart when it comes to things like this but he is also very analytical.  So him trying to tell me what to do with the computer was like talking to a rabbit!  Thus taking so much time on the phone.

Wednesday we are at it again...mind you he lives in Seattle and I am here in Utah.  So we up link with Skype and I am holding the camera every which angle for him to see my computer.

After many a phone calls to the laptop company and a very unhappy "customer service" representative that yelled at us and then hung up, I was a bit up set. 

Ready to live among the dinosaurs again.

We finally figure out something is wrong with the wireless router.  Off to the store to get a new one.

All this time either my brother has interruptions from his work or the kids and I have appointments, school shopping, and end of summer things that have to get done.

Thursday I get up with a huge headache and ready to call it a day at 5am.  Did not even make it to Jazzersize--well I unlocked the door and then left.

Now to install the "RAM"...me and tools. (If it is not a belt sander it ain't going to happen.)  But I swallowed my fears and have the kids holding the camera so my brother can see what I am doing. 
 By some LARGE miracle I get it installed.

Interruption...

I go upstairs to find the kids had tried to retrieve a dead fish from the tank and there is water everywhere.
  Not enough 4-letter words for that one.

And here is the place in my day were I lost my mind...

So my week did not go as planned, I was not as active in the OFG celebration as I had hoped to be, did not finish the painting that need to be done, our front room is in complete disarray needing to be painted, there was fish that died, and my head about came off with this headache, but we finally got the laptop up and running. 
WIRELESS-LY!

Now to figure out how to use it!!

Next week my kids go to school and I am eating a large candy bar all by myself!!

Sure hope you all had a great week and we all have a better weekend!

Enjoy today!

Barb



'Fall Fallout!!' by barbsheartstrokes

First comes corn and sunflowers. Then the leaves start to change. Before you know it there are pumpkins everywhere!! Enjoy Fall!

Corn Handwoven 147 FITOFG basketsbyrose $15.00	Autumn Wools Quilted Appliqu... farmersattic $64.99
Bottle Cap Magnets - Happy F... valleyprimitiv... $7.50	Halloween Primitive JUST JAC... PaintspotsnSpl... $14.95
Primitive Ears of Corn ButtonsInTheAt... $25.00	Old Barnwood Box Wool Sunflo... TeresasPrimTre... $32.00
Handpainted Fall Leaves-Acor... Primgal $5.00	Pumpkin Patch Halloween Deco... Warmth $25.00
Scented Waxed Corn Chunks YorkiesPrimiti... $9.95	Primitive Cutter Quilt Sunfl... ButtonsInTheAt... $18.00
Penny Rug Bowl fillers Fall ... primpennystitc... $13.99	Cute little Happy Fall Magne... SandysPaintinP... $3.50
Corn Handwoven -140 FITOFG basketsbyrose $15.00	Primitive Black Cat Sunflowe... TeresasPrimTre... $21.95
Thanksgiving Fall Bread Boar... CaneRiverCraft... $35.00	Primitive Fall Pumpkin Pie M... Rabbithollowpr... $28.95

Treasury tool supported by the dog house

Fall Into Thanksgiving Celebration

Fall Into Thanksgiving with the Old Farmhouse Gathering Team

  

The Old Farmhouse Gathering Etsy Team is Celebrating!!

Fall Into Thanksgiving!!

These were the creations I came up with so I was able to get somethings done!  YEA!!

Type FITOFG in to the search bar on Etsy for more wonderful creations from the OFG Team.

Or you can click on the graphic above to take you to the page for all the fun!!

Enjoy,

Barb

I am feeling a little.....

Snarly!!   I am not sure how time can pass so quickly but the end of summer is almost here (YEA, I mean boo?!!?). 

Working on the house, yard and doing the canning there has not been a whole lot of time for fun. 

I am not sure what I was thinking when I decided to take my kids to Thanksgiving Point and go to the Museum of Ancient Life.  It was $2.00 day and when we got in the line that circle the building my son said, "Well, it looks like the pre-schools and elementary schools threw up."

But we forged ahead and had a fun time.  It was interesting and interactive.  I think I learned allot too.

Of course who would not love a Utahraptor? 

This was what I was looking like when we finally left...Snidey! 

So off we went to get a $2.00 piece of cheesecake, $2.00 kids hamburger, 50 cent ice cream cone, and then 1/2 pound of fudge for $2.00.

It was a SUGAR high!!

We have canned 10 bottles of tomatoes from our garden, frozen 21 bags of corn from my folks patch, made 12 loaves of zucchini and pear bread, 6 bottles of plumb jam from my bothers garden and then went to my parent's home and striped the pear tree.  Will probably be canning pears next week.

My attempt at painting during some of this. 

Embarrassing and in need of "therapy"! 

Hope I get some of this done for the Old Farmhouse Gatherings Fall into Thanksgiving Celebration starting tomorrow!!

It will be a miracle since it is picture day today at the High School and my son thinks it will be a great day to get a Big Mac at McDonald's--buy one get on for a penny.  Yippee.

Betty and her babies have flown the nest but we see them hanging around the humming bird feeder.

I had to climb the ladder the other day and they were gone.  All is well on the bird front!

I know I will need a nap today.

Enjoy your day!!

Barb

Update on Betty, Painting, and Winnings!

I was so curious about "Betty the Humming Pigeon" that I had to climb the ladder and see if the babies were still there and their condition.  Yes, there they were with little hearts a beating.  The two little black becks angled upward.  Then I figured there is not enough room in there for Betty so a few branches up there she was watching me.

I decided she need a feeder closer to her and the babies so off we went to get a humming bird feeder.

We hung it on the other side of the tree where we could watch it from the kitchen window.  Betty found it pretty fast!

Now I have a happy son (who was near devastation that the birds were dead)! 

Thank heavens for a custom order.  I then had the legitimate excuse to hide from the work outside to paint!!  YEA got it done.  Now have one more and trust me I will be using that as an excuse not to have to help sheet rock and plaster the front room!! 

I was the Lucky winner of these fabulous candy corns from Brenda at The Rusty Thimble as part of her huge July celebration.  They are wonderfully made and just fabulous.  Took a quick photo and now they are proudly displayed on my counter top upstairs.  I couldn't take a photo there for all the clutter that needs to be cleaned up!

Thank you Brenda! 

Head to her blog HERE to see what she has as her monthly giveaway!

Good luck on her new giveaway!

Enjoy your day,

Barb

Check List!!!

The other day I wrote down everything that needed to be done with in the next two week and then had to sit down and compose myself. 

Have you ever had those moments?

How am I suppose to get this all done?

Curse the Check List!?!

We were able to check off most of the remodel and renovation of the outside of the house.

We laid the bricks at the window sills but we need to take it off again because we are not brick masons and it shows. 

My grandfather was a carpenter so I was out there telling my husband "how to do it" because I was a kid and use to help (hinder) my grandpa with brick laying.  We decide to "sleep" on it and the next morning made the big decision to take them off.  I think my dad will have to get involved with this one.  Actually I don't think it looked to bad from a great distance but knowing that both my husband and I are perfectionists we knew we would not be able to live with it.

Now a job back on the check list.

Then the registration for my daughter to High School and my son to Middle School--all on line now!

Yes, there were (what my daughter calls) "choice USDA words" involved.

Did I mention Merit Badges yet? Swimming, Environmental Science, Wood carving, Bird Study, Space Exploration....some done, others we are working on.

Teenage driver.  She is doing very well.  Still happy I am already white haired. 

The good news...I received a custom order and had the excuse to paint!!!  Got this far and was interrupted. Hope to finish it soon!!

Betty, our humming pigeon (as my son is calling her) has flown the nest.  I don't think the babies survived.  I did climb up on the tramp and it looked like the babies had hatched but I couldn't tell if they were alive because the branch was still a bit to high.

Then my neighbor came out and looked a bit stunned that I was tip toeing on the tramp pulling on the tree branch...it was not pretty getting down to go make small talk.

Well with that vision in your head I will try to squeeze in some painting.  Please do not have nightmares on my behalf!

Enjoy,

Barb