I Received An Award!

http://casual-cottage.blogspot.comMy blogging, obviously-separated-at-birth-twin, Pat over at Simply Casual (dash) Cottage gave me this award!  Go visit her:  Simply Casual (dash) Cottage, and you'll see how similar our lives and styles are!

Here are the rules:
1              Thank who gave it to you and post the rules
2              Copy the award in your blog
3              List 3 things you love about yourself
4              Post a picture or quote you love
5              Tag 3-5 people you wish to pass this award

Thank you so much Pat!

I must say the three things I love about myself are:

Being blessed with a great sense of humor,

 unfaltering faith 

and 

the ability to understand, even if I don't really want to.

My favorite quote, actually my mantra is:

God, 

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change 

The courage to change the things that I can

And the wisdom to know the difference. 

Here are my picks to pass this award along to:

The Uniquely Creative Jennifer at Studio JRU

The Extremely Talented Christine at JAZ Creations

The Amazing Jan at Bobbypins Boardwalk

 And 

 Loveable Lezlee over at Prior Lives

Whoops!  I see Lezlee already received this award, but believe me, she deserves two!

THANKS AGAIN PAT!

Terra Cotta Brick Address

After spending hours and hours and weekends and weekends picking up the sticks and branches that blanketed our little acreage all winter, I stole a little time this past Saturday to start planting flowers.  One of the ideas I've come across over and over again in blogland, is numbered flower pots that display your address.  I loved the idea and knew I could do it, what I didn't know was how difficult it would be to find four flower pots to work with!  So, I improvised.

I found some old terra cotta bricks laying around with nothing better to do and decided they would work just fine. The old cart I planned to display them on was not level, so I knew I needed to mark them where they would sit to make sure the numbers would be straight.  The next obstacle was finding a piece of chalk to mark the bricks.  You'd think with all these kids running around here I'd be able to find one little piece of chalk.  No such luck!  But, guess what?  Pepto Bismol tablets work just as well : )

I made the numbers by cutting them out of card stock with my Silhouette Craft Cutter and simply traced around them with a pencil - being very careful to line them up on my Pepto Bismol lines, of course!  Then I painted the numbers with Plaid Outdoor Acrylic paint.  One coat is all it took and it was amazingly easy to accomplish.

The bricks are a foot tall, a bit much for filling with potting soil, so I gathered a few misplaced rocks from the lawn and filled each one about half full before adding the soil and finally the plants.

When all was said and done, I was pleased with the way it all worked out!

Don't you just love the old cart?  Absolutely everything in this picture was found out here... and there's plenty more to be found and put to good use!  I'm just lovin' how the flowers are working with all the old junk!

A large old bottomless pail, some chicken wire to form a basket, rusty old cable wire to secure it all and some leftover coconut fiber liner made a perfect home for these beauties.  I'm lovin' it... so much I'm sharing it on Donna's Funky Junk Saturday Night Special!  

Be sure to hop over there and see the magnificent display of talent!   

Red Oak Fun

Cole and I traveled to Red Oak this weekend to spend some time with Nolan and Marlee while Nate and Sarah took a little vacation - and we had a blast!  As soon as we went outside that is.  Nolan stood by the window and waited and waited... and chanted and chanted, "I wanna go outside!"

If Nolan had his way, he would live outside, well at least until it got dark.  He doesn't have much use for indoor activities when the sun is shining.  Getting him to take time out to eat can even be tricky!  Hot dogs and cheese curls weren't appealing until I told him he could eat them outside. 

Miss Marlee enjoyed being outside too.  She didn't want to be held, and she isn't walking yet, so we settled for the stroller.  She was most pleased, for sure!

Cole was a big help  - even though he did manage to find time to monkey around.

Nolan and Cole played...

and played.  

Just to mix things up a bit, we asked these girls if they would be interested in a game of soccer or tag ball, but they didn't think we were very funny.  They didn't really didn't give us an answer, they just stared at us like we were annoying them.  How rude!

Just kidding.  We didn't get close to these beauties at all!  I just wanted to check out the zoom on my camera, not bad, huh?  (I love this picture.  Cows are sooooooooo serious!)

Nolan eventually wore Cole out, so Nolan found Lola to keep him company while Cole took a break.

Then he decided to monkey around a bit.

He finally wore himself out trying to figure out why the water wouldn't come out of the hose.

And little Miss Marlee?  

Well, try as I might to interest her in the little girl toys in the house, she was most pleased with these!

We had so much fun with the kids that Cole didn't want to go home.  He said, "Nate and Sarah should go on vacation more often"!  I think Nolan had his fill of us.  When Sarah's mom came to pick the kids up so we could go home, Nolan pointed at her and said, "I want that one!"  Meaning, I want that Grandma!  Too funny.

It was a great time for sure, but we had a surprise waiting for us when we got home...

Say "hello" to Daisy!  She came complete with a saddle!  Boy are we going to have fun!

Ahhhhhhh Outside Again

It is sooooooooooooo nice to be able to get outdoors again.  And even better when we can be outside simply to enjoy the surroundings.  No work for us this evening, all play : )

There was a little football

with some very loyal fans looking on...

Seriously, the gander was cheering!

Casper, the not always so friendly mini horse, was being a bit snooty this evening.  He wasn't even paying attention to the game!

But he quickly changed his tune, however, when Chandler brought him some treats.

After the game that nobody won, it was time to play with the kittens

and blow a few bubbles before Daddy arrived.

I lingered outside a little while longer and admired the blooms on my little magnolia tree that will soon fade and give way to the leaves.  I just love the backwardness of magnolias... flowers first, then leaves.

All in all, it was a very pleasant evening out here at the funny farm.

You really should come visit us soon : )

I Think He Killed Her!

Have you ever had something that you kept staring at and didn't know what to do with?

Meet Ms. Washer Machine

I realize a normal person would just love to have her and keep her as she is.  After all, she is definitely an antique.  However, she is a falling apart, heavier-than-a-freight-train-antique that just doesn't work well anywhere or with anything.  Sigh.  One of those things I could probably sell, but just can't part with.  She isn't completely authentic though, the wringer is not made by the same manufacturer as the washer.  She is, however, one of the many treasures that came with the place when we bought our little acreage.

She falls apart quite easily on a very regular basis.

The last time we put her back together, we thought it would be the LAST time we'd have to put her back together.  We were wrong.  So, I stared at her for a few more months and finally decided what I would do.

I decided to take all the metal off her, get rid of the lid and the agitator (looks like cow udders anyway) and be left with a nice open-top tub to put flowers in.  Alas, I was only able to remove 2 bolts.  The rest were rusted together, so I asked Glen to help.

As you can probably tell, my projects are always on the back burner.  It was late last night when I begged him to help me get the metal off.  He was game, but it took his grinder to get through those rusty old bolts.

I was getting pretty excited!  I was thinking about what I could do with that lovely, large wheel that used to hold the belt that ran the motor.

However...

Things really fell apart before all the metal was removed.

Not to fear, it won't take all the King's horses and all the King's men to put her back together again.  It is just going to take some time.  (Sheesh, I wish I could buy time!)  I would have loved to have been able to work on her today, but we were preoccupied with the perpetual clean-up from winter's wrath.

But at least we had a very good foreman for the job!

Both my boys and all their boys were here today helping us take care of the storm damaged trees.  Everyone worked very hard all day long and we sure did appreciate the help.  We still have a looooooooooong way to go to have everything cleaned up, so I have a feeling it will be quite some time before I will be able to return to Ms. Washer.

Princess Marlee's First Birthday

It's hard to believe our Little Princess is already a year old.  We had a great time at her party today hosted by Sarah's parents at their beautiful home in rural Red Oak.  All the boys were really looking forward to going to the party.  Chandler spent a little extra time getting ready...

 He wet the comb and styled his own hair, warning me not to touch it.  He also wanted to make sure his teeth were really clean.

When we arrived at the party, Miss Marlee was all decked out in her Princess  gown!

And everybody just had to hold her.  Here she is with Sarah's Grandpa Stan.

... And her Mommy, Sarah.

We always like to get together with Sarah's family, they are so nice!  And, Sarah's Grandma Janice and Nate's Grandma Rena always seem to have a lot in common...

 ... clothes, hair, relatives.  Uncanny, isn't it?

When it was time to dig into her cake, in true Princess fashion, Marlee was very neat and tidy about it.  She is most definitely all girl!

We found it a bit humorous that all the boys were enjoying their cupcakes and ice cream on Little Princess plates and daintily sipping their drinks from matching cups : )  These little cousins didn't seem to mind the party ware.

But I think it was a different story with these two guys who kind of went and sat at a table by themselves, away from the rest of the crowd. 

The boys had a great time playing outside in the Beeson's nice yard

and hunting Easter eggs hidden ever so carefully by Nate.

At the end of it all our little Princess was pooped.

 And we all went home, happily ever after.