Not Much Happening here on the Farm

Whew!!!  The last couple of months have flown by.  With working full-time again, the days just seem to pass without me even knowing it.  We haven't been doing much of anything lately anyway, hence no blog posts.

I haven't been cooking much, Bill has done a great job of helping with dinners at night.  I get him set up with a crock pot recipe and he has done great with them.  He has starting throwing in a few Hamburger Helpers lately I've noticed, so I need to get back to planning better meals.  I got burnt out on the Hamburger Helpers a long time ago, but he likes them because they are easy to do.

Sewing???  Quilting???  Crafting???  

Hummm, not much of that going on either.  I regretfully had to resign my position as 2nd Vice President at my quilt guild, Wise County Quilt Guild, as I felt that I was overwhelmed with things going on around me, and I was stressing too much with making sure I got the newsletter out on time and making sure it was a quality newsletter.  A fellow member, Peggy has stepped up and volunteered to take my place.  I am so thankful for her.  Working has sure put a kink in my life, but I know it will get better.

I did get to purchase a new "used" L-shaped desk for my sewing area.  It is going to be great.  I've been cleaning out and rearranging my sewing spot in hopes of getting to start sewing soon.

I have been gradually trying to clean out my scrapbook room to make room for some of my sewing things.  For those of you who know me and knew my scrapbooking obsession I had for many years, you know just how much stuff I have.  I hate to say it, but since getting the quilting bug, I have totally lost interest in my scrapbooking hobby.  It's sad, and although I'll go in the room and look at stuff and see things that I had plans to do, I just do not have the interest in it anymore.  I am cleaning out and selling a lot of things that I will no longer use.  Here I come, Ebay, Craigslist, Wise County People to People Facebook page (a great place to sell things you no longer want locally).  So, if your looking for anything that I might have, let me know, I'll try to accommodate.  I used to sell Stampin' Up! products also, so I have a lot of those items laying around too.  I may create a page of things I'm selling and link to my blog for future reference.  I need to pull out and take pictures.  Lots to do and so little time to do.

Family

BTW, for those of you that haven't heard (earlier post), I have a new grandson on the way.  My youngest daughter Amy and her husband Aaron are expecting their 1st baby in July.  We are so excited for them.  Hence, the hopes of starting to sew soon....  I have several baby projects in mind for this new little one.

My daughter Mandy and her family recently got to take a fun snow trip up to Colorado last month.  The kids really enjoyed the snow.  Lucas got his first chance at skiing and loved it.  Well really it's his second chance.  We went a couple of years ago, but he was not ready at age 3.  But now he is 5, he was loving it.  Bella even got in on the action.

Air Force Bound

My only nephew, Seth is leaving for Air Force Basic Training on Monday.  I so respect what he is doing and what he is giving up to serve our country.  I know he will make us all very proud.

My sister held a going away party for him a couple weekends ago.  It was a fun party, with BBQ and cake and lots of family and friends came to wish him good luck on the new phase of his life.  He even sang and played his guitar for us.

That's about all for my update for now.  I'll try to post a little more often.  Hopefully with some pictures of a few sewing projects.

Meet Fannie Mae

Isn't she Bea-U-ti-FUL!!!!  She was born in 1949.  She was my Christmas present this year.  I couldn't believe when we found her on Craigslist. She looked good, she sewed great, the case was amazingly in great condition and she came with several accessory pieces.  And, the price was right.  I promptly ordered bobbins and needles for her.

You may wonder about her name. My first memories of quilting are from my Great-Grandmother Fannie Mae King.  I remember her really small living room that she had quilting frames hung from the ceiling.  I want to say I remember playing under the quilt while she and her friends hand quilted.  That could be my imagination, but seems like I remember something like that.  I still have the baby quilt she made for me.  It is a little ragged out, I must have really used it a lot.  I don't even think it is restorable at this point.  Someday when I get it out again, I'll take a picture and post.  It also had hand-embroidery on it.  I believe my mother helped with the embroidery.

I have only gotten to play on her a little bit, but hope to start my first quilt on her soon.  Fannie Mae will accompany me to quilt guild meetings on work days and possibly on retreats.

Happy 2013!!!!

Happy New Year Everyone!!!!

Boy, this new year has already started with a bang.  Many things have been going on around the farm.  Changes are good, right?  I'm going to cover everything, but will probably end up being in several different posts.  I'm going to start with Christmas Eve.

We enjoyed 2 Christmas celebrations with our families this year.  On Christmas Eve, my kids and grand kids came down to spend the night and celebrate.  This is a new tradition my girls decided they wanted to start this year.  We are kinda going back to the way our family used to celebrate Christmas when my kids were small.  And then the next weekend, Bill's kids and their families came down for our 2nd Christmas celebration.  (later post).

This is my living room prior to the arrival of the kids.  I promise, you don't want to see it after the invasion.  You can see Miss Palyn resting in one of her favorite spots.

You gotta have pictures of kids
playing at Christmas time.

I asked the girls what they wanted me to fix for dinner that night (being used to having hot ham sandwiches, potato salad, and baked beans), I knew this is what they would want.  Oh no, not my girls, they wanted my chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes and ball beans (English peas).  Yes, in our house we refer to English Peas as ball beans.  So this is what we had, but I also threw in a platter of Chicken Fried Back Strap for the son-in-laws.  As for the dessert, we didn't have anything other than all of the goodies (will post about later) I made the day before while I was stuck here without a car (Bill's truck was in the shop) while he went down to Laredo with son Trent, and grandson Patrick deer hunting (will post later).  This was a last minute trip, so I stayed here and cooked.

Here I am mashing my famous mashed potatoes.  I say famous because this is one thing that my family and Bill's all enjoy.  They are very basic.  I just use Yukon Gold Potatoes, lots of butter (or margarine if that's all I have) and some Pet milk.  This combination just seems to make them so creamy and good.  I don't think there were any left.  I think everyone enjoyed their Christmas Eve dinner.  Total there were 9 of us here plus the GrandDog Piper, Libby and Palyn.

But WAIT!!!!  Let me tell you.  While I was sitting at the table fixing to get up and start clearing away the dishes, I was told by my daughter Amy that I couldn't get up until I see what was in my stocking.  I'm thinking what is in my stocking? NO IDEA!!!  So they went and got it for me to see.  Inside was this picture of Piper (Amy and Aaron's chocolate lab) and a small lime.  

This is my Grand Dog Piper with a very interesting sign around her neck.  If you can't read it, it says, "Only Child, Expiring July 2013".  In other words, Amy is pregnant!!!!  I'm gonna be grandma again!!!  I was so happy.  They had been trying for quite awhile.  I am so happy for both Amy and Aaron.  Oh yeah, the lime.  That was the size of the baby at that time.  Such a cute idea!!!!!!  

Okay, so after the excitement calmed down, we got the kitchen cleaned and the kids ready for bed to await Santa's arrival, Mandy got the french toast ready to go in the fridge to soak up it's goodness for breakfast the next morning, and the guys played a few hands of Cribbage.

(l to r) Aaron, Larry (Bill's brother), Bill and Ryan

The only one without a picture is Amy.  I took some of her, but she would probably disown me if I posted them.  She was feeling so bad that night with her sinus infection as well as being in the hospital the day before being dehydrated and throwing up (pregnant you know).  So maybe I'll catch a good one of her later.  I know we have a gender reveal party in the near future coming up, so I'll post then.

Again, Everybody, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!