Video Candle Tutorial

I had some requests for a candle video. Just to know how much I love you all I am willing to make a video.
It worked out perfect today as it was too hot for Ron to work outside. This kept him in the house. He is a very good film maker.
All I can say is I never thought four years ago blogging would change my life. It was fun though and I did want you to know how easy it is so you can make your own candles.
So without further ado, me the candle maker

Odds and Ends

I have had a few people ask me how I am doing this week not home schooling after having done it for so long or how does is feel to have the house quiet most of the day. Don't take this wrong but it feels, GREAT!!
On Monday I felt like someone removed one of my arms. By Wednesday every thing was back to normal and I was happy to rattle around happily doing my own thing. In fact, it felt a bit like I was on vacation. when it got too quiet so I would crank my music. I haven't done that in years. I would go for a walk with Sasha when I wanted and the biggest surprise of all was there wasn't dishes in the sink every time I walked in. When they came in I was so lonesome I was excited to see them and hear about their day. I think it is going to be a very nice transition.

Tuesday I made candles.

Pumpkin Souffle

Red Apple

Red Apple with no coloring

I hope to make some more with no color and no scent. I just like the natural smell of the soy wax. They burn very nice and clean. My house smelled so much like fall. I had to bake that day just because it smelled like pumpkin pie and apple cider.

I hope you have a fantastic day.The chickens are calling my name.

~Kim~

Last Week of August

 At the first of the month I told you I would enjoy August and not look forward to it being over. I have had to grab myself by the scruff of the neck many times but I have managed to keep my mind on August and enjoying it better than in years past.  I will admit to looking at my pictures in my albums of these things a bit more than I should.

Just hoping for one leaf that looks like this.I find photos that make me think of the smell of pumpkin pie and apple cider and fires in the stove.

This year I won't have pumpkins to fill my wheel barrow. Some years are just like that I guess. One of the first things I have noticed that August is almost over is that the swimming pool in now too cold for me. The ground begins to cool off before the days begin to change. The bunny is getting his warm winter coat and my chickens are beginning to molt.

 I was thinking of rearranging my house again and bringing my chairs back in to sit quietly before the stove. Then I have to remind myself, No, it is still August, it isn't time to bring out my fall pillows or change my colors to the warm colors I love so much. I did take down and put away all of my red, white and blue.

Yesterday I thought about putting a little pumpkin pie spice in my coffee. I don't want to rush August yet. I will admit though, I am pretty excited to greet September and each day I find myself dancing a bit in my mind knowing that fall is almost here.

Have a lovely day, I hope you can find a leaf to remind you of Autumns of the past.

~Kim~

First Day of School and Other things

I hope you had a lovely weekend. It was beautiful here, well except on Friday night when the power went out and was out 12 hours. We sat outside until it was too dark to see and the power still wasn't on. We went to bed and it finally came on at 2:15 A.M. We cooked dinner on the BBQ and I lit the candles and it was nice to see the house by candle light. I sure missed air conditioning though. All day Saturday, every time it came on I said Thank you to God for electricity. Having power really does make life easy and I am so sorry I take it for granted. The reason for a power outage? Scheduled Maintenance. As my husband and I were talking about we had the idea that  it was some programmer working on a live system installing upgrades and tried to take a shortcut.

Here is the pictures of the unbuilding. 

Now the piles of lumber and other good stuff.

The lovely windows that he built for the play house have so many possibilities in my little crafty mind as does this pile of very nice used wood.

Here is a picture of the plans for the new chicken house. It is large enough for 30 hens. Which I don't have that many but I can now once this is built.

He is going to use one of the windows from the play house and I want to see if he will use the dutch door he made for the play house too. This will have a covered yard and then a bigger outside yard that I can let them out in. They will have no more access to the whole yard anymore. Which is good.

Well off to watch my boys leave this morning. Then I will rattle around this place. I am glad it is Monday because I have so much work to do today.

Have a great day,
~Kim~

A Lovely Summer Day

There is something good about summer days. The sound of the wind chime singing to itself. The sound of the breeze in the trees. The meadowlarks singing to the morning. Lovely day today.

I wanted to share with you a giveaway taking place on one of my favorite blogs. Some of you have met Meg. A very talented woman who just happens to be my most amazing daughter of my heart. She is  married to my oldest son. Meg has launched a new business called Bumblewood Handmade. She is selling her hand made soaps, and lip balm and other very nice products all with a emphasis on clean, pure and handmade. I have been using her soap and it has the nicest feel and does not dry out my skin and lovely fragrance. Her giveaway that she has going on will be some of the lip balm she has made. They are very nice and perfect for the dry and cold that will be coming soon but yet light enough to wear without feeling smothered by it. So if you get a chance go by and enter and visit her lovely blog. She also knits and sells her patterns and spins and home schools. Not to mention she has four boys all under the age of 7 she is a busy girl. Here is the link. Bumblewood Handmade.

I wanted to show you the finish of that acorn with the pin keep attached. It looks so cute with that thing attached.

I thought it turned out cute. It makes me want to start making pumpkins.

I also made something that turned out far better than I dreamed. This was supposed to be a pillow but I have so many pillows I decided to just do this and I love how it looks. It is a pattern by Brenda Gervais.

I just turned it into a little sign. I really liked it this way. In fact I find myself staring at it because I love all of the little designs that are on it. I really did enjoy making the little pumpkins and the black cats and I like doing letters. I backed it with the wool I dyed last weekend.

I don't know how much I will get done this weekend because we have a different kind of job we will be doing. I will be getting off the computer and stacking wood.

Here is the before picture. Right now. Well it was a hour ago. I have quite a stack of wood to move.

Ron built this when we moved here for our two youngest sons who are now 20 and 18. It has been used and loved but is starting to get rickety for the grand children. My new chicken house will be here. We have to take this down first so right now Ron is dismantling it piece by piece. It is sad in a way. Good in others.

We will be busy this weekend. Notice how I keep saying, "We" Notice I am the one on the computer, in the house, sitting in a chair?
I do need to go do some work though.
Have a nice weekend. I hope to take lots of pictures.

Bye for now,
~Kim~

Being Busy

I think it is good to be busy. I fall in bed at night and don't wake up until morning. I have been binding rugs and making some things. I thought I would share some of them today. I have had this pattern for at least three years. For some reason I couldn't ever focus enough to figure it out. Yesterday, I thought today I would try it again. Here is my acorn from Crabapple Hill.

It is a pin cushion. I had so much fun and in fact I was glad no one could hear me as I chuckled as I made it. Making the leaves was fun too. It has a cute little needle case that goes with it but I have to make that today.

I finally finished this. I never know why I procrastinate. I think it could be the huffy dog I have. As soon as I pick up my sewing machine to get it out she gets this look on her face and sits so I can see her displeasure. She huffs and if I keep sewing she gets under my bed and ignores me the rest of the day.

 I used the wool that I dyed the other day. As I was working with the wool I decided that my favorite medium is wool. I just love the way it feels when I sew with it.

One of my favorite things, a little key. I am a bit of a hoarder with it comes to skeleton keys. I was getting one out of my box and I thought I would show you my hoarder box.

When I made these boxes I kept one. I have it sitting on my desk and every so often I pick it up and go through it. This is what is on the inside.

Every time I go someplace I keep my eyes open for keys and small things that have something to do with sewing. I have found such neat things in places you wouldn't expect. I also ask every time I go into a antique store. Sort of my little quest.

Don't you just love that tiny thimble? I just love this box and every time I open it and I think of what my grand kids would think to see Grandma's box. I bet it would be like I still remember when my grand mother brought out her button box. It was a tin and it was filled to the top with old buttons. She made a button string for me and I would play with it for hours. I remember sitting outside on a swing that she had in her yard under the tall shade trees in the summer listening to the birds and feeling the cool grass under my feet as I moved back and forth slowly on the swing playing with that string of buttons. Thinking about all of the wonderful buttons in her box, as she sat on the porch, rocking so quietly and we would talk now and again, She always knew my thoughts or she would point out something I missed or she would tell me the name of a bird or a plant. Moments captured in thoughts that only now I remember.

I hope you have a wonderful day today. I have lots of things to do and lots of things to accomplish. As that poem goes by Robert Frost, " miles to go before I sleep."

Have a lovely day,
~Kim~

Binding Rugs and Dyeing Wool

I hope you had a nice weekend. It was nice here but our monsoon moisture is back and we woke up to the flashes of lighting and the rumble of thunder. You know those days when the air outside is still and any thing you do, you just stand as sweat rolls down your back? Well, that is today. I of course decided that this was the week I was going to bind all of my rugs.

I dyed some wool this weekend. I really enjoy that. It takes me about 3 hours all told but it is to me some of the best time to do a project. There is something just rewarding in dyeing wool.

They are lighter than I normally do but I found them to be pleasing colors to me. I love the mustard colors that I got and the green. The pumpkin color isn't what I was  going for but it will work for what I have in my mind.

I finished hooking the biggest rug I have ever done, this weekend.

After I get all of the rugs I have hooked, bound. I  will be listing them on my Etsy store.

Here are the rest of the rugs I have done so far this summer. With school getting ready to start here next week if feels nice to finish up with my summer projects.

I love this little rug. Just a fun kind of rug.( Pattern by Cathy Greschner)

I had a hard time staying with this rug but now that it is finished I really have enjoyed looking at it. I used only the wools that I hand dyed myself in this pattern. (Pattern by Maggie Bonami )

Of course the last of my chicken rugs. I am almost finished with all of my unfinished projects I have one more that I will try and work on this week. After finished the big pumpkin and crow rug this week this one doesn't seem so big now. (Pattern by K.M.Carroll)

I really like this whale by Polly Minick. So this is this one of the things I will be working on too.

The only thing left in my garden is my sunflowers. My pumpkins never even got a single pumpkin nor did my cucumbers get a single cucumber. Planting late like I did was not a good thing. One thing about gardening it is trial and error and sometimes things work and sometimes they don't but it is fun to learn in the process. It means I am one step closer to that perfect garden I dream about in my mind.

Lot of things going on in my brain this week. Lot of good things and lots of dreams to dream. I hope you have a nice week too.

~Kim~

Summer Days

I tried and tried to get a photo yesterday of these sunflowers. I just find they to make me so happy. No matter how I might be feeling as soon as I walk out the gate and see this bunch of sunflowers and the green leaves and the blue sky I am so happy.

I was able to get a photo yesterday of that silly hen who likes the porch loveseat to lay her eggs.

I let my chickens out in the yard so they can have a little me time. The group that goes out with me in the garden while I am watering the garden. There are a couple of hens that are from my first batch of hens. This hen is one of them. I guess being a older hen she has decided she needs more padding for her egg laying business. She didn't lay a egg by the way, she was just sitting here taking in the sights. I guess she thinks it is her special place.

I had to sneak around to take these pictures too. I was so afraid she was going to just take off so these were very fast photos. The chickens won't be having any me time today. I am a little fed up with them. Yesterday when it came time for them to go back to the coops. All of them had memory problems. None of them could remember where the coops were nor could they remember where the doors were located. I ran and  ran all over the yard. Back and forth. They had food and water and they didn't want that. I even tried bread which they love bread. Yesterday they would grab a piece and run back up to the house. So today, they are grounded. They will have no outside time.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend. I hope today is a beautiful day for you where ever you are and that what ever you do today the work of your hands will be blessed.

`Kim~

Odds and Ends

I was thinking that today would be a good day to dye wool. Any day dyeing wool makes it a good day. I have a hankering to make oranges and browns and yellows today. We will see what this day brings.

After I wrote yesterday's post about Cuckoo Calling please disregard all of the nice stuff I said about that book. I read more last night and have decided that life is too short to read junk. I have too many other books on my shelf and rugs to make. I almost have my Etsy store ready to open all I have to do is hit the button to open. I will put a link here on the blog when I open . I am looking to a September opening date as my new little store will be called. " New Chapter Rugs."

 Remember on Monday when I talked about the homeless guy under the tree? Something else happened. Sunday night---Monday Morning. It was supposed to be the best night for viewing the Perseids. My son asked that night if it would be okay if he got on the roof around 4:00 A.M. to watch them. ( skunks are a issue remember.) We said that would be fine but to be careful.
The next day when I remembered I asked him if he saw lots of meteors.  He told me how one lit up the whole sky. Then as an afterthought he said, " What was Dad doing out in the back yard with the flashlight?"
"Was he looking for skunks?"
I was getting dinner ready and I looked up and I said, " Your Dad didn't get up and look for skunks." He said, " He didn't. Are you sure?" Because there was someone going around the back yard with a flash light and I just thought it was Dad.

Ron got home from work and I said, " Did you get up last night and go outside.?" He looked at me quizzically . He said, " No I didn't. Why?" I told him what Peter had said. He said, " A light shined in our door and It woke me up but I just thought it was Peter on the roof. He went and questioned Peter further.

So that night before bed he went and put locks on all of the gates that lead into the back yard. He left the gate by my chicken coop without a lock on it. Yesterday morning when I went to take care of the garden and the chickens that gate was open. It made the hair on my head stand up.

I don't know what to think. It sure makes me uneasy. I guess we will have to get some motion cameras set up to see who our visitor is. With so many vacant buildings around us now it could be someone living in any one of them.

When Peter was on the roof he did see two foxes out in the front yard. They were red foxes. A male and female. They were running and playing. He said he watched them and then the female spotted him and ran off out into the field across the road but the male watched for a bit before he ran off. Peter said, " They run neat, they don't really run they float."

When I was a kid and we first moved out here. We always had people that came and looked in our windows or stole our gasoline out of our cars or even sometimes our baby calves. It has always been the wild west out here. Ron was upset and I guess because it is like the normal behavior I grew up with I have to stop and think about it. I am not afraid, just wonder who it is mainly.


This is how it is today. Just normal life. :)
 Have a lovely Thursday,
~Kim~