Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Auctioned Roo Update

Back in October, we decided one of our roos needed to find a new home.  We are lucky to have the "Sales Barn", as the locals call it.

We had heard stories of people's luck at the sales barn.  Selling one roo for $40 bucks.  Selling a 4 member flock of 3 year old hens, who's egg production dwindled to nothing, for $50 bucks.  We were leary, but hopeful.

The first of November, we got a reciept in the mail.

Rooster Auction

with a check totaling $3.97. 

Oh well, at least we haven't had to put up with his bullying.

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Excuse My Mess...

Seems that i was trying to be told something, by my lack of blogging. 

I am out of space for photos! 

Egad!

Since having a blog without photos is like Thanksgiving without stuffing, and i don't want to move blogs, sending readers on a wild goose chase, i will be removing some of these photos to a Flickr account and removing from the blog.  Or maybe all it will take is upgrading to Google+.  Who knows....  ARRRRGH

Hope to return soon with more photos of what i would really like to show you!

Monday, November 26, 2012

Busy as a Bee

Hello,

Hoping you had a wonderful holiday.  Hoping you enjoyed your family more than your food this holiday--especially this one.

This year i had a huge breakthrough.  I ate a plate of Thanksgiving goodness around 3pm for "lunch", and was hungry again by 7.  You know, like any other day (should be.)  Huge success for me!  Especially when part of a mob at a dinner party.  Showed up at the scale on Saturday too...look at me, 3.5 pounds lighter.  Woot!  Now if i could just find a way to work in a walk during a visit like that, however people might misconstrue that as being "unsocial", i guess.  I'll get up the nerve, someday.  Point being, i felt completely well going to bed and absolutely wonderful the next day. 

If i keep this up, Nona might just have a little bro and sis before too long. :)

We have been busy with other things than holidays as well.  Irish dancing.  Merry Birthday Making.  Entertaining visitors. Mostly conceptual, right now, but we are slowly wading into this farming gig by meeting some individuals well on their way to providing locals with a "food source" and questioning them heavily.  Thankfully, a woman with much success on and off her farm has called to order a small group farmers in our area and we have been trading ideas online with regard to sharing of farm chores.  I feel as if i've moved to Vashon Island (without the arsenic or the ferry ride.)  Very excited to meet these individuals at our inaugural potluck in January.

We are shaking up school as well. I haven't the patience anymore for things that bring my child to her knees pleading for something less boring.  We are reading lots, plugging along with math, in the throws of learning chores and cooking things as well.  But Cookie's new passion?  Making movies!  So we are learning how to do that, as well as the various ways to put together a movie via a few different computer programs.

I'm entrenched at the moment in homemaking.  Finding recipes for household items for this month's Urban Farm challenge.  Making sure the seed companies all have my current address. :)  Knitting.  Sewing.  Package wrapping.  Yardwork.  Decorating for a majour holiday.  You know the gig. Also trying to add more exercise to my long list of daily chores.

Hoping you have a wonderful week ahead of you!
Fondly,
Whit




Tuesday, November 6, 2012

The Foyer :: Putting the "Welcome" into Our Home

The garden is slowing down, work on the old house is winding down, and if i have to can one more batch of applesauce i think i could potential lose my mind.  The sunny summer days have given way to storms that roll through, bringing not only dreary dark skies but two inches of rain to boot. :) 

With the out of doors and the old house getting most of my attention these past few months, you can imagine what the new house looks like.  So, i'm getting that nesting feeling again...time to reclaim a sense of order in our new space and time to experiment hanging a few things on the walls before i repaint everything.  Someday.

This week's redecorating mission is the foyer.  Some would call it an entry.  To-may-to, to-mah-to really.  I grew up in a home with this awesome foyer, as my folks called it...from the front door you saw a quaint courtyard they built with a view to the backyard.  It had space for a wood stove and a chair.  All these years in my first grown up home, i had an entry space about 5 wide by 2 or 3 feet deep.  One person could stand in the area, and there was really no room for any more.  Maybe this is why i've come to think of one as a foyer, and the other as an "entry". 

Anywho, these spaces beyond the front door have become very important, and dear, to me.  It's the area you welcome guests out of the cold and rain, the beginnings of your hospitality.  In our home, it's where one should leave their shoes and coat.  It is also where we like to leave our things that we've brought in with us and the things we'll need as we head out the door. 

Which becomes the problem.

Over the past few months, i've identified a few things that we will need to conceal our belongs in this area and make it a tidy, welcoming space for guests, but also a functional one for us. 

Wish List for Foyer
 
Space to sit to put on/take off shoes
Place for us to put our keys, wallets, purses so they are handy when we leave (this may change)
Shoe storage
Mail drop
& if we win the lottery:  a new tile or wood floor and ceiling fixture!
 
Three pieces have been added, and i am slowly trying to identify what else is needed, if anything at all. Some items we moved with us and i would really, really love to replace with nicer finds.  Things definitely need to be budget friendly right now though.

The important addition over this last summer was a sweet bench my mom and i found while shopping. 
How do you like our Halloween bats?
It almost looks like something a person would have made in a woodworking class, honing his furniture making skills.  The seller had owned it for 30 years at least, having purchased it when he was an antique dealer years ago.  His family loved it, as evident from the worn leather upholstery and the dents and scrapes in the wood.  His children own a lunch spot my folk's dig, so it was neat to be able purchase something from their family.  Just call me Ol' Sentimental Nellie, as when i find things like this, they take on the personalities of people who had them.  And if i don't know who they were, i create the characters in my head who loved the item before it was my fortune to own it. 

An added bonus, it can be moved to the living room to provide more seating when we have Moose's family over.  Love that!


The Mission style back had me at hello.
At first, i thought i would paint the wood (a striking red, perhaps?  or black?), but for now i have decided that it will stay this way.  I am planning on repainting the walls a lighter, creamier colour and seeing how it looks against that.  The seat is a removable box with coils, so a later date project will add more cotton padding and reupholster it. 


Only to be made more homey with the addition
of a thrifted homemade quilt.

Now with this new piece of furniture gracing our home,

i have a dilemma. 
 
Furniture arrangement in our foyer.
 
Granted, all the crud could be cleared out, and that would make heaps difference.  However this is everyday living, friends.  Our home will never grace the pages of a magazine.  But more important to me is that it's inviting and comfy to those who visit, whether they are family and friends
or Jehovah's Witnesses. :)
 

This is how i initially envisioned the space.

 
Before
 
 
 
 

It's hard for me to see anything on the wall below the stairs because of its height and depth. Needless to mention is that unfortunate placement of support column in the middle of the area.


If that isn't needed, "you know who" may be the first to go. :)
 









It looks decent, but as you can see, the depth of the bench isn't ideal for the space.  We've lived with it like this for three months now.  We're all luke warm about it.

Around the corner, where the bench sticks out, is the bathroom...the bench is a potential toe-tangler here now.  Moose hasn't ever liked this, so i used his idea this morning.   Come around that corner too quick, and you've got a bruised hip.  Ei yi ei!


I played switch-a-roo with the *awful* wicker dresser this morning.  The only thing we lose moving this dresser to this area is the possibility of having a small lamp to light the space, instead of using the overhead light.  The depth of the dresser definitely works better here. 

I would love to find a wood dresser, possibly the same colour as the bench. 
However, it will need a short depth. 





 
 
After all the rearranging,
here's the finished result. 

After

I like that the bench still hides the pile of library books from the visitors.
And the flow seems to be a lot more spacious.
 
What do you think?
Any suggestions on how to spiffy up this ugly vinyl tile floor on the cheap??

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Halloween

All dolled up


Out here in the country, we were pretty certain we wouldn't get any trick or treaters.  It's not that we don't have an abundant group of neighbours, but that most are from a different generation...who's children grew up a long time ago. 

Racer and a slug


 

All Treats Here Cookie, an eager trick or treater, was chomping at the bit yesterday.  She designed the pumpkins and helped carve them.  Riona's pumpkin carving In town, the merchants get together with the city officials and block off the main road, encouraging kids to come for tricks and treats downtown.  I piled my kitty cat in the car and headed downtown.  Have you ever seen a single file line of children in costumes, waiting their turn to beg for candy?  The kids weren't the only ones getting in on the act, as some parents dressed up, trick or treating for themselves, and held a bag chock full of loot from their efforts as well.  It was the strangest thing i had ever seen.

In talking with some of the merchants, the numbers varied from 10 pounds of candy given in an hour to 2000 suckers with coupon offers attached handed out.  Wow!

Afterward, we headed into the homes of the city folk, who were amazed at how few goblins there were. Cookie was happy that there weren't as many scary things here as in our old neighbourhood. At half a bag of candy, she was ready to go home, where we sorted (only one piece didn't pass the "have we heard of that before" test!" She found 3 coupons for ice cream from our favourite merchants downtown. And to cap the night, we watched the great pumpkin and Cookie and Moose had light saber "fights" with glowsticks. :) It was a calm Halloween without worry...quite nice!