Blondies having a Giveaway!!

Go check it out! Fun way to get to know this funny lady!

Hey, I did it!

Not perfect, of course, but I made my own banner. I took pics from our old shop and made a banner with them. Good memories, too! I think I like it.
I actually got inspiration from this lady's blog, Banner of Blessings.. I'm going to go back to it, b/c she's got some beautiful stuff, and a lot of it is FREE!

Fun Things I Found

Here are some neat things I found yesterday out in my junking travels. Had to go get repair done on my car, so couldn't resist a little hunting! I have been finding some really neat pieces of robin's egg blue! Just really summery looking. The half vase hangs on a wall, just kindy neat, I thought. And I loved the pretty Fire King plate.
Also, the Josef Originals June birthday doll is really adoreable, and yep, it's got the blue! How do you like the Mt. St. Helens Ash Scale I found? Something 80s, huh? I remember that ash myself!
I've got a lot of things I need to get on Etsy, some cute vintage stuff! Oh, and I can't forget that awesome vintage fabric! It's actually an uncut length of 8 placemats, and what do you know, robins egg blue again LOL. I'm going to leave the placemats uncut, as it has a lot more possibilities. It reminds me of a neat set of dish towels, or purses can be made of it, or.....all I know is I couldn't leave it there!

Gardens & Weeds & Work

The other day, I was looking out my dining room window, and thought, gosh, it looks like I have a curtain in that window of a brilliant, very vibrant yellow. I wouldn't have chosen that for a curtain, and it was really beautiful, but....it was Scotch Broom. If you don't know what that is, we have a lot of it on our hillside, that we've tried for years to get rid of. We've tried everything. My dad has always tried to spray it, but it still actually goes to seed after he's sprayed. I'm not thrilled about spray, but if you don't work to get rid of it, it would take over acres!

Well, I got the bright idea that, before it went to seed, I'd get the kids to help me, we'd borrow my dad's chainsaw-on-a-pole that cuts limbs off of trees, and we'd go harvest it and burn it. We worked at that for 2 days, my arms would hardly lift afterward. I think party my aching was from stress of running that little chainsaw while standing on a hill. We made some progress, but there is still a lot of it out there.

We got our garden in. We actually have a ton of rock, since I do live on property that used to be a rock pit, literally. My dad sold round rock off of this hillside many years as I was growing up. He says the rock keeps the ground warm??? I don't know, but I have actually still been able to grow stuff. This year, Randy built a few raised beds, also. We've had terrible rains, though, so I don't know how a garden will do this year. I'm worried my seeds will rot with so much rain. Of all years, I especially want to get a good garden. I don't want to have to drive to Sauvie's Island this year for beans and stuff. Gas is just too high.

Well, I figure, on rainy days, we're inside working on things we won't want to do on sunny days. But, I love being outside, and this rain is driving me crazy. By the time you get back out, the grass has grown another 4-6 inches! Our horses can't even graze on all the acreage we usually put them on, due to too much green grass. They're already fat enough.

Busy, Busy Days of Spring I Love

I just love spring, when you can hear the birds singing, you can almost smell honey in the air around here (must be pollen LOL), everything is starting to bloom. Beautiful green, spring is so beautiful here in Oregon. Well, I love Oregon any time, but we've had too much rain, record rainfall in fact, so the sunny days are welcome, for sure.

I've been busy planting flowers, getting my garden in, trying to catch up with the jungle out there. I had a plan to build a chicken house with my kids. My husband is actually a custom home builder, but I thought we could do it without his help, he's just really busy. Well..... he got involved, I got confused, (or was that intentional??) he took over with the boys, and the chicken house is almost done. My eldest daughter, Kristin, got me the most wonderful antique egg crate at the sell we did this weekend. I've got to incorporate it somehow into this chicken house. We also saw at the show we were at, some old chicken crates. I was coveting at least one, thinking, .... a planter??? Well, I didn't get it, but, maybe next time.

Like I said, we did a show this past Memorial Day weekend, I'm still tired out. We did well, had a lot of fun. We were packing stuff up into the trailer at the end of the last day, and a lady got there and actually got into the trailer to see what she might miss. I love those kind of people! She was fun, friendly, and she bought quite a bit on top of that! So...we went to the Neighborhood Nursery right afterward and treated ourselves to some more flowers!!

We've got no rain today!!

So, it's make hay while the sun shines! I plan to be good and exhausted when I get in from outside today! I love clear days, and here in Oregon, we've had record RAIN and COLD! I'm so sick of it, and that's what everyone else is saying. I can hear the neighborhood mowers going right now. I've got stuff in my greenhouse that needs to get in the garden, too, and I think we're working on raised beds at the back of the garden. I love my new rototiller, and my weedeater, and they're going to get a workout. So....no more talking about it, gotta go!!

Finally Spring????

Here it is, April in Oregon, yes I know people think all we get is rain, but it's just not true! Actually, last week we had snow....In my view, if it were my decision to control the weather, spring would come in the 2nd week of February, last till May, Summer through to October, Fall to Thanksgiving, and then, yes, let it rain a little, snow a LOT, then back to spring again. I know, no one asked me!

We are having some beautiful weather here this week, though, and I'm just praising the Lord for that! Except for needing to get a few things done inside, a few calls to make, etc, I'm on my way out to the greenhouse to see my plants and talk them into waiting a week or so to get planted in my flower beds. Then I think I'll start up my brand new anniversary present from Randy, my Weedeater! Yep, I'm pretty practical. I'd rather have a new tool to make work easier, than a piece of jewelry. After all, I could stand out there and try to start the old weedeater until I was in tears, like I did last year. I spent more energy trying to start it than to cut the grass with it!

On the crafty end, I have been steadily getting stuff listed in my Etsy Shop and getting it going a little more. I'm pretty tired of Ebay fees, etc, so, I'm having fun with Etsy. I have even put on a little baking stuff, which was a goal of mine.

I want to show you what I've been creating in the craft room department, though. Aren't these little guys just so cute? I had so much fun making them. I do a lot of crafting actually when sitting with my family, or in the mornings when my Randy gets me up and has devotions with me. He reads from the Bible while I listen and work and a project, sitting by the woodstove. Well, here's my guys....