Sarah ________________________

Yesterday when I was canning (what was supposed to be) a boatload of apples, I found our kitten-cat dead. I had been searching for her all morning, calling her name-walking around the property. The fact that she didn't come when I called her worried me more than I can say, since she would always RACE to us when we called (if she wasn't already by the door!) So I would call her every few minutes. Check the windows again and again.

Finally I found her.

I don't know what happened-not a trace of foulplay.

Ever since, I have been a big 'ole bawl baby. I stopped canning because I just couldn't anymore.

It's just she was so stinkin' sweet. Really personable. and she was always AROUND me.

If I was in the garden, she would come too.

If I were hanging clothes, there she was.

If I were blogging, she would be purring, curled up in my lap or when I was reading a book on the patio.

If I were reading to the children on the counch, she would crawl up my belly and lay herself under my chin for a snooze. It tickled and was cumbersome-but I loved it.

If she was outside, she would race in the moment the door was open.


If I laid a picnic blanket outside, she would be the first one on it.


The children, thankfully, didn't take it too hard. They certainly have handled it better than me.


I fear I am not that great of a country wife after all, if I get so emotional about an animal. I'm really dumb.

I wouldn't be sad about chickens. Or even Jed. But Sarah? She was a sweet part of our everyday and her only purpose was to be with us.


It's really dumb that I am so upset over her. But I am.


And for some reason, I can't stop crying.

IT'S JUST A CAT, FOR GOODNESS SAKE!

Handmade Holidays ________________________

Only 45 more days until Christmas, and with this being a wholly HOMEMADE Christmas, all 45 of those days are going to count.

I have a good headstart on the gifts; I've been working on them whenever I get a free minute (which granted, is not all the frequent).

I wanted to share with you some of the gifts I will be making/giving this year, many of which have come from free tutorials/patterns around the web. Perhaps you could steal an idea or be directed to a fun project how-to that you haven't seen before.

I figure, with only 44 more crafting days, now is as good a time as any to start sharing.

I am notoriously bad at "scheduled" posts (I am incredibly proud of myself for posting Foto Friday each week) so I won't promise a handmade post any particular day. Just when I am able or inclined.

I *might* even surprise you with a few handmade posts all in one day, just to add some spice to life. ;-)

Here is my first Homemade gift. The cutest baby sweater I have EVER seen. Also: the first baby sweater I have ever crocheted. Also: the only (so far) baby sweater I have ever crocheted.

I made this sweater for my sweetling of a baby niece last year, but never got around to putting buttons on it. Then we moved, got shoved in the to-do/mending box and packed away. The mending box hardly got touched. I was sorting through it a few weeks ago and discovered this fully done sweater without buttons.

It was not-so-perfectly sized, a year later, for my niece but incidentally, it was just right for my own littlest sweetling.

I planned on saving it for her Christmas gift, but it was just so darn cute! And the weather did get to be pretty chilly! SO I just started putting it on her.

(And no-I still haven't gotten to the buttons! eek!)

The pattern is so simply done: worked as one piece. The homespun yarn is so cozy-and beautifully vibrant.

The free pattern can be found at Baby It's Cold Outside, if baby sweaters are on your Christmas List.

I do hope at some point I might be able to make a matching Elfin Hat.

And maybe add some buttons.

Foto Friday: Playing Dress Up ________________________

Last week's Foto Challenge was timely, the theme being DRESS UP. Perfect for Halloween, to be sure, but the theme could have been interpreted in so many different ways and run with having nothing to do with Halloween.

I have nothing incredibly creative to share this week. I used up all my Halloween costume shots on this insanely long post so I had to raid the costume box very last-minute like. Nothing profound, but still fitting the theme.

And of course~ the BEHIND the SCENES shot:

Now it's YOUR turn...........



In order to participate in these Foto Friday challenges, you must take a photo (or several) pertaining to the challenge and post it to your blog (and when you do, please link back to this blog {you may use the button if you like} so that perhaps we can get lots of participants! Because, you know, the more the merrier!) Then simply link to your Foto Friday post with Mr. McLinky here so that we all can visit you and compare notes...

Most importantly~challenge yourself, but HAVE FUN doing it.

This week's theme is one that get's us right in the Autumnal spirit of things: LEAVES.

Better get this one out of the way quick, before all the leaves disappear altogether! :-)

So, back to nature we go!

Hope to see you next week.

Happy Halloween 2009 ________________________

It's party-time!!!

I had been toying with the idea of hosting a Halloween Party for some time and when I mentioned it to the children you can imagine what their reaction was.

They had as much fun making plans for it as I did and they were faithful to the daily countdown of when the day of the party would finally arrive

Corynn constantly bombarded me with her visions for the party: every day after rest time she would have a new version printed out for me:

(A gnome hitting a pumpkin pinata with pumpkin moonshines for decorations. In case you wondered...)

Outside of the food and candy costs ( which seem always to be exorbitant-even when you make everything from scratch), I spent a whopping $6.00 on decorations ($1.00 for polka dot napkins (instead of using plain white ones which I had) and $5.00 for some orange lilies~which I broke my "no buying decorations" policy for and then didn't even notice the whole night! :-( SO not worth the guilt!)

Other than that, I used everything I already had on hand to decorate and I found the challenge not only fun but REALLY worthwhile too! The fact that I was successful says less about my frugal nature and more about my "packrat-ing" issues. I used glitter, glue, balloons, tablecloths and lots and lots of construction paper. All of which, I already had on hand.

The invitations were made of orange construction paper two, glued around the edges with an opening on top. The information was glued on a ribbon stem and could be read by pulling the stem up out of the pumpkin pocket. Of course, there had to be faces.




Matt chuckled when he saw me arranging "dead" things into old planting containers. It was fun (and very prickly) to gather all the things along the road and fields. I didn't realize how thorny fall plants were until I had to walk back and get gloves! I sed sand from the sandbox to hold the stems in place and weight down the containers. I set them atop concrete blocks for some added height. (I never said I was Martha, so don't harass me about my redneck "columns". Thankyouverymuch.)

No-I didn't find those four red roses in the fields. Those roses were these roses, long gone, but still perty. Especially in these 'dead' bouquets.

~Inside~

I made WEB doilies out of black contruction paper and glitter and scattered them atop a green tablecloth. I liked them a lot. (Just fold the paper as you would for making snowflakes and cut a swish mark on the end and follow with matching marks along the edges until you get about 2 inches from the point.)


The black candlabra was a birthday gift from my sister a few years back. I have always loved it-but it was given new life as a Halloween centerpiece and it TOTALLY fit.



And then~ the table with food~

Last year's trick or treating (vintage-looking) tins were used to hold peanut butter popcorn.
My colored glass cups and dishes were scouted out from around the house and used to hold soup garnishes, plasticwear, and dipping sauces.
On the menu:

Chili (garnished with sour cream and shredded cheddar)
A big pot of Cheddar Corn Chowder (garnished with bacon)
Soft pretzels with honey mustard dipping sauce (the Pretzels were the one thing I didn't make from scratch)
Brownies
Witches hat rolls
Breadsticks
Chips
and Peanut Butter Popcorn

My sister brought a FABULOUS taco salad dip which was gone before I got to enjoy my fill. :-(




Oh-and there were candles. P.L.E.N.T.Y of candles. The room was positively BRIMMING with them (and I didn't buy a ONE for the party). I just had them lying around: this fact and many others shows how much of a packrat I really am.

~The CANDY STORE~

A Pinata was DEFINITELY on the "party planning" idea checklist and the one that got my childer-two most excited. They have admired pinata's in sotres before and were anxious to be able to actually MAKE one. (You can DO that, Mama?!?!)

Of course you can! And who doesn't have flour and water lying around?!

The Idea for the party was to get/give candy in an unusual way-maybe even, dare I say it, EDUCATIONAL?!?!

Since money is a concept that we are working on with Corynn, I thought it would be fun to set up a candy STORE where the children could buy their OWN candy.

So, after we made our pumpkin Pinata, I filled it with coins instead of candy and set up a candy store in the front room using more cinder blocks and scrap wood. These red lights came in pretty handy too.


I bought several bags of candy and asked parents to each bring one to share. All in all, there was plenty for everyone. Except my poor kids who wound up with only tootsie rolls by the end of the night! (Oh well, candy is candy to them. But for me?! Whaaaaaaaaaaaa.)


The candystore concept was a good one, except there were lots of little bitties who didn't know a dime from a mime and the fact that there were 20 kids vying for the candy table all at once~it got a wee bit hectic there for a minute! :-)

I spied children playing store well into the night, long after the crowd has scattered.


(And the store is still set up in hopes I might get a few more chances to practice money with Corynn in a shopkeeper's setting.)

~ The Costumes ~



I didn't get a single picture of the costumes on "actual" Halloween....too busy being hostess.
These were taken the next day with slight variations on clothing (not that the children need to be asked twice to put their hats on again.)



This year I got to take it easy on costume-ing. They asked to be gnomes. The only request was that Andrew have a beard. Nothing else mattered, but the beard.



So I whipped up some gnome hats for each of them using fleece I already had on hand, a beard for Andrew and skirts for the girls. I used interfacing for the hats to keep them erect (though at times they began to fold flat making them appear POPE-ish instead) and since I used fleece, no seams to finish so it was easy peasy. I had to put ribbon on Miss Adele's hat though, because it was so big it kept falling backwards right off her head! :-)

I had plans to do the same for Matt and I but ran out of time. :-(

And now that I have posted all my Halloween costume DRESS UP pictures, I am not sure what to post for Friday.

MAN! I lack foresight, don't I?

Foto Friday: Motion ________________________

This past week we had the challenge of finding and capturing MOTION. It was definitely a challenging, um.... challenge, wouldn't ya say?

I had TWO ideas for it. The first~ having Matt spin one of the kids upside down and capturing their faces (in focus) but having their bodies blur. Matt was out of town all week (still isn't home as a matter of fact)-so that didn't happen.

My second idea was one that wouldn't require a slow shutter speed (read: anyone with any CAMERA can do it) and that is-to ride a merry-go-round! If you and your subject are sitting still but the background is spinning, it will show some SERIOUS motion in the background while still allowing your subject to be in focus. But, since I am ankle deep in glitter and pinata paste for tomorrow's big shindig, I was unable to get to a park. :-(

So this was the most frustrating of all challenges for me-because I didn't know WHERE to go with it.

Here are my few desperate attempts:

I remember reading a book on a Mennonite Family LONG time ago (like when I was a girl) that shared a photo of this woman's attempt to capture motion with her camera back when cameras were big 'ole boxes that required your own developing. The photo was of her mother feeding the chickens and the chickens being in a total blur because they flutter in excitement at food. I have always loved that picture. I can see it in my head like it was just yesterday my nose was glued to it. I tried to recreate it. Here is my much-less-intriguing version.

~Raiding the Christmas Lights

~You know a girl is desperate when she lets kiddos jump on the bed. They didn't believe me at first, when I asked them to do it. They hesitantly hopped up and looked at me questioningly again before they actually jumped. It took approximately 2.4 seconds for them to go crazy. This wouldn't be a bad shot except all that I see is a legless Corynn and quite frankly, it freaks me out.

It's been raining all week. Blech.

BUT, this once trickling creek turned into torrents which were PERFECT for experimenting in order to create a flowy water (like a painting). I have wanted to figure out how to do that for the LONGEST time. The shutter speed was set at 8 and I forget what the aperture was. (surry)

This is the first time I have actually succeeded in this and it makes me want to go seek out some serious waterfalls!!!

So that's it. My contribution. Even though I felt desperate and frustrated with my lack of ideas and opportunities, I still managed to get PLENTY to share. I couldn't possibly just post ONE!

Now~let's see YOURS.


In order to participate in these Foto Friday challenges, you must take a photo (or several) pertaining to the challenge and post it to your blog (and when you do, please link back to this blog {you may use the button if you like} so that perhaps we can get lots of participants! Because, you know, the more the merrier!) Then simply link to your Foto Friday post with Mr. McLinky here so that we all can visit you and compare notes...

Most importantly~challenge yourself, but HAVE FUN doing it.

We are going to take a break from the list again this week, because the opportunities warrant it.

Since this weekend is Halloween~I thought a perfect theme would be........

DRESS-UP

Now, if you are the sort that doesn't "do" Halloween, don't let that hinder you! You could skip the costume aspects and work the theme into fancy clothes, etc.

Knowing me, I'll probably shoot for BOTH. hehe

Cider Making ________________________

Nothing says Fall like Apples and nothing says Apples like cider.

When I ordered my 6 1/2 bushels of apples I hadn't counted on cider apples (because Matt told me not to-for the record) but it just so happened that there was an extra six bushels unaccounted for, that I could nab very last-minute. 12 bushels of apples sat on my enclosed front porch for a week. But on Saturday, about 7 of those bushels were made into cider. My brother in law came also with another 5-6 bushels and Matt's parents brought apples enough for two gallons of cider.

It was a regular cider-making party!

Matt got an old incomplete fruit press a few years back and made the pieces necessary to get it working. (Oh the cleverness of him!) Unfortunately, we hadn't figured out a way to process the apples (crush them up a bit) BEFORE pressing them so our first attempts didn't work very well.

THIS year, however, a guy from Matt's work had a processor he let us borrow and it worked WONDERFULLY. (I won't hold the fact that it broke Mattie's finger against it.)

Here are few pictures from that day. I am limiting myself to a small few so as not to steal Matt's thunder on HIS blog (even though he only posts on that thing once a millennium).

But FIRST~ I thought it would be interesting to see how much the children learned about cider-making without actually ramming it down their throats. So I tested Corynn-on video. Here she is: explaining how it is done-and no there was no script. I think she did pretty good. Let this video serve as PROOF that as your children are working alongside you--they are learning just as well (if not better) than sitting behind a desk.

Go ahead, Ms. Corynn :




And now in picture form:

This is the "CRUNCHING MACHINE" to which she was referring. It crunches apples AND fingers equally well.

(Don't worry-the finger crunching came during clean-up. No fingers tainted the juice.)


(BTW~If I can't accomplish what I had in mind originally, I am TOTALLY using this for my MOTION shot.)

The crushed up apples are then put into the press-inside of my lovely bed sheet that is now ruined. :-( Oh well. Guess Mattie can't complain if I get a new set for us! winky wink


See that "barrel" type contraption. Matt built that. And since a girl has got a right to be proud, I might as well tell you...He also fashioned the wooden handle on top, (and not pictured) the holey bottom that allows the juice to escape and the wooden apple-pusher-downer that the big screw forces down. I am just as eloquent as my daughter, I think! :-)

With the twists of the handle, the juice starts a'flowin. Let go, let flow.

It's much more fun as a two person job. Actually, I should clarify. It is much more fun when it is a job two people (other than me) can do. I like being the photographer. It gets me out of all sorts of work.


And lookie here: YUM-O Liquid apples.

Let me tell you this stuff is so stinkin' good.


Of course, fresh cider is the best (in my opinion) but Matt prefers it when it is hard. The object for him, then, is to harden some off. (and by some I mean: most.) So in the carboys it goes.


It's amazing the different shades that were produced from the different varieties of apples. The vibrant red apples on the left produced the furthest carboy-and it looked more like GRAPE juice than apple!

Because I thought He ought to know ________________________

Our itty bitty camera with the video feature was finally uploaded to the computer. I found this video of Andrew several months ago but it seems a fitting time to post it. Love you Papa!

Autumn Pleasures: Multitude Monday ________________________

I've been making good on my "no buying-only creating festive decorations" commitment. As HARD as it is not to pick up potted mums and slather them around the yard...

It isn't about making my home fit for Better Homes and Gardens or even to keep up the Joneses.

For us, it is about relishing what has always been around us---that we have never noticed.

It's about plucking joy and stringing it in windows

Gathering beauty and plunking it in vases.

Studying art and discovering the great Artist

Beautiful Autumn

212 :: Cattails and roses

213 :: Girl child who sniffs the woodsmoke-filled air and declares "It smells like WINTER!!"

214 :: Singing "DOE A DEER" at the tops of our voices

215 :: sunflower seeds that perfectly fit


216 :: Freshly pressed, homemade cider (more on that tomorrow)

217 :: Oil lamp, waiting for evening choretime

218 :: Sunflower seeds, waiting to be roasted


219 :: trickling creek turned flowing with two days of October rain

220 :: the nightly "Golden hour"

221 :: garlands of red and green in windowpanes


222 :: Pint sized rockers for reading

223 :: an October clothesline. I visit her less frequently but on a good day, our visits are more productive than ever before.


224 :: Goofy baby grins that just MELT you

225 :: Milkweed fairies flying about

226 :: Gnomekins underfoot

227 :: warmth and style, wrapped 'round

228 :: Animal tracking and tiptoeing to get closer views

229 :: an accommodating Heron and several patient deer

230 :: Saturday night dinner, with weekly thanksgiving lists shared

231 :: babykins wearing Mama-mades



232 :: Purple Homespun

233 :: The numbness of a broken finger, replacing pain


234 :: Our silly little home-made, redneck wood trailer


235 :: but it sure works well!

236 :: inspiring books

237 :: Mattie, who will be home soon

Autumn really is cozy, isn't it?!

Gifts numbered 212- 237, relished

Join us?!