My Yellow Farmhouse

We Have a Winner

Happy Saturday Everyone.  Hope yours is off to a great start.  Thanks everyone for the names of your favorite flowers.  There were lots of flowers I have never heard of - so I will be checking them out to find out more about them.  I neglected to tell you mine - I LOVE red geraniums.  Of course there is the red factor - but I just love all of the little petals and there sturdy (like me lol) to stand up to just about anything.

So the winner was comment #12 Pam.  Mr. Farmhouse couldn't come up with a a number that pertained to anything happening - so he went with 12 - you can't go wrong with a dozen - right?  Pam I've emailed you and as soon as I get your address I will pop that package into the mail.

Thanks everyone for participating in this.  What am I celebrating - well celebrating might be the wrong word - but I've retired my business and I'm going to be selling out of a lot of my inventory that I brought back from my store.  Simplify is the name of the game.  Watch this blog for a few things here and there that I will offer up for sale since the majority of you won't have the opportunity to attend the sale I will have here in June sometime.

Now it's time to go get prettied up and get Mr. Farmhouse in his Sunday best as we are heading to a wedding - where I will see the youngest Farmhouse boy all spiffed up in a tux - NO he's not getting married lol - but he's in the wedding party.  Hmmmm maybe his girlfriend will catch the bouquet lol.

Until Next Time

Happy May Day

Holy smacks - here we are in May already - I'm loving it how about you. 

So let me share some quilty goodness with you from some places I've been to in the last few weeks.  I popped over to a friends house to see some eye candy of her beautiful quilts.  I took more pictures but they just didn't turn out so great for various reasons - but I put together a little smilebox for you to view what I have - enjoy

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The first quilt you see is from a book called Primitive Gatherings and the author is Terri and I don't remember the last name - sorry - just wanted to clarify that one.

We had our  monthly peep stitching night and I took a few pics of LL's house - unfortunately when I try to load them onto smilebox not all of the picture shows up - can you hear frustrating for me - but its still some nice eye candy for you to enjoy.  Then it was on to retreat with the peeps and beeps - oh my what fun we had.  Sounds a bit like a Dr. Seuss book doesn't it - "Oh The Places We Go"  lol.  Anyway enjoy the eye candy from that fun weekend.

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Lastly here's my version of a May Basket to celebrate May 1st

Hope you can see the yummy pieces of wool in this wooden tote.  There are 15 pieces of wool inside and most of them measure 13 x 15 - which is a fat eighth of wool - that's a lot of wool.   So in celebration leave a comment.  Since I'm starting to get into gardening - tell me what your favorite flower is and I will have Mr. Farmhouse pick a number - I won't say which day - but it will be this week and I will mail out this little hunk of goodness out to the winner.  Why am I giving this away - I'll share in the next post.  Hey I got to keep you coming back lol.

Until Next Time

 

 

 

I've Been Challenged

That's right I've been challenged and I never back down from a challenge - ya I talk big cuz I can - she doesn't live here.  Anne from Cottons N Wools (or as Mr. Farmhouse calls her Oregon Anne) and I have been chatting for - ohhhhhhh maybe a year about doing a quilt challenge together and we finally found one that seemed to click with both of us.  Now this might only be my side of the story but that's how I remember it lol.  The challenge is to make up a block a month and post it on our blogs.  The only rule for us - well that I know of anyway - is to pull the fabrics from our stash for the top.  Of course both of our blocks have to have cotton and wool on them - is there any other way to do it :).   I bought my pattern from Sharon over there at Daisy Cottage and asked if she wanted to join in - she jumped in with both feet.  Anne asked a couple of her woolie friends if they wanted to join and Sandy for sure is on board.  Since Sandy doesn't have a blog (BUT you should Sandy, you really should) Anne will be sharing her blocks as we go along.   So without further adeu here is my block

The pattern is Comfort and Joy from Silver Thimble Quilt Company.  I haven't stitched down the wool pieces yet - which will be button hole stitched.  There are also 2 stars that go on the flag which I will add when the stitching is done - those stars are tiny  You can see I made a boo boo when I cut the house block down -  which was AFTER I had done all of the applique on the house and roof - I'm pretty sure I fell to my knees just for a little minute - no not really but I was ticked.  So the girls at retreat suggested adding two little borders to the sides of the block to make it the right size.  I just couldn't do that applique over again - so I "made do" with what I had and you know that old saying "it is what it is" lol.

So join all of us again next month on the same day for the reveal of the second block. So now get on over to Anne and Sharon's blog to see their versions -  I know you won't be disappointed :)

Be back later this week with a post full of quilty goodness

Until Next Time

 

Let's Get This Blog Started - Again

Testing to see if I'm doing this right - I have lots to share with you and a smilebox I think is the answer.  Look for more of these little smileboxes during the week.  First up Bent Needles at my house a couple of weeks ago.

 

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EDIT -  The flag block is from a bigger quilt pattern by Blackbird Designs from a book called Summer Weekend - it's copyright is 2001 - so it's been around awhile.

The darling apron pattern is from Lori Holt - Bee in My Bonnet and I believe it's called Vintage Aprons - dang cute

 

 

Friday at the Farmhouse

Well here we go the first week of April is almost behind us - amazing isn't it.    Outside my window the trees are starting to bud and the plants are showing even more green than last weekend.  Gotta love it.

This afternoon I'm hosting the applique group Bent Needles, so the day promises to be full of inspiration of the sewing kind.  The deal with the Needle group is that who ever host doesn't have to supply the treats - it's an easy way to host that's for sure.  I've prepped the next block for my Buggy Barn Folk Art Album so I'm ready for stitching.

I thought I would share a wonderful coffee cake with you that I made for the peeps when they were here for a sewing day a couple of weeks ago.  First off let's share a finished project one of the peeps brought with

do you recognize this cutie.  It was a freebie BOM from Bunny Hill and Ms. Gail finished her's up - way to go Gail, it's adorable.  See Ms. Cami to the left - she's instructing me on how to take the picture lol.

When the peeps where here I made up a tried and true blueberry coffee cake to serve with morning coffee.  At the cost of fresh blueberries it was worth it's weight in gold lol. 

Just look at that yummmmmmy streusal topping

Blueberry Tea Cake

• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup butter softened
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 cup blueberries - fresh or frozen but I really recommend fresh if you can  - (I know at 4.99 for about a cup it ain't cheap and I told the peeps to enjoy that coffee cake with 8.00 worth of blueberries in it lol ) - this is really a stiff dough and when you add frozen berries the dough tends to sieze up a bit making it hard mix in the berries and spread - if you use frozen - don't thaw them

Sift together flour, baking powder and salt.  Cream together the butter and sugar.  Add egg and milk to butter mixture and beat until smooth.  Add dry ingrediants and mix - then fold in the blueberries.  Spread in a greased and floured 9 1/2 square cake pan that has been greased and floured.  I had a deep dish pie plate so I used that.  Sprinkle with the crumb topping and bake at 375 for 45 minutes or until done.

Crumb Topping - now I double this recipe but that's because I like the topping - this is the single amounts you need - not the doubled amounts

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 cut butter - softened

Mix together the dry ingredients and cut the butter into it - sprinkle over the coffee cake

Yummmmm wish I had a piece right now lol.

I'm heading to retreat next weekend - so I will be busy getting ready for that tomorrow.  The docks go in tomorrow as well - weather permitting and the married ones are hosting us for dinner on Sunday along with her parents - all I have to do is bring a salad and Grandma's Sugar Cookies - I can do that lol. 

Have a wonderful blessed holy weekend.  See you back here next week.

Until Next Time

Happy Aprils Fools Day

And it's no joke I'm here posting lol.  You know it seems hard to believe that April is already here because March went by so fast.  However the weather really feels more like the middle or end of April instead.  Things are greening up - there's little shoots of things pushing out of the dirt reaching there little sprouts towards the sun and the docks are going in around the lake.  Yes it's been a strange winter for most of us - makes me shudder just a little bit about what summer might have in store for us.

Anywho yesterday one of the peeps and I spent a lovely day at our county's Garden Day.  Tons of classes to pick from, a speaker, door prizes, vendors ,all the coffee, cookies and doughnuts one could eat and a wonderful lunch served in a flower pot to nourish us for the afternoon classes.  Am I a gardner - that would be a bit fat NOPE - but I have the "wanna be" interest of being one - does that count :). I've always had a love for flowers and beautiful gardens -  so with the info I learned yesterday from the classes I took I'm looking forward to taking a giant leap, well ok a little jump into the gardening world and seeing what I can do with dirt and plants lol.  I have some very talented friends who do beautiful gardens and I know they will help a girl out, until they start checking their caller ID to see who's on the line :).  I did buy a really sweet little child's iron garden bench to put out somewhere amongst the flowers - it's still in the car so I'll take a pic later for you.

It's been a busy week here at the Farmhouse - my 2 woolie groups had their get together so that meant 2 days of wonderful wool or textile inspiration.  First off here's a little inspiration for ya from Wooly Women.  I sometimes supply the girls with kits to do certain projects.  The project from February was a Primitive Stitches pattern called Tulips - here's how one of them finished their's.  I just supplied the background, pattern and wool - they supply the rest

Great job Randee

This was the completion of 2 years of stitching for this Wooly Woman - she plans on doing some stitch between the blocks and then adding a fabric border.  The pattern is called Snowman A-Z by Crabapple Hill - I came home and ordered the pattern - LOVE IT

Ms. Kathe had 2 projects to share - both are Bird Brain Designs - how sweet is this bunny stitchery

beautiful wool eggs

great job Kathe - you always get so much done and your a wonderful inspiration

This was the next project the Wooly Women wanted to work on - I supplied them with the pattern and wool and they will pull from their stash for their fabrics - Ms. Randee made up the sample - it's a Quilts by Cherie design called Tis Spring.  Can't wait to see it finished - the egg wool is a little hard to see - but it's there lol

Next up was Woolie day and Ms. Kari hosted us.  We were minus a few woolies who we missed very much :).  She made us a beautiful lunch - it was so yummy and pretty to look at - it's hard to tell but the chicken salad was nestled in little phyllo pastry bowls. 

Next up was show and tell -   first up was Ms. Penny - sharing her alphabet mini

then Ms. Faye showed us the quilt she made for a raffle to benefit a program she is involved in

isn't that just sweet and the back was minke - so it was yummy and soft.  You can't really tell but it was pouring rain out all afternoon - with some thunder as well.  The rain was a real welcome in our neck of the woods - no one was complaining.

Next up is Ms. Kari's project - this is her FIRST ever hand applique block - great job Kari and she says she really enjoys doing hand applique :) and now she's hand quilting it - your on fire sister :).  She did say that she learned you should never do a symmetrical block for your first stab at appliqueing  lol- you did a great job despite that obstacle sister.

Kari has a new book coming out in the coming months - so we all loved hearing about that and how it's going. 

I shared this finished project by Cottage Creek Designs - which I pinned to my big board ironing board and the cover is in dire need of recovering lol - but I haven't hung the little quilt up yet so this was the best I could do

then I'm working on this little flower from a book Lisa from Primitive Gatherings gave us when we attended her trunk show - it's one of her first books and it's a quilt made out of all different flower blocks - sorry can't remember the name and it's all the way upstairs lol - can you spell L-A-Z-Y. 

anywho I'm going to make mine into a pillow along with several other flowers that are in the book - I'll share those as I stitch along.  I might put an old button in the center or a stuffed wool circle with french knots around it - not sure yet.  So after all of that great inspiration, chatter and stitching - it was time to refuel - cuz it had been at least a couple of hours - my goodness we were getting weak LOL

Yummmmm is all I can say - you just can't beat a good sundae can ya

A couple of shots from around the house - first of all these guys seem to be coming to the door looking for food way to often and they drive Ms. Cami crazy as you can imagine

dang they are ugly - sorry Mr. Turkey but you are lol

Love these little paper mache peeps in the sunroom - notice the blue on them, LOVE IT

can't remember where I got this rabbit plate but I think it was on ebay several years ago - I still love it

it's always fun to decorate this little nook in the cabinet

isn't that wool piece great - I bought it from my friend Susie on ebay - go check out her wonderful offerings - she's always adding listings and her workmanship is amazing.

I've had these eggs for several years and love them when it's time to come out for the season

Well I'm thinking this post is long enough and Mr. Farmhouse and I need to head outside to do some yard work.  He asked what the blog post was about and if Cami or him where in it - I told him Cami made the blog because she was laying on the couch so cute - he said he could do that to LOL.  Sorry maybe next time :)

My calendar quote today is a great one I want to share

Live today

as if

it were your

best day.

appreciate

the potential

in each moment

Have a great Sunday and hope your weather is beautiful like it is here.

Until Next Time

Feeling Blue

Catchy title there huh.  No I'm not feeling sad at all - in fact with the weather we are having right now it would be hard to be blue.  No I'm craving this

I'm craving adding blue to the areas in the house that have none of that color.   We've lived in this house for 3 years at the end of April and I want to freshen things up a bit - not making paint or other changes, just moving things around and adding some of my blue to the areas that have none or very little.  Blue ranks up there as a favorite color and by adding it in counts as freshing up doesn't it?  Part of the journey for 2012 is changing things up a bit - stay tuned as I move forward on this one and share it with you.

I've been doing some sewing - here is Ms. Penny quilting my latest

I have the binding sewn on, just need to hand stitch it down then I can hang it up.  I did take out my bunnies and found I really don't have much for Easter decorations.  I also realized that I haven't decorated for that season since we moved in, which explains why I was out of the loop at what I did have lol.  Anyway there out and I will share those next time.

The weather here has been amazing and warm - Mr. Farmhouse did his last ice fishing on Saturday evening with a couple of friends.  They walked out there and found they had a good 10" of ice.  This morning this is what it looked like out the door

you can see how the ice is melting and there's open water.  This was around 10:00 this morning - now it looks like this

it has melted so much today, what your looking at in the above picture was iced over this morning - we did have wind and a rainstorm went through so that really helped move it along and widen the opening.  See that white stuff on the ice - that's fog - you can see better in this picture where the town across the lake is barely visable above the fog

Really strange looking that's for sure

Let's see what else is new - oh the male turkeys were out today doing their dance

trying to intimidate each other and impress the girls - who don't look to impressed, they just kept eating lol

 

I did make a great dish tonight and even remembered to take a couple of pics.  It's a bit like a lasagna - but has cream cheese in it - slap my thighs it's good.  Plus it's quick and very easy - always a bonus :)

Beef Casserole

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 onion chopped
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 15 oz can Tomato Sauce
• 8 oz egg noodle - I used wheat noodles
• 1 8 oz softened cream cheese
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 cup grated cheese - I used mozzarella

Brown your beef and onion together.  When burger is done add the salt, sugar and tomato sauce.  Cook your noodles as directed and drain.  Mix your cream cheese and sour cream together until smooth.

Place your noodles in a medium size casserole dish.  The recipe calls for a 2 quart dish - not sure what size mine is but it worked lol. 

Spread your cream cheese mixture on top of the noodles

then spread on the meat mixture

At this point I baked mine at 350 for about 25 minutes uncovered - took it out and then sprinkled with cheese on

put it back in for another 15 minutes until the cheese was melted.  There ya go - serve it up and yummmm yummmmm yummmmm.  I did take a picture when it was served - but you know it just didn't look very good so I'm passing on sharing it.   Mr. and I enjoyed it - a lot - in fact he kept eating out of the dish when he said he was done and had pushed his plate away lol.  As my Dad would say when Mom tried a new dish "it's a keeper".  

Time to sign off and do a little stitching on my binding so I can get that done and move on to something else.  Looks like another rain storm is coming in just like they predicated.

Ms. Cami says bring it on I'm warm, cozy and dry

Until Next Time

Springing Ahead

Holy smokes I can't believe that we moved the clocks ahead an hour last night.  I left the bedroom at 7:30 this morning and arrived in the family room at 8 :30 - that was one long walk - no wonder I was exhausted when I reached the couch with that first cup of coffee lol. 

Seriouly I know I've been absent for awhile and I thank all of you for the sweet emails checking up on me.  You see Ijust had to spend some time enjoying this beautiful site

Mr. Farmhouse and I took the kids to the island of Maui and spent some magical time together enjoying the beautiful island and trying to remember to say Aloha.  Our trip to Maui  also included a 2 day stop over on the island of Oahu to visit Pearl Harbor.  After a very very long day of traveling we arrived in Oahu, checked into our hotel and headed over to have some dinner and a refreshment.   Have you ever seen such a beautiful drink

this drink not only looked pretty and let us know we were in paradise - but boy did it taste good lol.  The next morning we were up bright and early - well rested and ready to tour Pearl Harbor - first tho a little breakfast - outside where the birds are close by to catch any crumbs lol

Touring Pearl Harbor was an amazing day and I think if anyone gets the opportunity to do it - they should.  One of the emotional parts of the day was seeing this aircraft carrier arriving into port - from the middle east.  The service men and women were in their dress whites and at attention the entire time the boats where guiding them in to dock

We also toured the Missouri

can you imagine sleeping in these small beds  YIKES is all I can say

there was also a submarine to tour - this is as close as I got - the top lol

I walked down the stairs to tour it and then turned around and headed back up lol - to tight quarters for me.  It was a beautiful day and we were so glad we went.  They have these headphones you can wear while you tour and you really learn so much.

Then it was back to the hotel where the next day we flew over to Maui for the rest of the trip.  First stop - to pick up our jeeps where we each couple had their own to tool around in - I requested a

A RED ONE - and they had it - yahooooo.

We had an amazing hotel and our view was beautiful from our room

You can see those palm trees are really blowing in the wind.  The first few days in Maui were really really windy - which made for some amazing waves on the ocean.  On one of walks around the area - I took a picture of our hotel - you can see how to the left it's raining on the left up in the mountains and on the right it's sunny - sometimes you'd get those little quicky rain showers and sometimes they just blew right on by.  If they lasted 2 minutes that was a long time lol.

a walk down from the hotel

the hotel has a wonderful little place just down at the end of the path that's just open for lunch and late afternoon snacks - we waddled down there and enjoyed a nice bloody mary and to watch the boogy boarders and surfers.

our own boogy board surfers - this was on a day the wind wasn't so bad - but it made for smaller waves much to the Farmhouse kids dismay lol

One of our ventures was the Road to Hana - which is an all day trip and it takes you through the tropical rain forests and some amazing scenery.  It's said to have 617 curves and 54 one lane bridges.  Well I can vouch for lots of curves lol.  Lots of one lane hairpin turns and when you come to one of those bridges you just wait your turn to go through.

Some of these bridges have been  "ahem" around a while lol

For those who have never done this road - it is a 2 lane road - but it's really what I would call a lane and a half at best lol.  This is how close I was to the side at times

I could have reached out just a little bit from the jeep and touched the wall.  There are spots on this road where you have to let someone going the other way go before you.  Son #1 was in the lead and met a utility truck coming the other way on a very tight turn - YIKES, we all had to back up so the truck could make the turn.  Always on the bridges it's one car at a time.  Only a few times did I have to close my eyes and think of something else - and no I wasn't driving LOL.

  We did some hiking while there to get back and see some beautiful waterfalls

and very cool look landscaping

Some areas were for others but not for Karen - this is where my new camera lens came in handy - see that red t-shirt in the upper left - son #2 and family - taken using regular lens

using the zoom lens

one of  my favorite pics of my kids - can you see how wet everyone is lol

we ate a picnic lunch packed by the hotel at one of our "wet" stops lol - no dry spot for sitting

one of the cools spots we stopped at - look at those waves in the background

just some random wave shots - because of the winds they were amazing - the power of them can almost take your breath away.  The pictures don't really show just how fiercely beautiful they were

On the Road to Hana there are signs everywhere for the "Best Banana Bread" on the trip - so we stopped at one of the places and enjoyed a warm mini loaf of banana bread - dang it was good :)

I think it's wrapped in saran wrap straight from the oven because when you pick it up - it's warm, yummmmm I can still taste it.

Our last night in Maui we attended a luau - beautiful setting for it

and a wonderful show complete with a fire dancer at the end of it.  Tried to take a picture of him but all you see is a ball of fire

hmmmmm the food maybe not so much - to off the wall for me. 

We enjoyed our pool time during much of each day - how can you not love this

and walking the beautiful grounds

not a bad way to spend time :)

The Farmhouse Family had an amazing time together - and many special memories were made.  I now have almost 700 pictures to go through and make up a scrapbook.  Going there didn't seem to bother me - but it took almost 24 hours from the time we left the hotel until we parked in our garage and can I tell ya it took me out of commission for a few days - then add in the time change - double whammy for me.   But soooooo worth it.

Now it's back to reality and I'm ready for spring - out come the rabbits today for that spring look.  I promise not to be gone so long next time :).  Part of my journey for 2012 is to visit more with you.

Until Next Time

Happy Valentines Day

One of my journey goals for my 2012 is to celebrate each holiday like I used to do in the past.  I've noticed in the last few years I've let that "tradition" go - it was just to much extra work.  So when I decided to pull out my Valentines decorations - I was surprised that I only came across a couple of hearts and a pillow

I made the pillow a few years back from a Needl Love pattern - but those few little hearts and little pillow I bought a few years ago.  So you can see I got nuttin to show ya.  I get my love of holiday decorating from my Mother Tother who always has sweet decorations around for whatever holiday is coming up and her home always looks so wonderful.  What she said to me this year really struck a cord.   She said I love to decorate my house for me - I don't care if anyone see's it or not - I do it for myself.  Hmmmmm I think I've gotten away from that.  I used to go all out and decorate when the kids were little and even as they got older.  But when they moved out of the house I think I lost my decorating mojo.  But I realized my Mother Tother was right - it's important to me for that creative part hiding inside and it's important for making my house a home for Mr. Farmhouse and I  cuz he always loves what I do.  Do any of you out there find yourself "slacking" because it's to much work to do now when no one else is around to enjoy it?  Thanks Mom - I don't think I told you that - your kicking my seasonal decorating mojo back into gear.  Now I know for next year - heart decorations are limited and needed - into my notebook that goes.  Yes I have a notebook for a brain - otherwise I forget :).

I did finally find a spot that I like for my monthly little quilts - you can see there's a little heart on the branch :)

It's above my cupboard and attached to on old window - it works :)

For part of my birthday present my Mom sent me an adorable little girl with a heart dress and she's holding a little set of dangling hearts that's hard to see.  She bought one and thought I needed one as well 

isn't she's so sweet and it meant so much to me. Thanks Mom - she's added to the heart decor :).

Then you see my adorable little bear with the heart.  Well how many of you are familiar with the Vermont Bear Company commercials that come out every year at this time - well this year their big push was a 4ft bear - and how the guy will be thanked in a big way because of the big bear.  Well Mr. Farmhouse and I laugh every time that commercial comes on - which isn't the reaction I think their wanting, lol.  So this morning when I got up and headed over to get my first cup of coffee there sat this sweet little bear with a cute note.  I'm still smiling and chuckling about that - I think he's hoping to be thanked in a big way LOL.  We plan on a quiet night at home with a great dinner and a fire.  We've got lots on our plate for the next 2 weeks - so a quiet night at home with a fire - sounds wonderful to us.

Happy Valentines Day - I hope you spend it with people that you love :).

Until Next Time

We Have A Winner

 

Thank you everyone for the wonderful birthday wishes.  I had a great day spent just the way I wanted to.  Mr. Farmhouse made my favorite meal of Teriyaki Chicken, grilled potatoes and a nice salad - perfect.   So I asked Mr. Farmhouse to pick a number and he picked 53 which is Linda Petey Frichten.  If you want to know how he came up with that number - it's my age as of last Friday lol.  Now everyone knows :).  So Linda please email me with your home address and I will get this into the mail to you.  Thanks everyone for participating and I'll see you back here in a day or two.

Until Next Time