Crafty Me

Since June was so hectic, I didn't get to spend much time in my craft room. The past couple days I have been sewing like crazy! I love receiving homemade gifts. I just feel special when someone uses their precious time to make something special for me or my family. I always try to give something that I would love to receive. I have been experimenting this week and have had such a good time doing so!

The little set is for a girl at church that has a new baby. Since I don't ever deliver anything on time, I hope I get this to her while he can still wear it! I got the diapers and onesie at Wal-Mart and did some personalizing to them. I made the bib from scratch. I thought they turned out pretty darn cute!

This was my first pincushion. Buzzy made me one that I use, but I still wanted to make my own. The plan was for this to be attached to a wrist band for me to wear while doing big projects, like quilting. This flower ended up being about the size of my hand! Buzzy said it would be a great pillow! He decided that MiMi needed to have it, so he took it to her house with him tonight. I didn't mind. I love his over mine anyday. I'll have to post a picture of it later.

This is a potholder that I gave Steve's Grandmother for Mother's Day. There are things I will do differently next time, but I still love how it turned out!

I posted a picture of the blue quilt earlier. I finally have the red one done. They are cute, but I learned quite a few lessons with these bad boys. These are for twin boys that were born earlier this year, can't remember when exactly.

I finished two other projects tonight and I'll post pics of them tomorrow, but don't hold your breath. It may be a month before I do!

July 4th Weekend

We had a wonderful July 4th weekend this year. My favorite sister and her family came to stay at the lake house with us. I was able to spend some much needed time with my niece!

Steve and Henry did lots of jet skiing. Henry loves that jetski! The faster it goes, the more he screams with joy!

++for those of you wondering why my husband has Woody Woodpecker on his arm...It's not Woody Woodpeck, it's Mr. Horsepower. He was asked what the difference was and he said the cigar and Mr. Horsepower goes faster. So now you know!

This is my favoritest little girl ever! She loves her Aunt Leslie too. I can't wait to teach her all sorts of good stuff when she's bigger!

Our family is really close to this years Miss America. She came by for a visit to celebrate Independence Day with us.

Henry learned to jump off the boat. He's been letting me swing him out by his hands. He finally gathered his nerve and jumped. And jumped and jumped and jumped........

A nice man that works for my Dad shared his secret for catching catfish. He obviously knew what he was talking about. Buzzy caught fish after fish two nights in a row! I guess you could say he's "hooked!"

Happy Birthday Boys!

The destruction of Buzzy's first swing set was a family project. He ran over one of the supports a couple days after he started riding his 4-wheeler. Steve and I finished it off by sitting on the two swings at the same time!

Henry loves a swing set and only had a slide to play on. I felt that they needed a new swing set, so that's what we set out to find! We wanted two slides and a nice playhouse. We found one at Lowes that we were set on. A friend told me of a place that built, delivered and constructed wood playsets. I figured we would have to take out a loan for one, but the boys and I went to look. We found exactly what we were looking for and it costs just a bit more than the one at Lowes. The selling point was the delivery and construction was included! When it was delivered, it was fully constructed and ready to go in around 30 minutes! The one at Lowes would have taken Steve DAYS, if not WEEKS to construct, so I did good!

Henry LOVES it! He climbs up and slides down, and jumps off and monkey bars - with help, of course!

He loves flying through the air on the trapeze!

And gliding through the air!

And Buzzy has enjoyed doing his own tricks! Steve tried to get him to walk across the monkey bars. WHAT?!?!?!? Thank goodness I was there to encourage him NOT to! We have been out playing every evening until dark. They love it and, secretly, so do we!

One, Little Two, Little Three, Little chickies...

If you are my "friend" on facebook, you are familiar with the story of the assassination of my chickens. If not, here goes.

We were leaving for one of Buzzy's last baseball games and when leaving our dog was acting funny. Steve glanced to see what the silliness was for and there were two dogs inside my chicken coop. They had pulled the fence up and climbed right in. All of my chickens, or so I thought, were scattered on the ground. The dogs were so proud of their accomplishment, but, needless to say, I was not. I stormed over to the neighbors house, which requires a car, to inform them of the murders.

The fella came to retrieve his dogs from my coop. As I was observing the scene, I noticed that I only saw two chicks and there had been three. I began searching for the one lost chick and found it! It had forced itself behind a post and was practically buried in the dirt. I rescued the frantic little chick and placed it safely inside the rabbit hutch with the rabbit. So... a couple days later, guess what! The rabbit fence was pulled up and the rabbit was gone. Since the chick was inside a box, inside of the hutch, it was safe. She has grown and is now playing Momma herself.

Buzzy was eager to get the one little chick a friend. I promised that as soon as we were home from vacation, we would go and get her a couple friends. On Tuesday, Buzzy, Cooper, Henry and I went to Luke's Flea Market to make our purchases. I planned on getting 4, but somehow we ended up with 8! Buzzy and Cooper each got to pick 2 and I picked 4! I guess that since I take care of them, I can pick the number!

Anyway, this picture was taken on May 26. One of the little brownish chicks in now the "Mother Hen" to our newest additions! She is a young, unwed mother, but a wonderful mother she is!

When we first put the chicks in the cage, she acted scared of them. That evening when I went to check on them. There were no chicks to be found! I wondered what she had done to/with them!

Then they started appearing!

I placed them in a "nest box."

And she went right back to her job of mothering! She sits on them at night just like her little Momma did her just over one month ago! I have always heard of women acting like "mother hens" and I have now witnessed it first hand! This little chicken, that is just over a month old herself, has taken these little babies "under her wing" and would give her own life for them!

I have a friend that refers to herself as the "crazy cat lady!" I guess I'm the "crazy chicken lady!" These chickens have taught me so much about mothering. My original hen could have easily ran into the chicken house when the dogs appeared, but she stayed out with her little chicks. The baby chicks hadn't learned how to climb the entrance ramp, so she stayed, giving her life to protect them. Now her one surviving baby has taken 8 little orphans as her own. She pecks at my hand each time I try to touch one of her babies! Isn't it funny the lessons that can be learned from animals and nature?