Kick in the pants

sooo...

still loving the sunrise on our back porch!

maybe i have been missing from blog world for a while. it is hard to know sometimes what i want to do.... i have actually been busy with projects & family.

really, i have.
 
there are times i just can't decide which direction to go. and, sometimes most of the time, this causes me to get little done.  *sigh*

yesterday, a friend reminded me that she hasn't seen any updates on my blog... thus, she gave me that 'kick in the pants' i needed. :)

here are some photos of what has been going on at our homestead....

a new messenger style bag i have started making!  made 3 already.
just love that they are small and easy to carry.

my largest floorcloth order to date! 
a beautiful 6'x8' which now resides on cape cod!

last year we planted some strawberries...
but this year we got our first 'crop'!
yummy!!

we harvested our first honey from a hive that swarmed in the fall.
we didn't harvest it until early spring
(thus the snow in the background, haha)

i hope to get back on track and keep adding new and interesting ideas, projects, trips, etc...  but, this is a good start! can't wait to share what quilts i have worked on lately, what's growing in the garden, travels we have taken...

happy monday!

~ julie

charley harper sewing

i am not a native ohioan.  but, i have lived here for about 20 years now! time flies. but, i digress.  after living here for that long, it is amazing how much i do NOT know about this state... and one of them was the artwork of charley harper (read about him here.)  that is until a week ago when fabric based on his artwork arrive in our shop.  i wasn't sure if i would like it or not based on pictures... but, it is lovely.  and fun!

ok, that bear just looks great with the charley harper pillow, right?

i spent the day yesterday designing a pillow covering with the bank swallow blue fabric.  i think it turned out wonderful!  i am going to work on some additional ones today also using the bank swallow fall with has beautiful red, yellow, and grays.  i used a linen background with a simple off-white/black polka-dot.  the back is envelope style using a blue crossweave fabric.  i can't wait to start on the next one!  you can see the whole line of fabrics on the birch website.

my daughter & her husband's guest room :-)

my daughter and her husband arrived last night at 2am (after driving 9 hours from south carolina!) for the holidays... i added the new pillow to their bed.  loving it!

i hope you all have a wonderful thanksgiving, hanukkah, and start to the christmas season!  what a wonderful time of the year!  (our farm is covered in snow already... i am stressing because it sure feels like we should be opening christmas presents and sitting by the fire... and my presents are not even near ready! yikes!)

happy wednesday!

~ julie

back into the swing of things

after a long hiatus from my blogging, i am back!  a new format and simpler design will be following soon.  i hope all my peeps out there will continue to follow along with my adventures on 'the farm' and what creative things i am up to.  as thanksgiving is right around the corner & christmas following close behind... it is time to get busy planning, decorating, and making! seriously, i need to get busy!

here is one of the pillows i made two years ago...
i am feeling the need to make more this year as gifts! 

i have quite a few interesting facts to share with you about what has been going on around here... so, make sure to check back on monday!  

welcome back! and...

happy thursday!

~ julie

in the meantime...

i had hoped to have pictures of our bees posted by now... but they are all on my husband's iphone which he rarely leaves laying around for me to swipe them off of, so, i will try to get those on here soon.  they are busy finding the first blooms of the season though!  i am anxiously awaiting our honey this fall. 

and... in the meantime...

front of the newest handstitched quilt.  so bright and cheery!

here is my newest quilt just finished and put into my etsy shop.  i am telling you, i am soooo in love with these kantha style quilts.  i have 2 more that i am working on now, along with another quilt i started back in september (the move in the fall threw me off on completing this one).  hoping to have it done by the weekend for a friend who is getting married saturday!  wish me luck!

anyway, lots of hand quilting with lovely perle cotton and fabric from MoMo ("oh, deer" collection).

aren't these deer fun? 

spent the morning out mowing the back on our 'new' riding lawn mower.  it is fun to ride around mowing... i am sure that will wear off by the end of the summer though. *smile*

my sweet son is behind there... on my newly mowed grass.

happy monday!

~ julie

garden planning

one reason for moving out to the country and getting a larger piece of property was to have a bigger garden.  we have (over) planned our garden this year with lots of lovely vegetables and fruits!  all winter we talked about what we wanted to plant & grow in our new space. 

beans, tomatoes, spinach, lettuce, brussel sprouts, blueberries, raspberries, beets, and so on and so on...

things are finally falling into place now that it has been sunny and warm for 2 whole days.  our yard and field is starting to dry out allowing us to begin the transferring and planting process.  thank goodness! (who else is sick of the rain??)

we began by starting seedlings indoors in order to bring them out once the weather was warmer.  here is a small tutorial on how i made some 'green' starter containers that can move right into the garden.

first, tear some newspaper into pieces about 10 inches x 15 inches.

now fold the in half along the long side so it is about 5 inches wide.

use a glass (or other container) to use as your form.
lay the container sideways on your paper strip
with with the paper about 1 inch
off the bottom of the container. 
then roll it up on the outside of the container.

once it is rolled up hold the end tight & put a small piece of tape to hold it.

now it should look like this...

turn the container upside down so that the extra paper is up.

fold the extra paper over in sections (whatever works for you).

then use another small piece of tape to secure the bottom.

now just pull the newpaper off the container and, voila, ready to go
seed starters.

 this worked great and i really enjoy making them.  however, i found these seed starter (below) which were just too great to pass up.  plus, i am hoping they can be re-used. 

this last week, a friend of ours who lives down the road brought his farm equipment vehicle thingy... maybe i should learn the names of these pieces of farm equipment.  anyway... he drove up and did us a huge favor by plowing our new garden!  

the beginnings of the new veggie growing garden!

almost complete.  the dirt is looking good.

AND today, we went out and bought more for the 'farm.'   we now have an apple tree, a plum tree, a cherry tree, 2 pear trees, 13 blueberry bushes, 5 raspberry bushes, 12 strawberry plants!  plus the snap peas, lettuce, and basil we started indoors.  this makes me happy in my heart.

now to just get it all in the ground!  this farming is a lot of work.  the kind of work that makes you feel really satisfied at the end of each day.

happy thursday!

~ julie

farming update, etc...

the girls enjoying more room and fresh air in their new abode!

i have missed updating my blog, but somehow day to day life and chores seem to overtake my time.  sometimes i let them... sometimes they overpower me.  either way, we are still loving life in the country.  on our little 'farm.'  we like to call it that even though we are in a subdivision with large lots.  it feels country with empty lots all around us, an old barn on one side, an average age barn on the other lot, and a pond behind us. 

so, this week, i will post updates to what has been going on in our little part of the world.

today,  i will give a follow up on our chickens (ruby, amelia, henrietta, emma, & olive oyl).  they are doing great and have now moved out of our basement into their finished coop!  thank goodness. shoo-wee.  our basement was starting to turn into a mini farm all by itself.  (since we moved in, we have had the following in our basement... 5 chickens, 20k bees, 2 pear trees, starter seedlings, and other misc stuff!)

anyway, here is the progress of the coop over the last couple months.  you can see how the ground turns from frozen tundra to green spring grass.  let me just say, building in the winter is not easy!  my fingers don't last long in freezing temps while hammering and such. nope. thank goodness my husband can withstand the cold much better than me or our girls (the hens) would probably STILL be in our basement!

here is the beginning... frame work and putting in hardware cloth (tough wire screen)
at the bottom to keep out wild animals who might like to make a meal of our chickens!

looking better... roof on, hardware cloth on some parts, coop taking shape.

homemade windows by my husband!  he did a fabulous job on the whole coop & run!

my hardworking guy after more updates!  we used reclaimed wood from the
old barn next door.  the door here was inside the barn and worked perfectly!

here is a look inside the coop.
the three areas divided are the nesting boxes where, hopefully, they will lay their eggs.

the other side inside the coop has a sliding door we can open/close from the outside
with a pulley system. 

and, ta-da!  the finished coop & run!  the chickens seem pretty happy to be there!

and on a different note, just thought i would throw this in...

cooper.  crazy-eyed, sweet cooper.  he likes the farm.

more on the bees, garden, etc in the next few days!

hope you are having a great start to spring. it has been fun to see where flowers come up in our new place... you know when you move to a new place it takes a year to really understand the land & what it has living on it.  it is an adventure.

happy monday!

~ julie

kantha quilting

i discovered a fabulous quilt while surfing on etsy one day... it was not a patchworked quilt, but a simple quilt with one fabric on the back and a different fabric on the front.  i fell in love.  i needed to make one of these!  soooo... for christmas i decided to make my daughter one.

a modern twist on a kantha quilt...

i really liked the fun colors of the fabrics i picked out.  she loves orange, so that needed to be a prominent color in the quilt... i used fabrics from the 'oh, deer' collection by momo. man, do i love this fabric collection!  (i have 2 other fabrics from this collection sitting on my table now, waiting to be made into the next kantha style quilt!) 

the bright colors just make me smile!

it did take me longer than i had planned. (doesn't everything?? always??)  she got a half done quilt for christmas.  i did however complete it in january and now she has it to snuggle with at her home.

as i was glancing at a book in the  fabric shop where i am now working part-time (sew to speak), i discovered that this type of quilt is called a kantha quilt and was orginally made in bangladesh and used light colored solid fabric with single or multiple colored thread and/or on used saris.  it was exciting to learn more about this technique and the different designs where made through the hand-stitched quilting. if you are interested, you can find many online sold through fair trade practices.

the front of anna's kantha style quilt.

my quilt is a modern version of the kantha style quilt which is beginning to be found more in 'the west'.  i truly adore the look and feel of this new (to me) technique!  find lots more info on kantha quilts here and here.

the back of anna's kantha style quilt

have you ever done this type of quilting?  did you find it worth the time invested?  have you bought an original one from bangledesh or india?  please, leave a comment below about your thoughts about these quilts.

have a great week with whatever projects you might be working on!

happy monday!

~ julie 

willow wondering when we will
go out and play...

chicks & a puppy!

wow... seems like it was not too long ago when i was posting about moving in to our new home... but, in reality it was 3 MONTHS ago.  and i can't believe it has been that long. 

it has been busy around our house.  painting, updating, thanksgiving, our son graduated & lived with us for a little over a month, christmas, a new puppy, chicks, a special quilt, pillows, and other projects... so much excitement! 

let's start with the cute animals... (more updates of the other events in future posts)

first are the chicks... they are about 1 week old in this video.  they are now 4+ weeks, so new pictures will be included in future posts. we are in the process of building their coop.  they are supposed to be put outside in their new abode at 8 weeks... so, we have to get our act together and get it built.  we did set the footers monday before the temperature dropped to 12*F!  more building will have to wait until it warms up a little more.  (let's hope that is sooner than later, too.  or these birds will be taking over the basement!)

willow is 8 months old now, so she is not so little.  she is as sweet as can be!  we... (ok, so my husband would say this was all my doings, but he agreed with it all! i love that man!)... decided that our dog needed a friend now that we moved out away from the suburbs.  and when i looked at the dog shelter pictures... this one just looked so cute!  why not add some more chaos to our lives, right?  at least it is cute chaos.

willow, our new puppy, is on the left...
cooper, our 'old' dog, is on the right

and just some photos of around our house.  some of these are actually of lots beside our house... but while no one else is living on them, we will just act as if they are ours. *smile*

a little collage of pictures around 'the farm' on a very lovely morning.

happy wednesday!  (and it is nice to be back!)

~ julie

beautiful envelopes... and our move...

sorry about not posting in so long.  here is my story, and i am sticking to it...
on september 13, we put our house on the market... time for a new adventure... 
on september 14, we sold our house.  on september 18, we put an offer on a house...
on october 19, we closed on the house we were selling...
on october 26, we closed on our new house, packed a uhaul, and moved. 

one craaaazy month!   we still have boxes strewn about. no curtains or blinds. a POD in our driveway. but... i love it in our new place.  it is a little mini farm.  or at least that is what i like to call it.  i was going to include a couple pictures of the place. but alas, my camera just ran out of batteries.  i will be posting more about our move, the house, and a new floorcloth.

in the meantime...

in may, i signed up to be part of the summer elevated envelope project.  i was excited.  i had big plans.  i usually do.

raspberry bushes through paper art...

through this project i was assigned 9 lovely ladies to create artistic envelopes for.  and they made envelopes for me.  how fun is that?

bunting is always cute, right?  well... i think so :-)

i showed my first attempt at my envelope back in june.  my design involved paper cutting, scrapbooking, and embroidery.  it was exciting for me to try it out.  i could have done it a quicker way which allowed me to complete them earlier (which really meant... on time), but i really had a desire to make the envelopes this way.  it was challenging and took some time (a lot of time to be exact), but i think they ended up beautiful.  when i took them to the post office to mail them the postal worker really loved them.  she wanted to know where i purchased them!  i was so happy to be able to tell her that i made them myself.

envelope loveliness.

so, 2 months late, i successfully mailed all my envelopes.  yay!  and a month later... i am finally posting about them.  it felt so good to finish the project and feel so good about the final product.  i will definitely sign up for a future elevated envelope project.

happy wednesday!

~ julie

the new adventure begins...

soooo...  i mentioned in my last post that we had decided to sell our house, right?  little did i know that we would put our house on the market on thursday, september 13... at noon on friday, september 14th... we sold our house!  ridiculous, right?  crazy, right?  i know!  we figured our home would sell, but we figured it would take a month or two. 

sooooo... we have been busy looking for our new place.  our new adventure.  the place we will cultivate new dreams (and hopefully bees with honey & hens with eggs)! 

to be honest, i have felt a bit panicky.  my stomach hasn't been quite right for the last week. 

we looked at one house that seemed like it had great potential.  we planned to go back and take a look at it with our daughter and son-in-law.  BUT before we could, it went into contract.  seriously?  ugh!

we have spent more hours on realtor.com than any normal person should.  we made our search larger, changed some of our 'wants', tried new areas.  we looked and looked.  so many were already 'in contract.'  seems to me, as a home buyer, that the market may just be picking up.  good for the economy.  bad for us at the moment.

but then this week, we went to a listing we hadn't looked at yet.  we thought, 'this seems to be what we are looking for!'  then our agent called the listing agent... they have a contract on the table already!!  YOU ARE KIDDING!  so, we sent an offer an hour later... and the next day they took our offer!!  woot-woot!  today, we found out we are allowed to have bees & chicks.  shoo-weeeee.

so in one month's time we decided to sell our house, had to find another, found one, oops, found another, got our offer accepted and will be moving!  we are excited about our new place now that the dust is settling.

i just wanted to explain why i have been absent.  off the grid.  in la-la land.  that's my excuse for the past few weeks.  my new excuse will be that i have to pack up 16 years of life and move it to another place.  oh, and weed out all those things we have accumulated and don't really need or want anymore.  it won't be quick... or easy.  you should see our garage!

i am challenging myself to put blog posts on about my move, about leaving one home for another, our new cottage home,  and trying to stay creative throughout the process.  it is good to be challenged.  it is also good to accept the fact that i might not get it all done.  you gotta have goals though!

sorry about no photos today.  i have some just waiting to be uploaded and put online.  soon.  very soon.

happy friday!

~ julie

picking, canning, moving...

life has been busy these last few weeks (ok, always... but this is my excuse for not update my blog over the last 2 weeks... not forever... that will entail more excuses at a later date)

here is a little photo journal of just what i have been up to...

visited a local 'u-pick' farm and picked mcintosh &  bought honeycrisp apples.
(fyi, it was lynd's fruit farm)

the trees were loaded! it was the first day of picking... so there was a crowd!

the best ones are always at the top, aren't they?

my mini cooper was full of delicious smelling apples! mmmmm!
this is going to make great applesauce for canning!

our neighbors got two, yep 2, new puppies!  they are sooo cute.
so we have spent time visiting with them lately. 

going to a small skateboard competition to watch my son. 
he does crazy tricks.

we have been driving around the country lately (more on that below)
and found a great farm.  they picked us a bushel of tomatoes for canning.

not a bad view... tomatoes, herbs, floorcloth, etc. 

and, the final product... 24 pints & 2 quarts of canned loveliness!

there is something satisfying about knowing we have stored up some
freshness to open during the colder months! isn't there?

so... we haven't made or canned the applesauce... maybe later this week... maybe next week.  but at least we have the apples and are ready to go with that process.

and... we have decided to put our house on the market and look for a place in the country.  yep, it was a tough decision.  we have lived here for 16 years.  since our youngest was 2.  that's a lot of memories stored up in one place.  lots & lots of great memories, good times with family, great neighbors, etc. 

but... we also believe it is time for a new adventure.  there are so many things to experience and enjoy in this little life we have, and we have always dreamed of living on a small farm in the country... so, we best be gettin' on that, right?  my sweet husband and i are getting excited about this (even though i have warned him there will be crying when it is closer to time to go & we have to say goodbye to our neighbors).  i do believe that change is good though.  it makes you think, and challenges you in new ways.  plus, i want some chickens who will lay me fresh eggs.  :-) 

there are, of course, other things going happening... because there always are... but i will share more on those (like my elevated envelopes which are just about done.  hey, don't judge me because they are late. :-)  that's how i roll.)

so, thursday's the day the house goes 'on the market'.  i can't wait to get to work on decluttering, fixing, touching up paint, rearranging furniture, cleaning... hey, you get the picture.  (*this is sarcasm, in case you weren't sure.)  the house will look great and we will start questioning ourselves... we must stay focused, we must stay focused. ~ smile!

to new adventures!

~ julie