Days Three and Four

They look as though I sent them to the corner.

Belly up!

I know, I am sure you will get tired of seeing chicks.  It's just they are really what I am focusing on right now.
Poor Ladybug, I have not pointed the camera at her for days.  We started out with 15 but we are down to 14 because one was not acting quite right from the first day and she did not make it through yesterday evening.  I was a very sad for a few hours.  I received a lot of good suggestions from my daughter and from Jayme at Tales from the Coop Keeper  http://talefromthecoopkeeper.blogspot.com/ , but she just was to little and would not bounce back.  As you can see the rest are growing and they are taking flying leaps and landing on each other like those crazy wrestlers on TV do.  They crack me up!

Thanks for coming by and checking out what is hopping and peeping in my neck of the woods.  Have a great evening!

Alphabe-Thursday

O is for Ornament

 An element of decoration.
In this case decoration of gardens and lawn.

I gathered up all the lawn ornaments a couple days ago to start placing them around the gardens.  We have to put them away each winter here in Michigan or they end up looking like this.

And this.

She lost quite a bit of the back side of her head but I still like having her around.  As you can see I tend to lean toward bunnies.

May favorites are made out of cement.

I found this bunny at a road side shop on Tybee Island.  He fell out of the car before I made it home from that trip and got a chunk chipped out of his face.  I think it gave him character now, although at the time it made me sad.

We have a large yard and a lot of gardens so I can sit these around and it never looks like I have too many.  I am always looking for just the right one to add to my collection each year.

And of course chicks, day two.   The little yellow chicks are Buff Orpingtons.  Ha!  I managed to get chick pictures included on an "O" letter week.

What can I say I have little feathered creatures on my mind.  As a matter of fact, I need to go check the thermometer before heading for bed.  Have to keep these little girls at 90 degrees and we had a freeze last night.  I was up at 4 A.M. adjusting the lamp and talking chick talk.

Thanks for stopping by and go on over to Mrs Matlock's and check out what the other Alphabe-Thursday participants have to share this week.

They are here!

Day one.

I took a lot more pictures but I did not notice how soiled the paper already was while I was excitedly taking the pictures until I downloaded them to my computer.  I was gone all day and the post office called mid-morning.  Hubs ran into town, picked up 15 feathered girls and got them under the light.  I was so excited when I got home I tried to pick up each one because I read if handled often from a young age the chickens would be friendly.  But they moved each time I set one down to a point that I did not know which I had held.  I'll take more pictures after I change their paper.  Sweet little peeps.  Thanks for coming by!

Pillow Case a Tutorial

I am attempting this tutorial that the Happy Mrs C requested me to do a few weeks ago.  I thought I was getting pictures of every little step but when I downloaded my camera and was getting my P's and Q's straight I found that I missed a couple.  I think I can do this, I think I can, I think I can.  But just in case it turns out as clear as mud you can Google 30 minute pillow cases and you will get a few options including this one here.
The following are the steps one of my friends taught a group of us a few weeks ago.  I made some notes at the time and made a phone call yesterday and managed to make three more of the cases today. The above instruction only uses two fabrics but we make the pillowcases with an extra accent strip so here are the fabrics you will need.
3/4 yard for the main body
1/4 yard for the cuff
1/4 yard for the accent strip

If you bought exactly 3/4 yard for the main body make sure you square it up.  If you bought a larger piece you need to cut it to 28 inches.
Cut 2 1/2 inches for the accent strip.
Cut 9 inches for the cuff.
Next fold and press the length of the 2 1/2 accent strip in half.
Lay your cuff fabric face up.

Next lay the accent piece with the raw edges along the top edge of the cuff fabric.  This is one of the pictures I missed taking.  This is what the accent piece should look like before you lay it on top of the cuff fabric.

You next lay the main fabric face down and temporarily pin it in place along the top edge with the other fabrics. It should now look like this.

Do not worry if some of the edges do not meet exactly you will take care of that later.

In the picture above you can see how the fabrics are stacked.
Next start rolling the main fabric from the bottom towards the pinned edge .

When it looks like the next picture bring the cuff fabric up and over from underneath re-pinning that edge in with the top edge, being careful not to pin the rolled fabric in with it. 

It will look like this after re-pinning.

Ready?  Sew all the layers together with a 1/4 seam along that top edge you have pinned all the layers together at.

 After you have seamed it and taken all the pins out you now pull the inside out of the tube you have just made.  It looks like the next picture when you are pulling the inside out.

Press the now flat piece and even up the sides by cutting off the salvage and any overhanging ends.

Ok here is where I have really missed a picture or two.  You next take your now flat piece of fabric that has the cuff attached and fold in half with the wrong sides together.  Do not think this is  wrong because it sounds wrong there is an extra step because we are using a french seam.  Pin down the side and across the bottom and sew a 1/4 seam down the side and across the bottom.  Now turn the wrong side out making sure to poke the corners out and press the seams well.

Now again you seem down the side and and across the bottom, only this time you use a 3/8" seam.  This makes your French seam.  Turn right side back out and press.  Your done.  I made these three for my youngest grandsons this afternoon in about 2 hours.

I am really sorry I missed a couple of pictures that I thought I took.  I did not have any other fabric to start another to get more pictures at this time.  I hope you can follow the directions or that you can pop over to the site I mentioned at the start of the post to fill in anything you do not understand.  But beware these are addicting.  Every time you walk into a store that carries fabric you are thinking about the combination you can put together to make more of these pillow cases.  While you are here pop over to wish the Happy Mrs C a happy birthday, it is tomorrow.  You can find her at http://happymrsc.blogspot.com/.  Happy birthday Mrs C!

A Prim Gift

I like visiting Cindy at The Bee Lady from Hilltop Farm.  She lives close to where my family lives and I actually drive down a road that passes right by the area she lives in when I visit my family.  Maybe one day I'll be able to meet her.  Cindy sent me a gift for just commenting on one of her posts with a suggestion of something to help keep her older day care boys occupied this coming summer.  She makes these cute Prim Bees:

This prim bee came with a scarf that Cindy made her because I live in Michigan where we have so many cold months.

Chuckle.  I took her little scarf off for now because I am certainly hoping not to have anymore cold weather.  It got a little chilly last night and I expect we will have another frost warning yet this spring, we usually do.  You should take a trip over to visit Cindy here.  She is quite an interesting person, a bee keeper, coordinates the community garden and is very crafty.  Thanks Cindy and thanks to everyone else for stopping by!  The weekend is mostly done and a busy week is coming up but I hope to get a couple more posts written this week including my first tutorial.

Sunday Praise

Good Morning all!  I missed posting Sunday Praise last weekend because we had two of our youngest grandchildren and I just did not get to sit down and choose what I wanted to share with you.  I think this is a great song and it is all about praise which is fitting.  Have a blessed day!

Alphabe-Thursday

N is for Nothing

That is all I could think of all day long.  Nothing.  We use to sing a song in Girl Scouts that was called the Nothing song.  It went something like this, Nothing, Nothing, Nothing, Nothing, Nothing all day long.  Nothing, Nothing, Nothing, Nothing how do you like my Nothing song?  Second verse same as first a little bit louder and a whole lot worse.  I am not really sure if I have the last line correct.

Here is a little something.

Narcissus that I forced this winter.

Some pictures of nests.  I am sure I shared these last summer but they are sweet so here is a repeat.

Pop over to Jenny Matlock and  check out the rest of what the other Alphabe-Thursday participants are sharing.  There are always a lot of interesting stories, pictures and things to learn.


Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you are all having a great week!

Finished

I recently finished a couple of small projects.  I think I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I was learning to knit.  I finished the dish cloth I was working on and it turned out rather well.  I knew I made a couple of mistakes and my friend that taught me could find them but I still can not find it myself.

I have started another one so I continue to practice knit and purl when I can so I do not forget how.  I also finished my first pair of socks.  These were crocheted though which I have done for a number of years.  I bought one of those desk calendars this year that has a pattern on each of the days of the year and this pattern was included so I thought it was time for me to try socks. 

I grabbed the yarn I was going to use when I had my granddaughters with me and did not check the dye lot so one of the socks is a little different shade that the other.  It really does not bother me since I am just wearing them around the house like slippers.  I picked out yarn that is really too heavy to wear with shoes.

If you are interested in this pattern Nadine of My Crafts, Life and Times has the instructions here.  You might like to go over and visit her because she has some other patterns and is quite a crafty lady.    And now there is a newly filled basket in our family room sitting by my new comfy chair that looks like this:

I'll show you what this is all for at a later time.  I am trying something new and not sure how it will work out so if it doesn't I will not have to post about it right?   I need to move away from the computer now and work on a gift that I need to get in the mail tomorrow and think of something for Alphabe-Thursday which I am struggling with this week. Thanks for stopping by!  I always enjoy your visit.

Birthday Parties

April is a busy month in our family.  We have three grandchildren that have celebrated birthdays this month.  Hubs birthday is this month also but I can tell you about it later.  I am really struggling to decide on a gift for him. So the last two weekends have included birthday parties and I have surly had my limit of birthday cake and ice cream.  My middle daughter has two sons born in the month of April.  She planned a really fun party and celebrated the two birthdays at once.  The party was held in a train car that was reserved just for the party.

The train runs for about a hour ride.  When it gets to the halfway point the engine disconnects from what was the front and reconnects at the other end for the journey back.  

 

The Birthday Boys! Great looking guys, don't you think so?

Friends

Cousins

I think the conductor looked like Captain Kangaroo.  Do you all remember him?  He punched all the kids tickets.

After the train ride the engineer took some pennies the kids had and placed them on the track before they moved the train into another area of the train yard.  The kids all got one for a souvenir of their trip.  I thought it was really a great idea.

This past weekend we celebrated our oldest granddaughter turning five.

Her mommy took her to a 3-D movie and she got a big girls bike.

Just look at that face.  It makes my heart melt.

We all took a walk after the party and the birthday girl had to get lessons on how to use the brakes.  She really had a hard time pushing the peddles the right way to stop the bike.  At one point she was going downhill quite fast and grandpa had to sprint to grab her just before toppling over.  She also ran into a few things because she was use to peddling her old bike backwards.  I think it is great fun to watch the little ones learning new things and am so thankful I live within an hours drive and get to participate in all their lives.