When A Man Loves a Farmgirl....

He brings her flowers and she smiles. He takes her on a surprise destination anniversary trip every year and she's happy. He catches her horse for her when she wants to go for a ride and she's pleased. He is up in the night with her lambing and she's comforted. But he makes her swoon when....

after busting her shovel handle off transplanting overgrown bushes, he comes home and says "there's a surprise for you out in the garage." And there leaning against the wall so seductively is a handsome and steely new fiberglass handled gardening partner just for me! Oh be still my heart...he's a keeper...yes, the shovel, but the hubby first and foremost. He gets me like no one else.    

More Home Projects

I'm still plugging away at doing some improvements around the home with a fairly tight budget in mind. A while back I was feeling sick of the leather couch syndrome we've got. When hubby and I got married, we brought into the marriage 2 dogs each, 2 horses each, 2 kids for me and 2 leather couches in addition to everything else. Of course, regarding the couches, they didn't exactly match but we are make-do kind of people so no big deal. Well, kids have flown the nest, only have one of the original dogs from that crew left and after we redid the laminate floors this winter, the leather couches just seem so EWWWWW. Getting on my nerves. Leather wears out very slowly and while this is a good quality, you're stuck with it for a verrrrryyyy long time. But with the budget in mind I put my thinking cap on. First off, got a new rug from Costco for $70 on sale. Nice find with their coupon and it's nice and big. Brightened up the dark leather/wood floor thing we've got going on along with the newly painted light colored walls. OK, would make new throw pillows...cheap and I can choose just about any bright fun fabric. When I got into the fabric store in town, The Sewing Corral I fell in deep like with this Anna Marie Horner (if I remember right!) decorator fabric and it was on sale so came home and got started on covering the ottoman.  

See the difference in color tones of the leather? It seems more noticeable in this picture than in real life.

After the ottoman cover. Better huh? It's a start. Next are new throw pillows and curtains for that big front window. Got them done, just got to get pics. I had actually given some thought to recovering one of the couches but decided against it. These wipe up so nicely and we live on a farm so wipeable surfaces are pretty important. And I'm not feeling THAT ambitious...

So, here we are with the new pillows in lighter more modern fabrics. I can live with this. That's pretty much my option right now anyhow. : )

 Now...I have to show you a lamp I inherited from my Aunt Betty. You decorating divas will cringe but it's a lamp I love because it's so unique. However, I've had the shade that I found at Goodwill for $1 for about 8 years or so, as long as I've had the lamp! It's so ugly and with the whiter tone I've got going, I did recently replace it. Here's a pic of the lamp. It's a farrier or horseshoer. Ceramic. Don't know anything about it other than that as far as history of it. 

The shade actually fit the lamp pretty well I thought when I bought it years ago, but here's the new improved version, an Ikea shade we found on our trip a couple of weekends ago.  Now I am going to paint the pole part of the lamp black because it's in pretty bad shape. I won't mess with the ceramic parts of the lamp. It's a classic! : ) If Antiques Road Show ever comes close, I really should take this thing in and see what we've got here. Now you've seen it folks, the good, the bad and the ugly.

Happy trails until the next project is done...

Trip to Port Townsend

Enjoyed a weekend away not this weekend but last, for our anniversary trip. Each year we go to the ocean but this year it was actually Puget Sound which isn't actually the ocean but is saltwater!


Anyhow, Port Townsend was lots of fun with its quaint little downtown full of old buildings and fun shops, etc. Of course, we ate seafood (mmmmm) and did some exploring. 


Had coffee at a "beatnik" underground coffee spot that was super unique and fun! We played tourist. Went on a driving tour of all of the historical buildings throughout the neighborhoods including churches, the Post Office, courthouse and just houses too. The hotel had a map of them all with a bit of history written for each one. Some were now bed and breakfast type places. Also visited Fort Hadlock which was really interesting too just about 15 miles from Port Townsend. Not sure if i have pics of that. Sorry about the dark "thing" in the lower portion of the pics. I took these out of the sunroof of the car and the rack on top kept getting in the way.


Here are some of the neat buildings of which all were on some registry for being historical. Again, not sure which registry or if there's only one. They were just cool, okay? : ) At Fort Hadlock we saw these 2 eagles, a male and female (don't ask how I know that...just trust me, chicks are on the way) and they were very tolerant of people and vehicles. 

This is the courthouse, isn't it impressive? Spectacular. Can't remember the year on it, 1800's?

This one was spectacular as the lawn went right down to the water. Most of these were used as homes. Pretty cool huh?

The tour was fun. If you get the chance or need a weekend getaway, try out Port Townsend and area. Lots of fun and history in the area. I did not include all of the pictures. The self-drive tour takes about a half hour or so depending on how long you sit and "lookie-lou."

We had a nice getaway. Start lambing this coming Friday...got all of the sheep moved today and into the "drop pen" and we bagged up 52 fleeces into the big wool pool bags...and yes, we got 3 bags full! LOL.

Shearing 2010

Got behind in my blog posts. Been BUSYYYYY. Sheared the flock, went on a sewing extravaganza girls getaway and then an anniversary trip to Port Townsend over the weekend. It's the calm before the storm of lambing when I am homebound and can't go anywhere for a while. Great fun though! Oh, and a first birthday for my nephew, River, too! Gosh, it was just too much fun.


I have pics from shearing. Martin is a great shearer. Now I have 50 fleeces in the garage waiting for some attention. They are bagged and labeled but not skirted or washed yet. If anyone wants to purchase a fleece, now is the time before I put too much time into them. You can do the work and get a very good deal. $20 each, I'll quick skirt them and you can do the tedious stuff. They seem very clean to me with not nearly as much vegetable matter as you might think. 

BEFORE

STERLING WATCHING OVER HIS GIRLS

THE DREADED MACHINE!!!!

MARTIN DOING HIS THANG

NOW THAT WASN'T SO BAD WAS IT?