Too warm too soon!

Ok so is it just me, or is it just too soon for 86 degree weather? I am not a hot weather person and I am sooo ready for a cool down, this has been some crazy weather we are having here, I heard on the radio we will be 4-6 weeks ahead of schedule this year, ya know that its just wrong!
Ok so I have been spending a LOT of time of pinterest, or pinerest as my hubby calls it,  ok so it is my pinerest (which is a mental hospital here in town) but it's so addicting!  and I have learned some good stuff, like making my own makeup remover, never again will I have to buy that stuff and it's stinking expensive, and I swear my eyelashes are better since I started using it, I'll even share the receipe ready it's really really easy :   1 cup of water, 1-1/2 tbsp of baby shampoo (tear free of course) and 1/8 tsp of olive oil, mix it up and your good to go, and I am telling you it works very well, and I have noticed my eyes don't react to it like they did to the store bought stuff.,  try it you'll like it!!  :)
Well saturday is a "work day" on our community garden at church, calling for rain, but that would be better than 80 degree weather if you ask me, we are doing the backtoeden gardening, I had put a link to it earlier, it's pretty cool!  we are doing our strawberries that way this year, it takes lots of compost and woodchips to do, so we have to start out small, as we don't have a lot of either and can't afford a lot of either.
Steve still is not working, and it's really beginning to takes its toll on him, but we are trusting in God and know without a shadow of a doubt He will provide as He always does!
I got my order of new scents for more lotions and soaps, like 16 new scents anxious to be able to start making with them, got some weird sounding scents but they smell good,  who'd a thunk the scent "lettuce" would actually smell good,  or grass stain, green garden lots of yummy scents.
Got some more knitting done for gifts, hoping to be able to have them ready to go by Sunday so I can take them to church and surprise the people they are for, that's the best part!


The chickens are doing very well, check out this egg it was just huge, I mean you automatically go ouch when you see an egg that size! It was only a double yoker though, I seriously was thinking triple yoker!

Well just thought I would stop by and update, as I really am trying to be better about it!.


Going to the show tomorrow to see October Baby, looking forward to it, I don't go to the show often, meeting a couple of dear friends, couldn't even tell you the last show I saw, it's been a few years. 


Well I'll post a couple pic's of my latest knitting, I am loving this little sweater and might make a few to sell, what do you think?

Still here!

Oh my gosh it has been soooo long since I posted, I had to reset my password and everything just to get back into my own blog.  Shame on me, and here I was going to get better at posting not worse.  I don't even know where to start, so I'm just gonna start, it's snowing, go figure no snow almost all winter long, March hits and bam so does the snow!  I was really afraid that was going to happen! I sure hope it's over soon, cuz I am READY for spring!  Ok now I do have some stuff to share with you.   Our church is going to do a community garden and we are going to do a new type of gardening (well new to us) but I don't think it's real well known, it is so awesome and I am so excited about it you can check it out here http://backtoedenfilm.com/ it's an hour and a half long but it's an incredible way to farm and garden, and it just makes so much sense, go ahead check it out I promise you it will be worth your time! I am going to do my strawberries this way this year, it will take a while to build up what you need to actually be able to garden this way, so I'm starting small and next year do something bigger too.
 Well I have been doing a lot of knitting, I'll post some pictures, making soaps, and lotions, the holidays were really busy for me, but I am so thankful for that, Steve has been out of a job since Sept 2010, working here and there for a temporary service, he is a licensed electrician and jobs just aren't out there,  and I am sure being 51 yrs old doesn't help a whole lot either, it takes such a toll on men when they can't work, just does a number on their whole pysch know what I mean?
 I have decided not to put my soaps in my friends office, I just don't want to commit to it I guess, but at least I know maybe someday I could and probably make a go of it.  I'm really thinking ahead to my retirement years, just something to keep me busy and help out with money too, just getting my ducks all in a row so to speak.
The chickens are doing well, we have added a few more, so we are up to 11 now, we had to get rid of Buff the rooster, he became very very mean and aggressive,  I had a little bout with him, scared me to death, and that was the beginning of his end!  You don't tick off the boss! and the hens are so much happier with him gone, they are like different birds!
My grand daughters are getting so big, Kamilah is in first grade (she was home schooled last year) but she seems to be doing very well, she's a very smart studious type of kid.  Her little sister Jazzy on the other hand, well she will be my daughters challenge, as she has been since day one :)
I'm trying to think what else is new since October oh my I'm so embarrassed that it has been so long. , not really sure how many people check my blog anyways.  I do check the blogs I follow on a daily basis.
I do promise I will try and blog more consistently.  I guess I just don't really feel like I have anything interesting to say.
Well I'll download some pictures and then I do have a little elephant I need to finish tonight.
Thanks for checking my blog, and I'll be blogging at ya later.

Going to put some new pictures under my knitting page.

Happy Halloween!

Oops I certainly didn't do a very good job of blogging more often this month did I? Don't have a good excuse either, just haven't had a whole lot to say I guess, which if you know me that is not like me, I usually have something to say...
Well let see our new chickens have fit in very well, (we added 6 hens a couple weeks ago) and they are doing good, Mr. Buff (rooster) is very happy since we added to his harem,  6 eggs yesterday, a couple of the hens we bought were going through molt, plus with the weather cooling off, I am happy with 4-6 new eggs a day, and we did get a couple of leghorns which lay white eggs, so we have white,brown, and blue pretty combo actually. 
It's halloween, we had our annual harvest party at church on saturday night, and it went very well, we had 441 people come through the doors which was the best turn out yet, and it sure was fun, I usually help in the kitchen and Steve works one of the games, the kids just have a riot!  It's safe and fun and they walk out with tons of candy.
Where we live we don't have any trick or treaters, which actually is ok with me.
I have been busy making soaps and lotions, sales are good and hoping that they will even get better as we get closer to Christmas, yikes Christmas already, the older I get the faster it goes for sure, I'm sure God has a very good reason for that :) 
My girlfriend and I are planning a road trip this saturday, goin to the bitchen kitchen, can't wait!!
Well I will leave you with some new pictures and I won't promise to blog more often as that doesn't seem to happen. 

Mr. Mac and Sylvester sunning 

My first boy doll

tote I made for my niece

Sylvester thinking he is a dog.

Mr. Mac   aka   punkin boy 

A day off?

So I took today as a vacation day, just because the weather has been sooo nice, and I figured hey why not?  ok it's 1:30 in the afternoon, I haven't been outside yet and just now sat down, hmmm gonna have to rethink vacation days I'm thinking.. 
Well it's been a while since I have had the time to sit down and catch up on my blogging, and now that I'm here not all that much to report I quess, either I lead a really boring life, or just a busy dull one?  lol  We did have a not so nice incident last week we lost Mrs. Buff  (Buff our only rooster, favorite hen) his name is Buff so it was only appropriate to name her Mrs. Buff.  We lost her to prolapse and unless you have ever raised chickens you might not now what that really means, it's not very pretty nor very nice to really talk about, we really tried to save her, but just wasn't going to be. It is truly one of the grossest things I have ever had to deal with I think.  So we are down to two hens and one rooster, just praying God will bless us with chicks, it's possible :)
Went to a women's retreat last weekend, oh had such a wonderful time, truly a blessing and relaxing time, so fun to spend time like that with other christian women I don't think we realize how important community is with other believers, lately God has really been pointing that out to me in many different ways, love when He shows you things like that in different ways but with the same meaning, know what I mean?  Our retreat was held at http://www.graceadventures.org/ we went a couple of years ago too it is a really nice place to spend time at. We are planning on going again next year, we stayed at a friends cabin about 1/2hr from the camp, (it was cheaper that way) or you can stay at the camp itself, but staying at the cabin was really nice!  Saturday afternoon we had time to run into Pentwater and shop the shops (a few of them) stumbled upon http://www.youtube.com/watch?  v=zR7AMQy3o6s&noredirect=1 the bitchen kitchen it was the neatest kitchen store I have ever been in, we are going to do a road trip before the snow flies up there, I think you could spend all day and not see the whole store, very very cool!  
Had to make a few orders of lotion today, was going to try and get a few batches of soap in too, but I guess that waits for a few days, I kind of ran out of day. My display is almost done for my soaps to put in my friends office, kind of nervous yet excited for that.  The soap is so nice though I guess you don't realize the difference between home made and store bought until you start using it, but what a huge difference it is.
Finished my little lamb, and am now working on a boy doll, he's turning out really pretty cute, anxious to get him done. I thought that would make a unique baby gift, to go along with my blanket I'm making and also some homemade baby soap., we shall see :) 
Sarah came out for the girls yesterday, haven't been seeing them as often as in the summer, but we all get busy don't we?  Now that Kamilah is in school I know time is even more precious to Sarah. They are two sweet little girls.  Well I will leave you with a couple of pictures and hopefully I won't wait so long to blog again.

our two kids - Mr Mac (black) and Allie 

my little lamb

Kamilah and Jazzy

Kamilah (left) has a ladybug on her hand

and of course Jazzy wants to hold it.

Happy Fall

Well it's officially fall, and I must say I'm rather glad it is!  Fall is my favorite time of year, I love the warm windy days, just that smell of fall in the air, leaves burning, leaves falling to the ground, all the weeds dying off, I do realize what comes after fall, but I wouldn't want to live anyplace that didn't have such a nice change of seasons.  We got the garden pulled last weekend, it was a really nice windy afternoon, and it was time for it to go, we weren't going to be getting anything more out of it.  Steve picked all the pumpkins, our largest one weighed in at 107#, our pumpkins did better this year than they have in the past, we also had quite a few watermelons but even though they looked good so far the insides haven't been quite ripe I guess.  Made applesauce last night, oh did it ever turn out yummy!! I ended up with 17 pints plenty for us, and I actually put the pressure canner away today, glad to get that out of the way, it's been out since green beans and it takes up so much room on the stove, but yet it's a hassle to put away and take out everytime you need it to, know what I mean? If you can I'm sure you do. I didn't do any tomatoes this year, I still have salsa, and stewed tomatoes and bbq sauce from last year, and we lost most of our tomatoes to those big ugly greenworms,  maybe next year....
Going to a women's retreat with women from church next weekend, looking forward to that, it's always so nice to spend a weekend with sisters in Christ, such good fellowship, and I'm sure we will be blessed!
Tomorrow we are going to have a spagetti dinner fundraiser for our retreat to help deter some of the cost, we also sold cookbooks and did pretty good with that too, we have 13 women going,  yep I'm looking forward to it!
Finally figured out some packaging for my soaps, and they are selling pretty well, I don't know if you have ever used homemade soaps, but there is just no comparison between homemade and store bought, what a difference, like everything else homemade, you just can't buy it in the store! 
Had my two granddaughters here for the day, what a treat, they haven't been coming out much lately, don't want to leave their mom, which I feel bad that she doesn't get any time away, and I don't get to see them as often as I would like either. 
Well I will leave you with some pictures and hopefully blog at you before too terribly long.
Enjoy your fall!

some of my soaps

Steve with one of the bigger pumpkins

nice little loot

this is the 107# one

and more soap

Val