It's snowing again.

Large wet snowflakes,

 which seem to be unremitting.

 Pretty and quiescent really.

***

 But I know spring is on it's way.

A little birdie told me so!

*

He's in the know.

Kevin tells it like it is.

Have a pleasant weekend all!

I'm hoping the storms have not left any of you in jeopardy.

Blessings from the Stone House

NEW BABIES

Late Thursday afternoon we got our first babies of the year. They were a surprise! Too early in the season for our babies to be born! But aren't they cute? The Mr. warmed them up some, and the momma did everything she knew how to keep them safe and warm. (which mostly amounted to gentle sounds and stomping her foot at us)  I was very excited and wanted to have a spring giveaway in their honor. But unfortunately,

Yesterday afternoon one of our little babies died. Sadness. We need a much better place for the ewes to lamb before the rest begin.  Sigh.  I would still like to do a spring giveaway .  It's in the works.

One of my grandsons climbed a tree and brought me this nest. He was very proud of himself cuz he knows I like them. I do, so we oohed and awed and then I put it in a jar and added some blue glass eggs and it's going to be used for decoration at a wedding reception this weekend.  (pictures on a later post.)

The other morning, walking through my dining room I thought I saw a man standing outside where no man should be standing this time of day. Just caught a glimpse out the corner of my eye, and it kinda startled me. You know how you do that?  Well I looked again, and it was only Kevin and his beautiful tail!  I had a good laugh at myself. 

We had more snow everyday this past weekend. Yesterday the wind also blew and drifted the roads. We had a  very kind neighbor from a few miles up the road who came around and plowed every ones driveways and roads sat night, and then again Sunday morning after we got even more snow. I would not have gotten down our lane in my car other wise. And speaking of cars... the Mr and I need to get a new one. We are driving a Park Ave. ( the teen calls it 'the boat' )and it has almost two hundred thousand miles on it and has begun to fall apart piece by piece.  So we are in the process of trying to decide what it is we want/need to replace it with. A car? Better mileage. A 1/2 truck? Better for the farm and other things but not mileage. Which is a major consideration with our fuel prices. Diesel is almost 4 dollars a gallon and gas is well over three. We will most likely need a newer 3/4 ton truck before the tractor is paid for, and so we are in a quandary. We were hoping our car would just keep lasting and lasting and lasting and lasting and then some more.  It has been a good car, nice to travel in and dependable. When we get something else the Mr will end up driving it to work and we will park his truck and use it more sparingly. We are leaning towards a truck, which sounds very good this time of year! lol  But we haven't made any decisions yet. I have cub Blue and Gold this Thursday, which is causing me all kinds of planning stress! ( lets face it girls, a simple picnic causes me all kinds of planning stress...), and my oldest DD and I are helping a friend do her daughters wedding reception Friday night. AHHHHHHHH!  Next week will be a veggie week for me. lol

When it rains it pours! THANK HEAVENS for the PACK COMMITTEE and a DAUGHTER! I'm not in these fine messes alone!

.....and the MR. He's the mussel and heave ho guy behind all of my schemes!

I have a love for sunbonnets. I like the way they look displayed. In my quest to make a more period correct  mid 19th century sunbonnet for trek this year, I have come across a pattern I want to try.  And for anyone who also likes sunbonnets and wants to try their hand at making one to display, here is a pattern for a slat bonnet. It's  ready to print.   

Elizabeth Stewart Clark

 This is a google image. But looks very much like the Elizabeth Clark's pattern.

To see the real thing visit  Buns and Baskets blog.   

You can find other sunbonnet patterns there as well.

If you have an interest in sewing period clothing, which I do, you will enjoy Buns and Baskets and you may also enjoy these two blogs. Romantic History by Sarah Jane and her other clothing blog, The Sangamon Settler - Clothing of the 1820s & 30s

This is Sarah Jane and one of her three sons.  She is wearing a slat bonnet.

Hope everyone is doing well, and keeping warm. I see that some of you are having signs of spring. Well, this I know, it will come! lol Even here to the land of seemingly endless winter!

Welcome to my new followers, and thanks for the visits from old and new alike. And if you don't see hide nor hair of me this week, know I'm insanely busy running around like a chicken without her head :-)   and I'll be by to visit and catch up on your fine happenings at odd moments when I NEED a break to calm myself down.

Blessings from the Stone House

MAN CARDS FOR VALENTINES DAY

I was going to post this later in the day but decided to do so now . Valentines Day is creeping right up on us huh!


THIS IS SO COOLIE! YOU WILL WANT TO HAVE A LOOK SEE AT THESE MAN CARDS FOR VALENTINES DAY FOR YOUR MEN!

CHECK IT OUT HERE

THESE WERE ALL MADE BY SUE NEAL. ON HER BLOG HERE, SHE GIVES US INSTRUCTIONS AND FREE DOWNLOADS. PLUS, THERE IS A STUDIO 5 CLIP TO WATCH!

THE MR. AND OUR TEEN ARE GOING TO GET "MAN CARDS" THIS YEAR!   LOL

TELL ME WHAT YA THINK.

Blessings from the Stone House

Oreo Mice for valentines

This post is a re-post from  09. Just thought it would be fun to post it again.
ENJOY





Here's what you need to make these fun little mice.
1 package Oreos any flavor. Ours were mostly mint.
Pkg of white and Chocolate Almond Bark
1-2 jars Maraschino Cherries with STEMS. Green or Red, doesn't matter.
Hersey's Kisses, unwrapped
Red hots or something small for eyes. (can use frosting or colored chocolate
Sliced Almonds for ears Cookie sheets lined with wax paper
Melt the bark in pans in a low oven. (170-200 degrees) Watch it so it doesn't burn. Depending on how many you are making, you will not want to melt all of the bark.


Dip Oreos in the white bark, and lay them on the wax paper to set up. These will be the base for the mice.


While these are setting up, drain the cherries and dump them on a paper towel lined plate. Blot them dry. The bark will not adhere to them if they are wet with the juice.



Sorry for the blurry picture.......OK, now the fun part........... Eating all the cherries and throwing everything else away! Just kidding. I do love the cherries though........
Dip the cherries by their stems in the bark. Be sure to cover them completely. Gently shake them to get as much excess bark off as you can, then set them on the Oreo base, in the center.




Some of the stems come broken as you can see, but they work anyway. Working quickly, add a kiss for the head, and then add almonds for the ears. Try to find two almonds almost the same size for each


You need to work quickly as the bark sets up very fast. Now, the eyes. Use red hots, or what ever you choose. Just chocolate glue them in place and WA La, you have Mice! Drop each one in a cupcake paper and they are ready to go. Be sure you only single layer these as you transport them from here to there, because those little ears break.

















Hope this makes sense. They are pretty self explanatory.


These WERE lots of fun to make!

Blessings from the Stone House

Thanks Much

Hi everyone. Just a fast post today. I've got pack planning meeting in a while and then a fast trip out to Salt Lake to visit a friend in the hospital. Thanks to you ladies who accepted the pay it forward challenge!!!
Just a couple valentines today, this sweet old paper valentine I found behind a drawer in an old desk. I have always meant to frame it. You can see I've never gotten that done.....the bottom part has been torn off. On the back it is written out To Preal R from Eva grace Ekshand.

 the last of my old quilt waiting to be sewn into valentines

 cookie cutters waiting to be used for salt dough ornies with the grands...

Our stake is taking our youth here in June, for a trek.  We will be going to both the
Martin and the Willy sites.

The Mr. and I were called to be a trek ma and pa. We will have apx 10 youth in our family and we will be pulling and pushing one of these. You can see why I will need my sunbonnet!

 This is a replica of a pioneer handcart, used to cross the plains from Iowa City Iowa to Salt Lake City Utah.

More about trek next time. Gotta get!

Blessings from the Stone House

Pay it Forward: A Challenge

Last weekend we went down to the wonderfully warm and sunny Richfield for Jr High State wrestling.  50 degrees! We ENJOYED the warm south! lol

 This was our teens first year to wrestle. He has decided he's not a fan. I think he did really well. When he started we told him that he couldn't quit. If he decided part way through he didn't like it an wanted to quit, he couldn't. He would have to stick it out to the end. Ugg. Sometimes it's hard to stand behind your convictions.  In the end we were all glad to be done, but I think we could each agree that it had been a good experience. We've spent  every weekend almost during the season  somewhere sitting in  a gym. We had scary weather a couple of times, but these little weekend road trips with just the 3 of us have been good times. On our way home from Richfield,  we took the long way home and stopped here .....do you know how excited a 14 yr boy who has been trying to stay at 90 pounds can get  when he sees this?

Oh. My. Word.

The Mr and I are almost as bad as the teen! We came out of here with not one, but two dozen donuts!!! 2 hot chocolates, 3 free glazed donuts (like we needed them) and a calender full of coupons! Good thing this place is over 2 hours away! lol

Alright.......  I have decided to do  "Pay it Forward : A Challenge" with Marcy, a girl in a gorilla suit.  Like Marcy, I want to do something that gets me out of my comfort zone, and stretches me to do something I normally would not. And like Marcy,  I have felt all kinds of anxt about doing this, the  'what if' this and 'what if that''s are pretty strong. 

Here's what Marcy said on her blog

One of my goals this year is to do things that I wouldn't normally feel comfortable doing. I'm trying to step outside myself and help develop the inner me. I'm still really nervous about a few things, but I have discovered that I actually can do hard things!

A little while back I saw this post on FB...

I thought the idea was cute, but I didn't feel confident enough to re-post it. All those doubts of "what if no one comments" or "what if they don't like what I make" came flooding into my head so I quickly dismissed the idea.
BUT, today I read my friend, Lyssa's blog. She decided to do it on her blog! Genius, no?
So here I am, doing things that I don't feel comfortable doing? Are you proud?

"I promise to send something handmade
to the first 4 people who leave a comment here.
To be eligible, you must also post this on your blog,
offering the same thing to 4 other people.

The rules: That it must be handmade by you (me) and it
must be sent to your 4 people (you!) sometime in 2011."

You might have noticed that I changed the numbers a bit. I think doing 4 crafts will be an even "awesomer" challenge.

Now it's up to you. Please comment if you'd like to be one of the lucky 4 people who will receive a handmade gift from me. I'm excited nervous having a panic attack so excited to see who I'll be sending my creations to.

SO Here's the deal..........

"I promise to send something handmade

to the first 4 people who leave a comment here.

To be eligible, you must also post this on your blog,

offering the same thing to 4 other people.

The rules: That it must be handmade by you (me) and it

must be sent to your 4 people (you!) sometime in 2011."

Are any of you up for a Challenge? ? ? ?  

Next post I'll share some valentines from  around the Stone House, and tell you why I posted the bonnet picture.

 I'd like to Welcome all new followers to the Stone House. :-)  AND, Thanks to each and everyone who comes visit me ! I enjoy your visits!

Blessings from the Stone House