Received my ATC swap cards!

Recived my ATC's from the Glitter ATC swap! Thanks Ladies! everything looks wonderful. I was really pleased with the cards I recieved! Would definitely play again!

Glitter ATC swap

I have so much else to update on.. but I find myself overwhelmed at where to begin... I think in my next post I will recap our summer highlights, but for now I'll post a picture of an ATC swap I am participating in. The theme was "Glitter." I couldn't decide what to do, and after my attempt at a Mariah Carey Glitter theme wasn't working out, I found these pictures of eggs and went from there, using my new lace punch set and some vintage walpaper inspired paper from cosmo cricket. The cow and chicken and plate of eggs I added in after I ran out of egg pictures. I added flowers, feather a doily and some lace to each one, Plus glitter, which is hard to see on these scans but it's fine gold glitter. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. I made 12 and wish I had had some left over for me. I would love hang one of these on a door handle or something, suspended by a ribbon. Wouldn't that look cute!

Thanks for looking and I'll return for an update of more substance soon!

Coming back to blog land!!

It's been a long while I know! I joined facebook, which totally sucked up my on-line time, and then we had some issues with my camera not being able to download pictures, and I don't love posting without a picture. And then I was so wrapped up in my squirrel Skimbleshanks and not being able to deal when I released him last month and then didn't see him for a long time. So between those things and the business of summer, I've just kinda floated away from the blogging world. But I'm back! I have so many good things happening in my life right now that I want to share about and I want to get back to reading all my bloggy friends posts. Feel like I've been away forever. I need to catch up on what you all have been up to. Been performing out with Tribal Rising, my group and it's wonderful! So exciting, I've also been selling my hoops and been asked to teach several hooping workshops, so I'm really excited about that. Feeling good about lots of things. Hope all is well in your world too!

Purging..

I've been on facebook and it's sucking up my life, which is why I haven't been on here more. So much to update on. I will be posting picture of Skimbleshanks (the squirrel we rescued) and my chickies who are getting so big. Pics of my herb and veggie garden which is coming along nicely. Right now I'm in the middle of a major de-cluttering and purging of the house. So much stuff has accumulated. I'm quite a pack-rat by nature, Going through stuff and really asking myself these three questions: "Is it useful? Is it beautiful? Would I choose to buy/aquire this right now if I didn't have it?" This has been so helpful. Gone now are the collection of paystubs from all by past job. Yes really. It's kinda opening my eyes to some insightful things about myself. The need to collect and save every little thing. The panic at letting go of things such as old greeting cards... ect..

Anyway I'm hoping to post a little before and after of my house as soon as I can get the pics uploaded. I hope you are all enjoying the summer!

Still here!!!

I've been crazy busy but have lots to update on. I'll try to do that this week! Hugs to all my bloggy friends!

Friday, Food, Furry's,Festivities, Fo, Family, Furrows, Fun, Friends, Fuzzies and FIRE!!!

The past month has been a flurry of activity. It started with a trip to Lancaster with my mother-in-law and sister-in-law and a trip to a scrapbooking convention. We had a great day looking at all the products and getting supplies for our next crop! or "crap" as we call it (short for scrap and crop). I got some really cute things, hopefully you'll see them on a future layout. Mom took us to lunch at the Shady Maple Smorgasbord in Lancaster and then we went to the craft warehouse where we were tempted by good prices and cool items. It was a really fun day with Family. Thanks guys!

I also got to visit with my cousin Felicia (better known as "FO" on this season of America's Next Top Model!!) She was in town for a visit with my uncle(her dad) and I got an autographed photo from her one of her shoots on the show! She's not allowed to talk about the show at all or say how it ended, so we'll just have to keep watching. I will say that she's just as cute and sweet in real life as on the show. I haven't' seen her for a few years since Gryphon was about 3 so it was nice to see her again. (check out Ruby's face there in the second photo! Ha!)




Then that Friday I had another First Friday performance with Tribal Rising, which was great fun. We had some good friends come up for a suprise visit, which was really nice! There were quite a few people who came up afterward to say they liked the performance and would come again which was really cool!

The following day we went to the annual Ukrainian Egg dyeing party at our friend Jan's house. Jan and Greg throw a huge party each year with lots and lots of great food and egg dying all day. It's always a lot of fun and the FOOD! oh my goodness! the FOOD!! I forgot my camera, but here are some pictures of the eggs from this year. (the little quail eggs in the middle are new and the tiny dotted egg and the dandelion are new)


The FURRY in my post is about our newest addition. Gryphon and his friend found a baby squirrel orphaned in the yard. I'm not sure how he got there but we took him in and after looking up what to do on the internet, I got him all warmed and fed and we've had him a few weeks now. He was all pink when we found him with almost no fur. I started out giving him scalded cows milk which apparently is the wrong thing. After some talk with wildlife rehabbers on-line we got it straightened out and are now feeding him puppy milk replacer every 3-4 hours. We are going to try to rehabilitate him and then let him go when he is able to fend for himself. I am saying that now, but those who know me well, know how much I adore squirrels and that I might not be able to actually follow through on the "letting go" part so easily. I think he's about 5 weeks old. His eyes just opened last week or so. He fits easily into the palm of your hand. He must be constantly on the heating pad It's a time commitment he and is doing well and growing. Here are some pics from a week or so ago, and one from this past week.






One Sunday last month I spent a glorious afternoon working on the children's garden at our church. We stayed late after the Sunday celebration with our friends and had a little picnic of fruit and bread on the lawn and then got to work digging the big circle where the garden will be. (hence the furrows in the title)It was so nice to be outside on a warm day, and the kids had fun playing together in the new sand pit. Chris spent the morning skateboarding on his own and then joined me after church. We dropped the kids off at his parents to stay the night. (Thank you again mom and dad!)and headed to the city for my big exciting news!

FIRE!!!!

I got to do FIRE HOOPING!! for the first time! FANTASTIC!!! I've been wanting to do this for some time and was thrilled to be able to spin fire that night after a very informative hour long safety workshop. Chris and I got to learn about the fuels used in fire performance, how to be safe, how to put out a fire (we got to practice putting out fire on each other's legs) and the general do's and dont's of playing with fire. It was super Fun.Following that we went to a really nice Sushi dinner together YUMMMMM and then met up with some friends afterward for drinks. All in all it was a really "Hot" date! Har har..

Here is my first "burn" as it's called (no I didn't get burned!)



The following evening I had a chance to do it again, I was invited to the firehoop instuctor's house for a spin jam and potluck. There were so many amazing fire performers there. Fire eaters, fire-hoopers, fire-poi and fire-staff. Really inspiring! My fire hoop is being created right now! I can't wait to do it again. And YES, yes I'm being safe about it! I had my hair pulled up real tight in a bun, but I'm thinking more than ever on now cutting it shorter.

Then we had Gryphon's homeschool Evaluation last month. We presented his portfolio and he was interviewed by the evaluator, she also administered the WRAT test. He did so well! His scores for reading and math were well above his grade level, which was a suprise as I feel like so much of our day is fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants. I'm just relieved that the eval and testing portion is over and now we just need to turn in our portfolio to the school district by June! Year one red tape FINISHED!!!!!

Today we got some Furries! 3 new baby chicks. They are "Sylvie" the Silver Spangled Hamburg,(she'll lay white eggs. "Cocoa" the Cuckoo Maran, (brown eggs) and "Carnation" (short for Reincarnation) the Arucauna who is the replacement for Lola and Laylou who were Aracuana's. They are so sweet and wee! (couldn't get a good picture of cocoa, but she is the one closest to the water feeder in the red picture.)




Whew~ Spring is feeling really FANTASTIC! so far!

Goodbye Violet...

We had to put Violet down yesterday. She was looking really sick and wasn't eating or moving around much. The vet said she had some genetic thing, I can't remember what it was called, but basically her eggs didn't move into the uterus thing and was forming somewhere else (something like ectopic pregnancy almost) her abdomen was filling up with fluid and she was very very weak and in a lot of pain. The vet said there was nothing she could do.

We decided to have them put her to sleep while we were there, she said it would have been a long painful death otherwise. I'm so sad but it was the kindest thing for her. I was sad too because I thought she was going to take her and give her the injection and then let us hold her as she passed, but I misunderstood and when she took her and brought her back she was already gone. I think she kinda did that because the kids were there and I could tell she was worried about how they were going to take it. I had already explained on the way that we might need to let her go. Gryphon understood but was teary and sad. Ruby was sad but quickly got over it.

We brought Violet home and buried her next to her sister Laylou, we're going to plant some violets on top of her grave for her this week, and some for Laylou too. I hope this doesn't turn into a chicken cemetery. The vet said it was nothing communicable, and the eggs we have are perfectly fine to eat, but she said that if the other chickens came from the same batch we might be looking at them all having that condition. Hopefully not. We loved you Violet and we'll miss you, thank you for all the eggs and for being our sweetie girl, I hope you get to forage for some good grubs and worms in the summerlands!!

Dishwater Tincture!

Yesterday morning I decided to clean up my shelf that holds my tinctures, vitamins and natural medicines. I noticed that I had just a tad left of my nettle tincture and figured I'd use it up that day and then be able to use the bottle for something else. I shook it up good and dosed up the dropper, then noticed there was only a bit left beyond the one dropper full, so I ditched the dropper and took a sniff before tossing it all back into my mouth.

The following happened all within the same moment as I chugged it back.. I noticed the tincture no longer had an alcohol smell and instead smelled kinda watery and sweet, I swallowed it down and immediately noticed it didn't taste a thing like nettle tincure and tasted more like.... lite beer....., or worse!!..... OLD FUNKY DISHWATER!!! ACK!!! it all suddenly came back to me... I had used up the nettle awhile ago and had put the bottle to soak in a sink-full of dirty dishes! I remember filling the bottle with the nasty hot soak water and screwing the lid on and setting it on the counter to soak off some nettle crud that was on the bottom of the jar. It must have mistakenly been put back on my tincture shelf where I forgot about it for a few weeks until that moment when I was drinking it down.

UUgh!!!... my stomach is churning just thinking about it again. My sink is usually pretty nasty too, I'm not the most diligent housekeeper and we sometimes take a long time to get to dishes... sometimes more than a day's worth are piled in there. I'm just picturing the concoction I drank being a lovely stew of...lets see... left over salmon with skin dried on dinner dishes, old beans, stale cereal milk, tea leaves, egg drippings, oh geez and the container I use to scoop up the chickens food which sometimes gets forgotten in the coop and possibly had chicken droppings on it. Mmmmm.... Good stuff! BLECH!! I immediately sent down a chaser of thyme tincture and elderberry followed by a good soup with LOTS of ginger and garlic. So far so good! So anyway....what was that I was saying about what doesn't kill you makes you stronger! LOL

Chicken Goodbyes....

Today we said goodbye to two wonderful chicken friends.

I had been looking for a new home for Lola since all the mauling of the chickens had started and today I got a call back from a local farm and dairy that is just up the road from us, that they would be happy to take Lola and give him a new home. This dairy is one of the few dairies in the area or possibly our state that makes and sells raw milk and cheese. It's outstanding, as I hear is their beef and chicken. Everything is organic and free-range and they take really good care of their animals.

So today we loaded Lola up in the car (In Gryphon's mesh laundry hamper) and drove him up. He immediately got down and ran under a fence into where the horses are. So many new things for him to see! Horses, pigs, cows, more chickens than you can count, all over the place. The kids that live there are homeschooled and really friendly and Gryphon and Ruby took up playing and running around with the girl and boy that came out, both kids were the same age as Gryphon and Ruby, and they were so cute together.

Lola strutted up to another smaller rooster and immediately was put in his place by said rooster. It really took him off-guard. I didn't see a food or water bin for the chickens and after asking the owner, she kinda laughed and said they are totally free-range and not to worry he would figure things out. I think she thought I was a bit crazy when she could see how pampered the Rooster was (we were carrying him around) and that he comes when called and that I was kinda (ok..really) worried about him. Lola was looking around at first like "where's the heated coop? Where's my own personal clean bowl of food? where the massage room? " He's going to have to get used to barn life now I guess. No more foot massages in the winter with healing balm for prevention against frost bite (no... I'm not kidding) no more hand fed scraps every day. (no more kisses and hugs and being carried around and babied) Ah well.... what doesn't kill us makes us stronger no? I think he'll be happy, and I know our hens here will welcome the change, although I did shed a few tears on the way home. (I also plucked a few of his feathers to remember him by.)

Also today we decided to finally say goodbye to another chicken friend. Our hen Laylou died last month and it was too cold to dig her grave and bury her so I put her in the freezer and she's been there for a month (my dad kept suggesting it was silly to bury a perfectly good meal in the ground, he thought we should have eaten her!) but aside from being vegetarian, she was our PET!

Laylou had died while trying to pass an egg. It was so sad, I had brought her in the house after seeing the blood loss. (her egg tube thing had come outside of her body) I even tried to push it back up in her and save her, I called the vet to see about taking her in, but I could tell she was on her way out and we wouldn't have had time. Besides after calling Chris in tears he gently suggested I was insane..."I want you to do what you need to to do make yourself feel better honey, but I hope you will use think rationally when making your decision, because we don't have $100+ bucks to save a chicken and she is after all only a chicken..." We said goodbye to her on the couch that day and hugged and kissed her and told her we loved her as she died. Today we burried her next to the coop so she can be close to her sisters. (who all crowded around her and happily dug worms to eat out of the hole we were digging for her grave.) And so today we said goodbye to two outstanding chickens, and the wheel turns again. We got the chickens last March at this time and now this March we will be looking to add two more pullets to our flock once we decide what kind we would like.. Stay posted... Here are some final pics of Lola as he was released to his new home.

Bits of Goodness!

I joined an on-line crafting community this past month called "Bits of Goodness". In the past I've had mixed feelings about craft swaps. Sometimes I get attached to what I've made and then not really wanted to part with it. I've gotten burned on swaps too but mostly I've also stressed myself out trying to get completed in time. This time I was once again late with my swap items and had a few days of cramming to get done and mail, but I was not disappointed in the least with my goodies! Look at all the lovely things I got! There are some really talented mamas in this swap. We are trying to keep everything very natural and keeping synthetic materials out. I'm so happy with my bits of goodness!


View of everything:



Wee Woolen Baby on handmade quilt square


Mama and baby bird and nest


Tiny felted bird, nest and eggs


Handmade lavender soap, handmade earrings
(with one of my favorite recieved ATCs card in the corner!)


Wool Roving Fairy and ATC cards (Artist Trading Cards)


Handmade Bag with felt Rainbow, woolen bracelet



Felted mushroom with snail on top!


Large Waldorf Window Star and Knitted Washrags



Here are the ATC cards that I made. The kids made some
too and recieved some as well, but they ran off with theirs
before I could take photo's of them.



I created some Waldorf Window Stars for my portion of the
swap, but seem to have lost the picture of them.

Tribal Rising!

I have had so many amazing moments as this new year is unfolding, especially as I have been working to create a healthier life for myself physically, spiritually and emotionally. If you recall this post, I had made a conscious decision to write down my dearest affirmations and goals for this year and also things I wanted to let go of. I found that the simple act of clarifying your intentions then asking for what you want, and finally believing that you already have it, to be really really powerful.

Anyway.. one of the thing I was looking for was a new spiritual home, which I believe I have found at a very cool interfaith church that I have started attending recently. I met a wonderful new friend there and in one of our first conversations she happened to mention that she likes to make music and sing. Anyone who knows me knows how much I love to sing too and that one of my aspirations for this year was to look into singing with a group or singing on my own. I casually replied to her that I enjoyed singing too and we moved on to other topics. A few days later she e-mailed me that that she was getting a band/group back together and needed a vocalist and would I be interested in this??? Umm... Yeah!!! She also mentioned another group that she was a part of which I auditioned for as well, but I realized that realistically I should probably just focus on one thing at a time for now!

This group and I have been practicing together now for the last month or so and 2 Friday's ago we performed out at the Starbucks in Doylestown for First Friday! (which is a monthly event when the stores stay open late and performers and artists come out) I really can't believe how fast this has all happened! We are calling ourselves Tribal Rising for now. The music is mostly improv with a trance/tribal feel. Think lots of drumming, singing, chanting and Native American flute. We also use keyboard, and guitar as well incorporating dancing and movement. I brought my hoops with me to the Starbucks performance and fulfilled two dreams in one night! Both singing and hooping for the crowd! I was glad to have my LED hoop. It was the first time I had taken it out and it was neat to have it light up the dark! There was a huge turn out, mostly teens and early 20's, and it was pretty loud and rowdy, but I think we were well received and people seemed to be having fun. One guy even sat in with us on drums and was fantastic. Another guy brought his homemade poi out and performed with me while I was hooping! Gryphon was fascinated by all the teenagers!

A shameful amount of pictures follows. Sorry I'm a bit excited! Some good friends and family came out to watch and took many awesome pictures! Gryphon and Ruby's friends Ava and Mckaylah came too and enjoyed hooping it up and dancing to the music. I think it'll be much nicer as the weather warms up, it was quite cold that evening. I have a hooping video and some footage from the band, but they turned out pretty dark. I'm going to try to lighten them up and then post them again later. I'm so very excited and thankful for the opportunity to make music and be creative with this great group of people!

Hen Saver

Our hens have been really getting mauled by Lola our rooster. He has been mating furiously with them all winter and their backs and tail feathers have sustained some damage. We would really like to keep Lola because he really is a sweet rooster despite this. He protects the hens and is a really beautiful bird, but I don't want our girls to be hurt either. My friend Amy sent me a link for this site, (as I joke I think!) and I went and ordered some vests or aprons (or saddles if you in the the UK) and put them on the girls straight away. They were not too pleased and for awhile they just stood stunned. Bean-Bean tried to pull her's off with her beak, but Buffy adjusted more quickly, after stumbling around the kitchen backwards trying to rid herself of the offensive new outfit! I'm hopeful that this solution will allow their feathers to grow back in and protect them from further "lovin's" from Lola. He should at least not be able to claw up and break off their feathers while mating with them. Soon spring will arrive and they will be able to free-range outside more freely. Hopefully Lola will get his mind on new spring grass instead of chicken ass! (sorry but it rhymed!) Here is Bean-Bean, sporting her new vest! (you can see her feather damage..poor thing, she's nearly plucked clean under that vest!)

Think Challenge - Tool Bridge

Gryphon's solution for last weeks Think challenge. Make a bridge using tools from your tool box and one other item. Bridge must be 20 inches in length and 5 inches high. He made his using a wooden sword and ratchet pieces among some other tools. Here is his solution!

I was Tagged!

I was tagged by Fairiemom! The rules for this one are rather simple - you go to your pictures folder and go to the sixth one and then you find the sixth picture and post it. Here is what I came up with. My photos are in folders so I went to my 2008 folder (since we don't have one set up for this year yet) I went to the 6th folder which was last June and the 6th picture to come up was this cute one of Gryphon and Ruby and their cousin Devin. I had totally forgotten about this picture. They had been running around the yard playing Harry Potter and then collapsed on the grass and were looking at the clouds, of course I ran and got the camera! Fun day, fun game! Thanks for tagging me Fairiemom!

I now tag these 6 folks to play along with me!

Danielle
Val
Melissa
Lawanda
Chell
Michelle
Audrey

Snow Hooping

Taken a week or so ago. Not the best video, but my first time outside to hoop in a long time. The ground was still pretty icy under the snow so it was hard to find footing without slipping. Still lots of fun and good to get some fresh air!