This 'n' That

The daughter's room has been painted, her furniture has been painted, and her walls are being decorated. My husband's office desk will be painted soon, along with some reclaimed wood shelves. 

Pictures to come... eventually!

But in sewing news, I have a few projects on my to-do list! I can't chat too much about this one, since it's for the upcoming Halloween blog hop...

I have two baby quits basted and ready to be quilted, plus two others than still need to be basted first. Let's not even talk about the baby gifts for friends and dresses for Ev that I'm excited to sew!

I'll end this random posting with some stormy pictures. I was able to practice using my camera's remote and shutter speed settings to try and capture lightning bolts, since we had quite the show last week... the storm did eventually get to us, and left us with more than 2" of rain. 

Boring Goal Completed Post {ALYOF}

My August Goal (link #72 in the link party) was simple... Sew borders onto two baby quilts.

I finished them about halfway through the month!

Time to get them basted and quilted :) along with umpteen hundred other sewing and diy projects! 

Dan's DIY: Compost Bin

Dan's first major project for our new home was to make a compost pile! 

The previous owners of this large yard never had a garden, but we are definitely looking forward to having one next summer. In preparation for that, we decided to start composting. 

Side note: This past winter, Dan purchased and read this book - a book with all the info you need about composting (bonus: it's written by an engineer... a tidbit that Dan, who has an engineering degree, appreciated, ha!). 

Anyways, this is one of the quickest and easiest compost "bins" that you could ever make. There are some flaws in the design, which I will touch on as we go along, but in reality, this structure is working just fine for us for now. 

Materials needed: a few stakes, chicken wire fencing, wire (either some you have on hand or sometimes the chicken fencing comes with wire when you buy it), and some general tools

How to: pound the stakes into the ground... place the fencing around the stakes... wire the fencing to the stakes... and wire the ends of the fencing together.

Not the most detailed of instructions, but you get the picture ;)

The flaws: we don't have hardly any shade in our yard, and you want to keep compost piles damp. We put some old burlap over our compost pile in order to keep the sun from sucking up all the moisture. However, the fencing is not very strong, so it has crumbled a bit already. This however, does help us reach the bottom of the pile when we are turning it with a potato fork (turning the compost is also a big part of creating good compost).

The positives: Evelyn loves the wagon rides we take to drop off the scraps bowl every few days. We put any type of kitchen scraps into our compost pile. It is common for gardeners to be a little selective of the types of food they allow in their compost - such as no meat - but as long as the compost pile stays moist and gets turned, the inner temperature of your compost pile is hot enough to decompose just about any type of food or vegetation... so that's what we're going for!

I know some worry about critters digging in their compost piles in search of good eats. Others worry about the smell. For these reasons, we put our pile in the very far corner of our yard - as far away from our neighbors as possible (if you remember, we don't have neighbors to the west or the north).

We'll, of course, let you know how our first summer of composting goes and if it will be ready to be tilled into our new garden this fall! Cross your fingers that it's ready in time :)

Ev Update {First Half of the Summer}

Beach Baby at Grandma and Grandpa's lake cabin.

Enjoying her new play structure in our backyard. 

We've done lots of driving and traveling! She still loves big beds and being entertained in the car... but now, she hands things back over her carseat if she doesn't want that item. She's getting a little more picky about what books, toys and treats I hand to her!

Always wanting to hold things. This is why I need to sew her a purse :) 

She loves sitting in chairs and being pushed on toys. 

• Her words include variants of "moo, ball, hi, yes, no." Her jabbering changes by the day and she is trying so hard to talk in sentences... she's just not quite there yet :)
• She loves fruit - grapes, watermelon, strawberries,  and blueberries. She loves pasta and rice and lots and lots of cheese. Yogurt is our go to dairy food at the moment, since she's just not loving milk yet. We had been tapering down on nursing and completely gave it up a few weeks ago. She hasn't seemed to mind.
• Cloth diapers in the house and disposables at night and when we're on the go... the front loader that came with our house hasn't seemed to mess up my washing routine too much yet!
• She cuddles with stuff animals and pretends to feed her dolls.
• She'll bring me books to read, although sitting through an entire book is hard for her still.
• She can build with her big legos herself instead of just knocking down what we build.
• She loves bath time, especially when there are bath crayons involved.
• One of her favorite pastimes is taking objects out of a container and putting them into another. So intriguing! :)
• She begs for stroller and wagon rides, although I don't like going too far, because you never know when she'll start to fuss.
• She loves putting things away... especially her shoes, and she loves throwing things away when we ask - so far, so good in that we haven't found any non-garbage items in the garbage!
• Last but not least, she enjoys being a helper. A smile will light up her face if I ask her to help carry something or if I ask her to take something to Daddy :)

While she may drive us crazy with her busy-ness and her short attention span, this is an amazing time of her development. She is learning so much and can understand a lot of what we say. It is so wonderful to watch!

We Love Our Northern Neighbors

We live in a little subdivision outside of city limits. Our house is on the edge of said subdivision, so while we have houses across and beside us... here's what we have on the north side of us :)

It's like we never left the farm!

See, there they are, just on the other side of the fence. 

I like our new friends :) and so does Evelyn... she can see them while we eat sometimes. She pointed and said "moo." 

Good girl :)

God's Beautiful Sky

An artist's work.

Same clouds.

Majestic then threatening.

Rainbows through raindrops. 

Still water reflecting the wispy clouds above.

A perfect circle through the haze.

Where I Sew. Soon.

Our new home has three has three bedrooms on the main level, so at the moment I have a room that can be specifically for my sewing and crafting time! If/when Ev gets a sibling, I would then get kicked to the basement guest room... but until then, here's the start of my Creating Room!

My mom recently refinished the dresser you see (I'll have close-up pictures another time). It now stores all sorts of crafty needs. But before I packed the drawers, I laid down vintage sheets as drawer liners. Quick and easy!

A few days later I was able to set up a few display areas :) Again, I'll have close-ups another time, but until then, you can see snip-its of some of my vintage goodness that can be both functional and inspirational!

Of course, this girl hasn't really loved the fact that her mother has been busy unpacking and organizing and setting up a new house. So, what's a mom to do? 

Let your daughter go crazy in the ribbon and notion hat box and play in the yo-yo tin! Sure, it means that you'll have an extra 5 minutes of cleaning later... but you did get 10 minutes of quiet unpacking while she had fun!

Soon, I may even get some sewing time! Hopefully...

August Goals {ALYOF}

Alright, here's the deal... we recently moved into a new house, my 16 month old is busy, busy, busy, and I have a non-sewing project to-do list a mile long. Simply, I've had a lot of time for sewing during the last 7 months and not a lot of time/space/need for non-sewing projects (like painting shelves, weeding and organizing closets). I'm loving that list, too, but I look forward to taking some time this month to sew... even if it's just a little bit!

My goal is to add a border to two baby quilts.

I can't wait to sew!

Beaches in the Midwest

There is a public beach about 2 miles away from our house. In the Midwest, that means there's a lake nearby :)

We've only been to the beach once since we moved - it was a relaxing way to spend a Sunday afternoon with Dan's parents.

Ev loves playing in the sand and splashing and kicking in the water, although she gets nervous when we take her out to the deeper waters. 

With a beach so close, we look forward to lots of picnic lunches, sun burns and wet swimsuits :)

Part Time Farmers

We may have moved, and Dan may have gotten a new job, but that doesn't mean we're not still farmers!

We are still close enough to the family farm that we can go there on the weekends. In particular, he'll be sure to help out with harvest and planting.

I'll still enjoy documenting farm life... even if we're not there all the time.

So, we may have moved physically away from Frog Creek, but this blog is staying On the Banks of Frog Creek :)