Party Time

I am nearly 19. crikey. And my next youngest sister is nearly 16. One of the best parts about having a birthday so close to my sister’s is that the party lasts from the end of February to the middle of March. So this year, to prepare to celebrate our consecutive birthdays, we made tissue paper pom-pom things and hung them from the various tall places in our house. And I do have to say, they look simply lovely.

and in case you were wondering, yes, that second to last pom-pom was made by the boy, and since it was smaller, we put it on a stick in a flower pot. love!

Were these hard to make? Not at all!

Here’s the instructions we used:

(Thank you to Audrey from Oh So Pretty for the instructions!)

Here is what you'll need:
+ 10 sheets of the same color tissue paper (Most people suggest 8 sheets but I found they turned out best with at least 10 sheets.)
+ Scissors
+ Monofiliment or fishing line (for hanging the poms)
+ Bendable wire (I used 24 gauge)

And here are the simple steps for pom making:

1. Stack 10-12 sheets of tissue paper. I bought paper at Paper Source on the plaza. If you haven't been there I suggest you check it out...tons of great stuff to choose from!

2. Make 1 1/2-inchwide accordion folds, creasing with each fold.

3. Wrap your wire over center of folded tissue; twist until tightly secured. With scissors, trim ends of tissue into rounded or pointy shapes.
4. Separate the tissue layers, pulling away from center one at a time. Once pulled apart evenly, fluff the sections until you are happy with the fullness.

5. Tie a length of monofilament to wire for hanging.

TIPS:

+ I found the poms look better when you cut the rounded (or pointy) shape pretty deep instead of just the ends.

+ The first pom I made was a dud. I made it too big and didn't cut the rounded ends very deep and it turned out poorly. I made some adjustments on my second pom and they all turned out great after that.

+ To make a smaller pom follow the same steps but simply cut down your tissue paper to a smaller rectangle or square.

+ I made a multi-colored pom using 4 sheets each of 4 similar colors (a fun alternative to a solid colored pom).

So really, all you need are these 4 things:

And wa-la! So pretty!

 

 

To top off the afternoon, my amazing mom made cake. Carrot cake. Yum-o!

Party on!

back by popular demand :)

oh me oh my, how time does fly!

(just a little poetry for your morning ;) )

But despite my quirky poem, time really has flown by these past few weeks.

But oh how good the times were!

for starters, the last few weeks have included the following:

- tomatoes in the ground

- seeds starting to come up in the garden

- baby chickens integrating into the flock of big chickens

- finals… a perfect name for the FINAL things I needed to do to finish High School

- spray painting chairs… love love love the colors now… I love homeschool projects :)

- and loads more coming in more posts this week… get ready, folks!

To Move a Coop

This past year, my sister has acquired a new name for herself: The Chicken Mama. It has been a blast to see her build a coop, raise 6 chickens from 2 weeks old, and now, to move them outside.

My grandpa and grandma up north helped her to build the coop, and it was housed in our garage for a few weeks. The older chickens (who are now 4 months old) moved into the coop in the garage, while the younger ones (now 10 weeks old) took their place in the large rubbermaid container in the basement.

Now that the weather has warmed up, we were able to get the chicken coop to it snew location in the backyard. If only we could lift it all the way back there (the coop weight at least 150 lbs).

To save our arms and backs from pain, my parents devised the idea to back our minivan up and into the garage, then lift the coop only the 12 feet to the back of the car.

And praise God, it worked!

this picture below is a photo of the new area where the coop will be going. It looks much cuter now, as we have put up the fence, black metal gate (so charming!) and strung grapevine along the fence to add some sweetness. This summer, my sister Lillie will be putting in 4 raised garden beds in this now fenced area.

To say the least, my dad is a great driver, and managed to back the van across the vacant lot next door and into the chicken area- great work, Dad!

A few minutes later, we lifted the coop off of the van and onto its stand, connected to the run. These chickens are living in high style with a beautiful coop and nesting boxes, and a large run to, well, run around in.

We are so excited to start getting possibly 3 eggs a day (about 21-24 eggs a week!) from our girls, and are so so happy to have them outside and all settled in.

In case you wanted to get an inside view of “Ruthie’s Rhode Island Red Resort,” here’s a photo of the interior of the coop:

The stick-on tile is attached to a board that slides out for easy spray-off cleaning :)

And the nesting boxes attached to the left there.

Who knew that we would get chickens? It still makes me laugh some days…

Passion 2012

(so much for school today :) Ah, to be homeschooled…)

45,000 college students praising the King of Kings with Matt Redman, John Piper, David Crowder, Beth Moore, Francis Chan…

Totally. Awesome.

The students show up at the Georgia dome not knowing who will be there playing or preaching that day, just knowing that God will be there.

http://live.268generation.com/all-sessions/

Click above  to watch session 5 live right now (10:45 EST)!

Session 6 airs at 1, and session 7 at 7 pm, EST.

You can watch the previous sessions through tonight online as well!

Totally. Awesome.

Can I say that again? :)

Down on the Farm

Many thank you’s to Granny and Grandpa for taking us to K Farm!

Here’s our day spent farming in the 1890’s…

There is a beautiful farm near us now that is stuck in the 1890’s.

There are threshers, farmers in straw hats, a garden the size of our entire property, and so much to see and chores to be done.

One of the few places where you pay to work. :)

But what fun! To be a pioneer for a day…

and our first stop was to feed the cows.

Like Daisy, the dairy cow.

Arriving there just as it opens has its perks- like seeing the animals in the barn and having a gracious farmer show us around.

Here are three of our pioneers perched on a fence, wowing at the sheep.

R especially loved these guys because they were soft, small, and unintimidating. They even followed him around!

We collected some fallen and shelled acorns and fed them to the pigs. Phew! They were the stinkiest animal there!

After feeding the pigs, we wandered back up to the house to see what we could assist with. They were close to threshing time, and the treadmill and thresher were out, just waiting to get used. While walking back up, a farmer stopped us and asked, or, really, told, us to go let the sheep out- they hadn’t eaten yet.

M, Cousin I , and R all ran down, glad to be of help.

They propped open the gate, and WOW!

Those sheep can RUN! They took off straight for the woods to munch on leaves and whatnot.

The farm also hosted a LARGE chicken coop full of chickens and two roosters, one of which spent the morning strutting around the front yard.

Up on the porch, a lady sat with a large bowl full of mango melons fresh from their extremely large garden.

What is a mango melon, you may ask? And what on earth do you eat it with?

Well….

Mango melons were grown solely for the purpose of pickling. You slice a V shaped slice out of it and dig the seeds out. (they look like cucumbers on the inside) Then you scoop out the seeds and sew the V shaped part on, making a little lid.

then, after letting them soak a while in salt brine (extremely salty water), you fill the inside of them with tomatoes, garlic, onions, anything tasty with flavor, and you pickle the whole thing.

YUM!

While we were there, they were also picking their onions and beans. Here are just some of the onions they picked…

After helping out on the porch, we wandered through the GORGEOUS house feeling very Jane Austen-ish :).

The root cellar was very interesting, and I couldn’t help but picture all of the pickles, tomatoes, potatoes, green beans, and barrels of other things filling it very soon.

After this, we took a quick break for lunch, then came back, and found, to our delight, that the trolley was running!

They needed to wear out the horses so that they would be gentler that night when they had a bunch of little kids coming out, and we were happy to help them :).

After this, we all split up to go help in various places- the kitchen, the garden, the barn.

L and I pulled weeds in the potatoes, M and Cousin I and Cousin K went down to the pump and the barn.

On our way out, the Big Blacks were out to pasture, and M, who would simply LOVE to be a farm vet or a farmer was able to make a friend-

What a perfect day!

Thank you again Granny and Grandpa!

Kaye