I'm born a city girl but my heart belongs to the country. My aunt and uncle had a dairy farm in upstate New York and my mom, being a single parent and working, brought me to spend the summers at my aunt's farm. I am 67 years old and those summers are my fondest memories.
My uncle didn't treat me any different than his kids. I got up early mornings and helped milk the cows, it was this or help make breakfast. I take cows over kitchen work any day! I would 'grain' the cows, carry milk and even go out in the fields to get the cows. Now my aunt and uncle had 12 kids so I just got shuffled along. When haying was to be done, I was in the field with everyone else. When I was older, my uncle let me drive the old truck in the hay field. The first time my mom let me drive the car , I said I knew how cause I drove the old farm truck. Well I hit the brakes and the groceries went all over the floor because the brakes were 'different' than that of the old farm truck.
My uncle had 3 horses. A beautiful, young, black horse called Prince, a brown one called Sandy and an old freckled white nag called Foxy. You guessed it--I always got stuck with Foxy. As I got older I rode Sandy and sometimes Prince.
To this day, I am still partial to cows. As I drive by a farm, I roll the windows down to enjoy the 'aroma', while everyone yells "SHUT THE WINDOW"
Tuesday, October 7, 2014
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
What's in a name?
For a year while we readied the house to sell, we talked about adopting an orange kitten for our new home. So for a year we planned it , even his name-Jax.
After we settled in our new place, we started looking for an orange kitten to adopt. I have wanted one for years, even before we took the black one which I wrote in my blog 'A little what?'. I found a cat rescue online from my city and was looking at photos of kittens and there he was! Just what I wanted, a long haired, male orange kitten. He is the one I want- I could tell from the photo-even though it was of the top of his sleeping head -I just knew.
I knew I was going to get him at the adoption at the pet store on Saturday, didn't matter that I didn't have the $ 125.00 adoption fee. I showed my son the online photo and he handed me 3 fifties and said Happy Birthday! On Saturday I hurried to the store and saw the kitten and held him only for a minute because I wanted to fill out the application right away. The whole time I was filling out the form, an older couple was petting and holding him and three others came in asking for Theo, the name the rescue group gave him. I was changing that soon to Jax. I finally gave my application, laid down my money and Theo,I mean Jax, was mine.
When we got him home we tried calling him Jax but we kept calling him Theo. We took a pool on facebook and the name Theo won. Thats it, we called him Theo. He is a Theo ,through and through. And I new I made the right choice in kittens when he licked my nose and cheek. He is such a loving and smart kitten. He was finally accepted by the cats and dog except for Little Bear- he still bats him on the head. Theo has big feet and if he grows into them, Little Bear better watch out!
After we settled in our new place, we started looking for an orange kitten to adopt. I have wanted one for years, even before we took the black one which I wrote in my blog 'A little what?'. I found a cat rescue online from my city and was looking at photos of kittens and there he was! Just what I wanted, a long haired, male orange kitten. He is the one I want- I could tell from the photo-even though it was of the top of his sleeping head -I just knew.
I knew I was going to get him at the adoption at the pet store on Saturday, didn't matter that I didn't have the $ 125.00 adoption fee. I showed my son the online photo and he handed me 3 fifties and said Happy Birthday! On Saturday I hurried to the store and saw the kitten and held him only for a minute because I wanted to fill out the application right away. The whole time I was filling out the form, an older couple was petting and holding him and three others came in asking for Theo, the name the rescue group gave him. I was changing that soon to Jax. I finally gave my application, laid down my money and Theo,I mean Jax, was mine.
When we got him home we tried calling him Jax but we kept calling him Theo. We took a pool on facebook and the name Theo won. Thats it, we called him Theo. He is a Theo ,through and through. And I new I made the right choice in kittens when he licked my nose and cheek. He is such a loving and smart kitten. He was finally accepted by the cats and dog except for Little Bear- he still bats him on the head. Theo has big feet and if he grows into them, Little Bear better watch out!
Foot stomping and hand stamping!!
This past Christmas I got my daughter a hand stamp set of letters and a hammer. There has been no stopping her since; she even opened her own etsy shop of all kinds of hand stamped products.
Me, loving all things jewelry, was curious how this hand stamping worked. So I borrowed one of her many sets of letters and I like how the pieces looked and how you can customize things for you customers.
I didn't want to step on my daughter's toes so I thought about what I could hand stamp that she doesn't make and that there are not already a million on etsy. Why, earrings of course! So now my earring shop has custom hand stamped earrings.
Thinking on it somemore, I still wanted to branch out with pieces that others don't have. Uh-ha ! Beaded hand stamped bracelets. So I created a line of custom hand stamped bracelets that have beads strung on stretch cord. That is something few have. It will be interesting to see if these catch on. If they do you know I will be blogging about it!
Me, loving all things jewelry, was curious how this hand stamping worked. So I borrowed one of her many sets of letters and I like how the pieces looked and how you can customize things for you customers.
I didn't want to step on my daughter's toes so I thought about what I could hand stamp that she doesn't make and that there are not already a million on etsy. Why, earrings of course! So now my earring shop has custom hand stamped earrings.
Thinking on it somemore, I still wanted to branch out with pieces that others don't have. Uh-ha ! Beaded hand stamped bracelets. So I created a line of custom hand stamped bracelets that have beads strung on stretch cord. That is something few have. It will be interesting to see if these catch on. If they do you know I will be blogging about it!
Another Etsy shop
I have had my shop on Etsy for 4 years now and love creating necklaces and bracelets to fill it. And earrings. Earrings? LOVE earrings especially dangle earrings. I found a new passion and created so many earrings that it was too much for my shop.
So with a little planning, I opened my other shop The Earring Express . It is exclusively earrings, dangle earrings. I love working with the different metals in combination with the charm and bead color. My favorite combination is the use of copper wires, caps and charms with certain color beads. The look is rich. Having my earring shop, gives me the creative freedom I was looking for.
So with a little planning, I opened my other shop The Earring Express . It is exclusively earrings, dangle earrings. I love working with the different metals in combination with the charm and bead color. My favorite combination is the use of copper wires, caps and charms with certain color beads. The look is rich. Having my earring shop, gives me the creative freedom I was looking for.
New little home
As I mentioned in my last blog, my daughter and I moved to a cute little home. There are NO TREES! This is the first fall in 35 years that I don't have to rake leaves.! We moved from a 5 room house with a cellar and an attic to a small 4 room mobile home- no attic or cellar. We had a tag sale and a give away party. It took months to clean out the attic and cellar of 35 years of stuff that won't fit in our new place.
We love our little home, which has a walk in closet in one bedroom and a huge closet in the dining room. Both are full. But getting older, I couldn't do stairs anymore especially with my back problem. In my old home the bathroom was on the second floor and the laundry was in the basement. Lots of stairs. In our new place everything is on one floor and the stackable washer/dryer is in the large bathroom. It is nice to wash clothes any time my heart desires.
We are extremely happy in our new home.
We love our little home, which has a walk in closet in one bedroom and a huge closet in the dining room. Both are full. But getting older, I couldn't do stairs anymore especially with my back problem. In my old home the bathroom was on the second floor and the laundry was in the basement. Lots of stairs. In our new place everything is on one floor and the stackable washer/dryer is in the large bathroom. It is nice to wash clothes any time my heart desires.
We are extremely happy in our new home.
Monday, September 29, 2014
Spring cleaning we throw out the old....?
Winter is over and I was excited to see that my three baby fish survived as you read in my summer pond blog. What I didn't tell you was the sad mishap that we had.
I have a large fenced in yard with all the neighbor's trees leaning over the fence. Every year I have around 33 of those brown lawn and leaf bags full when I am done raking. So in the spring there is still a lot of leaves especially IN the pond. So part of spring cleaning the pond is to clean out the leaves. This can be tricky when you have
three baby fish no larger than 3 inches each.
My daughter and I carefully used nets to pull out the leaves from the pond and with each scoop we watched for movement cause every so often, we'd snag a fish. The big ones are easy to see in the net cause they flip flop really hard. We were so careful. When we were done with the pond and the yard we had another 10 bags full.
Ok, now to empty and clean the pond. We counted heads- 4 big ones yup, then one,two...one,two uh oh - only 2 babies. One got thrown out with the leaves. My daughter and I all sweaty and dirty, looked at those 10 full bags- looked at each other and said a prayer for the baby fish.
The surviving 2 went on to survive another winter in our new little home- with NO TREES!!
jewelry and more by kat
I have a large fenced in yard with all the neighbor's trees leaning over the fence. Every year I have around 33 of those brown lawn and leaf bags full when I am done raking. So in the spring there is still a lot of leaves especially IN the pond. So part of spring cleaning the pond is to clean out the leaves. This can be tricky when you have
My daughter and I carefully used nets to pull out the leaves from the pond and with each scoop we watched for movement cause every so often, we'd snag a fish. The big ones are easy to see in the net cause they flip flop really hard. We were so careful. When we were done with the pond and the yard we had another 10 bags full.
Ok, now to empty and clean the pond. We counted heads- 4 big ones yup, then one,two...one,two uh oh - only 2 babies. One got thrown out with the leaves. My daughter and I all sweaty and dirty, looked at those 10 full bags- looked at each other and said a prayer for the baby fish.
The surviving 2 went on to survive another winter in our new little home- with NO TREES!!
jewelry and more by kat
Little Bear's journey
One autumn day, I was at my computer which is next to the downstairs window. The blind was closed. I am busy but I kept hearing a thumping against the window. I finally investigated by pulling up the blind. And there is my neighbor's cat jumping frantically at my window.
I yell, what are you doing- go home, all to no avail because she kept jumping. I HAD to do something because she is so frantic that she will either knock herself out or break the window. I opened the window and yelled for her to go home- stop it!
Then I stared really hard at the cat. Hmm, this cat is too big to be my neighbors. I call my daughter downstairs and sent her looking for Little Bear, my black cat who has never been outside his whole life. My daughter can't find him and last time she saw him, he was in her room, which is upstairs over this room. I asked her if her window is wide open and she said yes.
So I started calling the cat Little Bear- is that you? The frantic cries started! I think it's Little Bear. Both the neighbor's cat and Little Bear are identical except my cat is bigger. Now I start calling Little Bear to jump up and he jumps so high he lands on the screen and as I try to pull the screen in- it SLOWLY falls backwards with a panic stricken cat whose big eyes were saying HELP!
Finally, one last jump and he's in the window and I grab him and start crying. What an awful ordeal He evidently fell out the second floor open window and was lucky he didn't break his neck! We live on a very busy street and so the cats are indoor cats.
I can laugh now thinking how funny it must have looked but at the time all I could see was a frantic cat hanging on a falling screen with fear in his eyes. I wonder what he thinks now, when he sits on a window sill.
I yell, what are you doing- go home, all to no avail because she kept jumping. I HAD to do something because she is so frantic that she will either knock herself out or break the window. I opened the window and yelled for her to go home- stop it!
Then I stared really hard at the cat. Hmm, this cat is too big to be my neighbors. I call my daughter downstairs and sent her looking for Little Bear, my black cat who has never been outside his whole life. My daughter can't find him and last time she saw him, he was in her room, which is upstairs over this room. I asked her if her window is wide open and she said yes.
So I started calling the cat Little Bear- is that you? The frantic cries started! I think it's Little Bear. Both the neighbor's cat and Little Bear are identical except my cat is bigger. Now I start calling Little Bear to jump up and he jumps so high he lands on the screen and as I try to pull the screen in- it SLOWLY falls backwards with a panic stricken cat whose big eyes were saying HELP!
Finally, one last jump and he's in the window and I grab him and start crying. What an awful ordeal He evidently fell out the second floor open window and was lucky he didn't break his neck! We live on a very busy street and so the cats are indoor cats.
I can laugh now thinking how funny it must have looked but at the time all I could see was a frantic cat hanging on a falling screen with fear in his eyes. I wonder what he thinks now, when he sits on a window sill.
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