What this hermit has been up to...

Making pincushions! I have plans of starting up my ETSY shop soon.

and I made homemade ding dong cupcakes... which were to die for. If I could find a way to keep them fresh I would airmail one to all my hillbilly friends!

All right, so I haven't been a complete hermit, but almost! I have been quite busy, playing with the kids, tending to the garden, baking, crafting, sewing, and rearranging the furniture and finally realizing that no matter how many times I move the furniture this house just isn't getting any bigger! I love my little old house that we are renting, I can picture myself living here forever, but with wanting to have a bunch of little ones... just thinking about it, I go into panic mode, and start moving furniture, thinking where will they all fit? But worrying about tomorrow will do me no good. Today I have two kids, and I love my little house, I will worry about the future when it gets here. I did make a cozy little corner for my seing machine, wedged right in between the couch and the dining room table, this room isn't cluttered, it is multi tasking! p.s. I think I can squeeze a couple more babies in here!

Blue Monday

This is my first Blue Monday Post. Blue Monday's is hosted by http://smilingsally.blogspot.com

Here is one of the new pincushions I have created. This is one of fourteen that I have been working on. I just love polkadots and ric rac. Have a happy day!

Missing Hillbilly...

Hello to all, I apologize for going missing and not updating the blog. I have had a lot of drama this past week. Y'all already know that I am in the process of simplifying my life. You have read of my phone strike, you have probably noticed that I am blogging less frequently, and when I do blog I speak of desiring to us my time more wisely, and focus on enjoying the simple things in life. Well... simplifying.... became very complicated. The story I am about to share, does not invlove anyone who reads my blog, however, all though I know that what I write, will not be read by this person, I will still refrain from mentioning her name. A certain someone, brought about a great deal of drama in my life this past week. I had tried to befriend this person, even though we were very unalike. The friendship quickly became very overwhelming. I would receive an alarming amount of phone calls and hang ups daily. She harshly criticized my dear Caillou's behavior, and had the audacity to diagnose him with her medical opinions. This certain person is neither a doctor nor an educator of children. Our time was spent, listening to her complaints about her marriage and family, listening to her spread horrible untrue rumors, and hearing her go on and on about how horrible it was to be pregnant, and give birth. It greatly saddened me to see that her child was an after thought in her life, rather than taking front and center in her heart. After several months of trying to extend my friendship, I finally decided that this was not an atmosphere that I wanted to be in. I decided to right a short little note. In it I kindly let her know that I was feeling a bit overwhelmed and was working on simplifying my life. I spoke of the happiness I feel being a homemaker, and that I wanted to do less running around. That I was sorry if this let her down or dissappointed her, but that my priority was my faith, and my family, and that I had to work everything else around that. I in turn received a trio of very unkind emails from her husband and her. All though there was much drama this past week, I feel a sense of relief, that it is all done. It was very hard to spend time with a person who left you feeling so drained of any happiness or feelings of the Spirit. Well.... I appreciate you listening to me ramble about the drama of my past week. So on a happier note I will share the better stuff! On Friday, I went to the grocery store. I parked my car and lo and behold there were three ducks sitting next to me!!! I gathered the boys into the shopping cart, and began duck herding. I knew these ducks had wandered off from the duck pond behind the store, the same duck pond that we released a crawdad into, and the same duck pond in which we emmancipated a cow by accident. We were quite the sight, running and quacking with the shopping cart, tossing french fries, and trying to herd the ducks back to the pond. After a good 20 minutes, I was quite out of breath, and had not made much progress, but it sure was fun trying!

I did not make these darling little pincushions, but I can't wait to try my hand at making some of these litte lovelies.

The past two days I have been down at the hospital visitng my mom, who is recovering from having had a hysterectomy. She is in a lot of pain, but on the road to recovery. After last week's chaos, and the past 2 days of lots of driving,early mornings, and late nights. I am ready to stay home!!! I am going into Hillbilly Hermit mode! I may however venture out for quilt group, and perhaps a stroll to the thrift store. But for the most part my next few days will be filled with baking, creating, and playing with the boys. Every day Caillou has been asking me to make cake, so tomorrow cake I will bake! I have so many little projects going on around here. I am crafting and stitching up a storm. I have it all planned that I am going to hold a little craft fair here at my place, selling my homemade goods to fund my boys Christmas presents. I have been stitching, and glueing, and modge podging, and bow tying, and paper cutting lots and lots and lots. I just finished up some little sewing notions boxes, and now I am working on pincushions, journals, rag dolls, and soft critters, and making a darling little garland to hang on the wall... a row of tiny houses for my own little tiny house. Also in this weeks plans is to sew Jasper's teddy bear for his birthday and collect some more cans! I am collecting as many cans and bottles as I can so that I can afford to get him a store bought gift. Money has been so tight. Our church has blessed us by paying this months rent, but we still have so many bills left to pay. With a bank account balance of $9 and an unemployed hubby, it makes it difficult to keep on the sunny side of things. However, I am going to do my best not to worry, and craft myself into oblivion. I will come out of hiding, and post a new post as soon as I have some pictures of what I have been making to share! Have a wonderful week.

Simple things....

It is the simple things in life that are good, that are real, that bring happiness. Enjoying an ice cream with little ones, snuggling in the hammock with a dripping wet ( I just got out of the wading pool) toddler, the peaceful feeling of a baby breathing against your neck. These are the things that make me happy. Oh yes, and sewing pretty things, making sweet yummies, and making my house a home. It is in these things that I find happiness. Simple things. I have been in the process of simplifying my life lately... removing distractions and taking more time to enjoy these simple things.

Where does the time go?

My darling Jasper is a mere month away from his first birthday. Where has the time gone? It seems as if only yesterday, I was in my tiny bathroom on Ivy street looking at two lines on a dollar store pregnancy test. Since that day in the bathroom, I have began my journey into motherhood... I have given birth to two wonderful little souls. Caillou is now 2 1/2 and losing his babyhood more and more each day. All though I celebrate and relish in all the new and delightful things he says and does, my heart breaks, realizing that he is growing up way too fast. And my ever so wonderful Jasper, all though he may nurse all night long, and snuggle in my arms half the day away, I am realizing he is no longer a little newborn. He is going to be 1 year old!!! He is becoming so spunky and adventurous. You can tell that he really loves life. He is curious about everything! It is hard to believe that Jasper is the same age now, as Caillou was when we first found out that Jasper was on his way. Caillou seemed so much older at 1o months. Perhaps it is because Caillou was so much more mischievious and independent. Sadly, my oven is currently empty, no babies baking in there as of yet. Instead of morning sickness, and a motherly glow, I have pms and pimples. Oh well, soon. There surely will be more babies soon. I must be patient and while I wait I will enjoy my two little ones to the fullest. I am very eager to start work on Jasper's birthday party. Since he is such a snuggly little guy, I am having a teddy bear picnic party. I am in the process of sewing him a teddy bear just his size. I know it will give him many years of comfort and cuddles. Oh, I wish I could freeze time and keep my boys little forever. However since I can't do that, I will settle for sneaking into their rooms and watching them peacefully slumber for a bit. Goodnight y'all.

Sugar coating things...

When life stinks.....bake cupcakes

Lots and lots of cupcakes.

Little Hillbilly Hermit...

A hermit (from the Greek ἔρημος ēremos, signifying "desert", "uninhabited", hence "desert-dweller"; adjective: "eremitic") is a person who lives to some greater or lesser degree in seclusion and/or isolation from society.

This past week, I have somewhat gone into hiding. I have been by no means a full fledged hermit... but..... I have been on phone strike. It rings, I do not answer it. I get messages, I do not return them. It isn't that I no longer like my friends, it isn't that my phone services have been disconnected, I am just on strike. It seems that everytime I am on the phone, Hurricane Caillou goes through my house, leaving a path of destruction. It got me thinking... . Am I really on the phone long enough for you to make this big of a mess? What could I be better doing with my time? What am I talking about on the phone that is so improtant. Not that chatting on the phone with friends and family isn't wonderful, but it does consume a lot of time out of the day. Now granted, I am a full time mama, and my world revolves around my kids, and I shouldn't guilt trip myself for a little ME time, however, I am just plain bored with being on the phone. I want to spend my ME time a little more creatively... sewing, painting, crafting, scrapbooking, baking, gardening the things that make me feel good inside at the end of the day. The things that make me feel like, wow, today I was an awesome mama, I taught my children good things, I made some yummy treats, and even found time for a little creativity. I want to go to bed with a feeling of having accomplished more with my day. Too often, I lay in bed thinking, tomorrow I will make this, tomorrow I will sew that, tomorrow I will paint the treehouse,tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow..... Another reason why I have gone on phone strike.... usually the topic of my conversation is about the crappy things going on in my life, I wear my heart on my sleeve, and hang all my problems out on the clothesline for everyone to see. Granted I know it isn't good to bottle up my feelings, and sometimes it is good to talk things out, but there is no point in talking about the same stuff over and over and over again. I am smart enough to know that not talking about my life's problems wont make them disappear, but it also doesn't do much to help me keep on the sunny side of things. So, I am not dwelling on the negative, I am focusing on the positive, I am going to make the most of each and every day, and spend my time more wisely. I am going to make an effort to visit with friends face to face more often. I am going to spend more time doing the things I love, playing with my babies, making them laugh, baking sweet smelling yummies, growing gardens, sewing skirts, journaling about my life with my two wonderful boys in my perfect little house! Don't worry y'all I wont become such a hermit that I will never update my blog. My blogging and journalling go hand in hand, I am keeping record of all my crazy adventures, so that one day my boys can read all about their silly old mama and all the little things we did together.

The cow that got away....

Okay, so a few posts back I told of my recent adventure trespassing at the duck pond and snuggling cows. Well... the story continues... my friend stephanie and I left the duck pond at around 11 am. About 10 minutes after we had left and made our way over to McDonalds, a friend of ours from our quilting group passed by the duck pond on her lunch break. She knew of our adventurous plans for that day, so when she saw cops cars at the duck pond, she immediately thought " oh my gosh, my friends have been busted for trespassing." Upon taking a closer look, much to her surprise she instead saw, that it was not us in handcuffs, but two police men trying to herd an enormous brown cow, back into the field by the duck pond! I can only imagine, how hard she must have laughed that day, first thinking we were on our way to jail, and then discovering that we had accidentaly emancipated a cow from it's barren field, barbed wire prison. Of course, my friend Stephanie and I were oblivious to the fact that a cow followed us out of the field, we were too concerned with finding an opening that would accomodate our strollers, so we could take a closer look at the abandoned house. We only learned of the cow that got away 6 days later at quilt group. We all had a good laugh!

Pretty little things...

Little dresses I made for my best friend's baby shower....

I like pretty little things. Pretty china plates, pretty cloth napkins, pretty vintage dresses, pretty pillowcases, pretty quilts, I adore all pretty little things. I try to fill every corner of my little house with pretty little lovelies... I love to try and make pretty little things too! Ever since I was a little girl, I just loved how petit fours looked. You know, those tiny little cakes, decorated so delicately. Well I finally made some, and here they are...

I delivered them to our kind friend Lupe who works in the little taco shop two blocks down from our place. We took he some peanut butter cookies too! Just in case the petit fours didn't taste as good as they looked!

Cutest Cowboy...

Today my little Caillou competed in, and won his first competition. Our town is having a rodeo, and as part of the festivities, a cutest cowboy contest was held for the kids, along with stick horse racing, bull riding, and roping. Caillou had so much fun, and was so cute that he took home the prize for cutest cowboy in his age division. Mommy was quite proud, he even went up on stage and sang "You are my sunshine". When he wins a prize for cuteness, and serenades rodeo fans, it is hard to be mad at him for how naughty he was today... running around in circles and disobeying my every command. I was very frazzled and exhausted by his wild and zany misbehaving! Thank goodness the rodeo had apple pie... that is just what Caillou and I needed to end our tiring afternoon at the rodeo.

I fear I have become a boring blogger...

Allright, my once exciting, frequently updated blog has been neglected and has become..... BORING! I would like to proclaim my sincerest hillbillyish apologies for leaving everyone to wonder what has been occuring at the Little Hillbilly Farm. My last post left off with Tuesday's adventures, scavenging through town in search of vintage goodies... let's see, what crazy things have transpired since that day.... Well for starters, there has been cookie baking and ice cream making, and I do mean the old fashioned way of making ice cream, cooked on the stove top, then churned. We had a lovely day at the park, wonderful weather and a very nice boy played with Caillou. My bright pink cell phone, went to wireless heaven... Jasper used my phone as a binky/teether, well. He filled it so full of drool, that it just gave up and died. I have to give that phone credit, it survived nearly two tough years of being dropped, chewed on, thrown, floated in toilet bowls by toddler hands, and even being frozen once in the freezer. I got a good laugh that day though, when the at&t salesman tried to sell me a phone by saying it was baby proof. He obviously doesn't know my babies! Thursday was spent helping out someone and their turkey. There was also a visit to the park, Caillou found a dead bird, he surprised me when he exclaimed, "A broken birdie!" He then hung his head low and said, "oh so sad, a broken birdie, so sad!" He didn't seem too traumatized by the bird, because he quickly resumed picking his basketful of dandelions. I went to quilt group late that night, and began work on the little lambs that I am making for the boys. The following morning was full of adventures, TRESSPASSING! My friend and I set off for the duck pond, we fed many a duck and goose, and even managed to hold a baby gosling. Oh so darling! Mama goose hissed, but she did not attack! Then the real adventures began, the duck pond is situated on several acres, with a few abandoned homes on it, and some orphaned cows. Well, I went over the trampled barbed wire fence, and made friends with the cows. Then we tried to find a way to explore the old houses, but there was no accessible entrance for our two strollers. We did however discover an old metal hospital pole for holding IV bags, remnants of an out house, and a hobo camp! Later that day the goats escaped, as I was rounding them up, I decided to rake up their pens, well, Caillou was supposed to be playing with trains, when I came into the house to check on him, water was flooding out of the bathroom, there was a chicken in the sink, and Caillou was singing rub a dub dub. Poor chicken! The weekend was busy, we went to a barbecue, and even camped out in the mountains. I pulled sixty one cents out of my tape deck in the car, can you guess how that got there? Did way too much laundry, worked on the garden, and made petit fours and peanut butter cookies. It has been a busy week.

a sunshiny day...

Hooray, my Boo-Bah came to see me today!

My first sunflower has bloomed!

Mama picked up this little treasure for me at the antique store. A vintage Fisher Price schoolhouse! I adore it!

Today was a wonderful day! My mama and papa came up the hill for a little visit. It had been several months since they had come up to the little hillbilly farm. Mama grew up in this town that I live in, so when she comes up for a visit it is lots of fun. We go to all her old stomping grounds, trespass on private property to get a peek at places she used to live, and shop shop shop! We went to an antique store today. In mama's day, the antique store was a church. A church of wild sorts, with grown men rolling on the floor speaking in tongues. We found many good things at that store. We also visited the little thift shop that I go to so often and the antique store across the street. Mama found a whole wagon full of treasure to take home with her, and she spoiled me with a good sized lot of goodies as well. We had lots of fun, galavanting through town.

Busy bee...

Mommy is busy crafting, what are we going to eat?

Jasper chases this...While I make these...

and these...

and this...

I have neglected my blog for a wee bit, life has been super busy. I don't know if I told y'all the tale of what occured three weeks ago... well ... I backed into a dumpster, giving my back bumper a rather large boo boo and taking out my light completely. Well, after two weeks of waiting for the back bumper to get fixed, being cooped up at home, I was finally able to venture out last friday with my car somewhat patched up! Mama ( Boo-bah to Caillou and Jasper) and I went out and about! We had a great day at the antique stores, joanns and michaels. Mama spoiled me. I went home with bags of goodies! I have been busy putting those goodies to use. Crafting, and sewing away. Today I worked on 25 thank you cards for my friend's baby shower, 5 trinket boxes, a butterfly jar, and I finished my whimsy art for my wall. Caillou busied himself with stickers, scissors, watercolors, and construction paper. Jasper was underfoot crawling after his toy butterfly. Tomorrow, I am going to use reproduction feedsack fabric and make the boys some more lovies, hopefully sew some pincushions, and cut out my super cute retro simplicity baby pattern to stitch up for miss Maddie-lyn Rae. Ric rac, buttons, birdies, polkadots, and cute creatures are a few of my favorite things right now!

It's all about teamwork!

Giving all our Little People animals a bath...

Making teething biscuits...

I am working hard to train my greedy grinch (Caillou) to share with little brother. Most days, he does pretty well, and other days... like today... he grabs his toys, runs into his room, slams the door, and yells "no popper, no popper, my toy." (Popper is the word he uses to refer to Jasper) sometimes.... if Jasper has a toy, that Caillou wants, he quickly grabs it from his hands, and replaces it with another toy, hoping Jasper hasn't noticed! Sharing is a hard concept for a two year old to grasp, but when he does share, they have some great times together. Oh, and the picture above, of us making teething biscuits... HARD AS ROCKS! Poor Jasper tried and tried to gnaw on them, and would look puzzled and bang them on the floor. Even Caillou, who is quite the biter, couldn't eat one!

squeaky clean...

Is this what your evening looks like? I hope so! There is nothing better than freshly bathed, sweet smelling babies using their mommy as a great big towel! Miraculously, my boys are bathed, fed their supper, and getting ready for bedtime, and it's only 6pm! They have been up like little roosters in the morning, so they are going to bed early. As they say... early to bed, early to rise.....

Outdoorsy fun...

Our Duck, Mr. Piggy, turned out to be a Mrs. and she lays eggs! Really big eggs! Here is a picture of a duck egg next to a chicken egg. Poor thing, no wonder she sits in her wading pool all day long.
Oh, how I wish my strawberry patch looked like this!
We had great fun making a trip to this huge strawberry field with our good friends. There were strawberries as far as the eye could see. I am contemplating digging up my 40 strawberry plants, and raising up the dirt bed, and planting them closer to together. We will see. I know a scarecrow is in order. I frequently find little parties of birds in my stawberries feasting away.

As more and more starts sprouting in our garden, and I see more fresh produce being sold, I am feeling inspired to do some canning. This year I would really like to do pickles. I am also planning on doing peaches and jellies. Tomorrow we are going to go on a nature hunt, and with all the things Caillou collects,we are going to attempt to make a bird's nest.

Show and Tell Friday...

When I was 14 years old, my mama and papa drove around for miles and miles to every sewing store we could find, in search for my first sewing machine. I didn't just want any machine, but I wanted a 1957 Singer slant-o-matic 401a. The day was nearing an end, and we were losing hope that we would find such a machine. Well, hidden in a row of dingy little buildings was a sewing shop, I declared that there we would find my sewing machine. And there we found it. In a little sew and vac shop in a town once called Bostonia. Mama was so excited for me, and papa was so proud of me bargaining the price down with the shop owner, that they even got me a burgundy hard covered sewing case. The machine was in wonderful condition, and all the accessories and even the manual were still intact. We rushed home with my new treasure, and then I had to hurry off to a birthday party. I will never forget coming home to find my mama behind that old sewing machine, scrubbing away. There were probably 200 dirty q-tips beside her, she cleaned every groove, knob, and crevice of that machine. It was a sentimental journey for her. In her youth she too had a singer slant-o-matic machine. She had the 500 model known as the Rocketeer. Many a night I put my mama to sleep with the hum of that sewing machine, as I would stitch into the wee hours of morning. 11 years has passed since finding that treasure. Mama and I still have our old Singers, but since then we had another adventure at another sewing shop, where as we are now the owners of some lovely Bernina machines. Mama and I may be decades apart, but we are two peas in the same pod.

Our first Rodeo...

This past weekend, we took the boys to our first ever Rodeo! We got to see a parade too! It was a very fun day! Caillou made up a little song afterwards... "open the door, open the door, the bull rider fall on his face" it was so funny! It really amazes me just how clever he is. Next year when he is 3, he can go down into the arena and compete in the stick horse races! We can hardly wait!

Mommy by day.... Seamtress at night

Okay, so I am always talking about how much I love my kids, well here is something else I love... sewing. Actually sewing, crafting, scrapbooking, and even a little crochet! I have been "creating" things since I was a kid. I can remember the gentle hum of my mama's Elna sewing machine, and the little pictures of the rabbit and the turtle on the dial for sewing fast or slow. I can remember as if it were yesterday our many trips to cloth world, golden state fabrics, house of fabrics, and a little quilt store that had cats running around. All those fabric stores are long gone now, but the love of sewing that my mama instilled in me has never disappeared. Tonight I sewed myself a 50's housewife inspired skirt. I made it from a vintage curtain I found at the thrift store, some ric rac, lace, and ribbon trims. I would have to say, I absolutely am in love with this skirt. I can't wait to wear it to church on Sunday, with Jasper perched on my hip, and Caillou holding on to the lacey folds of my skirt as we walk in. I can't wait to sew another one! Sometimes, I am just so tired...it takes a great deal of ambition for me to get any sewing or crafts done after I put the boys to bed, but boy do I feel pleased with myself when I do find the time to spend on my little projects. I feel so at peace while stitching pretty ribons and ric rac to hems, hand sewing little felt birds, painting little boxes, and rummaging through cutesy stickers. I feel energized and content after I have worked on a project, I feel more like a homemaker, more like a mama, when I take the time to do these little things that I love. Since I am a grown girl and don't live with my mama anymore, I can no longer can run into her room in the wee hours of the morning to show her what I have created. But I can go to bed, eagerly aniticipating the morning, to present a new pair of britches for the boys, or a set of calico rag bunnies, or even some little signs for their high chairs like these... and then call mama and tell her what I made!