Old School Acres

The book

I. love. this. book.  Love it. 

ISBN978-4-391-62420-5

Is that the sun?

We are waterlogged here in SE Iowa.  Ditches are full and water is standing in the farm fields.  It's mud season for sure.  Finally today the sun is revealing itself. 

I'm late, as usual, with a prize for my blog's one-year celebration.  Each winner could choose any softie or pincushion I've made.  Julie said anything was fine.  Well, you know how I am about having my favorites!!  It's taken me this long to decide.  A lamb it is.

And a pincushion (obviously still in the works) as a thank you to her for hosting the Pincushion Challenge.

Thursday Treasure

It's fun to find things in the house.  I guess we aren't really finding them because we know they are there.  I suppose it's rediscovering.  We have so much stuff in this house.  I'm not complaining (well, maybe a little). I love that we have so much history related to Brett's family, but sad that we really don't know much about some of what we do have.  For those who don't know, we inherited this house from Brett's great-grandma. It used to be a one-room school until it was moved to this farm.  That is where I came up with Old School Acres.  We pulled everything out of one of the closets (we have a whopping 3 in the entire house) and way in the back was this (check out the price!  It was 1971 after all):

Filled with a bunch of these:

All in German.  This one is from 1816.   I often think about the original owners of some of this "stuff" we now own and I silently thank each of them for not breaking the link between us. 

Inching along

(original pattern)

Stormy night.  Leaking roof.  Blah.

Yay! A dog that poops!

Hee!  That was Ellie's response to her birthday gift from her big sister.  My baby is 4 today.  Daddy and I cried on the way home from registering her for preschool last night.  Such saps.  Anyway, about this dog that poos.  Really it's the kind of dog you want.  Lift up the tail and it eats.  Push down the tail and it poos.  The poo?  It's magnetic and cleans up with the provided poo-picking-up stick! 

Okay, enough talk about poo but still birthday related.  Look what my dad did!!  Brett and I got Ellie the much-coveted "real" drum she's been wanting and Grandpa Bob painted her name on it for her!.  It's so cute.  It looks gigantic in this picture, but it's  the perfect little size for a 4-year-old drummer.

And I just spent WAY too much money on a Japanese craft book this morning, but I couldn't help myself when I saw the donkey and the PIG!! 

Me?

Dear Pam tagged me with a Thinking Blogger Award.  Me?  I'm usually embarrassed by the lack of substance in my blog entries.  I used to get paid to write for goodness sakes.  Yet here I'm a wham, bam, thank you ma'am kind of blogger. LOL  I'm supposed to tag 5 bloggers with the same award.  Not an easy decision.  See that blog roll to the right?  That's minuscule compared to my Bloglines list. 

Here are 5 of my regular reads.

Confessions of a Pioneer Woman Ree is a fabulous writer.  There aren't many days she doesn't make me laugh out loud.  Don't let the talk of calf nuts scare you away.  She's queen of her family ranch with a hottie hubby and 4 adorable children.  Her photos are amazing.  When I grow up (or win the lottery) I want to be Ree.  I would love to live on a ranch and work cattle and horses all day.

Colorfool I think most of you know Angela.  Her Keely girl is a spunky thing who gives her mama a run for her money.  Keely reminds me so much of Ellie. Angela is thoughtful and kind.  The tales of her and her husband crack me up.  Two of my favorites are about chairs and the big dead arm.

Pink Chalk Studio  Kathy is so talented, kind, helpful...Enough gushing over Kathy, right? 

The Farm Chronicles of Blessed Acres Laura and her husband Joe write this blog.  I love reading about their family life on the farm.  I live vicariously through Laura and Joe.  I know I live on a farm, but we don't have chickens, goats, and donkeys.  They even have an albino deer that visits.

While She Naps  Is Abby not one of the best softie makers ever?  She is truly an inspiration to me. 

Catching up

Made a post office run yesterday to mail some Etsy orders, softies for my 1-year give away, and a surprise to one reader.  *wink*

Look at this fabulous wristlet from Kathy. I sent Kathy a pincushion (on the far right) as a thank you for being supportive and always willing to answer questions and got this!!   A wonderful surprise!! Thank you, Kathy!

Ellie's birthday party is this weekend.  As usual when I should be doing things to prepare for that all I want to do is sew.  The living room floor is littered with bits of fluff and tweed from a coat I literally ripped apart at the seams. 

I feel like I'm offering up one of my children.  This owl is in my Etsy shop.

Turtle pincushion

Turtle pincushion
Originally uploaded by Old School Acres.

Busy, busy weekend. Hope your's is happy!

What a pig

My husband is not impressed with the creative license I took with this pig's stripe, but wouldn't the world be a nicer place if pigs were this colorful? 

Maddie thinks so.

Something I never thought I would say

I have enough wool. So much that I need to not buy any more for a while.  It's painful to admit that.   I hit the jackpot Saturday when I found 3 wool blankets at the thrift store, one of which is cashmere.  All 3 for $8.  Plus 2 wool suit coats for 25 cents each.  It's a sickness, pure and simple. 

This is the latest softie.  Wool-blend felt and the cutest green polka dot fabric courtesy of the lovely and talented Pam.