Old School Acres

Peppermint, cherrymint, picnicmint?

I know, I know.  Halloween is tomorrow and here I come with a Christmas craft.  As the Queen of Procrastination I have to start these things incredibly early or they don't get done.

Remember these from last year?

They evolved into these for this year.  I'm thinking garland on an aqua ribbon. 

Some ideas for these:
1.  Use felt.  Last year I used all felt, made 2 mints, sewed them together with a bit of stuffing in the middle.
2.  Use a combination of fabrics.  This year I used white felt for the base and cotton prints for the swirl. 
3.  You can sew these by hand or machine.  Last year they were done by hand, a good project while watching your favorite TV program.
4.  Make them with your kids!  Make 2 candy bases and glue them together.  Glue swirl to top piece.  Attach hanger.
5.  For a kid-friendly garland, cut a piece of yarn, ribbon, etc., the length of your garland and place between the layers before gluing.

Hint for cotton swirls:  Use a fairly sturdy iron-on interfacing. 

I will post a step-by-step tutorial tomorrow for anyone who needs it. 

Oh, here is the pattern.   Click on the graphic and a new window will open with the original size of the candies.  Then right click on the image and save.

Can I borrow some time?

Because I splurged on these and found some projects I NEED to do.  Why do I punish myself like this?

Some of my favorite things from Cotton time and the fruits/veggies book.

I bought the books from pomadour24 on etsy.  Boy, shipping from Japan is not cheap.  Shipping for these 3 books was $22.50.  *grumble, grumble*

Trying out the breaking sled

It doesn't look like much, but this is Brett's new breaking sled.  These sleds are heavy and are meant to be used on dirt to give horses a bit of a work out.  Marge and Molly's problem is that with something light weight on wheels they pull on the reins too much.  With this they learn to pull with the harness.  Not much makes Brett happier than using his horses.  My mom always says he was born 100 years too early.

He had an audience most of the time, as well.  These guys are in the pasture across the road.  That's Marshall on the far left.

L-R:  Ruben, Marshall, Scout, Rudy.

Ugly man pants? Just add flowers

and felt, and fabric scraps, and some stuffing.  This is one of my favorite softies to date.  I can't share the whole thing, because it would ruin the surprise for Amy.  I started with some ugly old man wool dress pants.  They make a much better owl.

Sansabelt (get it?  sans a belt/without a belt) before

And after.

 

His name means "wolf shield."

Yep, wolf shield.  But he looks more like a wolf snack.  A tasty little morsel.  He's been here a few weeks and seems to fit in fine.

This is Randall on the left and Jackson on the right.  Jackson is a girl.  When we got her 5 years ago her name was Violet, but Kate was determined to have a pony named Jackson.  So there you go. 

Is it Friday already?

I wish I had 77 owls to give away.  I promise to give away another one soon.

The winner of this one is the 20th commenter, LollyChops.  I see she is having her own little giveaway today. 

Lolly, send me your address please!

She needs a new home.

It's been too long since I had a giveaway.  So how about we start one today? 

I hope you like pink and green.  A reply to this post will enter you in a drawing for this owl.  I will draw a name Friday.

 

Ol' pup

Tucker came to live with us as an itty bitty 5-week old.  He was the runt of the litter and we were sure he would grow up to be a smaller-than-average sized golden retriever.  But his body was as big as his heart.  He grew to 75 pounds of love, gentleness, and loyalty. 

We miss him so.

Tucker 06/23/97 to 10/04/08

42 doors and 18 drawers

My kitchen has 42 cupboard doors and 18 drawers.  Crazy, huh? 

These are the original cabinets to the house.  About 10 years ago we repainted the walls and cupboards.  It was a long process of keeping track of the hardware for each door/drawer and numbering each door/drawer and opening so that it went back in the same place. 

 

I've decided I hate the gray cupboards and white walls.  I want to make my vintage kitchen look truly vintage.  So I'm looking at one of these.

Aqua cupboards or white cupboards?  Aqua walls or white walls?  I'm leaning toward aqua walls.  Accents of cherry red throughout.  Look at all the cherry goodness.