Inspiration Series - Something Old, Something New

Well today I have something old and something new to share with you over at the Inspiration Cafe for the New Year. 

 Tomorrow happens to be my one year bloggiversary, and I'll show you something from my first post ever. (It's still an awesome post...well, okay, you can be the judge of that one!!)  I also have a fast and yummy recipe for you to try on your first day of the New Year and guess what?  You can make low-fat if you want to.  So come on over to the Inspiration Cafe and see what I'm cookin up for you today!

SILO HILL FARM 2012

As the year draws to a close, I decided not to do a wrap up post of my projects, but rather to share a little about me and my life.  This is a picture of my husband Sam and I.

We had our pictures made this year for the first time in our 20something year marriage.  I almost never post pictures of myself.  Like many people, I'm a tough critic when it comes to my own pictures.  I don't like my hair, I think I'm too fat, whatever.  But....... 
I was inspired by my friend Keri at Shaken Together when she wrote THIS post about her family pictures.  She is so beautiful and I was so glad to hear someone else who felt the same way about their photos!   
A professional photographer, Heather, at Heather jolene Photography, uses our farm to take outdoor pictures of her clients.  She took these photos for us.  I think she has a magic camera and a special "thin lens"!!!  Nah...truth is, she is a great photographer and we all know... it's not the camera, it's the photographer!
Back to the picture.....I love this picture of Sam because it looks just like him!  He smiles so big his eyes almost close!  I love Sam because after all these years, he still makes me feel like a princess in a fairytale.  How lucky am I?!
Sam is a Real Estate Broker.  He also has a degree in Aerospace Engineering.  When I met and married him, he was designing snow melting systems and radiant heat systems.  When we lived in Montana, he sold commercial heating and plumbing supplies for a company out of Denver.  He can do anything, but I think he is happiest selling real estate.
I have done many things in my life as well.  I had my own daycare when my children were little, I was a secretary for years, as well as a bookeeper. I was a stay-at-home housewife and mother (by far my favorite job!). Right now, I work 3 days a week in a liquor store that has the best wine selection around! (Now that's a fun job!)  
Here is an aerial picture of our farm during the fall.

We have a seasonal business with a couple of corn mazes. We grow pumpkins, corn and hay. Every year we open our farm to the public for the Silo Hill Farm Fall Festival where visitors can go through the corn mazes, pick some pumpkins and enjoy the usual pumpkin patch activities like a horse-drawn hayride, painting a pumpkin, walking down our nature trail, playing in the hay jump, picnicking at our creek and roasting marshmallows.  At night, for the older kids....our mazes are haunted by teens we employ from our local area high schools.  It's a blast!  You can see some pictures of our Fall Festival HERE.  Sadly enough, we did not open this past year due to extreme drought.  We are hoping for much more rain and less heat this year!

We are lucky enough to have Sam's family nearby.  His parents, his brother and sister-in-law, a niece and a nephew all live within about 5 miles.  Our son William lives about 20 miles away.  Our daughter, Aja, lives in California. 
I have five (yes 5!) beautiful sisters.  You can meet them by clicking on the links to their names.  Amber, Janna, Joy, Jennifer and April.  I have a brother Terry as well, but he has, so far, escaped a blog interview.  They are all awesome in their own right and they all live far away.  I miss them a lot!

We are blessed to have this boy, our grandson Jacob in our lives.  Make no mistake......he is the boss of us.  We wouldn't have it any other way!

He knows every inch of this farm and thinks the Pumpkin Patch, the creek and the Fall Festival at Silo Hill Farm are his personal playground.  He is right.

We love our farm, but sometimes it is hard work and we are lucky to have family to help us with it. If you want to see some interesting family farm work, take a look at THIS post.  It's about burning our fields every spring.

 
Thank you for taking the time this past year to read about my farm and view and comment on my craft projects, which I love to make!     
There are many things we like to do, but we are happiest when we are here at Silo Hill Farm!

     

Inspiration Series - Heather's Helpful Resolution Tips

Hey everyone, it's Monday and although it's Christmas Eve, it's also time for the Inspiration Cafe!  Heather from The Beating Hearth is talking New Year's Resolutions today!  

She has some great reason's to make a few and some really good tips on keeping them!

So head on over to the Inspiration Cafe and see if  you can't use a few of Heathers tips to start your New Year's off on the right foot! 

Everyone from the Cafe wishes you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy Healthy New Year! 

INSPIRATIONS SERIES - A Simple Wrap-Up!

You remember Marci from Stone Cottage Adventures, the blogger I met for lunch last month?  Well, she's got a simple wrapping idea to share with you over at the Inspiration Cafe today!  Want a sneak peak???

Looks cool already doesn't it??!!  Head on over to the Inspiration Cafe and see what she used!

 

Inspiration Series - Mel's Givin' Us the Boot!

Now you all know that I totally adore Mel from Mellywood's Mansion and here is just one of the many reasons why......

 Is that not utterly fabulous??!!  If you don't know my dear friend Mel, head right over to the Inspiration Cafe and see how she made this fabulous boot!  If Mellywoods Mansion is not one of your "must read" blogs, you are seriously missing out.  She comes from the "land down under" and her projects are great, her sense of humor keeps me coming back for more, but it's her friendship and support that is priceless!  
If you're not already following us at the Inspiration Cafe...you might want to so you don't miss great projects like this!
If you want to guest post at the Inspiration Cafe...click HERE, because we'd love to have you! 

 *************I love ya Mel!************

Tongue-In-Cheek Tuesday.....My Christmas Home Tour

I'm happy to be joining up with Bliss, from Bliss Ranch and Kirby from Kirb Appeal for Tongue-in-Cheek Tuesday on this fine Wednesday!  (See how we are already?)  We don't take ourselves too seriously!  We'll be debuting this series with some Christmasness..... 

 See that crazy Christmas lady up above here?  Yeah...that's what I've been feeling like since oh, about Thanksgiving.  I had the best intentions...really, I did!  My husband wanted to get ALL of the decorations down from the attic and decorate the house in grand style.  Seemed like a good plan.  The Saturday after Thanksgiving, all twentysomething boxes came down from the attic.

 I'm not going to apologize for the quality of these pictures.   It made me a wreck just to look at them, let alone live with them in my family room and living room 3 weeks.  That's right, 3 weeks.  Now Kirby had a great idea....."Just put them all back up in the attic!", she said.  I was all for it, but Sam was a little reluctant.  We put the small table top tree together (both pieces) and it sat....undecorated...3 weeks.  Sad.

My little grandson came over and put the snowflakes on it, which is why they are all mostly on the bottom...right at 5 year old height.  He also set out that little lonely snowman.   He was going to help me decorate, but when he found the box of Christmas games and stories, we spent the afternoon having fun instead!
For weeks, a shelf I emptied (and dusted...hallelujah!!) to be filled with Christmasness, looked like this....

Okay...it still looks like that.  But, I did make that awesome pallet project!   In fact, I made two of them and donated one to a silent auction for a scholarship fund for a local high school student.
Finally, this week...yep, the week before Christmas, I did decorate a little. And I do mean a little. (Hey...I'm a busy girl!) I started with the bar, because I have my priorities.

I actually wrote a whole post about decorating my bar and you can read it HERE if you want. 

My son came over and he wanted to do some outdoor lights, which we never do, so we did a little.  But it was a beautiful day and about half way through, we did something else.  I took one night time picture of it.....

It's way cooler than you think....we'll expand on it next year.  
I did decorate two shelves in my kitchen....

I like silver can you tell?  But I like blue and gold too......

  The snowman is blown glass and is filled with styrofoam beads, a gift from one of my sisters years ago. (Thanks Amber!)  The pinecone ornament on top of that glass candlestick was Sam's Grandmothers.  We love it, it's the old-fashioned kind that shatters in a million pieces if it breaks.  I made the picture.  You can read about it HERE.  I also made the little white bottle brush tree in the glass jar as a guest post for a good blog friend!  You can read about that over at Northshore Days, if you'd like. (Love you Nat!)

I hastily threw a couple of things on top of my TV...because it's not a flat-screen and you can put stuff on it...

I made that cone, but haven't written up a post about that yet and I may not get to it this year!  The snowman leans.  He looks drunk...maybe I should put him on the bar instead??
  
My husband and father-in-law made this little Santa that likes to sit in my kitchen, on top of my antique coffee grinder (yes it really works...it came out of our cabin in Montana)..... but I never got a post written up about it. 

And FINALLY......I decorated our Christmas tree...

Oh....see that cute little mobile in the right hand side of the above picture?  It's Christmas Faeries...lots of them.  My brother-in-law made the mobile, and I made the faeries.....but I didnt' get a post about that written up either.  And...I never finished putting a new bow on that glaringly bright glass block you see on the left.  It's so bright, it can probably be seen from outerspace!    

So, obviously, I took Kirby's advice and almost all of the boxes went back up in the attic...unopened.  I didn't deck the whole house out like my husband wanted to.  I didn't put up outdoor lights and make a winter wonderland like my son wanted to.   I didn't decorate the tree with my grandson like I had envisioned we would.  
What I did do was, decorate with things that I made. Spent an afternoon with my grandson reading Christmas stories that I had read to my own children when they were small.  I made a lot of projects that I turned into guest posts for some of my blog friends who could use some spare time this holiday season.  I made a project that will help enable a less fortunate student to attend college.  I spent some quality time with my son on an unusually beautiful December day.   Mostly, I quit making myself crazy thinking I had to unpack all of those boxes and deck the halls!!  (I'll also have some free time after Christmas because I can put it all away in no time flat!)  

Fa la la la la, la la la la!!! 

For more Tongue-Cheek Tuesday, head over to 

Kirb Appeal

and

Bliss Ranch 

   

I HAD A LITTLE CHICKEN.......!!

When I was little, I learned this song that I also taught to my own kids.  It was only when I was teaching it to my grandson who looked at me like I was crazy, did I realize that it's kind of a strange, weird and possibly cruel song. 
I got a package in the mail yesterday from my dear friend and Inspiration Cafe partner, Heather from The Beating Hearth.  She had made these cute chicken and turkey pin cushions (she has an obsession) and posted them on her blog a while back and I told her how much I adored them.  Guess what was in my package????

How cute is that??  I know it's a fun pin cushion...but I think it may live in my kitchen for a while.  Makes me smile!  Thank you Heather!  I love it all!

 That song?......

Well, I had a little chicken

And she wouldn't lay an egg

So I ran hot water down the side of her leg

And the little chicken hollered and the little chicken begged

And soon the little chicken laid a hard boiled egg!

Geeze.....no wonder my grandson looked at me like I was crazy!  But then, he's a little crazy himself.... 

 Hope your Christmas is rockin!
 

Christmas Mug Swap Reveal

Back in the fall, my friend Heather at Heatherly Loves posted a blog about a Christmas Mug Swap.  You know I just love to try something new, so I signed up for it right away!

 I mean who could resist that cute little picture of Santa Claus and the idea of giving and getting a Christmas mug through the mail?
I had never heard of the person's name I had, nor did I know if they even had a blog.  I shipped them out a bone china mug with a Cardinal and tree on it, filled with candy, some Starbucks coffee and Peppermint Mocha.  I hope they received and liked it!

I certainly was surprised and thrilled with the mug I received from 
my swap partner, whom I was lucky enough to know, because I love her blog!  It's  Karen Mary Butterfly from Shabby Brocante!!  
Now I have to say, Karen was not only prompt, (I received my mug right away!), but that lady knows how to pack a lot of fun into a cute little mug!  I came home from work after a particulary "not pleasant" day and found a box waiting for me on my door step.  When I opened it up, I found this little guy smiling at me!

Instant mood changer!  Really, how can you not smile back at a smiling snowman?  And the bow...a cotton cloth weave with red snowflakes on it.  (You know I saved it!!)  See that cute other dotted ribbon hanging down?  Uh huh.....that is the cutest little wired mini pom-pom garland I have ever seen! (Saved that too!)  Now, what didn't get saved was what's inside the mug.....

 Those yummy See's Peppermint puffs and plenty of chocolate Santa's to go with a cup of cocoa!  Yep...I have to admit, they didn't last long!!  The mug itself, has a beautiful Christmas scene complete with a fireplace, decorated mantel and a beautiful Christmas tree!

 Thank you Karen Mary Butterfly!  You certainly made my day when my mug full of happiness arrived on my door step!  Although the candy is long gone, the snowman lives on my tree and the ribbon and garland found a home in my craft supplies, I think of you everytime I fill that mug with a cup of coffee (like today) or cocoa.  If you are not familiar with Karen's blog, Shabby Brocante, go check it out and make a new friend! 
A big thank you to Heather from Heatherly Loves, for putting this mug swap together and inspiring me to try something new! 
(Heather is hosting a link party for everyone to reveal their mugs!  It starts today and you can see them HERE!)