BUTTERFLY HOOP

I know that embroidery hoop projects abound in the craft blog world.  When my sweet neighbor stopped by and gave me 3 of them one day last fall, I had no idea what I would do with them.  Then my great blog friend gave me the spark I needed to make get off of my butt and use one.

Mel, from Mellywood's Mansion has done a couple of hoop projects that were just awesome.   She sews....I don't like to sew.  When I saw her make this one, I looked at it a long time and actually even considered getting out my sewing machine.

Quilt Organizer

Isn't that awesome?  I mean really, it's cute, clever and functional.  Like I said, I don't like to sew, but, she gave me an idea.  I found this cute clothes pin bag at Goodwill for 50 cents.  I don't even have a clothesline, but I loved the fabric and the colors.

This clothespin bag was handmade, double-sided and very well sewn.  I took out my implements of destruction and began to take it apart, saving every inch of that pretty fabric that I could.

Then I took out my 3 hoops and tried to figure out which one the fabric would fit in.  I settled on an awesome oval hoop.  But it was brown.  Not only was it brown, but upon further inspection and much to my surprise, it wasn't even wooden.  The outer part was rubber and just stretched over the inner plastic piece.  Whatever.  I was going to spray paint it with white primer anyway.

 

Once it was dry, I layered my two pieces of fabric and inserted it in the hoop. 

After trimming off all of the excess fabric, it looked pretty good.  Plain, but good.

"Needs embellishment" is the battle cry of every crafter and this project certainly need a little.  I used one of the clothespin bag tie straps and made a ribbon.   Still needs more embellishment.  I decided to go with some fluttery winged butterflies.  

I love these things and I saved them from some some previous crafts, because I cannot throw anything away.  You can get the tutorial for making them HERE.  I attached them with some glue dots, which will peel right off when I'm tired of this look.  In the mean time...it's a little spot of summer right on my shelf in my kitchen!

Thank you Mel for the awesome inspiration!  You're awesome girl! 

  
Linking up to any or all of these fine parties:
 

You're Gonna Love It - #52 Link Party

I'm so excited to be helping Kathe With an E celebrate the one year anniversary of her fun link party by being a co-host!  She is such an awesome lady, full of creativity and I think she's just a little bit excited too!!  Come join the fun!

Take it away Kathe........ 

52 weeks ago the very first  

"You're Gonna Love It Tuesday" 

blog party at Kathe With An E went live!!  

I know!  A whole year ago!  

I cannot freakin' believe it myself!  

Over the past 12 months I have worked really hard to 

make the party as fun as possible each week.  

It has always been my goal to have the party be not for me 
but, my readers, my friends, YOU!  

I want everyone to be able to come and really 

feel like their posts are being showcased to their full potential. 

This little party has grown so much and 

I reeaally love hosting it each week.
I've grown too and I have learned a ton!

I cannot thank you enough for, 
not only choosing to party with me,

but, for your comments too.

I truly do love "talking" with you!
Through this party I have made some
life long friends and I hope you have too!

Now, we just gotta celebrate right?

I have some awesome friends that are going to 

help me by co-hosting this week.

That means when you link up here or on one

of their blogs, 
you are getting 11 times more exposure!

Yep, like I said, this is your party each week and

this is my gift to you!

Without further ado, let me introduce you to

my co-hosts for this weeks special party:

Rebekah@We Lived Inspired

Doreen@HouseHoneys

Kathy@Life on Lakeshore Drive

Danni@Silo Hill Farm    

Robyn@Robyn's View

Dawn@Spatulas On Parade

Jamie@Love Bakes Good Cakes

Nancy@On The Home Front

Cynthia@Feeding Big

Sue@HouseKaboodle

Lauren Frank@Tutus & Tea Parties

Since this is a pretty big celebration,

I'm opening up this weeks party to be

ANYTHING GOES!

That means you can link up blogs posts, giveaways, your own link parties,

Etsy shops, whatever!! 

I will also have no limit on how many posts you can link up!

All I ask is that you keep it clean and family friendly please. 

(And, would you please consider sharing this party on 

Facebook, Twitter and Google+)

And, finally, I am going to pin every single post that links up

onto my 

You're Gonna Love It Pinterest board!!

Again, more exposure for you!!

*By linking up your post, you are giving Kathe With An E permission to use your pictures as a feature on this blog and other social media outlets.

So, that's it!  

Let's make this the biggest 

You're Gonna Love It

party ever! 

INSPIRATION CAFE LINK PARTY #1

Hello,

We are so excited over at the Inspiration Cafe today, we are holding our first ever Link Party

                                      

You've seen all the fabulous recipes from our Heritage and now it's your turn, come and share a recipe that means so much to you. This is an opportunity to be featured across the social media pages of 6 blogs as well as sharing your memories and pride.



Just click on the cafe and join the party

INSPIRATION CAFE FOOD FROM OUR HERITAGE - CARDAMOM COOKIES

I'm sharing one of my Danish recipes over at the Inspiration Cafe again today.  Cardamom Cookies.....yummmm!!

We're getting ready to have our first ever link party over at the Cafe and we are excited.  (Also a little bit nervous!)  We'd love it if you would remember to come over this Monday, April 29th and link up a recipe that has special meaning to you.  You can click on this button to see my recipe.

 

Blog Hop #6

It's bloglovin' and blog hopping Thursday once again!  We are so happy to be joining together to bring you the  bloglovin' Blog Hop to help grow our blogs.   It's always a great idea to have many ways for friends to follow your blog.  We are so excited to host the Bloglovin' Blog Hop every Thursday!  Each week we will also rotate one other social media to follow.  This week we are adding your blogs and Facebook along with bloglovin'!  Friends can hop on over to visit your blog.    A huge thank you to everyone who joined us last week.  We hope you made some new friends!

Please follow each hostess, and leave us a comment so we can return the follow!

We would love to feature a co-host each week, so please send one of us an email if you would like to be a co-host.  

Please link up your bloglovin' follow link.  To find your URL, just click on your follow by bloglovin' button.  Copy and past the URL link.  That's all there is to it!  

Thank you so much for joining us!  We hope you make many new friends and followers each week.  

Not mandatory, but we would love for you to share our blog hop button.    That's a great way for us to all gain new friends. 

 Hostesses

Becky @ Your Modern Family

Danni @  Silo Hill Farm    

  

Doreen @  HouseHoneys

Kathe @ Kathe with an E

Kathy @ Life on Lakeshore Drive

Suzan @ Simply Vintageous

Tammy @ One More Time Events

Welcome our  Guest Hostess this week: Resa @ Pitcher and Plate

Please make sure you link your bloglovin' URL link in the first section and  your blog in the second.   It makes it so much faster for your new friends to find you!

MAKE AN EASY ORIOLE FEEDER

Once again, I was about to throw something in the trash and realized that I could make something useful out of it.  It's gotten to be an affliction and I might be starting to get a little worried about it! 

I love it when I see that first flash of orange that lets me know the orioles have arrived!  Their song is so beautiful and unique that I often hear them for a few days before they are brave enough to make an appearance.  For years I fed them orange halves that I just sat out on my deck rail because all of my hanging space is taken up by hummingbird feeders.  But....it was messy and the orange halves would draw ants or get blown off of the deck rail.  Then, my sister told me a secret.....
Orioles LOVE grape jelly!!!  I did not know that. Much cheaper than oranges.  I started putting grape jelly out for them and they did love it, but....same problem...either my dish got covered with ants or blown off or worse yet, if it rained, the jelly would flood out all over the deck and make it sticky.  I am happy to say that I have solved all of those problems and did it for FREE...using something I was about to throw away.

You can use any container that has a lid, mine just happened to be the little container that these mini pies came in.  (Thank goodness I'm too lazy, I mean busy, to bake a pie.)  
I primed it with some spray paint and then painted it orange because orioles are attracted to orange. 
I found another little plastic something to hold the jelly in the center, added some of those little decorative glass pebbles around it to weight it down when the wind blows.  Then I put water in the rocks as an ant barrier so they couldn't get to the jelly.  

I sat it out on the deck rail using the inverted lid kind of like a coaster under neath.  When it rains, all I have to do is put the lid over it.  

I left one black...just to see if it really made a difference to the orioles, but I'm guessing once they arrive and figure it out it won't.

They're due any day now and I'm ready for them.  Just waiting for that first flash of brilliant orange!

I think one of these and a jar of jelly would make a great inexpensive Mother's Day gift, don't you?

Linking up to any or all of these fine parties.....
   
 

FLUSTER BUSTER'S CREATIVE MUSTER PARTY!

I'm excited to be co-hosting Fluster Buster's Creative Muster Party this week.  How did I get such a great gig?
Well, I was the featured link at last week's party and when you are the featured link...you get the option to co-host, PLUS a few other awesome perks.  Sweet, right?  Check them out below!  It's an awesome party full of some serious creativity and inspiration.  Come join the fun and link up your projects right here!  

Danni from Silo Hill Farm received so many views on her Fairy Garden last week that she earned this weeks Featured Blog spot. Danni's a pretty busy lady! She lives on a farm in Missouri, works and has a wonderful crafting blog with a little bit of farm life, DIY and recipes mixed in. If you get the opportunity stop by her blog and say hello!

Fluster's Creative Muster

Week #17

(begins Tuesday @ 6pm and ends Sunday at 11:59pm)

By linking to this party, you are giving Fluster Buster permission to use your photos in featured links.

HOST
Fluster Buster

 

CO-HOST
Silo Hill Farm

<div align="center"><a href="http://www.flusterbuster.com" title="Fluster Buster"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYXZt00GkHN4YSxFZFscujYQfJDlMQzgy_fH8lDszwGEOZv6NysECjTG5mbiIaHY-cbmrHOQPxDsnf0IXabWC0Us1j607c_1LiLObvBx7aA6zECLdl_sGAmOhUSTAxU3MsLozczzIoEgAB/s1600/Fluster+Muster+1.jpg" alt="Fluster Buster" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

SILO HILL FARM: TOTAL COUTURE TUESDAY!

I'm a farm girl.  Haven't always been one.  I was a city girl, growing up just outside Chicago.  I was a mountain girl, living in a log cabin in Montana.  But now, I'm a farm girl, living in rural Missouri.

 I know how to dress up....really I do!  I've even been to a Presidential inaugural ball in Washington D.C..  I once dined with a Saudi Arabian Prince and his entourage (and let me tell you, they really do have an entourage).  But my happiest days are my days here on the farm.  Notice I didn't say my dressiest days!!  The farm girl look is not for everyone, but if you want to "get the look" I'm sharing my secrets today!

 I say goodbye to my fingernails just about this time every spring and I don't see them again until about November, because my hands spend their spring,summer and fall in these...

I cannot overstress the need for a good pair of work gloves in suede!  Have some fun with these and get a pair that has some brightly colored canvas print trim!

I'm old enough to have had a job or two that had dress codes of dresses, skirts and heels...yes, heels.  I've had me some dandy ones too.   Possibly even bordering on hooker heels.  But these days, my shoes are looking more like this...

 Muck shoes are a must for farm girls.  In the winter...Wellingtons are the height of fashion, but right now, it's Mucks because you never know what you might step in and caring for these is simply a matter of hosing them down.  Try that with your Bandolino's.

I love a good purse, really I do.  My everyday purse is a Bagallini, I love them so much I have 2 of them.  They were invented by a stewardess and they can hold everything.  But around the farm, I use this....

 It's custom made and holds tools, first-aid, water, poison, bug spray, a pistol, some chain, rope, and my cell phone.  Try fitting that stuff in your Louis Vuitton handbag. 

Let's talk hair accessories for just a minute.  Most days, it's this....

 It keeps the ticks from falling from the branches into my hair.  It also keeps my scalp from getting fried and my face from getting burned.  Can your headband do that?  Thought not.

But, the quintessential couture for a farm girl would be these....

 Really...pockets for everything you might need as well as some lengthy protection for your legs from snakes, tics and spiders, not to mention a thorn bush or two.  Do not skimp on these girls.  Go straight to your farm supply store and only look at the ones that have either the words "Key" or "Carhartt" on them.  If you go for a cheaper knock-off.....well...people will talk.

Now your going to need a shirt...something long sleeved to protect your arms from scratchy brush, poison ivy and flying wood chips.  I recommend something that really says who you are....

If it happens to match your hat, with accent colors that also are in tune with your gloves...well you're well on your way to that runway look! 
Now, let's talk about accessorizing this great outfit.  After all, our ability to accessorize is what sets us apart from the beasts.  Often, a simple accessory will be all you need to draw the eye to your couture.  Something with a brightly colored handle will be enough on most days...

Sometimes you want to bring out the big guns, something that really makes a statement, with a handle color that matches your gloves....

If "soft and sexy" is your look...then just stick with the basics, something with a classic black handle that's sleek and slim....

When I get all dressed up in farm girl style...my sporty, sexy vehicle of choice is this.....

 You cannot beat a four-wheeler for escaping paparazzi in a flash and believe me when I say...with the farm girl look, you'll certainly be drawing their attention!

So there you have it...Total Couture...Farm Girl Style.  Trust me when I say this is a widely accepted look here in the midwest.  It's not just for the farm either girls, oh no, you'll feel right at home at the local mill, co-op, or farm supply store when you're sporting this all-together look!  When you run into some of your peeps in those places, just flash 'em your sign......they'll know.

Whew....bringing you all up to speed on farm girl couture has made me tired.

I'm not sure I'll have the energy to give you some tips on getting ready for the Cattlemen's Ball.  What?  You didn't get an invitation?  Oh, I'm so sorry....I told you not to wear those knock-off overalls.  Tsk..tsk.        

If you possess the ability to poke a little fun at yourself, write up a post about your everyday outfit, and come back anytime this week and link it up here or at any of the awesome blogs listed below.  If you're not that bold (or value your reputation), just stop back and enjoy reading a few posts from some great bloggers with an awesome sense of humor!

Silo Hill Farm

Kirb Appeal

Bliss Ranch

Mellywood's Mansion

Simply Vintageous by Suzan