All We Need Now is a Bunny!

I'm no scientist, but apparently there is something to the whole genetics thing...

It looks as though my brother has some of the same qualities I do,

good, bad or whatever...

It seems as if he may have a little of the

if one or 2 is good, wouldn't it be great to have MANY!

I've heard it called excessive.. or O.C.D... I call it reasonable deduction...

I mean really, if one is good why wouldn't lots be better?

In this case we are talking farm critters.

Meet the new goats, they could also be call escape artists...

They will have to get up pretty early in the morning to out maneuver Tomie.

They really are kids, just trying to out smart the adults...

This guy looks like he is planning a new technique

Then we have some new turkeys, can't really call them cute... maybe sweet??

There is a new little calf that didn't get his picture taken.

This is the surrogate Mother Hen, seems as is she kept rolling her eggs out of the nest so Tomie fixed them so they would be secure, and replaced them with some others.

She never knew the difference, or if she did, it made no difference to her.

Looks like the chicks are well adjusted and happy!

This mama is getting business done...

Shouldn't take long...
All done.

Just add it to the pile,

there will be 75 new baby chicks on Friday!!

Don't Ya Just Hate...

I've been wishing I had a new camera for awhile, but I wasn't quite ready to make the decision or the purchase for that matter but...

now that my purse got ran over with my camera in it...

Kind of makes me wish I had appreciated the one I had, while I had it...

A picture of the sweet peas I planted today would be nice inserted here..(you might want to close your eyes and visualise,) the ones that I had to provide a string for each little tiny plant to climb... Why do I ALWAYS buy several packs instead of just a couple??? I know I will be so happy when they start blooming and keep blooming until fall, but geez what a job that is !

These were the ones from last summer, and they are totally worth the effort!

I love lily of the valley

I have some in my garden, but for some reason, I don't recognize it and every year I pull it out thinking it is a weed... I hope it comes up one more time, I will definitely be watching for it.

It is so exciting for us in the Willamette Valley when the sun first comes out in the spring, we have had 2 beautiful days, but tomorrow it is suppose to rain...

But that's okay, there is plenty to do getting all my peeps in a row for Easter.

Time To Take Out The Circus Train

Or....We Loaded Up The Truck and Moved To...

Once again as soon as the door closed Wednesday evening I had a nice sleep in Dumbo (the rv) all the way to Pullman Washington. I told Dave the Driver before we left, if we could get as far as Troutdale, that would be terrific. The total mileage one way to Pullman is 385, and it’s about 60 miles from our house to Troutdale…
It is always a little chaotic trying to get the trailer packed with everything I want to sell, Dumbo packed for a road trip, clothes, food and everything else it takes to be away from home for a few days, not to mention my mom had a doctor’s appointment that morning and I had an appointment with the tax accountant that afternoon…. Yes, just another day in paradise, too bad there wasn’t time for a root canal…
I’m pretty sure we took everything we were suppose to take and then some, but we had a great time, we met some new friends, visited with some old ones and had a wonderful sale! So I ask, what could be better than that?

I have absolutely no idea where we stopped along the way because as soon as I get in, Dumbo rocks me to sleep and I am dead to the world! Those of you who know me, will be surprised and astonished to know we arrived early!! Yes, that is a first for us, and a rather strange feeling I might add.
The show is held each year to coincide with Mom’s weekend at WSU, I’m thinking that is no coincidence. There are mom’s and their young adult children everywhere!! There is not a lot for mom’s to do in this small college/farming town, so the timing is perfect. The event is held in Gladish Gym, part of the old Pullman High School that is is now the community center.

Here is Lisa, in the blue coat, did I mention it was snowing in Pullman?? I had a great time visiting with her all weekend, we were booth neighbors. I’m sure she knows more about me now, than she ever would have wanted… But in case I forgot to tell her some minuscule detail, she has a booth at Farm Chicks in June, near mine!!! The other 2 women in the picture are Barbara, who has been doing this sale for many years and Susan the event coordinator.

Does it look like Lisa might be warning them about me? Or am I just being paranoid???

It was nice to be able to unload the night before the event, leaving more time the next day to display. As you can see, it wasn’t too far for hauling the treasures in, and that is always a plus, as the driver is also the unloader and I wouldn’t want him complaining to the union…

On the other side of my booth was an elderly couple, I didn’t get their picture, but their last name is Folk, the business name is Old Folks. The other vendors would say, The Old Folks this or The Old Folks that... which seemed very odd because they were... They were the sweetest couple, Mrs Folk was a little rattled the first day, she forgot the items she meant to sell out of several of her cases... Mrs. Folk told me, this might be their last out of town show, seems she thinks Mr. Folk is getting “too old".
I’m not making this up!

I spent as much time as the crowds would allow visiting with Heidi and her daughter Dotty.

Heidi owns 2 antique stores in Pallouse (16 miles from Pullman) and her parents were in the business for 30 years, so let’s assume she knows what she’s doing.
With the laughter surrounding her we can also assume she’s having fun doing it!

I had to make a quick trip over to her shop on Sunday before we started home.

This is the building she and her husband are buying and restoring, it is 3 stories and when they finish the 3rd floor they will live there, but for now she must make that 3 block commute.

She’s open Thursday, Friday and Saturday and you won’t have any trouble finding her on Main Street, Pallouse.

I whined and cried at the door until she let me in on Sunday, just kidding, the door was open and I snuck in… What fun or maybe trouble a person could get into there. Her other store is more “upscale” just down the block, with hordes of cool treasures.

Sam asked me if he could give Heidi a compliment, while we were at her store.

Since when did he ask permission before he speaks????

Nervously, I said yes, (who knows what a 7 year old might say?) He told her,

you have the best store ever!

Do you think he has figured out,

can I get a better price for this???

Actually he had already made his purchase, so it was a genuine compliment!

Here is a WSU mother/daughter team, do you recognize Teri from The Farm Chicks?

She was in Pullman with her daughter Ali a senior, who will be graduating this May! They got this adorable dollhouse/barn from Lisa.
Here is Violet a sweet little shopper, she was having a day out with the girls.
It was fun to get away and see some different sights,

at least for the 5 minutes I was awake...

,

The Story of My Life..

Or, how to make anything more complicated than it needs to be.

That does seem to be a continuing theme that I see over and over with any project!

But with that said... how about a tutorial?? Let me see if I can't make you wish you never asked.

What? You didn't ask? Well, I know your shy and afraid that I wouldn't be willing to share my secret most complicated way of doing something, but I feel it is the right thing to do, and then you would know what it is like to be me and there would be no doubt as to why I am always a little confused and shall we say distracted???

I don't know what it is about these feed sacks, but something about them just makes me happy!! I love everything about them. The colors are pure and bright. I love the graphics on the bag, I love the size, the fact that they are something that if I don't make them into a tote/bag, at best they will be used as garbage sacks and then tossed away with the trash. Someone asked me when I was showing them the bag, if I drew the image??
(They couldn't figure out what I was so excited about.)

I guess I'm not really sure either, but maybe the whole recycle, reuse, repurpose idea at it's best? It is a modern day take on the flour sacks of our ancestors? A reusable bag made from a "throw away" item? Repurposed??? Well, does it really matter?

Here I go making it too complicated, (it might just be that I like it.)

Here we have a bag dressed up with dingle ball trim.

A horse feed sack, that has a gathered ruffle trim, which coordinates with the inside of the handle.

A large red rickrack trim, and then further embellished with a vintage flower and ribbon tied to the handle.

This hen has a bright pink studded crown.
So help me here people lets all get a feed sack and make a bag!

The other reason for the tutorial is... They take way too long for me to make and if we want to recycle most effectively I'm going to need some help, reusing all the left over feed sacks in America.

Warning here... These are so cute that you might find yourself at the farm store looking at all the great bags, contemplating buying pigs, cows, turkeys, game birds, whatever just so you can have a different feed sack....

This might have to be part one of a two part tutorial because I have a way of making things much more complicated than it needs to be...

So with that, let the fun begin!!!

Pick your favorite sack.

Trim the ends straight.


Here is where you get to decide how big you want you bag to be...
(I'm thinking you might want to go as big as possible and you will see why later..)

I cut off at the color stripe or wherever there is a natural break in the design, from the bottom of the sack. I wanted to make these with the straps connected to the bag as one piece, instead of sewn on. My thought was it would be stronger and I just liked the way it made it look more like it was a feed sack...


So you cut the middle out and leave the edges where the fold is on the side for the handles.

Then you cut a piece out of the middle of the strap, so you can lay it over itself and sew it back together... I hope that is clear??? It will make more sense when you get to that part.

Turn the sack inside out and clean it...

Stitch the bottom a few times so it is strong and use a short stitch. Then turn the bag so you can make a point or triangle, and stitch.

The bag will have a bottom

(that should make sense, refer to the picture... lets call that a triangle.) You might want to make it a little straighter than I did, or keep trying until you do ...

Here is where I was glad I had made it big, because I sewed the bottom seam where the sides were facing each other instead of the front to the back... Remember we are using little stitches? There is no ripping out, so....

Now I cut the bottom off and the triangles, straightened the sack again... was I ever glad I had a big bag because now it was going to be 3 inches smaller... I then put the front to the back and sewed it again and redid the triangles that make a bottom... (I told you this was harder than it needed to be.)

Can you see in the picture below where I cut a piece out of the middle of the strap so I could sew it to itself?

Why I did this instead of just cutting from both sides??

Maybe because it makes it easier to pleat?? I don't think it really matters, but what I knew for certain was I did not want to turn this handle inside out not to mention it was connected to the bag. I wanted it to be double thick so I sewed it together on both sides and then, to make it more complicated and time consuming, I used biased tape on the edges. Then naturally I couldn't leave well enough alone so I sewed rickrack on top of the bias tape so it would be oh so cute!!

This will be fairly obvious when you get to this spot, and frankly every time it is different?? I like the strap to be long so it will go over your neck as a shoulder bag, I don't want it to be very wide, but I like it better double thick. I just pieced it together with parts from the sack that I cut off in the beginning.

I think the clothes pins work better than straight pins, the material is a little slippery... It is also much different than sewing cloth because it doesn't fold like cloth, but I just let it kinda do what it wants and not "tame" it too much... I use the natural creases and folds as much as I can.

See the pleats? You can kind of decide how you like yours at this point, it can be trimmed and fiddled with until you like it, (you might end up with a wallet...)










Oddly enough I ended up with the strap being connected to the bag on the inside instead of the outside as I would have preferred??? That is why I made the little flaps on the end of the strap.

I think it is fun to just go for it and see what happens.

Now for the fun part... Which trim shall we use on the front? Fringe? Dingle balls, large rickrack? Red or black? Or white? How about the red and black with silver???




Enough for now! If you make a feed sack bag/tote let me know. Send a picture and I will post it or a link to your blog and we will all come see.

And yes I know, I could have just cut off the top turned it over and used grommets to weave rope for a handle, which is very cute, but that just wasn't complicated enough!