Sunset on the Farm 1

Old Window as a Gift....

I haven't mentioned this on the blog yet, but my friend Amy and her husband are in the process of adopting a 2nd baby.  They have the baby with them right now, and in a few days, the process will be closed.  So I think it's pretty safe to say that baby Z is now home!

(Here is where I would upload a photo of me & the baby.)
(But due to time, we only got a photo on Amy's camera.)
(You'll have trust me that she's one super-duper cute baby.)

When Amy and her husband adopted Mr. J, I made her a month's worth of freezer meals.  But because we adopted a dog, I just didn't have time to do that again.

I mean, just look at what I have to deal with every day.

I decided to use one of the old windows and make Amy something special that she could use for both kids.  You don't need my step by steps....you can see it yourself in the photos.

The best part were these....

I saw this on Pinterest (I know.  Shocker.) and thought it was a great idea.  So I added it to the window (along with a corkboard & chalkboard).  Now Amy and her husband can write little notes to the kids with a dry-erase marker!

When it was all said and done, it looked like this:

That is probably the last of my "old window" crafts for a while.  

Well.  Until I see something cool on pinterest again.

Pinterest Strikes Again....

What do you get when you take an old window from the original farm house....

Plus the Martha Stewart "recipe" for your own chalkboard paint?
You get this.

I added the hooks myself (they're a little crooked, oh well....).

Total cost?

$3.50........Grout
$5.00........Paint Sample (you get a pretty big sample)
$2.97........Hooks
FREE.......Window, sandpaper, paintbrush

$11.47

I may just start taking orders!

Ten Years...

Approximately 1 week after the World Trade Center collapsed, I was coming home from work, trying to get back to a normal routine.   I was living in Michigan at the time, with my (now) ex-boyfriend. 

I opened our mailbox and took out the latest edition People and Sports Illustrated.   Like every other issue coming out that week, they were dedicated to 9/11.  I flipped through the pages, looking at the pictures and reading the stories.  I was drawn into the heart break. The heroism.  The wondering "why".  

At the end of the Sports Illustrated magazine was a column by Rick Riley.  It was titled, Four of a Kind.

(read it here)

The next day, I made a copy of that article and hung it in my cubicle at work. 

   

When the ex and I broke up, and I moved back to Minnesota, I hung it in my cube at my new job.

When I left that job to work at camp, it was hung up at my desk.  It made the trek to camp every summer.

When I left camp to teach at the shady, unethical technical college, I hung it up on my file cabinet.

When I got the job at the online school?  Yep.  In my cube it went.

It is now hanging up, in my office at the local community college.

Every desk that I've worked at, this has been hanging up as part of my "personal decorations."  And every job I've worked at, someone has asked about it.  It's been read by camp counselors from around the world.  I've used it in the classroom to discuss so many topics I've lost count.  It's been read by university presidents, students, and administrations.

Like clockwork, just last week, the new Dean of Technical Programs stopped by to see me.  He saw the article and he asked, “What’s that article about?”

I pulled down the now off-white, wrinkled, paper—with its heavily taped corners and pin-holes.  He sat there, quietly reading.   He said what others have said, and what I've said for the last 10 years….

That is the best article about 9/11 that I’ve ever read.

You may agree or disagree with that statement.  But while we reflect on 9-11 this weekend, let’s remember that we—as a nation—banded together and did just the opposite of what those hijackers and Al-Qaeda wanted us to do.  

We fought back. 

We stood up.  

We said, “you’re not welcome in our thoughts, in our hearts, on our soil.”

And it all began with 4 guys on Flight 93.

Curse You, Pinterest....

I love, love, love pinterest.
I've gotten some very groovy ideas from that site. 


One of which is this:

Well.  Look what I just happen to have in our garage....

This was my Gonie's (pronouced Go-Knee). 

My dad's mom.  Otherwise known as my sassy Grandma.  Need proof?

See?  She was a BEAUTY QUEEN!

Who else has a photo of their grandma as a beauty queen in their living room?

As I was saying, I have her old hutch in my garage and I've been wanting to do something with it.  While I could use it as it was intended--a china hutch--sadly, it has seen some better days.  It spent probably 10+ years in my grandpa's workshop.  That shop isn't climate controlled, so it's been rained on, snowed on, sat in tropical humidity, and even been pooped on by the occasional bird.

Gonie's hutch needs some love.  


This weekend we didn't have plans, so I went to work on the hutch.

The photos aren't the best, but the color of the hutch was a dark, dark, DARK brown.  The hutch is solid wood, but also had veneer covering much of the hutch.  Because it sat out in the wood shop, the veneer was bubbling and peeling away from the wood.  I decided to peel off the veneer.

Thank God the weathered-worn-distressed look is in, because I chopped the hell out of the woodwork trying to take off the veneer.  After some sanding, and staining, this is what I have....

I've decided to leave the doors off because they are badly warped.  And honestly, I kinda like it without the doors.  It sadly, won't fit upstairs or in our bathroom (the ceilings are too low), so   I can't use it like the pinterest photo, but I can use it as a great shelf/desk area!


I think Gonie would be happy with the transformation.

Farm Friday: It Puts the Peanut Butter on the Bread....

All around the farmstead are these big, beautiful plants in the fields.

It's hard to believe that just a few months ago they were small seedlings, and now they've sprouted up all around us.  Their big bushy greens busting out from the ground....

And of course, the big, gigantic, bulb of....

The Sugar Beet.


THIS is what the Big Guy works with everyday.
THIS is what causes his clothes to smell AWFUL.
THIS is what puts the peanut butter on the bread, people.


And if anyone ever says that you're eating too much sugar, just tell them, sugar is a vegetable.

Have a safe holiday weekend, everyone!