More Christmas Sewing

Today I stitched up some cute little ornaments that have a pocket in them for holding gift cards, cash or treats.  They were really easy to do and fun.  Tomorrow I will be working on the girl's lap quilts.

Ed took some good photos of our chickens yesterday.  I will post them next time.

My sewing project for today

I did the challenge project from my online quilting group today.  It was fun to make.  This bag is for carrying your rotary cutters (or for anything you want to use it for.)   : )  The fun part was trying the different quilting methods.  I am so happy with my new sewing machine!  I might just do more quilting of my small projects now!

Here are the photos of the finished project.  This is going to make a good Christmas gift.

This is the finished bag.  You can see the two different quilting methods.  The one on top is just a diagonal feather stitched at a 45 degree angle.  The bottom section is a cross hatched quilting.

This shows the inside of the bag.  There are two sections as you can see by the seam down the center.

And here is the back, showing my first ever attempt at what is known as stippling.  You aren't supposed to cross over any stitching, but as you can see, I did..........  lol!

More projects to come........

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

We have been doing some Christmas decorating at Bountiful Acres.  We have our tree up and decorated, the other decorations out, our nativity scene which is our heading picture right now, and we have lights up outside.

This is our little tree.  It is a noble fir.  I am a terrible photographer, so I am putting up several photos of the tree.  None of them capture how pretty the tree really is.

Here is another shot.

This is the stocking area since we don't have a fireplace......

Here is my display next to my reproduction 1940's radio.

A close up of the snowman family.

The Nativity Scene.  I painted this when we lived in Alaska.  I used to do ceramics.  I enjoyed it.  You can't find any ceramic shops these days..........

This is my cute snowman luminary.

Here is a cute little ornament thing that my cousin Rita gave us several years ago.

And this is a closeup of our Angel that goes on our tree top every year.

Well it is family night at our house tonight.  I need to go and make some clam dip, some pizza and find our movie.  We will be watching our favorite Christmas movie.  A Christmas Story.  You know the one where the boy gets a BB gun for Christmas and about shoots his eye out?  The other little boy gets his tongue stuck to the flagpole?  (My oldest son Jeremy did something similiar when we was a young boy.  Only it was the pole at Safeway!  lol!)   Sorry Jeremy, couldn't help myself!  lol!

Gee, got a bit off track with that didn't I?  We have been doing game night, and movie night.  The girls really look forward to these nights.  We had to buy some new games last time we went shopping.  We had been playing Kismet, which is like Yahtzee only using colored dice.  So we bought Sorry, Uno, Skipbo and Chinese checkers.  Variety is the spice of life!  : )

May you all have a blessed weekend!

Jerusalem artichokes

We went out and dug up some Jerusalem artichokes this afternoon.  Boy that was cold!  I am sharing some starts with a couple of folks on my Whizbang Chicken Plucker yahoo group.  : )

Okay I can hear you thinking---what in the world?  This is one strange woman!  And you may be correct.  he he he!

More about Whizbang Chicken pluckers later............back to the artichoke story.

We dug them up, and of course they are muddy from the damp ground.  Ed washed them in the bucket outside to get 50% of the dirt off them.  Then I brought them inside and washed each little tuber with a soft brush.  Then spread them to dry on a towel in the kitchen.  Tomorrow I will box them up and send them off.

Here are some photos of the process.  Minus the digging part, I never think to take the camera outside with me!

Here they are in the sink being washed.

After being washed.

Drying on the towel.

Okay now to explain the Whizbang Chicken pluckers group.  A fella named Herrick Kimball has written a book on how to make a tub style chicken plucker.  He calls it the Whizbang Chicken Plucker.  There is a yahoo group for folks to exchange ideas and chat about raising poultry and such.

We ordered the book and just got it last week.  Ed is going to build one for making things much easier on us when we butcher the poultry.
Here is a link to more information if you like to look.  http://www.whizbangbooks.blogspot.com/

And if you want to see one in action check out this YouTube video.  : ) www.youtube.com/watcg?v=G-pbRxllpuw

We also went to the local hardware store and bought some of that pipe insulation for the water pipes that go to the water pump.  Our water was froze this morning.  We stopped at a place that sells firewood and bought a small amount to get us through until the cord we ordered gets here in a few days.  Stopped at the PO to pick up the flat rate boxes for mailing out the chokes tomorrow too.  I will use Clicknship online to print the postage in the morning and then just put them in the mailbox for our mailman to pick up.  Handy isn't it?

There you have the story of a cold winter day at Bountiful Acres Homestead.  : )

Frosty December morning

This is looking off the deck over the garden and out to the barns.  See how much frost is on the top of the deck rail?  BRRRR!

We are having a cold spell here in the Coquille Valley.  I am soooo thankful for it too!  When it is cold and freezing and clear, it means there is no rain to cause the river to flood!  Thank you Lord for answered prayers!  : )

I took a few photos of the crispy crunchy views from my porches this morning.  It was 26 degrees this morning.  The high today is to be in the low to mid 40's.

This photo is looking at the new greenhouse floor through the apple tree off the deck.

Here is looking off the front porch.  See the strange looking thing in front of my car?  Looks rather like a boxcar for a train doesn't it?  It is our new woodshed.  Since we have the woodstove installed, we had to have a place to put our wood to keep it high and dry.  Ed used scrap wood and pallets to build it.  Well I do believe he had to buy 2x4's for it, but mostly it is recycled materials.

Here is the woodstove all installed.  Of course a few Christmas decorations too.

This is a very frosty spider web.  I don't think that spider will get much for breakfast this morning!

You can't see the chicks very well in this photo.  Better luck next time.  The mama hen is so protective that she keeps running them under the barn when I try and get a photo.

I finally got the batteries changed in the camera so I could put the photos of the Cornish/Sussex chicks on the computer.  I took some of our two Tom turkeys strutting their stuff too. 

Here is Frank and John trying to prove who is bigger and prettier.

We have been doing inside things mostly.  Ed is working on the new storage area behind the knee walls in my sewing room.  We are going to have that all arranged and organized soon.  Ed is doing most of the hard work.  Isn't he so good to me?

I will take a picture when it is done.  Right now it looks as if a bomb went off up there!

Well that is about all the time I have for blogging today.  Hope you enjoyed your visit!

Happy December!

Is it just me or has this year just zipped by?  Here we are headed for Christmas in 23 short days already.

Sally and I got the Christmas decorations out of the shop the other day.   I had in my mind I had tons of extra Christmas stuff.  Well I had forgotten it had been thinned down severely last year...............Well I had intentions of doing it this year anyway and sharing with others.  I guess I will just check that off my list of things to do now.  : ) 

I have recently found out about making friendship bags.  They are bags made up with some helpful things for those who find themselves homeless and we see them asking for help alongside the roads/streets.  I am going to get my girls to help me and we shall make up lots of them and put them in a box in the car, so we are prepared the next time we see someone in need.  I believe in teaching my girls to have compassion on others and be willing to help how ever they can.  After all we are to do as Jesus did.  He came and gave of himself even to die for us.

I do believe we shall also bake cookies and breads for the neighbors.  Oh and I must get some jams and jellies made to add to the gift baskets.

I will be doing some sewing for my family for gifts again this year.  We are moving away from the commercial aspect of Christmas and are celebrating the reason we celebrate Christmas and to give to others of our handiwork, and time.  That takes so much stress off at this time of year.

So what are your Christmas plans for your family?

More news!  My oldest son Jeremy is home from deployment.  He has been in South Africa. He is in the Navy and is on the USS San Juan submarine.  I am so happy and thankful he is home safe and sound.  Well he is "home" meaning in the US.  He and his wife Deann live in New Hampshire.  He is stationed in CT. but travels home on weekends and when he has leave.  Thank you Lord for watching over my son and keeping him safe while he has been doing his duty and serving our country.

Duke is doing much better and is healing up nicely.  He still has the wound on his leg that is healing.  And he must be careful with not slipping and splaying his legs out and hurting his hips.  But all in all he is doing great.

I am going to charge the batteries in my camera and see if we can't get some photos of our Dark Cornish/Sussex cross chicks in the morning.  They are growing so fast!