"If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day." — E.B. White

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Do not read beauty magazines

I got nuttin' today... 
I was really lookin' forward to sharin' some fun news, but the whole east coast got rained out.
It made me a bit melancholy.
So what's a girl to do but work on her bloggers butt and visit friends... 
Specifically, I went straight to my all time favorite;
Jayme always makes me snort out loud. She's doin' a hilarious question n answer series this week. I'd not seen it earlier so had lots to catch up on. 
LOVE. HER.



She's the perfect combination of serious n silly and HONEST.
Lately she blogged about what she wants to be when she grows up...
Anyways. All her deep thought sharin' got me thinkin'.
But I'm serious n sappy and not original so immediately what came to mind is this
    Youtube Sunscreen speech set to music

Do you remember this???
 I'm very, very blessed to have a wise mother who shared similar sentiments with me when I fretted about my future. Lately the future seems a bit uncertain to me again. Our dear friend holds her baby MacKenzie  and my heart is breaking. Jayme and "Sunscreen"  help heal me. 



In August 1997, e-mail enthusiasts burned up cyberspace sending each other the text of a commencement address said to have been delivered by Kurt Vonnegut, author of "Slaughterhouse Five" and other works. It was surely the most popular speech Kurt Vonnegut never wrote or delivered. As it happens, the sunscreen speech was actually a column written by Chicago Tribune columnist Mary Schmich. Here is "the speech."

Wear Sunscreen

By Mary Schmich of the Chicago Tribune

Ladies and gentlemen of the class of '98: Wear sunscreen.


If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.


Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.


*Don't worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blind side you at 4 PM on some idle Tuesday.*


Do one thing every day that scares you.


Sing.


Don't be reckless with other people's hearts. Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.


Floss.


Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself.


Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.


Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.


Stretch.


*Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don't. *


Get plenty of calcium.


Be kind to your knees. You'll miss them when they're gone.


Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't. *Maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary.* Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else's.


Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own.


Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.


Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.


Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.


Get to know your parents. You never know when they'll be gone for good.


Be nice to your siblings. They're your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.


Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.


Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard.


Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.


Travel.


Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble, and children respected their elders.


Respect your elders.


Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.


Don't mess too much with your hair or by the time you're 40 it will look 85.


Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.


But trust me on the sunscreen.


So that's it. I'm thinkin' bout life,  Kenzie,  feelin beautiful just the way I am after forgetting my sunscreen too often and Jayme & Glenco doing the funky chicken dance on their anniversary. Cause you know they just might. And that's why I keep reading!

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Happy Harvest!


Woo whoooo!
The Farmer's first harvest is almost complete!
This is his first year farming all 115 acres of our farm...


In previous years we grew only hay and leased about 1/2 out to a neighbor who farms hundreds n hundreds of acres all around us.
This year the Farmer bought his own "vintage" equipment to sow n grow for himself.
He''s really got a way with fixing and keeping equipment running...
Good thing.
Farming is hard on machinery (and men).
 I hear about broken teeth constantly ~
on the haybine, tedder  or gleaner!



The old gleaner/combine and farm truck are my favorite.
Being a junker n all...
NOT that The Farmer's stuff is junk.
It's just got lotsa character!


We know all the big farms have Big Green shiny equipment.
Take a look at a new favorite blog of mine ~

Quite a different look, huh? 

But no matter how fancy your tractor, mother nature sure makes it work...
Between our terrible drought, and the
very hungry caterpillars n grasshoppers 



...gettin' beans in the bin is a huge thrill!



I'm lovin'these views.


But I'm not the only one


And these poor folks pay $250 each to see it all!
(There were TWO beautiful balloons overhead tonight)


 Speaking of Beautiful...
"Wild Rose Marketplace & Co." in Walkersville, MD
What she and her fellow artists have put together is STUNNING!!!
Hope you get a chance to visit with her some day soon.
She's sooo worth the drive ~
really high quality pieces at low prices!


Hope your weekend is full of beauty!

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Color my (bedroom) world


As I've now made clear, I'm really into color. That made me re-evaluate my cocoa brown n white bedroom... I painted it SW Portabella brown, added white matelasses duvet cover w/family linens and old sepia photos (quickly as I was overwhelmed w/a newborn and house sale + major DIY) when we first moved in 6 years ago. It was very restful and serene...
Just not really me!
Actually, truth be told, I'm not that in touch with my decorating feelings... I work mostly with what I've already collected and rearrange them adding minimal new pieces...  I'm a bit too frugal I sometimes think... It wasn't until I actually bumped into the fabric below at JoAnnes that I knew I needed more color in my bedroom. I feel dumb now, as it really needed this to tie my bedroom into the master bath, which is a deep robin's egg blue with dark wood dresser and hutch... Since I love coral pink that's all I'd added prior to seeing this fabric. LIGHTBULB!


So I dug through my crap room and found these old shades I'd been keeping for some important project.  After only a few new glue gun scars, I'm very pleased to have new lampshades beside our bed! Will use the scraps to make a toss pillow on my bed ~ soon as I can find the power cord to my sewing machine!


I'm still working on a few more projects (ironically painting things white)...


Which all together help tie in better with this...
(Scuze the still unfinished floors/lack of baseboard trim.)


The little rose n blue matchbox says Betty + Jim and was made for my Grandparents when they married!

Funny, when one of my favorite bloggers, Cindy@Cottage Instincts posted about her Blue n Brown Blog Bonanza, I didn't think I had very much in my house. After looking around I found my new treasured milking stool...


  and these on my entertainment cabinet!


And of course the little cowboy's room
(still due for it's own post)!


And to think, I never really thought I liked blue n brown!

Drop bye Cindy's to see a bunch more beautiful blue n brown!




Tuesday, September 21, 2010

No, no no!


It's been getting cooler and I love the fresh chill mornings, but... This morning I could see my breath! 
Hate. That. 
I do enjoy falls tremendous beauty and wish I weren't viewing it as a glass 1/2 empty...
As soon as the cool days and slanting sun come, rather than truly relax and savor, I'm already mourning the end of my flowers and COLOR.
Guess I'm a classic hot blooded Leo (despite my Scandanavian roots). 


I wandered through my gardens trying to capture as much of the last of summer as I could...


 I can see that I'm not the only one
rushing to gather it all in...




Oh well, although most of my flowers are tattered n torn, there are still fresh new blooms opening and there'll be more things to enjoy, at least until January.
Did I mention I hate winter?


I hear we're in for one last heat wave later this week...  :-)

Hope your day is bursting with happy colors!


I think I might partay before it's too cold also... I'll need some new friends during the long lonely winter!

also confess to others about my winter dread at the cute og
http://itssoverycheri.com/

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Please Don't Eat the Daisies


I thought it was time to post a few pics of our chicken coop and occupants...
Our breeds so far have included Easter Eggers (Americauna Xs), Barred Rocks, Gold Wyandotts, Rhode Island Reds, Cornish Rock/Xs (meat birds), pearl and slate guineas. I'll spare you pics of the nest of sparrows on the cupboard, field mice in the feed bin and elusive bunny family that live below...


From time to time I redecorate. Did you recognize the metal chicken and flower that I bought at Lucketts last spring? Only I would feel the need to add 4 more colors of spray paint to my chicken. I gave him a green neck, yellow eyes, blue chest and pink feet!

* oops pic problem *

I added a floor and shelves to the feed area to hold treats n pens. The chicken pump dispenses Purel for all the worried moms. I've also taken a few of my old signs n collectibles out there.


The ladies are fenced 'til noonish so they lay in their nest boxes and not the hayloft! Then they have free range of the farm and put themselves to bed, waiting for me to lock them in safe after dark.



My coop is actually divided up with 1/ 2 for the hens and 1/4 for supplies, 1/4 for guineas or rehabs... The guineas need a whole 'nother post of their own. Actually they seem to need most everything "their own!"



The chickens are so popular with my family that I've even got my little brother, a previous city slicker, keeping chickens too! And my sweet mother loves to come visit with all her farm babies.

In June I added "landscaping" by planting daylillies, lilacs, viburnum and clematis around the outside of the run. Our hot DRY summer has made them slow to settle in tho. I had some leftover lattice and fence that helped cuten  up the wire run (which was actually an old carport frame, wired n  set in a trench). I'm hoping flowering vines will create more attractive (than plywood) shade by next year as they grow over the top.


As I set out the pumpkins and changed out the pots I also planted some bulbs between the lillies...  It'll be interesting to see if the birds let any of these live for long!

As this has been an ongoing project it's been impossible to get a picture of it all looking great at the same time. (That pretty much is the problem with most of my work here!)


Rushed to get this posted for a coop party hosted by the super talented photographer Tiffany at http://www.thefancyfarmgirl.com/
Go check our her coop ~ it's glamorous n gorgeous!!!!

* would love links to your coop in my comments also! *

Monday, September 13, 2010

Cup-O-Cheer


A cup o cheer. Exactly what I need this morning. It's been rougher than usual facing this week. Last night I visited with our dear little friend MacKenzie. Please pray for her and her family. She is losing her battle with a brain tumor. I brought food n goodies and planted purple n pink mums, pansies and bulbs to bloom next spring... I thought about how she has brightened my world and the lives of so very many who have never even met her. She loves Tinker Bell and it's so fitting... She's a sparkling pixie herself, a shining ray of God's Light, and I know she'll never be far away...


I shouldn't have even tried to start the day without my coffee. As I began making scrambled eggs for the kids, I cracked the shell and dumped the egg in the trash! When I did finally get to my coffee, I think it might have had a fruit fly in it. Or a coffee ground. Going with the coffee ground for the time being.


Hope your week is off to an energetic start!