Warmth

There is nothing like being warm. Being a southern gal living in Alaska I don't feel this way all that often. The past few weeks have been cold but I've had a wonderful spot in front of the wood burning stove. I love the heat on my face as I watch the flames dance. Most mornings I have the company of 2 dogs with me. The mornings that I can sit there with my pups and take in the quiet or read makes a long winter bearable. At the moment I'm sitting here sipping my hot chocolate preparing to go out there..... to a cold car... and my thoughts are on my warm spot on the floor. If I could figure it put I would have another woodstove upstairs so that I could glance at the flames throughout the day. Don't get me wrong I am loving Alaska, I would just like to thaw out for a while. The snow covered landscape is beautiful, especially when the moon hits it. Hot chocolate seems to be consumed a little more often and the oven continues to be used longer than when I lived in Virginia. So where is to a warm fire, a mug of hot chocolate and dreams of ocean breezes..... have a wonderful night and keep warm.

Back to my Basics

I can't believe how long I have been away. I've been working off the farm to be the past 2 1/2 years. My farm to be regressed to a home with chickens. I've not given up on my farm/homestead dreams we just needed to step back and re evaluate. So here is an update of the past few years. I went back to work part time at first in order to help cover expenses on the homestead and to get us caught up after my hubby's surgery. I ended up going more than full time. During this time I was still homeschooling thanks to online programs but it was a huge struggle. We ended up getting rid of our sheep, goats, rabbits and chickens. I can tell you this place isn't the same without the animals. I tried to garden but for some reason it wants time and attention that I didn't have. About a year ago some friends of ours were moving out of state and we inherited their chickens. The start of my farm to be again. I left work at the end of August this past year. It was too late to salvage my garden attempt so I started going to farmers markets and a local u pick farm for fresh produce. My hubby and I started canning. It was a first for us.... potatoes were great, pickles not so great. Hubby and I attended an all day bee class to learn about the ins and outs of beekeeping. So that is about where I am at. This year we are looking to expand our garden, add a few apple and cherry trees and fence it all in. (I'm also toying with a cottage garden in my head with a combination of edible plants). We are also looking at building a permanent greenhouse instead of my little tent one. As for livestock we have talked about turkeys and goats. We will hatch our own eggs once we get back into the 30s on a regular basis. So those are our summer plans to revive my farm. While waiting on spring I've been busy crocheting, teaching my 17yr old how to sew clothing, we are learning to make natural cleaners for home and for body. I've been learning about and using essential oils in place of harmful chemicals, and to top it all off still homeschooling on a daily basis. The latter is the best choice I have ever made. So that is a quick catch up. I'm looking forward to adding regularly again.

Pinterest Project

Hi everyone...it's Angie...long time no see. I've been hiding in my own little world here on the farm. We are busy getting things ready for winter. There is already snow on them hills. This morning the sun is coming up through the trees, a fire is going in the wood stove and I'm watching the roof thaw as the frost melts and drips like rain. It's going to be another beautiful sunny day. I'm hanging on to every last bit of summer/fall that I can. So onto my Pinterest project. I've become a pinterest addict lately. I get so many great ideas from there from crafting to well everything. So this challenge is perfect it made me actually go back through the boards and pick one to do. I chose a pin from Smallbitsofpaper.blogspot.com. I love the colors...so cheery and bright. I used papers from recollections, ribbon, my gypsy, the paisley cartridge and cricut craftroom basics.

See what I mean about the bright colors. They are so pretty. One of the biggest things that I love about my gypsy is that I can see how the pieces and parts are laid out and I can use scraps of paper that I would normally just have thrown away, that and I don't have to keep changing cartridges.

Here are the pieces all cut out...not much wasted paper at all.

And here is the card. Isn't it cheery?! The frames were cut using the cricut craftroom basics The lady bug was cut cut from Paisley...as well as the rectangles. I used some pink ribbon that I had, and a stamp for the sentiment in pink. I hope you enjoyed. If you are a pinner I strongly suggest picking just one and getting started...I know that I will be.

Repeat Adventure

"Here I go again, down the only road I've ever known....." Whitesnake sings this one and has a beautiful girl in a white dress on a hot car ;) Yep definitely an 80s child. That is about how long I've been on this back and forth adventure. I've been dieting....including crash diets, pills, Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, you name it for the past 20some years. I've used the pregnancy excuse for too long...then again after 6 of them I honestly don't think I will ever get my boot camp body back. So here it is July 2012 and I'm almost....a few pounds shy of being twice the girl I was when I got married....literally. This isn't something I talk about much, but somewhere in the past month I've had a "time to get started" moment. I joined a gym way back in October of last year, then all Hades broke loose around here. I went off an on, but not regularly. I started in Feb. with a trainer, and then again still didn't go regularly. So March came around and we had our 20th wedding anniversary and then it hit me....so I started going to the gym yet again. I still am not going as many times as I should, but I'm doing better. I'm working twice a week with a trainer and have been since April. I've managed to lose 2 whole pounds. Talk about not being a motivating factor. Yes a few inches here and there, but nothing like I wanted to see happen. May rolled around and I turned 40. I was more depressed turning 30 than 40, but I can't stand who I am right now. I have no energy to keep up with my kids....al 6 of them. I've been outgrowing my clothes...and refuse to buy bigger ones. Yet I still haven't made that commitment to change....bringing me to today. It's July already. We had went camping for a weekend and I had come back with more weight than what I had lost. I'm so tired of having to worry about everything I eat and yet I know that if I don't start making changes that will be how it will be the rest of my life. I know me well enough to know that I have to make small changes, a little at a time in order to make them stick....after all I've done this before and a few of those changes from the past are still here. So this morning I've decided to make that commitment. I have decided that I will write about this journery/adventure/change for a few reasons. Accountability is one. If I write about it, and can read it...and share it then I will be more likely to stick a little stronger. Motivation, this will keep me going when I don't want to. It's harder to say I don't want to, or to completely go the other direction when I will be writing about it as well. As a reminder, I can reread posts and see what I've been doing, what has been working, and when I feel like I'm not getting anywhere to see the progress. I hope that this works for me the way that I see it in my head. Maybe along the way I can be an inspiration to some, or some can help inspire me. I don't have an actual number or size goal...I do have a general one and that is I would like to be around 125-135 lbs again. At this point in my life it seems that it will be impossible to ever see those numbers again. That is around 90lbs overall. That is an overwhelming number to me. So I'm going to break it down to 10lbs at a time. I will be constantly losing those last 10 lbs ;). Some of the changes that I have made already are: I've stopped drinking soda daily. I don't tell myself that I can't have it because then I will want it. If I do get one it's now a diet Mt. Dew (because that is the only diet one I like.) I've started making myself drink at LEAST 64 oz of water a day. I've been to the gym at LEAST 3 times per week....and I want that to be 5 by the time I am finished...if not more. Some of my goals are: I want to be able to jump rope, and play with my kids on the trampoline without worrying about going thru it. I want to be able to run again...even though I hated running I want to be able to do it. I want to be able to shop in the Misses department, instead of the plus size departments of clothing stores. I just keep telling myself over and over that it will all be worth it. I can do this I've done it before. I've got to learn to eat differently...that will be my biggest challenge. I am a carbatarian...and I don't like veggies. I don't care for meat that much either....so those changes are going to be harder probably then going to the gym. So please if you read this and have any to die for recipes for veggies or meats please share them with me. As well as any other tips....I will need the help along the way. Change isn't easy, but it can be an adventure. I don't want to have to keep repeating this one over and over. I would like for it to become a way of life, a constant. Not just for my health, but for my family as well. Thanks for listening to me ramble. I will be rambling more often.

Normal or not?

Do you know that feeling when you have held your tongue about things and it has just boiled up? That is me at the moment....and I'm ready to start screaming. I know that we are not a typical family, afterall we have been married for 20 years. (To the same person.) We have 6 kids, not the average 2.5...still don't know how you have 1/2 a kid. I am a stay at home mom, not a 2 income family, and we homeschool. We have all of that going against us, and then we decided to build a farm. Who in their right mind does these things, anymore? We have made these choices all for different reasons and at different times in our lives. We chose daily to stay in love with each other.....that is why we are still together. We have chosen a large family....mainly because of me and my love of my children. As for a stay at home, being a military family for so many years it was the stability for the kids. (I'm very thankful that I have been able to do that.) As for homeschooling there are many different reasons, one being that I had my children to raise them, not for someone else too. The farm well that one is new and different. We want to be able to raise the majority of our food. We want to have a healthier lifestyle that is more active, which is required on a farm....and well it is fun to have the livestock, relaxing to work in the garden, and it gives us a sense of accomplishment when our dinner doesn't come from a store. This isn't a life for everyone that's for sure. That doesn't make it wrong. We struggle like everyone else in this world, but our life is what we have made it. We don't regret our choices. We may seem backwards, out of touch with reality, or that we have our priorities mixed up....but before anyone judges us maybe they should look at the bigger picture. It is frustrating to me that if we were both working, kids in schools, and struggling to stay together, keep up, and so on it wouldn't be given a second thought. I know that not everyone feels that way. I know not everyone who has a 2 income family is struggling with their marriage or children....it all comes down to the choices we make in our lives. Our choices have always been based on what is right for our family. If I need to work outside of the house I do, and will. If the farm for some reason doesn't work for us in the long run, then at least we have tried. I would rather have tried and failed, then to have never tried at all. Anyhow I'm just getting this all out so that I can let it go. I try not to judge others, and when I'm told how wrong that I am I wish that they would take a step back and look at themselves first. On a bright side, we've gained the last of our ewes to build our flock. Our chickens and turkeys are exploring our yard. I have a garden growing, and we've had some very beautiful days. The kids have finished school for the year and we are enjoying our summer. I hope that the rest of you are too...and thanks for listening to me rant.

Lollipop Love

Hey again....how's your summer going? Ours is just starting here in Alaska. This week at sweetsassydiva we are celebrating National Candy Month....for me that's 12 months out of the year. (Must be why I'm so sweet ;)) I have the perfect idea in mind for this week as soon as it came out. It took me a while to make it...and for it to come together in my brain...too much sugar I guess... but I finished it. My Mama sends her grandbabies these huge lollipops...that we were never allowed to have as kids...must be a grandma thing. My girls love it when they get a box in the mail from her because they know that they have all flavors of lollipops. So I decided a layout would be good to do with this one. I even had help putting this one together....starting them early ;) So here is the layout we came up with.... The paper is from DCWV pastel stack and sweet stack...and Colorblok textured cardstock. I used the plantin schoolbook cartridge for the letters. I welded thhe "I'm a SUCKER 4 a" on my gypsy. I found a lollipop cut on my Mickey and Friends however I wanted something a bit more so I decided to make my lollipops. I used dmc thread, 2 or 3 colors and twisted them together...and then wound them onto just a scrap sheet of paper. I used my glue runner to make a sticky surface...and then cut out around the edges. I cut a toothpick in half, colored it with a white marker....cut out a small square of saran wrap and there you have it...my own handmade lollipop. I cut out 3 (4.25x6.25) rectangles for pictures and a 4.25x4.25 square for either a 4x4 picture or a journal box. I added ribbon corners on each to add a little more color. Now all I need is to add the pictures of my sticky little girls. I hope that you are all enjoying summer!!!! Angie

All About Dad

This week at Sweetsassydiva we are celebrating Dads. I'm very blessed to have such a wonderful man to be the "Dad" of my kids. He is amazing and I literally thank God for him every day. Making cards, layouts, or anything basically with a masculine feel is a challenge for me. It may have something to do with the fact that I have 5 daughters, and 1 poor boy surrounded by us. Pink and flowery just comes more natural. So for this card I started scouring magazines, websites and so on looking for something to scraplift. I mainly lifted the colors more so than anything. I chose blues, and stripes. They seemed "manly" enough ;) I layed everything out with my gypsy and got it all cut at one time. I used the calligraphy collection cartridge for my tags and for the "Happy Father's Day" and I used George and Basic Shapes for the "DAD" I used DCWV neutral stack (gray) for the card base, and the smaller tags (1 1/2 in), Latte stack for the striped frame,and white and black misc. scraps for the larger tag (1 3/4 in) I inked all edges of the base, striped paper and tags in dark blue. I layered my tags and centered the letters on them. I used small brads at the top for some extra color. (I don't have a paper piercing tool so I used my cricut tools...they work great) I used foam dots to raise the tags just a bit for added dimension. Then to finish the card I added my greeting on the inside. and the finished project looks like............. Thanks for stopping by. Make sure that you give all of the "Dad's" in your life a huge hug. They deserve them!