My tulips have finally started to bloom! It is a gorgeous day here, we mowed the lawn for the first time Saturday, I went thrift store shopping and got a beautiful cut glass cake plate (I think it's old) fro $2.69. And I went to the farmers market for the first time this season (YAY!) and bought some beautiful flowers for the front porch. I am working on a large bird house to put out there with the flowers and I will show you how it turns out soon. I am finding a lot more energy to do things since spring arrived. I always feel re-energized by warm weather and sunshine. I have been checking my blog partners web site all day to see if she got her may basket yet. It was supposed to arrive today. Then Earl reminded me that Arizona is about 4 hours behind us so even though it is almost 8:00 here it is still just mid afternoon there. I can't wait til she gets it! I will let everyone know as soon as I get word that she has it, then I will post pictures of what I sent her.

More May basket pictures

THANK YOU KIM!

As I drove in from work today I saw a mysterious box on the front porch. It was my may basket from Kim, My May Basket partner! What a treat! It was full of the prettiest surprises. A little bird and nest in a lovely cage, a wreath, eggs and a pretty little bowl. And the surprises just kept coming!

Kim is a scrappbooker and she made bunches of beautiful handmade gift tags. Kim you are so creative. I love them all. But there was even more!

There were six beautiful embroidered napkins, 3 old vintage postcards (love them!), a vintage calender tea towel, and a gorgeous bird rubber stamp that I can't wait to use included in the basket. All packaged in a lovely box and tied up with ribbons and tissue paper. I can't believe the generosity and work that must have gone into this package and Kim and I have never met! Thank you so much Kim, what an awesome surprise!

Weekend Art Show and Wild Game Dinner

Well it was a busy weekend. First, our church hosted a Wild Game Dinner as an outreach event. Earl & I spent Friday night and all day Saturday cooking. It was very successful and many people liked the log candle holders that we made for centerpieces and asked to take them home, which we let them do. There were a ton of things on the menu (which is why we, and about 6 other people, were cooking so long!) We served Pheasant, Bear, Caribou, venison, Duck, Walleye and Salmon, as well as Chicken and spaghetti for those who don't eat wild game but wanted to come anyway. We had 135-140 people there and about half were guests and not from our church. We were so tired by the time the dinner began that we didn't even sit down and eat, of course we were also dishing up dessert while others ate so we didn't have a chance anyway.

Sunday, we decided to get away and have a little couple time so we went to the Sugarloaf Art fair in Novi after church. What a great show! Earl bought me an early mothers day gift, this gorgeous picture by an artist named Susan Loy. She does amazing calligraphy using flowers and other images with literary quotes and bible quotes. Mine is from 1 Corinthians 13, the Love chapter. It was quite affordable for a signed print and now I just need to get it framed. You can find her art at http://www.literarycalligraphy.com/ . I also got something cute for my sister - in-laws birthday in August but I cant show you because she checks my blog! Bet you wonder what it is now Keeka! You just have to wait! LOL Anyway, we had a great time just walking around and looking at all the beautiful art and seeing some art demonstrations. It was a lovely show and a lovely day.

Daffodils in the sunshine

I don't know if this photo can really capture the light that hit my little bunch of daffodils this morning. It was so bright and beautiful glowing through the petals and finally we have sunshine! These were all laying on the ground with bent stems last night and I decided rather than let the poor sad things lay there I would cut them iand enjoy them inside. Many were not open, but once they got warm they are all open and beautiful this morning! I must go get ready for work but I hope you all enjoy the day and find some flowers of your own to brighten it up!

Sneak peek at the May Basket swap

I just wanted to give everyone a peek at my May basket for Artsy Mama's swap. I have been working on it every day and am hoping that Kim will like it when she gets it. It is really hard doing this for a stranger. I looked at her blog and thought at first that I would try to use the clues there to help me know what style I should make it, but in the end I decided to be true to my own style and hope for the best and hope Kim feels free to do the same. I look at this as sending a little bit of myself out there into blogland. I will give a complete picture on May 1, and I will also post a pic of Kims basket that she sends me. I am having a blast with this project, it has been so long since I really did anything creative just because I wanted to. I hope this gets me back in the habit of creating because it is so much of who I am.

Artsy Mamas May basket swap

I am really excited to have entered my first blog swap. Our project is to make a beautiful May basket and swap it with another blogger who has signed up to do the same. I am paired up with Kim, a scrapbooker and blogger in Arizona. I am so looking forward to this project! I have some of my supplies already and am shopping for more this afternoon. I will be sure and post a picture of my creation after the swap, along with the basket I get from Kim. I am looking forward to seeing what she does. I visited her blog and she has some awesome examples of her work as a scrapbooker and artist. This is a really fun aspect of blogging. I have gleaned so much creative inspiration from seeing what other people do on their blogs. If you want to get a glimpse of what is going on, click on the basket swap button on the right and scroll down until you get to the May basket swap.

Good Morning

Good morning everyone, We finally have a sunny day ahead of us on this Friday the 13th. I thought I would share a picture of our beautiful eggs. I currently have around 17 mixed breed bantam chickens who keep us supplied with all the beautiful brown eggs we can eat, and then some. We have taken to selling them at our places of work because otherwise we would be hard put to consume all of them. I have gotten as many as 14 eggs in a day! I am looking forward to doing a few painting projects today, helping a friend set up a blog of her own and chauffering Victoria around to some fun with friends. I have not gotten nearly as much done around here this week as I had hoped. I had planned on doing mass amounts of spring cleaning, painting projects, sewing projects (I promised a friend I would sew kitchen valances for her about 2 months ago and the fabric is still staring accusingly at me from the chair) sigh...why is it when I have a week off I don't seem to have more time? Maybe I just need to use it more wisely. I am trying to change some habits and identify some of the things that seem to keep me from being productive. I have to admit one of those things is the T.V. Sometimes I think I should take it right out of the house. I am almost 49 and I am still trying to change so many things I should have gotten a handle on so long ago. Reading my Bible every day, eating right, exercising (ick), accomplishing more with my time, all major things that each take a lot of discipline and thought. Discipline I am short on. Oh yeah, add self discipline to what I am working on and it seems like a mountain I need to climb. The discipline is, of course, the foundation of all my other problems. Oh well, all any of us can do is keep trying and never give up. I am making progress on my Bible reading, maybe I need to concentrate on one thng at a time. But I would like to have it all together now!

UN-BEE-LEEVABLE! I had the ability to post with pictures all the time and I didn't know it. It was right in front of my face and I never saw it! I know that doesnt sound like a big deal to you, but it was really bugging me that I was such a techno-dufus. The picture at the top is a pic I took of a gorgeous dragonfly on our chicken coop last summer. Anyway, now that I have that figured out I will tell you that we had a great Easter. Our church had rented the Junior High auditorium down the road for a community service and it was very successful. The auditorium holds around 600 and it was full. We had a great program and the community really turned out for it. After the service we all went to a frieinds house for Easter dinner and then we were going to go to moms house to hang with the sibs, but Victoria had been vomiting all day Saturday (for no apparent reason) so with moms compromised immune system we thought we better not. Actually mom nixed the idea and we totally understood. Fortunately Vicky felt fine Sunday so she was able to participate in the program at church that she had practiced so long for. It was a great day made even better by the fact that we were joined for breakfast and the service by Rick & Marie, (Earls cousin and his wife) who are among our favorite people in the WORLD! (hugs to you guys if you are reading this) I hope everyone had a very blessed and wonderful Easter and continues to enjoy the next week. It has got to get warmer eventually!