Victoria Hope is One!

 Jessica baked the cake and helped decorate it. Simple simple, but fun for kiddos.

  I figured some new balls would be a treat. They look so girliesh, don't they? 

And here are some more shots from lately:

 Sweaty face and red cheeks.  Its those sweltering summer days that do it!

 How about some glitter on my foot! That seems to be the excitement here...although nothing came out.

 This is one of her favorite expressions lately. "Kliena frautzerita"!

 We have one outdoorsy little girlie. Now she is big enough to open the doors, walk out, get down the stairs and walk or crawl about outside. She couldn't be happier than when she can be outside.

Vintage Sewing Machine Table

When it comes to old treadle sewing machines, I seem have a magnet in me that draws me to them.  One day I spotted this rusty frame (below) sitting in the rain and sun on someone's yard. I couldn't help but ask about it. For a small fee they let me have it. It is a FARMER sewing machine frame, something I don't recall seeing before.

  I cleaned, scrubbed and sanded the frame quite a bit. I was debating what color to paint it. The original was brown, so since I was in a restoring mood, I went with it.

 An old piece of plywood found in the old shed works well for the tabletop. I took a rosewood colored polyurethane (that was lying around from before) for the finish, and there I have it. A simple yet sturdy little table that could be turned into a sewing machine table again, or just to be used as a coffee table. In this case I have my vintage bowl and pitcher sitting on it.

Plus, it makes a nice place for little feet to play . The kids have fun pushing the pedal up and down. This is one 'sewing machine' they are allowed to do that on as much as they want to!

See you again soon! I've got more fun coming up!

Glass bottle cutting projects

Lately I have been into crafting quite a bit. Seems like I have my times where I enjoy doing a certain thing and then I do a lot of it... Here are some projects I have done after baby this past year, but most of them are from the past months. I plan to do a series of posts on DIY projects I have done lately, so be sure to check back.

 This is my new hobby, to make things out of cut glass bottles. This is a juice bottle I have cut and glued back together this way. I can't wait to do more of this kind of fun. The possibilities are endless! No more nice bottles going to waste here, except the ones that break when I try to cut them.

 A close-up of the glued part.

 

 Cut bottles that we glued neat pictures on, then spray-painted with a clear coat to keep them looking good. These make lovely gifts. (we gave some to the children's school-teacher.) These could be made into drinking jars, but require a lot more sanding than I have time for.

 

 And one of my favorites. A wine bottle lantern. I placed a baby food jar inside this one with a candle in it.

 Come back soon to see what else is new!

The new rock blog

I decided to document my rock-collecting hobby online so other people may enjoy them besides me -and the kids... Check it out!

Patching boys' jeans

If you're like me, you often pick up a pair of jeans, wondering whether or not to fold them up one more time, or add them to the burning trash pile. A few months ago I came up with a new idea how to fix pants. Since my hubby also uses jeans, I had no problem getting matching pieces. See the photos below and notice how I sewed the pockets from big jeans over the worn knees, which in this case all happen to be on the same knee for some peculiar reason, :), and used the bottom part of the big jeans to replace the worn part I cut off of Joseph's jeans.

Now that summer is here and there is no more school, he will be wearing these pants out one more time, and then we can worry about buying new ones. This saves me money for now, and he loves them! no more boring patches, although I never was much of a pant patcher before this.

Cattle Day

 Trying to see if this old girl still had it in her to saddle a horse. It worked. 

(you can safely blame little Victoria for the loose baggy pants. )

 Its good to see my that daughter has the same taste for photos as I do, as it was she took this photo.

 Ah it felt good to be back in the saddle again, something I haven't felt since oh about two years or so ago. Just like the good ole days when it was just the two of us.

 Little miss sherriff didn't feel too great. She has the chicken pox.

 Joseph might just turn into a cowboy yet.

 Besides roping little brother, he's also good at calf roping.

 Action in the pasture.

 Stubborn, stubborn head. But stuff like this always adds to the fun of the cowboys.

 Cousins watching.

 My handsome cowboy.

 Yeah that hurts but just for a little while.

This is how we decided to cook our chili beans for cattle day. I obtained this homemade cookstove recently and decided I wanted to use it to cook my chili.

 My dutch oven is a perfect fit for it. 

That was cattle day for the family. We all had loads of fun. Hope you enjoyed the shots!

She's growing!

 

In just over a month we will be celebrating a birthday here.