2011 Coming to a Close

Almost every blog you see lately, people are talking about how quickly 2011 flew by. Maybe it's cliche, but really, 2011 did fly by in a flash. This has been one of those years where so many things happened for our family - many changes and new experiences - that it couldn't help but go by quickly.

This was not a very productive year as far as creating new art, though. With moving and starting a farm, spending time making art was not on the priority list. Right now, most of my art supplies are packed in boxes, awaiting their new home. I hope to get a studio spot set up within the next couple of weeks. Then hopefully, I'll spend some time doing art again. I miss it. I miss having ideas and taking time to implement them. I miss selling things and talking to people about things related to art and creativity. I feel that ache in my soul every time I see something I made last year or when I think of things I want to make, but don't have the time to right now. I never want to get to the point where I don't make time to do something creative on a regular basis.

I'm looking forward to 2012 and hoping I will find more ways to incorporate art into my daily life. I hope to write more and be a little more disciplined in my blog writing (yeh, I know, you've heard this from me before).  I appreciate that you have continued to be on my "follow" list. I hope 2012 is an amazing and wonderful year for you.

Happy New Year!

Another Long Pause

Many things have been happening on the new farm. As I type, we have a new high tunnel that is being built, 40 chickens that need to be processed, a new compost bin that needs a lot more organic matter, a messy house and a couple of experimental garden beds that need more logs/sticks and organic matter. I'm also going to start a separate farm blog, but every time I sit down at the computer, I'm either distracted by Facebook or too tired to write any entries.

I'm so grateful to be living in the country and working toward growing food. So far, the things I do here feel like they have more meaning than any other job I've had. It hasn't hurt that the weather has been amazing and the tasks do-able. Check back with me this winter when I have to find ways to unfreeze the chickens waterer, shovel the 300 foot driveway and find a way to get tons of snow off the high tunnel so it won't collapse!

Here are some photos of our place:

The "skeleton" of the high tunnel. Dan is working on anchoring it, then we'll put plastic over  it. The plan is to start growing veggies this winter

Hugelkulture bed with my little "helper" chewing on the sticks

Our neighbor Buzz, who decided to come visit one Sunday morning. We don't have cows of our own, but this guy is so cute, it makes me want to have a few of my own!

Our Current Big Distraction

This is a view of our land from where the barn is being built. The old barn beyond the hay bales belongs to our neighbor.

Last July, I wrote a post announcing that my husband and I are planning to start farming (you can read the post here). Since the decision to become farmers, our lives have been filled with workshops, classes, reading and talking about farming - pretty much non-stop. Our 8-year-old son, on more than one occasion has said "I think you two are taking this farming thing a little too far". Maybe we are, but he hasn't seen nuthin' yet!

Currently, we are trying to get a barn built. The barn is divided into 3 sections: a 900 square foot, 2 bedroom apartment, a middle section that will eventually serve as a place to host events and a big storage area that now houses our tractor. (Eventually the tractor will "live" outside under a covered area behind the barn).

The construction of the barn has been a slow process. We started planning sometime in the Winter, which turned out to be unusually cold and snowy, then Spring was unusually wet and now this summer seems to be unusually hot. All of these things seem to have some sort of effect on getting our barn finished. But it's ok and I want to share some photos with you.

Working on staking out plumbing and all that important stuff.

South side of the building. The window on the left is a bedroom, window on right is the living room.

Front of the building - all nice and "airy". It was really nice when the roof was put on and the walls weren't up yet. It was so nice to sit and feel the breeze blowing.

The front of the building a couple of days ago. The rocks piled on the front porch are going to be mortared onto the lower three feet of the front. Right off the front of the porch will be landscaped flower beds.

My husband has been working on insulating the inside, the past couple of days. Today I helped put up a few strips of insulation, but decided I needed to leave before I got too overheated (I'm a heat wimp). The heat index was supposed to be 107 degrees. I'm not sure what the actual number turned out to be, but it was hotter than H-E-double toothpicks! I've got a good man - I'm so thankful for him.

While I was stapling insulation, these suckers kept buzzing around. There are several of them in the windows of the barn. I used to think they were called "horse flies" because they liked to hang around horses. Now I know they are called "horse flies" because they are big enough to actually saddle up and ride off into the sunset!

Finally, I'm leaving you with this photo of the beautiful sunflowers I planted. I didn't want your last memory of this post to be of nasty ole horse flies! 

Thanks for stopping by and looking at the barn progress. I'll keep you updated.

New Etsy Treasuries

I am a woman who has no business spending time putting together Etsy Treasuries. But sometimes I just want to look at beautiful things and put them all together on the same page. So here are a couple of Treasuries I've done in the past couple of days.







I am amazed at the beautiful, amazing art that is inspired by some of my favorite things. What are some of your favorite things that inspire wonderful works of art?

The Return of the Absent One

Dang! Where does the time go?! I was perfectly aware that I had not posted anything for quite awhile, but TWO AND A HALF MONTHS! Gee whiz.

So now I've returned with an obnoxious vengeance - posting yesterday and working on 2 posts today, without any explanation of my whereabouts the past 10 weeks. But since you are a faithful blog reader, I'm sure you are used to such blogging behavior and perhaps you have even behaved this way yourself. Anyway, on with the post...

I have many things to tell you about but right now, I need to keep it short since I'm procrastinating cleaning the house. I still need to get the house done in about an hour, but I like living on the edge, so I'll cram this post in as quickly as I can (for the added adrenaline rush).

The past couple of nights I've been working on posting new items in my Etsy shop. I painted these wooden necklaces quite awhile ago, but just got around to posting them:

I hadn't planned on selling any jewelry, but these tiny pieces of wood were so fun to paint, I couldn't help but make them into something. If I do some more, I might think of some other purpose for them, like a tiny wall hanging or something.

Last night I worked on these:

I've been a little down/grumpy lately, so working on these have been very calming. I love to make tags and carve rubber stamps. I think I'll have to keep doing this - it's much cheaper than therapy!

I currently have 54 items for sale in my shop. I'm hopping to get up to 100 items in the next few weeks. I've read that more items helps increase shop traffic and I would love to have more traffic.

Ok, well, better go clean so my kids won't be embarrassed when their friends come over! :)