Parched

It is dry. It is beyond dry. We haven't gotten any rain this month and last month was less than an inch. I have given up on my flower beds. The only thing worth trying to save by watering is the vegetables. They seem to be doing alright; it's not going to be a fabulous crop but we will have some. 

This would be my yard right now. You not only have to wear shoes because we have birds but, the grass is so crunch on your feet. Gus seems to enjoy rolling in it and bringing all the dead grass into the house. 

Remember the hummingbird moth. He landed in a planter I had on the back porch. Look at the beautiful color and healthy flowers. 

And now not so much. I did try to save it by watering it, but maybe I didn't do it enough. 

Some sneaky geese and ducks finished it off. It wasn't this bad when I left for work this morning. How do I know it was them; they left some evidence on the porch, poo. I think it is time to start thinking about putting a fence around the back porch. 

There is a 60% chance of rain this weekend. I better go do a rain dance and see if I can up our odds to 100%.

Inspiration

Pinterest how I heart thee. You give me endless motivation to work out, then oodles of delicious cakes to indulge in. You make me want to spend my whole paycheck on bins and totes and a label maker to organize my junk. Tips on how to be upper thrifty and slash the grocery bill. I have a list a mile long of quilts I would love to make. Not to mention the inspiration for a home make over, and sadness that my much lived in house will never look like the beautifully staged photos. And much to Mr. B's dismay you have loads of info on furniture redos and up-cycling my old things. 


I could spend hours looking for at this sight and pinning my latest finds. I have a inspiration board for almost every room in my house. I think I need to stop pinning soon and start doing. 

Heat wave

It is hot here in Wisconsin. I'm talking high nineties and triple digits. H-O-T hot! Gus is miserable, the geese are miserable, the ducks are miserable, and Mr. B and I are miserable. It is too hot to do much of anything except park our tushies in front of the fan and chilax.  

Shady Acres is an old farm house which means no air-conditioning. None zippo zero zilch. Central Air was never installed. Mr. B and I tuffed it out the past two summers. The house normally gets a good breeze and is surrounded by large shade trees which really helps. Air conditioning is a modern convenience, not a necessity. We are young we can handle it, just take it easy and drink lots of water. Besides I want to save the money and spend it on other things. Like drywall for the mud room and new porch posts.

But this time we just couldn't hack it any more. It hasn't be going below 80 at night, it makes for miserable sleep. You have to have the fan in the window cranked on high just to keep from sleeping in a pool of sweat. Then it blows my hair around and my fuzzies tickle my face and wake me up. Miserable, I wanted to shave my head. 

Tuesday night we caved. No not caved, we were realistic. We just weren't sleeping that great. I don't think Mr. B really slept at all on Monday night. The weather forecast doesn't show this heat wave breaking any time soon and we need to be able to function the morning. Next week Mr. B will be working nights and will need to sleep during the day, that just wouldn't happen if the house was in the high eighties. We bought a window ac unit for our bed room. The rest of the house may be hot but at least we have a cool place to sleep. I am starting to think that some day we are going to have to bite the bullet and get central air. Put it on the bottom of the list, so maybe in like 20ish years we will get there..

Stars and Checkers: A Quilt

I finished this little guy last week, but wanted to wait till it was closer to the holiday to show you. He was put up for bid this weekend in a silent auction to benifit airmen and their families on the base Mr. B works at.

I had fun working on this and am very happy with the way it turned out. My seams have improved vastly over the past year, look how nicely al those corners line up! It was hard to part with this one, it would have made a beautiful seasonal wall haning, but it went to a good cause. I am sure it will be loved and appriciated in it's new home. 

I finished it late in the evening and Mr. B needed to take it in the following morning, nothing like waiting to the last minute!! I wanted to get some pictures of the finished product, but the light was just a tad on the crappy side.

Note to self, finish projects a few days in advanced so you can do a nice 'photo shoot' outside.

Cupcake Gig

I had my fist paying gig for cupcakes!! 75 of them for a graduation party. My Friday evening was spent hanging in the kitchen, slaving over my kitchen aid. Man how I love that thing!! I don't care what any one says, it was much better than getting diamonds from you sweetie for Christmas and so much more practical. 

I know Friday evening spent bonding with a mixer and doing five loads of dishes. Is that what you call them, loads? It sounds more like I was doing laundry. Maybe we should call them sink-fulls. But what I did amounted to way more than five sink-fulls. Sink-fulls just doesn't express the sheer volume of dishes as vividly as I would like. Batches? No that doesn't sound quite right either. I'm going to need to think on this for a while. 

So anywho Friday night, cupcakes and dishes not the most glamorous thing to be doing on you Friday evening. I did get a nice sugar buzz going and I swear I had a cake hangover the following morning. I made 75 cupcakes 100 cupcakes. One batch didn't turn out as pretty as I would have likes, I think I over mixed the batter when I added the strawberries.

Edible, yes.

Delicious, yes.

Pretty, oh hell no!

I couldn't sell those babies. They looked like wrinkly old lady skin with pink blotches all over. I know pictures would be nice here, but in the heat of the moment taking pictures of my nasty looking cupcakes was not a priority. I had to turn the oven back on and give it another go. Don't worry they weren't a total loss, the boys at work thought they were great. Free cupcakes, who cares what they look like!

I went for my stnd by white cake this time. Thankfully my client, Mr. B's aunt, didn't have many specifications about them just red and white. Client sounds so important and official don't it? Gives me the warm fuzzies inside. Client. 

I even went all Martha Stewart and made these cupcake toppers. I had some Wisconsin Badger fabric hanging out upstairs, some wooden skewers, and a glue gun. I blame the sugar high for a sudden burst of energy at the end. You know you need to quality check the frosting. The grad is attending UW Madison this fall. I thought they were a nice touch.

I know pictures of the cutsy toppers but none of the cupcakes. Disastrous or nice!! I had every intention of taking pictures of the good ones once they were set up at the event. But the camera got left on the counter, I blame the cake hangover.

Loads, it's loads of dishes. I consulted google and that's what it came up with. Now we can all sleep better tonight.

Kitchen Bouquet

I wanted to give our friends somethin small for their wedding. She said that having the ceremony at the house was enough and not to worry about a gift. However, when people say things like that I still feel the need to get them something. I like handmade gifts, something that says I care about you enough to make you something I know you would like. To me it is more personal than wondering through Target trying to find something, I do this on occasion. (we all can't be craft godesses)

This was their wedding. I wanted to make them something and was running short on time. Hot pan holders it was, simple and easy yet completely usefull. I whipped up two in my favorite colors, teal and red. Two hot pan holders was just not going to cut it, I needed something more to round it out. Off to Target to wonder the aisles. I came home with three wooden spoons and a set of flour sack towels, I have a drawerful and it is never enough!

Now to wrap it up pritty.

Throw it all in a large vase and tie it off with coordinating ribbon. Rather cutsy don't ya think?

This was such an easy and fun project to put together! And think of how easy it would be to change it up with different fabrics in the hot pan holders. This might be making a reocurance in some future bridal showers.

Under the Birch Tree

It was a crazy busy week for Mr. B and I. Dusting, scrubbing, organizing, pruning, vacuuming up all the Gus-bunnies, and wiping all the nose prints off of our windows. Knowing we were going to have all sorts of strangers at our house was a tad nerve racking. I wanted them to like the house and not think that I was a horrible house keeper. Mr. B was amazing and so helpful. He had to remind me a few times that our house is a work in progress and is not going to be "perfect".

It was well worth it. Saturday two of our friends got married and had the ceremony in our back yard, right under the birch tree. 

It was an honor to be a part of such a special day for these two wonderful people. Wishing them a life time of love and happiness.