Fourth of July

Okay --- so I got a little bored watching fireworks on the 4th of July and decided to have some photographic fun. This is what happens when you go for long exposures and deliberate movement of the camera. As Forrest Gump said, "you never know what you're gonna get", but I kind of like the effects. :-)

Hay There

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Nothing profound to post today --- but thought I would share pictures of the beautiful field next to my house. My neighbors mow the field for hay a few times during the summer, but it is really the most beautiful when they haven't mowed in awhile. The ground is just uneven enough to catch the light perfectly at dusk, stretching out in big stripes of shade and light. Click the link below to see an early blog post with pictures of the same field being mowed in June 2008.

http://sarahsfarmreport.blogspot.com/2008/06/hay.html

Copy Cat Crafting

First of all, it has been WAY too long since I posted to my blog. Apologies to anyone who has checked in recently and found nothing new. I am making promises to be better during the months ahead. And I might even find time to create a few "makeup" posts, as I have been anything but idle since February.


This weekend has been full of cleaning and catching up --- but I did find time to copy my friend Annie in a crafting endeavor. See above for the results. Much fun!! The link to Annie's post about a similar project is below --- and she was inspired by Beverly (who I have never met) at the link below that. Thank you to both of these talented crafters for inspiring me to actually make something. I think about crafting often, but starting is not my strong suit. :-)

Annie's post is here:
http://adorkableannie.blogspot.com/2010/05/for-to-serve.html

Beverly's post is here:
http://www.flamingotoes.com/2010/05/serving-tower/

I started by finding plates and cups at the West End Antiques Mall --- deciding to use blue and white "Willow Ware" --- which I love and which is readily available in individual semi-matched pieces. I used the Gorilla Glue that Beverly recommended in her post and it worked great. Started by stacking the plates and cups in endless combinations, trying to decide on the best design for my serving piece. Honestly, I could have stacked for a very long time (muttering to myself about all the possibilities), but decided I had better start gluing before the weekend was over. Making crafting decisions is apparently not my strong suit either.

I glued an upside-down salad plate to the bottom of the biggest plate as Beverly suggested, so that my serving tower would sit slightly off the table, stacking books on top of the glued stack for about 30 minutes at each "level". I actually glued some of my top pieces together and some of the bottom pieces togther and then glued my two mini-stacks to each other, which seemed to work fine and speeded up the process a bit, since I could have two sections drying at once. The finished serving tower seems very sturdy and I look forward to using it to entertain soon. Here's hoping I can inspire someone else to go try this fun and easy project. I know there are LOTS of plates and cups out there just waiting for a second career!

This was my "collection".

And this was the "super" glue.

This was my first level (actually shown upside down).

Almost done.

And here is the final tower!!

Road Trip

I drove to Maryland with a friend last weekend to pick up her newly adopted puppy (who may or may not eventually be named "Sparky Malarkey"). She found him on petfinder.com and it was love at first sight. He is probably 11 weeks old and looks like a border collie mix. The story is that he was found as a stray in Kentucky and was driven to a small shelter in Maryland by a gentleman in a pickup truck who found him and couldn't locate an owner. Now of course he is in Virginia, so this little guy has already traveled more than most dogs ever will. He may also be the cutest puppy I have seen in the past year.

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Barns

This image was taken on my way back from Maryland last weekend. The roads were clear, but (as you can see) there was still a lot of snow on the ground. I wish I had a barn like this, or even a much smaller one, on my farm. Doesn't every farm need a barn? I thought I read that somewhere. Rumor has it there was a barn at one time, but it fell down or was sold off or something like that. There is something that looks like an old building foundation behind and to the right of the farm house, so I imagine that was where it was located ---- but the area is now covered by small trees and brush. Sigh. Maybe one day I will figure out how (and where) to put a barn --- and then of course I'll need horses or other fun animals to live inside.

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Snow and Ice

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The storm appears to be over (at least until Tuesday) and the sun even came out a bit this afternoon, which was lovely. We still have a whole lot of snow on the ground in Richmond though --- and they got TONS of it up in the Maryland and DC area. Cold temperatures mean we will probably continue to have both snow and ice for the remainder of the week, although I am happy to report that roads have been easy-to-navigate so far. Also happy to report that tall rubber boots appear to have been the best investment I made in 2009!!

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Snow Birds

Put out seed this morning and was visited by hundreds (maybe thousands) of birds, despite the rapidly falling snow. Blue jays and cardinals were well represented, but the vast majority of my visitors were grackles. Apparently a large group of grackles is called a "plague", which seems rather unpleasant. I think they need a better PR agency. I suppose a "plague" of grackles sounds better than a "murder" of crows, but not by much.
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Happy Snow Day!!
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Happy Snow Dogs

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I probably now have enough pictures of my adorable dogs playing in the snow to last for ALL of 2010 and maybe longer. Couldn't resist posting a few more though. :-)

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