From Me to You {PLEASE READ}

Hello everyone, over the past few weeks you may have noticed that I have not been posting as often. 
And I have been thinking very hard about the future for this little blog of mine.

This weekend something became clear to me.

via

Blogging has done good and bad things for me.

Good things: I have 'met' some amazing people and have developed my photography skills beyond what I imagined.

Bad things: I barely have any time to do anything else, I have been so involved in blogging and online in general that I don't get enough sleep and am always lacking energy.

I've decided to delete this blog at this end of this month.

Soon soccer will be picking up. And when I'm not at soccer I will be outside building new chicken pens and planting my garden and will not have nearly enough time for this little blog of mine.

I will be selling my laptop and iPhone and that will be it.

{april fools}

Ha! Happy April Fools day! I don't think I could ever stop blogging so this is me just being mean {or funny}.

And just for future reference I don't even have my own laptop or an iPhone{yet).

No hard feelings right?

SHS 3.31.13.

Hello, happy Easter! Or Easter Eve since that is when I am writing this post. This week it was finally sunny and warm and everything very slowly started to melt. I don't know if the weather will be sticking around or not, but I really really hope it does!

I am trying to decide whether these blondies were a fail or not.. They tasted pretty good but the whole middle was sunken and empty. Would you like to see the recipe regardless or should I go with a no on sharing?

Empty

These eggs are no longer ordinary. I imagine you all know the whole dying eggs process so lets go with that...

Ordinary

Earlier today I looked out the window and saw tulips! I literally squealed with delight and ran outside and proceeded to take lots of pictures... Of course!

Fresh

Our stream is much higher then this now which is good and bad. Good because that means the snow is all melting,and bad because that most likely means floods!

Water

I misread the prompt and thought it was weather, not weathered. Oopsies...
The weather has been so warm (like mid 40's) Billie has basically demanded that we open the bathroom window so she can stare out the window listening to birds...

Weather

What are you doing for Easter??

Saturday 9

1) Are you impatient?

Yes, mostly when I am waiting in a line.

2) Do you believe some people have a gift for predicting the future?

No not really. I can guess the next song that is going to be on the radio sometimes so maybe I'm physic?


3) The microwave is a great invention for those who "don't want to wait." What was the last thing you prepared in yours? 

I'm pretty sure I reheated pizza. I prefer to eat stuff cooked in the oven rather then reheated anyway.

4) This was the theme of the TV show Dawson's Creek. Michelle Williams, a costar on the show, went on to earn multiple Oscar nominations. Name another performer who started out on TV and then became a movie star.
 

Okay this is going to sound so cheesy and I'm sure I could come up with somebody else, but Selena Gomez :)

5) What's the last bit of advice you received? 

Last night I made gummies (yes, gummies!) and they were gone almost immediately, my little sister said I should make them all the time.

6) What's the last advice you gave?

Last night my little sister put on bright red lipstick and kissed my mom on her cheek really messily and I think I told her to go wash it off because it looked like somebody had been gnawing on her face (vampire!).


7) Easter is considered the season of rebirth. What leaves you feeling refreshed or rejuvenated?

  

Right now it would have to be Spring in general. I just want flowers, green grass, sunshine (at least more then twice a week..), and SPRING.

8) Easter is also recognized as the start of the spring season. What are you looking forward to this spring?

Like I said above, all of it. I want to go outside with my camera and find a million things to take pictures of besides icky half melted snow and brown everything.


9) Which would you rather find in your Easter basket: yellow marshmallow chicks (aka Peeps) or a chocolate bunny?

Since I think peeps are absolutely disgusting I have to go with a chocolate bunny...

Okay I am off to go clean, dye eggs, bake, clean some more then go dance in the rain. Ciao!

Random 5...

Soo...  Its time for some random five facts! Just a couple things from this past week starting with Sunday...


1 -  I had a soccer game that I had literally been waiting for for two years! Just so I could play against this one guy that I had played against two years earlier. So in that game so long ago I made him cry. Not because I hurt him, but because there was a free kick near the goal and he was in goal and I shielded him (just stood in front of him) and he started freaking out because he couldn't see the ball. This may seem very cruel of me but on the field I just can't help that kind of thing! Anyway, on Sunday I almost made him cry again, not quite but almost! I made him yell at me a few times and whine a bit but that was it.

2 - You may have heard already, but on Monday our barn burnt down. There were 4 goats (3 of them little babies), 8 chickens and a duck inside any they went off to the animal happy place.. It was a very sad day and you can read all about it here.

3 - On Wednesday it was so warm! I was actually outside in shorts and a t-shirt (please note that when I say it was warm it was only actually like 45 degrees!) and it was so awesome, a few people asked me if I was cold and I told them that I was pretending that it was actually Spring so no I wasn't cold.

4 - Thursday I went and worked at the Library and tried to get the printer to print onto some small labels, it was definitely a fail... Then I went to the docter with my sister and she got her cast off! I was totally going to video tape it but we forgot the video camera, and I really wished I had it 'cause when she heard the saw thingy she screamed super loud and a nurse came running in to make sure no one was dying!

5 - It was in the 50's today and it was fabulous, I was outside with the remaining chickens 'sun tanning'. I really can't wait for Spring!


I will be back tomorrow for Scavenger Hunt Sunday, I hope you come and take a look!

Our Fire Story

As I sit here writing this it still doesn't seem real.

I can remember every detail of the barn inside and out, I remember where every screwdriver and and nail was. I could basically take care of the chickens and goats with my eyes closed. And as much as I don't want it to be true, it is. On Monday March 25 2013 at 8:30 in the morning my big sister woke up to see our barn engulfed in flames. She immediately woke me up and ran downstairs and while opening the door decided it would be a good idea to open it directly into her face and get a bloody nose. While she called 911 I woke up my dad and he immediately ran outside in his underwear (TMI?).. Me and my big sister stood on the porch sobbing our eyes out while watching our barn burn down along with 4 goats (3 of them were little babies) and all my chickens (besides the 3 that were in our basement 'hospital ward" and single duck.

Here is out building set up:

Made by my sister.

The corn crib is the building that burnt down. The side of the tool shed that is closest to the corn crib caught on fire but the firemen put it out. If it had fully caught on fire all of the other buildings would have eventually gone with it (including the house.)

An awesome lady we know was driving up on the highway and saw the black smoke and texted us to see if we were all okay and when we told her what was going on she texted her mom who came over and took me and my lil sis to her house to get us away from all the chaos. She told me this story that one of her daughters told her and I really liked it. 

The story was:
There was once a Chinese man and his stallion got out and ran away, his neighbors said "Oh what bad luck!" the Chinese man said "It is neither good luck nor bad luck, anything could come of this."

A few days later the stallion came back with a whole herd of stallions with it. The neighbors said "Oh what good luck!" The Chinese man said "It is neither good luck nor bad luck, anything could come of this."

One day his son tried riding one of the stallions but got flung off and broke both of his legs. The neighbors said "Oh what bad luck!" And he said "it is neither good luck nor bad luck, anything could come of this."

A couple days later the Chinese Army came looking for all able bodied men to join the army, but since his son had two broken legs he did not have to go.

So basically it was kind of like the barn burning down was bad luck, but the chickens that we had in the basement was good luck.


Here are the before, during and after photos of the barn:

I have been out there several times and there is basically nothing left. I found a few tools and the toolbox. But literally nothing.

You may have realized that I have kept blogging since the fire like everything was normal. It has been a bit of a welcomed distraction. I will keep blogging but maybe just missing a few posts a week.

I am already planning a new chicken pen, and will be getting some new hens. I want at most 10 total.


Thank you so much for all of your support :)

Lemon Crinkle Cookies

Lemon Crinkle Cookies

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 egg

1 teaspoon lemon zest

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup powdered sugar

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease light colored baking sheets with non stick cooking spray and set aside.

2.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Whip in vanilla, egg, lemon zest and juice. Scrape sides of bowl and mix again. Stir in all dry ingredients (except powdered sugar) slowly until just combined. Scrape sides of bowl and mix again briefly.

3. Pour powdered sugar onto a large plate. Roll a heaping teaspoon of dough into a ball and roll in powdered sugar. Place on baking sheet and repeat with remaining dough.

4. Bake for 9-11 minutes or until bottom of cookies begin to barely brown and cookies have a matte finish (not melty or shiny). Remove from oven and cool cookies about 3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

*If using a non stick darker baking tray, reduce baking time by about 2 minutes.

These cookies were absolutely delicious. Possibly my best cookies ever made. They were perfectly chewy and crunchy and soft all at the same time. The only thing I wish I had done differently is put in more lemon zest and less sugar so there was more lemon taste and less sugar cookie. 

Flower Power

Very quick post today... Lets get right to the picture.

I didn't get around to buying any flowers but someone I know did. Had to have a photoshoot :)

Textured with Kim's texture Sybil.

Texture Tuesday
Tuesday Muse
Sweet Shot Tuesday
Tones On Tuesday
Tuesday Around The World
Our World Tuesday
Inspired Tuesday
The Happiness Project 

Also a new lovely linkup...
Mona @ Mona's Picturesque is hosting Floral Love!

SHS 3.23.13.

Hello! I missed SHS last week, but I am back! We don't really celebrate St. Patricks day around here (even though we are half Irish!) so it would have been a bit (a lot) hard to get any pictures for the prompts... Anyway, on a very happy note: Dancer had kittens today!! There are 5 little babies and they are SO CUTE. Like really, I will be posting pictures soon!

I am pretty sure tea originated from Japan or China but I'm not really sure... Anyway my tea journey is going slow, as I still haven't found my perfect tea. But I am working on it!

Asian

If I drew anything (I have no talent with that sort of thing whatsoever) I think I would definitely use a lot of green since there is so little around here, but this is definitely an improvement to a couple weeks ago!

Draw

As many of you know it is the middle of baby goat season for us. This is Amaranth who is absolutely ADORABLE.

Soft

The last 2 days I have been outside for hours because it finally warm out. 

Texture

Some days my hair gets really (really) curly, but sometimes its just wavy. Today was a wavy day.

Wavy

Goodbye Winter...

Dear Winter, you have been here since mid December. Snowing at a minimum once a week. I have taken many, many thousands of photos and have enjoyed your stay (most of it anyway). I am sorry to inform you that it is time for you to go, to move on until next Winter.

I am so so so (soo) ready for some color. 

Flowers, warm and sunny days, hours and hours spent taking pictures, more warm and sunny days, huge thunderstorms which means rain which means no droughts this year!

Here are my hopeful last Winter pictures...

Farewell, Winter.

Little Things Thursday
Thursday Favorite Things
Imperfect Prose
Share The Joy
Ready To Waltz
Loves On A Thursday

Blueberry Muffins!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 egg

1/3 cup milk

1 cup frozen blueberries (more is optional!)

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup butter, cubed

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 400. Grease muffin pan or line with muffin liners.

 2. Combine flour, sugar, salt and baking soda. 

3.Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with flour mixture.

Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups right to the top.

4. To make crumb topping: Mix together sugar, flour, butter and cinnamon. Mix with fork and sprinkle over muffins before baking.

5. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

These were SO GOOD! I have been wanting to make anything blueberry for the past couple weeks and it finally happened.

I am also looking forward to experimenting lemon into the recipe...

Also a picture just for fun...

Ronnie was getting very annoyed that I was in her spot by the window taking pictures. This was the last time the muffin was seen in perfect shape.

Dreary Grey

This isn't actually what it looks outside but I fell like it is. We got almost half a foot of snow yesterday, and now the wind is so strong it is just blowing the the snow around again so we have to shovel over and over.. Also I am 99.9% sure that we wont have a bunch of flowers let alone a single flower by next week, so I will be taking a trip to the store to buy some flowers so I can participate in Texture Tuesday once again next week :)

So, here is my halloween-y looking photo for today.

Spring o spring, wherefore art thou? 

Textured with Kim's Nested and a mystery texture that I don't remember the name of...

Texture Tuesday
Tuesday Muse
Sweet Shot Tuesday
Tones On Tuesday
Tuesday Around The World
Our World Tuesday
Inspired Tuesday