can I get a 300?

There are only 20 minutes left in my fabric giveaway contest so maybe this will happen, maybe not. The comment count is currently at 293. If I get someone to comment before 8pm PST and that person is my 300th comment then a special prize will be awarded to them just for being lucky #300! Any takers??? :)

********** Apparently not. Oh well. That's o.k. folks! * The contest is now closed! No more entries will be counted. Thanks for your participation. I'll see you tomorrow with the two lucky numbers courtesy of Random.org*******************

*Deb, if you're reading this then, yes, sure. I'll count you as "close enough" just cause I'm feeling extra generous tonight. Tune in tomorrow to see what you've won!

why is it cold?

It is currently over cast and 56 degrees here today. And in case you're interested, here's our 10 day forecast. Yuck. Not so good for the garden. Not so good for playing outside.

I'm making homemade stew and cornbread for dinner tonight. Yes, something is certainly wrong when you're not cooking up burgers and fruit salad for dinner when you're only 1 day away from June. Does everyone elses weather seem to be on track? I feel as though winter has returned and that our summer won't be here until August. Which will be way too late for the corn to grow anyway. At this rate I highly doubt it'll be "knee high by the 4th of July."

We did have one really nice day here though last week. Here's a few shots from it.

Oh, and P.S., I'm so sorry about the chick photos (it's not as if any of you are stalking this blog to see pictures of chicks or anything) but I'll get a few shots of the little buggers tomorrow maybe. I'll post them soon- pinky swear!

oh.my.gosh.

I think I may have just found my secret twin.....the one my parents forgot to tell me that they had when I was born and gave up for adoption! (O.k., no, that really didn't happen) But while I was browsing the wonderful blogs that are participating in the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway I came upon one that had a little thingamajigger (I use that word often now) on the right column that said "Praying for Stellan" with a photo of a sweet little baby boy.
Of course, I was currious. Maybe I could help to pray for a little boy in need. So I clicked and was magically whisked away to a blog titled, "My Charming Kids" and as I read I thought, "No, this can't be true? Is there really another woman out there that is just like me?" I mean really just like me- as she puts it, "... my cloth diapering, babywearing, organic eating, acrylic painting, woods dwelling, fast talking, vaccination delaying, color obsessing, Frozen Tundra residing, nose piercing, amateur gardening, baby food making, photograph taking, faraway traveling, baby making, high school swimming, tattoo designing, medical detail memorizing, non-circumcising, lakeside living, college soccer playing, small government believing, pro-life advocating, television abandoning, extended breastfeeding, German speaking, deep thinking, former art teaching and baby cosleeping ways." Well, you know, less the German speaking, nose piercing, tattoo designing, college soccer playing, etc.
O.k. so maybe we're not exactly twins but as I read through her blog and the things she believes and practices with her family, I just felt myself shouting (inwardly of course, because Timber was napping) "AMEN SISTER!!!!!!!" Plus, she and her family love the Lord and drink RAW milk! Can I get another Amen??? Needless to say, I will now be following her blog, which seems to be quite popular, and will enjoy reading her thoughts. If you get a chance, check it out, pray for her little one and have a blessed day!

Update on Giveaway Day

WOW! What a fabulous response I've gotten from all of you hoping to win the American Jane Turnover I'm giving away. I have truly enjoyed reading each one of your comments and checking out your blogs! This has been so much fun, and it isn't even over yet, that I've decided to giveaway 2 turnovers instead of one! So two lucky folks will each get their hands on a Snippets Turnover! I honestly wish I had enough to give everyone one.

So enter away because your odds of wining just got a tad bit better! :) And thanks so much for stopping by!

It starts in less than 7 hours!!

Tomorrow is Giveaway Day on the Sew Mama Sew blog!! Yahoo!! In case you missed the little handy thingamajigger on the right, you can find my giveaway here and you can click on the giveaway day icon to access the Sew Mama Sew blog and see the list of all the other blogs that will also start their giveaways tomorrow! I'm amped up!! (In case you couldn't tell from all of the !!!!'s)

memorial day shots

We had such an awesome Memorial day. Here are a few (I really mean tons of) pictures to prove it! :)

need some help there?

The babies make it difficult (to say the least) in the morning for Gavin to make his lunch. There are always 4 little hands trying to help out. At least Gavin isn't picky and doesn't really care if his sandwich has too much mayo or that the bread is half eaten.

Layton helps by applying a nice, thick layer of mayo.

Notice the piece of bread in the lower right corner that is being held by some itty bitty hands? That's how Timber helps, she tests out the bread to make sure it's o.k. to eat. In other news, we've now lost 2 of our chicks. Both to predators; whether the domesticated or wild. It's pretty sad and pretty ironic that both of the ones we've lost were my "favorite" ones. I guess it's sad to have them gone but not unpredictable. Our chickens are free rangers and roam the property at their leisure. Losing a chick or two is to be expected. I refuse to keep our chickens in some little coop all day every day. And since we eat meat, I can't fault another animal for eating too. I'll update some pictures of the chicks later this week!

I drove to Fortuna yesterday for my first OB appt. Yes, I know, I'm already over 17wks preggo but really, by baby #3 you've kind of "been there, done that" and all of that stuff doesn't seem as urgent as it did when you were pregnant with your first. And honestly, if I wasn't such a wimp when it came to childbirth pain then I would just have a home birth and not even go the hospital. But that epidural will be calling my name around 7cm!!

Fabric Giveaway! CLOSED

This giveaway is now closed. Thanks! :)

The Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day is still almost a week away but who doesn't want to have extra time to enter a contest? I am always bumbed out when I go to enter one and it's already closed; only to have been open for 2 days. So I'm giving ample time for you to enter and spread the word, because really, who doesn't love free fabric?

Here's what I'm giving away:

Moda pre-cut fabric, retro style by American Jane. One free Snippets Turnover to one lucky winner! This turnover includes 80 pre-cut 6" triangles. Imagine the possibilities

Here's how you enter:

Simply leave a comment here on this post by May 31st. Yep, that's it. Really. Oh, and do leave a way for me to contact you if you are the chosen one from Random.org!

This contest is open to US residents only (sorry to my foreign friends) because while giving something away is fun, it's not fun to pay big bucks to ship overseas.

Contest ends May 31st at 8pm PST. Winners will be announced on Monday June 1st!

so blessed

The Lord has done amazing things for us this weekend. It was like He just felt like giving us a weekend long Christmas. And how grateful we are for it all. Since Friday we have a acquired a "new to us" oven, a like brand spankin' new freezer, a little wagon for the kids, and a play set! All for the total cost of $50!!! Some of it was obviously free, like the play set that was donated to us by our neighbors who's kids are too big to use it any longer.
Now who wouldn't love a weekend like that? And who wouldn't love a Lord that gives so generously and freely? Thank you Jesus!!!
Here are some shots of the new gadgets!
The new play set. It's not set up all the way because we'll be moving it to another location on the property.

Our new stove. It is so nice to have an oven again. Oooh, and the oven light works on this one. I know that sounds dumb but I am thrilled to be able to look into my oven without having to open it. That was one of the greatest ideas ever to put a light into an oven!

Our new freezer! Now we can get rid of the old chest freezer we have. We got the old freezer for free and believe me, there was a reason for that! :)

dont'cha hate that

My morning started off with my daughter waking up at 4:50am and crying due to teething. I then thought it would be a good idea after she went down for her first nap to sew the back to Layton's big boy quilt. I cut the fabric and then sewed it together.............the wrong way. Ugh, really?? That's what happens when you are seriously lacking sleep. I probably should just stop sewing short of running my fingers throught the machine!! :)

Giveaway Day

You may have or may not have noticed the little Giveaway Day logo on the right column of my blog. It's for the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day Promotion that will be happening on May 27th. Tons of blogs giving away lots of cool stuff. It doesn't get much better than that! For more info on the giveaway you can click on the logo on the right. I'll be putting up a post here next week for the giveaway I'll be doing on my blog. I'll give you a little hint though; it will be for some fabric that you won't want to miss!!

mid morning

Does 8:13am count for mid morning? Well, if you live in the Scott home and get up at 5:30am then I guess it could. So we (the kids and I) decided to have a mid morning snack. It was soooo yummy! Just take 2 avocados, mush em up really good; 2 small tomatoes, some salt, pepper and chopped cilantro (chopped red onion is also optional) mix in a small bowl, break out the chips and enjoy!

broken down

Ah, the story of our lives. If nothing has broken down in a while, something is sure to. And so this time it's the oven portion of the stove. It's actually been broken since last Thursday. When you make dinner every night it really makes it difficult not having a stove. You really realize how much you rely on it! So we've used alternatives such as just cooking on the stove top (since that still works,) the crock pot and the wood stove. All are somewhat agreeable alternatives except for the wood stove. I now completely understand and appreciate when that was all women had to cook on. It takes a longer time to cook (so you need to plan way ahead) and it makes the house hotter than the dickens!! That option is now out. Really, there are plenty of meals to make not using the oven but I find myself constantly wanting to make something like biscuits, or a cobbler, or lasagna, or baked chicken or something else that requires the use of an oven.

So if you're in our area and you can help us out, we're looking for a new oven. Well, new to us that is. We're looking for a used oven that still works. We don't want to spend the money on a new one right now because we're saving for something like this beauty that will someday go in our new house!

one last post!

I just had to share this before the day ended here. Erin over at Blue Bird Baby is having an AMAZING giveaway on her blog. And guess who's stuff she's giving away?? Mandi's!!! Yes, that's right, free Long Winter Farm stuff just for entering! This giveaway is so scrumdiliumpcious (is that really a word??) Erin has a terrific blog and Mandi's soaps and stuff are out of this world. Head on over and check it out!

today's progress

I started cutting the fabric for the new baby's quilt this morning! I can't believe it! I am slowly getting back into quilting and it is so nice. I'm really trying not to pressure myself at all, just figuring that whatever I get done is what I get done- there is always tomorrow. It's so nice not to feel rushed!

you have got to be kidding me.....

Since we signed up for AIM for my pregnancy I'm sure the state went to great lengths to sell my personal information and as a result we are now getting (for free) a unwanted "parenting" magazine. I'll be calling today to cancel that garbage. But since it was here I did flip through it and something at the very end caught my eye. It was an ad for a new (to me at least) website called sweetsurprise.com. The site is promoting high fructose corn syrup (no, really, I'm not joking. I'm sure most of your mouths just dropped wide open.) Yes, PROMOTING it as "just the same as regular table sugar." There are so many, many things wrong with that. Not only is it NOT the same (while it may have similarities it is not the SAME) but it is even more unhealthy for you than regular sugar no matter what the high paid, currently losing money, CEO's of corn processing want to make you believe. I thought of all those naive mom's who just look at ad's and go, "oh, really? o.k., well that's great!" without doing any research and then thought of all the poor children that will be even more effected by this.
So please, I implore you to do research for yourself and find out the truth. Look into how it's actually made. Just because it originally comes from corn does NOT make it "natural" as the site tries to sell it as.
Here are a few links to get you started, I'm sure you could find some of your own on the web:
The Double Danger of High Fructose Corn Syrup

The Murky World of High Fructose Corn Syrup

In no way am I saying that table sugar is any way healthy for you I just wanted to express that HFCS is simply not the cheap answer.

quilt of the month- gone.

I was thinking of blogging sometime soon about May's Quilt of the Month in my Etsy shop but now I can't. Because it sold today! Yahoo! I hope that it's new owner loves it as much as I do. Time to bid that sweet Heather Ross quilt farwell.

update central....

All right! I'm here and I'm updating! Time for pics of the chicks and the kids and the garden. Plus, you wouldn't believe what I did today?!!!! I actually broke out the sewing machine and sewed!!! No really, I'm serious. I think it has been since March- or maybe just before since I actually used my machine. That is so incredibly sad but other things have just kept me so incredibly busy. Plus, I want to focus on selling the quilts I have in my shop before adding more.

Layton is getting a toddler bed next month- my folks got a great used one off of Craigslist- so I worked on the quilt for his bed. I just ordered the fabric for the border so it should be here next week. Then I can get to work on quilting it. I'm hoping to have it done before we go down and visit my folks so that when we come back we can set up the bed and get him out of his crib- which we will then use for the new baby!

Layton and Timber

The workings of Layton's new quilt

The chicks are already getting so big. I'm embarrassed that I don't have more shots of them! I am keeping my fingers crossed that the little whitish yellow one is a pullet!

And here's the progress on the garden...

Peas

Corn

Potatoes

Tomatoes
Just to name a few! :)