I Am Still Alive and Breathing....

....and spending most of my days at the construction site. Our house is coming along nicely....but it keeps me busy. Unfortunately, I have had no time for creativity. It seems most days I am just keeping my head above water with housework and farm chores. I can hardly wait for the day when we live in only one place. My sewing room will be a magical space....that for now lives only in my imagination. Until then, you will find me.....oror

"Bee"ing Busy!

Well, I am home from North Carolina. What a whirlwind trip. Route 81 south through Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia (oh my that state takes forever) and into North Carolina. On the way through North Carolina, I exited to find Brushy Mountain Bee Farm. Up and up a mountain road I drove and at the very top......I turned onto Bee Keeper StreetAnd headed back to the Store. There they had my order ready to go...So I loaded up my car and took off for Charlotte.By the time I was ready for the drive home, I had added an 8 X 10 rug on top of this pile of hive materials. I just happened to find the perfect rug for our loft at Home Goods. I had a great weekend with Andy and headed home to build my hives.
I added finials to the roof for decoration....And here is one of the five finished hives. Now I have to paint them white and then I am ready for my new bees.

Road Trip

I am heading South this morning. After a 7 1/2 hour drive I will arrive in North Carolina, at the Brushy Mountain Bee Farm. Here I will pick up my 5 adorable garden hives that we are adding to the Bee Haven Acres Apiary. I have been so excited for this trip. I am also going to pay a visit to my son in Charlotte. My camera is packed.....so pictures will follow.

Have a great weekend, friends!

Inter-species Friendships

One of the most amazing things to me is how animals form relationships outside of their own species. I love to watch Maddie, our Newfie, with the various animals around the farm. Her favorite is Lucy our farmhouse cat. Lucy lives in the crawlspace beneath our guest cottage. She used to be an indoor cat until she proved that she could not be trusted to faithfully use a litter box. So we moved her outside. Don't feel sorry for her, because her home has all of the creature comforts including automatic feeder and waterer, heated bed, and a second heater for cold nights. She has the run of the farm and endless adventures. What amazes me is the bond that cat and dog have formed. They are quite affectionate with each other.

You may wonder what I have been up to....since my posting has become sporadic. Lately, construction and preparation to move has used up most of my time. I am still working on finishing the Raggedy Ann quilt and spending a bit of time planning my new sewing room. Once we have finally moved, I will decorate my sewing room and have an "open house" on this blog. Then I will once again turn on the creative flow and see where it takes me.

For the rest of the summer, though, I will be spending most of my time gardening and working around the farm. I will keep you posted as to what I am up to.

The Key to Success

Over the years I have found that the key to success is to surround yourself with people who know much more than you....and then soak up as much of that knowledge as possible. Call me a sponge!

And speaking of sponges.....I think I have finally mastered the sourdough. Thanks to Ronna's wonderful sourdough starter, I just finished a batch of homemade English Muffins (recipe courtesy of my friend Autumn). You can find her recipe here.

So here I sit with butter dripping down my chin...scarfing down my second muffin...Yummy. Oh the taste of success is so sweet.

Many thanks to Ronna, Jess, Bonne, and Autumn for recipes, coaching and answers to endless questions!

If you stop by today for tea, I will serve you one of these yummy muffins, too! Have a great Friday!

More Tales From the Hive.....

This week marked the end of beekeeping class at the local community college. I earned a "B" because, as the prof explained....."You can't earn an A in a Bee class." Next week I head to North Carolina for a trip to Brush Mountain Bee Farm, where I will pick up my adorable garden hives and also some other much needed supplies. (A visit to son, Andy and also a stop in Southern Pines to visit with some friends and their horses will complete the trip.)

In preparation for full time beekeeping, I have done a bit more reading and thought I would share some of the interesting stuff with you.

Have you ever heard of mead? Mead is honey wine and is thought to be the oldest alcoholic beverage. It was the beverage of the very early Danes as told in the poem Beowulf. It was the favored drink of the Greek Gods. Yes, honey has been around as long as humankind...and it didn't take us long to figure out how to make wine from it!
Interestingly enough, the origin of the word "honeymoon" comes from a very old tradition. A newlywed couple would drink mead for their first month of marriage to increase their chances of having a son. Since the mead came from honey and a month is one complete phase of the moon......we have the word "honeymoon". Although I am sure that almost no one drinks mead after their wedding anymore.

In Celebration of Spring

I had a little time today to work on a Spring decorating project. I found chunky cardboard letters at the craft store and decided to decorate and embellish them for Spring....
Eventually when I unpack my belongings I will add a few birdhouses and a couple birds to the vignette.

Things that Keep Me From Sewing......

If there is one thing that can keep me out of the sewing room....it's kids....both the human and the goat kind. We are in the midst of kidding season on the farm. Sharing time with the "kids" is my favorite pastime. We were treated to a visit from Andy (home from North Carolina for a long weekend.)

It Has Been So Long.....

It seems like forever since I have had a day to sew. Most of my days have been filled with packing, storing, organizing and getting farm projects completed. Today, however, I took a couple of hours and started the patches for the Raggedy Ann and Andy patchwork quilt. I had done the applique about a month ago, and then put the project on temporary hold. Now I am commited to finishing this quilt by the end of April. Actually, it should go pretty quickly...patchworks usually do. Here is a sneak peak of the patchwork around the center block.

(Julie....I hope this is what you had in mind...?)

And the Winner Is.......

Oh my, much to my embarassment, I am late in getting to this "Romance" drawing. I had promised to have a winner on Friday...but new goat babies kept me at the farm for the weekend....and I got a bit behind in my responsibilities. Please forgive me for this delay.

With no further delay...it is my delight to announce the winner of the "Romance" apron was pulled from my special feather hat this morning....and the winner is......

Aunt Pitty Pat

Please contact me with your address...so that I can place this apron in the mail as soon as possible.

Thank you to all who played...it was delightful to read your responses....we are all such romantics, and it is wonderful to know that most of us think the simplest things to be romantic!