Magnolia chair

A neighbor was throwing out this little chair. Um, over eleven years ago. It's a lot work hiding a chair that long! The footstool has been in hiding too. After a bit of searching, I found it at my husband's tool shop.

The  only 'before" picture,  I was documenting my excitement in finding a chandelier crystal tucked into the chair cushion. Wait..that's a crystal off of my chandelier, that's packed away in the basement. How do those things happen? Did I get the chandelier from the neighbor as well? I don't remember, such are the problems of being a pack rat. 

I added some 'chippy' to the legs and arms.

And a magnolia bloom to keep my toes company.

I'm not sure what room it eventually reside in. At least its days of 'hiding' are over!

Todays challenge:

rediscover something you already own :0)

A chocolate lover lives here

Here's a (pardon the pun) a half-hearted attempt at a tutorial for a chocolate wreath. I started this a few days before Hubby's had his own heart issues.

By the way thank you all for the well wishes and concern. He is doing very well. His tests didn't show any underlying health issues that would have caused the A-Fib. He still has a stress test scheduled for next month.  He plans on going, despite the fact I'm perfectly capable of providing him with plenty of stress ;0) In fact, the day of his release they said he could go back to his normal routine, including exercise! We feel happy. blessed, and aware of how much he means to all of us!


Now, lets make a mess. The finished heart is about 20"x 18"
You'll need...

•  5 (2 1/2") styrofoam balls cut in half (10 total).
•  1" sheet of styrofoam cut in to 2" squares, some of those are cut into rectangles. I ended up with 14 pieces out of the sheet. You don't have to be precise with how many you make, I'll explain further down.
• 1/8" foamcore board
• a scrap of cardboard
• paper cupcake or candy cups
• pink crepe paper roll
• red tissue paper
• craft paint in dark, milk and white chocolate colors (I used a pink as well). You need to purchase a box of assorted real chocolates for comparing the colors..yes, it's essential ;0) your welcome.
• piece of ribbon for hanging
• paint brushes, glue gun, tooth picks and a scrap of foam

It takes about three coats of paint to cover the texture of the styrofoam. I used toothpicks and stuck the "chocolate pieces" into a larger piece of foam to dry faster.

I tried out a few practice drizzles. The opening on my craft paint was too large, amounting to a glop (far right) rather then a controlled line. I transfered my paint to a bottle with a finer tip.

Once your pieces are dry, lay them out, roughly into a heart shape, and trace around them. This is why don't have to the exact amount of pieces that I made. How many pieces you have made will dictate the finished size.

If look closely you can see my paper template. I used the template and traced it 2" larger onto a piece of foamcore and cut with an x-acto knife.

Here is where things started getting crazy in my life. a few days away from this project and I lost concentration and forgot to take anymore photos. Told it was half-hearted tutorial! Hopefully, I can talk you through to the end.

• I glued two layers of crepe on the edge, scrunching and ruffling as I went around.
• I used a piece of castoff cardboard, cut, scored and notched so that the edge would be the same height as the "chocolates". I scrunched and glued tissue around the cardboard band
• I used candy cups and glued four to each chocolate piece...only because I didn't have any cupcake cups. Then hot glued each piece into the box. 
• A ribbon to hang by

This was inspired by a wreath I saw at the Dallas Gift Market. I was ready to buy two, until, I saw the price...300.00 each, that was wholesale, people! That wreath had a fabric edge detail, instead of crepe paper. I assure you, it wasn't more then 10.00 worth of fabric. 

Now that I'm feeling so clever, I was going to make this heart again for my son's school party. I was going make brownies and decorate them to look like chocolate pieces. However, school is canceled today and most likely tomorrow. Not sure if I want 30 brownies staring me down over the weekend...we'll see. Until I can decide to bake or not to bake, I'll just enjoy the wreath.

Yummy and guilt free :0)

Linking up at Today's Creative Blog. Today's post is about The Funky Junk Sisters, with a photo of a yellow camper to swoon over, promise!

And The DIY Showoff lots of creative ideas to get the juices flowing. 

I love being linky, a great way to meet new blogs!

A case of the pre-spring crazies

I have shamelessly asked for a baby goat for Valentines. 

Not any ol' goat will do. I don't expect he'll find the perfect baby before the 14th.

It will also take a bit of time for the hubby to make a cart. 

I've shamelessly asked for a cart as well.

Really, how could you want a goat and not the cart too?

A barrel of fun, indeed!

More of these wonderful photos can be found here .

God bless the man that lives with a crazy woman.

Are you being shameless this Valentines?

My man has rhythm

A scary few days on the old farm. Last Thursday and Friday was a beautiful 70 degrees! Amazing, since it's now a ear numbing 14 degrees. We used the warm weather to catch up on some gardening chores. Mostly shredding leaving and moving soil and compost to some vegetable beds. A feel good day!

However, in the early hours last Sunday morning KingPlinker woke me and said he felt strange. He asked me to feel his chest. My expert diagnosis was that a madman hopped up on thirty cups of coffee was playing bongos on his chest. Trust me, I wasn't quite able to laugh or make jokes about it at the time. In fact, neither of us could figure out what to do. Hindsight says we should have called an ambulance. But we were concerned about unnecessarily alarming the kids. And we didn't want to wake them so early, just to spend the morning waiting around an emergency room.


He drove himself to the hospital. It wasn't a long wait, 30 minutes later he called to say they were med-flighting him to another hospital. His phone battery was going dead and he would call once he got admitted to a room. I didn't know what was going on and he said he would explain later. This is where things got really stressful, I (they, actually) misplaced my husband and had no way to contact him! We were told he was flown to a different hospital!

Always up to documenting a "moment", Mr.Plinker used the last of his phone battery to snap a photo of his adventure!

About 7 (did I mention stressful) hours later. I found him, fifty miles away, laid up in a hospital bed, charming the nurses. I was finally able to know what was going on with his heart. The doctors believe he had become dehydrated (hear that gardeners..drink your water!) and his potassium dropped. This sent his heart into a rapid afib, a condition where the heart beats at such a fast erratic rate its no longer really "pumping" the blood.

In the first few hours they were able to get his heart rate lowered, with the rate lowered his heart was working again, as far as pumping. But the the erratic rhythm remained. He spent four days in the hospital, trying different meds. None worked, as the last resort they sedated him and gave him a 'shock'. He now has his rhythm back.
If he has become a better dancer is yet to be seen. As long as I have many more years to share on the dance floor...

Where can three months go?

Well they go quickly, I know that much. October found new life with the birth of two bull calves.

It was an amazing experience to have the opportunity watching Sally give birth. Sally was our 'first time' heifer and she did beautifully. I only stepped in to make sure his airway was clear. 

She kept that look on her face for the next few weeks...what is that?!

I had expected our older cow Sally Belle to give birth first and was eagerly watching, but no such luck. Instead, three days after Sandy, I awoke to find another little boy in the pasture.

Still damp and wobbly.

While Sally's birthing went well, we soon discovered she had an obstruction in her udder causing quite a bit of farm drama. We had to insert a tube into her teat to release the pressure. You can stop gasping and holding your chest, now...it wasn't a painful procedure, promise. It did however put her at a high risk for more problems and I was beside myself with worry. After a few weeks, her initial engorgement had gone down enough that the calf was able to latch on.

No one has missed any meals since, and as they say, "growing like a weed". Both have put on black fuzzy winter coats. No chance of anyone getting lost in the snow.

Just as I was settling into a comfortable routine of working with two milk cow and getting my other chores done. I came down with what I thought was an innocent enough cold. I've never really been down and out, bed sick, since I've owned the cows. I've always worried, exactly what would happen and how would I manage. 

My cold came and went and I muscled though the morning milkings..true grit!!! 

Then my cold moved into my chest and a severe case of bronchitis. Each night I was greeted with coughing spasms. Spasms so hard, I'm sure I woke up everyone within a  twenty mile radius. One night, I got up to use the bathroom, went into a coughing fit so hard I threw my back out. As I stood there, well not so much standing as hunching over, crying/coughing in pain, peeing on myself. I thought "Hey, I'll never worry about having a cold again!"

And the chores still got done! Tho, not a whole lot of much else. I laid on the couch for about two months thinking of all the wonderful, fun things, I wish I had the energy to do. Namely, redo the living room. After that much time on the couch, I'm sick of looking at it. Oh, and that energy, it's Back!!!

I'm really excited to get back into the swing of things and see what everyone has been up to. Hope the holidays were good and that everyone had a chance to visit, and to be with those they love.

love :0)

I got an idea

An idea, which could be dangerous, especially when electricity is involved. However, with some care I think we can pull it off.
Right after I posted about making the metal rose I happened over to The New Victorian Ruralist One of those blogs where the best of the web/ blogs and are posted each day to drool over. I could spend all day looking through the older posts (actually, I have). This is what I saw,  a few samples of Terrain's rustic light fixtures.

After seeing those I ran and grabbed my rose, held it upside and thought, yep, I like it. I like it a lot. 

We are going to make two for the back porch. The hard part is going to be finding two matching rusty light cages. I would like them to be in the center of the flower. 

Letting my little light shine :0)

Nibbler

A  friend of ours has loaned us a nifty little tool, a pneumatic nibbler. It zips through sheet metal. Our first test was a success (a rough rose) and now my mind is spinning with ideas, mostly making a 3D sign for the side of the barn. But I'm curious  and would love more ideas.

What would YOU make with sheet metal and a nibbler?