Summer Celebration at The Old Farmhouse

The etsy group that I belong to is having a summer celebration to kick off the season. Each team member was eligible to enter 3 items in the celebration. I was only able to get 2 entered this time due to time constraints. Of course no summer celebration would be complete without a patriotic entry on my part.




And of course summer isn't summer without time spent by the pool. I had a request to do a "pool rules" sign so I put one together that has some common sense rules and which can also be personalized.

So if you have time, stop by etsy and check out all the summer celebration offerings that the OFG group has put together.

Supply Swap

A crafter can't have too many supplies now can she? I belong to an etsy group, Old Farmhouse Gathering and the gals decided to have a supply swap....not that I need anymore but I figured what the heck. My partner was Bette from Tomorrows Treasures. Bette is a sewer as well as a pattern designer and she also has a notions selling shoppe on etsy...whew! Three shoppes here and I can barely keep up with one! Anyway be sure to check out all of Bette's shoppes.

I've got to say if I had to pick one item out of all that Bette sent, I would have to say the flat head cut nails are a favorite. Can't wait to rust those babies up and find a use for them.

Men Are Definetly From Mars

I don't know how men think! And maybe after this post I don't wanna know either! LOL!


Ok, you see the car in the first picture? That's my run around do errands car. Not too big, good on gas and gets the job done.




Ok, hubby does lawn service and has a large Dodge Ram 2500 diesel to drive. Well he comes home the other day and tells me the starter blew up! He said they heard a large bang and smoke poured out from under the hood where the starter is. So he had to jump start the truck to drive it home...thankfully it's manual and he was parked on a incline. Ok...not that this is the illogical thing, cause that all made sense. What doesn't make sense is why he played around for the past 3 weeks thinking what was wrong with the truck was first a broken battery cable, then a dead as a doonail battery and then finally maybe the starter.


And if that wasn't enough....why does he think my little car can be used for his lawn service? As you can see, not only did he think so, but he had the middle son Josh, on board with the idea. So after much discussion and consideration, the mower was loaded into the car. Of course, I should have taken pictures of all the attempts at putting it in this way or that way but didn't....just got the final results.




Anyway, the hubby got his lawns he needed to get done, finished. It rained today so my little car got a reprieve. The starter is suppose to be delivered tomorrow and all should be right with the world again...well maybe!

1500 Sales, Mother's Day....what a week!

It's been one of those weeks...I finally reached a milestone on etsy....1500 sales! WooHoo! The little things that make us happy! LOL! I set "goals" for myself and this was one...so off the list it goes and the bar needs to be raised higher. I know I have friends that think I'm "nuts" and maybe I am, but I find that goals help keep me on track.

Friday, the hubby was working on the lights for our enclosed utility trailer as they weren't working and we had a craft show the next day. After replacing almost every connector, 4 hours later, it still was a "no-go" so we missed our show...can't drive without lights. Guess he's gonna have to rewire every light individually before my next show. UGH!

I got the most pleasant surprise. He brought me home those 4 lovely hanging baskets of geraniums you see in the picture. They were part of my Mother's Day gift. Aren't they gorgeous? Not having anywhere else to hang them, I had come across the 4 hook porch planter at Home Depot a few days back and thought it would be a perfect addition to the front porch along with the geraniums. So a trip to the store, a couple of turns of 2 wing nuts and voila!

Saturday brought "date night" with the hubby. We took Sean and Ian to see "Iron Man 2" and to get a bite to eat at our favorite pizza place, Carmines. Loved the movie, as Robert Downey Jr, ain't too bad on the eyes. The movie was over when it just seemed to have started...maybe had more to do with the star! LOL!

Sunday morning started with breakfast of homemade waffles being cooked for me. We even had leftover chocolate covered strawberries. Josh had made a special annivesary dinner for his girlfriend Mariya, the night before so that's how we had the strawberries. Wow! What a change. Living in a house full of males, it's rare when they cook anything for anyone including themselves! So that was really nice. They also cooked dinner for me, which was chicken quesidillas, a favorite. Hubby didn't do too bad with minimal direction.

What a pleasant change of pace for me. I won't say that they are thoughtless, but I can't say they are always as thoughtful as they were yesterday. Wonder what they have planned for my birthday in a few weeks? Hmmmm...guess I'll have to wait and see.

No Soliciting!

There's probably not a spring day that goes by, where someone isn't knocking on my door selling something. While I don't like taking a hardline and saying no to anyone, most requests do get that answer. It's so difficult these days to figure out who is legitimate and who is just running a scam...I know kinda cynical, huh? But statistics have shown that those that have a different view, are usually the very ones that are preyed upon and taken advantage of.

I have memories from my childhood of many door-to-door salesmen and delivery people. One notably, that I'm sure we all remember, was the "fuller brush guy". He's been immortalized in films, comedy spoofs, and even in Disney cartoons. Alfred Fuller had the right ideas to sell his product...bring it to your customers, demonstrate, and stand behind your product. These simple principles have made Fuller Brush Co grow from a initial investiment of $375 in 1906 to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars today.

American entrepenuerial spirit was patterned after Fuller's success. Many businesses that started out as door to door sales have grown to be extremely successful but as previously mentioned so have the scam artist. So if you come and knock on my door and I say no, don't take it personally, I just don't do door nor phone solicitations.

For those that prefer a more gentle reminder here's another one of my no soliciting signs that you can find for sale in my etsy shoppe