2012 In Pictures

I have really been enjoying everyone's year end posts so I thought I would share a favorite photo from each month of 2012.

January - I made this appliqued wall hanging for a friend.

February - We really enjoyed the Tucson Rodeo and I got some great pictures! :)

March - Do you see the coyote at the water tank on the right?

April - Jerry's birthday cake!! :)

May - Check out the ears on this jackrabbit!

June - The echinacea in the back yard.

July - The color guard in the July 4th parade.

August - A blanket flower beside the road.

September - Jerry and Paco. :)

October - A working Chuck Wagon in Ruidoso, NM.

November - My favorite Cowgirl Cookies!

December - One of "our" ravens in the rain.

It was fun going back through my blog for the year and seeing how my "style" has changed and reminiscing. :)

Socks

Hi, my name is Candy.
I have a problem.
A problem with socks.
You see, I have enough socks for six people.
Two big drawers full of socks.
Cotton socks, wool socks.
Knee-high socks, anklet socks, no-show socks.
Store bought socks, hand knit socks.
Plain socks, colorful socks.
Christmas socks, Halloween socks, Valentine's Day socks.
I even have a pair of socks with toes.
These are my favorite socks.
I love that they are different but yet the same.
How about you?
Do you have a problem with socks?
Whew, I feel better now that I've gotten that off my chest! ;)

A Lovely Sunshiny Blog

Recently, Nancy at Little Homestead In Boise nominated me for the "One Lovely Blog Award" and Dolly at Dolly Is Cooking nominated me for the "Sunshine Award" which is an award from bloggers to other bloggers who "positively and creatively inspire other bloggers in the blogosphere." Thank you both, I am truly honored! :) If you haven't visitied Nancy's or Dolly's blogs, I highly recommend that you do and you will see why both of these lovely ladies received these awards!

The requirements for the Lovely Blog Award are to share seven random things about yourself and for the Sunshine Award to answer ten questions, I'm gonna cheat and combine them! ;-)

1. Favorite color: Green, no wait, yellow, no green!

2. Favorite animal: Goats! :)

3. Favorite number: 3

4. Favorite drink: My cup of Earl Grey tea first thing in the morning.

5. Facebook or Twitter: Facebook, I don't do Twitter and really don't do much Facebook either even though I'm on there.

6. Good book or good movie: At this point in my life, movie, it's easier! LOL!!

7. My passion: Baking, it is my creative outlet.

8. Giving or getting gifts: Giving.

9. Favorite day: Halloween! ;-)

10. Favorite flower: I can't pick one favorite, it's usually whatever is blooming at the time!

Now, I'm also supposed to pass these awards on to ten other Bloggers but I feel that all the blogs I follow are special and deserving of an award and there is no way I could pick just ten, so I guess I'm gonna break the chain, sorry.

Thank you again Nancy and Dolly for thinking of me and honoring me with these lovely awards!

Farmgirl Soap Dispenser

My blogging friend, Jaime, of Ngo Family Farm recently did a post on this cute soap dispenser. You can find the complete tutorial posted by Julia at Blissfully Content. You can read Jaime's post here which also includes a homemade citrus cleaner and her homemade vanilla extract project. By the way, Jaime takes the most amazing photographs, you really should check out her blog!!

This soap dispenser took me maybe all of 10 minutes to make! Seriously!! It took longer for the glue to completely dry than it took to do the assembly! LOL!! I have had this cute canning jar lying around for awhile and only ever use it for storage so I thought it would be the perfect container to use. I think it looks much more "country" than a store bought soap dispenser and probably a little classier than a bottle of dish soap sitting on the counter! ;-) Check out Julia's tutorial to see just how easy it is to make and be sure to visit Jaime for some lovely photography, great recipes and cute, cute pictures of her baby!

Linking up with Nancy at A Rural Journal for the Rural Thursday Blog Hop.

The Versatile Blogger Award

I have recently been awarded The Versatile Blogger Award by several of my fellow bloggers! Thank you SOOO much to Heidi at My Simple Country Living, Clint at The Redeemed Gardener, Lisa Lynn at Little Homestead on the Hill and Sheryl at Cypress Hill Farm. Each of these blogs also received this award and they are all very deserving of it! If you haven't checked them out, I would highly recommend it! :)

Here are the RULES for the Versatile Blogger Award:

1.  Add the award to your blog.
2.  Thanks the blogger who gave it to you.
3.  Mention seven random things about yourself.
4.  List the rules
5.  Award to 15 bloggers.
6.  Inform each of those 15 by leaving a comment on their blog.

Here are seven random things about me:

• I was born and raised a "city girl" and knew NOTHING about gardening or raising animals when we moved to our little place seven years ago!
• I can't sing...just ask the goat! ;-)
• I own at least 10 guns and I'm a pretty good shot.
• I LOVE to bake, but ya'll probably already knew that!
• I am the middle child and have two brothers, one older, one younger.
• I was raised an Air Force brat and moved around quite a bit as a child.
• I am proud member #977 of MaryJane's Farmgirl Sisterhood!

Now, as far as passing this award on to 15 bloggers, I consider every blog I follow as being deserving of this special award and could never pick just 15. So, I award ALL OF YOU the Versatile Blogger Award! Woo-Hoo!! Keep up the good work everyone! :)

Fingerless Gloves/Handwarmers

My blogger friend Sharon at High Prairie Farmgirl was talking about taking up knitting again and posted a picture of some lovely knit fingerless gloves as inspiration. I asked her about them and she turned me on to AllFreeKnitting.com. What a great site! I looked through all the fingerless glove/handwarmer patterns and decided I would like to make these.

I used to knit quite a bit but haven't so much lately. I have made everything from socks to sweaters to afghans (yep, I like to knit afghans) and have even made mittens before. I really like this pattern because they are knit flat and then seamed together, as opposed to knitting in the round.

The moss stitch adds some nice texture too.

I was really pleased with how quickly they knit up, even with my rusty skills! I was able to finish them in two days and that was knitting in between batches of bread! You can find the pattern here.

I'm looking forward to wearing my new fingerless gloves on our morning walks. :)
Linking up to The Country Homemaker Hop co-hosted by Heidi at My Simple Country Living and Michelle at Michelle's Little Piece Of Heaven.

Hand-Made Pay It Forward! Pass It On! Don't Pass It Up!!

Kaye from Giggles and Raspberries did a post last week for Hand-Made Pay It Forward 2012. She inspired Susan at e-i-e-i-omg to pass it on and Susan, in turn, inspired Tombstone Tidings to pass it on and she, in turn, inspired me to pass it on. Whew, that was a LOT of passing it ons! I hope I can inspire some of you to participate in this really cool idea!

So, here are the two rules:
1.  I promise to make something and send it (before the end of 2012) to the first five people who comment on this post.
2.  If you are one of the first five, you must promise to re-post the rules on your blog (or even Facbook) and send something to the first five people who comment on your post. The item must be hand made by you and the recipient must receive the gift before the end of 2012. The item may be as simple or as complicated as you would like. You just have to promise to follow through.

That's not too tough and it gives me an "excuse" to make stuff! I see all these neat ideas for crafty things and have trouble justifying to myself the need to make them but if I can give them away to you guys, YAY!

Anyway, I hope some of you also think this sounds like fun and leave a comment below to join in! :)

Appliqued Wall Hanging

I had so much fun making the appliqued Christmas Moose Pillow awhile back that I wanted to do another small project. The original design was from Qweenee Quail Quilts. I'm not a quilter but I do like to piece the tops. One of the reasons I made the moose into a pillow was so that I didn't have to worry about quilting or binding the edges! LOL!!

Well, this time I wanted to make a little wall hanging as a gift for one of my friends. The directions were kind of vague..."quilt as desired"..."bind the edges as desired!" I didn't actually quilt it but rather did the applique stitches through all the layers for the quilting. The picture showed a 1/4-inch wide binding but I think if I make another one, I will go for a 1/2-inch wide binding. I used the same material as the body of the chicken for the backing and I added the pewter buttons to hide my "less than perfect" corners! ;-) I wanted to do a chicken so I designed the chicken applique myself. All in all, I'm happy with how it turned out and I sure hope my friend likes it! Linking up to the Farmgirl Friday Blog Hop with Heidi at My Simple Country Living and Deb at Deborah Jean's Dandelion House.

New Baking Sheet

Jerry's mom gave me a gift certificate to Bed, Bath & Beyond for Christmas and I knew one of the things I wanted to get was a new baking sheet for my bread business so that I would have two nice ones. I wanted another Chicago Metallic 12 x 18-inch heavy duty baking sheet. I bought one last year at a different Bed, Bath & Beyond. Of course, they didn't have any when I went looking! I wasn't too sure about the USA Pans, what with the corrugated bottom and the silicon coating, but it was the heaviest weight 12 x 18-inch baking sheet they had so I figured, what the heck! When I was checking out, the cashier told me how much she loved her pans like this so I thought maybe it would be okay.

Here is what USA Pans says about the coating on their website "AMERICOAT© Plus is a clear non-stick, environmentally friendly coating that is specifically formulated for superior baking and does not contain any PTFE’s or PFOA’s."

I have been using my new pan for a couple of weeks now and I absolutely LOVE it! It bakes evenly and nothing sticks! If you are in the market for new baking pans, I highly recommend USA Pans AND they are Made In America! :) I know I will be looking for some muffin pans, cake pans, loaf pans, a hearth bread pan, mini loaf pans, etc., etc...

Just so you know, nobody at USA Pans knows who I am (or cares!) and I was not compensated in any way, shape or form for this testimonial. I just love this pan and wanted to share with all of you! I'm linking up to The Country Homemaker Hop with Heidi over at My Simple Country Living.

Happy Birthday!

To ME!!

I know, I know I got my new camera recently and it was supposed to be for all major holidays for the next year! ;-) But I have been wanting a smaller, 3-quart porcelain-coated cast-iron Dutch oven for awhile now and so...I ordered one last week and it came yesterday, just in time for my birthday today! YAY!! I love, love, love my 6-quart porcelain-coated cast-iron Dutch oven but since there is only the two of us, sometimes it is just too big. Anyway, just wanted to show off share my new toy! Farmgirls are SOOO easy to please! LOL!! Here is a picture of my two Dutch ovens together so you can see the difference in size.

Happy New Year everyone! I have so enjoyed visiting your blogs this past year and I really appreciate all the comments you leave me here! Here's to a wonderful New Year in Blogger Land! :)

Schedules

I am a creature of habit and I have found that I work best to a schedule. This became very apparent this past summer with my house cleaning...or should I say lack thereof! When I was able to start baking bread to sell at the Farmer's Market again, I was home all day and figured I could clean house whenever I had some spare time. HA! As anyone who has ever worked from home can tell you, there isn't really ever any spare time! I was also blaming my lack of house cleaning on the fact that Jerry's mom was here and I didn't want to disturb her TV watching. ;-)

I already work to a schedule with my baking. On Monday, for instance, I make the loaves of bread because I can bake two at a time in the oven and I can knock out quite a bit on that one day. I also have "Cheese Bread" Tuesday when I work on all the breads and rolls that contain cheese.

When I was a stay-at-home-wife in my former life in the suburbs of Los Angeles, I actually did my house cleaning per a schedule and it worked really well for me so I figured I should probably go that route again. I have been using a schedule for cleaning for almost two months now and I am very pleased with my "cleaner" house! :) Monday is bathroom day. Cleaning the shower is my least favorite chore in the whole world but I have found that now that I do it every week, it is a whole lot easier! LOL!! I also take the dirty towels and damp mop the bathroom and kitchen floors before throwing them in the wash, keeps the floors looking nicer in between regular mopping. Tuesday is dusting day and cleaning "kitty noses" off of the windows. Wednesday is vacuuming day, especially the sofa and chair where the kitties like to sleep. Of course, EVERY day is laundry day! Thursdays and Fridays are usually pretty busy finishing up the baking for the week and getting everything ready for the Farmer's Market on Saturday morning. On Monday, I check the weather forecast for the week to see which day will be nice for hanging out the sheets and that becomes bed-changing day. I have also found that since I am only doing one chore each day, it isn't so overwhelming and I will actually get it done rather than procrastinate. When I was trying to do everything on Sunday, it was very easy to find something else to do and then, guess what, nothing got done!

Schedules seem to work best for me. What strategies do you use to keep on track with chores?

New Camera for Christmas...Birthday...Valentine's...Easter...

I LOOVE my hubby!! He indulges me occasionally and this time he did BIG time! :)

There are so many talented photographers out there in blogger land and they have inspired me to try to improve my own photography skills. To that end, I have been wanting a new camera for awhile and Teresa at Eden Hills had recently posted about how much she liked her Nikon D3100 and how much she missed it while it was away being cleaned. I did some research and found that the Nikon D3100 is considered an excellent entry level D-SLR camera. We found the best pricing locally at Best Buy in Tucson and headed out a couple of weeks ago to check it out and possibly buy one. A purchase that big I wanted to make in person as opposed to over the internet...I like to touch and see! LOL!!

It was December 15th and the store was super busy but the salesman was very attentive and really took the time with us that we felt we needed to make an informed decision. He showed us several different cameras and told us about the pros and cons of each. Needless to say, I left with the Nikon, in Candy-Apple Red no less!!, and a 55-200 telephoto lens. Since we purchased the telephoto lens at the same time as the camera there was a substantial savings.

I have been having fun taking pictures with my new camera, I used it all last week with the candy making posts. I have been playing around with the telephoto lens too and took a couple of neat pictures of the mountains to the north last week during our bad weather. They reminded me of Scotland! :)

I'm loving the macro setting too, it's more "macro-y" than my little Canon PowerShot A590. I still need to read the user's guide completely and figure out exactly what all neat things this camera can do! I'm hoping to get some cool photos of the animals and the garden as the year progresses and with the amount of winter rain we have had so far, we should get a beautiful display of spring wildflowers!

Holiday Horseshoes

I love dressing up Paco's old horseshoes to use as decor items! Goodness knows, we always have plenty laying around! LOL!!

This is a very easy project. I had Jerry clean up the used horseshoes for me to get rid of all the dirt and horse poop! I gathered up some fake holiday greenery and poinsettias from some tacky looking centerpieces that I had laying around, dug out the glue gun and put on my creative hat.

I think they turned out pretty nice! :)

I am linking this post up with Heidi's Virtual Christmas Ornament Swap. Be sure to stop by and check out all the neat ideas for handmade ornaments!

Christmas Lights

We finally got the porch decorated yesterday afternoon and just in time, it has been cold, windy and rainy all day today! It is so dreary that I turned on the inside tree lights and a built a fire in the fireplace.


A little blurry but you get the idea.



This one was taken a little earlier in the evening. I like the simplicity of our decorations.



This is Jerry's favorite picture!

I hope everyone is staying warm and getting in the holiday spirit! :)

December Moon

This is a picture I took of the moon this morning through the branches of the Kieffer pear tree I featured last month in Autumn's Splendor at the Lazy J Bar C. I was coming back from milking and the sun was just barely peeking over the horizon.

Oh Christmas Tree!

Our house isn't very big; in fact, there is really no place to put a 6-foot tall tree! This is my alternative. I bought this set of three pre-lit trees six or seven years ago and they still look great! They are 4-foot, 3-foot and 2-foot tall. Even though we don't have children at home, I like the primitive-homespun look when it comes to decorating. By the way, that is our pass-through fireplace behind the trees! :)

I wanted to show ya'll my collection of Christmas animals, including seven mooses! :)

I like the big guy in the back, he has on his plaid jacket and cap with earflaps!

I finally made this guy last year after having the pattern laying around for about five years!

I also crocheted a bunch of snowflakes last year to decorate the two smaller trees.

Well, that's the "tree" and the rest of my mooses, later in the week I'll show ya'll our porch after it has been decorated! :)

Farmgirl Fashion - Jumpers

I'm such an old hippie, I just love wearing jumpers! When I heard this fall that big sweaters with leggings were back in style, it made me think of jumpers with leggings. The green and black jumper below was an overdress from back in my days of playing with the SCA. I shortened it a couple of weeks ago and wore it with the black thermal long-sleeved shirt and some black nylons for Thanksgiving. I liked it so much that I went hunting material for a couple more!

The jumper I'm wearing and the green one are both corduroy and I don't remember what type of material the plaid one is! It is really soft and reminded me of wool which is why I bought it. I threw it in the washer and dryer before sewing and it came out just fine. I used the green jumper as a pattern for the other two. I also cheated and serged all the edges before sewing and then just turned them under and sewed them down so I didn't have to make facings, shhhh...don't tell the sewing police! ;-)

With a pair of leggings and a thermal shirt, these jumpers are surprisingly warm and they are so, so comfortable! I may not be up on the latest fashions but I don't think the goats and chickens really mind! LOL!! When I modeled the brown one for Jerry this morning he said "Well, you certainly look very 60s!"

Linking to the Farmgirl Friday Blog Hop at Deborah Jean's Dandelion House!

Christmas Pillow

I love making crafty things but I don't do it as often as I used to. My blogging friend Kathy at Moving On To The Past posted about her Christmas Projects the other day and inspired me to dig out the pattern and material for a quilted moose wall hanging that I bought a month or so ago. The pattern is by Qweenee Quail Quilts right here in southern Arizona and is called Mary Moose. I love mooses (is that right?) and have a LOT of them for my holiday decorations so when I saw this pattern at the local quilt shop, I just had to have it, even though I don't quilt. I'll have to post some pictures of all my moosey decorations next week after we get things out. :)

Because I don't quilt, I decided to make it up into a pillow!

And because storage for holiday decorations is always a problem, I decided to make it as a pillow case that I can put over one of my existing throw pillows! Pretty clever huh?!? ;-)

I really like how it turned out! It actually took almost as long to do the applique stitching as it did to piece the little quilt! LOL!! Thanks Kathy for inspiring me to get my project out and, most importantly, to get it finished!!

Thanksgiving Apron

Susan at e-i-e-i-omg challenged us to an Apron Sew Off awhile back and, well (deep breath), today is the day we are all supposed to unveil our new aprons! I can't wait to see what everyone has come up with!! This has been so much fun, thanks Susan! I have enjoyed reading about everyone's progress and challenges!

This is my second apron using this pattern called Flirty Skirty, the ties are extra long to tie in front which makes it easier to put on (for me anyway!). I made the first one to wear at the Farmer's Market and I will probably wear this one there too, after Thanksgiving of course! Well, here it is. The apron looks good but, jeez, I can't believe how OLD I look! Wait, maybe that's because I'm on the far side of 50?!? ;-)

This was so much fun, what in the world shall we do next!! LOL!!