Wed ramblings

Hey yall!!
WOW it is wed already, Sorry I havent been here much I am trying to get used to being back to full time market schedule and it is really hard!!    gotta get my bakery mojo back!!  LOL not in the groove yet! 
I did spend alot of time at the kitchen this week playin, made chocolate chip orange shortbread cookies, my infamous peanut butter whoopie pies, glazed pistchio bread, glazed lemon shortbread cookies, peanut butter cookies, cocoa cinna swirl bread loaves and a few others.
One I did was a new Rustic Italian herb parmesan loaf, it was a recipe I found in one of my favo xmas baking books.  I left the book at the kitchen but will gladly post the title and the recipe for yall for these. I did find though after timsing the recipe x 5 I would add flour, and herbs so will give ya my revised recipe.   Lots of parmesan and romano grated cheese and some dried oregano and sweet basil with just a touch of garlic powder.  It is a no yeast bread so a quick and easy one to make and you just shape em in round loaves and slice the tops.
Another new one I did was my cheese filled crumb cakes with orange marmalade added!! yummo! did these in muffin tins too for an individual cake.  
I will try to remember, well will put my cam in my purse right now so it goes with to market with me and I can take pics of the new items.  
If yall can I would deeply appreciate a special little prayer for my Buster Brown, he is having that lump on his thigh removed on monday.   I am worried bout it but have faith in our new vet and also faith that he will be ok!  I need my market boy around more.  Hopefully it is just a fatty tumor, labs are prone to them and he is lab mix.  THANKS for that it means so much to us! and he does too!
I am off to get ready for bed, market tomorrow so it is an early day!!
Have a blessed evening!!
GO SCOTTY!! our american idol!!! 
~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

Sunshiney Sunday

Oh what a beautiful day outside here in MI!!  It is actually 42.4 outside and sunshiney!!  WOO HOO!! bout time for this.   So today I have done some farm chores like cleaning out the chicken's egg layin crates, cleaned up a bit of branches that were laying round the yard, keep in mind there is still alot ! of snow out there so not too much grass showin yet.  ~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

Last sunday we went out to hubby's grandparents house for a visit.  It was nice to just sit and chit chat.  Look at their little girl "precious" she is such a cutie pie and full of princessness for sure!! not one bit spoiled!! LOL right!!  I love visiting and hearing the stories grandparents are notorious for telling us.  When we are kids you really dont seem to pay that close attention I think but now the stories have lots of meaning to them.  You never get that time back ya know. 
I spent most of this afternoon painting a sign for a dear friend of mine Dave from Young Earth Farm in Decatur MI, he is a character.  He raises happy very well taken care of meat animals with NO chemicals or hormones.  So he wanted a sign that he can have standing at markets with a cow, pig and chicken on it.   As soon as it is done I will share it with yall it really looks cute. 
I hope yall are enjoyin your day as much as I am!!
Talk more soon!!
~!HUGS~!
Darlene 

Buster's baby scrap page

I did up a page for my little then Buster.  I used mostly Paper Studio products here.  I love their dog stamps!! The dog face and paws have been stamped on cardstock then I added pop dots to the backs for dimension.  Buster's baby pic is backed with black cardstock to stand out a bit more.  I also cut out a dog bone and added his name in letters cut from my accucut die machine. 

Everything has been edged with my primitive touches!! TIM HOLTZ distressing inks.  

The journaling says :  You had my heart the moment I saw you.  Your daddy brought you home bundled inside his jacket.  It was love at first sight!  He was such an adorable puppy, but all puppies are adorable!!  Now my little boy is 95 pounds of pure love and happiness!!  Buster,  along with my other boys are the light of our lives!!    I just gazed at the outdoor thermometer and it is up to 10~~A whooping 10 degrees now!! it is actually suppossed to get down to 0 tonight!! {PLEASE be sure to keep all the furry kids warm in this extreme weather their little piggies will get frostbite!!}  I put in extra heat lamps the other day out in the chickie coop for the girls so they will be just fine just downright MAD for not being able to run free right now but oh well they are safe inside!  I just know they are busily planning and scheming against me!!  CHICKEN REVENGE!! look out!! LOL  

I am off to the feed mill and then maybe to bake some new cookies and well just try to keep the wood furnace goin in this weather!!  one good thing it is not windy today yet anyway.

HAVE A BLESSED DAY!! and a GREAT WEEKEND!!

~~HUGS~~

Darlene

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

Kalamazoo MI Indoor Market

My boys playing with some of the toys they still had left from xmas. As u can see they can be kind of naughty with toys!! LOL well I dont ever think my boys can be naughty!!

My newest creation!! Peanut peanut butter cream filled whoopie pies!! I came up with a thick soft cookie
filled with homemade peanut butter cream filling and rolled in crushed honey roasted peanuts!! They are listed on my esty site for sale but you could always order directly from me here!!

Here is a pic of a round birthday cake I made last week. I did light pink sweet peas on a vine. and just some scalloped edges.

frosting sweet peas, i had to practice havent made them since last year or so.

Tomorrow is market day!! Kalamazoo Market at Bronson Hospital in the cafe!! So today I am goin to be making my rustic cinnamon raisin loaves, apple something? not sure yet what, cookies, and SOMETHING new for market tomorrow!! Spinach flavored fresh pasta!! Yepper first time for me making pasta and I cant wait to try it out!

OK also I want to post here about a fundrasiser this weekend!! Sat from 11am to 4 pm WISHBONE pet rescue is hosting a carnival pet adoption event sat in SAUGATUCK at the masonic lodge. Bake sale and some other goodies available for purchase including some great coffee from UNCOMMON GROUNDS in SAUGATUCK MI, and I am gonna try to whip up some goodies tomorrow after market. This is a great organization and they really love and care about the pets that they have so stop on by!!

It has been sleeting and snowing and there is a sheet of ice on everything!! 5-7 inches of fresh snow coming today so hopefully not too bad for market in allegan today.

I am so happy to have my camera back to post pics!! well the program back anyway!! Thank You to my loving, smart, handy, creative, handsome, silly hubby!! LOVE YA Babe!!

Have a great day yall!!

~HUGS~

Darlene

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

Wishbone pet rescue

this little cutie is the wonderfully sweet daughter of one of the gals i met today and isnt that little kitty she is holding a doll!!???

This pic is of "KRAMER" and he is just full of love!!

OH MY GOSH WHAT A WEEKEND!! WHEW! kind of glad it is over now!! let's see Friday was the winter market in Kazoo at Bronson Hospital and it was awesome btw!! Lots of people came for it even though the weather was still kind of nasty, the customers were absolutely the best!! everyone there was so incredibly nice and welcoming!! Cant wait til the next one!!

MEET ROXEE>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

so Sat was a small craft show that was ok, and sunday I went to Saugatuck and met the most fantastic caring folks who all are part of the WISHBONE PET RESCUE program!! and let me tell you I lost a part of my heart to a little 2 year old gal named ROXEE!! what a doll!!~~I so want to bring her home!! she is one lovable huggable cuddelable little gal!!!

Here is just a few of the baked goods we had for sale. There were some chocolate brownies, rice krispy treats, rum ball cookies, a delicious apple almond tart with cream cheese filling, a beautiful decorated xmas candy cane cake, choc chip muffins, some decorated sugar cookies, my friend Susan did up boxes of mini yummo pastries, another gal Sharon did up boxes filled with assorted homemade chocolate candies, and I did up some of my 3 B's organic dog cookies, peanutbutter bites and hydrants for the bigger kids, and some loaves of banana nut bread and also there was some yummy breads. Uncommon Grounds a local coffee shop/cafe had bags of their absolutely scrumptious coffees, with dog names!! too cute!~! Anyway people could bring their kids and their four legged furry kids in to have their pics taken with Santa and Mrs. Claus who btw were the best Claus's ever!!

Let me tell you bloggin friends please please please if you can visit http://wishbonepetrescue.com and donate either in the way of food or dollars they are full of rescued furry loveables and could always use the help. and what a great bunch of folks!! I have alot of new friends!! and they have all touched my heart today!!! THANKS YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST FOR DOING WHAT YOU ARE DOING FOR THESE FURRY BUNDLES OF JOY!!

Have a great night everyone!!

HUGS

Darlene

Santa and my boys!!

Here is the pic of my boys~~ they had so much fun and of cource we did too!!

And yepper IT IS SNOWING!! and today we are under a severe winter storm starting this afternoon with possibly up to 20 inches coming!! I say BRING IT ON!!

seems like whenever we are suppossed to get alot it blows over and hits more inland from us!! so we will see!!

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

I saved this pic of a decorated store and wanted to share it !! LOOK at that beautiful garland!! I love it!!
So i am off to the kitchen I promised the boys I would make them some cookies today and also have to bake some things for market friday!!
HAVE A GREAT SNOW FILLED DAY!! keep warm! and be safe out there!!

HUGS!
Darlene

ChoColATe LoVeRs GiFt BaG homemade yumminess

I put together a chocolate lovers gift bag and listed it on my etsy shoppe this am. It's full of my homemade goodies: 2 gourmet dipped graham crackers, 3 asst dipped pretzels, a pkg of choc almond toffee pieces, chunky peanut brittle, a pkg of single serv vanilla cappacino mix, my raspberry carmel choc pecan clusters, and a cute little snowman tag on the outside. $13.95 plus travel expenses. You can order a special one if you like full of cookies instead of candies.

Here are what my boys did last night!! I had a nice roaring fire goin and it was 70 degrees so they were super lazy~~ LOL Barney lays on top of Buster all the time and Bubba is usually under his blankie in bed but since it was so warm in living room he was out there sleeping.

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

So hve a wonderful monday I got wood to bring in today to get ready for the big winter storm expected to start tomorrow night! they say 50 mile an hour winds coming, lots of snow and rain and 0 degrees windchills!! BRRRRRRRRRRRR hopefully it will be cleaned up in time for the weekend. I have my last show sat in Ionia at the North Pointe Elementary School so dont really want it to be snowed out.

Hugs

Darlene

SANTA and 3 dogs!!

We took the boys to see SANTA yesterday in Douglas!! He is such a great guy and a super wonderful SANTA!! The boys told him they have been very very good and I am sure they will get LOTS of xmas pressies to open~~ They all were so good!!
Dogs by Design is a store in a nearby town and every year now they have a fundraiser for a local organization called Wishbone!! a great organization that helps dogs in need!! In fact Sunday december 13 th they are havin a bake sale and WE WILL BE DONATING SOME GREAT BAKED GOODS!! I will post on here and twitter as soon as I get the info!!
We have them emailing us a pic of the boys and will post it on here as soon as I get it!! IT WAS A GRREAT PIC TOO!! all 3 boys looked so happy and my Buster is smiling!! as usual he is always happy happy happy!!

Hope yall have a great night!! I am off to finish a nice big special dinner for my special hubby!! Baked ham, sweet taters, green beans and mushrooms and some homemade bread!! It is gonna be a busy week with the Kalamazoo Bronson Hospital market starting up on on friday!! and a show on sat wont leave me much time to make nice suppers so tonight it is!! LOL leftovers the rest of the week dont ya know!!
Talk more soon!!
~~HUGS~~
Darlene

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

HAPPY WEEKEND!! and spring chicks

Here was us this past week!! I slept on one of our couches almost all week after surgery!! As you can see my boys were right with me!! LOL


Buster was on one end and Bubba and Barney in the middle which didnt leave a whole lot a room for me but we were cozy!! LOL they are such sweeties.

Well the first of the new additions to the farm for 09!!! there guys are 2 weeks old here and hopefully are all hens! please=) Rhode Island Reds which we have alot of and they are such honeys and also great reliable egg layers for us.

OH they are just too stinkin cute at this age arent they?? Love all my babies! We are on the look out for a female white peking duck as our daisy and daphney both passed this past winter so poor Donald is without a mate right now and he does walk around chasing the geese.

Springtime is just such a glorious time on a farm all the babies and new things and the seeds sprouting so lovely!!! My mini japanese iris are about 4 in tall and the big iris are comin up nicely. Oh and the lilac trees are full of green buds so with a couple more warm days and then the rain it will pop them fast! cant wait they are just beautiful and the aroma in the air is breathtaking when they bloom!!

Well hope yall have a blessed weekend and all get to enjoy some nice weather out there!! I am resting but plan on goin outside and sitting in that warm sun a bit this afternoon, maybe will take a journal book with me and watch and write about the chickens running around!! LOL they are always fun to watch!!

Talk to yall soon!!

~~HUGS~~

Darlene

Seedlings and Surgery

I am so so sorry for not being current on my postings!! I have been so danged sick the past couple of weeks with female troubles and this weekend has been horrible. Anyway will be mia for a few days next week as tues am I am having more surgery this time a hyst so hopefully all these issues will be gone and I will be back to myself!! I have so much to do and so much planting to get done in the greenhouse it is sad!! If i wasnt so worn out and tired and crampy I would be out there right now but this is really kickin this farmgirls butt!! BIGTIME TOO!! So after layin around mostly in my recliner in the living room the past couple of days, and believe me the seat has my butt print well engraved into it now I am goin to post a few pics here. My boys have been so sweet Buster laid down next to me last night and rested his head on my belly and off to dream about cookies we both went!~LOL and actually Barney and Bubba both have been right in the chair with me at all times! and Bubba is such a big daddys boy he must know mommy needs him right now!!LOL It is just kind of hard since this is a decision that cannot be reversed ya know and there is no goin back but will totally look forward to the future and hope there are big things happening for us!!THIS IS CAUGHT IN THE ACT TIME!!! I bought a little milkbone bear for each of the boys last week while gettin prescriptions (have you been in a walgreens lately?? they have cool doggie toys for only a couple of bucks) anyway thought they would like a toy!! Bryan is always saying his Bubba is such a little angel he NEVER does anything wrong!! WELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL>>>>..... lookie here, the top pic is him playing nice with the bear and all of a sudden i heard a RIPPPPPPPPPP and look at what that little angel did!!!

Yepper had to snap this pic even with a little bit of stuffin on his piggy!! CAUGHT !! AH HA~~that poor bear didnt make it even 2 min and gone!~~LOL just had to share that with hubby to prove his bubba isnt all angel!! LOL of cource he said we planted the stuffin on his piggy to make it look like he did it!! RIGHT!!

Here are a couple of the sugar snap peas i planted a couple of weeks ago, the rest should be sprouting any day now. I put in 8 flats of them so we should have plenty to take to markets. Oh and by the way I am goin to be doing 2 markets this summer since I will be out of a job in may!! South Haven will be on saturdays and now Allegan will be on thursdays so I will be getttin around!! LOL

I may have not mentioned it but the third week of may is my last week as a regular employee and then after that i am goin to be what they call tpe or basically on call for when they need fill ins!! EXCITING!! this way i can focus on the markets and on my bakery stuff!!! YEAH!! cant wait!~! My partner and I met up last week to discuss all this and we are both really excited and hope it will be a prosperous adventure!! Scarey but well this felt right and I feel down in my heart this is what i am meant to do!! Wish me luck!! and I promise to keep yall updated with plenty of news and pics!! LOL

Here's my Buster Brown!! he is such a loving sweet dog and has his mommy wrapped around his little piggy for sure!~~

OPPPS oh there is Naughty Bubba with Barneys bear trying to rip that one apart too~LOL stinker!!

This is a freebie that I just adore!! A crow of cource!! My dear friend Old Dame Penniwig has such great freebies chick her out!! And she is a sweetheart!!

Well gotta get to doin something! maybe just gettin dressed will be enough for right now! NOT that i am nekked or anything I do have pjs on but need to take a shower and put regular clothes on !LOL

Have a most blessed sunday and will keep ya updated!!

~HUGS~~

Darlene

HAPPY WEEKEND~

I posted this when I first started my farm blog but wanted to share him again. THIS IS RED FRED!! he had a rough start to life being a mean, top dog of the coop at a friends house, so she gave him to another friend of mine where he acted up quite a bit too!! HE would stalk her and was terriblely aggressive so instead of the stew pot for him we took him. I AM A SOFTIE for any animal in need and hubby and I thought he was too pretty to cook!! SOOOOOOOO RED FRED came to our farm, well he was a pistol!! yepper he would run out from behind something and chase me or he would attack with his massive spurs. Both my mom and I would have welts on the backs of our legs from him until we both started carrying the pitch fork with us or a big stick, when he would attack he would get pushed away from us, which only helped for a min then he would wait for us to walk away and you could here >>>>>>>>>>>feet running behind you and turn quick to find him aiming at your legs!! I swear when he stalked he was good too if you turned to look behind you sometimes he would stop right there and look around casually as if he didnt even know you were there and then as soon as you would turn around to walk away HERE HE COMES!! LOL CRAZY!! he is one crazy rooster~~ FOR the last couple of years however he is more like one of the dogs, i would call him OH RED FRED COME HERE RED FRED and he would come running to be near me!!! when i work in the gardens he would be really close by and do his dirt bath and lay there watching me, I pick him up and carry him around the farm AND some of my customers ask about him!! several even had their pics taken holding him!! so he is quite something here. We sat and figured out the other night he has got to be 12 years old now or dang close to it but still is my beautiful RED FRED~~

WOW it is the weekend!!! I havent had a day off in so long now that I can just play all day in my pjs if I want!!! LOL right!! still have chores to take care of but that is ok!! I am just happy not to have to go anywhere or be on a clock today!!! YEE HAW!!!

So are yall wondering how I am goin to spend my day??? WELLLLLLLLLL I am getting all my giveaway prizes off in the mail since I got everyone's addys and then work on a couple of new jewelry pieces that I have been thinkin about all week, make a nice supper (hubby hasn't had too much of suppers the last couple of weeks with everything goin on round here) I have to work on a couple of labels for some treats I made that will be on the menus for market this season, and alot of catchup work on puter!! This is the first time in awhile the computer is on and I am not on a strict time limit!!LOL YEAH!!

So we got more snow the other night and now they are saying today there is a storm coming thru along the lake again. ALRIGHT!! I know what yall are thinkin.........isnt this the gal that was just singin LOUDLY SINGING let it snow let it snow let it snow and doin the happy snow dance all around!!!??????yepper that was me~~BUTTTTTTTTTTTTTT Now that we got a taste of spring in the air 2 weeks ago and all our snow melted it was a nice feeling!! so what I am saying is I AM GETTIN SICK OF SNOW (just for this winter of cource) LOL and am wanting to get out in the greenhouse and plant~~~it isnt a heated one so unfortunately I am stuck waiting for that for a while yet. LOL

Since I dont have any new pics to post of any new creations I will post my boys!! I love these pics, it was in feb of 08 when we brought our little Barney home. He always is laying with his big brother Buster. Bubba usually is in his waterbed but does play quite abit with his baby brother. In the pic he almost looks like if he could talk he is asking what is this squirt that looks like me doing on my couch?? LOL oh LOVE my boys~

Hope yall have a wonderful weekend I am off to check a few things and then do chores and in my studio of me!!!

Talk to ya soon!!

~~HUGS~~

Darlene

MY BIRTHDAY BOY!!

Ok here is my baby he is one year old today!!! I made him his little party hat and as you can see he just isnt too thrilled with it.. His brothers Buster and Bubba wanted to try it on too!! They are so much more patient and sit for me so nice!!! LOL



OH i LOVE my boys!! (like u cant tell that) I got the party hat idea from a great new years one on pink paislee!! click on my button below and you can view them there!!







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