Random Sunday Blog

This morning's Random Sunday Blog is Antique_Spinning_Wheels, a wonderful site written by Grace Hatton of Lords Vally Pennsylvania.  It is a great little site that I found after only one click on the Next Blog button.

Grace with her husband Fred live on a farm that has been in their family since 1859.   On it they raise Finnsheep

These cuties aren't just pets, they are suppliers of gorgeous wool, both on the hoof                      

and off

                        

  

Grace washes and dyes the wool before sending it off for processing.  She even spins some of that wool into yarn on the antique spinning wheels they collect and restore.

Grace also gardens,

weaves,

knits,

and paints.

Her blog is a fascinating and colorful view into the life of a modern day shepherd.  I highly recommend checking it out!

THE BEST BIRTHDAY GIFTS: love, technology and inspiration.

Although I didn't write about it yesterday, I had a great birthday.  My husband made me dinner and my youngest daughter made me a lava cake. 

Yum!

I got a beautiful new scarf from a dear friend.  It is soft and warm, and makes me wish for cold weather so I can wear it.

I also got a cool new toy:

I've been wanted one for a while and apparently my wonderful husband caught one of many times I mentioned it.  :)  I love it!  Right now I am mainly reading the books you can download for free.  But Barnes and Noble knows what they are doing. 

They gave me a free download of the first six chapters of this book:

Pride and Prejudice is one of my all time favorite books, and this twist really intrigued me.  So I started reading, and started laughing, and was really quite annoyed when I reached the end of the free promo.  But luckily the rest of the book was just a click away.  And now I am enjoying the rest of the story.

The only downside is that buying that book was almost too easy.  I am going to have to be careful or my book budget will be busted every month--especially since I really don't have a book budget.  :D

And yesterday the mailman became my favorite person by stretching out my birthday one more day.  On my doorstep I found a package that contained this:

It was sent by one of my dearest friends.  Elena is an artistic soul and has always been my muse.  Many of my craft projects were tried as a gift for her.  She has another artistic friend that makes these great pieces of art.  She collects trinkets and makes fun shapes and sayings out of sculpty clay and then assembles them into frames. 

Elena has several of these in her house, and I study them every time I am there.  I'm sure it's no shock that I really want to make one and have since the first time I saw one.  And although I haven't gotten around to it yet, I do have a frame already set aside for the project.   I just need to take the time to collect things to put in it.  But until then, I now have one of my own to look at and inspire me.  

Getting older isn't so bad after all! 

Cutest recycling project ever!

Hi, my name is Rover!

I was rescued near a recycling plant and am now looking for a permanent "woof" over my head.  "Sit" is my favorite trick and I am a great listener; I'll always be there to greet you when you get home!  And I promise I won't chew up your couch.

While cleaning out my camera's memory card last week I came across this cute guy.   I saw Rover in the Museum of Fine Arts Houston gift shop and  wish I would have written about him sooner.  Partly because he is so cute, but mostly because I can't remember what material he was made from.   But I can tell you I thought he was adorable and if I could have justified the $125 adoption fee (which, by the way, included shots and neutering) I would have brought him home.  But instead I had to be content with ignoring the rules of museum photography etiquette AGAIN and sneaking out my camera to take this picture.   Although I do still think he would look great sitting on my hearth.   

Wonder what Dakota would have thought of that?

Relax Dakota.  I'm sure he wouldn't have tried to steal your bone!

Hello 45

Today is my  birthday. 

My 45th birthday. 

No longer can I deny being old because let's face it I'm staring mid-life right in the face. 

But I'm not going to complain. 

After all, it's better to turn 45 than not to turn 45. 

So Happy Birthday to me...  

Now let me eat cake!

  

Hippo birdie two ewe!

I got this card in the mail this week. 

I absolutely love it! 

 Thanks Brett, Tonia, Sam and Cobe. 

The look says it all...

This morning I woke up in kind of a funk.  Don't know if it is that big, impending 45 I see just over my shoulder whenever I look in the mirror, or if it is just something in the air today.  Either way, the day is weighing down on me. 

And apparently my dog is feeling it too. 

Here's what she looked like this morning:

My feelings exactly Dakota!

  Here's hoping we can snap out of it and actually accomplish more than laying on the floor with a bone.

10 cow women, part 2

Yesterday I wrote about the 10 Cow Woman activity.  What I didn't mention was that in addition to talking about our true value as women, I had a special treat planned for the girls.   After all, what is a young women's activity with out a good dose of sugar?

I started by buying these:

 I love cookie cutters, and think this

farm set is too cute.

I can't wait for an excuse to create Old McDonald cookies.  But for this activity I only needed this guy:

I used him and my favorite sugar cookie recipe to make the this tasty herd:

After we had finished our discussion of our divine qualities and what we need to do to develop them, we pulled out the cookies and frosting and created our very own 10 cows.

It was a pretty sweet ending to a fun evening.

I am a 10 cow woman!

Tonight we are having a Johnny Lingo activity with the 16-18 year old girls at our church.  We are focusing on Individual Worth this month, and even though she knew nothing about this classic LDS movie our Laurel class president agreed to trust her leaders when we suggested watching it.

I love Johnny Lingo.  Although it was filmed 40 years ago, I think it still delivers an essential message--that  our true worth is not determined by how others view and treat us.

Johnny Lingo is a story about a island trader who agrees to pay a record number of cows in order to marry the woman he loves.  Mahana grew up being treated poorly by her father and those that lived in her village and came to believe she was ugly and because of that treatment.  But Johnny Lingo saw her true value, and paid more for her than any other husband had paid for his wife.  He did this so she would know she was worth more to him than any one else.  This gesture of love gave Mahana the inner confidence needed to allow her true beauty to shine through. 

Although the main message of this film appears to be focused on physical beauty, I believe it really goes much deeper.  The fact that her husband paid a record number of cows for her didn't change how Mahana looked, it simply changed how she felt about herself.  And once she felt that she had value, she was able to get past that negative image that had been instilled in her throughout her live and become a happy woman who could fulfill her full potential. 

What a great reminder to all of us to stop listening to the harsh criticisms that come from the world.  We are all children of God and our divine potential is not determined by the world.  I can't wait to share it with our girls, and hope they will all come away with a belief that they too are 10 cow women!

Quotes of the day

One day I will organize all of my photos. The pre-digital ones that sit in a box under my craft table, as well as the digital ones that sit in folders on multiple hard drives. But until that day, I must admit that I do enjoy randomly browsing through my digital collection of memories.


Last night I opened a file titled "Iowa 2009" it is full of photos that were taken in July of 2009, when my daughters and I visited some good friends who had moved there the year before. On that trip we visited the Amana Colonies, a quaint little village that had wonderful antique shops and German restaurants. I had forgotten about the great arts and crafts we saw while we were there. Some of my favorites were wonderful sayings on plaques and signs. I didn't end up buying any, but took several pictures of the sayings that I liked.  

Here are some of my favorites: