It's a Bird Thing...

 

 

The Baby Bluebirds are still here!  I guess I really can't call them babies anymore...

 

They often come and perch near the feeders and take turns in the bath, (which I LOVE!), but recently we have had a hawk near the house.  In fact, while sitting in the backyard one afternoon watching the kids play, a hawk swooped in and took a little bird away...  So sad.  I think it was a dove.  I couldn't believe how incredibly brazen that hawk was.  It's been a while now since we've seen the hawk or heard it's very distinct cry. 

 

So now the pretty birds are back!  Young Man built another blue bird box for me and it's been leaning against the garage and often falling over.  I all but begged Hubby to put it up properly this weekend.  All joking aside, after he had the box securely in place, those bluebirds were sitting on the box and peering inside it within 10 minutes! 

 

Now as long as I can keep birdies on the outside and kitties on the inside we should all get along just fine.

 

Now on to work some more granny squares for that tree skirt...  I am also working on some new Christmas ornaments.  Wish me luck!

 

xoxo

 

 

 

 



 

Hey, Friends! 

 

I hope you have had a lovely week!  I have to laugh at myself for trying to participate in "Blogtoberfest".  It seems my posts have diminished since I started.  Sorry about that, but hey, I'm still here supporting all your "Bloggy" efforts, too.

 

We have had a busy couple of weeks here at the Hearth Room.  In fact, we had Nana here for a week.  The little people do love that!  We got a bit behind in our routine, so this week we've had to work hard to catch up. 

 

So it was super nice to sit still for about 30 seconds this afternoon.  Well, that's what it felt like....  And while I was sitting I  noticed how pretty the golden leaves were with the sun hitting them just so.  It seemed to match some of the colors in my fall/Christmas project basket. 

 

I'm sort of all over the place with my projects right now.  I'm making a very colorful Granny Christmas TREE SKIRT!  And I decided I needed a fall pennant for the door to go with my wreath.  I need to wrap these things up quickly so I can make some fabulous goodies for a swap I'm doing. 

 

Lot's of making going on here.  I'll be back to share!

 

In the mean time, my little fam has a tent up outside and I need to get out there to go 'camping' with them.

 

Happy Weekend!

xoxo

 



 

 

 

 



Fall Wreath DIY Style

 

 

Was it a "Moment of Whimsy",  a sign of desperation, or am I just plain cheap?

 

Actually, it's a result of ALL 3!  And  the fact that I love to make things myself!

 

Everywhere I go lately I find myself looking at wreaths and other decor items to place on our doors here at the Hearth Room.  From little tin signs to plastic pumpkins and vine wreaths covered in fake leaves...   Nothing was grabbing me and it was all over-priced. 

 

Finally, I came to my senses and realized I could make something myself that would show a bit of whimsy, would definitely be handmade and best of all, FREE!

 

Out to the backyard I went on a search for some vine.  As I coiled my vine into a wreath shape it instantly took on the look of a pumpkin.  I didn't know where this whole decoration thing was going at the time, so I pondered this naturally-occurring pumpkin shape and went with it.  Of course, the second naturally-occurring thing to do would be add some yarn to it, so out came a tiny bit of left over 'pumpkin' colored yarn.

 

Now this is where I might lose most folks in my handmade rustic wreath attempt, but ever since those elementary years of childhood, when you draw a pumpkin it has those slightly curved, vertical lines to show it's dimension...  Right?  So my orange crocheted chain became those lines.  Next I made a little 'bow tie' of green to tie on as leaves.  I then scavenged around in the "fall decor" bin for loose leaf and flower leftovers.  Hot glue is my friend. 

 

And Ta-Da!  I have a very handmade, very whimsical, rustic fall wreath to adorn my Hearth Room's back door.  I suppose I could have invested actual time in planning and material gathering, but the children were quiet, Hubby was watching football and I wanted instant gratification. 

 

Maybe I will plan for the next door.  And maybe I'll plan ahead for some Christmas decorations.  But today it was all about winging it fast and it was fun. 

 

So can you see that it is a pumpkin wreath?  Or as Young Man suggested, do you see a web?

I see every school aged pumpkin drawing I ever made in the form of a wreath on my back door. 

That's cool.

 

xoxo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Granny Christmas

 

 

Hello!

 

I'm back with another glimpse of my new Christmas project...

 

Do you know what it is?  Any guesses?

 

I'm headed for my yarn right now to add (hopefully) several rows of interesting colors!

 

I'm excited and can't wait to get to the next part so this will start to feel like what it really is!

 

Ahhh...  I do love some Granny Goodness!

 

xoxo

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

Hello... Did you have a good weekend? 

 

Last week was a little busier than usual for us so Sunday was a wonderful day to catch up and stay close to home.

 

We actually did a few things around the house while we listened to the constant 'hum' of the football games on television. 

 

I have had some sweet little curtains sitting quietly in their box, waiting desperately to be hung in the Hearth Room windows...  Some of them finally made it up!  Since the temps are dropping rather quickly and we had a nice chilly rain for the past few days it seems that there is finally some sense of urgency to get these windows covered! 

 

And I'm still on a sour dough bread kick.... and after feeding the starter once a week you are supposed to make bread.  Every week...  It's a really good sour dough and the family always enjoys it, but there always comes a time when you haven't eaten all the bread you've made and it's time to make more!  So I decided to cube the left over loaf and bake it to make sour dough croutons for salads or casseroles.  You know fall is casserole time, right?

 

And then I offer up this picture of a very tangled looking Christmas crochet project.  It's funny because the colors are so fall-ish right now, but it really is a Christmas thing.  I promise to come back and share what it looks like for real.  I won't even use the Hipstamatic App!

 

It is going to consist of some deeper, jewel tone colors, (I think), and I think it will make Granny proud.  Honestly, with all the pumpkin, maize and dark blue I would be willing to scrap the whole idea right now - but I've seen the pictures of the finished thing, so I will hook on!

 

Fingers crossed, Granny...

 

xoxo

 

 



Farm Days

It has been a very farm-y few days for us.

 

 

Yesterday we made a few new furry friends.

 

And we saw some beautiful places. 

This is The  Frontier Culture Museum, which I've posted about before.

 

Today we made some new feathered friends.

 

And got to see where our milk comes from at one of the local dairy farms.

 

It's good to see successful farming in practice and it's good to know we can buy healthy food made locally.  It was especially good to see healthy, happy cows at the Homestead Creamery's Farm Day. 

 

We ate fresh ice cream and were completely convinced that it is time for Young Man to have his own chickens.  And I want a cow.  I love ALL cows, always have, but today I fell in love with a Swiss Brown.  And if the nice farmer knows what he's talking about, (and somehow I'm sure he does), he says that the awesome, rich ice cream we eat is made with the cream from a couple of Swiss Browns named Phyllis and Connie.  They were beautiful.  I know we need to make sure that creamy stuff is only a once-in-a-while treat, but man, oh, man...  Is that stuff good!

 

Unfortunately, I didn't catch the name of the lovely lady shown above, but she was sweet, too.

They had some little calves out that we kids could pet and hug.  It's surprising how rough their little tongues are and equally surprising how beautifully, shiny, white their little teeth are!

 

Now if only I could have cows for pets.  And sheep.  Can't forget the sheep and Young Man's chickens.

 

I think we need to stay home tomorrow.

 

 

 



Learning Places

 

 

 

This is the little rug on the floor of the room in which we keep most of our learning materials.  I find it hard to word that sentence properly, as part of what we believe as homeschoolers is that fostering a love of learning for life should not be confined to just one room.  With that said, in order for this Homeschool Mom to maintain any level of sanity, I must have a place for everything and everything in it's place.  So we have designated one special room to hold our desks and bookshelves, lessons, assignments, wall maps, and everything else.  As someone who tends to name all the rooms in the house and sometimes even certain spots in the house, I struggle to know what to call this room.  "Classroom" is exactly what we want to avoid calling this room, as we don't want to associate that all of our learning can only happen in a 'class' room.  It's definitely not a 'library', as that brings to mind images of a much more mature room full of woodwork and character from walls filled with tomes we do not have.  We have a special spot for quiet reading that we call "The Nook", although it makes no reference to electronic reading devices, I can assure you. 

 

  As we have spent two days out learning in some of the most beautiful and fascinating places Virginia has to offer this week, it becomes clear to me that the world is our "classroom".  So that makes it all the more pressing for me to be able to answer Young Man when asks, "Hey, Mom...  Where is my book?" 

"Hey, I think it's in the ________________."

 

Study?  Learning Room?  No. 

I'll keep thinking on it.  And I will ask Young Man. 

 

And, no... It's not a cat sanctuary.  He's just very comfortable with our routine.