The dead tree in the backyard and what it has to do with Etsy....

Yes, I'm getting slack at blogging. I like taking crazy photos but it's just been too cold to get out and do it. Today though, it managed to get above freezing for awhile so I took advantage of it and got a couple photos of some new items for Minnie Maes. (Note that both items are sitting atop a tree. Hence, the "what it has to do with Etsy mystery is solved)

This is a cute little Valentine's Day burlap bag that I created for the South Carolina Etsy Street Team's January Creative Challenge.

This is a poison tree frog that I made over a month ago. He never managed to get a name that "stuck" so I call him, "The poison tree frog from TR". (Travelers Rest that is). I took advantage of that dead tree and used it as a podium of sorts for these two new items to rest upon.



This is the view with our "dead" tree from afar. It didn't stay there long though. As I'm typing, some guys are hauling it away by using a Bobcat and a chain. Farewell, dead tree.


This is the dead part in case you were wondering. The tree died the year before last and as you can see, the center was beginning to darken and rot. It wasn't cut exactly straight but just a small section of that stump had at least 60 rings in it. I'm estimating 80-90 years old, it was. If trees could talk, imagine what that particular tree has seen in it's days!


What has this got to do with a dead tree and Etsy you say? Well, technically, nothing. I just thought it was hilarious. Roly Poly girl didn't like the meat for the tacos the other night. She developed her own "special" taco. It was comprised of veggie cheese and bananas.

Yes, I was disgusted too at the site of it then. I'm even more disgusted now. Ewwwww! She gets a hands up for creativity though!

Add mine to the cold weather complaint list......

This is the bottom portion of our back yard right now. Technically, there is a little bit more ice down there now, than there was yesterday, when I took this picture.

So, do you think it's cold in the south right now or what?

The snow is supposed to make it's way into our area starting in a few hours- TODAY. I didn't do the typical southern snow preparations (you know, buying the following: toilet paper, bread, milk, and peanut butter). Currently I think we have those essentials so we are good to go, I guess??

In the mean time, while I'm waiting for the white stuff to start falling, I think I'll work on my mystery project seen in the photo below.

Here is the beginning "knittings" of the plastic bag-( er...uh.....) mystery object that I'm working on right now. It's not very pretty but it's coming along. I just wish I knew what it was (or will be). I'd love any suggestions. If it turns out to be something interesting enough, I'll put it up for sale in my Etsy shop. I'm serious, ok, maybe not.......

A Smurf Is Born.....and Other Events from This Past Week

Ok, you either know what I'm talking about or you really think I'm nuts. To give you some background info, just in case you have no idea what a smurf is, I'll give you a brief history.

The Smurfs are cartoon characters from the 1980's. They are small, blue, and are constantly on the run from their human enemy, Gargamel (sp?). To get to the point, a smurf can only be born on a blue moon. Guess what, we recently had a blue moon. So....... I guess, a smurf was born the other night. Wonder what they will name the new baby smurf, "Freezing Smurf", because it was freezing that night? What do you think?


Here is the best that my little camera could do on capturing a photo of the elusive, blue moon. Kind of looks like something from the X-Files, in my opinion.


Aunt Nay (that's just what my kids call her-( hee hee, it's funny seeing it in writing...)) came by one night and said she was going to sneak away to look for a ferret. She came back awhile later and when she entered the door, something was moving inside her coat. That moving "something", is named Sassy and she is an albino ferret.

Sassy thought that our basket of telephone books was pretty amazing. I was just wondering when the last time Sassy "went", if you know what I mean......

One day last week, I was searching for a video to teach me how to make fingerless gloves by knitting. I did come across a rather interesting video that taught you how to make a "plastic bag, bag". So, the girls and I went to work cutting up every plastic bag we had in the attempt to make this, "plastic bag, bag". (You know, a plastic bag knitted out of plastic bags that actually hold- well, plastic bags!)

This is our yarn ball that we created out of strips of plastic bags. I started on a plastic bag, bag but it turned out disastrous. I took the beginning knittings of it apart and now, I'm just practicing knitting with plastic bags. Stay tuned because I'm not really sure what it's going to turn out to be. Right now, it's about 7 inches wide and somewhere around 4 or 5 inches long. Plastic bag scarf, anyone? Don't laugh, it may just turn out to be one!


This little project made me really happy and it only took about 4 or 5 hours to finish. (Who am I kidding- it probably took longer but I like to think that it only took 4 or 5 hours) Argh, I hate it when things take that long- at least I'm learning patience, I guess.

Anyway, back to the story. I found this rather annoying video on the internet on how to make "quick and fashionable" fingerless gloves by knitting. (maybe the music annoyed me?) Follow this link if you want to see it for yourself. I decided that this was a good place to start since I had no clue how to do it.

As you can see from the photo above, I actually managed to make a pair and my oldest daughter is thrilled beyond belief because she usually gets to keep my projects. I paid a grand total of $0.50 for the yarn at a thrift store and I have half of the skein left over. I love it when things work out that way. If I have time, I'm going to make my niece a pair to go with her hat and scarf that she will be getting for her birthday in the next few days.

The only problem with knitting is that it keeps me from sewing. Oh well, maybe it's just a faze I'm in and I'll grow out of knitting- naaaaaah, I think knitting is here to stay.....

Things I have learned this year.....some the hard way.

Back in July, I started keeping this blog post saved in my drafts so that from time to time, I could come back and fill in those little things that struck me as weird or funny for the rest of the year. I learned a few strange things this year, often the hard way so I'm sharing them with you as a kind of, look back on 2009.


1. When the refrigerator accidentally gets turned up too high, your raw milk will freeze (I know, that's obvious). What I really learned from this is that when raw milk freezes, the cream turns into butter. How did I figure this out? I made myself a nice, tall glass of chocolate milk one day. One swig and the tiny butter chunks that I didn't notice, nearly gagged me.

2. Chicken manure is evil and so are fire ants. I was always told that chicken manure was a fantastic fertilizer. Oh, now I get it, it's a fantastic fertilizer for fire ants.



3. When you plant yellow crooked neck squash in the garden, don't be surprised at all when you harvest zucchini. Things never go as planned and you just need to learn to roll with the punches. Hey, it fries up just the same anyway. You know the old saying- "When life gives you apples, make applesauce". Knowing that, I say, "When life gives you zucchini, don't look a gift squash in the mouth- just put it in yours".

4. If you have the slightest inkling in your mind that you want to make a family photo: Don't tell any children under the age of 18 ahead of time. If you do, chances are, one or more will come up with a big blue bump on their forehead, have a younger sibling give them a haircut in secret, or knock a tooth out (in the front of their mouth- no less) within minutes of your announcement.

5. Skunks can and will take up residence in your outhouse if you are not careful. That information seems as though it should come from an old timer's textbook but in this day and time, it really can happen. By the way, baby skunks are kinda' cute.

6. Snakes like holes in trees. Snakes like to scare people that walk by holes in trees. Snakes can sometimes "jump" from holes in trees to petrify people that walk by holes in trees that snakes like.



7. If there is a mud hole around your place, you can pretty much be confident that a little boy has already discovered it before you did. You, by the way, will discover the fact that you have a mud hole around your place, when you walk through your living room and it looks like a herd of muddy footed elephants stampeded through just recently.

8. Ponder the fact that when your three youngest kids left the dentist's office, the technician gave them each ice cream for the trip home.............. (I'm serious- this really did happen- I kid you not!)

9. A thunderstorm (or at least a very ominous black cloud) will show up at your door step the exact instant you think about going to the park or work in the garden.

10. If you manage to hide some chocolate from everyone else in the house, they will instinctively come running from all directions as soon as you walk into the kitchen to get it for yourself.

11. If the day is relatively calm, expect a storm before that day is over (and I'm not necessarily talking about weather here).

12. You can not trust seed companies to actually include the seed in the package, that they have advertised on the outside of the package.

13. Deer like pinto beans, fire ants like potatoes, and ground hogs like zucchini squash (or at least they do in my neck of the woods).

14. If your toilet fails to flush properly once, don't ignore it. Trouble is on the horizon....



15. If water pours from the bottom of your washing machine at the exact moment that the machine makes a "shriek, clunk, clunk, rip" sound, you just aren't going to wash clothes that day.

16. If your washing machine gets fixed and you finally get to wash that much needed load of dirty clothes, expect the heating element in your dryer to go out the "exact" same day that the washing machine was fixed. Needless to say, the clothes WILL get washed, they just will not get dried.

17. If you notice these beautiful green patches of new grass growing in your backyard and you have experienced #14 from above, you just got your second clue that trouble is on the horizon.

18. If the septic tank man takes 4 days to show up, 5 minutes to look at the backyard, and another, lets say, never comes back, let's just hope that it's not a bad sign that more trouble is on the horizon.

19. Knitting is addicting, plain and simple.

20. If you washing machine, dryer, and septic tank goes out on you - all within the same week, don't be completely surprised when your dishwasher goes on the blink too.

21. Farmville on Facebook is extremely addicting.



22. Wearing a white turtleneck is not a smart thing to do when cooking spaghetti- you get the picture.

Well, there you have it. Some goofy things I learned this year. Mind you, they are not all of the things I learned this year, just the ones that I happened to remember. I wonder what's going to happen this year?

Wishing you and yours a very happy and prosperous new year!