HOLY COW!

This blog has moved!

You can find me here.

It's As Ready As It's Ever Gonna Be!

I will eventually figure out how to re-direct my readers to the new site so effortlessly that you will feel like you are floating on a cloud every time you visit me.  

I feel like I am floating on a cloud right now... sort of.  A twingy, headachy, sleep deprived, heavily caffeinated, stomach growling, panicky, jittery, black, thunderstorm of a cloud... 

I hope your cloud floating experience is better than mine.  

Here is the new site!

My Sister's Farmhouse

Lots of fun giveaways going on to entice you to lift your weak and shaky fingers to the cumbersome mouse and click on over.  See you there!

Almost There

Well...

Then new site is just about ready to go...

I can't figure out how to move my old blog to my new blog, so my cupboards will be pretty bare, but I will try to come up with some stale bread and some slightly 'off' jelly for you.

There will be giveaways to celebrate the move!

Lots O' Giveaways!

And then there is that nagging little trip I keep mentioning.  The one for which I hoped to lose ten pounds?  The one that requires a message.  The one that is insane.  So check back mid morning to late evening... sometime in there.  I hope to get it up and going soon!

I wonder if I will remember how to write a real post when this is all over with!  Good Grief!

Sending a Message

This is going to be a murderous week here at CDW.  

MUR... DER... OUS...  

Emphasis on the derrrrrrrrrr part.  

My blog has to move this week or my life will never make sense again.  However, I can't seem to stop fiddling with the header.  I am all Linda... (Linda is my blog designer)... Linda... can you move that cat pic. just a tiny bit to the left... no my left.. there... no wait... up... up a little more... up... no down... down... up... down.... up... to the right... the right... THE RIGHT!!!  Wait... put it back where you had it the first time... You know what Linda???  I don't think I like that cat picture anymore.  Let's go back to the barn photo. The one you had up at the very beginning. Let's try that one again!

Poor Linda.

I hope she doesn't quit her job because of me.

I also have to decide what to pack for a very insane trip I am taking this weekend.  I have been thinking about sending a message.  You know... the kind of trip you go on where you... you know... send a message?  This is one of those trips.    Does anyone out there have any idea what I am talking about?  

Yeah... me either.

But if I were to send a message...

Here are a few I am thinking about...

Il Stinkpotto modelling message one... 

It may be a bit overdone, but it is a fabulous look for the season...

Drew modeling the simple, yet eloquent symbol of a free Tootsie Roll Tootsie Pop.  

How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Tootsie Pop?

Calder wears retro video. 

Ten extra credit points to anyone who gets the reference.

And finally... Ethan (my little yo yo) goes out on a limb with a slightly more edgy choice. 

I have to thank Melissa (who is the boss of me) at work for coming up with this snappy slogan.  

So these are my messages.

I have to send one of them.

Which one should I choose?

Easter Egg Martini Anyone?

This fall the Country Doctor and I hosted a rockin' 80's party to celebrate my (gulp) 40th birthday.  My friend Iris (aka Pamela Ewing) helped me to plan the party, and she decided to bring her own personal bartender along to fix drinks for the mullet headed attendees.  As a result, I felt compelled to purchase some bar-ware to go along with the bartender.  I bought martini glasses and some... I don't know... brandy snifters...  highballs...  lowballs... double old fashioneds...?  What are the short fat ones called?  Juice tumblers? 

When the night of the party came,  I eagerly set out my shiny, new bar-ware on the island with the small stock of booze that Iris and I had purchased together.  The guests started to arrive. Everyone that came, brought an appetizer to share.  Before I knew it, the entire kitchen table, all my counter tops and the island were covered in a dizzying array of barbecue meatballs, cheese trays, pickle wraps, olives, chips and salsa, dips, more dips, more dips, cocktail wieners, more cocktail wieners,  more cocktails wieners.  I looked around at the party. It was in full swing.  People dancing, singing, talking.  I noticed that everyone was drinking beer and mixed drinks out of plastic cups.  In each of my hands I was holding two more plates of cocktail wieners and balancing a third plate of cheese and crackers on top of my head.  I knew that something had to give. Either I pitch the excess cocktail wieners outside on the ground, or the new bar-ware had to go.  

I opted for the bar-ware.  

I swooped it up (while still balancing the wiener plates) and took it all down to the basement.

It hasn't seen the light of day since.  

Until Easter arrived.

Of course...

Here is Drew pouring his mother some vermouth... I mean vodka...  I mean VINEGAR!

As if I need a shot of vinegar!  

We then added the age old, customary, traditional dye pellets.  

 I am lucky to get all my eggs from a local family and they are GREAT!  They are however, mostly brown.  

The deeper, vibrant colors work best on the brown eggs.

We used a 'brown egg' colored crayon to draw some designs on the eggs.

It was mislabeled 'apricot'.

As you can see, my children's art skills come from their mother's side of the family.

In fact, I think it is pretty clear that I have passed on my latent crafting genes to all four of my boys .

Because... 

Um...

Yeah.

My limited skills do not keep me from trying!  

They only keep me from succeeding!  

We tried some marbling by adding equal proportions of oil to the vinegar.

The boys were impressed.

Sort of...

It really is a fun tradition.  

Even if you crack every single egg in the midst of dyeing it.  

That just makes them easier to peel and eat.  

A few seconds later.  

 

If you have a friend to talk to...

And can see the beauty of the world around you.

Then your cup runneth over.

God Bless

And Happy Easter

Sordid Past, The Mac Davis Years

'

Here is a photo from the time that April and I released a country gospel tribute album to Abba called...

'Country Roads Take A Chance on Me'.

Other than the title cut, the hits from that legendary album included...

I Just Ain't Holy Enough To Homeschool

Oh Freedom... Oh Freedom... Oh Freedom My Kids go to Public School!

Jesus Loves the Little Children... Even If Their Mamas Don't Homeschool Them (kind of).

My Jesus I Love Thee and I Kin Prove It Too Cuz I Homeschool Sup Dawg? (This was a rap tune).

The Devil Went Down to Georgia Disguised as a Kindergarten Teacher

And the more minor classic...

You Cain't Make Me Stick that Satan Serum Immunization Into My Baby's Arm!

The next year we released a highly acclaimed follow-up record called...

'Mamas Mia'

It was a big hit, hailed by the critics as...

The Goo Goo Dolls meets Dolly Parton...

A lot like Alison Kraus except not really and also waaaaay weirder...

If you took John Cougar, Jon Bon, and John Mayer and wrapped them up in a spinach tortilla with some banana peppers and a little tzatziki sauce, you would have yourself a mighty tasty treat. Mmmmmmm that sounds good. Especially the John Mayer part. Oh... and this band is uh... interesting...

'Twisted Sister' but even more twisted... and messed up.

Their music is like Mac Davis getting hit by a Mack Truck... over and over again.

Hey! Whatever happened to Mac Davis?

Actually it was Mac Davis that caused the band to break up.

And also because one of the band members...

I won't say which one....

Got into her doctor husband's stash of prescription painkillers and well...

She kind of lost her mind.

At which point the crazy sister (shown here with her back purposefully turned to disguise her identity) released a Mac Davis tribute album called...

'Oh Lord It's Hard to be Humble, When You're Perfect in Every Way, I Can't Wait to Look in the Mirror, Cuz I Get Better Lookin' Each Day, All My Love, My Heart, and My Very Soul Burning For You, Mac Davis. Come Back to Me... Come Back'

(The modern spelling of the word 'cuz' is what made the song relevant to today's youth)

This record was critically acclaimed for having a really long stupid title.

Thanks to Mrs. Mama for photographing the band during the good times and the bad.

Choosing a Garden Color Scheme

Last year at the Garden Center, I helped a customer who was purchasing only green and white plants for her front porch. She chose a large variety of white flowers and a vast assortment of deep green foliage plants and we both felt sure that her green and white flowering porch would be a beautiful and cool escape for her during the heat of the summer.  

Her color scheme inspired me to have a color scheme for the pots on my front porch too!  

So I chose one.

Yesterday.

While I walked around visiting all my favorite flowers.

I have decided to use red, purple and white.  

With just a little deep blue verbena mixed in. 

As well as one of my very favorites, Madrid Lavender and a dash of periwinkle nemesia.  

Okay.

So Red, Purplish, Bluish and White.

That should do it....

That will be my front porch color scheme this year.

Except I am going to need just a tiny bit of pale pink cosmos thrown in.

Because pink cosmos is the most cheerful plant on the face of the earth.

So my color scheme will be red, purplish, bluish, pale pinkish and white.  

Okay!  

Glad I have that done.

But wait!  

How can I not have a bright yellow marigold or two... or SEVEN... tucked in amongst all that purple?

That is almost a crime!

And check out the burgundy coleus!

So let's see...  my front porch flower pot color scheme will now be reddish, burgundyish, yellow, purple, blue and pink.  

That should cover it!

Moving ON!

To the hot pink geraniums!

Oh dear!

And the creamy marigolds! 

OKAY!

Front porch color scheme - red, burgundy, white, blue, purple, pale pink, hot pink, yellow, and cream.  

That is my final answer!

Except for the lime green and the black sweet potato vines.

How can I not have lime green and black sweet potato vines?

Why even bother planting anything at all without lime green and black sweet potato vines?

I think I may need to refocus...

and maybe stare at the Bougainvillea for a while.

Maybe all Bougainvillea this year?  

An Easter Basket Centerpiece

The greenhouse at the Garden Center where I work is presently brimming over with blooms.  It is simply glorious to step into the flower filled, balmy clime of the greenhouse and wander amongst the hanging baskets of calibrachoa, the twisting and climbing mandevillas, and the fragrant heliotrope. 

It is sheer agony to leave the store everyday with empty hands that long to take a few truckloads of those flowers home with me.  

But I can't.

It is still far too cold to plant annuals in Kansas.

I attempted to stave off my flower hunger by planting some tomato, pepper, eggplant and melon seeds.

Sadly,  it wasn't enough.

So a few weeks ago, I decided to plant a live centerpiece for Easter.  

I used a low terracotta bowl and filled it with green Scotch moss, Alyssum, cheerful Cosmos, and  a flower with the trademark name of 'Opal Innocence' which has a lovely scent.  I will try and find the more common name of 'Opal' while I am at work tomorrow.   

I call this creation my Easter Basket.  

And since I have already found my Easter basket, I will have more time to cook dinner for everyone on Sunday.

...after the puppet show.