Monday, July 30, 2012

A Stonewall Retreat

My hubby and I haven't been on a date in well over 6 months. It was past time. So a couple of weeks ago I suggested we go on a date sometime soon, just to get out and hang with each other.

The night before our scheduled date night, my Hubby surprises me with a nights stay at the Stonewall Resort!! I was super pumped! This place has amazing food, spa services, awesome rooms, and a cool firepit to sit around at night and watch the lake.

Here are some pictures from our night out.

The view from our room. I love the lake!

We got a celebratory bottle of framboise, which is raspberry beer. Not a huge drinker, but this stuff is so yummy. 


We then ate at the StillWaters, which is Stonewalls excellent on site restaurant. It was so delish. Everything I ate was the best thing on earth. YUM!

Then, we went to our scheduled couples massage!! We have never done one of these before, and it was very nice. Deep tissue, 60 minutes, slightly painful but in a good way. 

Finally, we went down to the fire pit area to hear the live music. 

Zach and Ryan
Our friends were in for the weekend from Houston, TX!! They came to hang with us during the last part of date night. I wouldn't have wanted it any other way! I love this couple. I soooo wish we lived closer.

Me and Brandy

This is one of my oldest and dearest BFF. BP for Life! And as always....smellin' like a rose.


And here we are, happy and relaxed after a wonderful date night.

Friday, July 27, 2012

Vitacost.....anyone?

I am trying something out here.....I signed up for this VitaCost.com program through my fav blog. I got $10 to spend on whatever they had. Just had to pay shipping.



Here is what I ordered...I only paid $5.43.....



Cart Items - To Buy Now
Schedule
Set & Save
Item priceQuantityDiscountExtended price

Garden of Life Extraordinary Health Magazine SAMPLE -- 1 Magazine
Item No. 658010116473
None$3.951-$0.00



CSI Recovery Eye Cream with Vitamin K & Arnica - Sample -- 2 mL
Item No. 895326010143
None$0.991-$0.00

Garden of Eatin' Organic Blue Tortilla Chips -- 1.5 oz
Item No. 015839006000
None$0.841-$0.84

Kay's Naturals Better Balance™ Protein Chips® Chili Nacho Cheese -- 1.2 oz
Item No. 811178009074
None$0.871-$0.87

Popchips Potato Chips Sea Salt and Vinegar -- 3 oz
Item No. 082666700500
None$2.471-$2.47

Arrowhead Mills Puffed Rice Cereal -- 6 oz
Item No. 074333474296
None$1.251-$1.25

Arrowhead Mills Puffed Wheat Cereal -- 6 oz
Item No. 074333474289
None$1.251-$1.25

Arrowhead Mills Puffed Corn Cereal -- 6 oz
Item No. 074333474302
None$1.571-$1.57

Dynamic Health Organic Apple Cider Vinegar with Mother -- 16 fl oz
Item No. 790223100341
None$2.191-$2.19


That alot of stuff!! For just $5.43!! 

So they have a referral program as well. Here is my link. If you sign up, you will also get $10 to spend. And I will get a little bit too. And then you can share your link and get some money too....and it goes on and on and on. 

So go check it out!


Thursday, July 26, 2012

Wooden Sign Project

Yesterday, I spent the majority of my time under the canopy in the backyard painting. I have been wanting to try out a couple different techniques I have seen others do on the interwebs so I spent the day doing just that.


Dad found a few weathered boards during the chicken coop construction the he felt would make great craft items. He has such a good eye=). No pun intended....


Here are some of my supplies:
Acrylic paints
5 in. lettering stencils
paint brushes; various sizes
assorted sharpies
water
computer print out......that will come later.

Project #1:

The first item I made was for my husband. His constant response to things is "Word." So I made him a sign.


I traced each letter onto the board using the stencils and a pencil. I pressed kinda hard so that the pencil would make an indentation. This helped keep the paint in place.

I hand painted each letter. A little time consuming, but not too bad, as the indentations helped to keep the paint lined up where I wanted it. 

Then, I sprayed it with the clear acrylic spray paint. I'll probably put some matte mod podge over it as well,  but I didn't have any at the moment.

Finished product!!! I'll have to post later and show you where he decided to hang it. 

Project #2:

I have seen this featured on pinterest alot, and I have been wanting to try it for a while. 
A few years ago, I thought I was a painter. Like an honest to God, artist painter on canvas. 
Turns out, I'm not fantastic at it. So I had a bunch of painted canvases laying around the house (well under the spare bedroom bed). I decided to use those up for something that I would actually display in my house. 


I bought some letter stickers at the Wal-mart. The place where all your dreams come true. Not. 

I found this cute saying on pinterest and decided with the gardening, chickens, and music that is constantly pumped from our backyard, this would be great!
I placed the letters where I wanted them, or so I thought, making sure to press them down well.


Then, I spray painted the entire thing purple!!!

Once dry, I peeled off the letters to reveal the paint underneath. I really like this. The only thing I would change would be the brown color underneath "turnip" and "the". I should have painted over that with some other color. Just not vibrant enough. But all in all, I really like how it turned out!

Here is a second one that I made. I think I am going to paint a pink or red heart the the empty space to the right. It needs something........not sure what else though. I do love this old hymn=). 

Project #3:



Back to painting on wood. I knew I wanted this large piece to say Brown Acre. I tried spray painting with the stencils first. It was a no go. The spray paint just sucked right into the old wood. So I did what worked before. Used my trusty old pencil and gouged an outline for each letter. 
Then, hand painted each one. I was a little faster time actually. 


But it needed.....something. 

So I jumped on my computer and found this awesome chicken clip art. I printed. And ran back outside.

I placed the clip art face down in the center. Then, I used a wet paint brush and dampened the paper slightly. I took my sharpie and used the rounded end to "scribble" all over the back.


The ink from the printer transfered!!! I just used some black acrylic paint to fill in spaces. 

Then I decided I needed some girly, paisley designs. So I tried the ink transfer method and it didn't work at all this time....not sure what the deal was with that. 

So I just free handed the image I liked onto the sign. 

Kinda hard to see here but you can click on the pic to enlarge.

Then I did another little design on the other side in white. 


And here's my finished sign!!! I can't wait to hang it up!



Like it? Let me know!

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

3 things.....

Its Wednesday! Here is my list!!

Things I want to accomplish today:
1.) Sewing! Need to finish some projects for people...and hopefully get to some for me=)

2.) Crafting with old distressed wood.......I'll be posting pictures tomorrow of this.....
3.) Reading. I haven't had a day of lounging, reading, and drinking coffee all summer. It is time. I am currently reading the second book of a series called Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver. Very good.


Things that make me sad:

1.) Only a couple weeks till school starts back. 
I am honestly sick thinking about it. Once I get started, I will be just fine. It is just sad to give up the carefree, sleeping in, doing whatever the butt I feel like days of summer. 

2.) My hair. 
After a colorful summer of pink and purple, I decided it was time to go back to the blonde streak. And I bleached it myself. NEVER AGAIN! It broke my hair like elastic about a half inch below my eyebrow. Its just a section in the front, so bangs might be in order for the start of the school year. I cried for a whole day about this. I'm kind of dramatic. But only kind of. 

3.) Saying goodbye to my little sis and her two girls.
It was a tearful goodbye at the PIT airport yesterday morning. K-man was crying up a storm. K-belle was balling through security to the point the airport security people looked a little concerned. The only one who was just fine with it all was Baby Lyla. I miss them already!

Silly cousins! 

Recipes to try soon:

1.) Canning tomatoes!! I have them coming out of my ears already! Thank goodness, because last year we got a terrible early blight and got NO tomatoes at all. This year, it seems our luck has turned and we have bunches. 
My Ugly Tomato

2.) Cucumber and Onion Salad.
An old time-y recipe that is a non-recipe. You basically slice up onions and cucumber (whatever you have on hand) add some white vinegar (enough to coat) and add salt and pepper. My Hubby goes ga-ga for it. I guess his g-ma used to make it for him......

3.) More Zucchini blueberry bread.
So scrumptious! 


Blueberry Zucchini Bread
 
recipe image
Rated:rating
Submitted By: LAUJRA
Photo By: dabblingdiva
Prep Time: 15 Minutes
Cook Time: 50 Minutes
Ready In: 1 Hour 45 Minutes
Servings: 12

"Blueberries and zucchini baked up into delicious little summertime bread loaves!"
INGREDIENTS:
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup vegetable oil
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups white sugar
2 cups shredded zucchini
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 pint fresh blueberries
DIRECTIONS:
1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease 4 mini-loaf pans.
2.In a large bowl, beat together the eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar. Fold in the zucchini. Beat in the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon. Gently fold in the blueberries. Transfer to the prepared mini-loaf pans.
3.Bake 50 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a knife inserted in the center of a loaf comes out clean. Cool 20 minutes in pans, then turn out onto wire racks to cool completely.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 2012 Allrecipes.comPrinted from Allrecipes.com 7/25/2012


I made this the other day and it was gone in a flash. Need to make some more, pronto. 





That is it, my friends! Enjoy hump day! Go play outside! 

Sunday, July 22, 2012

New Chicken Coop!!!

Yesterday, we had a yard sale. Mom and Dad came over to our neck of the woods and we all set up our "treasures" for other people to sift through. It was a foggy, cloudy, humid morning/day. We didn't do so well.


While this was happening, Z and Dad were working on an summer chicken coop. 
I had a video, but it didn't work, so here are some photos!
Here is a side view. Not quite finished yet, but almost there!

Look at the custom built door! The awesome part is that we didn't have to buy anything!! All supplies came from what we had laying around. 

The other side view. Notice the small solar panel for the inside light=)

The inside. We have set up some roosting trees in the corner. Also, the nesting boxes (whatever those end up being made out of) will go in the back.

An old ladder for roosting. 

Still need to hang these babies so we can hang our waterer and food dispensers. 



I was so excited to watch it some together! We still have a few things left to do, but I'm thinking we will be putting chickens in tonight. 

Today, I have been preserving food....ALL DAY! 

I got up this morning and picked veggies from the garden. Over 15 lbs of food today! 
I harvested potatoes, tomatoes, green beans, zucchini, cucumbers, carrots, and a bit of basil. 

So far, I have made yellow pear tomato preserves (which the hubby says was delish), pasta sauce (which lids are popping as I type), frozen diced carrots, and frozen shredded zucchini. 

Geesh! What a day!!!

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Garden Tour

So, I already forgot about the wednesday thing......oh well. I'll do it next week.

For now, I wanted to do an update on my garden! Since my fav all time blog is One Hundred Dollars a Month, and my friend (well, I pretend) Mavis has a beautiful garden that I enjoy reading about, I thought my readers, all two of you, would like to see what has been growing on Brown Acre.

Some of my beautiful flowers! I think I am going to sell some bunches at the marketplace this weekend.




Sideways photo of one of K's snake gourds. We let him pick all the seeds for his raised bed this year and he has been tickled everytime something if ready to pick, or is doing well. I love teaching him about gardening and the beauty of our surroundings.


Hey, Girl, Hey!

Yup, thats a birdhouse gourd. I LOVE these.

Well Hello Sunflower! 


Ok what is this? I can't remember what I planted here. VERY vine-y. Like the birdhouse gourds, but this doesn't look  like a gourd...a cantaloupe? 

Ripening Tomatoes!

....and peppers!

Those stupid mexican bean beetles. I can't ever get a good crop of beans because of them. I squeeze them to death any chance I get.

My hole-y broccoli. It has taken FOREVER this year.

This was my harvest from the other day. Those of you who follow me on FB probably have seen this but I like this pic=). 


I am going to set a reminder RIGHT NOW on my phone to do a 3 things wed. next week. Promise.
Until then, peace out home slices.

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