One of PG's favorite things to do, cleaning out hooves. I know! That's a little strange! But all the little girls can hardly wait to do it, that and scooping poop! I know! It's all a little strange. But they all love it so it must be normal in little girl horse world.

Wonderful playtime at the creek. They found crawdads, baby salamanders, polly wogs and many other creatures, plus it is such a great venue for a child's imagination. Many wonderful princesses and knights have been created at this creek.

This is our friend Carolyn and new friend Mallory deep in conversation. Carolyn runs "From the Ground Up" horse camp and lessons. It is the best camp I've ever seen. All morning there are horses, horses, some crafts, followed by lunch and a huge playtime in the creek. Afternoon is more riding, crafts, laughter and fun. It is a childs dream come true and we are lucky to have found it.

horse camp 2010

First day back at horse camp 2010!! Many pictures to follow. Nothing like the sweet bond between girl and horse. Love this quality time that we get to spend with Carolyn and her horses. This is 'Dutchess' Isn't she just soooo beautiful!-

Life on the farm.

Life on the farm is kind of laid back, ain't nothing a country girl like me can't hack to paraprase J. Denver. Sprayed my old adirondack chairs what was supposed to be a "peek-a-boo" blue. They turned out bluuue! but fun, probably more beachy than farm, but fun.
Second is my little farm girl sidekick Lu. When she was little we called her Lulu Pie, apple of my eye, which has now become Lu. We got up with the birds, she swore a hummingbird was pecking at her window. We drang coffee and watched the sun come up over the farm. Such sweet moments like this you want to hold forever.
She had a party this Sun. for her birthday and got her hearts desire, a horse. I'm sure there will be lots of fun pictures to follow. She and her little friend have already been bucked off, but you're not really a cowgirl until you've been thrown, right Jenna?

Went to a garden party!

I was honored to be invited to a surprise birthday party for my talented friend Jenna. She is the queen bee of floral arranging. We were lucky enough to have her on board for our Christmas decorating business this year, and she turned out some amazing Christmas tree "toppers". She does beautiful weddings and events which you will be able to see on her blog "ederynfloral.blogspot.com".
This fun arrangement was my gift to her. I water colored a basket, dyed some doilies, put in some cellophane, put in luscious smelling perennials and herbs and voila! Such fun to do. Such bravery to take to the floral queen, if I do say so! To look at the garden that the party was held in check out her blog "allthecloudsrollaway.blogspot.com

The "Browns"

This is the beauty of living in the country. You just might have wonderful neighbors that have hens they call the "Browns", now I don't know if that is their actual name, like the "Smiths" or their color or the color of the eggs they lay. I just know that these deliciously colored eggs appear, and I take the egg carton back and it magically fills up with eggs again. How cool is that?! I love the country and my wonderful country neighbors.

All in one day someone gave us a horse, another gave us a cagillion day lilies, another came and plowed up a garden area for us, and yet another took my grandgirl horsebackriding. It's just a wonderful place! We are so blessed by our country neighbors!

Easter project and greetings!

This is a little art from my gran Peyton Grace. It made me giggle. Easter is finally upon us after a very LOOOONG winter. I have an enormously grateful heart. I was actually out working in my farm garden today. It felt so good. I love seeing buds on everything. That along with Easter brings such hope.

I love to give little gifties to my friends and family. This project was inspired by Jeanne D'Arc and M. Stewart. No Martha and I aren't buds, but her mag. does inspire. I never quite got the project where I thought it didn't look like a paper mache covered turtle, so, sorry friends. Maybe this time next year I will have all the kinks worked out, or you'll get a really pretty turtle.

My chief crafter in week end residence. She loves it and is very good at it.

Our supplies ready to go.

All part of the sticky, gooey process.

Three layers, gold on the inside, newsprint on top of that, cut scrapbook paper on last layer. Mod podge all over including me.

Final product, probably not gift worthy, but we had a lot of fun working on them.

I hope this finds you warm where you live. And most of all I wish you a blessed and joyfilled Easter.

Final product!

Yeah! Here we are, my dear friend Nancy on the left, our wonderful friend Elaina and Me with some of the girls. Are these quilts not adorable. We're so proud of them, those sweet girls.

Mexico at last!

Those of you who knew I was heading to Mexico to teach sewing are probably saying did she really go? I don't see pictures. Maybe it was all a charade! No, in fact I did go in Feb. and it has taken me that long to figure out how to publish the #*@#* pictures. I am not exactly technology savvy if you couldn't tell :(
The women we go to help live back in time. It is pretty amazing to see. They often don't have electricity and such. We have hoped for years we would be able to teach them skills that would be able to empower them to make a better living and be more independent. There is a strong urge to marry young and have babies. Often the men leave for the U.S. to make a living and only come home once in a while. We're hoping to help change this as they supplement their livings. We're in hopes that more can be done to keep these families together in their home town. We have been trying this for years and determined if they never got the concept that we would continue to go and teach, even if just to provide some creative time for them
Anyway the trip was wonderfully successful. The girls made five quilts. We bought them and took them back to Reynosa where they were auctioned off and then the money sent back to them to buy more fabric. They have since made 10 more which they are sending to Atlanta for us to market for them. We feel like they have gotten the concept at last and now we can build on their skills.

The church we teach in each year. We set up machines on the altar space. We clear off the tables as they provide us with a delicious home cooked Mexican lunch each day. Yum!

This is the new church they are building. We were with the team that dug the footholds and poured cement for the footings. It's so cool to see it finally take shape. They are doing all the work on it themselves as they get the materials. The home church in Reynosa, Torre Fuente provides the funds as they can. It has been about a three year project.

We always have lots of little ones around. They are beautifully behaved, and cute as can be.

This is the Pastor of the home church in Reynosa. We teach at one of his mission churches in Laguna outside of Vallez, Mexico. Gilbert is a wonderful preacher and pastor, and let me tell you, the man is FUNNY and can sew!!!! His quilt was one of the best and he was very proud as were we.

Each year we bring down a new project. Since there are so many new babies each year we decided to bring down a baby quilt. We introduce new skills each year. They had to fuse fabric and learn quilting this year. We are so proud of them. They will sit like this all day and some days we don't even have electricity and have to work around that. I love these ladies.

You can see we set up in a temporary space in the back of the church, fitting as many girls on one table as possible. One of the best part of the trip was a day we were late getting there, our last day and we walked in on them intently working and helping each other finish. They didn't even know we were there. I felt like after three years of working with them they could move ahead without us.

The girls listen intently as they are being taught. It's been my joy to see their skills increase each time we go down to teach. They are truely a delight.

This is what happens all day. Young sweet laughing girls. Pastor Gilbert has of course been teasing again.

More tour of Nancy's home.

Hope you enjoy the new home tour. You can see throughout the love my friend has for her home. She has been rearranging and creating in her front yard, so hopefully, as things begin to bloom we can do tour of Nancy's beautiful yard. Stay tuned. It has been my enourmous treasure to have know this family for nearly 25 years.

These are a few of the decorations from a baby shower held for one of the daughters. The colors were black, red and white. Jenna, the talented!, made the giant poms out of newspaper. How clever is that.

Hope you are enjoying your tour. It is just so much fun to visit her home. Each time I go there are new arrangements and interesting items. Many of these items she puts together herself.

How sweet is this! It's an image you could put in any home decorating magazine. I have always told her she could do design for a living if she chose.

Everything has a sweet place and is so pleasing and leads your eye to the next grouping.

Sorry the image is so dark. I need to learn photoshop for sure. Just wanted you to see the fabric choices how everything complements!

Notice the sparkly on the pillow. These are the kind of touches Nancy adds that just make a setting lovely.

Sweetness !!

This sweetness is courtesy of Debbie Kingston Baker. She was a Christian artist whose work I carried when I owned a store. She painted amazing touching pictures.

The sweetness I carry in my heart today is from the overflow of last night. I had the privilege of attending my oldest daughter's talk to the youth group she helps shepherd. As if my heart wasn't full enough, I also heard my two grandson's give testimonies at their youth groups.

I adore that my daughter and her husband help shepherd a youth group. It makes me feel as if there is a continuance of belief and giving of one's self passed down from my grandparents, who were believers. I was somewhere in the midst of that, and I'm so grateful for that.

My daughter relates to those teenagers in the sweetness way. Joking with them, enjoying them, yet at the same time leading and instructing.

In the room was a cross that my son-in-law had created from raw cut logs. It was tied at the center with rope. Oh my goodness amazing.

My oldest grandson Jake blew me away. I have believed for a long time that he had a calling on his life. I have believed that since he went on a Mexico mission trip with me at 13. It was an amazing experience to watch how natural it was for him. I could sense even when he prayed out loud that the Holy Spirit was at work. He's had his share of ups and downs since then and certainly doubts. He is almost 19 now and trying to figure out his next step in life. One of his options is to go into mission work. I am in prayer for him daily as he walks through these decisions. It will be wonderful to see how God directs his path.

Hearing the three of them speak last night absolutely warmed my heart. Today, I am bathed in gratefulness.

I also had the pleasure of meeting Lauren, one of my "readers". She was as special as my daughter had said, and I am so pleased to know a new reader. It makes me much more conscious of what and how I do my post to know someone cares about it. Thank you Lauren!

Doesn't this look like a butterfly in motion. It is actually a Chinese performer at the Alliance theatre. Last weekend we took advantage of the Atlanta culture and attended a performance of Mulan by the Atlanta Symphony. They also included in the package Asian performers and crafts of all kinds. It was a blast. The performance by the ASO was outstanding. We enjoyed it so much and all the activities were so well done. It is so much fun to live so close to Atlanta to take advantage of the culture in the city.

PG and Mia dressed for the occasion. Oh course Mia had to have a designer original for the occasion and notice the chopsticks in both the coifs. We had such fun creating that morning. It all just adds to the excitement. Sorry it's blurry, we were just a little blurry that day.

There was dragon making and puppetry arts with the crafty dragons. Such fun, such fun.

How lovely is this!

Autograph signing with the best Mulan ever. Her performance was amazing as was the rest of the cast. "Mulan" runs through the end of March at the Alliance theatre. So very reasonable and worth every penny. There are about eight people in the cast and they play numerous parts. It was funny, exciting and enchanting. The cast had amazing voices. So much talent in Atlanta!!

Little sweet girl scout painting a Chinese symbol on PGA. Be very still and by all means, don't smile :)

Poetry in motion!

This is a mini tour of my talented friend Nancy's home. Visiting her home is always a treat. There is always coffee on, good conversation about the Lord, our children and creative projects. Her home is such evidence of God's gifts of creativity. I could look at her home often as there are always new groupings, new things she's made and they are displayed beautifully. I will show more of her home over time. I also want to show you some of the things she's done outside once the weather warms up. I hope you enjoy the tour.

Nancy is the mom of Kace and 9 others, five girls, five boys. Her God, her family and her home have her devotion and it shows.

I love the way she puts items inside other things. To me it's like inviting your eye in to explore. Notice the little bird patiently looking out, as well as the clock face and teapot. How clever is that!

Tell me this isn't like looking into "Country Living". Her colors are red and black and green. She has always had a way of putting together colors that make me marvel. It's a gift I think!

Sorry this turned out so dark. It's so cleverly done. Each time I visit things have been changed and there are more little vignettes in different places. It's like visiting a beautiful magazine. I just love going there. I love to see creativity in people. Creativity is for me like touching a piece of God.

Groundhog forgiveness!

okay, i get his point
not only do i forgive him
he's my new best bud

i always say
every day at the farm
is a good day
this is a great day

i am covered up in loveliness

i checked yesterday
there are buds, on the
blueberries
raspberries
roses

it won't be long now

i want to enjoy this, be in this moment

Yesterday I was in this very spot, face turned to the sun, soaking it in and praising God for how it warmed my body and my soul. Today, I stand here in this beauty just marveling at this world and thankful to be in it.