Chicken love....

Clara tries feeding them her vanilla wafers.....

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend sweet friends!!!

We're up to three eggs now...YAAAY!!

hugs and love,

Dawn

Farmhouse livin'!

My chickens are now about six months old and

I've been checking online so I'd know when to expect them

to begin laying their eggs....

So I mosey on out to the coop today and look what I found!!!!

Two of the most beautiful tan eggs ever!!!

Of course, I'm such a goob, I had to place them in a nest

for the photo shoot....like I'm a new grandma showing them off!

They're not really that big....maybe the first ones are smaller?

I'm not too familiar with chicken stuff.

I think I'm going to have to blow these out and save them,

Kinda crazy? Oh yeah. But who cares ~

I just love them.....

I believe these two eggs are from my two barred rocks...the black and white striped chickens ~

I found this pic online of a barred rock egg ~ looks kinda like them I think!

OH! and this next photo may totally gross you out

but look what my son "took care of" this evening!!!

Yes, I know a king snake is good to get rid of critters but I DIDN'T

want this snake getting rid of my chickens OR their eggs!!!!

He was a creepy 6 feet long!

Ahhhh. Farmhouse livin'....it's the life for me!

Have a great Friday sweet friends ~

hugs and love to you all,

Dawn

Please indulge me precious friends....

So what did I do today?

Hmmm. Let me think......

Mostly, I cooked a wonderful meal for my family,

(thank you sweet David for grilling the steaks!)

and enjoyed a precious guest as well ~

Who was that you ask?

Our sweet granddaughter Clara came to visit

as her mother's grandfather is in the hospital and

wanted to pay him a visit with our son, Brent.

Well, the lighting was beautiful so I pulled out the camera,

snapped a few pics and

you know I have to share them with you!!!

And of course I'll give you a bit of narrative as well.....

Here's our angel watching her very favorite tv show....

but doesn't mind looking at the camera one little bit and hamming it up!

And yes, those are vanilla wafers between her legs.

Now she's really getting into the show...vanilla wafers still there ~

Well, our little Ellie SO knows those vanilla wafers are just going to waste!

Look at this angel offering her one ~

But then, she's mesmerized by the show again....oh dear!!!!

Ellie is on BIG TIME alert too!

FINALLY. Ellie gets what she's wanting and Clara loves sharing with her...

Clara hadn't had a nap all day long and is visibly tired ~

I made her a little pallet in the floor so she can watch her fav show and

maybe catch a few zzzz's ~

Well, you can see what she thinks about that! HA HA Mimi....the joke's on you!

I think I'll dance instead and twirl my dress!!!!

Then we step out onto the front porch of the old farmhouse to watch the trains ~

We have two wonderful old rockers. She takes one and I take the other.

Rocking and rocking we go!

After awhile, I tell her it's time to go inside, it's kinda hot out here....

she says, I think I'll lay down Mimi ~

on the porch!!!

I saw how beautiful she was and told her to stay there, I just HAD to take a picture!!!!

And guess what, she froze (the little ham)!

Just look at the gorgeous photos I took ~

I love you THIS MUCH sweet Clara ~

wishing you a great Thursday dear friends,

thank you for indulging me with this grandbaby post!!!

hugs and love,

Dawn

The tale of one hot mama ~

It's funny how we take things for granted, isn't it?

The week was going along wonderfully and then all of a sudden

Monday evening, as I was cooking dinner, the house seemed a little warm.

Well, I thought, GREAT.
Another hot flash, and while I'm cooking too!!

The hubs walks in from work and says, it sure is warm in here....

I think, well, finally, it's not just me!

I look at the thermostat...80 DEGREES!

Well, if you know me at all, you know I can't handle anything over 75.

This old farm house was starting to cook, and I'm not talking dinner here.

This is the look (below) I gave my DH.

You have GOT to be kidding me.

It's a quarter after five ~ oh yeah, right after closin' time,

and we make the dreaded call, nothing...until the next day.

See the expression on this poor woman's face below?

This is how I felt by bedtime....

UGH.

I love sleeping cool, don't you?

There's so much we take for granted.....

A few magazine pages from my "love" files ~

A wonderful sign maker's studio...

Can I please have all this bee stuff?

Isn't it beautifully displayed?

By Tuesday afternoon the house was cool again ~

How did I feel?

take a look below,

the little girl's expression says it all!

Today, I found myself stopping every now and then

being a very thankful girl for our air conditioned home...

.

Tryin' to keep cool in the steamy South!

hugs and love sweet friends,

Dawn

Birds....beeswax...and nests ~

I love this artist's work....

I found her illustrations in an old Victoria magazine ~

The artist is Isabelle de Borchgrave....

I've given this little bird to you before...

don't you think it would be precious embroidered onto something?

I finished my beeswax collage!

I'm so in love with using beeswax now ~

I still have a lot to learn but I love the old patina it gives the layers.

I added it to my Etsy shop too!

Look what my sons brought me over the weekend!

Two of the most gorgeous abandoned nests....

from two different sons!

They know me well ~

I think I need to come up with something to strap them to now!!

Have a beautiful Tuesday precious friends ~

hugs and love,

Dawn

And the winner of my giveaway is......

Karen in CA!!!!

Here's her precious comment.....

WOW ... 1500 followers .. terrific! I have enjoyed your blog for quite some time ... 

can't remember exactly. You love everything that is dear to my heart also.

I love all your artwork and enjoy seeing all the completed pieces,

especially anything with birds it.

I would be honored to display your giveway piece in my home!

Karen CA

Thank you all so much for your friendship and for visiting me here!!!

much love and many hugs ~

Dawn

Chicken little breaks out!

I was determined to try this....

especially after hearing how much we all have in common!

I've put this off long enough ~

I purchased the Melting Pot at Michael's with a 50% off coupon, YAAAY!

Then I drove down the road and bought the beeswax at Hobby Lobby using their

40% off coupon.....this, my friends, is the way to buy new art supplies!

I printed out a precious little baby image on my printer ~

then printed this gorgeous image that was Lisa's gift in one of her tutorials.

I trimmed tracing paper to an 8 1/2" x 11" size so I could feed it through my printer.

Well, the ink stays pretty wet and I waited awhile for it to dry.....no dice.

Then I sprayed it with a fixative (for pastels, etc.) and it worked great!

Then it was time to load up the pot ~ the cool thing about this melting pot is that it's temperature controlled!

Plus they tell you not to go over 180 degrees for wax...I have to have directions :)

My artwork is usually so structured....very so-so.

But this is so LOOSE!

I have to tell you though, I LOVED IT!

I've been wanting so bad to loosen my style up just a little....

and this, my friends, FORCED me!

I slathered on beeswax, dipped the image inside using tweezers...then the best part of all,

using my heat gun to melt it all again and thin out all that I'd caked up!

Here's the result:

I can't believe it, I LOVE IT!!!

I've got to try more....

What do you think?

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

My precious granddaughter, Clara....just lovin' life!

Tellin' her mama the way it is!

Did I tell you this angel is a nature lover?

She's holding a little frog then let's him go on his merry way ~

Have a WONDERFUL Friday dear friends,

hugs and love,

Dawn

Chicken little ~ and just keepin' it real

Sometimes....I'm chicken.

Yes, I admit it ~

When I have new stuff, new supplies or new toys

I tend to put off using them.

What is THAT???

Courtesy of the Graphics Fairy

I think I'm a little afraid that I'll muck it up ~

you know, not be able to use it right?

I've still not even opened up the melting pot thing,

or even the beeswax block.

I see images in my head of what I EXPECT the artwork should look like....

but what will really happen when I try this new "thing"?

Who knows?!

Why am I such a scaredy cat?

I guess because I don't want to fail.....

But I'll never know 'til I try ~

I tend to put trying new stuff off.

I need to do a load of laundry.....wash dishes.....

clean this....do that ~

I even do this to myself when I want to create ANYTHING ~

I don't know why at all.

I guess it's just the old school mind thing, "do your chores first! have fun later" ~

What holds you back in your creative journey???

While I was looking for a few images to post with this "chicken" post

just LOOK at what I found!

Can you believe it? A chicken feeder light! I'm in love...not so much with the price ~

but the look is just amazing, don't you think??

Happy Thursday precious friends,

hugs and love,

Dawn

Farmhouse livin' ~

Having been here now almost a year,

there's just a bit of adjustment moving into an old house!

For one, this past winter we had to get the entire duct work

replaced under the house....from that springy type to the sheet metal type,

as critters were chewing through and traveling under us!!! I know...creepy.

A month or so ago, my hubs came home from work

and as he was stepping up onto the porch

thinking that I had the garden hose draped across the steps

but NO,

it was a real king snake sunning himself!!!!

After Ellie gave him a good sniff he scurried off to his home....

Oh well, he'll take care of the critters is what I say ~

Yesterday, I looked into the front flower bed....what do I see?

A big, ol' snakeskin that was shed out there!!!!

I just keep thinking, yes, that's a good thing ~

they do keep those varmits away, right?

Thank goodness we have someone coming tomorrow to paint the outside of the house....

as pieces of it are slinging themselves out into the yard with this Georgia heat!

And then just awhile ago, I hear crack, boom and crash!

Not knowing what it could be, I called to have someone check the back yard.

I thought maybe a deer had jumped the fence and couldn't get out ~

I see them all the time around here...but no.

It was a massive pecan tree limb that crashed to the ground!!!

They are tender trees....can't take much or they will shed their limbs.

And it was FULL of pecan babies too!

This old 1925 home is a wonderful place to live ~

I love this house....so much character, so much history.

Remember this artwork?
I just added it to my Etsy shop......

Have a great Wednesday my sweet friends,

hugs and love,

Dawn