Flopsy, Mopsy, Peter or Benjamin?

This past weekend seemed to have a "bunny" theme.

On Saturday my "tough guy" son left to go mow grass at the family cemetery and was only gone about ten minutes when I heard him burst in saying, "Mama, have you ever seen a baby rabbit like this?". In he came with this cute little fellow.

As he was mowing,he had been surprised by four little sets of eyes and ears in front of the lawn mower in a little hole. I held the little guy for just a minute and sent him back to put the bunny back with the others.

Then yesterday we watched the movie "Miss Potter", which I got from the library. It was about Beatrix Potter, who of course wrote the best selling children's stories of all time, such as those about Peter Cottontail, Jemima Puddle duck, Benjamin Bunny and more. I liked this movie very much and it reminded me somewhat of the "Anne of Green Gables" style of movie.



This little bunny didn't seem afraid at all, but riding on the lawnmower in the hands of a "giant", must have had his little heart thumping! I think Beatrix Potter could have written a new story about the day Peter was whisked away by the lawnmower guy and then returned safely to his brothers and sisters, Flopsy, Mopsy and Benjamin.

2009 To Do List Countdown - Laundry Room Cabinets

Here's a picture of what I saw when I looked out my backdoor this rainy Saturday morning. This is Spot, the bottle fed goat. Can you believe he sleeps in an Igloo dog house? He is growing so fast I'm afraid he'll get stuck in there and we'll have to call the fire department to get him out! At least he is able to get out of the rain. He is still kept in this smaller pen until we can trust him to hang out with the other goats in the big pen. He is in the process of being weaned from the bottle and eats solid goat food really well now.

Its a rainy day and I'm planning to stay home all day. My hubby took my car to town and had the oil changed and filled it up with gas. He also bought groceries and dropped off some donations at the thrift shop. He even swung by a fund raiser bbq plate sale and brought home our lunch. The food was good and I especially liked the fact that the portions were normal sized and I didn't do too badly on my eating plan. Normally I would have complained about the plates being a little skimpy, but now I realize those portions are really the correct size!

I skipped last weekend as far as any sewing or decluttering/organizing, but got right back on the wagon this morning.

I have some before and after pictures to show you of my laundry room cabinets. These cabinets are where we store things like light bulbs, extension cords, batteries, candles, the battery charger, telephone wires, cell phone accessories, trash bags, and all kinds of miscellaneous things.

I wanted to organize and declutter these things and so I bought some stackable bins and some more see-through plastic shoe boxes at the dollar store. It looks better and I think we'll be able to find what we are looking for easier and faster.

BEFORE: LEFT SIDE ABOVE THE DRYER



AFTER:



I am going to pick up a couple more stackable bins for the top shelf to replace the cardboard boxes up there, but not today!


BEFORE: RIGHT SIDE ABOVE WASHER



AFTER:



The bins and shoe boxes can be pulled out, looked through, and returned to the cabinet.

Bottle Fed Goats

My son had several goats to give birth around Christmas day. Sadly, two mama goats died this week, leaving three babies. Two were a set of twins. He went to Tractor Supply and bought milk replacer powder and nipples. You put the nipples on an empty 20 ounce drink bottle. The milk replacer powder is mixed with warm water.

Here is my son feeding one of the babies:



This picture shows the back of my son while he is feeding one of the babies. The other two seem to be waiting in line!




So far they seem to be doing ok. Hopefully he can keep them alive until they get big enough to take care of themselves in the goat pen.

Heart Strings - Good Bye Faithful Friend!

SLEEPY EYE MY SWEET DAVE
FEBRUARY 20, 1993 - AUGUST 11, 2008


Good Dog!

Dave the Dog

This is Dave, our dog, hitting the books!!! The notebook his head is on contains hubby's business bank statements, check stubs, etc. I was supposed to be working on this as a big deadline approaches, but sewing, blogging and ebaying are so much more fun... At his back end is the howling wolves quilt I gave to him for a doggie bed. I made the mistake of trying to make him lay on it and now he despises it! I put it in his favorite sleeping spot and he avoids it as much as he can. He would rather lie on the notebook than the quilt.

Input requested: Dave is really old now and has always been a house dog. He has always been perfectly house trained. For about a month he has been having a lot of accidents. As in puddles on the floor. We take him out as much as we can, but it is inevitable that he will have to go for a few hours during the work day without going outside. Its sad for animals to get old. I know he can't help it. He is also almost completely deaf. I'm thinking I need to put him in the laundry room during the day and at night so at least the floor would be easy to clean up. What should I do? He could live for years like this.

THIS, THAT AND THE OTHER THING

THIS

Yesterday I went to a small church thrift store to just look around. I thought I might run across some treasure and also to check out the selection of baby clothes. I knew that sometimes the selection of baby clothes can be nice and thought maybe I could pick up Dylan some winter play clothes in a larger size than he wears now. You know how fast babies grow!!! I found these for 25 cents each for a total of $1.61 including tax. The brand names include "Baby Gap", "Little Me", Osh Kosh and "I love you this much". The short overalls are big enough for next spring when the weather warms back up and the long sleeve onesie will be perfect with some little pants or overalls this winter. I would like to go back when I have more time to pick up some more items. I washed and dried these clothes inside yesterday (it was rainy) but thought the picture would turn out good outside on the clothesline.



THAT

Our football team isn't doing well at all this year. In fact its doing kind of bad, but we are standing by our team. Hope springs eternal!

This is Dave, our dog, helping support the Wolfpack!

THE OTHER THING


Yesterday I made a big pot of Great Northern Beans seasoned with a ham hock. I also made an extra big pan of lasagna. The lasagna was for lunch and also for Jacob, my son, who won't eat the beans. My husband and I had already eaten our lasagna portions, but when Jacob was serving himself a loud crash of broken glass came from the kitchen. The lasagna was baked in a glass baking dish and was sitting on the counter underneath the cabinet where the drinking glasses are stored. When he got himself out a glass he accidentally dropped it on the lasagna dish which splattered into millions of pieces on the counter and the floor around Jacob's bare feet. He wasn't cut, because I ran and got him some shoes and we cleaned it up as quickly and as well as we could. The remaining lasagna had to be thrown out, much to Jacob's dismay. He was really looking forward to eating it and having left overs for a couple of days!

So today I made him a big pan of cheeseburger rotini. Hopefully that will make him feel better.

Needless to say I'll never place a glass baking dish underneath the drinking glass cabinet again!

AUTUMN IN MY HOME

In this little corner of my sewing room, there is a quart size canning jar filled with potpourri with a candle holder sitting in the top of it. I have tied a scrap of fall colored fabric around the neck of the jar. I had this candle holder and the one below last year, but added the Fall colored ties this year. Also, these are a few of my quilting books and some yard sale baskets waiting to be filled with home made napkins.




This is in the bathroom. It is a pint size canning jar containing Fall potpourri with a green candle in the holder. I made the bow with some Fall colored fabric. It is sitting on a homespun plaid coaster that I made.

There are some really cute Fall canning jar candle holders as well as other Fall decorating ideas on Monica's blog at http://thehomespunheart.blogspot.com/

Even Dave, our dog, has his own little bit of Autumn. The placemat his dog dish sits on has Fall leaves on it. He is a 15 year old black and white Sheltie. Dave is very feeble and deaf. He sleeps most of the time and needs help going up and down the steps when he goes outside. He actually belongs to my daughter. She got him as a puppy when she was 12. When she went away to college he became mine and my son, Jacob's. He usually sleeps in Jacob's room but sometimes he sleeps outside the door to our bedroom. This morning when I opened the door he was fast asleep there. We just stepped over him and he never woke up. (You have to be careful or you will fall over him!) About an hour later he came out looking at us as if to say, "How'd you guys get out here?". LOL. When I get home in the afternoon, its usually about an hour before he realizes anybody's home. Poor thing can't hear a lick!

I hope you are enjoying your first week of Fall. That North Carolina summer heat is hanging on, but there's cooler weather in sight. I guess you'd call it an Indian Summer.

Lucky the Cat

This is Lucky, the tomcat. I don't think we need a paternity test to decide who these kittens belong to!!!

As you can see Lucky is holding up a sore paw. He injured it in his latest tomcat fight. He will take on any cat, any time, anywhere. I saw him and another cat going round and round, kicking up a dust tornado yesterday, so I guess that's when he got his sore paw.

You may ask why his name is lucky. Its not what you think...lol. My husband cranked up his truck one winter and a little black and white kitten came flying out from the motor. The truck had to go to the repair shop, but Lucky was fine. He came walking up a few minutes later.

You also might ask why we don't have Lucky neutered. Well, the picture above shows you how close you can get to Lucky, no closer. He talks to me and follows me around, but no touching!!!