is cheap sometimes better?

The sunset last night (ignore the date on the picture).

This first picture was taken with my husband's camera; approximately $100 at Wal-Mart.

This next picture was taken with MY camera; approximately $300+ at Sam's Club



Taken at the same time, from the same location and direction. It looks like the cheaper camera captured the color better than my more expensive one.

Or maybe my oldest is just a better photographer than me.

Nah.


Until next time...

sewing and more sewing

My sewing room:


Yes, I know, it looks disorganized. But trust me, I know where everything is.

I love the table. It came with the house. The previous owner, our landlord, built it for his wife and their daughters. It is wired with 5 outlets right under the sides of the table; 2 on each side and 1 on the end. That was so they could all sew at the same time and not have to take turns. The main plug is at the end next to the wall. If you notice, the end next to the wall does not have legs. The table is screwed into the wall. My husband added the bottom shelves for more organization. (I know, I'm working on it).

We only have one sewing machine plugged into the table and also my bobbin maker. Then the lamp gets plugged in, when I sew, for more light. We also have our TV and DVD player down on the bottom shelf, plugged in on this side. We hardly watch anything, so when we do we just all plop down on the floor and bean bag.

The infamous sewing machine:


My sewing machine was messing up on me recently. I took it to a friend's house for her son to try and fix. When I got it there he fiddled with the tension on top and showed me the material where he had sewn. It was fine! I thought (and a few other people told me) that he would have to adjust the bobbin tension. Turns out he didn't. Oh well, at least it works fine now. :)

And it's a good thing it works again. I have a ton of sewing to do. Clothes for the girls, costumes for the girls and the boys, plus the sewing for the fair entries. So, if you don't see me on here very often in the future, just imagine me at the table cutting out material or sitting at the machine sewing away!

Until next time...

26 of 52 photos of me

See Carin's Challenge over at her place.

Yes, I know I'm a day late. Forgive me.

My brother is leaving East TN for Cincinnati, OH for a job promotion. While we are happy for him, we are also sad he's leaving. Well, actually he left earlier in the week. He'll get to come back for visits, but they will be not as often as before. So, here's a last shot of us at my mom's house last weekend.




Until next time...

green sand and goat pens

If you remember, a while back I won some Crayola Play Sand from Mom of 2 Boys, Wife of 1.

The children love it!


Yes, some of it has escaped the confines of the sandbox my husband quickly put together.

******************************************************
Another project he has been working on the past week or so.


Our goat pen. So far we've been getting almost 4 cups a day from her. Last night and this morning gave us a total of almost 8 cups. We've been enjoying the fresh milk. Just a bit ago, I made a fruit smoothie with the milk, some fruit we had frozen late last week, and some honey. Yum! Sweet, cool, fruity goodness. I would have taken a picture, but it was gone before I thought of it. Maybe next time.

And here's the rabbit pen that is not yet complete.

When this is finished, work will begin on the chicken coop. Then we'll get the chickens.

Ahhh...adventure awaits!


Until next time...

Loyal Friend and Visitor Award

The rules: (1) Post the award on your blog. (2) Acknowledge the giver. (3) Pass the award on to who you think who is/are deserving to as many as you want. (4) Leave a message telling them.

Kat over at Art's Chili gave me this award. Ya'll just have to go visit her. I don't know many people who would put up with constant emails from me, then offer to drive 4 hours just to meet my crazy family! What a pal! :) Read about that, here, and here. It was a real treat to meet her family.

And now to pass it on. I had to think hard about this one. I have a few people that continue to visit my blog and leave me comments.

Mimi at He & Me + 3. She always, always has an encouraging word to leave.

Kim from Homesteader's Heart. She also leaves encouraging comments. Unfortunately right now she's having computer problems. Hope she gets them fixed soon. It's got to be tough being without a computer.

Heidi of Sacred and Profane. Although she's a super busy mom (and funny to boot) she finds time to reply to my comments.

Lisa from Stop and Smell the Chocolates always has a sweet word to leave. :)

Mikki at The View From My Beach Chair leaves great comments.

Thanks everyone for the nice comments and ya'll come back now, y'hear?


Until next time...

what?!

This just ain't right.


What were they thinking? Is this giving you any ideas? Thankfully, the pizza was fine. :)


Until next time...

I'm not here

Ack! I forgot to warn you that I wasn't going to be here today! I'm over at Lisa's sharing some chocolate goodness. Go to her place and read my guest post. And take a chocolate recipe with you to share!

Until next time...

Solomon

Wife # 586: Solomon, I feel that you just don't love me anymore. You've hardly paid any attention to me lately.

Solomon: Baby, you're one in a thousand!



Until next time...

25 of 52 photos of me

From Carin's: 52 Weeks is a year long challenge for YOU to be in a picture once a week for 52 weeks. We are always the ones behind the camera, this is YOUR chance to get out in front and be in the pictures with our family. We are glad you are joining this challenge. More importantly your family will really enjoy having you in the picture. Thanks for playing along! Oh, you can just jump in now with 1 of 52, you're not getting off that easy! Now go take a picture!






I couldn't decide. :)


Until next time...

Wonders of baking soda

Baking soda has many wonderful uses.

Cleaning (see Kim's post about her teacups)

as a toothpaste (which is also cleaning I guess)

odor remover (example: placed in refrigerator/freezer)

water softener (in the wash)

baking

bee stings
The one we just used a few minutes ago. Make a paste of baking soda and a little water and plaster it on the spot that got stung. It draws out the poison.

Aahh...the wonders of baking soda.

If you know of any that I didn't list, please let me know about them in the comments below.

Also, here's a great resource for all the uses of baking soda. I might invest in this book sometime.

We really, really like baking soda. :)



Until next time...

One Lovely Blog Award

Cindy from Life - Learning in a Family Environment gifted me with this award. Go check out her blog. She has very interesting and thought-provoking posts, with some light ones thrown in, too.

So, with this award, I'm supposed to follow these rules:

1. Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link.
2. Pass the award to 5 other blogs that you’ve newly discovered. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.
3. Copy and paste the code below to your own blog.
   

<a href="http://everydaylifetogether.blogspot.com/2009/08/one-lovely-blog-award.html" target="_blank"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" alt="LIFESCHOOLING" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCdBtnN7WEQ71EZkvWIvNHKi2qoxRPrE-ICIEpnYkfgy3o9gUtq2TjsKA8TDPUV9gHU-Vug7SEYgNPkRfaJSO7rnH0FPQI7aFgSe601NDRY3CAPfKHa7O-h6-SiDqSMTaMg6hkJCCuNy0/s320/lovelyblogaward.jpg" title="LIFESCHOOLING" /></a>

Ok, some of these are not really newly discovered. But here's the five I'm awarding.

Ever Joyful

Muthering Heights

My Hope is in The Lord

Our Quiver full!

Smockity Frocks


Until next time...

goats and rabbits

We have new living creatures on our property. On purpose. Goats and rabbits.

Building the goat shed.

The goats; Joy (the nanny) and Jill (the kid).

Spot

Panther (she's actually darker than she looks here)

Spirit

These are our three does. We just need to get a buck. We had one, but he got scared in the night and broke his own neck. I did not know that rabbits could do that. He died this morning. His name was Peter. *pause* Observing a moment of silence.

So, we're starting a little farm around here. Yes, next is chickens.


Until next time...

13 years!

Tomorrow it will be 13 years!








Until next time...

Chocolate Friday - Molten Chocolate Lava Cakes

It's Friday! It's Chocolate!

How does this look?

Yeah, I know. Yummy chocolate goodness. Alas, mine didn't look exactly like that. But taste? WOW!! Out of this world!!

When I found this on The Prepared Pantry website I just HAD to get it. It's called Molten Chocolate Lava Cakes (but I'm sure you figured that out by the title). Just click on the name and it will take you directly to the page on their website.

If you click on their home page, there's a place to enter to win a free cookbook from Better Homes and Gardens.

I also encourage you to browse the site. They have a lot of interesting and delicious looking goodies on there. Another thing I got from them (for free!) is their Baking E-book. Get your free baking E-book here.

If you buy the package for making the Lava cakes, just know that it has enough for 12 cakes. It's divided up into 2 sets of 6.

The cakes I made.

My helper. :)

Now head over to Lisa's at Stop and Smell the Chocolate for more chocolate goodies.

Enjoy your weekend. Have some chocolate.

Until next time...

24 of 52 photos of me

If you read any of my previous posts you'll know that we were in VA this past weekend. I actually did get a few pictures of me.

So, I'm posting one in accordance with Carin's challenge of moms getting into the pictures. Here goes:


Sorry for the blur...we were on the tram.

Now it's your turn to join in if you haven't already. Start now with week 1, it's not too late. Go visit Carin and see more moms in the picture. You'll be glad you did.

Until next time...

Happy First Birthday!

Today was my youngest child's first birthday.

We didn't do anything to celebrate the occasion. Now, lest you think we're bad parents, remember that we just got back from a mini-vacation. We always try to do something special on our children's birthdays. We decided this year, that the VA vacation would count for the baby's.

Besides, honestly, is he going to remember? Is he going to be upset 10 years from now that we didn't do cake and ice cream and presents on his 1st birthday? I think not.

I think he will be upset if we don't do it then.

So, Happy Birthday, baby boy.



Until next time...

Sasquatch search

If you saw this, you'll know that I won something.

Here's what I won.
Is this cool or what!? You know what's even more cool (cooler?)? I got it today! That's right. They just got my address yesterday and I got it today! Talk about fast shipping!

Now the only thing is to divide it equally. There's only one binder and one pencil case. But there are 3 each of the other things; 1 subject notebooks, journals, small notebooks, folders, and composition notebooks.

These are from the Carolina Pad Co., the Sasquatch line, and I blogged about it here to get an extra entry. It worked!

Can you tell I love winning? Well guess what - this isn't the only thing I've won this weekend. I'm telling ya, this was one stupendous weekend. While I was off having fun in VA meeting new friends, I was also winning giveaways in bloggyland.

But I'll tell you about the other one later.

Until next time...