Stokes Strawberry Farm

The strawberries are ripe!

 Went out this evening to pick a bunch to eat and make freezer jam from...

It's like eating sunshine...

they are so good...

 Mighty had a big time picking strawberries...last year she mostly ate them...

 They were both excited to go back and actually so were my husband and I...

Tomorrow I'll be making freezer jam to stow away and enjoy all year long...

Eastern Black Swallowtail

Meet Katy #2....earlier this summer my sweet little son found a caterpillar and then cried when he took it out and dropped it....

For his birthday he got one of the coolest gifts ever...

a caterpillar castle (a square netted cube) and 3 caterpillars.

A wonderful, giving couple we go to church with like to grow plants to attract the butterflies, and she hunts for the eggs and baby caterpillars to watch them grow and transform....

 She knew how much Seth loved this sort of thing and decided to share with him.  And we felt honored to have them.

 Thursday afternoon we found our first empty chrysalis and this little beauty below....

 Her wings were still damp I think.  So she decided to hang out and visit with us.  Doodlebug said "it was like she wanted to get to know me and be my friend!"

AMAZING...

 So many wonders in the world when you look...especially when you are 5!  One of the best parts of being a parent I think....seeing things through the eyes of your child.

 Just watching so close and getting to really see her and how different she looks from how she started....

I wonder if when God looks at the caterpillar He can see the butterfly the whole time?

 Wow --and they only live a few days this way...such a short time after they've come so far.

 Absolutely fascinating to see her in this much detail...

 And I will never forget my little son talking to her like she's a person telling her about his day in his innocent way...

 She stayed for about 10 or 15 minutes and watching her and watching my son with her was a little bit of magic on a plain, old Thursday afternoon....

Grandma's Jewelry

When my Grandma passed away I got a whole box of her costume jewelry.....

 She loved jewelry and shoes and purses; so I get it honest (and apparently so does Mighty...)

 So once again Martha Stewart magazine comes through for me!  On page 51 of the most recent issue they suggested sprucing up old jewelry using ribbon to change the way it looks....

 I used two 12" lengths of brown, grosgrain ribbon which I tied to a jump ring (you can see it on the right side of the necklace in the photo above) I attached around the last bead on each end.  I also decided to add the flower 

 The perfect solution for this turquoise bead necklace that was broken...and the beads are glued to the thread so there was no way to take them off.

 I love this piece because I remember her wearing it often....just reminds me how blessed I am to have had a childhood filled with Grandmas and Grandpas....

Simple and easy but so glad I saw the idea....

New Camera

 Oh my word I'm in LOVE....it's the beginning of a wonderful relationship I think!

 Playing with the lighting is wonderful...it has a telephoto lens...

 I mean really look at this face....or were you distracted by the hair?!??!?!? 

 My AMAZING husband built himself a forge because he's going to teach himself to blacksmith...

 Just another day at the VanHook house...people who know us aren't surprised in the least...

 He asked for coal for Christmas :) and got some new hammers and some steel to bang on....

 But this right here....this is what it's all about...

I want to be keeping these moments recorded.  What better way than to have the ability to do it myself while we 're just living plain 'ole life???

GOD is good...so good, and I know how blessed I am.....

Sauerkraut Festival

This weekend was the Sauerkraut Festival in the town where we sell some of our things....

 I feel so honored...our desk right in the front of the store....

 I love to people watch!  And this is a great time for that...there are so many people there walking, eating, browsing, eating, shopping, eating....

anything and everything you can imagine made from Sauerkraut.

But inside the store....

 "Shabby" fabric pumpkins made by the shop owner...

 A really cool vintage postal scale...

 Some bronze colored glass birds that for some reason really called to me :)

A quiet moment in the shop from the back of the store looking out towards the street....

I had so much fun working.  It was also really fun to hear people talk about the things we've done and make nice comments about our work.  We feel blessed to have an opportunity to create and use our talents!

Family

Love old pictures....my Mom sent me some today of my Grandpa Byrd's family (her dad).  We called him Pappaw.  That would be him as a little guy on the far left.  He was a twin to Olive.  

And was so little that the story goes they put him in a shoe box to keep him warm....he almost didn't make it.  He's on the far right in the picture above....

Makes you think about how fragile life is....

Here he is along with my "Mammie" standing next to him on their wedding day.  They had 5 kids, 10 grandkids of which I am proud to be one!  And he got to hold Doodlebug before he passed away.  I have truly been blessed!!!!

Ahhhh Haaaa moment

So today  I was thinking then about God being our Father.  He wants to bless us.  And I've mentally known that for as long as I can remember.  But have you ever just had one of those moments where it totally dawns on you that you didn't COMPLETELY understand it until that moment??!??!?!?!?   I just realized today how I must look to GOD ---ever been there??????  Thinking about your own kids and how sometimes you just wish they'd be a little appreciative of what they've already got before giving them something more?  GOD'S love is truly a miracle....

Here are the pictures of the pantry we decided we might as well go ahead and build while we had everything torn apart.  I'm SOOO glad we did this.  I love my pantry.  It hides all sorts of craziness in the kitchen!!!

We also decided to wall in the 'old' doorway between the dining room/kitchen area...I had plans for this involving chalkboard paint.....and now on to the good part....pictures of the semi finished kitchen and dining room!  I am so glad we tore out the soffits.  It really opened everything up and made it feel really huge!

 I  painted the cabinets a creamy white color and then glazed them with my own little concoction.  I'm really bad for this.  I'm always doctoring paint to get the colors I want.  Mixing and what not....Then I sanded them to distress them a little bit.  My drawers are plastic people.  PLASTIC!  And I sanded them too...they turned out great...

Here's my chalkboard wall-- Doodlebug gets the bottom half and I used a silver sharpie to lay out a calendar for the top half.

I made the slipcovers for the chairs.  And this is also a pretty good picture of the floor.  Which I am proud to say I laid MYSELF!  Before you get too impressed by my DIY skills --it's linoleum.  Pretty cool huh????  The look of hardwood at a fraction of the cost.  I can't say I'd choose this if we were planning on staying but I have to say it looks pretty nice and has actually held up better than expected.

New side doors which both open up to screens.  This is so nice when the weather cooperates!  And the finished pantry so now the refrigerator has a place to go.  It used to just sit out in the middle of the wall.

This is a nice full view of the cabinets...and the new back door.  I decided not to put that annoying little cabinet over the stove back up....who uses that?!?!?!?  Here's another reminder of the "old" kitchen..

And this is from the back door looking into the dining room...For those of you who've seen other posts you know there is now beadboard running around the bottom half of the dining room walls.  These photos are prior to that because right about this point in our remodel we discovered a huge leak in our roof and had to reroof our house.....yeah....when it rains it pours...ha ha

just to remind you here's the before again...

And I'm sitting at the Hoosier hutch on our laptop typing this.  It makes a great computer desk since we only have a 2 bedroom home and we have two kiddos...which brings me back to the reason we have to sell it!  GOD has blessed us and we are out of space....it went on the market last week.  Stay tuned to see what happens!!!!