Happy January 2013!

Morning, my peeps!  How's the new year treatin' ya?  I hope all's well, and everybody had a wonderful Christmas and holiday season!  I hope that new memories were made, all your loved ones were kissed and hugged many times over and that you're ready to face 2013 with hope and faith and determination to reach your goals!  And, I  hope and pray that the flu-bug is staying well away from you and yours!

Me?  Well, we had a great time, too.  It was bittersweet, tho.  We lost two wonderful Christian brothers over the holidays, but new babies were born into our church family, too.  One of the brethren we lost to an aneurysm and he went be with  the Lord on the day after his great niece was born.  Lots of family and friends at the hospital to see both.  Does it ever seem to y'all that when someone dies that a new soul is born to replace that one?  This man was 63, had a wife with several grown children, grandchildren, and was a faithful member and elder of the church.  The other brother and elder that died had leukemia and it took him quickly at the ripe old age of 56.  He had a big family and grandkids, too. It was very sad to lose both these faithful Christian men, but I know that they are glad to be where they are now!

So rejoicing all around for these two families!  Isn't it wonderful that we can look at it that way???

Saturday past, we made a trip to Austin, TX, to see my 56 year old cousin get married.  He married a sweet Greek lady that he'd been dating for a few years and they finally decided to get hitched.  ('Bout time if you ask me)  Seen the movie, "My Big, Fat Greek Wedding"?  My cousin's wedding was that movie made over.  Well, it was interesting to say the least!  And the venue was beautiful, too.  I'd never been in a Greek Orthodox church before, but it was awesome. I managed to take a few pics of the church before the wedding started...

Lots of buildings are made out of this limestone rock which is so plentiful down in the hill country. I'd love to have a home built with it....

The virgin Mary, the apostles, many, many saints are depicted throughout the church paintings, and...

Of course you'll fine in the ceiling dome in the auditorium, Jesus and lots of angels.  It was truly awesome and beautiful.  I visited with one of the members, and she told me that there was an artist, a Greek man, that came and painted all the murals. With me being an artist, I can imagine how long it must have taken him to do all these renderings. 

OK, now on to other stuff...  You may or may not know, but we got snow late Christmas afternoon!!!  They said we could get a dusting, but we got a few inches!  It was beautiful!  My two kids that were home celebrated the snow the way country kids do nowadays...

Pulling each other on the Mule all around the pasture on a cardboard box!!!

Now how "RED" is that!!!  LOL!

Had kind of a 'white-out' for awhile there - couldn't see any of the neighbors.  You Texans out there know how RARELY do we see snow - so it was quite enjoyable.  

FOR THE FIRST DAY.  It stayed cold enough that the snow stayed on the ground for a couple more days. I could NOT live up north.  It's not the cold.  It's the mess it makes - tracking it in the house, making mud everywhere, re-freezing at night.  Just a big mess.   So I got a few pictures, and then I was ready for it to melt and go away.   Then, our power went out.  We spent Christmas day night in a freezing house all bundled up.  The worst part?  Not having my box fan to sleep with.  The next day, we were having Christmas at mother's, and some of my food I was making to carry over there did not get made.  We went early to mom's and showered and got ready.  All was well, and we had plenty of food to go around!  But we were tired and tempers got a wee bit short!  haha!

It was fun to watch Tank in the snow - his first.  He and Gypsy had a ball.  They didn't seem to mind the cold at all.  Of course, when Tank came in, he brought all kinds of wet, muddy filth in with him.  Gypsy comes in for a bit, but she wants back out - she's got lots of hair and gets hot in the house.

Silly pups!

I'll leave you with one parting photo taken somewhere in East Texas...  and it's NOT my farm  --  promise!

RE-PURPOSING  AT  ITS  BEST!

Merry Christmas!

Just taking a minute to check on all my wonderful blogfriends and tell you Merry Christmas!  Things have been hectic this past weekend with two of my kids coming in and us all squeezing into our tiny farmhouse, including 3 dogs - Bug under the Christmas tree, Gypsy the farm dog, and...

TANK (or the Tankster as we are wont to call him) or the Big Galoot or Doofus or ... or ... Tank is my daughter's dog - he keeps her company in college and they have all kinds of fun together. I was lucky to get a picture of him without two strings of drool hanging from the corners of his mouth!  Gotta love Labs!

Anyway, it's a tight squeeze. I've given up on trying to keep any semblance of order in our house until the melee of Christmasing is over with.  I've decided NOT to stress over it, just go with it, have fun with it, and clean up the mess and doghair when the holidlays are over with. (there'll be enough doghair to stuff a small pillow...)  To top it off, I was in the midst of preparing supper yesterday evening and my mom and dad were coming over, and OUR WATER WENT OFF.  Oh JOY TO THE WORLD!  The wonderful things that happen in the country!!!  So we just loaded up all the food and went to Mom's house!  I threw everything into a laundry basket and off we went!  It's back on now...Good - we can flush.

The guys in my family are doing the "guy thing" of chopping down dead trees, of which we have many after the drought we've had in the last couple of years.  It's dangerous to walk in the woods when there's any wind.  We've had several trees fall, and branches are falling daily. Luckily the weather's been nice the last few days - expecting a few storms tonight and cooler temps the rest of the week...

Adam runs the chain saw, Dad does the scooping and putting wood on the burn pile, and Tony does most of the grunt work.  My daddy LOVES to get on the tractor, so Tony is so sweet and lets him do that.

In other news, my Kiwi kids, back a few months from New Zealand, decided  that their next big adventure was to move to Denver.  They found a 3-week house-sitting job in a nice lodge home in the mountains overlooking Denver, went up and found jobs and moved up there over the Thanksgiving holiday.  They both love skiing, snow and their latest activity as of yesterday --- dogsledding!  These two  kids are SO adventurous - they were made for each other!  Dogsledding pictures to come soon!

THIS is what I've been working on for the last couple of months.  A sawmill blade 30" across for a friend at church.  His teenage son asked me to paint a train engine from Union Pacific at the Mineola TX depot on this blade for his dad.  His dad was raised in Mineola and has worked for UP for 30 years.  It was a big job because of the surface of the blade and one I do not care to repeat EVER.  But I was pleased with how it turned out and more importantly - THE SON was pleased.  Glad that's over with!

Well, my friends, I pray that you all have a Merry Christmas with your families, friends and loved ones and that the Lord may bless you richly with wonderful new memories now and in the coming year!  May the beauty and awe of this most holiest of nights scatter your stress and mess and draw you unto Him and His unfailing patience and love. 

Sending warmest wishes from Sand Flat Farm!

Vee's Wednesday Note Card Party!

I'm back in blogland a bit - just to check in and see what you all are doing before the Christmas Rush gets rolling.  If you've not joined up with Vee's Note Card Party, well here's your chance!




 My selections this month are SNOW SCENES from SAND FLAT FARM  -  here goes~~~~~~

My little yellow farmhouse - the back...

My garden shed...

In the orchard...

AND, finally, the sun breaking through on Sand Flat Farm!

If I don't get back before all the Christmas festivities begin....

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Gifts from Vee!

If you've been following along my trip to New England, you'll remember that dear Vee

brought me some lovely gifts when she, John and Tony and I met up for lunch.  I just HAD to share them with you and tell you what a dear person she and John are- not for the gifts - but just for being herself and my friend!

Vee is a whiz at making these table runners. You can see one of them, her fall one, here... and she's done some other ones, but I didn't go back any further.

This 'un here is the one she made for me.  No, you can't have it.  I'm in love with it and it's not leaving my table  (well, I might move it for Christmas so I can put my Christmas runner out.)

Now these pink roses were a gift from my oldest son for my birthday, so play like you don't see all this pink with the reds...   I'm using more reds and farm colors now.  Pink is out.

Look at this sweeeeeeet fabric.  I don't know where she got it - I haven't seen it before.  I've been looking for some fabric to maybe do some curtains or another little skirt around my little end cabinet. It's got pink on it still.  This fabric would be great for my kitchen.  My kitchen clock has apples on it, Vee  - did I tell you that? 

AND, it has birds on it, too.  Just love it!

Next up - A sweet and handmade needle keeper that Vee made for me.  I have a vintage package of needles that belonged to my grandmother - it's still full, and part of those needles are going into this little felt-lined needle keeper.  Thank you so much, Vee!   You are mighty handy with YOUR needles!

Inside the needle keeper was a beautiful maple leaf from her yard and most recently from her dining table...

See this little lobster pillow?  From Maine!  And it's filled with the Christmas-y scent of balsam!  Every time I walk by it (it's been sitting on the coffee table), I pick it up and breathe deeply - smells so good!

Now, you can't see the last gift that Vee and John gave us.  They were gone just about as quickly as we drove off into the autumn afternoon after our lunch with these two wonderful friends.  They brought us some CHOCOLATE WHOOPIE PIES!  

Last up - shot of my immediate family (minus Tony - he was taking the picture) around our little Thanksgiving table.  It was crowded and cozy and we loved it!  The people who mean the most to me in my whole life! 

Thanks again, Vee - appreciate you more than you know - you ROCK!

Cape Cod and Nantucket Island - End of the Road...

Hi friends - WARNING --- PHOTO HEAVY!

Here's the end of our trip to New England.  Cape Cod was awesome - we could have spent another day there.  We ate lots of seafood, took a fast ferry over to Nantucket Island and drove all the way out to the end of the Cape.  It was fabulous.  It was cold when it was cloudy and when you get near the water, but not too bad in town!  I'm just going to let you look, and I'll tell you when we go out to Nantucket!

Cape Cod National Seashore... my mother asked me if I was going to the bathroom in this picture. Thanks Mom...

I do not know who this lunatic is...  he probably was arrested.

We ended this day eating at a wharf-side restaurant when it got dark.  It was expensive, Black Cat Seafood, I think, and it was so good.  Lobster Newburg and stuffed shrimp, chowder, broccoli and baked potatoes. MMMMMMM!

Pizza the next night before we left for Boston to fly home.  :(((

Next morning, we took the ferry going out to Nantucket Island. The day turned out beautiful!

Don't you LOVE these little green pots with cabbages?  So simple and so cute!

Look who's driving!  Oh shoot, Gypsy saw this little Cooper. Now she's wantin' one!

Saying goodbye to Nantucket Island...  

and Cape Cod is welcoming us back for another night...

Hope you enjoyed the pictures!  It was a great trip - hope to do it again someday!  If you get a chance you HAVE to take this trip!  Over and out~~~

Thanks for lookin!