I'm In Love With A Pool

I have been dreaming about in-ground pools for years. The thought of being able to swim in my own back yard anytime of the day or night is euphoric to me. This stunning pool is my current favorite. We have the perfect piece of property for this "over the edge" style. The only problem is that I live in Washington where there are only a few swimable months. My practical side always gets the best of me when I am dreaming of pools and I start thinking of all the upkeep, the gallons and gallons of water we would be using and the many months of non usage. This pool in particular is really not practical because it is not fenced and is unsafe for little non swimmers and considering where I live, I would probably wake up one morning and there would be a moose in it taking an early morning dip!

Gypsie

Check out my (Amanda, not Cindy) blog here! It will not only be filled with junking adventures and updates about barn sales, but also with crafting projects, and an outlet for my excitement about wonderful websites. As well as featuring fashion and many unique things. It really is an "Everything Blog."

Oh, If I Had A Girl !!

Oh, if I only had a girl. When my girls were little I sewed for them a lot. Eventually, the day did come when they didn't think the look of home-made was cool. I understood and turned my sewing attentions to pillows, window coverings and such. But, I do miss sewing for little girls.

These sweet creations are from the very talented Chelsea at Pink Fig Patterns. Love the way she mixes pattern and color. If I don't end up with a granddaughter in the very near future I guess I will just have to borrow a little girl!

In The Garden

The garden is starting to produce some fine treasures. The zinnias popped open last week along with a few of the small sunflowers. We have some small green tomatoes, a few peas and of course, too many zucchini. There are some beautiful billiard ball squash and the eggplant is beginning to flower

It looks like we might have a bumper crop of cucumbers and I can see the small beginnings of the pumpkins. The raspberries need picking everyday and the carrots need a good thinning. I am once again in complete awe of my God who created so many wonderful things for us to enjoy.

FOR AS THE SOIL MAKES THE SPROUT COME UP AND A GARDEN CAUSES SEEDS TO GROW, SO THE SOVEREIGN LORD WILL MAKE RIGHTEOUSNESS AND PRAISE SPRING UP BEFORE ALL NATIONS.

ISAIAH 61:11

Fun, Clean & Simple

When I have a bit of spare time or can't sleep I love to wander around blog land and look at decor. I enjoy seeing how others use their creativity to make their space unique and beautiful. I also come away with my mind full of ideas. I came across this charming home on lightlocations.com and just fell in love. Light Locations is a company that you can hire to find just the right location for a photo shoot or movie scene (currently, I am not in the need of this service:) but it has been fun looking at all of their options. This home seems very calming and tranquil....peaceful. The white background is fresh and simple and the use of color is minimal but exciting at the same time. I especially love the patchwork wallpaper application around the doorway. I saw a similar idea at Sara's Art House a while back and have been thinking about it ever since. I have been playing with the idea of doing this patchwork application in my powder room and after seeing this photo I am really inspired to get it started. I will probably use scrapbook paper instead of wallpaper because I will have more options. Enjoy the photos and take a look at the other options Light Locations have available on their web page when you have a few minutes to spare. You just never know when you might need a movie set location! Doesn't your life sometimes seem like a scene from a movie? There you go!!

4th Celebration

The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays. I love watching fireworks and I am grateful for the freedom that comes with being an American. I also, as a Christian, am forever grateful for my freedom in Christ through his sacrifice on the cross. I love this photo of my husband praying at our 4th party thanking God for our freedom and for the blessings that we as Americans enjoy daily. I don't want to ever take for granted that my life is so much easier, more comfortable, and enjoyable than so many people around the world.

We set up tables with plastic swimming pools full of ice for all the wonderful food that arrives with our guests. Just another example of the blessing of being an American, the abundance of food.

The highlight of our 4th party for most of the kids is this amazing slip & slide. Built with hay bales, sand, and vinyl billboard signs, it just doesn't get much better than this for cooling of on a hot summer day!

Many of our guests had fun posing for photos in these frames painted red, white, and blue.

Last year we added snow cones for the kids. Big hit!! A bit sticky but they get cleaned of on the slide.

Some old fashioned games for the kids.

And, this is one of my favorite parts of the party, seeing happy little faces!

Strange Occurrences

I know, you are wondering why on earth I would post a photo of a buffalo on our blog? My friend Kris thinks that I post really random subjects on my blog. This one's for you Kris!

Our family has been experiencing some strange encounters with the animal kingdom this summer. We all on a regular basis see, quail, pheasant, deer, etc. You know, your average basic country animals. We also see an occasional coyote, moose, and even elk herds. But a few weeks ago I looked out the kitchen window and across the 12 or so acres in front of my house running down the road, a group of buffalo. There were about 10 or 12 of them and I don't think that qualifies as a herd, just a group. And no, this one did not stand there for me to take it's photo. At first I thought that they were elk but decided that I needed a better look through the binoculars and yep, buffalo! So obviously someone near our home raises them and they escaped somehow but as we watched them run through our neighbor's wheat fields we wondered, how do you get your buffalo to come home? Can you herd them? I don't think you can trick them with a pail of oats like we used to do when our horses got out. Tranquilize them? I don't know how or even if they got home but we haven't seen them since.

Our oldest daughter Amber has had her own strange encounters with a crazy mother Robin who attacks her cats when they go outside. Of course they are protecting their nest but the cats didn't even know that the nest existed. These encounters traumatized poor little Peter for quite some time. Imagine just wanting to go out and get a bit of fresh air and a Robin starts flying after you pecking at your rear end! Also at the same time as the Robin fiasco, a mother coyote decides to camp with her babies in the back yard of Amber's office building. No one knows what caused her to move the babies into town but this story did not have a happy ending.

And, to add to our strange animal kingdom occurrences, my youngest daughter Amanda, called me out to the back patio the other day to look at something that was making her cringe a bit. I wasn't sure I wanted to see it. This is a photo of what we first thought was a cocoon of some sort caught in a spider's web that was attached to an iron basket handle on the porch. As we were staring at it trying to figure out what exactly it could be, the little golden balls scattered into hundreds of baby spiders...now I'm cringing. I don't mind spiders too much but this was really creepy. These little golden balls were actually teeny, tiny, baby spiders all grouped tightly together to form a ball. We didn't want to kill them but also really didn't like the idea of that many spiders growing up on the back porch so.......we put them, basket and all, into a flower bed nearby. In all honesty I'm hoping that they ran into some bad luck! So, this concludes our strange experiences so far this summer with the always surprising animal and arachnid kingdom! Let me know if you also are having strange animal encounters.