New "About Me" Page

I just added an "about me" page. I thought I would post it here too in case you don't notice it there. This is what I said: I always think "about me" pages are a little excessive, since this whole blog is about me. That said, I will share a little bit more details about my personal life that are non farm related. I grew up in sunny Santa Cruz, California. I always felt out of place. Santa Cruz is a surf, beach town. It is perfectly acceptable to wear flip flops year round (in the rain, they dry out pretty quick so no rain boots for us!). Growing up I didn't like the beach. Instead I favored camping. I obsessed over the Donner Party (I could tell you every person who perished in that tragic event). When my sisters were reading GooseBumps, I was reading Laura Ingalls Wilder. While they watched Pinky and the Brain, I watched Little House on the Prairie. My best friend and I would pretend we lived in the "olden days". Our bikes were horses and had names, and would take us on grand adventures. On cleaning days, when my mom would put all the dining room chairs outside on the patio, we would line them up to make a train. We would pretend we were fancy ladies going to visit some relative. Or a mail order bride going to meet her new family. One of my favorite movies was Sarah Plain and Tall. I wish I could say that was just a stage that I grew out of. Instead the desire to live on a farm, or in the olden days just grew. I went to college in Santa Barbara, California. Santa Barbara is a very posh town that many celebrities call home. While I loved its charm, I hated the attitude of having to live up to a certain standard. My friends would make fun of me when I said that someday I would own a milk cow. I was the one laughing last year when I was trudging out in the snow to milk our goats. After college I moved to Texas (I had this extremely romantic notion of cowboys, line dancing and manners). Texas did not disappoint. Today it remains one of my favorite states, but for different reasons. It was while I was living in Austin that I started going out with my future husband. Fast forward a bit, we got married and he got called to deploy to Iraq. For the first year and a half of our marriage he was half way around the world. I worked a desk job at a local bank, made friends and dreamed of having livestock. I always thought we couldn't have chickens or goats since he was in the military. Fast forward even further and we got transferred to Maryland. We fell in love with the area and bought a house. Maryland has a huge agriculture community, which we both loved. It also has a large fiber community, which feeds into my fiber addiction. I fell even more in love with knitting (I learned in junior high) and delved into spinning on a spinning wheel. One of the many things I enjoy about Maryland is the fact that it has seasons. Santa Cruz and Texas didn't, at least not in the same way. Santa Cruz, is pretty much always 60-70. Sure it has cold days and hot days, but on an average you can get by with jeans, flip flops and a sweater. Texas was always hot. Always. Maryland gets snow in winter, cherry blossoms in spring, fireflies in the summer, and gorgeous fall foliage. The weather is always changing and I appreciate each season for what it is. Winter is just long enough that you don't get too sick of it. And by the end of summer you are wishing it was winter again just so you can get out of the sweltering heat. As much as I love Maryland, last summer my husband and I separated. I moved all my belongings back to the West Coast and have been staying with my parents. This coming March, I will be reversing that drive to go back to Maryland and try to reconcile things with my husband. I don't want to get into too many details about our relationship, but I am extremely hopeful that we can fix what went wrong before. As I type, I am in my childhood bedroom, full of half packed moving boxes. I am eager to get back to Maryland and my husband, but sad to be leaving my family. I hope to once again get farm animals in Maryland and continue what we started a couple years ago. I will continue to blog our successes, attempts and failures. I am so thankful to everyone who reads this blog and hope you are able to get something out of it. I love comments and will try to answer as much and as often as possible. That's my life story in a nutshell.

More Vintage-y Goodness

Is anyone starting to notice a theme here? While putting away my toaster and stand covers, I found this dresser scarf. I love its simplicity. I think dresser scarves are a thing of the past and I am not sure why. I love them! I have multiple "scarves", in fact I might have more scarves than dressers at the moment. This is one of my favorites!

Extra Income

This month, for a few different reasons (some to be announced soon) finances are super tight. I love my nannying jobs, but needed to take on something extra. Thankfully we have family friends who run the food operations for our local amusement park and D League Basketball team. They were incredibly generous in giving me some weekend shifts. This past weekend I got to work at the Santa Cruz Warriors game. For the night I felt like I was back in high school working at the Boardwalk. The uniform hasn't changed much since then (nor has the food). Next weekend I will be back in the arena serving beer and hot dogs. On Sat morning I am also proctoring a CBEST test for extra income. That is all to say that in the course of one week I will be working 4 different jobs for 4 different people. I am definitely not above taking on extra work when the money gets tight. What are other ways you earn extra money?

Notice a Trend?

The other day I came home from the bookstore and couldn't help but laugh. All of the books I came home with were homesteading/gardening/canning, or something of the sort. At least I am consistent! Now I just need to find the time to sit down and read them! I am trying to find my place in this in between land right now. At least for this month I am still staying with my parents (who have been gracious enough to let me stay here). I can't have bees, chickens or goats here. However, I can read books on the subject. I can study. I can can(did I mention I made over 200 jars of jam for my sisters upcoming wedding? I did...). I can look forward to a time when I can do more of my passions. Until then, I will settle in with a good book and a cup of coffee, and be content with what I can do right now, at this present time.

Canning Orange Juice

Last week my Uncle asked me if I wanted any oranges from his tree. Of course my answer was yes! He has an amazingly prolific tree and was trying to give oranges to anyone who could use them. No one else in my family wanted them, so I was left with 2 large bags of oranges. I devoured the first one as soon as I peeled it. Next I juiced a few for my mom and I in her juicer. She can't have any sugar (other than natural) and luckily these oranges were sweet enough on their own. I then peeled and juiced the remaining oranges, added 1/2 cup sugar and canned the juice to enjoy later. Now I have fresh orange juice and strawberry lemonade in my pantry!

A Tribute to My Dutch Roots

Yesterday I showed you my toaster cover.  Today I bring you my mixer cover.  There is something very nostalgic about kitchen appliance covers.  I can't get enough of them!  My dad's side of the family is Dutch.  I found this cute mixer cover in Iowa at an antique store during one of our reunions.  I love the colors, the windmill and the tulips.  It is a perfect tribute to my heritage and I love seeing it on my counter!

(Please ignore the stains, apparently after sitting in storage I really need to clean it!)

Hot Toast Makes the... Butter Fly!

Check out this cutie I scored at the local flea market!  I love digging through vintage linens and came across this gal.  It took me a minute to "get it".  I was trying to figure out why there was a butterfly on a toaster cover.  I have never been good at those mad gab games, and this just proves it. Finally figuring it out, I decided that I would pay up to $5 for it.  I always make a deal in my head before asking the price.  That way I can immediately say yes or no.  When the person selling it said I could take it home for a dollar, I quickly handed over my money and left before they could change their mind.  A dollar?  Ill take it!  There was a similar style stand mixer cover but I already have one that I love, and a girl doesn't need two stand mixer covers when she only has one mixer.  What do you think?  Worth a dollar? (Every time I write the word dollar the famous Honey Boo Boo "every dolla makes me holla" plays in my head....)