Sidetracked Artist

I'm hosting a giveaway of gluten free products from Namaste here at Wheatless Foodie . Please come visit and enter! Cindy

Have you planned your garden?  I think I enjoy garden planning nearly as much as the actual planting. Territorial Seed Company has this great garden planner .  Here's the garden I've planned for this year: Actually, this represents my plan for the summer garden.  It will be about 2 more months before I can set out tomato and pepper plants, so for now I've planted lettuce in those areas. The chickens spent the winter tilling, fertilizing and removing sod to expand the vegetable garden.  They were moved to other parts of the yard for awhile, and the weeds in the garden grew back quickly. So they're spending a little more time working there again before I plant those areas.  Thanks girls! Cindy Linked to Smockity Frock's Frugal Gardening 101

Meet Clover, a.k.a. The Little Monster. He came to live with us in January when he was 4 months old. He's a very busy little guy. There's nothing like laundry fresh out of the dryer. "Let me help you set up this photo shoot  for your Etsy shop" He especially likes racing around and batting at anything that moves, including our other two cats. Amber is not happy about this newest addition to our family. Maggie dislikes the situation even more then Amber.                                                       Not happy at all! “Hey, that’s MY place in front of the fire!”                     ...

It's sunny today, but cold.  This is a screenshot of the weather at around noon: I took some cracked corn out to the chickens this morning to help them stay warm. They have heat lamps in the hen house to keep them from freezing.  And to keep their water and eggs from freezing.  Also, we've found that when it's cold enough to keep the heat lamps coming on at night, we get more eggs.  Hens lay according to how much light they're getting, so more light equals more eggs.  The hen house, which is raised off the ground above a part of the chicken run that they get to via a hole in the floor with a ramp to the ground, is just a big (4'x4'x4') wooden box with a door.  It's just big enough for our three hens and holds their water, food, a nest for laying eggs (the black plastic crate), and a perch for them to roost on at night. There's an egg in the nest! We've been putting out seed for the wild birds too. I'm amazed that these croc...

What do Kindle Cases and Origami Roses have in common?  Nothing. Except that they've both been selling in our Etsy shop . I've been busy making more Kindle Cases like the one in this tutorial . I've sold several of the red e-reader cases, so I thought it might be fun to raid my stash of yarns and fabrics and see what other combinations I could make.  Also, one of the customers who purchased the red Kindle cover asked if I could add a wrist strap.  I thought this was such a good idea that I add wrist straps to all the new cases I made. This lime green wristlet makes me think of springtime when the light bright green new growth appears on plants and trees : And I especially like this pink and orange case that reminds me of citrus fruits, like oranges, lemons and sweet ruby red grapefruits.  I love the cute owl print inside this blue Kindle cover : Laura's been busy selling her origami creations on Artistic Inspiration .  Her origami rose...

It's cold, gray and rainy here in northwest Washington state.  It's dreary.  I'm ready for spring, dang-it, and I'm ready for it NOW! But since the weather isn't cooperating, I've chosen some lovely things to look at from a variety of sellers on Etsy : Enjoy your day! Cindy

Today is national Wear Red Day, a day to raise awareness about heart disease. While many women fear cancer more than any other disease, heart disease is actually the number one killer of women. Want to lower your risk? If you smoke, STOP! STOP NOW! Eat a healthy, balanced diet. Lose weight if needed (I so need to work on this one!). Maintain a physically active lifestyle. What do you get if you do all of these things? You get an 82% lower chance of having heart disease. That’s huge! And there’s one more thing you can do. Wear red today to help raise heart health awareness. What are you doing to stay healthy? Cindy