last day of 2008...

Lefty in the yard area...he's such a camera hog.  I was going to post more pictures today, but blogger is acting up, so maybe I'll post more tomorrow.  

Happy New Year!!  

look who's 21 today...

No, not Buckles or Abby...it's Britt!  

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRITT!!!!!

homemade bread

I have been baking my own bread for the past couple of months.  I found this recipe in Mother Earth News magazine...I make enough dough for 4  1-pound loaves and keep it in the frig until I'm ready to bake it...I mixed up the dough yesterday in my KitchenAid that Santa brought me for Christmas and baked this loaf this morning on a pizza/bread stone.  It's soooo good!  

     

       

                                       

bertha

I received my MacBook today, so I decided to post a picture of one of the white chicks...they are all 5 weeks old now.  Look at the size of this chick!  We have started letting them go out into their yard area when the weather is nice.  The white chicks would rather stay inside and eat, but the reds love to go outside to explore.  

update...

I'm not posting any pictures today...my computer crashed Sunday morning...luckily, we were able to backup everything. My laptop is (was) an HP...DH talked to HP's support service on the phone and got so irritated with them, he ordered me a MACbook, so I probably won't be posting anything for about a week. My laptop was only 2 years old as of December 5th...this should not have happened! We shall see if Apple makes a better product.

Happy Holidays!

sinful...

Britt and I baked 6 pans of these cinnamon rolls today. I'd hate to think how many calories are in one cinnamon roll, but who cares, they are soooooooo good!

For the recipe go to http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/

lefty

Lefty is a rooster and is my favorite chick in the coop...he follows me around when I'm in there and thinks he owns the joints. I can tell that we have at least one more rooster, but he doesn't have a good personality, like my little Lefty.

not enough blog time...

Chance

Buckles. The boys think they are not getting enough blog time, so I took pictures of them while we were playing ball.

finished hat

Here's K's hat...I finished it last night...I plan on knitting myself one out of the chocolate Lorna's Lace that I used to knit a pair of fingerless mittens.

before lunch...

I'm really bad about not eating enough fruits and veggies once the weather turns cold, so yesterday before I ate my lunch, I ate an apple and then ate a bowl of lima beans and cornbread. Yum!

it snowed last night!!!

It started snowing around 8:45pm last night...I had already fallen asleep...DH woke me, so I could see it. I took the dogs outside around 11:30pm and saw the snow on the bench, so I ran back inside and grabbed my camera...I knew it wouldn't be there in the morning and sure enough I was right. The pile behind the bench is not all snow...it's one of our compost piles. I sure wish it was all snow! I know some people see snow every year, but here in southeast Texas, we rarely see it. The last time it snowed here was Christmas Eve 2004.


It snowed almost all day in CS yesterday...Britt & Kris took pictures with their phones and kept sending them to me...rubbing it in that they were playing in snow...the little witches!

brrrr...it's cold outside!

I finished my chocolate colored mittens Monday night and start knitting this natural colored hat for Kris...first hat to knit. I like this little bag for knitting...I can just grab it and take my knitting with me. I'm using Lorna's Laces shepherd worsted...this yarn is soooo soft.

I used Lorna's Laces shepherd worsted for these mittens also. It's cold here today...a perfect day to stay in and knit...

lunch time sketching...

I decided that I needed to get outside and sketch today, so I grabbed a sketchbook, watercolor palette, pencil and waterbrush and headed outside...I also took my camera.

It's been raining off and on today, so I wore my muck boots. I'm so glad I did, they are muddy!

I took some pictures along the creek...if you look close, you can see some orange leaves in some of the trees.

The creek is up a little.

I'm holding my sketchbook on my arm, my palette and waterbrush in my hand and I'm trying to take a picture...talk about juggling.

Here's the finally results...not very impressive, but I had fun standing there sketching and listening to the birds. 15 minute sketch.

australia...

No I didn't go to Australia...DH and I went to see the movie "Australia" starring Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman. The movie was good, but it was 3 hours long! I''ll definitely buy it when it comes out on DVD. I doodled this couple sitting in front of us before the movie started...I think he was taking a nap...I kept hearing someone snoring.

chicks and mittens...

Monday I noticed that one of the white chicks was very weak, so I put her by herself...Tuesday I noticed another showing weakness, so I called Ideal Poultry (where we bought the chicks from) and told them what was happening. They told me that these chicks needed to be on 28% protein due to the fact that they grow so fast and that I needed to separate them from the red chicks...I thought GREAT! I made a trip to the feed store...bought the right food for them and separated them when DH got home. One of the chicks is doing better. DH and I have decided that these type of chickens are too much maintenance and we will not attempt to raise them again!

Now for these little guys...they are doing great...they are a very hardy bird and fun to watch. I know there are a few roosters in the bunch...they seem to love to stir up trouble! If you look at the top picture, you can see one of the reds has ventured over the bales of hay that seperate them and joined the whites. The white chicks don't seem to mind if some of the reds visit, but boy if the whites pay the reds a visit the reds get all up in their faces and the whites return to their place in the coop.

Aqua and gray pair of fingerless mittens...I started a chocolate color pair last night.

santa doodle

I doodled this Santa stamp from one of my favorite mugs...I love large mugs that hold at least 3 cups of coffee. Don't worry, I'm not drinking too much caffeine...I usually drink decaf or 1/2 decaf.

doodling a real tree...

I wanted to buy a "real" tree this year, so that after Christmas we could plant it in our yard. DH thinks we have way too many trees as it is...I say you can never have enough trees...after all, Ike did destroy a lot of them.

happy birthday kris!!!

This picture has been hanging on our frig since 1995...she was in pre-school. This is one of K's favorite pictures of herself...it was taken with a Polaroid camera, so not the best quality of a picture, but still a cutie! Have a great 19th birthday Kris!

i can't believe it's december!

I saw Britt's backpack sitting on the floor, so I decided to sketch it...pen and chartpak ad markers. I did some doodling Saturday while waiting for B&K to finish trying on cloths at the mall. I saw some really strange people there...I haven't been to a mall in ages.

I finished my second pair of fingerless mittens...Britt took them back to CS with her...I'm working on a gray pair...I should finish those tonight. I finished the aqua pair...I just haven't taken a picture of them together. These mittens are so easy to knit...Britt started her a chocolate colored pair over Thanksgiving break.

This is one of the chicks...look at the size of it! She's not even 2 weeks old! I've decided to call all of the cornish hens "Wilma". Kris named one of the Rhode Island Reds "lefty" after her boyfriend.