My Yellow Farmhouse

Holy Moly

Seriously can you all believe that Thanksgiving is next week.  While waiting for sleep to catch up with me the other night (ever have those nights when the eyes say "YES -SLEEP" and the brain says "NO-NOT NOW") and I was thinking about the week and what I needed to get done and where I needed to be.  So I thought shoot is Thanksgiving next week, naaaah that can't be right it must be 2 weeks away - then I realized, nope it was next week and a little nudge of panic dropped by.  WOW hasn't November just been a blur or has it just been me?  Tell me I'm not alone in that boat, I want a passenger or 2, lol.

Monday I headed down to Minneapolis to go to the gift market to get a few things on order.  I gave a call to a couple of prim loving friends and asked if they wanted to help me shop for some good prim things for the new store.  More eyes are always better and unfortunately I'm only able to bring 2 people with me as guests, Kari can get in on her own.  So these 3 friends put on their comfy shoes and got ready for a day of what I thought would be great shopping.  But FIRST - we needed to head to my favorite wool store The Wooly Red Rug 

to get some green wool on order.  My goodness I'm short in that category, can you imagine that, lol.  But I am, green is a wool that's almost always called into play on a project.  Laurie is such a peach to work with and is always willing to fire up the dye pots to custom dye pieces for me.

Look who came along and is feeling the wool fever

Ms. Kari has her arms full of some wonderful wools she NEEDED for some upcoming designs she has planned.  Ms Faye was more than happy to help in anyway she could.  But don't let her empty arms fool ya - she had a nice little grouping of wool right around the corner :).  In fact we all did - I won't say who won for the most wool purchased that day - no sirrreeee I won't be saying nuttin

 

Laurie's wool supply had been hit hard a couple of days earlier by some very eager customers, but we all managed to do lots of damage to the wallets.  The shop is always full of inspiration

 

Thanks Laurie for spending part of your morning helping us out - we all left full of inspiration like we always do

 

Next stop was gift market where I had planned on placing some orders for the store.  I knew that this weekend was sample weekend where they sell off all of the discontinued and overstock pieces from this year.  Didn't know that Monday was a day you could buy as well.  Talk about chaos in the showrooms that were open - so I had to change my focus (which took me about an hour to do) and instead did some shopping for cash and carry items.  Turned out to be a good trip, but not what I planned. 

Yesterday was the monthly Wooly get together.  A little show and tell from the group

 

look at these teeny tiny blocks - YIKES

somebody's been busy in the workshop again :)

Now we've all got this fever - rug hooking fever that is.  Yikes it's always something isn't it.  Ms. Denise brought along her rug hooking paraphernalia so we could all take a spin on it and see if it "snaps our socks" or not - here's Ms. Shod giving it a spin

 

how to cut the wool into strips (gasp can you really cut up the wool, lol) 

Ms. D's projects in progress

So did we catch the fever, did it "snap our socks"  - oh ya it did, bowled us right over and now we are ready to start hooking, LOL. 

Thanks Denise for the little class tutorial and being so patient with your wooly friends and thanks Jolene for a great day and a wonderful lunch - yummm.  She made an amazing hot cheese dip that I will share the recipe for when she shares it with us.  Up next month it's the Christmas party here and we all need to make a pincushion for a gift exchange.  So far I don't think anyone has tackled that project - but we all have plans and isn't that half the battle, lol.  That's what we keep telling ourselves.  I made strict rules on this one that may come back to bite me in the hiney, lol.

So I told myself this post could only take a 1/2 hour and I'm just a bit passed that.  You bloggers out there know how long this can take to do. So if this post seems all over the place, hopefully you can make sense of it.  Today I'm decorating for the holidays and want to get going.  No trees will go up until next weekend, but the other stuff I hope to have done by the end of this weekend.  So I will have show and tell next week to share.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend

Until Next Time

Good Sunday Morning

Hope everyone out there is having a wonderful morning so far.  The sun is shining today and the air is a brisk cold fall morning with touches of frost all around - beautiful.

I hope when your done reading this post you will pop over to see Kari. I know a lot of you are following the Christmas Cross Country Blog Hop and today is Kari/New Leaf Stitches turn to share a project and it's a cute one, a darling pillow you can keep out all winter long and it contains wool.  If you leave a comment today on her blog you will be entered into a drawing that she will draw for on Monday night.

I am sooooooo EXCITED, 2 new things have come home to the farmhouse this week.  The new beloved recliner is here -

I will say that the verdict is still out on it's comfort.  I find it very comfortable, but it doesn't fit Mr. Farmhouse the way he likes a great recliner to fit.  He's a tall guy and has a few requirements for the perfect chair.  I wasn't worried about ordering it because I knew it could work in several other areas if it wasn't perfect.  I did head up to Fargo on Thursday and order another recliner that we can both live with and that he has actually sat in and liked.  Why didn't I do that first you say - FABRIC choices - .  I wanted texture with a plaid or stripe - and the other recliner didn't have the choices.  So I took the chance knowing that I had several other places in need of a chair and I couldn't go wrong if it wasn't the right fit this chair would have a home in the house.  So the new chair coming in January is leather and looks just like this one.  I'm thinking everyone will be happy then, lol.  A new area rug should be here this week for this room as well.

The other new thing to arrive is this

My new tv cabinet - YAHOOOOOOOO I just love this baby and it just arrived last night so I haven't had time to tweak it.  Sorry that the tv is on and has Doug from Movin Up on.  Without the TV on the picture was terrible - this isn't the greatest, but it's the better of the 2.  To much natural light reflected off the screen without the TV on.  I should have taken a pic before of what it was sitting on - a small table that was pretty sad, lol.  I LOVE this, thanks Chad and Kathy - it's perfect.  When I ordered the new recliner on Thursday, I also ordered 2 chairs for this room and those will be arriving in the middle of January as well. 

In the last week or so I've been hit hard by the "let's get going" on this house.  With everything going on this year, building, moving, finishing the house, garage sale, road trips and the show I was burnt out with just making decisions and told myself not to worry about the house until this fall.  Well I waited for that rush you get when your ready to tackle a project and wasn't sure if it would ever arrive - then last week - BAM - like a punch on the shoulder it arrived and things are starting to flow now.  I've started taking down some of the fall decorations and believe me there weren't a lot of them and your not missing much with me not sharing pictures, and will start with the holiday decorations this week, maybe not the trees yet until after Thanksgiving, but the other stuff can start to go up.  My whole family comes for the holiday and I've always been decorated for the season.  I know there are strong opinions out there about decorating for Christmas until after Thanksgiving, but I think everyone needs to do what works for them and their family.  Anyway I have lots of ideas for the rooms now and feel charged and ready to tackle it.  Here's a sad little look for ya at a room in transition

 

Yes folks this is the master bedroom - looks like a college dorm room or a first apartment when you first moved in. Our bedroom set is now living with a new family and very happy.  I was really tired of the high bed and climbing to get in and out of it.  Chad and Kathy who made the TV cabinet are also making me a headboard and I've found something for the TV to sit in and new night stands.  A chair in the sewing nest will be recovered and put in here and then will go from there on what else the room will need.  The white cabinet is moving out somewhere, not sure just where it will go, but moving out of the room.  I'm also starting the process of valances for the windows.  For me a window just needs some fabric to warm them up - especially these ones because there big with lots of glass.  I've also decided on the bed coverings I want, just need to find them.  See I told ya the creative spirit has bit me - and hard.  I think it's making Mr. Farmhouse nervous, lol.  Today is the last day of deer hunting for him.  So next weekend it's project time again and I told him to charge up that drill, he's going to be busy.

 

With the bed being on the ground now it's very easy for someone to pop in, jump up on the bed and snuggle in for a quick nap.  See how's she trying to get small and I'm sure she's thinking "shoot I've been caught", lol.  If you look at the first pic of the bedroom you can see the indent of her all snuggled in on the pillow.  Bad Cami, lol.

While at one of the peeps house a couple of weeks ago I took a few photos of snippets of her fall decorating - enjoy

I've actually been stitching on a little something for me at night - an applique pillow, that will have a basket and a crow with these flowers.

 

Thank you for the great response on those stitcheries - they where a bit hit.  They will be getting mailed out on Tuesday.

Tomorrow I'm heading to Mpls for the day.  First stop is a wool buying trip and then heading to the Gift Mart to do some purchasing for the store, whose official opening weekend will be the first weekend in February.  This allows for delivery time of items being ordered tomorrow and fabric that's on order as well.  I did spend time at the store yesterday.  Now that it's empty I could get a real feel for where I want things to go.  I meant to take pictures and forgot, but I will next time around.  But that vision has also started to take root - YAHOO on that as well.

Well that's it for me.  I'm heading up to the sewing nest to finish packing orders and then I'm going to do some stuff around the house to prep for decorating for the holidays.  I'm excited to see where things will go in the house.  I promise to share this time around.  Really fall decorating around here wasn't that exciting. To much going on at the time to really get into the mood.  But this time around - totally different and really excited.

See you during the week sometime.

Until Next Time

We Have Winners

Sorry for the delay in getting the winners announced.  Boy it sure seems like I'm always apologizing for not being here on time, lol.  Deer hunting was this weekend and I forgot to ask Mr. Farmhouse to pick numbers on Sunday night when he got home, so he did it when he came home tonight.  How to pick numbers he asked himself (can't you just hear him saying that, LOL), so he decided to use the 2 young Farmhouse boys as part of his number picking dilemma.  When he told me the numbers I asked "why those numbers because people will want to know".  Because both of our boys played hockey he added together the number from their jerseys in high school and then he added together their ages to come up with his 2 numbers.   Drummmmmm roll please -

First up - Jersey numbers 2 and 15 = 17 - Thimbleanna

Second Up - ages 27 and 25  = 52 - Audrey-no blog wins the cookbook, plate and a little something extra.

So Audrey if you can email me your address I will get that out to you.  Ms. Thimble, I have yours already.

Thanks to everyone who joined in the fun and the nice compliments.  A lot of you sure enjoyed those stitcheries.  I will be back in the next day or 2 (I'm not locking myself in this time, lol) with some fun fall decorations.

I'm off to watch the movie Doubt with Mr. Farmhouse - 

Until Next Time

Well I'm Here

And it's not Wednesday - typical isn't it, lol.  I spent all of the last couple of days working in the sewing nest trying to get it organized.  As I described it to someone, it was like I took a arm full of sewing stuff and fabric, threw it up in the air and then left the room - oh ya it was bad bad bad.  Looking much better now tho, not perfect but so much better.

I tried hard to take pictures of some of the fall decorating today - BUT the sun is shining brightly here today and the pics weren't turning out, but here's a little snapshot of the family room that turned out sort of OK

 

and my favorite little cabinet by the table

Here's a couple of blocks of the months from Farmhouse Woolens that have just finished up or are one block away from finishing.  First up is the lovely Faye showing off Wool Garden.  She was the gracious one to make up the sample for me.  This one just finished up the beginning of October - LOVE LOVE LOVE how it turned out.  Thank you Faye for all of your hard work,  it turned out great :)

Next up is the Vintage Halloween block of the month that is finishing up next month.  Linda was the gracious one to do this one for me as well (see I told you I have wonderful angels in my life) - dang this one turned out great as well

 

These next stitcheries I'm going to show were a big hit at the show I was vending at last week.  If you like them and are interested, shoot me an email, I have just a few left of each of them

 

Just a few of the pieces of wool that will be coming to the Farmhouse as well - don't they look pretty all crated up

There's lots of fun things for the website that will be going on over the next week.  So check it out if your interested and looking for a project

Speaking of the Farmhouse, the seasons are certainly changing here.  Our view is now clear to the lake

all along the beach the docks and lifts have been pulled for the season

 

we planned it so that we could park ours alongside the house so we don't have to look at them all winter long

This morning when I was cruising blogs I saw on Linda's  blog that there was a countdown to Christmas - 49 days it said.  Sooooo in honor of that let's do a giveaway.  Since we are still in the autumn season with the winter one closing in I'm going to do 2 giveaways - one for each season, one for the quilter and one for the cooker/decorator and I know there's lots of you who are in both categories

For the quilter, there's a Clearly Perfect Angle designed by New Leaf Stitches/my friend Kari and it's for making perfect quilt blocks that involve 45 degree angles, like snowball blocks etc.  There's a pattern for Winter Blooms which is also a New Leaf Stitches pattern, but designed by me for Kari's company, then the kit to make the pillow, the fabric is almost all Kansas Troubles Vine Creek line and there are wools for the flowers,leaves and buttons.  For the cooker/decorator there is a pumpkin plate that says Give Thanks and then because I had 2 of these cookbooks (how embarrassing is that, lol), Harvest Kitchen by Gooseberry Patch plus a little something else I'm not sure about yet.

So leave your name and if it matters which one you prefer just make a note in the comment.  I will have Mr. Farmhouse (he loves being involved) pick a number Sunday night and announce the winner on Monday.

So from Ms. Cami (who's getting ready to nod off) and I

 
Until Next Time

Cross Country Christmas Quilt Designer Blog Hop

Looking for some inspiration for projects for the holidays.  Well here's something to get those creative juices flowing.  My friend Kari (that's for you sweet pea) is participating with several other great designers in a Cross Country Christmas Blog Hop which starts on November 9th.  Hop on over to Kari's blog and get more info on the how and what.  They have lots of fun things planned to help us out and entertain us as well.

So enough of that - head on over to New Leaf Stitches blog and check it out and join the fun.

Back To Our Regular Scheduled Programing Already In Progress

So it's been awhile hasn't it since I've stopped by here for a chat.  I knew before October started that it would be a crazy month and it didn't disappoint that's for sure.  All good tho so no complaining here just glad to have a quiet schedule ahead of me for a bit.  Another thank you is in order for all of those sweet peeps who emailed me privately to check in and make sure I was OK.  Those always mean so much to me and I wanted you to know that.  The last year has been a busy one with lots going on - but the winds of change are blowing and I see a much quieter road ahead of me, where I can concentrate on home and business.  It's a good thing :)

Before I move on I would love if you would pop over to Anne's blog.  She needs some blogging love right now.  Her Mother passed away on Friday after a very short illness.  She needs our cyber hugs, thoughts and prayers as the family moves forward during this difficult time.  Love you Anne

After my last post I headed to Houston for Quilt Market.  It was fun to attend some schoolhouse sessions and shop the booths for a change.  Usually when I'm at market I'm helping Kari with her booth with very little time to get around and visit my favorite booths to see what's new, so it was fun to take my time and mosey around and check everyone out.  I did pick up some fun new things for the store that I'm looking forward to making up samples to show you all.  I can't believe it, but I never took little silver out except to take one pic - of Anne and I.  Because her Mom was sick she wasn't sure she would be able to make it to quilt market, so I was thrilled when she was able to get there, it's always a treat to see her in person.  Even tho we chat on the phone quite a bit, it's nice to see her sweet face :).  She is so cute and so dang tiny that I crouched down for our pic, lol.

The following weekend I headed out for the annual retreat at Thumper Pond with the peeps.  I worked mostly on samples for the upcoming quilt show and enjoyed the companionship of some great friends.  Even tho little silver wasn't cooperating well that night I'll show you the pics I took anyway - some were just coming out to blurry to share.

 

 

 

 

Nancy was one busy girl before retreat

 

 

 

 

the peeps hard at work

 

finished peep projects - or on there way to being done

 

 

 

Nancy and Judy hard at work

Nancy, Judy and Dawn's projects

 

 

 

Dawn's beautiful quilt

After that it was pedal to the metal to finish up samples and get kits cut.  Then it was load the car and head down the road with Kari to the quilt show in Des Moines.  What a great week it was, very busy and very tiring - but nice.  Kari did a demo on her notion Clearly Perfect Angels for 4 days straight - because I won't do demo's, lol, but she knows that going in and it's OK - right Kari?  Anyway  I did it mostly for the feedback on whether I was heading down the right path for the store or what I could do differently.  I was very happy with the feedback I received on what I had at the show and feel even more positive that I'm doing what I should be doing and the direction that I'm headed and that's a good thing.  I had the pleasure of meeting a couple of blog readers during the week.  Karen M from Omaha (I'm pretty sure is where she lives) was so sweet to introduce herself.  She's a fairly new blog reader who hasn't left a comment yet - come on Karen you can do it I know you can :) - it was so nice to meet you and I'm glad you introduced yourself.  Next up was Sarah with an "H" also a blog reader who I chat with through emails - what a treat it was to meet up in real life.  I wish we would have had more time, but now I have a face to go with the emails and you are a sweetheart, not what you said you were in your email, LOL :).  Then Kari and I went out to dinner with a few people and I met Linda with Cherrywood Fabrics and she is also a reader and lots of fun to visit with.  So waving hi to Karen M, Sarah with a "H" and Linda - it was fun to meet and chat.   The last day after stalking, I mean visiting Primitive Gatherings booth several times Lisa stopped by to check us out and say hi and we chatted for a bit.  She was very gracious to talk shop and share a few tips and points with me about my new venture - thank you Lisa - besides being the owner of one my all time 2 favorite quilt stores, your a real sweetheart as well :).  Of course I did buy a kit (lordy I'm so weak as you all know) here's the picture from the booth - it's a Kim Diehl project with the center being wool of course

ain't that purty

So that pretty much catches you up on my life here at the farmhouse.  It's been crazy busy but it's all good and there won't be any complaining out of this mouth.  Just looking forward to getting back into the groove of "normal" life.  I've had lots of inquiries (as well as some friends who have been asked - see Brenda I'm updating, lol) about when the store is going to open.  Because this store was maybe on my radar for next year and not this one, I'm in no way ready to open it right away.  It will take time for stock to be found, ordered, shipped and arranged.  With the holidays just around the corner (lordy can you believe that) I'm taking that into consideration as well.  So my target date is the beginning of January.  I needed to get through October before I could even start to make plans and put them into action - although there have always been certain ideas parked in the back of the brain waiting to spring forward and be put to use - getting them in place will take time.  I would love to have you email me privately with your home address and I will send out a postcard during December when opening day will be here.  My website will also be growing as does the store, and I have lots to put on there over the next couple of weeks, so keep checking back to Farmhouse Woolens to see what's new.  But today it's a quiet one, meant to recharge the batteries and the brain.  Does that mean I can stay in my jammies 

So come back on Wednesday for "what ya working on" Wednesday and I'll show you what I've been working on with a surprise at the end.  So like my subject said "Back to our regular scheduled programing already in progress".  No more breaks now, I'm finally ready to get back into blogging and visiting with you.

Until Next Time