Gearing up for Christmas

As many of you  may know I dont have a Christmas tree. I have a Christmas pallet. When we were newlyweds we were given a tree from my parents and we used it for several years and then I was given another tree from a friend that we used for several years. We had bought a few trees that you went to the tree lot and cut down yourself but with the wood stove it was hard to keep water in then and our cats seemed to love to climb them. So a few years ago we decided to not buy a new tree and to make our own. I love the idea of making decorations with things you already have and so thats what we do. We also dont buy gift wrap. I save newspaper and bags that I get. 

I have been on Pinterest alot lately and I have found a few things that I had to make. This is a little tree that you many with old spindles.

I think I need to take my fabric off and starch it really good so it stands out more and I love the recycled wire I found in the garage that Mr Ladybug was going to take to the scrap metal place. I keep going out there and snipping some off for projects.

This one is one I found on Etsy. It made me wonder if you could use stove paint to paint a mason jar and you can. We bought stove paint to spruce up our 15 year old wood stove. I have like a million canning jars, the people next door chopped down a pine tree and had the pieces they trimmed off laying on the ground so I got a few of them, the bells are from a wreath I found on the curb, the fabric is from the material I got for my quilt project which I will post at a later date. The arrangement on Etsy was selling for $35 plus shipping. I am sure her pine branches were fake so it would last longer than mine but fortunately I have lots of neighbors with trees and a park near by were I can get more as needed. I used more of Mr Ladybugs wire to attach my bells to and stick down in the jar.

Since having a more organized home I have bought a bouquet of flowers. I have a few vases that I love and why have something if you arent going to use them. I have had these flowers for 2 weeks and was wondering what I could do with them before they died. So I got out my flower press Mr Ladybug made me and am drying them to use for future crafts and cards to send people.

I took this picture so I could show you have as they start to dry I can keep pressing and they get flat.

Have you seen this cereal? Why? If I want banana pudding for breakfast it isnt going to be in cereal form.  I thought I would share just in case any of you had banana pudding fans in your family, It would make a great gift. 

Today is clean all the animals cages and wash the animal beds, clean the bathroom and mop the floors day. I really live an exciting life. Tomorrow is grocery day. I have not grocery shopped in 2 weeks and it has been wonderful so I  may just pick that up again instead of doing it weekly. That also means I need to meal plan for 2 weeks and not forget about lunches. 

I checked out a book at the library a few weeks ago and we love it so much that we had to buy it. I found it on sale at a Goodwill in Washington State. It kind of goes along with the pic at the start of this post and being a beginner at something. More to come on this tomorrow and the weekend. Is there something that you have always wanted to try but keep putting it off? There is no better time than the present.

Two months sort of flew by.

What on earth have I been doing the past two month? Obviously not blogging and by the end of this post you will see not brushing up on my english skills. Have you ever felt like you were running around chasing your tail? Basically getting  nowhere, for those of you without the knowledge of crazy southern sayings. I started focusing on a few things instead of a million and blogging got put by the wayside for a bit. Fortunately I have a million new things to show you. Dont worry I am not going to post all million things today. I will do my best to keep this short and sweet. If you find yourself in the same situation really think about what you need to step back from and where you need to start focusing. Taking a break from social media is a great place to start. Just sayin.

My house is in pretty good order, my kitchen is more organized, meal planning is running pretty smoothly we have new slate around the wood stove and I have lost 21 pounds. Things that have went wrong the past two months are we woke up with our furnace not working, the kids car quit on them while they were turning a corner and we had a plumbing issue. All of these things were taken care of by Mr Ladybug who has lost about 10 pounds himself.  Just because we have done a few things to try to get our life in order does not mean that life doesnt like to keep us on our toes. I had big plans yesterday to can two bushels of apples. I can not find my apple peeler anywhere. I seriously can not imagine why someone would break into your house and steal a $15 apple peeler and just the apple peeler. While I was getting all my canning things in order one of our dogs decided it would be a great time to eat something weird and start throwing up and of course you can just throw up on the floor. you have to it on the couch and every stinking blanket and rug on the whole house and because you had had some plumbing issues you have a slow drain and you have to watch as the washing machine drains or it will come our the drain pipe in the wall until your hubby can address the issue this weekend.

It seems like I am going to leave this on a negative note but thats not how I do things. After talking to my sister the other day who had a bushel of apples herself to do something with I decided to focus on peeling and coring mine today and getting them in the freezer to can at a later date and not all once. I will probable dehydrate some as well. I did go out and by an apple corer and slicer for $5 to make the job a little easier and hope that whoever stole my peeler returns it by the time I decide to buy 4 bushels of apple next year. With all my organizing I am finding I have more time in the evenings to enjoy things. Like knitting by the fire and just watching my daughter work on homework and Mr Ladybug watch crazy things on his tablet and laugh. I can even start my blog posts on the evening and finish them in the mornings and post earlier.

So right now on the urban farm there are apple peels and cores making vinegar, colby cheese aging in the closet that we can try before Christmas, plans to make sour cream later this weekend and bread to be made since we have decided that there are something that we just want to make ourselves instead of buying. Soon there will be things to do with goat milk since I found someone who was selling shares of her goats and we get fresh goats milk. You have no idea how much that excites me and probably relieves Mr Ladybugs fear of finding a goat in our backyard one day. There will also be some deer recipes coming soon since my brother in law and uncle brought us lots of deer meat.

This my friends is a female Red Bellied Woodpecker and I have seen her many times from afar. She swoops in and out pretty fast and I wanted a picture of her so bad. The other day while Mr Ladybug was under the house I was sitting near the crawl spaced entrance for moral support. I never go under there because I know what those crickets look like down there. I had my camera and she landed on the peanut feeder several times and let me get so many pictures.  Nothing teaches you patience like birding.