Surpise visitor.......

Good morning. Talk about having an Indian summer. We have had really fabulous weather the last couple days! I LOVE this kind of weather. I just wish the leaves were not falling so fast off the trees, seems like we only had the  beautiful colors for a very short time.

Yesterday we found a new friend in our yard. One that I have never seen walking around in nature, although we have seen them before in captivity.

Mikhaila spotted our new friend on one of the feed buckets.

Of course she had  to pick him up. He was pretty long, and he was pretty- different shades of brown on his  body and green on his legs. I a sure he blends in well in our yard.

Can you say "Wow he can move?" He ran right across her!

She wasn't totally into holding and having him on her! LOL

A close-up of him on his bucket. Anyway it was fun to see "cool" nature friends up close and personal. But I wonder how many I have stepped on while doing chores! I have never seen them in our yard before yesterday! Sorry little stick bug if I stepped on your friends!

Here are some pictures of the animals as people have been asking for them. I figured I would share them enjoying a lovely fall day. 

Poppy eating some pumpkin.

Wilbur having some pumpkin too.

Our naked- neck chicken. Yes he is suppose to look this way!

The runner ducks and you can just barely see the he call duck right behind brown runner.

Topher, eating some treat from his mama. He is spoiled!

 I have 4 runner and a male and female call duck. I love to hear them talking out in the yard. Plus they like to sit by me when I am working in the garden. Such personality!

Celeste (the brown African goose) and Doinkie the Chinese Goose. Yes they have decided to be a pair. We also have 3 other characters that did not want to be on the blog. These two are the hams of the farm.

Cream a stray that decided to make us her humans. She is one of the best cats we have ever shared a house with.

I hope this makes some of the animal lovers out there happy. We love to share pictures and stories about our animals don't we? I hope you have a favorite fuzzy or feathered friend that lives with you and makes you happy. Until next time...enjoy the awesome weather, watch out for stick bugs and one more thing......

Dahlia says hi to her brother Preacher which lives with my mom and her dad Chewlie which lives with my aunt. She would like to also say she is too cute too be in trouble for shredding the toilet paper!

Some finished projects..

Hello there dear friend.... are you enjoying the weather we are having?.... I really do have to say that fall is my favorite time of the year, I love the smell, the colors, the crunchiness, harvest time, the foods. The list is along one.

Here are some pictures to get you feeling a little fallish.

 These pictures were all taken this last weekend out at Crex Meadows. If you have never been out to see Crex Meadows I would highly suggest going. It is a very lovely place, lots of different floral, fauna, animals and all kinds of other things.I am still looking to get some more pictures of some red leafed trees those are my favorites, especially when there are pine and white birch in there with them.

Some finished projects that I can post are...

 These are three of the different Autumn Fall leaves that I made for the block swap I was in. When I get them all back from the people I was in the swap with I will post a group picture so you see what the others made as well.

A mug rug that I made for someone.

This is how I pieced the back of the mug rug.

I hand sewed  the flower on...

added some cool buttons... they are cooler than the picture shows!

Dish drainer towel.... you put it on the counter and put the clean dishes on top of it to dry. These are pretty compared to the old towels we used on the counter as kids!

I was into buttons during this time.. so I had to add these rust and mustard ones on here. I also put some white ones in the corners on the green fabric.

The back I did with a chocolate brown fabric, batting in between the layers.

A closeup of the fabric and the button. These make dish drainers make really nice gifts. Remember the holidays are right around the corner.


Remember I am working on the crumb blocks over on www.joscountryjunction.com
are you working on them as well? You can check my progress in some of my other posts. I hope you are crumbing along- they are sooo fun.Go to Jo's site and check them out. 


Until next time.... enjoy the weather.

Espresso Cabin closed.

Good afternoon... I am hoping you are out enjoying the sun being out. It is not overly warm but as long  as the sun is out that is what matters. =)
Today I am going to touch on a somewhat touchy subject.... supporting your local businesses. Some people will agree with me some people will not. I just want to bring it up so that people have something to think about being I keep hear feedback about small towns fading away or businesses going out of business. The economy has something to do with this- I totally agree. But so do the the people that live in that area- the customers of that business.

This was the sign of the local coffee shop.

The now empty parking lot.  Espresso would have had cars in it today as many people were coming across the MN line to go to their cabins and local folks were running errands. But here it sits empty and a little sad looking.

This is what the lot looked like on September 23, 2011, their last day of business.

On Sept. 23rd the local coffee shop had their last day in business here in Grantsburg. There were a lot of people there to say their goodbyes to the staff as well as have their last cup of really good java! This coffee shop will be missed as it was not just about coffee but about seeing old friends, meeting new ones and having a local place to be able to meet at. The town as well as the town folks will be at a loss without this business!


Mikhaila and I went there to thank the staff and to say our goodbyes.

Some of the smiling staff that was working that day. We wish them good fortune in whatever they do from here on out.

One of the customers made these cakes, they looked like little coffee cups! Too cute!!!

Cindy, an employee and her husband Larry having a yummy drink.

The decor in the Espresso was so cute, a fireplace, armchairs. It was a very warm and inviting place to sit and chat or read the paper.

 

 

So what I would say is really think of where you are spending your money. We all know  that you can get a cup of coffee at the gas station. However will that gas station close without you buying that cup of coffee? Most likely not. Will the local coffee shop still exist if most people choose to get their coffee at the gas station? Most likely not. Remember to buy local, support the mom and pop business- they do not have the big company backings that stores like a grocery or a  convenience store does. Money is tight for everyone, so lets really think before we spend those hard earned dollars.
To all the employees that were at the Espresso Cabin thank you for your service and your smiles.
Best of luck in everything you do in the future.

Crumb blocks..so fun!

Hello there friend... I am sorry that I have not been around to chat with you but life has been a little busy. I hope today was nice in your neck of the woods. Here we had a warm fall day and well when you have such a nice day you have to jump on it don't you?? Sooo..
 I went out today and worked in the gardem. I cut the irises back, pulled all the tomato plants out of the garden, as well as the peppers and the corn. It was hard to do this on such a nice day because your brain is saying "hey that will still grow", or "something is going to grow on that still". I actually had some little tomatoes that were growing since we picked them all off awhile back. So it was a sad moment as I really felt my little garden still had alot to give but.... the reality is it just is not going to get warm enough and well winter is right around the corner. So I used my day wisely and started pulling. Wilbur, Poppy and Mex got all the grass I pulled, all the plants and anything else I timmed back- they were really happy!



This is Wilbur at the fair from this smmer. He is eating his treat after being judged.



The cages, stakes as well as all the ties are in a nice pile that will be put up tomorrow until next year. I weeded the roses, hostas, and irises.I have not done the dahlias yet as they are still green and we have not had a hard enough freeze. I brought all the geraniums into the house so that they can bloom in the house this winter. I have to have as many plants as I can around - that way its green all winter long.
I did take some pictures of the plants that are still looking good and liking the cooler weather. I wish I had the money to buy some mums to put in the tires at the end of the drive, I would choose the rust and the red color I think they are nice fall plants.



The Lemon Verbana



I at least have these to add some color to the garden still.



One of the dahlias that will be dug up later. The cow got into the other two and smooshed them alittle- they all will be dug up after they die back some and we have a good freeze.



My sedum from the top, so you don't see all the grass growing around it. The other sedum had some of the flowers ripped off courtesy of Topher the cow. They must taste bad as he did not eat the flower heads. The flowers are alittle darker then this picture shows.

Other things that I have been doing besides the normal everyday stuff around here has been getting some things sewn. I worked on getting the first two rows of the pinwheel quilt sewn together. I did not take a picture of that.. sorry. Once its together I will take a picture.

I made a present for my friend Anita's birthday and I was quite impressed that it turned out right the first time around, no ripping, no pattern- just me and my creativity! I was inspired to make it being I have been working on these crumb  blocks. They have een really fun to make and it has been really freeing to not have to follow a pattern or make sure everything is perfect. Anita likes things bright so this is what I made her...



Here it is hanging on Mikhaila. I wanted the picture to show the true colors and how bright they are so I took the picture outside. The back is the same orange that is around the heart.

Here is the close-up of the stitches around the heart. I was impressed on how well my stitches turned out being I don't do alot of stitching on my projects.

Last but not least are my crumb blocks... they have been a ton of fun!!  I have been up in the morning and cranking out  some blocks so here they are...

Flying geese

A house, that would not just be a normal block so it will stay a cute house!

A nine patch. Thought I would try it in the corner for a different  look.



More flying geese- this is my favorite.





My other nine patch. I actually liked making these. I have not made a nine patch before this quilt. I am looking forward to sewing the four patch and the 16 patch.









So that is what I have done so far on the crumb quilt. I will be working on a heart block tomorrow and see if I can get at least three of those made. It should be easy as I have already made Anita's heart so I know how to do it. The part that will take me the longest is the shirt I have to rip up for the red. I would also like to get a star made as that is another block I have never made before. I have to say if you have not tried the crumb blocks try one.... well actually 2 or 3 becase then you have loosened up a bit to really enjoy it. They are really fun and addictive....

Until next time have a good day, remember you are loved, do something nice for yourself, and surprise someone by doing something even nicer for them! Hugs!