Lula Belle

bubbles and blooms

It seems that every time we get a jar of bubbles around here, they spill in minutes.  I am not a big fan of running to the store for more so we just made our own.

We mixed 1/4 cup dish liquid with 3/4 cup water and a dash of glycerin.  They work pretty good and since we have all of these ingredients on hand we will not be running out of bubbles again!

Charlie has kept very busy chasing them singing "pop pop pop" interjecting an "oh man" when one pops before it gets off of the stick.

And look at what is blooming in the yard!!!

So lovely!

Rainy Saturday

 

busy

Enjoying our time planning and playing this morning before the business of the day sweeps up away.

Change

I was soaking in the tub, reading an English book.  It's about a lady in a crappy marriage who loves to decorate.  She bought a quaint little seaside cottage and decorated it to ease her worried mind.  I am not finished so I don't know if she leaves her loser husband for the adorable doctor or not.  Let's hope.  Anyway, as I looked up from the book I saw this....

Yikes!  This is obviously post paper ripping session, but I am not the before picture type of girl.  I wish I could remember in time, but when the spirit moves me there is no holding back.  So barely dry and half dressed I started to rip the hideous paper off of the walls.

There are still a few stubborn bits to get off, but mostly it came down easily.  Now is tricky part.  What colour(I love all of the extra u's in proper english!) should I use?  Hmmm.

Blue?  Green?  Gray?  Yellow?  Beige?  So many choices!  I guess I'll just wait awhile and let it soak in.  I'm sure it will come to me.

out of doors

It has been unseasonably warm around here lately.  Though we are anxious for snow, we are enjoying working outside in sweaters too.  We have been doing a lot of clearing, cleaning, collecting and exploring.  When we moved in in May all of the foliage was in and we couldn't get past the thick brush.  Now we can and my is there work to do.  It is a delicate balance though.  We don't want to upset too much, but at the same time we want to be able to use our land.  Most of the Box elders are dead and need to come down.  There is so much wild grape hanging on everything velcroing it together and there is more thorny bramble and honeysuckle than you have ever seen.  This is not going to be a quick job.  Oh no.  It is going to take years.  But there is something very satisfying about tending to just one spot small as it may be.  If you didn't know you might not be able to tell that anything happened at all.  But it did and when toady's little bit and yesterdays little bit are put together it looks like progress!

All of that progress led to two things......

a full moon fire,

and grape vine wreaths!  While I twisted those pesky vines together Katie and Matt each made their very own fires.  They were both lovely!  Now for wreath embellishments.  Hmmm.

Around the yard

Growing and Gathering

There is an amazing feeling that comes along with those words.  The knowledge that you can have complete control over your food.  I have been thinking a lot about it lately.  It has been hard not being able to have a proper garden this year.  We moved at the exact wrong time.  Thanks to the hard work and dedication of my wonderful husband we did manage to get it together in time to squeak out some greens.  Oh the joy of watching those little sproutlettes grow!  I am already dreaming of next years plantings!  Thanks to good neighbors and friends we were able to raid their gardens and have a little bit of homegrown goodness to enjoy too.  That has helped tremendously.

 

Being in a new place we are learning new things about our surrounding every day.  A couple of weeks Katie was out helping Matt in his attempt to keep the critters out of the garage this winter.  She came running into the house, "mama, mama I found some new Buckeyes!  Come and see!"  What she found it turns out are chestnuts!  There are two large chestnut trees by the back of the garage.  She started collecting them in her little basket which is one of her great joys in life.  Gathering.  We roasted a few so she could try them.  She kinda likes them she says.  I too was excited because there is free food growing right over out heads!  Oh and they are so good!

Though our stash is slim this year I am feeling very grateful.  Grateful to be part of the process.  Grateful to have my dreams coming into reality.  Lucky that we are not squirrels.  We can run to Kroger if we run out of food.  Our survival does not depend on gathering and storing.  But there is much to learn from them.  Hopefully next year we find ourselves much more squirrel like.

At The Farmer's Market

I only intended to buy veggies and cheese.  Maybe some eggs.  I came home with more than I bargained for.....

Meet Ava

And Isabella.

Katie finally got her kittens.  They are as sweet as can be.  She is thrilled.  We all are.

 

June 27

I just found this post in my list.  Hmm.  I must have forgotten to post it.

 

July 8