Magic and Mischief Market

 We went to the Magic and Mischief Market today at Hazel-Jayne in Effingham. How fun! There were lots of interesting vendors and costumes! Here's something you don't see everyday...a fairy on stilts!

 

Happy Birthday to my beautiful sister-in-law, Sylvia!

 

A gorgeous summer day

 What a gorgeous day! A cool breeze was blowing all day, even though it was in the 80's. We spent the entire day outside. Bill was cutting trees and burning the rest of the debris from the big storm we had a couple of weeks ago. We are cooking hotdogs over the fire and just enjoying the evening. This is about to be devoured, yum!

 

Throw Back Thursday memories

 Since it is TBT, I was looking through some old albums this evening and came across these photos of our 20 year class reunion....I still see most of these people even now, such great friends and many wonderful memories! There are lots more photos, but these are a few of my favorites!

Remembering D-Day

 

New Steampunk box

 Thank you to those who have purchased my handmade steampunk items, you keep me busy! Here's the latest project. I am always amazed at how much of this stuff sells  at Country Creek Treasures in Salem, IL.since it is kind of an obscure genre. I love the concept though and it's really fun to make.

 

 

Happy Birthday, Darren

 Happy 52nd Birthday to my awesome son, Darren Holsapple today! Love you so much! (He's also a great grandpa who let's little people put stuffed animals on his head ) Have a great day, son!

 

My happy place

 After baking all morning for a fundraiser at the Elks Chicken Dinner on Sunday, I am now in one of my favorite places with a good book. Life is good!

 

Fire in a major business in our area

 The chicken house in Farina is burning and has been for several hours. Looks horrible! Fire departments and emergency services from everywhere are fighting this huge fire. Hope they get it under control! I did not take this photo, but it is from about 15 minutes ago. City of Kinmundy sent out a text to conserve water so it can be used to fight the fire. I've never known them to do that before..

 

Lunch with the girls

 There's nothing like laughing with lifelong friends no matter how old you get! Thanks for a lovely lunch ladies, love you all bunches! Sorry for those that could not join us today due to having to continue clean up after the tornadoes that went through here Sunday evening! We will do this again soon.

 

Power's back on after 18 hours

Woot! Power's back on after 18 hours.

Memorial Day

 

Storm aftermath...still no power this morning

 Still no power this morning and no sign of Amaren. I would imagine they are a little busy today! Looks like our corner of town got the worst of it. The hummingbirds are chasing each other around and the bluebirds are feeding their babies, and even though I had to heat leftover coffee in a pan this morning, life is good!

Power still out...nothing but frogs

 It's so quiet, all I hear are frogs...lots of frogs....

Tornadic storm part 2

It was a very scary storm. About half a block from us two huge trees were twisted out by the roots, but thankfully missed the houses. We are OK, but our power is still out, most of the town is in the dark. A huge limb fell on our power line in front of our neighbor's house, so we are having a romantic evening by candlelight until Ameren can get things fixed. It is still raining and lots of lightening, so that may be awhile. Also, everywhere is flooded, Glad my kindle is charged up!

Tornado in Kinmundy

 Everyone be safe!  Quite a storm we have going on here.

Bird Box...not the movie

 I really should stop watching crafting videos! I had other things I should have been doing, but made this dust collector instead. It all started with the bird..

 

Strawberries

 

Look what we got today, locally grown delicious strawberries! I swear I only threw one berry away, they were all perfect!

Also...the end result! (You may notice one of the boxes is a little short of berries, because SOMEBODY couldn't stop eating them on the way home!)

 

Steampunk frame

 I have been making all of these steampunk items, but most of them have sold or are for sale at Country Creek Treasures. Anyway, I thought it was high time I made one for myself. This was my Halloween costume 2 or 3 years ago, so I thought, why not? 

 

No cicadas yet

Where are my cicadas? There are lots of people on fb with thousands of them...very quiet here..just birdsong, bees and butterflies.

Minced beef with dumplings...Welsh style

 I have been watching a Welsh gentleman on YouTube who has a cooking channel. He makes so many delicious looking dishes, so I tried this one today: Minced( ground) beef with dumplings. It was so good that I had to just make myself stop eating it! I had to substitute some ingredients, such as suet, since we generally don't use it here for cooking and I added cheddar cheese to the dumplings. Sometimes I have to figure out exactly what food he is using and the measurements, but that is part of the learning fun.

 

Happy Mother's Day

 Happy Mother's day to my sweet mama in heaven. I love you and miss you everyday.I also want to thank these crazy kids for letting me be their mom! I love them so much! (This picture of my kids is from the 80's )

Northern Lights

 Beautiful northern lights, aurora borialis, from our area.  I couldn't get a good picture from our yard, so these were taken by my friend, Dave Farley. So very unusual for them to show this far south on our planet, but a huge solar storm was in progress...amazing!