frenchie's new hat...

Its been years since I have designed a new crochet pattern. I have been in a major slump.... not any more....((:

I designed a new hat for myself and my daughter quickly took it and put it on. It looks awesome on her ((:  I will be writing out the pattern and will have it on Etsy soon, I will also take orders for hats. Not to sure on the price yet.

well I must get back to my crochet hook...

until next time.....

never enough time...

I am consumed with all things crafty now. I finally got my crafting mojo back. It has been a while since I have crafted on a regular basis. I am really trying to work on prioritizing my time. I found that I spent way to much time dinking around and not enough time being productive. Now I need to fit my chores in around my crafting time.((:

I am making these amazing rolls today. http://une-bonne-vie.blogspot.com/2010/08/pretzel-rolls.html  I will also finish my crocheted slouchy hat, gather some horse apples and make some chevre and feta cheese. Yep, Its going to be a busy day but a fun one.



I finished my first of many fall wreaths, there are so many different ones that I want to make I think I will hang one a week for the month of November (: My favorite parts of this wreath below are the things that I used off my farm. There is some milo that I pulled out of the hay bales that we bought for the goats. We have a lake that has lilly pads with gorgeous flowers on it in the summer, the flowers then turn into the best pods ever. These are pretty expensive in the store and it makes it even better that I can find them on my property.

Since the drought was so severe our garden died out really fast. I still watered the flower beds in the front yard and there were some mystery gourd seeds in the flower bed. One of the varieties of gourds is growing to enormous size as you can see below.  I am going to leave it on the vine to see how big it will get...

well its time to milk the goats and get this day started.

until next time.....

zipper flower tutorial

I am addicted to Pinterest, it is an awesome site with oodles of idea for everything. My latest obsession is flowers of any kind. My latest flowers are Zipper Flowers. They are very easy to make. I went to my thrift store and bought 35 zippers for a nickel each. Such a great deal. So here is the tutorial.


Supplies Needed:

One Zipper
Scissors
Hot glue gun

This is what the zipper should look like when you start.

Cut off the end of the zipper and unzip it. Separate the two pieces. Save the zip thingy mabob... Not to sure what its called.

You will start at the end of the zipper to make the center of the flower.

Put a dab of hot glue on the fabric and fold over the end.

Put a line of hot glue on the fabric, and continue to roll the zipper up. You can make the center as large as you want.

Cut of the excess and set it aside. This is what my finished center looks like.

Now your going to cut the petals. Cut 8  3 inch long pieces of zipper. You can use the same zipper color as the center of you can change it for the petals with another colored  zipper.

These are my 8 petal strips.

Fold the piece in half and put a dot of glue on the fabric to make your petal. Do this with all 8 pieces.

This is what my petals look like.

Now your going to attach the petals to the center. Put a dot of glue on the petal and attach it to the back of the center.

Continue attaching petals around the center. This is your first row of petals.

Now attach the other petals in between each petal on the first row.

When finished your Zipper Flower will look like this. There are so many uses for the these flowers, hair clips, bracelet, broach, on a wreath....

Here are some other colors that I made earlier. You can change the look of the flower by changing the length of the petals.

I hope that y'all enjoyed this tutorial. Let me know if your confused with any of the steps. Happy Crafting. ((:

Until Next Time......

Preparing for market day...

Today I have been preparing for the Leonard Farmers market on Saturday. I have tried to make it to the market for a few weeks now but have been hit with some roadblocks. Not this Saturday! I am selling my crafts, bread and canned goods.

Until next time...

hoard or collection???

I have always been a keeper of things. Even as a child I held on to things that most kids wouldn't keep. I have a lot of boxes marked "stuff",  because that is what is in them...stuff. As I have gotten older I have a lot more stuff. A lot of people would consider it hoarding. But i don't see it that way.

 I have always been a crafter so that explains a lot of my things that I keep. When I was in my teens I made earrings and wreaths. Then I started cross stitch, where I quickly learned that only those with bionic eyes can do this craft for hours on end. Then I started doing rubber stamps, I made cards and bookmarks and more cards. Then came the scrap booking, I have a huge rubbermaid tote full of fancy card stock, stickers, paper punches and this list goes on. Then I moved on to knit and crochet and this is where the hoarding/collecting really began. Yarn, yarn, yarn....It took over our home..... Literally.... I had yarn shoved in every corner of my house, buckets full of yarn in the garage. Every garage sale and thrift store that I went to I bought all the yarn I could find. My list of hobbies continues.... jewelry making, sewing, spinning, canning, gardening......

I cant be the only one who struggles with this right???

 Now before y'all call the show Hoarders for me please know that I don't have junk from floor to ceiling in my house. I don't have 14 storage units that my family doesn't know about or any of that other crazy stuff.... Or do I...... ((:

So how do y'all handle your collections???.... yes I said collections, cause its such a nice word, much nicer than hoarding...

I really enjoy my hobbies and don't plan on stopping anytime soon, but I am trying to control the over abundance of stash and supplies. trying.....yea right (:


I leave you with a picture of my latest hoard.... a new goat.... Her name is Pudge and she is so sweet and adorable. I now have 37 goats....(:

until next time.....

hot hot hot...

Its been so hot in our house that the thought of placing my laptop on my legs made me cringe. On Friday our air conditioning broke around 5:45 pm.  We were just about to walk out the door to go and watch our youngest daughters first Dance Team performance. We called the air condition company and they were at our house in about 45 minutes. They told us that the blower was broken and they didn't have any in stock, and wont be able to get one until Tuesday or Wednesday of this week. In this 106 degree weather I didn't know how we were going to survive. Thankfully we were able to find some small window units and they are keeping our house nice and cool. We also made it to our daughters dance program thanks to the kindness of a friend(:

It getting hot and heated on the farm also.... its mating season for the goats and sheep. The sheep are very quiet about their mating process and I never know if the girls are pregnant until their milk bag starts to form. The goats are not quiet at all, they want the world to know what they are doing. The sounds coming from the goat barn are very funny. The males are extremely noisy when courting their ladies. The males prance around and fight with each other. They also chase the girls continuously....whispering sweet nothings in their ears and licking their neck...poor girls. This will go on for a couple really looooong weeks.

The photo to the left is Frosty and Houdini. Frosty is my youngest daughters favorite goat, she braids his beard and walks him around. As you can see his tongue is hanging out because he was making all sorts of noises to entice his lady friend. Houdini had been running around earlier trying to get away from Frosty but just like a human she finally gave in to his sweet nothing and started to stand still and listen to him. LOL... Houdini will have babies in 5 months from the day she is bred, we will see who the daddy is and if Frosty won the love of Houdini.... (:

Well it is time for me to go now, I need to get started with my evening chores. Time to to feed and water all of my farm friends and thank God for all that he has given me.

Until next time....

quilt square(:

After seeing all the amazing quilts and fun stuff that my sister has been sewing I decided to start quilting again. I made a few really pretty square about 8 years ago but haven't done anything since.((Aunt Wanda I hope you don't cringe at the uneven lines of the bottom left triangle (: its crooked and its driving me nuts.... )) I finished my first 9 patch square today called Cyclone. Its not perfect but what is perfect in art?? That's what I keep telling myself anyways. After years of crocheting and knitting I am obsessed with gauge and am irritated that I cant make every square PERFECT!!! (:

I'm spending the rest of this week crafting and cooking for the Leonard Farmers Market this Saturday. Breads, jams, jellies, hair accessories, and maybe some of my fried pies((:

I leave you with a photo of the Muscovy ducks, I have named them Grelda and Lois, they are extremely silly and bite my toes and hiss at me every time I go into the chicken coop. They love to sit on eggs together and get mad at me when I get near them.

Until next time....

Who's That Girl???

After waking up way to early today, I decided to Google my name.  I will do this periodically to see what comes up and for a little look down memory lane.  Some days when I look up my name I just move on to my next task for the day, but today I was once again reminded of what could have been. I had a chance to have a career in something I loved, Crochet. Yep I was a crochet junkie, I ate, slept, breathed crochet. It was all I did all day long and I loved it. I have several patterns published in books and online magazines, I have a website with over 100 original patterns and still sell patterns today from that site. Receiving the first book with my pattern design in it was so amazing. I had a possible book deal with all of my own designs and was scheduled to be a showcased teacher at an upcoming crochet and knit event in Dallas Texas.

 But all of that changed one Saturday afternoon in 2005. My husband and I were working outside on a shed and came in the house to shower. I showered first, while in the shower my husband told me how his head hurt worse then it ever had before, I told him to sit down, and then it happened. His eyes rolled back, he slumped over and started to seize. That is the moment that all things changed.

Changed...altered...different...never the same life again.

My husband had a stroke that day and now has a seizure disorder and brain damage because of it. But he survived and thats all that mattered to me. The road from 2005 to today has been grueling. Every emotion has been pushed to its fullest in our bodies.

Crochet and a career within it are no longer in my future. I still struggle with this but I know that God's plan is good and He knows what is best for me and my family.

Fast forward to today...

 God continues to carry us through this disease that my husband now has. The seizures are under control most of the time. He is plagued with horrible headaches as a result.  We still have issues with his health, it is a rocky road and one that we will be on for the rest of our lives. But I am blessed beyond measure. The past is a part of me and who I am today....

That Girl is me... this is my story.


Well the sun is up on the farm and my day begins, I need to go outside and do my morning chores.  I just got a call from someone who wants to buy all the chicken eggs that I have... yea..... I think I will take a few pears outside with me and feed them to our new peacocks. I leave you with a picture of the pig Edgar sleeping on the couch. Yes he is spoiled rotten and loves it. ((:

until next time....

comments???

i cant seem to get my comments to show up. Can someone please try to leave me a comment and let me know if it works and if it doesnt work please tell me the error you get...

and so it begins....

Many of you have asked for me to start a blog about my life and farm and so it begins...

a little about me to those of you who might be new here....

My name is Marlo Cairns, I live in Celeste Texas home of The Blue Devils. I have a husband named Joe and two daughters. My family is the most important thing in my life and they bring me so much joy and happiness. We are very close, we have been through enormous trial and tribulations in the past 6 years but we are still going strong((:

 I live on a farm with oooooodles of animals. The most beloved animal on our farm is Edgar, he is a pot bellied pig. I have had him since he was two weeks old and he lives in our home. He is completely potty trained and never has an accident. He is pretty amazing. He enjoys long walks, rolling in the mud, snuggling on the couch.....oooops he was telling me what to write, I guess he thought this was the Oinkers Love Connection site.... ((:

well this where I shall end right now, I have a baby goat named Clarice that I am currently bottle feeding, and she is screaming my name...maa maaa maaa maa... She lives in the house right now too... oh and she is litter box trained... clearly we have this potty training thing down!!

until next time....