If I lived in a farmhouse...

 {Credits: Inspired by a lovely post written by my friend Michelle from Emerald Cove titled "If I had a beach house", which I enjoyed so much I have written my own version of this theme!}

If I lived in a farmhouse, it wouldn't have to be perfect.

Of course, we would want to avoid one that was too much of a fixer upper...

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But I wouldn't mind one that needed a little help here and there.

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It would be an old home, and each room would have a story to tell...

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 We'd fix it up and make it home sweet home.

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It would have a wide front porch with a swing for relaxing with a cup of coffee,



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 and a porch ceiling painted a soft shade of blue. 



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It would have old wood floors that creak a little when you walk on them...
 

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...and a claw foot bathtub, the perfect tonic for those long hours working on the house or around the farm.

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If I lived in a farmhouse, I would wake up early each morning to the sounds of my chickens clucking.



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They would be wanting their breakfast, and I would need to collect the eggs.

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Every day I would tend to the other animals and the kitchen garden...



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 I would drive an old Chevy truck, just perfect for driving into town and picking up groceries or hay for our animals.

 

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We would have a little cottage next door~ a cute little cottage, sweet and cozy...



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It would be our little bed and breakfast cottage...


On our land I would grow a small lavender farm. You could find me there weeding and planting to my heart's content.

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And there would have to be a purple bench nearby!

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If I lived in a farmhouse, I would look out our kitchen window and see our fields...

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Wide open spaces to live and grow...


And we would watch glorious sunsets together from our front porch



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...or while taking an evening walk.

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And we would thank God that we lived in such a beautiful place and called it home.

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This is the little dream that we hold close, and pray one day will be for our family. But we have decided there are ways to have a farmhouse in the country, even if you don't live there! More on these ideas later...


Thank you for stopping by for a visit, and I hope you have a lovely Monday! :)


Blessings,
Jenni

Regarding my Blogger issues...

Hello friends!

I wanted to say thank you for your response to my last post on my Blogger issues! I still haven't figured out why it is doing what it is! Hopefully the problem will just go away on its own? ;)

But thank you much for letting me know you are not having the same problem when visiting here~ that is good news! :)

I hope you have a good night!

Blessings,
Jenni

Do you see what I see?

Okay, by that blog title, you are probably wondering if I am a little confused regarding what time of year it is! But no, I know it isn't Christmas! :)

Actually, I have a question for you: what are you seeing when you try to come to my blog?

For the last two or three weeks, every time I try to go to my blog to work on a post, check comments, etc., my computer informs me that the server for my blog is down. BUT if I try it again, it promptly sends me there! Go figure!

SO...my first question is: if you have a blog, is this happening to you?

And secondly, when you try to come here, are you being told the server is down?

I am grateful that I can still get to my blog and post, but would like to solve this problem! So if any one has any advice, please do share!

I hope you all have a lovely rest of your day! I will be back soon with a less boring post, I promise! :)

Blessings,

Jenni

White flowers for you...

A very happy Friday to each of you! So who's ready for the weekend?

In my opinion, it couldn't have come soon enough! Not to say that this week was a bad one, but sometimes you are just extra thankful when it's finally the weekend!
 ;)

Now I said when I showed the flower craft for kids that I would be back with a different spin on it...


 

There are actually two variations to this craft that you can create...a large flower, and a miniature version.





I made them in white and grey, because those are two of my favorite colors!

 Of course I did not come up with the idea of using cupcake liners to make flowers, this is just my little take on it. :)

These flowers are made the same way as the other ones I made in the previous post...

But I will give a little run-down on making them here as well, so everything you need to know is right here! :)

These flowers are easy to make by folding the cupcake liners in fourths, and snipping them with the hole punch like this:



 


The smaller the cut out you make with the hole punch the better, because then you won't see the holes when your flower is completed!

Then you open the liners up and weave them, one by one, onto a pipe cleaner through one of the holes, beginning with the larger ones:




 ...and then adding the {two} smaller ones:





{If using the miniature cupcake liners for the small flowers, you just use six of that size.}


Next you add your bead {I chose little "pearl" beads for mine but any ol' beads will work!} ;)

Then all you have to do is pull the pipe cleaner down through the other holes on the cupcake liners and twist it around at the bottom.







And you have yourself a flower!

These will look sweet inside a little vase, or even in a little clay pot! :)





And this is the little "spin" I promised! I hope it is not too disappointing! 

I am linking this to the Weekend Wrap Up Party at Tatertots and Jello.


I also hope that you have a beautiful weekend! Thank you for stopping by! :)


Blessings,
Jenni

Sweet and simple Mother's Day craft for kids

Hello friends!

At last the weekend has come! I'm so glad! How about you? :)

Now this particular weekend is extra special, because as you know, Sunday is Mother's Day. This is a great chance for kids to get creative and make something special for their moms, and grandmas, too!

I needed to come up with a good Mother's Day craft to share with my youngest daughter's class, and when my first idea went south, I had to try plan B. ;)

So I thought it would be fun for the kids to make flowers out of cupcake liners...I have seen so many beautiful variations!

I wanted to use pipe cleaners, so after playing around with it a little, this is what I ended up with:

{We used paper cups for our flower pots, because it made an affordable container for such a large class! But the flowers would also be cute in little clay pots or even in spray painted soup cans!}

To make these, you will need:

Cupcake liners~ four large and one or two small ones for each flower; one other liner if wanting to make a pot wrapper.
pipe cleaners
beads
styrofoam cups
spanish moss
small rocks
hole punch
sharp pencil


To begin, first choose 5-6 cupcake liners {four large and 1-2 small} and folded them in half, then in quarters. 

 Then we hole punched the cupcake liner at the far corner, so that it looked like this:


 


Tip: the smaller the hole punch, the better. It can be even less than a half, and the pipe cleaner will still fit through. This way the holes won't show when your flower is finished. :)





Next, open the cupcake liners back up...





...and weave your pipe cleaner through one of the holes in the liner, making sure the pretty side is facing up. Continue this until you have all of the cupcake liners on the pipe cleaner, and then add your bead! 





Twist the pipe cleaner at the back, and you have a flower!


 






Now you just poke two holes at the bottom of the cup, and push your flower in one hole and up the other.

Add your rock {this holds the flower upright} and your moss. It helps the flower pot to be more stable if you wrap the moss around the flower and push it down a bit. 

Now if you don't want to add the flower pot wrapper, just add some extra moss to the top and you're finished! If you do want one, fold another cupcake liner in quarters, and cut part of the center out. 


 


 Carefully pull it over the flower {or you can always do this part before adding your pipe cleaner to the cup} and add your extra moss.





Then all you have to do is arrange the moss on top of the liner so you can't see the hole.








 Kids can use beads or not, and they will look cute with or without the little pot wrappers. It just depends on what they like!

{If they are using a styrofoam cup, they might even want to write a little message on it!}






 And the best part is, this is a simple craft that kids can make themselves, with a little guidance.






I am linking this to the Weekend Wrap Up Party at Tatertots and Jello.


I hope you all have a wonderful Mother's Day! I will be back next with a different take on this craft that moms might like making! ;)

Have a beautiful day!



Jenni

Sweet baby chicks {A dream come true!}

It is late into the night as I type this. I am watching over our newest offspring, waiting for the temperature in their little  coop to reach 90 degrees. After two and a half hours, it has finally reached 80!

 But I really don't mind the late hour.

I have wanted chickens for years now, and am smiling ear to ear as I watch them not sleep!

Part of this is my fault, for every time they get settled down, I have to adjust the heat lamp so they'll be warm enough.

I am new as this, chicken raising. But I am not new to crazy late hours. It has just been a while since I have had newborns! ;)

One of my dearest friends {who is also my next door neighbor} has had chickens for several years. I have said someday, when everything is just so.

I was looking out my kitchen window this week at the back yard, and it hit me: I was living in the future.

A particular paragraph of C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters came to mind, essentially saying that the only places in time we are to live in now are 1. eternity, and 2. the present. 

I will confess, it is my own tendency to live in the future. Someday when we have a farm...Someday when we have our old farmhouse...Someday when I have chickens and a lavender farm...

I chalked it up to attempting patience, and it's true, part of our dreams will have to wait.

{I can only imagine what the neighbors would say if I tried to put horses, a goose, and a calf in the backyard!} ;)

But chickens? I have room for these. 

I can't tell you for certain that we will be able to have that dream of living in the country. Maybe God has a different plan for us.

Or it could happen next month, next year, or ten years from now. But when it comes, if it comes, I don't want to look back at this time and realize I wasn't living to the fullest right where He had placed me.

So this is my leap of faith. It isn't necessarily the perfect timing to start this particular adventure! And thank goodness we have about six weeks until the chicks will be old enough to be in an outside coop, because we still have to build it! ;)

But as I watch these sweet chicks tonight, I am reminded to:

pray continually

dream often

live now

I hope you have a blessed and restful night, and a beautiful tomorrow! I will be back again with better {daylight} pictures of the chicks! :)

Your friend,

Jenni