Around the Farm.

This summer is keeping us so busy ! One of our biggest projects has been keeping up with the tomato  harvest. We have been canning tons of salsa as well as chopped tomatoes. As you can see in the pictures the whole family has been getting in on the act :-) .

Our big helper.

Open wide,Daddy!

We have some huge,beautiful sunflowers this year. Some of the flower heads are a foot across! The girls are eager for them to  ripen so they can help toast them.

Our stand of heirloom popcorn is doing well. Now, if we can just keep the racoons out until it's ready to pick...

A few weeks ago we went to a you-pick blue berry farm and came home with full bellies, blue faces, and seven gallons of berries to can and eat this winter.

Ember is kissing her little cousin, Logan.

This is one of several arbors on our place. It is so pretty right now with the trumpet vine and rose of Sharon in bloom that it just had to go on the blog.:-) 

"Rattlesnake" heirloom pole beans ready to take to the farmer's market.

Above; the results of a busy day of canning.  Below; the girls gloating over the first egg their new chicken laid.Esther loves to check the eggs with her little basket.

Cucumbers just before canning.

Sweet kisses from a happy little girl.if that doesn't make life worth living, what does?

Peter Rabbit Party.

Esther and Ember celebrated their 5th and 3rd birthdays together this year. We did a Peter Rabbit theme. We love taking what we have on hand and turning it into something special! 

For a centerpiece we used our watering can and a bunch of pots from the garden shed, plus one of the kids' stuffed animals and a borrowed doll's coat!:-)  We added some flowers from the yard and -Ta da! A sweet scene that looks like it could be right from the book.

The blackberry cobbler was a real hit.

Easy favors for our little guests.

To make serving the goodies easy, we tied utensils and napkins to each plate with scraps of peter rabbit fabric. We put them into an old drawer to keep them tidy.

Chamomile tea, just like the story:-)  Only ours was iced and sweetened with honey!

We put the presents in an old wheelbarrow. A few were just too cute to wrap!

Esther enjoying her new kazoo:-) 

Ember was so excited!

 It wasn't her party but she sure had fun! Our sweet Lillian.

Here is the invitation. You can do so much with so little for parties, Just think of the things you love and chances are you will have enough related  stuff around that with some creative ideas thrown in you can throw an awesome shindig of you own for very little dough. The possibilities only stop with your iimagination!

Ember's Birthday present : Princess and the Pea Quilt

Janet speaking : This was a really neat project that was really easy. I got the idea from a Land of Nod blanket I saw in a magazine. In the end I loved mine much better than the one I saw! That's what I love about being Home-Made-Home.:-) Above I was laying out the different colored " mattresses".

Here I'm working on embroidering the princess. I traced her with pencil from one of my own drawings.

The finished princess. I made her hair reddish to match little Ember's.l also made lazy daisies all over the quilt instead of tying it.

The bed frame is also embroidered. I love the way the bed skirt turned out ; I found a ruffled piece of lace in my scrap box that worked just right.

The finished quilt. There are some funny shadows in this photo but I think you will be able to see what it looks like. I used lots of different fabrics and textures: velvet, satin, rickrack, lace. Ember loves fingering it and seems especially happy with the SOFT fleece backing. 

To see more of my original embroidery check out my sewing board at www.pinterest.com/homemadehome90

Black Berry Picking.

Last week we went berry picking with our good friends the Goodwins. They had found a patch like nothing we had ever seen! The berries were so thick that we stuffed our selves and came home with plenty to can and make preserves with. They say a picture is worth a thousand words - so I'll let them do most of the talking. :-) 

Dustin came up with an innovative way to be able to pick with both hands simultaneously. He ended up with twice the berries Janet picked - though that may have had something to do with her chasing little ones :-) 

As you can see, more blackberries went into little mouths than into little baskets!

Look at that mother lode

Above is Sara - she was a real help with the kiddos. Below is Atlanta ( her sister-in-law) with her sweet baby Marian taking a little break at the truck.

Check out the harvest! We ended up with about three gallons for just our family.

And they were so big! Many fruits were over an inch long.What a fun day. I'd say summer is truly upon us!