Fun at the Farmer's Market.

We recently enjoyed setting up at a local farmer's market. Our garden isn't producing enough to sell quite yet, but we brought baked goods and a small selection of wood and metal work. Dustin also demonstrated how he carves wooden spoons all morning.

There were quite a few other vendors selling fresh veggies, herbs, home made soaps, farm fresh eggs and more . A lot of farmers were sold out by 10:30 am .

Janet baked mini loaves of whole wheat bread and oatmeal cookies the night before. Both turned out to be popular items at the market.:-)

Dustin carving with some interested onlookers. People always love to watch him working.

We love how this spoon just looks like it is bursting out of the wood! We actually had people waiting for him to finish this one so they could take it home :-) .

Here is Dustin just finishing putting his sign on the back of the spoon.

And here is little Conagher Quinn! He is a wonderful little boy and he slept most of the morning. We are all enjoying having a little brother in the family. 

Happy big sisters.

We are looking forword to coming back to this one!

Paint Rock Valley Music Festival

We've been wanting to get this blog out for awhile! This September our family enjoyed getting to be at the Paint Rock Valley Lodge music festival. It was three days of a whole lot of fun!

The Lodge and grounds are covered up with signs of every kind, as you can see.

Some are funny.

 Some are true.

And some just make you go "wha-?" :-) 

There is an "old western town" constructed out back of the lodge where all kinds of fun was going on. Dustin was the town blacksmith for the event. 

Shown above is a "step-by-step" photo showing each step of the process for making a forged leaf key ring, one of Dustin's popular pieces.

Dustin, Lilly, and Ember enjoying one of the cowboy "shoot outs". There where several of these staged throughout the weekend.

Esther enjoyed meeting Cheyenne, the equine member of the River chase posse( the groop that did the shoot outs) She even got a ride:-) 

There were good eats.

Fun and creative crafts.

Great music( three stages all weekend!).

And tons of family fun.

We've been coming to this festival since Esther was a baby and we sure love it! Hopefully the old blacksmith shop will see us in Paint Rock Alabama again!

Baby shower

* Hello everyone! Here is a blog I've wanted to post for some time now. No photos from the farm this time, but all the hand-made and make-do fun in this post is well in keeping with what Home-Made-Home is all about. Plus, I managed to slip in some product pictures ; ) Thanks for following! - Janet.*

Several months back I threw a baby shower for my friend Atlanta and her baby, Marian. Her sister in law and I had both agreed on a vintage theme and here are some of the fun and pretty ideas we came up with:

The banner was easy to make. I cut out circles of plain, white paper and wrote the individual letters on them with a calligraphy pen. Then I pinned the letters, along with bunches of baby's breath, my baby booties,and some antique baby dresses I scored for a dollar a piece at a junk store to a length of thin rope with mini peg clothes pins. Ta-da! Gorgeous banner.

We had fun using stuff we already had to further the old fashioned/ baby girl theme. Here, we just tucked some tiny flowers into the tea set we borrowed from my girls for the day. We also rounded up lots of old linen and lace, like the handkerchief in this picture.

Sweet baby! She was so good for the whole shower, but when it came time for a picture, she decided she'd had about enough!

We brought an old rocker and handmade quilts to make a comfortable spot for the guests of honor to sit while opening gifts.

The decorations for the refreshment table turned out to be my personal favorites. Glass bottles and brass candle-sticks from my collections paired with a miniscule perambulator that was fixed with scraps of fabric and lace, a lace handkerchief, and tiny blooms. Candle light makes everything special.

 One of Atlanta's friends had made this adorable garland for her and we just had to reuse it along the edge of the gift table.:-) 

Instead of having a game, we had a special activity for all the guests to join in. Above is the "blessing tree". Everyone was instructed to write a special blessing, prayer, or scripture for little Marian on one of the tags we passed out and then hang it on the tree. By the time we finished, the tree was blooming with blessings! The tags will go into a scrapbook as a keepsake for Marian when she is older.

There were so many lovely gifts. I decided to give a stuffed toy horse and crocheted wool ball from the Home-Made-Home shop( animals are $8.and the Ball is $12.). I find a lot of joy in giving things I have made with my own hands. So many kind thoughts and prayers just naturally go out for the person you are thinking of while you make the gift, and that is what makes it truly special.

* Call Home-Made-Home at 1-870-283-4002 with inquiries or to order.*

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!