Chickens in my blogroll

My dream is to one day own some chickens, but for now I love that they pop up frequently in the blogs I read. I found it quite funny to recently read multiple stories about hens slipping away and laying eggs anywhere they darn well pleased. Never knew they'd do that!

Guess I have a lot to learn before we move out to the country and I get some egg-laying hens of my own.

Red Hen Studios got its name from my collection of ceramic hens and roosters. Most of them were my grandmother's, including the two in my logo off to the right.

I already have crafty angry chicken in my blogroll. Another one I've read since I first discovered blogs is mollychicken. Go look at her absolutely beautiful sweaters and crocheted granny square afghan. And read the hilarious story about her embarrassing Ma.

Natalie's Chicken Blog is a new place I visit. She also has 4 adorable kids, a busy household and a love of poultry and crafts. I was planning on including her on my blog before she mentioned me, I swear.

Becky at the Rusty Rooster & Curiosity Gift Shop posts at a slow Southern pace, probably because she is in South Carolina. Still well worth visiting. I've gotten some good ideas on decorating and for the shop I one day hope to open.

ROTFL! My sister gave us some of these mini rubber chickens. Wish we knew about this site before we travelled to Scotland.

Mrs. Chicken is a pretty funny mama and freelance writer. Not sure where the chickens fit in. Her young daughter named the blog "Chicken and Cheese."

I'm in chicken-lover's heaven. The Hen Cam posts live views both outside and inside the coop. It isn't all about the chickens. They have a cute bunny too. Right now he's heading down the coop's ramp....

Field trip to the pumpkin patch

Even more fall pictures

We all went out to pick apples and peep leaves on Saturday.
Here are the highlights.


First stop, Saratoga Apple in Schuylerville, NY. Loads of Macintoshes left on the upper branches even though many had fallen to the ground with the night before's frost.


Has anyone else noticed all of the funny-looking pumpkins and gourds that are now available?



A trio of musicians, including this fiddler, entertained the two long lines of folks waiting for u-pick bags and apple cider donuts.


They had my favorites -- chickens!


After eating cider donuts, filling up two 1/2-bushel bags with Macs and a tractor ride, we headed to the Saratoga Monument.


This 155-ft obelisk commemorates the American victory in the Battles of Saratoga during the Revolutionary War.


Climbing the narrow winding staircase offers great views of the mountains. We didn't make it all the way to the top this time but have done it before.


The interior is being cleaned and painted so much of it was covered in paper. Not very picture-worthy.

Still only patches of fall color, so I'd like to go back to visit the nearby Saratoga Battlefield. next weekend. Filled with maples it should be ablaze by then. It's a great place to ride bikes.

100th post give-a-way

Or it's the 101st post. I'm not quite sure. It's also a few days after my 6th month bloggiversary.

Anyway, to celebrate these milestones, I'm having a Christmas-themed give-a-way. Christmas is the time of giving, you know!


Included in the package (pictured kind of clockwise) are two pieces of vintage wrapping paper (Santa and the two poodles), a handmade Red Hen Studios pointsettia stocking, two Nativity cards, 3 airmail envelopes, 4 blank one-cent postcards, a set of handmade Red Hen studio gift tags, 3 pages of hymnal sheet music, 8 vintage rhinestone buttons, one vintage jingle bell, a set of handmade Red Hen Studios blank notecards of vintage photographs, small joan walsh anglund "Christmas Is a Time of Giving" book and a Christmas tablecloth.

I'll draw a name next Sunday (10.20.07) from those of you who send in a comment. Good luck!

PS Geez, I just found a few things that didn't make it into the photo -- a ribbon-tied bundle of cinnamon sticks and red ric-rac.

PPS To answer a few questions, sure you can enter if you aren't from the US. And it is a local band, The McKrells playing on the site. Other Celtic bands we like are the Glengharry Bhoys and 7 Nations.

Putting on my photographer hat

I'm fickle with my crafty endeavors. I tend to go in streaks with my projects. Stay with one thing for a little while then completely abandon it for months.

I'm on a photography kick right now. Helps that it is my favorite time of year -- and so colorful.

While the baby napped in the van, I drove around and took pictures of the leaves (and pumpkins and mums and cattails...) this morning.

One thing I don't like about Blogger is it puts photos up in reverse order -- and at the top of a post. These are corners of my back porch after we got back home and put the goodies to use.

This cool green pump-thing came from above my inlaws' boathouse. DH was going to throw it out! When I drove past the cattails this morning, I finally knew what to put in it.


The green goes perfectly with my porch chairs, another inlaw rescue. My MIL had them black and orange. Nice for this time of year but I felt it necessary to redo them a few years ago.


Look, another piece in Martha Stewart green.


Indian corn from the garden center.


The corn now with assorted gourds.


Here are the cattails in the field. I went home to get scissors to cut some down. Whenever a car drove by, I pretended I was just taking photos. LOL


Pretty birch tree across the street from where the cattails grew.


My grandparents' old seatless rocker decorated for fall.


Wagons lined up at the garden center. The next few photos are from there too.


Pumpkins.


Red mums.


Pretty pink flowers. With our mild weather lots of flowers are still out that shouldn't be.


Some of the mums fell off so I brought them inside in a vase.


Colorful maple leaves with velvety green plants.


Had to go back to take this shot. Someone lined pumpkins up along their stone fence.


Playing with depth of field.


Look at the pattern of these changing maple leaves.

As if I didn't post enough photos here, you can see more on
Flickr.

Campfire, sparklers and photo fun

My parents are heading back to Florida next weekend. They treated us all to pizza at a local restaurant and then my sister hosted one final campfire for the year .

I played with different settings on my camera to see what I could capture. Lots to work with between the low light, the ever-changing fire and the bright sparklers. These are some of the photos I came up with.


After seeing the results, I knew I wanted to create a mosaic of them but didn't know how. Off to search Flickr and the Internet. I found this site. Easy peasy. Click on the image for a bigger view.

PS Reminder: I'm within a few posts of big number 100 and I'm planning a giveaway. I'm pulling things together for it (some thrift, some ephemera, some handmade) and have decided it will have a Christmas theme. Keep checking back here so you can get in on it.

A little bit of this, a little bit of that

He's our final collection of googly-eyed critters. Now to find new homes for them...

This is the state of part of our basement. We found termites and carpenter ants in the rough-hewn boards that were attached to the cement walls. Down they came and out went the old carpet too. Now we (read dh) are left to clean it all up, use some sort of dry-lock paint and go from there. The plan is to use it as a playroom but I'm considering making it my studio. Hmmmm.

I got to go to garage sales and to lunch with my mom last Friday. She and my dad are heading back to Florida soon and this was, unbelievably, our first outing of the year. above are my best finds -- two olive green table runners, a Julia Child French cookbook, orange enamel picnic plates with wicker holders and a hand chopper.