Garden and drawings.....

I have been wanting to do a post with some of my garden pictures but some how I miss placed one of my SD card that contain these pictures. It is actually a funny thing. Katy and I had planted some beans , peas, and something else earlier spring ,then we had a frost and decided to plant only green beans on the same spot since it looks like everything was dead. Well, that did not happen like we thought grin.... we have now all kinds of greens and because we can not tell what they are , we pick and cook all the same way...*smiles* - living and learning!

I will be participating to a doll show next month. I am now painting my dolls but I have been very busy preparing everything leaving me no time to blog or to visit those that i so much enjoy. (((Thank you)) for visiting me anyways and for your kindness. I have much desire to share my life with you and all the wonderful things that the Lord bless me daily.

I didn't go to church today as I am recovering from a sinus problem but I picked *beans* , grin, this morning and cut some flowers to bring home. I was thinking how wonderful the Lord is and what a bless it is to see things growing from the earth. With the past events around the world a great sadness came to my heart to and one thought .... any men can have everything in this world but if he does not has Christ in his heart.... he has nothing!
I will bid you adieu with this drawing that I did from a picture of Becca and sugar , our pet goat... Love in Christ.

One Saxy Mouse!

Among my favorite things to do, it is to turn pots. I learned to turn pots about 5 years ago. I usually turn during the Autumn season . There is something about that time that makes me feel happy. I can go to my shop at any cool evening , light up a small fire on my wood stove, place a tea pot with water and wait for my favorite tea, while I get things ready for the turning. I like to listen to Christmas music too... I think is because there is a strong scent that comes from my apple trees and it reminds me of my own farm back in Brasil and because is during this time that I make my gifts to family and friends.
Most of my children enjoy to do pottery too but I think my youngest is the one that never leaves me side.*grin*
I have not done any crockery for about a year and a half . I am always very busy with the marionettes and now with my porcelain BJD that it did not allow me to get the time aside to do the pots; however this is the first year in 4 years that I was able to finish school with the children in June. Time seems to be in my favor now. My days are so wonderful and much relaxing. I so enjoy to be with my children , tending for the garden, weeding my flower beds, baking whole wheat bread for my family, making cheese from Hershey's milk and so much more.
Kate and I go for long walks and during that time we talk about the marionettes, future plays , her music and we laugh and enjoy the amazing nature that our Lord has so graciously blessed us with it.*grin*
It is during late afternoon and after milking that I get to work on my art . It is never work , it is always an exciting thing to do and I feel so blessed to be able to create as much as I do.
Just recently I start drawing. Fairytale is what is in my heart. I think my eyes are my best tool. As I get older , I think my work improves because there is no urgency feeling like i used to feel when I was younger. I am enjoying each and every moment...*smiles*
I started drawing this little mouse one day and the idea of have him on a thread spool was an immediately thought , but it was my new dear friend Anita, that suggested me ( without have seen the mouse) that I would give him a crown. Anita has a lovely blog called castles crowns cottages and I hope you will visit her as well.


I loved the idea !I went mad hunting for a picture of a crown. well, I stopped for a moment to think and found the *perfect* crown as a model - Anita's blog picture !*smiles*

I loved , loved him so much that I decided to give him more attention....

I am not sure which one I like better ...perhaps the sepia....

I was already working on few new crockery doing several tests to permanently fire an image to the pot. That means , firing an extra firing so the image wouldn't ever fade and still be dishwasher, oven safe.

I did a full kiln of pots and experiment with different glazes , some new ones and others familiars ones. The stoneware I used was little more darker than I expected but the results are definitely great; however I will use a white stoneware next time so the image can show up better.

I am looking forward to make more cups, plates bowls and have my *One saxy mouse* in it! *grin*

Another thing that I did was the sentences. It was fired the same way as the image.

Here you can see some other things that I did. This picture was taken on my kitchen table and the light is not a true light so the colors are not favoring the real thing.

I hope you enjoyed visiting me today . Would you care for some tea?*grin*

Musician Mouse

Some of you that knows me , thinks , based on what I have said in the past that my first art was oil paintings. Honestly it was not , because the first time I used oils , I was about 8 years old. You would *think* now, because I am sharing my latest drawing that it was drawing- no, not that either!


I am sure I drew a lot of pictures but what sticks to my mind (as far as memories) is sculpting.


I remember vividly one day , I think I was in kindergarten , but it may have been first grade, when the teacher called my momma and told her that I was a problem . My heart was beating and I couldn't remember if I had done something wrong . Well, momma came home with her hands full of little soldiers that I had sculpted from chalk. I remember that the tool I used was the lid from a pen. There were 23 of them. The teacher told my momma that I was not paying any attention to the class and now she knew why.Opps!


Momma was not happy about that but it was not long after that she let me do arts.


I don't ever remember doing much of drawings. I have always been afraid to try it... I don't know why. I have done many , many oil paintings... so many that my walls does not have any space left, grin, but I never draw before I paint , it comes from the brush. I do need some guide and my best work will be if I use a picture rather than the real scene because the lights and darks are determined. I believe the artist improves as its eyes improves. I often need to leave what I am working on and do something else so I can truly be refreshed . If only work with one medium, you would be seen much less work from me.*grin*



Anyhow , I faced my fears and worked on few drawings. When ever I finish something I look and I just about always not sure if I like it or not, or it should be changed or not , so my way to know is I start showing to the children and watch their first response. The body language tells me a lot and I have to be careful because my children tends to *love* everything I do, however Gabriella is very honest about her feelings so I normally show her first.*grin*
This little fellow received all the " ohhh, awww, so cute, I love it " comments !
I hid him from my eyes for few days and today I picked him up and looked and fell in love... what do you think? ( I would love to hear from you)
Now I wonder if I should paint him or not! Decision, decisions!*smiles*

Milking Hershey's video

Hi there~

I want to share with you a little video that we did here at our farm. It was recorded in 2 days because I wanted to have kate milking Hershey too. My editing job is in much need of improvements , but you will have an idea.

Take a look on the right side all the way on towards the bottom. I will be uploading more videos in the future under that one instead of doing a post.

My next post is about painting.

My dairy cow is feeding my baby goat!!!!!!!

I was not planning to do a second post today but I went to milk Hershey and took my camera with me. It is not a movie yet but I thought , since I mentioned , that you too would be delighted as much as I was to see this.... what do you think?*grin*

Making tea , like momma did.

Greetings to all ~
I live a very busy life but it is full of simple and relaxing pleasures. Coming from a humble beginnings , has also been a blessing for me. I take joy and many forms of things that I do but also that others do too. I love to learn new things.
My momma made many natural remedies and most of them work wonderfully. I was very ill as a child and I think if I had all the medications that most people use , today I would be suffering.
One of the simple things we always had - no matter what or where we lived - was a herb garden.

Momma used to say, " if you have to live in the city make sure you have some pots with herbs by your window". I live here in this farm for the past 9 years and before that we live in Homestead ,FL .We had a small avocado grove and yes, plenty room for a garden.

This is one of my herb garden. I have here cilantro, parsley, thyme, savory, rhubarb, sage, mint, oregano, rosemary, lavender , basil , chamomile and lemon balm.

I have other herbs on other areas too. Herbs are fairly easy to grown and they don't need much of weeding ,*if* one mulch it well.

Gabriella , my middle child, is picking some lemon balm... you can see that we have *helpers* ! *grin* .... it smells divine!

One can dried this lovely leaves by leaving it in a basket for a week or so. The herb when is dried develops a more intensive flavor but you can make tea with fresh leaves too. I like to blend it with mint and chamomile.

Just heat your *cold* water to a boiling point! *grin*

Now, here is the secret: Gabby is holding my filter. This is how momma made coffee and tea. It is a funnel made from broadcloth. I have many of these , one for each purpose. I have been turning pottery lately and made a point to turn some handles to insert where Gabby is holding. When they are ready, I will post some pictures here.

oh ... now I am ready to enjoy a lovely cup of fresh tea just sweeten enough with honey from the bees harvested from my eldest daughter, Sthefanie,grin, and enjoy the physical and ( much needed) spiritual rest the I find in word of God and in His day !

May His goodness be with you. Thank you so much for coming and sharing this *tea* with me.

Tenderly,

Patricia

Sugar, the different goat.

I have a story to tell and I plan to get on tape because it is so, so *sweet*.*grin*
Few weeks ago one of our goats had twins and the babies died. The next day a baby goat was born and her mother died. Yes, is sad and unfortunately it does happens.We brought the mother ( that lost the babies) and the baby goat ( that lost it's mother ) and placed both of them in the barn. I didn't expect that they would serve each other needs as I know goats do not tend to do that but , I had to try it because one *never* knows what may happen...oh... speaking of that , I will tell you in a minute what it DID happen.
Any ways , I couldn't milk the mother goat immediately because her udder needed treatment. I knew the baby had some colostrum before her momma died ,but she was hungry.I used some of my unpasteurized milk that I had saved apart to bottle feed Hershey's ( my dairy cow) babies and gave it to Sugar. Oh yes, that is her name.Ben , my youngest named her that.

Well, I feed Sugar some cow's milk and to my surprise she loved it. Next day , I was able to milk the goat but something strange happened.

Sugar didn't want to drink the milk. I immediately thought that she was not doing well because she had the cows milk , after all she was only 4 days old.

But Sugar was fine although feeding her became a hard thing to do and the children were now complaining about it.

The Momma goat that I milked is not a milking goat and she was not easy to milk.So I decide to give sugar cow's milk again. Sugar was hardly drinking 1/3 of the bottle per feed and I was concern ... that changed when I gave her Hershey's sweet milk again!*grin*

This tiny goat drank the milk as if it was ice cream!*grin* I then realised what happen! Once she tasted Hershey's milk she no longer settle for ordinary goat's milk.I don't blame her because I don't like GM either - only the cheese and soap , of course!*smiles*

But Hey, I did say I had some thing that I want to get on tape, didn't I?

Oh yes, yesterday evening I went to milk Hershey , Sugar came inside the milking parlor with me. Hershey is such a sweet cow and she is never bother but anything or anyone. Well, I had just finished milking her when got up to place my bucket way on a small table that I have there, I turned around and saw the most amazing thing ! Sugar was nursing from Hershey! She was standing on top of my stool ! I stood still for few minutes and saw Hershey turn her had and sniff on the baby goat, then turned back to her eating pail.

Can you believe that?*grin*

Now, I have to get on tape. I have, by the way, one little video that I was planning to upload today but for some reason I am not able to. When Kevin, my son, comes home later on, I will ask him to convert the film. It will show some of my children, our animals ( even a skunk ) , and me milking Hershey. We recorded few weeks ago and I have been wanting to upload here.

I will leave you now wishing you a happy day. Mine is a blessed one. I love to sing , "this is the day that the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it" ....May yours be blessed in Christ as well!

Things are looking better now....*grin*

Yes , I was in need of help and I am so glad I got some. I have a lot of clean up to make here and I plan to do as time allows me. The top title is temporally. I am working on some drawings to use as my title .... mean while , take a look at my home and my farm!

Templates problems

I am terrible about html language and apparently I lost my *layout* tab. If I can not fix it , I may have to re-format this blog and I will probably lost all my past posts, comments and my followers too *sniff*. If this happen , please know that is because i couldn't do anything about it.

New template

Hi, I know my template looks terrible but I am working on it.... I have a *vision* for this blog but I can't figure out how to do this... yet!