ON THE ROAD AGAIN!

I completed the church commission in Iowa and the windows were installed! A dedication ceremony will be held next weekend. The photos will be uploaded as soon as my laptop heals from it's "black eye!" 
I head out today to another new client in New Glarus, Wisconsin. She has chosen a hexagon pattern containing oak leaves to adorn her front porch! I'm looking forward to this commission. It is smaller (26 inches) so it will give me some much needed instant gratification. I enjoy the large commissions but now and again it is nice to do a piece and be done in a week or so. LIFT UP YOUR ART! With gratitude, Laurie

SLOW SILENT SUNDAY

Good evening friends. We had an interesting day here at The Olde Farmhouse. Living in the country has it's challenges. We happen to live at a high point in Central Illinois and suffer most of the wild weather in this area. We've been hit by lightening more times than I care to admit, have had tornadoes on the ground within two miles of our house, suffered through the historic ice storm two years ago and were without power for 7 days in the single digits...so this morning was a quiet morning as I finished one of my newest pieces of stained glass. I noticed the power flickering from time to time the past few days but chose to ignore it. Well, today we lost power to about half of the house. NOT good because at the pole light it showed full voltage coming into the house but at the house it showed 40 volts....and I thought I smelled smoke. My engineer husband thought we should call an electrician right away so we choked on the cost and called him. He arrived swiftly and said he heard "sizzling" at the box attached to the pole light. We had to call our Electric Co-op....Corn Belt Energy...hence the reason for this story. We have a wonderful journeyman that has been at our house in the rain, snow, sleet, lightening, 11:30 at night, 10:00 at night, subzero weather, and he always, ALWAYS arrives with a smile. He's WAY cool! I decided that he was a pretty big part of our daily function here at The Olde Farmhouse and to be honest, we wouldn't be able to live comfortably and securely without the knowledge that no matter the time, if we call, he will be here in short order. I snapped a photo of him today, working away on the box. He replaced a part that had burned out but we will have to have them back to completely replace the old worn out electrical box. At any rate, Pat, our kind and very hearty Corn Belt Electrician has our deep thanks for all of his hard work. I plan to give him something for Christmas (since I know the chances are he'll be back before then)
Never a dull moment at The Olde Farmhouse! With Gratitude, Laurie B.

BUSY AT THE OLDE FARMHOUSE

Good morning friends! I've had quite the week here at the Olde Farmhouse. As I work, I've been dwelling on what topic my next post would cover. As of 4 am. I decided to just cover the highlights of the week here at the farm.

It started with the new "look" I'm trying to achieve with my stained glass pieces. Here are a couple of examples of some that I am in the process of finishing up. I should have these listed by Mothers Day.

Then about midweek I was out working in my gardens and spotted this shy catbird and I was lucky enough to snap a photo. They're quite common in these parts but very shy and usually frequent heavy brush. Apparently this little guy appreciated my wilting tulips!

With Spring comes so much labor here! I've been laying mulch, weeding, removing my snow covers and just enjoying what little sunshine has come our way here in the Midwest. Yesterday my dog and I were outside admiring the purple iris along the banks and noticed an Adult Great Blue Heron. We stood there for a couple of minutes watching him wade back and forth and I thought to myself, "get the camera you ninny!" So I whispered to Phoebe to come and we tiptoed back into the house. I grabbed my camera and walked back down to the creek. Of course, I never really believed I'd get a shot of the Heron. It seems no matter how stealthy you are, they hear you...I was able to get incredibly close! The bird was very busy pulling grass out of the creek bed and the result was my good fortune in getting some lovely pictures! They are featured at the top!

Tomorrow I will have a big surprise for my Mother's Day post! Stay tuned...it's a keeper!

With Gratitude, Laurie

FAT OL' TOAD AND FACING MY FEARS!

Well, I thought if I put some beautiful lilacs and parrot tulips between the pictures it would help....nOPE! So, here he is.....Humphrey....the fat ol' toad! The story behind him you ask?? I met a kindred spirit, Krista on Posh Mamas (great group!) and here is what I shared with her while we were chatting last night..... I took a hilarious picture of a HUGE toad yesterday after all of our rain. (I have a fear of them) I think I'm going to try and come up with a story to go with him. I tend to name our wildlife here. Last year we had an opossum (double ugh) and I named him Fester...I could hardly even lay eyes on him at first but now we haven't seen him around (since winter) and I find myself looking out the window for him at night...this country living has really helped me with facing a lot of my phobias! I did say to hubby "that toad better not jump out at me while I'm in the garden or I'll keel over!".....now, snakes, I doubt I'll ever get past that one.....ha! Okay, now, jump down to her comment on my Wickedly Chic Feature post below...... Now how funny is that??? I read her comment and said to myself, "Oh my! I forgot to upload Humphrey! So, here he is.... I didn't want anyone to be confused as to "just who the fat ol' toad is?" it is tada....Humphrey! rib-bit