Farm Girl Studio

Here are a few pictures out our front door.

 

 

 

 

 

Day of joy and rebirth.... Solar festival celebrated by Yule log's fire.... Holly, ivy, evergreens and mistletoe adorn windows, doors, rooms and halls.... Rejoice! Merry Yule is a solar festival and one of the Minor Sabbats. This is when the Goddess gives birth to the God. The Sun represents the God reborn. Fires are lit to welcome him. The ancient Pagans had rituals to hasten the end of winter and bring in the spring when nature’s bounty would, again, prevail. The day is a reminder that death isn’t final; there will be rebirth. The Celebration The altar cloth is green and candles are red, gold and white in silver holders, the colors of Yule. Holly, ivy, evergreens, mistletoe and fruit studded with cloves decorate the altar as well as the Yule crystals: ruby, cat’s eye, garnets, bloodstone, diamonds and emerald. Incense is myrrh, frankincense, cedar, pine, bayberry or cinnamon. The tree is adorned with strings of popcorn and cranberries, quartz crystals wrapped wire, oranges, apple

We have been hit with two strong storms in the last week. Lots and lots of snow, I think we might be up to 10" or more right now. The wind chill is -25. The studio is warming up and I am going to go and create beads today. With all the wind the turbine is turning non stop now. I can't believe x-mas is 4 days away. I am all done shopping, Willow is the only one we shop for anyways. Everyone else gets gift cards. Luckly our family doesn't exchange gifts with the adults, only the kids. So that makes it easier. We are going to my sister in law's this year so we didn't even put up a tree or do any decorating. I will be happy when the holidays are over, I practically overdosed on cookies yesterday. Although the night before last we went in a park in Dubuque that had great decorations. Here are a couple of pictures. I will take pictures when we are at Tamra's house.

PHEWWW with that last post out of the way here is something really nice. I made this last night (before the show so I was eating it while I was watching the Biggest Loser) and it is so nummie!!! I am an olive,cheese,bread lover so this is perfect for me. If you don't like olives it may not be your cup of tea. I get alot of my recipes for The Pioneer Woman, she rocks and is really funny too. Olive Cheese Bread

Let me just say first I am not a big fan of reality TV. I find most of them kinda iratating. The Biggest Loser is the one show of that kind I do watch every week. I find the change in the contestants amazing. My weight has been going up and down since I had kids 27 years ago, I can't use them as the excuse for much longer lol. I know the right things to do, I just don't always do them. As I get older it hasn't got any easier either. This show is such a motavator for me. While I watch it I want to get up and exercise. Last night was the finale, I was glad a woman won again this year. Women have a harder time with weight loss than men most of time. I hope the excitment I feel will last this time and I can get into really great shape. That being said I am going to bake holiday cookies today.

I went and joined Face book, not like I have alot of free time :). I went to two high schools, one out of state so it is really nice to catch up with old and new friends. Let me know if you want to be my "friend" and I will add you. On the home front today. It is frightingly cold today. Yesterday was in the high 40's now it below zero. Thankfully it is windy so the windmill is going full force. I just got our first fill bill for the propane tank. It was a crazy 907 dollars. Propane is about 70 cents a gallon more than it was last year! It was very cold last year and is suppose to be even colder this year. I am so glad we bought the wood stove, even though it is somewhat of a pain to keep going. It is totally worth it. Even if we lose power, and we do alot, you can cook on it also. Off to the studio with Willow. Have a great day.

This is seriously addictive

Snapfish:Album:Shared Here is a link to all the pictures Tam took on her last trip.

This is a picture from Tamra's latest trip. I love this picture she took in Brugge, Belgium

  We went and saw Santa this week and Willow let him know all the things she wanted for the Holiday

I posted a link to the album so you can see all the pictues. The cute girl in the red is my sister in law Tamra. I love the big blue person sitting, very cool. She is coming back on the 12th, wow that went by fast. She has had fun but is really happy she is coming home soon. We did have fun chating on Yahoo into all hours of the night though :0 We are easily entertained lol. I have pictures of two more side trips she took that I will post soon.

Snapfish:Album:Shared

We are in the middle of a snow storm right now. They say we could get up to eight inches :( One good thing it is windy so the windmill is turning which I hope will help with our energy bills. Our propane bill cane and it was 907.00 that is for just one fill. Crazy !! we are burning as much wood as we can. They say it is going to be worse than last year. I am so not ready for this yet. Stay warm I am off to the studio.

With the holiday and our spotty internet connection I haven't had time to update. Thanksgiving was very quite. Derrick BIL and Justin nephew come up for a long weekend. We were going to go out but decieded the need for left overs out wayed the convience of eating out. Derrick brought the 1st season of the Tudors mini series. 10 hours long,and we watch it in two days. I love that kind of stuff. I also finished the Omnivore's Dilemma over the holiday weekend. Here is my take on the book. Farmer grow corn because they are paid by the government This is feed corn not corn for humans More corn is grown each year than we can use because of this high fructose corn syrup was created and is now used in everything it is very cheap so food mfg can give you a larger amount for the same price as before and they still make money. Pepsi is a good example of this with the bigger bottles at the same price. High fructose corn syrup has alot to do with the weight problem of most Americans B