Farm Life

This week has been an unusual and exciting week on the farm (and elsewhere) and it is only getting more exciting as the week rolls on. First of all..last weekend...

On Saturday I attended a family reunion with my parents (and Nova!). It was my Mom's side of the family and I only knew about 25% of the people there. Maybe not even that many. I'd never really been to a family reunion before but it was a good experience. Lots of good food, people to talk to, a very beautiful setting (a family farm) and comfortably cool weather. I don't want to ramble on about the reunion so I'll just show you a photo so you can get an idea of most of the people that came.

Sunday was a relaxing day, my beau and I explored the woods on his ATV, went swimming and picked the first watermelon off the vine in the garden. I was very excited about this watermelon. It's a small variety watermelon, my Mom calls it "ice-box watermelon". We checked the signs online so we could be sure it was ripe and it seemed to meet the qualifications but when I went to cut it open the next day...it was still white inside, it was very unripe still. I hope we have better luck with the next one.

Monday was another exciting day because my Dad brought home the dog he had been intending to adopt. He picked her out last week and she went through all the vaccinations, spaying and rest after her spaying surgery before she could come home with him. She is an Australian Cattle Dog, also known as a Red Heeler. Her name will be Wiley because of her resemblance to a coyote. Hopefully, like Miss Ellaneous did, I will be able to dedicate a post to her with photos and funny stories about her soon! You would think Miss Ellaneous and I coordinated adopting dogs together.

On Monday I also hung out with my good friend from high school who is getting married in 3 days!! I have a feeling it is going to be a very big event! I'm a little bit nervous about her wedding and the festivities coming up for her but I'm sure everything will run smoothly. After I pick my hair style for sure and finish my MOH toast..I'll be ready to stand by her side.

I made these really cute coasters out of old t-shirts at the bride's house

I better go get ready for the day!
Until Next Time...
The Farmer's Daughter

Pinterest Party

And so my obsession with Pinterest continues!...

My best friend from high school is getting married in less than a month (yay!) so we had a Pinterest Party as her bachelorette party. I'd never attended a Pinterest Party but it was so much fun! I'm not sure how they're usually organized, but we asked everyone to bring a food dish they'd found on Pinterest and another one of the bridesmaids organized the craft project while I organized the beauty project! 

For the craft we made light bulbs into flower vases. I've always though that was a really cute idea! Now my vase is on a shelf above my bed with flowers, where I can enjoy them! For the beauty project, we eat chose a nail design and did each others nails. I thought everything turned out nicely. I made kale & artichoke dip; I was pretty happy with how it tasted. Someone made a spin-off on pizza (as pictured above). 

I stole Martha S.'s idea for the drinking glasses because I thought it was so cute and used chalk board tags to write wedding related words on each one! It was a really cute party! I hope to have another Pinterest Party sometime soon, perhaps set up a little bit differently. It would be fun for everyone to bring a craft and the supplies needed to make the craft. So many pins get forgotten about and that's no fun! 

Pin on! 

The Farmer's Daughter

DIY Necklace & the Rock Quarry

Here goes with an update on some activities I've been getting into: 

Tennessee... I went to visit brother in Tennessee last Thursday through Saturday. Originally we were planning on going to a place called The Beach and some natural waterfalls in Tn. We changed our plans, though, when we heard it was supposed to rain. Instead, we went somewhere closer to their home (in case it started raining). It was a beautiful rock quarry.

The water was a beautiful greenish blue looking down at it and it was very clear and cool in the water. Poppy, my niece, really enjoyed the water once she got used to it. Most of my family loves water..I am pretty sure she will too!

Poppy gets cuter & more independent every day! 

Crafting.. I was attempting to weed out some of the jewelry I don't ever wear and I found a long necklace chain without any charm on it. It reminded me of a necklace I had been wanting to make but I thought I didn't have all the materials for. (Of course this craft was found on Pinterest.)

What I used for to make this necklace: 

Jewelry (small) pliers, scissors, paint chips, necklace chain & a needle

What I ended up doing with the necklace chain I found was shortening the chain and using the links in the excess chain to attach the paint chips cut into triangles. Otherwise, I followed the directions of this blogger: Sincerely, Kinsey I was quite pleased with the final product! :) 

Stay Crafty! 

The Farmer's Daughter

Shenanigans with Miss Ellaneous

This week I have been on a sort of stay-cation, I haven't been working and have been home. My parents took a trip to Asheville, NC. and left me at home to take care of all the plants and animals. It's been an interesting and HOT week. I hadn't seen most of my college friends for a while, so Miss Ellaneous and I spent Tuesday and Wednesday together.

The loose calves. After coming back from swimming, Miss Ellaneous and I heard a cow bawling. If you know much about cows, you know they make a lot of noise when they're separated from their calves. I didn't think too much about it because I was hungry and wanting to fix dinner. After dinner though, it was still bawling so we had to go investigate. We hiked the hill to the barn and went through the field to see the mother cow facing down the hill. Across the fence we could see her calf. It had somehow managed to get through the fence and into the other field (away from it's mother and the rest of the herd). We spent at least an hour chasing the calf, attempting to send it through the open gate so mother and baby could be reunited. After lots of running up and down hills (Miss Ellaneous and myself were all exhausted and covered in sweat- the dogs were panting and looked very hot themselves). It was so hot and the air was so thick from humidity, it was no fun running after the calf. Finally, the calf, with me trying to herd it toward the open gate, ran into the woods. I went after it but didn't see any signs of it. I went a little ways into the woods, collecting several ticks and mosquito bites. It was getting dark, so we left the gate open in hopes that the calf may come out of the woods and find its way back to it's mother......The mother cow stopped bawling around midnight that night and the next morning we assumed the two must have been reunited. The next evening, we heard more bawling...This time, two calves had come through the fence and away from the herd. Calves can be so frustrating!

Crafting. Miss Ellaneous and I also had some craft time during her visit. I made some necklace pendents from corks (I've been itching to try making these!) I found the idea through Pinterest of course. You can find the link to the original craft idea here. I had the corks & paint already, and found the eye screws at Lowe's for $1.24 (for 10). I began doing just as they had instructed:

1. slicing the cork with a knife using a vice grip
2. using stamps and paint to decorate the cork
3. using the tiny screws to create a way to hang the cork on a necklace

The trouble I had was getting the stamps and paint to cooperate on the cork surface. I skipped the step of sanding the cork because I couldn't find any sand paper. Perhaps the smoother surface would make it easier for the paint to leave a clean mark. I asked Miss E. what she thought I should put on the cork and she suggested buttons. So, I put a new twist on the craft and hot-glued buttons onto the corks. I ended up painting one cork slice, leaving one just as it was, and putting buttons on the rest. I think they turned out pretty cute:

 A visual of the screws:

Miss Ellaneous and I had a fun visit! I hope to see her and the others again before too long!

Come read again soon!
The Farmer's Daughter

Scarf Organizer & half baked

I have been debating on what to write about on the blog this week and I decided to go ahead and write about various topics including a DIY and icecream. 

Ben & Jerry's half-baked. This ice cream is awesome, it has lots of large, yummy pieces of cookie dough and brownie batter and it combines chocolate and vanilla ice cream. Another plus, many ice cream brands include high-fructose corn syrup in their ice cream, but B & J's does not. Ben & Jerry's is also committed to non-GMO and free-trade. I'm just sayin', you should try it! 

Secondly, my latest organizational and craft project. I LOVE scarves. I've recently bought a couple of scarves and as my collection grows, I continue to want a new organizational method for storing them. I found this idea on pinterest and I thought it was worth sharing on here too. 

Supplies I used: 

• hanger
• shower curtain rings
• electrical tape (other tape, ribbon or yarn could work too)
• ribbon

All I did was attach the shower curtain rings to the hanger using the electrical tape. Then, since I used a plastic hanger that could potentially bend from the weight of the scarves (wooden would be sturdier), I reinforced the hanger with ribbon. The ribbon also made it look cuter. I considered wrapping the whole piece in ribbon or yarn to make it more attractive but I thought the scarves would cover up most of it, so it wouldn't really matter. Here's the finished product: 

And now it's hanging in my closet...It feels good to be organized!

Go make one of these and then enjoy some Ben & Jerry's as a reward! :) 

-The Farmer's Daughter

Laundry Room Updates

As promised, here are the before and after photos of the laundry room makeover. I just wanted to put it out there that I am not trying to take full credit for the laundry room, as my sister did most of the work. Since the room is so tiny, we decided that it would be best if only one person was painting in the room at a time. Therefore, I was put on kitchen duty and was in charge of washing all of her dishes instead. Fun!

Anyways, I just wanted to share the transformation of the room with everyone since pictures of dirty dishes aren't all that exciting. Below are the before photos:

A close-up of cabinets before painting

As you can see, the color scheme wasn't all that bad in my opinion, but the wallpaper was outdated and peeling off in some spots. The red cabinets were painted by my brother-in-law and his sister when they were kids...that's why they aren't exactly professional quality. I wish my parents had let me paint on the furniture when I was little!

And now for the after photos. One of the photos shows the cabinets with only one coat of blue paint on them, which is why they don't look the best. I left before the second coat was put on, so I didn't get the best "after" photo.

It does look a little like a nursery, but I still think it's pretty. Also, the second hole above the knobs will be filled in once we can get a hold of some wood filler. They used to have handles, which is why there is a second hole there. 

Lastly, since I am random, I will leave you with a picture of a beautiful bug I found outside a couple days ago. I'm interested in figuring out what kind of insect it is, so if you know, feel free to leave a comment below.

Thanks for reading!

-Miss Ellaneous

Fried Chicken and Wallpaper

Today was a long day. I spent last night with my sister so that I could help her work on her house. She is currently in the process of redecorating/remodeling her laundry room. Our main goal for the day was to strip the wallpaper, which we managed to do. We also went to the store and picked out paint colors for the walls and cabinets.Pale yellow for the walls and light blue cabinets. I do not want to go into too much detail about it because I would like to wait until we get finished so that I can share the before and after photos. This is pretty much my first time redecorating a room, so I am excited to see how it turns out. We are planning to do the bathroom next!

In addition to spending the majority of the day in the laundry room, I also tried my hand at frying chicken again. I have fried chicken only twice before today. Once I had help, and the second time I left it in the pan too long and burnt it. Since I was cooking for five, I was a little nervous that we may have to end up going out to eat for dinner, but I worried for nothing. Even my brother-in-law, or BIL, as I have been referring to him lately, said that he really liked it and wished that I would teach my sister how to make it. However, he hates my new nickname for him, and said that he will have to think of something worse to call me if I don't cut it out!

I didn't really go by a recipe, but I will explain how I fried the chicken here, just in case someone may be interested:

First, I thawed out the skinless chicken breast. There were three huge ones, so I cut them in half lengthwise and width-wise  with a sharp knife and trimmed off some of the fat. I beat two eggs and coated the chicken in the egg mixture. I then rolled the chicken in all-purpose flour and added some black pepper and another spice mix that I can't remember the name of. On the bottle, it said that it tasted good on chicken, so I gave it a shot. It had a mixture of rosemary, oregano, onion, etc. in it. After that, I set the chicken on a plate and let the flour soak in while the oil heated up in the skillet. I filled the skillet up about halfway with vegetable oil and turned the burner on medium heat. When the oil started bubbling, I gently placed the chicken in the oil and waited until it the chicken was golden brown and then flipped it. You don't want to flip the chicken more than you have to since it will cause the flour to fall off. That would be bad because you put it on there for a reason, right? I felt like it was harder to keep the breading on skinless chicken because the flour doesn't have as much to hold onto (raw chicken breast is slippery, but it is possible to fry). Once both sides are golden brown, the chicken should be ready to take out and put on a plate with a few paper towels to drain the grease. I like to cut into a couple pieces of chicken with a knife just to make sure that they are thoroughly cooked before I take them out of the pan, but that's pretty much all there is to it.

There are many different ways to fry chicken, so I would recommend trying new things until you find something that you like best. I have read that lots of people soak their chicken in buttermilk in the refrigerator overnight and that really improves the flavor. Others use a beer batter. Some roll theirs in flour, while others use breadcrumbs or even crushed up potato chips (which is my boyfriend's favorite). Next time I have more time available I would like to try the buttermilk approach and see what that tastes like, but for now I will just share a photo of my dinner tonight, just to make you drool! Try to ignore the huge bite taken out of the chicken...I couldn't wait to taste it before I took the picture.

The other items on the menu were green beans from my sister's garden, homemade mashed potatoes, brown gravy, and some Great Value brand stuffing that I picked up at Walmart earlier. It was my first time trying it, and it wasn't too bad. That's all for now.

Until next time, 

-Miss Ellaneous