The Big White Farmhouse

intentional living, little by little

No.781: The Wednesday Five #34

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Happy Wednesday!

A QUOTE

Life isn’t long enough to do all you could accomplish. And what a privilege even to be alive. In spite of all the pollutions and horrors, how beautiful this world is. Supposing you only saw the stars once every year. Think what you would think. The wonder of it! – Tasha Tudor

TABS OPEN IN MY BROWSER RIGHT NOW
A BEAUTIFUL PIECE OF ART

“For to be a farmer’s boy” by Winslow Homer (found here)

A THOUGHT-PROVOKING VIDEO

I found this mini documentary really interesting and have already found a biography to add to my TBR.  It’s called The Father of Spin: Edward L. Bernays and the Birth of Public Relations by Larry Tye.
CHRISTMAS COOKIE BRAINSTORMING

What are your go-to cookies and/or sweet treats during the Christmas season?  I’m brainstorming ideas for the neighbor’s cookie boxes and would love to hear your favorites!  I’ll go first and share one of ours: Gingerbread Men!

No.780: Last Week at the Farmhouse // Simple Autumn Days

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I worked on a new junk journal for December!  One aspect of junk journaling that I love is the ability to use up crafty projects in a useful way.  For example, I enjoy cross-stitching but I’m always at a loss for what to do with them once I’m finished.  Anyway, I recently found a finished Santa piece that I made more than a decade ago!  I had attached it to mounting board but woo, it was a terrible job.  I pulled and warped the fabric and it was nowhere near straight.  (I’m assuming I had planned to frame it for decor but the end result was so bad, I must have tucked it away in my craft box to deal with later, ha!)  This week, I decided to pull it off the mounting board – sadly warping it even further – and used it as the cover of my December journal.  It’s wonky and imperfect, but it’s something I made with my own hands and it didn’t end up in the trash!  For the back, I whipped up a quick hand-stitched hexagon piece from red and green fabrics I already owned.  Voila!  A fabric cover for all of our December memories.

New recipe of the week: pumpkin scones!  Not too sweet and delicious.

A quote from Padre Pio: “…stay in the boat in which Our Lord has placed you, and let the storm come.  You will not perish.  It appears to you that Jesus is sleeping, but let it be so.  Don’t you know that if he sleeps, his heart vigilantly watches over you?  Let him sleep, but at the right time, he will awoken to restore your calm.”

My husband’s coworker and his wife just had their first baby!  She was full term, but he was itty bitty (6lbs!) and has had to spend the past two weeks in the NICU.  I picked up some adorable, tiny preemie outfits and had so much fun packaging it up.

No.779: Little Bits and Bobs // 05

A series about little thoughts and things to share.  I hope you’ll share your thoughts and latest finds with me too!

+ There’s been a lot of brainstorming around here this week.  I’m a little overwhelmed with the idea that Christmas is only six weeks away.  Slow down, time!  As the kids get older, their gifts get harder to come up with and are way more expensive; we’re a very simple Christmas gift kind of family and trying to keep on budget is still proving tricky.  This week, the kids helped me write down all of our December traditions that are important to them, so I’ve got that list to work with too.  I also picked up a few stocking stuffers (teenage boys love their protein bars) and ordered a few gifts for extended cousins (they are all 6-under, so super fun and easy!).  Deep breaths…one day a time.

+ I’d like to do cookie boxes for the neighbors this year and this planning post was really helpful.  Now to make another list of cookie options!

+ How sweet are these Christmas jammies?  I think I love the “Away in a Manger” design best, but “Prince of Peace” is a close second.

+ A really unique gift idea: a year’s worth of storytelling sent to you via snail mail!  The company is called The Flower Letters and there are four different adventures to choose from.  Fun.

+ One of our dinners this week was pasta with this creamy tomato sauce, adding in leftover shredded chicken at the end.  A great way to use up a can of tomato paste.

From the Big White Farmhouse archives…
+ Advent School 2019

No.778: A “Little Autumn Joys” Junk Journal

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This “little autumn joys” junk journal is a project that I have enjoyed immensely this past month!  Everything about the process has been new to me; I have made quite a few mistakes but have also learned so much.  A few details:

For the cover, I used the spine of an old, water-stained Little Women book.  I had kept it in my craft stash “just in case” and was so happy to finally have a use for it.  I glued a piece of my hand-stitched quilting (remember when I mentioned it last year in this post?) on top and added a little blue button for some interest and dimension.

The inside pages are a hodgepodge of things: pages from two children’s books that were ripped/had the cover pulled off, kraft cardstock, pages from a picture story pad (sort-of like this), a brown paper bag, pages from an adult coloring book, pages from the Little Women book itself and a few scrapbook papers that I purchased.  My goal was to create something beautiful with items I already owned, spending the least amount of money possible.  I think I accomplished that!

 

Junk journals are a great home for those little notes and drawings from the kids.

 

For my birthday, I asked for and received the Canon Selphy photo printer and it’s so great!  You can link it to your phone and it makes printing photos a breeze.

 

I have had that postcard of the fox playing cards since the Big White Farmhouse Shop days!  So nice to have a use for it – I used the back as journaling space.  This photo also shows one half of the paper bag I included in the papers.  I tucked a picture of me and Samson in that side space and used a fabric scrap as the tab.

 

One last photo: I stapled in a dried leaf (hopefully it won’t crumble into pieces!) and made a little flip up space with the “BOO” card.  Underneath, I have journaling and another photo.  So fun!

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