Having So. Much. Fun.

Maybe it's because I've recently become addicted to Flea Market Flip.

Or maybe it's because I'm sick and tired of constantly working on home improvement stuff, but yet still want to do something. Something artistic or creative or funky.

Or cash?
Could be the cash.

Anyway, whatever the reason, I've recently started making some crafty things. And selling them.

Much of it is horsey stuff, cuz, you know, Funny Farm.

For instance, I took an old stirrup and turned it into a Christmas door hanging.

I turned some snaffle bits into doorknob hangers.

And another bit into a toilet paper holder.

Spruced up a few old jars.

And a few other projects, some already sold, some still looking for buyers, some still classified as Work In Progress.

Is it wrong to enjoy myself so much when engaged in elementary school work playing with scissors and glue? Because I truly am enjoying myself. I want to do it all the time. Like quit my day job and ditch the dining room table for a proper workshop, and start an Etsy shop and become the most profitable seller Etsy's ever seen, and have Martha call me for advice and....

Huh.

Maybe I've been using a bit too much glue.

Advent Stockings

Since today is December 1st, I am reposting my Advent Stockings post. We have started ours today. Are any of you doing any kind of Advent activity?



A number of years ago I came across an idea somewhere (Family Fun, maybe?) of a fun way to count down the days till Christmas.

We had done the advent chains, where you start with 24 paper chains and you rip one off each day so the kids (the little ones, especially) can see how many days are left till the big day. Some people write a bible verse on each chain, or an idea of an activity to do, some just leave them blank.

We also do advent calendars, as this is something I remember from my childhood. Somehow, my kids seem to get just as much thrill out of something as simple as looking for the daily number and opening the flap as I did when I was little.

But my favorite Christmas countdown, and it seems to be my kids' favorite as well, is our advent stockings.

















I'm still planning on throwing a length of Christmas greenery along the hooks to dress it up a bit, but you get the idea.


Pretty simple to do, and the kids get soooo excited to find out what's in each stocking.

I just went out and bought 12 pairs of red and white socks from Wal-Mart, but you could do this for free just by using socks from your unmatched socks basket.

What? Doesn't everybody have a basket full of scores of unmatched socks???

Find some wallspace where you can hang this. I happen to have a long mirror with hooks on it that I use, but you can get some of those 3M hooks that come off the wall when you're done. Those things are all kinds of awesome.

Run a string through the holes of 24 clothespins, and mark the clothespins from 24 down to 1, with 24 to the left and 1 all the way at the end on the right.


















Then have some fun figuring out what to fill the stockings with. If you haven't figured it out yet, this works just like an old-fashioned advent calendar: on Dec 1st, your kids get to see what's in the stocking hung by the "24" clothespin. Dec 2nd they open the "23" stocking and so on down the line till they've opened the "1" stocking on Christmas Eve.

The beauty of this is that you can go really cheap or really elaborate, whatever floats your boat (and your budget).

A few ideas along the range of free to pricey:

*print out some Christmas activity pages, such as word-searches, crosswords, coloring pages,
*cut out strips of red and green construction paper and put those in the stocking for the kids to make a Christmas chain,
*cut out a little Christmas tree from green paper and write "Today we find (or decorate) our Christmas tree!",
*put a Christmas cookie cutter in the stocking to let them know today's the day they'll get to help make Christmas cookies,
*put a little baggie of birdseed in the stocking with a note that instructs them how to make peanut-butter-and-birdseed-pinecone-feeders for the birds,
*candy canes,
*Christmas pencils,
*gum,
*Christmassy hair accessories,
*jingle bells and some ribbon for the kids to make necklaces with,
*surprise them with breakfast out on the way to school one day (perhaps you could write it out on a star cut-out),
*cute Christmas socks.

You're only limited by your imagination.

Each day, another sock comes down, so they'll have the visual before them of how many days remain till Christmas.

If you can't trust the kids to not peek (and really, if you can, I don't like you very much), then just fill one at a time before you go on to bed each night.

The kids have been asking me for weeks when we can start the advent stockings.

Maybe I'll need to make advent stockings leading up to the advent stockings.





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Chicken-Scratch-Saturday: Wire Ribbon

If you're like me and pick up your wrapping supplies for next year during the post-Christmas sales, then I have two words for you...

Wire ribbon.

Yes, wire ribbon.

I'm in love with it.

I want to marry it.

I've been using it to wrap my Christmas gifts for years.

So beautiful, and it comes in every pattern and color and width imaginable.

VERY easy to use. You don't even need to borrow anyone's finger when you're trying to tie the bow.

Just lay a length of ribbon across the front of the package, cross it in the back, come back to the front and tie a bow. Wrap the ends around your finger a few times and it makes a pretty curl.

Just a quick pull unties it and it's good as new. When I'm tidying up after all the presents have been opened, I just roll the ribbon back up and stick it in my ribbons and bows box for next year.

I'm telling you, I have some ribbons in there that I've used over and over for years, and they're just as pretty as ever, so you definitely get your money's worth out of them.



Wire ribbon.
Get some.





Image courtesy: etsy.com


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Wordless Wednesday

There's this rumor going around that once your kids hit the teen years, they sleep in on Christmas.

That rumor hasn't hit our house yet.

The kids were still up at the break of dawn.

As in, about 6:15.

Probably would have been earlier if we had allowed it.

What can I say, we have an enthusiastic family.



They were cute.

There was stocking dissection.

Sweet sibling gifts like kitty-cats

and Bieber posters.

There were awesome sneakers

and overwhelmed puppy dogs.

And two tired parents that succumbed to long winter's naps before the clock struck noon.

Thankfully, no pictures of that....



Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!


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Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, dear readers! Hope you're all having a beautiful, peaceful day.

No TALU Tuesday today, but we'll back next week.

In the meantime, I thought I'd share how our Christmas mornings roll...

The kids get a MAT (Minimal Acceptable Time) they can wake us up. Now that they're older, it's much later than when they were little.

Like 6:30.
Ugh.

Anyway, they wake us up, but they have to wait till we give them the greenlight before they can go downstairs.

Which means, Fred and I go down, turn on tree lights, start coffee, get the cameras ready, basically anything we can think of to torure them a couple more minutes.

Just prior to explosion, we release the hounds.

Most years, someone falls down the stairs and there's a little associated hyperdrama, but there's rarely any blood, and it subsides easily enough on its own.

First thing the kids do is rush and stumble over to the sofa to see the Santa gifts.

Why the sofa? Because with six kids and two overly enthusiastic parents, there is literally no room for even one more present.

Next is stockings. They lovvvvvve their stockings.
They're cute.

When it's time to open the gifts under the tree, we do Santa rounds. Meaning the kids take turns playing Santa by finding a gift under the tree for each person, and passing them around. When everyone has a gift, we take turns opening them.

We ooh.
We ahhhh.
We repeat.

Santa makes sure all the wrappings are taken care of before the next round starts.
So paper in gi-normous trash bags, boxes and gift bags in a box, ribbons and bows in another box.

Can you say OCD?
I'll take it.

It all makes for a marathon morning that lasts several hours.
But why rush a good thing, right?

They love it.
I love it.
We all love it.





And how about you? What does Christmas morning (or whatever holiday you celebrate this time of year) at your house look like?


Merry Christmas to all!






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Mirth Monday

Image courtesy: Marla Meridith, via Pinterest


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Chicken-Scratch-Saturday: Ornaments

For those of you with little kids, here's a Christmas tradition that we've been carrying on since ours were knee-high.

We kinda like it, and you may, too.

Each year, Santa puts an ornament in their stocking. Some years they've been higher quality ornaments, and other years they've been cheaper, it doesn't much matter.

Santa always puts their name and the year on the bottom of the ornament, so they don't get them mixed up in later years.

And last year? I found these awesome shoebox-sized Christmas boxes on sale after Christmas. I got each of the kids one, and put their names on them, so when we're taking the tree down, their ornaments can be wrapped and put in their own box. This makes things a little less hectic when it's tree-trimmin' time.

This is not a picture of one of our boxes, but they're exactly the same.
Except ours have a cuter pattern.
And they're see-through.
And made of plastic.
And well, pretty much not like these at all.
But you get the idea.


When it's time for the kids to head out on their own (and we're getting closer over here at the Funny Farm), they'll each have a box of ornaments to take with them as a head start on their first tree.

For our adopted kids, a few years ago we took all our ornaments that didn't really "belong" to any one in particular, and we let them take turns choosing ones that they liked till they were "caught up" to their years. We added their names, and voila, they had enough ornaments as they would have had if they had been born into our family.


So go ahead!  Start this tradition with your kids.  They'll love it!






Image courtesy: boscovs.com

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Holiday Shop for the Kiddos (in lieu of Therapy Thursday)

My kids are all teens now, and other than needing a lift, they pretty much handle their Christmas shopping on their own.

But when they were little? I hated the prospect of taking them all out together, and somehow helping them shop for Christmas gifts for their siblings without anyone seeing what the others were getting for them. Because wrangling preschoolers and toddlers and helping them shop for others when all they can think is MeMeMe is not on my list of favorite things to do.

Taking them out indvidually? That was a luxury in time I did not have.

My solution?

A holiday shop in the comfort of our own home.

I would take one evening to go shopping on my own, while Daddy played babysitter.
I'd run out to Five Below, or the Dollar store, or Wal-Mart, and buy small gifts for each of the kids (plus Mom and Dad), plus several extras. So for example, when I had four little ones, each of them had to buy for their three siblings, plus stuff for Mom and Dad, so five gifts each. Five times four is 20, so I would buy maybe 25or 30 small gifts.

Then one afternoon I would let them play holiday shop. I would set all the items out on my bed (except the "Mom" gifts), and let them come in one at a time to shop. I'd give them a gift bag, and let them select gifts for each of their siblings, and Dad.

You could let them pay for their purchases with allowance money, or by letting them earn tickets with good behavior, depending on their ages and how you handle money with your kids.

The reason I always got extra gifts is so that by the time the last kid shops, they still have things to choose from. Any extra gifts after the last of the kids has finished shopping can go in their stockings, or can be donated to any of the programs that collect toys and other goodies around the holidays.

The process is repeated when Dad helps them shop for gifts for Mom.

The Homemade Holiday Shop works out really great b/c
*the kids don't get so overstimulated,
*they can more easily think of those they want to buy for,
*you don't have to hear "Clean-up in aisle 2" and wonder what your six year old knocked over.



Hope this helps make your holiday shopping a little easier!





Image courtesy: stockfresh.com


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Wordless Wednesday: Oh Christmas Tree (take 2)

We finally got to it.

We got our tree.

We got it home and got it up.

We decorated it.

Yay us!





Here's the "shack" at the Spruce Grove Tree Farm that we go to every year.

 





Here's the kids in the midst of some shenanigans.

We're "on the wagon."

View from the top of the hill.

Tyin' her down.

"Mom likes ME best"!
My sister got these for all the kids.
Funny.

Trimmin' the tree.

All done!
My sweet six kids and their adorable little cousin.

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I-Need-Therapy-Thursday: Merry Holidays

A repost from my old blog.....




I took my receipt from the cashier, white-knuckle-gripped the bar on the shopping cart, cast my eyes downward and muttered Merry Christmas under my breath as I sprinted out of the store.



Why?



Because I had this inner battle just before I opened my mouth: should I say Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays? I know that Happy Holidays is the PC way to go. Uttering the phrase Merry Christmas to someone used to make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, but nowadays I feel more like I've just delivered an insult than a friendly greeting.



Again, why?



I could comfortably wish the same cashier a happy Valentine's Day, even if I was unaware of her relationship status. St. Patrick's Day? I've wished a happy one to every culture and ethnic group under the sun.



Why then do the words Merry Christmas get so stuck on my tongue?



My questioning is purely hypothetical; I know perfectly well why. We've been brainwashed to believe that the merest hint of anything religionesque is to be stricken from our vocabulary. Now, fear not if your religion is in the minority. If fewer than 50% of the population worships alongside you, you may proudly decorate, sing, and greet others in the manner befitting your respective holiday. Your office manager will hasten to display your religious icons on the receptionist's desk, even while stowing away the two foot plastic Christmas tree in the stock closet with the extra TP and lightbulbs. But if you're Christian? Best to keep your household decorations pared down to some white lights and evergreen branches. Candy canes are iffy, but if you're feeling brazen, I say go for it. No reindeer, no Santas, and God forbid, no lawn mangers. Strike the word "Christmas" from the link with ___cards, ___parties, ___pageants, ___cookies and replace with the more anemic "holiday" and you're politically golden.



Well, call me a rebel if you will, but I'm not drinking that Kool-Aid. While I absolutely 100% believe it is wrong for the majority to force its religious views and practices on those who don't share their beliefs, I also think it is equally wrong to villify those of us who wish to publicly celebrate our religious holidays, just because ours is a majority view. If it is right to not just tolerate but welcome the celebrations of others, it is right to allow the celebrations of the majority, as well.



How can we hope for tolerance and acceptance of all cultures and religions if we try to sweep a selective few under the rug and pretend they don't exist?



As for me, I hope to learn about your religion, your culture, or at least enjoy the ways in which you celebrate what is important to you. I hope you extend the same courtesy to me.



Merry Christmas.......






















Cartoon courtesy: savagechickens.com



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Wordless Wednesday: Oh, Christmas Tree

Wanna see what a Christmas tree looks like in a busy family of eight?







*************



Wait for it....




************

************


That's right.

The day that I had set aside to go on our annual tree expedition came along, but the usual zeal that goes along with it was conspicuously absent.

And it was a little foggy.

And a couple kids found a ride to the mall.

And bleh.

So.... next weekend?

Hopefully.





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Chicken-Scratch-Saturday: Holiday Pillows!

[Posted this last year on my old blog]



Last year, I read from Stacey on her blog I'm a Lazy Mom, this amazing idea of using Christmas placemats to sew together into throw pillows. She got the idea from Traci Romine at Decorating the Lazy Mom Way.

Wherever it came from, I love it.

So when I went on my annual day-after Christmas sale for next year's wrapping paper, I saw this set of two Christmas kitchen hand towels on sale for $2.50. Brought 'em home, sewed 'em up with some old pillow forms I had lying around, and voila, two of the cutest little Christmassy throw pillows you've ever seen in no time flat.
[That plain red one is one of our regular pillows]























Thank you Stacey. Thank you Traci. I love my new pillows!




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Since today is Saturday, that means I'm linking up with:

Camera Critter's Life With Dogs Pet Blogger Hop
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I-Need-Therapy-Thursday: Deflowering a Believer

You know how they say that your children will always be your babies, even when they're grown?

Well, that's maybe a little more true for one of my kiddos than for the others.

My little Bella is just more child-like than most kids her age. Chalk it up to her delay, her learning disabilities, her short stature if you want. She recently turned 15, but if you met her, you might think she was more like 10 or 11.

Add to that that she is one grade down, and has an early-in-the-schoolyear birthday, so she's a good year and a half older than most of her classmates.

Not surprisingly, then, she still believed in Santa a good bit longer than the average bear.

And a couple years ago, I decided it was high time she knew the truth. I guess I was afraid that at some point, the teasing was bound to set in, and I wanted to protect her from that.

So I let her have 13. I figured she was only in 6th grade, after all, and there were still a handful of her mostly 11 year old classmates that believed, so she wasn't alone. But let her get to 14 without knowing the truth? Nope. It was time.

So after that Christmas, it was maybe January, I called her into my room to have a talk. This is typically where I talk to the kids about puberty, and the birds and the bees.

Are we gonna have another one of those talks, Mom?

What talks?

One of those talks about the changes in my body and where babies come from and stuff? Cuz you already told me all about it, and gross.

No babe. But I do need to tell you about something.




And snuggled in the blankets and pillows, bathed in soft lamplight, I proceeded to rip her her beloved Santa Claus from her soul.  Though I did it as gently as I could, I still felt like a monster.

That's not a parent's job!  That kind of business is better left to big brothers and local bullies.

In fact, in this age of technology, most kids don't even learn it on the street, they figure it out on their own.  They set up the video camera to capture their parents in digital deception, or they head to the trusty interwebs to learn the truth, cold and icy as polar snow.

But not me.  I'm her MOM, but I had to play the role of the pimply-faced, green-toothed, scabby-nosed bully, and tell her all about how it's Mom and Dad that put the presents under the tree and in the stockings.  We eat the cookies, we drink the milk.  We shop, we wrap, we hide.  We do it all.

With each of her questions, there was a hint of hopefulness that she would trip me up, reveal a mystery I didn't have an answer for.  With each answer of mine, another tear slid down her little face.

But I finally got through it.  I did the dirty deed of ripping away her child-like innocence, under the guise of educating my child, and preventing the pain of teasing.

Why then, did I feel like such a demon? 






Anyone know of any babies with candy I could steal?





Image courtesy: kidsonlineworld.blogspot.com

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Chicken-Scratch-Saturday: Family Tree Skirt

This is another Christmas idea I got years ago, and again I quote Family Fun as my maybe source.

It is our tree skirt for our Christmas tree.

I don't have the instructions for it, but it was pretty easy no-sew project. You just cut out a tree skirt shape out of any heavy fabric you like (I used a green velvety-type). It's basically a great big donut with a slit cut from edge to center. If you need to, just use your existing skirt as a pattern.

Then you turn the edges under and glue them with some tacky glue or hot glue. Glue on some rick-rack for trim, if you'd like.

Then pick some fabric paint that will contrast nicely with the material you used. Pour some onto a paper plate and coat each family members hands, one set at a time, and help them press their hands onto the fabric in pairs around the edges. You can go back later and touch up empty spots with a paintbrush if needed.

Have each person in the family write their name on a piece of tracing paper. Cut out each name so it's a workable, stand-alone square piece of paper. Then on the back of each name, squeeze some good old-fashioned Elmer's glue on the letters, tracing each letter just as the child wrote it. Press this onto the tree skirt just above or just beneath their handprints, pull up the paper, and sprinkle with glitter so you've covered all the glue-letters. Repeat with each person's name.

Finally, write out the year on the skirt with the glue, and sprinkle glitter over that, as well.

Pretty simple, and yet this is maybe the one thing I'd run back into the house for if my house was burning down.


Here is a picture of ours. Pay no attention to the dog and cat hair.
















(Names blacked out)

Ours has the year 2001, because that was the year I made it, but then when Bella joined our family in 2003, I added that year. James and Julie's handprints were added six years later, but I still have to go back and write in their names and the year.
 
I'll get to it.

No really, I will.


Let me know if any of you end up making this, and show me a picture!



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In case you didn't know it, I'm like the queen of blog-hoppin' lately. It's kind of like square dancing but without the dated outfits, smelly gym, and elderly caller.

Since today is Saturday, that means I'm linking up with:

Camera Critter's Life With Dogs Pet Blogger Hop
Tutus and Tea Parties' Pinteresting Party

Check out my full schedule over in my sidebar.

Come join the fun!

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Rudeness disclaimer:

I love all your comments,
I read every one!
But I can't hit 'reply',
I've no time for fun.
Please don't judge me,
Please don't hate.
If you have a question that just can't wait,
Send me an email at farmbeachgal@yahoo.com,
And I'll answer right back because I'm, you know, the Mom.

Chicken-Scratch-Saturday: Advent Stockings

A number of years ago I came across an idea somewhere (Family Fun, maybe?) of a fun way to count down the days till Christmas.

We had done the advent chains, where you start with 24 paper chains and you rip one off each day so the kids (the little ones, especially) can see how many days are left till the big day. Some people write a bible verse on each chain, or an idea of an activity to do, some just leave them blank.

We also do advent calendars, as this is something I remember from my childhood. Somehow, my kids seem to get just as much thrill out of something as simple as looking for the daily number and opening the flap as I did when I was little.

But my favorite Christmas countdown, and it seems to be my kids' favorite as well, is our advent stockings.

















I'm still planning on throwing a length of Christmas greenery along the hooks to dress it up a bit, but you get the idea.


Pretty simple to do, and the kids get soooo excited to find out what's in each stocking.

I just went out and bought 12 pairs of red and white socks from Wal-Mart, but you could do this for free just by using socks from your unmatched socks basket.

What? Doesn't everybody have a basket full of scores of unmatched socks???

Find some wallspace where you can hang this. I happen to have a long mirror with hooks on it that I use, but you can get some of those 3M hooks that come off the wall when you're done. Those things are all kinds of awesome.

Run a string through the holes of 24 clothespins, and mark the clothespins from 24 down to 1, with 24 to the left and 1 all the way at the end on the right.


















Then have some fun figuring out what to fill the stockings with. If you haven't figured it out yet, this works just like an old-fashioned advent calendar: on Dec 1st, your kids get to see what's in the stocking hung by the "24" clothespin. Dec 2nd they open the "23" stocking and so on down the line till they've opened the "1" stocking on Christmas Eve.

The beauty of this is that you can go really cheap or really elaborate, whatever floats your boat (and your budget).

A few ideas along the range of free to pricey:

*print out some Christmas activity pages, such as word-searches, crosswords, coloring pages,
*cut out strips of red and green construction paper and put those in the stocking for the kids to make a Christmas chain,
*cut out a little Christmas tree from green paper and write "Today we find (or decorate) our Christmas tree!",
*put a Christmas cookie cutter in the stocking to let them know today's the day they'll get to help make Christmas cookies,
*put a little baggie of birdseed in the stocking with a note that instructs them how to make peanut-butter-and-birdseed-pinecone-feeders for the birds,
*candy canes,
*Christmas pencils,
*gum,
*Christmassy hair accessories,
*jingle bells and some ribbon for the kids to make necklaces with,
*surprise them with breakfast out on the way to school one day (perhaps you could write it out on a star cut-out),
*cute Christmas socks.

You're only limited by your imagination.

Each day, another sock comes down, so they'll have the visual before them of how many days remain till Christmas.

If you can't trust the kids to not peek (and really, if you can, I don't like you very much), then just fill one at a time before you go on to bed each night.

The kids have been asking me for weeks when we can start the advent stockings.

Maybe I'll need to make advent stockings leading up to the advent stockings.




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Thanks!


***************

In case you didn't know it, I'm like the queen of blog-hoppin' lately. It's kind of like square dancing but without the dated outfits, smelly gym, and elderly caller.

Here's the schedule I keep:
Monday:
Homestead Revival's Barn Hop
Natural Living Mamma's Natural Living Mondays
The Chicken Chick's Clever Chicks
A Cat-Like Curiosity's Monday Mantras
Ponder Wonder's Soul Food Monday
@ Home Take 2's Mom's Monday Mingle
DIY Dreamer's Pinterest Repin Party
DIY Home Sweet Home's More the Merrier Monday
Tuesday:
Heavenly Homemaker's Gratituesday
Crafty Garden Mama's Tuesday Greens
The Wrinkled Mommy's Tuesday Archive Link-Up
Wednesday:
My Life and Kids Finding the Funny
Tilly's Nest's Down Home
Hey Mommy, Chocolate Milk's Mom's Library Link-Up
Crafty Spices Wordless Wednesday
Thursday:
A Rural Journal's Rural Thursday Blog Hop
Two In Diapers' Mommy Brain Mixer
Friday:
Deborah Jean's Dandelion House's Farmgirl Friday
Fresh Eggs Daily's FarmGirl Friday
Little Becky Homecky's Fantabulous Friday
@Home Take 2's Weekend Blog Walk
Oh So Amelia's Friday Chaos
Saturday:
Camera Critter's Life With Dogs Pet Blogger Hop
Tutus and Tea Parties' Pinteresting Party
Sunday:
Dawn's Disaster's Super Sunday Link


Come join the fun!

*************

Rudeness disclaimer:

I love all your comments,
I read every one!
But I can't hit 'reply',
I've no time for fun.
Please don't judge me,
Please don't hate.
If you have a question that just can't wait,
Send me an email at farmbeachgal@yahoo.com,
And I'll answer right back because I'm, you know, the Mom.