Be Mine

Good afternoon, everyone. I hope you had a relaxing and restful weekend. In other words, I hope you were able to dig out one of those "really want to work on" projects and made good progress.

I was able to finish my Be Mine candle mat. It is from Chestnut Junction--I just love that site!!

It is a very quick project. I finished it up while waiting for my daughter at dance. I backed it with red ticking and tea and cinnamon dyed it.

The little tin heart mold came from a trip to a huge antique mall last week. The mold was in a beautiful wooden bowl in the very first booth I came to. I thought is would look cute on the mat-even though it is a candle mat! It is on a little black cabinet in my bathroom. There were so many beautiful pieces at the mall!! I wish I didn't have such good taste. It seemed as though everything I loved came with a big price tag. Oh, well. Maybe someday!!

I have been working on some ebay listings today. Even though I said I wasn't going to list much because it doesn't seem like things are moving very well. But after going up to my attic to get something, I saw the pile and thought I really need to get it weeded out. So hopefully I will catch someone's eye with something I have. I can't sell it if I don't list it!!

Another project that is calling my name is finishing framed prints for my daughters' rooms. They are Uppercase Living sayings. The walls in their rooms are too rough to adhere to so I am framing them. I started last week and completely ruined the first one and had to reorder. It adhered to the glass completely before I was able to place it correctly. I was able to get the other one to work but now am waiting for the duckcloth backing I painted for it to dry. The reordered saying just showed up and I really should get to it. It is one of those projects that is really bugging me and will be nice to finish. I guess I will head out and see if I can get it started. I'll let you know how it turns out and post some finished pics.

Have a great evening!! Thanks for stopping by.

Back at it Wednesday

Good morning. As I sit here at my computer this morning, what is that sound I hear? It is silence, except of course the furnace humming (thankfully since it is 6 degrees outside right now). After a mini vacation from school caused by both bad weather and exam schedules, the kids are all back at it today. They were so thrilled!!!!

So I decided to check out some sights and see if I could find some stitchery patterns to work on. I hit the jackpot. I found 2 at Moonchild's Primitives--one says simplify and the other is a pineapple and crow welcome. Then I found 2 more at Chestnut Junction-a valentine candle mat and a basket of pears. I am so happy!!! These sites are great because they have tons of e-patterns at GREAT prices. So I didn't feel guilty in buying this many. Now my dilemma is...which do I do first??!!! Both sites are listed under my favorites so check them out and let me know what you are working on.

Thanks to all who offered help with getting my ebay link up. Linda from Behind My Red Door was great. Thanks again!!!

Well, I need to get back at it also. There are those pesky chores that should be done before I dig in to my stitcheries. I will keep you posted on my progress. This is such a great incentive to keep working!!!

Since it is so cold it seems everywhere, I would like to share one of our favorite keep warm meals. It is a very hearty soup, so even those who aren't thrilled with soup as a meal, will enjoy it!!

Cheeseburger Soup.

1/2 pound ground beef
3/4 cup chopped onion
3/4 cup shredded carrots
3/4 diced celery
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried parsley flakes
4 TBSP butter, divided
3 cups chicken broth
4 cups diced peeled potatoes
1/4 cup flour
8 oz. cubed Velveeta (2 cups)
1 1/2 cups milk
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 cup sour cream

In a 3 qt saucepan, brown beef; drain and set aside. In the same pan, saute onion, carrots, celery, basil, and parsley in 1 TBSP butter until veggies are tender (10 minutes). Add broth, potatoes, and beef; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 10-12 minutes until potatoes are tender. Meanwhile, in a small pan, melt remaining butter. Add flour; cook and stir for 3-5 minutes or until bubbly. Add to soup; bring to a boil. Cook and stir 2 minutes. Reduce heat to low. Add cheese, milk, salt and pepper; cook and stir until cheese melts. Remove from heat and add sour cream.
Yield: 8 servings (2 1/4 quarts).

Enjoy and have a warm day!!!

Help With Ebay Link

Good evening. Can anyone tell me how to create a link from my blog to my ebay listings. I thought I had it figured out but it just went to the ebay home page. Thanks!!

I Finished My Potato Garland

I just finished up the potato garland that I have been working on. I started with just regular potatoes and soaked them in a coffee mixture overnight. I tossed them in a bag with cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves and then placed them in the oven to dry out. It took about all day at 200 degrees. They do shrink down quite a bit so don't be afraid to cut them bigger than you think you need. After they were dry, I drilled a hole in each and threaded hemp cord through to make the garland. You could just also put them in a bowl.

My family thought I was crazy for doing this, but they are getting used to tea dye "sludge" and cinnamon sitting around. I'm not sure if potatoes were once strung up this way or not and if so what they would do with them. That would be interesting to know.

I thought my bowl of ticking hearts looked a little plain, so I stitched up three more from onsaburg and stitched some Valentine's sayings on them and sprinkled them with glitter. It adds a bit more interest, I think.

I would love to hear from you about projects you are making for Valentine's or planning for spring. Today is supposed to be the last really cold day for at least a little while. It was -10 or below last night. It's not supposed to get that cold in Ohio. At least in my opinion it's not. I'm ready for warm weather.

All of you have a wonderful weekend. Enjoy your free time and make something really neat!!

It's Snowing... Again!!

Hello. It is another winter day in NW Ohio. We are expecting 2-4 more inches of snow. Guess I'll stay in and make the best of it!!

Over the weekend, I went to get out Valentine's Day decorations. My stash included many that were not primitive enough for me anymore so I decided to make a couple of others. The stocking was one that I had made last year. The pattern is from Tennessee Ridge Primitives. I just love how it turned out. It is hanging on a pie safe we purchased at my husband's grandmother's auction. Can you believe it was hanging on the wall of her garage for who knows how many years. It was in rough shape to say the least . He thought I was crazy for continuing to bid until we won. Then he looked at me and asked what I was going to do now that it was ours. We had a local carpenter do the repair work needed, painted it Old Century Cranberry, and had tin panels punched to replace the screens. I just love it and it gives me a great spot for my yellowware bowls.

This is another project I worked on over the weekend. It is a cupboard hanger. It is from Jenny Hoffman at Country Rustic. Her patterns can be found on http://www.patternmart.com/. It is hanging on the cupboard we received for Christmas. It was fun doing it, but hard on the eyes.

Finally, I stitched up a few heart bowl fillers from some red ticking that I had left. I grunged them up with coffee and cinnamon and put them in an old wooden bowl on my kitchen table. I am still on the lookout for more Valentine's Day crafts so if you have done any, I would love to see them!!

I also started a dried potato garland. The potatoes are dry and I just need to drill holes in them and string them up. I will post pictures when that task is done.

I hope you all have a great day and keep me up on what fun projects you are working on. It will make these long snowy days go by much more quickly. Take care!!!

Snow Annie

Hello!! Well, it is snowing like crazy here today. The weatherman says anywhere from 4-10 inches. Yuck!!! The kids are bummed because all this snow is on the weekend when there is no school anyway. I'm sure we can all remember back to those days!!

I wanted to let you know that I have a few items listed on ebay. Most are designs by others, but I wanted to share my own design with you.

Her name is Snow Annie. She is 7" tall and made from tea dyed flannel. She has a burlap pocket full of sweet annie and a tag with her name. She has a rusty star necklace. She comes with 2 of my grungy battery tea lights. I have a link to my items, so please take a moment to check them out.

With all of this snow coming, maybe I will dig out one of my to do projects. I'll let you know!! Have a good weekend.

Addition to Decorating Dilemma

You can email your pictures to me at manevalfarms@williams-net.com and put french doors in the subject line. Thanks!!!

Help for a Decorating Dilemma

Good afternoon everyone. Today I am asking for your help on a decorating dilemma. We currently have two bi-fold doors that separate our living room from our family room. These are from the 70's and are dated looking. I envision 2 bi-fold glass french doors, but my hubby is not sure he wants glass. I am inviting those of you who have these types of doors separating living areas to send me your pics. Thanks so much!!

Getting Started on the World of Blogging.





Hello, everyone. Because it is such a yucky day here and my options for keeping busy are either cleaning or starting up a blog, I chose the latter. Now, I don't really know what I'm doing. My friend started one and she said if she could do it, so could I. We'll see.




I have chosen to call my blog Farm Field Primitives because my husband of 18 1/2 years and I have lived on the family farm for 15 years. He has been involved in farming his entire life. My grandparents, father, and uncle farmed as well, but not to the extent that my husband now does. We are currently grain only farmers. I know that livestock add to the charm of a farm, but I don't miss the odor. I don't actually farm along with my husband, although he tells me that running the equipment is not hard. I do the book keeping and general running around that is involved especially during the spring and fall.




I have loved antiques as long as I can remember. My mother took me to auctions when I was growing up. I do wish that I would have loved primitives then as much as I do now. I didn't really get into primitives until we moved into the farmhouse.

This is my newest piece that my parents gave to us for Christmas. It comes from a store about 30 minutes away. They design and build antique pieces using old barn siding. This actually looks like the top piece was a cupboard and was placed on top of another. It doesn't show up much next to the walls.

I have a coffee table from the same shop. They have some very unique pieces.

My goals this year include trying to make more projects. It seems I am always finding patterns that I just love-only to file them away for someday. Someday never comes and they just sit in the folder quietly waiting.

I look forward to hearing from all of you wonderfully talented prim lovers with ideas, pictures, recipes, or anything you would love to share. I promise to try to figure out what I am doing with this whole blog thing and let you know what projects I am starting and most importantly--finishing!! My friends blog, A Hole in the Basket Primitives is holding a contest to inspire you to dig out those long forgotten projects and bring life to them. Thanks for stopping by and take care.