Hello everyone! Happy March! Where did January and February go? We have been homeschooling, and I have been on a cleaning frenzy... That just is how it is for me all year long with a small home... The challenge of the lack of closets... The struggle is REAL! I have been organizing my work table, work space area, stocking supplies, buying new reproduction fabrics, and stitching... My current Goode Huswife sampler is above.. I am fortunate to have a collection of her retired designs.. I have had this pattern for many years and just now stitching it... What am I waiting on??

I need to get to working on my offerings for PHM-Primitive Handmades Mercantile.. A selling group that I sell on each 3rd Thursday of each month...Have you heard of us? We have a large group of talented ladies..Our next sale is next Thursday...March 17

I hope you all are doing well in this twilight zone world we are living in... 

Until next time! Jen 

 

Hi everyone!! I can't believe that it has been so long since I have last been on here...So much has changed in my life and our world...

It is October, my birthday month, but I have been  thinking about chicken and dressing, not a turkey fan, and all the fixins...I am wanting to get my menu planned already...

Is anyone still on blogger? It took a bit for me to figure out how to post...There is a totally new format....

I hope you are having a lovely autumn weekend! 

(The turkey is a Tina Woltman design)

Part 6......Last summer

So here is our little house as of summer 2017...The willow tree has grown and has to be trimmed several times during the season to keep it this size...It grows soooo fast! I did what I said I wasn't going to do...Lantana was planted in place of the shrubs...I still fear snakes as we have found baby snakes and grown snakes in that area each year...When I walk outside, I walk fast and I'm always eyeing the ground...It looks beautiful cascading over the rock wall...The red is 2 rose bushes that gets covered by the lantana...I may end up moving them to the back yard...We have talked about some kind of carriage lighting on each side of the garage...That will be another project...I will be sure to share if we do it...I want a tin roof someday...I want to redo the little porch area with pavers and do a stone walkway maybe....I want to talk Tim into doing the driveway in pavers like a Charleston street...lol...We will see...lol...In the meantime! This is our little farmhouse/ Charleston carriage house....Next time, I will start sharing the side yard and back yard!

From The Farmhouse~~Jen

Part 5...The Shutters...

The shutters...I stood and painted these in my pink fluffy house shoes in the driveway...Tim designed the hardware to match the the hardware on the garage doors...

I was so excited to see them go up after all that work on them...They took way longer to do than I expected...And they are heavy!

I talked Tim into digging up the 2 shrubs on each side of the willow tree...It opened up that whole area to some beauty....I will share it in another post...

From The Farmhouse! ~~Jen

Part 4...Picket Fence One Year Later...

House Projects...Part 3

Skipping ahead to last February...I will be skipping around a bit in the front yard...The privacy fence was coming down...Tim asked me what I wanted to do for our 29th wedding anniversary...I said really quick,  "Build a picket fence!!"...So we spent days building a picket fence together...And instead of cut roses, we went shopping for rose bushes to put behind it....

Now, just let me tell you...You probably will not see me in any of these pictures...You will only see Tim...Tim can put on grungy yard clothes and still look good...Me...grungy clothes...Sweating...Cute, not so much! I am the woman behind the camera!

This sweet fence has brought me such joy this entire year as I come and go throughout the day...

House Projects...Part 2

Some of our first projects were building a wall around our landscaping after our front yard flooded a few times and washed the mulch away...The wall took 2 years to build...We bought bricks as we had the extra money to buy them...The first year, the wall on the left was built and a willow tree was added in between the front windows...I bought the willow tree from Cottage Farms on QVC...The next spring, we continued to buy bricks a few at a time, and the right side was finally finished...It was a test of patience because we wanted it done to see the end results...But we do our projects as we have the extra money...

In the meantime, I also persuaded Tim to pull out the bushes that were crowding my butterfly bushes..I did a lot of complaining about those 2 bushes..lol Now they had room to spread out and I was able to see the ground...We have had some snakes up under our bushes, so I always keep that in mind when choosing plants...

Another project in the front was our plain garage door...This was all Tim's creation! The hardware and faux windows were designed by him and made at work...They were applied with strong velcro...Even the handle! It has held up all these years...The garage door goes up and down as normal...

In the picture of the house at the bottom, I see that the privacy fence is still up at this point...I did love the honeysuckle vine growing up over the fence on the left...Over a 2 year period, the fence was taken down on the right, and then the next year the left was taken down...That leads to another project...

And it continues~~Jen

House Projects...Part 1

 Hello friends! I am sorry I have been gone so long! I was doing so well with my posting and then we had a heartache...My sister-in-law left this earth for heaven back in December...We knew it was coming after a 6 year battle...It was hard, so my blogging was pushed aside...

Recently, I have been going through a million pictures...lol...It feels like it anyway...Pictures of our life...Our daily life...Being a cancer survivor, I take pictures! I document our lives for my children...For some day, when I am not here...I wish my parents had had the technology that we have to document my childhood...

So, I have been trying to find pictures from when we moved from our beautiful former home to our little one story home 10 years ago...We lived in our former home for 9 years and the wear and tear of going up and down stairs was wearing at my knees...So, sadly I had to look at finding a one story...So, Tim told me to find one that I liked...Luke was only 1 years old... I would put him in the car with our realtor, and we looked at many many houses....Well, long story short, I found one...But I told everyone really quick that it WAS NOT my forever home...lol...We had a contract on our former home in a week and I had to find something fast...With my list narrowed down I finally had Tim tagging along to look at some....This little one was one of them...It was practically half the size of our big blue one, but I wasn't finding anything else that even appealed to me...

So in the spring of 2008, we signed the papers and we moved in...My daughter, Taylor, was fixing to graduate from high school...And my son, Luke, was 1 year and 5 months old...I continued for months to decorate this little home with  all my favorites of a much larger home...It wasn't going to work...lol...But that is another story for another day...I am going to take you on our yard journey...Turning this plain house into a home I might want to make my "forever home"...

This is the earliest picture that I could find...It is several years old I know because I spent the first couple years working on the inside...Our home was featured in the Spring 2010 issue of the Country Sampler Magazine...I spent a lot of time painting the entire house and decorating getting ready for that...I can also see that on the right of the front door that my butterfly bushes are already planted...I started buying flowers from Cottage Farms on QVC then...The butterfly bushes were my first purchases...But as you can see, it was plain! Just plain!

More pictures to come! ~~Jen

 I love live tulips in the house! I save the bulbs, dry them til autumn, and then they go in the ground...My red and yellow tulips from last year are coming up, through the dirt, around my bench in the back yard right now...A gift that keeps giving! 💙

Happy Valentine's Day! 💜

A finished project! I bought this file cabinet/school supply cabinet back in the spring and I asked for it to be unfinished so I could have time to decide what color I wanted it...Well, it sat in my work area for a few months, and then one day I moved it up on my work table and stained the inside...After that, it sat for months and months and months and MONTHS! Today I walked by and said "This is the day!".... I need sunlight coming in my bay window, and I need my work table to antique some frames...Not long after I made that declaration, my hand sander died! So I have been hand sanding all day... This is my finished project to live with for now and decide if I need to do anything else to it after the new year....It feels good to get it this far! Finally! :)

I have to use this day to tell how GOD has blessed us....In 2002, I was told I had cancer and I had 6 months to a year to live...That wasn't in God's plan...As soon as I went into remission I asked the doctor if we could have another baby...I always knew he was meant to be...In 2005, I miscarried...I prayed that if I wasn't to have another that God would take that desire away from my heart...But he didn't! I learned through it all that it is in God's time..Not mine...In 2006,  2 1/2 weeks after my 40th birthday, I gave birth to Timothy "Luke"...My first words I whispered to him when they handed him to me were "I have waited so long for you!"....I was at 4 years remission and our family was now complete....His smile and laugh lights up my heart everyday! He is a constant reminder of God's grace and that God gave me my heart's desire! HAPPY BIRTHDAY my sweet 11 year old!!!

My "Jenny Day"...Thank you, Lord, for another October 27th! Thank you for 51 years! Last year, Taylor and I came to the old train depot and she took my picture for my 50th...Today, I spent the day as usual with my husband, Tim...So today at the old train depot we just happen to find this "Queen Bee" that some random person had previously written...Fitting for the day, so Tim wanted to take my picture in front of it..And if you notice it says "J + T" at the top...Perfect for Jenny + Tim...The writing was waiting just for me....💙 I am so blessed!

I took a "Jenny Day" yesterday and spent the whole day out antiquing and I took a cookie break with my daughter, Taylor, at Jason's Deli...I had not done that since last October...It was fun and the housework was still waiting on me..lol...But we all survived! I need to do it more often!

Taking time to reflect today on this last full week of one of my favorite months...15 years! It is like I get a bonus birthday every year...15 years remission...During this month,15 years ago, I had just finished a round of terrible chemo treatments...The strongest they could give me with more meds for a week after I went home..My body went through warfare...I had been given 6 months to a year survival...Radiation was going to begin...Much pain...It affected my eyesight... Cancer had left me with only one workable vocal cord....Radiation took away my voice.... They did not know if it would return...But GOD had other plans....Today I am here, 15 years later....My voice came back....On a good day I can hum and sometimes that 1 vocal cord allows me to softly sing.....I have my 10 year old, Luke, that was added to our little family of 3 to make us a little family of 4...He was born 2 1/2 weeks after my 40th birthday....God has been so good to me!! And on this 15th bonus year, I want to publicly praise HIM for all his many blessings...I could not be here....Luke would not be here....But God was not ready for me yet! So, each year to me is a bonus year! I am forever very grateful! 💙

Primitive Handmades Mercantile's October Update....

 The October update is tonight at 9....Be sure to stop by and see all the goods all our talented ladies are offering...

http://primitivehandmadesmercantile.com/taylorsfarmhouseattic