Duckies!

Spring Cleaning - yuck

The last week has found me cleaning every day. Twice a year I hit the house hard from top to bottom. It takes me about a month. Yes, a whole month, and it's not because my house is huge either. I don't like to clean. I feel like spending time with the kids and/or eeking out that 30 min. to myself every now and then is just more important than a spotless home. So on a good day it looks.... "lived in". There's 8 people in this little house plus various critters. So anyway, I've spent the last week in the kitchen. I always start with the kitchen because it's the worst. It gets the most use, it's got the most stuff, it takes the longest to finish, and when it's done I breathe a sigh of relief because it only gets easier from there.
When I start my spring (or fall) cleaning spree I start with the things I can't stand in a room. This year it was the kitchen floor. Tile painted white. Looked filthy no matter how much scrubbing you did. On the first day I ripped it up, got all adhesive off, then we wiped the ceiling, the light fixture was taken apart and cleaned, the tops of the cabinets wiped, and all the many things that go on top of the cabinets were taken down, cleaned, and re arranged. Anything that hadn't been used since the last cleaning and was not purely there just to make me smile was trashed or put in the goodwill box. We also took advantage of having the hutch/pantry pulled out (for the tile) and emptied and scrubbed it down, wiped down everything (each individual canned good ect.) and put it all back in and reaarranged/organized. Day two we wiped all the walls and emptied every one of the top cabinets wiping them down and everything that was inside of them wiped and put away nicely, discarding anything that didn't see use or have some purpose. Day three we pulled everything off of the counters scrubbed the tile w/ a toothbrush, scrubbed the stove top and switches, scrubbed the counter, sink, and dish strainer (yep that's right, going on year two and the dishwasher still hasn't been hooked up). Day four we did the inside of the stove and the microwave. Day five we emptied out all the lower cabinets and scrubbed them and their contents, even the cleaning supplies got a bath. Tomorrow is day six, we will scrub baseboards and floor and move into the kids bathroom. Other than the floor the kitchen looks amazing (for us). I found a new tile cleaning recipe that works wonders (neighbor walked in and actually asked if we'd always had that tile and it's the tile that's been here for more than 15 years. and the best part? I'm almost done with it!

p.s. the tile cleaning recipe is on my pinterest board http://pinterest.com/fluffington/life-made-easier/

Todays shopping adventure

I was starting to get sick of all this spring cleaning, so since miss maggie had a shooting sports meeting in the area tonight anyway we decided to leave a bit early and hit the junk shops (a.k.a. Antique shops) in Desoto. My favorite one was closed. At 3:00. So I went to the candle shop and bought some smelly goods and hit a couple of the smaller shops on the main strip. I got lucky. My main goals were pink glass and a crock for cooking utensils. At the first shop I found a neat little glass container w/ lid for $.50 and... a perfect cake stand w/ lid for $8.00. At the next shop I found a nice little pink plate for $2.00. I was pretty happy. Last stop was a shop that I don't usually go into because they are horribly overpriced and always have stuff that I want but I figured I'd do a quick walk through. In the very front on a table I saw my cake stands identical twin so I cruised over to look at the tag. This stand was identical, and the dome was marked $25 and the stand was marked $45. Made my day. So now I have new pretties. Oh, and we stopped by orchlens on the way home to look at incubator prices and I might have brought home some ducks. The husband just assumed they were chicks until he saw in the box. He's not nearly as pleased with me as I am right now. BUT I HAVE DUCKLINGS!! and they are soooo cute. Pictures of duckies coming soon.

It's Official!

Spring is here!!! For me, the arrival of spring is signified by one thing, and one thing only. The return of my owls. Every year without fail, for the ten years that this house has been a part of my life a pair of wonderful hootyowls have nested somewhere in the woods behind this house from spring until early fall. Last night I heard them talking to each other and I was so happy to have them back. I have spent so many nights outside in a comfy chair, or perched on the roof stargazing listening to those owls. I remember the first summer that I spent with my husband, and this house belonged to his dad at the time, sitting outside and hearing those owls and just falling in love with this house (and the husband too, of course).
On that note, I decided to let our new broken boy (who's official name is Floppenstien) have a visit with the girls and though he's young he appears to have done the job so we may have some beautiful broken Satin Angoras born next month.
I've been spinning like crazy lately, really enjoying myself, and I've ordered a bunch of little things so I can give my beloved babe a tune up so that I can keep it up.
So welcome to spring everyone, this year is going to wonderful, I can already tell.

There's a reason my back hurts!

After six hours in the hospital with xrays, blood tests, ultra sounds, and more - due to severe back/leg pain that has kept me mostly on the couch for over two weeks it turns out that I have a herniated disk! While it's not good news it means that I now have a stack of prescriptions that are keeping the pain at bay. I am up and moving around again and I never thought I'd be so happy just to be able to clean the house :) I'm still sore but hopefully after all the medications are in my system it will lessen a bit so that I can bear standing in one place for long enough to card up some new batts, I've got all kinds of ideas for pretty things I want to work on.
In other news the etsy shop has gotten an addy/name change, punkjordane at etsy will now be fluffingtonfarm at etsy and very soon there will be some listings in the shop for those of you who feel more secure making your purchases through a large website. If you see something on my destash page that is not in my etsy shop just send me a convo, I'll make you a listing and you can check out through etsy, no problem.
Still working on the fiber fair schedule. I'll admit, I'm a little intimidated after my year off :( but I'm looking at new display options and starting to get excited.

Contest Winner and other things

The winner is Sharon Steinhoff! Congratulations Sharon and thank you everyone for participating!
I really did enjoy hearing what everyone likes to spin.

On another note, I spent six hours in the emergency room yesterday. My hip/back/leg pain finally became overwhelming and since I have no insurance it was off to the hospital we went. After xrays, ultrasounds, blood tests, and other assorted things it turns out that I have a bulging/herniated disk! It's pressing on my sciatic nerve and making me HURT. So now I've got three presciptions and a list of dr's to try who will work with me and a referral to get an MRI, though due to the insurance thing that's probably not going to happen any time soon. So, that's my life. It's nice at least to know what's been causing all the pain.

A little Giveaway!

Want to win 4 oz. of yummy 60% Alpaca/40% Milk Roving?? The day after the fluffington farms facebook page hits 500 likes we will be picking a random lucky comment from that page to get some fiber goodness. How to enter? Like the facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fluffington-Farms/247749762029 and leave a comment about your favorite thing to spin, invite your fibery friends to like the page, for a 2nd entry you can join the ravelry group http://www.ravelry.com/groups/fluffington-farms and leave a 2nd comment on the facebook page letting me know.