Late Spring on Johnson Farm

So, I am finding this post in my draft folder, I obviously forgot to post it!  Duh!  So, here I am posting just a "few" months later!  Makes me wish it was spring, but then I do like the blanket of snow outside.........it really does prevent alot of work outside ;) !



So it is June 1st here in South Dakota.  To some people their summer has already started, but here in the upper midwest, things are just started to get warm, so I will call it late spring.  The weather has been beautiful, a little chilly a few nights ago; but really nice.  We even caught some much needed rain this last week too.  What a blessing.  We only have a couple cows left to calve; the crops are all up; and Farmer Johnson is (as I type at 10pm) still out spraying weeds in fields.  Here are some photos of what has been happening on the prairie.............

I took this while I was mowing last week.  Ella decided to sit back and take in the sun.

Moooo!

My Dianthus........and a butterfly.

Yes, I am obsessed with my yard.  Please don't judge ;)

My cow whisperers.......

Can you see Farmer Johnson planting some corn????

Hello there three cows!

Easter Dress to Flower Girl Dress

So, this wedding is coming up very quickly.  Extremely quickly, and I have a list a mile long to do and prepare before the big day.  One of which was preparing this girls' flower girl dresses. 

We found some ivory dresses online, that had pink and ivory flowers on it.  I thought it would be easy to take them off and replace them with pretty purple ones.

                                        My beautiful family!  The girls in their dresses!

Christmas Cheer

Ok, yes..............I have not forgot about blogging.  Really I haven't.  Life happens, harvest happens......holidays happen, and look a new year already!  Happy 2013!  I have done quite a few projects, but just haven't posted.  Here are a few Christmas projects I accomplished this year, of course a couple are pinterest finds.

 

Folded book angel

 

 

 

 

Sheet Music Christmas Tree

 

 

 

My Christmas Tree with the addition of my lime green/brown poinsettas!  So pretty!

 

 

My new wreath that I made to match my Christmas tree!

 

 

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

Seatbelt Ring Bearer Pillow

I mentioned before that my sister-in-law is getting married next month.  I saw a very similar pillow on Pinterest.  To be honest, I fell in love with this seatbelt pillow idea.  Just loved it!!  So, I mentioned it to my sister-in-law, and she thought it would be neat. 

Then I forgot about it! :(  But then I remembered.............just in time for the shower!! 

First I had to FIND some extra seatbelt laying around...................humm.  Where do you find extra seat belt???

How about in Farmer Johnson's "new to us" semi????  Why yes there was a "net" of seatbelt used to hold belongings of the previous semi owner.  How convient right?!?!  Absolutely!

So I started cutting and sewing, and cutting and sewing.  It was not looking good.  Not good at all.  Seriously, I was about to throw it away.  And, just tell her she was going to have to buy one. 

I got my good friend to come over for her opinion before I completely gave up.  We looked, and looked, and turned, and turned, and looked at it some more.  Our conclusion: we decided to start over.

It was a good thing we did....................she had a vision...............of how to do it correctly!!!

And it turned out great!

What do you think?

Turned out AWESOME!!

Mother's Day Window Project

Here is a window that I made for my mother-in-law for Mother's Day this year.  At approximately 3 months of age with all of my kiddos I took a picture of them in a John Deere hat that my father-in-law (the orginal Farm Johnson) bought. 


I have a few 4 pane windows out in the shed, but since there are only 3 kiddos, I couldn't figure out what to do with the 4th pane........So, I decided to search for a 3 pane window.  I found a few at the Antique Mall in Mitchell, SD; but, they just quite weren't what I was looking for. 

So, I ended up going online and found one on Etsy.   This shop - CountryCraftWindows has some great windows if you are looking for something unique!  What great service too!  It arrived in one piece.....glass and all!  

I was going to strip it down and stain it, finish it, etc.  However, I was running out of time.............so I opted for sanding it down, painting it, and then staining it to "antique" it a little.  I took a utility knife to the glass to clean off the paint.  Then I took some thin cardboard to make backs for my pictures, and put it all together.

All done!  I was very pleased with how this turned out.  Someday maybe I will get it back ;)

Watermelon Flowers

So, my sister-in-law is getting married next month......and we had a shower for her this last week.  It was a salad luncheon/supper thing.  I brought a corn salad, and then some watermelon.  Just for fun, I thought I would do something fun with the watermelon, just to make it pretty.  Something I saw on Pinterest.....imagine that ;)

So, this is what I did.....

Slice your watermelon approximately the width of your cookie cutter(s).

Start cutting away! 

Now what to do with the rest????

Save the "scraps" for yourself later ;)

Isn't that pretty?  So, fitting for a bridal shower.



Rhubarb Rhubarb Rhubarb

I've been really busy baking cakes lately....so I apologize for not posting much lately.  After this week, I will post some of the 20 or so cakes I have done in the past couple weeks. 

Anyways, I did manage to pick some nice rhubarb a couple weeks ago, and put it in the freezer. 

The best kind of rhubarb to pick has a pink tint, and is no larger than 1/2 inch in  thickness.  It will be sweeter, and more tender to cut.

One of many cutting boards full of diced rhubarb.

This turned out to be 12 cups of diced rhubarb.  It was so tender and sweet. 

All ready for the freezer.  I put 2 cups in each freezer bag..... most of my recipes call for that amount.  So nice and convient to pull out and pour into whatever you are making.

Great for making jelly, desserts, pie, bars, or just rhubarb syrup on ice cream.  Yummy!