Kitty Kickerz Cat Toys ~ Etsy Store Review

Such a busy time!  Farmerboy's shearer decided to arrive last Friday to kick off the weekend.  I have been frantically listing last year's fleece in an effort to make some Shetland space.  (Okay, I got rid of some of my hoarded stock purchases as well... only a little!)   Now, I have to get a game plan for this year's haul.  *Yikes!*

Then it occurred to me, Easter is right around the corner.  Luckily, I made a pact with a fellow coworker to give up packaged candy.  No reason to trot down the candy isle for me! ;)  I will eventually pick up something for the kids and something small for Mr. Hollow and myself.  But holy smokes, I almost forgot about the fur babies!   I decided to go to an Etsy store that is very popular with Gabby and Izzie:  Kitty Kickerz Cat Toys.   The shop is operated by a wonderful lady named Tara.  She creates an assortment of fabric cat toy Kickerz filled with organic catnip.  They were a huge hit with the little ladies at Christmas.  :) 

Santa brought each of them and their nephew Elliot a 12 inch kicker.
 

 

 

 

Here are the photos after they were wore out from playing.  I must congratulate Santa on being savvy enough NOT to put them under the tree!  LOL

 



The Kickerz are put up on a shelf in between plays.  The ladies know where they are at and call out their request looking fondly up at them.  These Kickerz have taken a beating and no rips yet!

Tara is currently running a 10% sale off of purchases of $25.00.  I took full advantage of the discount and was surprised to find she had some play mats, too.  Of course, I had to get a few of them to try out.  If your cats are crazy for catnip like mine, these Kickers are a great deal at $7.95 a piece.   I am not going to lie.  I was skeptical about how well they would hold together.  My ladies still have their back claws and can bunny kick up a storm, but they seriously have withstood several play sessions. If you are looking for a last minute gift for your darling little feline, check out Tara's store KittyKickerzCatToys on Etsy.  Tara's creations definitely get a shining review from myself and the ladies, too... Well, once they get done with their afternoon nap anyways!  ;)

Easter Cactus and Prayer Plant ~ Review of EBay Store Hirt's Gardens



My Easter gift to myself this year arrived from Granger Township, Ohio.  They are the most beautiful beautiful plants courtesy of EBay seller Hirt's Gardens.  I will admit that I was a little surprised to see that they were packed with Styrofoam popcorn holding them in place, but the photos don't lie... They made it to my house in great condition.  ;) 

 

My first purchase... a lovely Easter Cactus (Told you that I would get one!) had only two small loose joints on its arrival that I took off and placed in soil to root. The color of this Rhipsalidopsis  is the most gorgeous shade of Orange.  It arrived in a 4" plastic pot for $7.99.  The color reminded me of Easter egg dye.

 

Note:  I purchased a bunch of $2.00 distressed looking ceramic pots from the Dollar Store to be new homes for the travelers.  Seriously... How Can You Beat That?



 

 

This is how it looked Easter morning, and it was the perfect choice to brighten my day. :)

My other purchase was a Prayer plant.  I can remember my Mom having one of these when I was little.  They are the most amazing plants.  As you can see in the photo, the leaves are like any ordinary plant, but...

at night, they all rise in prayer...  Pretty cool isn't it?  

The Prayer plant arrived in a 4" plastic pot for $5.99.  Three plants arrived in a Priority Mail box (the Shamrock plant was part of the order) for $7.70 shipping.  I could have ordered more for the same shipping cost, so I think that their shipping was and is very fair.  They have some good deals in their store.  There are some items from Hirt's Gardens that are not available at my local greenhouses.  So, they will definitely be seeing another order from me soon!  :)

An Easter Surprise!

I already had a post ready for Easter, but the Easter bunny had other things in mind for us and our ewe Lego.  She birthed two beautiful lambs in the wee morning hours.  Liam and I had to check them out.  They are really pooped out in this photo and were only semi dry.   Quite a stir for the barnyard on this gorgeous Easter day. 

 

Lego is such a terrific Mom.  This is the second Easter in a row that the flock was blessed with healthy twins.  The smallest of the two is a little girl and is next to Lego in this photo.  She is completely black and has tiny little tight curls.  To honor the day, she has been given the name Lily.

Here is a photo of her twin brother.  He has some odd white markings on his face... Kinda makes him look like X-Men's Wolverine.  Don't you think?  LOL   Keeping in the "L" names and inspired by the season, his name will be Leif.  I know this photo makes him look big, but he is so small... Our little Spring Leif.  :)

Luke the Llama was humming intermittently while I was there.  He gets nervous like a new father.  He does not want anyone getting these little ones excited.  Here is a photo of him sniffing Lily to make sure she is okay after I touched her head.  He kept edging me away from the pen.  The little lambs are not even remotely frightened of his big face in front of theirs.  It is so amazing how Luke bonds to his flock and with each lamb at birth.  They are all his family...  Such loyalty and an inspiration to witness.

 

 

Happy Easter!

Sweet Meadow Farm's Prim Easter Bunny Finished!

I hope that everyone had a Merry Pi Day on 3/14!  We celebrated the mathematical constant at our house with a slice of cherry.  After telling my co workers about the dessert planned for my family, my branch manager pulled out a huge apple pie that she had stored in our break room freezer.  Instead of pulling a 10 hour shift, I went home for a few hours and did some baking! LOL  So... my team at work got to celebrate with a slice of  heavenly apple pie! (For her generosity, I brought my manager a piece of cherry back, since that is her favorite! ;) )   We were talking about next year's plans, since the date will be 3/14/15 and that will account for the first 5 digits of Pi.  I am thinking that we should all bring a different pie and spend the day sampling!  LOL

  

 

 

 

I finished my darling little bunny from the Sweet Meadow Farm's pattern.  She is every bit as cute as I imagined.  Thank the heavens that she is prim, since my skill level is perfect for that style! ;)  ** Oops... the remnants of the Pi celebration are in the background! :)

 

 



She is complete with genuine feed sack bloomers.   It would be fun to do a bunny with all feed sack clothes.  For this little girl, the dress fabric was dipped in coffee, and it gave the wee outfit a wonderful vintage look.  One lesson that I learned was not to fold the fabric over a hanger to dry after dipping.  The coffee settles on the cloth that is resting on the hanger and leaves a dark line.  But if you dip the affected pieces again, squeeze them a few times while in the coffee and finish by hanging them with clothes pins; the lines will go away... Lucky for me!

Her colors go well with my living room walls.   I would like to make her a dark little boy playmate and some wool Easter toys.  It would give her arms something to do.  Now, I am off to look for another project that needs completion!

 

I hope everyone is having a lovely weekend! :) 

Sweet Meadow Farm's Prim Bunny

A few years ago, I picked up the "Simply Bunnies" pattern from Maureen Mills of Sweet Meadows Farm. (Maureen was the designer of the gingerbread girl doll that I purchased for Christmas 2011, during an online craft show (here). )   My desire was to purchase more of her finished dolls.  But since my searches came up empty handed, I decided to check out her patterns.   Yikes!  You should see her sweet little dolls.  I left her site with three patterns ordered.  :)  Quite the big dreams here, since my experience in doll sewing is ZERO.  After receiving the patterns, I really enjoyed looking, reading and filing them away in my "to do" drawer.  Sound familiar? ;)

 

The bunny pattern was calling to me last summer, so I broke out some muslin hidden in my "hope that its needed someday" stash and created some bunny body parts.  Unfortunately... not long after completion, the parts were put in a tub and forgotten about.  :(

 

As you can see below, this little darling was rediscovered last weekend... just in time for Easter.  What had I been afraid of?  Time to break out and have a little fun.  I made some stain from instant coffee  (It was pretty light... Makes me wonder if brewed coffee would stain a bunny darker?)  and began wiping the body down with a soaked sponge.  It took a few coats to get to the final shade.

 

 

Painting the eyes was reminiscent of my ceramic days... sigh... with my  paint caddy getting to see a little action! LOL  Then, I was surprised to find that Maureen uses my favorite colored pencils for the detail work... Prismacolors.  They are another item that hasn't seen a whole lot of daylight in the past year.  The whole process is so addictive!  My mind was buzzing with possible dye methods and assorted shades of pencils to use on future bunnies. :)

Below is how she sits right now.  Tonight, the assembling will begin.  Then, my Easter fabric will get a once over for an outfit.  The coffee stain will come in handy to give the fabric an antique feel to it.   This whole project has been amazingly fun.  I love the excitement of tackling something new, and Maureen's designs are definitely newbie friendly...  Trust me!

The eyelashes are very prominent on this little one, so a dress will be constructed.  My mind is already imagining a dark little boy playmate.  I think that I'd better start experimenting with some natural dyes!  :)

Homemade Cadbury Cream Eggs Recipe

Here is a little recipe that can give you that taste of Easter all year long!  :)  It is a homemade version of the Cadbury Cream Egg.  I spotted this recipe online and had to give it a whirl.  They received great reviews on their debut Easter Sunday.  So with the family taste test out of the way ;), I am putting this gem up to share with friends.  In order to give credit to the blog where I located this recipe,  you can get the original list of ingredients by clicking on the name of Susan's blog, "The Royal Cook" .  Below is how I made my eggs with a few minor changes... 

The photo below is the filling consisting of the softened butter, corn syrup, salt, and powdered sugar.   (I forgot the salt, and it still tasted great.  I will add it the next time.  Well... Maybe... If I remember! ;) )   An electric beater was used to mix in the first two cups of powdered sugar.  Then, I switched to mixing by hand for the next two cups. (I've burned out a mixer before combining thick fillings... OOPS!)   The white mixture gets very thick and pliable like a taffy.  After completing the filling, a little over a quarter of the white mixture was transferred to another bowl where 4 drops of yellow food coloring were added and  mixed to an even yellow.  

A rounded aluminum teaspoon was used to scoop out the white filling.  It was dropped onto a nonstick cookie sheet.  Another spoon works great to push it out of the scoop, since warm fingers will make the mixture more sticky. :)  The cookie sheet with the white filling was popped into the freezer.  The yellow mixture (non scooped) was placed into the refrigerator.  They were in there respective places for 5 to 10 minutes for easier handling.     

   

I skipped a picture due to messy hands! ;)  The white and yellow filling was pulled from the fridge.  The white was flattened, and a 1/4 teaspoon was scooped from the yellow bowl and placed in the middle.  It looked like a little fried egg!  The white was then closed around the "yolk" and placed back on the tray.  I completed six wraps, placed the entire cookie sheet into the freezer to firm, then completed six more, and repeated until finished.  After all the wraps were made, I let them sit in the freezer on last time before dipping. 

An  11.5 ounce bag of Nestle's Milk Chocolate Chips were used for the outer coating.  My microwave and I are not always simpatico with concerning chocolate ;), so I decided to create a double boiler by taking a little sauce pan and holding it afloat in a larger pan of boiling water.  The milk chocolate chips melted fast!  To make the chocolate smooth, I added only a 1/2 a Tablespoon of the Crisco. 

Nothing left to do but dip the eggs! :)   I removed the eggs from the freezer, set them (one at a time) into the milk chocolate with a fork, scooped chocolate over them until thoroughly coated, and lifted them out and onto their cookie sheet.  Voila!

Here is the finished product!  My hubby had two gone right away and said they were even better at room temperature.  And you know what??  It only cost me roughly $3.00 and an hour of time to make 22 eggs.  (Okay, I could work on shaping them more like eggs next time! ;) )  Cadbury Eggs are 79 cents a piece at our store.  Plus, I still had quite a bit of dipping chocolate left in the pan! :)

  

For those friend's with little kids, I think this would be a fun Easter project.  My hubby sure is looking forward to having another batch in the house! ;)     

I hope that everyone had a Happy Easter... Welcome Spring! :) 

Happy Easter!

Aren't vintage cards lovely?  This one is from 1911. *sigh*  

 A Joyful Easter from My Family to Yours!