A tricky Balance

A tricky balance.....that's what maintaining your sanity is all about when you have three kids, a dog named

 Stella, a guinea pig named Heidi, and a Barn Sale a few weeks away.  So, off to work I go.....


Well, I worked for a while, but then, I took a little trip to Oregon.....Portland, Oregon, that is....to meet a

 new friend....a new friend I met on the internet....yeh, i know, a little weird.  Not really though, kinda smart.

 It is called Networking....networking with gals that love to do what you do...CREATE.  This gal and I were

 separated at birth....I know we were.  Our lives are almost identical, for the most part....same experiences,

 good and bad.  Same dreams, same goals, same everything.....we connected on every level imaginable.  Is

 that possible....to meet someone on the internet yet connect on so many different levels?  Maybe I

 should  give Internet Dating a shot......just kidding, seriously.  Check her out, you won't be

 disappointed....Lindsey Frankus, aka The Farrier's Daughter.

Anywho, I am about to let the cat out of the bag on a different level ...this is my haven, this blog,

 right?....Only my peeps who are interested in what Christy Stone is doing come here, right? I can say what I

 want on here, right?  I am as transparent as the water in the Caribean, right?...always have been always will

 be.  I don't pretend, never have, never will.  Here it goes, I am getting a d.i.v.o.r.c.e.   You may have

 wondered what all the past allusive posts have been about....well now you know. 

On a sunnier note, I am doing good....don't want a pity party, girl drama, or anything like that.....I just

 wanted my peeps to know first hand the truth, not just what may or may not be floating around.  You have it

 and that's all I have to say....no pointing fingers, just an admission of truth.  Now you know why I have been

 neglecting you guys for the past three months.  I will survive....I know  that for sure!


Now tell me, who is excited about the Fall Strawberry Patch Sale?....ME!.....it has taken me a while to get

 there but I am THere.  Those guys in Battle Ground, Washington, at Barnhouse really know how to put on a

 show and  they  played a humongous role in getting me THere....I have a long way to go to stand up next to

 those guys, however, I am giving it all I got.....ALL I GOT! They prefer a much more monochromatic look,

 which  is so  clean and pristine it is hard to describe.....there ability to pull 1000 vendors (well not that many)

 together who are equally  talented in creating an atmosphere that sweeps you away, is

 undescribable....each vendor there is on  the same page......very impressive.  I will leave you with some

 pictures of this amazing experience....Note: my camera went dead about midway through the show.....what

 more could you expect out of me?

I have more pictures, but for now, this is it....off to work on my pieces of furniture!

Hope Floats

Ever found yourself on a dead end road? Sometimes we don't know where road the ends til we get there.....

we are then forced to back up and choose a different path (or stay at the dead end---not me).  When you hit

that dead end, it can be devastating....only because it wasn't what you expected.  However, the new path

 could turn out to be better than you ever imagined....that is what I am hoping for....Floating on Hope. ....it's

 how I am surviving these days.  If you are the praying type, pray that I have lots of courage over the next

 few months. 

Here a few pieces I have been working on.......

 won't she be lovely covered in charcoal grey canvas.......

no other option for her other than antique white....love the curves!

Have you ever found a piece of land where the moment you laid your eyes upon it, you knew it was where

you were meant to be?

                Well, I found this piece of land about five years ago early one morning while the kids and

I were doing our weekly search for wildflowers. Back then, I loaded up my shovel, the kids (still with bed

head, sleepy eyes, and pj's) and we headed out to the countryside of Macon County hitting every dirt

road we could find.....we didn't know where we were going, we just drove. This was during a time when

Chloe didn't know what it meant to be lost....thank goodness because me and my babies got lost more

 than once...... it's ok though.....I live in a town where it's ok to be lost. 

We drove around for hours looking for

anything blooming....weeds to you, flowers to me. I dug up every

 wild fern I could get my eyes on....every clump of wild phlox I could get my hands around.....and every wild

 hydrangea I could get my shovel up under....almost all of my flowers at my first home were a result of these

 journeys with my babies. We crossed creeks that were to deep to cross, we pottied in the middle of the

 road, and we drove on forsaken territory all to find a few wildflowers to call my own. These days I don't get

 to do that....my kids would panic the minute I seemed a little confused on my directions.

The past two weekends we loaded the kids up on the gator, 4 wheeler, and trail wagon and we hit

the creeks and back roads....the back roads where my little taste of paradise is....my favorite plot of land.

 I don't want much of it....just a few acres.....

then I would build me a little farmhouse on top of that little hill that

overlooks the little creek below.

Tobacco fields to the left and right....

barns in the back......

Everything I need to

make my world complete.

There is one small problem....it isn't for sale. So if you recognize where my little

taste of paradise is, help me convince the owner he has something with my name written all over it.....some

land.

We had a wonderful time with the kids....they played in the creek.....swam....and built a fire....good, free fun!

Chloe and her friend Emily

Miss Stella

stone and his buddy Charlie

Do something adventorous this weekend.....we are headed back to the creek again...maybe the owner will

 show up while we are there so I can beg and plead with him!

A little Help

 Note: i just did a full post and lost it all...here is a generic version....

I think I may hire a full time assistant to take care of all my internet communication....not really but I could get

a lot more done if I did not spend so much time on this thing.  For one day I tried not checking anything on

the internet all day....I thought I would pick one time per day to handle all correspondence and not waste so

much time throughout the day doing it....well it worked great.  It worked great because the internet was

down.....I didn't have a choice in the matter.  The next day, things were back to usual....checking FB, email,

blogger, up-teen-million times each day. It does somewhat have control over me so something has got to

change.....I don't like things having control over me.....who does, right?

                                                    here are a few "almost" completed pieces....

Summer is in full force....the kids have been home now for one full month.....they are already bored to death

and ready for a change. They consider me a "bad" mom because I can't take them somewhere fun each and

every day of the week....uuuugghh!. The neighbor kids enjoy helping me....

                                   
                                         here are two areas of my garden I am in love with.......

         I can't wait to get this big dog in my house.......I know i am all over the place......normalcy for me!

I will be heading over to the real barn this afternoon to begin the official planning stages for the Fall 2012 Strawberry Patch Barn Sale....yep, we will be moving to a real barn next year.  I am sooo excited and I will take lots of pictures to share in a few days. 

Here is a little "vendor badge" for my peeps to share on their own blog and FB page....thanks Bella Rustica for the idea!