Another wedding?!

     There is too much love in the world. There. I said it. Seems like we've had a wedding to go to every weekend for the last year. Given, we had a short break in the dead of the cold, bleak winter, but alas, they are back! Seriously, I'm kidding. Here's a card I made for the wedding of our good friends for this upcoming Sunday. I used Bride Mae from Some Odd Girl Stamps. LOVE every single stamp from SOG!

     I used Copics and water colors to make the stamp look similar to the bride, but I wanted to give the card a masculine touch so that the groom could appreciate it too. I also wanted to add a little vintage-y feel with the scallop punches. I thought they mimicked the look of little doilies. What do you think?Hop on over to Some Odd Girl for yourself and check out their fabulous stock of digital and clear stamps. You won't be disappointed! :]

Happy Tuesday!

     Happy Tuesday! Husband is home with me again today and therefore I have gotten next to nothing done because I'd rather spend my time following him around the farm. Let me show you our morning in pictures...

Twinkie says, "Oh. My. Goodness. Is that watermelon?!"

"It's ALL mine!"

    

Then there's always one that comes late to breakfast who thinks she can just help herself to the leftover watermelon juice...

"Surely, there must be leftovers under your bum!"

    

     After their morning treat of watermelon rinds, we went to check on my new baby girl and I got lucky with my camera today! Meet my beautiful Gert Brahman X heifer, Ophelia! The girl's got some ears!

      And with that, folks, I leave you to enjoy the rest of your Tuesday. Hope yours is lovely! 

- Leah

Finally Finished!

     So we are finally finished with school. That's a crazy feeling. I've been working on my degree five years and Husband has been working seven! With that said, expect more regular postings about farm-life, scrapbooking, decorating and other random life happenings around Martin Farm! With that said, here's what I've been up to...

     After searching what felt like the entire World Wide Web, I finally found a monthly scrapbook kit club! I have wanted to join one for so long! With school stealing not only my social time, my free time and the majority of my scrapbook time, I am free at last, free at last! Thank God Almighty! SO after much debate, I decided on a 6-month subscription to Cocoa Daisy! I am SO excited to be receiving scrapbook materials in the mail every month! I live too far back out in these woods to shop much! haha So without further ado, here's what I made with my May kit from Cocoa Daisy!
   
     When I opened my kit, I immediately thought of some pictures from my Mother-in-Law.

 

     Aren't the colors and embellishments perfect?! Butterflies, pinks, oranges, yellows, it's just great! It was really a challenge for me to only use what was in my kit, but I wanted to push myself. The only think not included in the kit is the scallop punched kraft paper under the butterfly patterned paper. I put the flower on the right over the picture because of a pen mark over the picture. :[ I guess I could have scanned and removed the pen mark, but I want all the originals protected in scrapbooks! What do you think? I don't think I ever would have chosen to use such bright, beautiful colors, but I am SO pleased with the outcome! 

     Here's the next page I made. This is my mother-in-law at her senior prom. I just fell in love with the light blue and cream colored patterned paper and thought it would coordinate perfectly with her dress in this picture. Thanks for looking! Stop by again soon!

-Leah

Learning to Put 2 & 2 Together...

     So- it's been a crazy week and a half around the Martin household! We are both finishing up finals and, with them, our last semester or true college classes. We are both really excited to be so close to finishing college and graduating in May, but it is so hard to stay motivated! With that said, our latest endeavor began during finals week...

WELDING!!!

     Yep. It's the one thing my husband doesn't know how to do (you think I'm kidding). So I made a deal with Hubz- he could buy a welder if he would build me a chicken tractor. That's what I like to call a win-win. :]

     But wait wait wait, "What the heck is a chicken tractor?!?" you say? Only the most awesome invention since sliced bread- and little did I know, an idea that is about as old... and no, it's not what you think! My first thoughts were, "Chickens used as a tractor? Huh?"...

     And then

 this crazy picture popped into my head! 

     But no, basically it's much less ridiculous than the name implies. It's just a mobile chicken coop... and it's coming along nicely! Hubz is a fast learner. He's been using scrap metal we found around the farm and he's already got the frame almost finished. We have our last finals tomorrow and Hubz is going to stop and pick up some chicken wire and probably a new cut off wheel for his angle grinder (totally just learned what that was called) at his favorite store on his way home tomorrow. I can't wait to go to the chicken sale! "]

If You Give a Bull a Biscuit...

     Hello! I'm Leah. I've been planning on starting my own blog for some time now and, well, ta-dah! I'm finally entering my last semester of college and I will have a little more time to manage a blog. I'll be posting here about our farm adventures and any other odds and ends we run into along the way! With that in mind, I have a first post to share! :]

     I am currently interested in getting into pigs. I know I sound crazy. We've never raised pigs before, well, with the exception of pot belly pigs just for the fun of it, but I was too young to be aware of the finances of the situation. I've been reading and researching about the ups and downs of pig rearing on other farming blogs and in articles. From the information I've gathered, the two biggest money-eating aspects are a) pig food and b) butchering costs. Since we won't be attempting DIY butchering on our first go-around, the area I'm attempting to cut costs in is pig food.

     One local feed store offers 50 lb bags of feed for about $10 per bag, an amazing price, but the less money spent- the better. So, to make a long story short, I've been calling around local businesses asking for free out-of-date bread or practically free out-of-date bread. Yesterday- SUCCESS! Given- we don't have the pigs yet, but I wanted to see how much free bread we were talking about before buying pigs and getting in over our heads here... and let me just say it was not disappointing! We only took about half of what was offered and it easily filled over half of our 50 gallon drum! If this source stays available, it will significantly cut our costs in pig feed. For now, Bull is pleased! 

 

-Leah