the farmhouse blog http://farmhouseprints.com Block print cards by Courtney Allenson Fri, 25 Mar 2011 11:38:31 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 journaling http://farmhouseprints.com/2011/03/journaling/ http://farmhouseprints.com/2011/03/journaling/#comments Fri, 25 Mar 2011 11:28:02 +0000 courtney http://farmhouseprints.com/?p=1487 i love making lists. writing notes to myself. making doodles. writing poems. and i love to look back through my journals to remember who i was and what life was like. my most favorite journals right now are the ones i kept in junior high. each day was crammed with multiple entries. notes on my bff’s, crushes, sports games, teachers and so on. they are such a fun and silly reminder of how simple and sweet life was.

these days i still love to journal (um, hello blog) though i don’t keep things all in one neat place. as i continue in my “doodle journal” i have felt compelled to start a couple new journals with the change in seasons. the first is a family journal. i dug out an old 3-ring binder, pulled some dividers, and labeled each one with photos of the person that section belongs to. within each person’s section is a page of images they cut from seed catalouges as well as a clear plastic page protector for storing special things. we’ve got room in there for photographs, drawings, notes, seed packets, bird feathers, pressed flowers and whatever else the kids decided to add.

since we spend so much of the year (march through november) thinking about and doing in the garden, it seemed only natural to document this part of our lives.  here is what we’ve started with:

The second journal is a doodle journal just for me. It’s just a moleskin (the BEST journal every!) that I covered with fabric. I saw the idea for the layout on some blog or website, but (sorry) I just can’t remember where it’s from.

Well, my journals, my daughter and I are off to visit Auntie YaYa for a weekend by the ocean…see you next week!

]]> http://farmhouseprints.com/2011/03/journaling/feed/ 0 Greenfield http://farmhouseprints.com/2011/03/greenfield/ http://farmhouseprints.com/2011/03/greenfield/#comments Tue, 22 Mar 2011 18:22:40 +0000 courtney http://farmhouseprints.com/?p=1479 have you seen this book? it has quite a few sweet things to knit. i’d been searching the depths of ravelry for a garter stitch cardigan when i happened upon this book. though i didn’t follow the pattern exactly, i did use it for the stitch count and increases/decreases. knit with tosh vintage, this sweater is cool, comfortable and itch-free. i love the subtle purple and blue variations in color and the wooden buttons i used just make the color that much more drastic. this is my perfect spring sweater!

]]> http://farmhouseprints.com/2011/03/greenfield/feed/ 0 sugaring http://farmhouseprints.com/2011/03/sugaring/ http://farmhouseprints.com/2011/03/sugaring/#comments Fri, 18 Mar 2011 11:08:17 +0000 courtney http://farmhouseprints.com/?p=1437 it’s spring! ! !

sun. snow. mud. sun. rain. sun. sun. . . what an incredible feeling when the sun finally returns! and these cold nights and warmer days mean that special and oh-so-brief time is upon us: sugaring season!

for dinner, we had pancakes with fresh, warm maple syrup, strawberries and raspberries that we’d picked last summer and fresh home-made whipped cream. i’d have taken a picture if i hadn’t been so busy stuffing my face!

this weekend we’ll mix sugaring in with some shopping…cris and i are leaving the kids home while we go on a date to some architectural selvage places…yay!

]]> http://farmhouseprints.com/2011/03/sugaring/feed/ 0 when you leave a three-year old alone… http://farmhouseprints.com/2011/03/when-you-leave-a-three-year-old-alone/ http://farmhouseprints.com/2011/03/when-you-leave-a-three-year-old-alone/#comments Thu, 17 Mar 2011 11:59:36 +0000 courtney http://farmhouseprints.com/?p=1427 …and she has stamps and an ink pad:

yes…i think this pretty much sums up our week…

]]> http://farmhouseprints.com/2011/03/when-you-leave-a-three-year-old-alone/feed/ 1 …tadpoles…!?! http://farmhouseprints.com/2011/03/tadpoles/ http://farmhouseprints.com/2011/03/tadpoles/#comments Wed, 09 Mar 2011 12:30:52 +0000 courtney http://farmhouseprints.com/?p=1419 it certainly has been a crazy winter with snowstorm upon snowstorm. it’s been pretty enjoyable: sledding, snowshoeing, fort-building, snow angles…and all those mugs of cocoa when we’re done. but the snow has also done another amazing thing: it has kept the ground from freezing! all of that fluffy white insulation has kept the earth soft and (relatively) warm. so…

…out snowshoeing with isabelle last week, cris and i came upon some open water near the end of the trail. as we stood looking in, cris saw something move.  “a tadpole!” he exclaimed. i thought he was crazy, but as i looked closer, i saw one too. then another. and another!

we went back a few days later with a pail, two nets, and grampie. after breaking a new layer of ice, we scooped up 5 tadpoles!

of course, we also took a very large scoop of their water. as it settled in our little tank, we began to see other neat creatures in our water as well.

my brother, an avid (to say the least) angler, fishing guide, biology major, and wilderness lover extraordinaire came up to help us indentify our littlest critters. it was like our own little science lesson with uncle wes.

it was amazing to see the quantity and variety of little specimens!

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