By the Campfire

We sat around the campfire

On a chilly night

Telling spooky stories

In the pale moonlight

Then we added some more logs,

To make the fire bright,

And sang some favorite camp songs

Together with all our might.

And when the fire flickered and embers began to form

.We snuggled in our sleeping bagsall cozy, tired, and warm.

Author unknown

Well, we are off on another camping trip.....

To soak in the wilderness and roast marshamallows over the open fire, catch butterflies by daylight and firelies by starlight.

Sleeping under the starry skies, bike rides, fishing, hiking,

swiming in the lake and lots of much needed R&R.

We're going to visit the civil war period in Gettysburg. I love history and we were there last year but have found ourselves making our way back there this summer again.

It is such a peaceful little town considering all that once happened there.

I love the old architechture and the history you breath in while there.

I can't wait for all of the cute lil country shops that await me and

we're even going to a country fair!

I will post all of the details when I return next week.

I wish you all lots of SUNSHINE while I am gone!!!

Take care now,

Dee

**********************

You're a Grand

Ol' Flag,

You're a high flying flag.....

And forever in peace may you wave.
You're the emblem of the land I love.
The home of the free and the brave.
Ev'ry heart beats true'neath the Red, White and Blue,
Where there's never a boast or brag.
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
Keep your eye on that

Grand old flag!

***********************

I hope that you all had a wonderful Fourth of July.....

it went by so fast for us.

We had a small barbque with close family only

a nice break from our usual large party.

Some photos of our home all decorated for

America's Birthday Party...

The porch was all decorated patriotically waiting for our guests to arrive....

I love the fourth of July,

the cheerful colors of our nations flag decorate our home.

Here is our desert station....

a cake carrier holds the pie ontop and strawberry shortcake below...

keeping them safe from my two year olds fingers

and the inevitable summer bugs.

Independence Day menu 2009....

and drink station below. I like to keep things in seperate areas of my kitchen when entertaining to keep the flow moving around my island.

Everyone likes to hang out in the kitchen no matter what I do though!

A patriotic hat box that I made in 2008.....
Some homemade star boxes stacked brighten up the corner.

Star Spangled banner sign,
will be listed in the Mercantile sooner or later...
I tried for sooner but will now be later!

I love this photo of my grandmother and father

when he was a baby many, many, summers ago.

It sits safely on the end table in the front parlor.

My entry foyer greets you with some patriotic folkart.

A red cupboard in the corner of our family room.....

I just popped some flags in my ironstone pitchers.

Below a small picture I made from a post card.

The old marshmallow tin,

an ebay win from several years ago.

It comes out with my summer decor every year.

THE CELEBRATION!!

Some Fireworks or boom, booms,

as my two year old son calls them...

My son falling asleep ontop of my hubs head....

a looong fun day for him.

Our small town really puts on a nice display and it is all funded solely by private donations. We usually watch the fireworks on a blanket in the lcoal park but this year it was undergoing a complete overhaul and they shot the fireworks over the lake but we couldn't get into the park. We all sat in our local market parking lot...it was nice but not the same...I had a great time anyway though and ooohhhhed, and ahhhhhhed the whole time.

May God Bless America,

we are truly blessed to live in such a country!!

I must say that I think extra prayer is in order for our country with the current state of things, I can only pray that our children are able to celebrate the fourth of July with the same pride that we do some day. That they may know the full meaning of the holiday and the sacrafice that it is born from, that this country was built upon the backs of hardworking Americans, not from the bailouts of our current government. I pray for peace, healing, conviction and courage for our nation.....and that we can recover from all that is current and get back to what our forefathers intended and fought for~ all they hoped this country would be........

One nation under god.

But it is the Amercian Sprit to overcome, and in the end we shall.

I hope your holiday was as wonderful as ours....

I hope to post a little more often than I have been,

our summer will hopefully be a little more relaxing next week!

Take Care now,

Dee

OLD GLORY SIGN

newest sign at Farmhouse Mercantile
click on the sidebar link to window shop....

I am off on to the wilderness to camp with my family wish me some sunshine! Have a great weekend!
Take Care now,
Dee

Happy Father's Day!

So, what do you do when you want to show your love and appreciation to great Dad's at our farmhouse on Father's Day? You don't take these guys out to a fancy restaraunt, nope, that just isn't their style. You can't make them dress in their Sunday best, and you don't even tell them that they have to use the fancy china... Not in this family, not these guys, they get to do something they like on their special day and you make it casual and fun....

You have a crab boil! Not just any ol' crab boil either....a crab, clams, shrimp and lobster boil! Their favorite type of food...seafood. You set a very casual table, make everyone comfortable and throw a bunch of good food into a pot!

If you are wondering about the precise art of having a crab boil, I am going to illustrate and explain...lets start:

First, you take a HUGE pot...I mean REALLY HUGE! Next, you get your water boiling ....some Old Bay seasoning and secret ingredients mixing it all up in there. Mmmm, smell that? Heavenly!

Then you take some red taters, boil them for 15 minutes.

Now add some fresh sweet corn on the cob. Throw them into the boil on top of the taters for 10 more minutes.

Next, you take some smoked sausage and slice it into 2" pieces, and throw that into the boil.

Let that all roll around in the HUGE pot for 5 more minutes. With a slotted spoon put everything onto a platter, leaving the boiling water in the pot. I cover it tightly with tin foil.

Now, for the really good stuff....you LAYER in this order....king crabs, Lobsters, shrimp, and then lastly the clams.....some of it will be sitting on top of the water and will be steamed. Put the lid on the huge pot!

Boil at a low temperature for 15 more minutes and then remove everything with tongs and the slotted spoon, draing the water from your huge pot and put everything back in with the lid to keep warm. Now proceed to your fully prepared table....right this way folks.

A properly prepared table for a crab boil consists of the following: a plastic table cloth, news paper (yes you read that right) crab crackers, mallets and anything else you can use to get that juicy seafood from it's shell.

Remember, this is a mans meal and you are allowed to eat like a heathen! Just kiddin, but maybe not! Bring in some mismatched kitchen chairs, ignore the bad lighting, the fellas don't care about that! Lots of paper towels, lemonade for the children and summer ales for the papa's and uncles. Fruity drinks for the mama's and the aunts......some homemade coleslaw, garlic butter, and........

did I mention rolls and rolls of paper towels? Heed my warning, have lots handy!


You put one happy grandpa (pop-pop to my children) and.....


and a happy daddy in front of this mess, yes, right on that newpaper....(nothing fancy remember) and ya'll dig in! My Hubs and Father enjoy this meal alot...they barely spoke!!

Happy Father's Day to the important men in my life.....

My father, who I love so very much, you are a great father, loving, a good care giver, and he can fix anything! I was a lucky girl when god chose you to be my daddy! I love you!

My hubs who is a wonderful father to our children. He loves them with all of his heart and it shows....He works his tail end off for us and he would bend over backwards to make his babies happy....and you are the silliest man on earth and you keep us laughing all the time!

I love you very much and thank you for being such a great dad!

My brother, David, although you do not have your own children, you are my Cassidy's god father and so very good to all my children and

we love you very much too!

My Brother, Shawn, although I don't see you very often, you are missed and a wonderful father to your beautiful girls, we love you too!

My brother, Mathew, your time is coming fella! I can't wait! Ha!

Happy Father's Day, we love you very much!
xoxoxoxo

CoNGrAtulaTIOns to Dirt Princess you are the winner of my giveaway!!!

Thank you ladies for all of your kind comments regarding the sign, my blog and my sign shop! I am glad to hear that you all love SugarPie Farmhouse as much as I do! I want to congratulate Dirt Princess on her win of my PIE FIXES EVERYTHING sign giveaway! You can visit her adorable blog at http://northmobilegardensociety.blogspot.com/ it is just so sweet with all of her flower gardens and dragon flies...so very cute! I cannot wait to get back there and read some more of her posts, she even has categorized her posts by flower type.


In addition to her wonderful blog, I have been introduced, by so many of you, to some really great blogs that I am really enjoying and cannot wait to get the time to really sit down and read them. Be it something pertaining to gardening, scrapbooking, homekeeping, or raising a family I can see why you all have chosen these as your favorite blogs. It is such a treat to open up the "pages" of these blogs to discover something new and captivating.


Well I also want to let you all know that I wish that I could give each one of you a PIE FIXES EVERYTHING sign! But my fingers have been painting as fast as they can, my nails are every shade of the rainbow and I am plum tuckered out! Instead, I am offering it at Farmhouse Mercantile for 20% off for the month of June to the SugarPie Sista's, so if you do still want it you can get it at a discount for a little while...just send me a comment with your user name.
I have had such a crazy two weeks, with trying to get my online shop up and running, my children are at the end of their school year and next week is their last week of school. It has been non stop field trips, book fairs, award ceremonies, field day's, end of the year dances, sport tournaments etc. etc. Ongoing fun! I am very involved with my kids and am trying to balance my painting with keeping things going at home.....and whewwweeee, I am TIRED!


I wanted to make sure that I announced the winner today as I promised. I will get back on here early next week with some real down-home bloggin! In the meantime I have some pictures of a class trip I took with my 11 year old daughter this past week. I am a big history buff and jumped at chaperoning this trip when I found out where we were going....a local place called Cold Spring Village one of my favorite places. It is a living history museum which means that there are actual people re-enacting history before your eyes in period clothing inside the old buildings using historical artifacts. I really love it there, it is one of my favorite places, so peaceful and beautiful there.

My daughter is on the right....her and her friend purchased those bonnets in the country store.....oh, how cute they looked!



The wheel wright....




A summer kitchen...large oven for baking breads...

This is the printer shop....

This house here was inside one of the workers homes...I really love how authentic they made it.....

The beautiful mural in the dining room of a workers house.....

A corn sheller demonstration in the barn.....

This kind woman explained a day in the life of an average working family...hard work!

She explained it all inside this beautiful barn...ohh... who it made my heart melt....I heart this barn!

Basket Weaving demonstration.



The Black smith......

The tin smith shop.....LOVE, the punched tin all over...

The country store....MY FAVORITE PLACE!!

Oh my I love these haning lights...beautiful bubble glass, just georgeous!

All decorated patriotically inside....

Love, the old boxes...and displays.

A good ole fashioned one-room schoolhouse!

The cutest lil bakery! With fresh baked goods....mmmm!

Well that concludes our tour gals...I hope you enjoyed the pictures as much as I love this place...I never grow tired of it, I could visit it every month and still love going there!

Congrats Dirt Princess! Enjoy your sign!

Take Care now,

Dee