Home Repair Minimalist: September 2008

Growing and Using Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare)

Fennel is a perennial that grows to five feet high. It has hollow stems and brilliant green, feathery leaves. Because all parts of the plant can be used, it is an almost perfect herb. A native to the Mediterranean, fennel has been an import wherever native Italians have traveled. In many areas of the world, it now grows wild.Growing FennelFennel is an easy plant to grow. It will thrive in harsh

SALE - SALE ENDS TOMORROW

Don't forget that our FALL SALE ends tomorrow night at midnight.
All FALL DESIGNS are on sale.
Check last posting below for details!
http://www.kmprimitives.com

TAGS, TAGS & MORE TAGS

Yesterday was a day of crafting and my dear husband came to my rescue.

Guess this is what happens after being married for 45 years!

He stood still for hanging each and everyone of my coffee stained tags...what a guy!
Little does he know there are 500 more tags to go....lol

OUR 45th WEDDING ANNIVERSARY

Today we have been married 45 years - and I still can't believe that much time has passed.
We were treated to a wonderful brunch with all of our children - it was such a delicious brunch in an old barn that had been converted into a beautiful restaurant. We were seated in the silo part today....the little ones thought that was such a fun thing, eating in a silo!

Doug and I met when I was just out of 9th grade during the summer (I had just turned 16).

I was from Janesville and he was from the little town of Milton just 6 miles from us and all the Milton guys charged into Janesville on Friday nights for Swing Lobby and the Cabaret dances.

I can't tell you how many Janesville girls married Milton guys but there were many.

We dated for well over 3 years, becoming engaged at graduation and marrying a little over a year later.

Our wedding day is kind of a blur for me - it was raining and by the time of the wedding which was to take place at 7 pm plus we were under a tornado watch!!!

The sky was so black at 5 pm it was like midnight - and at the last minute I'm running around looking for a pair of little white gloves for my niece who was our flower girl. I didn't think she needed them but mom thought different....sooooo, off I went, hair all done, out in the rain....arggghhh! GLOVES WERE FOUND!

And.....the wedding was delayed 1/2 hour for guests to arrive inside the church....oh, they were there, just waiting in their cars for the rain to stop.

Needless to say, the wedding went on as planned and no glitches after that.

7 moves later we found ourselves in Burlington because of a job transfer and this is where we have been for well over 29 years - I guess this is HOME.

We raised three sons, all now married with children of their own (5 grandchildren).

THEN.....SEPTEMBER 28, 1963

I wasn't fibbing about rain....the water was up to the curbs!

NOW......SEPTEMBER 28, 2008

TODAYS PROJECT

Today I sewed almost the entire day getting orders finished up but decided I needed another Fall item in my line so I made this 5 x 7 Pumpkin pictures....I used three different ornages for the pumpkins hoping to give it some character...did it work?

A GIVE A-WAY

Terri from
Thistle House Primitives has a GIVE A-WAY....go on over and enter the contest for an adorable pumpkin mat. Drawing is October 3.

BAKED POTATO BAR LUNCHEON

When I was working outside the home I fell into a group of absolutely wonderful girls - well, at least we were girls then, now we have become ladies!

We worked side by side for 20+ years becoming buddies, sisters and confidonts - some left, a few more came in but we always were a group/friends.

We had many, many Friday night happy hours and many long lunch hours - I guess the bosses knew we were a tight group and never tried to quench our zest for friendship - nope, they joined right in! LOL, seriously - they became part of our group and are still our friends. My husband still golfs with my boss!

I have been retired for 8 years now but have never lost touch with them - most of them are retired as well so every 6 weeks or so we meet at a restaurant and whoever can make it shows up and we have a wonderful lunch.

I host a summer lunch and a Christmas dinner here at our home - something they all look forward to.

Yesterday I had them over for a Baked Potato Lunch - how much fun is that!!!

I didn't get as good a pictures as I wanted but at least I got some for my memory album.

Normally I have everything set up ahead but I knew were were going to be sitting and gabbing in the screen room and the toppings were refrigerated and the potatos were hot so I couldn't set any of it out ahead of time .... I didn't set the table either because I had no real idea of how many were going to show up...that's how our lunches are....so when it was time we all just pitched in and grabbed things and put it out...we were hungry! LOL

Enjoy the photo album:
http://s151.photobucket.com/albums/s125/....nt=d45d79b2.pbw

I GOT AN AWARD!

I just received my first Blog award from Amanda of Amanda's Crafty Creations! Thank you Amanda....this is quite an honor.

Here are the rules:
1. Put the logo on your blog
2. Add a link to the person who awarded it to you
3. Nominate 7 (minimum 5) other blogs
4. Add links to them on your blog
5. Leave a message for your nominee on their blogs.

I nominate:
1. Char from: THE PICKELED PEPPER PATCH http://charsethman.blogspot.com/
2. Dawn from: THE FORGOTTEN BARN http://forgottenbarn.blogspot.com/
3. Angie from: SUGARPLUM PATCH http://sugarplumpatch.blogspot.com/
4. Beth from: RAGGEDY ANGEL http://ragggedyangel.blogspot.com/
5. Mary Jo from: FINE COUNTRY LIVING PRIMITIVES http://finecountrylivingprimitives.blogspot.com/

BUSY DAY!

What a day....it was so hot and I'm putting out Fall decorations! Now if the weather would just reflect the colors of this wonderful time of year I would be so happy...it was 85 today!

I'VE BEEN BUSY!

I've been making some new products for my website and my Holiday In-Home Shows.

I'm having so much fun making these - they can hang anyplace - on a knob or a hook or even on the front of a hutch from a little nail.

As well as our willow tree we have a feather Christmas tree, snowman and a sheep.

COUNTRY SAMPLER CAME!

Okay, I said I'd fill you all in on the Photo Shoot for Country Sampler so sit back and relax.

They got here at 9 a.m. and it was CONTINUOUS from that moment until 7 p.m.

The only break they took was lunch - which I went out for and brought it back for all of us but we had a nice leisurly time sitting around the dining room table just chatting - gosh they were nice.

It was an amazing day and I was so surprised at all the tricks used like this one - the sun was gone from the kitchen side of the house by the time they got there so Michael put a tall light outside beyond the kitchen window and when we viewed the picture on their computer there was the sun shining in and leaving sun light on the cupboard and floor! There was no way to tell this wasn't real sun flowing in the window...cool huh?

You see so many times these cute little setups in groupings and think, how do they get these to look just right, well, many items were propped up with anything they could use which won't show in the pictures - like the little foot stool sitting on two Candy Land games for height. I went searching for the right things Pilar could use and walla - the games worked.

They started in the family room and den and at 1:00 when I left get lunch and bring it back, they finished and were heading for the bedroom shoot. After lunch they did the dining room and then the kitchen.

I don't know how many shots they took till they got the ones they wanted but the editor wanted 14 pictures total in the end...so for each of those 14 had approx 5-6 different shots to get the one they were going to use....lots of playing with light, positions, etc.

Pilar was so taken with the kitties she kept trying to get them in the pictures but they weren't going to cooperate until around 6:30 when they were wrapping up - she saw Lola sitting on a table in the screen room and so she took several pictures of her - hopefully one will end up in the magazine.

I took as many pictures as I could when they weren't behind the camera....we tried to stay out of the way although they were very nice letting us get as close as possible to watch and we would run for this or that if they needed a prop or something different in place of something.

There was a lot of take from here, put there.
So here's a small slide show of what they did all day long. I could have taken many photos but they would have been very similar - I imagine they were quite ready to drop by the time they left as well.

http://s151.photobucket.com/albums/s125/kmprimitives/?action=view&current=a11fbcd4.pbw

COUNTRY SAMPLER PHOTOSHOOT

I haven't been updating here the last couple days because we have been cleaning and re-arranging our house inside and out...well, not to a big extent...just getting it camera ready!

A few months ago we were contacted by Country Sampler Magazine about having our house be in one of their magazines....WOW! Excitement in overdrive!!!!

Funny thing though - last Monday morning my husband and I brought in all of our Spring/Summer decorations, flowers, etc and also took all the summery things from inside our house and packed them away nicely in bins and cupboards in the basement and then got out all the Fall things, got them all set up on the tables downstairs and even bought a few more things - well, you know you just never have enough, right?

So after doing all this I took the afternoon off - decided I could start decorating and getting things put out the next day....so later in the afternoon the phone rings and it's them (Country Sampler)...they set a date to arrive which was a day earlier than they originally set - well, okay, that's fine...AND THEN she proceded to say the photo shoot was going to be SPRING!!!!!!!!!!!!

The entire morning went through my head like a lightening bolt - I started to laugh and had to tell her what we had done all morning and she felt so bad but it's still going to be SPRING! lol

So, that's what we have been doing - I think we're ready, although I know they will bring props and move our things around to make it work for the camera and that's just fine...I love seeing things in someone elses eye and we just might leave it like they put it.

The shoot is for Wednesday the 17th and it will be in one of the early Spring issues....I will keep you all updated and hopefully I can take some behind the scene pictures of them doing the shoot and if I can, I will post them so be on the look out.

I just love making things especially my Penny Rugs which I have made hundreds of but don't ask me to make a pillow - they turn out looking like a squashed loaf of bread!

So last week I was doing some odds and ends shopping at Walmart and saw these wonderful pillows for $6.00 - they just screamed 'buy me, buy me'...so I did! I bought 4 of them! I was amazed at the quality with piping around the edges to boot!

I had purchased some linen towels awhile back with sheep on them and had a brainstorm - I could cut off the unwanted portion and stitch the design onto the pillow - WOW...I love them.

After finishing these I decided they were going to make a wonderful product to sell at my In-Home Holiday Show....so out I went to every Walmart I could find for more.
I ended up with 8 black, 4 deep red and 4 ivory.

Guess that's enough to keep me busy - look for different designs as time goes on.

Uggggg Kind of Day!

Have you ever just taken the day off to go wherever your mind and body took you and had nothing at home pressing to do? Well I did just that today.

The weather is just beautiful - the kind of day you can dress for summer or put long sleeves on - MY KIND OF DAY!

Sooooo....I took off for an hours drive to one of my favorite Wholesale places to buy for my shows and when I got there I went in - looked around and no one was there so I went over to the stairs and called up to the office....no one!

So I sat down at their desk for a few minutes thinking they would be back, possibly an early lunch....NOT!!!

So off I went to a cute litte shop up the street and found a couple of great treasures - you know what a treasure is - something you just have to have, can't live without....yeah, right....a halloween/pumpkin head doll and some beautiful red napkins. A girl just hasta have these you know!

And then I did the trip back to the other shop.....no one! So I asked the people in the next building if they had seen them - they said they had gone to wholesale market and were not back yet! Aw man.....I NEEDED THINGS...lol

Sooooo, I figured it was a wonderful day to 'stay away' and headed for the next town where there is a super wonderful Primitive shop that I always find lots of goodies in.....well wouldn't you know - THEY WERE CLOSED TODAY TO GET READY FOR THEIR FALL OPEN HOUSE!

I couldn't get a break on spending money even TRYING!!!!

That left me with the only thing I could do....EAT LUNCH....so off to Applebees I went and had one delicious Asian Chicken Salad....as far as I'm concerned that's the only thing they serve...lol

Mind you I'm sitting there all alone and my hands are on the table, clasped together so the waitress came over and asked me if I cared to have a newspaper in my hands...lol I said you bet - nothing more sad than a single person dining - especially a woman.

So then in came three business men and they were seated at the table next to me - and when I say next to me IT WAS NEXT AS IN 'WITH' ME....I was at one of those single tables along the railing and right next to the railing on the other side is a high table - THAT'S WHERE THEY SAT! I felt like I was dining with them....but you know what? They weren't gentlemen at all, not one of them bought my lunch! LOL

Thanks for putting up with my sad, uggy day!

Oh, I almost forgot....it ended quite well. I went to visit my cousin who works at an ice cream shop and went in and had a big hot fudge sundae to drown my woes.

First of September

WE HAVE SUCH A WONDERFUL SALE GOING ON THIS MONTH AND WE DON'T WANT ANYONE TO MISS IT SO WE'RE TELLING YOU HERE AS WELL AS ON OUR WEBSITE

We’re so excited about this seasons new items and hope you will be too but first...

Our FEATURED PRODUCTS THIS MONTH are all of our FALL DESIGNS

Look for them in the different sections on our site….you will find each of them ON SALE THIS MONTH.

NEW FOR US THIS YEAR....We have started making Christmas Ornaments for this holiday season and just wait until you see some of the new AMERICAN HAND MADE PRODUCTS we have coming for your decorating needs.

We are slowly turning our misc. product inventory over to American Made products.
It’s a slow process but we are getting there and we know you will be happy as well.

Most of our products we offer won't be found in retail stores.
We buy purposely for your needs in mind and want you to have something you will not find on the shelves of big box stores or even your favorite little shop.

So go on over and look around at our newest items.
REMEMBER - we are constantly getting new - so keep checking back for updates.
KM Primitives Penny Rugs
http://www.kmprimitives.com

VINTAGE BOTTLES

We have an extensive collection of Salt Glaze pottery ranging from plates, mugs, bowls, vases to crocks but never had any bottles until last Christmas when our youngest son presented us with some very early 1800's beer and ink bottles....what a wonderful gift!

He found many, many of these bottles in a digging. Some he kept, some he gave away and some he sold. We cherish the ones we received.

Our Newest Grandchild

Meet Aidan Joseph Martinsen the newest member of the Martinsen household.

Aidan came to us on June 20, 2008 at 6 lbs. 3 oz. and 19 inches.....he is our newest little treasure.

This is Darren and MaryAnns first child and so long in coming....Darren and MaryAnn met just a few years ago and will be married 2 years this October!

Congratulations Darren and MaryAnn!

RAIN, RAIN GO AWAY

I woke this morning to the sound of spat, spat, spat against the windows and thought to myself it's another good sewing day!

I don't feel so guilty if I don't get outside to do much needed weed pulling and hosing off of the leaf filled driveway - it will be there tomorrow so my thoughts go back to what I can do today.

I'm filling an order for the cutest little Pumpkin Candle Mat. I love working with fall colors and it gets me in the mood to get my fall decorations out and put away the bright red Geraniums that fill my baskets and trenchers.

GLOOMY WEDNESDAY

Today was a slow day of creating and wandering through my mind.

It could be because we woke up to gloomy skys and rain although much needed but it sure didn't put me into the creative mood.

But this evening I had dinner with two very dear friends whom I have known for over 25 years - we met at work and have continued to be friends since, going to dinner now and then and having just plain good friendship.

I cherish these friendships and look forward to many more dinners to come. So it was a bright spot in a rather gloomy day.

Thanks Renea and Joyce for a wonderful evening of reminising, laughing and just hanging out!