Well a very good morning to you!

I know you have probably been waiting to hear from me but I’m sure you can imagine just how busy life has been here in the last couple days. Finally I have a few minutes.

We went live with the new Thomas Kinkade images & CHF forum on Thursday night at midnight. We were working right up to the last few seconds to get everything ready but what a relief when we could finally click the buttons & let you all see. I’m sure you all agree on how wonderful the stamps look as well as the cards etc in the Designer Gallery. Even if you are not a Kinkade fan, & there are some of you who aren’t, you should still be able to appreciate the incredible talent of Thomas Kinkade & our design team.

To those of you whose stamps are already on their way, I hope you LOVE them once they arrive. Don’t be intimidated by the detail. As you can see by some of the samples in the gallery, monochromatic looks wonderful but if you want to be adventurous then go ahead & color some of them in - it isn’t that hard & you will LOVE the results you see. Here’s a card by Anna using The Good Life & the Victorian Pattern Backgrounder. If you click on Anna’s name it will take you to her blog where this card is also featured today.

Lisa is planning some tutorials to help everyone, she just ran out of time this week.

So what else is happening here? Well I have just cleaned out the cow barn & taken a wheelbarrow full of hay, straw & manure to the chickens so they are happily scratching through that. PLUS I also gave them milk, bread & scraps this morning so they are pretty happy with me! We had to move the remaining chickens from the coop behind the barn into the coop in front of the house as the fox was helping himself to one a day! Yes we do lock them in at night but the fox comes in broad daylight! They seem to have settled in alright together. Hopefully next week we can get the new pens started as we still have the turkeys in the house & as you can see they have really grown. I just gave them some hay so they are now all running around chasing each other trying to get the bits. Of course there is plenty for everyone but they don’t realize that!

PLUS these gorgeous Brahmas arrived on Thursday.

Today is also the start of the swim meet here in Chinook. I just heard that Michael & his team swam the relay & won. He will also be doing the 50m free & 100m free. I won’t get to be up there much today as I have alot to catch up on here PLUS Michael will be bringing a whole load of kids here to eat tonight & go swimming in the river & have fun on the trampoline. This has become a yearly tradition. I just took out 10lbs of ground beef - think that’s enough? i am going to make a huge fresh fruit salad also. I will see his races tomorrow though plus am working in the concession stand from 11-3pm. Richard is up there both days as he helps run the computer system. Michelle is working in the concession stand today.
So that’s caught you up on life here. Hope you all have a great weekend,

Liz

WOW! There were alot of guesses for who the artist is in our new release coming in under 2 hours!

BUT a huge CONGRATULATIONS goes to JANE WIKE!

She won a complete set of the new stamps.

See you soon,

Liz

Gosh, I have so many butterflies in my stomach it is unreal

We are like busy little beavers here today so I thought I would share some pics. Michelle is busy pressing rubber in this picture. We have two of the large hydraulic vulcanizers that she has run all day for the last several days. We can produce ALOT of rubber in a day.

Raw rubber comes in 50lb rolls & we buy 500lbs at a time! It then gets cut by Michael (or sometimes me) as we need it into the different sizes & piled like you see here ready for use. Raw rubber has to be kept cool otherwise it will cure and become useless. What you see here will get used quickly so no risk of that.

Michael just disappeared off to swim practice so couldn’t take a picture of him working but today he has piles & piles of pressed rubber like this to back with cushion & trim.

Our plan & hope is that we will have plenty ready to ship out to you on Friday and be as efficient as possible.

I am putting the stamps together but of course can’t show you a pic of that as that would really give the game away.

During these last few weeks & months we have the pleasure of working with a FABULOUS group of VERY talented designers hand picked by our head designer Lisa Strahl. If you are curious as to who they are then go visit Lisa’s blog as she revealed them this morning.

Got to feed my family before making more stamps.

Take care & have a wonderful day,

Liz

Look what I saw when I looked out our kitchen window yesterday!

T-bone was investigating the swings. He is such a cutie. It is like having a pet horse around the place. He drinks from the dogs water buckets & moos if they are empty.

Well the talk about the new stamp release is really heating up & I have a huge amount of work to do before Friday gets here so will sign off now & get to it!

Liz

Morning!

I hope you’ve entered our “Guess the Artist” competition - see top of blog. There will be no new magazine giveaway this week as we are giving away a fabulous set of the new stamps which are being released on Friday.

Thank you for all your comments on the fresh milk question. I smiled alot! Some of you hate milk, some of you love it. You may be surprised to hear that I have not drunk milk for years. One of my earliest memories is of my mum warming a cup of milk up in the Aga for me at bedtime. I’m not that old but it was long before the days of microwaves & the Aga was our only source for hot water, heat & cooking. I used to HATE that warm milk - yuk! I have always enjoyed cooking with it but could never drink it - until now. Having read all the health benefits of drinking raw milk I decided that I had better get to liking it & drink a glass a day so that is what I am doing. It has to be cold though - I couldn’t drink it warm PLUS we wait for the cream to come to the top & scoop that off. Made the most wonderful butter on Sunday - SO yellow.

I had to laugh at Cheryl’s comment about drinking it with hair in it! OOH! We put ours through a strainer so there are definitely no hairs in it.

The winner is #5 Lacyquilter - CONGRATULATIONS!

As you will have seen from the last posting fresh milk is HERE! We have waited a long time for this but it is definitely worth it.

Here’s this weeks giveaway:

Just comment on this question for a chance to win this Altered Arts Jan/Feb 2006 issue & the curly gown rubber stamp:

Have you ever had FRESH milk from the cow (or goat)? If so, did you like it? Just curious!

I will draw a winner after Monday, June 25th at 8pm MT

Evenin’ all!

Look what we got today!

This is just one gallon but Michael got three beautiful gallons of fresh milk from Bossy this morning. He was VERY pleased & had to pour it in the jars himself. I made custard this evening - what a dream. Do you see all that cream on the top? That will be skimmed off & we will be making butter. Yummy, yummy.

You’ll never guess what my big guys are doing tonight?! The PRCA - professional rodeo is in town & Michael decided that it would be fun to go wild cow milking! SO Richard, Michael & Amanda (a ranching girl) have gone to try their hand at this very dangerous game. Unfortunately the rest of us couldn’t make it tonight BUT if they are still alive after tonight then we will all be going tomorrow so I should have some GREAT pics for you.

Enjoy your weekend - the magazine giveaway is coming up next! I know, no posts for a couple days & now three in one day!

Take care,

Liz

Mornin’ folks!

I know I’ve been quiet this week - sorry, just absolutely rushed off my feet. I also realize that I haven’t given away a magazine this week also - will try to get to that this evening.

This morning I wanted to share this beautiful card from Keri Lee Serieka. She used the Climbing Floral Backgrounder, Thinking of You phrase and Small Butterfly #3.

Now Keri called this a moth & maybe she is right! LOL!

No matter it’s real name, just enjoy the card & have a great day. I hope to be back later.

Liz

Well I know I promised you this info yesterday but….

Bossy finally had her calf on Saturday afternoon out under a tree in a rainstorm! She is a very proud mama. This first picture of Chuck - yes she had a boy - was taken a few minutes after Michael had carried up to the barn so he could dry off.

Chuck had his first halter on on Sunday & he was NOT happy! BUT I won the battle. He may have only been a day old but he is strong.

Today I went out to look for them & found Bossy but couldn’t see Chuck. I had walked right by him - he was hidden in the tall weeds in the irrigation ditch! I thought he was dead, he was lying so still but nope he was doing good. I took this next pic a few seconds later.

Bossy was right there making sure nobody hurt her baby.

Bella was out with me today so Bossy was not happy.

Michael is having fun training Bossy to stand still whilst she is being milked & of course she is having fun kicking the bucket over! LOL! Fortunately for these first few days we can’t drink the milk anyway as we need to wait for the colostrum to be all gone which normally takes about 10 milkings.

T-Bone looks huge now compared with Chuck. T-Bone is now roaming free around the yard & front pastures & is very happy. He is getting all the grass that he could ever want.

As for Mr Fox - he was right outside the barn door this morning when Michael had finished milking so the chickens had to stay in for a while. I guess the fox is just waiting for us to fill the barn up again so he can feed his family! AAAGH!

Looking forward to REAL milk VERY soon.

Liz

Gosh! Sorry for the delay in announcing last week’s winner. The answer to the question on what a male turkey is called is a TOM so congrats to all of you who got it correct.

The winner is:

#26 Marla

We’ll have another magazine etc to give away later this week so make sure you check back.

Thanks,

Liz