Yes, can you believe it! We hit 55 here today. SO nice. We even got a few minutes on the trampoline at the end of the day.

My taste buds are back which is very nice but I still have the lingering cold. Today was the first day I have cooked lunch in two days. It was SO good to eat a decent meal.

Hazel is bagging up very nicely so we are keeping a close eye on her. It would be wonderful if she actually had her calf while it was warm because we all know that it is too early for the weather to stay like this. As for Miss Lilly, who knows what she is doing! I don’t see an udder on her yet but of course hers won’t get the size of Hazel’s anyway.
Yesterday Daniel came in with something in his hand. (I won’t mention that when I was on the phone to Lori this morning he came running through the house waving muddy hands & wearing his wet, muddy boots! Poor Lori wondered what in the world was going on as I jumped up yelling at him to get out. What a lovely mess ) Anyway back to yesterday, Daniel had this tiny egg in his hand & told me it was a chicken egg. Not all that unusual as sometimes they do lay a really small egg but this one was TINY! Anyway Richard corrected him so then I thought it was a Cadbury’s chocolate egg - yes it was that small but no it was a budgie egg.

Daniel carried it around very carefully for a while until tea time.

Mud, mud & more mud but at least the snow is melting & hopefully the moisture will soak into the ground.

Hope your week is going well.

Take care,

Liz

I just have to share this card with you from our designer Lori Craig. Isn’t it great!

She also has an excellent pic on her blog of all the stamps - I keep meaning to take one but just haven’t had time so head on over to Lori’s blog to see all the stamps that are coming out in a very short while:

Make a Difference

I’ll be back in a while with farm news.

Liz

It’s that time of year again…… Easter Eggs - Cadbury’s chocolate eggs - YUM! YUM! Here’s a really sweet project from Mandy.

2-4-6-8 treat box

Paper: Prism Perfect Baby Pink P041-D. One piece measuring 5.5” x 8.5”, score every 2 inches across widest section and score once to form base of box. (See above photo)

One 7” strip, ¾” wide for handle. Stitch with sewing machine and white thread.

Cut as directed and remove shaded piece. Using corner rounder with guard removed, scallop top of box starting in the center for even scallops at each side.

Apply double sided tape to the base in preparation for assembly later.

Stamp at least 2 bunnies, some carrots and flowers for coloring with Copics and cutting out. Stamp out “Sweet treat” to make a tag for the box.

NEXT – with Cute curls swirly branch, ink with white Stazon and apply at the base of the box randomly and allow to dry. Using a Niji water brush apply Adirondack meadow ink over the swirly branch. You can press the ink pad to the lid or use a re-inker. The Stazon will resist the ink.

Stamp the little heart from “Sweet Thang” set around the top of the box in white Stazon. I also drew around them with my Copic black fineliner to emphasise them.

Place the cut out bunnies and flowers around the box, bending the bunny’s ears. Cut along the ear of one bunny and attach inside the box peeking out. (This would make a good bookmark too!!)

Ignoring the flower heads, attach carrots instead to the flower stalks and save 2 carrots to attach to the tag.

Here is the little card to accompany the treat box. Card is 4 ¾” square.

SUPPLIES

Ink: Brilliance graphite black, White Stazon, Meadow Adirondack

Stamps: Cutie Pet-tootie by Kim Hughes (Rabbit, carrot)

Cute curls by Kim Hughes (swirly branch, flower)

Sweet thang by Kim Hughes (little heart and “Sweet treat”)

Accessories/tools: Sewing machine. Ribbons by May arts. Corner rounder with guard removed for scalloped edge at top of box. Copics. Japanese screw punch.

Extra supplies for the card: Ribbon from Creative Impressions. Oval shadow stamp from the new “Cardmakers shapes” and sentiment from the new “Classic Essential Expressions”, both by our own Lisa Strahl. Shell pink Adirondack. White Flock by Cornish Heritage Farms for bunny’s tummy!!

Extra project – Pot painted with cream acrylic paint. Images stamped with Black Stazon and colored with Adirondack re-inkers and Niji water brush.

Scalloped trim is Prism Perfect Baby pink.

Cellophane stamped with White Stazon and flower shape from new Cardmaker’s shapes set by Lisa Strahl for Cornish Heritage Farms.

Hi there!

Thank you SO much for all your kinds comments for Michelle. She does read the blog so will have read them all. She started back at work pressing rubber on Thursday. The dressing & packing still have to be changed every day although not over the weekend and they have yet to determine whether the cyst is still there, requiring her to have surgery.

Daniel was funny when we told him Michelle had to go the doctors. He just looked at me so straight & said, “New one.” I asked him what he meant & he said, “New Shelley!” He thought we would be getting a new Michelle.
I feel better today than I have in a few days so should be now on the upwards trend rather than downwards!

It’s been a week of bandages & sickness here. Michelle started it then Goat Chop ran in front of the truck & pulled all the skin off of part of his front leg. He is walking (limping) but nothing is broken so we are keeping his leg bandaged & giving him penicillin.

Then on Thursday I went out & Chocolate was limping. One of her hooves had split. Chocolate has the worst hooves of all our goats. They grow really fast & of course with winter being here we have not been out trimming hooves & none of the others need it. So Michelle came out & held her whilst we trimmed her hooves. They will never be perfect but at least they are no longer split. Here she is afterwards:

And no, she is not old & gray. In the winter, because she is part cashmere she gets a very thick coat which sheds.

Later that night Richard & I were finishing off bagging some unmounteds. KitKat was being crazy & we caught her on camera climbing across the top of Kim’s sets. Crazy cat!

Today has been busy. Both big guys were away. Michael went on a Men’s Retreat this weekend. We reminded him that he was not going to youth convention but to a Men’s Retreat so he had better behave like one! LOL! Richard (can’t remember if I have told you this) is doing training on the ambulance to get his I99 license. Right now he is just a Basic EMT but this new training will make him just one step below a Paramedic. He’s been practicing IV’s etc on dummies this week & today was his first day down in Great Falls. He had to work through some stations to prove he could do it & then when he goes down next time he’ll be able to work/practice in the ER. It’s a pretty intense course - he’s at class two nights a week & has to put in a good many hours of practical work. Great Falls is 130 miles from here so it is quite a trek. He will be finished his training by June/July time.

Michelle & I bagged a load of backgrounders & sets this morning after doing all the outdoor chores. Well she did most of them. I just went out & fed and watered the cows & milked Bossy. At lunchtime I made yogurt & custard & then tonight I made butter & fresh cakes. And do you know what! Due to this horrid cold I could not taste all these lovely foods. I knew what I was eating was good but it was tasteless - AAGH!

This afternoon I “boogied” with Elvis! HAH! We didn’t finish so we will have to have another date next week. I cut loads of him out but didn’t have time or energy to put him on wood.

You’ll laugh at this! I asked Richard to get tissues on his way home as with our colds this week we were out of tissues. So when he gets home I ask him how many boxes he bought & he says 3. I was kind of disgusted - “Only 3! I normally buy 10 boxes when they are cheaper!” We have boxes scattered around the house. So then he goes onto say that the store had Terry’s Chocolate Oranges on clearance. I just looked at him & said, ” I bet you bought 10 of those?” Yes you guessed it! He did! He said, “At least I got my priorities right!”

We do enjoy Terry’s Chocolate oranges so I cracked one open thinking that I would surely be able to enjoy & taste that! WRONG! What a bummer!

Oh well, that’s all our news. Hope you haven’t fallen asleep reading this book. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Liz

Hi folks!

How was your Monday? I spent 2 1/2 hours this afternoon in the doctor’s surgery. When we arrived home on Thursday Michelle said that she had a small lump on the bottom of her back. I really didn’t think that much about it & just said, “Well monitor it & if it not better by the middle of next week you had better go see the doctor.” By last evening Michelle could hardly sit down & was in a LOT of pain. Then it dawned. “I bet you have a pilonidal abscess (cyst).”

I had a pilonidal abscess at 19 also (yes Michelle was 19 on Saturday!) which was in the first year of our marriage. They are extremely painful & back then - 20 years ago - I had to have general anesthetic. Maybe they are hereditary, we thought? So this morning she called for an appointment & was able to get in this afternoon due to a cancellation. Sure enough our diagnosis was correct. They were able to perform the surgery there so that saved us a trip to the hospital. For those of you who are not familiar with these abscesses they have to be allowed to heal from the inside out. What does this mean? It means the hole that the abscess has left has to be packed with gauze & each day pulled out & new packing put in until healed. Sounds lovely doesn’t it! NOT! And yes they can be hereditary.

Michelle says it is already feeling a lot better as now the pressure is off. The doc said it was pretty big.

We are SO blessed to have such a wonderful medical center in our little town. Just blessed, blessed, blessed.

Have a great rest of the evening. I have to work on some cute new images tonight.

Liz

Well folks we made it home safe & sound arriving home here around 2:30pm yesterday (Thursday). CHA was a good show for us. We got to meet several of our designers plus made alot of other valuable contacts.

I have to tell you what happened to Richard on the last day. He was in the booth by himself & the way his watch is designed when he went to look at the date he had to reset his watch to Mountain Time instead of PST. We had agreed to meet outside the hall at 2:15 so I could take some of the packages to the Fedex office & get them mailed leaving him free to dismantle the booth. Alli was coming to help him.

I went off with the kids to Disneyland & we had a couple hours there. We went to the ‘It’s a Bug’s Life’ 3D show which was REALLY good. Anyway we got back to our meeting place just before 2:15pm. The walkie talkies we had didn’t work that well in the building but Richard finally made contact saying that he had had his on the wrong channel so that was why I hadn’t heard from him. Nothing too strange about that but then he comes through the doors rushing & going, saying sorry he had the wrong channel etc. So I said, “Well it’s only 2:15 - we’re on time!” He then looked at his watch & went “OH NO!” He thought it was 3:15pm & was in a mad panic because he thought we were going to be late for our plane at 5pm & of course had been wondering where in the world I was. He had started taking the booth down at 1pm (a big no, no at CHA) & couldn’t understand why no one else was doing the same PLUS Alli wasn’t there, then a couple folks came in to place orders & he thought that was even stranger as the show was “shut!”

OK so that was one panic that we laughed about. We got to the airport & Richard hadn’t eaten all day so after going through security we headed down to the opposite end of where we needed to be as we had plenty of time, or so we thought, & got something to eat. We were sat there eating the last few mouthfuls at 4:20 when Richard suddenly looked at the boarding passes. The airline had changed the times! The plane was due to leave at 4:30. So that put him in another panic. We grabbed everything & rushed down to the other end with Richard thinking was had missed the plane. Thankfully the plane was delayed & they started boarding 2 minutes after we arrived. PHEW!
Back to today. Today has been a very busy day getting all the orders out that came in whilst we were away. BUT we did it! YEE HAA:)
NOW we have to look back through all the contacts we made at CHA & make sure we get all the relevant info out.

Back here at home, Chuck & the goats have been up to mischief. Not quite sure who is guilty but one of the fences has broken down & so Chuck has been in with Bossy. We weaned Chuck when we dried Hazel up but I guess he wasn’t too happy about it. I was concerned that the kids wouldn’t know what to do with all the milk whilst we were gone but they haven’t had very much! There was snow & freezing rain whilst we were gone too so that was a bit of a mess and now the temps are above freezing. Y’all know what a mess melting snow makes although the ground really appreciates the moisture so no real complaints but just add melting snow to melting manure etc & imagine the mess. It is AWFUL down by the cows. Why didn’t you keep it clean you ask? Well that is a good point but with the freezing temps trying to scoop frozen poop is no fun, in fact nearly impossible as everything seeps into the straw & freezes solid.

So we now have a lovely mess. The goats have been making a nuisance of themselves down in the cow barn also adding more mess to the problem so this weekend is clean up time BIG TIME! Michael & I started tonight. He was cleaning out the barn & I started cleaning up where Chuck & T-Bone have been feeding all winter. Some of you are probably thinking, “No big deal, Liz is enjoying herself sat on the tractor scooping!” WRONG! Believe it or not we do not have a big tractor here so all cleaning has to be done with a pitch fork & muscles. I loaded up our truck tonight with one load & Michael took two loads in his truck. We are nowhere near finished BUT the temps are supposed to stay warm tomorrow so Michael should be able to actually hose the barn out. Then we will keep the door shut through the day unless the weather is nasty to stop the goats going in there.

So that’s been my day. I hope your day has been a good one. Tomorrow will be a mixture of working outside & in.

Have a great weekend,

Liz

Hi all!

Well I have had two days at the CHF CHA booth whilst Richard has been at Disneyland with the kids. It has been a good couple days - alot of great contacts. Sorry for not blogging yesterday - by last evening I was EXHAUSTED!

Last evening we took some of our other Designers out to the Outback for dinner. The weather is so mild that you can walk around at night so after dinner we walked it off by walking back to our hotel.

Here are three of our TK designers Trudee Sauer (left), Debbie Olson (middle) & Val Stangle (right):

Then here are Keri & Alli (left to right):

OK we now have to go back in time to Saturday. This is what the booth looked like before we got in there. Apologies for the blurry pic:

Here is what it looked like once the girls had “played!” Joking aside everyone has worked really hard - we are so thankful & proud of them The samples that were created have “wowed” the customers.

Doesn’t it look beautiful?

If you are observant you will see a certain train in the far corner! Yes! Thomas the Tank Engine is coming to Cornish Heritage Farms. We have no dates yet so watch this space! Whoo hoo!

Hope you are ready for more pics. Here are some close ups!

Kim Hughes Collection & yes Kim has been with us this week. She is a real sweetie.

Thomas Kinkade:

Rummage Bin:

Elvis! These new stamps release February 28th:

Here are some of them demoing etc. First is Kristine:

Lisa:

More pics. From left to right - Trudee, Kim, Alli & Julie:

Tomorrow the show ends at 2pm. Richard will be there tomorrow so he can pack up. We have to get out of here PRONTO as our plane leaves at 4:30pm.

Daniel was happy today because he got to meet Pluto, Mickey & Goofy.

Take care,

Liz

Poor Richard has spent the day surrounded by screaming women! LOL! As everyone has met each other for the first time they have all been squealing at each other. He did a very good imitation (several times) over dinner tonight. Yes believe it or not this is the first time we have met any of our designers along with Lisa, Keri & Kim. I have not yet made it to the booth so have still to meet everyone but tonight we had dinner with:

Lisa, Kim, Anna, Lori, Kristine and Sharon (left to right). Poor Julie Campbell is REALLY sick - poor girl, flies all this way only to end up in bed. Not nice!

The kids & I did Disneyland again today. Daniel had to ride both the Steam boat & the Pirate Ship. The park was really busy so going on rides was pointless. There was only a 30 minute wait for Winnie the Pooh & friends ride so we did do that one. Daniel loves music so we went to the saloon again to listen to the Hillbillies who were very good.

Now I am headed up to the Marriott (next door from our hotel) where Lisa is doing a Ranger class for our gals & anyone else who wants to play.

Hope you had a great Sunday

Well it was about 70 here today & of course for us that feels like summer as winter is still very much in control in Montana. We picked the car up this morning & headed to Huntington Beach. Richard & I were brought up on the coast so it was very much a part of our younger years but of course now life is rather different & our little ones had never seen the ocean before. As Richard & I were lying on the beach we figured it was 5 1/2 years ago that we were last on a beach & that was in England in the middle of winter!

BUT we can now say that we have been coast to coast in the USA. When we lived in Maryland we used to head to the ocean quite regularly.

Daniel had a blast.

We bought him a bucket & spade & he would have stayed there all day. Hannah was NOT amused. We put her down on the sand & she screamed. She sat on the towel for the whole three hours - never moved although she eventually played with the beach toys!

I LOVE the ocean & was very tempted to go for a swim but by the time I got there the tide was going out & I would have had to walk quite a ways out to get where it was deep enough. Plus I had my clothes on so just got my trousers wet! Obviously I did not have Hannah - this pic was taken at the beginning.

Building sandcastles:

After that we headed up the coast to Long Beach to the Aquarium of the Pacific. Once again Daniel had a blast looking at all the fish etc. Daniel LOVES life - he is SO appreciative of everything. What a story this little guy will be able to tell when he grows up. He turned 5 this week & so five years ago he was 1lb 14ozs & only 13 inches long. Richard’s wedding band could slide all the way up his arm. Daniel has come a long way since then.

By the end of all this we were hungry so headed to an In & Out. Then we headed to the grocery store to pick up juice & healthy snacks.

Richard had hired a “Never Lost” system for the car & that was a real blessing - helped us find all these places easily. He loves gadgets!

Hope you all have a great weekend. Enjoy the pics. We’ll be setting up the booth in the morning.

Take care,

Liz

Hey folks!

Just wanted to let you know that we are here in sunny, smoggy California! When I say “we”, I am referring to Richard, Daniel, Hannah & myself. Michelle & Michael have stayed home to look after all the animals - well in fact Michael leaves to go skiing tomorrow so Michelle will be looking after them all!

The rest of the CHF team are arriving tomorrow - well quite a few anyway - some can’t make it.

We are hiring a car for the day tomorrow & heading to the beach if all goes to plan so I’ll let you know how that goes. We don’t set up the CHA booth until Saturday.

Hope you’re all having a great week,

Liz