HAPPY THANKSGIVING NEIGHBOURS!

A very Happy Thanksgiving to all of my U.S. blogging neighbours.  I hope you tables are bountiful and your hearts are full.

I LOVE "LOVE ACTUALLY"!

A BEAUTIFUL NEW ADDITION!

I have been away for a couple of days.  On Friday, November 22nd. my beautiful son and his lovely wife gifted us with a new baby grandson.  Quinn-Estelle is a big sister to sweet, darling Sebastian David Kilian who weighed in at 6lbs. 12oz.

The little guy is a carbon copy of his big sister but a bit smaller.  We are all overjoyed at being blessed with this beautiful little boy.  It will be quite the Christmas this year.  My niece had a little boy in July and she has a little girl a bit younger than Quinn-Estelle so the house will be filled with giggles and lots of playing.

Quinn-Estelle will be 3 in February, the perfect age to become a big sister.  She may have trouble at first sharing mommy but I know she will be a wonderful sister to little Sebastian.

Since I have not posted in a couple of days I did not get a chance to thank Michele at HELLO LOVELY Blog.  I won a beautiful custom necklace and collage from her Etsy Shop HELLO LOVELY INC.
You must stop over and visit her blog and shop it truly is Lovely!! Thank you Michele.

GOATS....CHEESE....HEAVEN!

I think perhaps in one of my past lives I was a shepherdess with a herd of goats.  As a child Heidi was one of my favourite films, because she got to spend her days with goats.

 I have always loved goats.  They look at you and they seem so wise.  They are always happy to see you ( yes I do know food has a lot to do with it).  Whenever I am out driving and see a herd I stop and watch them.  If I am lucky they will come up to the fence for a visit.  When we first bought our farm I had a job at a large dried flower operation which was run from the country home of the owners.  The main reason I took the job was because they had a small herd of goats.  Miniature goats and Fainting goats.  They were adorable.  I spent my lunches with them.  They liked to cuddle and the Fainting goats would "faint" if they felt threatened, usually by loud noises.

Goats a quite affectionate, with each other and to people.  I love to watch them frolick and play in the fields.  I even like when they gently nibble on you to get your attention.  I wish we could have a herd here but we have never had the time or the heated barns for a herd.  A couple of years ago a farm brought in a large herd of goats.  I thought they were brought for goats milk and cheese and I went over to see if I could volunteer to help in exchange for time with the goats and some lessons in cheese making, a passion of mine.  When I got to the farm and read the sign, I quickly left, very sad and disappointed.  The goats were not there for cheese making...that's all I will say.

One day I will find a farmer who raises goats with love for their milk to make cheeses.  How wonderful that would be to make your own cheese.  It is something I have always wanted to learn how to do.  Adding herbs and different flavourings, shaping it, rolling it in ashe or herbs and aging it .  Oh, how lovely.

I used to set goals for myself.  A while back I set three... one was to become a Potter, which I did, two was to learn to eat with chopsticks, done, and three was to fly in a hot air balloon, hopefully that will be accomplished next summer at the Hot Air Balloon Festival in Barrie.  Perhaps it is time for some new goals.  One, take Salsa lessons, two, learn to speak Norwegian flluently, three....become a Cheese Artisan & find a herd of goats who would like some company!

A WHITE SCANDINAVIAN CHRISTMAS!

I cannot believe it has been a week since my last post.  It's been a bit crazy around the farm.  Our new little baby grandson is due to arrive this Friday morning so there has been lots of running around to do.

In between Christmas decorating I have been painting and distressing the set of cupboards we built for our sweet little girl.  There never seems to be enough closet space in our son's home.  He is a bit of a clothes hog himself so he has taken over the closet in his little girls room so we built a wall with two large armoires and a toy box in the middle.  I will post some pics this week.

Now back to my Christmas decorating.  I am almost finished, just touching up the kitchen.  I will put the big tree up by Wednesday, it would have been done but I would like to get some new Christmas balls the old ones look a bit tired.

As you know I am Norwegian/Canadian so we celebrate 2 Christmas's.  St. Lucia Day, our Scandinavian Christmas is on December 13th.  Because of this I find the Scandinavian blogs have their decorating done starting now and it is always beautiful.  I love the candles, wreaths and all of the white and green.

Everything looks so festive and clean.  Brightness and light fill the rooms and nature is hung or potted everywhere, I just love it.  I have my studio decorated in the Scandinavian tradition, very white and open.  I have decorated in my home more that way this year too, I will show you later. 

God Jul is a time of celebration, a time to embrace the snow and joy of the season.  White decor brings a warmth to the homes during the long Scandinavian winters.  Living in Canada I can appreciate that, I just wish we still had White Christmas's, the snow always makes things bright even when it is freezing outside.

I am looking forward to the hussle and bussle of Christmas.  Lots of new babies this year, lots more to love.  I cannot wait to introduce the little ones to the Norwegian traditions I love.  In a few years we will sit down to our Christmas breakfast of oatmeal and one lucky person will find the Marzipan Pig and get a gift.  What traditions to you pass on in your family, I would love to hear about them.

NO WORDS CAN EXPRESS HOW THANKFUL WE ARE!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!!!

I spent all day yesterday decorating the farmhouse outside for Christmas.  It has become a tradition of mine.  One or two days after Halloween I put everything outside up, the weather is usually quite nice, (glad I did it yesterday, it is raining today) so I got smart some years ago after freezing near the end of November.

I love the look of houses lit for Christmas.  Living in the country where there are houses spread out I always wanted to really deck the halls so people could see us when they drove down the road.  Only one other neighbour puts out lights, they decorate their pine tree.  Every year I have added more lights.  Last year for the first time I noticed the neighbours had put lights on their porch, perhaps I am a good influence.

I have scaled it back a bit.  I used to decorate everything, well, maybe not the animals but everything else had bows or boughs or onaments attached.

Now I have reached a happy medium.  Not quite as many lights that would attract planes but a few more than the cabin.

Next year I am going to put lights under the eaves of my hippie house, I may do it this year if hubby agrees to help.  I love the look of this little house all light up, so cute.  I may even put some boughs and bows on it....hmmmmmm.

This weekend I am starting the inside.  It usually takes me a few days although I did say I was not putting so much up this Christmas.  The new baby is coming on November 22 so we will have Christmas at our sons this year.  I am still doing a family Christmas on December 15th. and our annual Christmas party is on the 30th. of November so perhaps I will go all out.  We'll have to see after I open the "Christmas Cupboard"  I swear it grows on it's own over the summer.  Stay tuned!

MEET MY ADORABLE PUPPIES!!!!!!!!

I told you a couple of weeks ago that we were getting 11 puppies from a farmer to foster.  Well, we only got 9 (ONLY!) he kept one and gave one away.

The little darlings arrived and were bigger than I thought and really hungry.  they were adorable and we fell in love with them.

I named each one, they each had great personalities.  Here they are.

We brought them to their permanent Foster homes last week and boy was that hard.  We had them for 4 days but we loved them and they loved us.  We met the fosters and got to pick who went where.  Harper was adopted that day.  Fergus and Findley stayed together as did Ozzie and Magnus as well as Haden and Shadow.  Little Harlow went to a foster with a Great Dane.   Harper and Harlow were the tiniest and the only girls but they took no guff from their big brothers.  I heard from the foster mom that Harlow is the boss of the house over the Great Dane.  So far Jasper, Findley, Harper, Shadow, and Haden have been adopted.

 It was quite an experience and I thank Brenda from RESCUE DOGS MATCH for the opportunity.  Not many people get to have 9 smiling, barking pups greeting them every morning.

Atticus, Rufus and Daisy are glad it is over though.  Rufus was indifferent, Atticus a little hurt and Daisy took on look at them and ran.