'Grow Your Blog' Meet & Greet

Hello

My name is Becka.

I am The Girasole Lady here at Girasole Farm.

Welcome,

and Thank You for taking the time to stop by for a visit. 

I really love to meet new friends,
and thus far have never met a stranger. 

I will be honest by saying this is my first time linking up to a 'party'

through another blog, and I'm a little nervous.

Thank you Vicki  at 2 Bags Full 
for hosting this wonderful opportunity to make new friends.

My blog is simply a place for me to come and journal my life.
To share with my family & friends, old and new.
-Aprons to Zucchini-
'Preserving A Past To Be Proud Of''

My very first post on this blog was December 31st, 2009.

You can read the beginning- HERE

A lot has changed since then, but I have remained the same. 

Let's see...

I was born in 1959.

I am married, twice, to 'Caveman'.

I/we have 3 beautiful, amazing daughters.

I have 3 precious, very precious, Gran-baby girls. 

I live in the country in Northern California.

I have 2 Quarter horses.

I have 6 cats & 2 dogs, a Mini Aussie and a Beagle.  

I love to garden.

We have a large Summer vegetable garden, and a small fruit orchard. 

I enjoy preserving the foods we grow here during the gardening season. 

I like to can or freeze the extra produce, but even more, I like to share with family, friends, and neighbors. 

I support my local/fellow farmer's as much as possible. 

I love fabric.

I love to sew.

Sometimes, well lots of times, I buy fabric for no reason at all. 

I'm a fabric hoarder collector of sorts. 

Currently, I am sewing a quilt for my daughter's birthday, coming up in February. 

I really, really, enjoy cooking, not sure love is the right word here. 

I'm not afraid to try new recipes, or use ingredients I have never used before. 

I am a cook from scratch kinda gal, it's all I've ever known.

I'm also not afraid to throw away a meal I have prepared, that doesn't turn out as tasty as I had imagined. 

Once, I made Taramisu cupcakes from scratch, yes including the Lady Fingers. 

I say this because the recipe was 3 PAGES long, and it took 2 days to complete the process. 

By far, it has been my greatest dessert accomplishment to date.  

It was amazingly delicious. 

Oh- and I fell in love with Leeks about a year ago. 

I love, honestly love, to 'shop for junk' as Caveman calls it. 

I'm a Vintage Faire, Thrift shop, estate/garage sale junkie enthusiast. 

I am currently in love with ASCP (Annie Sloan Chalk Paint). 

Reading- I love reading. 

Books, magazines, NO- I haven't converted to any type of E-Reader. 

Sometimes I collect books, much in the way like I collect fabric. 

I enjoy photography. 

I know just enough to take a decent picture, but overall the whole learning about ISO, white balance, f-stop, aperture, and shutter speed are overwhelming to me. 

I stick to the auto setting. 

I truly believe there is more joy in giving than in receiving.

I am a dreamer-
list maker-
peacemaker-
& procrastinator.

I believe, in spite of all the evil and sadness in the world,

it is still a beautiful place, and there are very good, kind, and loving people among us. 

If you've made it this far and want to learn more about me, or why I blog 

go HERE and HERE

If you've found something here that strikes your fancy, please feel free to say 'hi" and visit often.
I would love the company. 

The Girasole Lady

ThanXmas

Last year during the month of November I challenged myself to post each day for the entire month.
I love looking back and remember the mundane daily things that go on in my life.
Because let's face it.... normal routines and mundane tasks are what make up the majority of life. Right?
I've decided to make the same commitment for this month of December.

My house has been a WRECK since Thanksgiving. I haven't put away any of my Fall decor, and to add to the mess I have picked up a few Christmas things here and there. Then to top that off,  I started to pull out some of the seasonal decor that I keep stored in the laundry room cupboards.

I call this ThanXmas... being stuck between Thanksgiving and Christmas. 

 I was crafting yesterday and this is the dining table.

Yep- it still looks like this RIGHT NOW this morning.

Pretty sure I won't be cleaning it off because I'll be doing more crafting today.

I am participating in a craft fair December 15th & 16th.

The fair will be downtown at a local coffee chop, Coffee Diem. 

Last year I sold 3 aprons there!

This year in addition to some new aprons, I'm making some paper crafts. 

I'm a Stampin UP! Demonstrator, so am very well supplied in all sorts of really cool paper crafting stuff.

Here are a few items I made yesterday.

The top 2 are a hanging pocket holder, for a packet of hot chocolate, apple cider, or a gift card. 

The 6 bottom ones are matchbook style that have a sticky note pad inside of them.

I know these are terrible pictures, but when I'm ready to make the official "Craft Fair" post I'll be more detailed. 

For today this is what my life will more than likely look like. All the girls are over for more crafting. It's raining outside, as it has been for the last few days, and it's gonna be a good day for sure. 

The Girasole Lady

The Story Of A Barn

The cow pasture is straight out my back door, past my own grass and garden. 

It's the first thing I look at when I get up in the mornings. It's towards the East, so I get a good look at the sunrise every day.  

It's chilly and breezy outside this morning, 56 degrees. I needed a flannel shirt. I have several old flannel shirts. This one belonged to my daughter Kristina, when she was in High School, she's 31 now. It's thin and soft, and perfect for the slight coolness in the air this morning.

As soon as the horses hear the sounds from inside in the mornings, they let me know they are ready for breakfast. For the most part the boys are very patient, and I don't have to rush out the back door to the barn first thing. 

The back of the barn faces East.
The front of the barn faces West.

Years ago, when I was first deciding where to place the barn, I walked around with a spray paint can and marked several different areas, to help in choosing the best location. At the time there was little shade out here, so in the end I decided to face the barn West and East. I knew the horses would get evening shade from the barn itself out back, and morning shade from the porch overhang. Sheltered from the sweltering Summer sun in the Summer, and sheltered too from the South rains, and cold North winds in the Winter. 

Along the front of the barn I planted 4 Purple Ashe trees,

which are now big enough to shade the entire front porch all afternoon from the West sun, so now the barn porch is entirely shaded all Summer long. The Purple Ashe trees shed their leaves in the Winter, which makes for a nice sunny spot on the porch and helps keep the stalls warmer on the colder days. I have small patches of seasonal grass just off the ends of each porch side, that I keep watered and  green during the Summer months. 

Did I just hear someone say my horses are spoiled? 

I bought my horse barn from 

Barn Masters in Corning

I pretty sure they go by another business name now. 

Buying the horse barn was a surreal experience for me. I was scared and excited all at the same time. 

I'm not gonna lie- it was expensive, and it was the first time, being on my own, that I made such a big decision. It was just me and my girls at home at the time, Caveman and I were divorced.

 I'm so thankful my girls were nothing more than supportive and encouraging during every step. Not too mention we were all excited to finally get the horses home, after years and years of boarding. 

I picked out the color of the walls and the roof, style of doors- front and back and the type of railing I wanted. 

I remember driving home and just thinking to myself, wow- I just bought a building. 

Ray's Concrete was hired to pour concrete for the porch and stem walls for the barn. I then waited patiently for the next 6 weeks for the barn to be delivered. It looked pretty weird to see this large concrete slab in the middle of my field. I had many friends wonder and ask me, if I had just  put a concrete "patio" in the middle of my field. 

The barn arrived at the dealer, and they called to set up the installation, I'll never forget the day... 

I was sitting on my porch swing, watching a dream come true. My dear friend, Whitney (also my employer at the time), shared the experience with me, like so many other experiences as well. 

Whitney, if your reading this, thank you. 

Into the field came a large flat bed truck with all the pieces to the barn, and several workers. 

It was assembled like a giant puzzle. 

By mid-afternoon I had a complete horse barn in my field. 

Over the next few weeks the girls and I worked really hard at putting up fence panels out back of the barn, and stall mats inside the stall floors. Goodness- that was HARD work. Those stall mats are so heavy, and some had to be cut to fit!!!   

(I wish now that I knew about blogging back then. I'd have to scour around for some pictures.)

Blogging is a good thing.

The Girasole Lady

In Hopes Of More Blogging

I'm trying to inspire myself to blog almost every day. Not because it's expected of me or I feel it's necessary, Simply put, it's because My Blog serves as a place for me to store my stories and memories, and one day, leave for my family, and all those still yet to come.

In November 2011 I challenged myself to post each day for the entire month, in retrospect it's heart warming to look back and remember the happenings of each day.

Today is the 1st of June. 

I have my first ever Hydrangea Flower. 

The Girasole Lady

Random

RANDOM- it's what I'm feeling right now.
Apparently I'm not able to focus on just one thing.
I love blogging, and I love reading other blogs. It's inspiring, interesting, and fun.
Several of the blogs I follow focus on particular things, like farming, gardening, quilting, sewing, photography, decorating, painting, and.... I think you get the picture.
Me... I'm all over the place. In the beginning Girasole Farm was meant to focus on farming, particularly Community Supported Agriculture. I soon realized I couldn't just put that out as the only thing I do, because... well, it just wouldn't be me. Sure, it's a big part of my life, but certainly not all.
I love farming and gardening, but I also love about a gazillion other things.

 2011 SUMMER VEGGIE GARDEN

 For a LONG time I have been reading about Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, I first heard about this paint at Miss Mustard Seed blog. When I went to Roses and Rust Vintage Fair last month, I happened upon a booth actually demonstrating the paint. I was so excited! I was even more excited to learn that a wonderful gal, Melony, carried the Chalk Paint in her booth, Well Worn, located in Chico at 8th & Main Antiques.              

Yes indeed, I hurried myself right on over there to get the paint and wax. I have the perfect dresser for this paint. I can hardly wait to get started.

I'm also planning on using some to make a Farmer's Market sign. This project idea comes from 

Donna at Funky Junk Interiors. 

She also has a great tutorial on making "Old" Signs

and How To Build Your Own Barnwood Shutters

I'm ready...

I made a Journal this week...

I'm a Stampin UP!  Demonstrator. I'm fairly new at stamping and paper crafting. I hosted my first Stampin UP! workshop last November, and have been hooked ever since. If you're interested and/or would like to learn more about Stampin UP!  please feel free to contact me. It's really fun and I'd be happy to share.

 Then there's two horses and a horse barn. 

Riding Arena (not too much of that going on these days)

The Eucalyptus trees were not intentionally planted here by the arena, they just volunteered. 

They even picked a perfect spot! 

The Egg Basket is filling in nicely. 

Succulents are interesting...   

The orchard is coming along too.

I fertilized all the trees right before the last rain. 

  PEARS

NECTARINES

PLUMS

MEYER LEMONS

    POMEGRANATES

ORANGES

There will be Apples and Cherries too. 

The Tomatoes are getting ready in the Green House to be put into the Summer garden. 

                   This is where we plant the Summer garden. 

The sun is setting, which means it's time to head on out to the barn and feed the horses. 

              

Who knows what random things will happen this week.

1. Sign?

2. Apron?

The Girasole Lady

p.s. I almost forgot.... I've been searching for a full size apron pattern that I like and is functional, but have been unsuccessful. 

At 4 o'clock this morning, I wasn't able to sleep, but came up with a great idea in my head. Jumped out of bed at 5AM to sketch it out in paper. I'm going to try my hardest to get going on that this week as well. 

Random.....