HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Another year is winding down... just a couple more days and we'll be into 2010! I can hardly believe how fast the time goes by! I tell ya, this last year was something else. There were so many.. let's say, 'challenging' things that happened this year... however, God knows what He's doing and the blessings that came out of the trials are enormous and incalculable.

I have met so many wonderful new prim friends this year, as well as the deepened friendships I've had of many years. I thank you one and all for your support, for sharing tears and laughter, for being there for each other in our ever changing lives... even though we've never met face to face.

I pray for a tremendous 2010 for each and every one of you! Cherish family and friends and if you don't know Him, I pray you will this year. Our God is an awesome God! Have a blessed New Year's and be safe, my friends.

With God, All things are possible. ~ Matthew 19:26

Merry Christmas

Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. ~ Luke 2:11

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, "Where is the one who has been born kind of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him."
~ Matthew 2:1





Have a joyous Christmas with family and friends in celebrating the birth of our Lord!

Christmas Give Away!

AND THE WINNER IS................

BECKY!

Your books will be heading your way tomorrow sweetie! Congratulations!

If you like Christian fiction set in the Civil War era... you'll love this trilogy of books! I'm giving away this set of 3 books by Lynn Austin...

CANDLE IN THE DARKNESS
FIRE BY NIGHT
A LIGHT TO MY PATH

Simply leave a comment if you're interested. I'll draw a winner on December 20th!
I'm covering the shipping and hmmmmm ya just might find a little extra something in your package too!

Blessings

* ABBIE * and * REUBEN *

Abbie and Reuban are on my website

Shoppe Updates!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

My Kindred Sisters Gathering Post Selling Shoppe Updated with Christmas Goodies 12/4!

Click here for KSGP SHOPPE!

Amos:

My WSOAPP shoppe updated 12/6:
Click here for my WSOAPP SHOPPE!

Soldier Snowmen:

Sneaky Peeky

This Friday, December 4th, CPLG (Country and Primitive Ladies Group) on Ebay will kick off our Star Spangled Christmas auctions! Here's just a peeky at mine... hmmmm... what will it be? So mark your calendars as we we list our Star Spangled goodies! You can click the banner to the right to see our auctions!

Have a wonderful day with family and friends - we all have so much to be thankful for, even in the face of trials, let the peace of God rule in your heart.

Barefoot Sale!

Okay, as promised in my last newsletter... it's time for another Barefoot Sale!
Been too busy playing with my adorable grandson to do this sooner!!
Here is our little man at 4 months old already checking out the fall foliage!




So hop on over to my website and checkout the latest big sale!!
BAREFOOT PRIMITIVES

Sneek Peek

WSOAPP will begin our Charles Dickens Festival on ebay Nov. 15.
Click WSOAPP on EBAY to see all the marvelous creations!

Mine are a Victorian mother and daughter
Susannah and Rose

Pattern Winners!

Two lucky winners are now the owners of four Barefoot patterns each!

The first is Juanita! Congratulations! She has already picked her 4 patterns and they've been sent. Blessings and have fun! You can view her wonderful blog here:

It's Harvest Time

And I think my email to Lea was floating in her spam - but we finally connected and she chose her 4 patterns! Hop over to her fantastic blog and see her do a cartwheel!

Shabby Olde Potting Shed

Pumpkin Patch freebie

I ran across this gals wonderful blog and lo and behold she's having a fabric give away! OMG'sh! Stop by and check it out!

Pumpkin Patch Primitives

Don't forget to sign up for my pattern freebie below too!

BAREFOOT GIVE AWAY

Oh yes! You heard right! It's that time again!
I haven't had a give away in ever so long and while trying to decide what it would be I thought of something simple -- for you and me!

On October 30 I'll choose TWO winners ~ each to receive their choice of any FOUR available E-Patterns from my website!

So leave a comment here, make sure you leave an email you can be reached at and you'll get an entry. If you'd like to leave a post on your own blog linking back here, that's wonderful and I'll toss your name in my 'ol garden hat once again!

Here's my website pattern page: BAREFOOT PATTERNS

NEW Halloween & Christmas Shoppes!

If you look over to the right, you'll see banners for my new Barefoot Halloween and Barefoot Christmas Shoppes! I wanted a little place to add special items all year round. I'd be honored if you'd give 'em a peek!

Before my husbands accident, I was so close to having a little Candy Corn Mouse done for my KSGP shoppe. Well, I took advantage of finishing and listing him while he had plenty of visitors to occupy him! You can see the mousie by clicking below:

Click here for my KSGP SHOPPE!

My husband is on the mend by the way, and the blessings are many from this whole ordeal. We've got a ways to go, but every day there is improvement! Praise God! Thank you for your prayers and well wishes my friends!

I've also added a few things to my website and even opened up a new category called $5.00 or Less. There are still a few things sprinkled throughout my shop that falls in that price range, but not that category... but it's a start!

BAREFOOT PRIMITIVES

You go about your daily life... you have your routines, your family, your work, all the things that happen day in and day out. Then one day you get a call... your husband has been in an accident and they're taking him to the hospital by ambulance.

Your first reaction is you heard wrong. What? They repeat it. Which hospital! On my way!

Suddenly, your life has changed. Priorities have shifted. And all the things you do... you did... don't matter at all. Your focus is different and it's serious.

First, my husband is alive and we are home from the hospital now.

Last Tuesday he was in an accident at work, he's an electrical lineman. A line that was supposed to be dead... wasn't. And he took a 3 phase flash to the face from 2 foot away... sustaining first and deep second degree burns. This week has been an absolute blur... hospital... nurses... and the rare appearance of a doctor. We all know the nurses are the one's who really do the daily work, no offense to docs out there, but we sure didn't see you much ;o)

The outpouring of love and prayers from all of our family and friends has been amazing and overwhelming. Our grown children have stepped up and used whatever gifts God gave them to handle all the details of life while we were away from home. And we are so blessed that my husband has all his parts and is alive. He's looking at months of recuperation and pain... but he's alive and his beautiful blue eyes are okay. Praise God!

There's still work to be done and a whole lot of healing ahead. Things need to be done every few hours, and I'll spare you the details. Our lives are changed and the way we do things will be different for awhile. And this December, when we celebrate 24 years of marriage, well, it will be even sweeter.

That's it for now. I'm more exhausted mentally and physically than I can say. You can never have enough people praying for you and when you have a moment, we'd sure appreciate one for us.

Thanks for listening my friends.

Blessings ~ Debbie

Recent Aiden siting!

Our adorable little grand son is growing like a weed! Here's a recent picture of our sweet smiling Aiden. He's such a happy little guy! We are so blessed.

My Give Away

And don't forget to hop over to my WSOAPP page to see my giveaway!

Click here to visit: PUNKIN' MAKE DO GIVE AWAY

CPLG Give Away

Now you must see the beautiful Fall give away at CPLG! Click here to visit: CPLG BLOG

Head over to Cart Before the Horse and check out their fabulous giveaway!

* New WSOAPP Listings *

This is Zilla Pearl and Hollis. I'd be honored if you'd stop by my WSOAPP Shoppe and pay them a visit!



Click here for my WSOAPP SHOPPE!

** Hollis is adopted and on his way to a new prim home! **

Also, make sure you stop by our WSOAPP BLOG! We're having door prizes and many shoppe's are offering GIVE AWAY's to help us celebrate our 1 year anniversary! And check out the Needle Book article, there's a FREE pattern for ya!

Click here for WSOAPP BLOG!

New Listings!

Brother's PAX and JASPER have arrived in plenty of time for Halloween! They've just landed over in my KSGP shoppe and would love for you to visit. You'll see dear 'ol Pax has lost his head frettin' over Halloween... will he miss it? But level headed brother Jasper always tells him, don't worry... Halloween's A Comin'.... it always does!





Click here for my KSGP SHOPPE!

BAREFOOT SALE!

I'm having a

* WEBSITE * SALE *

An early Start-Your-Christmas-Shopping Sale!

Get 40% off your ENTIRE PURCHASE, before shipping! Sale ends September 10th. Anything in my website store is up for grabs! Finished goods, patterns, sale items, you name it! Shop til ya drop! Whoo-Hoo!

Click my store name below to go right there!

Barefoot Primitives

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

My WSOAPP Swap!

All I can say is ~*~ W O W ~*~ !!!! Christmas came early for me!

I got my swap in the mail today from my WSOAPP sista, Karen of Love You Cherishables!

She really loaded me up with vintage kitchen gadgets, (which I love), fabric, a cool pin keep made from a glass jar and filled with buttons and other little sewies, a beautiful big 'ol snowgal and gingerbread dude, a little stocking, hang tags and prim candy cane!

Thank you so much sweetie! These quick pics by no means do justice to how awesome everything is in person!! Neener Neener!

Stop by to visit her WSOAPP shoppe!
Love You Cherishables

I'd be honored if you'd stop by and check out my new listings!

One on Kindred Sisters Gathering Post Shoppe:
KSGP SHOPPE!

One in my Whispered Secrets of a Primitive Past Shoppe:
WSOAPP!

Two on Lemon Poppy Seeds:
LPS!

And a Fall-O-Ween listing on Ebay with my CPLG sistas:
EBAY!

Comfort Doll Project

One of my Kindred Sisters came across this wonderful blog (click logo above to go there). A Comfort Doll project has been started where one special gal has found it in her heart to collect art donations to send to battered women shelters across the United States!

Our group, KSGP, Kindred Sisters Gathering Post, has decided to take up this challenge as well. We're making comfort dolls to send to this heart warming project. Below are a few I'm sending off.... Scripture Dolls... they open up and a couple of scriptures are stitched inside.



As artists, we all have scraps of material and big hearts! Get together with your your groups or send off some Comfort Dolls on your own to this sweet lady. ~ Blessings to you my friends!

Another Yummy

Well I'd love to show you a picture of what I fixed last night, but everyone snarfed it down so fast it made my head spin.... obviously it was a winner!

I simply took a glass bread dish - of course, use whatever baking dish you have.

I thinly sliced up zucchini, yellow squash, tomatoes and onion.
Got together my seasonings of: salt, pepper, minced garlic, Italian bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese and EVOO (extra virgin olive oil).

Layer veggies in dish, adding all the seasonings and EVOO on top of each layer. (Just light on the EVOO, not trying to drench it. I also used the powdered Parmesan, but you can use shredded if you like.)

Top off with all your seasonings, a bit more EVOO, and bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. Oh this is so yummy it's a great summertime meal all by itself! Enjoy!

ZUCCHINI TIME!

Zucchini is truly the gift that keeps on giving! If you've ever grown it, you know exactly what I'm talking about... this prolific veggie seems to double in size over night! But we do love it and there's hundred's of ways to fix up this versatile green goodie, even when it becomes a monster. I could probably dedicate an entire blog just to zucchini recipes!

Last night I made loaves and loaves of zucchini nut bread and thought I'd share with you some pics and the recipe.

The ingredients you'll need are:

3 eggs * 1 c. oil * 2 c. sugar * 2 c. grated zucchini * 2 t. vanilla * 3 c. flour *
1 t. salt * 1 t. soda * 3 t. cinnamon * 1/4 t. baking powder *
1 c. chopped nuts (optional)

First you'll need to grate your zucchini and I use my handy dandy food processor. I love this thing. I'll take all those big 'ol zucchini's, cut them up, discard the seeds and run the rest through the processor. Yes, skins can go through too, then you have that nice dark and light green color. If you have more grated than you'll use, I simply put them in 2 c. measures in ziplocs and toss 'em in the freezer for other recipes later on.

Now beat the eggs til creamy. Add oil, sugar, zucchini, vanilla. Mix well after each addition. Sift the flour, salt, soda, cinnamon and baking powder together. Add to rest of ingredients and mix well until thoroughly blended. Add nuts. Bake in greased 9"x5" loaf pan or the tiny loaves like I like to do. Bake 325 degrees for about an hour.

I always make double and triple batches around here and any that doesn't get scarfed down or hidden for later (LOL)... I put them in ziplocs in the freezer for later on. These also make wonderful gifts for Christmas! You can put them in little tins, or wrap the baggie with tissue and tie with raffia, etc.

New Grandbaby!

Well our first little grand son has finally made his appearance! He's an 8 lb. 5 oz., 21" long, chubby cheek little beauty! I am so amazed at how alert he is. This picture was taken when he was 2 hours old and behind the nursery glass... can't wait to hold him in my arms and spoil him rotten!

This little darlin' took quite an effort to arrive. And when it finally came time to deliver, my daughter pushed 6 times.... doc came in and checked her and all of a sudden she was not dilated to 10 like she was a few minutes before!

Short story... what our little acrobat did was say, nuh uh no way am I coming out... did a 180 and turned himself breech! I've never heard of such a thing! Needless to say, things got crazy in a hurry and a C section quickly ensued.

But everyone is okay now and thanks to our Heavenly Father and modern medicine, they are both safe and sound! Praise the Lord!

The picture below was taken July 8 - he's down to 7 lb. 13 oz. They always lose a little weight before coming home. A lot of his swelling has gone down! Looks like he already has a tan! :o)
He is so darn alert and follows you around with his eyes! And oops, looks like his teensy finger nails got to his 'lil cheeky before being clipped.

CPLG JULY GIVEAWAY

Click the picture below to go to our CPLG Blog and a chance to win this fabulous wreath donated by Trish of TheKeepSakeChest!

Make sure you pop by Ebay to check out all the wonderful listings beginning tomorrow! You can click the logo below to go there.





Here's mine: "The Cow Jumped Over Mr.Moon"

We've been fixing up a few little gardens around here as time allows. They seem to be a little easier for me to tend to than the humongous one's I used to have! LOL
Here's one little triangle flower garden. I love cramming as many colorful flowers in a small area... it really POPS at ya!

Red, White 'n Blue Auctions on Ebay!

Our Ebay group, CPLG will be having RED, WHITE 'n BLUE auctions beginning May 18!
Click below to visit our auctions!

Thought I'd do a pre-summer sale, so I chose to combine 3 great 'ol friends, George, Ben and Abe for one low price! Click the picture to go to my website and order!

This is for a LIMITED TIME so grab them up and start your Americana sewing!

~*~ This is for the E-PATTERN only ~*~

I've got FOUR creations on Lemon Poppy Seeds this month!
And I've listed them early... I'd be honored if you'd stop by and check them out! Barefoot's LPS!

I'm so far behind I can't catch myself coming and going!! ROFL
As one of my dear CPLG sistas said recently... Life has been happening. Oh boy! Has it ever!

However, I've been busy busy busy craftin' 'n creatin' for several upcoming events! With all the rain we've been having, I'm hard pressed to get much in my gardens so far.... sigh.... but I know we'll be complaining about the heat soon enough. LOL But I'd rather be out playin' in the dirt!!

UPCOMING EVENTS YA JUST DON'T WANNA MISS......

I update my WSOAPP, Whispered Secrets of a Primitive Past, shop on the 7th of each month! I've got a couple wonderful goodies to offer!

KSGP, Kindred Sisters Gather Post, is opening a brand spankin' new Online Shoppe of very talented artists! Our grand opening is May 15th, so mark your calendars to stop by and see some incredible prims! We are so excited about our new venture and I'll be offering a special free prim just for signing up on our mailing list (actually it's a trio... hmmmmm, intrigued?)

LPS, Lemon Poppy Seeds, is updated the 15th of each month as well! I'm working on some extra grubby items for my shop, for all of you extreme prim lovers!

Let's see.... WSOAPP is having a launch on May 24th titled, "A Mid Summer Nights Dream". I'm working on a special thing or two for this one! Items will be on Ebay and in our WSOAPP shops!

You can click on pictures on the right or text links to go to all these places! I'd be honored if you'd stop by and see all the amazing talent and creations!

In the last newsletter I sent out... I mentioned I was going to have a freebie on here.... yep, I've been waylaid by life and decided to put that freebie on KSGP... but I will try to get another on here soon! My apologies. :o)

That's it for now ~ Have a blessed day my friends!

I'll be listing two new goodies on Lemon Poppy Seeds later tonight!
Click either picture to go there! Plus in my LPS pattern shoppee... I've got a trio
of a pattern deal!

Rusty Tin Roof Magazine & FREE Pattern

The new edition of Rusty Tin Roof magazine is out! I'm a guest editor and did an article on pattern making. You can click the picture below to get the online magazine!

I'm also offering a FREE pattern. It's supposed to be in the article, but maybe I missed it... however, so you don't miss a freebie, hop on over to my website: Barefoot Primitives, go to my FREE page and snag a free pattern! Enjoy my friends!

Well on March 20... people broke into our home and a thievin' they would go. Even though it takes a bit to settle the skittishness... we have found so many blessings on all the things that didn't happen, all the things not taken.

Fortunately, no one was home at the time, no one was hurt. But knowing someone was in your home... well, it takes something from you that money or insurance companies can't replace.

I know the Good Lord always has a reason, and sometimes we simply aren't privy to it. But we're hoping that the shopping spree they had with our checkbook, will help get them caught. Another blessing... I was able to make it to the bank in time to shut the door on them. Sadly, the stores they shopped at are now responsible for thousands, because they simply didn't do their job.

Needless to say, without boring ya to tears... crafting and creating has been at the bottom of my list. I am trying, little by little to meet upcoming deadlines... faceless dolls are waiting for me to give them an expression. I'm thinking they might not like what they get right now, so they wait patiently! LOL -- hmmm, this could be called my Dark Period, eh... rabid rabbits anyone! hehehe

So take precautions my friends, people aren't always nice and don't always do the right thing. But I fully believe the economy doesn't create these type of people, they have it in 'em already. I know too many out of work and struggling, and this type of 'activity', never enters their heads.


The Lord is good and in Him I find my peace!

Just listed two new goodies on Lemon Poppy Seeds!
Click either picture to go there!

Fried Chicken!

When I was growing up, it seemed Sundays were fried chicken day! Now, I make it a bit different than my ma, DEEP FRIED! Oh yeah! I fried chicken for over 2 hours this morning and filled three huge bowls. This is all that's left after everyone dug in! LOL -- Well I think there will still be plenty for tomorrow after church though. ;o)



I know everyone has their special way of cooking chicken, but here's mine....
The secret is Deep Fried and an Iron Skillet. I have a deep iron skillet and I fill it about and inch or so from the top with cooking oil. Get it nice 'n hot now!

Mix up a couple eggs and some milk in one bowl.... in another bowl I toss in flour, some bread crumbs, and lots of spices like garlic, onion, salt, pepper, Mrs. Dash if I have it around.... etc. I don't measure too many things, so like I said, toss it in! LOL

Dip your chicken in the egg/milk mixture, then in the flour -- now dip back in the egg/milk and flour again. Yep, double dippin'! Carefully put chicken in the hot oil, it'll sink to the bottom. As it cooks and gets done, it starts floating a bit. With the deep oil, you don't always have to turn it, but yes, occasionally you do.

When it's done to perfection, I dip out the pieces with a slotted spoon and let that grease drain off. Gather up all those yummy crunchy bits still floating around too! Repeat with more chicken! Enjoy!

Feel free to let me know your special way to fry chicken in my comments!

My new Barefoot Primitives website is open early!
I'd be honored if you'd stop by and take a peek!

Cloth 'n Clay

I've taken Gritty Jane's Cloth 'n Clay workshop and loved it!
I'm working on my first doll as time allows and will share pics soon!
You can click on her logo above and check out Jane's place!

Hop over to: Sweet Magnolias
and sign up for her next give away *** A Custom Blog! How cool is that!