My Home Town Part 1

Altona, Manitoba Canada - my home town. This last weekend was our "Sunflower Festival". For those of you who didn't know - Altona is the Sunflower Capital of Canada!! WOOHOO!! We used to have the largest sunflower oil processing plant, but because of diseases in the sunflowers about 10 years ago, they switched the plant to canola oil. But sunflowers are coming back! Would love to show you a picture of a sunflower fields in bloom, but they just aren't blooming yet.

When you drive into town from the north, this is the first thing you will see. The "sunflower" is about 20 ft across. Would love one in my yard!

Altona also has the worlds largest Van Gogh Sunflower painting. (not my favorite)


Sat. morning we had the parade. Can't show you the whole parade, so I'll just show you a few pictures that I took. They always lead the parade with flags on horseback. There is the Canadian flag, Manitoba flag, American Flag (we are only 13 miles from the ND border), and the Australian flag.



Why do we have the Australian flag you ask? Apparently Emerald is the Sunflower capital of Australia. They have their festival in April. Every year our "Sunflower Queen" wins a trip to Emerald for their festival and their Sunflower Queen comes to Altona for our festival. Isn't that cool?

Brad and I like heavy horses. So I always take pictures of a few.


I had to take a picture of a Combine that Logan has worked on. We were hoping the town had their new Fire Truck in the parade so I could take a picture of that too, seeing as how Luke worked on that one.


Every year the local Quilting Club has a big quilt show in one of the local churches. I love looking at quilts, and I'm determined to quilt one day. Here are a few that I really liked.





On Sunday there is a big car show in the park. We always check out the cars. The yellow one belongs to a friend of ours. The other car was done by a friend of Logan's . The guy did this when he was 17! I wish I had before and after pictures of this car so you could see what an amazing job he did!



That's it for now. Come back Saturday for Part 2.

Random Tuesday

~ My garden! Well, when everything started coming up it looked awesome!! I had beautiful rows of cucumbers, onions, pumpkins/squash, tomatoes and corn. The neighbor decided to spray his field for broadleaf weeds and ended up killing my cucumbers, really hurting the tomatoes (didn't think they would survive), 1/2 my pumpkins and squash plants were gone and the corn was really hurt.

A few of the cucumber plants survived but not many. I make my own relish and dill pickles, so I need quite a few cucumbers. Last year I didn't get any plants, so this year I really need quite a bit. We went to the green house, picked up some plants, and reseeded a row too. So now I have about 5 different stages of growth in my cucumber rows. Everything from vineing and blooming to just poking out of the ground. Should be interesting. At least they won't all be ready at the same time! LOL


The corn survived beautifully!! 3 nice rows. Should have lots of Corn-on-the-cob this fall!!


There are still a few pumpkin plants and a few butternut squash plants, guess we'll see how many "fruit" we get.

Bought some more onions too. Had one row - which seems to have survived after being sprayed. So now I have 3 shorter rows.

So we bought 12 more tomato plants, and out of the 12 that got sprayed - only one died. Oh dear, we will have a lot of tomatoes.



~ Do you love handmade soap? Lip balm? Julie at Latherati Soap is having a FREE soap challenge!! Check it out! You can win 2 soaps and a lip balm just by telling Julie what your favorite children's book is and why!

~ I joined a lip balm club!! Just received my second lip balm: Lavendar Vanilla. Yummy! The club is through Bovine Bubbles and Hogwash. You can never have to many lip balms. Cara is having a birthday sale in her other SHOP. 29% off - just add "BIRTHDAY" for the code to the discount.

~ I'm part of a Recycling Craft Challenge. Everyone was sent a milk jug cap, 3 plastic clip thingies from bread loaves, and a small string of blue beads. We are supposed to make a crafty item incorporating these items. This is what I made:

~ Here are some great give aways that need some love!
250 business cards: The Queen of Re
2 items of your choice: ShelleAnne's Splendor
Summer inspired headband: Skylar's Candy Clips
Body Balm: Glory be Herbals
Beautiful beads: Etsy Fest
Your choice of corsage: Kerrera Skye

Random Tuesday

~ Please enter this give away. Just click on the picture and it will take you there!! While your there - check out all the great give aways on the sidebar!

~A few weeks ago I did a feature on Jennifer Labella Art and her wonderful new book. Well, Jennifer happens to live 1.5 hours north of me, and in the same city and Luke (my oldest son). After contacting Jennifer about her book I found out she was going to be selling it at a show and so sent Luke to get me two books - one for me and one for my nephew for his birthday. Luke brought them home 2 weekends ago. I love this book!! The illustrations are amazing, the story is wonderful. Jennifer has much better pictures in her shop - but I thought I'd show you a few that I took.

~ My new favorite drink!!

Suntanned Malibu Surfer
2 oz. Malibu Coconut Rum
fill with Pineapple Juice
1 splash Coca-Cola
Pour above listed ingredients into a rocks/old-fashioned glass filled with ice, and serve.
YUM!!


~While entering give aways I came across this amazing shop! Made in the Hudson Valley. I love metal candle holders. Someone could buy me this if they feel so inclined:

~I purchases some soap and lip balm Mum Mum's Crafts. I love them all!! The lip balm is wonderful, love the coconut scent! The soap feels so nice and smells great! I've used the Orange Spice one.



~Last week tuesday, I told you about this Pepperment Foot Butter I had purchased. Well - I have really really rough feet and heels. I've been using this Foot Butter almost daily since I got it one week ago. Forgot a few days, so I put it by the computer, then when I'm sitting here "doing nothing" I'll put it on my heels. IT'S AMAZING!! It only took a couple of days till my heels were nice and smooth. I highly recommend this foot butter!! Here's the link again:
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=26793907

Random Tuesday!

It was Christmas at the post office the last few days!! WOOHOO!! First I won 2 give aways lately and they both came, and I ordered some items from a shop on Etsy that is part of a BNR that I'm in (link to follow), and they came today! So here we go:



1) I'm part of a BNR on Etsy.
( http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6192615&page=1 ) Luckily there are only two Bath & Body shops in this BNR or I'd be broke!! LOL I've made purchases from both shops and one of the packages came in the mail yesterday!! I ordered 2 Warm Vanilla Sugar Soaps and Peppermint Foot Butter from Luscious Lather. (the foot butter is on my feet as I type this). Diane added some extra goodies!! One little container of Body Souffle with Goat Milk & Honey and another little container of Foaming Body Scrub in something Almond. She also added a crocheted face scrub. Peppermint is not my favorite scent but all the foot butters seem to come in it. This one isn't too overpowering and actually reminds me of the round white peppermints my Grandparents always had in the chicken dish at their house. It sure feels nice though!! Love the soap and scrub and souffle too!! OH NO!! I just checked and the souffle comes in VANILLA!!! Help!

2) I won this beautiful pendant necklace from HJM Art Gallery. It's bigger than it looks in pictures. It measures approx. 1.5" x 2". Isn't it beautiful? Helen also has the most amazing art in her shop!! These would look great on my livingroom wall: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=20920948 You really need to check out her BLOG. Helen always has interesting posts.




3) I won these awesome MaryJane Slippers from Broken Hallelujah. I got to pick the size and color - so obviously I picked red!! I did take a picture of them on my feet, saw the pic and wished I had cute little feet. Hmmmm.

4) Anyone interested in another swap? I had so much fun with the bag swap I'd like to do another one, but what? Or do you know of one happening right now?

5) Bought this bug lotion from Bovine Bubbles and Hog Wash. It works really well, has no deet and actually smells pretty good. Regular bug spray/lotion usually gives me a headache, this didn't. Hubby even thought it smelled ok.







6) I won some lipbalm from Latherati Soap Foundry, and so I went to check out her shop and ordered some soap too!! This is the one I bought: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=27136129 Julie is offering Free Shipping right now during her Grand Opening!! I'm her first sale!! Who will be her second? ( I really need to quit buying soap! LOL)

7) We had 3-3.5 inches of rain Fri-Sat. The creek is up again. The beavers can probably swim from the pond to the creek right now. The pond is the water on the left of the trees - the creek is on the right. The water in the front with all the reeds on it is actually on our lawn.

8) If you have some blueberries in the freezer and don't know what to do with them - here's a great recipe for blueberry sauce. Made it on the weekend and had it with pancakes. Yummy!! http://themuddymoose.blogspot.com (they have really great soap too LOL)

Random 10 Tuesday

1) I got these wonderful dish cloths from Handmade by Angie. I've used them already and love them! She also sent along this wonderful Olive Oil soap. This is the first time I've tried olive oil soap - it's really nice!! Angie hopes to get it into her Etsy shop soon. She is also offering free shipping on any orders this week! Just mention "audrey's country crafts blog" in the "notes to seller" portion of checkout.

2) Have your read "Vision in White" by Nora Roberts? It's a really good summer read, and part of a quartet series about 4 friends. The next book comes out in Dec., my that is a long time to wait. What are you reading this summer?

3) I finally put some new recipes on my recipe blog Audrey's Favorite Recipes. They all have rhubarb in them.

4) Our dog found this baby robin hopping around on the lawn. Luke rescued it after we tied up Rascal and took some pictures.

5) Looks like we will have record breaking low temperatures again this week. What happened to Global Warming? Who ever came up with that does not live in Manitoba Canada!! We also had the coldest winter on record.

6) Please enter the new give away for: Soap & Lotion

7) Only 3 more weeks of school!! The local high school has their last exam on the 23rd, the elementary schools go till the 30th. I am really looking forward to summer holidays.

8) Got the garden tilled last week and planted the asparagus. We plant the rows far enough apart that we can till with the 5 ft tiller. I really don't like weeding. These are my 3 rows of corn and the tractor with the tiller.

9) Is anyone going on a trip some where this summer with the family?

10) That's it. I had started a list on Friday for this post - was up to #8 - lost the list, had to start again. I know I'm forgetting something. Hmmmm.

Random 10 Tuesday

Not so random this week. All about camping this last weekend!!


1) We've been going to the same campground the last weekend of May for the last 4 years. Meet people there and go riding on the ATV's.

2) Have fun making breakfast over the fire in the mornings. Why does the food taste better when it's made outside?

3) Getting ready to ride - one son with a broken finger, one son with a sprained ankle. Hmmmm. Because Luke's ankle was sore he got to ride with Brad on Sat.

4) At one point we split up for a few miles. Had to decide between mud or dry. I chose dry - thank goodness. Brad & the boys didn't. HEE HEE!!

Dad - I need some help! Why don't you get it out of here for me!! (Yeah for Dad's!)

Ok - that didn't work quite the way it was

supposed to. LOL

Logan to the rescue!!

Maybe we should just stick to the dry trails?

5) We go riding with friends, have lunch on the trail by a cute warm up shack built by snowmobilers.

6) There were 16 quads (atv's), a dirt bike and a side-by-side.

7) Had a potluck supper sat. after riding. Used our 24 ft trailer to hold all the food. The only complaint heard was "I ate to much!".

How will we ever finish all this food?

Apparently it wasn't that difficult. There was hardly anything left!

8) Lots of friends new & old to visit with. Most of these folks we only see this time of year.

9) Went riding on Sunday, just the 4 of us. Used athletic tape on Luke's ankle so he could ride too. Some of the scenery -

10) We had an awesome weekend - hope you did too!