I never thought I would see Matt sewing but I'll be darned if he wasn't eager to learn.

Matt's first attempt at threading the needle... Well maybe attempt 2:)

He learned how to wind the bobbin, thread the needle, and do a basic stitch. The end result was a muslin bag for our gold concentrate. He figures he is in charge of the Mining Division and the gold bags fall under that so he wants to be able to sew his own bags to put our gold in.

I think it turned out terrific! We spent a lot of time creating our logo but once we finally got it finished I printed it out on Avery Iron-on transfer paper and it turned out perfect. Of course I am trying to iron the bag and make it all nice and Matt takes it out to the yard and rubs it in the dirt... It has to be authentic he says... Hmmmm. I told him he can be in charge of the bags but he is not to come near the owls if he is going to rub everything in the dirt..LOL

Latest sewing adventure

      As much as I love our trips down to the gold claim I'm always thrilled when I come home to my clean, bright, spacious office. It's the perfect room to let those creative thoughts flow. The big pieces of furniture like my desk we purchased at West Elm (which I LOVE) but most everything else I have been piecing together over time from garage sales/estate sales. There is nothing better than finding the perfect, unique piece for your home. One of my favorite pieces is an old clothes drying rack I bought for 3 bucks. It makes an excellent fabric rack and since they are always on display I'm inspired every time I walk in my office. Even the dogs come down to keep my company while I putter away. It's not like they have it rough though since they have claimed the daybed...  It's my favorite room in our house by far.

Meet My Whooty Owl Collection...

For those of you who don't know, my birthday present this year was a Brother CS-6000i sewing machine. My mother and grandmother surprised me with it for my 25th birthday. Now I didn't get a sewing machine because I enjoyed sewing or had fond memories; I was strictly thinking it would save me from buying another pillow case or spending $60.00 on one set of curtain panels. I didn't think I was going to like it anymore than a vacuum cleaner. 

In fact, when I was young my dear mother thought it would be a fulfilling experience for me to sew my own dress. Probably not the best first sewing experience because as a kid all I wanted was the "cool" clothes everyone else was wearing. There was no way I was going to show up at school in some homemade, awful creation. So needless to say I refused to learn how to sew and showed zero interest in the activity. Fast forward 15 years and now I understand the value of making your own curtains. A tight budget is a great motivator.

But when I sat down to try my first little owl project and learn how to use the thing something clicked and I fell in love with my sewing machine. I find it to be so relaxing and stimulating. I'm always thinking about what stitch might work best or different fabrics, or creating new patterns. The possibilities are just endless!

Meet my Whootie the Owl Family....

Many of you may be wondering why Owls?

Whooty Lu

Well, I am from the east coast and before 2009 had never seen the west. Our last travel contract brought us out to Las Vegas and from there my world was opened to a rough and wild beauty. I thought the desert was a place void of life or beauty; a place that nothing grew or thrived but only went to wither and die. 

I couldn't have been more wrong! We moved here and never left:) 

Burrowing Ground Owl Nest

Now everyday I take the pups out for their walk and we venture out into the desert behind our house. Within  two minutes I have the entire desert to myself. Not a person in sight, most of the time, and the puppies have thousands of acres to explore. Everyday we meet a new critter or I discover a cool fossil or mining antique. You really never know what the desert might offer up each day. 

Whooty Sue

On our daily walk there are a number of burrowing ground owls nests that we have discovered. They are remarkable little creatures and absolutely adorable. As you approach their nests a little ball of fluff about 6in tall pops out and they bob their heads up and down fussing at you till you back off. I check on them daily to see what they've been up to. Pretty soon spring will be here and their nests will be filled with little babies. 

So I've taken something I love from nature and tried to recreate it in such a way others will enjoy it too.

 

New Valentines Day Patterns...Check them out on my etsy:)

Now that all the cleaning is out of the way and Matt's sleeping I have had some time to cut new patterns and start working on them... Im excited to see how these turn out! 

I really like the way the fabrics all mix together. Believe it or not I managed to drag Matt into the fabric store with me and he helped pick out the perfect V-day fabrics. Boys are full of surprises. Enough of this blogging I have owls to sew:)

Pioneer Living 21st Century Style

Day 3: I swear time speeds up when we are working on the claim. The days never seem long enough. We are so busy just trying to survive in the desert that you never have a minute to rest. If I am not cooking, wrangling dogs, cleaning, hauling heavy buckets of rocks up and down hills, or prospecting, I am collecting wood or some other activity. Just as soon as the dinner is off the fire the water buckets go on and when those are done it's time for bed. Apparently, when my head hits the cot I fall right to sleep. Of course this is all hearsay by Matt:) I usually don't even remember the falling asleep part....

 Here is a small sampling of one pan of gold.... While I was cooking breakfast Matt was running the concentrate through the gold wheel. He loves to use the black pans because he thinks when the gold glitters in the sun it looks like the stars against the night sky.... I thought that was an awful sweet way to look at a pan of gold. Nice way to start the morning. Just the motivation we needed to drag our sore bodies back down to the wash.

 The sunsets out here are breathtaking. It's like watching a watercolor painting; every few seconds a new brushstroke as the colors intensify. For me, every sunset is a daily reminder of what awaits us all. A small, fleeting glimpse of heaven.

There just isn't enough hours in the day for me to get everything accomplished. I was able to sneak in a few minutes while dinner was cooking to do a little sewing. Thanks to Matt's thoughtful brother, he got an inverter for Christmas. Matt hooked it up to a marine battery and we were able to charge my sewing machine and our cell phones.

Rise & shine

Day 1: Our first morning on the claim and we couldn't be happier. Nothing like waking up to a cup of hot coffee and the smell of sweet smoke... Of course in order to make the yummy, hot coffee I had to venture out into 30 degree temps and get a fire going from scratch. If I'm going to be a sweet, functioning human being in the morning I need my coffee so I do cheat a little and heat up the water for our french press with a jetboil. That way I can drink my liquid crack while contending with maintaining the correct cooking temperatures so I don't scorch my eggs. Also, if you like good coffee definitely get yourself a french press. In a matter of minutes you have yourself a cup of perfectly brewed coffee. 

Im in love with my vintage cast iron skillet. I used to watch my grandfather cook breakfast with one but I never thought I would buy one myself. Why would I when I grew up in the Teflon generation. But let me tell you nothing beats a good cast iron skillet. This particular one I found it laying in the dirt, covered in cobwebs and as orange as a pumpkin from all the rust. It has taken me a lot of elbow grease and steel wool to get it looking so good. I finally have it seasoned enough so my eggs fall out on my plate:) This morning I made french toast, fried eggs, and summer sausage. That should keep us going for a little while:) Oh and those metal buckets you see in the foreground, those are our bathwater buckets. We heat those up every night over a fire. It's better than nothing, trust me...

Puppies are in heaven laying in the dirt, waiting on a summer sausage bite or a little french toast nibble to fall their way...

 All geared up and ready to start working. Of course the puppies have a thing or two to say about that. Hitch the hound has his leash and thinks he is gonna take me on a walk first:) Guess we'll have to take the pups on a walk before we start digging for gold. Time to check out the spring and let the puppies splash around.

We couldn't have asked for better weather. It's overcast out so Matt's white, Irish skin shouldn't burn today and it's about 60'degrees so it's like working in the a/c all day. Hopefully all the desert critters will slumber a little longer while the temps are cool.

So today we try out the 151 Keene dry washer for the first time. Matt is excited to move more material and see what this baby can do.

Today is filled with possibilities and potential... I'm standing at the base of a little waterfall. Hopefully just beyond this we will hit a nice patch of gold.

 

About 30min into our prospecting I heard Matt yelling, "Jenn, hurry, come here!" I came around the wash to find Matt grinning from ear to ear like a 5 year old boy...

Found us a nice picker just laying on the bedrock. I always wonder how long this little piece of gold has been sitting there, waiting on us to find it. If we are the first people to ever see it or hold it. Each piece of gold is so intricate and beautiful. They are like little snowflakes, infinitely unique and beautiful.

Gold claim here we come....

We are loaded up, puppies in tow and a hot cup of coffee to keep us awake for long day ahead. We have a 4hr drive ahead of us and much of it is without phone reception with signs that read, "rest area next 100miles." There is even a little place called nothing that we pass and it's fitting.

The next 6 days we will be living pioneer style out on our gold claim. Prospecting during the day, hoping for a gold nugget, and sewing by night. Yes I did say sewing! Matt brought an inverter so now I can power my sewing machine in the middle of nowhere.

Yesterday, whenever i could sneak a moment between packing and the never ending laundry, i disappeared to my office to work on my owls... I cut some cute patterns and am excited to sew them this week.

I took the dogs out for one last hike and said goodbye to our little ground owl friends. Everyday I walk the dogs and we visit our ground owls out in the desert. These little cutie's are my inspiration for my owl sewing fetish. They always bring a smile to my face.  Hitch the hound dog flushed out 3 jackrabbits during our walk. Im sure the rabbits won't miss the hound while were away. I was even lucky enough to see a roadrunner zip by me. They run so fast it looks like they're gliding over the ground. While we were saying goodbye to our backyard friends Matt had a little bird befriend him. While he was packing our supplies a little bird flew into the garage. Matt talked to the little bird while he hoped from one perch to another following Matt around. I could swear that Matt is Doctor Doolittle.  Such a beautiful day!

Well were about to leave civilization and phone reception so I'll post this now. Pioneer updates to follow...

On our way out to the claim on an old 4x4 road, if you can even call it a road. More like driving through the desert and these two silly pups of ours have to climb up in my lap so they can get the best view. Seriously, they have the entire back seat, two windows, and a dog bed back there but oh no, they want to crawl up in mommy's lap. So Spoilied!

 It took two trips into town to get all of our supplies out to the claim.  I'm thinking our next big purchase is going to be a military trailer...
We are in a race against the setting sun to get camp set up and I still need to collect firewood so we don't freeze tonight....

As Matt would say, "Hurry up and feed her before she turns into Jennzilla."

Our little home away from home. We managed to get camp set up just in time for a beautiful sunset. So happy to be back among the mighty saguaro...

It's about 40 degrees out tonight. Sitting by our campfire waiting for our bath water to simmer. Hound dog is asleep in the dirt next to me dreaming about jackrabbits and Matt is getting our firewood situation sorted out for the wood burning stove so he doesn't freeze tonight.

The saguaros are just barely illuminated by the moonlight and reach up so far they look like they're touching the stars... Goodnight 

Just Getting Started

Well if your reading this and your not family or friends welcome to my little piece of cyberspace:)  My name is Jennifer or as my significant other has named me Poobird. By the way you probably don't want to know why he calls me that... LOL.  Matt, myself, and our two faithful dogs live out here in the desert. We have been together 6 1/2years and each one has been special. We both figure life is short and it's important to seize each day and live life to it's fullest. I figure why have an ordinary life when it can be extraordinary.

It seems like every day slips away a little faster and here we are already in the middle of January.... For us this year is about grabbing our dreams and making them a reality. Of course that's never easy and I am a Sagittarius so I'm prone to be a dreamer and not so much a doer but this blog is the first step of many towards turning our dreams into reality.

This year many will be busy counting their ammo, stocking up on food like squirrels preparing for the winter to come and don't get me wrong, Matt and I are right there squirreling away treats and ammo too; nothing wrong with being prepared for the "what if." But I can't help shake this overwhelming feeling of excitement and joy for this year. I can feel it building and I think 2012 is about more than an end of the world scenario. Something more like an awakening...

So I'm using this blog as a way to share our adventures into the desert, weekend garage sale treasures, and my handmade creations with others. Your welcome to laugh at our crazy adventures, offer advice, or just wonder, "what in the heck are those two up too now."

p.s. If you are wondering why were standing next to a huge pile of dilapidated wood it's because we are going to make our headboard with some of the pieces we picked out. Not too mention this dilapidated pile of wood has a very interesting and shady mining history...