New Scarves for Christmas

My godson gave me two scarf kits from Anna Maria Horner for Christmas. And let me say, they are fabulous!

I love the colors. I love the flowiness. I love the size (72x12) and that I can wrap them so many different ways. I love that they sew up fast! I love the vintagey feel. And I love the softness (can't beat viole!).

Happy New Years to All!!!!!

Lisa

Play Kitchen DIY

This is really one of those projects where I kick myself in the behind for not taking a before picture. So just imagine one of those old beat up cabinets you see at a thrift store. You know, with missing shelves, missing hinges and drawers that don't work that are an ugly shade of brown from the late 70s/early 80s? And then you bring it home in the backseat of your little midsized car and your significant other gives you one of those looks that says..."Oh man, now what hairbrained idea does the nut job have." Okay then. That's what I started with.

My kids LOVE creative play and I love that they love it. They love tea parties so I decided to build up that love of tea parties and add a play kitchen. Because, you know, when you have a house that's 900 square feet, it's always good to add another piece of furniture.  :)

The only cost we had in this was the initial price of the cabinet ($20) and a piano hinge to make the oven and the faucet (which I think was about $5 at Menards). The back piece was added from scrap lumber found in the barn and shed. The knobs came off another old piece of furniture laying around and the sink is an old dog dish! The paint was white paint that I already had.

Shelves were added to make a fridge.

And the two lower drawers were kept for storage.

The top drawer was removed and the front was saved. Added a piece of plexiglass and a piano hinge to make an oven.

There's still some work. I still need to find knobs for the stovetop, hang the rack in the oven and it really needs some color. But I wanted the kids to have a say in it so it's a work in progress.

We found some of the kitchen play items from a thrift store and some the kids got for Christmas. I've also been looking at after-christmas sales to pick up some more pieces.

It may take up quite a bit of space in my little kitchen but it's definately worth it. They spend so much time playing house, making meals, hot chocolate and cookies. Making up little stories and play acting it's worth the lose of space.

Lisa

'Twas the day after Christmas...

And all through the house.

Not a mama was sleeping, nowhere in this house.

The presents all opened, the cookies all ate.

While wrappings and boxes sat waiting in haste.

And me in my analness to have my house all organized.

Spent hours and hours, fluttering anxiously about.

Cleaning with bins and boxes and such.

When up from above there arose such a patter, now who could that be?

While its three little children coming running towards me.

Oh mama, oh mama, have you seen my new toys?

I left them right here, they must be hiding from me!

Now children, be calm and have no fear, your toys are all here.

Mama cleaned and organized and lined them all up.

In neat little stacks, tucked in boxes and such.

The children all stared at their mother in fear,

With thoughts of their childhood spent sorting and cleaning and such.

Then mama laughed and told them to go play.

Lucky for you your mama's favorite chore is to sort.

So go play with your toys, take them out of their bins.

Mama's playtime will come at the end of the day.

Lisa

Kindle Fire Case

My mom has a birthday in December so we sometimes go together with my brother's family and buy her a big birthday/Christmas present. This year we got her  a Kindle Fire (which is really cool and now I really, really want one).

So this morning I whipped up a little case for her Kindle.

It was really one of those projects that went together seamingly all too well. Where you think, "Since I'm wingin' this, really, I'm not paying attention and something isn't right."

It took me until I had the whole thing together to figure it out. Drum roll.....it's backwards! It doesn't open like a book. But I'm not sweating it, not a huge deal. I was going to create corner pockets to slip the Kindle into but when I tried it, it didn't hold it as snugly as I would want it to. My solution...stickly velcro.

The coordinating material strip down the backside is a handholder so when you fold it back to read, you can slip your hand in to hold it. The pocket on the backside is for the charger.

Not bad and I'm pretty pleased with it.

Hope mom likes it!!

Merry Christmas!!

Lisa

Christmas Pajamas

I like to make my kids at least one thing for Christmas. The tradition seems to be leaning towards pajamas. I didn't make pajamas for the baby but will work him into the tradition next year.

Both kids picked out their material awhile ago. I put it away so they'd forget about it.

Only two blankets and one Kindle cover left to sew!

Merry Christmas!!!

Lisa

14 days 'til Christmas

And my sewing space looks like this right now...

I'm pursuing blogs while trying to decide if I clean it out or just dig to find the stuff I need to finish Christmas presents...

Lisa

A 3rd Birthday

Happy Birthday to my crazy wild little man.

You are my second unplanned** child and my second blessing from God. You make me laugh daily usually because you are driving me absolutely nuts. You are in love with your mama and your dad often teases you that you haven't figured out that you're cordless. You wake up in the middle of the night to crawl into bed with me, you snuggle in and kiss my check and then wrap my arm around your body. You're wild, unpredictable, spontaneous, stubborn, and full of joy and happiness. You attack life with intensity and passion. Mama loves you little man.

My middle child turned 3 today. Those are the things I told him this morning as we lay snuggled in bed. My little man entered this world struggling to breathe after an emergency c-section because he was in distress. I first saw and held him when he was four hours old. My little man was 23 inches long and 10.3 pounds. And then he slept in the hospital bed with me nonstop for almost 4 days straight. If the nurses tried to move him to a bassinet he would howl so they let him sleep with me. And to this day, he is still a mama's boy and melts his mama's heart.

Lisa

**I was told when I was 24 years old that I was infertile and although we were quite shocked, my children are truly blessings to me.

MadeOn: Skin Care Products Hard Lotion

The Farmer has "man hands." Rough, dry, callused. They split and crack in the winter. He covers them with bandaids. It's par for the course between being a farmer and a mechanic who works outside in the elements on helicopters.

For the past couple of years, he's used Burt's Bees Farmers Friend salve. Which helps keep his skin from cracking but it tends to be greasy and well, it has a very strong herbal scent. But it has worked so we've put up with the smell and the greasiness.

And then I found MadeOn Skin Products website and started reading. And then I bought some of her recipes for lotions. But I hadn't gotten around to making the Hard Lotion but was intrigued since her story is the Farmer's story...the crack, splitting skin.


Source: MadeOn Hard Lotion

And then Renee (the fabulous owner and maker of these uber fabulous items) had a Cyber Monday sale and I ordered a gift pack for the Farmer. I ordered the cute pack shown above. I LOVE the chap stick and the free sample of goat's milk soap she sent in my package and the Farmer LOVE LOVE LOVED the lotion. So much so that when I asked to use some the other night, he told me no, to go get my own. Ha!

My mom has the same problems with dry, splitting skin on her hands so I'm ordering more for Christmas presents. This time I'm going to try the chocolate one!!!

The is a fabulous lotion. It's a hard bar and as you rub the bar, your hands soften the lotion to apply. It's not greasy and has a nice light fragrance.

MadeOn Skin Products has a lot of really great products that I can't wait to try and she also has some great ebooks as well as a ton of information on their website.

Lisa

The Deer Holiday

While most of the country just finished celebrating Thanksgiving, here in Wisconsin, we just finished deer hunting. Thanksgiving is just that big meal right in the middle of deer hunting where hunters will come out of the woods for a big meal, after which they watch football and/or nap. Sometimes they even dress up...but typically it's a sea of bright orange and flannel shirts at Thanksgiving dinner.

The Farmer got a deer this year. On the last day, right before I needed to leave for work. And then the Farmer worked a lot of hours last week so we've been slowly trimming this deer for the last week. I would not make a good butcher. It involves a lot of patience doing all that trimming. Finally, Saturday I'd had enough and took the last two shoulders and put them on a rack and cookie sheet, covered them with seasoning and let them bake at 300 degrees for 4 hours.

WOW. YUMMY. Tender and juicy with a nice crust on the outside. I started shredding it and soon the Farmer and the kids were standing at the stove pulling pieces of meat off to eat. That is definately a sign that something turned out good.

After I shredded it, I portioned it into two cup freezer bags and labeled. I've done this with chicken backs and necks after butchering and it's nice to have around for quick meals.

Then the Farmer informed me that there is a doe season this weekend...sigh.  :)

Since I don't have any pictures of the deer, here's one of my kidlets with Santa with weekend and two of the kidlets playing in the snow...which it's been doing here all weekend and still snowing today.

Lisa

Kids and Christmas Decorating

The kids have been chomping at the bit to decorate for Christmas. The tree and lights were put up on Sunday nite and tonight I opened up the bins and they went to town. Here is some of what they've decorated.

Thomas the Train and the bulldozer moving the construction trucks. The donkeys must have been really tired so Mary and Joseph took a train but the bulldozer needed to move the construction equipment out of the manger so they had a place to stay??

The snowman on mama's rocking chair.

And the elves hangin' out on daddy's chair.

Kids...never a dull moment!

Lisa