A Perfect Last Minute Gift

When a quick gift is needed this is a fun idea.

Cookie Monster and homemade chocolate chip cookies!

A Gift That Keeps Giving

Last year Pat made me a clothesline for my birthday and it's had quite a workout.

I love hanging out laundry; I love how stiff towels get and how quickly they dry you compared to towels coming out of the dryer.

I love how nice my tablecloths are after being out in the sun for a couple of hours. Truly my clothesline is a gift that keeps giving and I love it just as much today as I did when Pat set it up for me.

My New Clothesline

For several years I used a clothesline that was strung between three trees; two that were dead, but still stood strong. This setup worked well until one of the dead tree trunks began to lean and I was afraid it might fall and hurt someone. I made the decision to push the dead trunks over and not use my clothesline anymore.

 Going without a clothesline was hard, so when I saw an umbrella clothesline at the thrift store, I bought it right away.

 Not wanting to sink the umbrella clothesline in the ground, I attached it to our tether pole pipe.

 

This set up worked fine, but I really missed having my laundry stretched out so the air could flow more freely.

 So in September, for my birthday, I requested a new clothesline; a traditional style.

  

Pat built one for me with four lines to hold lots of laundry.

I absolutely love  my new clothesline and especially love the fresh smell of my laundry. Standing outside hanging clothes is great fun!

A Sweet Gift

It's been years since we've had access to a honeycomb.

These are located just inside the crawlspace under the house. Before we harvest any of it, we are waiting on a beekeeper. It would be nice if the bees can be relocated.

Ribbit Ribbit

An early morning find....

On a cool and wet morning.

Finding time to make some Christmas Goodies

For years and years and years I have made homemade goodies for my family, Pat's family and our friends. It has been one of those holiday activities, or traditions, I've always looked forward to each and every year.

This year I felt burned-out. Not sure why, but I couldn't seem to muster up the energy to cook batches and batches of goodies to package up and mail to everyone.

So this year I just cooked a little and shared it with a few; such as the ladies at the bank. 

The ladies who treat me like I'm their friend when I stop by. 

The ladies who always smile and want to know how my day has been. I truly love those ladies at the bank.

This year I made one batch of sugar pecans and divided the nuts between these cute little boxes.

 

I made one batch of peanut brittle and divided it between these cute little paper bags.

 I made one batch of chocolate chip cookies and filled these fun little Chinese take-out boxes.

 And I made one batch of fudge and filled these cute blue boxes.

 Then I dug through my stash of gift bags and found wonderful bags with Christmas songs printed on both sides.

 

And finally, all of the goodies were put into each bag and delivered to the ladies at the bank.

It wasn't much, just a small handful of sugar pecans, several pieces of peanut brittle, four pieces of fudge and just over half a dozen cookies.

When I got to the bank, the ladies were surprised and so excited to receive an unexpected gift; making it worth staying up until midnight preparing everything.

Vintage Clipboard

When I first spotted this vintage clipboard, buried under a pile of old notebooks, I just knew I had found a treasure.

 I love the body of the clipboard, it's solid wood.

 My plan is to hang this in the kitchen to be used for listing meal plans or to be used for my grocery list.

Creativity

There is no doubt in my mind that my husband is one of the most creative people I know.

 

In October of last year, my beloved Chamber Stove was hauled to Ft. Worth to have a small gas leak fixed and to have the inside refurbished. 

This job took until February of this year; imagine living without a stove for 5-months.

 When the stove was delivered I began to wonder how I would keep it looking new; especially the top, which had been newly polished.

 When I use my canner, an All American brand, it sits past the burner grate and forms a brown heat ring, which I think is basically gas residue. This brown stain can only be removed with a good scrubbing; which scratches the stove top.

 In order to solve this problem my husband decided to make me a new, and bigger, burner grate.

Now my canner sits up high allowing air to flow under and around the bottom.

When I tested the new burner grate, it worked beautifully. No brown heat ring formed and my canner heated up with no problems; I was worried it might be too far from the flame to build up heat and pressure.

It feels wonder to have my stove back and it feels amazing to be canning once again!

Playing Dress Up

What happens when little girls come visit?

We dress up all the dolls in the house!
Your never too old to play with dolls!

Preserving Memories

When I married, over 30-years ago, my husband and I bought a Christmas Angel for our first Christmas tree. It wasn't anything fancy; in fact, we purchased it at the grocery store of all places!

Over the years this angel has been an important part of our Christmas. Many years ago the lights quit working so my husband replaced the old lights with a string of Christmas lights. A solution that has worked very well.

This year I noticed the light was coming untwisted and catching in the branches.

After thinking for a bit I got the idea of using florist tape to bind the wires back together.

I was very pleased with how well this worked.

The angel has now been packed away and is ready for next Christmas!

It's Winter and it's Cold

I started on a walk this morning and only got as far as the barn.

It was just too cold; 

But oh how pretty everything was covered in ice!

Reconstructing a Fitted Sheet

Soon after buying Elizabeth's canopy bed I started searching for a nice used mattress set. It wasn't until after Christmas before we found one. The mattress is a pillow top and very big compared to a standard mattress; and my first thought was sheets. How was I going to find sheets to fit such a big mattress?

 I took a queen fitted sheet and placed it on the mattress. It of course was too big but my thinking was to reconstruct this sheet to fit the mattress.

My first step was to pin the corners until the sheet felt snug.

 

Then I trimmed the area with elastic so the sheet would lay flat.

 

Each corner needed to be stitched about 3 1/2 inches from the corner seam; this was then marked with a pencil. 

Once each corner was stitched, and before I trimmed the excess corner fabric, it was time to try the sheet on the mattress.

And, it was too snug!

So glad I waited to trim the corners :o)

It was simple to restitch the corners and the second time the sheet fit better.

 

As soon as I was certain the sheet needed no more altering I trimmed each corner;

And serged the raw edges.

Then I cut the remaining hem and serged once again.

Before adding my elastic to the corners I first measured and marked13-inches from each corner seam on both sides of the seam. This was a total of 26-inches per corner that was to have elastic; which was attached with a zig zag stitch.

Once the elastic was in place I simply folded the edge and topped stitched all around.

This enclosed the elastic as well as formed a hem along the edge.

My reconstructed sheet fits beautifully!

 Now that I know what I'm doing the next sheet should go much faster.

There's no telling how much money I was able to save by using a sheet we already had. Sure am glad I know how to sew.

A Small Painting Project

Soon after moving into this house I found a used Baker's Rack on Craig's List. It was homemade and not exactly what I wanted but the price was right so I bought it.

Pat cut some shelves for the rack and instantly transformed the looks.

My intentions were to paint the rack a nice Forest Green; it took a year and a half before I finally got around to painting.

The Baker's Rack now feels like a new piece of furniture.
 I must confess, painting is not a job I enjoy but the results are so worth the work :o)

A Canopy Bed for Christmas

Two or three months ago I spotted a canopy bed on Craig's List. I was excited even though the asking price was $500. The bed turned out to be loose and wobbly so we didn't buy it. Then, not even a week later, I spotted the exact same bed at a used furniture store minus the canopy top for $50. Wow was I ever excited!

Pat spent about 3 days making a canopy frame out of copper tubing for the bed.

 The color of the tubing and the color of the wood worked very well giving the bed a nice antique look.

Elizabeth was very happy with the bed. Now I need to find just the right fabric for making the actual canopy.