something for nothing

Ok so I've mentioned how thing have been a bit tight around here, but its a great challenge for me. I'm looking at it as a positive. I think it works right in to a creative lifestyle, I think some of my best work comes from when I have to make do with what I have. So here's the story of my new old pants........... last month I was in desperate need on some comfy pants to were around the house and in the shop while I'm working on slipcovers ect... but with Christmas right around the corner there was no money in the budget to go and buy something for myself so I started digging through my totes of fabric and found some old chenille that was given to me ( with the exception on the Daisy print ) over the past couple of years (you would be surprised what people will give you when they find out you sew:) anyhow I had an old pattern of my daughters for some pants so I altered it a little and viola! the most comfortable "house" pants in the world I just love them and they are perfect for out in the shop too. So if you happen to be dropping of a piece of furniture to be slip covered you will most likely find me in one of these pairs of pants, and the best part of all is that it only took a bit of my time!

The Daisy Chenille was from my friend over at pretty in pink designs what do you think Deanna?

lovin my new ... old pants!!!

just to see if it would work!!

After spending way to much time on the computer looking at blogs on how to do things I was fascinated with a post on how to make your own butter so I had to give it a whirl, just to see if it would work. And .... it did! super simple!! I lost the post that I originally looked at so I googled " how to make butter and just fallowed the directions.

So what I learned was that, a quart of heavy cream will give you about a pound of butter and a cup of buttermilk (which I am saving for my freezer biscuits ) That I make at the beginning of the month.

Would I do this again? maybe if I got a great deal on heavy cream or if I had a cow or goat! it was fun though, watching white liquid cream turn into a solid yellow butter. I think this would be a great thing to do with little kiddos so that they can see how butter is made.

Something fun for Sister Holly

My Sister Holly's birthday is coming up so I thought she might like a little something to keep her warm. I love the color of this yarn its so springy and what a fun pattern for the hat I got it free here. it was a supper fast knit

I changed up the fingerless gloves a bit and wow it worked! I wanted them to match the hat a little bit so I did a little seed stitch? where there is usually a ribbing. I really like the way that it turned out

Thanks for stopping and have a great weekend

Thinking about Spring

Yes I am thinking of Spring a little bit. I took down all my Christmas decorations and thought maybe just go ahead and go right in to spring and summer ... in the guest bedroom and bath anyway. So I went on the hunt around the house for things that I love and that say spring/summer to me;. This is one of my favorite old plates I just love it, its so soft and feminine. I also found one of my favorite old oil paintings, its very primitive and amateurish but I love the greens and pinks in it. found at a second hand store about 8 years ago and for 2.95 what a Bergen.

In the guestroom I found some glass candle holders and white candles. Also found was one of my and my Moms favorite flower arrangements. My girlfriend Deanna over at Pretty in pink designs put this together for me a couple of years ago I just love it. Please take a peek at Deanna's blog as she is involved with a very worthy cause this week and is also having a great give away of her own.

Moved the clock from The bathroom into the guestroom and put a battery in it Finally! spring pillow on the chair and water the plant .....DONE

Have a great rest of the week !!!!!

Ok so here's the deal, over the past few months things have gotten a bit tight around here and I have been determined to save some money and get the ol finances in order After reading The total money makeover I realized that maybe we could do this thing!!! An emergency fund wow what a concept! Anyhow I got excited about saving money where ever I could so I took a good look at where I could save a little money.
After looking around on other blogs I found out what people were doing to save. For about 2 months now I have been making my own Laundry soap Fabric softener andCounter top spray409 along with Carpet freshener. I have to say that I am not sure how much I have saved but as you see I was using some pretty spend stuff, Mrs Meyers This stuff smells soooo good I used to get the Lavender scented one. After doing a little but of experimenting I have come pretty close to creating the same scent with my own essential oils. I still use the old Mrs Myeyers bottles and containers , love that packaging, yes... I am a sucker for the pretty packaging!
I really like the fact that I can do this for a fraction of the cost. I also like the idea of doing it myself ( I'm a do it yourselfer) I love reading all those books about how they did things back in the Little House on the Prairie days so this kinda fits right in with my do it your self style. These items only take a few minutes to put together and work well. I can put together enough for a months worth of cleaning and laundry and be ready for a messy house and dirty laundry for pennies. Got to love that !!

I am looking forward to learning how to make my own bar soap that is a little more involved but I think it will be well worth it.

Something fun for Ebay

After finishing up my latest "real" project in the workshop this week I decided to do some cleaning and organizing which included some purging too! This is a little chair was given to me by my sweet brother in law a couple of years ago knowing that I am a slipcoverer he picked up at a garage sale. It's a little doll chair( American Girl I think ). My original idea was to slipcover it and set it in the shop for decoration but things have gotten a little tight around here so I looked through my fabric stash and and found some cute fabric to cover it with so that I could list it on EBay and hopefully make a couple of extra bucks. I really like the way that it turned out. The fabric was perfect scale for this little set. I whipped it up yesterday and got it listed this morning. Hope someone will find it irresistible!

I have to admit the whole time I was putting it together I was remembering how much fun I had with all my baby dolls as a little girl... yes I was a baby doll girl! I loved them all.

Where you a baby doll girl too?

A Country Chair for Linda

Yes, I've been out in the work shop again! I started on my "09" client list and Linda's chair was my first project of the year. This was a petite chair with worn white upholstery, but super solid in construction. Linda loves country blues but said not to frilly frilly on the details and lets see some leg too!!! OK, that's a can do! The challenge with this chair was a very limited amount of fabric, about two yards less that what is usually required for a one cushion chair. Thankfully the chair was small and the skirt was short!

The chair is going to be in a room that the back is going to show so we dressed it up a bit with some covered buttons. Linda and daughter were very happy with their new chair. ahhhh, I love it when a plan comes together.

Pictures from the past

While going through some pictures on the computer today I decided to post on something that my son was into for a few years. Unicycling ya that's right and no he does not preform in the circus. These particular pictures were take in northern Minnesota at their annual Mountain unicycling trip to a ski resort. They open in the summer for mountain biking and yes Mountain unicycling too!!! This is my little trio Amber my oldest in the middle Autumn and Shayne oh ya and Hanna the pooch is in there too!

This is a group picture of all the participants for this year all ages range from 6-7 to 45 and beyond

And there they go down the hill. what a fun thing to watch I think Shayne said that they all got to go down the hill about 10 times . now I need to get these all printed out !!!!

Being Creative with Autumn (DD2)

What a fun day yesterday. I got to spend the day in the workshop with my daughter Autumn, being creative! she has caught the crocheting "bug" and wanted to make a bag for all of her crochet stuff. So, she showed up with a picture of what she wanted and together we came up with this cute little bag. I Love it!
Now she is my crafty and creative one so after looking around on the computer and seeing all the cute stitch markers that are out there she decided to make some herself how cute!!!

and look at these pink ones I just love them!!! she does such a good job. I would never have the patients for this!! now to get that Etsy shop up and running so she can start selling them.

A Happy New Year!!!

What a wonderful way to start out the New Year We got news shortly before Christmas that we will be blessed with a new baby in about 8 months! This is my Sweet Daughter Amber and her Man Juan earlier this year. And this is the soon to be new little one. I always have such a hard time with making these things out but here it is never the less. So excited to be a Grandma and I can not wait to see my little one become a Mother!