Prairie Scraps

The first step to having a craft show is to decide to have one.  I've done a few over the years, but for very different reasons.  Some of the reasons to do a craft show are: Make extra money for a season Start a new business It's always been a dream to sell your handmade items Your crafting has gotten out of hand, and you've made too many things You want to promote your Etsy or internet craft selling business You love to go to craft shows, but never buy, because you can make that too. Whatever the reason or reasons for wanting to a craft show, I think that it's a good idea to find a reason behind wanting to do a craft show and keep that in focus as you get ready.  You can easily loose sight of your vision while getting ready for a craft show.  If you are not fully committed to your reason for doing a craft show, you really shouldn't do one. (Trust me, I've done craft shows with people that aren't fully committed to why we were doing a craft boot...

With a theme of the beach for our new MOPS year, I wanted to kick off our year with a beach themed Get-To-Know-You Ice Breaker Activity.  It's a nice non-threatening way to get to know each other in a group setting. I've done this activity before with teenagers in 4-H, so this can be fun for any age or group. This activity is simple to easy to put together. Place simple questions about themselves, on labels and put them in each section of a beach ball.  The idea is for everyone to stand in a circle.  Toss the ball around the room to someone new and where they catch the ball, that's the question that person answers.  I usually clarify that they answer the question in the section under their right pointer finger.   Different topics and questions that I included are: Favorite Animal Best School Subject Favorite Game Talent  Favorite food Best movie Favorite Song Last Book I read If I had a spare 30 minutes I would______ Ideal Vacation ...

Today is the day - we kick off the beginning of a new MOPS group in Grangeville, ID!  I am so excited, and of course nervous and busy!  One of the things that you don't realize about starting up a group is how much work goes into that first meeting! I love the craft projects, so it just wouldn't be the same without a craft project to kick the year off.  This first time, I wanted to do a somewhat practical, but easy and fun.  Oh, yeah, and did I mention that we have a $0 budget to work with? I decided to make bookmarks out of paint chip samples.  Sadly, I was willing to go get a whole stack of blue paint chips from the hardware store, for free, just to make a craft! I think it turned out really cute.  I will describe here what I did - I didn't think that I needed to take pictures of all the steps, since this one is pretty easy. Trim the Paint Chip Sample to the length that you like.  In this case, I cut off two sections with the  7-inch Tr...

I rarely have books that I can't put down until I finish it, but "Be Still My Soul" by Joanne Bischof was one of those books.  I got hooked into this book so much that I stayed up late nights and early mornings to finish it. Set in the Appalachian Mountains, Lonnie Sawyer clings to her faith as her abusive father dictates her life.  Lonnie counts the days that she will be able to move in with her loving and faithful aunt.  All her plans and dreams come to a halt one night, when the local, lady's man, Gideon O'Reilly steals a kiss from her, which her father witnesses. Lonnie's father forces a marriage between Lonnie and Gideon, which in turn begins another difficult path for Lonnie.  Gideon struggles with his own bitterness and anger at being forced to marry Lonnie.  Gideon takes Lonnie away from the only home she's ever known to pursue a new beginning, but struggles to give up his resentments. Will Lonnie's quiet faith in God be enough to ke...

I have been busy planning and starting a new MOPS (Mothers Of Preschoolers) group here in my new area.  I really didn't want to be the one to start one, but sometimes God works in mysterious ways!  So, a lot of things need to be put in order to get our first meeting started.  I've been coming up with a schedule for the year, along with coordinating crafts, so I'll be sharing those soon! We are on a very low budget since we are just starting.  In fact, I don't even know how many will be coming, as we are kicking off our first meeting at the end of this month.  Our theme is "Plunge: Love as if your life depends on it."  I took the water theme and was going to keep things simple by using canning jars (which would also be very cute and doable), but one of the ladies in our church does table decorations for our local senior center, and already had beach type table decorations made up that we could borrow for the year.  In the center is a brandy sniffe...

Since I have been showing you so much of what we've been canning, lately (sorry, my crafting is on hold for the canning!)  I thought I would share the recipe I've been using for the berries we've been finding out in the mountains.  The one thing I've learned about canning, is that it's not a good idea to vary the recipes, as there is a lot of science put into canning.  I prefer to do water bath canning (ok, I'll admit that I am afraid to do the pressure cooker), so the food I can needs to have a high enough acidity to not need the pressure. People often ask me if I make low or no sugar jams or jellies, but hey, I love the taste with the sugar, so why change a good thing?  There are recipes for no sugar, but it's not what I'm sharing today.  Besides that, I love to give a jar of jam for a house warming or Christmas gift here and there, and who wants to get something sugar free for a gift, besides a diabetic?  Sometimes it's just nice to have the rea...

Three Weeks Ago Labor Day Weekend We have been enjoying the beaches in our area.  Our first experience in the beach was with our 4-H club for an end of the year party.  It really is an experience that is different that any beach in the Midwest. The water is ice cold!  Take your breath away Ice Cold! Also, it is often rushing.  We just go to the beach and sort of take it in and can't believe this is where we live. Of course, the other thing that we can't get used to is the smoke.  I don't know, most here don't really complain about it or even say it worries them.  I don't know if that's because they are used to to the smoke, or if really there is nothing to be done about it, so life goes on.  Maybe, it's because by saying something about it, it makes it come true closer. For those of us from the Midwest, I'm not even sure what to say, other than life does go on, and we continue to enjoy our new surroundings.  Of course, the same...

Participating in the "31 Days" last year was both challenging and fun!  It stretched me in so many ways not only as a blogger, but as a person.  To write a post every day for 31 days straight on the same subject, really was hard for me.  With five kids at home, homeschooling, and all the chaos that comes with that, to take time out each day to not only blog about something, but to actually make a new craft each day for a Christmas gift, and photograph it - was a huge challenge for me.  But in the end, I felt like I really had accomplished something (and not just all my Christmas gifts, either!). When I saw that the  Nesting Place  was again having the "31 Day" Challenge, my wheels started to churn.  Selfishly, I really wanted to do 31 Days of Simplifying or 31 Days of Getting Rid of all my Junk series.  But of course, after perusing the over 700 links from last year, I realized that I was not alone in my thoughts of getting my closets and garage...