Prairie Scraps

I worked on more burlap tonight and made a couple of burlap and ticking table scarves.  One wider (which I prefer), but then I had only a smaller amount of the ruffle left over, so I split it in two and made a narrower scarf out of the leftover.  I just love the ticking with the burlap.  I sold several of these last year, so am hoping to sell more.  I found the twine!  In fact, Mr. Right found the twine out in the garage in a box of gardening supplies, so I am back in the pennant making business.  I finished up this one that says snow.  I even added a little lace between the letters to add to the stitching across the top of the letters.   Will I get ready in time?  That is the question!  Let me know what you think...

We are busy getting ready for our yearly craft show again.  I've been slow to start this year and even wondered if I should do it, but my daughter really needs to raise the funds to go to Japan for 4-H this summer, so we are doing it.  I have been making a little progress and wanted to share my Joy pennant. I know that making burlap pennants aren't new in bloggarland, but hey, I've been meaning to do it for awhile.  I've got a bunch of these cut out and prepped and am trying to decide on what words.  Oh yeah, I'm trying to find my twine too!  We moved, and everything is still boxed up.  I'm afraid to unpack it all, because I'm not sure if this is permanent, but I can't seem to find the twine!  Frustrating! Anyway, let me know what you think of my Craft Show Joy.  I think it's really cute and I need to make about a hundred more.  Whew!  Crafting is a Joy, but hard work too!

When we moved to the Idaho prairie almost two years ago, we had only dreamed of being able to own chickens to get eggs.  Well, it's been almost a year now that we've had our own chickens.  You can check out our first girls  HERE, HERE,  and HERE.   Well, now we've turned into sheep farmers!  I can hardly believe that we've gotten ourselves into this new adventure, but I have to admit that these girls are pretty cute!  We have a friend that found these sheep (I know, they look like a goat) for free.  The thing is that they may all be pregnant.  For now, we have three, two whitish and one darker.  They are an American Black Belly crossed with a St. Croix.  They are pretty hardy and able to lamb on their own.  The former owners had to get rid of them because the pigs they were in with had pushed them out of the barn.  We happen to have a small (horse) barn, so we borrowed some panels to pen them off in an area.  We ...

Now that you have gotten your budget in order, or at least made a plan of what little to so with your money that you do have (See my first post on this HERE.) , it's time to get down to the knitty gritty of making do while things are tight. Groceries are always my first concern.  I don't know why, but this is my biggest worry, that I won't have enough food to feed everyone in the house.  This is a perfect time to eat leftovers!  I know, most people really don't care for leftovers, but you can stretch your family budget some more by having a designated leftover meal day.  A look at my stack of leftovers today! Some ways to make your leftovers more exciting and taste better: Fry It - Ok, not the healthiest thing, but some things are great fried up in some butter, such as leftover baked or mashed potatoes, oatmeal, meats, etc. Bake It - unlike microwaving the food, this gives things a nice crispy edge and sometimes may take a little of the "staleness"...

Do you have more week left than you have paycheck? I know we often do.  I know, I know it is so important to make a plan and to budget your money, but believe me, on one income that greatly varies according to the work load, I know about coming up short.  Sometimes the best of plans don't work out, and in a time when many people may be on furlough because of the government shutdown, for the next few weeks, I thought I would share some tips on what we have done (and are doing) to make things last and survive a long week or two. My first tip is to have your money in order.  I'm no expert, and I can honestly say this is something we struggle with, but the best place for this in my opinion is to go to a Financial Peace University  (FPU) class in your area.  They have a Home Study version, but I will say that doing the class with other people, helps you to stay accountable to each other and to yourself.  I still will go to those peop...

We've had a pretty busy summer, and try as I might, I haven't gotten around to posting here and updating things.  For that, I apologize.  So with a little nudge from a good friend, I am starting with a new post today to share one of the things that keeps me really busy every fall. Since moving West, it's been difficult to change my concept of harvest time.  We had a great big garden in the Midwest in which I was busy harvesting and preserving.  In the West, I haven't been in a house long enough to actually grow a garden, but we have been greatly blessed with the great outdoors and some wonderful neighbors!  One of our neighbors here, shares their fruit orchard with us after all their family and friends pick what they need first.  I often feel like the old picture of "The Gleaners" when I go to clean the trees of the leftover fruit. Here's an excerpt explaining the picture from Wikipedia that describes the picture: "The Gleaners is an exampl...