Prairie Scraps

I’m back to making crafts for our holiday for the fall craft shows to help my 15yo raise funds for his 4-H Exchange trip to Japan next year.  One of the most popular items that sold last year were my Dollar Tree Gnomes.  I made a video on YouTube, and it remains as one of my most popular videos to date.  You can see how I made these cuties. I wanted to share with you some close up pictures of some of the gnomes, because after making dozens of them to sell, they really each have their own personality. Stay tuned, as I’m working on some more gnomes right now - this time in the shape of ornaments.  I just can’t get over how cute these gnomes are and, even better, that they are from my own background - Scandinavia!   If you have a chance, please comment, like and follow my YouTube Channel while you’re watching the video.

We love to share with our neighbors and friends at Christmas time by giving them a gift.  Even better, is to make it homemade!  This year, I wanted to make an Eggnog Quick Bread, but soon realized that this would require a lot of Eggnog for the ingredients.   I decided to try this  Cinnamon Bread Recipe  and loved the taste and texture of it!  It turned out wonderfully (as long as you don’t overbake it!) and made a nice large batch.   I love my mini loaf pans!  They are a must have for making quick breads.  My quick never get fully cooked in regular size pans, but the mini pans really work great!  You can get some on  Amazon HERE. This summer, I found a Pampered Chef Stoneware loaf pan at a rummage sale for $3.   Was a little worried about getting them out of the stone for sticky breads, especially in this case.  They came out wonderfully, so now I’m pretty excited about this stone pan! I highly recomme...

  I love gifts!  Both giving and recieving gifts makes me the most fulfilled.  I know, there are many that don’t enjoy or value gifts like I do, but hey, I don’t enjoy hugs at all!  Gifts are my form of hugs!  That being said, it doesn’t need to be expensive at all to give my joy! I have two children in college, so I love to find creative things to send in the mail to them.  Several years ago, I discovered Happy Mail!  The idea is, to find items that are non-traditional to send in the mail.  So, 1-2 times a month, my college kids, get a fun package in the mail, that is unexpected.   Of course, Valentine’s Day affords a great gift in the mail - a tin of chocolates! For the Star Wars tin, I put: “Join the HEART side!” For the Minnie Mouse tin: “There are so MINNIE things we love about you!” I just put address labels on the back side and they go through the mail, just like that!  No box or anything!  I did choose these ...

  Years ago, my aunt had the most tasty and easiest appetizer at a Family Thanksgiving Dinner.  We have since adopted this recipe for ourselves, and I thought that I would share it with you. It is so easy, and in fact, is made ahead and put in the freezer!  I love things that you can make way ahead of time!  Just be prepared for them disappearing as soon as you take them out of the oven!    The strangest ingredient in the recipe is Old English Spread!  This is a tiny jar, usually found in the processed cheese section, way on top.  And this little jar is usually about $4, which is the part that kills me.  I actually saw some the other day on clearance for $2 and thought about stocking up, but decided that it was on clearance because it was already old, and it would be awhile before I used it.       Old English Appetizers 12 English Muffins 1 Jar Old English Che...

This idea actually came to me several years ago, when my relatives started giving our Christmas gifts away to charity in our name (although they get the tax write-off).  Don't get me wrong, that sounds super warm and fuzzy and honorable to do, if we had everything in the world, and have not needs or wants.  But that's not the case for our family.  Each year when we got the card from the charity organization, I would comment that it would be nice if they gave to the Charity of Us.  (Painfully, we have 5 kids on one income, and one of those Christmases, my husband had been out of work for 6 months.  We were starving and had no gifts for our kids, but some 3rd world family got our Christmas gift of food that year!  Sorry for my lack of excitement!) It occurred to me then that I actually can do the same, but give my own family back that gift.  I started to purchase their gifts from my own direct sales business through out the year...

 My very sweet 17 year old daughter saw a ruffled tree skirt at a friend's house and decided that she had to make me one for a Christmas gift this week.  A little background on this first.  My daughter was a reluctant participant in sewing in 4-H for 6 long years!  She is not very detail oriented, so it was a struggle for both of us to get projects done right for the fair each year.  She was more than happy to be finished with that project, and hasn't had an interest in sewing since. Well, this project was quite the project.  She found all the material herself, and even tried to find ruffles she could sew onto this skirt all over town.  When she came up with a dead end on ruffles (she knew she couldn't make her own ruffles), she found bias tape instead!  I personally think that she's a genius!  I've seen these ruffled skirts and love them, but this actually makes my skirt special! Mr. Right even got involved and tried to print the let...

Today is Small Business Saturday!  Consider supporting someone who owns a small business today!  Why not help individuals instead of the big box stores this weekend?  It's easier, no lines, shop from your seat, not your feet!  Of course I'd vote for you to shop with me today!  I'm running a 12 Days of Christmas Sale on my VIP Facegroup page Here.   Join my group for detail.  Here's a direct link to my website , too, if you'd like to shop with me!  The order will go in on December 8th and will be delivered on time for Christmas. I hope you and yours enjoy your Thanksgiving weekend!

Getting ready for the craft show has kept me pretty busy, but I still wanted to make my Christmas cards.  I think that it's a nice touch to make my cards each year.  I know, most people are going to e-cards, or not even doing them.  I have revamped who received cards though.  Those that send a physical card receive them.  Simple. I used to send them out to everyone I knew, but decided it wasn't worth the cost.   Here's one of the cards that I made.  They vary, because I used double sided paper and the pack had several different patterns. I did the cards in steps, so here's the piles of partial pieces waiting to be assembled in my living room.  I even got Mr. Right involved in the process!  I had the pieces that I sliced off the papers to make the back ground fit.  I made a mistake on one of the cards, and to cover up the smeared stamp, I used one of these strips to cover it up and try again.  Then I realized that I like...

We are experiencing record lows at zero degrees outside, but the crafting is in full swing getting ready for a craft show on Saturday!  We even had to move our painting projects indoors with a very large paint cloth down!  Praying we don't spread the paint mess! I'm sharing some photos of some of the things I'm really excited about!  In fact, many of them I don't want to sell!  All the proceeds for this sale are going to my daughter's 4-H trip to Japan, so this seems more important than ever to sell, sell, sell!  Sorry, not much writing or how-to's, I have too much to get finished. Christmas Metal Basket Burlap covered chair with "socks" Sweater Jar Pillows in hound's-tooth, wool, and sweaters - I have just one more to make!  One of the burlap wreaths, finished. Chalk Paint Jars   Now for the pricing and  getting it all together and set up at 5am on Sautrday!  Let me know what you think! 

I'm sorry I'm not giving much more than a glimpse of some  the things we are busy making right now, but we are so busy getting ready for our craft show that this is all I've got.  I'm trying to use up my Scrap Stash and raise some money for my daughter's upcoming 4-H trip too Japan.  I have lots of burlap, but I also love the texture and look of it too. This wreath isn't completely done, but I can't make up my mind on how to finish it off. We made two sets of Silent Night pillows.  Is it bad to want these for myself and hope they don't sell? What do you think?  Should I use a simple bow or a large ribbon to hang the wreath?  Thanks for your suggestions.

I have to give a shout out my very awesome Mr. Right!  He spent his Sunday canning!  Yes, you read that right!  When Mr. Right asked me what my plans were for the day, I said that I wasn't quite sure what to do first, since I had so much to do, he volunteered to take care of the canning, so I could do more craft fair projects.  He got 14 quarts of pears done and 17 quarts of apple cider.  (We spent the day yesterday with friends making 50 gallons of apple cider, so we have to pasteurize and can them this week.)  While Mr. Right was busy in the kitchen, my daughter and I got a few more things finished for the craft show.  Here's a star ornament that we made.  It is double sided, so when it hangs on the tree, it will look good from all sides. Now we are trying to figure out prices, oh, and will be canning the rest of that apple cider this week! I'll be sharing with all of my favorite blogs listed in the right hand column.

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...

Ok - I've been a very bad blogger over the holidays!  After the craft show, I just couldn't catch up before the holidays, and decided to just spend some time with my family!  It was our first Christmas here on the Prairie, so we were attempting to find our way with no family and "old" friends around.  Never fear, I have been crafting and scrapping, though! I wanted to share one of the projects we worked on as a family.  When I say we, I really mean Mr. Right was put to work.  We made a Ladder Ball set for my in-laws.  We got all the directions on the internet on  Just Build Stuff Here.   Isn't the internet a wonderful place?  I'm not going to show you all the details for that project here, because they did such a wonderful job over on their site. After making the set, I wanted to make a bag to carry it all in, but boy was this bag a heavy one!  I originally thought I could just transform the leg of a pair of jeans into the bag, but h...

I am sorry for the gap in my posting, I have had a ton of things on my plate over the holiday season.  I hope that you and yours have a very blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year! Although I've been absent from posting lately, I have been pondering and planning for the coming year!  I am really excited to be sharing new projects that I have done with my MOPS group, new books I'm reading, organizing in the new year, and I've been selected to be on the Hearts at Home Launch Team for Jill Savage's new book!  Stay tuned for more soon!

I've been busy getting things finished for the Grangeville Craft Show this Saturday.  I wonder if you are every truly ready, though.  My whole kitchen table is taken over with crafts, and things are stashed everywhere.  The true test of a marriage is the week before a craft show, I am convinced!  Anyway, I just wanted to share some of the things I am getting ready this week.  I found this idea from  Chipping with Charm .  I used some of the pages of an old Children's Poetry book and found pages that had to do with winter and Christmas.  The Bright page has "The Mitten Song" on it!  I almost hope they don't sell, since I love them so much! I love to hear your comments!  Let me know what you think.  Also, check out those blogs I love to link up to on the right column!