Prairie Scraps

I am guest posting!  I am so excited that Bobbie has included me in her line-up for her maternity leave.  Please check out her wonderful blog over at A Vision to Remember . With five kids that are all big eaters and only one picky eater (plus Mr. Right), I never felt that I could do the Freezer Cooking.  I was invited to supper swaps, but meals for a family of 4-6 just don't cut it with two teenagers to feed.  I could never justify the cost of paying for two meals in a swap either, so I stayed away.  That didn't mean I didn't want to freezer cook and have a plan, though. Yes - this is really my freezer!  It has 18 meals here, plus 4 more in the door Years ago, I had tried Once-A-Month cooking, but my husband told me I could never do it again!  Half of the meals, he hated and refused to eat and he didn't like that it took two whole days of my life away!  That all changed last summer, when a friend and I went to an Amish Auction and got 45 pounds of Asparagus betw

I've tried several times this last week to sit down and write a post or two, but had no patience for the slow Internet service we have here.  I apologize for the impatience, but I've been busy getting things ready for decorating and hosting a table at our church's Ladies Spring Tea.   I may have done my table a lot different than most of the traditional tables, but I really liked it and I enjoyed being just a little different.   Here's what my table looked like.  I wanted to do burlap, white and glass themed.  I had a burlap sack that I planned to make into a table runner anyway, so this gave me an excuse to make it and get yet another item out of scrap pile!  I picked the bag up for only $3 at a rummage sale.  I bought 4, and wished I could buy more, but just didn't have the budget! I have already sold a table runner at a fall craft show so have made my money back for the 4 sacks.  This place setting was why I volunteered in the first place.  I bought 8 pl

I  have been trying to make exercise a habit in my life.  I would love to lose weight, but even more so, I want to live healthy (OK, really I want to lose that inner tube around my middle!).  But this time, I'm trying to make it a life change that I will stick with and not feel like I'm being so tortured! I have continued to work out on my treadmill 3-4 days a week and then at least one day on the Wii. You can read about my embarrassment  HERE.   It's not been all fun and games, but I am continuing on my healthy living journey. I feel like I am getting a handle on my cardio workouts now, so this week, I decided to add in some muscle toning.  No, I won't be the next body builder, but the thing that bothers me when I'm running on the treadmill is my arms!  I own a set of 4 pound barbells, so I decided to start doing sets of arm exercises after my run.  I'm sure I could do a whole bunch of things with them, but to start, I did presses, curls, and then a backwar

So, I don't tend to go out of my way to "celebrate" Earth Day, but I thought I'd share with you one thing that I do daily to save energy, save money, and of course, save the earth that God gave us.  I do my very best to hang as many of my clothes to dry on the line.  I would love to get rid of the dryer altogether, but let's face it - with five kids, there is just no way to get everything done in a week, so often I need to finish up clothes in the dryer. I do about 15 loads a week, so my dryer can't even keep up with it all.   I have a goal each day of getting at least three loads done, and I can usually get those clothes up on the line before lunch to dry.  In fact, I get a load up first thing in the morning, then one after my morning workout and one after my shower.  Sometimes it's downhill from there, but, I do what I can. I do have my limits - I like my towels to be soft and smelling nice from the dryer.  What about you?  Do you put your laundry up

I tend to start projects and then get side-tracked or something comes up that is more important and can't get them done.  Well, I've been really guilty of this with my albums.  I often work through scrapbooking an album about halfway through before I actually get the  coverset purchased.  In this case, I finished all the pages last year for an album about our two foreign exchange students we had last year, but found the pages didn't fit in the album.  Well, I kept meaning to order the new sleeves and coverset, but of course, there they sat in my bag....waiting. I decided to reward myself for my Creative Memories Party I had a couple of weeks ago by purchasing a coverset I really loved.  This is the Enchanted 12x12 Coverset  that I fell in love with in the catalog and thought, why not?   My photo can't possibly do it justice in person.  Let me tell you - it is gorgeous!  I used a Quick Album kit to make this album and really panicked when I had more pages than would

Do you adventure?  I mean, do you just go out to find an adventure in your life when you have time off or do you stay home all the time?  I thought everyone checked out new things in thier area, but after talking to a few people that live in the area, we seem to be different than most.  We want to know our surroundings.  Even when we go camping at a new place, we find ourselves getting in the car and just driving around to find what we can find the first night. Granted that we have just moved, so everything seems to be new to us.  But we are trying to get our bearings by checking out points of interest and more in the area.  Some weekends, we just get in the car and drive.  One of the things that we have been learning here, is to stop and truly enjoy our surroundings, too.  To smell the roses, so to speak. These pictures were taken on one of our many drives in the area.  We had decided to see Hell's Canyon by driving down to Pittsburgh Landing (a whole different adventure

Although at first glance, my blog may seem like I'm a new blogger, I've been doing this for awhile.  Now, I'm not really making too much money, it does bring in a little here and there, and it also gives me a creative outlet.  Because I have recently changed my name on my blog, I'm really trying to make my presence a little more known and get it out there on as many Link parties as I can. I have discovered something that is very frustrating and feel like I don't really have a voice on it.  These blogs that have made it mandatory to have a back link in the post in order to post in their Link party!  Now, I have tried to give each and every blog I link up to a voice and shout out on my blog by listing them over in my right hand column.  In fact, this time around, I have been working hard to even list it by day I link up on. This means that each of these blogs get FREE advertising all week long, 24/7!  Yes, it's free to them because I like to frequent their par

  I gave you a glimpse of my Easter dress sewing when I did a tutorial on How to Cut Out a Pattern here.   Here's the reveal of the our Easter dresses.  I actually made two of these, and also a ruffled skirt (which I didn't get good pictures of, so may share that later down the road.) As you may know, I'm trying to work through my craft stash that seem to be so large I can't over come them.   I had this material in my stash that I had bought about six months go at Walmart.  It had gone on sale for $.50 a yard, so I just couldn't leave it there!  Well, of course, this has been what contributes to my very large craft stash that I have no place for! I used a great tutorial over at LBG Studio here.   It has two different versions of the pillowcase dress available including a free printable pattern.  I love the free part, because I'm try to keep from spending any money while using up my stash.  Be sure to show the love over there when you visit.  I also used

I'm trying to add one thing each week that makes my life healthier.  This weeks goal is water.  I know, this isn't rocket science!  Everyone knows your supposed to drink at least 8 glass of water a week.  But I struggle with this!  I got really sick from the water when I was in college, so can't bear the taste of water.  I know, it's in my mind, but 20 years later, I still associate a case of cryptosporidium to water! Like it or not, my goal this week is to drink at least one glass of water before each meal or snack.  I hope this will make me healthier because I'm actually drinking water, and I hope that it will curb my hunger.  I've read recently that often times we think we are hungry, but are actually thirsty.  I've even taking this one step further.  If I want a snack that I "shouldn't" have (like late at night before bedtime), I force myself to drink two whole glasses, and if I still want the snack, it's OK for me to have it.  I find

Our Etsy Shop  has been quite busy - which is an awesome thing, because we are trying to raise enough money for our 15 year old son to go to Japan on a 4-H awarded exchange trip.  In an effort to fund raise, we have listed everything in our shop to benefit his cause, so please consider supporting him. We've had two different sets of spoon plant markers go out this last week, and have another set on order right now!  It's very exciting for my 15 year old to have things sell.  He's turning into a real entrepreneur!  He wants me to check all the time to see if he has sold anything! We started out putting up all ready made sets, but have found that people are more interested in getting specific plant names printed on the spoons.  (Either way works for us - we just want people to be happy.) In an effort to sell some thing locally, we approached a local shop owner of a new ice cream shop in town (who is in the process of putting things up for sale in the shop).  Guess wha

Happy Easter - He Is Risen  I went to another Stampin' Up Card Class a few weeks ago and made four cards that were bird oriented.  It thought that today would be a great day to share them, since one was an Easter card.  They are so dimensional and detailed, that I wish I could come up with these ideas, myself.  Oh well, I really enjoy getting together with other ladies and crafting together.  I, for one am making an effort to send out these beautiful cards.  It seems that a lot of people aren't using them, but I really want to send them and hope that someone else enjoys them too!  Oh - and don't forget to check out my good friend, DeAnn's blog Here.   She shares just a ton of beautiful cards and other projects! My hairy robin - I just haven't gotten the knack for the water coloring technique and it sort of makes me nervous, although to the average person, they probably wouldn't recognize that it is running out of the lines. This one was really cute

I've been sewing since I was seven years old.  I always wanted my Mom to make my doll clothes for me, but she didn't have the patience to teach me at that age.  So one day, to get me off her back, she handed me the pattern, material and pointed to the sewing machine and told me to figure it out.  I'm sure that my sewing took a long time to even be sewing, but through the years, I learned the basics and have enjoyed sewing!  I've even given a pretty good stab at teaching my kids how to sew and they've won many ribbons and even have gone to State Fair. I think it's great that so many people are learning to sew from the Internet.  God knows I've learned many things myself.  One of the things that I have noticed, though is that many blogs don't teach the correct way to sew.  I'm not trying to make anyone out to be a bad sewer, but it does bother me sometimes that people don't know the basics.  I thought I would share with you one of the most imp