Prairie Scraps

I've been the coordinator for our Mothers Of Preschoolers (MOPS) group this year, and we don't have many leaders, so I have been doing the Craft projects.  I thought I would share our craft this last week.  Our topic was on depression (I know, a depressing topic!), so to keep little ones busy while at appointments or car rides, we made busy bags for the car. I found these cinching backpack bags at the Dollar Store: There were two different designs, the other one had a beach ball on it.  You could use as small rubbermaid or a book bag too, but I was looking for something that was cheap. We made 3 different activities to put into the bag.  The first is a popsicle stick puzzle that I got from  HERE at Tot School.   This only required popsicle sticks and different colored Sharpies to make.  One of my personal favorite activity to make for my kids are the I Spy bottles.  What you need for this project are: Empty Water Bottles...

My daughter has been reading Three Novels in Ones lately, and when "A Kingsbury Collection" by Karen Kinsbury came available to order, I jumped on it.  My daughter's books have been around 200 pages each, so, when this one arrived with well over 700 pages of three complete novels, I was a little shocked!  This book really is a great value, because it is three complete stand-alone novels, not shortened versions or just short stories. The topics that Kingsbury covers in these novels are sometimes not covered, or even well represented in the Christian community, but Kingsbury truly gives the reader a genuine look into many modern day issues.  Each of the characters in this trio of novels seem very real and authentic. In the first novel, "Where Yesterday Lives", Ellen Barrett, a successful journalist, struggles with her marriage and is called to her hometown when her father passes away.  While at home, she wrestles with making peace with her lost faith, her...

 I was not sure what I was going to do for Easter dresses this year.  Last year I made  These Pillowcase Dresses  from my Scrap Stash, but this year, I just had no ideas.  I knew I didn't really have any large pieces of fabric, so I wasn't sure what I would do until I found  this Tutorial at Sew Much Ado  on Pinterest.   I have a ton of old t-shirts around that I can't bare to get rid of, but wasn't sure what I was going to do with them.  I grabbed two different ones and used the bottoms to make the skirts and the rest to make the ruffles. The girls are so excited to wear these, it was hard to convince them to wait until Easter!  I was so surprise to find the aqua shirt in my daughter's drawer that is a gift from Grandma from last year!  It matches perfectly. The best thing about these dresses, they were FREE!  We like to have coordinating outfits, so we can take a family picture together.  Everyone else is wea...

One of the best thing about living here on the Camas Prairie, is that we are 15 minutes from the best fishing in the country on the South Fork and Clearwater Rivers!  Of course, best of all is the Steelhead and Salmon run that occurs twice a year.  One of these days, we will hook one of them but in the meantime, we will have a fun time trying to get one of those elusive Stealhead! Oh, by the way, all those guys in the background were concerned that if one of our little ones hooked a stealhead, they will end up in the river, which looks peaceful, but has a roaring rapids in the background and is 15 feet deep in front of us.  Next time, my smaller children will for sure have life jackets, but two of us stayed with the two younger fishers at all times and watched like a hawk.  Of course, those guys don't understand that we have yet to hook one either! I had the kids packed up and ready in the car, the moment that Mr. Right got off of work and we got over an hour and...

A very special 10-year-old friend of ours was having his 10th birthday last weekend.  He's had a recent fascination with cooking and baking, so I thought it would be fun to make him his own apron for a gift.  Of course, when he's not in the kitchen, he's in the wilderness camping, so I loved this fabric when I found it. (I would have used my scrap stash, but all I had for camouflage, was in Packer's green and yellow, which just isn't in high demand in Idaho.  I'll save that for another of my boys who love the Packers another time!) I was originally looking for camouflage  but apparently in our area, camo is in high demand, because the only thing I could find was pink!  Not a good thing for a 10-year-old boy!    I have not tutorials or instructions for this one.  I literally laid the kid's apron I liked and had on hand on the material and cut it out about a 1/2 inch larger.  I was hoping to make a chef's hat, but I didn't have en...

It's my 100th Post!  What a great big reveal I have in store for you today! Three years ago, I found  Miss Mustard Seeds' 6 part How to Make Slipcovers Series  and started with watching the first video.  I ran out to Home Depot and purchased two drop clothes, washed and bleached them to get ready for making the slipcovers for my two couches, and there they sat folded nicely in my craft room!  A year ago, we moved across the country, so I packed those drop clothes up in a box, clearly marked them and put them on the truck.  When we arrived, I put them in front of all my other boxes to do first.  We even moved again over Christmas, and I moved that box again!  Then, I did a pillow re-do,  HERE  that pushed me over the edge.  I just had to tackle those slip covers! Before of the couch and the pillows that began the entire thing!  I  had a Saturday, where the guys were doing guy things and it was me and the girls hom...

I hadn't realized that it had been November of 2009 that I had redone my couch pillows, but when I went back to my old blog to check, sure enough, it's been four years!  You can check out my  Goodwill Redo HERE  if you would like to see how I turned a tablecloth into new pillows.  Well, these pillows were really starting to look bad (and I was getting embarrassed having our CARE group over every Wednesday to sit on them!), so I decided to recover them. Of course, the only material I happen to have on hand in my  Scrap Stash  that would cover four big pillows, was some ticking that I got at Walmart for $1 a yard (they were clearancing all their bolts of material).  I bought the whole bolt, in fact. For this project, I actually debated just doing two or three of the pillows and changed my mind about the material several times.  I finally decided to just do it, and I could change them in a few months if I didn't like them.  If I h...