Prairie Scraps

We’ve been working hard on completing our addition.  It was once a carport, which we re-poured cement and put up walls on two sides to make the area between our house and an old carriage house into a useable space.  The main area is my piano studio.  We also added a full bathroom and laundry room. The bathroom is generally put together, except for some tiling in the top of the shower.  For some reason, the sink kept backing up and leaking when we tried to get it going.  We went ahead and dry walled and tiled the bathroom, trying not to think about the sink area too much.  Finally, after inspecting the drainpipe, we realized that the drainpipe had opened while the cement was being poured - and voila!  Completely blocked the drain! This last weekend, Mr. Right decided to attempt taking care of the drain pipe.  Instead of jack hammering our newly poured cement, we decided to put in a new drain through the wall, and under the house to the drai...

My 14yo son is doing a three year 4-H project where they raise funds and study the United States government and end with a three week trip to Washington DC.  One of the fundraisers that the group does each year is Spaghetti dinner.  It was a huge event where we served dinner for 500 people. At the end of the night, there was a ginormous amount of spaghetti sauce and spaghetti left over.  (There were sausages, salad and bread too, but those were pretty easy to take care of.). Of course, I couldn’t turn down an industrial size pot of spaghetti sauce as well as several gallon bags of cooked spaghetti for free. I made up dinners for my college kids and kids at home out of them.    I have two recipes that freeze very well with cooked spaghetti.  The first one is Spaghetti pie.  There are dozens of recipes on Pinterest for it, but this is what I did (I didn’t use any measurements, because I was using several different size containers): Spaghetti Pie...

My newest project! I found this old saw at a local thrift store, and knew I wanted to try to paint it.  In fact, I found a whole pile of saws and figured I’d try one first and then go back for more if it worked like I wanted.  I actually thought it was a little speedy at $2.50, but bit the bullet and bought it.   The first thing I did was wash and scrub this with vinegar.  It did clean it up a little, but not like I thought it would.  All the markings are character, right? Next, I clear coated it with Clear Spray Paint by Krylon like this: Next I used my  Chalk Couture Transfers  to put a Vintage Truck and “This is How We Roll” on the saw. Finally, I used the Krylon Clear Coat to make the chalk paste permanent. Here are the links to the Chalk Couture transfers and products I used for this project.  (I do make a small amount for all sales on my site.  Thank you for your support). Vintage Truck Transfer “This is How...

I’ve been toting this cute Samsonite Vintage Suitcase around for quite some time.  I knew at some point, I’d use it for a project, but never really figured out what.  Since finding a new  Reusable Silk Transfer Company  I’ve been searching high and low for some vintage suitcase to put transfers on and sell at our craft booth.   They’re hard to find at a reasonable price right now!  Everyone wants them. When putting the Christmas decorations away, Mr. Right found this in storage and grabbed it out for me. I figured it was time to get some creativity onto this suitcase! I used the  Happy Camper Transfer  with the  Happy Camper Add-on  to make the buffalo check on the camper.  I’m not going to lie -  I haven’t quite mastered making the pennants in multiple colors, but I think this is just the cutest little case to use in our vintage Airstreams .  In the winter, I plan to put it in our travel themed bathroom in the house. ...

My 14yo son loves to play ukulele, so for Christmas we got him a DIY Kit from Amazon here:    Feel free to watch our reveal video above and subscribe so you can see all the updates as we complete this project. We used some of our  Chalk Couture Transfers  to decorate the ukulele.  We sort of jumped the directions with our paint and decorations, but it didn’t make sense to put it all together and then try to paint around everything. What do you think?  I’d love to hear what your thoughts are!  Please know that I make a small amount on any purchase to my links.

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...

This is so exciting!  What a great deal and it’s only available on my  Website  and gives you everything that you will need to finish this cute project for just under $35!  The Hexagon board and chalk paste colors aren’t even available to Designers.  I’ve been loving how versitile the Chalk Couture  transfers and chalk paint are!  Here are just a few of the projects I’ve been working on to sell at craft fairs this year!  Check out some of them here:  https://prairiescraps.blogspot.com/2018/12/craft-fair.html . Each project takes just a few minutes to make and turns out just beautiful!  Please let me know if you have any questions or need help deciding what to start with first.