Something Old, Something New

Yesterday my sister and I made another trip to my Grandparents house to help with cleanup. It was actually kinda neat because it was me, my sister, my brother and both my parents. We haven't all been together just us three since the 90's. I personally love the walk down memory lane and it is an honor for me to be able to help clean out their house. We found some of my grandmother's old clothes from the 70's. These are the first pants she ever owned. I brought home the cabinet that my Grandfather made for her to keep her pretties in. I also was able to get some of her pretties to put in it. I have it in my kitchen and it looks beautiful. Hopefully they can come over soon and see that it is being taken care of. I know my Grandmother will probably not leave the nursing home again but I have hope.

We have lived in our house for nearly 4 years and I have had the hardest time finding stuff to decorate it with. I do not like over the top decorations. I love simplicity. It seems fitting that I would choose all the things that no one wanted from my Grandparent's house. Many times I even dug stuff out of the trash. I just do not get my mom. She threw away one of my Grandmother's aprons. It is from the 40's and I am pretty sure she made it herself. I took a picture of it a while back. I need to put my girls in it and get a better picture. I am to big to wear it. :-) She was 16 when she got married and I am now 35 trying to squeeze into it. I also got some vintage nighties that are just so pretty. I am hoping that some oxy clean will help me get some of the stains out. When an elderly person develops dementia it is rather fascinating what they do with their things. She was a very orderly person so everything was packed in suitcases. She made sure there was a folded Kleenex in every pocket. Kinda amazing where life's journey will take you....

I Tasted A Carrot

Last night for dinner I made a nice roast with potatoes and carrots. Now normally I do not eat the carrots but for some reason they just called to me. I have always disliked the lack of taste in a carrot. It was wonderful. So full of flavor. I have spent the last 2 years cutting artifical stuff out of our diet and it has paid off. Fruit is like candy to me. We had bananas and raspberries with our breakfast and it was a heavenly treat. I want to encourage those that do want to cut out the hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup, msgs and all that other stuff. It is so worth it in the end. Food in it's simplest form has the most amazing flavor. I am amazed that homemade bread just melts in your mouth. I am looking forward to cooking too. It makes a huge difference when you can actually taste the food you eat.

And Another One

Take the Quiz here!

I'm a Fifties Woman!!!

You Belong in 1953

You're fun loving, romantic, and more than a little innocent. See you at the drive in!

http://www.blogthings.com/whatyeardoyoubelonginquiz/">What Year Do You Belong In?

Canning

Well I have been doing some more canning. I have managed to make some really good bread and butter pickles. Last year all attempts at pickles were to say the least really gross. This year I got my hands on a Lily Wallace cookbook from the 1940's and presto yummy pickles. I now have 3 copies of that cookbook. I will be giving them to my nieces and daughters when they turn 16. I am also making them some cloth dough mats. I found this wonderful red ticking at the local quilt shop on sale. Lots to do. I better get going.

Something Fun

Here is something I came across that I find really entertaining. Hopefully the image will work for everyone.

Been Busy!!

Oh my have I been busy. I put up some tomatoes yesterday. I put up some corn today. I am baking with fresh eggs and fresh milk and I am totally on cloud 9!!! I went to my Grandparents this weekend and helped clean a bit. I discovered in the trash the most amazing apron I have ever seen. Then to make it even more amazing I also found my Grandmother's pattern for the apron. My mom threw these treasures in the trash!!!! This is one apple that must have fallen in someone else's yard. I will get pictures of the two together soon. I have soaked the apron in some natural oxy clean type stuff to get some of the dust out of it. So in the meantime you can look at my corn, milk and eggs.

A New Friend

I keep forgetting to share that I made a new real life friend!!! I am very excited about it. She has a daughter close in age to my oldest and they got along great. In fact my oldest keeps asking when we are going back. That is always a good sign. We have a lot in common and got along really good. Here is her blog. It is a really cool one too so go and visit!!!

Feeling Crafty

I am gearing up for Christmas sewing. I have added some new fabrics and patterns to my stash for this purpose. I am going to be sewing some aprons for all the females in my family. I also want to sew some knitting bags for the knitters. I got some lovely charm packs from fabric.com to make place mats with my kids for our Christmas season. Today I was very organized thanks to A Virtuous Woman so I was able to get the patterns cut out. I am getting really excited. Hopefully I can make a bit of progress before the tomatoes come off and need to be put up. I also got a really cute nighty night pattern from Favorite Things that I need to sew up before my youngest DD's birthday next month. I am very excited about this because it will be the second birthday that I actually got the sewing done before the birthday. That's all for now enjoy my pics.:-)

Taking the Day Off

I have decided to take today off. What that means is I am only going to do laundry, clean bathrooms, cook meals and run errands. I think in my free time I will finish up some knitting and sew myself a new skirt. I got some wonderful new patterns from Serendipity Studio. I got the Bella and Emily skirts. I also got some Christmas fabric so I might get sewing on some Christmas aprons. Ahhhh the possibilities are endless.

My Grandparents

My Grandma and Grandpa M. taught me most of what I know about simplicity. I went and visited with them this weekend in their new home. We had to put them in an Assisted Living/Nursing facility because they are both suffering from Alzheimer's and dementia. They have adjusted really well. We are so blessed that it is really really nice. They are happy to just be together and we are happy that they are safe. They were staying with my parents but my Grandmother was starting to wander at night and no one was getting any rest. I was at onetime a CNA in a nursing home and I had swore I would never allow my relatives to live in a nursing home. Life has it way of making you eat your words though. We are in no position to take care of them with our small house and 4 kids. I also realize that I am not super woman. I am excited about the opportunity to help those who are in there with my Grandparents. I see now that there is a huge chance for service there and I look forward to it. I miss working with the elderly. I am amazed that I am at peace with all of this and just enjoy being able to chat with them once a week. They used to live farther away and we were not able to get to see them as often as we would have liked. The cute thing is they do not remember our visits so are always so happy to see us. In the next few weeks we will be making the trip to clean out their house and I hope that we celebrate the memories and do not get overwhelmed by what we are doing.

Homemade Deoderant!!!

Checkout this post at Angry Chicken, one of my favorite blogs. I have been working on making my own homemade lotion and now I am going to use some of those ingredients to make my own deodorant. I am too excited. So my sis and I totally need to start our own line of bath products. She can make the soap and I will do the deodorant and lotions. How fun would that be. I have always dreamed of having my own stall at the Farmer's Market. I hope to get to this sometime next week. Hopefully I will have a picture to add so that this blog will be a bit more interesting.

I Still Like to Pretend

One of my favorite things to do is read Little House on The Prairie books or watch the T.V. series. I am so inspired by the way they lived and the simplicity of their life. It was so uncomplicated. When I was a child I would get so lost in my head pretending that I was Laura Ingalls. Now that I am an adult I still pretend but now I pretend to be Caroline Ingalls. I find myself out in my garden with a bug problem or dealing with tomato blight asking myself "What would Caroline do?" That leads to an entire day of me just pretending that I am her and it inspires me to bake homemade bread or tend to the mending. I guess you could say that she is my hero. I do still like to be Laura and wear my hair in braids and go fishing. I am passing on that love to my kids too. We are planning a pioneer day where we try to live like pioneers would. I plan on cheating and waiting for cooler weather etc. I do need to get some sort of oil lamp to use at night too. We have also talked about making our own beeswax candles to use. I am blind at night though and need a lot of light to see. I would love to have a wood cook stove. We will probably look over a fire during our travel back in time. It will be nice though because it will give me a good excuse to turn off the t.v. for a while. I do hate that noise from that thing. I guess that means I will have to do without a computer for a while hmmmm I wonder if I can do it..

I think I am seeing flannel nightgowns in my future...

Tasha Tudor August 28, 1915 - June 18, 2008

I am so sadden by the passing of Tasha Tudor. I have been greatly inspired by her life and example. Her contribution to children's books will be sorely missed. They were so very pure and innocent. The family has set up a Memorial Website in her honor.

15 Years

Today is our 15th Anniversary. It's hard to believe how quickly it has gone by. We celebrated last night with a wonderful Italian Cream Cake that I got from Not Quite June Cleaver. It was yummy. I was able to get some farm fresh eggs and I had soured some fresh raw milk to use in place of the buttermilk. It was incredible. I hate to admit it but I am more excited about the farm fresh eggs then I am the 15 years. I know shame on me. I have pictures of the cake that I will add later. My desire for celebration was to spend it together as a family doing something fun. We went to the zoo in Little Rock this past weekend and so I got my gift. I figure that June 17th was the start of our little family (6 humans and 7 animals so far) so I have always wanted wanted to celebrate it as a family. It was great. Today I also ordered seeds for fall planting and readied another area of the garden. Praise God for all his Blessings.

First Post

Well I have another blog but it is supposed to be a knitting blog but I have found that I am not one dimensional. I have many interests so I created this blog to showcase my many dimensions. Here are just a few of my interests: sewing, cooking, knitting, crossstitch, homeschooling, homesteading, traditional roles, and last but not least God. I am a Christian stay at home mom to 4 kids. I also love to read and learn new things. So I welcome all to pull up a chair and sit down with a nice cup of tea or coffee and enjoy my ramblings. I hope that you will find something to amuse you here.