The Sun is Shining!!

Just thought I would "pop" in for a minute.......

Well, the weather report was actually

right!! It has been

warm and sunny and beautiful.....

I have planted many of my seeds in pots indoors, today

I am heading out to plant some outside that will

have to be covered at night.

Made our weeks bread yesterday, off to

Gramma Belle's this afternoon for a bit

of crocheting.

Just stopping by to

say "hi", been busy

outside. Oh and the wonderful sound of

the sprinkler watering the grass to make it

green again. In the high desert, the grass

is brown most of the winter and the hose

is frozen, so this is the first bit of

watering I can do. Trying to at least

green up the grass around our firpit by

Sunday so we can cook out on the fire

with the family Easter Sunday.

Proverbs 2:3-4

"...yes, if you want better

insight and discernment, and

are searching for it
as you would for lotst money or

hidden treasure, then wisdom

will be given you......."

Wow......lost money??

hidden treasure??

Lately I am actually searching just

that hard for wisdom. My husband

continues to not have enough work,

and we are day by day by day

"clinging" to wisdom and

trusting God to lead us.

I just continue to do my part in

making our home a refuge, a place

to come in out of the storm. :D

Hope you are all

enjoying Spring Days

wherever you are!!!

Titus 2 Day

I am sad to have no pictures of our day together....

but we just started up our meetings again now that the

holidays are over. We are only going to

meet once a month, that way we can meet just

a little longer and do more.

This month we focused on:

"Peace in Perilous Times"

Everything we did was in an effort to help

bring peace to our own hearts as well as

our families and in our home.

As they arrived I had bread dough ready to go and

each rolled out Cinnamon Bread. The point was, when you

make a batch of bread, once in awhile do a cinnamon one for

a treat, nothing like Cinnamon Toast with a bowl of

hot cereal on a cold winters morning. Sounds

peaceful right?? Making our families happy and

contented brings PEACE.

Then I had our soup done to a point, meat browned, veggies

chopped, and it had to be boiled for just 5 minutes

before you could can it in the pressure canner.

Food ready to go in the pantry keeps us at PEACE.

So, we enjoyed lunch together and then had a short devotional

about peace in our lives. Peace comes when we draw

closer and closer to God. When we are close to

Him, we will be able to trust Him more

and that brings PEACE to our whole household.

Then we did a project that is fun to use with homeschool

curriculum or just for a fun scrapbook project idea. We made

a Lap Booklet with Minit Books inside.

Lap books are a file folder folded to the center so it

opens like shutters and you put different bits of

information or pictures or whatever on the little

booklets that you glue inside. Fun for all

ages. Once the older kids master the little

books, they can help the younger ones.

Busy children on a cold winters day

is very PEACEFUL indeed. :)

Then I showed them how to use a fabric pen

and write a verse on a piece of fabric to

embroider. Scripture on your walls is a

very good thing.....it reminds us of God and

who He is and keeps our minds focused

on Him throughout the day. Which brings

more PEACE to our homes.

The verse I chose is one that has ministered to

me ALOT lately.....

"Thou wilt keep him in perfect PEACE,

whose mind is stayed on thee."

Isaiah 26:3

So, some knew embroidery and some learned that day

as we moved on and learned how to do a granny

square. Some knew crochet and some had to

learn. So, at that point we just spent the next

bit of our time crocheting or embroidering

and encouraging one another. :)

All in all it was a very PEACEFUL day. :D

Next month, we will do two more embroidery stitches

and possibly work on crocheting a bit more. And

some other fun things I have up my sleeve. :) Our

theme next time is PREPAREDNESS.

(But not to an extreme, just some things we

can easily do).....which also brings PEACE!!

If you are ever interested in doing your own Titus 2 group,

Lisa at New Harvest Homestead

on my side bar will send you a free meeting

guide. It has some fun ideas and encouragement

for how to start a group.

Still going............

Making more ornaments.....the hand sewing is all done, now I just have to sew backs

on them and put in a bit of stuffing. (Those are "reclaimed" holy socks cut out in

those cute little hearts:)

Good Intentions Gone Right............

For my Anne Tea I had cut out over 30 little silky mice. I was going to give them to the ladies as their take home gift. Probably serving it on the plate with their plum pudding. :)

Good intentions.

Well, I did not get very far with that idea.......after the tea, I got 5 done and put a little bit of lavender in them to give to the girls who helped me serve.
So, since I have so many little silky funnels sitting here needing stuffed and crafted into something, I looked at them and came up with this........

Added little pearly beads and velvet ribbon and made them into Christmas ornaments.....

They hang in pairs from velvet ribbon attached with beads......

I am also working on these star ornaments.....

Calico on felt with calico on the back and a

blanket stitch.....in three patterns.....

All for the Christmas Boutique at my

Nutcracker Tea!!!

Class today...........

The girls in my Home-Making class

finished their pillowcases......aren't

they ADORABLE!!!

Two Days Later......

Soap gets uncovered, and then.....
Cut into bars and ready to cure! On the board is Lavender Vanilla, top of basket is Cinnamon

Clove and lower basket is Oatmeal Cinnamon.....mmmmmmm!!

They will be for sale at my tea and later in my Etsy shop.

Soapmaking.....

Gathering supplies......

Yummy scents.......Favorite recipe.......


I Love this recipe!! It is a chart that tells you proportions to what you have. If I happen to have 1 cup of lye, it tells me I need 8 C of fat and 1C of liquids!! I Love it!

The Shed!!

Well, I cannot believe I am showing you this! But here goes.....I have a cute little shed that is supposed to be my craft "studio".....when we thought we were going to move to England, we went through all our belongings like crazy, willing to part with things we couldnt take but could replace...we thought we were going to be gone for a year long mission trip. Well, we did not go and some of those things I really need....Anyway, it all got piled high in my shed for a garage sale....

Today my daughters helped me unload it all out onto the grass to go

through for a sale this weekend.......

Sorting to see what we can really part with and what would be expensive to replace and that we can use.......so, my daughter from Seattle is down and helped.....what do you think?? Keep the hat???? :)

What a sweetie she is!

Now I am really pushing it....this is the inside AFTER we emptied everything out to the lawn!!! But, you can see the potential, right?!?!? Look at that nice desk for sewing and crafting, and all these shelves to be put in order!!

No, I do not watch TV in my craft room. My daughter likes to watch or at least listen to movies like Emma or Pride and Prejudice when she is sewing costumes from those time periods... :)

Ok, the fun thing will be to show you the

before and after......
Coming Soon! :)

Home-Making.......

Today was our Home-Making class. One girl has a wheat/gluten etc, allergy, so we made "Currant Buckwheat Muffins". They are sweetened with just molasses, they were ok, needed more raisans for sweetness, but may have been better with jam or something....... :)

Then we made spaghetti for lunch. Since we were already going to make spaghetti sauce, they made sauce from a whole gallon size can of tomatoe paste! We canned 6 quarts and used the rest for lunch........they each got to take home 8 mini muffins and a quart of sauce!!
It was a beautiful day, so they spent the afternoon
on the porch swing....
After lunch they finished putting their samples in their notebooks.

Then we began a project with the stitches they know so far.
This will become the edging on a pillowcase......

Then we must end the afternoon with tea of course!

Staying on Task......or not?!?!?!?

Today in Central Oregon the sun is shining, it is warm and

I am soooo distracted!!!

A couple days ago I picked a huge amount of tarragon from my garden, it was an armload soooo big I could barely carry it. It is such a thick viney plant, I wondered if it would work like when you make a grapevine wreath, just kind of wrapping it around itself. So, this is my experiement, a tarragon wreath with some added flowers from a mint plant.......
And just a plain one for inside......we will see what happens. It may dry and fall away or it may dry into a really cool wreath.....only time will tell, :)
Then, I remembered herbs for vinegar, so while I was at it I filled some jars with sage, thyme and of course tarragon.........

I also hung some to dry....I also am going to make some sage soap, but later. Hopefully, the soap and some of the vinegars will be for sale at my upcoming teas, just in time for the holidays!!

While all this is very good and productive...it is not what I am supposed to be doing! I am supposed to be preparing for my class with the girls tomorrow and baking bread!!

Ah, it will all get done!!

Prairie Camp in the Front Yard......

Two days, 11 girls, and lot's of FUN!!
They all had a turn at scrubbing the clothes in a washtub with a

washboard and some homemade soap, they loved it!!

All proper prairie girls did a "sampler"! These will go on their aprons for a pocket. They are embroidering the
first letter of their name.



View from our "Dining" area into our "kitchen".......

we set up three fly's for shade and protection from rain, etc......one for the kitchen, one the dining room and one for the parlor.

The kitchen, where we prepared lunch
and made the butter each day.

I do not remember inviting him!!!!

Each day we cooked just one thing on the fire. My dear sweet husband dug the hole in the ground and created a firepit for us. The girls were divided in half and took turns doing, the butter, laundry, lunch and dishes. The first day they made biscuits to cook on the fire in the dutch oven, the second day they chopped veggies and we made stew in the dutch oven on the fire. Each day, after lunch, we filled the tea kettle with water so that later on we had

somewhat warm water for tea. :)
Have you ever seen any one so happy
to wash dishes?!?!?!?

Each day we also had some "read aloud" time, sometimes just to fill gaps while waiting for others to finish a task..........they are reading

"Kirsten, an American Girl".

They also learned the quilting technique for "Grandmother's Flower Garden", we made cornhusk dolls, my husband made each girl a flower press and we pressed some flowers, they made a hoop and my husband made sticks for them all and that is a game called "Graces", they all went home with a basket full of

things they had made.....

And of course at the

end of each day...........

Tea Time!!!

Prairie Camp was so much Fun!! The girls all had fun and so did I!! I think we all cannot wait until next year.

Prairie Bonnet, Step by Step.....

The pattern I shared last post has very good instructions and makes it very easy to create this bonnet. First step is to sew bias tape across designated area.

Then you put a very small hem on that bottom ruffle......
Then you sew the two brim pieces together and iron up one edge.....later that will be the part we sew down to the hat by hand.
Turn that right side out and press.......

Then you gather the crown piece to fit the brim and sew it onto the edge that is not ironed...that part left flapping open is the part that the girls stitched down themselves by hand.
We put ribbon through the bias tape, but you can sew a tie
that you thread through there.


And there you have it!!
A Prairie Bonnet!!