Happy Halloween 2010!

 

sew good goodies

my honey’s granny is a very crafty woman.  she sewed, painted, ran a ceramic shop, made dolls… she did it all and has passed on to me many of her crafty goodies.

this week she sent a bag of sewing “stuff” she thought i might be able to use.  i open the bag and what do i find?  a sewing Christmas come early!  

ohhh, pretty…

five different sewing machine feet, a few of which i will have to google to know what they are for.

this little beauty i am really excited about.  i have had a blindstitch foot on my wants list for a while now. 

granny also sent these really cool sewing books that take it back to when women really did know how to sew.  they understood garment construction, pattern making, and alterations.

  paper mache dress form anyone?

this book has it all…

from decorative stitching like these smocking instructions…

to children’s clothing designs…

to how to properly set a sleeve…

  

and even this children’s sizing guide…

then digging in the bottom of the bag, what did i find?

these little guys!

 

do you know what they are?  i have wanted some for years but would not pay that much for them.  (i know $12 is a lot of money to part with,lol)

the world through the eyes of boy

i love all things artistic.  on occasion i pretend to have some artistic ability.  i was so excited the first time boy drew something on paper and identified it.  it was on the plane ride home from visiting family at the beach.  he drew tiny little circles with little lines going through them and proudly proclaimed them to be ants… “ats bite”.  which i am sure is a sign of the deep emotional scaring as a result of his first encounter with fire ants.  (we don’t have those nasty little things at home!)

then we hit an artistic dry spell and there was nothing but circles and scribbles for so very long.

then… boy was playing with sidewalk chalk and brought me over to see his picture. 

“what’s that, boy?”

“tar”

“and what’s that?”

“me!”

“wow, you did a really good job.  i see your head and your eyes… what’s this one?”

silence… boy had moved on and left me to ponder his UDO (unidentified drawn object). 

may he always love to draw, paint, sculpt, build, sing, make music, imagine, create…

sister’s enchiladas and me being thrifty

sister has been trying to get me to try this recipe for what she called THE BEST chicken enchiladas in the world.  i’ve put it off because, well, i’ve never found an enchilada recipe i liked and had given up on the idea.

but we’ve been in a major food rut so i decided to live on the wild side and try these out.

ONE WORD:  YUUUUMMMM!

of course, i was not prepared when i set out to make them and soon found that i was out of my world famous (okay only in my little world) homemade taco seasoning.  thus inspiring me to share my thrifty secrets to wonderful tacos with you!

simply gather the following seasonings:

1/4 cup of chili powder, ground cumin, oregano, garlic powder, and onion powder

2T cayenne and 3T salt

mix together and put in an air-tight container.  i reuse a bulk spice container.  and there you have it.  use about 2T in place of one of those packets of seasoning.  it is tasty and only about 25 cents instead of the $1.25 for the packet.

newcomer to the farm

meet our newest resident here on the farm… yes, i think we can definitely use the term farm now, what with the cattle and horses and the garden and chickens and now her.

this is piggy.  boy said her name was oink oink, which i thought was pretty good considering the names two year olds can come up with.  daddy said her name was subway, cause well, she will end up gracing our table, cause we have gotten that countryfied.

she lives in our garden.  if God created an animal that can naturally till and fertilize my garden with very minimal work from me… i am all in!  (and i never thought i would be advocating for a pig... i have pork issues from my childhood…tragic!)

advice from the front lines

this just in from the front lines of momma-hood…

DO NOT put a pull up in the washing machine!

i repeat, DO NOT put a pull up in the washing machine!

if you find yourself quickly throwing a load of your sweet little one’s laundry into the wash… the laundry that said sweet little one has been putting in the hamper all by himself like a good boy… be warned this could happen to you. 

all the clothes will be covered, inside and out, in a nice coating of water absorbent gel.

DO NOT pull the clothes out and shake them out onto the tile floor in a desperate attempt to rid them of their slim!

IT WILL DO NO GOOD and it DOES NOT just sweep up.

if you find yourself in this situation use the following protocol…

1. rinse all clothing out by hand one piece at a time, both inside and out

2. clean all gel out of washing machine

3.  rewash all clothing again and find something else to put on your sweet little one for church

4. try desperately to sweep up the gel you tried to shake out of the clothing… then get a towel and get on your hands and knees and wipe it up… then when what still did not clean up has dried sweep again

IT IS BEST TO AVOID THIS SITUATION ALL TOGETHER!

chocolate banana bread

cool weather always makes me want to bake and last night i really wanted something warm and sweet so i started looking through the pantry to see what i had ingredients for and well, it was slim pickings.

what i did have was a package of honey bran muffin mix (the kind you just add milk to) and two quite ripe bananas.  now i have a recipe for banana bread that is one of those that belonged to someone’s great aunt agnes who always won the blue ribbon at the county fair for her banana bread… but i didn’t have time or bananas for that so…

one package of honey bran muffin mix                  

two smushed up ripe bananas

half a package of mini chocolate chips

a hand full of pecans from the freezer chopped up

and 25 minutes in an oven at 425 and…

warm, sweet, chocolatey, banana goodness.  it was all i could do to save some for later.  its kind of like chocolate dipped bananas on a hot summer day, or a chocolate banana shake, except for warm and gooey.  perfect for a cool fall evening… or a cool fall morning… or the middle of a nice sunny fall day…

a cowboy, his camo, and a fort

boy and pawpaw have been working to build a fort out of a freecycled swing set…

taking a break to chase the chickens…

helping dad with the tools…

oh, what’s that his shirt says?  maybe that is why i haven’t been getting much done lately!

sweet birdies at the window

 

i have been working on giving the guest room a new look (can ya guess why?).  i started with the windows.  i love these little birds.  one of those ideas that just pops in your head and actually works… made from some of my grandma’s hankies, they were really easy to make, required just a few stitches by hand, and can be easily taken apart without damaging the hankies.

start with a hankie, some thread (i used embroidery thread), and some stuffing…

tie a small ball of stuffing into one corner of the hankie…

tie the two opposite corners loosely so you can adjust them later.  these will be the wings…

 

fill the center with more stuffing…

pull up the bottom corner and tie it up to make the tail.  the back (top) of the bird will be open.  stitch it shut then tug on the wings and tail to adjust them to your likening…