Monday

Good morning! No picture today. I just couldn’t find anything I thought was interesting. We had a really nice weekend. We went down to Jessica’s on Saturday, planning on coming home that evening. Things happened and we ended up staying the night and coming home on Sunday. It was a nice visit. I got to play some games with Daniel and got plenty of beautiful smiles from Sam. I just wish I had taken my camera then I would have some pictures to post today.

Temperatures are chilly here-about 14 degrees with a little snow falling. Lots of cloud coverage. I have a deer roast simmering on the wood stove. It smells so good! I think we will have mashed potatoes, gravy and green beans with it and, of course, fresh baked rolls. I have two new aprons cut out and hopefully I will get to work on them today. It is matching mother/daughter waist aprons.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

January 24, 2011 6

An Old Leather Project

This is a picture of an old leather book bag I made when I was in college. It is roughly 35 years old (I guess I am really telling my age now). As you can see, it gets a lot of use. I’m not even sure what the stain is at the bottom but its been on it for a very long time. I used to work a lot with leather. I have made purses, moccasins, walets, lots and lots of belts. Hubby also has done lots of leather work. He more than me actually. He used to run a leather shop, back when we were younger. He made a knife sheath for our old pastor about 2 years ago. Other than that we have not done leather work in many years. We do still have our tools though. We have talked some about getting them out and working some with the girls. Teaching them how to make things. Leather is just so expensive but I think it would be lots of fun.

This is a picture I did. Once again, many years ago. I won 2nd place in a craft fair with it. Looking at these reminds me of how much fun working with leather is. Well, so much for my walk down memory lane.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

January 21, 2011 5

Remembering Summer

I thought we might all enjoy looking at some summer pictures. I think I like summer better than winter but thats just my personal opinion.

Yesterday was kinda exciting for me. I sold 6 dishcloths and a little girl apron! YEAH! Makes me want to get busy making more. I think the next two I make will be waist aprons instead of full aprons. I want to see how they sell. They seem to be pretty popular.

School today as usual. Tomorrow is Ladies bible study. This week we are studying Mary, the mother of Jesus and Mary of Bethany. This has been a really good study guide so far. I would definitely recommend it. Tonights menu is London Broil, homefries, green beans, homemade rolls and banana pudding for dessert.

Time for school. Enjoy your day and God bless.

January 20, 2011 6

Change in Pattern

This is how the apron looked before changes. I took off the pocket and the fabric at the bottom.

This is how it looks now. I like this much better even if it did make the apron shorter. What do you all think?

We are getting some sunshine now, hopefully it will stay. Temperatures are warm-mid 40’s. Pretty nice. Enjoy your day. God bless.

January 18, 2011 4

A New Pattern

Yesterday, we ran a few errands in C-burg. Our pastor’s wife had told me Joann’s had simplicity patterns on sale for .99 cents. I found this great vintage apron pattern. I love old things. I am in process of redoing the flowered apron. I just did not like the contrasting material. No one else did either. So yesterday, I took it off. I will be doing something different on the bottom, maybe just a lace ruffle.

My house smells delicious. Yesterday while we were out, I got a rotisserie chicken. For supper, we had chicken, noodles, green beans and fresh baked bread. Then I took the bones and cooked them all night in my crock pot to make a stock. Everytime I awoke last night I could smell the stock cooking. Today I have simmering on the wood stove, chicken and noodle soup. I got the original recipe from another blog and it is just delicious. Of course, I have altered the recipe to suit our taste.

The recipe is: deboned chicken, stock, carrots, celery, onions. The amounts of these will depend upon how much chicken you use. 1 tsp. salt, 1/4 tsp. turmeric, 1/2 tsp pepper, 2 tsp. parsley, 1 tsp. chicken base (if you have it, if not, its just fine without it). I then add about 1/4 to 1/2 tsp. italian seasoning, basil, oregano- or whatever I have on hand. Let this all simmer for about 30 minutes, add noodles. Another guessing amount but I think at least 2 cups. After noodles are done, mix together 3 tbsp flour and water. Add this to the soup mixture and let it simmer. This will cause the soup to thicken. In this pot, I added some canned corn also. In the picture, I have not added the flour yet. You can skip this step, if you want. I have made it both ways.

Time for school to begin. Enjoy your day and God bless.

January 18, 2011 3

Apron

Well, I finally finished this one. I’m not sure I like the contrasting material with it. What do you all think? I have a little girl pattern already cut out to match this one and a doll pattern. So like it or not, this set will have to be this way. Thanks again to Grace for being my model.

So now I want everyone’s opinion. Which apron pattern do you all like the best? Which one do you think most likely to sell?

Temperatures have warmed up quite a lot here. Low 40’s today. I think there is a chance for snow tomorrow and Tuesday. Church was very good today. I had the Jr. Worship class. My lesson was about fear and how to deal with it. It was a pretty good lesson. They are a good group of kids, very attentive and well behaved.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

January 16, 2011 4

Fresh Bread

Very few things say home more than fresh baked bread. Clothes hanging on the line run a close second in my book. I just pulled this bread from the oven and thought it looked soooooo good. It smells delicious too. I tried a different recipe today and am hoping it will be good. I needed a good sandwich bread recipe. Here is the recipe I used:

1-1/3 plus 1tbsp. water, 2 tbsp. butter, 4-1/4 cups flour, 3 tbsp. sugar, 2 tbsp. dry milk, 1-1/2 tsp. salt, 2 tsp. yeast. I put these ingredients into my bread machine on dough cycle and let it do its job. When the cycle was finished, I took the bread out of the machine, shaped it into a loaf and put it into my loaf pan. If you do not have an extra long loaf pan, you will need to make 2 loafs. Bake at 350 degrees until done. It takes about 30 min. in my oven.

I also have been working on apron patterns and I think I have decided which one to do the matching aprons in. I just have to adjust the pattern a little to compensate for what I don’t know how to do. I will show pictures soon. By the way, thanks Dave, for fixing my problem on the computer.

Warmer temperatures here today-35 degrees. Hardly any wind. A really nice day. I have to go raid my material stash. I will need a piece large enough to do all 3 aprons. I’m not sure I have anything. Hopefully, I will, as I would like to get started on them today.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

January 15, 2011 4

Beautiful Sky

Today has been a very pretty day here in Floyd. Beautiful sunshine and as you can see the sky is just amazing. Such a bright, vibrant blue. It is warmer than it has been. 25 degrees with very little wind. All in all, this makes for a fairly nice day.
I wanted to put a picture of my latest apron on, but for some reason I am having difficulties with my pictures. I think I will need some help, Dave.
Tonights menu will be pinto beans(cooked on the wood stove) Kielbasa with cabbage, cornbread and the buttermilk chocolate cake for dessert. Pintos cooked on the wood stove are just sooooo good. I guess they prefer slow cooking.
Enjoy your day and God bless.

January 14, 2011 3

A Finished Project

I finally have Grace’s quilt finished. I started it last year after I finished Julie’s. Gardening came upon us and I had to put the quilt away until winter. I now have made all 3 girls a wall hanging/quilt that I sewed by hand. I am not very skilled at sewing things by hand so these will probably be the only ones I do.

Temperatures are still cold here. Actual temperature this morning was 10 degrees with a -10 wind chill. When the cold wind blows here it is very difficult to keep the house warm. The wind seems to find its way inside in places we never thought possible. Anyway, our wood stove is working overtime. I am very grateful to have this stove. It certainly puts out a lot of heat.

I am working on a new apron and hopefully will be able to show you all a picture of it soon. School as usual today. The ladies are coming tomorrow for bible study and it is my turn to make dessert. I am thinking of making a buttermilk chocolate cake. I got the recipe from a blogger friend and it has become a favorite of ours. I like buttercream frosting with ours. It reminds me of a cake that was served at school when I was a kid. They called it wacky cake. I do not like chocolate very much but this cake is really good.

Enjoy your day and God bless.

January 13, 2011 4

Tee Shirt Dress

This is a picture from several years back. I was reading one of my blogger friends post and she was looking for a modest dress pattern. I commented about how I had made these dresses before but I felt like my instructions were lacking. I dug in my old pictures and found this. I hope this makes it a little easier for her to understand.

Today has been cold and very windy. Wind gusts of about 40-50 mph. We are doing school as usual. I hope to get some sewing in after school. Supper tonight is homemade pizza. Yesterday was very busy cleaning the attic. We use this space as storage and every year it seems to get way out of hand. It looks very organized now. Not for long, I’m sure. I’ve been trying to do some cleaning and organizing this week. Eliminating some clutter. I seem to have an over abundance of clutter.

Well, time for school to start back. Lunch break is over. Enjoy your evening and God bless.

January 12, 2011 3