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

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

A Good Laugh

I thought you all might enjoy a good laugh today. When I make fried chicken I bread the chicken inside a plastic bag. I put the flour and stuff in the bag, put the chicken in and shake. Well, this is what happens if the bag burst. I would have loved to see the look on my face when it first happened. I know it was priceless. Of course, my loving girls had to run and get the camera so they could have proof that this really happened.

It was hilarious. They had to get Hubby so he could see this beautiful woman he married. We all laughed so hard. What else could we do?

My thanks to my sweet Julie who helped her mama clean up this mess. Enjoy your evening and God bless.

January 11, 2011 4

Old Things

Today I was doing some much needed cleaning on the shelves that hold my teapots. I came across this old cream and sugar set. There is a story that goes with these. These are approximatedly 75 years old. They belonged to my mother. She said when she was a very young girl-about 6 or 8 yrs old-an old peddler came by their house riding a horse. On his horse, he had several saddle bags filled with trinkets to sell. One of them was the cream and sugar set. She said she remembered begging her dad to buy them for her. I guess she must have given him the right look because as you can see he did purchase them. My grandfather was a logger and money was not easy to come by. This set always held a special place in her heart. Every time she would clean them up, she would tell me this story so today, as I cleaned them, I told my girls how this particular set came to be in our home. Memories are special. They need to be shared.

This is another old set I have. The sugar bowl was my grandmothers and the cream pitcher was my mother-in-laws. Hubby bought me the teapot several years ago. All I need now are some cups and saucers to match.

Tonights supper is homemade soup. I am making a new bread recipe to go with it. I’ll let you know how it turns out. Enjoy your evening and God bless.

January 10, 2011 5

Snow

We are getting snow today. I am hoping it doesn’t accumulate too much. Dave, Jess and boys are supposed to come up today for a day visit. If they get to come, Daniel will have his first sledding experience. He will have so much fun playing in the snow.

The girls are outside now playing in the snow. It is a very pretty snow that hopefully is not sticking to the road. Can you tell this MawMaw wants to see her boy play in the snow!

Enjoy your day and God bless.

January 8, 2011 3

Working Hard

Hubby worked some more today on splitting wood. He wanted to know why I took this picture of him splitting a toothpick, why didn’t I get him splitting a real piece of wood.

Julie splitting her first piece of wood.

Grace getting ready to split her first piece. All girls need to know how to split wood. After practicing splitting, we got busy and hauled all that Hubby had split into the wood building and stacked it up. He almost has all the wood split that we have cut so we will soon have to cut more. Oh the joys of heating with wood! Seriously, it is a lot of work but it is definitely good heat and all it costs us is our work. Not a bad trade in my opinion.

We worked on school today, did some house cleaning. The ladies will be coming tomorrow for bible study. Supper tonight is baked spaghetti with lots of mozzarella cheese and home made garlic breadsticks. We also have some cushaw pie left with whipped cream.

Enjoy your evening and God bless.

January 6, 2011 6