christmas wrapping paper

Dinning Room Table

Our dinning room table was ruined in storage when we were in Miami. It was beyond repair, so I started to look for another one. We had been given the other one and I hadn't realized how expensive large tables in my style cost! So I decided I would try my hand at building ours myself. I've been asked by a few people now to put pictures on the blog... so here they are... I really like how it turned out, and was very pleased with the cost. =)

 

 

Cider Press

We got a cider press! I have been wanting on of these for years! So fun for all ages. We have made about 30 gallons so far, all from apples from neighbors trees that would have otherwise just been wasted on the ground. Some of these pictures were taken at our fall party- very fun. The hogs, chickens and sheep all love to eat the pulp that is left so none is wasted. All that sugar sweet fruit helps fatten up the critters (and humans) for the winter.

homemade cast iron tub round curtain rod

So, I knew that a circular shower curtain rod was more expensive than a regular shower rod, but I thought maybe $50 or something and it would still make it worth the savings to have used the cast iron tub I already had (sitting out in the pasture)... but I called the only plumbing place in town that I could find that carried them and the sales lady informed me that the most economic one started at $150!!! "But it is real nice quality, not cheesey or cheaply made." Were her words to try and revive me after I stopped breathing upon hearing "$150".... I carefully picked my chin up off the floor and told her "thank you" and "I'll have to get back to her"... and decided to figure out another way to get something to hang a few shower curtains on.

So... I went to Home Depot (where they actually know me... and my kids.... by name!) and got 2 electrical conduit rods. I brought them back, measured and bent them into the size needed to over fit the tub size and taped the joints together with duct tape (actuall duct tape...used for heat ducts... I had some left from installing the vent for the bathroom fan.. it is more rigid than the other tape.) I put 4 screws in the ceiling where the corners would go and tied ribbon around the rod at the corners and twisted them around the screws to hang the rod.... And woo-la! $6 shower rod that quite frankly I think looks pretty good! Although I will NOT be "selling" it as "real nice quality, not cheesey or cheaply made".... but for $6... and it is FUNCTIONAL... ( THAT is what is suppose to matter... right??) I'd say it's a great deal. =)

Pipe Cleaner people.. cheap dolls

This was so fun for Elle. We worked on making them togeher- took maybe 5-10 minutes and she played with them for an hour after, and still plays with them 3 days later. Cost maybe 20 cents...

Elle's Quilt

As spring is in full swing now, I am missing home more than ever. I miss having a yard and garden to work in and animals to take care of. I wanted to do something "homey" so I started sewing Elle a new quilt. The flannel fabric was 40% off at JoAnn fabric.

She is pretty excited about it!

Now I just need to put the batting (also was 40% off) and back (an old flannel sheet) on. The whole thing (size for a double bed) cost $43. All 100% cotton flannel with 100% cotton batting.

The many uses for Coffee filters

Now, I don't even drink coffee... I just never aquired the taste... YUK! (I know, stone me later...) But my grandpa sent this to me and I thought it was pretty cool. Considering how cheap coffee filters are, these are some great penny pinching ideas so I thought I would share it with all of you.)  I want to note that they are great on compost piles, so use them and then compost them! =)


1. Cover bowls or dishes when cooking in the microwave. Coffee filters make excellent covers.


2. Clean windows, mirrors, and chrome... Coffee filters are lint-free so they'll leave windows sparkling.

3. Protect China by separating your good dishes with a coffee filter between each dish.

4. Filter broken cork from wine. If you break the cork when opening a wine bottle, filter the wine through a coffee filter.



5. Protect a cast-iron skillet. Place a coffee filter in the skillet to absorb moisture and prevent rust.

6. Apply shoe polish. Ball up a lint-free coffee filter.

7. Recycle frying oil. After frying, strain oil through a sieve lined with a coffee filter.

8. Weigh chopped foods. Place chopped ingredients in a coffee filter on a kitchen scale.

9. Hold tacos. Coffee filters make convenient wrappers for messy foods.

10 Stop the soil from leaking out of a plant pot. Line a plant pot with a coffee filter to prevent the soil from going through the drainage holes.

11. Prevent a Popsicle from dripping. Poke one or two holes as needed in a coffee filter.

12. Do you think we used expensive strips to wax eyebrows? Use strips of coffee filters..

13. Put a few in a plate and put your fried bacon, French fries, chicken fingers, etc on them.. It soaks out all the grease.

14. Keep in the bathroom. They make great "razor nick fixers."

15. As a sewing backing. Use a filter as an easy-to-tear backing for embroidering or appliqueing soft fabrics.

16. Put baking soda into a coffee filter and insert into shoes or a closet to absorb or prevent odors.

17. Use them to strain soup stock and to tie fresh herbs in to put in soups and stews.

18 Use a coffee filter to prevent spilling when you add fluids to your car.

19. Use them as a spoon rest while cooking and clean up small counter spills.

20. Can use to hold dry ingredients when baking or when cutting a piece of fruit or veggies.. Saves on having extra bowls to wash.

21. Use them to wrap Christmas ornaments for storage.

22. Use them to remove fingernail polish when out of cotton balls.

23. Use them to sprout seeds. Simply dampen the coffee filter, place seeds inside, fold it and place it into a zip-lock plastic bag until they sprout.

24. Use coffee filters as blotting paper for pressed flowers. Place the flowers between two coffee filters and put the coffee filters in phone book..

25. Use as a disposable "snack bowl" for popcorn, chips, etc.

And of course for use in your coffee maker! =)

Knit Bag

Here's coming to you mom! (It'll finally get in the mail tomorrow). Super easy knit pattern I got at Canvas Works when I was home in Olympia.

I made mine with the idea for it  to be for produce at the grocery store or farmers market. The large button on this one kind of dresses it up a bit. I want to see if Ican  knit them with twine and then they will be cheap enough to make a bunch of them for fun farm bags when I get back home.

Priceless..

4 balloons: $4

Flour and water and newspaper: $1.50

Tissue paper: free recycled from gift wrap

Finger Paint: $1.50

Dipping newspaper in mixture piece by piece and placing on balloon: 2 hours

Waiting for balloons to dry: 90 hours

Cleaning the paper mashe mixture off the dining room table: 8 hours

Cleaning the bowl, towel and floor of the paper mache mixture: 3 hours

Cleaning the "washable" paint off the dishes, the floor the table, Elle's hands, face and clothes: 7 hours

Helping my little girl make the pinatas for the party...priceless...

ask and you shall receive...

I called Comcast this morning. I actually got someone super helpful and nice. I didn't have to put my "bulldog" voice on or anything. I just simply asked how we could lower out monthly payment on our phone and internet. I questioned each charge on our bill and without too much prodding (sp?) he offered us a "loyal customer" discount which is essentially $5 off each service for 6 months. We have internet and phone service for both our house and the rental, so it was a savings of $20/month! It was that simple. I just thought I would share so you could try too if you wanted. I also have come to realize how many people don't know that they can just ask for fees etc to be removed and companies WILL. We had a tenant give us a bad check (on accident, they are actually great tenants and usually pay on time) and thinking that money was in there...we got overdrawn too... I checked our account online that night and it was good, the next morning that check had been rejected and 3 other small checks had gone through- each one over drawing our account and a $30 charge... I called and explained and they removed all the fees... $90! We still paid for the NSF check that was deposited but that was taken care of by the tenant.
I hope this helps someone save a little money! It seems to be tight for everyone these days! Just know that companies now more than ever want your business and want you to be a happy customer. I love my Comcast service and my Key Bank service...

Finished Woodshed!

Here it is! Now we just need to fill it with wood...I even made a fire in the woodstove...brrrr... fall is taking no time at all to get started.Don't you love my flower basket!? Bark and Garden Center in Olympia... $10!!!

Brick work took about 30 minutes, It was fun, I had never done it before. Metal rood was salvaged from a feeding structure that was in the field...still in pretty good shape... a little rust, but I like it... makes it not look so new... (I was always the kid-and adult- who hated new white shoes... quick- Get them dirty!)

Now we just need to seal the cedar, prime/paint the posts, hang a rustic old latern from it and fill it up!

Woodshed project..winter's coming fast!

Elle figureing measurements...Writing them down...

Elle: "16 18 and 27 pounds." !!! "pounds"??? Oh dear... so close...

This used to be a mound of dirt with some flowers in it until last night. I dug it out while Michael went to Home Depot and got bricks. We laid the brick last night and then worked on building this all day..."LABOR DAY" is right! =) It is now finished, but it was dark out when it was completed... so finished product will be up tomorrow. We are so excited to have a place to keep our fire wood dry and by the house this winter! We had to go to the barn every other day last winter to haul it up...

Christian telling dada about the nails he just spilled.

The brick was the only thing we had to buy! We ended up having all the lumber we needed and left over shakes from our porch upstairs. We even pulled the old galvanized roofing off of a lean-to that was left in the field by the previous owners. We had just the right number of screws, finish nails, etc... it was amazing! I love the finished product! 

 She sure LOOKS like she knows what she's doing! =) Gotta love what she chose to wear for "construction day"!

Yummy, Tastey, Homemade treat

Flour Tortilla's buttered,sprinkled with brown sugar and Cinnamon,On cookie sheet in the oven (top rack) with the oven on Broil setting... watch it closely as it will burn FAST... I don't even close the door to the oven all the way.. it will start to bubble, the brown sugar will caramelize and the tortilla will get a little crunchy.... YUMMY! The kids love them and they are really cheap and easy and quick! Enjoy!

The Open Road!

Elle's new bike! She loves it! She has been riding it in the house (yes, we let her ride her bike IN the house... tisk tisk all you want...=) ) for a couple months and she was so excited to take it out to the street! She has her braking down, can stear and manouver like a champ (which I attribute to allowing her to ride inside where she has to make it around furniture, toys and her little brother). I love country roads!

Off roading on the driveway...

Last night we went to a friends house and their little girl had just gotten a new bike... not just any bike... a PRINCESS bike... complete with PINK everything, but most importantly STREAMERS off the handle bars...oooooo....aaawwwww..... We got Elle's bike thinking of Christian being able to ride it after her (man, we're cheap) and so wanted to get a boys theme bike..... let's just say, I am searching the closets for ribbons...... yes, to tie around the handle bars....to make HER bike a "princess bike"! =)

The van...

Yes... I am sad to say that I now drive a mini-van... and I am even sadder to say that it isn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be! It is so spacious, we just leave the back seat out and I can throw the jogging stroller or a bail of hay or inner tubes, or WHATEVER in there and we're good to go! It gets decent gas mileage, loading the kids is easy enough, and...

They LOVE to just play in it! Even Oliver and Tom (he ran before I could snap his picture, but he was sound asleep in the back- curled up in a little pile of straw that came off from the bail I hauled late last week- a whole new level of "I need to clean out the car"!) I have now started driving places 3 times only to get part way down the road and discover that not only is the dog in there, but the CAT has stowed away! Elle leaves the doors open and so everyone just makes it their home.... I better hurry to get that straw out of there or the chickens are going to come lay their eggs in there soon! =)

$100 a month

Alright, we are going to try it! $100 a month grocery budget! Starting THIS month! I have so much planted in the garden, we have so many fruit trees (although they won't really be ready until September), so many berry plants, we have all the beef we could ever need from our cow, plenty of eggs and now we have chicken as well... So we are going to limit ourselves to $100 a month for food for June, July, August and September... or until we die of starvation...which ever comes first! =)
I am actually really excited about it. It will force me to try/learn new things, it'll help clear out our cupboards of the items that we just never get around to eating since there is alway something "better" and it will help us each appreciate all of what we do have more. I also look forward to the added incentive to keep my garden going strong, learning how to preserve the food we get from it and making sure I use every scrap we have.
I went to the grocery store last night and got 3 lemons, a lime, a bundle of bananas, a bag of 7 large oranges and a gallon of milk.... $18.70!!! yikes! Well, here we go! =)

The shanty shack!

We moved the meat chickens into the field today. Just one month until butchering! They need to get their fill of yummy grass! I really have no idea what I am doing, I hope they are warm enough, I put the heat lamp in there and a box, we made a wind barrior and roof over part of it. Plus the grass is so tall, it should act as a wind barrior and insulation too...maybe??? anyway, we'll see how huddled together they are in a bit. We used all scap wood we had laying around...not the most cosmetically appealing thing we've ever built, but as long as it keeps them in and predators out and keeps them warm enough (out of the wind), it should be fine. =)

I really hope the butchering works out (ie: I am not tramatized by it!) because we have done all the work of getting things set up for these 25 birds (well 23 now, we lost two) it will be much easier to do again. It is a lot of time though...feeding twice a day, new water in two waterers twice a day, new sawdust when they were in the stall in the barn...etc... But if we started later in the summer when it was warmer out, we could probably just have them in the field the whole time and that would be way easier...a great experiance if nothing else! =)

Homemade Lotion

I have been searching and experimenting with a lot of different homemade lotion recipes and finally tweaked enough of them to create one that I like the best and is really easy to make with things I regularly already have.
First I will tell you how I made mine and then if you want to read below about some other options/info/what I learned by default etc... continue on below...


Ingrediants:

2 Tablespoons of small peices of beeswax

1/3 Cup of Sunflower Oil

1/8 teaspoon Borax

1/4 Cup distilled water

8+/- drops of essential oil (I love using Organic Peppermint.)

Directions:

Pour the oil into a microwave safe container (I use the Pyrex liquid measureing cup) and add the beeswax. Heat in the microwave for about 35 seconds, stir, heat 35 seconds, stir, etc.. until wax is all disolved. You will have a yellowish liquid that is HOT but not boiling.

Then in a SEPARATE microwave safe container combine the borax and water. Heat in microwave to boiling. (it's not much so about a minute)

Then while stiring the oil mix with a wisk, or fork, pour the water mixture into the oil/beeswax. (This is fun for kids...maybe a good chemistry lesson... the clear water and yellowish oil, turn white as they mix)

 Continue stiring until it is all combined. It will thicken as it cools. When it is cool to the touch you can add your essential oil and transfer it to a container. The Borax acts as a preservative, so it should keep well. Mine has never not been used before 2 months end, so I can't personally atest to how long it will keep, but I have read about a year.

To make the container above it took about 5 minutes to make and about 5 to cool before putting it in the container, and my hands are OILY! Elle is covered in head to toe... she enjoys "cleaning the bowl" when we make lotion just about as much as she does when we make cookies!

Okay... so here are some things I learned and experimented with...
1. If you want more of a salve (like what you may want to keep in a tin...won't work in a pump bottle) use more beeswax.
2. Of all the oils I tried I liked sunflower the best for 2 reasons... it was less oily on my skin (rubbed in better) and didn't have a strong sent that overpowered the oil scent I was actually wanting it to smell like. But you can use any kind of cooking oil. I tried Olive oil, Avacodo Oil (VERY oily!), Grapeseed Oil (strong smell), and Seasame Oil (also strong smell and more oily). I didn't have Canola Oil, but that would work too and probably be your cheapest option. (Probably a little more oily that Olive oil). If you or someone who will be using the lotion is alergic to nuts, don't use a nut based oil... like peanut, seaseme, etc...
3. If you don't have a container you can just put it in a ziplock bag. And if you do have a container but no funnel small enough to get the mixture into it, I use a plastic sandwhich bag and put it in there and cut a bottom corner off and squeeze it through there into the container. (This also works great for homemade frosting decorating cookies or cakes or gingerbread houses!)
4.  Vitamin E is also a preservative rather than the Borax and you could mix it at the time you mix the essential oil in.
5. Instead of essential oil, you can use cooking extract... like vanilla extract... This would be considerably cheaper...but just keep in mind that you will end up with a vanilla scent.
6. Cocoa butter or coconut oil can be used as half of your oil (ex: 1/4 cup sunflower oil, 1/4 cup cocoa butter). I tried with the coconut oil and it was more oily and again, I LOVE my peppermint and that scent didn't mix well with coconut. But this would be great if you wanted a more tropical scent... it really wasn't too much more oily. This would be my #2 choice.
7. I tried using some powdered goat milk in a batch... I tried adding it after the water and oil was blended and it separated the two. Then I made another batch and added it with the oil and beeswax part way through the microwave process and it worked well. This made it a bit thicker...may not work through a pump bottle... also slighly changed the smell...needed a bit more scented oil to cover it up.
8. DO NOT use fragrances designed for candel making! These are not designed to be absorbed by the skin and may contain harmful ingrediants!
9. You can add colorant if you wish. I never did... if you want to, add it when you add the essential oil.
10. You can also do these steps on a stove top if you don't have/want to use a microwave... it will take longer.


I purchased my bottles and powdered goat milk from http://www.soapgoods.com/. It's a really great site for buying stuff for soap making/lotions, etc..( I have no affilation with them...) The Borax is in the laundry soap isle in the grocery store... and you'll already have it if you've made my homemade laundry soap recipe! =) (see penny pinching section for that recipe) I think that's it! Feel free to ask if you have any quesitons. Or SHARE if you have helpful hints/tips or a better recipe you've discovered!
 I enjoy knowing what is in what goes on my/my kids skin (and absorbed into our bodies) daily and it is also certainly a cheaper alternative than store bought lotions. Enjoy!