Category Archives: favorite things

Weekend Project

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I took my girls to the fabric store on Saturday. They were picking out fabric to make Christmas gifts for each other. (They are making warm rice bags). The yarn section caught my eye. I know how to do very, very basic crocheting. My great-grandma crocheted a lot, she made afghans and stuffed animals and edged baby blankets, all the time, whenever she was sitting down she was crocheting.

I have been wanting a new winter scarf, but I didn’t want to spend the money, being that we are cutting back and not spending on extras. When I passed by all the yard I had to stop and look a little. I found this really pretty red yarn, it is so soft and I love the weave.

I bought it and all Sunday I crocheted on my new scarf. It isn’t anything fancy, I only know how to do the basic stitch, however it was so fun and relaxing to work on and there is a sense of pride knowing I made it. I finished it late Sunday night, all I need to do it add a fringe on the ends (I haven’t decided exactly what I am going to do) and it will be completely done.


Someday I will learn to do fancier work.

Is there anyone out there that can teach me??

Quilts

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Brandi over at Mountain Morning is doing a book give away. I really, really want this book! To play the game and get entered in the drawing I need to do a post about quilts. When I first read about the post I figured I couldn’t play, I don’t have beautiful quilts like Country Mom, I have made a few quilts, but I wouldn’t consider myself a quilter. However the other day when I was making my bed I realised that I really do have some quilts that are special to me. So I thought I would share, and enter myself into the drawing at the same time.

This first quilts sits on my bed. I made this the summer after I graduated from high school, I was at a crossroads in my life and I remember sitting over this quilt thinking and planning.

It was the first time I have ever really quilted, I had tied many quilts, but this was the first real “quilt”. I remember my Mom showing me how to do the stitches. This quilt has been on my bed as a spread, or a blanket underneath for most of my 10 years of marriage.

This next quilt was made for me by my aunts when I got married. I went with my Aunt Beki to pick out the fabric and at my wedding shower everybody there tied a little bit. I like that the women who were so influential in my life worked on this quilt. For a long time it was the spread on my bed, then it was the blanket underneath.

Now it is the official snuggle quilt!

This quilt was made for me by my Mom before I was born.

I has followed me my whole life and is still used for many babies who happen to be at my house for nap time.

I love that the lace is still there, but worn thin from many babies and washings.

I made this denim patch quilt when I was a teenager.
It is so heavy and warm, perfect to sleep under on a cold winter night.

I love the character of the denim.

This quilt I inherited from Dadzoo when we got married.
His grandma patched and quilted this.

It is a nice light weight quilt with a light flannel back.

Someday this will sit on my son’s bed.

I made this quilt for my baby boy.

I did all the stitching on my sewing machine

I was so fun to make a BOY baby quilt after 4 girl baby quilts.

I made twin quilts for my two oldest daughters when punk #2 arrived right on her big sisters heals. (they are 13 months apart)

They are very faded from many washing, but I hope that someday they will be as loved as my old baby quilt.

My favorite quilt, the one that means the most to me I don’t have a picture of, I don’t even know where it is. My little cousin had a baby when she was 17. She placed the little baby girl in a home with a mother and father, she wanted her baby to have the best. She is my hero. I pieced a quilt for her and the family (cousins, aunts, uncles and grandma) got together and quilted it. We sent it with her (the baby) when she was placed with her new Mom and Dad.

I would love to someday piece beautiful quilts. I love that woman of old took their scraps and made works of art that were functional too.

(I have many more, but I didn’t want to make this post too long.)

Favorite Things

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I really love this Tea Tree soap, I buy the whole line, shampoo, conditioner (makes your head tingle) bar soap, gel, I have even on occasion bought the shaving cream for Dadzoo. The only problem is that is it very expensive compared to the regular store brand soft soap, even with my professional discount. Since we are on a major budget reduction plan and are trying to pay off debt I figured I would go back to the regular Target brand.

Then I found this fabulous tip on another blog, I think I have found a way to stretch my Tea Tree soap.

Here goes:

You take one of those fancy foam soap bottles, like the one below and you use it until it is empty.

Open it up and fill it about a third of the way full of soft soap.


Then fill it the rest of the way with water, put the cap back on and shake it really good until the soap is all mixed.


These you go…easy peasy…foam soap!
and you only use a third of the soap you would normally use!

I think this would work really will it Bath and Body Work soaps too!!!

Favorite Things

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One of my favorite kitchen tools is:

Vinegar!

My Favorite Things post for this week has to do with cleaning microwaves.

Now,
I know my sisters, and mom and mother-in-law are going to have a chuckle.

I am not known for my sparkling clean microwave.

In fact,

usually it is pretty dirty….

I mean, I don’t even see that it is dirty

out of sight out of mind…

right?

hey, just keeping it real!

However, this year one of my informal goals has been to keep it clean, and I have done a pretty good job. I try to keep it wiped out and once a week it gets a cleaning along with the rest of the kitchen.

One thing I really can’t stand is scrubbing off cooked on food. It is awkward reaching inside and you can never get it all the way off…sigh…..such a dilemma.

So here is how I solved it.

I fill my 2 cup Pyrex measuring cup all the way full of water and I put it in the microwave for 10 minutes. It will boil after about 5 minutes, but leave it in the whole time, as it boils and steams it naturally softens all the hard yucky stuff and it wipes out with no problems. Very easy!


Now…

How to get rid of that yucky microwave smell, you know the one I am talking about, it smells like yesterday’s left overs and that bag or popcorn you had three days ago. Stinky!

I tried adding some white vinegar to my water, and that cleared out a lot of the smell, but then it left a vinegar smell. (BTW white vinegar is great at getting out smells, it will take vomit and urine smell out of carpet) So then I boiled a couple of drops of lemon essential oil with my water and it worked! Really well.


So now every Friday when I clean my microwave I boil two cups water and a few drop of whatever essential oil catches my attention that day and I have a clean, fresh microwave!

Favorite Things

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Olive Oil

I love Extra Virgin Olive Oil

I think it is yummy with chicken

however
I have also learned that it has other important uses.

My Punk #4 has had varying degrees of eczema her whole life. As a baby it was easy to control with liberal amounts of Eucerin cream and limited amounts of soap. As she has gotten older it has become worse. There are two patches that are especially stubborn and the last year has been especially bad. I have tried almost everything with her, Eucerin creams, Vaseline, expensive lotions, cheap lotions, dye free and fragrance free soaps, no milk, lanolin, Chamomile and oatmeal baths, everything. Finally when her patches became so itchy that she would scratch until she bled I went to the Dr, and he gave me some creams to use; they sort of, kind of kept things at bay, but it was still a battle.

This winter was really bad, it seems like she would break out with a new dry patch daily. I would put her prescription creams on in the morning, then lotion her body up with Aveeno cream. At night after her chamomile and oatmeal bath I would put her creams on again, then I would cover her bad patches with gaze (to keep her from scratching them at night) then lotion her up again.

Then I read an article that said steroid creams can make the skin thinner making healing harder.

**sigh**

So I asked my aunt, whom we affectionately call the “witch doctor” for some advice. My aunt Beki is a healer, she knows all sort of “natural” healing methods. Well she told me to try plain old olive oil.

Olive oil?

Olive oil.

Yes,

Olive oil.

I didn’t want my daughter to smell like dinner.

So I said thanks, and didn’t try it.

As winter turned into spring her skin started to get a little better except for her two bad spots and on a whim (and because I had run out of her regular lotion) I dabbed a little olive oil on her bad spots. The oil soaked right in, so I put on a little more, and more and a little more after that. The next morning the spots seemed much, much better. Hmm…maybe smelling like dinner was better than having bloody, oozy scabs all the time. So I kept it up for about a week and slowly, but surely things are looking better.


Then I was talking to a friend and she mentioned that she had been using lavender oil to help with her skin problems. I like the smell of lavender, it doesn’t smell like dinner. So I mixed the two. In a small Tupperware I put in about a half cup of olive oil and about 12 drop of lavender essential oil and slathered it all over my punk (by this time I was using olive oil all over her body and it was keeping her skin hydrated and smooth). She really started to heal by this point and she didn’t smell like dinner anymore, she smelled like flowers, a much better smell. I also noticed a little side effect, my fingers and thumbs tend to get dry and cracked (something to do with wiping sticky fingers and faces and doing a lot of dishes) since I had been using the oil on my baby girl punk my fingers had been soft and smooth!

I love Olive Oil and Lavender Essential oil.

Thanks Auntie Beki for the advice, sorry I didn’t follow it sooner!