Pumpkins

These little pumpkins are some of my favorite fall pieces to make. Made with homespuns and natural wood stems the little pumpkins are perfect in the vintage Jell-o molds. Both with and without the wood tags, they are wonderful in a fall display.

A few fall beauties

I Love Fall and started working on some fall designs a week or so ago. I thought I would show off a few of my newest pieces.

Have finished several fall mason jars, some beautiful arrangements and some candle holders.

Working on finishing up some wonderful and fun fall sign this week. Will post some of them here as well.

Been too long

It has been an incredibly long time since my lost post and many things have changed. We have moved twice since then and will be facing another move in less than a year and then things will settle down.

I have expanded and grown my folk art business and now ship all across the country and over seas some as well. I feel I have refined my primitive decorating style to just where I want it, but I am ever rotating and rearranging the things in our home.  This is the first of many posts to come some will be about our home and prim decor and some will be about new pieces from the workshop. I am excited to get back into my blog again.

Christine

An antique beauty

I found this beautiful desk on craigslist a while back and was sold on it as soon as I saw it's shape. I of corse forgot to take a before picture to show the state that the finish was in but here is an after picture showing here all dressed up.

Long time no see

It has been way tooo long since my last post. It has been a very busy summer and now fall is on it's way!

Fall is my absolute favorite time of year, the cool nights, falling leaves, pumpkins and of course apple cider and hot chocolate in the evenings. Hope that everyone has had a wonderful summer, and getting into the swing of back to school.

So welcome Fall

Christine

Natural Garbage Disposal Cleaning

       I don't like using a lot of harsh cleaners so when it came to figuring out a way to clean my garbage disposal naturallyI did some out of the box thinking. Most mornings we eat citrus fruit with our breakfast, and I have found that the best way to clean and naturally deodorize my garbage disposal. I put the mornings grapefruit and orange peels down the disposal and in no time my whole kitchen smells like a citrus grove!  The thickness of the peels helps to clean off any debris left in the disposal either from the dishwasher or things that have been rinsed down the drain. I have never had a problem, but I do suggest cutting the peels into quarters so that they will easily fit down the disposal drain. fresh peels work best as the disposal has an easier time chopping them up, but ones that have set on the counter a while work well too.

Christine

What a week

 It has definitely been a long week, and it is still only Thursday. I am very much a home body, cleaning crafting cooking or baking take up most of my days and I like it that way. But this week I feel as though I have not accomplished anything. I managed to bake a batch of bread for the week and some ginger cakes for lunches and other than that it has been run, run, run. The running wears me out more than a full days work.
Hubby has been on a new schedule this week also which has things abit discombobulated as well, Next week does not look like it will be any better. 3 doctors appointments and a trip to the orthodontists. It will be very much a case of deja vu. Oh well I guess it is good to be busy, but it does not help me get any of my housework done.

I did manage to finish a project over the weekend though. I of course forgot to take a before picture, but she was a very bright shade of blue. I think she looks much better now.

Not sure that I am happy with her accessories, but I still have some tweeking to do. Once she is all done and decked out I will post another picture. I will say that I think the hanging basket is my favorite and it definitely staying, some of the other things my find new homes, I will have to play around and see. Well I am off to see if I can get some much need housework done.

Christine

One of those days...

  We have all had one of those days that we wish we could start over, yes. Well mine began at midnight last night with a very sick doggie. Something eat ate for dinner 7 hours prior decided not agree with his tummy at midnight, on a night when we had to be up extra early. (Sidenote, he is quite fine this afternoon just a little sleepy like his momma.) So after several trips outside and attempts to clean up messes in the dark out came the carpet shampooer this morning. Just getting that thing up the stairs was a daunting enough task, then I had to run it.  Once the carpet was clean, I had to run out and pick up 3 things all at the same place sounded easy enough when I left the house this morning, but alas I got home to have found that in my lack of sleep state I forgot 1 of the 3 things that I needed. I blame it on the glorious smell of coffee and the wonderful delicious burst of energy the cup I bought gave me. I know I am not supposed to be drinking coffee, but this was an exception to the rule. No sleep and things that needed to get done required that I have that cup of coffee.

So now that the carpet is clean and drying the bread and ginger cakes have been baked and are cooling, I will pick up my daughter and take a much needed nap before dinner. Praying that tonight goes much better than last night!

Christine

My Dining Room ever a work in Progress

    I am never quite happy with my dining room. I love all of my main furniture pies, I guess I get a little stuck on some of the accessories. Here are a few pictures of my dining room as it is today, I maybe making some minor changes of the next few weeks, just some tweaking here and there. Here is a shot of the whole dining room.

  My dining room furniture are some of my favorite furniture pieces, they all came from a wonderful little antique mall that my husband and I used to frequent when we lived in Georgia. We did not buy them all at the same time, but they fit together wonderful. The next pieces is I think my absolute favorite and the first piece that we bought.

    When I saw the stepback cupboard above it was the first time we had ever been to the little antique mall that we bought it from. It was recommended to me by one of the ladies that I worked with at the time and my husband and I fell in love with that little store. When ever we had a free day we would go do to the little shop and browse, usually coming home with a find somtimes big and sometimes just little finds. Back to the stepback, it was in one of the last booths that we looking in that day and I knew that it was coming home with us. My husband agreed that it would be perfect, we just had to figure out home to get it home. It currently holds some of my thrifty finds. A few pieces of red and blue transferware with some white dishes thrown in for contrast as well as my collection of ironstone pitchers on the top.

   The next piece was one of the last pieces that we bought before we moved. It was in the front window, and had been marked down by the seller. One of the ladies that worked in the little shop said that it had been there for a while, I was surprised as I had never seen it before, but they had just moved it to the window that morning. I guess it was just seeing it in the daylight that made it stand out to me. It is a pewter cupboard but I knew that it would be perfect to display my grandmothers family dishes on.

The last picture is a little corner of my dinning room that looked so empty so I took some of my thrifty finds and spruced it up. I am sure that it will change in the near future as I am looking for an old drysink or grain bin to put under the window, but for now this is how it looks.

Well that is my little dining room ever a work in progress. I will try and snap a few shots of the kitchen for a another post later in the week. Till then have a wonderful and blessed day.

Christine

Decaf coffee is for the birds

        I am a recently new lover of coffee. I have only been drinking it for the last couple of years, and I can say that I look forward to my morning cup of coffee, but a few weeks ago my doctor recommended either going coffee free or switching to decaf coffee as it was making my irregular heartbeat that much more irregular.
       So I thought that I would go with decaf coffee, because I just did not think that I could completely give up the taste of my morning coffee. I know that I am not getting the caffeine benefits of regular coffee, but I had hoped that I would still get the same wonderful coffee taste. Well I have not yet got it figured out, because I end up with either very week tasting coffee or very bitter taste. I even use flavored creamer in my coffee and I can still not get the taste right.  I will keep trying to get the taste right, but if I can not work it out soon I may be forced to give up coffee all together. Well I am off to see how this morning cup of coffee will turn out, maybe I will get it just right this morning.

 Christine

All Moved In

We have all of our stuff moved in, and have turned in our keys to the old house. Now for the fun part, finding places for all of my pretty things. I will hopefully post some pictures soon. Now to go do some work.

Christine

Moving Day is fast approaching!

Living in military housing can be an adventure, sometimes good sometimes bad. When we moved here and took the house we are currently in, we knew that we would be moved to a new house at some point. Well we got our force move letter Today, much earlier than we expected. I am very excited at the thought of moving and being able to decorate a new space with my things. Things we be very busy around here for the next few weeks. We will see how this all goes, fingers crossed.

Christine

It was a very long week

    So, last week was quite the week here at the homestead. We experience the earthquake on Tuesday. It was not to bad here where we are, but a little unexpected.  Then we made preparations for hurricane Irene, we were unsure whether or not to leave. But as the time came closer my husband had to fly to California and the kids and I decided to head west to visit some family and ride out the storm. While we were on our way our 2 month old car blew the heating core and then the car seized. I managed to get the car off of the road before it completely shut down. It was only by the awesome grace of God that it all fell in to place as it did. The firefighters that responded were wonderful and prayed with us before they left. The young officer that waited with us while we waited for the tow truck was also very kind. Our car had to ride out the storm at a dealer about an hour and half from our house, and was then tow to our local dealer that we bought it from to be repaired.

      I found out that the repairs are going to take a while, but everything will be covered under our warranty. And the dealer is going to make my little car like brand new again.  It is a little disheartening to be with out my car for so long, but I know that they will do a thorough job and will get it to us as so as they have it ready.

     On a bit of a lighter note we also found out last week that our housing office will be moving us to a new house sometime in October. The thought a getting to decorate a new house is exciting to me, the packing and actually moving does not excite me in the least bit.  Well I am off to sort through closets and see what needs to be purged.

Christine

A few Changes..

Playing around with my blog background, trying to find one that suits me.

And speaking of changes, my old desktop finally gave up the ghost and died completely, so went out and bought a new mac. I was a little hesitant, but I was also tired of the constant headaches with all the PCs I'd had. I am a total convert I love my mac!

While my computer was dying and in need of replacing, my husband decided to by me a new camera as well. I will be playing around with it this week and post up some pictures. So with all of our electronics changes I decided to try and find a new look for the blog, that suits my style a little better. Bare with me through the changes.


Christine

Aghhhh Computers

Well, I have not been able to post in awhile as our desktop decided to have a moment and it was not a good moment. It decided that shutting down randomly was a fun new trick, it also decided to forget where it put the operating system. So, it is having a much needed holiday and will hopefully return it's old self again. Until then I will be using my very tiny netbook.

Hope everyone is having a good start to summer fun, my kiddos have about 3 weeks of school left, So I need to get in gear and get some of my projects finished. I have several to do and feel like I don't have much time  to get them all done. Hopefully I will be able to show you some of them this week,  if all goes well. have a wonderful weekend.

Christine

Spring Break

        Well spring break is upon us. I was afraid that it was going to be a wet and sloppy break for the kids, but today was wonderful. The kids have spent most of the day outside, soaking in all the glorious sunshine. I watched from the kitchen as I had some much neglected baking to get done. I do hope that the sunshine and warm weather continues to  hold on through out the week as we have a couple of day trips that we would really like to take this week. I will be keeping my fingers crossed. Hope that spring has sprung  for all of you as well.

Christine

    

Homemade frozen cookie dough

          I love baking, and I love having fresh cookies for the kiddos when they get home from school.  But, there are days when I am too busy to start a batch from scratch, so I will take one day about every 2 weeks and mix up several batches cookies. You can freeze most any kind of cookie dough, but I find that sugar type , chocolate chip, and peanut butter cookies seem hold up the best with out a lot of change to the texture of the dough. Just mix your dough of choice as you normally would, and put in an air tight container. I like to double bag my dough with heavy duty freezer bags, but any type of air tight container would work. I write the type of cookie and the baking temperature and time on the outside of the bag so that I don't have to find the recipe card when I am ready to bake. The dough will last in the freezer for up to 2 months. So, when you are ready to use the dough just pull out of the freezer and bake as usual.  No Thawing needed.

There is a snowball in my freezer

  It has been very cold here the last several days and yesterday evening there was a snow squall. My 10 year old got so excited he ran outside and scooped up a handful of snow for a snow ball and put it in the freezer. That little snowball is a wonderful little reminder of the joys of childhood. I don't know how long the snowball will last in the freezer, but I will try my best to keep it there all winter.

Christine

All Moved In

      Well all the boxes have been unpacked, and most things have found there places just in time for Christmas. It has been a very busy around here the last few weeks. Our things arrived the day before Thanksgiving, some of my husbands family was in so they went out and saw some of the sights while we sorted and unpacked boxes. We have this moving thing down to a science now. We can unpack all the boxes in about a day and get the large things set rather quickly. Then the fun part of slowly finding our new houses identity, how it would like to be gussied up.

     Most of my decorative items have certain rooms I always think of them in, but this house is different than our last few. It is our first 2 story house in several years, so I wanted to do something a little different with the small things. I found that things I had always had in the dining room now fit in the foyer or one of the bedrooms. To me it was finding new life in my old favorites. Having my Mother in law and Sister in law here to help was also very fun, as we all have similar tastes.  After our family headed home we got out our Christmas tree and began to make the house festive. I am keeping it very simple this year, Bringing a little bit of nature in and not buying new decorations. So far I am loving it. I will post some pictures in a day or two as things finish coming together.

Christine

On The Road Again

      Well the movers have taken all our things and headed in the direction of Virginia. Now that the whirl off that part of the move is over I am tired, and ready for the drive to be over. This is an exciting move for us. We will be meeting some family along the way and they are going to travel the rest of the way to the new house with us.

   It will be wonderful first week in our new house. Not only will it be Thanksgiving week, but we will be surrounded by family. It may not be a grand Thanksgiving, but it will be a memorably sweet one. Hope that all has a wonderful Thanksgiving.