A Place to Rest My Feet

Jennifer and I took a class this morning and learned how to weave footstools. We started with a basic frame, and wove with Shaker tape. I'm so short that I have to sit in the recliner or put my feet up on the sofa or chair because they won't touch the floor. This is just what I needed.

The Delectable Dilemma

Abigail kept quite busy with scraps of wood from our latest project, and a little freshly mixed mud. She designed a logo, and came up with a name. The Delectable Dilemma: Where the food is so good, you have a dilemma deciding what to choose.

Whole wheat bread with a sprinkling of oats on top,

freshly "baked" donuts,

or chocolate truffles with finely ground hazelnuts. What would you choose?

It is a dilemma, isn't it?

The Toy Society

Have you heard of it? I don't remember how, but several months back I stumbled across the Toy Society site and was intrigued. I forgot about it until today when I asked Autumn if I had ever shown it to her. We got the idea to sew a few simple toys today. I plan to find a fun place to drop mine off tomorrow. This is fun!

Candy Cane Hearts

This is such an easy way to use up any leftover candy canes that you have hanging around from Christmas. Or, if you have no leftovers, you may be able to find some on clearance. I paid $.19 for 24!

Hot glue two candy canes together to form a heart and hang with red ribbon. It's amazing how striking they are!

Easy Heart Garland

After seeing this heart garland, I had the yearning to make my own. It couldn't be easier, and it's very pretty!

Cut heart shapes out of felt in your choice of colors, and feed them through the sewing machine. (Thanks for sewing them Autumn!) The cutting out takes much longer than the sewing.

Our garland has been hanging for a week now, and I'm nowhere near tired of it. It's so cheery on a rainy February day, and even more adorable when there is snow on the ground.

Cupcake Confectionary

Tired of pink confections yet? Me either!

Inspired by a wall hanging in Sew Pretty Christmas Homestyle, I came up with my own version, making a cupcake pyramid instead of their suggested three in a row. These hand-appliqued fairy cakes can satisfy any sweet tooth!

Rather than plain white fabric for the icing tops, I used fusible fleece for a more three- dimensional look. I didn't bother with the holly leaves and berries, but used seed beads for sprinkles!

A few buttons in the upper right hand corner add a little more whimsy.

A certain someone is happy to have this gracing the walls of her soft pink bedroom.

Abigail Makes a Blanket

This girl of mine, ever thoughtful, took up her crochet hook and yarn and set to work on a blanket for a little friend turning one. She finished the afternoon of the party, with just the right amount of time to present the freshly laundered gift. The baby of our family no longer seems like a baby.

Pitcher Cover

Beautiful glass beads hung from the corners of a vintage hankie means no more swatting bugs from the lemonade or iced tea pitcher during your picnic or dinners on the patio.

They are quick, beautiful, and practical. Think of the possibilities!

Reading Fun: The Mitten

*This is a re-print of a post that I wrote for Me and My Girl last year.



I believe that reading to your children is crucial at all ages and stages of their lives. Years ago, I would hold my tiny babies on my lap, and read softly to them each day. As they grew, we would sometimes read the same book 10 times a day, or more! I still read to my children. Abigail is 10, and cuddles up with me while I read long chapters to her. Autumn is 16, and still sits near by so that she can enjoy the stories, too.

This is the perfect time of year for this cold-weather story but, The Mitten, by Jan Brett, is a book that can be enjoyed year round. It can be enjoyed even more when you complete this fun and easy craft, and allow your child to tell the story back to you!

You'll need:

• Jan Brett's book, The Mitten
• 2 pieces of construction paper or felt
• a hole punch if you're using construction paper
• yarn or embroidery thread
• colored pencils or crayons
• a thick needle, such as for embroidery
• a printer
• this file and this file

Read the story.

Print out the files containing animals. Have your child or grandchild color the animals how ever they would like. If they are very young, you can cut them out after they are colored. If they are older, let them do it. Perfection is not what we are after.

In the meantime, freehand a mitten shape onto the construction paper or felt.


Cut around your drawing, leaving you with a large mitten.


If you are working with a very young child, you can punch holes into the construction paper mittens.


and show them how to whip stitch them together.



An older child might enjoy learning how to blanket stitch on the felt.


Abigail sat at the table for about an hour working on her mitten. She's got a pretty good attention span. Make sure the child has fun! It's okay to help them if they need it, but don't fret if the project isn't perfect.



Tell the story again. Refer back to the book if you have to.

In The Mitten, Nicki's grandmother, Baba, knits him snow white mittens. As he goes out to play on a snowy day, one of his mittens falls off. Animals come, one by one, to squeeze into the mitten for warmth.


First comes a mole.
In hops a rabbit.
Along comes a hedgehog,


followed by an owl,

and a badger!
They all make room for the fox.


And believe it or not, they find room for a bear!


The last little creature to squeeze in is a mouse.

She tickles the bear's nose, and all of the animals come flying back out of the mitten because of the great sneeze.


Once all of the animals are safely inside the mitten, make a loud, drawn out sneezing sound, and shake the mitten to release the animals. Young children will enjoy doing this over and over again!


Have them retell the story to you. And to their daddy when he gets home from work. And to Grandma and Grandpa, and anyone else that will listen!


I didn't find this idea there, but you can visit Jan Brett's website for other fun activities that revolve around reading.

How to Make a Gingerbread House

After reading that many of you have had bad experiences making gingerbread houses from kits this year, I decided to share my recipe and a few templates. I've used this same recipe for quite a few years, and it's never failed. It tastes yummy, too!


Templates: Click on the link, and print.
Gingerbread House Style 1
Gingerbread House Style 2 Part I
Gingerbread House Style 2 Part II



Step 1- Baking!

Gingerbread Dough:

1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 cup brown sugar
4 tsp. ground ginger
4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp. ground cloves
3/4 tsp. ground black pepper pepper
1 1/2 tsp. salt
2 large eggs
3/4 c. molasses
6 cups all purpose flour

In a mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar until creamy. Add salt, spices, eggs, and molasses. Mix well. Add flour, 2 cups at a time, until well blended.

Divide dough into thirds, and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Refrigerate at least one hour.

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Roll dough out on heavily floured surface to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut pieces out from templates. If you want to cut out doors or windows, do that now.

For gingerbread house pieces, bake 13-15 minutes. For cookies, bake 8-10 minutes.




Step 2 - Building!

1. Mix royal icing.
2. Set out a plate or board on which you are going to build your house.
3. Use icing to attach sides to the front and back of the house. Support the sides with cans as you go so it doesn't fall over. Attach roof with icing as well. Let dry several hours before decorating.




Step 3- Decorate!

Be creative! Using royal icing, attach various candies, cereals, pretzel sticks, and marshmallows to your house. The sky is the limit! Use your imagination!

Royal Icing: 4 cups powdered sugar 3 T Meringue powder 6 T warm water

Beat all ingredients until icing forms peaks (7-10 minutes at low speed with a heavy-duty mixer, 10-12 minutes at high speed with a hand-held mixer).

NOTE: Keep all utensils completely grease-free for proper icing consistency. This icing must be covered with a damp paper towel or dishcloth to keep it from drying out while you are working on it.

* For stiffer icing, use 1 tablespoon less water.

** Meringue Powder is made by Wilton and can be found at cake and candy stores as well as the craft section of Wal*Mart.

I'd love to see pictures of your finished homes, too!

I LOVE Days Like This!

Thanks to each and everyone of you who gave suggestions for new games. As of this morning I ordered five, YES! 5!!!, new games for under the tree. You'll have to wait until after Christmas to see what I chose since inquiring minds want to know, and read here with hopes of learning secrets!


Thursday evening brought freezing rain our way, but soon gave way to snow, which is semi- rare in these parts. The roads were slick and school was canceled. Mac had been scheduled to take an out of town trip for a state-wide Beta convention, but that was canceled as well. Ahhhh... all four of my children were home on a weekday!


Homeschooling never gets canceled, but the beauty of it is the flexibility to take our time getting started in the morning if we want to. This means that the children bundled up and ventured into the snowy outside. They weren't disappointed. First was some intentional slipping around on the ice covered driveway, followed by a snowball fight. Then there was a half-mile walk that took far longer than it should have due to the treacherous walking conditions. Then there was the unintentional slipping on the driveway that left someone with a big goose egg on the back of their head.



Meanwhile, back in the house, I was busy in the kitchen. We had scheduled gingerbread house decorating for Friday evening. I contemplated buying a kit several times, but we were decorating three homes. At $10 apiece, it was more than I wanted to spend. So, I dug out my recipe Thursday, and mixed up 3 large batches of gingerbread dough. Into the refrigerator it went. I pulled the dough out at 6:30 AM, and began rolling, and cutting. I cut enough pieces for 5 houses. And then I made about 3 dozen gingerbread boys and girls. There's no way I spent anywhere close to $30 on all of that dough. And, I have two houses to give away to good friends. Assembled, and ready to be decorated, but left candy free for their decorating pleasure.



I finished the baking around 10 AM, and decided to decorate the boys and girls. What a fun activity that proved to be. I started making all the boys to look the same, but quickly tired of that. Each little cookie needed to let his own personality shine! Some boys looked very dapper, and some were just slobs. Oh the shame of it!


Mac begged me to let him decorate just one boy. "Please, Mom?"

And so I handed over the bag for the last cookie. He tried to make his little fellow wink, but the icing spread. To cover the mistake, he gave him sunglasses. And what goes better with sunglasses than a Peace shirt? Clearly, this boy is NOT from Ginger Valley!


Autumn made the remark that "Mom's cookies are better than yours."

"Yea, well, Mom cooks better than you do but you don't hear me complaining when you make supper. "

Yes---the sibling love was all around!

THEN, Mac was feeling left out because he's eating low-carb and the sweet, spicy smell of gingerbread was permeating the entire house. He looked at a recipe, and decided to make it using soy flour and Splenda. Hmmm... that didn't turn out too well. The dough was sticky even after several additions of more soy flour, and he got frustrated, throwing the dough on a cookie sheet and placing it in the oven. "They'll still taste good...."



Ummm.... I promise, this is not cat puke, and Mac informed me that they didn't actually taste good. "They're kinda like a sponge. They taste sorta like you spilled some ginger, wiped it up with a wet sponge, and ate the sponge."

Collin remarked that he loves it when I bake when Mac's home because Mac always makes me laugh really hard, and then every one's in a good mood.


We had a grand time pairing up the gingerbread boys and girls, and creating a storyline with them. We have Jon and Autumn:


And several more happy couples who are attending a Christmas dance in their small town: Ginger Valley.



Mac then declared that it's a good thing he's not made of gingerbread because he bites his fingernails, and would get into trouble real quick when he tasted so good. Collin added that no dogs could live in the valley because if they licked their owner's face trouble would ensue. Yes, my kids are creative all right!

I glued the houses together with royal icing, and let them sit until after supper.

Meanwhile Mac went to work, and Jon arrived. He'd been looking forward to this all week. I started covering an ice cream cone with royal icing for trees. Autumn was making one too. Our hands got tired, and the guys asked, "How do you do it? We'll help!" So after a brief instruction period they set to work, and boy were they good at it! Who knew that Verne and Jon could make such nice icing leaves!

We decorated in teams: Verne and I, Autumn and Jon, and Collin and Abigail. More sibling love.


Those two argued over nearly every detail, and I threatened to send them to bed .


It's such a joy to watch someone who has never experienced activities like this. Autumn's house was put together with precision.

In the end, we had a wonderful day. Crazy, busy, and wonderful!