Lets Make a Piggy Potholder!

First off, let me apologize for the quality of these pictures.  My camera is in the glovebox of the car (for reasons I'll reveal very soon) and I took these with The Youngun's ipod, so they aren't the greatest in the world! 

K....now that's out the way!  Moving on........

See this dirty little piggy??

My momma made this little piggy potholder years ago and it's my most favorite one.  This one and one that has a fried egg appliqued on it, but I digress.......Anyway, this little piggy looks so dirty cuz I've caught it on fire more than once on my grill, and I use it all the time cuz did I mention it's my most favoritest hotpad??

Anywho, today after work I decided to construct a new piggy hotpad and this is how it went. 

First.....raid your stash bag and find a piece of fabric that you can double and have the same size as your little piggy......as well as a piece of quilt batting......then trace the outline of said piggy and all his accoutrements.....

Then using a plain zigzag stitch or a pretty, fancy stitch from your friend Steve, you sew all around the outline of the piggy.....

Then cut carefully around the outside edge of the zigzag stitch that you outlined the piggy in.....

Then you want to sew around that same outline stitch again, to make sure it's nice and strong.  

Next you stitch all the little accoutrement lines that make a pig a pig, like the eye and the ears and such.

Then you sew on a pretty little button for an eye....and wall-la...you have a nice little piggy potholder!!

The dark one I made first.........and The Youngun claimed it for her hope chest.  So I raided the stash again and found this fabric, which I used to make another for me!

Now I've got two piggy potholders to match the two little piggys in my backyard!!!

The white gilt is Rebecca of Lardy-brook Farm, and the Hamp gilt is Queen Genevieve of Baconia...

They are gonna fill my freezer up later this year, the yummy little girls!

K.........go sew somethin'....

till next time..........God Bless........

Pinto Beans, Sandwich Baggies, and Soap...........

Yesterday I did some more cannin'.  Pinto beans with chipotle chili seasoning this time.........

While they were in the canner I decided to try my hand at making these cotton sandwich bags.  To my great surprise The Man said he would use them if they would keep his sandwich fresh.  I've had a slice of bread in it all day and it isn't looking good, but I do have a plan that I'll blog about soon.  I've also got some chips in one to see if they get stale.  This is what mine look like and they were ridiculously easy to whip up, taking like less than 2 minutes!

I love this fabric!  I bought quite a bit of it to make cloth napkins out of.  It's a lovely homespun....

And here you can see the little chipies in there.  I really love these bags and hope my idea will solve the freshness problem.  I've been packing The Man's lunch every day for 15 years and I'd love to stop using sandwich baggies!

Then I made a batch of basic soap.  Since The Youngun and I are both using my homemade shampoo, I needed to get more soap made.  I'll use this basic bar to mill with goat's milk and to grate and melt for shampoo and liquid soap. 

It' so funny because as I was looking up the links for this post, the last time I made soap I canned beans as well!

Have a wonderful weekend and I'll leave you with this picture.

This beautiful Barred Owl and his companions serenade us every evening and early morning with their mating calls.  It's beautiful!  Click to see it bigger......

and don't forget to check out....

 Farm Friend Friday over at Verde Farm!

God Bless.....................

Makin' a Door Wreath, Goodwife Style............

My dad is constantly telling me I live in Fairy Land, and that I have no grasp of the real world and don't know what is going on around me.  I'm really not sure why he tells me this, unless it's because I'm happy and what sane person could possibly be happy with the world crumblin' round her ears??  Well I'll tell you where my happiness comes from.  It's from the Peace that Passes Understanding, that's where.  I know things are falling to pieces, but the thing I hold onto is this.......God knows what's going on, He knows exactly where I am at every moment and He knows what is coming next.  That doesn't mean the times ahead will be easy, but I know God will give my family the strength to go on, and when we can't go on anymore, He will take us Home.  I KNOW that, there has never, ever been a doubt. 

Because all three of us are total smarty pants with a wicked wit, we decided to make a welcome to Fairy Land wreath for the front door.  We also thought about changing our answering machine message, but I decided that would just be too snarky.....

In that spirit, when The Youngun and I were in town Monday for her orthodontist appointment we stopped in at Michaels (craft store) and picked up some supplies.

I have no plan, just start snippin' and stuffin'

Here we go.........yes that's an Arby's cup in the background, don't judge me.....I'm all about the french dip with lots of horsey sauce when we have to go to town......

A piece of leftover cedar becomes the palette for our Fairy dreams.....

Then I rubbed the transfers onto the wood.........the letters wouldn't stick for some reason.  I think they must have been old or something, but the fairy's stuck real good!

And we are all done!  In the midst of makin' this I had to take a break to help The Man bleed the brakes on The Dodge.  I told him I had fairy dust to spread and didn't have time for such things, but he didn't listen!

Looks pretty no?

God Bless.......................

My Writing Box............

Now that I have a pen pal (hi Kelle!) I've been learning to write with a fountain pen.  I love using this pen and sitting there by the fireplace with my fountain pen and my pretty paper, writing a letter to a friend makes me feel wonderful. 

Around Christmas time I was looking for an old fashioned writing box to keep my paper, fountain pen, ink, envelopes and such in.  We went antiquing but couldn't find one and I was even reduced to searching on ebay.  I found a new one on Amazon, but after contacting the distrbutor was saddened to find that it was made........guess where.........CHINA.  No thanks!

Christmas came and went and I hadn't let go of my desire for a writing box, but I had switched gears a little bit.  I was going to do an impassioned plea to my blog readers, to see if any of you had any woodworking talent and would consent to make me one for a fee.  I couldn't let go of the idea of making one, and after a while I decided perhaps I could make one myself. 

I stopped by Lowe's on my monthly Aldi trip and bought my materials.......

Friday, The Man suprised me by taking the day off work and said he'd help me build my writing box, so we went to the shop and got started!

First we laid it all out the way I wanted it.  The big area is for my paper, the smaller area to the right if for my pen, above that is for the ink and stamps, and above the paper area is for my envelopes......

The first thing we did was screw that middle divider thingy together.  I had delusions of dowell pins, glue, and finish nails, but without the proper tools that was a pipe dream......so The Man screwed it together........

Then we screwed the outer frame together, here I am sanding it.  We glued and finish nailed this part together....

Then we laid the outer box on the bottom, clamped it together and flipped it over.....

Since we had to screw it together, The Man used a large drill bit to make a countersink hole to countersink the screws in......

Neat huh?  I don't have any pics of the rest of the steps, but basically, after we screwed the bottom on, we flipped it back over and put the center divider back in.  Then we finish nailed it on the sides, put the top on and put four itty bitty hinges across the back and it was done!

Isn't it beautiful??

Then I had bought these little fingies.....

I took a black paint pen and went over all the grooves, then painted stain on and wiped it off with a rag.....

Then I stained my box and glued these on top....

See how nice it is!  I LOVE it!

Hope your weekend has been blessed so far!

God Bless................

More Projects...........

Tuesday was devoted to my latest project; making a tote and a purse from a recycled sweater.  I found this sweater at Salvation Army for 3 bucks.  It is 100% wool so perfect for felting.  This picture was taken after I felted it down in the washer.  My washer water doesn't get hot enough so I had to boil a giant pot of water on the stove and add it to the washer!  It started out as a size XL and probably would fit a 4 or 5 year old now. 

First I cut it in half right under the arm pits....

And then Steve and I sewed the bottom closed.  Then I sewed in between each button to make sure it stays closed.  I like the buttons on it, but had to be sure if they came undone the tote wouldn't spill it's guts!  Then I laid it aside because I've got to get a zipper for it and figure out handles, so I moved on to this......

This is made from the sleeves of the sweater.  I wish I'd gotten a picture of how I did it, but I'll try to explain.  I took each sleeve and cut it up the bottom seam.  Then I opened it out and cut it off about half way, discarding the top part.  Then I put the two sleeve parts right sides together and sewed around them.  Then I turned it right side out and this is what I've got.  I then cut strips off of the upper parts of the sleeves, folded them in half and sewed them, then sewed them to the bag, getting this.....

Isn't it adorable??  So very cute, and so very easy! 

After getting those two projects from my $3 sweater, I had this left over....

Which The Youngun and I thought would look simply divoon on Mr. Stuffy.  Mr. Stuffy is her best friend in the whole wide world...and I must say he does look quite dashing in his new sweater vest.....

So from one sweater I made all this...........

And had such fun at the same time!  I'm thinking leather for the handles on the big tote?  Whatcha think?  My mom's got tons of scrap leather laying 'round.  Rolled leather handles and a zipper and it will be faboo!

I also made this bread today and it is soooo very good!  I halved the recipe to only make 2 loaves so my bread machine could do the dough work for me ;).

God Bless..................

The Gift Baskets are Done..... and Remember Those Taters?

Today I got the last dish rag knitted up and the gift baskets all put together. 

Each basket has a soup in a jar, chocolate chip banana bread in a jar, a mini candle, a dish towel, and of course both jar gifts are topped with a knitted dish rag.  They also have a can of tomatoes because the soup in a jar calls for tomatoes.

We are having a brunch for Christmas with The In-Laws, so I baked a Blueberry Crunch Coffee Cake and still have to make up a cheeseball.  I'll post the recipe for the cake next week.  It's really good!

Remember this post?  In that post I talked about canning taters.  It was the first time I'd canned them and I wasn't too sure how they would turn out.  I was concerned that they might get starchy tasting or turn dark.  I used a jar of them last night.  The Man loves fried 'taters and onions with polish sausage.  I needed to get supper in a hurry so I decided to use a jar of those canned 'taters.  I put a dab of lard in my biggest cast iron skillet, sliced up the sausage and tossed it in, dumped those taters in and then added some sliced onion.  A little seasoned salt and we were good to go.  They were delish and oh so easy. 

 

Our 'tater crop wasn't very good this past year and we used up all our spuds without needing to can any.  I'm hopeful for a better crop this year so I can can some more 'taters!

Things are good 'round here.  I'm planning my chicken order and the seed catalogs are coming.  Tomorrow is January 1st, that means spring is right around the corner!  ;0)  A girl can dream right? 

God Bless......................

Fellow Blogger Contest...........and My Current Projects......

My fellow blogger Jennifer over at Our Little Farm is havin' a contest.  She's got the cutest little pot belly pig named Porkchop and she's havin' a Guess Porkchop's Weight contest. 

You all should go check it out!  The only rules are that you must be a follower of her blog (which you should be anyway, cuz she's super cool) and you can only enter once. 

Now on to my current project news......

Right  now I'm working on a skinny scarf.........

The picture above shows the texture really well, and the picture below is a better representation of the actual color.

The pattern for this scarf is textured stripes and I like it a lot.  I'll be adding some nice fringe to it when it's done, but I had to stop working on it to work on these.........

Jar gifts for Christmas with The Man's family which is this coming weekend. 

I've still got to get two dish rags knitted up for it, and this is the one I'm working on now.  It's the little shells pattern, the first time I'm using it for a dishrag. 

I've got 8 jar gifts to make, 2 for each family.  One is a soup in a jar, and the other will be a quick bread in a jar.  The soups will have the dishrag toppers and I'm thinking I'll just do a fabric topper for the bread jars, unless I have time to knit rags for them as well.  I'm going to have to run to Salvation Army to find 4 baskets to put the jars in.  S/A is a GREAT place to buy baskets.  They are only a buck a piece and you can find some really cute ones.

Anywho, go on over there and follow Jennifer's blog and enter the contest!  WAIT!!  Don't....... cuz I really want to win!  ;0)

God Bless..............