4 Sweet Sisters

Before I get on with today's post I wanted to show you the super job School Girl did in creating this puppy dog! Cute Huh! Life Skills: Sewing I think learning many of the lost skills of our past are very frugal. You can save yourself and family a lot of moola and have some one of a kind keepsakes and gifts. Not to mention usable gifts! This summer Farm Girl has a had a friend (lets call her Cutie Pie) and her mom over for sewing lessons. Cutie Pie is a lot like Farm Girl in that she took right to sewing! They've made homemade pillow cases out of sheets. Then the embroidered their names and cute little scenes on them. Our next project, which we completed last night was Ruffle Aprons. You can see that both girls really were serious about their work! No time for fooling around here! Okay, maybe just a bit. When the work was done they had some of our favorite mini ice cream cones and tried on their creation. Cutie P ie was fixing her hair for the camera Here's the proud ...

Another one of our favorite fruits is in season. Plums, Yum! My chickadee's sure can eat a lot of them. Last year we had so many from our co-op (we've actually never seen a plumb tree or is it bush?). We made lots of jam, crisps and cobblers. We aren't much for the cobbler but the crisp was a hit. I pitted, quartered, and froze them in quart size freezer bags. When we needed I pulled them out and defrosted . One bag per 9x9 pan. Delish! We also would just pull them out sprinkle with a bit of sucanat w/honey for dinner. They had a nice fresh, juicy taste. Superman said the reminded him of a stewed prunes, only fresher. I didn't think they tasted like stewed prunes, at least not what I remember. Well to day School Girl and I are got some jam put up. Actually she ended up working on some school projects for me and watching. Basic ingredients: 6 cups chopped plums ( i leave the skin on) 4 cups sucanat w/ honey (or any other kind of sugar you like) 1 package of pectin ...

A week or so ago while I was amidst my morning (torture) laps, I realized I needed a better way than my bean to keep track of my laps. I could be on 10 for 6 laps ( if I get into pray or start playing a game to keep me moving) before I realize I'm not on 10. Another more experienced swimmer had these big nuts on a string. They looked as if they had come from the South Pacific and I wanted some! They were really cool. Anyway, a swimmer who is on the mend made them for her out of a necklace. Perfect! I can do this. Well I didn't have much moola in the budget for beads ( i want big funky turquoise ones). So Monday as my feet hit the floor I see that some of the chickadees haven't cleaned up after crafting (ahem)... I scurried into the room and found enough beads and string to work for now. I would prefer to use fishing line, but the beads have worked out great! I did want to mix colors for easier counting, but I was in a hurry. So here's what I did: A Clear bead (purity) t...

Okay, I didn't want School Girl to be left out. So I tried painting a pink cat. Hmmmm. I think I'll leave it to her! I think I'll stick to canning. Here's the one she did of me. A very tan butterfly! julie

Well our youngest chickadee will be 5 in about a week and party ideas are flying! We've decided on a Craft Party with 4 little girls and 4 helpers in attendance . The craft line up: painting mini piggy banks animal pencils tea hats decorate your own jumbo cupcake face painting (by School Girl her gift to the little Chef) The point is just to get together, have a bit of fun and celebrate. School Girl decided today was a perfect day to practice face painting. Here's her first try on the Little Chef. She started with the outline. School Girl with her creation. A touch of Sparkles and a very Happy Little Girl. Stay tuned for more creations! Here's Farm Girl... 3 Sweet Sisters julie

Okay, you'll never believe what I purchased for this school year! It uses batteries ( C or D i think). Comes with a built in microphone. It takes a big plastic cartridges that have some long stringy thin plastic inside... Give Up? A tape recorder. Yup, we are tired of all this progress stuff around here. With mp3, mp4, and recordable cd's that change size, style and color as the wind blows, we (i) have decided it's time to go back to our Pioneering Roots! Remember making tapes off the radio and singing crazy songs with friends to pretend you could be part of a band? Oh, you never did that... Well, I have one on you and it was preparing me for my new audio career as a talking book. Here's the scoop on my plans (yes there is a method to my chaos). Since I will be schooling children (mine) in High School, Middle School, Grammar School and kindergarten this year. I need a little help with some of the school chores that only I can do. So for now I plan to tape our new Read- ...

Today is WFMW over at We Are That Family . So I'm chimming in with something small. We use one of those scrubbing bubble sprayers in our shower, but the replacement bottles get a bit pricey. Anyway, I tried making my own version (frugal failure) and I didn't want to pay $4 to $6 a bottle for the other stuff. So we put the unit away. I went back to spraying Tilex or other products like that. The box stores have their own versions for around $1.50. Well it just dawned on me ( i mean it's been almost a year), why not put that stuff in my sprayer machine? We did! It works beautifully. No more scrubbing for me yippee! Do you have anything that works for you? Share it over at We Are That Family or just with me if you like. julie

I've had all these plans for great posts, but summer break is finally here (at least for a couple of weeks) and we're trying to actually do some of the things we've been talking about doing. Like staying up late, watching movies, eating slushies, crafting, quilting, cooking, sewing class and acting like girly girls with some paint parties! We hit Chick-f-la 2 times last week (they actually suggested we come back for dinner:0 ). No cooking for a day! We've also given free bowling a whirl. The chickadees have felt like it was their birthdays! So excited about the fun events. I mean where can you live, dress like a cute cow and get food for doing it? The bowling alley employees even took pictures... Just to cute. So here's what I've been up to besides planning the new school year, carting Urban Girl to work , the others to the pool and myself to exercise. Drum Roll Please......bump, bump, bump,bummmmmm......! Ta Da! My 1st Quilt. I'm calling it the Courting Qui...

It's another Works For Me Wednesday over at We Are That Family and I'm joining in. Let's start of with 911. I'm truly blessed we have this service in our community! Here's the scoop. Around 10:30 this morning we arrived home from swim team. The family has all been under the weather so Superman was with us. Just down the street from our home he says (rather loudly and very controlled), "What is going on at our house?" Huh? I'm looking all around trying to figure out what he is talking about. Then as we get closer I see 4 police cars then a couple of undercover vehicles.... We pull up just in front of our home and an Officer says,"Sir stay in your vehicle and back it down the street". Superman responds by letting him know one of our Chickadees was in the home. He said that he knew. 6 Officers, GUNS DRAWN start up our front steps to the entry. While other Officers were behind the house ready and waiting. I cannot describe what was goin...

I had so many titles for today's post: Pantry to Party Potato Salad Brownie S'mores Fourth First Aid Lets get started! Here's my pantry potato salad. Take all the potatoes from your pantry (like red, white, Yukon gold, garden potatoes, and white sweet potatoes ((oops! we'll see if they notice)) clean them, boil them and peel them. Pop in large bowl. Take silkie hard boiled eggs, half an onion and chop, chop chop. Add a lot of BOGO mayonnaise and a couple of tablespoons BOGO yellow mustard a dash of ground pepper and sea salt and this what you get..... About 10 lbs of Summer Party Potato Salad Next up Brownie S'mores! I really enjoy having S'mores during the fireworks, but it's just to much work and crazy just before they start. So I started making oven S'mores about a half hour before, but that still took me away from the par...

Hey it's been awhile. I'm still working on the school/office/everything, but it's near completion. (we were parked farther out than this!) Anyhoo. IKEA! We went, We saw, We conquered (all of $15 and change). We were there a total of 5 and 1/2 hours. Scary. I actually didn't think it was possible. Had my feet not been aching so badly and my littlest chickadees not been restless ( you would have thought they had more stamina than that:0) We may have camped out! Although, I don't think they sell tents. One of the few things they don't carry. ( school girl testing kitchens of her future) I really enjoyed looking at all the stuff, but I have to say it reminded me a bit of Madame Blueberry. That sweet blueberry who needs to have EVERYTHING from Stuff Mart and everything her neighbor has too. Can you tell that I can identify with her? (I'm a reformed blueberry from the mid 90's.) (Grammy taking measurements for her kitchen... watch out Poppy) (the Little Che...