4 Sweet Sisters

Does anyone remember my lovely craft room that Superman created for my birthday a couple of years ago? Click here , if you need a reminder. Well today my lovely room that has been continually abused and misused is changing. It's becoming the School Room. Superman still isn't sure about all of this...the house is torn apart and quite frankly I'm a bit nervous myself. I'll post the finish projects (there are 3 intertwind) next week or so. My goal is to have the two and 1/2 basics done by Saturday! See you Soon. Julie

We've had a crazy good week already and I will share some later. I wanted to pop these up of my Valentine Candle Holders. Ummm they were nice. Yup, I said were. I only have one left. The candy kept mysteriously disappearing! Note to self: shellac whatever I don't want eaten. I mean gee whiz! julie

I've been away for awhile. I'm finding that school and our schedule are a bit more rigorous and I don't have much time to think. Which is was I need if I want to blog! Yep. I'm not a writer and I have to use a lot of brain power at times. So I've been on Face Book quite a bit (no brain power required). Today we took a break and cleaned the house. Yippee ! Did it need it. I think it's the dirtiest it has ever been. We started earlier this week with Farm Girl doing baseboard, trash cans etc. Today we hit all the rooms and pantry. Did gross ceiling fans, wiped down cabinets, vacuumed behind furniture, window sills, you name it. I also got a couple of shots of our School Room. I never showed how it turned out. We've been living with it for about 3 months and it's working out much better for us. Here are some of before. 11x10 room. Scary! Books! Lots of School Resources and lets not forget the TRASH! I like the paint color and my curtains. I had to steal t...

Last night after dinner we did a little decorating. I've really pared down my fall decorations. I like it so much better with just little hints of it. Like I said yesterday, it's 91 degrees again today. The house feels so much cooler for some reason. I can't believe having a couple of decorations could change my attitude so much. This doesn't mean I'll be decorating for Christmas in July, but it is something to think about. Last night I even watched a couple of British shows with a blanket on. I'm pretty sure Superman thinks of lost it (how often do I say that?)! So here are a couple pictures of what has brightened our day. Superman and Angela( Dancing with my Father ) don't look! You'll be aghast at my photography skills. I got a lot of these pumpkins in different hues at the Dollar Store last year. What a deal. I will change them out for a cute collection of Pilgrims and Indians (also $ store finds from a couple of years ago) when November rolls aroun...

Well it's going to be a blistering 91 degrees this afternoon and I'm not feeling "fallish". Yesterday I promised the chickadees we would decorate, make a fall dessert, and have cider. Yes, I even -preplanned by buying cider. (Didn't have time to make my own-hehehe.) We've been on a downhill slide all morning. Since I'm the co-captain in charge, I need to save this sinking ship. (don't ask) First we'll make Pumpkin Spice Cookies. Then head out to garden at 4-H. Home for baked chicken, veggies, salad and biscuits. Then our yummy cookies ( you know they'll be good) and cider. Clean up the kitchen, let the chickens out and do a bit of decorating! These are pumpkin cookie. Sorry for the blurriness (one of the girls took a quick pic for me-not that it matters). They were good ,but not at all like a cookie. The tasted like muffun tops and we were wanting cookies. We use 2 apples, 2 cups of cider, and lots of ice to make our cider slushes. The chickade...

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...

Welcome to another Frugal Friday! This is Urban Girl's idea of helping me out with my head cold... cute...very cute. Now watch, someone will put a patent on it! Is it more frugal to use toilet paper or tissues? Here's my frugal tip for the week. Please excuse my photos...I'm sick. I really like glass covered dishes and even decanters, but I really didn't have a purpose for them until a couple of years ago. Now I use them in our master bath and maybe when the chickadees are quite a bit older I'll let them use them. This one is for baking soda (teeth and hair). For teeth I mix it with a bit of tooth paste. See how pretty it looks. The others are for sea salt and plaque rinse (which looks pretty gross in this picture). Here are some old mirror trays that Superman hung on the wall over the tub and just below is another glass dish being re purposed for tub items. It used to hold salt until I broke the lid. So my Bocia gav...

As you can probably tell from previous post I'm not a very eloquent person or a good writer for that matter. Which leads me straight into today's topic..... Perfectionism. Oooo we really hate/love that word don't we! I do. I still get caught up in it's ugly web. Perfect dieting (weight control), perfect marriage, perfect homeschool children, perfect school program to name a few. Yikes, that's only a few. The thing I've (pretty) much learned over the past 16 years of marriage and motherhood is that my Dad isn't looking for perfection from me. He's already got that and more! He wants me to be good, maybe even superb in many areas of life and to come to him whether I'm good or bad at it. So this leads me to homemaking, child rearing, schooling, and husband loving. Way back when my first daughter was just a tiny babe I would purpose to sit down in the afternoons and read a couple of scriptures and write in my prayer journal ( not for long or I would ...

Well I wanted to get these up because Nestor is having a 10 minute to a beautiful room party . This has definitely taken more than 10 minutes. But in my brain it was only suppose to take a day! It's far from finished, but that's what a craft room is for. Right? Here's a couple of before pics during the Children's Christmas play. Basically every surface was covered and I had to move stuff just to work. Five of us craft, sew, scrapbook etc in this room. So space and good storage is an issue. The room is apx.10x11. I really want my daughter's to grow up being Keeper's of their Homes. Home Decorating and Crafting Frugally is a must! You can have a beautiful home on a very tight budget. I also want them to be creative and have a place to show and explore their abilities. ( alrighty let me jump down from my horse; ) Here's some after photos. The paint was from the $5 bin and too yellow. So I added alot of white that we had from another project! Th...

I have so much on my mind today. Some happy and some not so happy. I'll let you in on my thoughts over the next couple of weeks. Be forewarned, it doesn't always come out the way it sounds in my head! But before I go any farther I wanted to share with you a simple project Farmer Girl and I made together. It was her 1st experience with the hot glue gun! Yikes!! We took a simple basket. (The kind that produce comes in and makes you feel like you live in the country and home grow everything.) Then, last summer I happened upon a bed canopy for 70 cents at a thrift store. We used this for the interior. It already had a ruffle so we cut the ruffle off and hot glued it on to the outside of the basket. We then finished it off with pink ribbon, a white button and lots of hot glue. She is very proud of herself. The Little Chef was the happy recipient on Christmas morning. We hope to make bedding now that Farmer Girl has her new Janome Hello Kitty Sewing Machine. Words cannot describe h...

People Opposing Objectionable Pretend plants in the Environment ! Okay folks it's been a week....which is way too long. Schooling 3 1/2 is a bit daunting at times. My other excuse.....I've been freaking out about lice for over a week. No, I didn't have it (this time around), but I've scratched myself raw over it! On to P.O.O.P.I.E.! Over at Nestor's she's done a short series on what's a good fake and what's not ( errr flowers that is). So after you take a peak at mine head over there and read hers and everyone else' poop (can I say that?), I mean blogs! Nesting Place is in my side bar if you need directions ( I wanted to put the button up, but have no clue). These are my year round fakies .... Superman gave me the floral arrangement about 12 years ago when we couldn't afford flowers, who am I kidding....we still can't! I did change out the pedestal urn they came in. My wonderful ivy on top of the cabinets. My chicks have always ha...