When I get frustrated with things in life I can’t change, and need a mental lift, I always think of crafts.   I love making small changes, improving a bit of my life, making a tiny thing new.  In the past few weeks I’ve finished scarves for four of my daughters, using yarn I bought...
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I am very crankily plowing through taxes so that I can then plow through the FAFSA twice in a row — once for each of my college students. Thus I leave you with a post from my husband, showing you the wonders he worked in my spice cupboard. Now it is even better...
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I’m excited to show you what my hubby has been doing lately.  For years I’ve looked at a little gap in the kitchen between the edge of a cabinet and the edge of the window, and thought it would be a perfect place for some more shelves.  This Christmas John granted me that wish....
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21 kids. 4 moms. 1 fellowship hall. 2 kinds of pretzels. 3 batches of royal icing. 8 boxes of graham crackers. several hundred pieces of candy. Christmas bliss. (Click on pictures to enlarge)
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* Psst: The Sony Reader giveaway ends tomorrow! Don’t miss it!! * Last Friday while dragging the whole crew through the school day, I abruptly decided that life could be a lot more fun than it currently was. I wasn’t quite ready to call it Christmas break– Dec. 4th seems a MITE early....
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I’ve been frustrated for awhile with the crazy mess in my spice cupboards.  I use about 40 different spices and seasonings, and store them in the cupboards on either side of the stove.  I’ve been keeping large (Costco size) bottles of spices in the cupboard to the right. My small bottles are in...
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…when you have a looong day of school, which you survive mainly by gritting your teeth and thinking happy thoughts about a sewing session this afternoon. And then it is finally afternoon and you tell the kids you’re locking yourself in your bedroom to sew and if there is blood or fire they...
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Last week my friend Molly and I got together for a craft afternoon. Our goal: to create wall hangings featuring the rules of our household. We each spent a bit of time the day before thinking about what we wanted to say. We wanted rules that encouraged the best...
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I’ve been meaning for awhile to share a really simple way to make fire-starters for those of you who have a wood stove or fireplace. FRUGAL FIRE-STARTERS Materials: Egg cartons, the grey recycled-cardboard kind, NOT the foamy plastic kind Dryer lint, enough to fill the number of egg cartons you are using An old candle (you know, the ugly...
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The other day I had fun making a bunch of small bright bags using scrap fabric. As it gets closer to Christmas, I’ll be watching for good prices on remnants of Christmas fabric, but this time around I used fabric that I already had. I’ve made these bags before using drawstrings, but...
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