Saturday, April 28, 2012

A Lesson in Soapmaking

A close friend of mine, who shares many of my same interests,
is now selling soap.
I asked to see if I could watch the process and assist when needed.

Here are her molds, which I will eventually be getting
(maybe from my rummage sale profit money).
This is something I would really enjoy
doing and also be able to give away.
The soapmaking information is found in this book,
which breaks it all down in easy to understand directions.

Setting up was what took the most time, but once we did,
everything went fast! 

Were we doing a "fancy bar" of soap,
which means there were many additions to a normal recipe.
Some including: paprika, scented oils, charcoal dust, and silk to name a few.

Here is the finished product.
We tried to give the tops a more rustic look
by shaping it with a rough edging.
I think they turned out great and am looking forward to experimenting.

Friday, April 27, 2012

Kite Flying with Grandpa and Grandma

Well, the kids finally have a place to fly their kites.
We have tried it at our house,
but trees and power lines aren't so helpful when trying learn to fly kites.
Now that Grandma and Grandpa are moved in and the weather is nice,
we have a place to fly kites.

Grandpa helped set up each of the kids.


They were intently listening to all the helpful tips from an avid kite flyer.

Look at the expression on my eldest face...pure happiness.

Of course, my little princess is happy in her own little world.

My big girl doesn't have her own kite
so my little princess shared with her sister. 


The highs were high and the lows were low.
She was flying high when the kite was up.
But when it hit the ground...we had tears.

The eldest two started chasing each other with the kites
and went into the neighboring field.
Kites, Grandparents, and Ice Cream...
a recipe for One Fun Saturday.

Friday, April 20, 2012

A Promise

Well, my oldest decided he was going to build yesterday.
He closed his door to his room and began to create. 
As talking to Nana and Papa last night, he promised they would get to see it.
Although having two sisters that love him immensely and
want to do everything he is doing, I'm afraid it won't last that long so here it is...

(Clockwise)To the left is a garage,
the log home is next to that
with power poles(yes, we may little house on the prairie, but he's not ready to sign up for no power!)
What you can barely see is two chicks eating, the fence is for the chickens and
leads to their house, which is almost half the size of the house!
Oh and last, but not least, that long log is multiple machine guns,
in case of enemy fire, of course.

This little building made me smile because chicks are on the way
and my little ones ears are paying attention!
Just to clarify, the chicks(egg birds) are headed to my father-in-laws house and will be kept there,
which will be a fun partnership.
The kids are looking forward to "helping" with the chicks.
Unfortunately, our land causes problems for raising chickens,
 since there is no flat spot on it. 
Keep a look out for posts in about two weeks.

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Finally...

Well, all of these events have been long awaited. 

On April 12th, my oldest lost his first tooth.
He was very brave as I pulled it out.

This sweater was a promise I made to my little princess.
I started it a long time ago and feels like it's take forever to finish...
it did take 9 skeins of yarn!
I wanted to make sure she would be able to wear it next year so I made it long enough
so she can get a couple of years out of it.

It should be a little shorter, but I'm thinking come fall it will be perfect.

And here is my loot from my pampered chef party that I hosted.
Thanks to all those who purchased(The consultant said it was one of her biggest shows)

I have already put almost all of my products to use and overly pleased with them all!
My most exciting purchase is this skillet.
I just want to stare at it...
maybe it's just me, but the food tastes better that comes out of it:)

Friday, April 13, 2012

Easter Egg Coloring

Sorry, this post is a little late...
we've had computer problems lately, but I think we've figured it out:)
So here are the pictures from dying Easter Eggs.
I picked up 2 1/2 dozen eggs for dying thinking that would be enough...
note for next year, enough is never enough. 
It took more time to set up than it did to color the eggs.
Coloring only took about 10 minutes total.
My big girl loved dying eggs...I'm thinking of picking up a few for summer time.

My little princess of course went for all the pinks and purples.

 My oldest is very particular about well, everything.
So he had those fabulous eggs with two colors and the white stripe in between.

Dad colored with the kids too.
And yes, his shirt does say, "I Love My Wife"
Just for the record, he picked it out:)

The egg hunt in the morning.

We had to limit the kids to only bringing one egg at a time to the carton,
due to Mr. Competitive holding six in his shirt at one time.
I didn't feel like actually making any deviled eggs at six in the morning. 

Here are my cuties with all of the eggs.

This picture just makes me smile so I thought I'd share.
Hope it brightens your day.

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Finishing my WIPs

For those of you who don't know, WIPs stand for Works In Progress.
Being that I did multiple quilts last year,
I didn't get any of my WIPs done.
Some people have New Years Resolutions to loose weight,
mine was to finish some of my WIPs (loosing weight would of course, be a plus)
Well, it's April, and I've finished the ones I've had...
but I have added some more projects to the pile.
Here are some of my finished products:

Here is my cute all seasons table runner...

This is just a couple of my days till Santa countdown mini quilts
that I have a holder for and was pleased how they turned out.

I saw a dog mat for the food dishes in a magazine and thought...
"I could make that and have scraps to do it!"

My canning wall hanging that I made for Fall,
but I think I can and will put it up all year long.

I had to include this picture of my oldest clay depiction of
the Statue of Liberty.(This put a smile on my face today)