One of the favorite things to play with at our house is Gunk. It is soft wobbly stuff and it is hard to describe. Maybe it is just gunky! It is easy to make and with supervision even preschoolers could make it. It only takes a few minutes to make and will provide hours of fun. Even adults enjoy playing with it. Gunk 2 cups Elmers white glue ( off brands work good too and four 4 oz … [Read more...]

I love to recycle, so turning old jeans into quilts has been a long time project of mine. It is a never ending job since the men keep wearing out their jeans! I have a big box full of patches in all sizes. I used to cut patches from 3-8 inches. Now I pretty much just cut 6 inch patches and throw the rest away since I always have plenty of jeans. I first cut a 6" square out of cardboard. … [Read more...]

In 25 years of marriage I have had a lot of different clothes pin bags. The last few years I have loved having a durable denim clothes pin bag that can be made in 5 minutes. You will need a pair of denim shorts and a heavy plastic coat hanger. I have used regular plastic hangers but you will need to replace them more often as they tend to break easily. As for the pair of shorts, just pick one … [Read more...]

Our main bathroom upstairs was in need of a new curtain. The old curtain had served us well for almost 14 years and I know it wasn't new when I bought it. It must have been a well sewn curtain as most bought curtains don't hold together so well after they are washed a lot of times. I liked the simple white curtain so I thought I would make something like it. I stopped at a thrift shop and … [Read more...]

My week last week was very busy getting ready for my parent's 50th Anniversary celebration. There was food to make, food to buy, decorations to make, and ideas to finalize. I only have one sister and she lives out west so we were back and forth trying to make sure that everything would come together. My two sister in laws that live closer were a great help in planning as their parents both had … [Read more...]

Your preschoolers are probably tired of winter and being penned up in the house. On days that are rainy and they cannot go out, you wonder how to keep them occupied. I tried to remember how I used to occupy my preschoolers. I know when I had three babies and two preschooler, I was very busy and just keeping everyone happy was a big job. If I was working in the kitchen and the babies were fussy, … [Read more...]

The last two weeks have found me busy laying out patches for Trip Around the World quilts. We call them comforts and they will go around the world as all of them will be donated to a Christian mission who sends them world wide. My girls decided that it would be neat if they could find out where each of  the comforts end up. We laid out 22 different comforts in the last two weeks. One day my … [Read more...]

Last week when I was shopping at Goodwill I spied this lovely gold frame. I knew just what I was going to do with it. It has been in the back of my mind  for some time to make some chalkboards to put sayings on. So I bought some chalkboard spray paint and I was ready to go. The board turned out quite nicely and today I decided to try my hand at writing a verse on it. I didn't enjoy putting … [Read more...]

Maybe you need a simple activity to keep your children busy this week. These snowmen are easy and fun to make. My girls enjoyed making them one afternoon. My girls are 10 and 11 and they were able to make them themselves. First you will need to make sure you have all the craft supplies before you tell your children what you are going to make. Too often we have the children excited about a … [Read more...]

I needed a Christmas centerpiece for my dining room table. I decided that between the Dollar store and some sticks I could put something together. I bought 3 little boxes of red ornaments. I had a vase that had come from the Dollar store. I then went out and snipped some branches from the pussy willow bush. With a can of spray paint I painted the branches. When the branches were dry I held them … [Read more...]