Cute and very inexpensive kitchen crafts

 I can't remember where or when I saw this craft, but it stayed entangled in the spiderweb of my mind for quite awhile. It's so easy and cheap to make. The cost to make two of them was only $4.20 . The paper was only 60 cents a sheet, plastic silverware was 25 cent ( a set) and the frames were a dollar a piece. ( dollar store ) The paint was left over from another project.
 I took pictures of us making them. But you really don't need them to make this craft. Take the backing and glass out of the frame. Spray paint the frame, plus the front and back of the silverware. Place the glass over the paper and draw a line to use as a guide for cutting it to fit . Put your frame back together with the paper on top of the glass. Hot glue your silverware on top of the paper. That's it. Your done.

 This is the one that Ruth Ann did. She also added fingernail polish to the fork to make it look like ketchup. Then we added little ants to the picture.

                                               This is the final resting place for her's

  I put mine in my kitchen window for two reasons. One it looks good there. Two and the most important reason. I have no more wall space!

                                               I really like how it looks when  the kitchen light is shinning on it.

Surprise from the postal service.

 We came home from camping Monday night to find the sitting on my table. I won this in a giveaway from http://ahomegrownjournal.blogspot.com/  I was so excited to find out I won. Then to see the package sitting there just waiting for my hot little hands to open it. I tore into it like it was a big box of chocolate. But without the calories.

This is the first project I plan to make. Heads up to family and friends don't be surprised if your Christmas comes from this book. You just won't know which page it's from. Have to keep somethings secret till Christmas morning.
Please check out Mama Peas blog. ( http://ahomegrownjournal.blogspot.com/ ) She has a lot of fun and interesting post. Who knows she may have another quilt book give away. You never know.

Reminder

Just a reminder that you have two more weeks to finish your craft for the swap . Have a great Memorial weekend.

How to entertain a cat.

 Cleo was drawn to the flame like a moth. This was the first time we lit a candle around her. She couldn't stay away. She walked around it ,set and watched it. She even tried smelling it thru the top of the jar. That didn't work out to good for her judging my the  look on her face. I didn't know cat could make some of the faces she made. It held her attention for a whole ten minutes. That's a great feat for involving a cat.  I had to leave the room so I blow the candle out on her. The fight between her and the smoke was hilarious . Bad news, since then she could care less about a candle. But it was fun while it lasted.

"WARSHING" Clothes Recipe

         Never  thought of a "warsher" in this light before...what a  blessing!

"Warshing  Clothes Recipe" -- imagine having a recipe for  this!
Years ago, an Alabama grandmother gave the  new bride the following recipe
exactly  as written and found in an old scrapbook with  spelling errors and all.

   WARSHING  CLOTHES

   
Build  fire in backyard to heat kettle of rain  water.
Set  tubs so smoke wont blow in eyes if wind is  pert.
Shave  one hole cake of lie soap in boilin  water.

Sort things, make 3 piles -- 1 pile  white, 1 pile colored, 1 pile work britches and  rags.

To make starch, stir flour in cool  water to smooth, then thin down with boiling  water.

Take white things, rub dirty spots on  board, scrub hard, and boil, then rub colored don't  boil just wrench and starch.

Take things out  of kettle with broom stick handle, then wrench, and  starch.

Hang old rags on fence.

Spread  tea towels on grass.

Pore wrench water in  flower bed.

Scrub  porch with hot soapy water.

Turn tubs upside  down.

Go put on clean dress, smooth hair with  hair combs.  
Brew  cup of tea, sit, rock a spell, and count yore  blessings.

   

                          

  
Paste  this over your washer and dryer. The next time you  think things are bleak, read it again, kiss that washing machine and dryer, and give thanks.

  
  For  non-Southerners - wrench means rinse. 

 I found this on Facebook

Homemade Goats Butter

  This post is from www.louises-country-closet.com

I have been told that you can't make butter from goats milk. So when I found this post I was so excited that I had to share. Louise's blog is full of great ideas. If you have a minute check her out.

Homemade Butter Using Goat Milk

Getting our own goats wasn't just because we wanted another pet (the stranger, the better!) but we wanted to have our own milk, make our own cheese and even try our hand at butter. I really didn't research much into the butter part of it because who would have thought that making something so simple could be so difficult? Well, turns out it wasn't quite as hard as I thought it would be!

Our first try ended in disaster. We left the milk sit in the fridge for a week but when we skimmed it, it had a very strong goat smell to it. Yuck! We found out the trick to it is pasteurizing the milk first.

After you've finished milking, strain your milk into a pot and heat it up to 165 degrees. When it reaches temp, shut off the burner and wait 15 seconds and then submerge the pot in a bowl of ice water to quickly cool it down.

 

After it's cooled down some you can put it in a container and cool it the rest of the way in the freezer. In an hour, take it out and put it somewhere that it won't be jostled in the fridge and leave it sit for 10 days.

When it was time to take our jar out (we had saved two days worth), I also took out any others that had developed any cream at the top. I skimmed the cream out with a measuring spoon (a tablespoon to be exact).

I put all of the cream I could get into my mixing bowl and in the end, I was starting to get a lot more than I thought I would. Last year our doe had a hard time producing much cream at all and this year I was getting big chunks of it.

Most people put their cream into a jar and then shake it up but I put mine in the mixing bowl and used my stand mixer to get the job done. It's a little messy but by being careful I was able to not get cream all over the place.

It will start out really watery and then gradually thicken until the butter forms into a ball. I then took the butter out and placed it into a bowl.

Here was my reward and it was a lot more than what I was expecting! When I was finished admiring it I rinsed it out under some cold water. I let the water run over it and moved it around a bit then dumped the water and repeated the process until the water was clear (two or three times should do it).

When it was rinsed out good, I mixed a little bit of salt into it and then put it in a container and popped it in the fridge. Look at how snow white it is, this is how your butter should be! The butter you get in the store that's yellow is actually food coloring.

So not only do you end up with delicious butter (and no hint of goat now that I'd done it right!) but this yummy buttermilk too. Yum! What would you use your buttermilk for??

Ambers Wedding and Mothers Day

                                                         Amber and her mom Ruth 

 

                                                    Vera ,Ruth, and her daughter Robin

                                                                 Amber and Taylor

                                                          Amber and her dad Ken

                                                           Father daughter dance

  It's been a busy couple of days here. Friday we spent the day helping get everything ready for Amber's Wedding. That evening I also had to find a dress for the Wedding the next day.  I think I undressed more in 3 hours then a stripper does all night. Finally found a skirt and top that I could live with. Everything we saw was in the style of the 70's and neon colors. At 53, believe me I should not be wearing neon.
The Wedding was lovely, Rick and I helped in the kitchen for the reception. Then served beer  and wine till it was over. I ended up wearing so much beer that if we got pulled over they won't worry about a breath test. They would just throw the book at me. It was so much fun, but tiring.

                                                              New Wii Game

                                                                   Trish and Tiff

                                                     A face only a wife or mother could love.

                                                  A picture of me. Miracles do happen

                     Grilled pork chops and a wonderful man. What more could you ask for.

 
Mothers Day was a great day. After Church we went out to lunch with friends. My daughter got into town just in time to join us. I couldn't of asked for a better Mothers day. We spent most of the afternoon playing Crazy Mini Golf on the Wii. I ended up winning. But truth be told .I think they let me. Rick grilled for dinner and did dishes. I wasn't allowed to do any cleaning at all . I had no problem enjoying a glass of wine while I watched them clean up after dinner.The evening ended with coffee and Chocolate Silk Pie.  It was simple, but wonderful.

Craft swap names and partners have been posted

Hi ever body hope your having a great evening.  This is the first craft swap I have ever done. So please bare with me . I am winging it as I go. I had two people swap together to make it easier. You will be able to contact each other for  information ( Example: What their favorite colors are. ) .   But please don't tell them what your making. We want this to be a nice surprise. You will have one month to finish and send your craft. You don't have to wait for the month to end to send it, if you finish it early.  Please let me know when you receive your swap. If you would like it feature along with your blog.


First swapping partners;
Michele Scaife  http://simplyscaife.blogspot.com/
Dolly http://hibiscushouse1.blogspot.com/

Second Swapping partners
Faith crochetbythesea.blogspot.com
Patrica dogwoodlanerambles.blogspot.com

Third Swapping partners
Rustown Mom http://cannaryfamily.blogspot.com
Greg and Donna http://mississippimamaof7.blogspot.com/

Fourth Swapping partner
Heidi http://mysimplecountryliving.blogspot.com/
Kristina http://pioneerwomanatheart.blogspot.com

Fifth Swapping Partners
Julie http://ourlittleredsaltbox.blogspot.com/
Michelle That would be this blog.


I will be sending out reminders . I don't know about you ,but my mind tends to go on vacation and forgets to tell me.    Have fun!!!

Update on the craft swap.

I will be closing the craft swap entries on Thursday evening. If you would like to join just leave a comment. The rules are simple . Just make a craft you would like to swap with someone else. I would love to have you join us( it's going to be fun). You will have a month to complete and send your craft. I will draw the names on Friday . So please check back. As each person  receive their swaps I will be featuring them on my blog. Only if that is ok with the swapper. I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with.

Starting a new craft swap

While making this basket up from yard sale finds. I thought about doing a craft swap. It can be any type of craft. From homemade cookbooks (Candy and Dolly hope your listening.) to primitive or anything in between. The sky is the limit. It's totally up to you. If your interested please leave a comment. I am also opening this up to my face book friends.. If you can't leave a comment here please leave one on my face book post.

Sleeping Babies

                                             Cleopatches                
       

                                                  Buttercup
They looked so cute sleeping in the front window  that I had to take and share the photos.

New Bread Proofing Box

 For those following my blog you know ,my bread recipe calls for me to use my oven as a proof box. You can click here  for the recipe. It makes the PERFECT bread. But makes my oven unusable for a couple of hours.  So I was really happy when my husband walked in my kitchen with my new proof box.  He was also kind enough to make one for Heidi from http://mysimplecountryliving.blogspot.com/ .

                            He put a rack inside so I can set the pan of boiling water below the dough.

                                           This is what it looks like before I add the water.

  I knew since this was a more inclosed area that my proofing time would be shorter. So I only proof it for 45 minutes.  I still over proofed it a little. ( you can tell by the bubbles on top ) Next time I will only proof for 30 minutes the first time and 15 to 20 minutes the second time.. That should be just right.

You can see where the top fell a little bit, since it was over proofed. But the bread tasted great. I am so happy with my box. My oven is now free and my proofing time has been cut in half. YA !