~Sunbasilgarden Soaps~

A while ago, I got an email from Kim at Everything Etsy, telling me that I was a winner in one of the giveaways on the blog! I had completely forgotten about entering the giveaway, so it was a fun surprise!


(Lemon Squares)

After sending my address to the giveaway host, I again completely forgot about it. So one day I opened my mailbox and was surprised with a nice package full of gorgeous soaps from Sunbasilgarden Soaps by Lauren.


(Strawberry Banana Milkshake)

The soaps are simply beautiful. I got five different bars of soap, and had a hard time deciding which one to use first! I finally chose the lemon bar scent. Each soap just looks so professional - they are individually wrapped in cellophane, with a sticker on the back that has the soap name and complete ingredient list. The soaps that are layered have sharp, clean lines.


(Peanut Butter Cookie and Milk)

I am just so impressed with these soaps! They are a treat for the senses! They would make a lovely gift! The pictures above are three of the five soaps that I received. But Lauren makes more than just bar soaps! Check these out:





Yes, they really are soap! I would have a hard time using them as soap though!

Pictures used by permission. I was under no obligation to write this post.

~Tomatoes!~

I recently said that I hadn't done any canning this summer. Well, I have rectified that situation! I have done a lot of canning now! :-)

Last Sunday I was the happy recipient of 47 pounds of tomatoes! A family in our church has a large garden, and they bring extras to church. I hung around until everyone had gotten the tomatoes they wanted and then I was able to take the rest. I was very happy to take them, and they were happy they were going to be used, as they had just had to throw out quite a few bad tomatoes.

On Monday I canned. All.day.long. I was tired but elated at the end of the day!

I got 6 quarts and 14 pints of plain tomatoes (hot-packed), with 2 quarts in the freezer as well. I made 2 batches of salsa, which resulted in 8 pints and 1/2 pint. I feel blessed with the bounty!

I also realized that I never updated on what happened with all my blueberries! I put 4 1/2 quarts in the freezer, made a batch of jam, a batch of no-sugar spread, and canned 7 pints of plain berries (in water) for cooking with.

~Granny's Clothespin Apron~

I've been hanging my laundry outside, and I really needed an apron or something to hold my clothespins. Today I made "Granny's Clothespin Apron" from the book One-Yard Wonders. I made some changes to the pattern, and didn't follow the instructions completely. The largest change I made was to make the apron three inches wider and two inches longer.



I made it from fabric I've had for quite a while. I think it was purchased mid-90's (by my mom), and the original intent for this fabric was to make matching dresses or jumpers for my younger sisters. I bet they're glad that didn't happen. ;-) However, I thought the fabric was perfect for this project!



Note: If you plan to do any sewing from One-Yard Wonders, make sure to check the errata, found here. Truly, I'm dumbfounded at the amount of mistakes in the book. And I find it slightly humorous that there is at least one mistake on the corrections page. I do plan on sewing more projects from this book, but I am disappointed in the amount of mistakes, the lack of diagrams to illustrate the instructions, and confusing instructions.

~I Made it!~

Well, I'm joining in on the party a little late in the day, but I am excited to share my finished project with you!



I made this little outfit for my daughter. My blog readers may remember this post, in which I was trying to determine if I should leave the top long, as a dress, or cut it shorter, to be a top. In the end, my husband wanted it to be a top, so I cut it shorter. I cut two inches off, and the shorts show below the top. The top is more of a tunic length, which I think is adorable.

I love it! I had some frustrations while sewing it, but setting those frustrations aside, I'm very happy with the finished result!

The pattern I used is Simplicity 2625. For more "I Made it" entries, please click on the button at the top of this page.

~Blueberries!~

I have not canned one single thing this summer. No jam, no peaches, no nothing. I think it is more challenging to have a toddler than a baby, at least when it comes to spending a lot of time in the kitchen!

But today we went and picked blueberries. Eighteen pounds, to be exact. My goal was ten pounds, and the owner told us that a bucket full was 7 pounds, and up to a certain line was 5 pounds. So away we went, we picked for probably 2 hours or more. And we picked 18 pounds. I think the line thing was a trick to get us to pick more. ;-) Well, at any rate I have blueberries to freeze and put up! I'm really excited! Oh, and they were $1/pound and they are organic too!

Our daughter helped pick blueberries for a while, then she settled herself in front of the bucket and ate her fill, and then once she was full she started tossing them out of the bucket. After a while of wandering up and down the row between us, her fun meter hit "0" so we went and got her Cheerios and sippy cup. Sitting in her stroller eating O's and drinking water revived her spirits and brought the fun meter back up. :-)

It was sprinkling for the last half hour or so that we were there, which was actually pleasant. I'm so glad we went blueberry picking! It was a great family outing!

~Chocolate Banana Bread~

We took advantage of Sam's Club "open house" last weekend and stopped in to do a little shopping. We didn't buy much, but bananas were 3 pounds/$.89 so I bought 12 pounds. I probably should have bought more! The ones we weren't able to eat right away I put in the freezer for baking and smoothies.

I also wanted to make banana bread and got it into my head to make chocolate banana bread. The nice thing about food.com is that pretty much anything you can think there will be a recipe for! So I just went and looked and sure enough there were several chocolate banana bread recipes.

I used this one here, with several modifications. I used coconut oil in place of margarine, decreased the sugar to 3/4 cup, and used half whole wheat flour, half white flour. So while it still isn't super-healthy food by any means, I feel it is a little better. This particular recipe has three bananas in one loaf, so it makes a super moist bread, even with using whole wheat flour.

~From Scratch~

One of the things I enjoy doing is making things "from scratch", food or otherwise. It gives me a thrill to make something that most people buy. And (in most cases) it saves money. Also, it is typically healthier. But I know there are seasons in life that "from scratch" just takes way too long. I've been there too, and those bags/boxes/cans sure are handy!

Here are some recipes I've recently used to make things from scratch:
:::Peanut Butter Granola, recipe at Making a House a Home.
Yum! Fast and easy! I substituted coconut oil for the butter.
:::Coconut Granola
I followed the granola recipe I posted here, substituting coconut oil for the butter. When there was just 15 minutes left to bake it, I added in coconut flakes.
:::Buttermilk Ranch Dressing (recipe found in this post at Simple Bites)
There are two other salad dressing recipes in this post that I'd like to try out as well. I made the ranch dressing and tasted it and then wanted to sit down and eat the dressing. Later that same evening, after dinner and the dishes were done, I had thoughts about sneaking back into the kitchen and eating the ranch dressing. It's that good!
:::Green Enchilada Sauce
I made this last night. I was going to do a cost comparison on buying the ingredients versus buying a can of green enchilada sauce, but I forgot and threw my receipt away. It wasn't terribly expensive, and it made double the amount in a can. So I would say it was fairly inexpensive to make.

Kevin loved this sauce (I made green chicken enchiladas with it). He said it is so much better than store-bought. And I agree. If you have time, it is worth the effort it takes to make it! With the batch I made last night, I made dinner and had enough to stick in the freezer for another meal.

There is one thing I want to change about it though. There are two green bell peppers in it. As I was making it I was smelling it and thinking it smelled so wonderful, yet I kept wondering why I was thinking about my pregnancy with my daughter and feeling a little sick to my stomach. Then it dawned on me. It has bell peppers in it. I couldn't eat bell peppers for my entire pregnancy, much less smell them. Since this is a food post I won't gross you out with details, but I was very sick for 9 months. With as much as I couldn't eat/smell/see I'm lucky bell peppers are the only food I still have an aversion to! So...all that to say, next time I make this (and there will be a next time!) I'm looking for a recipe without bell peppers!

With as much as I like making things from scratch I still don't make bread or yogurt. I guess I should put those on my "to do" list!

~Ten~

One thing that I have completely failed to mention (except in my "About Me" in my sidebar) is that this June Kevin and I celebrated our tenth anniversary! We were busy in California over our anniversary, and I just failed to mention it here.

Ten. I remember turning ten and how special that was, how "grown up" I felt. I was now a decade old. My age had two digits in it. Celebrating ten years of marriage feels somewhat the same, I have to admit!

I am so incredibly blessed to be married to Kevin. For ten years, and counting.

We slipped away for lunch out together, while my mom and sisters watched our daughter. We went to a great Mexican restaurant that Kevin likes to go to every time we're in the area. :-)

~Um...~

August already? Where is this summer going?

I just really can't believe it is August already. Summer has just slipped by so fast this year! Each year that I've lived in Michigan (six years now), the winters seem longer than the year before, and the summers seem shorter.

Several miscellaneous things:

1) I spelled miscellaneous correctly without having to look it up! LOL (For boasting on this I'll probably make many other spelling/grammar mistakes in this post. You'd think I'd have learned my lesson on this.) It's easier to type "misc." ;-)

2) I was super-duper bored one night, and lucky me landed on Craft Apple's blog where Linda was giving away some books. Linda is sending me the Japanese patchwork book. I'm looking forward to getting it!

3) I still haven't decided if I'm going to cut the dress (previous post) down to a top length or leave it as a dress. Everyone who commented said to leave it as a dress, however Kevin said I should cut it down to a top. Husbands are always right, right? :-) I need to make up my mind soon though so my daughter has a chance to wear it before the snow starts flying. ;-)

4) A while ago, I decided to start saving the Amazon gift cards I purchase with my Swagbucks for a large purchase. This KitchenAid mixer, to be exact. I am 36% of the way there. Not that I'm keeping track or anything.

5) I have been making my daughter a smoothie every day before she goes down for her afternoon nap. I just throw in a half banana, a few spoons of yogurt, whatever fruit I have on hand, and just recently...spinach. I read this post and watched the accompanying video, and promptly started adding greens to her smoothies. She likes them. I taste them and they don't taste spinachy to me! I should probably make enough for me too!

6) Have a great day! Enjoy the rest of your summer! :-)

~WIP, and a Question~

I'm making this, view A:


and so far it has turned out like this:


See the difference? It's a dress, not a top. Just look at the pattern drawing! If the pattern were for a dress instead of a top and the same length issues were present it would be about 12 inches past my daughter's toes! As it is, the "top" is longer than some of my daughter's dresses in her closet! The bodice fits quite well, with a nice amount of ease. It's definitely my daughter's size. Just a leetle too long.

I'm not feeling the love for Simplicity right now. This pattern should be very simple and for some reason I have had to read every step about three times before I get what I'm supposed to do. And the seam allowances are changed from 5/8" to 3/8" quite randomly. Frustrating.

Anyhow, what do you think? Keep it as a dress? Shorten to make it a top? I already have the shorts done (minus the elastic), but that's not too big of an issue, really it isn't a factor at all. As a dress does it look more like a nightgown? I have another row of ric rac to apply on the top, and then a row of ric rac on the bottom. There is only a 5/8" hem, so what you see is pretty much how long it is. Please feel free to weigh in!

~I Made it!~

I've been feeling somewhat of a mad scientist lately, what with all the concoctions I've been whipping up in my kitchen (cleaners and toiletries). So when I came across this recipe for finger paint, I figured, "why not?"



We had fun on the front porch painting. Even my next door neighbor came over and got in on the action!

My 16-month old daughter doesn't like to be messy so she took "finger painting" literally. LOL


Please click the button above to see more "I Made it" entries.

~Refrigerator Pickles~

There is a family at church who has a large garden, and they often bring excess produce to church to give away. I picked up some pickling cucumbers two Sundays ago and decided to make refrigerator pickles.

I started looking online for recipes, but all the recipes I was pulling up were loaded with sugar. I didn't want any sugar in them, much less 4 cups. But finally I found this recipe on food.com (formerly recipezaar.com) and I gave it a whirl.

They are so good! I love how they turned out. As I was making them, I thought that really, they're about the same amount of work as canned pickles, the only exception really being the water bath. But I like them a lot, and I'm glad I didn't can them. The only changes I made to the recipe were that I used sea salt instead of pickling salt, and I decreased the amount to a half cup. Also I decreased the amount of garlic to two cloves per jar.

I'm saving the brine as the pickles get eaten, so that I can make more. My daughter and cucumber-hating husband enjoy these pickles too, and I love them so I want to keep a good supply in the fridge! The only thing I'm not sure on is how long they will keep in the fridge? Any ideas?

~Ring the Bells~

Yesterday afternoon I was singing "Ring the Bells", but couldn't remember all the words. So I looked it up on Playlist, and the first song I clicked on brought tears to my eyes. It is a beautiful song, and the harmony of this particular group is lovely. But even more lovely is the fact that I used to listen to this song when I was little, it is from a record my parents had. Christmas in July? Listen and enjoy! :-)

~I Made it!~

Click on over to Everything Etsy to see other participants!

This week I haven't been as productive with my sewing or crafts. I've focused more on things like dishes and floors. ;-)

We had to buy my daughter new shoes for church since her feet are growing so fast! Of course they are a little on the loose side, so she definitely needs to wear socks with them. I looked for some ruffle socks but apparently they only sell those at Easter.

So I decided to make my own ruffle socks:


This was a nice easy project and I am planning on making some more of these, with different colors of thread and different patterns as well.

Thanks for visiting!

~Almost Free is Nice Too~

On Sunday, I was given a $10 coupon for Kohl's. It was a gift card that Kohl's had sent this person that could be used for anything in the store, and since she didn't want to go to Kohl's she gave it to me.

My first thought was shoes for my daughter, since her feet are growing so fast and her Sunday shoes don't fit her any more. But for some reason, Kohl's doesn't have a good selection of toddler shoes. They had the soft-soled baby shoes, and then plenty of children's shoes, but nothing in between.

So I still had this $10 gift card and of course I wasn't going to let it go to waste, so what to buy? I didn't feel like going through the whole rigamarole of trying on clothes for myself (even though I desperately need clothes!) and my daughter doesn't need clothes right now.

And then I thought about Fiestaware! I headed over to the home section and it was on sale (is Fiestaware ever not on sale? There is no reason to ever spend full price on it!). My final price for this "gusto bowl"? A grand total of $.53! The full price is $15 and it was 30% off! I'll have to take some pictures of my Fiestaware, I got gift cards for Christmas and now I have 8 place settings, plus a few serving pieces and we've been using the Fiestaware as our everyday dishes since then.



I love getting deals like this!

~Strawberry Fields Ruffle Tote~

New in my shop:

Strawberry Fields Ruffle Tote

~I Made it!~

I decided to participate in this Thursday's "I Made it" blog party! Click on over to Everything Etsy to see other participants!



A friend saw my ruffle totes that I have in my Etsy shop and asked for me to make one for her niece. She wanted purple gingham and a princessy fabric for the ruffles. I went off to the fabric store and quickly found the gingham but had a harder time finding the princessy fabric to coordinate! And then I found some "Fancy Nancy" fabric and it matched perfectly. I don't know who Fancy Nancy is, but she sure is cute! And I think my friend's 5-year old niece will like the sentiment on the fabric: "A princess is supposed to keep her tiara on".



I enjoy custom orders!

~Sewing machine oil~

This is a post, which, upon reading, my dad would say, "See, I told you so." If my dad reads my blog. And come to think of it, I don't know that I've ever heard him say those exact words. Anyhow.

When I was growing up, my dad got a used sewing machine which, though not "mine", was mine to use. Every time I sewed with it, my dad would ask if I had oiled it. I don't really know why, but I had a particular aversion to oiling the machine (three measly drops of oil! It's silly what teenagers can be rebellious over!) So every time I used that machine, I could have pulled out the oil and oiled it and then I bet my dad would have stopped asking me if I had oiled it. But noooo...I was sneaky and would sew in my room and try to get around him asking me that question. But he had a sixth sense of when I was using that machine and would always pop around to ask that dreaded question!

I was thinking about this today because my machine was making all kinds of noises while I was sewing. I pulled out my machine oil, put a few drops here and there and wouldn't you know? it almost sounded like it was purring at me.

Maybe my dad was right after all!

~Free is nice~

I was so excited to get an email from Sew, Mama, Sew! telling me that I had won a yard of fabric! Decisions, decisions! How to decide???

At first I thought about making something for my daughter, but in the end I decided to do some "selfish sewing" as it is called when you make something for yourself. I thought immediately of my book One Yard Wonders and knew exactly which project to make:


I went through all the fabric choices and finally narrowed it down to three pieces. And then I realized that two of them were out of stock, so it all came down to this:


Lollie Red ~ Weekends

I can't wait to get it in the mail!

~Quote~

"Do ordinary things with excellence."
~Dave Ramsey

~And the winner is...~

Melissa!

Who said:

Cute! I would use it for library books, or for crayons and other supplies to keep the kids busy during church, or as a purse substitute, etc.

Congratulations, Melissa! I've left a message on your blog - please send me an email with your address!

Whenever I have a giveaway I feel so bad for everyone who didn't win! My husband said, "well, you could make one for everyone!" Hmmm, I could, but that would be a lot of work, not to mention expense!

So if you didn't win, but would still like to have a ruffle tote, please stop by my Etsy shop and peruse the totes I have for sale!

~With apologies to Starbucks...~

I have discovered a way to make my own frappuccinos. And they taste so fabulous, I don't know that I ever need to buy another one again!

My friend Lisa developed the recipe, and I've been playing with it ever since!

The secret is freezing milk in ice cube trays. My blender does not handle ice cubes very well (it sounds like it is ready to keel over and die when I try ice cubes in it!), but it makes short work of blending the coffee and frozen milk. Perfectly.

For flavoring, I've used blueberry syrup and my own chocolate syrup. For the one in the picture, I used chocolate syrup with pure peppermint extract. Very yummy! You can also use coffee syrups (Lisa recommends Flavorganics).

A huge problem for me is that I can't make these while my daughter is taking a nap. Too noisy. So I have to make them while she's awake. She hovers at my feet the whole time I'm making them, and gets super excited when I pour it into a glass. And then she gets super disappointed when she doesn't get any. And I know she likes coffee because I've given her a sip to show her how gross it is and to my surprise she wanted more! Not that I want her having coffee, or anything. I was doing it to prove a point and she proved me wrong. LOL Lisa told me that a stick blender is quiet enough for nap-time so I just might have to invest in one!

For my blend this morning I used:
1/2 cup chilled coffee
8 milk cubes
chocolate syrup with peppermint extract

Blend till milk cubes are thoroughly blended. Pour into a glass and enjoy!

I think next time I might try 3/4 cup coffee to 8 milk cubes, or 1/2 cup coffee to 6 milk cubes.

For the chocolate syrup, I mixed 1/4 cup cocoa powder, 1/4 cup sugar, a little drizzle of oil (this helps everything stay all mixed up), 1/2 tsp. peppermint extract, and just enough milk to make everything mix together well. Heat until sugar has dissolved and store in fridge.

The above frapp recipe is one serving, and I used about half the chocolate syrup I made. So that means more yumminess for tomorrow! :D

~Stash Flash: Thread~

Sew, Mama, Sew! has asked to see their reader's thread collection. Following are the questions they asked, and my answers!

How did you select colors for your personal thread collection?
Besides white and black, I typically buy thread on an as-needed basis.

Do you always match the color perfectly to your project?
As perfectly as I possibly can!

Do you ever use contrasting thread?
Occasionally, but the bulk of my sewing I use matching thread.

Do you use the same color in the bobbin as the upper thread?
Yes. When I am piecing a quilt I'm not so picky about the bobbin though.

What if a fabric has big areas of very different colors?
I choose the dominant color and go with that.

Do you have any tips or suggestions about choosing thread?
If you can't find a thread that matches your fabric perfectly, go with the darker hue. The lighter color will stand out more. Many quilters use grey thread to piece their quilts, as it blends with both light and darker fabrics.

Can you show us a picture(s) of your thread collection?


I keep my thread in the top drawer of my sewing cabinet:


Do you ever buy thread because you fall in love with the color (without a particular project in mind)?
This question is kind of funny to me. =P I have never fallen in love with a spool of thread.

Do you “invest” in thread?
Only grudgingly! I buy thread for my projects as I need to and I don't like it when I have to buy thread at full price!

What types of thread do you have? (elastic, quilting, all-purpose, wool, etc.)
I use all-purpose for most of my projects. I also have elastic and quilting thread, and some strong thread for hand sewing.

~Baby Skirt~

So, babies don't really have the physique for skirts, but still, who can resist a cute skirt?

Last year I started the tradition of buying us all a flag t-shirt from Old Navy for us to wear on the 4th of July. This year's shirt for The Baby:


and I had the perfect red and white-striped fabric in my fabric bin! I made a skirt with attached bloomers underneath.


For the bloomers, I used my trusty pattern from Ottobre 3/2009. For the skirt, I just cut a piece of fabric the same width as the bloomers. I sewed them together separately, then attached them at the waist, folded down to make a waist band and then hemmed the skirt to a nice length.


I got a little lazy and decided to make a deep hem, instead of measuring and cutting off the fabric. I figured that if my daughter gets taller, I can just lengthen the hem. Right? And I also figured that the deep hem was part of the "design". And I'm the designer, right? :-) I was pleased with the finished product, though I think if I make any more in the future I would use a lighter-weight fabric for the bloomers. The fabric that the skirt is made out of is not super heavy but all together this is kind of bulky. I like that the skirt and bloomers are attached though!

~Sundress and bloomers~

I've decided to pursue a new career. I think I will be a shirrer. Or would that be a shirrist?


Whatever it may be called, I love shirring fabric! Who knew it was so easy? Not me! It took me a while to get the "gumption" to try out shirring, and now that I know how, I want to shir everything!

We were invited to a birthday party for a little friend of our daughter's. I decided to make a sundress:


and of course it had to have bloomers to go along with it:


I totally love the fabric I used for the border and bloomers! It is a batik, and it looks like watermelon rind, don't you think? I've never bought batik before, or even cared for it that much when I've seen it in the store, but in this case it went perfectly with my choice of fabric.

The dress is my own pattern, the bloomers are from Ottobre 3/2009. I think I will get my money's worth from the magazine subscription on this one bloomer pattern alone. LOL I like this bloomer pattern because it is nice and full and covers the diaper really well. I've made them and blogged about them here, here, and here, and I used them in another way which I'll be blogging about soon! :-)

~Giveaway Day!~

So...I've seen all kinds of impressive giveaways lately. In fact, just today I've entered in some giveaways that are for $100 or more in products.

Sorry, you won't find that kind of giveaway here! I've never blogged for profit, so I don't have companies lining up asking me to give away their products!

However, my own two little hands have made this:


and I want to give it to YOU. Well, *one* of YOU.

Would you like to win?

There is a very simple way to enter:
Leave a comment on this post telling me how you would use this tote. That's it. :-) There must be a way to contact you! Either an email address, or if you are a blogger a valid blog address.

There is a slightly more complicated way to enter:
Blog about the giveaway! Leave a separate comment on this post letting me know that you have blogged about my giveaway!

Comments will be closed on Monday night. EDITED: I'm extending the entries until Friday night.

Please visit my shop to see more ruffle totes and a few other goodies as well!

~Storing Children's Clothes~

I wanted to share how I store my daughter's clothes. We are hoping to have another child, so for now I'm keeping all the clothes.

As my daughter outgrew her clothes, I would put them in bags and boxes and trundle them down to the basement. They were here, or there, or tossed over there. I'd lay in bed and fret about it, because I like to lay in bed and fret about odd things like that.

One day I was at Wal-mart and I saw their plastic totes for $3.44 each, or something like that. I bought five. I recently had to buy two more and they were $5.40 each. The price is worth it so I could stop obsessing over it when I was supposed to be sleeping. ;-)

These are the sizes I have:
Newborn/0-3 months
3 months/3-6 months
6 months/6-9 months
9 months/9-12 months
12 months/12-18 months
18 months/18-24 months
24 months/2T

The last two bin sizes are clothes that my daughter is too small for. Now, as my daughter outgrows her clothes I can take them down to the basement and stick them into the appropriate tote. It's also easier to keep clothes this way for when she grows into them.



When I was growing up, somewhere along the way my dad obtained some large plastic barrels that originally had pickled peppers in them, and that's what we stored our out-of-season clothes in. Our clothes all smelled like pickled peppers when we got them out each season. In fact, I still have an article of clothing that got stored with some clothes that had been stored in those barrels and when I pull it out I can still smell those peppers! It was never even in the barrel! We later switched to some cardboard drum containers and those worked much better (and our clothing smelled much better too!).

How do you store clothing?

~Chemical Fragrances~

I was really encouraged when I read this blog article: What's that Smell? Report--Chemical Fragrances in Cleaners Dangerous to Families.

It's a pretty discouraging article, so why was I encouraged?

:::I have been using scent-free, dye free laundry detergent for about three years (or more). I have one and half bottles left to use, and then I plan on making this detergent.
:::I haven't used aerosol air freshener since I bought a natural air deodorizer over two years ago. (In fact, I'm still using the same bottle! It will need to be replaced soon though.)
:::I have always used a limited number of cleaners, and most of those don't have strong fragrances.
:::But now that I'm making my own cleaners, I don't have to worry about chemical fragrances in cleaners at all! (Window Cleaner, Disinfectant and All-Purpose Cleaner Recipes).
:::I do not use plug-in air fresheners.

Now, the one thing I don't know is how safe scented candles are. I love Yankee Candles and used to burn them quite often. Because of my daughter's mobility I don't burn them very often any more. I haven't run across any research on candle-burning yet. If you have a link with information, I'd love it if you'd share!

The only product I need to do away with is scented laundry softener. In the winter it is necessary to use laundry softener or else the clothes have horrible static cling! I have fallen in love with the beautifully scented laundry softeners available, so I need to give those up! At the very least there is non-scented laundry softener available, and it does the job just fine!

There are a few more things that I'm working on finding recipes for and replacing in my home. But the things mentioned above are the areas of greatest concern.

~Ruffle Totes~

I am so excited about the ruffle totes I have in my Etsy shop! I love every one of them and if I needed more totes I think I'd keep them all!

Details are in the shop, but here are pictures of each one:


Retro Dots and Gingham Ruffle Tote


Floral and Gingham Ruffle Tote


Gingham Ruffle Tote

Stay tuned for a little giveaway later on this week!

~Tin Roof Sundae~

Shortly after we were married, Kevin and I discovered Tin Roof Sundae ice cream. I didn't think I would like it because it has peanuts in it, but we got some anyhow, and I was hooked.

Tin Roof Sundae is made with vanilla ice cream, swirls of chocolate, and chocolate-covered peanuts.

We haven't had this ice cream in years...ever since we moved from California! It just isn't in the stores here. But! I was shopping the other day and guess what I found? You guessed it! Tin Roof Sundae ice cream! Of course it came home with me!

I was thinking about ice cream and how even though I like ice cream I never buy it when I'm grocery shopping. There are some things that just never occur to me, and this is one. I could put it on my list (occasionally!) and we would have a treat waiting in the freezer. But I just don't buy it and don't think to buy it until I'm craving ice cream! And then we have to make a special run to the store for it! I guess it is a good thing because if we have to make a separate trip, we sometimes just don't. So we don't eat ice cream that often.

~California~

Earlier this month we went to California for my siser's wedding. The crocheted namepiece was framed. And about 1/2" too wide for our suitcase. Grrr. We'll be sending it via UPS soon.

The day after the wedding, we went up to the Sequoia National Forest. We went to Grant Grove, and then a little drive up to Panoramic Point. The tree pictures are from Grant Grove, and then the mountain views are from the Panoramic Point. It was beautiful up there! The last time I was at Panoramic Point was August of 1999. Kevin and I were dating, and we spent a day up at the mountains with another couple. The next day, Kevin left to go back to college. Ah, memories! :-)



It's hard to depict the grandeur of these trees. They are the world's largest and oldest trees. (Not the tallest, but the largest.) The trunks are enormous.

~An Ugly Pair of Shoes~

"An Ugly Pair of Shoes"

I am wearing a pair of shoes.
They are ugly shoes.
Uncomfortable Shoes.
I hate my shoes.
Each day I wear them, and each day I wish I had another pair.
Some days my shoes hurt so bad that I do not think I can take another step.
Yet, I continue to wear them.
I get funny looks wearing these shoes.
They are looks of sympathy.
I can tell in others eyes that they are glad they are my shoes and not theirs.
They never talk about my shoes.
To learn how awful my shoes are might make them uncomfortable.
To truly understand these shoes you must walk in them.
But, once you put them on, you can never take them off.
I now realize that I am not the only one who wears these shoes.
There are many pairs in the world.
Some women are like me and ache daily as they try and walk in them.
Some have learned how to walk in them so they don't hurt quite as much.
Some have worn the shoes so long that days will go by before they think of how much they hurt.
No woman deserves to wear these shoes.
Yet, because of the shoes I am a stronger woman.
These shoes have given me the strength to face anything.
They have made me who I am.
I will forever walk in the shoes of a woman who has lost a child.

Author Unknown

Early this spring I read this poem on someone else's blog. I was waiting to find out if I was miscarrying. In a very odd way this poem was a comfort to me. And just a day or so later, we found out our that baby was with Jesus. This has been the most difficult thing I have ever faced.

God has been more real to me in the last few months than ever before. I have found great refuge in His loving arms. A book that has helped point me towards God and helped me wade through the grief is the devotional Grieving the Child I Never Knew by Kathe Wunnenberg.

As the poem states, I believe I am stronger now. I have a greater sense of compassion for others going through trials and loss. And I know that no matter what I go through, I know that God will always be there for me.