Can you tell I LOVE nativity sets???

Every year I am on the hunt for the perfect nativity set. I really want to get the Fisher Price Little People nativity set (that one NEVER goes on sale). Last year I got the one where the kids play in the sand. This year I found a nativity set from Ethiopia carved out of wood (in the middle). And one of my favorite ones is the simple one made out of flower pots.

Tristen has been spending Tuesday afternoons at Grammy's house. She goes there before her art class. Each week they work on a different project. Sometimes they cook or bake. Often they will make an art project together. A few weeks ago I sent her with some supplies I had saved up to make a nativity set. I have had these ideas to make this set for years but never got around to it. Good thing Grammy was willing to help her out.

When Tissy came home with her project, I just about melted. I LOVE it. It turned out so cute. They did a great job. I am hopeful that this will keep for years and years.

living nativity

Chuck built a beautiful (but very simple) creche for our churches living nativity. I am always so proud of how he works at each of his sets that he has built. This one looked really big in our garage, but once he got it out on the location, it didn't look so huge.

We woke up on Saturday to a surprise snow and he bundled up to move his creche and manger to the church. With a few decorations the set looked quite authentic. About every 5 weeks, the church offers "Bethlehem Marketplace". They set up a biblical marketplace for the kids to experience some food, crafts and story in a historical setting.

The kids LOVED the animals. Tissy spend an hour walking the horse around and Tate finally warmed up to the goats. He was sure they were going to EAT him. And Tyce...well, let's just say he is in his element running around outside with friends and animals.

homemade play dough...and a good way to entertain all the kiddos

One of the challenges for me has been to carve out time with just the big girls. My time and energy is monopolized most of the day by 2 little guys (well - honestly the littlest one in our bunch). I have been trying to skip the nap for mommy when I put the boys down for rest and do something with the girls.

One afternoon, we decided to make some play dough. I have had this recipe for years and have never done it. Not sure why...just too busy, I guess. But when you are cocooning at home and looking for something to do...you bring out all your ideas and try to keep the little ones entertained. This is a fun book with cool recipes for all your homemade goodies. Our next project will be homemade bubbles. I'll let you know how it turns out.
The girls often enjoy working in the kitchen with me and although this was fun, it wasn't quite as fun as making brownies or cupcakes and getting to lick the bowl clean.


I made a REALLY big batch and here is the recipe I used to make enough dough for all the kids to share.

4 cups boiling water
2 cups salt
4 cups all purpose flour
4 tablespoons alum
4 tablespoons veggie oil

Remove the boiling water from the stove and add the salt. In medium bowl mix the rest if the ingredients. Add the salted water and mix the dough. Add food coloring if desired. Kneed it by hand when it has cooled a bit.

Once the boys got up from their rest time, they got to play with it too. I just had to let them know we don't eat it. And as you can imagine around here, I act all of those concepts out to communicate to them what I need to get across.


I love how these kinds of activities bring all the kids together and allows them to bond and connect as siblings.
If you look closely, you will see little man Tate smiling (well, kind of a smile that says "watch out, I am a handful"). He is so fast it is hard to catch him smiling. Well, that and I am using my phone as a camera. I still haven't gotten back to taking the time to uploading real pictures. Good thing I can snap a shot and email it to myself. At least I am documenting our life here at home.

making little AG doll goodies

Just wanted to share what I made here this past weekend when we had our big snow storm. I wanted to make some goodies for a friend's daughter who is getting an American Girl doll for her birthday. Since the Kirsten doll is no longer available through AG, she found one on Craig's List. I helped her fix the doll's hair to make her look more like new. She didn't come with any accessories so I borrowed the pattern from a friend and worked on Friday night and Saturday on some fun accessories.
I made the apron, spoon pocket, hankie and bonnet. I think they turned out SOOOOO cute. I just love them. Making dolly clothes are extra fun (even though they are extra small and hard to maneuver on the machine).


I couldn't just stop with those. I thought it would be fun to make the Kirsten "undies". So sweet. Hope she likes them.

homemade quilt made from old clothes

I recently made a quilt made from some baby clothes that I had saved from the girls. I wanted to make something on the sewing machine, but I didn't want to buy a bunch of fabric. So, I thought the quilt would work just fine, plus, we are often in need of extra blankets around here.

I will be honest, I didn't measure ANYTHING. I just started cutting and made sure the squares were about the same size. I am a "wing-it" kind of gal. I had no plan, just wanted to be crafty. The squares are about 9 by 9 inches. Lots of different kinds of fabric, sweaters, knit dresses, Chuck's racing t-shirt, old shorts that Tissy wore out before she grew out of them. Each piece brings memories and the girls LOVE IT. They love what it represents.
By the time I was ready to attach it to the backing and batting, I was in no mood to "quilt" it. The fabrics are too varied, so I decided to tie it with yarn. That alone took several evenings in front of the TV watching movies while I worked under the warm snuggy quilt. I can't wait until I can make one for the boys in a few years.

SNOW !!!!!! (and our homemade sled)

We had a BLAST this weekend. We got lots of snow (lots for here at least) and we enjoyed every moment. Friday Chuck made it home from work in record time. It took him an hour (only takes about 10 minutes on a regular day). Cars were all over the place and stuck in ditches. He was safe and took it nice and slow. Friday night we took a walk in the snow after dinner. It was beautiful. We walked over to my parents house and visited, then bundled back up and walked home. Our cheeks were stung with frozen flakes hitting them, but it made for great memories.

Saturday was a true "snowed in" day. They don't plow the snow here and no one shovels. It usually melts within the day, so there is no need to worry. But this snow was deep and lasted several days. It would freeze again at night and make it a glistening iced over wonder each morning.

We let the girls wear our OLD snow clothes (yep...they were huge on them but it didn't matter). The kids bundled up and wanted to sled. We have a little hill in our yard and Chuck found some things for them to sled on.
We used an old toboggan and a runner sled. Both are truly antiques. But it was worth it. I think Chuck used this little toboggan when he was little.
Took a break for lunch then decided to head back out in the snow again. This time Chuck took a second to look for ideas on how to make a homemade sled. You see around here people will use anything. Boogie boards, cardboard, laundry baskets, baby pools, garbage bags, blow up pool rafts. You name it...and someone has used it.
This is what Chuck came up with. We call it SPEEDERS. Old skies (that Chuck's parents brought last time they were here) and wood. And it is FAST !!!! And FUN !!!! By the time we were done, Chuck had drilled holes in the tips to tie on the rope. I know you are jealous. =) Talk about a great way to reuse and recycle.
I have to say...what a good Daddy Chuck is. He spent hours helping the girls sled and have fun in the snow. What a special time together as a family.

Well...it wasn't ALL for the kids. We had a fun runs too.

homemade christmas gifts from the girls

Just like we did last year, we all worked hard on homemade gifts for Christmas. Sorry for the delay, but I am working on a different computer and I needed to learn how to upload the pics before I could share them. I will add more photos later as part of my blogging journal, but here are a few pictures of the girls with their gifts.Tally made Papa a pillow that she hand embroidered and sewed on the machine. He loves sailboats so every thing for Papa has sailboats.Grammy gets an apple for her Christmas tree. She loves apples (my dad was raised on an apple farm, so they are special to our whole family).

Tissy embroidered on a hankie for Papa. Yep...that is another sailboat.

After last years homemade napkins, she decided to make some for Grammy. She embroidered a custom set for them. A sailboat to represent Papa and Sudoku to represent Grammy.
Tissy embroidered Africa on a piece of cloth for me to turn into a pillow. She needed help on the machine so we will finish it together. Notice the little heart near Ethiopia? I love it !!!!
Tissy embroidered on a hankie for Grandpa (Chuck's dad). He gets a car for his design. Good thing our grandpa's use handkerchiefs. =)

One of our favorite things to make is a little pouch out of felt. Tally made this one for Grandpa. He can use it to hold special goodies like gift cards.
Tissy made a little watermelon for Grandma. She can put it in her kitchen with her collection or hang it on her Christmas tree.

The girls came up with all these ideas on their own. I was so proud of their creative ideas and thoughtful gestures. They are such sweet girls and they want to share their love for us in such special ways.

Comfrey Salve

One of the reasons I joined the crop share (HERE) this year was to force me into trying new things. I knew it would get me out of my comfort zone and help me to take more chances in cooking. Little did I know I would also learn to make my own homemade medicine too.

One week with my produce, I got comfrey. I had no idea what it was or what to do with it. Often with the produce we get a little list of ideas or recipes that might be worth trying. That week included a recipe for COMFREY SALVE. So, what the heck. I thought I would give it a try.

The recipe I had calls for:

Comfrey Salve:

1/2 cup Vaseline
1/2 cup beeswax
1/2 cup chopped comfrey leaf

Wash and cut the comfrey leaves into small pieces (use scissors to dice them up rather small).


In a double broiler melt the beeswax and the Vaseline.

Add the comfrey leaves and allow them to steep for several hours on very low heat (another option is to place the pan of leaves and wax in the sun on a very hot day and allow it to steep this way.


Strain the salve thru a piece of cheese cloth and store it back in the Vaseline jar.


This is the best salve you will ever use...it stops itching immediately even on chigger bites and heals cuts very quickly.
As for a testimonial of the comfrey salve and how well it works. It does really help with the itchy bites. I just used it on ant bite (not fire ant) and it worked great. We have been using it on mosquito bites and it is working well. It is a little waxy, I might use more Vaseline next time.

And when I was making it, I thought it smelled a little medicinal, so I added some mint, chocolate mint and lavender that I had. Now it smells better. Last little note, it is really waxy when you are making it and it is hard to get your pot clean. I should have used a pan just for crafty things like this (and it splattered up on my shirt and is hard to get it out). But all in all, it was a good experiment. Again, I LOVE learning new things. Who knew I would learn to make homemade medicine.

Country Craft Flag Banner

I am getting ready for a party that we are throwing on Sunday (oh...it should be a hoot of a party) and I wanted to make some decorations. I have wanted to make these flag banners for awhile and thought I would take this opportunity to give it a try.




1. I bought a yard each of 5 different materials. Picking ones that look good together - like you would for colors for a quilt.


2. Take the yard of material and fold it so there are 4 layers before you begin cutting.


3. Make a template in the shape of a triangle and trace onto the fabric, alternating directions to make a zig zag pattern.


4. Cut the triangle shapes with pinking shears so no sewing is needed to prevent ends of fabric from unraveling.


5. Fold and iron over the tops of the flag in order to make a flap to attach the twine to the flag.


6. I decided to staple instead of sew (I had a LOT of these to make and stapling turned out just fine) the flag onto the twine.


7. Continue the pattern in order to make cute banners for decorations for party.
I have 20 flags on each strand of twine. And my 5 yards total of fabric made quite a few of these. The material will go farther if you have fabric that looks good on either side. How cute are these???? I just love them. This may be my new way of decorating for parties. =) And like I said before, it is the YEAR OF CELEBRATIONS.

Homemade Holiday

Almost forgot the precious homemade gift debut. As I mentioned before, in our penny pinching effort this year, we made gifts for Christmas. The girls really got into this and spend days working on theirs. I was able to help them come up with ideas that they could actually pull off. We got lots of felt (not wool felt ~ too pricey) and a variety of craft floss (like embroidery floss ~ just easier for kids to work with). And they had a blast making their gifts. I didn't get pictures of the gifts that they gave away to cousins, so just trust me on how cute those were.

Tally made these AG doll mittens and scarf for Tissy (well actually for Tissy's doll). Tally was able to conquer the blanket stitch and used it on lots of her projects.With a little design help from grandparents, Tally made these ice skate ornaments for me. I used to ice skate when I was younger and I have always loved ice skate ornaments. Aren't they just darling?

Tally has always been a natural communicator. And she was able to make these kinds of gifts totally on her own. She wrote a book for Chuck and made me a book of Poems. Full of phonetic spelling and all. I am not sure it gets any cuter than this. I just love these and I will bring them out in the years to come and put them out with the other Christmas books. (click on the picture below to enlarge the picture to read some of the poems)


Here I am unwrapping the gift that Tissy made me. I have mentioned that I want to make some cloth napkins and work harder at not wasting paper napkins. She came up with the idea to make napkins for our family with a special design for each person. She also got some help from Grammy and Papa and they couldn't be cuter. Her excitement for having me open these gifts was almost uncontrollable. She was bursting with joy. Tears and all.


The designs are from the left - race car for Chuck, teacup for Tissy, book for Tally, and apple for me.

My gift for the girls was this felt toy mail set. I had seen it in a catalog (HERE) and I thought it was too cute. But I wasn't willing to pay over $50 for the whole thing. So as I usually do, I figured I could make it myself (with no pattern). I thought it turned out just adorable.

All the stamps and names and such can be interchanged and are held on with bits of Velcro. The brown ones on the left are envelopes that the notes can go inside of.

My original idea was to paint on the felt, but I ended up stitching it on with floss instead. It has a sweet primitive look that I just love in simple toys.

Like I said before, we didn't take pictures of everything, but these are but a few homemade ideas. There was something really special about not having to hunt the stores for some gift that the person wont really use, and spend money that you shouldn't. It was special to make these and think about the person and express your love for them in a homemade way.

Though we ran out of time and didn't finish our gifts for everyone (our very fast moving threw us off), we had a lot of fun making these this year.