Creative Homemaker

For years I have been enamored with Mama CJT’s “Ladies” series of quilts.   You can see more of her mini quilts here .   She makes the most adorable ladies! I decided I wanted one for myself.   This is how I created my “Quilt ME”  Enter, the "selfie" I'm not good at selfies, that's more of my teenage daughter's thing, not me, but I needed a good facial pic of me. I took dozens of photos.   I tried glasses up, and glasses down.  Even though I always wear them up on my nose, I thought my eyes looked better over the tops of my lenses rather than through.  So if you have glasses, try them both ways, I preferred them down.  I tried big smile, with teeth, and closed mouth.  Closed mouth, slight smile worked for me.  My ME quilt is almost serious, or mischievous.  I also took pics of my hand holding the scissors.  I wanted the shape of my knuckles to be right.  Then I sketched.  This is the par...

Bundt cakes remind me of fall for some reason.  My daughter says it's the shape--that they look like pumpkins.  Maybe that's it.  I think it's because of the warm spicy flavors and smells I associate with those recipes.  That and the reference to to one of my favorite movies. My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002), where Toula’s mother doesn’t know what a bundt cake is and she “fixes” the hole in the cake with a potted flower."Ohh! It's cake!!" Every morning for the past few days I've made a different variation of the humble bundt cake. I made a pumpkin, then banana, then apple.  Today I wanted quick, so I pulled out an old recipe that I got from two different friends almost 20 years ago.  Here's my altered version: Fruit Cocktail Cake 1/4 cup butter 1 1/2 cup sugar 2 eggs 1 Tbl vanilla 2 1/2 cups flour 2 tsp. baking soda 1/2 tsp salt 1 qt home canned fruit, juice included, (older is better) Preheat oven to 350, grease and flou...

I know many people who are impacted by this. Is this Biblical? You decide. http://steadfastlutherans.org/2015/04/repost-sinful-removal-of-pastors-let-me-count-the-ways/

I love upcycling and using what would ordinarily be thrown away toward a good and useful purpose. Plus, chickens and bunnies are cute. So why not tote them with you to the grocery store?    Start with a 40-50 pound sack of feed.  Feed the critters first and shake out all the extra feed.  Some feeds are sweet and sort of sticky, so you may need to wash out the bag.  Using a roller cutter and a mat, cut the bottom, closed edge off straight.   You can also use a box knife to cut it, or draw a line with a pen and use scissors.  A roller cutter will be infinitely easier.  Then, using a ruler, cut off a 2.5" strip across the bottom of the bag, this will be one handle.    Now move your ruler and cut another 2.5" strip for the other handle.   Turn the bag over and thinking about where you want the design to be, cut about 2 inches above that line, so you can hem the top of the bag.  I chose to hem...