Sweet Simple Nativty

I am under my annual crunch time to make crafts for a craft show I go in.  It is this Saturday.  I have managed to make 18 of these amazing, sweet nativity ornaments so far.

They were so easy to make,  The hard part was finding this type of clothes pin.  I actually found them at a locally owned little dollar store.  Although, I did find them for the same price in packs of 100 on Amazon.
I had to cut the bottom part off 1/3 of them to be baby Jesus.  I glued 2 together, one just a little higher than the other for Mary and Joseph. I tied a raffia bow on all the baby Jesus', then glued Him on an angle across the front.
These rusty stars were from Ebay. I twisted rusty wire trough the star, then glued it to the back of the ornament. You can see it in the picture below.  The twine hanger is also glued in the back.  I used Goop glue for the gluing because I find it is so strong and won't fall apart.

They turned out so adorable!

God bless you and thank you for stopping by.

Crocheted Pumpkins

I found this pattern on Pinterest for these cute crocheted pumpkins.  They are so quick to make and fun.

 I added some embellishments, such as, little keys, tags that say fall, old little curly-cue bed springs. And I glued some of the bigger ones onto a bed spring with a doily under it.

I made them in 4 sizes. The smallest only takes about 1/2 hour to make.  It was fun using different colours of yarn and it was a great way to use up yarn scraps.

You can find the pattern here.

Thanks for stopping by.

This post is linked up to :

Talk of The Town
Vintage Charm Adirondack Girl
Make it Pretty Monday
Dagmar's Home Link Party

August

August was quite fun and full!

First of all we had our county fair.  Between myself and all the kids we entered over 100 items.  We always have fun, but we all are quite competitive and hope to do well.  We all did do well. The boys had lots of positive remarks from the judges and ribbons. Rebekah and I both received High Point in our division and I received Best of Division for my butter tarts as well. That was a huge surprise!

I was so proud of Rebekah. She entered her strawberry jam in the adult division and won against me! Awesome.

Best of Division award on my butter tarts.

Ben won 1st on his bread against Rebekah. He is so talented.

I love this Christmas button wreath Jacob made and won 2nd.  I want to make some of these this Christmas. 

August we celebrated Jacob's 10th birthday.  All my kids are getting so old!  We went to our local corn maze and had a blast.

We brought along one of Jacob's friends.

God bless you and thank you for stopping by.

July

July was actually a fairly quiet month for us.  All of our company left after the first week and we worked at VBS at our church for a week.  Jacob also attended soccer camp for a week in the evenings.  I really liked that camp because they served a delicious supper to all the families every night! Bonus, no cooking.

We did get a chance to pick some sour cherries at a local farm. It was 50/50 picking. Which means the farm keeps have of what we pick and we keep the other half for free. We managed to pick 6 ice cream buckets in about an hour.

Rebekah and Ben picking.

I canned 16 pints of cherry pie filling. Larry loves his cherry cheesecake!

Larry and Jacob worked on a small project one day too.  They built a little front deck on the house.

I didn't get a picture of the finished project, but it turned out really great.

July wasn't the funnest time for the kids and I. Our house ended up getting very invaded by bats while Larry was out of town for 5 days.  We knew we had lots of bats in the attic and they could make their way into the house and we were trying to fix the problem. But it seemed we actually made it worse.  We ended up running out of the house in our pajamas at 5:30 am and slept in a hotel until Larry made it home.  We think we have all their entry points sealed now.  They have migrated for the winter. But, we will see next May when they return to have their babies in our attic if they can get back in.  I have a feeling they will find a way, but hopefully not.

So, that was our July. Thanks for stopping by!

Time to Catch Up

The last several months seem like a whirlwind.  We have been enjoying life and all it's wonderful business.

This post, I think I'll go ALL the way back to June.  In June we had the great fortune to go on a family vacation to Vancouver Island for my niece's wedding.  It was so wonderful to get back on the island. I grew up there and have not been back for 12 years.

Exploring the amazing beach in Parksville

Jacob spent a lot of time with the sea lions in Victoria

Rebekah's selfie on BC Ferries

We had such a great time there. But we still had fun waiting for us at home.  We were only home a few days until Larry's parents came for their annual visit and Rebekah and I were geared up for the local stampede.

Larry's parents and the kids

Rebekah and the Zebra that was part of the half time show at the stampede this year.

There you go. I'll be able to post about July next time.

Garage Sale Needlepoint

I think I might be weird. But I love old needlepoint pictures.  When ever I see one at a garage sale or thrift store, I am SO tempted to buy it.  When I saw this one at a garage sale a few weeks ago, I knew I needed it.

Sorry about the weird colours

Somebody did A LOT of work to make this and I love it! The lady gave me a deal, because she knew I would love it. She sold it to me for $5.00.

Thanks for stopping by.

This post is linked up to;

Thrifty and Vintage Finds Link Party

How I Earn Free Merchandise

I have to tell you of how I have earned $220.00 of free Amazon gift cards, which I have used to buy DVD's, collagen and other THM products.

I found this website called Swagbucks.  It is one of those survey websites and you can spend some time to answer the surveys, but you can also earn money by shopping online through their website.  I don't know about you, but I shop online at places like Amazon and Walmart quite often. If I shop through Swagbucks at these websites, I earn money.  I also found that you could earn money by booking hotels through their website.  I wish I'd seen this earlier because when Larry is working regularly, he stays about 10 nights per month at hotels.  That would equate to $75 of Amazon gift cards, or you could choose from lots of different gift cards, including PayPal.

So, just by booking a hotel through Swagbucks, I earn about $7.50.  They have hundreds of stores you can shop at and earn money. Such as, Expedia, Old Navy, Cabela's, Staples, Sears just to name a few.

If you want to check it out click here.  I would appreciate if you did go through this link, as I would receive referral Swagbucks and if you do it soon you could earn an extra 300 SB ($3.00) as well.

My Amazon shopping cart is full of items waiting for me to earn enough Swagbucks to redeem them for a gift card. I can't wait to place my order.

God bless.

This post is linked up to:

Monday of Many Blessings
Welcome Home Wednesdays Link Party
Wake Up Wednesday Linky Party

Plate Stand

I just adore these plate stands and they are so easy and inexpensive to make.

I bought the big dish from Dollarama. Which you can kind of tell because they are all a little warped along the top.

I used an old glass candle holder for the base.  They worked so great for this project, because the bottom of the candle holder fit perfectly in the circle on the bottom of the plate.

This is the top of the candle holder, which will be on the bottom once it is glued on.

I painted the candle holder with chalk paint and then I spray sealed it a couple of times to protect the paint.

This is the bottom of the candle holder that is glued to the plate.  This one is painted grey.

Once the candle holder was completely dry, I sanded the paint off the edge where I would be gluing it so that it would be a true bonding. Then I glued the bottom of the candle holder to the bottom of the plate using "Goop".  I found it takes this Goop glue about 4 days to dry to the point where you can't move it around anymore.  So, if that's the kind you use, be careful not to move it too much for the first few days.

I wouldn't want to submerge this stand in water, but it is washable.

This one I'm keeping. I love the blue base.

I think they turned out pretty cute.

Thanks for stopping by.

Crystal

This post is linked up to'

Vintage Charm
Anything Blue Friday at The Dedicated House
Vintage and Thrifty Finds
Wake Up Wednesday "Linky" Party
Talk of the Town

Making Tomato Sauce From Frozen Tomatoes

I have finally processed the last of my frozen tomatoes. I still had about 30 lbs in the freezer and needed to free up that freezer space.  I have already canned lots of tomatoes and more salsa than I can count, so I figured we need some tomato sauce.

Now, I love freezing our garden tomatoes whole in the fall.  That way I free up my time to process the other garden fruits and veggies in the busy season.  Then, when everything has quieted down and I feel like canning, I have them ready.

Also, when you freeze tomatoes and after they thaw, the skins just slip off. So no need for boiling them.  Bonus!!!

The skins didn't really bother me for this recipe anyway.  Garden grown tomatoes tend to have thinner skins and I was running them through my food processor.

Tomatoes thawing out.

Ready to be processed.

I just made a very simple recipe.  I cooked 3 chopped onions in about 1/2 olive oil.  Then I added 8 cloves of minced garlic.  Then I added all the processed tomatoes and salt and 2 Tbsp crushed chili peppers.  I cooked this until it reduced by about 2 quarts. Then I added a big can of crushed tomatoes and 156 ml can of tomato paste.

I'm sure I could have processed the jars in a water bath, but I chose to do it in my pressure canner because of the oil.

I ended up with 18 pints when it was all done and now I finally have a little bit of freezer space.

Thanks for stopping by.

Crystal

2 Corinthians 9:6

6 But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter everyone!

I just wanted to share some pictures of these Ukrainian Eggs Rebekah and I made the other night. Our neighbour invited us to a class to learn how to make them. We jumped at the chance!! I had gotten some tools from my Grandma before she died and promised I would learn how to make these eggs and I have done it!

We chose a traditional Ukrainian design.  It has an 8 pointed star, which symbolizes God's love toward man. Which is so beautifully demonstrated at Easter when we celebrate Jesus' death and resurrection to pay for our sins.

These are the tools I got from my Grandma. (Sorry the picture is so dark)

God Bless you all,

Crystal

How Do You Start Letting Go?

This past Friday my little girl, who has been my helper, companion, cheerleader and so much more turned 16.  She is becoming such a wonderful young lady.  She is bright and still likes to serve. She plays violin and guitar for the elderly and worship at church.  And she enjoys spending time with friends.  One of her good friends took her out to dinner and a hockey game on her birthday.

It was hard for me to let her go. She has always been around home as we homeschool.  This is a new stage for me that is exciting, because I love to watch her grow into the woman God has planned for her, but a little sad, because things are changing.  This must be some kind of weaning stage for parents to get more and more used to their kids not be around all the time as they used to be and eventually moving out.  I will cherish everyday with Rebekah and the boys.  In fact, I will cherish the time Rebekah and I had together earlier on her birthday.

Because she turned 16, we started to let her wear make-up and to kick it off, I took her for a free makeover at Shoppers Drug Mart.  The lady did a good job, but I feel she put the make-up on a little heavy.  When she was done, I bought her just a few items of make-up.  Then we had lunch at Subway.  On the way home, we swung by Dairy Queen and got an ice cream cake to have at home with Larry and the boys.  We also opened presents then.

Here are some pictures;

Rebekah's friends, who live along a highway put this birthday message up for her. It says "Happy 16 Birthday Becky!"

In the make-up chair

I got Rebekah 16 presents, some from the thrift store and others not.

Rebekah and Ben

Me, bringing in the cake.

Rebekah and her friend at the hockey game.

If anyone has any advice for me, please feel free to leave a comment. I know it'll all be alright and I will go on.  I will have to choose to love every stage my children go through, including growing up.

Psalm 127:3 (NIV)

 Children are a heritage from the Lord,

    offspring a reward from him.

Thanks for stopping by.

Crystal

Twine and Lace Eggs

I have made a few sets of these spring eggs this past week and I  really like the way they turned out.

I used the cheap plastic Easter eggs to make them. Before I wrapped them in twine, I glued the eggs shut and spray painted them brown in case of little gaps in the twine.  I'd hate to see bright pink shining through.

When they were ready, I started out the twine by gluing the beginning of the twine to the top of the egg.  I let it dry so that the twine was secured. Then I was able to start wrapping the twine around the egg, gluing as I went.

Once it was wrapped, I added the embellishments, such as lace, buttons, raffia and lace flowers.  I always find a way to use a brown paper tag.  I think they are so cute on things.  For these eggs, I stamped the word "JOY" on them.

Here they are ready for market.

Thanks for stopping by,

Crystal

This post is linked up to:
Frugal Mommas Friday Linkup
Share it One More Time Inspiration Party
Vintage Charm
Welcome Home Wednesdays