Our Summer Bucket List

May 9, 2014

As much as I love the routine of our days during the school year, I love the unstructured time we have during the summer. But instead of spending endless days doing nothing, I like to have a bit of a plan as we enter summer.

A few summers ago, when both of my kids were still home during the day, I took my kids on quite a few local day trips. Of course I took a lot of photos on those day trips! I even ended up making photo books of our adventures for them and gave the books to them for Christmas that year. As my kids have gotten older, I know that the time is precious and I am thankful that we have opportunities to do a lot of fun things together.

This summer will be the second summer that my daughter and I will be home together during the day. She is quite a homebody and would rather stay home all day. But I know I would go stir crazy! Last year, we made a list of some things we wanted to do through the summer. We even made plans to invite a friend or two along when we could. And we both tried some new things together.

Last night, we started writing down some ideas of things we want to do for this upcoming summer.

We found a couple of ideas on Pinterest, but we came up with a few of our own ideas too. Over the next couple of weeks, we will be adding a few more items to our list. I love that my teenage daughter still wants to do things like 'chalk the driveway' and 'crayon art'!

What are your plans for this upcoming summer?

Compassion trip to Colombia

April 17, 2014

When we first started sponsoring Lina almost four years ago, I never thought about the possibility of ever visiting her. But now that I have been on one Compassion trip, the Compassion travel bug has bitten and I know that if God wants me to go, He will provide the way.

Be sure to 'like' my Facebook page, Gifts from Our Little Corner

To help me earn money to pay for a future trip, I have started posting things for sale again on my Gifts from Our Little Corner Facebook page. All of the items are handmade by me and I am donating ten percent of each sale to Compassion's Unsponsored Child Fund.

Knit dish cloths are my favorite to use in the kitchen! I love working on these a little bit at a time, ten rows here, ten rows there. Right now I have at least five of these completed and ready to sell.

Flannel baby blankets and wash cloth sets are another thing I like to sew and have on hand. These make wonderful baby shower gifts.

Need a bit of spring color in your home?

I also like to find some fun projects on Pinterest to try, like these Spring Burlap Bunting sets. Most of the time, I have a lot of the supplies around my home. So not only am I able to use up some of my supplies, but I am able to create some items for others to use and/or display around their homes.

So be sure to 'like' my Facebook page so you can see what creations I have for sale to help me earn my way to another Compassion trip. I sure would appreciate it!

Tackle It on Tuesday: Civil War Women's Clothing

April 15, 2014

Last week, I had a deadline for myself to finish sewing some Civil War underclothes for a friend of mine. Almost came right down to the wire, but here is the finished chemise:

Looks kind of like a nightgown doesn't it? The chemise, along with a pair of drawers, would be just the first layer that a woman would where during the Civil War time period. Women would also wear a corset, layers of petticoats, maybe a hoop skirt, her dress, an apron, and a bonnet or hat. There were a lot of layers! To read a bit more about clothing during this time period, here is a good article that covers some of the basics.

So this last weekend, our family went to one of my favorite locations out here in California for a Civil War Reenactment. This event takes place every spring in Mariposa, which is just about an hour west of Yosmite. The location is a dream location for a photographer because it is very rural, not a lot of modern items to get in the way. And of course I took a lot of pictures...

...about 300 or so. Which means I need to spend some time this week doing a bit of editing. And I just found something on Pinterest which might just help me work through these photos a little quicker. Next week, I will share a couple of my favorites from the weekend with you.

Are you working on anything special this week?

Tackle It on Tuesday: Pinterest recipes

April 9, 2014

My 'Recipes I would love to try' board on Pinterest has over 400 pins, which is the equivalent of the average cookbook. Every now and then, I like to give those recipes a try because making the same things every week just gets a little boring. This past week, I actually tried three recipes and here is what I thought about each one:

5-Ingredient Bacon Asparagus Pasta was the first new recipe I tried last week. All of the ingredients sounded wonderful! Bacon, asparagus, pasta, white wine, parmesan cheese...heavenly right? My husband loved this one, and he loved it even more the next day as leftovers. But something about it just didn't sit well with me...something about the bacon and the bacon grease. So I am thinking of changing this one up a bit with Italian sausage instead of the bacon...

Recipe #2 for the week...Pan Roasted Lemon Chicken. Again, the ingredients sounded amazing, but for some reason, the flavors didn't come through when I cooked up the recipe. I was really hoping this one would be a keeper because my husband really likes chicken for dinner...bummer!

After two strikes so far, I was a little reluctant to try recipe #3. But this recipe was for dessert, and really, how can you go wrong with dessert? After finding all of the ingredients I needed for this one, I must say, this was really good and will be moved to my Pinned it, tried it...it's a keeper board!

This week, my project I need to tackle moves me from the kitchen to my sewing room...

One of the reasons we were able to participate in Civil War Reenactments is because I did a lot of sewing for myself and my daughter. It is hard to believe the layers of clothing women wore during that time period and how expensive it is to buy those items today. Right now, we don't go to nearly as many events as we used to, so I am not making near as many outfits either, but a friend of mine has asked me to sew some items for her. The plan is to finish up her underclothes before this upcoming weekend and this chemise is just one of the items I am working on. Next week, I hope to share with you about some of the underclothes ladies wore during that time...makes you thankful for modern times.

Tackle It on Tuesday: Grandmother's Garden

April 1, 2014

So last week I shared with you about my long lost Grandmother's Garden quilting project that was just begging to be completed. I was hoping to get a little further along with it than I did, but I am happy with the progress I made on it.

Progress on my Grandmother's Garden quilt project

There is still a bit of work to be done, so once I finish it, I will try to remember to post a picture of the finished project.

This week, when I was making my menu for the week, I decided to add a couple of recipes from one of my Pinterest boards. Tonight we are going to try 5-ingredient Bacon Asparagus Pasta, Thursday night is Pan Roasted Lemon Chicken, and because we have some cooler weather this week, time to do a little baking and try this Coconut Cream Bundt Cake. Three new recipes seems like a lot for one week, but we are finally moving into a more normal schedule around here which gives me a little more time in the kitchen. And I love to try new recipes anyway!

Be sure to check back next week to see if these recipes are going to make it onto my Pinned it, tried it...it's a keeper board.