Life Got in the Way!

Hello everyone!!  I know, I know, it has been way, way too long since I posted last.  What can I say, life happens!  We have moved into a much smaller house, and that meant alot of going through closets, and we still are not done with that.  Add in all the work that had to be done to the house before we could move in, plus the packing, moving, unpacking, etc.......  Plus we have had to keep up with our schoolwork, which in itself is a full time job!  Things are starting to get back to somewhat normal as we settle into a daily routine, and I'm thinking about Stamping again.  That has really taken a back seat for the past two months.  Way, way in the back!  But we are having our meeting this coming Thursday, so I'm getting back into the swing of things, I think.  If there's anyone left out there who checks on me anymore, I'll try to be a good girl and post at least once in a while.   I still don't have all my stamp supplies here at the new house, because I just don't know where to put it all.  So  I can't promise anything grand, but I'll try.  For now, though, I have to finish school with the kids, do my chores, then a friend is coming over later for a perm and haircut.  So I'll see you folks later.  Bye!

School Drawings

I thought these drawings were so cute. Amanda has SC History in school this year, and she's learning about Native American tribes that lived in the area. Here is her picture of the Yap Ye Iswa Festival. It is a festival held every year by the Catawba People. Her explanation is pretty simple, don't you think?
The next one is her "Poster" to help raise awareness of things you can do to help the environment. I love the way she labels all her drawings!

That's it for now. School is keeping me very busy this year. Now I have to go figure out what's for dinner. See you later!

Mini Albums

Hello!! It's been so long since I last posted. We have been busy with school and this past month has just flown by. I can't believe we've finished 4 weeks of school already!! Last night was our Stamp Club and we had a really good time. It was nice to get some adult time and visit with my friends and family. Thanks for a great time, ladies! Now, on to the projects: We made these cute little mini albums. They're made from a sheet of 12 x 12 card stock, and very easy to do.


I don't really remember who's is who's, and I know they are not all here, but some of my pictures were really blurry. Sometimes my camera just doesn't cooperate.

We used up what I had left of a Simply Scrappin Kit from a few years ago. Sometimes those kits just last forever!!

Look at that cute page withe plaid flowers!! Dee and Kelly came up with that one, and I think it's just too cute!

I also have to thank Lisa for helping my newbie out lately. Sometimes it's hard to give one on one attention when trying to show a whole group what to do. You were a big help, Lisa!

Here's my whole group of Ladies. We had a really good time and I'm looking forward to our next meeting. Until next time.......

A Dress for Amanda

I know this isn't stamping related, but it is crafty. Amanda has been needing some new dresses, and when I saw the dresses Aubrey made for her daughter, I figured I'd break out my sewing machine too. Except I used a pattern. I'm not that brave to make a dress with no pattern. I got this nice jean fabric at the Goodwill store several months ago for $1. I already had the pattern from a dress I made for a friend's daughter about a year ago. So this dress was made for the cost of the ric rac and zipper plus $1 for fabric. About $4 total.

It was very easy to put together. It took no time at all until I got to the zipper. I HATE ZIPPERS!! It took me as long to put in the zipper as it did to make the whole dress, and it's still not right! As you can see, the top didn't come out even,

Which made the ric rac in the back not even!! Plus there is a pucker right below the ric rac on the left side. I may take the whole zipper out and redo it, or I may take the whole dress to my mom who can sew anything that needs to be sewn. See this post to see what I mean.

Well that's all I have time for today. Come back soon and see what I've been up to!

Homemade Butter

Happy Saturday to you!! I'm so glad today is Sat. because that means no schoolwork! We completed our first week. It's always hard to get back in the routine of school after summer vacation. Anyway, today Sam took the boys to mow the lawn at church, so I stayed home and folded some laundry and made some homemade butter with Amanda. You start out with heavy whipping cream. You pour it into a bowl that is bigger than what you think you need, because it gets pretty puffy when you are whipping it. I should have used a bigger bowl but didn't want to dirty another one after I realized it. Now that's lazy. Amanda started out with the whipping, but pretty soon her arms were tired and I took over. You just whip and whip. It usually takes about 10 - 15 minutes with the mixer on high.

See here how it has gotten fluffy? It's starting to thicken....

Here you can see its still getting thicker and has more texture to it.....If you stop here and add sugar you have some great whipped cream for your desserts.....

Then the fluffiness goes down and it still gets thicker.....

It begins to resemble cottage cheese, and you know you're getting close. Once it starts to change, it goes fast!

Suddenly, you have butter and buttermilk. All you have to do is kind of mush the butter together into a clump and pour off the milk.

I always save the buttermilk. It makes great biscuits and pancakes. If you use regular pancake mix, except use buttermilk instead of water, they get really fluffly. Bubba loves his pancakes that way!

Next, you have to rinse the butter with some ice water. Make sure the water is really cold. This helps the butter to clump together.

You just kind on knead the water into the butter, then pour the water down the drain. I usually do about 3 rinses. If you don't wash the milk out of your butter, it may cause it to spoil.

After you're done rinsing, form your butter into a ball and squeeze out all the liquid you can. Now you're done!! This homemade butter is really good on some fluffly homemade buttermilk biscuits! I've also used my butter to make chocolate chip cookies. That's Sam's favorite dessert!

If you want to see a video of making butter, just go to Youtube. That's where I learned how to make it. Thanks for stopping by today. Please be patient with me until I have time to stamp again. I'll get in the groove soon, I promise!

School is in Session

Wow!! Where did the summer go? It seems like we just finished up last year's school work. It has been a hectic couple of days around here, trying to get back in the routine of school. We are doing online school this year through Connections Academy. There's alot to learn and figure out. I think after we get familiar with it, things will go smoother. I thought we would just flow into the new system effortlessly, but that not how it's worked out so far. I'm seriously thinking we need another computer. We have 2, but with 3 kids trying to do work at the same time, it would make things alot easier around here. So I said all that to say this: I probably won't be posting anything this week. I haven't had time to do any stamping, plus my computer time is way down since the kids are using both computers for school all day long. I'll check in on you guys when I find some free time. I hope to be back to stamping next week. See you then!

The Park!!

Monday afternoon the kids were so rowdy and rambunctious I had to get them out of the house for a while. Our park has this fountain that the kids can play in, and they think it's so much fun. While I got to read a couple chapters of my book in peace, they had a blast in the water.

And the following pictures should have some sort of warning. In the true spirit of "boys will be boys," may I present two gross pictures of "my boys being boys!"

Bubba sits on a sprinkler head and says, "Take my picture!!" So I did. Then Sammy comes along and does this. So I took another picture.

And with that, I'll say goodbye.