Miscellaneous Archives - Page 3 of 90 - home is where my story begins...

Christmas Front Porch

December 2, 2015 By Becca Leave a Comment

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas at my house! I’m still not lifting or moving too much since my back surgery, but my pointer finger works just fine. My kids and my hubby really like it when I ask them to do something and then just sit and point at what I’d like done. (Can you hear the sarcasm?) So, I can’t take credit for the loveliness of the front door. My hubby did the work and I just pointed.

I have used the same garland and wreaths for many years. I’d like to bulk it up, but it’s hard to splurge on decorations when I could use that money to buy gifts for people.

This is my favorite sign of all time. If you live in my neighborhood, you know how true this is.

Ok, maybe this is my favorite sign.

Ok, I guess I have a problem deciding which sign is my favorite. I love this one too.

I cute sign, a bucket of holly, and some birch logs from the deck are all it takes to make my chair kind of cute!

This is the sled I grew up using. It’s missing the middle wood piece, but I still love it. That sled has seen many miles of happy hills!

I’m having a hard time believing that MY sled could possibly be an antique!

Happy decorating!

My Back Surgery

December 1, 2015 By Becca 6 Comments

I have a confession to make. I’ve been reworking old blog posts lately. I haven’t been cooking, baking, decorating, sewing, and photographing all of those fun adventures. Instead, I’ve been sitting in my recliner chair, snuggling in my electric blanket, and spending time thumbing through magazines and looking at blogs.

See this picture:

It’s a picture from my MRI. Right in the center of the picture, there is a little gray thing that looks like it’s about the size of a pea. Well, that little thing is not supposed to be there. It’s been causing me serious problems since last Spring. I started going to the doctor last April, telling them that I had some very intense pain that didn’t feel muscular, but felt deeper. They thought I had everything from muscular pain to heart problems. After being tested for anything and everything, they finally did an MRI and decided I had a herniated disc in my neck. They wanted to do surgery at the beginning of September. I’m pretty sure I either laughed at that or stared at them blankly. Ummm. Hello… I teach kindergarten!

So, after several months of agonizing pain combined with cheerful singing in kindergarten, I finally had surgery a few weeks ago. I didn’t want to post anything because (true confession time) I have a fear of some crazy-pants-lunatic reading my blog (because I’m sure lots of crazies enjoy reading homelife blogs in their spare time) and breaking in to steal my pain meds. I had to wait to share this until I was better and out of meds so the crazies would stay away. You understand, right? Please tell me I’m not the only one who thinks this way!

Surgery went well, although pain really sucks. I was supposed to rest and not do ANYTHING. As a matter of fact, rule #1 on my post op directions said, “Don’t use this time at home to complete projects.” So, I sat. I rested. I napped through Thanksgiving. I napped every single day, as a matter of fact. I’m two weeks out from surgery now, and I still can’t wake up. The doctor says it’s just a side effect of anesthesia and I just need a little more time to shake it off. I still have pain. Have I mentioned that pain sucks?

During the surgery, they shaved off part of my bone and pulled out the herniated part of the disc. This is supposed to relieve the pressure on the nerve and reduce the pain, numbness, and pressure I feel in my neck, arm, back, and chest. It’s amazing that something so small can cause so much pain.

Looking on the bright side, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed being home with my kids. My daughter says she wishes I could break my arm or something so I would need to stay home again. Hmmm. I’m not sure I like that plan. I’m not exactly sure I remember the past two weeks because of the anesthetic and the meds, but I’m sure I enjoyed the time at home.

I took this picture of my daughter because it sums up her life perfectly. Her hair is unbrushed. Her snack bag is on the chair. She has a combination of basketball uniform and jammie pants for her outfit of choice. Her soccer blanket is close by because she loves to be warm, and she’s happily doing puzzles in the entry way. I wish I would have taken the picture just a few minutes earlier because the ipad was set up and she was finishing a movie, while calling a friend to see if she wanted to come do puzzles together.

While I had my camera out, I asked my son if he would let me take a few pictures. I wanted to see if I could get the ball spinning on his finger in a blur, while he was in focus. It took me a few tries, but I got it. It was then that I really appreciated being home with my kids. It was Thanksgiving break, so I would have been home with my kids anyway, but it just felt more restful. (Possibly because I had been resting for days upon days.)

So, that’s my story. I’m doing better, but I wish I could say I’m 100%. I will be back to my regular blogging and teaching soon! Until then… Happy Resting!

Quilt Binding 101

November 25, 2015 By Becca Leave a Comment

When I got the urge to start this quilt, the fabric had been sitting on my sewing table for quite a while and I really had no plans for it, so a quilt seemed like a good choice. I wanted something simple and mindless. I wasn’t in the mood to think too hard about measurements and fabric placement. I just wanted to sew. I came up with a VERY simple quilt top, which I figured I’d try free motion quilting on. I wasn’t too excited about the free motion quilting part of that idea, so when I finished, the quilt tops sat there for about half of the year. Finally, I decided it was time to get these quilts out of the craft room and into the family room. While I was at it, I took pictures of the quilt binding process.

If you’ve ever wanted to learn to bind a quilt, here’s the step by step tutorial. If you really don’t care, please don’t waste your time reading this, because it’s very picture heavy.

I use 2 1/2 inch strips when I make quilt bindings. I use a cutting mat, rotary cutter, and quilting ruler to make sure my strips are perfect.

Once the strips are cut, it’s time to join them together. I place two pieces (right sides together) and sew from corner to corner. I overlapped a little on the ends of each piece because I knew I’d cut that part off. You can draw a line to follow if you’d like, but I just eyeball it.

Cut off the extra fabric.

When you open in up, it looks like this. Press the seams to one side and then keep adding more strips in the same way.

Next, you need to iron your fabric. In the past I would fold my fabric, wrong sides together, finger press it down, and then iron it. It’s not hard and it’s not too time consuming, but then I spotted this cool contraption on a quilting show on PBS. (There I go again, admitting that I spend my spare time watching sewing shows on public television. Nerd alert!) This is a binding maker from Singer. It is so cool! It folds, presses, and spits out perfect quilt binding in about 2 minutes.

It comes out of the machine perfectly pressed. That little piece on the end is the iron. It has a little roller in it so everything is automatic. If you sew, you know how cool this is! It even makes piping, although I haven’t tried that yet. Ok, so if you don’t have this cool machine, just fold the fabric in half and iron. That’s the way I have made it for the past 15 years and it works just fine.

Just one more picture of my fun new toy doing its thing.

Ok, maybe just one more. See how it fold the fabric for you before going into the iron. You can get that tip in other sizes too. It’s “sew” much fun!

When you’re done pressing, you’ll have a pile of quilt binding. Get ready to sew.

The first thing I do is trim my starting edge at an angle.

Then I open it up and fold it back.

When you close the fabric back up, it gives you a clean edge.

To start binding my quilts, I usually don’t start at a corner. I just pick somewhere in the middle, at the bottom, and line my binding fabric up. You’ll notice that I have the raw edge of my quilt lined up with the raw edge of my binding fabric. The over hanging fabric is my quilt batting, and you can’t see it but the backing fabric is there too.

Line the presser foot up along the edge of the fabric, backtack a few stitches and then start sewing a straight line.

When you get just about to the end, maybe a quarter of an inch away, backstitch about an inch.

Pull the binding fabric back on top of itself, so it folds into a 45 degree angle.

Then, fold it back on top of itself, lining the edge up with the next side you need to sew.

I know that’s kind of tricky. Let’s try that one more time. I’m close to the edge.

Backstitch an inch.

Fold.

Fold and line up with the new side.

Then, you can lift your presser foot, turn your quilt, and get ready to sew the next side.

When you get to the end, turn the fabric under again, like you did at the beginning. That gives it a nice clean edge.

Finish sewing the binding down.

Hey, look at that! Someone got a pretty new cutting mat! I really needed a new cutting mat and found this one in red. I’ve never seen a red cutting mat before, but I’m loving it!

I use my ruler and rotary cutter to remove the extra batting and backing fabric. I line the quilt ruler up along the edge of the binding fabric and cut. This still leaves that 1/4 inch seam allowance. Don’t cut that off, because it’s what makes the binding fluffly.

When you’re done trimming, the quilt will look like this.

Flip the quilt to the back side, roll the fabric around the edge and pin. I really hate pinning, so I only do it when I really have to. The first couple of times you bind a quilt, you’ll want to pin. After that, just hold it with your fingers and go for it.

When you are sewing the binding down, you want to get REALLY close to the edge. See how my needle is right next to the edge of the binding fabric. I want to go right along that edge. It takes some practice.

When you get to a corner, you’ll need to fold the fabric.

It makes a nice mitered corner. When you get to the point, put the needle down into the fabric, and turn the quilt so you can keep sewing.

Keep going all the way around the quilt.

Here’s my finished quilt. I can’t say I’m in love with it. I love the fabrics, but I’m a little bored with the finished product.

I did get to try my hand at machine quilting. I made the swirly patterns in the big squares, which is something I’ve never done before.

I made two of these quilts and put them over the chairs in my family room. They add a little color and I’m happy about that. If you’re working on a quilt of your own, I’d love to see it. You can email me a picture at homeiswheremystorybegins@gmail.com.

Happy quilting!

Vintage Sheet Quilt

November 24, 2015 By Becca Leave a Comment

A few months ago I was browsing different sewing blogs and came across several different quilts made from vintage sheets. I’ve never been a huge fan of the shabby chic look, and the frilly look has never been a favorite either, but I do love vintage! I started looking around for vintage sheets and didn’t find anything quite vintage enough. (80’s sheets aren’t quite vintage in my book.) I asked my mom to keep an eye out for me, and she found the vintage sheet motherload in about 2 days flat.

Well, those vintage sheets sat in my cupboard for quite a long time. I didn’t really know what I was going to do with them and it was a ton of fabric. I was a bit overwhelmed. Then, one day, I decided that doing something (anything) was better than nothing, so I started cutting them up. (More on that later. I definitely learned a few things about how to tackle the cutting phase.) I decided to cut the sheets in fat quarters and then use the fabric to make a little quilt.

What do you think? Not bad for a bunch of old sheets! I used a combination of 5 inch squares from sheets and 5 inch plain white fabric squares. I wanted to make a small quilt because I think it’s a good example of a simple quilt that even a beginner could do. I did my own quilting on this one. I’ve always enjoyed taking my quilts to my quilt lady to finish up for me. I know how to do my own quilting, but it’s my least favorite part of the whole process. I figured if I made a quilt that was small enough, I could tackle quilting it myself. Surprisingly, I didn’t hate the process and I didn’t even hate the finished product. (Usually, when I try to do it on my own, I end up cringing every time I look at it.) This time, I think it turned out ok! I think the quilting pattern adds to the overall look too.

My daughter’s eyes lit up when she saw the finished quilt. I think she almost had a bit of panic when she asked who this was for, probably afraid I was going to give it away. I told her I was going to use it as a sample, but that she could have it when I was done taking pictures of it. In her very calm voice she sighed and said, “I really love that one.”

So, friends, I have several of these vintage sheet fat quarter bundles all packaged up. I have also written up the pattern for this quilt with super-easy instructions. This is a great beginner quilt. The vintage sheet bundles are available for purchase. Feel free to email me and I can hook you up. (homeiswheremystorybegins@gmail.com) The bundles will be selling for $12 per pack of 7 fat quarters. For those of you who are unfamiliar with fat quarters, it is an 18″x22″ rectangle.

I’m kind of in love with vintage sheets now.

Happy quilting!

Copper Decor

November 22, 2015 By Becca Leave a Comment

I don’t know what it is about copper, but I’m loving it lately. I’ve been trying to find ways to incorporate copper into my decorating.

I bought this bowl for $2 at a garage sale a few years ago. I put it on my bookshelf with a few old books and it adds the perfect amount of brightness.

This is my favorite copper bowl. It’s a big antique bowl that I bought on eBay a few years back. I only paid about $20 for it and I LOVE it. It was hanging on my pot rack for a long time and I’ve decided to let it shine on my bookshelf.

I added a few fall elements to my bookshelves too and they blend in so well with the copper bowls.

I’m not sure what I will do when it’s time to change things out for Christmas. Does copper look good with traditional Christmas decor? Well, I will find out soon enough because the Christmas decorations are coming out on Friday!

Happy decorating!

Homemade Bread and Chocolate Chip Cookies

November 13, 2015 By Becca Leave a Comment

Yesterday was Veteran’s Day and the kids and I were given the gift of time. It was a day off in the middle of the week that we all needed. My daughter’s Veteran’s Day concert was the night before and it was a great concert. She didn’t seem like her perky self, but I didn’t really think much of it… until the fever set in. I guess if you have to get sick, it’s best to do it on a day off from school. So, my daughter was down and out, my son wanted to hang out with friends, and I’m just trying to take it easy and ride out my back pain. In the midst of resting and relaxing, I decided that it was a good day for baking bread and cookies. Ok, when is it NOT a good day for baking bread and cookies??

I started with the bread because it’s the easiest. Friends, I know you may think this sounds crazy, but homemade bread is the easiest treat ever! I use the same recipe that my mom always did when I was growing up. Sometimes I will use whole wheat flower instead of white, but it’s always the same basic recipe. I make the dough in my bread machine, on the dough cycle, because it makes the process SO much easier. Once the dough is ready I put it into bread pans to rise again. I don’t like the way my bread machine cooks the bread, so that’s why I just use the dough cycle.

If you don’t own a bread machine, you can buy one for CHEAP at Goodwill. I use mine on a regular basis and I actually have two because it makes the double batches of cinnamon rolls so much easier.

If you’re ready to try some easy homemade bread, here’s my recipe:

Ingredients:

1 package yeast

1/4 cup warm water

2 cups scalded milk

1 Tbsp shortening

6 cups flour

(white, whole wheat, or a combination)

2 Tbsp sugar

2tsp salt

Combine yeast and warm water. Let it rest for about 10 minutes. Scald the milk and add the shortening so that it melts. Put the milk mixture into the bread machine first. Add the rest of the dry ingredients on top of the milk. Then, pour the yeast mixture on the very top. Set your bread machine to the dough cycle and wait for it to beep at you! Once it has risen in the machine, form into loaves and let rise again until it has doubled in size. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Tips:

DON’T BE AFRAID OF YEAST!

Yeast is very easy to work with and shouldn’t be intimidating. When I dissolve the yeast in the warm water, I make sure the water feels slightly warmer than bathtub water. If it is super hot, it will kill the yeast. If you use cold water, it won’t activate. I also make sure the milk is about that same temperature. Finally, when I let the bread rise in the pans, I usually turn on my oven to preheat and just set the pans on the stove. It gives the pans just enough warmth to help them rise.

In addition to homemade bread, it was also a chocolate chip cookie kind of day. Luckily, one kiddo was napping and the other was at a friends house, so I just ate all of the cookies myself and hid the evidence. Ok, just kidding on that one. Actually, after baking the cookies, I put them all into individual baggies and into a freezer container. That way, as the kids are making their lunches, they can pull out a bag of 2 cookies and put it into their lunches. By the time lunch rolls around, the cookies have thawed and are ready to eat.

Here’s the recipe:
1 Cup Crisco shortening (original, not butter flavor)
3/4 Cup brown sugar
3/4 Cup white sugar
Mix until soft and fluffy.

Add:
2 Eggs
1 and 1/2 tsp vanilla
Mix just until blended.

Dry ingredients:
2 and 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
Mix it up and add 8-12 oz of chocolate chips.

Bake for 10 minutes (or less) at 350 degrees. My oven is a standard oven, not convection, and this is what I do.

I didn’t check a bunch of items off of my To Do list on Veteran’s Day, but I did get to spend time with my kids, rest, and do a little baking. All in all, I’d say that’s a productive day.

Happy baking!

Graham Cracker Gingerbread Houses

November 11, 2015 By Becca 5 Comments

One of the moms, at the school I teach at, recently asked me for the frosting recipe and directions for the gingerbread houses we make in the classroom. I love hosting a Gingerbread Party for my students and siblings, and I also host a party for my kids and their friends too.

For the past 10 years, we’ve hosted friends and family and created the most adorable graham cracker houses. Lining the table with butcher paper or wrapping paper is a MUST! It makes clean up super easy. You just fold all of the garbage right into to paper that is on the table and clean up is done!

The kids have gotten better and better every year and patiently working on their houses.

I had a lot of fun with my bokeh pictures too. (Bokeh is the blurry background that produces the pretty lights from the tree.)

I ask every family to bring a candy item to share. My favorite candies for gingerbread house decorating are Lifesavers, Neccos, small candy canes, red hots, red and green M&M’s, Twizzlers Pull Apart licorice, gumdrops, and pretzel twists. (Pretzel twists make great fences.)

When the kids were little, I prepared the house bases ahead of time, so all they had to do was add the roof and candy. I still prepare the houses ahead of time for Kindergarten. (Actually, my parent volunteers prepare them.) Since my kids at home are bigger, we just build and create! Sometimes the candy houses turn into candy fortresses.

Here’s how I build the bases when young kids (first grade and under) are decorating with us. The only reason I do the base for the kids is that it is very frustrating when you are 4 years old and your house falls apart every time you try to add candy. Royal icing needs time to dry and harden. Patience is hard when you’re 4. Building the house bases is really easy. I start with foil covered cardboard. They make simple platforms for the kids to create their “yard”. I cut the graham crackers with a bread knife and assemble the house base with royal icing. I always use the royal icing to “glue” the house base to the platform. This is what an assembled house base looks like when it is ready for the party to start.. I make one for each child and a few extras in case we have an accident.

I let the kids add the two pieces for the roof and all of the decorations. Royal icing is best for assembling houses and decorating. I usually make several batches of Royal icing and put it into individual quart sized freezer bags. (Don’t use sandwich bags because they pop.) When it’s time for decorating, I just snip off a small corner of the bag.

The recipe for Royal Icing is included in the package of Wilton Meringue Powder. I buy my meringue powder at Michael’s. If you can’t find meringue powder, I’m sure you can google a recipe for a similar icing that calls for egg whites. I’ve always used the meringue powder recipe because raw eggs freak me out. (Unless, of course, I’m eating cookie dough.)

3 Tbsp Wilton Meringue Powder
4 cups sifted powdered sugar
5 or 6 Tbsp warm water

Beat all ingredients, with heavy duty mixer, until icing forms peaks. (7-10 minutes)

Here are a few examples from our gingerbread party last year.

This one was Rudolph’s barn.

This is a gingerbread manger.

If you’ve never done this before, this is the year to give it a try. My kids always look forward to this day. I’ll admit, I’ve toned it down over the years. The first few years we invited about 30 kids and their parents, served lunch, and hosted all-out party. Now, we just have family. There are 10 kids and one crazy mom who just loves being the Gingerbread Queen.

Happy Decorating!

Happy Holidays!

Pantry Organization – Back In Business

November 10, 2015 By Becca Leave a Comment

We are back in business! The pantry collapsed and we lived with the contents all over the dining room for two weeks. Things felt like chaos and I couldn’t find the spices I needed to save my life. Well, to be honest, before the collapse my pantry was lacking in the organization department. I really just needed to spend some time throwing out old items.

All of my cake platters shattered in the pantry collapse, so that made more room on the top shelf. My flour containers now live on the top shelf. (Yes, I really do use 6 different types of flour in my baking!)

These bins are set aside for lunch making items.

This picture is horribly dark, but I’m thrilled to have my spices all alphabetized again.

I’m discovering that I may have a problem with the amount of sprinkles and cookie cutters I have.

All of my appliances are back in their places and ready for the next cooking/baking project.

One thing I can’t stand is the water bottle mess that we always have. I now have two bins that store all of the water bottles in the house. Now, hopefully, the water bottles won’t be falling out of the cupboard onto our heads.

Hopefully we can keep up the organization now! I think I shall spend the next few weeks baking, to celebrate the fact that I can find everything again!

Antiques That Tell Your Family Story

November 3, 2015 By Becca 2 Comments

I love filling my home with things that have history. I don’t spend a lot of time shopping antique and thrift stores. (Although I wish I had the time and money to browse antique stores.) Most of my treasures come from family members, so I really appreciate the history behind these pieces.

The pocket watches belonged to my step-dad and grandpa. I love holding something in my hand that they held onto for so many years.

This sewing machine was in a corner of my parents’ garage for years, before it found a home in my craft room.

There is nothing more meaningful than holding your great-grandmother’s Bible. There are even handwritten notes inside from church services and Bible studies.

When we were going through my grandma’s old suitcases, we opened one and found her wedding dress and my grandpa’s WWII army uniform. Many years before, she told us she had thrown them away because they were tattered. It was amazing to find them in perfect condition inside a suitcase in her garage.

The flower garden quilt is from my husband’s side of the family. His grandma sent it home with me after a visit to her house. It is very tattered, but I just have the good part of the quilt poking out of the basket. The star quilt was made my great grandmother and the picnic basket belonged to my grandma and grandpa.

This one was made my great grandmother and my great, great grandmother as a wedding gift for my grandparents. The patterned fabric was made from old shirts and dresses. They didn’t have a lot of money and they used the scraps they had available.

I can’t say I purposefully fill my home with antiques. I don’t seek them out, scour thrift shops, or shop ebay for a great deal. I fill my home with these treasures because each piece has a story.

What story does your home tell?

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