November 24th, 2009 by Kristi Stephens

No deep thoughts to write today… they are floating around in my head, but my hands have been busy. My sewing machine and I have rekindled our relationship during the month of November! Starting with that pilgrim hat project and the pilgrim dress, we have plunged headlong into crafty wondrousness in anticipation of Thanksgiving.

I really love Thanksgiving and wanted to spruce up our decorations a little more with some nice things that I will enjoy pulling out for years to come. (Not that AG’s construction paper/feather turkey isn’t GREAT, but you know… we’re looking for classy.) :)

I started with this banner – I must say that I love how it turned out!!

I had seen an idea in Family Fun for making a glue batik banner. It looked easy and fun – so of course I made it more difficult. That’s the way I roll.

I wanted to paint the background of the muslin a darker brown, but didn’t have enough paint. We resorted to staining it with leftover coffee [grounds and all!]. My husband is brilliant! After we had finished step 2 of Family Fun’s project, we then went over all of the background area with strong coffee and let it dry.

It isn’t drastically darker but it did make it look more brown and weathered, which I like.

After I finished step 4 of the directions I ironed it flat, cut the edges more precisely, and then cut strips of 4″ wide fabric long enough for each side of the banner. Next, I just ironed everything, pinned the strips of fabric on, and sewed them with a 1″ seam allowance. Now I pressed the seams flat, and hemmed the outside edges with a 1″ seam allowance again.

To make the letters, I took a letter stencil we had and painted the letters on backwards with a sponge brush. I didn’t want the paint to show on the finished project, but this was way easier than trying to trace out all those letters with a marker or something on that dark felt.

I let AG help a little. Ie: long enough to take this picture. Mommy was having hard time sharing her project. ;)

After cutting out all the letters, I just glued them onto the banner with liquid stitch and then hot glued a dowel rod to the back to hang it from! Time consuming, but easy project considering how much I like the results!

I liked it so much that I started thinking about placemats!

We all trooped back to JoAnn fabrics (affectionately known as “the green store” at our house) and I got 3/4 yard of dark brown, 3/4 yard of heathered brown, and some pumpkiny orange thread and embroidery floss.

I cut the dark brown to the finished size I wanted using another placemat I had as a template, and then cut the heathered brown rectangles slightly smaller. Then, using my paint/stencil technique I stumbled onto with the banner letters, I painted leaf shapes onto my leftover medium brown felt (from the banner project) using a leaf template my husband drew. I covered the paper with packing tape so that the paint wouldn’t bleed through while I used it. Drawing the leaf was a bit of a pain, so if you want to make these, feel free to download our leaf pattern here.

After painting the leaves, I ironed on some two-sided heat-n-bond to the back and then cut them out. Then we adhered them to the heathered rectangles with the other part of the heat n’ bond, and then I hand stitched around the leaves with embroidery floss.

Yes, that was more work than I had anticipated. [Hence, no thought provoking blogging coming from here lately!!] :)

After the leaves were stitched on, I pinned the heathered rectangles onto the dark brown rectangles and stitched around the edge with my sewing machine. I don’t know how to describe these stitches… so – to make the edges look like this:

I used my machine’s D and G versions of the “SS stitches” – D around the heathered, G around the edge of the dark brown.

Now, I must say that I am not good at cutting out rectangles that are perfectly square and even. Just doesn’t happen. The stitches around the outside not only helped these look more finished, but they also helped camouflage my weird shaped placemats.

While sewing around the dark brown edge, I kept my presser foot lined up with the edge of my stitches around the heatered rectangle. Sometimes I was right on the edge of the fabric, sometimes I had almost an inch to spare. :| After I had stitched around the entire perimeter, I carefully snipped the edges even with the outside of my stitches, being cautious not to clip the threads. So, my rectangles might be a little wonky, but visually they look good since the width of the dark brown is even all the way around.

I have enjoyed having a home project to work on, and I love how the banner and placemats dress up the dining room for Thanksgiving.

And don’t they look stellar with my new fabric napkins my sister made me?

Hope you’re enjoying your Thanksgiving prep! God has blessed us abundantly – give thanks to Him and praise His name!

To see what others have been tackling, click over to Tackle it Tuesday at 5 Minutes for Mom!

August 18th, 2009 by Kristi Stephens

I don’t know about you, but somehow we seem to get into a routine of putting certain things in certain places, even when it doesn’t make sense anymore. When we lived in a smaller apartment, for instance, the storage box for my exercise ball was logically kept behind the couch. ;) When we moved, I felt compelled to put it back there, even though there were better places for it! It takes some intentional thought to make a more logical choice!!

My husband brought to my attention this week how not LB-proof our bathroom was. AG never opened cabinets or tried to get into stuff, so we don’t have child locks on our bathroom cabinets. I still had nail polish remover and all kinds of other stuff within easy reach – things that adventurous little guys like LB would love to find and add a call to poison control into the day’s excitement.

[We have already had to call poison control once for him - I found him drinking hand sanitizer. Lovely.]

On the other hand, we have nice high built-in storage in the bathroom that was full of things that it didn’t matter if he found – cleaning rags, bath toys, toilet paper, etc. Wise husband suggested these be changed around. Hmm – I believe he had a point! [even though that's where we always kept it...] ;)

Oooh… much neater (and safer!) Now the cleaning supplies on the top shelf along medicines and first aid supplies. [I found those clear storage bins at Home Depot this weekend for $.99 each! I feel compelled to go get more... they're so orderly!] Since I have to stand on a stool to reach those, I’m confident they are now LB-proof! I tried something crazy and put the toilet paper and bath toys below the sink instead of possibly toxic bath and beauty products. :)

As I typed this, I noticed that LB was awfully quiet… and then saw him peeking out from behind our ottoman with a guilty look on his face. Yep, there he was, eating a tube of chapstick.

I think this tackle was well timed. ;)

Are you tackling something today?

July 21st, 2009 by Kristi Stephens

For today’s tackle, we headed over to our local Educational Resource Center. I love this place. Laminators, Ellison die cuts, construction paper… it’s a lovely thing. I made this laminated, bound creation days book for $2.30. Yes, please!

We’re planning a trip with my family to the Creation Museum in Cincinnati in a few weeks (I cannot wait!), and I’ve been wanting to make sure I do some prep with AG – I’ve heard that the museum is amazing and full of so much for kids and adults. I know it will be overwhelming for her no matter what, but I wanted to lay a more specific foundation so she can better understand some of what we’ll be seeing and talking about.

Some of the books I’ve reviewed recently have given us some good places to start, especially Dinky Dinosaur Creation Days, Dinosaurs Stars of the Show, and D is for Dinosaur. After reading Already Gone, I feel especially burdened to emphasize God’s process of creation according to Genesis one.

One of the things Ken Ham emphasizes is that dinosaurs are often used to introduce evolutionary concepts to kids. Somehow, it is very easy for kids to arrive at the assumption that God didn’t create dinosaurs. I made a point of putting dinosaurs on our picture of day six, and fascinatingly, AG asked right away why there were dinosaurs on the page – she has made several comments lately about “giants that lived even before God created the world.” I don’t know where her little brain is coming up with that, but it is amazing how even a three year old who is taught all about God’s creation at home, with very little TV and outside influence other than church, already is a little confused about where dinosaurs and giants could have come from. Time for some specific teaching.

She also has been learning about what God made at church, but they don’t seem to be learning the days of creation (at least that she can recall!). Preschool curriculum is so hard since there is quite a range in what the kids know and are getting at home. I know that she knows quite a bit of stuff compared to the average three year old, but it is frustrating when she can quote all of Psalm 23, list the 10 commandments, and define “covet,” but comes home from Sunday School with the profound take away “God made pets.” What day did God make pets? “I don’t know.” I’m working hard to tie some things together.

Have any creative ideas to teach creation to small kids? What are you tackling today?

July 7th, 2009 by Kristi Stephens

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It’s been eventful at our house: not only did I get my new iron, but after months, nay, years of planning/saving… I purchased my grain mill!

My real life wise woman here sells grain mills and, of course, grain. She does informational presentations talking about the benefits of milling your own wheat, and since the first time I heard her talk about the nutritional and health benefits I was sold. That was two and a half years ago, so this purchase has been a long time coming. :)

I’ve been baking bread occasionally since I was in 9th grade or so – it’s somehow a lovely and theraputic process to me. My goal is to start making most of our baked goods myself using fresh milled flour – we’ll see how that goes. :) Today I thought I’d share the process as I tackled my next batch of bread.

First of all, here’s some unground wheat- want to teach your kids about eating healthy, fresh food with “real” ingredients? Nothing like grinding some wheat in your own kitchen!

Pour the grain into the mill and turn it on. These things are not quiet! You will feel as though you are standing on an airport runway with 747s whizzing by.

All done milling – whole wheat flour at its freshest! I use whatever I need and then freeze the rest [more information on the benefits are at the end of this post, but milled flour left at room temperature will lose 45% of its nutritional content within 24 hours, and 90% of its nutrients within 72 hours!]

Mixing up the dough – most of the serious millers/bakers at our church use Bosch mixers. Maybe someday I will be converted to that, but I really do like my kitchenaid!!

I so enjoy kneading. It’s easier to mix up the dough in my bread maker, but sometimes I miss the feeling of getting my hands in the dough!

1st rise – many recipes I’ve seen say to cover the dough with a towel. I prefer saran wrap sprayed with cooking spray so that the dough doesn’t stick to it as it rises.

Punch down – now this is just pure fun. :)

2nd rise – all tucked into the pans. Nighty-night.

Fluffy and ready to bake!

What could possibly make a fresh homebaked loaf of bread even better? Melted butter, anyone?

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM…. delicious.

By the way, in case you’re wondering about those health benefits I mentioned, “whole wheat flour” in the store is a far cry from fresh milled flour. In order to preserve the flour and give it a long shelf-life without going rancid, the “germ” of the wheat berry is removed. Even if you purchase whole wheat flour or whole wheat bread, at least 22 of the 26 vitamins and minerals (including iron, vitamin B, zinc, vitamin E, and other essential nutrients) are missing from your flour. What is probably there in their place are bleaches, chemical softeners, and mold retardents. Refined white flours are thought to be main contributors to the high rates of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and other common diseases.

What have you been tackling today?