Repurposing Vintage Linens – Part 1
I love repurposing things, especially vintage linens. I have found some really cute ones at thrift stores and I have several from my grandparents and great grandparents. Recently I was tired of looking at the shower curtain in our master bathroom, so I decided to repurpose a vintage sheet that I had picked up and turn it into a shower curtain that would make me smile. In order to turn it from a sheet into a shower curtain, all I did was measure for the proper length and then cut it off and hem it. Next, I added buttonholes to be able to hook it onto the shower curtain hooks. All in all it took me about a half an hour to make, and what a difference it made in the bathroom. I just love this print, it is so bright and cheery, and $2 for the sheet and a half an hour of time is my idea of a makeover.
I love to buy fruit and veg from the farmer’s market if I can, but sometimes such a good deal comes along at the grocery store, I just can’t pass it up. This week at one of our local grocery stores, they had organic peaches for $1 a pound. I just couldn’t beat that price anywhere else, so my hubby and eldest son went and snagged 25 pounds. I had big plans for putting them up for the winter. Yesterday morning I got a bunch of peach jam made and the afternoon and evening were spent blanching, peeling, slicing and freezing peaches. I absolutely love a good bargain especially when it comes to organic fruit and veg. Now that summer is winding down, it’s nice to see the pantry and freezer being filled with yummy things for the winter. I’m hoping I can get a good deal on corn this coming weekend at the farmer’s market. Then I’ll put my kids to work, good thing they like shucking corn.
Yesterday was a sad day as my mother and I sat by my great grandfather’s bedside while he was dying. He was a good man, he served his country in the war, and he was a good father, grandfather, great grandfather and even great, great grandfather. We all have wonderful memories of him and will indeed miss him. It was hard to watch him go and there is sadness to no longer have him with us, but there is also great joy in knowing that he is no longer in pain and now resting in Heaven with his Savior.
I adore this little cactus, a Painted Pinwheel. It belongs to my daughter and it sits on my kitchen windowsill. I see it many times a day and I just love that even though it’s a cactus, it is a perfect little flower. 
These are two books that I am really excited about. I’ve already been making my own yogurt for about a year and a half, and we made butter once, but I have been interested in making different kinds of dairy products for a while now. 
I found these adorable espresso cups in this little bowl at my local thrift store. They cost 50 cents for the whole lot and I scooped them up immediately. I won’t be using them for espresso, but I do know three children who would love to have a just-their-size mug of hot chocolate on a chilly winter day. 
I have been keeping my eye out for wool blankets whenever I visit a thrift store. On a day outing to Estes Park, I stopped in at their little community thrift store and waiting just for me on the blanket rack was a delicious pink Pendleton wool blanket. Pendleton started in 1909 and my mom remembers my great grandmother wearing pendleton suits. How perfect. This will be sure to keep us warm, and at just $3 it was a fantastic bargain.
My family loves yogurt. We eat it in smoothies, mixed with fruit, drizzled with honey, and even in our potato salad. It is so versatile and healthy and it keeps tummies filled with good bacteria. It has gotten me through some rough pregnancies, and times when my jaw hurt so much I could not chew properly. It has fed my babies that are just starting on solid food, and generally been a much loved staple in our diet. My gift for Mother’s Day last year was a yogurt maker. I had requested this and was thrilled to get it. We like to go through so much yogurt that sometimes it was cost prohibitive to buy organic yogurt, not to mention there is still a lot of sugar in the flavoured kinds. When I realized that I could make my own for half the cost, I jumped at the chance. I know that a lot of people don’t use an actual yogurt maker and do just fine, but sometimes I am so busy and trying to do quite a few things at once, so I really liked the idea of being able to put the yogurt in the maker and just forget about it for several hours. It paid for itself very quickly and I am thrilled that I can take one gallon of milk and turn it into approx. four litres of yogurt with very little effort. This way I can also regulate how much sugar goes in, if any at all. I like to use honey or cook up some fruit and mix it in. Nuts are also a favourite topping. The possibilities are endless. Homemade yogurt is one of those things that I take great pleasure in doing myself. 
I’ve always loved Usborne and DK books as the way they are done works well for readers and non-readers. There are so many pictures that my kids that can’t quite read yet are happy to sit and look at them for quite a while. My oldest son, when he first started to really read, was also happy to look at them as he was not intimidated by the short little blurbs. I’ve been drooling over these Usborne Spotter’s Guides for a while now and was thrilled when my mom handed me a big stack of them when she returned from her trip to England. They were a gift from a good friend of ours. As a homeschooling mama, I love these kinds of gifts. These books are fantastic, and they are small enough to throw in a backpack for when we go to the lake or the park. They are colourful and filled with tons of information, not to mention internet links. We love them and my kids have been pouring over them since the day we got them. They are a great addition to our nature section on the bookshelf. I am thankful for such a thoughtful and generous gift. 
My kiddos have been really enjoying watching the progress of our veggies. This is my boy and he is very proud of his onion. We’ve watered and watched until we could stand it no longer. He was very excited when I told him he could finally pull his onion out of the ground. It may not be huge, but it’s his and it made the most delicious spaghetti sauce. It is so true that if the kids have a hand in growing the food, they are more likely to enjoy eating it. You can be assured that we will be planting more onions next year.
