The Homestead Archives | Page 19 of 30 |

A Peek at Our Easter Home Decor, and Finished Eggs

April 20, 2011 By Laura 3 Comments

After sharing with you all the egg dying fun we had with the kids, I wanted to show you what we did with the eggs they dyed, and a little bit of the rest of the Easter/Spring decor around our home. As always, our little holiday tree ( or, branch in a bucket of bricks…lol.) is decorated. Mostly photos here – less chit-chat.
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easter-home-decor
{O} did this arrangement of some of our dyed eggs and raffia in a tall glass jar, all by herself. (She’s 8.) I was so impressed.

Next, you can see what I decided to do with some of those dyed pieces of lace you saw in the photos of the egg dying post….

CALVARY.

This was a Lenten project & (Scriptural) lesson we did with the kids. Well, Michael really gave the lesson, and he did a really good job with the message, as they all worked, getting their hands really dirty. It always warms my heart, to listen to the kids talk about their faith, so directly from their heart, and in such sweet ways. I took lots of photos of them making this. I’ll share in time next year, and show you how it is done. (If I’m still blogging.) The whole thing will be going out in my garden. I love it, for all it represents. The kids put it together, seeded it, watered it every day, and grew it to this, and all of that makes me love it even more.

JESUS’ TOMB.

I hope you enjoyed the peek. : ) We won’t be blogging again until next week. Our family has a busy and focused rest of the week, that I’m really looking forward to, as we prepare ourselves for Easter. So we just wanted to say to you now…

From our home to yours, wishing all of you, and your families, a blessed Holy Week, and a joyful Easter Sunday celebration.

See you again soon.

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Ladder to Bookshelf | Re-Purposing

March 15, 2011 By Laura 25 Comments

In addition to our continual progress of finishing the inside of our home since our major house reconstruction, we’ve had a continually growing list of ideas for smaller projects around our home.

One of them has involved this ladder inside our home.

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It has been right here where you see it, every since we bought our home in 1995. What has changed a lot, is almost everything around the ladder. For one thing, at the foot of this ladder, where you now see French doors to our sun room, was a brick hearth, to a black iron coal stove, that was built into a brick wall as a fireplace of sorts.

You may wonder just what the purpose of the ladder was.

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Well, at the top of the ladder, was a carpeted crawl loft, that was open to and overlooked the living space. We had a few large floor plants up there, that looked lovely in the sunlight, that streamed in from the skylights.

But when we added a second story to our home, the crawl loft, and all of the new construction to the backside of the house, became the boy’s room. So, a wall replaced our beloved crawl loft.

As you’ve probably figured out along the way here, the ladder was the way to get up into the loft.

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It’s a beautiful, solid, solid (read: HEAVY!!) wood. It’s the same natural wood the beams were made of, that also used to be a part of the house.

As a humorous tidbit of knowledge for you, (if you’ve never been through our home reconstruction posts), the crawl loft became our (mine and Michael’s) bedroom, when we gave our own to our triplets following their birth. The house only had 2 bedrooms at the time, and ours was by far the biggest. So…we took our bed down, put the mattresses up in the crawl loft, and we climbed the ladder to bed every night.

We really didn’t mind it, much. You couldn’t really see our bedding that much, and it was….cozy. : ) I’d say it was even kind of fun. Except for when one of the kids woke up, and needed us. Or, when we had to go potty. I feared in the dead of night many times, that I would fall trying to descend the ladder in my sleepy state, and splat on the brick hearth below. But it never happened. Maybe because Michael said “Be care-ful” every.single. time. I had to go down. Even when he was sleeping.

Oh…..{A} just found a photo that will give you an idea of how much the house has changed:

See the loft at the top? With big boxy openings, roped off with 2 ropes. You can also see the natural beams I spoke of. They were great for wrapping Christmas lights on, and using for outdoor toddler swings, in the house! The beams were so strong, and with the cathedral ceiling, there was plenty of room! Of course they had outdoor swings too. Boy did they love swinging. You can also see what was the back door. That wall came down, and there is a school room there now, on the other side of the stairwell that descends into the floor. Yes…things have changed. Drastically. Inside and out. Do you love seeing houses transformations? I’ll post the links on our HOJN Facebook Page sometime soon, if you’d like. But be sure to ‘Like’ the HOJN Facebook Page, so you don’t miss them in your feed! I put lots of fun extras there, for you all.

ladder-book-shelf

Anyway….ever since the loft was ripped out and the wall went up, the ladder-to-nowhere, has remained there. We couldn’t get rid of it! It was a sentimental piece. We always loved that ladder, and it’s one of those things people always mention when they first visit our home. It’s unique, and unusual, in a home. But really…. it’s needed purpose! And it’s looked dark and ….. well, heavy, in our light and airy living space.

So I had an idea to make the ladder more useful, and we started by doing something possibly, crazy.

We painted it white. After adding a few little pieces you may notice, which you’ll understand why in a moment.

Now, if you know me, I’m really not down with perfectly painted stuff. I like things old. Beat up. Worn.

So I took a sandpaper covered block, and ‘had-at’ the newly painted ladder.

And wore a hole in it. : ) (The sandpaper of course. Not the ladder.)

I did my best to make it look……well, not ‘just painted’.

But I’m not any kind of expert at distressing pieces yet. I’m sure it needs something more. A glaze of some kind, to crack the paint some, or something. I don’t want to yellow it, as a lot of the ‘new paint’ around is white as snow. But, I plan to ask a friend what more I can do, to push it a little more.

But the purpose of painting the ladder, and adding the little crossbars to the back, was to use it for….

Books!!

With the exception of when we were actually using the ladder every day to access the loft, we’ve always had photo frames and little things displayed on the ladder. I just took them off before photographing it before. But, we are swimming in books around here. So I thought it would be a creative and useful transformation.

Mostly it’s the kid’s books on the ladder for now, with the bottom step left open for stepping up and reaching higher. There are lots more books, that will be relocated to the ladder, soon. And we have more book shelving that Michael just installed as well, that will be for another post.

Because not only do the kids have more reading books, but then there are my own, and some of my mother’s too. Books of all kinds. For leisure, for education, for how-to, for you-name-it. As I said, we’re swimming in them.

I actually filled a couple of boxes recently, with books to get rid of. We have cabinets filled, and boxes downstairs, of more books – still needing sorting.

So this ladder transformation I think was a wise one. The ladder now has purpose. I’m sure it feels more worth, in it’s day to day life. We all need purpose. Don’t you think?

I have to admit: I’m feeling a little pang inside, about painting over this beautiful wood.

Do you think that was a mistake?

But I do think the corner as a whole, looks a little cheerier, and more in keeping with what the rest of the house has going on. Because we’ll probably be doing something with those wooden breakfast bar chairs too. Not painting them white. But they need stripping of the shellac , or something.

Anyway….

BEFORE AFTER

What do you think? A good idea? And are you cringing, because I painted that wood? Go ahead and tell me the truth. I think I can take it.

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How to Make Beautiful Winter Ice Decor for Your Yard

January 20, 2011 By Laura 10 Comments

In mid-December, I had decided that my yard was looking all too-blase’, for me. There was snow, so that was a plus. It just looks so bleak and dead, without snow at least. But it really needed more than just……white, everywhere. It bothered me more this year, because I had seen, what I was missing, before. You see, at the end of 2 Autumn seasons ago, Michael and I had cleaned out the garden beds, and thrown down winter rye seed. By the time the first snow had fallen that year, beautiful bright green rye was coming up out of the snow in all of the garden beds in the front yard. I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed it all winter. Three perfectly snow covered, raised rectangles, elevated out of the blanket of snow on the ground, with beautiful, spring-green grass poking up out of it, everywhere. It always looked, just beautiful.

But this past Autumn, we threw it down the winter rye seed a little too late. It was already too cold to germinate and grow. I was so mad at myself, for waiting too long. And I’ve suffered for it. I haven’t looked at our front yard, without grumbling under my breathe about it, once this winter. I miss the bright green rye. It’s looked so….lifeless out there, without it. Fresh fallen snow is always pretty. But the rye just added so more.

The week before Christmas, I was thinking about how I could add some pretty out there. So I decided to try and make some ice molded sculptures, adding pretty things to it. Then I could place them about the yard, on railings, in my empty garden beds, and on the walls out back outside our school windows, where the birds spend the day coming and going.

I started with some store bought bags of cranberries, and some oranges as well. The rest, I got from our yard. (Alright….some from the neighbor’s yard too. But, we manage the property, and I was pretty sure she wouldn’t care. Or ever know. lol). I found 2 kinds of berries on sticks. Holly berries, and……what are those dark ones?? I’m not really sure. If you know, maybe you can tell me.
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I also tried to gather a few different kind of pine branches and sticks, for variety.
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From the kitchen, I gathered containers in as many different shapes and sizes as I could find. I was especially excited about the triangle pizza slice ones! I also got some tuna cans that had been washed out, and put downstairs for the next garbage day.
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Then the fun started. We sliced up some oranges, started pulling pieces of pine off the big branches, and started arranging things just-so in the containers.

Who is WE, all of a sudden?

Me, and {O}. She is always right there, no matter what I am doing, asking to help. “Would I be able to help?” It’s her most used sentence, and it always has been. She’s so nice to have around. She makes my second cup of coffee every morning too. She peeks in my first cup about 50 times, just hoping it is time to get me more. Now the boys are trying to cut in on her morning gig, and she’s not having it.

Oh…I’m getting off topic I guess. So….

….she was really enjoying doing this project with me. She was cutting stuff with the big knife, arranging every piece with love, and feeling like such a big girl. Designing and crafts is her thing, anyway.

We had a lot of fun, trying to make each arrangement a little different than the others.
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As we finished each one, we put it out on the deck.

They looked so pretty, all together, against the wet deck that brought out the grain in the wood. I was more excited than ever, just imaging how beautiful they were going to be. But they weren’t done yet.
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We had to fill each container with water, being careful not to disturb our arrangement too much.

Is it me, or are my old and vein-y hands making it into a lot of blog posts lately?

Lovely!! All that was left for them now, was to freeze! So we left them right there, for them to do just that.

And we waited …. day, after day, after day.

Christmas came, and went, and they still sat there, unfrozen.

Yes, a little technical difficulty in my plan. One should check the weather report, before one decides to make a 100 frozen ice sculptured outside, huh? A little warm front moved in, out of the blue, after weeks of being frigid cold out there. Sometimes, they would start to freeze, and I would get all excited. This would be about 2:30 a.m., when I got up to put more wood on the fire, and I just had to run out there, and check if they were freezing yet, in my nighty.

But the next day, the temps would climb back up to 36 degrees or so again, and it was back to square one.

(Sigh.) The round tin pans were starting to rust!!

But then finally, they froze enough….

Taking them out of their containers, one by one, was like opening a gift, every time.

Each one a unique surprise.

I thought they were so beautiful.

Don’t you think so too?………

This one was still partially unfrozen, but I didn’t mind much. It was still pretty, so I laid them in the garden beds.
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Many of them filled my flower box.
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Others I just plunked in the snow, on the railings.
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I loved the pitcher ones. I put those in my garden beds too. The spring greens sticking up looked like it belonged there.

They brought comfort and a smile to my face, and relieved my longing for the sight of my winter rye.

When it’s warm enough again, and our ice creations melt away, the little critters around that we enjoy so much, will be delighted with the berries and oranges our ice left behind.

I hope you’ll try making some yourself, if your climate allows. (I do recommend checking the weather forecast – unless you just happen to live where it is always bitter cold this time of year.) It really is another great, easy, and fun activity to do with your kids. Or alone! Please send us a photo if you make some!!

I think we’ll make some more soon, too. It really is enjoyable to do. I’d like to experiment with some other natural ingredients. Maybe strawberries, raspberries, blueberries…..oh, pinecones!! Those would look nice. Do you have any other ideas? Let me know. I bet we could get quite creative with this.

Ice is so pretty as it is. I could get obsessed with this.

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Heart Strings / A Valentine’s Craft

January 17, 2011 By Laura 49 Comments

If brilliant colors make you happy, and you love fun projects, then this Valentine’s craft is just for you! We’re showing you just how to do it, step by step today!

While my home is not completely decorated for the upcoming ‘month of love’ just yet, I knew it was time to get to some Valentine crafting! I happened to see this craft from Martha Stewart Living, and was inspired to try it ourselves, with a spin or 2 of our own on it. By melting crayons in between wax paper, and cutting out hearts, some very cute Valentine’s decor can be made! That Martha is a clever one, huh? ( Or, her creative team – whatever. lol.) You can make this craft as quick and simply. or as involved, as you choose, and I am going to tell you the ways how.

Supplies needed:

Crayons, with paper removed (This craft is a great way to use up those old broken crayon pieces!)
A sharpener with a fat hole.
*Wax paper
Clothing iron
Brown craft paper, or brown paper bags (Just a protection layer for ironing.)
Hearts stencils or cookie cutters (2-3 sizes is nice.)
Pen or pencil
Scissors
Scotch-like tape

* DO NOT substitute parchment paper for the wax paper. It is not the same thing, as parchment paper has teflon in it.

Other optional supplies, depending on what you want to do with your crafts decoration:

White cotton twine and food coloring. (Simplified option: thin ribbon in white or any Valentine color.)
A clothing hanger, or a long tree branch

I intended to hang our hearts once they were done. So instead of using some satin ribbon (which is simple and faster, if you want to go that route), I had this vision of hanging our hearts on dyed string, that varied in color. So, with a roll of white cotton twine, and some food coloring, this is how I did it:

heart-strings-valentines-craft-1 In a plastic container, I added some red food coloring to some water, deep enough to soak the roll on it’s side to the cardboard roll core. I just let it sit for awhile, while I did other things, until I thought it soaked through all of the layers of twine. Then, I made orange and yellow soaks as well, letting a different side of the roll sit in each.

heart-strings-valentines-craft-2 I loved the results! How pretty is that?

I knew as the twine was pulled off the roll, the layers would get lighter, but that too would only help the variations in the string colors. Now, all of this string is not going to dry on the roll all the way through, any time this year, but that’s o.k. You’ll be able to use the string damp just fine, and it’ll dry hanging.

heart-strings-valentines-craft-4 But while the string roll was soaking in various colors, the kids and I got to making our hearts.

Pull off a piece or 2 of wax paper, fold in half to make a good crease, and then open back up. . . .

heart-strings-valentines-craft-5 What size piece you use depends on how many hearts you’ll want to make. Remember, you’ll only be able to get hearts out of one half, as it will be ironed together soon, with crayon shavings in between.

heart-strings-valentines-craft-7 Grab your old peeled crayons, and start choosing some great colors for Valentine hearts. No need to stay with strictly traditional colors, such as red and pink. Try some purples, raspberries, and even oranges and yellows!

heart-strings-valentines-craft-8 Now, if your old crayons have been kicking around together for some time, as ours have, they are going to have yuckity-doo-dahs all over them. Even as a kid, with me and my sibling’s bottomless bucket of crayons, I hated this.

So because I have had particular issues, long before I was a blogger, I have had a trick for this crayon problem. And since you came to this blogger with issues blog, I’m going to share it with you. : )

heart-strings-valentines-craft-9 Just lay the crayons down, one by one, on some scrap paper, and rub the yuckity-doo-dahs away! I found this is also a good way to test what the color really looks like!! Some crayons when used, do not look anything like the shade of the actual crayon! So deceiving.

heart-strings-valentines-craft-10 Old crayons, like new: Yuckity-doo-dah free!

heart-strings-valentines-craft-11 To make crayon shavings, you need a sharpener of some kind. Our little hand pencil sharpener did not have a hole big enough for a crayon, so we used my make-up one! Thanks Lancome!

Now….you’ll need to iron on your table or other flat surface, so I highly recommend putting down some crafts paper to protect your surface, from both melting crayon, and the heat from the iron.

On top of the protected surface, lay your open wax paper pieces.

heart-strings-valentines-craft-12 Over only one side of your wax paper piece, sharpen your crayons and let the shavings fall onto the paper. Each of my our kids did their own, and had their own unique colors combinations, which was going to make for a nice variety of colored hearts.

heart-strings-valentines-craft-13 Some of our crayons were metallic ones!! So that was adding a whole new element of pretty!

heart-strings-valentines-craft-14 Make sure you cover the whole side with shavings pretty well. Brush any pieces in from the very edge though.

heart-strings-valentines-craft-15 Fold over the empty side of wax paper, onto the side with the shavings.

Now, Martha’s directions say to fold up each open side some, to keep the melting crayon in. But, I didn’t want to waste any space, as we wanted to make lots of hearts, and some on the bigger side too. So….I just made sure I was working on my brown paper bag. (We also had other craft paper taped to cover our surface under that.)

heart-strings-valentines-craft-16 Now, after putting brown paper on top of your waxed paper and shavings, you can start ironing. What setting? Good question!! See, Martha said on a ‘medium setting’. But guess what? Our iron doesn’t have a medium setting! So I set it between silk and wool, ; ) …. and adjusted the heat up or down from there.

As you can see, some oils from the crayons may seep through the wax paper and the brown paper. It doesn’t cause any problems. Just make sure you clean the surface of your iron off when you are done with this craft, so it doesn’t transfer to your clothes! What a hot mess that would be! (Note to self: Clean surface of iron from crayon craft!!) (By the time I decide to iron an article of clothing, I’ll have forgotten I ever did this craft with it.)

As you iron, you’ll want to keep peeking, to see if there are more shavings that still need melting in areas.

heart-strings-valentines-craft-17 Heavy in crayon wax…..but nice!!

heart-strings-valentines-craft-18 The next kiddo went with a lighter layer of shavings, for a new effect. Or, his hands just got tired from sharpening the crayons.

heart-strings-valentines-craft-17 They were looking good!! Just holding each of them up to the light, I could tell this was going to look super cool when we were done.

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I couldn’t wait to see what this one was going to look like, all melted.

heart-strings-valentines-craft-21 LOVE!!!

heart-strings-valentines-craft-22 Now, you may notice some bubbling or wrinkling in areas. I’m not sure why this happened sometimes. I was guessing maybe it was too much heat at times. But since this was a fun crafts class, and not our Science class, we weren’t going to waste time running tests, to figure it out. We decided it was a cool effect, and embraced it.

Next, came tracing hearts onto our waxed pieces, and cutting them out with scissors.

heart-strings-valentines-craft-19 We used simple heart shaped cookie cutters that we had, in 3 different sizes. Just trace them using a pen or pencil, and then cut out on the heart shaped line. I used a pen, and because I was using it on wax paper, it wouldn’t really write, which I preferred anyway. I was able to see the tracing indention well enough to cut, just by tracing it a couple of times. * I did not take photos of tracing and cutting. I have faith you get the picture.

Nor did I take photos of exactly how we did the rest of our crafts. BUT……Once your hearts are all cut out, there several things you can do with them:

1) The easiest thing you can do, is just put them on your windows much like window clings, using a little transparent tape! The hearts have a stained-glass look, and they would be beautiful with the light coming through, and the colors so radiant.

2) Another option, is using pieces of thin cut ribbon, tape one end to the back of each heart, and tie them to a clothing hanger at different lengths. Instant Valentine’s themed mobile!!

3) You can take it to the extreme, like we did…..

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Michael went out and found us a really long and fairly straight tree branch, that would meet the length of our sliding glass doors. Then, to work in a comfortable manner tying our hearts on it, we set 2 chairs very far apart, and rested each end of the stick on the top back of each chair. Using long pieces of our dyed string, we wound one end around the stick a few times, and taped the dangling end to the back of each heart, at different lengths.

heart-strings-valentines-craft-24 Yes, you could just tie it on quickly, but I knew I would love the look of our pretty, hand-dyed string, wound around this rustic tree branch. And I was right.

heart-strings-valentines-craft-25 It was worth ll of my efforts. It may not be worth it to you. Also….my girls helped with this some.

heart-strings-valentines-craft-26 If you’re wondering how we hung this long tree branch adorned with colorful Valentine hearts up high and across our slider glass doors, I’ll tell you: Michael screwed a long screw into the backside of the stick on each end. Then we simply used those little tight-clamp thingies, and clamped them to the curtain rod bracket. See? No permanent damage anywhere.

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They colors really look beautiful, hanging there, even as I look past them, through our window into the snowy scene behind them. There are often squirrels out there frolicking in the snow (o.k. …finding the fallen bird seed), and birds at the feeders, eating.

We think the critters rather appreciate our Valentine decorations on display.

I love coming in our front door, and seeing them swaying in the breeze across the room in front of us. I can feel the love in the air. It makes us smile.

The colors of love are a beautiful thing.

Let them shine, shine, shine.

(Love this craft idea? Share the link on your Facebook! Your mom-friends will love it too! Or….*pin it* to one of your boards! ; )

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An Autumn Decor Peek & a Wicked Little Bit of Halloween.

October 18, 2010 By Laura 4 Comments

We’re sharing our current Autumn decor with you today! We’re so glad you’re here. Come on in!

I’ve been taking a couple of photos here and there, of our homestead autumn decor, simply because it is FUN for me, and I know many of you love to see this kind of stuff. So, I’m sharing, just as I did last year. It’s just a small collection of shots, and most all of the decor I’ve done is indoors. Not much has been done with the outdoors at this point in time, although we did rip out all of the tomato plants and cosmos. It seems we still have some jalapeno and bell peppers growing though, so we’ve left those for the time being. Marigold plants remain for now as well, adding some color to the near empty gardens now. The strawberry beds need to be ‘put to bed’ before the first frost! Which feels like it may be soon! It’s gotten pretty chilly around here. Especially at night! We’ve even built a fire or 2 in our wood stove, and it’s given us that nice cozy atmosphere we love through the cold season.

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But one thing I do have outdoors, is this new flag that I picked up for next to nothing. It was one of maybe 50 designs, and apparently the last one. It was the one and only I wanted. I made the staff of the store go through quite a bit to get this display one down for me. I really wanted it! And I got it. And it makes me smile every day.
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I made this wreath, but don’t be too impressed. It was already vine like, and I made it into a circle, and hung it.

Come on in and take a little look around, to see a few other seasonal touches around the homestead.

Some faux fall flowers, dropped into an antique milk jug.
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Our wall table, and some family photos in a big frame, that I just stuck some faux leaves in. Above on the wall is a new sign I had to have, for the Halloween season. I got it on sale too.
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It’s so suitable for the Halloween season. But I love it because it’s a slang word I have used all of my life. I’m originally from western MA, and it’s common language out there. When I came out to the Boston area to art school, I quickly found the whole world does not actually use the word like I do. Or at all. But I still use it. I cherish it. I find the word wicked useful.
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Great craft and treat ideas in this special Halloween edition magazine of Matthew Mead’s, from last year.
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These are the kid’s. And….these are the kids. LOL (They know which one is them.) But here they are sticking in the weave of a basket in the kitchen. Until they grab them again. Come to think of it, I don’t even know if they are still there. But I’m not going to look now. I got my photo.
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An Autumn ribbon that hangs our Prayer List Chalkboard. I’ve mentioned that I love the idea of changing out the ribbon on our chalkboards, to go with current season and holiday home decor.
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A hedgehog ornament. Cute, huh? She’s hanging on our season tree (branch).
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Apple cinnamon tea, in a beautiful ceramic mug, that seems perfect for Autumn.
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It’s been a happy Autumn indeed. May the coming winter be as good to us.

Have you happened to do any autumn decorating at all this year? We’d love to hear a little bit about what you’ve done, no matter how simple. And, if you’ve taken photos and blogged it, leave us a link! We’ll swing by your place!

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From our home to yours, wishing all of you, and your families, a blessed Holy Week, and a joyful Easter Sunday celebration.

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