Pioneer Woman at Heart

When you have ba d allergies, you get tired of being locked up in the house all the time.  I was itching to get out , an d so I did.  Although it was the shorte st hike in the woods, I still savored it. My 10 year-old was the only one to join me, and she gathered leaves , as well as myself. The campground we like to camp at, has many trails for hiking and biking.     We ea ch came home with some very colorful fall leaves.  I hope to feel up to collectin g more this weekend.  I like to use these for fall house decorations.  They are free, beaut if ul, and s mell wonderful.  When the season is over, we can simply put them back into the garden, or the kids can create pictures with the l eaves.     W hen we got back home, I took a few photos of the foil age that i s about one corn field away from the farm.   Here it is again, with the corn still up , in front of the trees. Despi te morning frost s, we ...

It's a news alert!  This post has nothing to do with being frugal, stocking up, self-sufficiency, or anything garden related.  Shocking news huh? I have a few collections, and have been coming across strays while cleaning this fall.  This is one of my many pens.  It has buttons on the back to control the hands, moving them out and back again.  I bought this one many years ago, because I love to box, and hubby taught me how. I love to write, and have a habit of collecting unusual pens.  I do use them too.  I just have to be careful and not buy more than I can use. .....guess I better get back to writing. 

 It's been nice to see the sun shining the last few days.   Here is another shirt I am wearing this month. Yesterday I made another trip to urgent care.  It was for my 13 year-old daughter.  We thought she may have an ear infection, but was diagnosed with an upper respiratory infection.  On the way to pick up her prescription, I  stopped at a store that sold holistic teas, oils etc.  I came home with elderberry loose leaf tea that is mixed with an immunity booster tea.  I also came come with a seawater nasal spray.  I'm giving both a try.  The tea is so good.  It has peppermint in it.  After one cup, and one shot up each nostril with the spray, I felt pretty good all night.  I was told that the flower of the elderberry is better than the berry itself.  Not sure how true that is, but I'm giving it a try anyway.  The tea is organic. This morning, however, the swollen and painful lymph node remains....

Thanks to my Mom, we are now locked and loaded with an arsenal of hedge apples.  Spiders beware! Bwahahaha! November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).  I gear up to write each November - 50,000 word novel.  I follow Rachelle Gardner's site and today's post reminds writers. It will be my third year to participate. Maybe one day, one of these will make it to print.   What I get to do today (or not): ~scatter hedge apples around the house and wood barn ~dig up glady bulbs (way behind in getting this done) ~let the chickens out, check goat's water buckets ~finish the dishes the kids did not (ugh) ~sweep, vacuum, clean one bathroom (double ugh) ~write out a list for the store ~can jelly for Christmas ~make ground cayenne (already dehydrating) ~blog ~check e-mail . . . .I might be lucky to get one or two things done today.  My neck is still hurting, node is still swollen, allergies are not backing down and I feel misera...

There are so many versions of using walnuts for dye, including making a dye for stamping fabric.  I decided to soak some walnuts in water for 3 days  (slightly browned).  I ran the liquid through a strainer, lined to catch all the small stuff.

Summer here is very busy with gardening, stocking up, repairing, building, etc. I have little time to work on the "little" things. I finally dug out my swatch book, and put a cover to it.  I could have decoupaged it, painted it, and so many other ways. However, I simply used a piece of stationary and printed it from the computer. Here is a peek inside my journal/book.  I simply bought tab dividers with color tabs already adhered.  I don't have all the colors, but it's pretty easy to use with the ones do have.  I can also add more by using cardstock and adding a tab. For yarns, I simply adhere a piece of the dyed yarn to the page, and write what mordant I used, the material I used, the date and then a year later I update if the color held. For example, I dyed a 100% cotton doily that I crocheted, using red onion skins a year ago.  It has since faded from not using a mordant.  I did not have a yarn swatch, so I printed photos of the before and...

(from the Diabetic Cooking May/June 2012 Issue) Note:  I did not have banana flavored yogurt and used vanilla.  I also did not have vanilla on hand.  I used 1 tsp. of almond extract.  Yum!