Monday's to do list is being postponed until tomorrow

In the USA, this is a holiday to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King. Schools are out and many workers are off work so that means for us, today was a family fun day. 

Even though it is winter, here it is a warm and sunny today. But we did a snow man craft anyway.

Marshmallows, glue and cousins always make for a fun time.

Dr. Martin Luther King 1929-1968 

Bakery style scones

We made a planned at the last minute trip to Texas midweek. My dad a medical procedure done and it seems to of been a success. While he recuperated Mom and Dad both said they could manage but I knew they needed me so my husband took off work and drove me there.

We visited lots and I did some cooking and a bit of shopping for them. 

They usually eat oatmeal for breakfast so I cooked some different things. One morning was bacon, over easy eggs and biscuits. One morning was oatmeal muffins and the other morning was cinnamon scones.

I've blogged about these delicious scones before and I've seen the recipe on several other blogs so I think it is a very popular recipe.
And it should be because they are just delicious. They are quick and made with normal pantry ingredients too.
This is the batch I baked yesterday at my parent's home. 

If you want to make something special but easy for a weekend breakfast, I recommend these scones. 

(The recipe calls for 1/3 cup of buttermilk but every time I've made them, I've needed at least 1/2 cup.)

Now we are back in Oklahoma. 

2 of our grandsons will be spending the rest of the weekend with us.  They are really fun little guys.  

We went out for supper tonight and they picked Jack In The Box. They also wanted to sit at a table with the high stools instead of at a lower booth.

Fast food is never my first choice but they boys had a great time and so did we. 

Good times! 

My daughter's thrifty laundry room re-do

Linking up to the party at Mimi's Tray of Bliss Premiere of her brand new Five Star Frugal Link Up 


My daughter is a busy working mom with 2 little ones and another son due this spring.  To get ready for an even busier season of life, she is doing a multi week home de-clutter and organization challenge Facebook group thing.  The first weeks assignment was their kitchens.

This week's challenge was the laundry area.   

I don't have a complete "before" photo but here are the highlights 

First, she had some boxes she wanted to use for children's art supply storage. She thought about covering them with fabric but my fabric stash didn't have enough of any coordinating fabrics for all 4 boxes.

Then I remembered all this roll gift wrap that I bought at Hobby Lobby at least 5 years ago. The rolls are very long and the paper is almost too sturdy for one time gift wrapping.

Since their laundry room was already painted gray, she used the the black and white prints.

I think the covered boxes look so pretty and they really hold lots of stuff like glue and crayons and tape.

The only thing she spent money on was for these new laundry hampers.  She added their photos to help with sorting. 4 year old Elizabeth even told 1 year old JJ where he was supposed to put his dirty laundry. 

These hampers have a solid shelf on top that should be a good surface for laundry folding.

Their washer and dryer is not new, just cleaned off and decluttered.

She moved her heat press to the cabinet between the 2 appliances - its a perfect fit too. She uses the heat press to add custom designs to clothing and accessories.

 This space on the wall was damaged from an old rack. They didn't have any of the gray paint so they painted a big almost black square there to use as a faux bulletin board.

Here's the AFTER in one photo.

Really nice job I think! 

Monday to - do list ........

Good morning everyone! It is cold foggy month in Oklahoma so I will mostly be doing things indoors today. I started my week's to do list last night, I think it will keep me busy all day.  There are a couple of items from last week's list that didn't get done and had to be rolled onto this list.  And I need to add "clean stovetop" to the list as my morning oatmeal boiled a bit over.  

I know some of you are saying "ewwww" right now. Sauerkraut is one of those foods that people either like or they can't stand.  My husband and I like it, especially this German kraut from Aldi. I don't think they carry it all the time but have it during their German week events. 

I'll be baking the pork loin chops with diced onion and the kraut for our supper. 

Oven meals are great on cold days like this, the oven cooks the food and also helps warm up the house. 

About my previous post, I had no idea napkins from old tablecloths would be so popular! 

They really were quick and fun to sew. One son claimed the set of 12 and the others have been promised to my brother's girlfriend. 

About the size I use for napkins, I like about 17 inches.  On a reuse project like cutting up tablecloths, you just about have to let the fabric decide though. 

Have a good Monday everyone! I hope to get as many boxes checked on my to do list as I can. 

Sewing- napkins and baby cloths

I've been cleaning out a closet and got rid of several tablecloths that didn't fit our table but I kept 3 sort of vintage thrifted tablecloths even though  they didn't fit our table either. I thought about cutting them down into dish towel size but I am not really in need of more dish towels right now.

Then my son mentioned he wanted more cloth napkins. So yesterday, I cut the 3 tablecloths into napkin size and finished off any edges that needed it. 

I left the sewn edges in tact so some of the new napkins only needed 2 or 3 sides finished off with narrow hems. I first ironed them and then machine stitched. They were a quick project, 

There are 4 in the first stack, 6 in the middle stack and 12 in the last pile. 

It was the biggest of the 3. It had a repeating design of this big fruit bowl so I tried to center one on each napkin. 

I don't know if my son will think these are cool or hokey. But if he doesn't like them, we will use them.

My other sewing project used 3 little flannel blankets from the thrift store. They were really too tiny to swaddle a baby but I bought them because the fabric looked brand new and the color is fairly gender neutral. 

I cut them into rectangles and rounded the corners, then sewed them up into burp cloths. 

4 of them are a good size for a burp cloth but the 5th one is pieced from the scraps and is a bit small. But maybe it will be used by an older sibling on a baby doll when the new babies arrive.

My craft room has no shortage of supplies to continue with similar sewing projects. Hopefully I'll get more done soon!