my NEW Rocking Bench

 I love living in the country!

We live in a sweet little spot three miles north of a tiny little town. There are wild turkeys along with other wildlife and mountains in our back yard. 

With all of this goodness to enjoy, I decided to indulge in a new glider bench for our back porch. 

It fit perfectly and because its made of metal and trex it should last a very long time through our long sunny summer days and harsh winter storms.

It's perfect!

Evenings are sweet...

and now we have the best place to sit and soak in the last rays of each day!

Happy Spring!

Crochet Shawls

Spring is cold here and we still have a month or so before we can plant anything outside... so its nice to have a project to pass the time. 

I learned to crochet as a teenager in our Young Women's group at church and I really enjoyed it. We learned how to crochet borders on baby blankets and I started to make a blanket that I'm still not finished with (25 or so years in the making... that one started out as a queen size and I've changed my mind to just make it a baby blanket). 

Sometimes I do a lot of crocheting and then I'll go years without touching it.... I guess it all depends on the season of your life. 

So, I started making a few dish clothes just to make sure I still knew how to make all the different stitches.... then I got a crazy idea to make shawls for my girls and I (for the Fort Bridger Rendezvous we participate in each year in the fall)

I picked up some yarn at Walmart and Joann's. 

(the purple shawl took a little more than 1 roll)

(the cream shawl took about 5 rolls, because the rolls aren't very big)

(the blue shawl took 10 rolls of yarn)

I found my patterns online. 

The cream shawl was a free pattern on

Pinterest.com

 

The purple and blue shawls are the same pattern I bought on Ravelry 

https://www.ravelry.com

I started with the cream shawl. It was easy and super fast to make. 

The purple shawl was a bit more challenging with a lot of different stitches but I still really enjoyed making it and it didn't take too long. 

I made the blue shawl last... I thought I would try a smaller weight yarn so it had more detail but I was in for a harder longer project than I bargained for. It took a long time to finish... by the time I was done I didn't want another project!

But they all turned out beautiful!!!

I still love to crochet and I'm even thinking of entering a project in the county fair.

Good luck with all your projects!

Happy Spring

I LOVE my Mini Printer!

 Mini Printer Product Review (this is my personal opinion)

I LOVE my little printer!!!

This little printer is the best tool I've found for scripture study!

I've wanted a mini printer for a long time... I looked at the more expensive color ones but couldn't bring myself to spend the money, but when I saw this one which was cheaper... I thought I'd give it a try. 

...And I'm not disappointed!

It isn't colored, which would've been nice BUT it works really really well for study and printing small notes that you can easily add in the margins. 

I use it daily as I study my scriptures.

I love how easy it is to screen shot the scriptures or quotes I want and then print them from the app.

It makes it so much easier to add extra to my studies and takes up a lot less space than trying to write it all (especially since I write so big)

It bluetooths to my phone and connects really good!

I'm very happy with how this little printer works!

It's not perfect picture quality... but its clear enough for notes and small pictures.

Overall a good product!!

Happy Studies!!

FREE 2024 Portrait Calendar

 

I hope everyone's doing well in their neck of the woods! We've been warming up and I'm already excited for spring, but I know its a long way off.

I'm glad January is almost over... its not my favorite month, but this January hasn't been to bad. 

I know its been a couple years but I finally got a calendar made for this site. I have others on Etsy and they take up most of my time...

but I thought it was time for a free one!

These calendars are great! They have lines on each of the days so it's easier to keep things looking neat, and there's lots of extra space for writing notes and reminders. 

I hope you enjoy the calendar!

...its FREE...

so ... click on READ MORE (under the calendar)... find the link below and start planning a wonderful year!

2024 {1-page} Planning Calendar

 

I hope you all had a wonderful new year!

Time is flying like usual and I finally got my {1-page} planning calendar done for this year. 

I love this little calendar! 

It helps me so much! 

I'm a Young Women's leader in our church and we have activities every week so this is a huge help to keep track of the days, weeks and months of things we have to plan. 

* its free *

...so go ahead and find the file below

print as many as you want...

Shrinky Dink Ornament

Its almost Christmas already! What happened to this year?! It has flown by so fast!

Each year I make or order an ornament with our family picture. This year I decided to try making one with Shrinky Dink plastic. 

This stuff is so fun and super easy to use!

You can make just about anything you want... and they are really durable. 

I really like how it turned out!... and it should last for a very long time. 

So if you don't know how to use Shrinky dink plastic let me show you...

Its really quite fun!

Cozy Sweatshirt DIY

Winter's coming! We've been fogged in for a week or so and its beautiful outside, very Christmas like. 

I really like to stay inside and craft when the weather is cold. So here's another sweater I made that I'm very excited to share! It turned out so cute and its so comfy!

There are so many cute shirts out there its so fun to see all the different designs and creative graphics! But I really like to make my own.

I really love this sweater... and I can wear it for the whole cold season... which for us is November through April most years. 

It was so easy and fun to make... my youngest keeps saying she needs one too. 

I'm thinking I might even need a few more of this same design in different colors of sweatshirt.... and a few different colors of the other design I made (both designs are at the bottom of this post).