T-Shirt Rag Rug

  Remember the old loop potholders we all made as kids? If you ever tried to use one of those potholders you'd burn your fingers. Well this project is MUCH more fun, actually looks nice, and is functional! 
Unless you tell, no one would know it was old t-shirts.
  It's a rug made on a hula hoop! The idea came from Pinterest, where someone pinned the idea from 
Family Fun Magazine online.


  You'll need around 12 old t-shirts, scissors (or a cutting mat and rotary cutter), and a hula hoop or other large hoop. After you make one you'll be thinking about what else you could use for a loom. Such as an large, old frame, or begging your honey to make you something. I can see a rectangular rug in my future. :)


11 Loops go on the frame like spokes on a wheel. These are the warp. The material you weave with is the weft. So you start with 22 warp. You need an uneven number for the weave to come out right, so you push 2 of the spokes together and treat them as one. For now you treat both of the double strings of each loop as one.

8 inches of weaving is where you will begin treating 
each warp spoke as two individual strips instead of a single unit.

Soooo much easier than crocheting!

Just about finished!

Now I'm scouring closets for more old t-shirts, and seeing loom possibilities everywhere. Here's my Pinterest site For full directions go to 
Family Fun here. 

                                                                             
                                                                          The tie off 

This rug is not yours, Miss Patty Dog.

Maybe we can share.

I like this recycled old bed sheet rug.
And this braided rug, no-sew!

Chocolate-Covered Cherries

Chocolate-Covered Cherries for Valentine's Day

My honey LOVES these. Store bought are just not the same. These are a surprise, so shhhhh, don't tell.

Ingredients:

• 2 jars of maraschino cherries, drained and dried on layers of paper towel (aprox. 60)
• 4 Tab. butter
• 4 Tab. light corn syrup or honey
• 3 c. or more of powdered sugar
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 2 lbs. chocolate, either a mixture of dark and white chocolate chips or other quality  chocolate, melted.

Keep the drained cherries on paper towels drying while you work.

In a largish bowl:

Don't be afraid to use your hands.

Make CERTAIN that your cherries are nice and dry before the next step.
Even if you have to hand dry each one individually.

While cherries are getting firm you can melt the chocolate in a double boiler. If you are like me, who has NEVER owned a double boiler use a small saucepan sitting inside a larger pan with a small amount of almost boiling water. DO NOT let even one speck of water get in the chocolate. It will cause the chocolate to seize, which is sort of like when milk clots. Then all it will be good for is to pour out on waxed paper and chop up for putting in cookies.

You may have a few weepy ones when you take them out to dip, and that's okay. Storing in the fridge will keep them from getting too messy.

After they are all dipped and starting to harden, loosen them and see if the undersides are sealed with chocolate. If not put a little dollop of chocolate on the naked spots and let set. Store in the refrigerator for a week or so to ripen. That means they will get a little more gooey on the inside the longer you can hold out from eating them, but your family will wonder why you have a recent love affair with the fridge if you try to sneak in and snag one too often for taste testing just to "check and see if they are ready".

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Natural Wonders

Riding with my man

Sunrises and sunsets with my honey

When God Guides The Study

WOW! When God guides me to scripture after scripture relating the same subject, even though I wasn't studying that concept, or searching for it it makes me excited, wondering where this is going and what He's trying to show me. I had just read a chapter in a book titled Hard Saying of the Old Testament about Abraham and the demand from God that Abraham sacrifice his son. This is a passage in the bible that I have had struggles with over time and finally came to understand, though I still find it intriguing. I laid the book down, and soon after was searching an online concordance for "love", "unending" or "unending love", thinking nothing at all about what I'd just read.  The VERY first entry for "love" in the NKJ version of Bible Gateway's concordance is Genesis 22:2 and reads:

Then He said, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” 

I thought that was interesting, what a coincidence... but what happened next gave me goose bumps. I put in "God's love" and found one of my favorite scriptures because I learned it in a song from a pastor friend. Micah 6:8. I clicked a link to see the verses in context and this is what I read:

 ⁷ "Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams,
      Ten thousand rivers of oil?
      Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
      The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
       ⁸ He has shown you, O man, what is good;
      And what does the LORD require of you
      But to do justly,
      To love mercy,
      And to walk humbly with your God"

This passage is telling us that even IF we poured out rivers of oil or gave something precious, such as our children in sacrifice it is not pleasing to God. He NEVER required human sacrifice in the first place, only obedience. Also, CAN we do justly? On our own do we love mercy? Do we ever truly walk humbly? The answer is of course, a resounding, "NO." We cannot, we do not, and most of the time we'd rather not even try because we fail so miserably. Thank the Lord that He Himself was the sacrificial atonement in our place.

Pioneer Woman!!

I started looking at Pioneer Woman's Blog way back at her beginnings. I think we were even a part of the same online homeschool support group. I was so excited to finally MEET HER!

Her wonderful chicken spaghetti!

She was very personable and sweet. I told her that I also am a photographer and homeschooled my son. She said we had a lot in common. I totally forgot to tell her I'm an Okie too!

Told her all about my precious daughter, living in Germany who would have loved to meet her.

LOOK! It's the Ree Drummond Groupies!

I love her normalcy, her humor and her cowboy boots!

The Old Vinson Home Place

Last summer I went with my brother, Charles to visit the old Vinson farm. I was just a baby when grandma moved from the farmhouse into Mangum, so I have no memories there, but I love hearing stories from my family, from siblings and cousins who talk about the farm and grandma and grandpa Vinson. I never knew my grandfather so the photos, pages from his personal journal and stories about him are precious to me. I learned that he was something of a poet, so I know where my yearning to write poetry of all sorts came from. The town of Vinson, 20 miles west of Mangum, OK was named for Henry Benjamin Vinson, townsite owner and my great-great grandfather .

Wonderful, lonely, old house nestled in amongst the rattlesnakes and mesquite bushes

When I excitedly showed my aunts, uncles and mom the photos on my laptop it was so sad for them to see it as it is now,
but I love the layers on the old roof, the sagging boards, remaining windows and the rusty tin.

A roost for huge turkey vultures now. I'd like to tell you that they're hawks, or bald eagles...something majestic,
but they serve a purpose and they have pretty nice digs. 

I'll post more pics another day from when we saw great uncle Parker's house.

A bloom in the dry soil of West Oklahoma 

Kinda reminds me to bloom where God's planted me

Fruity Spinach Salad

I'm all about saving money by figuring out how I can make something at home for less. This recipe was inspired from three different sources: TV guy I saw make something similar, Panera Bread and the Wednesday night church salad bar. I can eat a whole huge bowl of this stuff! Eat it with one of my Sandwiches - not Just For Kids, or add some chicken to the salad for a meal. It's like having dinner and dessert at the same time! Feel free to add mandarin oranges or fresh pineapple, or to subtract other fruit.

Fruity Spinach Salad

• Fresh or bagged Spinach (whole bag if for a crowd)
• Blueberries (or blackberries, raspberries...)
• Strawberries
• Walnuts (or pecans)
• Purple Onion
• Feta Cheese crumbles

Wash spinach in a colander and take the stems off the larger leaves while it drains. Wash fruit. Cap and quarter strawberries. Very thinly slice a small portion of the purple onion and cut into pieces. 

Place spinach in the bowl first then top with the rest of the beautiful ingredients. Drizzle the strawberry dressing over salad right before serving, or serve it on the side for guests to drizzle desired amount. 

Strawberry Dressing

• 1/4 c. Virgin Olive Oil
• 1/4 c. Honey (could cut this down a little)
• 1/4 c. Apple Cider Vinegar
• 4 large Strawberries

  Throw all together into a blender or food processor and blend until berries are fairly smooth.