The Goat Barn

   With nasty weather fast approaching, the pressure was on to finish siding the goat barn. A few years ago my father in-law and I built a wood shop for me to work in, and he had the insight to put a roofed storage area on the back. From the front of the shop it looked like it was a solid building but on the side it was open to store stuff . When we got the goats, we started by enclosing a 10' by 10' section of the roofed storage area, but as the herd started to grow we realized that they would need more room. We ended up making the roofed area around 25' by 10', and the outside pen where they run around in is about 16' by 36'. One of my neighbors just replaced some of his windows and was nice enough to let me have his old windows. I picked up some more siding from the local lumber store, and nailed up. Slapped in the windows and was done right before the wind and snow got here.
   The goats seem a lot more comfortable since the walls and windows been installed and appreciate no wind blowing on them. I still need to put casing around the outside of the windows, but I think that can wait tell spring time.
   A few weeks ago I saw a post on craigslist for nigerian dwarf goats for sale, and they were in the next town over. I went to go check them out to see what they  had, and to meet another nigerian goat owner. When I got there, I was very impressed with their set up and the goats. I then found out that all their goats came from Old Mountain Farm , a breeder that puts out some of the best goats around, and she was selling them for pretty cheap. Did I ever say I appreciated a good deal, some might even call me cheap. I left the farm with my wheels spinning in my mind. Aspen was supposed to breed with Atreus while he was staying at our place, but we think she never cycled due to a copper deficiency. If we picked up a new goat we could introduce some different lines into the herd and get the new doe to breed with Atreus while he was still here. I talked to the wife, and after I explained everything to her she was on board. We all went to the farm and picked out a cute little fluff ball of goat who also had great conformation. We brought her home and within a couple of days she was part of the herd. The only problem we had was that Atreus had to go back sooner then we thought and the new goat, named Katy Lane, was only with him for ten days. We'll have to wait tell spring time to see if magic was in the air.

The Twelfth Day of Homemade Christmas

Bath Crayon Stocking Stuffers

     I had to share one more stocking stuffer that I made the kids. These are bath crayons made from soap shavings. I found these on Pintrest a while back and had planned to try and make them with the kids, but before I knew it, Christmas season was in full swing, and I decided to make them as stocking stuffers instead. These are definitely something that you could make with children, but they are pretty messy, just to warn you!

So, here's what I did:

     

      I used my hand grater to make 4-5 bars of plain Ivory soap into shavings. I separated the shavings into 2 different bowls. Then, I slowly added water and food coloring a little bit at a time, stirring as I went along. It probably took about a cup or so of water and about 10 drops of food coloring, give or take. I wanted to make a nice, workable paste. This proved to be a little more difficult than I planned and I ended up using my hands so I could get right in there-that's the messy part! Once I had the consistency and color I liked, I used cookie cutters on a wax paper lined cookie sheet, and packed the soap paste evenly into them. Then, I set them aside in the basement to dry.

     It took A LONG time for them to dry and I ended up completely forgetting about them after a few days since I had tucked them away safely from plain site. I happened upon them about 2-3 weeks later, so of course they were dry by then! They had also kind of shrunk and were super-easy to pop out of the cookie cutters, which was something I had become a little concerned about in the first few days of waiting for them to dry.

     So, I popped them out of the cookie cutters, shaved off the brown edges with a knife, and packaged them in repurposed note card wrappers labeled with white contact paper labels, just like the regular crayons I made. I also saved the leftover colored shavings and I think that all I will have to do is add water to re-make a paste to make more. I can't wait to see how they work in the bathtub... And, who knows; maybe once I get into making my own goat milk soap, I will make goat milk soap bath crayons. Fun, fun, fun!

     

             

     I hope you have enjoyed the Twelve Days of Homemade Christmas as much as I have! I have done quite a bit more crafting this holiday season that what I have shared on our blog, but I did not want to reveal any of the gifts I will be giving tonight and tomorrow, so I will have to share some of my other creations with you another time. 

     Making this 12 day commitment has been much more time consuming than I had imagined! For those of my friends who blog every day, and have little ones to raise, my hat goes off to you! I will be stepping back a bit for a few days so that I can focus on my family. Miss E and Miss D will be home on school vacation through January 3rd and we have A LOT of family fun-time ahead...

     I am sure that Mr. J will be happy to get back to his farm talk as well. He won't say it, but I am certain that I've seen him roll his eyes at some of the "girliness" that has been thrust upon his blog over the past 12 days! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone and thanks for following along with our journey as we muddle our way through life as small farmers learning to be more self-sufficient.

Merrily Yours,  Mrs. J :)

The Eleventh Day of Homemade Christmas

Simple Sugar Scrub

     Last year I made a HUGE batch of sugar scrub to divvy up into small canning jars for teacher, friend, and family gifts. I was amazed at how easy it was to make and the kids were happy to help. It's always nice when something is simple and safe enough to have my little helpers join me!

     Well, this year I did not make a HUGE batch, but I did make a small one to use as Yankee Swap gifts and I had enough left over to make a jar for myself. Ever since the cold weather has hit, and with all of the crafting I have been doing lately, my hands have been a mess!!!

     I found these cute little plastic spoons at the dollar store, and I just had to put one with each scrub. I think they really complete the look. Below is the recipe I used:

Gardner's Lemon Sugar Scrub

5 1/8 C. Sugar

2 C. Grapeseed Oil

6-8 TBSP Lemon Juice

     I mixed it all in a bowl and used a canning funnel to put it into pretty, clean jars that I had on hand.  I topped the lids with circles of fabric scraps before screwing on the rings. Then, I tied a tag and the cute, little spoons around the lids with twine, and fished off the whole package with a scrap of grosgrain ribbon. 

     These are super-simple to make and there are a million different recipes out there, so you can probably find one that you can make with things you already have in your pantry. If you are still looking for a last minute gift for that special someone, maybe you can whip up a cute jar of sugar scrub for them today...

Merrily Yours,   Mrs. J :)

The Tenth Day of Homemade Christmas

Gone Fishin'

     Miss D and I made this fishing game for Mr. T. We already have a Melissa and Doug puzzle that is similar but Mr. T enjoys playing with beanbags so much that I thought this would be fun too! I bought the galvanized bucket at a craft store for a mere $1.49 and used only things that I had on hand to make the pole, fish, and bucket decorations.
     All I did was draw a simple fish shape on white contact paper and cut it out. Before peeling off the backing to decorate the bucket, I used that as my template for the fish beanbags. I used random scraps (some from the sweater pillows I posted yesterday too!) and sewed them, right sides together with a loop of ribbon inside and a washer threaded through them. I left the fish open at the tails, turned them right side out, and then Miss D used a funnel to fill them with rice. I quickly finished the tails with a decorative stitch and trimmed the edges with pinking shears.
     The fishing pole is just a weird plastic dowel that I had salvaged from one of the kids cheap dog walking toys we got at a fair. The toy fell apart within hours of being home and I had it in my craft room to repair, but since no one had asked about it I decided to disassemble it completely and re-use the parts for projects. It was really just a glorified weapon, so it's just as well! Anyway, Mr. J cut the plastic dowel to length for me and then I wrapped it in scraps of batting and sewed a "pocket" out of more leftover scrap fabric, to slip it into. I attached the ribbon to the end of the pocket for the fishing line. I turned the whole thing right side out, stuffed the wrapped plastic pole inside and finished it by hand.
     Once all of the fish beanbags were completed, I grabbed a magnet off of my fridge (one that Miss E stole from my brother's fridge over a year ago no less!!!) and tied it to the end of the ribbon. I cut out a letter T from patterned contact paper, and stuck it, along with the white fish shape to the bucket. I finished the whole thing off by tying a scrap like a bow on the handle of the bucket and Miss D and I wrapped and hid it in her bedroom closet until it's time to put it under the tree.
     She is so excited to give him his new fishing game, and is so proud of herself for helping Mommy make it! Miss E is usually my crafting partner so it was a treat for me to do something like this with Miss D too! I did some of the prep-work the night before, but we were able to fill and finish the fish beanbags and fishing pole all while Mr. J and Mr. T were out running errands one morning and Miss E was at school. It always feels good to spend quality time with on on my little ones, but it's even better when we're able to check something off of Mommy's never-ending To Do List at the same time!

Merrily Yours,  Mrs. J :)

   

The Ninth Day of Homemade Christmas

Sweater Pillows

     These pillows that I made for Miss E and Miss D are made from outgrown Hanna Andersson sweaters that my mom got for them last year. The girls wore them ALL THE TIME and absolutely loved them (I have a few pictures of the girls wearing them that I had wanted to include on this post but my scanner and the internet are not cooperating right now and we have lost power a few times today because of the wind, so I have decided not to push my luck!) Hanna Andresson clothes are beautiful, high quality and wash wonderfully. Any new Hanna Andresson clothes my children have are either from my mom or from the $5 rack when the outlet has a sale. We do have several gently used items that I have purchased in thrift and consignment shops, and they are typically great items to re-consign once the kids outgrow them because they really hold their value. 

     These sweaters, however, were so special to my girls that I just couldn't part with them, no matter how much money I could get for them! So, naturally, I had to make them into something and pillows were the simplest choice. I simply used my rotary cutter to cut them into squares, sewed the two right sides together quickly with the machine, turned them right side out, stuffed them with old pillow stuffing, and finished them by hand. Simple. Easy. Free... And I know that the girls will love them! 

The Eighth Day of Homemade Christmas

Ahhh...MOMMY TIME
     Well, my Christmas crafting has finally come to an end. Tuesday night I stayed up WAY past my bedtime wrapping, labeling, tying bows and sorting out all of our homemade gifts. The girls delivered their teacher gifts on Wednesday and I dropped by a few of our neighbors' houses to spread some Christmas cheer on my way to and from picking them up from school. I still have to catch up with a few more friends and neighbors, but I have boxed everything up and it's in my car so I can easily deliver things when the opportunity arises.
     Even though my house is a total mess, I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. I had planned to be completely done wrapping by now and I haven't really even started, but that's okay. It will all get done. I still have a handful of projects that I plan to post for my Twelve Days of Homemade Christmas countdown, but for now, I just need a little "Mommy Time." I hope you will excuse me if I share what I did last night when I was supposed to be getting to bed early...
   
I tried to relax, I really did. I even turned on the T.V. and found a show on Hulu Plus that I hadn't seen yet, but there it was, just staring at me. Taunting me... My empty, haphazard mantle! This year we decided to hang the stockings above our pellet stove in the Family Room, so our beautiful Living Room mantle above the real fireplace has been uncharacteristically bare. I have just been WAY too busy making gifts to come up with something I'm happy with.
     I have had clippings from our Christmas tree all cut and sorted for weeks now, just waiting for me outside, but for one reason or another I just haven't gotten around to doing anything with them.With less than a week until Christmas, time was of the essence. Our Christmas budget has been met and exceeded at least 3 times over despite my best efforts, so buying something for the mantle was just not an option. No, I needed to get creative and use things that I had on hand. Plus, now that I was"relaxing" I had decided that something must be done right away to remedy the naked mantel situation. I mean, how could I possibly sit on the couch and look at that ugly thing all night?!
     I thought for a bit, and decide that Mason jars would be my choice...And the greens outside, that were most likely wet (again) and that I had to go out in the dark to retrieve. Oh well, it was time to set my fear of the dark aside and rise to the challenge. My goal was to decorate the mantel and have it all completed and cleaned up before Mr. J got home from work so I could pretend that I relaxed all night and got to be early. :) So, I grabbed my jars, washed them and dried them. I grabbed some silver beads, 1/2 of a bag of cranberries from the fridge, old pillow stuffing (snow,)  and whatever real and fake candles I had in my candle cabinet. Then, I put my headlamp on and turned on all of the outside lights. I grabbed my gardening shears and dragged my poor dogs outside with me at 10 o'clock at night so I could gather my mantel decorations.
   
When I came back inside with all of my finds, I went straight to work. I quickly consulted with Pintrest and settled on a design. It only took me about twenty minutes, but I think it came out nice considering that it was completely free and essentially thrown together. It was also a nice break for me to create something just for me. Some Mommy time was definitely in order and now I feel refueled and ready to clean the house, wrap presents, cook, bake, and share the last four days of Homemade Christmas with you. Who knows, maybe I'll even be able to sit down for more than five minutes tonight to wind down for the day. Although, I do have an awful lot of greens left and no dorr decorations up yet...

Thanks for letting me have some much needed "Mommy Time!"

Merrily Yours, Mrs. J :)

The Seventh Day of Homemade Christmas

Tea Time

     Here's another little set I whipped up for the kids' play kitchen. Again, inspired by another expensive item from Amazon (nearly $17.00 without shipping!), I came up with another, essentially "free" version of my own. 

     I simply emptied out one of my boxes of tea and grabbed six chamomile tea bags from my craft stash (I use tea in my rice filled neck wraps.) Add to that some yarn, white linen scraps and pieces of old cut up curtains from my scrap bin, and now I had everything I needed. These took a little longer than the eggs, but I was able to finish them all in one night after the kids went to bed, so they were still pretty simple. 

     All I did was place two pieces of linen around the tea bag with the yarn pinned in place and sewed around them a couple times to secure everything. I then used a zig-zag stitch around the edges another couple of times for a finished look. I did the exact same thing with two pieces of curtain scraps except I just used pinking shears on the edged instead of finishing them with a zig-zag stitch. 

     
I think these came out super cute and since the girls play tea party at least once a day, I know that they will get a lot of use out of them! Again, I am sure the box will not last, but I can easily replace it with another empty box in the future. Between me and my mom, we go through a LOT of tea!!!

Merrily Yours, Mrs. J :)

The Sixth Day of Homemade Christmas

Pretend Fried Eggs
     Our little boy is obsessed with helping out in the kitchen. One of his favorite routines is helping his daddy make fried eggs in the morning. He delights in having a job and repeats "Egg. Help. Dada." until Mr. J pulls a chair up to the counter so he can help/watch him crack the eggs. He just beams from ear to ear once he's helping and repeatedly announces to everyone within earshot that the eggs came from our "Bock bocks!"
     Well, I saw a single pretend fabric egg on Amazon for nearly $8, not including shipping, and for a brief second I even had it in my shopping cart until my wheels started spinning. In less than 10 minutes I was able to whip up six fabric eggs from white felt scraps and some of the leftover yellow facecloth I used for Miss D's mermaid doll's hair. I knew I had plastic eggs in a box somewhere in my attic from when I taught preschool, so I tracked six of them down and put them all in a cute, little half dozen egg carton that friends of ours had saved for us.      
     Now, I am under no illusion that the carton, or the plastic eggs for that matter, are going to last forever, but I have plenty more eggs where the first six came from and I am certain that Mr. T will not mind if I simply take a full dozen carton and cut it in half when the time comes for a replacement. The fabric eggs will certainly last, and I cannot wait to see him cracking his own eggs into his pretend frying pan or the new toy stand mixer that he will be receiving for Christmas as he cooks and bakes in his play kitchen! The cost for this gift was essentially free since I had everything on hand, and I can only imagine the hours of entertainment it will provide for our little man.

Merrily Yours, Mrs. J :)

The Fifth Day of Homemade Christmas

I Spy Bags

     I've seen a million different versions of these on the internet and because of that I almost didn't share them, but to be honest, they were so fun to make that I just had to!!! I used scrap fabric and ribbon that I had on hand and some vinyl from a pillow sham package I had saved for the "window." I filled them with clean poly pellets that I got from my mom's stash. You could easily use rice instead, which is much cheaper. I did splurge at the craft store and spent a whopping $20.00 on enough beads and do dads to make about a dozen more of these! 

     The most time consuming part was taking pictures of the items that are hidden inside. I plan to print out the pictures below, laminate them with my Xyron machine, punch a hole in them, and hook them onto the ribbon tags with a loose binder ring. Once I make the tags, I'll share a final picture, but for kids that can read already, you could simply make a list, or skip that part altogether and just let them play "I SPY" without a key (I think that's what you'd call it.) I have already whipped up a few more of these to give as birthday gifts in the future and since I have so many leftover supplies, I plan to make even more. 

     As you can see, I got a little fancy with the stitching around the windows. This was just because I could and I wanted an excuse to waste all of my thread play with my new machine! If there is room these may go in the kids' stockings, but if not I will definitely still give them to them for Christmas and not hang on to them because I am curious to see what they think of them...

what's inside Miss E's I SPY BAG
(Lime green with pink ribbon tag)

what's inside Miss D's I SPY BAG
(blue flowered with pink ribbon tag)

what's inside Mr. T's I SPY BAG
(blue with green ribbon tag)

The Fourth Day of Homemade Christmas

Mini Beading Bag Stocking Stuffers

     Stockings are one of my favorite things about Christmas. I've always loved opening mine up to find all of the little treasures! Now that I get to fill them up myself, I tend to go a little overboard! This year I am making at least 50% of the kids' stocking stuffers, so I am hoping that I have just the right amount.
     I made one of these for each of my three children, but for some reason I did not get pictures of them all together. I figure these will be another fun thing to throw in my purse to help entertain the kiddos while we're in a waiting room somewhere. They were quick, fun, and cheap to make. I think I may whip up a few more after Christmas to have on hand for gifts.

First, I whipped up a simple bag
with ribbon ties using fabric and ribbon scraps.

Next, I found a set of small beads for $0.99.

And there you have it-
A nice, cute little package tied up with a bow
for a fun, fine motor activity on the go!

Then, I added a shoelace that I had on hand
from a lacing card project I made years ago.

                                                                                     
                                                            

                                                                                       Merrily Yours,  Mrs. J :)

The Third Day of Homemade Christmas

Critter Crayon Bags

     These little critter bags were inspired by one of my pins on Pintrest. I made them out of old fleece pajamas and jumpers and salvaged straps from old clothes (apron straps, belts and bags) with felt scraps for the eyes and noses. Miss E is obsessed with cats, so I made hers into a kitty instead of a monster. I had a huge package of crayons in my gift stash (I DO have a lot of stashes, but I am not a hoarder!) that I used for all three of them and I even have enough crayons left over to fill one or two more bags for gifts in the future. 

     These were relatively simple for me to sew, and I am still a beginner. I love sewing with fleece and felt because they do not fray. I am also having a lot of fun appliqueing with my new Brother sewing machine.

     All I have to do now is get a few coloring books and/or notepads from the dollar store and these cute, little critter bags will be complete. I think the kids are going to love toting these around when we're out and about...

Merrily Yours, Mrs. J

The Second Day of Homemade Christmas

Jewelry Making Kits

        These were super simple and super cheap! I made the strings out of old T-shirts cut into strips and stretched into tarn. I also bought a HUGE package of pony beads at Walmart for $1.99. These two beading kits only used about 1/3 of the package of beads, so we will get many more projects out of them.

     The packaging is all upcycled. The containers are from a local food store that sells dry good in bulk, and the bead sorting bowls are from ice cream cups. I have an extensive stash of containers that I wash and save in my basement. I love trying to come up with ways to reuse them. My brother (and husband) call me a hoarder, but I don't mind. It makes me feel happy to have a stash of freebies that I can use to create things. 

I am not a hoarder, I am thrifty!

I used some scrapbook paper, and a tag punch to make a label and then tied it all up with a colorful piece of tarn I had leftover. I can't wait for the girls to get these so we can craft together...

Merrily Yours, Mrs. J :)

The First Day of Homemade Christmas

     I am certainly not frugal by nature, but I do love a challenge, and enjoy all things crafty. Since I became a stay-at-home mom in 2007 we have had to re-prioritize things a bit, and now that we have 3 kids, we have had to get even more creative with our budget. You would think that this would be the down-side to being a one income family, but I actually quite enjoy the challenge. I have always made time to craft, especially at Christmas time, but now I HAVE to, and I LOVE it!!! Since Mr. J has coerced me into contributing to our blog, I have decided to share some of the homemade gifts that I have made this year. 

     I am also a bit of a "Christmas Nut!" I have at least 2 dozen pair of Christmas pajamas (my Mom gets me a pair every year,) 1 dozen pair of Christmas earrings, a handful of Christmas pins, many Christmas hats, and 25 pair of Christmas socks and underwear!!! Starting on December 1st I wear one pair each day to count down until Christmas. In light of my Christmas obsession, it is only fitting that we have a Christmas countdown on our blog, don't you think? Well, I'm not so sure that Mr. J is crazy about me "high-jacking" his blog for the next 12 days, but since he loves me, and it's Christmas, I don't think he's going to say anything. After all, it is Christmas.

So, without further adieu, I present to you the first of 12 posts counting down to Christmas Eve...

Recycled Crayon Stocking Stuffers

I simply cleaned out the crayon stash, took out all of the broken ones and unwrapped them, sorted them into mini muffin tins by color, and baked them for approx. 10 minutes at 325 degrees F. 

   Once they were cooled, I unwrapped them and packed them in bags that I had saved from note cards that I had bought, With a little white contact paper and a scrapbooking marker, I made a somewhat official looking label. And there you have it, one stocking stuffer that was essentially free since it was made with items I already had on hand. And the bonus is that our current crayon stash is all cleaned up; no broken, or dull bits and pieces getting in the way anymore.                                           

 Merrily Yours, Mrs. J :)

The Chicken Coop

   Our first chicken coop was built along the woods edge away from the house. This was alright in the summer time, but turn out to be a pain walking through the snow just to get some eggs to make breakfast. We also had problems with predators getting into the coop being so far away from the house.
   My wife came up with the idea of making a new coop off the side of the garage, I don't know why I didn't think of that. The coop is roughly about 8' by 16' big.I made the coop out pallets for the base and then put some plywood over the pallets. I then built some walls and a roof. I was able to salvage the pine board siding off the side of the garage and reuse them. I also had some old pine boards to finish up the rest of the walls. I still haven't got around to putting shingles on the roof, one of these days I will.

   I put the nesting boxes on the wall that is against the garage, so all we have to do is go out to the garage and lift the cover to the boxes and get our eggs.I then put the gravity feeder I made out of plywood on the the same wall so I can fill it up from the garage, it'll hold 150 lbs of grain. I also put the reservoir to the automatic water dish inside the garage and use a tube from the reservoir to the bowl to fill it up. This helps cut down on it freezing, but not enough. I had to break down and get a little pipe heater to keep it from freezing. I also put the light that goes into the coop on an automatic timer to keep them laying through the winter. I keep the light on for about 14 hours and that makes them think it's still summer, so they lay eggs right through the winter.

 

Root Cellar

   Last year, after a good harvest, we ended up needing a place to store all our vegetables. After doing some research, we found out how easy it is to make a root cellar. What I did was found a corner of our basement that was on the south side and had a window in it, and then put up some walls. I used 2 x 4 lumber and then put two inch thick foam board on the inside of the walls and then put some thin plywood on the outside of the walls. I then made a door out of the plywood and foam. The root cellar is about six foot by ten foot, and has plenty enough room for everything. I got lucky and had a light already in it. I hung a thermometer up on the wall and was ready to go. In the beginning of the season I open up the window at nights and shut it during the days, but as it gets cold I just leave it cracked. If it gets too cold outside I have to shut it all the way or all the stuff will freeze and get ruined. That's what happened last year.