Country Farmhouse Charm

As I travel down the road to my daughter's place, there is a house that looks just like this one. I would love to go inside and browse around.  I can picture my daughter and her family living in this house.

This house plan, from the house plan shop, has 1250 sq ft with an additional 341 sq ft of bonus room. Downstairs there are two good-sized bedrooms, the master bedroom suite with its own bathroom and a hall bath to serve the other bedroom and guests. Upstairs a loft and a 3rd full bath can be finished out. Build this house on a basement, slab or crawl space; but with a basement underneath, developing this additional space later on would be easy.

As you approach this home, the first thing you will notice of course is the big wrap-around porch! What a great place to enjoy the morning solitude, watching the sun comes up, drinking a cup of coffee  or relaxing over an ice tea with a neighbor in the afternoon. The soaring cathedral ceiling and an upper level loft, makes this home feel very spacious and large. This is actually a one-story home, with the loft being available for another bedroom, office or game room. The open floor plan of the living room, dining area and kitchen creates a feeling of spaciousness while the fireplace in the living room gathers you in for a feeling of coziness and old farmhouse type gatherings. I can picture the mantle decorated for the holidays with Christmas stockings, fresh pine boughs and hurricane lanterns.  The Christmas tree in front of the living room windows, decorated with old country ornaments. Family and friends will gather around the handy kitchen island with breakfast bar, enjoying a meal or just good old conversation as you prepare a batch of cookies or make some homemade bread. There is easy kitchen access to and from the covered rear porch, which is great for entertaining during the summer months, or getting out the smoker to cook a turkey even in the winter!  A great feature about this house is the laundry closet, which is near the bedrooms saving you many steps on washday. A private bath and walk-in closet enhance the master bedroom while the second bedroom accesses a hall bath. I do not know about you, but I am getting the boxes packed because I am ready to move in!

Salt Dough Christmas Ornaments

Over on the Christmas Crafts page I just posted an article about how to make Salt Dough Christmas Ornaments.  These are always fun to make and fun to give! If you have children, this is a project that you can involve them in and they will be entertained for hours. If you don't have a set of Christmas cookie cutters, be sure to pick up a set or two, you will need them not only for your salt dough ornaments but for all those regular Christmas cookies you plan to bake this year!

Grandmas and Grandpas love getting homemade gifts, so be sure to put their name on the list for a few of these. Be sure to have the kids sign the backs with the year they made them, because these will become keepsake items for sure!

Beeswax Candles

Beeswax candles are wonderful. A light, warm glow and a wonderful sweet scent make them truly delightful. Rolled beeswax candles are about the easiest candles to make. You do not need a melting pot or have to heat a stove to make them since you will not melt the wax. This is a great safe project for kids!

Here is what you will need:

Beeswax sheets (they usually come in about 8" x 16" sheets
Primed wicking material appropriate for a 1” candle. If making larger diameter candles, adjust the wicking accordingly.
A sharp knife, I use a small kitchen paring knife, or single-edged razor blade.
A suitable cutting surface such as an old cutting board is good.

Lay out your beeswax sheet and cut the wick to about 3/4ths of an inch longer than the wax. If using an 8-inch sheet, the wick is about 91/4 inches.

By leaving approximately, 3/4ths of an inch on each end of the sheet, if one end looks better than the other does you can make either end the top!

Lay the wick along the edge of the sheet and start rolling the candle by bending over about 1/8th inch of the wax. You can turn the wax over and bend the 1/8th inch channel along the corner of the counter or use a cutting board. This way you will have a neat, straight channel for the wick. With this small channel, you will enclose the wick. Working from one end to the other, press down firmly to make sure the wax is tight around the wick. This is the only time that you will press hard with the beeswax sheets!  From now on, you will be gentle with your beeswax because you do not want to compress or warp the honeycomb pattern.

Start rolling the wax slowly and straight, making sure that you are keeping the ends even and just keep rolling until you reach the end.

Tip: If you want larger in diameter candles, to add another sheet of wax, just butt a second sheet up to the edge of the first sheet, give the two sheets a few presses with your thumbnail to help join them together, and continue rolling.

Gently press the final edge down onto the side of the candle. It should form a smooth edge. You can use your thumbnail to press down, every inch or so, if you feel this is necessary. Pick which end is the best "top", cut the wick off the bottom and trim the top wick to about ½ inch.

Beeswax sheets are easy to cut with scissors. If sheets are brittle, hold them over steaming pan of water or use a hairdryer to soften the wax. You can save a little of the wax to "prime the wick", which is dipping the end of the wick into the melted wax. This will help your candle light easily when you are ready to use it. Beeswax candles burn without the toxic fumes like those produced with paraffin candles.

If you want short chunky candles, you can cut the wax sheets in half, or play with making them different heights.  Group them together in a centerpiece arrangement, or on a fireplace mantle with boughs of greenery, Christmas tree balls and garlands of beads. They are also striking placed in the middle of a table on top of a mirror circle, or tucked inside glass chimneys.

Log Cabin

Can you picture this darling log cabin on your property?
http://www.thehouseplanshop.com/1811/plan-detail/025l-0015.php

This darling log cabin conjures up visions of times gone by, when our forefathers first settled this land. It would be right at home in any state in the Union! You could put this home of a few acres out in the woods, the mountains or the flat-lands and it would feel right at home in any setting you choose. It would also be possible to take this home completely “off grid” by adding solar or windmills and a well for your own water supply.

At just under 1100 square feet, this house with it’s open floor plan, feels much larger. The design of the home makes it very livable for a young couple just starting out because it is designed where adding on later is possible or an older couple who is content with a smaller sized home and want everything on one floor with no stairs to climb.

The porch across the entire front of the house begs for some old time rocking chairs and the family to come outside and enjoy the beauty of nature that surrounds their home.   The open floor plan allows for easily adding a fireplace to the exterior wall or an old fashioned pot-bellied Ben Franklin stove as an alternate heat source for cold winter evenings. The grilling porch, located off the back door of the kitchen will allow for great outdoor cooking even when it rains!  It would be easy to add on additional bedrooms as a family expands. Because of the roof line, and the design, knock out the walkin closet at the end of the hallway between the two bedrooms, extend the hall and add on additional bedrooms and a bathroom there at the side. This could easily be expanded into a four bedroom home.

I particularly like the way the washer and dryer are situated in the middle of the home, near the bedrooms so that transporting dirty laundry is quick and easy to do. The plans call for this home to be built with a crawl space underneath, but it would be simple to add a storm shelter underneath or a full basement if desired. It would be easy to add this feature I think with access by way of the grilling porch.  If you wanted a full basement, I think that could also be done with access through the closet there at the front door entryway, but check with the people at thehouseplanshop.com to be sure on this.

This is a darling cabin and my imagination is running wild with ways on how to decorate it in old rustic type, primitive Americana furnishings!

First of all, all the floors in the cabin would be made out of reclaimed old wood, sanded and stained to a lustrous warm glow. I am picturing a dining room table made out of salvaged barn wood and made into a farmhouse table and mismatched chairs like in the olden days.  In the kitchen, I would use milk paint on all the cabinets, allowing the wood grain to show through. There would be an old fashioned pot rack hung like they did in the olden days. In the bathroom, instead of a modern vanity cabinet, I can see using an old dresser as the base, with an old china washbasin as the sink. Rather than have a tub, I would install a walk-in shower, for when I get old and can’t get over a tub edge any more!  In the bedrooms, high off the floor old fashioned beds, covered with homemade comforters and quilts. There would be lamps on dressers rather than overhead light fixtures.

In the living room there would be a large overstuffed couch and chairs, that beg you to come set a spell; the kind you sink into and never want to get out of! End tables and table lamps would be mismatched, to add character, the feeling of acquiring them as I could afford them at different times in my life. I would find an old area rug, perhaps a braided one, a bear rug or even a Navajo Indian rug to put down in the living room in front of the couch. And yes, I would be the one that adds the pot-bellied Ben Franklin stove there on the outside wall, between the living room and dining area!

Now that I have bought and decorated this little log cabin in my dreams, where do I want to locate it at?  I would definitely want some land and wide open spaces, maybe 10-15 acres, a place where I can have a vegetable garden, a chicken coop, a small barn with a couple of animals to raise for milk and food.  Anyone have some suggestions?

Milk Carton Candle Instructions

You are going to need the following supplies:
Newspaper to cover your work area
Cardboard milk cartons - quart, pint or half pint sizes
Paraffin wax - you can buy large blocks at the craft store or smaller amounts at the grocery store (the kind you use for canning)
Wooden or metal skewers or old pencils to tie your wicks to
Candle wick material, and metal tabs (can purchase separately or already cut and together)
Coloring (old crayons work great, or small blocks of color from craft store)
Scenting oil ( purchase at craft store or health food store)

You Are Ready To Start

Prepare the work area by covering it with newspaper to catch all the drips.
Cut the milk carton to the size candle you want to make. Cut off the top flaps of the carton, and then cut it to at least 1/2 inch above the height you want the candle to be.

Cut a piece of wick that is 2 inches higher than the top of the milk carton. It’s better to buy wicks that have the little metal tab already attached to the base, and that are already coated with wax (so they stand on their own). If they are uncoated, you will need to dip them in melted wax and lay them flat on wax paper until the wax has cooled and hardened.

Wrap the free end of the wick around the middle of a wooden skewer ( I use old pencils), and then lay the skewer across the top of the milk carton. The skewer helps keep the wick in place and upright.

Melt the wax for your candle. I always make a double boiler, using a sauce pan for my water and then an old clean coffee can, which I have bent the top of to make a funnel shape. You are going to use the wax in several steps, so keep it melted.

Add fragrance. Choose a pure essential oil fragrance you like-available at health food stores and online. Depending on the size of your candle, add between 5 to 10 drops of essential oil to the molten wax, and gently blend it in using a wooden skewer or an old wooden spoon before you pour it into the milk carton.

When the wax has melted, scoop up a small amount of wax. Pour the wax into the carton so that it covers the metal tab. You may need to hold the skewer in place as you pour the wax so the wick does not shift. Hold it in place until the wax hardens.


Fill the milk carton with wax up to 1/4 to 1/2 inch from the top of the carton. Let the wax cool until it is hard. You should expect the wax to shrink somewhat, so plan to top off your candle to make it level. Let the wax cool completely again. If needed, repeat the topping up step. After set and cool,
trim the wick to 1/4 inch above the top of the candle.

Insert a butter knife carefully between the edge of the candle and the carton, and gently lift it around the edges to loosen it. Then snip a cut on one side of the carton, and carefully peel it off until the candle is free.

VARIATION: HOLEY ICE CANDLES

If you like, for added visual drama, add some ice cubes to the milk carton, allowing them to stack randomly on top of each other, but not too many, or the candle will have too many holes.  You can also use a plain taper candle in the center of this type of candle, eliminating the need for the setting of your own wicks.

You can also add decorations to the outside of your plain candles, using several different mediums. You can use paper cutouts from scrap booking supplies, attach them using melted wax. Once adhered, cover over the top, using melted wax on a small paintbrush to make an even coating. You may want to do this several times.

You can also etch a monogrammed initial into the side of the candle using a sharp knife. Using colored melted wax, carefully fill in the indented monogram. If you drizzle over the edge, carefully scrape it off while still warm and slightly hardened.

Let your imagination run wild, you can do lots of different creative things!

Start Getting Supplies Together For Christmas Gifts

If you haven't started gathering supplies together yet to make Christmas Gifts, now is the time to do it. Start saving the following items because I am going to give you instructions on how to make most of your gifts this year and save a bundle of money.

Homemade candles- save quart size cardboard carton milk cartons, pint sized half and half or whipping cream containers, small Mason canning jars, small glass jars, and large sea shells,

Mixes in a jar- various sizes of glass jars with covers or Mason Jars

Fabric yardage at least a yard for most projects. If you have less, save it and we'll make some patchwork items.

Sturdy sheets of cardboard, from cardboard boxes is fine. We are going to use these as a base for handmade photograph frames.