Steph's Simple Life

I know that this might seem a little strange (okay a lot strange) to most of you, but I just feel like I need to share this! After I retired there were some things that I really wanted to change around my house.  You see, for years I came home, opened the door and started complaining (okay, yelling) about all of the things that needed done, and apparently I was the only person that noticed.  Most of them were your standard house chores.  You know the things that you never have enough time to do, dust, vacuum, sweep the kitchen floor, laundry and changing the sheets.  Keeping things picked up and orderly seems to come easy enough, it's just all of that other stuff.  Well, once I was at home all day I started to get in a routine.  I know, seems crazy, after 22 years in the military....I STILL needed routine, even to get my house in order! My routine is flexible, but I get all of my stuff done in a week, and if I don't, I can do it...

I haven't been in a very creative mood lately, but I'm sharing my most recent creations.  The first one is something I made for my son and his wife.  I just purchase the $3.00 frames at Wal-Mart and use card stock, stamps, chipboard...whatever I have on hand.  They both really liked it and look forward to hanging it, when they eventually get their home. The second project was a little more fun. After my son saw the owl pillow he said that he wanted one, but I decided that he needed something different than the owl, even though he wanted me to make it out of old uniforms, which I still might have to do!  Here's the fun pillow that I came up with...I love making my own patterns!

We just returned from a short trip home, for Spring Break.  Our daughter thought she should go to South Padre Island, but we decided to go to Missouri.....she had a great time with the Johnson Twins.  It's so great being able to go home and we're so blessed to have such great friends.  I look forward to the day when Josh and Jodie can come visit us in Missouri too. What did we do in good ole' Missouri, well...we lit brush fires on our property, hunted mushrooms (it is that time of year!) ate....too much, Sarah and I got our hair done....something everyday.  Wish we could have stayed longer, but Jim had to get back to work and Sarah to school. We got back here unpacked and seems like we've had thunderstorms since....I did make a trip to get some fabric and crafting supplies yesterday....so be on the lookout, I might get some projects done soon! -Steph

I just realized that it's been almost a month since my last post, so I thought I better put something down!  I spent a couple of weeks under the weather and just when I started feeling better, things got busy! The last week and a half has been busy, our daughter-in-law graduated basic training, and last weekend her family was in town.  After all the festivities, we had them over and on Saturday night we all went to the hockey game.  Of course my son has been here, and will be heading back to Florida tomorrow.  I will hate to see him go, but am looking forward to getting back to my schedule...and creating some new things! One thing I have noticed is when your children get older, you know they really don't want to spend any time with you, or not much any way, so you just make yourself available for them when they do.  I've cooked for him and made all of his wife's requested items.  Yesterday he told me that he wanted me to make him an owl out of ABU (US...

I know that it took me a long time to post my first hat,  but after I did.....I couldn't stop!  Not only that, I wanted to try to make some hat pins (that's very addictive!).  The hat I made today, is a combination of several that I had seen, I used cotton fabric and heavy, sew in, interfacing.  I messed up a little, but I made it work, after awhile.  (Again, that's why I'm not using expensive supplies.)  In the picture, I placed one of the small hat pins on the front of the hat.  The hat sits on the crown of your head and I still need to attach a comb so that it stays in place.  What do you think? -Steph

Today I'm trying a recipe from the Pioneer Woman's collection, I actually saw her make this a few weeks back on her television show and thought it looked good, especially since she used chilpotle peppers! (Here's the actual Pioneer Woman's recipe .) The recipe calls for a pork butt, but I'm using a loin instead, because that's what I have and it's not as greasy.  I started by cutting up 2 onions and placing them in the bottom of my dutch oven (again, if you don't have one...get one!) and placed the meat on top of them.  Next I put the peppers on the meat.  The peppers look like this: Pour on 2 cans of Dr Pepper, cover, and cook for 6 hours at 300F...you will want to turn it over half way through the cooking time to ensure that it cooks evenly. This turned out so good, it's sweet and spicey.  I served with a marinated cole slaw which I prefer over the creamy kind....plus it's a "make ahead" recipe, which I love too! I shred a h...

I know, making hats has a real name....millinery, but since I don't have all the fancy tools that is really necessary, let's just call it what it is, hat making.  I do know now why the Mad Hatter was mad, it can drive you crazy!!! I've always loved hats, the stranger the better. I don't know why.  Now that I have the time, I decided to try to make some.  Not really knowing what I'm doing, I bought cheap fabric.  Actually, I bought some felt remnants at Joann Fabrics.  Not the felt squares, but the premium felt remnants....they had some white and black so I figured that was good to start with.  After I started making the first one, I decided that I wanted to learn how to put a birdcage on a hat.  So that took some trial and error too.  As I said, I didn't know what I was doing, still don't, but wanted to use what I had on hand so see what I could do.  I also bought some cheap tulle at Wal-Mart to play with.  Once I feel a little mo...