Steph's Simple Life

It's been awhile, and I know this because my husband has been reminding me...you know that's bad!  I haven't been sewing much since I have most of my stuff packed up, getting ready for the move.  So, here's what's going on around here; we are getting ready to put our house on the market, since my husband is retiring later this year.  In the meantime, we are looking for a place to live temporarily in Missouri to live while we are building our new house.  We have yet to find a builder, or agree on a plan, so temporarily might not be so temporary.  However, I'm not too worried about those things.  What has been keeping me worried is my dad. About 4 weeks ago now, my dad's house caught on fire.  Since his stroke last August, it seems as if his health is continuing to fail.  This is sad for any person to see, it breaks my heart.  After being away for nearly 25 years in the military, I now feel like I should be there taking care of him and his pe...

Okay, it seems like everyone that has a baby now has a Boppy pillow.  After seeing them in action, I do not know how I, or my children, ever survived without these miracle devices.  Anyway, since the grand daughter will be here in a few months, I've decided to see if it was possible to make one of these wonder pillows.  I was able to find a pattern on Pinterest  @ https://sites.google.com/site/sewityourself/   this site's instructions were okay, but she only had drawings and I thought pictures might help those of you who are new to printing the patterns and actually putting them together. Here's what you'll need to get started: Scissors Pins Printer, to print the pattern tape 1 1/4 yards of fabric 1 bag of stuffing matching thread Step 1 , print the pattern and cut it out.  It will print on 4 pages and you will have to cut each piece out, then tape the pieces together. Step 2 , tape the pattern together matching up the lines.   ...

Can you believe that we are already in March?  I can't, where is the time going?  This year is already proving to be a busy one and doesn't seem like it's going to slow down any.  The realtor is coming this weekend to look at the house, since we're getting ready to put it on the market, so I spent this week staining and sealing tile grout....it was a pain, and I'm in pain now...but it turned out good.  Here are the before and after pictures. Before it looked like this in the high traffic areas. After   It turned out better than I'd hoped for, so that was good.  Plus the floor is really clean now, and I guess it needed it.   I've still been making my soap, and am now ONLY using my soap!  I love it, some more than others.  I shipped out a box this morning, so hopefully I'll get some "unbiased" feedback.   I've also been making some things that I thought I'd already posted on here, but I couldn't seem to find,...

Well, we are already almost 3 weeks into the New Year, I hope everyone is still on track for the things they set out to do.  I'm still hanging in there with my exercise and diet, and while I haven't lost as much weight as I'd hoped, my blood pressure has went down considerably!  I guess if I can't be skinny, I'll have to settle for healthy.  I've also been trying to keep up with my crafting.  I just sliced another batch (No. 3) of soap this morning.  I'm really excited, this batch turned out really white and I scented this one with grapefruit and jasmine.  I also bought a mitre box so that I can cut the bars more evenly, so they will look more uniform. Here it is, still sitting in the mitre box.  (If you're thinking about making soap, I recommend you get one of these boxes, I only paid 5 dollars for it at Lowes.) Someone asked me the other day how big are the batches that I've been making.  I've been making 1 lb batches, and that makes 7...

Well, another year is behind us!  I hope everyone had a great Christmas.  We went home to Missouri where we met up with the rest of our family.  While we were there we even burned some brush over on our farm, because who can pass up a chance to burn things....certainly not me and my friend! After we got back home, I decided to lick my soap that I made around Thanksgiving.  Yes, I said lick.  I know it sounds strange, but I read that you can tell if it's done by licking it.  It said it will "zap" you if it's not done...so I licked it. (I had to do it in secrecy, so that my husband wouldn't think that I'd gone crazy.)  Since it didn't zap me, I tried it.  It could stand to cure longer, but it produces a really creamy lather, and rinses off really clean feeling, I made small bars and they were light in color.  Since they are the first batch, they are No. 1.  Here's what the bars look like.     The color is pretty l...

   So, in my mad dash to get some form of holiday decorations, I ended up at Dollar General.  Yes, I know, a true sign that I had stayed in Missouri too long recently,  but I went in to grab some cheap pillar candles in hopes that I could come up with some sort of centerpieces for my tables.  After I grabbed the pillars, I grabbed 3 little tea light holders because I bought a package of about a thousand tea lights at IKEA like 14 years ago, and now seemed like a good time to get rid of them.  Any who...these little glass holders were a dollar each so I figured I could find a use for them, or they could sit around with the tea lights for another 14 years.      When I got home I started looking around and couldn't find anything to use for a centerpiece, because while I was away, my husband (well, at least he's the prime suspect) hid all of my craft supplies.  After looking around I came across some of my old jars, and r...

Yes, I do realize that we are still 6 days from Thanksgiving, but I can't wait....I'm sharing this recipe.  To get the true taste you might need to make a trip to World Market somewhere near you this weekend.  While the recipe is simple, this is probably one of the most addictive things you will enjoy this Thanksgiving.  1 15oz can of pumpkin (not pie filling, just pumpkin) 2 cups of powdered sugar 1 package of cream cheese 2 tsp. cinnamon 1 tsp. vanilla pumpkin pie spice, ginger, all spice to your taste Let the cream cheese get about room temperature, then mix ingredients together, chill and serve. I've never been a fan of gingersnaps until I found the ones below...they are so light, and not over powering, you have to try them.  I suppose you could use regular gingersnaps too, but you have to try these! Nyåkers Pepparkakor's current tin is pictured below, if you have a hankering for these tasty little cracker-like biscuits at other times of the...