Rugs

I have been making rugs for about 20 years. I know, it makes me sound ancient. I suppose I am a little ancient by now. I am trying hard to reduce our stuff lately. I had these shirts lying around, and as I have said before, I have a hard time throwing away something which can be put to good use. So, I made more rugs. Why burn an old t-shirt if you can turn it into a beautiful rug? They always come in handy!

A rug this size uses about 6-7 shirts, depending on the size. I am not good at giving instructions, but here are a few links you can check out; maybe you can make some sense of them. 1, 2, 3.
And if you ever make one, I'd love to see it!

Tea Party Time

Jessica has been asking for a tea party for a long time. I finally ran out of excuses not to have it, so that's what we did a few weeks ago. It's a great thing to do in the dead and dread of winter. At least winter has an end in sight, eventually.

The gift I bought Jessica a while ago at Cracker Barrel. Best restaurant and great country store. They actually sell toys that people (like me) can be proud to have in the house. Good thing was, I paid only $10 for it. Real silver coated. We used this as our centerpiece. We didn't actually use it for tea, but it can be used for tea for two.

A tea aparty would hardly be complete without a teapot, and about one week before the party I still didn't have one! Lucky for me I found this one when I checked Goodwill to see if they had a good teapot for me. I served up some oolong tea, something I drink a lot of lately...

A sugar and cream set, which I picked up at a garage sale many years back. The good thing about a tea party is that I get to use all those special dishes that are not for everyday use.

Some sandwiches...

I had made some rhubarb matrimonial cake.

Maria's crackers, of course! You can get them from Mexican stores.

Some homemade mints.

A teacup I found recently at a thrift store.

A teacup and saucer I paid lots of money for, but I wanted it so bad, I didn't care. The wild rose is Iowa's state flower and they grow in our ditches in summer. I just had to have it. Tea tastes super in it.

And here is an impatient princess that couldn't wait for her friends to arrive!

The guests. Not even half of all the girlies we had invited were able to come, but we had a grand time anyway. It was so worth it.

Our little boys

What do you do when it is January, and your little boy has a birthday and asks, "Mommy, can we barbecue chicken for my birthday?" Well, you try to make do as best as you can, at least that's what we did!

We put two tins at the sides of the stove, and put a rack on top of that, and voila, an instant barbecuer. It worked! And we enjoyed our bbq chicken, in the middle of winter.

Then we let him choose where to go for ice cream, and guess what, he picked Mcdonalds. This is probably THE first mcflurry he has ever eaten, so its ok. Once in 5 years is probably not too often.

Here is the little man, enjoying his papa.

I just love this one. He thinks he has the best place to sit!