The Handmade Dress

We've all had one of those days, sometimes a string of them, where anything that can go wrong will go wrong and you are left feeling like real life has just given you a nice stinging slap in the face. Most of the time I don't write about them, it's not what I want to remember, it's not what I want to focus on; but sometimes....well sometimes, when your face stops stinging, and you get your head back above water again, you realize....This one was just too funny to keep to myself! So, what you are about to read is a real life account my day yesterday. Buckle up. It started out rocky, our big dentist day. First off, I didn't get much sleep because I was having stupid dreams about mixing lip balm all night and missing the one key ingredient that I needed. In between those dreams I was realizing that my throat hurt. The babies were up earlier than normal which meant that I was running off of four hours of not-so-good sleep. The kids were agitated too for whatever...

We are making the most of summer here at the Caffee house! We are taking advantage of all of the good veggies coming in from our garden and our neighbor's garden (Thank you Mary and Eddie!). Breakfast and lunch pretty much look the same everyday with a slight variation in vegetables. We also have quite a popcorn addiction these days. Oh my do we have an addiction! I think I ate it in my sleep last night! Or at least dreamed up a new seasoning combination to try! Our favorite popcorn flavor at the moment is cooked in coconut oil, with dry dill, garlic flakes and salt. Yummmmy! What is your favorite popcorn topping? Please share!  We also made homemade lip balm today! We used a Burt's Bees copy cat recipe and it's really just like the original, I can't tell a difference.  We ended up with a good bit of lip balm (6 containers) for just pennies. I like that! It feels so good on! I want to try this lotion bar recipe next. While the babies took ...

I decided a few weeks ago to turn my china cabinet into a place to store our apothecary things. For years I've had this stuff spread throughout the house and never seemed to be able to find what I needed, and the problem was compounded when I started making my own medicines. Trouble was, my china cabinet had seen better days, so we decided to give the old girl a makeover. At some point it had been in a fire because it has always been smoke stained. I gave her a fresh coat of white paint, sanded and painted the rusty handles turquoise, and Ben steadied her with new braces and nails.  This sorta started a frenzy of projects that everyone got in on. My kids painted my plate holders and Molly put them back up. I got started on some new curtains for the French doors. Tim got out the sander and started distressing my door couch (I painted it but never distressed it). Maddie watched the babies.  Ahh! That felt nice! You see how good she tu...

This lady now sits like a little monkey to eat, I call her Mowgli, this child is a HOT MESS! I take a lot of morning pictures, the kids and babies are all just so cuddly then that it makes me want those memories forever, I bet I have thousands of them.....and I still want thousands more.  Summer breakfast just went into effect. I am a creature of habit, it's coffee, two eggs and turkey bacon all winter. In the summer I make what I call backyard breakfast I cram all of the veggies I can into my two eggs (they are hardly ever the same veggies, though tomatoes are always there).  I'm happy for the change, I've been waiting on these veggies!  While I worked one afternoon around nap time Penny just helped herself to the floor. Poor baby! You see how hard she has to work?! One morning with all five piled in....love.  I documented a "family Heirloom" before it gets passed along to cousins. My Aunt Rita made this for my sist...

For this fabric flower project just collect some old t-shirts, or if you have any knit fabric handy you could use that too! You will need a needle and thread (or a hot glue gun if you prefer), and a button or pearl (anything for the center of your flower). Cut out 4-6 layers of fabric into a circle, the circle doesn't have to be perfect, in fact it may look better if it isn't. Then cut 4-6 layers in a circle a bit smaller than the first.  Cut 4 slits in each stack as shown above.   Now round off the pointy parts making a petal shape.  This is where the magic happens! Stretch each petal out and lay aside, see how they ruffle up like flowers!  Now stack them all up nice and pretty with the smaller circles on top.  Make a few stitches in the center of the flower to secure all of the layers together (a dot of hot glue between each layer would work too).  This part may take awhile...picking a button!!    Now add a pearl or button and you are ready to hot glue it to a hair clip, a he...

For this project just collect some old t-shirts, or if you have any knit fabric handy you could use that too! You will need a needle and thread (or a hot glue gun if you prefer), and a button or pearl (anything for the center of your flower).

My favorite part of summer is here! Getting to use what we grow! This year is even more fun because our very mature, parenial herb garden is thriving and there is enough to harvest once a month for spices, tinctures, and other medicinal purposes. I'm so excited! Before I looked at it as just a spice garden for cooking, now I'm seeing it as a physic garden too! I've added a few more herbs this year too which will be fun next year. I'll only harvest what I need to cook from those this year.  Today we had enough sage, thyme, and rosemary to make medicinal tinctures. We made an oregano tincture a couple of weeks ago, and its still cooking in the cabinet. We had a plantain tincture that just got sifted last night and now Molly is just itching to use it. Molly is also very interested in medicinal herbs so today we turned our china cabinet into our own little kitchen apothecary! It's so cute!! We cleaned out the kitchen cabinets for any useable jars or containers for more ...

        While getting ready to go swimming this morning, with 4 of my 5 in suits, this little girl, who never causes a stir, did just that! She got up on her chubby little knees (like she has been practicing for days) and creeped forward! She was immediately surrounded by her four biggest fans and was cheered on enthusiastically! I kept back and took pictures with a happy heart. You see, being a part of a big family can sometimes be overwhelming when something you've done causes  4 other siblings to be upset at you all at once, but boy what a celebration we can have when you've done well!! It sure does make up for the hard times!! Big family politics, it's good stuff. :) xo