• Decor

    Homestead Kitchen Essentials from Amazon

    3:53 AM - By 

    What I love the most about DIY is it tru­ly can become a way of life. There are ways to incor­po­rate do it your self projects in every space in your home and this is a lifestyle that the ear­li­er gen­er­a­tions knew all to well.  There is both a chal­lenge and ful­fill­ment in doing things your­self and I think a small part of each of us would like to revis­it those old fash­ioned ways for a moment. Break in your new kitchen uten­sils with this mouth water­ing MAPLE BANANA BREAD made from scratch. No starter needed! With that in mind, I…

  • Decor

    Composting for Beginners

    2:19 AM - By 

    Let me just be up front and say this is my very first time work­ing with com­post. We are new to hav­ing our own home­stead though we are famil­iar with gar­den­ing and liv­ing off the land. Since mov­ing here in Decem­ber we have been slow­ly get­ting things in place as we tran­si­tion into the home­stead lifestyle. Both my hus­band and I enjoy a slow­er paced way of life and want to teach our boys WHERE and HOW we get our food.  ARE YOU ADDING MORE SELF SUSTAINING ELEMENTS TO YOUR HOME? READ MY PERSONAL SUGGESTIONS FOR ADDING NEW CHICKS TO YOUR…

  • DIY Projects - Scrap Wood Projects

    Patriotic Wood Block Decor

    1:26 AM - By 

    There is noth­ing much more prim­i­tive than chunky wood block decor. I have always been drawn to the prim­itve patri­ot­ic look. Not only are they cute but these blocks are about as easy as it gets. Sup­plies 2x4 blocks cut as fol­lows (7″, 5″, 5″, 4″, 3.5″) PURCHASE PRECUT SET HERE stain book pages or craft paper  mod modge paint sten­cils Start by stain­ing your wood. I am using my own DIY STAIN, and allow to cry to the touch. This par­tic­u­lar stain is much thin­ner than a retail stain and drys quick­ly. My favoite part about this stian is the aged look…

  • DIY Projects - Scrap Wood Projects

    Easy Wood Block Flag Banner

    12:35 PM - By 

    This project was inspired by THIS ONE I made last year. I decid­ed to try my hand at cre­at­ing some­thing with a more prim­i­tive look. Prim­i­tive and clas­sic has always been my favorite theme for sum­mer hol­i­days. There just seems to be a lot of nos­tal­gia dur­ing the warmer months.  Prim­i­tives usu­al­ly have dark­er shades of col­or with a nice rus­tic feel to them and that is what I want­ed to make sure I cap­tured with this lit­tle ban­ner. Keep in mind you could use scrap wood or even pal­lent wood to cre­ate this look too. Or if that isn’t…

  • DIY Projects - Scrap Wood Projects

    Easy Wood Block American Flag

    3:45 AM - By 

    I have always want­ed to dec­o­rate for patri­ot­ic hol­i­days and this year I am get­ting a head start on mak­ing some cute lit­tle addi­tions for my decor. The prim­i­tive look wears well with red, white and blue and what bet­ter way to get that rus­tic look than with wood blocks. These are the sizes we start­ed with.  (2) 10″ 2x4s (2) 6″ 2x4s (2) 4″ 2x4s I paint­ed one 10″ piece and one 6″ piece in red and cov­ered the oth­er two with mod podge and old book pages. The 4″ pieces I paint­ed blue.  Since I was going for a prim­i­tive look I want­ed…

  • DIY Projects

    DIY Herb Racks for Your Kitchen

    3:29 AM - By 

    An herb rack is one of those items you nev­er knew you need­ed for your kitchen. I am cur­rent­ly try­ing to dream up an idea for cre­at­ing my own for my kitchen. I have basil, rose­mary, thyme and oregeno in my win­dow seal that are ready for har­vest and I am loo­ing for a beau­ti­ful way to dis­play them. There are so many unique and fun ways to dis­play these lit­tle fra­grant beau­ties it’s going to be dif­fi­cult to decide. I like this meth­ods for dry­ing because I find it not only beau­ti­ful but benef­i­cal for fla­vor. Hang­ing herbs upside­down let’s…

  • Decor

    How to Clean and Season Cast Iron

    9:54 PM - By 

    Good ole cast iron. There real­ly is no oth­er way to cook and sea­son your food the old fash­ioned way. Grow­ing up I remem­ber mom say­ing the same thing. She had a col­lec­tion of cast iron from all over, and she still has my Grannie’s from years and years ago. I remem­ber cook­ing over an open fire while camp­ing. Home­made bis­cuits, in the cast iron, sausage, bacon, you name it.  It was­n’t until I start­ed cook­ing for my own fam­i­ly and using cast iron on the dai­ly, and crack­ing a beau­ti­ful Lodge skil­let, that I tru­ly under­stood the impor­tance of clean­ing…

  • Decor + Styling - DIY Projects

    DIY Paper Scroll Wall Decor

    9:55 PM - By 

    I recent­ly paint­ed a wall in our liv­ing room and I have been try­ing to decide how to style it. I com­plet­ed the first ele­ment for the wall today. A DIY brown paper scroll. You can buy hand let­tered scrolls off Etsy but the size I need­ed was a bit pricey. Mak­ing one this way will cost much less!  ARE YOU LIVING MAKING THINGS AROUND YOUR HOME? TRY THIS ADORABLE DIY WOOD BLOCK HOUSE I start­ed with a roll of brown craft paper from the dol­lar store and vinyl cutouts I cre­at­ed using my Cri­cut. I have had this machine for over…

  • Cooking

    Banana Bread with Maple Syrup

    4:32 PM - By 

    Bak­ing goods for break­fast seems to be a trend around here at the home­stead. A few weeks ago I made AMISH CINNAMON SWIRL BREAD and this morn­ing we shared a warm loaf of Clas­sic Banana Bread (with a twist). I am excit­ed to share this recipe for your to enjoy in your kitchens. This is a recipes I have used for years but with a sur­pris­ing twist. We are omit­ing the Pure Vanil­la Extract and replac­ing it with Maple Syrup. Yep…syrup! This was an acci­den­tal dis­cov­ery actu­al­ly. I set out to make the bread the tra­di­tion­al way and found out…

  • DIY Projects

    How to Season Wooden Spoons

    2:50 AM - By 

    Sea­son­ing wood is odd­ly sat­is­fy­ing to me.…I love see­ing the life come back in to the grains. With­out the oils, the woods tends to dry, crack and even­tu­al­ly break so it’s impor­tant to care for them prop­er­ly. I love the idea of keep­ing these around to pass down so keep­ing them nice and oiled is important. I use the same min­er­al oil/natural wax on all my kitchen woods. It’s nice and creamy with­out leav­ing a greasy feel to the touch. This will help them last longer and per­form bet­ter in the long run. Flax seed oil and olive oil will…