Earth Hour - Turn out your lights for one hour

I have the date Saturday, March 28, 2009 marked on my calender to shut out my lights for one hour at 8:30 p.m. (local time) for Earth Hour.

Who else is shutting off their lights for Earth Hour Saturday, March 28 2009 at 8:30 p.m. (local time)?

If you haven't heard of Earth Hour, you can read about it on this link - http://www.earthhourus.org/main.php .

Belle

Please visit my store - From the Past.

Pistachio Pudding Recipe

Mmmm....I love Pistachio Pudding. My Granny always make this dish for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Pistachio Pudding is very simple dessert to make.

~Pistachio Pudding~
To make Pistachio Pudding, you will need:
1 Box of Pistachio Instant Pudding
1 1/2 C. Miniature Marshmallows
1 (20 ounce) can Crushed Pineapple
1 Large container of Cool Whip
Maraschino Cherries

Stir all ingredients together in a large serving bowl. After all the ingredients are stirred together, put maraschino cherry halves over the top of the pudding, cover the bowl of pudding with lid or with plastic wrap, and put it in the refrigerator to set up.

Thank you for visiting my blog! Please come back and visit again soon.

Belle

My Store: From the Past

Making Quilts from Old Clothing

Most of the fabric that I make quilts with comes from old clothes that were going to be thrown away. I do buy new fabric when I am doing sewing for other people. All of the clothing that I can not wear or friends and family members do not want, I take the clothes and use them for making quilts and other projects.

I found this blog, http://quiltville.blogspot.com/ . The lady who has this blog makes her quilts out of old clothes. She has made some really neat quilts. She also wrote a quilt book called Scraps & Shirttails. You can preview her book here -
http://quiltville.com/scrapsandshirttailspreview.shtml .

I love to sewing and making quilts! I save all of the 100% cotton clothes for quilt making and all the flannel shirts and blue jeans I save to use in raggedy quilts and tied quilts.

Here are some pictures of one of my projects that is in the making now. It is all made from cotton clothing and the white center was made from an old sheet.
This is a quilt I am making with my mom, my sister, and my granny.





This is a Raggedy Quilt that I made with Mom, Sister, and Granny.

Raggedy quilts are made with a blue jean top and the back of the quilt can be made with homespun, flannel, or cotton. The quilt that I made in the picture is backed with cotton. A Raggedy Quilt is not quilted, I guess it is more of a blanket than a quilt. A Raggedy Quilt is sewn so all of the seams show in the top of the quilt. When a Raggedy quilt is all sewn together, all of the seams are clipped, then the quilt is washed ,dried, and the top of the quilt has the appearance of a pair of raggedy, frayed blue jeans.
The quilt in the picture is over six years old and has been used a lot.

-Front of Raggedy Quilt-
-Back of Raggedy Quilt-

To make a quilt top, all that is needed is a pattern, some material, a needle, and thread, you don't even need a sewing machine to make a quilt. Thin pieces of cardboard like cereal boxes, spaghetti boxes, back of old note-books work best for making a pattern.

Quilts made with small pieces, like the Double Wedding Ring quilt I have shown above, are wonderful to take along wherever I go, especially when I go somewhere where I have to wait, like when I go to the doctor, the dentist, etc..... I can get a lot of sewing done while I am sitting and waiting, actually, it seems like I can get a quilt done much faster sewing by hand than I can while sitting at the sewing machine. When I am sewing a quilt by hand, I can work on it anytime, anywhere.

I keep all of the pieces to each quilt in their own container so I don't get them mixed up with other projects I am working on. I keep my projects in tins, baskets, purses, etc....

Belle

Please visit my store - http://www.homesteaderbelle.blogspot.com/

Vintage Doiles, Wilton Garter, and Book

I have some things around the house that I am wanting sell, so I have decided to post them right here on my blog.

The picture above is a new in package Wilton Garter. It is very pretty! I would like to sell this for $3.50 + $1.50 shipping costs.

This is one of those Doiles that with starch it will stand up with a nice ruffly edge. This is a nice vintage piece. This doile is about seven inches in diameter. It is for sale at the price of $ + $1.50 shipping costs.

This is a lovely country blue color doile. It is about 10 inches in diameter. It is a pineapple design. I will sell this for $+ $1.50 shipping costs.

Cottage Living
Designing Comfortable Country Retreats
by Ellen M. Plante
This book is in excellent condition with dust-jacket. Almost every page has a large color photo of cottage homes. You could get some good decorating tips and ideas from this book. I want to sell this book for $8.00 + shipping costs that I will calculate with your zip code.

If you are interested in purchasing any of these items, send me an email. My email address is hometeaderbelle@yahoo.com . I accept Pay-Pal, checks, or money orders. If you want an item, but you can't pay for the prices that I have listed, make an offer. I do combine shipping. I will ship to countries outside the USA, but I will have to charge more on the shipping cost.

I will be listing more items here on my blog soon. Come back and visit my blog again!

Thank you for looking!

Belle

Quick-Change Cloth Pad Give Away!

I am having a giveaway for a Quick-Change cloth menstrual pad. You can read the rules of the giveaway and sign up there to win it at my store, From the Past. Be sure to leave you email or someway of cotacting you in your entry.

Thank you for reading my blog.
Belle
http://homesteaderbelle.blogspot.com/2008/12/blog-post.html

Our Christmas Window

The window in our kitchen is all decorated for Christmas. It is covered Christmas crafts that my mom, sister, and brother made and Christmas cards that were sent to us by friends and family.




The picture below is a picture of a color-by-number that my brother colored. Mom and Brother glued the back of the color-by-number onto a piece of construction paper, laced a silver ribbon through the top, and tied it with a bow. It makes a wonderful Christmas decoration.


Everyone in my family made paper snnowflakes to put on the windows. Here are pictures of a few of them:

Merry Christmas!

Belle

Please visit my store, From the Past.

Handmade Christmas Gifts: Embroidered Tea Towels

I am making homemade gifts for the women in my family. I am making them embroidered tea towels. Below are pictures of the embroidry I have done for the tea towels.



I also have a Carrot Seeds tea towel finished to match the Watermelon Seeds tea towel, but I didn't take pictures of it.

I will sew homespun fabric around the embroidery work and put homespun on the back. I will take a picture of the completed tea towel when I finish them.

I love making gifts for my family. I am also going to try to make some monogramed hankercheifs for my brother and Pap-paw.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!

Thank you for reading my blog and please come again soon! Please visit my store .

Belle

Handmade Decorative Hair Pin

In a magazine, I found an idea to make very cute, decorative pins to wear in the hair. Above is a picture of the pin I made. I made it with a bobby pin, a 12 inch piece of 26 gauge wire, seed beads, and one larger bead for the center.

A friend asked me to sell these, so I will be listing them for sale in my store. I will be selling them for $1.50 each at my store.

Please vivit my store http://www.homesteaderbelle.blogspot.com/

Thank You for reading my blog!

Belle

Hanging clothes in the House

Here is a money saving laundry tip that I use-

Many people do not like hanging their clothes outside on the clothes line in the winter. I can't hang the laundry outside in the winter, because we have a wood burning fire place, if I was to hang the clothes out on the line, they would smell of smoke from the fire. So, I hang the laundry in the house. I have a retractable clothes line in the bathroom and a wooden clothes rack to hand clothes on.
Tonight, when I was hanging up the laundry, I ran of things to hang the clothes on, I quickly solved this problem by taking the handles of a broom and a mop and putting them on the top of two chairs. This added some more space to hand the clothes up. I then hung the laundry on clothes hangers and hung them on the broom handles to dry in the living room. I think it is beautiful to see my laundry hanging up in the house!
By the way, this is also a way to not use the dryer, save on the electric bill, and it is better for the enviroment!

Belle

giveaway

A lynette jenson book is going to be given away in a give away on MountainMorning's blog. She is celebrating her 100th blog entry!

To sign up for the giveaway, go to the link below , read the rules of this giveaway (they are on her blog), and leave her a comment with your email address.

Here is the link -
http://mountainmorning.blogspot.com/2008/11/100th-post-giveaway.html

Belle

Homemade Laudry Soap: How to make it (tutorial)

Today, I made homemade laudry soap. While, I was making it I thought,"I should put the recipe for this soap and how to make it on my blog." So, I will post how to make it.
This is the recipe for homemade soap make a five-gallon bucket full of liquid soap.

Homemade Laundry Soap

Supplies needed for this project:

• 1 Bar of Fel-Naptha Soap
• 2 cups of Borax
  
• 2 cups of Arm & Hammer Washing (not baking) Soda
• a pot and a lid
  
• a clean five-gallon bucket
• a spoon
• a grater (like a cheese grater)
• a large stick for stirring - a broom handle works great!
• 
  

First, grate the bar of Fels-Naptha with a grater, in the pot.

When I grate soap, I usually wear a mask or a bandana over my mouth and nose so I don't breathe in the fumes of the soap.

Put hot water in the pot with the grated soap, enough hot water to cover the grated soap. Put a lid on the pot of grated soap and heat the soap on the stove on meduim heat .

Now, put 2 cups of Borax and 2 cups of Arm & Hammer Washing Soda (not baking soda) in the five-gallon bucket.


Fill the five-gallon bucket with hot water, leave enough head-space in the bucket to add the pot of melted soap. Stir the hot water, Borax, and Arm & Hammer Washing soda with your long stick as you fill the bucket with the hot water. Do not add the water too quickly or will get a bunch of bubbles and soapy suds.
When the pot of grated soap is completely melted, it can be poured into the five-gallon bucket. Rinse the pot with water after all the soap is poured in and put the rinse water in too, so the whole bar of soap gets into the pot.

Stir the mixture together well and it is finished! You can use the soap immediatly, but do not bottle the soap for a day or two. In a few hours after making this soap usually turns into a thick gel, much like Jello. It is best to stir the soap every few hours or as often as possible for a day or two.

After a day or more of sitting in the bucket, it can be bottled. I store my soap in clean containers, juice containers work well. Any container used needs too be clean!

This Homemade Laundry soap doesn't make a bunch of suds like the laundry detergents from the store, but it does clean the laundry. To wash a one load of laundry, use one cup of homemade laundry soap.

This soap doesn't get the whites as white and bright as I like them, so I add about a cup of color safe bleach powder detergent to the whites, along with the cup of homemade laundry soap. I like the Sun brand color safe bleach. I get it at the Dollar Tree.

This soap has definately save money for my family! I hope you enjoy this recipe!

-Belle-

Strawberry Tarts and Recipe!

Friday, I made some strawberry tarts to share with some friends.

I love tarts! I love to make them and I love to eat them.

I bought my 11 tart pans and a heart shaped jello mold, which works great as a tart pan, for only $1.00 at a flea market. I had been looking for some and I finally found them at that flea market I went to. I was very excited to get them! Below is a picture of the heart shaped jello mold, one of my heart shaped tart pans, and one circle tart pan.

Here is the recipe to make strawberry tarts.

Strawberry Tarts

Recipe for Tart shell:

Tart Shell

• 2 Cups flour
• 1 teapsoon salt
• 2/3 cups shortening
• 6 to 7 tablespoons of cold water

In a mixing bowl, stir together flour and salt. Cut in shortening until pieces are the size of small peas. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of the water over the mixture; toss gently with a fork. Gradually add more of the tablespoons of water while working with the mixture until the dough is moistened enough to form into a ball.Form the dough into a ball and flatten the dough, with hands, on a lightly floured surface.

Roll the dough into a even piece of dough.

Lay the tart pan on the dough and cut around it 1/4 inch away from the pan.

Press the piece of cut dough into the tart pan. Apply enough pressure to the dough so that the dough will stay in place inside of the tart pan.

Now, prick the dough inside the tart pan with a fork.

After the dough in the pan has been pricked, it should look like the picture below.

After the all of the tart pans are filled with the dough and pricked, they can now go into the preheated oven. (Below is a picture before they have been baked.)
Here is a picture of the tart shells after they have baked.

Now the tart shells are ready to be filled.

Here is the recipe to make strawberry filling.

Strawberry Filling

• 2 tubes of Wick's Strawberry Glaze (it can be found in the produce aisle, it is NOT THE SUGAR- FREE)
  
• 2 quarts of Fresh Strawberries
  

Wash and strain the strawberries. Core and slice the strawberries into small slices and put slices in a medium miing bowl. Add the tubes of strawberry glaze to the sliced strawberries and gently fold together with a spatula. After glaze and strawberries are combined, pour it into the tart shells.
Put a little whipped cream on top of each tart before serving and they are ready to eat. Enjoy!

Belle

Please vote for my other blog in the 2008 Homeschool blog awards. I appreciate the votes! Below is the link to vote for my blog -

http://homeschoolblogawards.com/best-homemaking-or-recipes-blog-2008/

My blog name is Born 100 Years too Soon.

Bow Tie QUilt Blocks

These are some pictures of Bow-Tie quilt blocks that Granny, Mom, and I made. All of these blocks are sewn by hand. These were made with two mens shirts that were thrown out. The shirts had some stains and tears, that is probably why they were thrown out. We cut the shirt into blocks (avoiding the tears and stains that were on them). It is neat that these pretty quilt block were made out of two old shirts. It is a great way to recycle and reuse!
All of these blocks were made in our spare time when we were at a doctor's office waiting or when we were just sitting around doing nothing at all we would pick up up our little pieces and get to sewing!

Here is a picture of the blocks close up.
This is a picture of our hand sewn seams.

I enjoy quilt - making with my Granny ,Mom, and sister. I ecspecially love the quilts that are made with old scrap clothing. I think the prettiest quilts are made with scraps.

Belle

My Homemade Birthday Cake - with buttercream frosting recipe

I recently celebrated my birthday with my family. I made two cakes, one white one chocolate, with buttercream icing. All of my family loves buttercream frosting like the bakeries use on their cakes. My family and I thought it tasted like the buttercream icing from the bakeries. I am so happy that I know how to make Buttercream Icing!

I decorated the cake myself with the cake decorating kit that Mom bought for me. I think I did pretty well on the roses, then being the first time I have ever made them. I was a little sloppy on my writing..... I need learn to make the roses taller, and I also need to get better at putting the roses on the the cake more neatly. Writing on cakes is tricky.

Here is the recipe for the Buttercream Icing for you all:

ButterCream Icing

1 cup solid vegetable shortening

1 teaspoon vanilla

4 cups sifted confectioner's sugar (powered sugar)

2 tablespoons milk

Cream shortening with electric mixer. Add vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add milk and beat at meduim speed until light and fluffy. Makes three cups.

Keep icing covered with a damp cloth until ready to use, this will keep the icing from drying out. For best results, keep icing bowl in the refridgerator when not in use. Refriderate in an airtight container, this recipe can be stored for 2 weeks. Rewhip before using.

For frosting the cake, you will need it more creamy.

Belle

Just Be T-Shirt GiveAway!!

There is a T-Shirt GiveAway going on here -
http://pbandpickles.blogspot.com/2008/11/just-be-clothing.html?showComment=1226171640000#c3034235825158138251

It is for a Just Be T-Shirt. Go to the link above to check out the details on the giveaway.

Belle

Cowboy Print Underwear and Sock Monkeys!

I made this cute pair of under wear/boxer shorts last night for my brother. I really love the cowboy print on this cotton, my brother likes it too!

The underwear pattern say it is supposed to take an hour to make these, but it takes me longer than an hour. I did notice that I got this pair finished a lot faster than the first two pair I made for my little brother.

Above is the finished underwear and below is a close-up on the print.

My brother is making a sock monkey. Mom found some socks for sock monkey making at Hobby Lobby. She bought a few pairs. The Hobby Lobby where we shop, sells sock monkey socks in blue. We are going to use the blue socks for a sock elephant.

Below is a picture of brother's sock monkey - so far, so good. His monkey hasn't any eyes or much of a face yet, it doesn't have a tail yet either. I will show more pictures of it when he gets more done.

He is doing a really nice job.

Below is a picture of a sock monkey that my sister made a few years ago.

A very good friend of ours, who enjoys crafting, knitting, sewing, ect... gave my sister a sock monkey kit which the sock monkey below was made from. Isn't it cute?

I beleive the kit came with supplies and instructions to make a night gown (the monkey is a girl monkey) for the monkey, but I don't think she made it.

Belle

Thank you to my Friend!!!!

A good friend gave a wonderful present to my sister and me! She gave us
MaryJane's IdeaBook CookBook LifeBook! Thank you so much to my friend if you are out there reading this post! My mom, sister, and I are really enjoying this book. It was very sweet of you to give it to us!
Thank you!
Belle

Goods4Girls

www.goods4Girls.org is a wonderful site where you can donate new, hand-sewn pads and help keep girls in Africa in school.

Please go and look at this site!

I am going to donate some pads to good4girls. I am going to try to donate one pad per every pad purchased at my store - From the Past .

Belle

The Garden, Blackberries, and Embroidery

My family and I put some beans in the freezer, since we did not have enough to can. We usually can all of our beans, but are bean plants are not all producing at the same time. We had to replant beans, because some plants got washed out when we had a big rain thios spring.

Tomatoes are not ready to can yet. We are all out of tomatoes, since we did not can any last year. We are in need of canned tomatoes.

My Jalapeno peppers are ready to be picked. I did not grow any Bell peppers/Mangoes. My Granny grew Bell peppers so she shared with me :) I think I will make some B-B-Q sauce with my with the bell peppers. I will then freeze the Barbeque sauce.

I hope to make salsa with the Jalapenos and Bell peppers, if we get enough tomatoes.
We went berry picking earlier this week for Wild Blackberries. We found some berries and we also found a swarm of bees. We have bee stings on us.

We have 2 1/2 gallons of Wild Blackberries in the freezer. I hope we can pick some more before the vines are done producing.

In early July we made Apple Sauce with apples that were given to use for free! We didn't get to make very much apple Sauce. Hopefully, we will get some fall apples and make more Apple Sauce. I love warm, homemade Apple Sauce!

I have been making little embroidered Christmas Ornaments and Basket Tie-ons. I am selling some in my store and I want to give some as gifts to family an friends.

You can see the ornaments I am making and visit my store, From the Past, at this link - http://www.homesteaderbelle.blogspot.com/

Intro

Hello,

My name is Belle. My shop is ~From the Past~, where I sell soap, cloth pads, and things for baby.

I am a Christian. On this blog, I will share recipes, tips, my thoughts, and life. I hope you all enjoy my blog!

Belle