How to make lavender vinegar

Lavender is one of my absolute favorite scents. Last year I bought a few lavender plants and planted them sporadically around our yard. The plants didn't bloom last year and I was absolutely amazed at how large they grew back this summer. I initially planted them just to enjoy around the house, but then I started contemplating what I could with them. I know there are so many things that you can do with lavender; I really didn't have a clue where to begin. Then I saw this post on 5 ways to use lavender vinegar and I was convinced that this is what I was going to do with my plants. I'm always looking for natural alternatives to use around the house and I'm already using a lot of vinegar for various things so I thought why not scent it with lavender.

I didn't have a clue how to do this, but after a little research I think I've figured it out. Here is how to make your own batch of lavender vinegar:

What you will need:

• Fresh lavender plants (preferably)
• scissors (for harvesting the lavender)
• White vinegar or Apple Cider Vinegar
• Non-reactive pan to heat your vinegar
• glass jar and a non-metallic lid
• You will need one cup of lavender per two cups of vinegar.

1) Gather fresh lavender. I cut my flowering lavender stems about half way down. I also cut sporadically around the plant and left some for the bees and some to cut later for drying. The only thing I am still a little unsure of about this step is weather or not I did it at the right time. I think I would have achieved better results if I had done this about a week ago. It seems that there were more flowering stems on my plants then. I'm still learning about this plant so any tips you can offer on this would be appreciated.

I also read that you can use the leaves of the lavender plant for your vinegar too, so I clipped some of them because I didn't get as many flowers as I needed to make two quarts of vinegar.

2) Gather the flowering buds and leaves together and pack your jar lightly. I filled mine about 1/2 way up.

3) Heat your vinegar in a non-reactive (non-metallic) pot.

4.) Pour your hot vinegar into your jars filling it to just about the top. I think I left about an inch of head space in my jars.

5) Seal your jars with a plastic lid. DO NOT USE METAL.

6) The hardest part of this whole process is letting your concoction steep for 3 weeks before being able to use it. As you let it sit be sure to shake it up every so often and store it in a sunny warm location for best results.

Are you wondering what you can do with lavender vinegar? Check out this blog post by The Nerdy Farm Wife to learn more.  Her blog is filled with great natural recipes. I know you will love it.

High Five For Friday

Happy Friday to you again. Don't the weeks just fly by? Here are my top 5 favorite things for the week.

1. I got to enjoy a day of shopping with the girls. After having Brodey attached to my hip after his tonsil surgery I was SO ready for a day away, and I enjoyed every minute of it (every mom needs days to herself). I'd been wanting to get Brodey a "Big Brother" shirt for his "Big Brother Survival Kit" (will be posting this soon) and I found a shirt for him an matching onsie for Wyatt. PERFECT! I also found these cute earrings. I never buy accessories for myself, so it was nice to get a few pairs of earrings, a bracelet, and a headband. Go me!

2. I don't live near a good fabric shop. I live on a dirt road in the country. I've actually had people say to me "Wow, you live in the middle of nowhere, how can you stand it?" Oh, I can stand it very well actually. But there are times that I wish I could just run over to Jo-Ann's, but it's a good 45-50min drive. I made it there this week though and found some cute fabric that inspired me to make a quilt. I came right home and started designing. At first I got out my graph paper and started sketching, but even with this paper I had uneven lines. I'm too anal for that. So I opened up my Excel spreadsheet and used that. It worked for what I needed it to do. I was pleased and can't wait to get going on this quilt.

3. I love Bluegrass music. Love, love love it. I discovered a new station on Pandora this week "Doyle Larson & Quicksilver". I've been enjoying it all week. Good music makes cleaning much more enjoyable!

4. I now have three of these coat hangers throughout my home. I love them. They were all made by a local Mennonite family. This one in particular I have been wanting to hang up for about 3 months now. It took 5 minutes to do (I'm such a procrastinator). So glad it is up! It is the new home to my aprons in the kitchen.

5. I hit the 35 week mark in my pregnancy this week! I still have lots of little things I'd like to get done, but this week I got the pack n' play scrubbed and vacuumed, I got all the baby clothes organized and put away in the nursery, and last night I made a trip to town to get all of the toiletries and other things that I'll need to get my hospital bag packed. I want to make sure I'm ready if this little guy comes early. I have to say a HUGE THANK YOU to my friend Paula that has let me borrow the bassinet accessory for the pack n' play. Mine is M.I.A. and hers not only fit my pack n' play, it matches perfectly! I was very excited about this.

Have a great weekend!

Throwback Thursday: Fun Craft

Happy Thursday! Today we are revisiting a post from last year when I vowed to clean up my act. Well, I vowed to keep a clean car anyway and to help me achieve my goal I made a cute trash bag.

My this post inspire you to make something simple and useful today with your scrap fabrics.

A THING OF THE PAST

Funny Baby Products

Getting prepared for baby number two, due at the end of August, has been SO much less stressful than when we were preparing for Brodey. First of all, we are having another boy so that in and of itself just makes life so much easier. But even if we were expecting a girl, or maybe get a big surprise and end up with one, it is still not a big stress. We've been there and done that. I now realize that the wiper warmer and bottle warmer are non-essential items, along with a lot of other items that I thought I had to have to first time around. And maybe it was just me, the first year with Brodey was a bit of a fog, but I just didn't seem to find use for some of the stuff I stressed about getting.

As I've been pulling out our baby items from the basement to set up shop for Wyatt's arrival I've been trying to make a list of stuff we need to get. I seem to come up with very few things. Like diapers and wipes. I keep thinking that surely I'm missing something. Shouldn't I have a list that is at least a page long? Maybe since it's been four years I just don't remember what I need. Well the truth is that I kept all of my essential items like the crib, mattress, blankets, clothes, pack n' play, car seat, stroller, high chair, etc... These are essential items, and I can't explain why, but it just seems weird that I've got 'em all. And I'm WAY to practical to think I need to buy new things. Now I did have to get a new bouncy seat because I sold my other one, but everything I had in the basement or stole from my sister-in-law. She has four boys, it's very convenient to be able to share stuff with each other.

Well all of these thoughts led me to the world wide web to seek out any items that I may want to get just for fun. In doing so, I came across some baby products that have just about left me speechless. I am so happy that I had enough sense (or surrounded myself with others that enough sense) not to get these items for my first baby. New moms are vulnerable. We want the best for our baby and in all honesty have no idea how to prepare for that. So we buy just about anything that is recommended to make our life or baby's life better or easier.

I've created a list of 10 items that I feel are the most ridiculous baby/child products. This is my warning to any new mom or a friend of a new mom. Don't waste your money on these items. I like to think that people have enough common sense to know these items are worthless, but my faith in the common sense of other people has slightly deteriorated as I've gotten older. Here we go!

1) The Babykeeper: Available here for 39.99

I'm not sure what to say about this other than that it is ridiculous. I see many unlearned parents using this in a totally wrong way. Also, you are putting your trust in the sturdiness of the those bathroom stalls to hold up your child? I don't think so.

2) The diaper alarm: Available here for $14

The manufacturer assures that the electrical current running through this cord is safe for the baby. Does anyone else see the cord as a strangulation hazard? How is it even legal to sell this?

I've seen these without cord too.You can't tell when your baby's diaper is wet? Are you too lazy to just check? What happens when baby is sleeping and the alarm goes off? Way to traumatize your poor child. This is such a stupid product.

3) Bebe Bottle Sling: $14.99

Why take the time to actually hold and feed your baby when you can just shove the bottle in their face? That's right parents, you can play Farmville and feed your baby at the same time! How convenient.

4) Pee Pee TeePee: $12

Avoid the inevitable - your son peeing on you when you change him. Buy this set for $12 or save yourself some money and use a wet wipe or wash cloth.

BTW: Brodey NEVER peed when I was changing him. Just saying....

5) Time Out Pad: $22

Found under the Toys & Games section on Amazon.com, now your child can enjoy his/her time out! Complete with lights and music!

6) Zaky Infant Pillow: $44.95


This is beyond creepy and has to be a suffocation hazard. And again, you're too busy to hold your baby? Maybe you shouldn't have one. They do require your attention.

7) Breastfeeding Simulator: Didn't see the price on this one.

This is the complete opposite of the bottle sling above. This is so stupid. I mean really? Who has time for this? I'm all for breastfeeding, I'm actually attempting it with this little one, but come on. If it doesn't work out for me I will use a bottle and not be concerned about strapping myself in for feeding time.

8) Tummy Tub: $42.50

I just don't get this. It's a bucket for your baby? And it's over $40? I don't think so. I barely even used my infant bathtub. Sponge baths and the kitchen sink suited us just fine.

9) Why Cry Baby Analyzer: $34.99

Take the guess work out of parenting. Get to know your baby's cry with a monitor. Is he hungry, tired, or annoyed? Find out with this device!

Please....

10) Baby Butt Fan: $14.95

Dry skin is happy skin! Or something like that. Can't you just fan their fanny with a diaper? Is it necessary to stick a fan right up to their butt? Do you know of a baby that would sit still for this?





And the list could go on and on. I originally had 20 things that I was going to put on here, but I think you get the point and if you REALLY want to see the other products just let me know and I'll do another post.

Project Pinterest: Green Landscaping

This weeks Pinterest Project can be found on my For the Home board. We actually did this project back at the end of May/early June, but we are now starting to see the results of it.

In the height of my nesting phase, I decided it would be a good idea to rip out all of our landscaping and give it a makeover. While I was in the middle of this project I came across this pin and I thought "oh this is perfect"! Here is the picture and caption that went with it, you can read the whole blog post here.

The newspaper will prevent any grass and weed seeds from germinating, but unlike fabric, it will decompose after about 18 months. By that time, any grass and weed seeds that were present in the soil on planting will be dead. It’s green, it’s cheaper than fabric, and when you decide to remove or redesign the bed later on, you will not have the headache you would with fabric.

In the past, we had used the standard black fabric stuff and although it was a pain to put in, it worked. But we knew we would have to pull it all up when we were redoing our mulch this year because we expanded the whole area. I thought this newspaper solution would be perfect.

Here is just a glimpse of what our new mulch and landscape looks like now.

That's right! Full of weeds! (ugh) I'm almost 8mo pregnant, do you think you will find me out there pulling weeds? No. This is why I passed on having a garden this season, pregnancy + hot weather + weeding = NOT FUN! Gabe has been so busy with work this summer that he hasn't been able to spend a lot of time on the yard, I'm happy when the grass gets mowed. Not because he's lazy, he's just busy.

Maybe I missed something here, but in the end I am not impressed with the results we got from this. Have you tried this? Did it work for you?

H54F

Happy Friday! Hope you all had a wonderful week, I know I did. I'm linking up with Lauren again to bring you my 5 favorite things of this week for H54F! Enjoy!

1. I FINALLY found new car. We sold our other truck so we could afford to buy a second vehicle. We don't do the finance or credit thing, we try to pay for everything in cash. Not because we are so financially advanced (LOL) - we've made enough stupid credit mistakes in the past, so were trying to clear those up and not add to it. We ended up selling one vehicle and buying two, which I think is a good deal. Hubs got himself a truck with a plow (because apparently that was necessary) and I thought for sure with our budget I was going to get stuck with a minivan or even worse, a car. After driving around a big heavy duty truck for over a year, that would have been a hard adjustment. But I found this Tahoe well under by budget, and I think it'll last me for a while. She needs a little work, but when you pay such a low cost for a vehicle, it is to be expected and there aren't any major things wrong with it. Plus it has a DVD player (if I can figure out how to get that to work we'll be golden).

2. We spent a lot of time at home this week while Brodey healed from his surgery (had his tonsils out). One of the fun things we did was catch this tree frog on our front porch! We only kept him in this jar for about 5 minutes though, Brodey said he was sad and needed to get out.

 3. We did get out of the house for a few evenings to attend our church's VBS. Brodey had a great time in his class, and I had fun working too. We had a great turnout all week and I think everyone enjoyed themselves.

 4. My highlight of this week was adding a second item to my Etsy shop. I'll be blogging about the meaning of this piece soon, but if you're looking for a great baby shower gift check out my shop and order one of these fun quilts today!

5. What is better than fresh fruit salad in the summer? I made great big bowl of it yesterday so I can just open the fridge, scoop,  and enjoy!

Throwback Thursday: Keeping Chickens

This is one of my favorite posts and I'm excited to revisit it! We still have our chickens and are enjoying them as much now as we did the day we go them. I'm pretty sure my family thought I fell off the deep end when we got them, but I think they are getting used my crazy homesteading hobby.

Here is the story of how and why we started keeping chickens.

KEEPING CHICKENS

Project Pinterest: Pallet Craft [part 2]

I am so happy to be writing this post. Mainly because that means I am officially done with the the behemoth project that I took on this summer. We actually finished up the project a couple of weeks ago, but I wasn't able to blog for a week due to a big storm and a power outage, and last week my son had his tonsils taken out. That put me out of bloggy commission too. That put me out of commission for just about everything actually.

If you missed part one of this mini two-part Pallet Craft series, you can get yourself caught up here. When we stopped last time, you were left with this picture:

 
I had all the boards sanded and washed and ready to go!

That week, my step dad and sister came over and got the whole wall started by cutting and hanging up the OSB board. That took quite awhile and after that, they were able to get started on nailing these boards up. They did a great job and I'm very thankful for the work they put into it.

When hubs returned from his two week training adventure with the National Guard he was pleased to see the progress I was making in the room. He went right to work that week on getting it finished (with the help of his dad).

They had the wall up in no time at all and it turned out fabulous! Here is a picture of the completed wall. That's Brodey doing the "happy dance" because the wall was done and he knew that meant we would be giving him his room back soon. Poor little guy, I totally took over his personal space for a few weeks. Trust me, I was just as happy to give it back to him as he was to receive it.

Gabe kicked us out of the house for the afternoon so he could put a coat of Polyurethane on the wood. That stuff is very strong smelling and he didn't want me or Brodey exposed to it. We kept a fan going in the room and the door shut for a few days to let it air out before we even started cleaning and bringing furniture back in. You can never be too safe about that stuff. I didn't want my little man sleeping in there and breathing in those fumes all night long, so it was about another week before he was allowed to go back.


While I waited for the room to air itself out, I decided to do one last little project in there. I painted his closet door with chalkboard paint. That stuff stinks too! My goodness.

Once I got the room completely aired out and cleaned, I got right to work on getting the furniture in and set up. I'm not ready to give you the complete tour yet because I still have an idea or two left in my head for the room and I want to wait until it is completely finished, but I will give you a sneak peak at the crib:

I am so happy that the crib set I bought from Cabela's for Brodey works perfectly in this room design too. I linked the crib set for you, but it doesn't seem to be available on their website anymore.  Maybe you can use the info to search for it elsewhere though. It has been over 4 years since I bought it. Also, the lighting in this picture isn't the best. It has been difficult to get a good picture in his room. It's either too bright or too dark. I'll keep trying.

I can't wait to show you around the boys' room when it is finished. I'm having tons of fun with this project and I enjoy getting to share it with all of you!

H54F

HIGH FIVE FOR FRIDAY!

These last couple of weeks have been so crazy! I didn't have a chance to do a H54F last week and I thought of combining them, but decided that I have enough exciting things to share from this past week alone. I hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July holiday! 

Here my highlights from the past week:

1. We had a big storm roll through last week that left us without power for a couple of days. The temps were over 110 with the heat index so we definitely couldn't stay home without the a/c going. We spent one of the nights at my sister-in-laws house while her and the family were out of town. It was so nice of them to open up their home (and their pool) to us. We spent the other night at my parents. We returned home to some non working appliances and electrical issues, but it was nice to come home. Those two days totally threw me for a loop.

2. One positive outcome of the power outage was that I was forced to take a break from some projects I'd been working on around the house and was able to focus on Wyatt's quilt. I was able to finish quilting the whole thing. Now all I have to do is add the binding and I'm done. I can't wait to see how it turns out. I love quilts.

3. I planted some new perennials at the beginning of the summer when we redid the landscaping out front and I have been enjoying seeing them bloom. These are my Black Eyed Susan's. I do not have a green thumb and with the weather being so hot lately I'm surprised that I haven't killed all my flowers. They are all actually doing really well, even my hanging baskets! I usually have those killed off by now :-) 

4. With all the craziness of the past couple of weeks I haven't even had a chance to tell you about the completed accent wall in the nursery (sorry), but it is done! I can't wait to show how it all looks when everything gets put together. I did get the crib put together this week which was really exciting and thanks to my mom, I got all my 0-3mo baby clothes washed! It's actually starting to feel real that there is going to be a baby in the house soon.

5. My little man had his tonsil's and adenoids taken out and tubes put in his ears this week. He was such a champ. He was so brave going into the surgery room (thanks to some meds slipped to him by the nurse) which made it easier for me. It wasn't so easy when he woke up from surgery however, holy cow. To top that day off, I ended up in L&D due to dehydration and a slight complication. That was a long day, just let me tell you. All is well though and Brodey, baby, and myself are all doing fine. He is on the way to getting better. He hasn't bounced back as quickly as I had anticipated, but I'll get my cheery little man back in a week or so.

Throwback Thursday: The Purpose of Preserving

Holy cow, the last couple of weeks have been crazy! Between losing power, my sons surgery and finishing up some projects around the house I've been MIA from my blog. So sorry. I'm working on some great posts, but today I will leave you with this post from the past. I think it's appropriate being that it's that time of the year again for food preserving.

Do you preserve your own food? Why? What are some of your favorite recipes? Please share!

THE PURPOSE OF PRESERVING