Seatbelt Ring Bearer Pillow

I mentioned before that my sister-in-law is getting married next month.  I saw a very similar pillow on Pinterest.  To be honest, I fell in love with this seatbelt pillow idea.  Just loved it!!  So, I mentioned it to my sister-in-law, and she thought it would be neat. 

Then I forgot about it! :(  But then I remembered.............just in time for the shower!! 

First I had to FIND some extra seatbelt laying around...................humm.  Where do you find extra seat belt???

How about in Farmer Johnson's "new to us" semi????  Why yes there was a "net" of seatbelt used to hold belongings of the previous semi owner.  How convient right?!?!  Absolutely!

So I started cutting and sewing, and cutting and sewing.  It was not looking good.  Not good at all.  Seriously, I was about to throw it away.  And, just tell her she was going to have to buy one. 

I got my good friend to come over for her opinion before I completely gave up.  We looked, and looked, and turned, and turned, and looked at it some more.  Our conclusion: we decided to start over.

It was a good thing we did....................she had a vision...............of how to do it correctly!!!

And it turned out great!

What do you think?

Turned out AWESOME!!

Mother's Day Window Project

Here is a window that I made for my mother-in-law for Mother's Day this year.  At approximately 3 months of age with all of my kiddos I took a picture of them in a John Deere hat that my father-in-law (the orginal Farm Johnson) bought. 


I have a few 4 pane windows out in the shed, but since there are only 3 kiddos, I couldn't figure out what to do with the 4th pane........So, I decided to search for a 3 pane window.  I found a few at the Antique Mall in Mitchell, SD; but, they just quite weren't what I was looking for. 

So, I ended up going online and found one on Etsy.   This shop - CountryCraftWindows has some great windows if you are looking for something unique!  What great service too!  It arrived in one piece.....glass and all!  

I was going to strip it down and stain it, finish it, etc.  However, I was running out of time.............so I opted for sanding it down, painting it, and then staining it to "antique" it a little.  I took a utility knife to the glass to clean off the paint.  Then I took some thin cardboard to make backs for my pictures, and put it all together.

All done!  I was very pleased with how this turned out.  Someday maybe I will get it back ;)

Watermelon Flowers

So, my sister-in-law is getting married next month......and we had a shower for her this last week.  It was a salad luncheon/supper thing.  I brought a corn salad, and then some watermelon.  Just for fun, I thought I would do something fun with the watermelon, just to make it pretty.  Something I saw on Pinterest.....imagine that ;)

So, this is what I did.....

Slice your watermelon approximately the width of your cookie cutter(s).

Start cutting away! 

Now what to do with the rest????

Save the "scraps" for yourself later ;)

Isn't that pretty?  So, fitting for a bridal shower.



Rhubarb Rhubarb Rhubarb

I've been really busy baking cakes lately....so I apologize for not posting much lately.  After this week, I will post some of the 20 or so cakes I have done in the past couple weeks. 

Anyways, I did manage to pick some nice rhubarb a couple weeks ago, and put it in the freezer. 

The best kind of rhubarb to pick has a pink tint, and is no larger than 1/2 inch in  thickness.  It will be sweeter, and more tender to cut.

One of many cutting boards full of diced rhubarb.

This turned out to be 12 cups of diced rhubarb.  It was so tender and sweet. 

All ready for the freezer.  I put 2 cups in each freezer bag..... most of my recipes call for that amount.  So nice and convient to pull out and pour into whatever you are making.

Great for making jelly, desserts, pie, bars, or just rhubarb syrup on ice cream.  Yummy!

Pasture Time...................My Pets Are Back!

It is calving season around here in the upper plains.  We have quite a few on the ground already and when we get a trailer full, we bring them up to the pasture around our house, so they have nice green grass to eat.

Bringing the first load.

First mamma cow out of the trailer.

All out .....3 mammas and 3 babies

Heading for the trees.

Bringing in the second load...

Helping the last little calf out of the trailer.
I don't know why they didn't bring them in one load, they certainly would have fit. 
I don't ask questions... I just take pictures! 

Enjoying the new digs! The grass IS greener here! 

There will be more brought up from the farm as they calve, but for now we have our 6 pairs.  I think they are liking the scenery!

I grew up on a cattle farm.  I showed cattle in 4-H, we milked cows, we were around cattle everyday all day long it seemed.  So, when Farmer Johnson and I got married we purchased 15 pairs from my parents, and integrated those into Farmer Johnson's herd.  My cattle are "my" cattle!  I love them dearly and love when they return to our pasture for the summer.  I love to watch them come to the water tank to get drinks, and especially love when the babies are small, and chase each other around the pasture.  They are so stinkin' cute!  I am not a pet person, no dogs, no cats, no fish, no anything.  It is just not my personality.  So, my cattle have always been my "pets" so to speak.  They are the best kind if I do say so myself.  Totally self-sufficient......no walking, no litter boxes, no kennels, no scooping poop out of your grass.  Perfect Pets!

Big Pants For a Little Man

I hadn't really noticed until we had a boy, how little variety there is for infant/toddler boy clothes in the stores.  If you do see something cute, it costs an arm and leg.....and maybe a foot.  I had been looking for an Easter/Wedding outfit for the little man, and happened across this outfit at Shopko on sale for $18.  A shirt, tie, vest, and dress pants for $18?  I was sold.

Do you notice how huge those pants are????? This is suppose to be 6-9 month size.  I am sure those pants would fit a 12-18 month old boy.  So, I had a problem.  What am I going to do with these pants??

I ventured down to my sewing room that I share with the kiddos.................Oh the sacrifices I make!!! HaHa! 

  Meet Bertha..............I think I have expressed my ill feelings towards her before.  Somedays I could throw her in a gully.  Anyways, today of all days, she cooperated.  She must like polyester, because she just zipped through these pants like no one's business!  Oh Happy Day!

So, first I found a pair of pants that actually fit my little man.  See the problem??  I used these as a pattern to "resize" the black dress pants.

This is a picture of the black pants with the hem completely ripped out, and the pants inside out.  Crazy huge huh?  Next I took my white pencil and traced the outside leg seams, and inside leg seams so they were similar to my "pattern" pants.

See my white lines??  Then I just sewed new seams.  I didn't do any trimming, that way I can take these seams out if I need to. 

Then I turned them right side out..........................

and pressed the new seams.  Be careful not to have your iron too hot with polyester.  You could end up with "silvery" marks.

On to remaking the hems.  I used my "pattern" pants again, as a guide, and marked my dress pants.  As you can see in the picture, I left them longer, because I will fold them up and stitch them by hand to hold the hem in place. 

Next, I pinned this into place, and carefully turned them inside out again.  The rest of this project is done by hand.  Bummer!  Since I am shortening these pants, I did end up cutting some of the length off, just because it would have been way too bulky up inside the pant legs to leave it.

See, I cut off about an inch and a half.

Then I got out my trusty needle and thread and started whip stitching my hem to my pant.  Use tiny even stitches. 

Insided out....looks pretty good.  (See my silver mark from my iron being too hot?)

Next fold up your hem, and tack with small stitches on both sides of the outside and inside seams.

Next, fold up your hem, and tack on outside and inside seams with small stitches.

Too bad I didn't rotate this picture huh? But, a little better huh? 



Some new pants for my little man.

Springtime....All in a Row.........

There is nothing that I love more than my yard.  Well....maybe Farmer Johnson and the kiddos....but not much else.  I do dislike how much work it is to keep up, but I LOVE the results.  I like my home clean and organized, my clothes neatly folded in drawers, and my yard mowed in straight lines.  Yes, I am a Type A personality, and proud of it! 

On the north side of our driveway, after the second mowing of the season............isn't it pretty??  Ahh, I could look at this forever!

On the south side of the driveway.........Another long sigh.....

A partial of my backyard..............see Farmer Johnson in the pasture???  He is drilling some extra wheat seed into the pasture where we took out some dead trees.  Then in the fall, he will drill some grass seed into the wheat, so that there is a good stand next spring.

Just something extra.  Here is a picture of some tulips I bought for my mom for her birthday.  I finally am figuring out my new camera....I think it turned out pretty good! 

Some Kind of Raspberry Beautiful

Look at these rolls.................aren't they beautiful??  And, oh so yummy! 

I just made the dough from this cinnamon roll recipe.  It is heavenly.  Seriously.  Heaven.

I decided to use raspberry filling (the same kind I use when I torte my cakes) instead of the usual cinnamon/sugar mixture.  Although, that is super yummy too.  However, myself and Farmer Johnson are huge raspberry fans.  Huge! 

Aren't they pretty?  Almost hypnotizing, those pretty raspberry swirls.

My extra little pan for the Original Farmer Johnson ~ he loves my baking experiments.

All slathered up with some yummy cream cheese frosting ~ ready for delivery to the farm.

Our pan didn't last more than a day and half......  I may or may not contributed to their disappearance.  I will not deny it.  They were yummy!

Windows, a Toothbrush, and a Toilet

Do you know how a $0.50 toothbrush leads to a $150 toilet?  Really?  You don't know?? I didn't know either until last week.  This is my story, it is a good one.  One that Farmer Johnson will never let me live down. Jeesh!

So last week I was spring cleaning my windows.  I don't know why I hate it so much, but I do.  It really only takes about 1 1/2 hours to do it, but I still hate it.  It is much less time consuming than it used to be, because of my beloved Norwex microfiber cloths.

Buy some...your life will never be the same. Seriously, never the same.  Love them!  All you use is water. That's it.  No spray bottles, no chemicals. 

Anyways, there I am cleaning my windows....I have dirty screens in my bath tub ready to be scrubbed.  Clean screens dripping into the bathroom sink.  I am cleaning the sills of my windows with a toothbrush.  My water in my ice cream bucket is getting pretty nasty.  I mean nasty, like brown/black yuck.  So, I go to the bathroom to get some clean soapy water to continue my scrubbing.  Out on the farm, the dirt you get in your windows is amazing.  I wonder why I even bother cleaning them most times.  Anyways, all places to dump my yuck are occupied.....except the toilet.  A reasonable place to dump yuck right??  Right.  Except, I couldn't see my toothbrush through the brown/black yuck. 

Dumping yuck in the toilet...flushing yuck down toilet....remembering that the yuck had my toothbrush in the bottom after flushing......PRICELESS!  Oh Seriously........

Yes, so now the toilet is backing up!  With my diluted yuck.  Oh Seriously!  I run to the other wash room to get the plunger.  I run back to the bathroom with my plunger, and plunge my diluted yuck.  Plunge.  Plunge.  Plunge. It goes down. 

I try flushing it again.  Really?  It backs up again.  Plunge.  Plunge.  Plunge.

Okay, I am no plumber............Bathroom Out of Order.  How nice with 2 little girls constantly going potty.

So, I own up my mistake with Farmer Johnson when he gets home.  He just laughs.  I don't think it is funny.  Well maybe it is....just a little bit.  But just a little bit. 

For some reason we decide to tackle the problem at 8 o'clock at night.  Seriously.  Who does that?  I guess the Johnsons!  We decide to take the tank off of the toilet, and take a wire to see if we can fish the toothbrush out with a wire.  No luck.  Jeesh, thought that work for sure.  Really I did.  But, then again I am NOT a plumber. 

So, we take the toilet off the floor.  You know you just can't put it back right?  Right.  You have to have a new wax ring to put it back.  We didn't have one.  We tried fishing the toothbrush out after taking the toilet up.  No luck.  Oh Seriously!  I thought that would work for sure too! 

So, we opted on purchasing a new toilet.  I always disliked that toilet anyways! Ugh!

So we made a trip to the big city to pick out a new toilet.  Did you know how many options there are in toilets?  Oh, Seriously!  So, we decided on one (it cost $150), and hauled it home.  Farmer Johnson quickly transformed into Plumber Johnson............had that sucker installed in less than 1/2 hour.  Oh he is good!

He of course, was not happy....but not mad.  Of course, he will never let me forget about this little adventure.  But...hey, the windows were really clean for about 2 whole days!  Awesome!

Nothing Like Line Dried Laundry

If you grew up on a farm.......your mom's clothes line was a major fixture in the landscape around the house.  Oh did I hate hauling clothes from the laundry room in the basement clear out to the clothes line to dry.  Couldn't we simply put them in the dryer located right next to the washer???  One would think so.

Everyone loves the smell of line dried clothes, sheets, and towels.... except Farmer Johnson.  One of the first things I did at our place when we got married was put in a clothes line.  It was a necessity to my way of life.  Farmer Johnson complains that the sheets are scratchy and the towels are crunchy.  Not nice and fluffy like they are coming out of the dryer.  Really???  I love it, especially really stiff jeans....it is kind of like starching your jeans, but mother nature does it for you.  Starching jeans???? Yes, people really do that!!  My brother is one of them. 

But anyways, enough of my ranting about my laundry.........I have a project I want to do in my laundry room which involves pictures of my clothes line, laundry, and the kiddos.  Yesterday was super warm here for the 1st of April.  It broke records....literally I am sure it was over 90 degrees.  I wanted to pack up and move to Canada.  Seriously, I hate hot weather. So, I got a wild hair to wash some sheets since it was so warm and windy......and then got out my camera.

My grandmother's laundry basket, which has been used as a bassinet for all three of my babies.

My babies......well I guess they aren't all babies anymore, but will always be in my heart.

Hello Sun!

Oh Silly Girls!

Love her!!

Do you think they are getting tired????

I guess not!! She is so silly sometimes.

This just makes me laugh so hard!!! Look at those faces!

Love this one....

They just never stop....

Please Mom can we get out of this sun yet??? I'm hot!  But oh so cute!


So I need to narrow down my favorites for my project in my laundry room.  If and when I get it finished, I will post pictures.  At least I can say I have some pictures taken for it though!