How to turn your Boring Candles into a Fall Masterpiece

This is a very quick and easy craft that can be made just using four different things! You don’t have to be “artsy” to make these either!!! That’s a big plus for me since I don’t have an artistic bone in my body! :)


What you will need…

- A few bright fall leaves
- A pillar candle
- A hairdryer
- Moisturizer






First get your leaves. Maybe you have a tree in your yard with beautiful leaves, but if you don’t, try taking a walk in a park. At this time of year, leaves are pretty easy to find!
Bring them in and rub a little bit of moisturizer on them. This can be any type of lotion that you have on hand. It will just make them a little less brittle and easier to work with while bringing out the color.

Next, use your blow dryer to melt the wax on the outside of the candle.

When the wax is soft, press the leaves that you have gathered into the candle and there you have it!




Your very own fall masterpiece!

Have fun!

~Krisdyn~

Decorating for Fall

It’s that time of year again... School has started, it’s getting colder, and the leaves are just beginning to turn colors. Time to decorate for fall! Here are some easy ways to do this.

Add little splashes of color to a room. Mix bring fall colors such as reds and oranges with neutral toned colors such as greens, tans, and maybe even some blues. Throw pillows, kitchen towels, table cloths and center pieces are an easy and relatively inexpensive way to start.

Bring the outdoors in. Consider using a centerpiece made with various assortments of pumpkins, gourds, pinecones, acorns, or berries.

- Find a rustic pot and fill it with fall flowers. You could even use dried flowers. For an extra artistic touch add a few little twigs throughout them.

- Rustic wooden decorations look amazing in the fall and can easily be made to look “Christmasy” later on.

- Baskets can be decorated with pinecones, acorns, and fall leaves to take on a fall look.

Get cozy!It’s starting to get colder outside so we need to make our houses look warmer and homier. Fuzzy, cuddly, bright fall colored throws and cushions and that pop of color you’re looking for while adding a warm cozy feel to a room.

- Candles can also add that cozy feel to a room. Choose candles that have a warm, fall smell such as apple pie, apple cider, or pumpkin pie.

Check back tomorrow for a great, cheap, super easy craft to turn your boring looking candles into a fall masterpiece!

*Photo courtesy of Better Homes and Gardens*

We Have a Winner!!!!!

Okay, so I am posting this 1 hour early. It has been a LONG day. Well, actually a long week and I am tired. So we cheated just a bit and decided to do this early.

I so enjoyed my friend, Lisa's drawing and seeing her daughter, Sage pull out the name (my name actually) of the vintage glass pitcher. So for this drawing, I enlisted my son, Joshua. Dressed as he typically is, in cowboy gear, he used his cowboy hat to draw the name out of.

As you can see, he really got into this! He has a very serious look on his face :)

And the winner of our first blog drawing is.....

Lori!!

Congratulations!!!!

Please contact us with your information and we will get this sent out to you right away!

We hope you enjoyed the fun and please join us again next month for our next drawing!

The time & prize will be announced sometime next month.

~Thanks to all of you for being a part of our blog~

Krisdyn & Jamie

Our Very First Blog Give-Away!

We are very excited to announce that we are holding our first Blog Give-Away.

Inspired by my buddy, PH (Lisa), Krisdyn and I have decided to host at least one giveaway a month, just as a thank-you for joining our site and reading our blog!

This month we are giving away what you see in the picture.

1 - 1/2 pt. jar of our homemade applebutter

2 kitchen towels

2 pot holders

We will accept entries until Thursday, 9/24/2009 10 p.m. CST. The winner will be announced Friday evening, 9/25/2009 at 10 p.m. Central standard time.

At that time we will need you to contact us with your address so that we can mail your prize to you. You can do this by clicking the "Contact" on the top right under our banner at the top of the blog!

We will be announcing this on drawing Facebook and a few other areas, so expect our number of followers to grow (we hope!).

CONTEST RULES:

The only "rules" that we have are that you please post a comment to this post and then we will put your name in the "hat" for the drawing. Also you MUST be a follower of this blog to participate!

*****Please do us a HUGE favor by clicking on our ads and sponsors whenever you think of it. This helps us earn just a bit to keep the ball rolling on here! Thanks!! :) *****

Have fun & Good Luck!!

Krisdyn & Jamie

Baking Powder Biscuits

This recipe is the BEST! Growing up, my dad would make these along with Sausage gravy. It was/is a tradition for him to make these along with the gravy each deer hunting season before we go out. A LOT of memories go along with these.
I hope you enjoy the results!

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
2 cups flour (I use white, but you can make these wheat as well)
1 Tblsp. sugar
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
3/4 cup milk

Combine the butter, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut the dry ing. into the butter with a butter knife. Add the milk and mix in until the dry ing. are just wet. Don't over mix.
Roll the dough out to 1/2" thickness on a floured surface. Dip a glass (open end) into flour and use this as your biscuit cutter. You should get a couple dozen biscuits from this recipe.
Place the cut-out biscuits onto a lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake at 450* for approx. 10-12 min. Watch them close, as you don't want to overbake them either. Remove them when they are lightly browned on the tops!

Are You at High Risk for the H1N1 Swine Flu Virus?

May be you have been wondering if you are one of those at high risk for having complications from the H1N1 Virus. I hadn’t thought about it much until I found out that I was at high risk because of my asthma. What are the other things that can put you at high risk?

Pregnant women – There have been several reported cases of women contracting this while pregnant and losing their babies and even their own lives.

People with medical conditions like asthma, COPD, and who are on or have recently been on a ventilator are at a particularly high risk. The complications from “Swine Flu” can involve respiratory problems and pneumonia.

Other medical conditions such as cardiovascular conditions, liver or kidney problems, diabetes, and weakened or suppressed immune systems can also put you at a higher risk than someone who is completely healthy.

Adults over 65 and children under 2 are thought to have a harder time getting over the flu if they get it.

A tip to remember if your child gets the H1N1 virus is to make sure they are not taking an aspirin based product while they have it. Since et is common to have a fever while fighting the flu children 19 and under would have a higher chance of developing Reye’s Syndrome.

If you are at high risk, there is no reason to worry, it just means you will want to take extra precautions to keep from getting it, which we covered in a previous post.

Tips to Keep from Getting the H1N1 Virus

In the previous post, we covered the topic of the swine flue in great detail, but there's no reason panic. Here are a few steps to keep yourself from getting the swine flu and stay healthy this winter.

Wash your hands as often as possible. Hand sanitizers such as “Germ-x” or “Purell” are also very effective.

Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth especially when you are out in public because germs can be transferred from your hands to these places.

Avoid being around sick people. Obviously this is not easy to do as you will have to be around sick coworkers. But just try to keep your distance as much as possible.
Do NOT touch surfaces such as doorknobs, railings, etc. The germs can survive anywhere from 2 hours to 8 hours!

After you come home from work or a public place, shower immediately and wash your clothes.

Make sure your eating very healthy! Take vitamin c to boost your immune system. Also, avoid food high in sugars as these can weaken your immune system.

Exercise to improve your overall well-being so that you are stronger to fight this flu off. However, be very cautious how and where you are working out. If you work out at the gym, be especially careful as the many surfaces there are ideal to spread the virus.

These are all great tips to help you stay healthy during this flu season. But even after the H1N1 virus has slowed down, you can still use these tips to keep healthy year round! :)

The Swine Flu - Should you worry???

With the flu season approaching, and apparently starting (as we have all been sick this week), there are some tough decisions placed on us as parents. Do we or do we not vaccinate against the swine flu this year?

I have struggled over this decision for some weeks now and have come to the conclusion that we will NOT vaccinate. In discussing it with my husband, we decided that the factors weigh heavy towards not vaccinating our children.

As with any big decision to become well-informed, I hit the internet. I know, I know...not always a good idea, but there are some great resources on the internet. I specifically like the WebMD site as well as some others. The Mayo Clinic is also a great resource. But the resource I find the most helpful are just other parents like myself. Sharing their thoughts and ideas on such things, on blogs, yahoo groups, etc.
There are so many people who are concerned about this vaccination.

I see that it seems the government is very much for and in favor of the vaccination, but in my research, I found that there are a lot of universities doing independent (government funded) studies with the exact viral strain from this spring and they are not leaning towards the vaccine. In their studies they are saying the complete opposite of what the government is telling us. Their findings are that the strain this fall/winter will not be as harsh as we are being told. That it will NOT "pack the punch" that it had last fall/winter, but will actually be milder. It is showing that it isn't a viral strain that is able to mutate or able to mutate with another flu strain to create a worse one. They also have said that the vaccine itself is more of a worry than the flu, because it has been hurried through so quickly that the studies normally performed on new vaccines have not happened. That's scary! I like what they have found, though. The fact that the flu will not be what we thought it would be and there is nothing to worry about.

According to the CDC, we will have the worst pandemic that we've seen in many years. With 30-90,000 people who will die in the U.S. alone. With 1.8 million people sick and hospitalized with the Swine Flu (H1N1).

Hmmmm....who to believe???? Well, I trust in the Lord, #1. So do not have a fear about this at all, even though I have a son who is "high risk" because of his early (premature by 15 wks.) start in life. He had a lung condition which would put him at high risk with the H1N1 flu. So, I am trusting the Lord in all this. And Secondly, I am having a hard time believing anything the government has to say lately. ((No...not going political here, although I just might sometime. ;) )) I honestly believe that the independent studies that are being conducted by the universities are our best bet and always have been. We've (the nation) always used their information as a basis for issues like this in the past, so why are we not listening now??

Just my opinion. And that is certainly all it is. It was hard to come to the conclusion I did. In one CNN article, I believe it was, the journalist was balking at people who chose not to immunize their children against H1N1 flu and he had the gall to say "Let's just see how she (the person interviewed) feels about the vaccine when her child is lying in the hospital fighting for their life". How cold is that???

I am going to be posting another snippet in the next day or two on how you can help minimize your chances of getting the Swine Flu. Some handy tips I came across that we can use against not only the Swine Flu (H1N1) but just the regular fall flu.
Thanks for listening ;)

Blessings,
~J.~
p.s. - Picture compliments of my goofy son, Adan. He is actually not sick, just looking a bit that way. lol