Hopscotch Quilting and Missing Lane

My lastest Etsy creation on Katy Trail Creations

Special thanks to the girls, Morgan (who loves my cookin!) and my youngest daughter Kirsten.

 Yes there's a great meal in the works for their help :)

 

Speaking of Meals,

Pardon my absence from the Tasty Thursday posts. We had a tragic loss in our lives and I just didn't feel like cooking from the stash of recipes.

In short, just because the hurt is still deep, we had an 11 year old tragically killed in a tractor accident. He had been one of our daycare 'kids' and his younger brother just left for Kindergarten last month. The family was like our own.

Please say some prayers for them. There is nothing more needed when there's a loss of a child.

This was our Lane one Fall weekend back in 2011 in Florence, Missouri. He came to greet us while we were having Rachel's Senior pics taken. He had just been out with his dad deer hunting. His home is just down the road in this picture and I know his home now is in Heaven and our forever in our hearts.

 

 

 

 

 

Plight of the Poor

The title of this post might lead you to thinking it's another political spin being it's Inauguration Day and Martin Luther King Jr Day. But .......Not.

Recently the licensing rules for my daycare changed. They now dictate that the playpens you see here

must be replaced.

I searched the world over for a grand idea to keep from throwing these out to the curb.

Since they are on a recall list, they cannot be sold or given away.

It's a Federal Offense.

I really don't want jail time.

I hear plenty of stories from my retired deputy hubby.

And most important is child safety.

So being we are the one-income family that is more and more commonplace in this economy,

I am striving to repurpose, recycle, reuse, whatever you wanna call it.

On Pinterest, these folks decided to use their playpen for a ball pit.

Ballpit /repurposed playpen

Very cool, but try and imagine 10 children in my small ranchstyle home with access to all those balls.

Enough said.

Another person made an adorable hideaway, cozy reading/relaxing area for children.

(photo on my Pinterest Childs Play board)

But if the playpens are recalled for collapsing on babies, I doubt license reps would approve them lying around in one on its side.

So on to the next idea.

This was garden 2010, One our best years for the garden.

I'm thinking the playpen turned upsidedown and lined with plastic would make a great cold frame.

You won't see this idea in use for a month or so as it's currently

18 degrees Fahrenheit here in Central Missouri.

But I can't wait to get an early beginning on plants to have an economical jumpstart to my garden.

By the way, if you have an idea for repurposing playpens, please share!

I know a few childcare providers who would listen.........

Story of Two Skirts

Late on my blog posts as my mother suffered a stroke Wednesday evening. In case you didn't know, yes the world does stop when it comes to your mother. Her well being is priority #1 for us right now.

So before this incident, I intended to post the 2 skirts we preparred for Easter services at church. Time was an issue so we had to keep it real simple. Kirsten owns skirts, but it seems they are all Fall/Winter colors. So we headed to look at patterns and use fabric I had on hand. Here's her fabric/pattern choice ...

Next we had a skirt upcycle to take care of. Before, the skirt was going to go to a yard sale stash. She reconsidered when I told her we could shorten it to make it more 'in style'. So we did.

Approximately 10 inches were taken off both lining and outer skirt.

The finished result.

(Someday I will attempt a tutorial.)

This pic is under the blooming dogwood trees. I think everyone was pretty pleased with the

Two Skirts.