Natural Homemade Living

I was recently having a conversation with my oldest granddaughter about butter. (I know...haha!!). She was telling me about the yummy butter served at one of her favorite restaurants. Since my husband and I rarely eat out except for a few locally owned establishments, I asked her to describe the butter for me and that's where I started for this recipe. I served it at Thanksgiving with our Simply Sweet Homemade Buns and she loved it! Actually, everyone loved it, even me because it was easy to make, it was sweet, and my time was becoming very limited! Directions : 1 cup butter, softened to room temperature 1/4 cup honey 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon 2/3 cup powdered sugar Mix all ingredients together and beat on low speed with mixer until everything is combined and smooth. Serve immediately on warm buns or refrigerate until needed. If you serve the buns warm, the butter will melt a little right into the buns. Yummy-licious!  Love and peace, ~ Simply Tammi

It seems like whenever our mom comes to visit me, we "shop til we drop" literally-then we start projects! I saw these cute little figures and trees on sale when we were out shopping, (after all the hustle and bustle was pretty much over, Black Friday afternoon).  The glass jar was a thrift store find for $1, then I added fake snowflakes from Target, for $2. I used poster tack to stick the trees and people to the bottom of the jar so later I can take them out and use my jar for other things. The whole project cost about $8.  This would also be a fun project to do with the kids.   We also canned Spiced Cranberry Sauce and made a "No Sew Valance" from a bed skirt we found on clearance..more on those in a future post!   We hope you enjoyed time with your friends and family, and also had some quiet moments to just relax...or maybe work on some fun projects! Let us know what you are working on, we love hearing new ideas! ~Simply Angie

I put the finishing touches on my kitchen organization project this week. I previously used a basket to store my bowl lids which worked well for me but I realized that when my family helps out in the kitchen, they needed something that they could see the lids rather than digging through a basket. So instead I used a dish draining rack to organize them. I tested my new system on Thanksgiving and it worked great! I started with the larger lids on the right and worked to the left with the smaller lids. It was much easier to choose the correct lid because we didn't have to take the basket out to look through all of them. A simple tip to help you get organized on a budget! Another tip to help organize your lids if you don't have a dish draining rack, is to use a file folder holder, Simply A Kitchen Use For File Folder Holder . They both work great! Organizing lids with dish draining rack  Love and peace, ~ Simply Tammi

This is probably the shortest post ever, but I had to share the idea. I mentioned in an earlier post that I was changing the color of my Christmas decorations this year. I typically use red and green but my living room is now shabby chic, so I have chosen pink and white colors this year. My Christmas tree is a white flocked tree so I have been searching for a shabby chic tree skirt. I encountered 2 issues in my quest, on-line shabby chic tree skirts are very expensive so this is not an option, and many local shopping trips have proven that I might be the only shabby chic lover in town! I finally decided my only option would be to make my own shabby chic tree skirt. As you probably know by now, my sister and I are always looking for ways to re-purpose items. So...I was looking around my house for something pink and white, and I found the perfect item! It was a bridesmaid dress from my own wedding! I have been using the material from the dress for other small DIY projects, such ...

We are celebrating Thanksgiving Day today! It's early in the morning, the sun is shining through the windows, and it is perfect, peaceful morning. In a mere 5 hours, the house will be filled with the aroma of turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet corn, squash, sweet potatoes, fresh fruit salad, freshly baked sweet buns, and warm peach cobbler! The sounds of laughter will fill our home, children talking (all 7 of them at the same time), and the clanging of pots and pans will ring in the background as we place the food on the table. Then it happens, we are finally sitting at the table, ready to eat. But first, we give thanks. After the Thanksgiving blessing, we all share what we are most thankful for. The most touching and humorous responses are from the children - I can hardly wait! I am most grateful this year for the everyday blessings. I am grateful for each morning, for my family and friends, my health, my faith, my freedom, and the tradition of holidays. As we begin the holida...

I recently started using my grandma's old sewing cabinet in my craft room and paired it with my husband's grandma's sewing chair. It made a perfect duo and the chair is exactly the right height. I was not too fond of the material on the chair since it goes with nothing in our home. I had one piece of my shabby chic material that I used for the DIY Shabby Chic Ottoman Project and a few other little projects, so I decided to use that. Then the chair can serve as an extra dining room chair when we are all together for special occasions. I tipped the chair upside down and removed the 4 screws underneath and the seat fell off, just what I wanted! So I measured my material, leaving a couple of inches all the way around the outside. I cut the material and using my rather new staple gun, stapled 2 sides, then stapled the other 2 sides folding the ends like the ends on a present. One side underneath and then fold the remaining corner over the top, staple and done! ...

It was craft time at Nana's last weekend. My 9 year old granddaughter spent some time with me and she made a cupcake decoration. We had a house full of family, helping me with my Christmas tree, stringing lights around the deck, and making some new holiday decorations. Usually I decorate using red and green but this year I really wanted to change to a more shabby chic, vintage Christmas. You know what that means, lots of pink! How to make cupcake decoration : Styrofoam balls (use any size) I used the hard foam Mod podge Acrylic paint Epsom salts Glitter Cupcake wrapper Decoration for the cupcake top Start with the size ball that will fit in your cupcake wrapper. Paint the ball with your favorite color. Let it dry, it only takes 15 minutes. Brush a coat of mod podge over the ball but don't brush over the top. Sprinkle glitter over the mod podge, we used pink glitter. When this is dry, paint mod podge over the top and dip the top into Epso...