Merry Christmas!

I tried to keep the Christmas "letter" short and sweet this year.

If you get an actual one in the mail,

it will be late and a miracle.

I hardly have anyone's physical addresses on file anymore.

Still, I do wish all our family and friends a

very Merry Christmas

and a Blessed New year!

Love, Rayna

BEHIND!

Wow I'm so behind on my blog.  I have actually created many items and some from my Pinterest boards, but I have been subbing a lot and I had this great idea to do a craft fair this year.  Yah maybe not so great.  I just knew I was going to have all this time to make stuff and I didn't have a lot of time.  But I had a little time and this past week that I planned to not sub and do the finishing touches, well I ended up sick in bed for 2 days and then my kids had doctor and dentist appointments.
Whoops, now I am rushing.
Also, I use these great essential oils and they can really help you when you get sick and even to not get sick in the first place.  However, if your kids get sick and you use all your oils to get them better quick (they were under the weather for maybe 2 days), then you have no oils to use when the next week you get what they had.  :P  I have been sick for a week!  I will never run out again.
So I hope you all get to go to the Christmas at the Old Courthouse craft fair tomorrow and Sunday, in downtown Evansville, Indiana.   I have gone before and it's great.  I have never sold before, I hope that turns out great as well!
Hope your holiday season is starting out right and hope to see you here again for more creative posts!

Hmmm Pinterest BucketList CheckOff

I love sweet potatoes, I love sweet potato chips.

So I found a pin and it looked good.  Just slice them real thin, spray with olive oil, spice it up, and bake.

I didn't re-consult the pin.

Don't ever try to do a sewing project and a new recipe at the same time....

She said right there, "You do want to watch the potatoes very carefully in the last minutes of baking to make sure they don’t burn. If some of the chips are browning faster than others, just remove them from the baking sheet and return the rest to the oven to finish baking. I accidentally burned a few myself, but they still tasted pretty darn good!"

I'm pretty sure mine were NOT "still .. pretty darn good!"  See that one missing?  That was the only edible one.  It was okay, but was probably suffering from smoke damage.

 This pan fared even worse.     :S

And this is the lovely bowl of sweet potato chips from the pin.  Wish I had some of those.

Well they won't all work out.   :)   Never know until you try!

Enjoy!

"Chevron" Purse- Pinterest BucketList Checkoff!

Well I've done another Pinterest pin.  Took about an hour.  That's less than I thought.

Here is the original.  The Chevron Clutch from SeeKateSew.  http://seekatesew.blogspot.com/2011/10/chevron-clutch-tutorial-pattern.html

Very cute, but I don't have any fabric like this.  Anyway really I wanted to use up some of the fabric that I have.  I ended up choosing to up-cycle an old curtain.  Yah that sounds weird, but it's a cool vintage fabric with a ruffle and I thought that would make a cute edge.  So below is the curtain.

Next I cut it out according to Kate's dimensions and since I have a fusible fabric that I am going to use as the liner, I pressed and top stitched the edge.   You can see the white fusible fabric laying under neath.

Next, I had black velcro and didn't think that would look too snazy, so I used a big snap.  Have to sew it on at this point so you don't have to see that on the inside.

Then I pressed the two pieces of fabric together.

I sewed a decorative button on the front, then the snap behind it.  At this point I also stitched the sides.

THAT WAS IT!  I'M DONE!  It's certainly "girly" as my husband would say.  :)  

I don't think I'll go for ruffles again, but I did it and now I know.  For up-cycling an old curtain.  It's not bad!

Enjoy your day and create something new.  Even if it's from something old, in fact, that's even better!

Rock Owl Friends- Pinterest BucketList Checkoff!

Well I tried a couple of these cute owls for my kids.  They love rocks and owls.  Honestly these are only the size of my thumbnail. They were so hard to hang onto to draw on.  The one looks a little squirrely, but  that goes with the kid's personality and he thought it was awesome, so what do I know?!

You can find some to buy on Etsy here: http://www.etsy.com/listing/106745812/hand-painted-rock-owl
and they are better than mine.  I think I will try a much bigger version next time, like the ones listed for sale.  :)  At least I should be able to hang onto that so I can have a steadier hand!

Enjoy Life!

Homemade Pizza Night

Really homemade pizzas couldn't be easier.  One day I found Fleischmann's had a pizza crust yeast.  It does not require a time for rising the dough.  Yay!  And not too much kneading.  Yay again!    The recipe is on the back of the yeast packet.  Or go to http://www.pizzacrustyeast.com for the recipe and tips.

So my kids had friends over and I thought this would be easy.  From experience, I know to cut up all my toppings first and have them ready in bowls.  That really is the most time consuming part.  Then I mixed up a double batch of crust and then cut a 1/3 off of the dough (that was for me and hubby's pizza later.)  I then cut the remaining 2/3 into 4 pieces.   I rolled them out and put sauce on them and then let the kids top their own.

I made these rather big, we like thin crust.  However, I could have made the pizzas smaller with thicker crust.  The kids only ate about half of their pizzas.  They had a lot of fun picking their own toppings and I didn't have to worry that I had the right choice of pizza like when you order out (oh plus it's a lot cheaper!)

I could also mention here that my daughter has a milk allergy and this is a perfect way for me to make sure I know what is in her food.  I cook from scratch a lot because of this.  I have found it has been a huge blessing in our lives, because it makes me be so much more aware of what we are eating.  I try to make things that are affordable (think, from scratch), but healthy and tasty!

 The hubby even enjoyed picking the toppings for our pizza.   :)

About 12 minutes in the oven and they are done!

My tip:  Some times for the thin crust pizza, I like to bake the crust for about 3 to 4 minutes, let them cool a few minutes and then add my sauce and toppings.  They are crispier that way.

Enjoy!

Homemade Cafe Vienna- A Pinterest Bucket list Checkoff!

My first post on trying something from one of my "PINS" on Pinterest!

My husband likes International Coffees Cafe Vienna.  He doesn't make it according to the package, he just likes to add a couple of teaspoons to his regular coffee instead of sugar.

So I bought him that little bitty box and at 3 dollars, it was gone in about a week and a half.  Uggg! for a housewife on a budget that's not going to fly.  So I started searching the internet.  I've made lots of coffee and cocoa mixes for Christmas gifts to fill fun hand painted mugs, so I was sure I would find a copy cat recipe for this.

And I did.  Go here for the recipe.... http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/cafevienna.htm or it is also pinned under my Favorite Recipe board.

I was really surprised to see that vanilla pudding was an optional ingredient.  But as I was buying my ingredients, I thought, "What the heck, it'll be creamy," so I bought it too.   It's not in the picture though...

I doubled the recipe and I did put it in the blender to make a fine powder.  I think it just blends better that way.  This is what I ended up with.

Even though it's not really my thing, I had tasted the original, so I made a cup of this to try.  It was pretty tasty, but both the hubby and I decided that more cinnamon was needed.  I will say that I at least doubled the cinnamon and I have Vietnamese cinnamon which is stronger than regular cinnamon.  I think cinnamon oil may work too.

Like I said, I doubled the recipe and got about 2 2/3 cups of powder.  In the end the cost was about the same as that little box, but I got a lot more.  I still have enough ingredients to make at least one more batch, but I will have to buy another box of pudding.

Enjoy!  

New Things from Pinterest

Well I sure haven't been blogging.  :p

I have been creating though. I had meant to post those things here.  Opps.

Anyway, I am going to try to post some things about my attempts to recreate some of the great ideas that I have found on Pinterest.

P.S. If you can help me figure out how to work the tabs on this better, I'd appreciate it.  :)

Spring Cleaning Aprons

I posted on making these aprons, but to add a twist and "make it my own," I have added a detachable cleaning cloth to each one that attaches with a button.  I have put a button on each side.  I didn't want to assume that everyone is right handed or which side they may like to carry their cloth on.
Also I think it's nice to have an extra place for the cloth that isn't in one of the pockets.  That leaves them ready for anything else that you may need to put in there!
You can find these available for $24 at "Resale Therapy" here in Mt. Carmel over by CVS.
They vary in size.  I find that the mediums ones are good for most, but I have made a large here and there.  If you need a child sized one, please let me know.  Thanks!

Cleaning cloth only shown attached to top apron so that you can see the pattern on the others.  All cleaning cloths are white.  These aprons are 100% cotton and sewn by me (so Made in the USA!).  The cleaning cloths are not sewn by me, but are 100% cotton as well.  The aprons are machine washable, cold or warm, tumble dry, iron if needed.  I do not suggest putting fabric softener in the cleaning cloths as it creates a barrier that makes them not as absorbent and can leave a film on some surfaces.

Enjoy your cleaning!

This blogger has a great post about learning new things about your sewing machine.  I can identify!

http://www.ikatbag.com/2012/02/how-well-do-you-know-your-sewing.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ikatbag+%28Ikat+Bag%29

Simplicity

"The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak."
-Hans Hofmann

Check out the new tabs and posts!

I will be adding new tabs and posts under those tabs to build the information that I would like to share on my blog.  If you are coming to the home page be sure to check the tabs once in a while for newly posted information.  Thanks!

RaynPrettyDesigns

My name is Rayna Prettyman.  I love to create things. It goes beyond crafting or sewing, onward to remodeling our home, building things, painting, cooking and gardening.   I like to try a lot of things.

I am a natural girl. I like natural medicines, healthy food and natural, simple ways of living. Sometimes this feels really hard in today's world, but I am finding, through the help of life and some other great women and their blogs, that it really is a doable thing.

I thrive here.  I enjoy it here.  I sometimes call it Raynaland.

I hope to make your reading enjoyable as well.....