Family – Page 5 – Love My DIY Home

Survival in a Crisis: DIY Pantry Preparedness – Puttin’ Up for the Winter

Today I have a treat for you. I have a guest writer, Heather, from The Welcoming House Blog here today to tell you about how she has prepared her pantry. She is prepared for a food crisis, are you? I'm not, but I plan to be, very soon. Good morning to you! As a blogger who covers Food Storage every single week on Food Storage Saturdays, I can tell you that over and over I hear the same three questions or comments in regards to food storage. When Val asked me to guest post for her, I was thrilled simply because this is a subject I love to write on. I love to show people how common sense it is to start and use a food storage system, and how to do it easily and frugally. Food storage, as it is now called, used to be called "saving for a … Read more

Survival in a Crisis: DIY Pantry Preparedness – Pantry Design

Let’s talk kitchen pantry. My laptop is in the shop, so please bear with me as I suffer through this next couple of weeks without my MAC. Oh boy, it sure is a pain to use someone else’s computer, especially if it throws you back into Windows. I do appreciate my husband lending me his laptop, but oh my, it’s hard to use someone else’s computer, so hard to use a different keyboard, a different operating system and to be without my programs! No InDesign. No Photoshop! OK, I’ll stop complaining and get down to business. Just don’t judge me for my crummy photos – no Photoshop, remember? These days I’m talking about being prepared for a crisis and am focusing on having a good food supply. I have a blogger friend writing a guest post on how to prepare your pantry – how to stock it to be prepared for a food shortage. Until I have that post up and … Read more

Survival in a Crisis: DIY Pantry Preparedness – Using Food Dehydrators

This year I’m focusing on DIY Preparedness for my home and family. How do you think you would do if your family experienced a disaster? Image courtesy of cooldesign / FreeDigitalPhotos.net Earlier this week I addressed the need for an emergency fund as described by Dave Ramsey. Have you considered what you would do if suddenly there was a food shortage in your hometown, state or even across the country? There is a video online that walks you through the need for preparedness – click here to watch it. I will warn you, it’s one of those annoying videos that you have to read, can’t fast forward or pause. My son-in-law and I bought the booklet they recommended at the end, and I’m glad we did. It opened my eyes and gave us some good ideas. Right now they are selling it for $37. I’m currently working through Uncensored Survival. … Read more

Be prepared for a crisis by planning ahead

Crisis on the Home Front … Are you Prepared?

I write with a heart full of gratitude that God saw fit to save the lives of my two kids while they were driving home to Virginia today. They say the best posts are written with strong emotion. This is that post. I have been planning to do a series of posts on preparing your home and family for emergencies, or crisis situations. Today that resolve was driven home when I received a text this morning from my daughter, Jillian, that she and her husband had just totaled their car on an icy highway in Ohio. This kind of a call is every mom’s nightmare. So I start out my series telling you about their accident. I got a text from Jillian and Taylor at 8:30 this morning telling me they had to be dug out of their sister’s driveway before leaving this morning, then a couple of hours later … Read more

Canning Tomatoes for the First Time – DIY Fun!

Canning Tomatoes for the First Time ~ with Mom ~ I honestly didn’t want to garden. I told my family I would watch with a lemonade in my hand while sitting in a lawn chair as they worked the garden. But I actually enjoyed the planting and working with the flowers and vegis. It was a bit disappointing when the surprise frost took the lives of half of our tomatoes, but you know what they say, as long as you learn from your mistakes… Now my kitchen table is full of tomatoes in various stages, waiting for them to ripen so we can can them. So I will be canning only a few at at time over the next couple of weeks. I’ll keep you posted. Of course I will have to show you a picture of all my filled mason jars when I’m done. We had a dozen or … Read more

Printable Labels for Your Foodie Fall Gifts from Lia Griffith

I came across these beautiful foodie labels this morning and just had to share. Lia Griffith from Handcraft Your Life designed them and is giving them away FREE! Hop on over there and take a look. She has other interesting items you might like as well. I can see these on all sorts of projects for Christmas…combined with either spray adhesive on the back to fix it to the gift jar or basket or Mod Podged! Oh how I love Mod Podge! Or, you could print them right onto a sticker sheet and then cut them to the size you need. Here are some close-ups of her beautiful gift jars and baskets. They inspire me! So cute! Have you ever given food gifts for Christmas? I just canned some grape jam today and it turned out great. I’m thinkin’ that might just be the ticket! Or maybe homemade candy … Read more

DIY Family Cookbook

A DIY Family Cookbook “Mom, what was that recipe for that stuff Grandpa Woodward brought home from the shop?” “Doesn’t Aunt Penny make that Broccoli Cauliflower salad? Do you know how to make it, Mom?” “My chili doesn’t taste like yours, what type of beans do you use?” I had three teen boys our last two years of homeschooling and the last year we spent a lot of time in the kitchen. We put together a family cookbook and updated it several times. Here are a few shots of our 2010 cookbook. We have gifted it to our kids for Christmas many times over the years as each of them moved out into their own homes. Here is the cover and a few shots of some of the pages. I ordered this book from Picaboo. They had a deal at the time – buy one and get two free. If … Read more

DIY Foaming Soap

A couple of years ago I bought foaming dish soap with a coupon. I'll try new things if I can get it for a bargain. I decided to try to make my own once it ran out. After all, it couldn't be too hard, could it? There was no way I was putting out $6.00+ for that little bit of soap. Here's my recipe. Hold onto your seats! It's really complicated…N.O.T. I filled it with water to the top of the Dawn sticker – I did think about measuring it so I could give accurate measurements, but after all, it's not rocket science. I added some regular dish soap, and voila! It foamed when I pumped it. I felt so smart! Check this out. Do you think I should be a hand model? I should probably stick with being on this side of the camera. Back to soap… I've been … Read more

DIY garden shed handle {Love My DIY Home}

Unique DIY Garden Shed Handle

My friend, Linda, sent this picture to me. She said, “Here you go. This is my garden shed my husband and friend built for me. The original handle fell off and I got another friend to put this up instead. I stained the handle so it looked aged.” It’s amazing the things people come up with! We have an unattractive shed on our property, well, actually two of them that I’d like to spruce up like this. My poor DH. I’m always thinking up new things to do around the house. But the thing is, he’s always saying, “Happy wife, happy life.” Anyone else out there have a cute shed to show? I’m definitely in the market for ideas. Click here for a slide show by HGTV (love that channel) of some really inspiring garden sheds. Please leave a comment below if you have any ideas to share.

Grow Your Own Vegis From Table Scraps {Love My DIY home}

Sixteen Foods You Can Grow from Kitchen Scraps

Guest Post by Andy Whiteley, Co-Founder of Wake Up World Looking for a healthy way to get more from your garden? Like to know your food is free of the pesticides and other nasties that are often sprayed on commercial crops? Re-growing food from your kitchen scraps is a good way to do it! There’s nothing like eating your own home- grown vegies, and there are heaps of different foods that will re- grow from the scrap pieces that you’d normally throw out or put into your compost bin. It’s fun. And very simple … if you know how to do it. Just remember … the quality of the “parent” vegetable scrap will help to determine the quality of the re-growth. So, wherever possible, I recommend buying local organic produce, so you know your re-grown plants are fresh, healthy and free of chemical and genetic meddling. Leeks, Scallions, Spring Onions … Read more