Monday Message

"Plan to build up your food supply just as you would a savings account... We urge you to do this prayerfully and do it now." - 
President Ezra Taft Benson

"I stand before the Church this day and raise the warning voice. It is a prophetic voice, for I shall say only what the apostles and the prophets have spoken concerning our day. ...It is a voice calling upon the Lord's people to prepare for the troubles and desolations which are about to be poured upon the world without measure.
For the moment, we live in a day of peace and prosperity but it shall not ever be thus.

Great trials lie ahead. All of the sorrows and perils of the past are but a foretaste of what is yet to be. And we must prepare ourselves temporally and spiritually." - Elder Bruce R. McConkie, General Conference April 1979.

The weather certainly has been hot so far, I do hope you are staying cool.

I have been doing some late spring cleaning this week, also the raspberries are ripening so I have been picking them.

I also had my 42nd anniversary married to my high school sweetheart and still sweathearts :) I have known my husband since seventh grade art class.

I got a used weaving book and inside was a message to someone else but applies to all of us. She wrote "read read read and we will learn." We can apply this to any skills you want to learn. If you want to learn to can food, read. I also say ask someone who does canning to learn.

There are many things that want our attention and sometimes we feel overwhelmed. Just know that is normal and that is when we want to step back and see what we are doing. How can we fix what got us to this point? Sometimes we cannot see a way out and sometimes we just have to plow on through, but sometimes we can plan differently. Consolidate what we are doing. Sometimes we have too many self-imposed deadlines. Sometimes we are too hard on our own selves.

While it has been hot I came up with a recipe for fudgsicles.

Fudgsicles

1 ½ c. of very cold milk, I use powdered milk mixed up
1 pkg of instant chocolate pudding mix, I use sugar free
One container of yogurt, I make my own but other works too
1 c. cool whip light

Mix well, put in molds and freeze. Yum!

http://frugalmeasures.blogspot.com/2013/03/yogurt.html - here is the yogurt recipe I use.

Making yogurt is a good skill to have.

Skills can take little or long times to learn. But as we collect skills we have resources to pull on now and in a time of need. When you are in a crisis is not the time to start learning or start your food storage, it is also not time to start to ease your kids into new foods. But if they are eating homemade food all along it will be something they are used to.

So keep building your binders with recipes from scratch.

http://frugalmeasures.blogspot.com/2015/03/monday-message.html - cooking from scratch is a huge deal. I have mentioned it over and over in this post. I encouraged you to start a binder how are coming with that?

Having your own binder of scratch recipes that your family likes is a very important thing in your box of resources.

http://www.foodstoragemoms.com/2016/06/25-things-you-need-for-the-next-disaster/ are you set for any disaster that you may have?

http://www.meetpenny.com/2013/01/cooking-from-scratch-with-homemade-mixes/ if you are gluten free she has a mix for you too.

So keep working on your skills... read read read and learn learn learn!I am working and reading on weaving at this time. We are all learning :)

Monday Message

Making rugs is just one use for old bed sheets!

1 Nephi 3:7
“…I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.”

http://acultivatednest.com/2014/12/managing-your-budget/ some ideas here to help

http://cheftessbakeresse.blogspot.com/2011/04/emergency-preparedness-and-everyday.html this is a good idea if this is the route you go

http://acultivatednest.com/2014/12/managing-your-budget/ good ideas, see if any work for you

http://thehumbledhomemaker.com/2015/01/grocery-budget-challenge.html we get ideas and learn from others

http://104homestead.com/unpaper-towels/ good idea

http://104homestead.com/new-uses-old-greeting-cards/ good uses

http://104homestead.com/16-uses-old-bed-sheets/ and of course making rugs - my mother in law crocheted an edging and made beautiful curtains, so let your juices flow!

http://frugalitygal.com/2014/10/7-old-fashioned-frugal-skills.html I would have you make sure you know how to make bread by hand just as an arrow in your quiver, but using a bread machine can help you with the kneading and first rising then you can shape, rise and bake in your own pan. Of course, you can bake it in the machine too.

http://acultivatednest.com/2009/09/10-ways-to-save-money/  great ideas

http://moneysavingmom.com/2014/05/35-things-instead-spending-money.html first I would invite for hot cocoa, scratch the coffee. Some time we get it in our heads we need... no, deserve to go out and spend but really what did great grandma do when she felt that way?

http://thebudgetmama.com/2014/12/lifestyle-making-broke.html do you ever look at something you have and calculated how many hours your husband had to work for it?

http://fabulesslyfrugal.com/fabulessly-frugal-friday-a-stay-at-home-day/#_a5y_p=3119308 build a fort, have fun :)

There are quite a few ideas to help you be more frugal. Keep working at storage!

Scarf on the loom

In these pictures I have the scarf warped and ready to come off of the warping board. After tying it off I chain it up.

In the picture below you can see the chain. Because I'm doing the same pattern I'm using the tie-on method. You can see my first scarf on there in a different color ready to come off.

You can see a close up of where it's tied on. It was a touch and go most of the time - eek! Being my first time tying on it was a little scary.

Tada! It's on and ready to start. The old scarf is now completely off.

I'm using window blinds as spacers.

Now you can see the beginning of the scarf. So far I'm really happy and can't wait to see it finished!

The beginnings of my 2nd scarf

I'm working on the beginnings of a second scarf warping on the warping board. It was the first time I did it by myself, my sister helped me with the first. And it's a little scary :p The red thread dangling in the top left corner is used to help count.

You can see the different colors being added to the warp.

In the picture above you can tell I'm tying it off getting ready to braid it. 

I inserted my lease sticks and braided it. Now it's ready to put on the loom and become a scarf. Look for an update in another post coming soon.

Loom catch-all

With the loom my sister brought me this week, she suggested we handcraft a catch-all that slides on the front of the loom and holds the shuttles while I'm weaving. We had to design it specially because the loom was made in the 1920s and new tools don't fit it. The only thing we had to purchase for the catch-all were two dowel rods, the rest of the materials we used from items we had on hand all the way down to the wood stain. 

I didn't want the catch-all to detract from the loom itself and I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. It slides on and off so it doesn't get in the way of warping.

Gifts from my sister

My sister, Terri, drove five hours from Minnesota to bring a loom she refurbished for me. What a good sister!

It took three of us to bring it inside the house. 

Above is a picture of the loom pre-warped. We set it next to the fireplace and got busy warping right away.

Here is a picture of it all warped up!

Terri (pictured above) taught me how everything worked and how to weave on this loom.

Here I am trying it out on my own and it was so much fun! Below is an up close picture of the scarf in progress.

So now from big to little these are how my looms measure up....

Above is Big Bertha. Her official name is Weaver's Delight, she's a rug loom and has a rug in progress.

This is Bertha who just arrived this weekend on my sister's trailer. Right now Bertha has a scarf in the works. She is an Over the Head Jack Loom with eight harnesses and was built from a 1920's kit. The bench was made from the original owner's cradle.

And lastly, Baby Bertha who also arrived this weekend with my sister. Baby Bertha is a four harness table loom and also has a scarf in progress.

Progress on the loom

The loom that I got about eight years ago is called a Weaver's Delight. I've been restoring it and learning how to warp it ever since. The entire thing has been a learning adventure. It would have been beneficial to have seen something like this done but there really isn't anything out there that shows how. The first three pictures are of me wrapping the warp around the sectional beam.

Because I didn't have a spool holder which is necessary to wrap the beam, I figured out how to make one out of a TV tray holder. I drilled holes in it for dowel rods to go through and it now holds 24 spools. You can see the makeshift spool holder in the picture below in the bottom left corner.

Now that the thread has been wrapped around the sectional beam the warping begins! I had to tape each section to a dowel rod, 24 strings per section.

The string has to go through the heddles and then through the reed. I tied a knot at the bottom of every 12 strings so it wouldn't get pulled back in somehow.

In the picture below you can see what it looks like behind the harnesses.

This is a picture of the work in front with all of the strings through the heddles and the reed.

Big Bertha is now warped and ready to go! It took a hard time getting here but I think she looks beautiful and I can't wait to start making rugs with her!