I found this article over on homemaking 911. I have found this site to be full of great information and resources. 

Just last night I had my extended fammily over for dinner. We did not set the table pretty and fancy, but the food was prepared special and my daughter made a dessert that was out of this world. Afterward, when everyone went home, Amelia and I joyfully cleaned the kitchen because the night had been so great. It just goes to show you, if you make the meal special, then the whole night will be.

 Set Your Table Contest

 I know you can set a pretty table, but do you do this for dinner regularly? If not, it would be a nice treat for your family to take the time to set the table in a beautiful, inviting way: serve all the food in pretty dishes, use the nice napkins, add some decorations. Use the good glasses. What if you do not have a set of “nice” dishes? Well, use what you have in a new and creative way. Beauty does not have to cost a fortune, but it can take time and effort.

I would love to see a picture of your beautifully set table. No digital camera? That’s okay. Set your table beautifully and send me a “word picture.” Describe it to the best of your ability.

I also know some of you have babies and toddlers, so it may seem silly to get out the nicest dishes when they are at risk for getting tossed or thrown. I understand! Perhaps you can set the table for a nice, special dessert just for you and your husband after the toddlers are in bed.

Theresa powers from Seasons at Home Magazine is donating a terrific prize for this one. The winner will receive a free copy of Seasons at Home Magazine from www.joyoushome.com, a $12.00 Value.

If you are sending me an entry with no digital pictures, you can add it in the comments below. Email pictures to me at: HomeMaking911@gmail.com

About the Author Malia Russell is the blessed wife to Duncan, thankful mother to four children, ages 3-17 and an author, conference speaker and director of www.homemaking911.com. Visit her site for inspiration, encouragement and practical help in your roles as a godly wife, mother, homemaker or home educator. ——————————————————————————–

This article may be reprinted freely in your publications or on your website, provided it is reprinted in its entirety and the biographical information is kept intact. Thank you!

We are 1 week away from launching our largest apron giveaway EVER!! Below are 4 great web sites/blogs that will be hosting our give away. Begining in September you can go to one or all of these sites to sign up to WIN one of four Regency aprons or one of four Amish Apron patterns that we will give away this month.

Amelia’s Aprons has never given away aprons before and we have never given away this many products at one time.

So check out these sites and start looking for sign up information beginning in September.

Vaughnshire.com (registration to begin Sept 1st.) Beth and her family have a great blog that covers a wide variety of topics ranging from farm life raising a large family, political corruption and almost everything  in between.

Seasidetales (drawing to be held on ??) Sally has many encouraging words for homemaking and other great topics.

PennyRaine.com (drawing to be held on ??) Penny and her family have a wide variety of information and products. You can find information about homesteading, modest clothing and horses.

Faith and Family books.com ( drawing to be held Sept 12th) Theresa’s daughter over at http://www.virtuousgirlhood.com/ is helping her mom to take enties. Both have very nice sites with lots of resorces for biblical living.

please note that all of these sites may not list the contest at the same time. So if you don’t see it listed check back again later in the month.

Here is an article that I posted last year when it first came out. Before I lost all my blog content in a datebase disaster. I first found this article in an Above Rubies Magazine. Where I took the time to ask Mrs. Campbell ( the owner) if it was ok to post it on my blog. Well, it seems that the article has traveled full circle. From being posted here to being e-mail to me last night by my Aunt. It has traveled around the great big WWW and back again, so I thought now was a good time to re-post it here. I hope you all enjoy it.

 oh yea, don’t forget about the apron give-away starting the first of Sept.

The History of ‘APRONS’

Aprons I don’t think our kids know what an apron is. The principal use of Grandma’s apron was to protect the dress underneath, but along with that, it served as a potholder for removing hot pans from the oven. It was wonderful for drying children’s tears, and on occasion was even used for cleaning out dirty ears . From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven. When company came, those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy kids. And when the weather was cold, grandma wrapped it around her arms. Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow, bent over the hot wood stove. Chips and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen in that apron. From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables. After the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls. In the fall, the apron was used to bring in apples that had fallen from the trees. When unexpected company drove up the road, it was surprising how much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of seconds. When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out onto the porch, waved her apron, and the men knew it was time to come in from the fields to dinner It will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace that “old-time apron” that served so many purposes.

Well we have locked in the 4 web sites that will be hosting the apron give away. I will post links later so that you can go check them out before hand. We have less than 2 weeks to go. It’s going to be great!!

Stay tuned for sign up information.

Hurry while supplies last. This fabric is just about gone and we won’t be able to get any more. Our Blue regency apron is going fast. Marked down for a 15% closeout special. Get yours today!!

Click on Image to go straight to the store information page. Don’t delay these won’t last long.

Amelia’s aprons will be hosting their first ever apron give away. Set to begin in September. We are hoping to find 2 other web sites to host our give away, so if you are interested in information about being a host site please contact us through the web site.

below are the items that will be up for grabs:

1st place

2nd place

Stay tuned to find out where to register to win these great prizes.

Have you heard the big news? TODAY ONLY you can get an incredible ebook package from MoneySavingMom.com–over $100 worth of money-saving ebooks, homemaking helps, and encouragement for only $5.97! I can’t believe she’s offering such a great price and I’d highly recommend you run over here Click Here! and check it out.

What makes this deal so good is that this ebook package includes the ecourse Supermarket Savings 101–this course alone is worth much more than $5.97 and will teach you how to drastically reduce your grocery bill. If high fuel and food costs are discouraging you and leaving you strapped for cash, you definitely need to buy this ecourse. You’ll learn how to cut your grocery bill by up to 50% or more and have fun saving money at the same time!

Go here Click Here!to read more about this huge sale! Hurry, though, the price goes up tomorrow–get this money-saving ebook package at a ridiculously low price while you can!

Now for the really fun stuff.

We have already discussed how I have tried to stay with in a country theme and use the resources available with the house instead of just ripping everything out and making it modern. In my opinion modern is not always better. Imagine this little house with brand new cabinets and marble counter tops with the latest appliances. It just would not fit. If I were to do that to my kitchen then I would have to do that to the entire house. And, the finished result would still, in my opinion, look out of place.

So I stayed with a country theme, took my modern style and created a perfectly delightful living space. As frugal homemakers we should always look for areas to save money for our household. To do this I opted to make my own curtains. By making my own curtains, I not only save money, but I can design and create exactly what I want. Because face it, there are only a few styles of curtains and items of this type available out there. We are confined to the styles which the manufacturers give us. Unless you can create your own. So this is what I did. I took a few days to look in MANY magazines at many curtain styles. I took note of what I liked and didn’t like and what fabrics that I liked and which fabrics that I thought would go well in this home environment. Then I spent the day browsing the fabric store looking for just the right fabrics. I knew that I wanted my kitchen/breakfast and laundry areas to all go together, but not all be exactly the same. So I picked a few corresponding fabrics and incorporated into the design small things that would connect them all together. Below is the finished product in which I am very pleased.

I used a red toile print with a deep red corduroy fabric for the dinning room and kitchen windows. I originally made these curtains with just the four center panels that you see here. But I felt like it was too stiff and straight which made the room feel more formal. So I added an extra panel to each end which brought fullness and softness that I like.

When making our own curtains we can decide just how many pleats and bows that we want or don’t want. The small kitchen window did not need all the folds and pleats so I created it simple with just the one in the middle.

For the laundry area including both the doors. I used a green and cream gingham. I used the same red corduroy fabric for the straps of these curtains to add continuity between them and the curtains in the kitchen area. If you notice we painted the wood paneling the same rich green and painted our blue wooden shelf in a two tone of white and green. This shelf is destined to be my herb shelf. Very soon I plan to have it adorned with bright red pots full of fabulous herbs that I am sure you will get to hear all about in another post.

And last but not least here is our side view of the kitchen once again. No curtains here. but you can see where I took just wooden place mates of matching colors to add a touch of texture to the walls. I have thought about attaching them permanently but like the idea that they can be used as a trivet if the need arises.

That is it. We hope that you have enjoyed walking through this process with us. We are currently working on the bathroom and hope to have this project finished soon. So stayed tuned, and let us know what you think.

Now for the fun stuff. In this post you will see what a difference just a little bit of paint makes. Painting is one way of totally changing a room. A gallon of paint doesn’t cost much and just about anybody can do it. I know many who are intimidated by the idea of painting their home, but it is a very frugal thing if you can do it yourself.

I am not the kind of person who uses drop clothes and painters tape, but it is very handy to have a wet soapy rag handy. It I happen to drip, and I do, then just a quick swipe while the paint is wet is all you need for clean up. I do recommend using a water base paint. Clean up is easier and spill clean up is too.

As you can see the original curtains are still up. But just adding this rich color brings out the green tones of the paneling. The color I chose here is a deep olive green. Very popular right now but still fits into a country house with out looking out of place.

This is a different view of my kitchen. It was not pictured earlier but is just to the left of the sink area. You may notice the vintage counter tops. I wanted to leave these in the house and work my style into their classic touch. Red (counters tops) is not a color that a generally use in decorating. Lucky for me I have a mother with a flare for decorating. She helped me greatly in finding my “modern” style and incorporating it into the “vintage” house that I have to work with.

These are the only “paint” only pictures that I got. So stay tuned for the next post to see the finished projects.

Well, I finally found my camera cable so I thought I would share a few pictures of our house before the remodeling began. The house we bought is a small country home build about 50 years ago by the older couple that lived here. Their family is still on property adjoining ours which I think is a great opportunity to learn about the history of our new area.

Here in the first two pictures you see our little dinning/breakfast area. Complete with the old time cafe curtains that had been hand stenciled. This picture was taken after the wall paper was stripped off, but if you check out the picture in the strawberry post you can see that it was your typical country print with border.

This is the sink area of our little kitchen. This door leads to a laundry room that was an addition to the houses original structure. So it is like having two exits to our home. I have incorporated this space more into our daily living and keep this door open most of the time.

This is the main view from the kitchen door leading into the laundry room, this door actually opens to the outside.

Second view of laundry. As you can tell we are still in the unpacking and finding a place for everything mode. But this is life and this house is lived in. So feel privileged that I did not clean it special to put on heirs that I live in a perfect world.

Ok well that is it for the kitchen/dinning area of our tour. Stay tuned for the next post that will begin to unfold the work that we are doing.