I didn't forget! Hobby Horse tutorial

I didn't forget!  It took me a bit with the Thanksgiving holiday and my Etsy store taking my attention.  I am happy to report I have this finished.  It won't take as long as it took for me to post this.  I would say you can finish this in a few hours as long as you have everything.  I had to buy a dowel which cost me about $2. So here ya go:

First you want to choose your fabric.  I used some scrap stretch denim I had on hand.  Denim, Canvas, twill, etc; any sturdy fabric will do well.   I put right sides together (that's the part that would be on the outside, the nice looking side).   I drew out what could be termed as a horses head free handed on my fabric with some chalk.  You can use anything to draw this.  No one will see that anyway.  Make it big enough where you will have a dece3nt sized head.  Mine was about 12 inches from crown of head to snout.  Once you draw it out, cut it out.  

Sew your pieces together just along the top of the snout from about the bridge of his nose to where his eyes would be.  Use a 5/8 inch seam allowance.

Lay your horses head flat with the right side looking up at you.  See below.  Press it flat.  Pin ribbon,  bias tape, or anything else you are planning on using for a bridle all the way across.  Sew in place close to the edge of each side of the "Bridle"

Now you will do the same for the cross pieces of the "Bridle" to finish it up.  Place these at about the half way point between top and bottom of the horses head.  Again, sew along close to the edge on both sides of the "Bridle"

See below and you can see what I mean by close to the edges of each side.

Turn up the hem on the neck about 3/4 inch on each piece.  I zig zag stitched the fabric before I turned it up to make sure it doesn't fray.

 Now pin every thing back together lining up the "Bridle" as much as you can.  See Below.  Se up the rest of the horses head using a 5/8 inch seam allowance.  Leave the neck open.

Trim your seam to about 1/4 of an inch all around the head.  I had the nose a little too pointed so I trimmed it to make it a little more square.  See below.

Pinch the seam together and clip a little "v" into the seam on all the areas that curve.  It will be a row of "v's".  Don't cross the stitching line.  That would be bad.  Makes a hole in your horse.

Turn right side out and press.  Lookie below!  It's taking shape!

I have a good sized bag of fabric scraps that I used to stuff this little guy.  You can use stuffing as well if you have it,  but the idea for me was to make this without having to buy anything if I can help it.  Kinda shape as you stuff to make it look less lumpy and more horsey.  Make sure you get the stuffing down into the nose area and any other tight fitting places.  You will stop stuffing when it is full to the opening of the head.  Leave the neck free of stuffing.

Now for the hair!  Ahem...mane.  I have a large yarn needle and can add hair by pulling it through the fabric and tying it off.  If you don't have the ability to do this, you can sew the hair onto the head with a needle and thread or glue it on.  Use fabric glue  if you do.  To do it the way I do, first you thread about a 9 inch piece of yarn onto your large needle.  Poke it into the horse head pushing the needle and yarn all the way through.  Leave yarn on either side of the "poke".  Take both ends of yarn and tie it into a knot.  Try to keep your "stitches" in rows moving from the center top of the head down on either side.  It doesn't have to be perfect.  It just needs to look like a head of yarn hair.

Once you have all your "Hair" in, he needs a hair cut.  Trim the yarn pieces evenish.

I happen to have googly eyes left from a former craft, but you can use two buttons or even sew in eyes with embroidery thread or felt.  You can also paint eyes on with fabric paint.  I sanded the back of the googly eyes and, using a hot glue gun, glued the eyes onto the horse.  I put glue on the horse and on the eye.  Then smooshed them together.

To finish up I took a 1 inch diameter dowel and pushed it as far into the horses head as possible.  Moving stuffing to one side as I pushed.  I put the top of his head down on a table and pushed the dowel in.  Then, using a hot glue gun, I ran a strip of hot glue on the inside neck and on the dowel.  I squeezed the fabric around the strip of glue.  Then on the outside, I took a staple gun that uses JT 21 staples and stapled the outside of the horses neck to the dowel, fitting the fabric around the dowel as I went.  I covered the staples by tying a strip of red bias tape tightly around the neck wrapping twice before I tied it off.  If you don't have staples, you could use small screws.  The hot glue is for holding the horses head while you fasten it with the more secure fasteners (staples or screws).  It won't last long other wise.

Here he is!  looks kinda "Bieberish" I guess".  Oh!  I forgot!  I used a button for his nose and a strip of yarn hot glues to his head for his mouth.  Also, You can opt to paint or stain the dowel.  I choose to spray it with clear acrylic.

No money for Christmas, Now What?

I have always love Christmas.  I put my tree up on Thanksgiving night after all the turkey eating festivities and to the wonderful tunes of traditional Christmas music.  Love, love, love Christmas.  Always have, always will I expect.  My parents always made it such an event and I have always tried to do the same.  Things were harder when the kids were little.  Money was tighter then, but we still wanted the kids to have a good Christmas.  Reminiscing about those times made me think about other young parents or other families going through a tight holiday or even an impossible holiday.  What do you do?  How do you celebrate this holiday without money?

First and foremost, just like the Who's down in Whoville, we know that Christmas is not about the gifts unless you count THE GIFT given.  It's easy to wax philosophical when you don't have kids.  Kids would argue with the Who's down in Whoville.  Christmas is about gifts,and Santa.  You have to be honest with them about what you guys are facing.  As honest as their age will allow.  I grew up with Santa coming down the chimney to bring us gifts.  I know there are some out there who don't do Santa.  If Santa doesn't make a yearly stop at your house, telling the kids money is tight will be easier.  We always knew there may be times when money would be tight and we never wanted Santa to "not come".  We did do Santa at our house.  However, because we never wanted Santa to be affected by a financial down turn, Santa brought 1 gift and the stocking.Everything else was ours. That way if they only got 1 gift it was from Santa and they would understand Mom and Dad were low on money.  Not telling kids can actually make them worry more.  Kids are very perceptive and they'll know something is up.  Letting them in on this can actually help them because it will enable them to "Help"make the Holiday special.

So once you have the whole "telling the kids" thing out of the way; my first step is easy and fun.

1)  Decorate for Christmas-  You don't need to buy anything new.  Use what you already have on hand, but make it festive.  Play Christmas music and pull out all the stops. If you can't afford lights, no problem.  Decorations are just as pretty without.  Plus, no fire hazard or cords to worry about.  String popcorn,  Make construction paper garland,  Bring in some evergreen from outside.  Go on a pine cone hunt for cones to place in a basket.  Don't have a Christmas Tree?  Make a Christmas table to place what gifts there are.  You can put your evergreen from outside here and put out a few ornaments.  You can use other ornaments around the house if there isn't a tree.You can hang out the stockings over the table in a triangle shape on the wall.  Place your festive containers of baked goods there as well; like a bowl of individually wrapped popcorn balls tied with a ribbon.  These are just some thoughts.  The idea is to create a festive atmosphere.  Pintrest has great ideas for Christmas crafts from things you may already have on hand.

2)  Found Money-  Okay, you've probably run the numbers and just thought, "there's just no way!".  There is, but you may need to think outside the box.  You may not be able to get what your normal budget is, but you might be able to get a little,  Think along these lines

a)  Do you or your spouse contribute to a 401k at work?  Maybe suspend the contributions for the next 2 months.  These are extremes I know, but we're thinking outside the box.  You'll be able to restart contributions after the Holidays.

b)  Would your family rather have internet and cable for the next two months or gifts on Christmas morning?  If the later, cancel for the next two months.  Many times your cable/ internet provider will be sending you deals to entice you back by the beginning of the year.  I understand it means no internet connection.  This is Black Belt frugality.

c)   There maybe family or friends that gift you with gift cards or money for Christmas.  If this happens, use the money for gifts under the tree.  The time for you to be able to spend on yourself (which is great) can come later.  Family doesn't need to know your situation if You aren't keen on sharing, but they can know that If  your family participates in a gift exchange, they will be homemade gifts.

d)  Do you have a skill or something you can make to sell that may raise a little money?  Can you watch kids for someone to run errands?  Help someone decorate their home for Christmas, bake Christmas cookies for someone too busy to do it their self?  Let people know your available.  Print you out some signs advertising you availability to help include rates too.  Just 8x10 printer paper, nothing extravagant.  You can hang it on community bulletin boards at post offices, grocery stores, schools (if they allow, ask first), your church, etc.

e)  If you haven't already changed your tax withholding now's the time.  It will be reflected on the next check that does come in.  Take those deductions!

f) Last on the list, and Dave Ramsey would have my hide, but some companies will let you skip a payment around the holiday only paying interest.  It is a last resort and not one I recommend lightly.  Really think this one through.  If you can avoid using this step, do so.

g)  If you haven't already, call around for better car insurance rates.  A lot of people will just keep the same insurance for years and years, never shopping around.  I was one of those people.  In one call I save $700 over a year!  Crazy!

What money you free up this way will be gold.  You want to use it very carefully.  What is the one "Wow" gift your kids would want?  What do you need to make this Christmas happen?  

3)  Christmas food with what's on hand-   So you probably can't stock up right now because of the financial hardship.  You can, however, work in a couple of extra basic items for Christmas.  The great thing is, if you already have flour, sugar, butter or margarine, you can make goodies for the holidays.  Add a bottle of corn syrup to your grocery shopping list and you can add making candies for stockings(see my recipe page for Butter Toffee Crunch).  Chips, cokes, cereal, boxed anything, and anything pre-made needs to go off your list.  Plan on making more casseroles or soups so you can free up the money you would use to buy a lot of meats.  Basics.  you are looking for basics. This will save you considerably on your grocery list and allow extra for purchasing things for holiday baking or allow you extra money to go toward a few small gifts or stocking stuffers.  You can make your own biscuits and cornbread for making stuffing.  Make your own cream soup for casseroles (see my recipe page for the cream soup mix recipe).

Every Christmas we have a Christmas breakfast as opposed to a Christmas dinner.  The menu usually consists of Cinnamon Rolls, Sausage balls, Sausage croissants, Gorilla Bread, coffee, Hot Chocolate, and OJ,  We end up munching on this pretty much all day. I make the cinnamon rolls, sausage (see my recipe page), sausage balls, Gorilla bread, and hot chocolate from scratch.   I use the dough from the cinnamon rolls to make the Gorilla bread as well.  The only extra thing I usually have to buy is the OJ, Crecent rolls, and cream cheese for the Gorilla bread.  All of which could be omitted in a tight situation.  Here are some other recipes for you to try that don't take a lot of effort or expense:

Dinner Rolls ( This is what I use for Cinnamon Rolls, Gorilla Bread, and Raisin Bread)

4- 4 1/2 cups flour
1 pkg of yeast (or 1 TBS)
1 cup milk
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter, shortening or margarine
1 ts salt
2 eggs

In a small saucepan, add your milk, butter, sugar, and salt.  Heat milk mixture just until the butter is just about melted.  While that heats up, put 2 cups flour and yeast in a large mixing bowl and mix together.   Once milk is hot (120 degrees) dump into the flour mixture and add the two eggs.  Mix all together for about 100 strokes.  Stir in as much remaining flour as you can with a spoon.  Dump out onto a floured counter.  Knead dough 10-12 minutes adding just enough flour to keep dough from being sticky as you work.  Once dough starts to tear, it's time to stop kneading (or if the timer goes off).  Place dough in a greased bowl, turning once to coat.  Cover, Let rise no more than 30 minutes.  Punch down, shape into desired rolls.  Place in the pan you will use.  Cover and let rise until double.
Bake 350 degrees for 15-20 min or until golden on top.  Or you can just put the whole thing in the bread machine; liquids first, sugar, salt, flour, yeast being last.  Put on dough setting and go read a book.  Then shape how you want weather it's dinner rolls, cinnamon rolls, or Gorilla bread

Don't have yeast?  Try this for cinnamon rolls

3 cups self rising flour
1/3cup sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 cup milk

In a mixing bowl place your flour and sugar (mix well)and cut in the butter until it make a crumbly mix.  Add milk and fold in until well mixed.  Turn out onto a floured surface and knead exactly 8 times (  that's basically just to shape it well into a ball).  Roll out thin(about 1/2 inch) and rectangular.  Spread with melted butter and sprinkle liberally with cinnamon and sugar.  Starting with the long side, roll up the dough and cut into "cinnamon rolls".  Place in a baking pan and bake 10-15 minutes at 350 degrees.  Once out, you can milk 1 cup powdered sugar with 2 Tbs milk and 1/2 tsp vanill extract and pour over the top.

Just had an interesting idea in trying this for Gorilla bread too.  Hmmm.  Yea, I am my own worst enemy when it comes to eating healthy.  Hey!  It's the holidays!


Hot Cocoa 

1/3- 1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup cocoa powder
4 cups milk or 1 1/3 cups dry milk powder plus water to make 4 cups
1/2 ts vanilla
dash salt

Mix your sugar, cocoa powder,and dash salt in a pan.  Stir in the milk and continue stirring frequently while it warms to hot.  A whisk works best for this, but if you don't have one, no big deal.  Once hot, remove from heat and add the vanilla.  Serve hot.  If you have marshmallows, great.  A small peppermint stick would be good too.


Easy Fudge


1/2 cup butter or margarine
1/3 cup water
1 box (16 oz) powdered sugar
1/2 cup dry milk powder
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
dash salt
1/2 cup chopped nuts (if you have them)

In a small sauce pan heat together butter/margarine and water just to boiling, stirring to melt the butter/margarine.  Sift together (whisk together) dry ingredients.  Add the melted butter mixture.  Stir til well blended.  Stir in nuts if you have them.  Turn into a buttered 8x8x2 inch pan.  Chill several hours.  Cut into squares.

You can make popcorn balls, peanut brittle, the fudge, toffee, etc for very little outlay of funds and these can go in stockings.  If you have peppermint sticks, you can crush one or two (to taste) and stir in the fudge or sprinkle on top for a festive stocking stuffer.


4)  Make gifts   - This can be a difficult one if you don't really have a crafty side.  I'm not gonna leave you hanging I swear!  My next post will be a how to on making a hobby horse.  I'm actually making one for my grandson for Christmas this year along with a Superman or Super hero cape.  Neither of these will require a pattern.  Do you have some scrap wood; ends of 2x4 or 2x2's?  Cut these into different sizes and shapes.  Sand them smooth and voila, Blocks to play with.

Brandy over at "The Prudent Homemaker" has a great series she does every November called "A gift a day" series.  She has  lots of easy to make ideas for all ages.   Here is a link to her blog (which I read).

http://www.theprudenthomemaker.com/blog

She also has a "Sewing tutorial" on her main website.

http://www.theprudenthomemaker.com/

This lady provided Christmas for 5 kids during a time when income was non existent in her household.  There are a lot of money saving ideas.  Worth a look.

Pintrest is another great resource.

Here comes another recipe for Playdough!!!!

2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup salt
4 tsp cream of tarter
2 cups water with food coloring adding in whatever color you want
2 T oil

Mix all ingredients together in a pan.  Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it forms a hard ball.  I'll try to include more over the next few weeks.


Don't have fabric?  I buy sheets (King size flat sheets in solid cottons or flannel) for fabric at thrift stores.  If you can't afford that you can always sacrifice a sheet or two (done that before too).  I mean how many sets does one person need!  (smile).  I will have another post soon containing some ways to save on sewing in general.

Don't have a Sewing machine?  It is harder to do if that is the case, but not impossible.  In a day of google we can pull up how to's on hand stitching and sew your items by hand.

There's no time to sew!  My sister and I, many years ago, put up a sheet to block off an area of her house normally open to the rest of the family.  We named it "Santa's Workshop" and all our creations were hidden from the crowd.  We sewed in the evening.  She sewed at night after I had gone to my home.  To this day my niece says the sound of a sewing machine lulls her to sleep.  It is comforting to her because she would go to sleep to the sound of my sister sewing for her family.  Aren't good memories great?!

Speaking of Thrift stores!  They, as well as Yard Sales can be resources for Christmas gifts.  Books can be found there cheap that are in great condition.  Other items can be found that may need a little TLC to be like new again.  Great thing is in this age of Google there are a slew of "How To" videos or articles to help you take a thrift store find and revamp it to be like new.  Little secret.  I have never bought a brand new video game or DVD.  Nope.  I always purchased them from either Amazon or a thrift store.  In fact when my kids were young, and we didn't have a lot of money for gaming systems, we bought a used system for all three kids together.  It wasn't the latest and greatest, but the kids loved it.  I found a Playmobile Castle with all the characters at a yard sale for $5 for the whole thing!

I realize this may not be the coolest Christmas, at least on paper, but it can still be a great Christmas.  I hope some of these ideas can help.  I will try to add to them over the next few weeks.  The idea is to be able to still celebrate even in the midst of financial hardship.

Now's the time to re-stock

There are many times of the year when you can get certain grocery items at a good price.  For example, Holidays such as Labor day, 4th of July, and Memorial Day can yield good prices on meats, condiments, chips, etc.  This time of year, however, is what I call the mother load of good prices.  That is for the things I normally use.  Thanksgiving and Christmas are great times to be on the lookout for staple items; flour, sugar, butter, oil, spices, chocolate, nuts (especially).  In addition turkeys and hams are cheaper.  Produce such as celery, onion,  white potatoes, and sweet potatoes are on sale.  Now is the time for me to stock up on things I normally use, but can't grow here.  So far this season, I've managed to get butter for $1.74 lb.  Sour Cream for .39 for 16 oz.  Del Monte canned peaches for .89 a can.  Del Monte diced tomatoes (love these) for .49 a can.  I know I grow tomatoes here, but my better boys didn't do so well this year.  My Roma tomatoes were for sauce, and I do have plenty of that.  Russet potatoes for .15 cents a lb.  Onions for .26 cents a lb, and last but not least, milk chocolate chips for 1.49 a bag.  I'm still waiting on some other things to hit the sale price before I stock up.

The great things is these things will store!

Store onions in a way where they don't touch each other and in a cool dry place.  They'll keep a good long while  If you're so inclined, you can go crazy and chop all of the onions to freeze or can.  I can be that crazy, and have been before, but not this time.  If you do want to pre chop them, I suggest you use a food processor.  Once  a batch is chopped, remove the lid and walk away to allow the gases the onions emit to dissipate.  This will cut down significantly on crying.  I usually package mine in 1 cup portions because that's what most recipes call for.

Store potatoes, both white and sweet, in a cool dry place.  Don't leave them in the bag even if the bag has holes for ventilation.  This allows more air to circulate around them and will also allow you to see and that might be bad when you dump out the bag.  Out of 30 lbs of potatoes bought yesterday, I found one that, while not bad, had a small spot on it that may get bad down the road.  I took it out and will use it first.

Celery can be chopped and frozen without having to do anything else to it.  I mean WASH it first, but then chop and freeze for use in soups and casseroles.

Butter can be frozen, but, without freezing, will last a good long while on a refrigerator shelf.

Sour cream as well as yogurt can be stored upside down in the fridge for a good long time, even past the sell by date.

Flour can be put in the freezer for a few days and then stored in an airtight container in a pantry.  You can also store flour with 1 bay leaf.

 Sugar can be stored with a piece of Terracotta to keep it from hardening.  I've never really had a problem with sugar hardening, and I store lots for a long time.

Buy an extra turkey (or two).  Go ahead and cook it, de-bone it, and store in freezer bags in the freezer.  You can use this anywhere chicken is called for in a recipe.  Slow cook the leftover turkey bones with some onion, carrots, celery, 1 tbs vinegar and salt to make broth you can store in the freezer or can for later use.  Buy an extra ham or two.  Cut it into chunks and store in freezer bags in the freezer.  Set the ham bone aside in its own freezer bag to use in your next batch of veggie or bean soup.

Can goods will definitely keep.  In addition to veggies this season, canned goods on sale will more than likely be; canned fruit, evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, sweet potatoes, cream soups, and canned pie filling.  Stock up!

Nuts will keep as well, but can be stored in the freezer if needed.

You don't have to be stocking up for an end of the world scenario.  You can, however, be stocking up to

a) Make the most of these great prices
b) Have a good supply in your pantry in the event of an illness or a layoff
c) Have a supply on hand to be able to bless someone you know in need

So there you have it!  Make the most of the deals!  Make your list.  Check it twice!  Just...a...save some for me!