Nana Kate's Kreations

Happy Mother's Day

2013-05-12T13:26:00.001-06:00

My children have been asking me "Mom, what do you want for Mother's Day?" Hmmm nothing, I have everything I could want. Knowing kids they always tell me I am lame. But in all reality I really do not need anything material for any holiday. Too often as we celebrate a holiday, material things are purchased. We have been trying to teach our children that you do not necessarily have to purchase something to show your love or appreciation for another. We are asked often by our children what can we get you for..........
My answer now is memories. So today we are going to have a family dinner with those that can attend, a kind word is shared, hugs, and retelling stories. Memories not only for me but for those around us today.

As I get older, I too have asked my mothers over the years what do you need. But I already know the answer, nothing I already have very thing I need. A lesson that they too tried to teach me.

HAPPY MOTHER's DAY

Create some wonderful new memories today or relive older ones.

Awesome cleaning product.

2013-01-18T21:30:00.002-07:00

When you husband comes home from work and walks into the kitchen and say "Wow the stove looks brand new." You know you have found a cleaning keeper.

I have seen the pin several times on Pinterest about this product and was trying to find something to clean our gas stove without the chemicals. I found it in our local Walmat and brought it home. I actually tucked in under the kitchen sink cupboard and said I will try this later.

Well later became today. I was waiting for some stain to dry and decided to do something so I wouldn't keep checking or touching the drying stain. I had been putting off trying to get the grime off the stove top burners. I had tried the Mister Clean erasers and other products and I had this last product that came with the stove which has this bright red warning on it. Hmmm those just scare me.

Out comes Bar Keepers friend, read the directions, not much to them similar to Comet. Sprinkled it on the green scrubber and added a bit of water. I started with the burner least used and I couldn't believe it, it came totally clean. I them worked on the rest and I now regret not taking before pictures, but with a husband noticing that the stop top was like new was enough for me.
I have a self-cleaning oven and have never used the setting, besides my oven isn't all that dirty. The glass and the inside door were though. I sprinkled a little on it and in less than 2 minutes the whole things was clean. As I was cleaning the glass I was talking to a daughter and I kept saying, You really do need to try this, she asked what and then I told her I was using that pin Bar Keepers Friend. I told her it cut through the grease on the stove and I even tried it on the walls around the stove. Grease came off, paint stayed on. She was out and was going to stop by her local Walmart to get some too.
I wanted to see if it would work as well without using the green scrubber and so I took the knobs off the stove and with just a kitchen cloth and a little Bar Keepers Friend it took all the grease off with very little scrubbing.
I will be using it on different things over the next little while to see what else it will clean. The best part is that this product is by far cheaper than the chemical sprays. It is a KEEPER in this household.

I am going to be adding a board on my pinterest site, Products that I have tried and the results.

Have you found something that you have tried and it turns out to meet or exceed your expectations?

Do Share.

New Year's Resolutions

2013-01-01T20:19:00.000-07:00

So what really is a resolution. Every year you make a list of things you would like to change, start, save for, pay off, etc, etc. Most if not all of my resolutions last at least a month, I have had some go as long as two months but not much longer.

Well this year I am aiming for something a little different that I hope can help me stay on track of more realistic resolutions.

My standard ones are still going to be there but I am not going to put a time frame, a weight limit, a save amount, or anything else that will help me fail.

Each day I am going to get up and start the day with a positive attitude. There will be no list of things to do just an idea of what I can do. I am not going to stress when something does not get done knowing I have done my best to do something.

For Christmas I was given a wonderful new camera and I plan on learning and playing with it. I have a handful of children and an even bigger handful of grandchildren and I am going to have fun taking pictures and creating memories along the way.

Yah, I have some wonderful projects that I have planned to get done this year and I am not going to stress out if they do not all get done.

I plan on spending lots of time with our grandkids and spend more time creating memories with them. So you are going to see ideas and activity that you can do with children or grandkids and most are not going to cost alot. We are trying to teach not only are grandkids but our children also that you don't need to spend a ton to have fun as a family.

I am excited to start this year with a positive frame of mind. I am well aware that not all of my days are going to stay positive but I plan on having as many as possible.

I hope that as you make your New Year's Resolutions that you have some fun planned also.

Using other things to make some nice Christmas pictures

2012-11-21T14:03:00.001-07:00

How many people recognize where this country chapel is?

My daughter had some old black frames and she said to just throw them out. Not on your life.
My mind almost knew right away what I wanted to do with them. I was at Wal-Mart looking at Christmas wrapping and was looking for some ideas to decorate using them. I spied some snowflakes, glitter, ribbon you know the drill. But what caught my eye was some Christmas gift bags. So thinking about the size of frames I had, I picked up four different sizes along with the glitter snowflakes.

Here is what I did with a few simply items and the whole lot cost less than $10.

I first sprayed the frames an Antique White each getting two coats.

I took just the front of the gift bags as they had glitter highlights in them. Using the frame as a temple plate I drew the lines and then squared them up on my cutting mat. I now had two large pictures and one smaller one. I am using the wine bag as an accent for the smaller one. I kept all the ribbons, bows and tags that came with the bags and will reuse them somewhere else.

I then used the glitter snowflakes to accent the two winter scenes. Cleaning both sides of the glass I placed the new pictures behind them and sealed them with new backs.

Even my husband thought they looked great. Now the daughter that gave me the frames said she would like them back. Nope they are going to hang somewhere in my house for the holiday season.

To decorate does not always have to cost alot, just look around your home and see what you
can repurpose.

Oh, and do share any ideas that you have.

Fall colors

2012-10-25T20:59:00.003-06:00

A few weekends ago we drove through the Alpine Loop, located in the Provo Canyon. We started on the Sundance side and made our way through this crazy beautiful road. On the Sundance side the road is very narrow and can be scary at times. We noticed that most of the leaves had past their prime and we were a little disappointed. However as we started to make our way down the other side, well it was a totally different scene. As we did not buy a pass to stop I took many pictures as we drove slowly through. Not bad if I must say so, our son told me how to work the camera while you drive in a car and not get blurry pictures.

Th other morning as I looked out the front door and the mountains to the north of us had the perfect light to show off it's beautiful fall colors.

While I was out there I shot a picture of our front porch. One of my daughters took

the front door wreath so it is bare for now.

I really do love the fall colors just not the up and down temps.

Beautiful fall Day

2012-09-25T20:44:00.000-06:00

I knew it was raining when I went to bed last night,

just was not expecting to see this when I got up.

Yup that is snow, could not believe it. It is way too early for this. Notice the nice green trees. It also was a little cooler than normal, we should be back to near normal tomorrow.

With it being a little chilly I decided to really get into gear about getting things off my to-do list.

If you remember this is what the car seat looked like when my daughter

asked to see if I could do something about it.

This is the new first layer that I made out of Off White Marine Vinyl.

I add new foam and extra padding to the seat section only. It can just be wiped down and we don't have to take it apart every time we need to clean it.

This is the trade out layer, whenever they want a new cover I only have to trade this layer out.

I also made it reversible so in a pinch they can turn it to a clean side until they can wash it.

Have already heard that they want a Christmas one.

Have to see how much time I have after I get the rest of my projects done.

Now unto the little mattress that our little granddaughter needs for her

new bed that her Uncle is making just for her.

Can't wait to share that one with you.

Until then keep warm.

Bounties of a fall harvest.

2012-09-18T09:22:00.000-06:00

This summer are garden just did not produce anything. Not sure what happened but we only ended up with one tomato plant that survived and everything else just died. What I like about our neighborhood is that they are very generous in sharing the bounties of their gardens. So when some of our neighbours found out what happened, many different presents have appeared on our doorstep. We would like to thank all of our neighbors for sharing and it has been very much appreciated.

One neighbor gave us some green beans, cherry tomatoes and a zucchini. Oh my what a nice surprise to say the least. Can't wait to use them in our supper tonight. My husband loves fresh green beans and cherry tomatoes. Will be making a zucchini loaf with that lovely zucchini, yum must go and start baking.

How has your garden done this year?

My new egg basket

2012-09-14T08:30:00.000-06:00

Knick of Time

My ~~new~~ old wooden egg basket arrived yesterday that I ordered from a new blog that I found Knick of Time and to say the least it was even better than the pictures. I love, love it. It is already being put to use in our guest bathroom with a fall theme. I love it so much that I am ordering another one. Oh yes I will find a place for the new one also.

I am already thinking of what I could do with this for Christmas and next spring. I will keep you posted on my updates of the Wooden Egg baskets.

These are the other things that I have ordered from Angie's of Knick of Time.

Small white egg basket

To read the full post go here.....»

What I love about Fall

2012-09-12T07:00:00.000-06:00

Mike Shaw photography

I am not saying that I don't love the other seasons, I just love fall and all the colors and smells.
I have started to put away our summer decorations and am putting out the Fall things. I don't do it all at once as I still love that fact that our days are still very much nice and warm.

Nell Hills

By the end of September the house inside and out will be transformed. I try to keep things simple as I don't really want to do Fall, Halloween and then Fall/Thanksgiving . I decorate with the idea that after Halloween I just put those things away and then accent with some Thanksgiving ideas. To read the full post go here.....»

Let the painting begin

2012-09-11T14:07:00.000-06:00

It has been a busy 3 months with a daughter getting married, another having two surgeries and another moving. I am just now getting back on my feet to try and redo the house that is pretty empty of furniture. There are going to be quite a few projects coming up and I am excited to share them with you.

Our first project was to paint the two empty bedrooms upstairs as they were very much in need of it.
We also shampooed all the carpets. It is so nice to walk up there and see very clean and empty rooms.
One of the rooms is our son's who is away serving a mission for our church. He will be returning to a very clean room, we will have a bed back in there before he gets home. We are just trying to decide on another single or bumping him up to a double. His sister went in and organized his closet and I must admit I have never seen the closet that clean before. I just have to remember to go in and dust once a week.
The color we choose to paint the rooms was a semi-gloss bleached linen, which I have fallen in love with. My husband even thought it was a nice color. This is the first time he has worked with this paint and he thought it did a great job of covering the walls.

To read the full post go here.....»

Wedding is over and so am I

2012-06-11T18:52:00.000-06:00

The wedding was lovely and I am now taking a break for a few days. We had several hiccups the last week and it kept us very busy trying to resolve them. We that being said it was a wonderful day.

The wedding dress was exactly what she wanted and she was a lovely bride.

The lttle girls dresses were changed at the last minute as the smocking

was a issue with some of the moms. Easy fix.

To read the full post go here.....»

One year ago today

2012-05-22T19:26:00.000-06:00

This was just a block away from our son's house.

A year ago today my husband and I were with our son and his family in Joplin about to enjoy a wonderful Bar-B-Q meal. It was to send us off as we were headng home the next day after spending a wonderful two weeks with them. We had gone out to attend our son's graduation from his Master program and to see our three granddaughters the youngest only 6 weeks old. Little did we know what was in store for us. All it took was 10 minutes to totally take what you have and snatch it away from you. We knew that there was a high risk of tornadoes that evening but, nah, not us never. The first siren went off and my daughter-in-law came in and turned the TV on as this was not a drill. The next thing she said was that a tornado was touching down on the county line which I found out was just two doors down for theirs. We hustled and hankered down and ten minutes later we found out that we were all still alive. The next two days were busy as we tried to salvage what we could of our kids home and get them moved to another rental in a city four hours away. My daughter-in-laws parents home was not as lucky and they had to go to other accommodations and are now finally back in their rebuilt home. One of their sons lost everything but what they were wearing that day. To read the full post go here.....»

Blogs of the week

2012-05-06T09:24:00.000-06:00

Over the last little while I have been on the search for some new blogs just for inspiration and I have come across a few that I actually really like. My mother would love one of them as it is from a young family that has moved to France to beginning a new chapter in their lives.

Sunday Brocantes is fun blog of a ~~family~~ woman that goes to American versions of flea markets throughout France. Oh how I would love to tag along with them . Until I can go back there I will follow along as she post her finds.

The White Approach is another blog that I like to check into every few days as she has great tips on refinishing not just furniture but other things as well. You don't always have to change something to white to get the nice clean look. Check out some of her transformations.

To read the full post go here.....»

Petite treat angel food cake

2012-04-22T12:29:00.000-06:00

I found another great recipe for Lemon-Raspberry Angel Food Cupcakes and decided to try them as petite treats. Good news they taste great, bad it that this particular one needs to be made without the little paper liners. The angel food cake sticks way too much. Outside of that they were a hit with most of the testers.To read the full post go here.....»

2012-04-21T20:05:00.001-06:00

The Princess bench is done and I have one granddaughter that loves it. She even let her mom take some pretty awesome pictures of it but she had to be sitting on it.

Before

To read the full post go here.....»

Oh this one is to die for.

2012-04-20T20:10:00.000-06:00

So another one of the recipes that we tried out of Southern Living was a Lemonade Pie. After the kids tried this one they have requested it for the wedding but in a petite treat version. Have figured it will make about 50 petite treats with this recipe.
To read the full post go here.....»

Wedding update

2012-04-17T13:07:00.000-06:00

Well I have one of the granddaughters dresses done and a few of the older girls skirts are in different stages. So for those of you who remember, I was going to do a little bit of a different dress for one of the older granddaughters, and the kids think it turned out great. SO, one down and I don't know how many more to go.

I decided to put piping along the neck line and sleeves to add a little color.

Yummy new Recipe

2012-04-16T12:40:00.001-06:00

I purchased a new magazine, Southern Living Almost Homemade, over the weekend and saw some really good recipes and just needed to try them right away. Now when I try something new I usually read through the recipe and then decide if I want to keep it or tweak it. I am always on the look out for anything that can be turned into a petite treat and this was a prefect candidate for it.
To read the full post go here.....»

Blogs of the week

2012-04-15T20:49:00.001-06:00

Have you ever wonder what the different sizes of napkins were well just take a look at AKA design
She has a wonderful tutrial on how to make linen napkins in different sizes.

To read the full post go here.....»

Blogs I love to read. Today it is Easter Tables.

2012-04-07T22:10:00.003-06:00

Well to start it has been a pretty busy day. Had errands to run, help husband clean out one of our rental units, not something I thought I would be doing Easter Weekend. Got home, forgot some things to pick up so out I go again. Almost ready for the big Easter dinner feast tomorrow. We are having most of our family here today so we will be almost 20 and that is still with some missing.
To read the full post go here.....»

1940 Census for the US is here

2012-04-05T11:37:00.001-06:00

ancestry.com 1940 census

Something that I have been doing for almost 35 years is researching genealogy lines for not only our family but for many others too. The exciting news this week was the release of the US 1940 census. I am actually excited for this census as I have family in the Detroit area that immigrated back to the states in the 1880's.
To read the full post go here.....»

Two more projects down.

2012-04-04T11:47:00.001-06:00

Forgotten Quilt

Last week I started working on re-doing our laundry basket. Yesterday I was going to finish it up and as I was pulling out the fabric another project that I had put on the back burner once again come into sight. It is a lap quilt for my son who loves the Snoopy gang.
To read the full post go here.....»

Favorite Blogs of the Day

2012-04-02T21:55:00.002-06:00

Today I am sharing some of my favorite blog posts, hope you go and check them out.

Post Road Vintage posted Spring Inspiration at YOUR fingertips

The Shabby Creek Cottage is having a Cutting Edge Stencil Giveaway.
To read the full post go here.....»

DIY in Progress

2012-04-01T14:39:00.002-06:00

Before

This past weekend I worked on some DIY Projects. I started priming some a few days ago and then primed my granddaughters princess bench. It is going to be a work in progress as I try to get some things started and others finished.
To read the full post go here.....»

New DIY Projects

2012-03-29T16:52:00.001-06:00

Today I decided that since it was going to be a nice, sunny, warm day that I would start some projects.

Want to change it to a linen white with a green stripe

To read the full post go here.....»