How to Make Borscht! A delicious time honored classic.

Borscht is just one of those soups people don't think about. But they should! Because Borscht is the perfect soup for a chilly springtime. And this version is loaded with vegetables for good health. Don't let this delicious old-fashioned recipe pass you by, think of the sour cream you won't be able to eat!

Funtastic Friday # 330

DIY Rustic Wood Mini Signs, How to Attract Bees to Your Garden, Pretty Organization in the Laundry Room, Spring Lemon Tablescape for Mother's Day, and Flipping Thrift Store Items are this week's featured posts!

Encouraging Hearts and Home 04.29.2021

I Spy Photo Challange 15, A cereal box made into a Fabric Covered Gift Bag, The 20 Best Gardening Books for Kids, and Cake Fruit and Yogurt Parfaits are this week's featured posts!  

Thrift Store Challenge April 2021

 Hello and Welcome!

The Rules:

• Upcycle an item(s) from a thrift store, resale store, or garage sale into a new piece of decor.
• There's no monthly theme.
• There's no budget to stick to.

Meet the Hosts

Angela | Simply Beautiful By Angela - Melynda | Scratch Made Food! & DIY Homemade Household - Beverly | Across the Blvd - Marie | Craft Rocker - Marci | Stone Cottage Adventures - Lynne | My Family Thyme - Allyson | Southern Sunflowers

Our Thrift Store Upcycle group of bloggers is always looking to expand -- and we need your help! Why not consider joining in our thrift store upcycle challenge on the last Thursday of each month? Make some friends while having fun and share your love of DIY with the world. It’s a win-win! Sound like something you’d be interested in? Just leave a comment at the end of this post with your contact info and a link to your blog. Someone will get back to you right away. We can’t wait to meet you!

How to Make a Barbed Wire Wreath, both large and small!

We are new to our home here in Montana, and with so much that needed to be done, we are just now getting to do a few things we wanted to do! Fun projects like decorating the entryways and the yard. So you might be asking yourself why we would be using our time to use a nest of tangled barbed wire and turn it into a wreath?

This Barbed Wire Wreath is part of decorations along the pathway to our little home, along with a chalkboard Welcome sign, some Shasta Daisies, Rosemary, and a little pot of Chives. 

What interesting or off-beat material would you make a wreath out of? As it turns out here lately, wreath-making has exploded with creativity and a fearless attitude! Resulting in some incredible decor to hang in your home or on the front door. True barbed wire might not be your chosen material for a wreath, but come see how it turned out...and why we used it!

Many years ago when my children were young, we lived in the Yakima Valley in the little community of Ahtanum. My kids attended the Ahtanum Grade School, where they learned, made friends, and if I remember correctly we even had one broken bone! Life with kids in the country is always open to new adventures, including a broken bone, or more correctly a greenstick fracture!

We lived out in the country for the freedom to roam and the peace and quiet. We had a couple of rows of concord grapes on our property, and one very lean Christmas I went outside to the grapevines and began making wreaths for Christmas gifts. 

Now keep in mind, I had never drawn a perfect circle, much less tried to weave stiff grapevines into circles...

Laying there in a twisted pile, it caught my eye. Quickly my mind went back to Ahtanum and the grapevines that went towards making a happy holiday that year and I knew I needed to give this a try! 

But I must tell you, barbed wire is willful! The barbs have a purpose they snag the animal when too close to the fence line and remind them to back up! And they will catch and snag on anything around you, including you!

To assemble: 

Cut wire into 3 to 5-foot sections. You want the wire to be long enough to make a circle the circumference you want for size, and have enough additional wire to weave into the circle to secure it firmly. 

From there, you simply pick up another piece of wire, and weave it in, stopping between pieces to adjust the shape and decide where to start the next piece of wire. 

Choose a good spot to work! As I continued to weave wire pieces in, I realized that I was scratching the picnic table and moved to the tailgate of our truck...at this point I felt the shape, size, and amount of wire are good. Time to decorate it, and there were a couple of changes but finally settled on the one below. 

I decided to go with a simple finish on the wreath by our front door...

This simply decorated wreath greets you at our door until we do!

Then with so much wire left, I decided to make another wreath, a large one! Originally I thought about hanging it, but in the end, I stopped weaving when I could not lift it to turn it. And honestly, it became my favorite!

This large Standing Wire Wreath greets you at the beginning of the walkway to our little apartment and was quite the labor of love. I stopped adding to it when it reached the weight I could no longer manage to lift and turn to add another strand of wire...this wreath is approximately 4 feet in diameter.

Roofing tin was cut for the flower, fence wire was bent to make the open leaves. And if you look at the center of the flower, you will recognize a rusty faucet handle and the small section of threaded pipe...When completed, this project was made from materials that were upcycled from a pile of old fencing ready to be hauled away. 

Materials used:

old fencing wire, both barbed and non-barbed

old tin roofing

old rusty plumbing parts

Tools needed: 

leather gloves

tin snips

bolt cutter - trust me, you want a pair of bolt cutters NOT wire cutters!

patience, the wire is strong-willed!

Make it your own, there are no rules, except have some fun!

And now for more thrifty goodness!

Check out what my fellow upcyclers created below!

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Toffee and Walnut Oatmeal Cookies, another convenient freezer dough to enjoy.

Toffee and Walnut Oatmeal Cookies, fresh from the oven! Is this even possible on those busy days we all seem to have? Yes with homemade cookie dough in the freezer. Just mix, portion out, wrap and freeze. The easy way, homemade way to have cookies on demand! 

Honey Mustard Vinaigrette, so easy to make last minute!

Now is the time to get your salad dressing skills up to date! With spring flowers and gardens starting everywhere, salads will be on the table more often. This Honey Mustard Vinaigrette is one you will enjoy time and time again...

Baked Orange Chicken, a Panda Express Orange Chicken copycat

Baked Orange Chicken, a Panda Express Orange Chicken copycat! Who loves Panda Express Orange Chicken? I know I do. And now you can make this delicious recipe at home. Plus this version is baked, no deep-fryer needed...

Funtastic Friday #329

A DIY Candlestick Holders tutorial, a Simple Gift Update, a Display Idea for your creations, How to Reupholster a Foot Stool, How to make a Jarcuterie Snack, Air Fryer Crispy Pickles, and a DIY Dollar Tree Easy Spring Time Wreath are this week's featured posts.  

Hello and Welcome!

Encouraging Hearts and Home 04.22.2021

A visit to Tim Hortons, A DIY tutorial on How to Make Tassels,  Cookie Crumb Peach Cobbler, and A C2C Window Pane Throw Pillow (with free pattern!) are this week's featured posts!  

Dutch Potatoes, potatoes so good they are practically a meal on their own!

If you are looking for a dish of mashed potatoes that actually makes the meal, look no further! Dutch Potatoes will knock your socks off because they are creamy, full of additional vegetables, and finished off with sauteed onions and smoked Gouda cheese... 

Brown Sugar Sour Cream Banana Bread, soft and tender like cake!

Not just another loaf of banana bread! Brown Sugar Sour Cream Banana Bread is moist from the sour cream and richly flavored from the brown sugar. More a cake than bread, and one the whole family will love! Got bananas stacking up? Brown Sugar Sour Cream Banana Bread, is just the recipe you need...

Roasted Apples and Onions with Thyme and Bacon, a breakfast or brunch treat!

Roasted Apples and Onion with Thyme and Bacon is not a recipe for the faint of heart! Because you will fry bacon in butter, but simply put on your chef's hat and fry away! This is not a recipe to miss, and perfect for a weekend breakfast...

Funtastic Friday #328

BLOOM from Coastal Bohemian, Tips for Printing Graphics at Home from Comfort Spring, Easy Sonic Slushies from Mommy Hates Cooking, Maple Ricotta Flan from Confessions of an Overworked Mom, French Onion Meatball Sub from Homemade on a Weeknight, DIY Faux Brick Wall from Makable Crafts, and Quick and Easy 5 Minute Topiary from The Crowned Goat are this week's featured posts!

Encouraging Hearts and Home 04.15.2021

30 To-Do List Items to Keep Your Home in Order, DIY Dog Bone Neck Pillow, 5 Homemade Salad Dressing Recipes to Make Tonight, and a Quick and Easy Bright Floral Wreath are this week's featured posts!  

How to Make The Best Homemade Pizza Sauce! Pizza night just got better.

How to Make The Best Homemade Pizza Sauce! This pizza sauce is so easy to make, with just one can of tomatoes or sauce. Plus you choose, make a chunky sauce or a smooth one. But each is perfect for pizza night...

Alabama Style Split Pea Soup, soup the whole family will enjoy.

Alabama Style Split Pea Soup is the easiest soup ever! Dump the ingredients into a pan, bring it to a boil, reduce to simmer, and let cook, while you do other things, like relax! You are going to want to make this soup...

How to make A Bird Habitat from recycled/repurposed items.

This Bird Habitat has been made completely from recycled materials, free used materials, and repurposing free items posted on our local free-for-the-taking community board on social media. With the exception of bird food and suet blocks, which we always keep on hand, and a bucket of deck screws nothing was purchased for this project. From the DIY Homemade Household side of the blog!

Ham Divan, a delicious riff on the well loved classic!

Such a simple name for a delicious dish! Ham Divan is a delicious riff on the classic Chicken Divan, originally created at the Divan Parisien Restaurant at the Chatham Hotel in New York City. Ham, rice, and broccoli under a blanket of Parmesan Cheese sauce...what's not to like!

Funtastic Friday #327

Homemade Ranch Dressing, DIY Pin Cushion, Copycat Chick-Fil-A Frosted Lemonade, Small Yarn Balls Storage Options, How to Paint a Flowerpot to Coordinate with Your Dinnerware, and DIY Easter Carrot Banner are this week's featured posts! 

Encouraging Hearts and Home 04.08.2021

Spring Cleaning for the Heart, the Best 15 Sewing YouTube Channels, Orange Pound Cake with Strawberries, and Why and How to Sift Your Compost are this week's featured posts!

  

Buttermilk Creme Dessert Sauce

It is dessert season all the time, but it is going to be berry season very soon! Our delicious Buttermilk Creme Dessert Sauce is the perfect (and oh so easy to make!) solution for a quick, delicious dessert for family and friends. Buttermilk Creme Dessert Sauce, think liquid cheesecake poured over berries, or cake, or whatever you want!

Easter Celebration Menu Suggestions!

Ham is the big seller this week at the marketplace! And my guess is deviled eggs will be offered at most gatherings as well. It is not just springtime, Easter and family gatherings are in the air! We have a delicious list of suggestions to go with that ham that you will put in the oven...

Funtastic Friday #326

Easter Bread Wreaths with Quail Eggs, Marshmallow Bunny Peeps Pudding Cups, 10 Fabulous Uses for Dandelions, Delicious Easter Puppy Chow, How to Make an Easter Village using Yard Sale Ceramic Houses, and DIY Bunny Slippers are this week's featured posts!

Encouraging Hearts and Home 04.01.2021

Vanilla Easter Egg Cupcakes, Butternut Squash Ravioli, Air Fryer Asparagus, and Homemade Plant Food, 7 Easy Fertilizer Recipes are this week's featured posts!