About Tricia

I am Tricia. Momma of nine, homeschooler, artist, foodie and maker of all kinds of things. It's a pleasure to share here our family homesteading adventures, the things we make, and what inspires our days. Read more about my family and work here. Thanks for visiting!

Author Archive | Tricia

These Days…My weekly journal

By on December 3, 2012 in Weekly Journal

I did not forget to show you my big project as promised but still need another day to finish so I will share it with you tomorrow instead.

I think it has been a lifetime since I have posted my weekly journal (well, if you only had a lifespan of 2 months). For an explanation on each picture, scroll down to the bottom of this post.

This week we:

: :  We celebrated our Thanksgiving feast.  The day was spent together, cooking, watching the parade and It’s a Wonderful Life as is our tradition and of course sitting down to eat our meal and recollect everything that we are thankful for.

: :   Made some wonderful Merlot spiced cranberry jam (recipe to follow on Friday) to enjoy and share with our in-laws

: :  Erica talked me into buying the last watermelon at the corn farm so that she could carve it

: :  Visited our in-laws farm to check out a future addition to our farm…sorry, I’m not telling what it is just yet and it’s not a goat

: :  enjoyed some time outside cloud gazing as a part of our cloud study

: :  taking advantage of the still warm afternoons to sun our bedsheets before its too cold outside to hang the laundry

: :  got to visit some of our dearest old friends and spend a few hours together before they returned to their home in South Carolina

: :  dressed Matthew in his green and orange to watch the big game with his Poppa

: :  got a visit every day last week from a homing pigeon which the kids have named Alice.  There must be a pigeon farm close by because we get visit by tagged pigoens very often.  For about two years a pigeon we named Grace would come by every day and got to know us so well that she would eat from our hands

: : made my favorite gift for wedding showers to go along with something store bought from their registry.  I have made this gift for a great many couples and yet have not made one for my own home


If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or follow me by email at the top right hand of the screen to have future posts sent to you. Tricia (Crunchy Catholic Momma)

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Homemade Furniture Polish Recipe

By on November 30, 2012 in Recipes

I received a few emails last week from my post on preparing for Thanksgiving for the furniture polish I was making.  As promised, here is the recipe.  It is super easy and only has two ingredients.
I started making this in 2000 when I left my career and housekeeper/nanny to become a stay at home mom.  That year I read lots of old books from the Tightwad Gazette to vintage cookbooks in order to learn how to cook, clean, wash laundry etc.  I also had to find a way to save money on everything and stumbled onto an article about the amount of chemicals in our homes.  I cannot say where I found out about this recipe but I am thinking it might have been in a magazine that year.
Anyhoo… I have been making it ever since and I love it because it works, is super cheap to make and if my kids put some in their mouth by mistake there is absolutely no problem.  I almost laugh about calling it a recipe.
All you need is some olive oil (don’t use your good stuff here) and some lemon extract, the kind you use for baking.
I mix 8 ounces of oil to 1 teaspoon of lemon extract in a jar.  The minute you add the extract and shake it you will see the oil gets cloudy from emulsifying.  

see how it turned kind of a lemony opaque color?

You can use it straight away.  I put on a layer and let it sit while I do other things and then go back with a dry cloth and wipe it off then buff a little.  I have not tried using essential oils as that would be more expensive and this does the trick.
So there you!  Have fun polishing.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or follow me by email at the top right hand of the screen to have future posts sent to you. Tricia (Crunchy Catholic Momma)

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