By Holly Giles | Handmade , Home , Simple Living
Make your own mosquito spray. Make your own mosquito spray with Florida native plant, Beautyberry. This native plant is often considered a weed and can be recognized on roadsides or woods. This DIY project is great for the whole family to learn. Make your own mosquito spray to use fewer chemical-based sprays when possible. Beautyberry […]
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By Holly Giles | Handmade , Simple Living
Grapevine wreaths are simple for children to work with at any age. Look around in your own backyard, neighborhood park, or patch of woods for the pesky vines. You will be cleaning up and making a beautiful wreath simultaneously. Small wreaths are easier to manage with small children. It is just continuous circles and weaving […]
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By Holly Giles | Kitchen , Simple Living
As an Amazon Affiliate I earn commission on qualifying purchases Canning Sliced Peaches Canning sliced peaches are the perfect taste of summer for me since my days at the barn in Alabama with my grandparents. Those juicy bites of perfection dripping down my face were a delight. Watching my grandmother “put up” peaches weren’t as […]
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By Holly Giles | Kitchen , Simple Living
Homemade Blueberry Syrup Blueberry Syrup is a wonderful concoction that has many purposes. At first, you might wonder why you would want to discard the blueberry pulp and only use the juice? This method a way to use up berries that are just about spent and still put food on the table. Uses Blueberry syrup […]
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By Holly Giles | Handmade , Kitchen , Simple Living
Iced Coffee Iced coffee is a relatively new term for this generation. My grandmother just called it cold coffee. She had been making it for years before it was cool. Basically, when her morning coffee got cold because she was too busy to drink it, she just threw a few ice cubes in it and […]
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By Holly Giles | family , Home , Simple Living
Investing in Food Investing in food can have many meanings. Time into gardening at home, cooking from scratch or sourcing your food from local places. It was about 1979 when I had a vivid memory of going to Long and Scott Farm for Zellwood corn. Each year my grandparents hopped in my papa’s pick up […]
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By Holly Giles | family , Home , Simple Living
Our Backyard Chicken Story Our chicken story began twenty years ago. My husband, Curtis, and I have gone back and forth about having backyard chickens. He would want to get started, and I didn’t want the responsibility. Then, I would get excited about it, and he would not. We never got serious about it until […]
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By Holly Giles | Home , Simple Living
Living Simply from a Pioneer Perspective The idea of living simply from the pioneer culture and Laura Ingalls Wilder has a lot to teach us modern-day folk. Pioneer times may be pushing 200 years old, but the lessons we can learn for living today still apply. Laura Ingalls Wilder was fascinating in that she lived […]
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By Holly Giles | Home , Simple Living
7 Simple Tips to Start Seeds Indoors Starting vegetable seeds indoors is a great way to extend your gardening budget and your growing season. However, starting vegetables from seed can be a bit tricky for many novice gardeners. Fortunately, the seven simple steps outlined below simplifies this process and make it much more fun and […]
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By Holly Giles | Home , Simple Living
Baker Creek Seed Company is nestled in the foothills of the Ozark Mountains in Missouri. My fellow Roadschool Mom, Mary Beth and I along with three of our children visited here on a road trip. Baker Creek is an heirloom company preserving and selling heritage seeds from generations ago. This family-owned farm is taking big […]
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