The Lingo

So… if you read the first post, you heard my embarrassing story on how I didn’t know what a western was. Yup, true story. My girl at Luck Leather Lace Love, will testify to this. You can say, that I’ve learned a few things since then, and I’m still learning. I’m just the wife to the guy that does all the adventures I blog about, but I do get to do and learn about some of these adventures with him. Here are a list of words that have an Outdoorman meaning and what I thought they meant, you will see my progress.

      Words                                Outdoorman definition                                 My first thought

v  Shed                           Antlers                                                                 A place to put storage

v  Buck                           Male deer                                                           A dollar

v  Cow                            Cow or female elk                                           An animal that says moo

v   Bull                            Bull or Male elk                                                 A cow with horns

v  Spike                           A male deer with one point                   something sharp that pops tires

v  Doe                              Female deer                                                      cookie dough or money

v  Two point                   A male deer with two points on both side       I had no idea.

v  Snare                          A type of trap                                                        No clue

v  Bale                          hay block                                                      What you post to get out of jail

This is really a short list of the many words I've learned along my journey, but I figured it was enough to get my point across. Hope it was either educational or made for a good laugh. (:

Little shoes

Part of thrifting is about spending as little as money possible. I refused to pay the $60 a pair of moccasins from Freshly Picked, so I decided to make my own.

 

I do not have a good tutorial for this… and I wish there was. I will be on the lookout for one. I use this free pattern from this blog, and modified it by hand to make moccasins. It literally isn’t something I could even upload because there is nothing for me to upload, it’s on the leather. So, this is a case of “I figured something out that works for me, but with no clear instructions on how to make it work for you”. Sorry… but if you follow her pattern and I did NOT sew mine by hand; you could make some really cute scalloped moccasins. I did. (:

Crochet ear warmer headbands

I learned to crochet with my grandma when I was 12 years old. I started off with making a lot of hot pads, of course square hot pads. They literally are the easiest thing to make, which is why I started with those. Years later I thought… “Hey, I know how to crochet, why I don’t I make ______ item?” Little did I know… there are many more stiches to crocheting other than chaining and double crochets.  So, as I’ve made a few more items since then, YouTube has been my best friend. I seriously don’t know how my grandma learned how to do it when she was younger. I’m a watch and do kind of girl, and she didn’t have YouTube. If you ever looked at crochet magazines or books, the instructions on how to do a stich are so confusing… so I suggest, If you want to learn and your pattern asks for stitches you don’t know, YouTube it. It literally is an awesome way to go.

 

 

I used this pattern for my crochet ear warmers… I guessed on measurements for my daughter. I used the full measurements for myself.

Pillow Case Dresses

I use this tutorial because I can usually hit Joann’s on a holiday and get sweet deals on flat quarters. I only use 4 flat quarters on the dresses I have made, but my last dress I will use bias tape for the bottom hem and the straps. I just feel like it will give it so much more. Just follow her instructions, but when she adds the 5^th fabric strip, just use bias tape instead. She also has a few more ideas on how to change the finish of the dress on top. Those will add diversity to your creations.

Tutu’s…

 

There are just so many tutorials to watch on these… I really don’t even know which one is best, but I will add a link to one that I think will give a basic idea on how it’s done.

 Also, flowers… Most of the time, I made my own bows and some of my flowers, but every now and then I cheat. Here is a link for a shop that will give you flowers, wholesale prices, and it even has tutorials on how to create headbands for your little’s. I believe that knowledge should be shared. Enjoy.

Fabric Banners

I love the fabric banners I have made for holidays and for my daughters room. They are just a nice addition to add a little something else, as far as décor goes.

 

 

 I used this tutorial. I liked her instructions, but I will just add… measure and measure again every side before you cut. My first banner I didn’t, and I can totally tell that some of the triangles are larger than the others, luckily I think it still looks cute, but I still notice.

Wrapping up Summer...

Before I knew it, summer came and left. For my very first summer not being stuck in an office building in  6 years, I would have to say it was quite fun and enjoyable. I now know all that I've been missing, and I kind of hope that I never miss out again.

For my outdoorsy man, summer consisted of a LOT of fishing trips, in just about everywhere (lakes, streams, creeks, and ponds). Ocean fishing is something he's always wanted to do... It's on his outdoorsman bucket list.... which is a very long list. Sometimes I hear the list and the re-edited list right before bedtime.

Anyway, we also have a lot of summer hiking trips. Usually out in the middle of nowhere looking for deer antlers and elk antlers, and most of the time it's with this guy...

On the left is my man and on the right is his cousin and partner in crime. 

I know when these two are out, coming home at 6pm usually means somewhere between 8-9pm. 

In a previous post I ranted about my husband bring home fish every time he goes out fishing, and how I do not want any more fish in my freezer, well... I have to say that catching fish is OFFICIALLY better than NOT catching ANY fish.

I introduce to you dinner on a fishless night....

Can I just take a minute and tell you how happy that I am I stayed home on this trip. He boiled them and dipped them in a stick of melt butter. Yuck!!! He said it was yummy, whoever, my stomach thinks otherwise. 

On a happier and lighter note, we finished off the last day of summer with the perfect outing for our little family. We went up the canyon to a cute little camping/creek area and just had an evening out. Of course, we prepared a nice dinner of dutch oven potatoes and hotdogs, but it was our kind of perfect. 

Of course, I had to sneak in there a mommy made item. I finished a beanie just in time to keep her warm for this perfect family evening. 

Our girl had found a evergreen twig that she would just not leave alone, she literally had it with her the whole time. 

In my opinion, this was the best way to wrap up summer. Family time, good food, and being in the outdoors with my loves, it is picture perfect. 

Antler Wreath

I have been dreaming about this project for weeks! I literally didn't sleep a couple nights due to my excitement. Every toss and turn had me thinking more and more of new ideas and what it might look like. The idea was to make an antler wreath for our front door,  and I wanted it to look country chic but not cheap.
However, with this project in mind I had a few concerns. My main concern was how or what I could do to preserve the antler color and hardness. Anyone that has been around antlers enough know that it is a bone, and the sun dries up the calcium in them and makes them brittle and weak, giving the antlers a pinkish color to them. So, I did a lot of asking around, but finally I decided to go with a clear coat to place on the antlers. It took several coats for me to feel comfortably done, and that was extremely time consuming. Needless to say, I was on my way to finishing my latest horn decor item.

A couple days later I added the finishing touches to this beauty!!! I was beyond excited and proud of myself. This city girl pulled it off. I mean, this 4 in. stiletto wearing woman didn't go out an buy this item, I made it! Woot woot!!!

This item is not for sale, and since this wreath is made with real antlers that my husband found, there is noway I could make this exact wreath again. However, I know I could make one like it. If anyone happens to be serious about ordering something like this, message me. I'm sure we could work something out. ;)

Elk Red Curry

I have found that I have a love for curry! Thai food is something that I crave! While in the grocery store I found a curry paste and had to try it out! Of course chicken is a delicacy in our home, so why not make it with elk?

We have Elk chunks, diced cooked potatoes, some green peppers from the garden, coconut milk (not featured), and the curry paste.

Combined them all and it smelled AMAZING!!!! 

Served over Jasmine rice!! I would say this is a fun, yummy, and different way to use Elk meat. It's definitely worth a shot! ;)

Thrifting Veggies

This is the story of the end of the zucchini plant in our garden. It all started when we were producing more zucchini's than we could eat. I am talking about zucchini side dishes for every meal. Not to mention the zucchini's that we gave to at least 4 different families, and more than once. I had the hubby pull the plant and in doing so he walked in with these huge beauties!

I am a firm believer in not wasting, hence why we gave so many away. So, I resorted to shredding these babies and freezing them. Literally for a couple hours a friend and I were shredding these bad boys. 

I ended up with 7 1/2 bags of zucchini!!!! Two bags were given to my friend for helping. Now, here is the kicker... What in the world do you do with a bunch of shredded zucchini? 

Most people use it for zucchini bread and thaw when they want it. That is something that I'm going to try, but I found my own delicious guilty pleasure!

Ta-da!!! We have my new all time favorite cookies!! Chocolate Oatmeal Zucchini Cookies!!! Seriously, I was in heaven!!!!! I seriously found the holy grail of shredded zucchini. I have now made this recipe 4 times in 3 weeks. Yeah, I would say I'm a bit obsessed. So, next time you have extra zucchini, try it out! Click here for recipe. 

Baby girl cuteness!!!

I love having a little girl. She brings so much light and love to our lives with her beaming personality. I must say that I love making her hair bows and finding cute ways to dress her up. This would be a mommy craft post of the cute hunting season outfit that I've put together for her.

I made her a -headband and some cute barefoot sandals. I know, this is extremely unpractical, but in all reality my 8-9 month old will not actually be physically hunting with her daddy this year. However, she will be a part of the family hunting traditions. (:

We also had a cute "Daddy's New Hunting Buddy" onesie made by Southern Princess Bowtique. This boutique can be found on facebook and have very reasonable prices, not to mention very easy to work with. Link will be listed bellow, if interested.

We spent the night at the family ranch, so I was able to get some cute pictures of this little cuteness....

Dad and our little stinker after a morning on the mountain.

No smiles on this one... but still cute.

As you can see, I am very excited for hunting season. I find that kids make everything more exciting, especially when it's their first experience. With that being said...

Proud Dad taking his little girl out for her first shed hunt. There wasn't any findings, but it was very small loop since she was not sure if she liked it. Oh boy... I guess only time will tell if she will follow in her daddy's footsteps.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/Southernprincessbows

Summer happenings.....

When you are married to a man that gets an itch to go out and do something all the time, you find that every season has certain activities that repeat. Prime example, my husband enjoys fishing. In the spring he will fish streams and explore new areas. Yearly I can count on at least one Lake Powell fishing trip. This year, it was a summer night fishing trip that resulted in quite a few catches. On average he and his buddy were catching 4 to 5 lbs fish. They had a blast and came back with quite the stories.

Every time my husband goes fishing, I have to plead for him not to bring back any fish. This works maybe 30% of the time. I love eating fish, but not for every meal. We happen to have enough fish in our freezer to keep me happy for SEVERAL months.

Summer time also means working on the garden, which is something Cameron likes to do. It's his daily outdoor project and I will say that he's done quite well this year.

The corn is 11ft tall... how did that happen? Needless to say, the garden is official over grown. We also have popping corn growing, we will have to see how to harvest that and see if we can make our own popcorn!

Although summer consists of a lot of swimming for most, it is also is a time for us to watch our bank accounts to see if the hubby drew out for a tag for the hunt. In our state there are only a few tags that you can buy over the counter, most tags are given out lottery style. Cameron did get a tag this year and his choice of hunting is archery. So, summer time consists of taking out the bow and getting it sited in for the season.

Luckily my husband has cousins that enjoy very similar hobbies and we make an evening of it. We load up the husbands, wives, and kids to go to the mountain, and while the boys shoot their bows we chat and relax. We call it family home evenings, it happens to be one of our favorite things to do.

Summertime is in full swing! Fall is literally just around the corner and we are clearly getting ready for it!

Home Decor... Horn Decor.. Same thing!

My home decor has turned into a horn decor. Hahaha!

I have finished my project that I made with deer horns. I made a picture frame holder!! 

Ta Da!!!! My picture is a 5x7 and I think I'm going to need to use an 8x10. Needless to say, it is finished and hung proudly on the hubby wall.... What I mean by that, it is right next to these beauties. 

The notorious duck from the previous post made it into the living room.... And the horn mount, well that was a gift... Who can say no to a birthday gift? Do you see why I lose these battles? I guess I don't help the cause when I made a picture frame holder... But, in my defense, if it's going to be displayed in my house and on my wall, then I better make or pick things that are my taste, right?

At least this is what I keep telling myself.

We also added a need western addition to our home, and I really like it...

If  we are going to live together, we might as well decorate together. (: So, after swallowing my pride and I am now proudly displaying my horn decor, and welcome to our home!

Elk Stuffed Peppers

I have found that our freezer is full with a lot of ground Elk, and I've done my best to use it in many different ways. This is a recipe that is nice for a change of pace.

1lb. of ground Elk
16oz can of Black Beans (drained)
2T. of taco seasoning
1/3 C. of shredded cheese
1/2 C. of Sour cream
1/2  C. of chopped onion
16oz can of Corn Kernels (drained)
4 Bell peppers
2 T. of Olive Oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Start with your bell peppers and slice them in half and clean out the seeds. Once you have done this and cleaned them out well, you want to use 1T. of olive oil and coat the pepper halves. Place them on a cookie sheet and let them bake in the oven for 15 minutes. This will soften your pepper and that is exactly what you want.

In a medium sized skillet you want to heat the remaining oil in the pan and add your meat. Brown the meat and add your seasoning. Once cooked well together add your onions and saute with the meat. Once onions are cooked, in a large bowl you will want to combine the meat mixture, sour cream, corn and beans. Mix well!

 Peppers should be ready to pull out! This is the stuffing part of the recipe, spoon in the mixture into each pepper half. Fit as much as possible!  Once you have them filled coat the peppers with cheese. I love cheddar, so that is what I used.

Place in the oven again, but this time it's only for the cheese to melt. In my oven  it takes about 5 minutes.

Once done they are ready to serve!!! Enjoy!! They are pretty yummy!!!

Homemade Fries

I married a steak and potatoes man. Sometime, I need a change from mashed potatoes or baked potatoes, so this is a nice way to add a little change to our diet. Also, it is yummy!!!!

5 potatoes, or 4 large potatoes
2T. of Olive Oil
4 C. of cold water
Salt to taste

Preheat oven to about 400 degrees. I start by peeling most of the potatoes, you can leave the skin on them, but I found that I like it better without.

Then I slice the potato into strips like french fries, an 1/6 to 1/4 inch thick is what I aim for. Once I have them all sliced I soak the strips in the a medium sized bowl filled with cold water.

 This helps keep them from browning. I let them soak for at least 5 minutes and get ready for the baking process. Drain the water, and then add the Olive Oil  to the bowl. You want to coat all the fries. So I make sure that it is well mixed and all of them are coated with a little oil.

Now you want to place them on a cookie sheet for baking. It is best if they do not over lap so lay them on the cookie sheet, and try to fit as many as you can. Before placing them in the oven I like to add a little salt to the top layer of them. Once they are all laid nicely on the cookie sheet, stick them in!

I cook them for about 15 minutes, and then pull out the cookie sheet. I flip the fries so that way one side doesn't burn the entire time. I cook them for another 10 minutes, but be careful since every oven is different. You will just need to watch and see what works best for yours.
When they are done, I pull them out and a little salt to the top and they are ready to serve!!!

You will know when they are ready by their golden color! Enjoy!!!

The Man Cave

While dating and being engaged we always talked about our future, a man cave came up often. I always told him that he'd have a special room for all his stuff- his antlers, the ducks, and what ever animal he wanted hung.

In our first house he claimed the loft and the spare bedroom closet for his "Man Cave". Slowly I started losing the battle of having all this hobbies and trophies, if you will, in the cave. They started creeping out into the living room. First there was one, now there are two and it's just a matter of time before I completely lose that battle. To be funny Cam stuck the stuffed duck in the babies room and that was rejected shortly after I spotted it.

Our new house is a lot smaller with no extra bedrooms, my husband still has and found his "Man Cave".

He claimed the outside shed. Oh, and the carport for his fishing boat.

I've thought about helping him organize the "Man Cave", but I fear I will cross a line that should not be crossed. The "Man Cave" will just have to remain his territory. He's a pretty organized man as is, and I'm sure he has things just the way he want's them... but I absolute will not cave on one item making it into the house...

The dead head will have to forever remain in the "Man Cave". Oh how I love that man... I can only imagine when I have boys and what they will want to store in their rooms... I think we need a bigger "Man Cave", and STAT!!!!

Pan Fried Elk or Deer Steaks

One of our favorite ways to prepare Elk or Deer is just by pan frying some steaks. For this recipe you will need:
2T. of oil (I love Olive Oil)
1/2 cup of flour
1/2 t. of pepper
1/2 t. of salt
1lb of Elk or Deer meat

We thinly sliced the meat into stake slices.

Once your meat is cut up, in a bowl mix all dry ingredients.

Add a couple steak slices to flour and coat well on both sides.

Add oil to a skillet, wait a couple minutes for the oil to be heated and add the meat. My husband loves to add more pepper as each steak is cooking. He loves pepper!!! When the meat is bleeding through they are ready to turn.

Brown both sides and they are ready to eat!!

 They are yummy! For those Canadian out there, eating them Diana sauce is just divine. Enjoy!!!

Shed Hunting

By shed hunting I do not mean looking for storage space, I mean looking for antlers of deer and elk when the animal has naturally dropped them. You know you are married to an outdoorsman when you are never allowed to give locations of where the hubby has found the antlers, that he is currently out searching, and how many he found in one area. All these things are forbidden!!!

For that purpose, I cannot say where my husband goes or even give a general area. I am basically allowed to say, "Ta-da! Look what my hubby found." But the perks are, I get to use whatever antlers I want to create crafts and use it in my home decor. The ones I don't use, well... I let my husband keep a few "special ones." If it were up to him mostly all of them would be special, that is why I said a FEW. Needless to say, here are some of the latest pictures of his last endeavor.

Elk horn found but not the only one.....

I'm glad he likes to do this... but I say no thank you to packing those out!!! We weighted them when he got home and it was close to 40lbs.

This is the finding of deer and elk antlers... now... I have to decide what my next craft project will be!!!!
I'm kind of so excited and thinking about making a night stand. How fun would that be?


We were trying to be economical and took the car on our last outing, and this is how we ended up rolling on home.

Haha! I love being married to my outdoorsman! Life is never boring!!! So, let me know what you think? What should  I make next???