1. Chain 64 stitches in your chosen color. This portion will be part of the checker board border so choose what color you’d like the board bordered in for the chaining. I used black for mine.
2. Turn, change colors and double crochet 8 stitches, change colors then double crochet 8 more stitches… repeat the changing of colors at total of 4 times until you have a total of 8 blocks (each block is 8 double crochet stitches, their will be 8 blocks of alternating colors).
3. Repeat step 2 for a total of 5 rows. Each color block will be 8 stitches across and 5 rows from top to bottom.
4. Now reverse your color order, and repeat step 2 above with opposite colors from the previous row.
5. Repeat steps 2-4 until you have 8 rows of color blocks top to bottom and 8 blocks of alternating colors from side to side.

For the checker pieces, I did two rounds of double crochet stitches for each game piece. I let Everly sew some beads on some for her own fun. There is a total of 24 checker pieces for the game, 12 in each color.

Here is the finished product in play:

The post Crochet checkers board set pattern & instructions appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

Thanksgiving day Adalyn took her first solo steps. Time is just flying by. Everly starts school this last week. Last week we also had our first snow flurries. We found a butterfly living in our office. I am betting it’s the offspring of one of the many bugs Everly has captured and brought inside.

I cut off a bunch of my own hair and im flabbergasted that Christmas is just a few short weeks away.

I’ve been working hard at planning and prepping for our new advent tradition… The advent basket.

The concept of the advent basket was gleaned from Pintrest. The idea is an item from the basket is opened each day in the count down to Christmas. Depending on your family values and preferences, your basket can be new trinkets, treats, experiences  up-cycled things, recycled things, saved things and more…

Our family is doing a combination of things in our advent basket.

You see, we already have a bunch of stuff that we have each brought to the family, like holiday books from our own childhood, movies, activities and such.  I’m even making a few gifty things, for example…

• I’m crocheting a christmas colored checkers set now for the advent basket. Will share the pattern for the crochet checkers set soon!

• I also have a up-cycled sweater purse in the advent basket that is stuffed with craft supplies for that particular day’s activities. I made the purse from a old sweater and the instructions can be found here if you’d like to try it too.

All our existing holiday movies and books are wrapped up, I used Everlys various painting and drawing papers to wrap them up. All that is left is to wrap and decorate are trinkets that symbolize the various experiences that are planned throughout the month. I made up easy printable numbers for Photoshop that you can download and edit here (a .psd file) if you’d like.

Our experiences for the basket include:

• making candy cane mallows
• going on a holiday lights excursion complete with hot chocolate to sip
• painting the house windows to look like snow and frost
• making and decorating holiday cookies
• writing letters to santa to send in the mail (If you mail them to Santa Claus, Indiana before 12/15 they will be answered for free!)
• making handprint ornaments to give as gifts and for our own tree
• having the kids go through their toys and choose which ones to donate to the less fortunate

On the first of December we unveiled the advent basket and Christopher Popinkins together via a surprise breakfast that our “elf on a shelf”, Christopher Popinkins, made for us. It was a crockpot french toast breakfast that cooked all night, Christopher made it *wink*.

The table was decorated for Christmas, the basket was displayed and the girls got a kick out of the whole thing. We are excited to bring this new family tradition to the mix and Everly really seems to be enjoying it.

The post Post turkey day reflections & a new holiday tradition: The Advent Basket appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

The grapes are setting little grape clusters that need pinching off, the strawberry plants are flowering and seedlings are coming up everywhere.

We even got some “circle of life” learning under the belt today when Everly discovered a quickly drying out worm in the dirt.

She informed me the worm was “all dried up” and continued to watch it and poke it. “Mama it is moving! Let’s fix it” she said.

I told her to get a small amount of water from our rain barrel so we could make some mud to cover it with. Then we talked about how worms need mud and to be burred in the dirt.

Next I was unpleasantly surprised by a dead field mouse the cat left for us on top of the chicken hutch. While I scraped it up and tossed it in the trash we talked about how the cat likely played it to death. Everly wanted to take it to a doctor but I explained that it had been dead too long and that it couldn’t be saved. “Oh, okay mama. Poor guy” was her response as we tossed the poor thing in the trash.

Then we planted some annual flower seeds in places around the yard and she picked some pretty weeds that she wanted to keep on the table in a vase.

Next, we planted Everly the highly anticipated Sunflower/ Bean Tepee that we had thought up after seeing a similar Bean Tepee on Pintrest.The goal is to grow beans up the sunflower stalks for added functionality and fun. Here is how you can do it too:

Planting a Sunflower/ Bean Tepee-

Just take about 19 sunflower seeds and plant them in a semi-circle/ rounded horse shoe shape that is big enough for your kiddo to go in. Once the seeds sprout, plant about 10 or 15 bean seeds along the outside of the semi-circle.

Train the bean stalks to grow around the sunflower stalks. When sunflowers grow to about 2-3ft tall you can braid and twist their tops together to make a Tepee like roof. They will continue to grow upward and then bloom while their stalks make an exciting little hiding area for curious kiddos and a sturdy support for the beans.

Sunflower stalks are strong and roots go deep so chances are your teepee frame will remain after the end of the growing season and can be used to grow beans the following season. Just be sure to clip off your dried sunflower heads and put the seeds in a bird feeder after the season or the entire area surrounding your teepee will become a sunflower forest the following season as the seeds fall from the bloom heads and germinate.

Everly and I also clipped some kale to cook up today which was another nice adventure for her. She loves to do big person stuff like harvesting foods from the garden. Last year she loved to be in charge of carrying the “picking bucket” when we harvested things, this year she’s full on harvesting stuff herself which is great for her.

We also explored the mint plants, complete with taste testing their leaves and she found a wild onion bulb while helping me plant seeds that she washed and added to the harvest pile all on her own.

Now we are off to bake some yummy kale chips with the large kale plants that overwintered in our garden and are about to go to seed. Here is a recipe you can try:

Baked Kale Chips

• 1 bunch (about 6 ounces) kale
• 1 tablespoon olive oil grapeseed oil (or other heat stable non GMO oil. Note: olive oil isn’t heat stable and isn’t good for cooking.)
• Sea salt to taste. (I used raw Hemalayan Pink Salt for added nutritional value.)

Preheat oven to 300°F. Rinse and dry the kale, then remove the stems and tough center ribs. Cut into large pieces, toss with oil in a bowl then sprinkle with salt. Arrange leaves in a single layer on a large baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes, or until crisp. Place baking sheet on a rack to cool.

Do you grow a garden that your kids help with? If not I’d highly recommend you start a kitchen garden, even if it is just a few plants that you’ll know you can use for eating.

Getting the kids out and letting them get dirty is wonderful for them! Not only is it an activity you do together but it teaches them about responsibility, food, nutrition, cooking, resourcefulness and even life lessons if you are mindful of the fleeting opportunities.

If you haven’t already, unplug from technology for a bit and go get those hands dirty with your kids.

The post Garden Fun, Homestead Lessons & Baked Kale Chips appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

I personally like creative homemade, do-it-yourself gifts because they are more from the heart than store bought ones. Plus I have a blast making gifts for people cause I am crafty like that.

Now since so many are flocking here in search of homemade holiday gift ideas and craft projects I wanted to take a second to suggest some easy gift ideas for you to try this holiday season. If you want to check out the instructions just click on the linked text! you have a project you have written about on your blog use mister linky below to share the link with us.

1. Turn scrap fabric in to braided usefulness by making your very own braided rag rug. These are super easy, have tons of character and can be used almost anywhere in the house.
2. Make a sentimental gift and clear out some closet space by taking all those stored clothing items you can’t bear to throw away and turning them in to a functional throw or quilt. Anyone can make their own t-shirt quilt quickly and easily just in time for holiday gift giving. Use baby clothes, shirts or just about any special piece of fabric and turn those memories in to a great gift for someone special.
3. Have an environmental lover on your gift list? You can make several fun earth friendly gift items (like a biodegradable bird feeder or a shoe scraper) that they will enjoy and they’ll love that you took and interest in being earth friendly too.
4. Have some small trinkets to give? Why not make your own paper gift box using origami? It is super easy, it is fun for kids and you can decorate them exactly the way you want them. You can even make them hang from the Christmas tree.
5. Got a cell phone fanatic on your gift list? You can make them a cute cellphone cozy out of fabric or yarn to keep their phone protected and also in style this holiday season. Theses are also insanely easy to make and can be oh, so unique and personalized.
6. Know someone who is in need of some new bedding this holiday season? Put your sewing skills to work and make them a homemade duvet cover or comforter. Don’t worry even a beginning sewer (me) can do this and it is pretty fun too!

Now I know you have a project you are just dieing to share with us. If you have written about on your blog use mister linky below to share the link with us. If you don’t have a link to share but want to just tell us about your project just use the comment field below to do so.

The post Homemade holiday gifts are IN, what are you making? appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

It’s a kind of funny sight and thought so I snapped a photo of it and thought I would make it the title of this post. Nice huh? I am sure I’ll get lots of 1 second hits from people searching for homemade porn now huh?

Seriously though I was recording a video demonstration for another craft article I wrote. As I mentioned yesterday I sold another article and have been feeling highly motivated to write these days. Plus the search terms on this blog have been super instructional craft project oriented. The people have spoken and want more craft instructions so I got busy writing some more tutorials.

I sat down and wrote up an article on how to make your own t shirt quilt from shirts you have collected over the years. I used our bed to record the demonstration video that goes with the article and I just happen to leave the tripod at the foot of the bed. Nice and random huh?

What? You want to see a t shirt quilt? Well lookie here:

The post I was not making porn I promise! appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

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