Fletcher Farmhouse Feature: Mike and Debbie Robbins

Our beloved little farming community has so much to share. From time to time, I want to feature one of the family farms in our area. Today, I introduce you to our first Fletcher Farmhouse Feature...Mike and Debbie Robbins.

Mike Robbins' family has lived in this community since the early 1900s. Mike was raised on the farm he and Debbie now own. In fact, Mike has never moved in his entire life!

His wife of over 40 years, Debbie, grew up with horses and other livestock. She always dreamed of having horses of her own, but Mike said they were "just hay burners"! But in 1989, they purchased their first Belgian Draft Horse. They ended up raising draft horses for 31 years. Their last horse died last year, but oh the many memories of horse carriage rides and parades!

In 2009, the Robbins got out of the hog business and didn't have any cattle at that time either. The barn was empty and so they started raising goats. My children and my nieces and nephews LOVED going to Debbie and Mike's to see the new baby goats. Such great memories! Due to some health issues, all the goats were sold in 2015.

Mike and Debbie raised two children on their Fletcher farm. The children are now all grown up and have given them a total of four grandchildren, the pride of Debbie's eye! The children and grandchildren are following in the steps of their farming roots with horses, cattle, and chickens of their own.

Due to COVID, Mike and Debbie haven't had as much opportunity to see their children and grandkids, but Debbie says they "visit" via Facetime. "Thank goodness for Facetime," she told me.

These days, the Robbins are embracing life as empty nesters. They are active members of the Fletcher United Methodist Church and their Fletcher community. Debbie enjoys doing crafts and working in the garden with her flowers. Mike spends his free time with anything and everything that deals with welding. Debbie says, "He love fabricating and creating things that he can use instead of buying them." Ha, ha...he's a man after my own heart. Definitely fun to use our talents to save some money!

Be sure to follow The Fletcher Farmhouse on Instagram to see and learn more as our Fletcher Farmhouse families share the good and the best of life on the farm.

More to Read:

25 Books for Christmas: A Christmas Family Tradition

Seven Ideas for Repurposing Your Clothes

25 Books for Christmas: A Christmas Family Tradition

Every other year, I put together a list of 25 books to read to the girls. Everyday of December, they open the wrapped book and we read it together. This year, I have added a few special things to our fun tradition and a few tricks to make it a bit easier on me!

25 Wrapped Books Take Forever

Seriously. You would not believe how long it takes to wrap 25 books! Instead of wrapping, I made an assortment of bag books this year. Some bags are small, some are large. It's important to have a variety of sizes.

See the blog post here for instructions on how to make the fabric bags!

Another wonderful option is to put your books in decorative boxes. You can reuse both the fabric bags or boxes each year.

If you aren't much of a seamstress, you can purchase cute fabric gift bags at Walmart.

I wanted to buy cute wooden tags for the bags, but they were super expensive. Instead, I just used an old cardboard box and cut out a tag shape I liked. I had the little wooden numbers for years, so I painted them and glued them on the tags with hot glue! Easy peesy!

Book Ornaments

All the books sit wrapped under a special little Christmas tree upstairs. The tree is kind of bare in the beginning, but that is because each book has a special ornament with it. Once we read the book, the girls can hang the ornament that represents the book onto the tree!

I painted a peg "person" or two for each book. It helps remind them of the main characters in the book! [A little lesson on deciding who the main character or characters is a nice little English lesson, too!]

If you aren't an artist, you can find a special ornament that represents your book and use that for your tree. The ideas are endless!

Our Book List

You may be wondering how on earth we find 25 books about Christmas. We don't! LOL! I tried that one year and it was way too hard. So instead, I have about 5 books that are about Christmas and the rest are books I wanted to add to our library.

I also like to have a little surprise or two. One day, the bag contains 3 coloring books and a package of the girls' favorite Crayola Brush and Detail Dual Tip Markers. On another day, we have a small Lego set for the family to put together. This year, it is a Harry Potter Lego kit. I will read a little bit of the Harry Potter series while they put together the Lego's with Dad!

Let me tell you...BOOKS ARE EXPENSIVE! All year long, I keep a list of books I want to add to our library. I start making the purchases by going first to ThriftBooks.com. What I can't find there, I purchase from Amazon. Another great idea is to find 25 books from your local library and use them!

Here is our list for this year. You can click on the title for a link to the book at Amazon.

1. What Should Darla Do?

2. Little Critter The Night Before Christmas

3. Frog and Toad are Friends: 50th Anniversary Edition

4. Shark Lady

5. Richard Scarry's Christmas Mice

6. The Story Orchestra: Sleeping Beauty

7. More Caps for Sale: Another Tale of Mischievous Monkeys

8. 1001 Things to Spot at Christmas

9. Once Upon a Goat

10. Argus

11. Churri and Chirra Under the Sea

12. Santa's Story

13. Oh No!

14. Madeline's Christmas

15. Marcel the Shell: With Shoes On

16. A Gift for Santa

17. Fox's Socks

18. Jamberry

19. Richard Scarry's Best Mysteries Ever

20. Each Peach Pear Plum

21. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Pop Up Book

22. Did You See That Dinosaur?

23. The Skunk

If you have a book list, whether it is for the school year, the summer, or Christmas, I would love to hear your suggestions! This Mama needs to start preparing for Christmas 2022! (P.S. Our 25 Books for Christmas tradition is something we do every other year.)

~Andrea

DIY Fabric Bags for Christmas

How do you feel about fabric gift bags for wrapping Christmas presents? I love a good old fashioned paper and bow, but it does seem like a waste. Today, it's becoming quite popular to make reusable fabric bags for wrapping the presents. Here is a short tutorial of how to make a fabric gift bag.

What you will need for making fabric gift bags:

• Assortment of fabric
• Pinking sheers or a serger to keep the edges of the fabric from fraying
• Sewing machine
• Thread
• Ribbon or cord
• Pins
• Large Safety Pin

Step One:

Cut rectangular shapes in various sizes. I suggest 8 inches by 14 inches, 11 inches by 22 inches, and for big items 36 inches by 72 inches.

Step Two:

Fold the rectangle in half with front sides of the fabric together.

Step Three:

Sew the bottom and the side of the bag, but be sure to stop about 2 inches from the top when you are sewing the side seam. That will leave room for the casing that holds the ribbon.

Step Four:

Create the casing for your ribbon or cord by folding down the fabric and pinning it.

Step Five:

Sew the casing.

Step Six:

Cut a long piece of ribbon or cord. Put a large safety pin at the end so that you can easily string it through the bag's casing.

   

   

Step 7:

Turn the bag right-side-out, add the present, and pull the string to close.

~Amie

What's in Our Amazon Carts: November 2020

We had fun gathering together all our Amazon shopping lists in last month's post "What's in Our Amazon Cart?" Today, we are sharing what we have purchased, or are hoping to purchase, for November! We have had some birthdays to plan for and of course, Christmas is coming up. What about you? Are you preparing your list for Black Friday or Cyber Monday?

Amie's Amazon Cart

Amie's still doing Christmas shopping and their family celebrated Chad's 47th birthday this month! Here are a few fun things she has or had in her Amazon cart.

Andrea's Amazon Cart

Andrea is planning a very Merry Christmas for her girls! Buying gifts is hard when you always have the kids with you, so using Amazon for toy shopping is a win.

Christine's Amazon Cart

Christine continues to dream of their summer road trip. Just look at all these fun games for family vacation she has picked up already!

Amanda's Amazon Cart

Amanda is TIRED! With the wedding over, she has just a few more days to prepare for Thanksgiving dinner. She says she hasn't had time to shop like she wants to, but we know she has just been shopping the local stores! Here's a look at what's been in her Amazon cart or already purchased.

We'd love to hear from you! What's been your number 1 favorite Amazon purchase in the last month? Share with us in the comments below!

The Fletcher Farmhouse has entered into an affiliate relationship with Amazon. Clicking on links provided in this blog post may result in a commission being paid to The Fletcher Farmhouse at no additional charge to you.

Seven Ideas for Repurposing Your Clothes

Do you re-purpose clothing? I absolutely hate throwing away clothes! Even if it has a rip, a hole, a stain or is two sizes too small, I just think to myself, "I bet I could make something out of that!"

Here are a few things I do to re-purpose clothing:

1) When the kids were young and growing like crazy, I would buy new, long sleeve shirts in the fall and make sure they were nice and roomy in size. Then, come springtime, I would cut all the sleeves off and hem them to make into short-sleeves. Saved me a ton of money! By the end of summer, the shirt had been well worn and outgrown.

Summer T-shirts made from long sleeve
fall shirts!

2) When my skirts get too small, I resize them smaller for my girls. I did this with my old dresses, too. A too-tight dress had just the right amount of fabric to make a girls size dress for a toddler!

3) I use scarves to make one-of-a-kind pillows. The colors are often unique and I love that! When the scarf is too sheer or light-weight, you can put another more sturdy fabric (like a cotton blend or muslin) behind it.

4) Favorite old sweater have a hole in it? Turn it into a pair of mittens! I have crocheted many a pair of mittens for a variety of service projects, but this idea of using old sweaters is AWESOME! I have all my sweaters washed and ready, but haven't yet tried to make these mittens. Here's a quick tutorial to show you how I plan to make them!

5) Do you have a bunch of stained t-shirts? My mom would cut them up and use them as rags for cleaning. That's great, but you can only use so many rags! My friend Jodie uses her old T-shirts to make quilts. It's a pretty popular thing to do these days, especially if you have been collecting your children's favorite T's for awhile. Hopefully, the stains aren't on the front/middle of the T-shirt! Here's an example of one of Jodie's T-shirt quilts!

6) Here's an idea from my grandmother. Cut old cotton clothes into long strips about 1/4 to 1/2 inch wide. Sew the ends together for a giant ball of fabric "yarn". Use the yarn to crochet an old fashioned rug. You can also use cut up denim from old jeans. P.S. You will need a really big crochet hook! I suggest size N.

7) Do you have old flannel Christmas jammies? We have had a tradition of Christmas Jammies for over a decade and I just hate throwing them out...even though they usually have a hole or two in the knee! Instead, use the flannel Christmas jammies as fabric for fun Christmas crafts like these little trees!

I saw an almost identical set of flannel Christmas trees at Walmart recently and decided to make some myself. 

Want to try to make some too? Here's what you need:

1. old flannel jammies with a Christmas theme

2. a dowel rod the size you think is appropriate (I liked the precut dowel rods, here.)

3. wood base (These are perfect and less than a $1 each!)

4. scissors, regular or pinking shears for a fun look

5. needle and thread

6. cotton stuffing 

Grandma would be proud of me for taking to heart the old adage "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without!"

The Fletcher Farmhouse has entered into an affiliate relationship with Walmart. Clicking on links provided in this blog article may result in a commission being paid to The Fletcher Farmhouse at no additional cost to you.

Easy Halloween Party Ideas

Even though here in Ohio, we aren't doing anything big for Halloween because of COVID, Andrea (who lives in a small community in Virginia) was able to get her Girl Scouts together for an outdoor Halloween party. It was a smashing success! So with that, we are sharing her awesome ideas complete with FREE links and more!

Easy Halloween Party Decor

Because the party was set in the woods just outside their house, the backdrop was already made. Lights, fake cobwebs, jack-o-lanterns, glow sticks galore, and hanging skeletons added to the spooky feel.

The food table was set with Halloween party plates and lots of yummy treats. To make sure everyone was safe, a server with clean hands put the treats on the girls' plates. Hand sanitizer was available in several places as well.

We also found 100 ways to decorate for Halloween all from the Dollar Tree! Check out those ideas, here.

Party Games

Halloween Scavenger Hunt: This cute card Andrea used was purchased from Etsy, but there are hundreds available for free on Pinterest. We like this FREE one from Gift of Curiosity. 

To make things a bit easier on you, just print a picture of each item (about 8 1/2 by 11 inches) and hang the pictures around the house or outside location. Because this little group of goblins were going to be searching in a wooded area and it was a little more dark, Andrea hung a glow stick with each of the items so that the girls could easily find the items on the scavenger list!

Each girl also got a fun bat stacking crayon stick purchased from Walmart.

What's that Smell?:  This was a fun game! Inside each mason jar was something with a familiar scent. The girls were given a card to write their answers on. They would smell the contents of the jar and guess what they thought was in it!

Andrea painted each of her jars with enamel paints so that it would stick to the glass. You could also use a spray paint for the initial coat which may make it easier to have your acrylic paints adhere to the glass.

Items in the "What's that Smell?" jars included: vinegar, dog food, a wax melt, orange, cinnamon stick, chocolate bar, and soap. Put one item in each jar and then cover with foil. Be sure to poke a few holes in the top so that the contents can be smelled.

Spooky Touch Activity: This one requires lots of caution! This fun cardboard poster has hand holes where the witches and wizards can put their hands to feel the spooky things on the other side. They get a chance to feel the items and guess what they are. Andrea made cooked spaghetti, peeled grapes, hot dogs, slime, rice, and canned corn.

To make the Spooky Touch Activity safe for COVID, each girl was to put on hand sanitizer, feel the things, then wash with hand sanitizer again. As an additional precaution, a water cooler with warm water and some hand soap added another layer of protection against spreading germs!

Make a Mummy: Some toilet paper or some old sheets torn in strips can be used for teams to dress a friend like a mummy! This game led to quite a few giggles and falls! Make it really interesting and have your mummies do a race!

Learn a Fun Halloween Song: Andrea led her troop in learning a fun Halloween song. (Pictured at the top) As children, Andrea and her sisters could often be heard singing this little song:

To add to the atmosphere of this easy-peasy Halloween party, there was spooky kid-friendly Halloween music playing in the background. Each child left with a goodie bag filled with candy and party favors!

How are you celebrating Halloween this year? We would love to hear your ideas in the comments below!

~Amie

What's In Our Amazon Cart?

 We sure have been doing a lot of Amazon shopping here at the Fletcher Farmhouses! Yes, I said houses because my sisters and I all have busy, but different, households and you might be surprised at what's in our Amazon carts as of late! We've been planning for homeschool, birthdays, Christmas, and now a WEDDING! Check out things we have recently purchased and loved.

Christine's Amazon Cart: Christine is thinking about fitness and motivating her family to read more. And if you know Christine, there is ALWAYS a purse or two in her Amazon cart!

Amie's Amazon Cart: Amie always starts Christmas shopping in October, so her cart has a few items the kids and hubby have been wanting. The thermometer was a special purchase she made for herself because she thinks she needs more than one!

Mandie's Amazon Cart: Mandie has just three weeks to finish planning her daughter's wedding and she is making it look easy! You might notice she has done a little birthday shopping for her youngest, too! Happy almost birthday, Eli!

Andrea's Amazon Cart: Andrea always puts us to shame with her cart of healthy treats and organic goodies! 

What's in your cart this month? Did you go crazy on Amazon Prime Day? We might have!

Happy fall to you all. Shop til' you drop and if you find any good deals, let us know in the comments below!

The Fletcher Farmhouse has entered into an affiliate relationship with Amazon. Clicking on the links provided in this blog post may result in a commission being paid to The Fletcher Farmhouse at no additional cost to you.