Category Archives: crafts

Rocking the farm

April 24, 2021crafts, Family, fun, gardeningsusanmanzke

Rebecca has a thing for farm rocks. She uses them as a base for her copper trees and she also uses them to decorate her yard.

When she had a day off of work, daughter Rebecca came to the farm and used her energy to collect rocks.

I lifted a few rocks, but mostly I kept a lookout for rocks worth choosing.

Rebecca finds a few choice field rocks

Unloading the cart is also work

I only mashed my fingers once.

The video below is different and I don’t know what I did to get the special effects.

This was an ‘oops’ and I’d love to do it again some time. If you know how, email me at sunnybook@aol.com

The call of a Christmas project

December 20, 2020Christmas, Columns, craftssusanmanzke

Today I was working again on a crochet gnome, but other than that, I’ve not been very creative this Christmas.

My homemade holiday went on the back burner when my writing took center stage–yes, that’s a mixed metaphor.

Though one project did call my name. This column reading goes back to that Christmas.

This year writing and recording take up a lot of my time, but crafts did appear again, in the form of gnomes.

Though I’m not working on many creations, I admire all those who work hours to make Christmas crafts. You do a great job.

Christmas casualty

December 19, 2020Christmas, Columns, craftssusanmanzke

I don’t always remember what kind of craft I made for Christmas over the years, but I do remember when I became a craft casualty.

Everything was going smoothly until…….

Take this as a warning. Don’t get too confident when using a sharp knife. If you do, nasty things can happen.

One treasure

November 22, 2020Bob, crafts, Memoriessusanmanzke

This is a two in one treasure today.

Sorry, I neglected to put a date on this. We made it sometime after 1993. That’s when I started wearing my gold wedding band. It was a gift for our twentieth anniversary.

My actual wedding band hadn’t been worn since I was pregnant with Rob. In 1975, my fingers swelled and I almost had to cut the ring off. Luckily, after much work, I was able to remove it in one piece.

Bob only wore his wedding ring on our wedding day. After that he put it away. He was afraid of losing his finger in a farm accident. Bob had a friend who caught his ring when jumping from the bed of a grain truck, catching it, and losing his finger in the process.

In our early years together, it bothered me that he wouldn’t wear the ring. But eventually I grew up and agreed with Bob.

Bitten by a bug

October 26, 2020Columns, crafts, creativitysusanmanzke

This happens to me ever so often. The bug is the craft bug.

I hope you enjoy the aftereffects of the bite that got me back in the 80s.

I have to admit, I’ve been bitten again, but I’m not quite ready to share what my new project is, except it is something I’ve never done before.

Susan Manzke

Writer, Speaker, All-Around Good Person