Little house living: the make-your-own guide to a frugal, simple, and self-sufficient life

Product Description A motivational homemaking guide inspired by Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie books, featuring creative, fun ways to live your life simply and frugally from the immensely popular blogger behind Little House Living—perfect for fans of Ree Drummond’s The Pioneer Woman. Shortly after getting married, Merissa A. Alink and her husband found themselves with nothing in their pantry but a package of spaghetti, orange preserves, and some bread crumbs. They had hit rock bottom, and only a touching act of charity was able to get them back on their feet. Inspired by this gesture of kindness as well as by prairie living, Merissa set out to have an entirely made-from-scratch life, the “Little House” way, embracing a blissful self-sufficient existence. She rescued her household budget and started to write about homesteading, homemaking, and cooking from scratch. As whole foods became staples of the family diet, Merissa realized the dangers of putting overly processed ingredients not only into our bodies but on or near them as well. In addition to countless delicious, home-cooked dishes, she created natural, easy-to-make recipes for every household need from sunblock and taco seasoning mix to lemon poppy body scrub and furniture polish. Brimming with more than 130 practical, simple DIY recipes and projects, gorgeous full-color photographs, and charming personal stories and lifestyle tips, Little House Living is the epitome of heartland warmth and prairie inspiration. Review "With her own experiences as guide, [Merissa] Alink demonstrates that some aspects of rural living translate to any situation...Alink brings a bit of [Laura Ingalls] Wilder's life into the present. This title will find a comfortable home in most library collections. Especially warranted where Wendy McClure's The Wilder Life has found popularity." -- Library Journal "Author and popular blogger Merissa A. Alink shows us how easy it is...A fabulous array of simple, wholesome and delicious recipes, both savory and sweet, rounds out this heartwarming guide to modern homesteading. Some household tips are timeless indeed." -- Bookpage Top Pick About the Author Merissa A. Alink fully believes in her mission statement of “making the most with what you have” and commits each day to taking the best possible care of her family. Since 2009, she’s been writing her blog, Little House Living, and sharing tips about simple living with from-scratch recipes, make-your-own tutorials, and much more. Merissa loves living a quiet life with her family of four on a little 125-year-old farm that they are renovating in rural South Dakota. Visit her at LittleHouseLiving.com. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Little House Living dry shampoo · · · If you had told me a few years ago that after I had kids I wouldn’t get to shower until after my husband got home from work, I would have laughed at you. I mean, it only takes a few minutes in the morning to jump in the shower and get cleaned up and ready for the day . . . how would adding kids to that routine make any difference? Oh, the things we say before we become mothers! Not long after we brought our first son home I began to realize the impossibility that was taking a morning shower. If I tried to get up before all other household members, it was too early and I was too sleepy to remember to shampoo my hair while I was in there, or if the baby was still sleeping and I tried to jump in the shower, I would find that it would just wake him up, and of course trying to shower with a little one in the bathroom with you just doesn’t work at all and tends to be more hassle than it’s worth. Enter dry shampoo. This useful little product can keep my hair from feeling limp and greasy all day, plus I feel like I at least tried to make myself look presentable. It also can come in handy on a camping trip when a shower isn’t available. Grab these few items from your pantry and you are ready to go! Dry Shampo