Canning, one of the joys of summer

Of all the joys of motherhood and being a wife, cooking and cleaning are my 2 least favorite. Not to say they don't get done, but they are the drudgery part of my life. They are a viscious circle. You must eat to survive. If you want to be frugal (and let's face it, most of us need to right now) you must cook at home. Cooking makes a messy kitchen. Not once a day, but at least 3 times (if you don't have monsterously hungry midgets, who are constantly biting at your heels begging to be fed)


Like you didn't feed them an hour ago. My kids are never NOT hungry. I have no idea how they survived a 100 years ago, because my kids need constant fuel. Sorry totally different rant, back to cooking and cleaning!

Then you must clean the mess from cooking. And eating. And drinking. No matter how many times, you declare " All food must stay at the table!" it falls on deaf ears, at least at my house, because I always find the remains of what was lunch, snack, dinner, etc.. crumbled across the floor, trailing to the door. Sigh..... I hate cleaning. Have I said that?

 One thing I don't mind cleaning and probably falls in the cooking category, is the mess from canning. I don't know why, but seeing, my food (especially food I grow at my house, in my garden) all sparkly and nice in rows of jars, brings me so much satisfaction.

It takes time. It is hot. But oh, be still my little heart. I always feel a glow when I look at the rows in my pantry (or currently my guest bedroom, aka the fabric store) ready to eat come the fall and winter, when all the prices skyrocket on our favorites, like peaches. Or when I go to make salsa or spaghetti sauce, which I make regularily, and the tomatoes are ones grown in my backyard.

This is a summer of plenty. I have canned tomatoes, peaches and my newest Double Berry Vanilla Peach Syrup.

So yummy on cheesecake, ice cream, waffles, pancakes. Served over cream cheese with crackers. Oh, I am sure there is more. I stumbled on this, quite by accident, several years ago. I was making peach jam and I didn't have enough peaches for all my jars. So not wanting to waste anything, I looked into my freezer and had a bag of frozen triple berries. I don't even know what kind of berries were in there, it was called frozen triple berries. I added it to my peach jam and it was a hit. My husband had a fit, if I shared it with anyone. It is his! Period. He is not normally like this, so I knew success was in the bag. I experimented from there. I found a recipe on Food.com for Vanilla Peach Syrup and adapted it to what I wanted. Here's my recipe for Double Berry Vanilla Peach Syrup.

5 cups peaches/berries (choose 2 of your favorites) Fresh is always better, but frozen works too!
2 Tbl lemon juice
1,5 cups of sugar

Puree all this in your blender or food processor
Simmer for 5 minutes
Add 2 Tbl vanilla

Pour in sterilized cans
Water bath for 20 minutes (just means put the cans in a large stock pot with water over the top of jars, boil for 20 minutes)

Take them out and let them cool ( I leave'em out for 24 hours and then make sure the lids are sealed)

Then lable and store!

A 2 Year Project... sigh

Two years ago, my oldest wanted to decorate her room and she wanted crafty things to do... (she is a bit like her mom) so I had this fabulous plan. My awesome sister and her kids, made rugs for their rooms. I thought, we will do this too! We will have fun, doing a project together. Kill two birds with one stone. SO, I paid for the materials, wrapped everything up and Christmas here we came. Should have known, life is never  what we picture in our head.

She wasn't that excited about her present, but seemed willing. My sister helped her choose a design and we opened up the mat and drew it on the mat. Then we started the project. My daughter actually did two strips of fabric before she was bored. I kept after her. I became a giant nag. No matter. She got about 13 strips total done and then told me " it gives me a headache and makes me dizzy", "forget it, I don't want it". This was not the project I thought it would be.  I put it away for awhile and would randomly get it out and try to tease and tempt her into working on. I could get everyone but her to try. So the project would be put up for awhile, but it takes up a LOT of room. The mat we purchased was huge. There was only one size at my fabric store and it was not the same size as my sisters. We should have cut it down, but... we live and we learn.

Just before Christmas this year, I decided this thing was gonna get done, one way or another and I buckled down and tried to do some work on it every day. SLOWLY but, surely, it did happen. The rug actually got done. The closer I got to finishing it, the more the members of my family took interest and wanted the rug. Even my husband. He kept telling the kids we were keeping it in our room. I feel a little like the Little Red Hen. I couldn't get a bit of help, but everyone wanted it when it was done. I actually put it, in my oldest's room, but it was her Christmas present and I spilled a can of paint in the middle of her room, right after we moved into the house, so we needed something to cover up the spill.

Here is the finished product.

I am so glad this is done! I am not sure I will ever make a rug again, but it is awesome. I used fleece and it is thick and cozy.

Upcycle, upcyle

I love the first of the year. We can look at the old and start fresh. I must have been in that mood, because during January, I was attacking my jean stack making the old new.

I found a great tutorial, through pinterest, for the cutest apron. http://kimboscrafts.blogspot.com/2010/02/levi-apron.html

I followed her tutorial for the most part, but at the neck, I wanted a button, I wanted it to fit, but not pull on my neck (plus I really hate things tied around my neck, always makes me feel clausterphobic!)

And then I left the bottom with the original hem from the jeans.

My girls all want their own and so now I have a stack of their old jeans awaiting their aprons.

February, a new month, already!

I can't quite believe that February has snuck up on me. January just flew by. I think the entire month was spent with one person after another in our family being sick, but everyone is finally back to 100%, and as the mama, boy am I glad!

I did get several projects done in January. I had been given a very old, handmade table/cabinet. That had definetly seen better days. The doors were falling off, the back was missing. I spent a couple days putting it back together. I added a strip of wood, from our deck in San Antonio to the back that was missing. Totally got rid of one door. Sanded, stripped, primed, painted and added some turquoise knobs that I just love.

I also painted the inside white and added contact paper, for a little pop.

And, of course, I distressed, because that is always my favorite part. I really love this little piece and if fits so nicely next to my bed. I really should sell it, but not sure if I can part with it!.

Christmas 2012

This is the only picture I have of decorating our Christmas tree, because I was trying my hand at making a digital photobook and somehow managed to delete all my pictures of my kids hanging ornaments. I feel pretty sick about the whole thing, but hopefully I have learned and next time I 'create' a photobook I will be able to do it without losing my pictures.

The entire month of December was filled with the Christmas spirit. It was truly one of the best Christmas's that I can remember. We had secret santas come different nights and leave treats and presents

It was soooo exciting for K4 that he was a little bit scary! We got sweet notes, treats and so much more. He got a tent and tunnel this night and we set it up in his room and everyone has played with it for the entire month (I had to put it up when company came just before Christmas) but he has already asked for it to be put back up.


K4 is my first kid to go see Santa without running away screaming or in tears, so I want to just celebrate that here.

He is such a fun kid

Steve's birthday was quiet, but the kids love his tradition of giving them gifts on his birthday (he hates gifts, all gifts and almost always returns them!) and so they were pretty excited.

There is Mr. handsome himself. He even insisted he didn't want me to make a cake (he went and bought a cheesecake, just so I didn't have to cook) the kids loved that too!

K4 doesn't even wait for a fork! And he got that blue and black dinosaur and it has gone everywhere with him.

Steve managed to actually coral the kids before church one day and get their pictures (little hams!)

The biggest event we really had, was Dec. 22, 2012 at 6:30 pm, Steve decided the time had come for Mark to baptize him. On Saturday, two of my sisters and their families and my parents drove in and stayed the night, for the start of our grand adventures.

upcycled storage table

Did you ever have a piece of furniture that you inherited and just didn't know what to do with, but can't quite get rid of either?

Well, this is our piece, inherited from dearly departed Gramma Vic. She gave it to my husband years ago and it has moved everywhere with us; while fitting no where. This piece of furniture is heavy and was dark and the hardware had come off somewhere along the way.

It got booted to my craft room, when we laid new flooring last fall and sat there, in my way, for months. I finally decided I was going to do something with it. I  move it to the furniture, upcycle store (my backyard) and eventually got around to sanding it.

After that, I painted a coat of primer on it and once again, it sat waiting a final decision.



It took awhile, but I finally decided on a trendy turquoise...not because it's trendy, but because turquoise is my favorite color. With some distressing and new hardware, I finally fell in love.

Now my husband wants me to sell it, but I am really thinking it might need to go on my side of the bed as a nightstand.

upcycled tire planters

UPDATED VERSIONS:

 Sparkly Pink- cuz we all need a little glitter,even in the garden

 The Ladybug, this planter is so big, it dwarfs most of my little plants

 Purple Pansy

I just love the shape of this copper one!

 

A couple of weeks ago, someone dumped a lot of tires in the empty lot across from our home.

My wonderful hubby asked if there wasn't something I could do with them, because they were such an eye sore and he thought maybe I could use them as a planter and a ladder (because our children and the kids next door love to scale the brick wall and talk to each other.

Of course, once an idea is in my head I can't let it go and I never go simple. So I decided they needed to be cut and turned inside out. Just that easy right. When I looked on line there are not that many people who post about projects with tires. (if You do and I didn't see it I am sorry! I only have the patience of a 2 year old for researching something!) But the one post I found to be helpful is found here

http://www.wuvie.net/tireplanter.htm from Karen Manasco of Wuv'n Acres Gardens

I decided to use an old steak knife that we have had for years, drew a pattern with a red dixie cup for the petaled ones and just a straight cut for the others. I have not as of yet made a stepping planter for the kids to climb and us to plant in, but am having fun with these. Apparently they are the best thing to grow potatoes and tomatoes in this area. Lots of people have used tire planters before and a few people had grandparents who even cut there's like flowers, but no one here has seen them painted.

As for turning them inside out, Steve (wonderful hubby who groans when I get in project mode, but often is the reason I have a project - l this one is a perfect example) and I played twister for 20-30 minutes for each of these plus one more. I have now found out that most tire shops have a machine that will do this for you- you just have to ask! So when I decide to build my staircase planter, that is what I will do!