Hello Again

This week I did something a little crazy.  Even though I have about 3 bushels of apples in my house right now, and tomatoes to be made into salsa, I decided to craft!

I love Pinterest, and I have been seeing so many fun projects that are a combination of candlesticks and mason jars to make cute containers, or candle sticks and platters to make cake stands that I decided it was time to do a little experimenting.  I saw someone once use glass candle holders to make the cutest pumpkins.  She used vinyl for the face, and then filled the containers with orange marbles.  So cute!  Well, what can I say?  I like food a lot more than I like marbles, so I decided to try a variation of that with cute Halloween candy.  And then I thought, why not put the glass bowls on top of some fun candlesticks?  Here's what I came up with:

What do you think?  I'm really happy with how these turned out.  Of coarse, my little pumpkin would look better if I had been able to find the candy corn M & M's like I wanted, but that's another story.  All of the supplies were purchased at Hobby Lobby.  To make them you will need:

• Large glass bowl (from the floral department)

• Small glass bowl (this one was in the candle department)

• Large glass candlestick

• Small glass candlestick

• Lid - also from the candle department (normally used as a base for a pillar candle).  It's not a really secure fit, but it works

• Black tulle ribbon

• Super incredibly strong glue that is intended for gluing glass.  There are a number of adhesives that would probably do the job.  I picked one called Omni-Stick because it dries clear and becomes dishwasher safe.  

• Black vinyl cut into jack-o-lantern shapes.  I used some Snapdragon Snippets designs from the Silhouette online store

 And here's where they are on display in my kitchen.

And here's what is below:

I have about 3 bushels of apples in my kitchen right now (this is not all of them).  So far I have made 32 quarts of applesauce, 7 quarts of apple pie filling, and dried a lot of apples too.  Today I thought I would experiment with my juicer:

So we'll see how that turns out.  The rest of the apples are going to be turned into cider.  A friend in our neighborhood has a cider press and has been kind enough to let us use it.  I'll take pictures and post later on that.  Oh, and all of this is coming from two apple trees.  Ya, just two.  It's been a good year for apples.

Random Ramblings

It has been a long, HOT summer!  I'm sorry that I have been M.I.A., but as much as I love creating I love my family more.  On that note, for those of you who are fans of My Pink Stamper, she made a very important announcement recently.  I can relate all too well to her feelings and applaud her for her decision.

Where does that leave me?  It's very liberating actually.  I truly loved being a Pink Designer, but I tend to have tunnel vision when I'm working with a particular company.  If a product doesn't work or can't be used with the products I'm demonstrating, I disregard them.  I was a demonstrator for a stamp company for about 7 years and I had the same experience.  So now it's like I get a fresh start!  And I enjoy so much more than papercrafting!

I have been doing a little:

followed by a little:

So far I have bottle peaches, made peach jam, dried peaches, lots of peach cobbler, and today I think I may make some peach salsa!  I do a lot of canning.

I've also been doing:

My tomato plants are usually prettier than this.  It's been HOT and dry this summer.














followed by a little:

OK - the picture was of tomatoes, and this is tomatillo salsa, but you get the idea.  The tomatoes aren't ready yet!

And there has been a lot of this:

I didn't know it was possible to produce this much laundry!  During the summer you wear less clothes, right?  Who know that all that swimming could produce so much laundry?

Soon I will be doing a lot of:

 Concord grape juice or jelly anyone?


















After that, it won't be long before we'll be enjoying:

Can you see my "Casper" pumpkin hiding in there?  We have the most amazing pumpkin patch ever.  Apparently it's a good idea to plant your pumpkins where the compost used to be.  The Great Pumpkin is definitely coming to our house this year!  ;-)

Last but not least, now that school has started, I hope to soon be doing more of:

I think it's really important to have a creative outlet.  I love to work with my hands and there are so many crafty/homey things that I enjoy that I could probably putter around all day from one thing to the other.  But I have 3 children, the youngest of whom is 5, and they are my top priority.  That said, I also think it's extremely important that we, as women, spend time doing things we love - preferably while spending time with other women.  We need each other!  Honestly, I'm really bad at that part.  I love being with my friends, but it's far to easy to get so busy with life and the family's needs that you completely forget your own.  My goal over the next few months is to reestablish my priorities, find peace and joy in my family and the gospel of Jesus Christ, and invest some time in making a better me.

Phew!

I am happy to report that I survived my week of canning last week - barely!  I can't even bring myself to do an inventory this year, but if you want an idea of what I have done in the past check out this link.  I am not doing that much this year though, thank goodness.  I think I am about done with my harvest this year - maybe a few more tomatoes (if any survived the frost), and carrots to be picked.  Then it's time to rip everything out so it will be ready for next year.

Here's another Christmas card for your viewing pleasure!

This is one of my favorite ways to make a simple card, by using a border punch along the bottom, some great cuts with a great sentiment, and embellish!  Although I notice that the sentiment is a little hard to see in this picture.  It says, "Believe," and is from the My Pink Stamper set Christmas Wishes.  Speaking of My Pink Stamper, don't forget that this Friday is Pinkalicious Blog Hop time.  I hope to see you there!

Stamp:  My Pink Stamper Christmas Wishes
Cricut Cartridge:  Winter Frolic
Border Punch:  Fiskars
Paper:  AC Cardstock
Embellishments:  Silver cord (Stampin Up)

More Christmas Cards

What a crazy week this is going to be!  I have pears coming out of my ears right now.  Yesterday I canned 7 quarts of pears, and 6 1/2 pints of pear jam.  I swore that I wasn't going to do any canning this year because I knew that we would be busy with preparations for (hopefully) our move.  But pear jam is our family's favorite!  And then yesterday a good friend asked me if I wanted any tomatoes.  Glutton for punishment that I am, I gratefully said yes because my tomato crop has been a little pitiful this year.  And I can't go back to store bought salsa!  So, I have my work cut out for me - especially since it is supposed to snow in a few days.  It's time to bring in the harvest!  Isn't this the most beautiful sight:

It's not a great picture, but I think jars of canned goods are so beautiful!

But enough of that.  I thought I would share another Christmas card with you this morning.

For those of you who know me, you know that I love red.  So of coarse I love poinsettias!

Stamp:  My Pink Stamper Christmas Wishes
Cricut Cartridge:  Christmas Solutions, Gypsy
Embossing:  Cuttlebug Winter Wonderland set
Paper:  Roberts Crafts (gold foil), AC Cardstock
Embellishments:  red twine, red button

Some more fall for y'all

Back to Andrea's turn...

Autumn to me means so many things:  beautiful colors, the smell of the falling leaves, a crisp bite in the air, harvest time, pumpkins, warm sweaters, hay rides, apples.  There must be something magical in the air when your child comes in and asks if they can rake the leaves.

I love the community that I live in because I am surrounded by apple orchards and have lots of varieties of fresh apples right at my fingertips.  What I love, maybe even more, is apple cider.  Last week we made our first trip of the season to Farnsworth Farms and bought 2 gallons of unpasteurized apple cider.  YUM!  And since it's unpasteurized you have to drink it quickly because you wouldn't want all that fresh goodness getting too happy and fermenting.  This cider mill was a great find thanks to one of my favorite housemuffin websites:

• http://www.pickyourown.org/

I found this website last year when I was looking for local growers that I could purchase produce from and have since used it for so many different things.  This is a great resource for everything from crop calendars and picking, to recipes and information on preserving techniques.  If you click on your state you can find a list of local growers and what they sell.  They even have links for pumpkin patches, corn mazes, and (dare I say) Christmas tree farms and lots.  Check it out!

Last Harvest!

Hello everyone! This is Emily. I'll be blogging for this week, and then it's Andrea's turn again.

Today I'm busy wrapping up the end of my gardening season. I've already plucked all my tomato plants out of the ground and brought in the last clinging tomatoes (we already had our first freeze!). I've got them in boxes hoping they're far enough along that they'll ripen, or else it's green tomato salsa for me! But to be honest, I am so done canning this year. I didn't get quite as much canned as Andrea (I think I only did about 100 jars--mostly tomatoes) but the thought of getting out all the gear--strainers, and stockpots, and jars, canners... ugh. I've got more ripe tomatoes sitting on my counter that I've neglected a bit too long. Oops! Into the compost pile! All right, it's canning time for me!

If you're in the same boat, ripening techniques can be found at Tipnut.com or wikihow.

And just in case your tomatoes don't ripen, there's tons of recipes for green tomatoes also at Tipnut. I might be testing these out!

I love harvest time!

Emily and I have both been canning up a storm the past few weeks, and she asked me yesterday how many bottles I had canned.  I honestly had no idea, so I decided while the latest batch of applesauce was in the steam canner that I would take inventory.  There were 193 bottles!  Here's what I have canned this year so far:

• Pears - 7 quarts
• Pear Jam - 13 pints, 5 half pints
• Pear Mincemeat - 3 quarts, 1 pint
• Peaches - 39 quarts
• Peach Jam - 6 pints, 5 half pints
• Peach butter - 7 half pints
• Peach chutney - 4 pints, 4 half pints
• Tomato Salsa - 26 pints, 4 half pints
• Tomatillo Salsa (salsa verde) - 9 pints
• Tomatoes - 7 quarts, 16 pints
• Elderberry Syrup - 4 pints
• Elderberry Jelly - 5 half pints
• Chokecherry Syrup - 4 pints, 1 half pint
• Blackberry Jam - 8 pints, 5 half pints
• Apples - 5 quarts
• Applesauce - 5 quarts

Phew!  And there will probably be some grape jelly and maybe some plums to come.  Call me a geek, call me Betty Crocker, but I think bottled fruits and veggies are beautiful!  They just look so much prettier sitting on my shelves than ugly aluminum cans.  They make fabulous Christmas gifts too!  That said, canning is hard work and in the process of doing all this I learned a few things.  First of all, personally, unless you are growing it yourself or have been given the produce for free I don't think it's worth it.  Unless you really love canning, it's cheaper to go to the grocery store.  Second, ask your friends and neighbors if they have bottles they aren't using and would be willing to give you.  The jars are expensive, and although you can use them over and over again, it's great if you can get them for free!  Third, recruit a friend or member of your family.  It goes way faster and is a lot more fun when you have someone working alongside you.

Just for laughs, here is my Top 10 ways that you know you've been doing too much canning (and I'm not admitting anything!) and they are in no particular order:

1. If your two year old has watched every DVD in your collection
2. If said two year old refuses to eat at the kitchen table anymore because he has eaten so many meals on the couch in front of the TV
3. If your 8 year old sends you an email saying that she hopes that I, "have good canning days," and when I'm done could we please do some crafts together?"
4. If your house hasn't been properly cleaned in weeks
5. If the weatherman says that there's going to be frost, and instead of covering up your beloved heirloom tomato plants you just let them succumb to nature
6. If you tell your neighbors that they are welcome to anything in your garden they want, if they will just come and help you do the canning!
7. If every horizontal surface in your kitchen is covered in a layer of sugar syrup
8. If your husband has been able to sample 4 different varieties of salsa
9. If your fingers are burning for days after chopping the peppers used to make the salsa (I know, I know, I'll use gloves next time)
10. If your family would never know that you love to cook because you have been feeding them frozen pizza and every other frozen leftover you've been able to find.

Update:  Make that an even 200.  I did 7 bottles of plums, and I think if I can anymore I'm going to have a nervous breakdown, so that's enough for this year!  ;-)