A huge snowstorm is due to hit southwest Michigan over the next day or so. I am so excited, mainly because I would love to go snowmobiling. I also just love snow, especially around Christmas. Just adds to the season, I say.

And I am excited that I have snow falling on my blog. How fun!

I also need to get cracking at the homemade gifts I plan on making for Christmas gifts. I have (most of) the materials. I just need to make myself make the time and get to it. My sister is coming over in a couple weeks for a “Sister Craft Day.” Maybe this can become an annual event? Although there are some items she cannot see…

And I am also making some new decorations for the house and need to get those taken care of as well. Sis and I went to Hobby Lobby on Saturday for our annual first Saturday of December shopping trip. Target was a bit of a bust for me; I have to go back to get an item for Hubby’s stocking. But we had a great time and a yummy lunch at Fazoli’s.

And a note to drivers out there on snowy roads: Drive smart! It is not a good idea to pull right out in front of a line of vehicles (I was once involved in an accident because of someone doing this). Also, it is always good to drive with your lights on in bad weather. Makes it SO much easier to see you.

When we were at the Country Living Fair, my sister went nuts over a few different aprons. At one booth, one of the “sales” ladies had made aprons for each girl working the booth that weekend. Quite cute and crafty! Anyhoo, Sissy did not find one that she liked well enough to purchase.

So when thoughts of what to do for my sis for her birthday started swirling in my head, I knew what I wanted to do! Make her an apron and use a pattern I had seen at a fabric store a few months ago.

I went to Field’s Fabrics in Kalamazoo, since I knew I could definitely find the halter style pattern I wanted to use. Even though it was about 5 months ago when I had seen it on display, I was sure (sincerely hoping!) someone would remember what I was talking about. Turns out that it was a Heather Bailey pattern, Daily Spice Halter Apron. I purchased Amy Butler fabric to use for the apron.

Interestingly enough, one of my favorite booths at the CL Fair, Homegirl, had products using Amy Butler fabric and I overheard the owner saying that she knew Amy Butler. I was jealous. She is just too cool, in my opinion.

On the Saturday before my sissy’s birthday I started on the apron. Yep, I am a procrastinator. But I had all the required materials. Between tracing the pattern (note to self and others: next time purchase large sheets of tracing paper so you do not resort to wax paper, which seemed like a great idea at the time but was a pain because of its slipperiness) and transferring it to the fabric (I had previously pre-washed it) and cutting it out and then sewing it all together (which used new techniques that I scratched my head over for a couple minutes) and pressing it, it took me about 10 hours. Is that bad?

I thought I did fairly well, considering this is the first time I used a pattern and that this project was above my skill level (and possibly the skill level of my sewing machine…). It is certainly not perfect like the one on the pattern cover, but it works. I had fun and enjoyed the process. And the best part–my sister squealed with delight when she opened her gift.

 

The Daily Spice Halter Apron

Close-up of halter detail

Hubby said now that I know what I am doing, it should only take me half the time to make another one. Sometimes his optimism surprises me.

 

I had collected a few old candle jars (mostly from work…gotta keep the office smelling nice!) and was wondering what to do with them after I cleaned them. What to do…what to do.

I dug the jars out the other day, contemplating some more on something crafty. I thought of using frosted glass spray, but then Hubby suggested an even better idea.

Sandblast them.

I knew I married that man for more than just his looks. *grins*

Hubby bought a sandblast cabinet (used) quite a few years ago. It felt like I was a mad scientist sticking my hands in the gloves and peering through the small window. Awesome!

First, I cut masking tape into my desired winter shapes. (I need to buy some Undu to remove the stickiness off my scissors.) Then, I placed them on the jar.

 

Masking tape holly & berries

 

After that, I donned an old sweatshirt. The rubber gloves are starting to rot away on the cabinet and sand leaks out and it is a bit rusty. I spent about 30 minutes sandblasting the jar. The masking tape was nicely sticky and did not come away so that my design would be ruined.

 

After the sandblasting

I stuck my hanky (tied it around my face so I would not breathe in too much dust; the cabinet is not a tight fit) in the jar to better showcase the end result of the holly and berries.

I next took the jar to my craft room where I “painted” over the holly and berry design with Modge Podge. I did one leaf at a time and then the berries as a group. While the glue was still wet, I sprinkled glitter on it.

 

Glitter makes it more fun

 

Now that my jar is done, I am still not sure what I might do with it. So, I decided to see how it would look being re-purposed back into a candle jar/holder.

 

Glow little jar

It may look better with a larger candle than just a tealight. I like how it glows, though! Looks nice and cozy and inviting. Just what is needed in the coming cold and dreary winter months! And unlike the frosted glass spray, I will not have to worry about scratches ruining the look of the jar. I like the permanence of the sandblasting. My hubby has such wonderful ideas!

 

 

One of my purchases at the Country Living Fair was a cookbook from the Gooseberry Patch. My sister had purchased one earlier in the year, and I had it on my wish list for Amazon. Well, at the Fair they had a great deal: $15 each on their cookbooks or 3 for $40. So my momma and I bought the same while my sister bought their Church Suppers book.

Coming Home with Gooseberry Patch (food to bring family & friends to the table) is filled with wonderful, down home tasty recipes. I have only made two recipes so far, with plans to try out many more. For our Thursday night get-together, I made the Crustless Pumpkin Pie. How delectable! Our friends loved it, we loved it, therefore it is definitely what hubby and I refer to as a “repeat.” It is simple to make and turns out wonderful. I decided to go one step further and use heavy whipping cream to make “homemade” whipped cream. YUM.

Tonight (since I had half a can of pumpkin left, I made the Spiced Pumpkin Bread. I have only nibbled on a couple crumbs, but this is surely a repeat as well. I thought of sharing the recipe here, but I thought that might be copyright infringement or something of the sort. You can find the cookbook on the Gooseberry Patch site, and it is currently on sale.

I look forward to making more recipes from this book, particularly from the Bonfire chapter and Gifts for Giving. That is something else that I adore about Gooseberry Patch books: all the wonderful little craft ideas that are tucked into them. I have one of their Christmas books, but have yet to try out too many of the crafts. It is on my list for idea inspiration.

Here is a recipe I will share, courtesy of my brother and sister and I (we all have put our own additions in this).

Andrew’s Soup

The original (in my brother’s words):  a can of mixed veggies, can of beef or chicken broth, can of diced tomatoes. Then add some minced onion, salt, pepper & any other seasoning you like. It’s just something I came up with back in college when I was poor. Oh, you can also add some canned chicken to it.

Sister’s addition: leftover box mac & cheese. It never reheats well, so this is a great use for it! The cheese kind of “falls off” the noodles and mixes with the broth to form a nice cheesy chicken base.

I added into the pot with everything else. Also, I used leftover frozen veggies instead of canned. Still good.

I did not have any canned chicken (must stock up at Aldi’s again!), so I put in crumbled bacon. I also sprinkled in dried parsley. Oh, and I did not have any non-chili ready diced tomatoes so I used a can of stewed tomatoes, slightly drained. It all came together to create a nice, hearty, filling dinner. I made Bisquick biscuits to go with it, too. Great to have on a chilly fall evening.

Happy eating!

I decided that I wanted to change my blog header to go with the fall season. I used some of my photos from the CL Fair trip to Ohio. The only one taken at the fair is the apple gourds. The other two are from this great little orchard/farm that we stopped at on our way home. It is somewhere in Ohio and we found it on our wandering detour of trying to find the turnpike. But it was a beautiful detour! And if we had not taken the scenic route we would not have found this place. They had wonderful donuts and fruits, as well as a petting zoo.

Even though it is still only October, I have begun to plan out Christmas gifts. Since I adore homemade, I figure that I should get started on some projects. What better time on a day like today, where it is cold and gloomy? I am at least going to start a list and if that is all I accomplish today, so be it. After all the crafty items I have seen at the CL Fair, in magazines, and online, I am feeling some inspiration. Now I just need the motivation. *grin*

One of Michigan’s best assets is experiencing all four seasons. I enjoy the coming and going of each one, since each one has its own special attributes.

At the moment, trees are shedding their leaves and the remaining leaves are starting to show off a beautiful display of color. And also a certain scent in the air that only comes with fall. Hard to explain. Best experienced first hand. A coolness has tinged the air and has thus become sweater weather. I love sweater weather. In fact, I feel a need for more sweaters in my closet. I did find a great J.Crew one at Goodwill for only a few dollars–what a deal! Wish Hubby had sweaters that I could borrow (his are all too “manly”; i.e. would not look good on me).

This weekend we are going on a Jeep color tour with a large group of Jeep owners. We ourselves have a 1971 Jeep (I do not know the model) and hubby is working at having the windows zippered on by Saturday. They need some repair work. I know we are going to be near Yankee Springs, and we will be taking a dish to pass, but I am not sure where all we will be going. It is to a three-hour tour. ; ) Seriously.

And since it is fall, a trip to Gull Meadow Farms is overdue. I need to pick up some apple so I can make and can applesauce, as well as some of their fantastic donuts and a few pumpkins. I decided that I should go during the week since they are (at least this past Saturday) packed on the weekends.

Yummmm…donuts.

I did make homemade donuts on Saturday. They tasted wonderful that night and the next morning, but now they taste extra greasy. Is there something extra I should be doing? I did discover that it is best to make them in small ball form rather than just a big scoop. They cook through better that way. I will definitely be trying them out again, especially since Hubby keeps mentioning how great they were…

Having someplace to go is home. Having someone to love is family. Having both is a blessing.

Whew.

Last weekend was a TON of fun. Spending time with my mom and sister, taking a road trip, going to the (first of many?) CL Fair…such a great time! We made it to Ohio in the time frame that Google gave (4.5 hours), no problems finding our hotel, and no problems finding the fair. Such a blessing. By the time we checked into our hotel and ate lunch we arrived at Day 1 of the fair at 230 and stayed until the 5pm closing time. (And I was able to experience Columbus traffic on 71 after 5pm on a Friday. And it really was not that bad!)

One of my first purchases was at the Homegirl booth, where I found an adorable little owl and a coffee cup cozy (say that ten times fast!).

{And yes, I will shamelessly promote all of those whose booths I adored and visited. And some were just so full of patrons that all I could reach was a business card.}

Anyhoo…

Booths I loved and hope to see again shall I ever go to another Country Living Fair:

juNxtaposition (where Mom found a funky necklace),  Laurie Meseroll: Mudcakes, Earth Angels, olive grace studios, llc (where I found adorable owl fabric), Farmhouse 1807 (where I found this wonderful orange-y and red and yellow and all around beautiful roving), La Bonne Vie (Sis and I found a $5 off a $20 purchase coupon of theirs! I also found my cowgirl necklace there.). So many fun booths, and not so much money to purchase everything I would have liked…I guess that made it so that I only purchased that which I REALLY REALLY wanted, right?! *giggle*

My sis and I visited one booth every single day. The Vintage Barn (this is linked to the blog, but there is a website too!) and The Rusty Bird shared a booth, actually. Fun, funky, wonderful booth! I adored the burlap and old button-up shirt aprons, and Virgina Shawver’s egg and nest creations were just exquisite! This booth was too fun, really. I oh-so-wanted to purchase one of the found paper journals (MUST look at these if ever you have a chance). I settled on a t-shirt (since I just really do not have enough t-shirts already. I like to think of them as one of my collections…) and some of Virginia’s artwork, which I think my favorite piece might be the itty bitty egg in an itty bitty nest in a vintage silver swan. (I have become quite fond of swans lately…not sure why.) One fun thing about this booth is that they remembered us each day! With all the people that came through their booth, they remembered a couple of Michigan farm girls! Thank you for that, Rolane & Virginia. I wish that I had taken pictures of this wonderful booth, but you can view some on the blog or on my sis’ blog (where she wrote a lot more on the booth and how utterly captivated we were). As my sis wrote: I *heart* the Vintage Barn & rusty bird.

One thing that I was oh-so-excited about and practically jumped around like a small child for: The Oscar Mayer Wienermobile. I was so very happy to be able to get a wiener whistle, since I either lost or gave away the one I had as a child. Laugh all you like; this one thing made me ecstatic.

The Great Pumpkin Patch

Sisters on the Fly camper

Bloomsbury Loft

The Urban Farmhouse, where I found vintage Bingo cards

A bicycle built for two @ Homegirl

Sweet gum

Well, there you have a few of the pictures I took at the Country Living Fair 2009. What a great trip, what a great time, what a great place!

And here is a quote that I liked:

I am so excited about a road trip I am taking this weekend. My mom, sister, and I are going to the Country Living Fair in Columbus. Of course, I can always have fun shopping, but I am really looking forward to spending time with my mom and sister. We have never done a girls only trip before. Maybe this can be the start of a new tradition?

I hope to find some fun stuff, but I really want to find some fun stuff to put away for a future nursery. And I really would like to find an old working typewriter (my sis wants one, too). I started collecting objects that either have the letter H on them, or actually are an H (from old signs, for example). The H is for my last name. So far the collection is small enough to all fit on the mantel.

One of the things I am most looking forward to is the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile is going to be there all weekend. I lost the plastic whistle I got when I was a kid, so I would like to replace it. Hubby and I actually passed one (or is there only one?) last September. Great photo opportunity!

Speaking of photos, I plan on taking a lot. And hope to post a few on here when I get back.

My brother-in-law has a huge old peach tree in his yard and he was generous enough to share some with me. So generous in fact, that I had many paper bags (to help ripen some peaches) covering my kitchen counter! Thus, my foray into canning began.

I watched my mom can tomatoes and make cooked raspberry jam when I was young. Well, my mom had decided to give all her canning supplies to a friend of my sister, since my sister and I did not show much interest in canning. Then I decided to expand my garden and thought that canning would be a great way to go. More economical and all that. And after spending about $60 on supplies, I was ready to go!

I guess that I did not think that it would take a long time to can peaches. Yes, I was slightly clueless. Make that quite naive. After five and half hours of work last Wednesday night, I had five pints of peaches to show for it. Along with yummy smelling hands that multiple washings did not rinse away. At least I was kept occupied while hubby was testing out a drag bike.

I planned on making jam and a pie (the pie is part of my brother-in-law’s payment for sharing peaches) on Saturday. I should have planned ahead better, because I did not have enough sugar for one batch of jam. So after putting the jam on hold so I could go get more sugar, I was ready to get this over and done with! At the end of the day, I had eleven half-pints of jam and no more peaches. I would have had an even dozen, but I must have filled some jars too full on the first batch. I think I did pretty darn good for my first time canning! I did not have to re-seal any jars, so that is stellar in my opinion.

If I can peaches again, I think I want to use larger ones. The ones from my brother-in-law were (essentially) free, but on the small side. Like golf ball small. I think it would be easier to half and pit larger peaches. It was an enjoyable experience and worth the sweat and slight frustration.

I am looking forward to having fresh peach jam on my toast. And now that I have a fresh loaf of homemade bread, I can have some tomorrow!

(I will post pictures of my jars of jam and peaches when I download them.)

09/26/2009 Update:

Part of my 11 jars of peach jam.

Three of my five pints of peaches