Tag: homemade

We’re almost there!

Tonight #1 son finished his final state project of the fifth grade. Of course it’s due tomorrow…

He had to write 10 Fast Fact cards about Rhode Island, his selected state. One to two sentences on one side and a drawing of said item on the other, all outlined in Sharpie, hole punched and strung together like a flip pack.

In addition to that he had to create a “Maker Project” depicting a noun from his state using any materials we had on hand. Well, Mr. No Imagination, I mean John, couldn’t think of what to do so I started listing all the materials we had on hand to make stuff with, clay, paint, etc. and he stopped me and asked if he could make something out of the super soft stuff I made my hand warmers from. And from that a genius idea was born.

Did you know the state flower of Rhode Island is the Violet? After deciding on a needle felted violet I suggested we could make a wearable and give it to the teacher. He wanted to do earrings and I said we didn’t even know if she had pierced ears. But he didn’t let it go and came home from school with the affirmative, “She has her ears pierced,” so he was standing firm. Of course, when I demonstrated the making of a very small violet using the teeny tiny cookie cutter, he said maybe it’d be better if he did the big one (unlike Joe who loves needle felting, John is very worried about his fingers getting poked). That and he could use the three needle tool instead of a single needle which is what he really wanted to do anyway. Sewed on a pin back and voila! No actually, viola!

Rhode Island Maker Project

I made the earrings and made John swear not to tell her the brooch was for her. We’ll give her all three on the last day of school.

Saturday mornings in the kitchen

Life has gotten in my way lately and I haven’t had a Saturday morning cooking session in quite a while. It was good to get back in the swing of things today.

I started off with french toast, using up the (more than) day old bread that my honey brought home from the restaurant. Since we were out of syrup I had to get busy.

Here we have chocolate, vanilla, brown sugar, and pear:

Syrups

Best part of the double batch of chocolate syrup is you have to make chocolate milk with the leftovers that won’t fit in the bottle. And maybe little Joe will use the pear on his toast/cakes/waffles, but no one else will so I had to make some yogurt to go with that.

Next we’re off to my sister’s birthday party where her hubby will impress us with pulled pork sandwiches. He’s been smoking and slow cooking the pork for days. We are all encouraging him to follow his dream of cooking school; I promise to taste test anything and everything! And then tomorrow night it’s off to my man’s brother’s house where his wife will make my cherished birthday dinner. Same thing every year–no deviation–catfish in red sauce with green beans amandine. Ahhhhhh.

What a food lovers delight this weekend is turning out to be.

Tonight’s Unexpected Project

After a fruitless search for an orange pillow for #1 son to bring to class, my good friend Katharine said, “You should just make him one.” So I thought to myself, well I do have the stuff…

Thanks also to my small sister for providing the copious yards of fur that I had no immediate use for but excitedly accepted when offered!

After seeing what #1’s pillow looked like, and helping me sew and stuff it, #2 said he needed one. So of course, now #1 needs one for home too. Told them both the ones for home weren’t going to be anywhere near as big as the school one. Two was all I could handle tonight though, this was a LOT of hand sewing. #1 will just have to make do with his school pillow for now…

Pillows

While no animals were harmed during the making of these pillows, it looks like I plucked a bunny in my room!

Summer fruit

I finally made it to the Farmer’s Market on lunch the other day. Arrived 30 minutes before the close of market and got all the deals I was hoping for. It was sad to see that most of my favorite summer fruits for making jam are almost gone for the season. Perhaps I’ll try again next week and see if I can preserve some of that summer goodness.

Meantime I’m thinking of making some ketchup before these beauties are through.

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Fantastic Mother’s Day gift that just keeps on giving. Thanks sissy!

Sonoma County Crush is on!

Ok, so I was a little early, the wine crush is here but the Concords were not quite ready last week.
Several years ago I hooked up with my summer sister who personally delivered over 500 lbs of concord grapes from the hundred year old vines lining the drive at the vineyard where she worked. The Concords were purely ornamental so I got as much as she could harvest in the late summer heat. I promised her that I would make her grape jelly in return but over a two year period I only made jelly one time. I really did think that I would do it every time…it’s just the juice was pure perfection and we just couldn’t get past that. I did make it up to her in other ways. Man I miss that woman!
Here’s my first harvest of the year, in fact the first juice from my own vines. I just couldn’t resist picking them–every time I pass the by there is an overwhelming sweet grape scent.
(I did have to add a smidge of sugar, please don’t tell anyone!)

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