You musts

You must:

• Make this adorable gathered clutch for a friend (or yourself), like this one at Skip to my Lou.

• Send a square of fabric to my friend Michael at Inspired by Charm for his first quilt. (I did.)

• Cover your fridge in vintage cheese label magnets from Just Something I Made.

• Make restaurant-style salsa using this recipe from Shopping Candy.

• Dream of planting a field of sunflowers next to your house like Thy Hand Hath Provided. (Adding this to the "when I live in the county list" - along with chickens, wildflowers and a pumpkin patch. What? You don't have a "when I live in the country" list?)

• Drool over the pots and pans' kitchen organization at Kevin and Amanda.

• Imagine this quilt from Film in the Fridge in your own home.

• Marvel over the idea of making all of your own gift sacks from newspaper (BRILLIANT) from How about Orange.

• Bust out your bread machine to bake Garlic and Herb Bread from Amber Waves of Grain.

That is all, folks. Have a great weekend.

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Yes I can - squash garlic pickles

You all know I have a one-track mind. When I'm painting, I paint everything within a mile. When I'm sewing, I sew until my whole body hurts from sitting at the machine. When I'm gardening, we have to plant it all. Now, I'm canning. So, I hope you'll bear with me as I share. 

Okay. Disclaimer over. Me love you long time.

Once I had canned the pizza sauce, I was ready for another challenge. Round two. Ding ding ding.

I have lots of zucchini and summer squash up in my biz lately. So, I decided to pickle it. Genius. Pickles. I love them, and the pickled garlic zucchini were actually not very difficult.

I used the recipe from So Easy to Preserve. Mostly, I just chose the one with ingredients I had on-hand. Very scientific.

Squash pickles II
(makes 5 pints)
via So Easy to Preserve
4 pounds summer squash
1/4 cup salt
1 quart vinegar (5%)
1 cup water
Dill seed (one teaspoon per pint)
Garlic (1 clove per pint)

Wash and slice squash. Pack garlic, dill seed and squash into jars, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Bring vinegar, water and salt to a boil; simmer 5 minutes. Fill jars to 1/2 inch from top with boiling hot liquid. Remove air bubbles. Wipe jar rims. Adjust lids. Process 15 minutes in a boiling water bath.

Aren't the jars so pretty? I used about 1/2 and 1/2 zucchini and summer squash.

As for taste, I think these are fabulous, but they are really really strong and vinegary. Ryan thought they were a little too strong. I find them to be a great snack.

On the canning agenda:

Pizza sauce

Pickles

Pickled zucchini

Salsa

Tomatoes

Pepper jam

Pickled yellow peppers
Zucchini salsa (thanks to Amber Waves of Grain, this was added to my list)

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Yes I can - pizza sauce

Last weekend, it was finally time to try canning for myself. I finally pulled out all my canning supplies and tried it out. It's classic Kim to have to buy $100 of gadgets before trying something new. I highly doubt ladies in the 19th century had all these handy tools. But, that's okay. I'm a 21st Century kinda gal.

The first thing I tried was canned pizza sauce, so we could make truly homemade pizza.

I got the recipe from Miss Effie. So it must be good. (And, it is.)

 (I'm thinking of offically naming this week "Miss Effie Week" on the blog. Cause I think she's the best thing since sliced bread and fresh jam.)

Home-canned Pizza Sauce

courtesy of Miss Effie

Yield: 8 pints (I made half-pints and it only made 9 of them)

10 lbs tomatoes -- cored and chopped

3 med onions , peeled and diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1-½ tsp dried oregano

2 bay leaves

1 tsp canning salt

1 tsp black pepper

½ tsp crushed red pepper flakes

1 tsp sugar

Place all ingredients into a large pot.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 2 hours -- stirring occasionally.  Press through a food mill and discard the seeds.  Cook again over med. high heat until thick, stirring often.  To each pint -- add 1 tbsp. of lemon juice.  Fill jars, leaving a ½” head space.  Wipe the sealing surface of the jars, seal with lids.

Process in a boiling water bath for 35 minutes

I purchased tomatoes at the farmer's market to supplement those in our garden. It was a bit of a lengthy process, as the sauce had to simmer for a few hours. And, I didn't have a food mill, which I think would have helped. I ended up with more skins and seeds than I'd like in the sauce. (I bought a food mill at Kitchens for the next round of pizza sauce.)

Do you know how hard it is to find a food mill? This is what they look like.

Pretty, huh?

And as an aside, I had to buy this when I was at Kitchens, too. It's a holder for your recipes. But, it's plexiglass on the front so it blocks and spillage. I love it. So handy. (Ryan totally rolled his eyes at this purchase, but I don't really care.) Remember how I said I like to buy gadgets?

So, in closing - It was a learning experience, but I think the sauce turned out well for my first try at canning. We ate it on a homemade onion (from the garden) pizza for supper on Saturday night and we both agreed it was yummy - better than what we normally buy from the store.

On the canning agenda:
Pizza sauce
Pickles
Pickled zucchini
Salsa
Tomatoes
Pepper jam
Pickled yellow peppers

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Garden progress - late July

Harvest time has begun at the Woodwards.

I picked a bell pepper, a few banana peppers, a few cucumbers and some small and cherry tomatoes so far this week.

Ryan pulled up one of the potato plants (in flip flops). Once the plants have died on the top, he'll pull them all out. They should last us all winter. That's cool, right?

And, here are some shots of the other plants. (Our cucumbers are doing great. I'm hoping they'll start producing like crazy soon. I have picked 5 or 6.)

I think the peppers are scrawny compared to last year, but there are lots of healthy peppers coming in so I can't complain.

I still haven't figured out what this is. I'm leaning towards volunteer pumpkins. But, it could just be a giant climbing weed for all I know. There are some beans growing in there as well yet.

It's even taken over the deck. But, I kinda like it.

The corn is also doing well. He staggered planting, so this is the second or third crop.

Unfortunately, I have a tomato issue. Any ideas what these spots mean? They are on almost everything. I'm totally bummed out about it.

And finally, if you are keeping score...

The good:

• Potatoes
• Onions
• Corn
• Cucumbers
• Squash

The bad:

• Giant growing mystery plant
• Beans

The ugly:

• Tomato spots

How's your garden growing?

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Seeing Miss Effie (and her flowers)

Jen at Notes from the Heartland and I took a little road trip out to see Miss Effie on Sunday! It was her birthday and she threw herself a shin-dig. Complete with homemade cake and ice cream (that was all it took to snag me).

PSA: If you are local, from Iowa or driving through Iowa or any nearby state, do yourself a favor. Visit Miss Effie's. She's awesome. Her flower farm is Ahhhmazing. The views, to die for.

There were a few special vendors there for her partay. It was fun to look around. 

And, Miss Effie even has chickens. You all know how I feel about chickens? (Love.them.)

This little one kept asking me to take it home. So pretty.

I can't wait to go back and pick flowers. You get to bring home a bucket. Isn't that awesome?

So, I was glad to finally get out to see Miss Effie's farm. It was all I dreamed it would be.


Truly magical.

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Garage clean sweep

Do you remember that show on TLC - called Clean Sweep? It felt like this is what we had to do in our garage. Only without the experts and the television crews. And without the money.

Yeah... total bummer. If only we were independently wealthy.

I have a tendency to throw stuff I don't want to deal with in the garage. It's kinda my "free zone." Which is pretty unfair to my husband, because I don't allow him to have any free zone in the house. And, the garage is arguably his space. This is where he saws, nails, welds, works on cars, stores lawn equipment... it's a multipurpose zone. I also paint and garden there.

Items in the garage also seem to multiply. Which is puzzling. We like to blame our parents for the waterskis and fertilizer and water sealer (I can't make this stuff up) that just seem to appear in our garage. But, if we were being honest with ourselves, we would agree that the vast majority of the junk is our own fault.

So, to make it up to him, I told Ryan a while ago that I would help him purge and organize the garage to get it back in tip-top shape. He took me up on it over a recent weekend.

And, while you may be hoping for an outcome that looks like this garage, it's highly unlikely.

(And, if you have a garage that actually looks like this, I don't think we can be friends. I'm too jealous.)

At one point, we both looked at each other with wide eyes, wondering how we let it get this bad. We talked about the fact that we always wonder how people get to the point that they have no space to park cars in the garage. Now we understand... it just takes time, laziness and junk. Although we were still parking in the garage, the junk was slowly encroaching into our cars' space.

While we didn't add any fancy organization tools, we did designate some zones, which helped a ton. Yard tools in one area. Gardening in one area. Car repair in one area. Workout zone in one area. I haven't taken photos. It's not really very exciting. Just more organized. (Although Ryan's tractor now occupies the space designated for his car. But, that's his decision.)

We also got rid of lots of junk. Some went to Goodwill. Some straight to the garbage.

And, now we both feel a lot better about how the garage looks. And, I think that means we won't let it get that bad again. (We hope this is what it means.)

Where is your "free-zone" in your house (or yard, or garage)? What will it take to get you to have a clean sweep?

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Happy 3rd Birthday to Lola!

We're so glad we decided to bring a second pug into the family. We love our Lola. Unfortunately, we often forget about her birthday. Franco's birthday is easier to remember since it falls on Halloween. But, this year we remembered and made sure to shower her with extra love (and treats) during the week of her birthday.

So, Ryan brought home cookies from the dog bakery to celebrate. Lola devoured hers immediately.

But not before I snapped a quick photo of the cute cookies.

Happy Birthday, Lola!

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You are my sunshine...

Looky what was came to my mailbox this week.

It's an adorable gift from my friend, Shannon.

I love it so much. When I saw the one she made for her nursery, I told her I loved it. Little did I know that she'd make one for moi. It brings a smile to my face in my kitchen window.

Thanks Shannon. You are MY sunshine. ;)

Tell me about a surprise from a friend that brought a smile to your face.

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Fun with fabric

When I heard that Shelby wanted a "made-by-Kim bag" for her birthday, I was delighted. I couldn't decide what bag would be better liked by a 10-year-old, so we gave her two. And a holder for colored pencils.

Shelby's favorite color is purple and both have a touch of the color. And, I don't think any gal can have too many bags. The first tote is a smaller version of the totes I made for Christmas gifts.

The second bag is the blue/purple one I made from place mats (on the right).

Then, after spotting colored pencils at Target for $1, I decided to try a holder for Colored Pencils. I've seen these around the Internet, but never had a chance to try it. This was a quick and simple project. I didn't use a pattern or anything, but it's relatively intuitive and turned out great.

I used grosgrain ribbon, a fabric napkin for the interior and a great fabric I had on the exterior. It only took about 20 minutes from start to finish.

And I didn't really measure anything. I just used a colored pencil and sewed along its side to make spots for each pencil. And, now I want to make them for everyone I know. (Including myself.)

It felt good to be at the sewing machine again. I think I'll be doing that more often.

What do you think?

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Meet me in St. Louie...

Ryan and I went to St. Louis for the weekend. We met up with some of his family from Memphis, to celebrate Shelby's 10th birthday.

Ryan's aunt Joanell planned quite a bash for Miss Shelby at Grant's Farm in St. Louis. I love Grant's Farm and St. Louis and we had a great time.

We fed the camels.

Bottle fed the goats.

Checked out other animals. There are lots of cows, bison, deer, ostrich, parrots and birds, peacocks, chickens (!!), donkeys, goats, camels, horses.... lots of animals.

Then we got Budweiser's and slushies in the beer garden. (Grant's Farm is run by Anheuser-Busch.)

It was so hot, so the misters were our relief. The day brought near-100 degree temperatures.

While in St. Louis, we did a little shopping and eating as well. And, we played Monopoly (which I decided that I will never play again... I'm not much of a gracious loser.)

But, weekends go by quickly, and before we knew it, it was time to head home. But, we had a lovely time with family we don't see nearly enough.

And, for kicks, here's a comparison of photos from now and the last time Ryan and I were at Grant's Farm in 2005. I was in my senior year of college.

In 5 years, we got married, bought a house, started new jobs, brought home two pugs and lots more (much of what you've read here at our blog). (But, I was amused to find that I'm wearing the same necklace in both photos. It was a gift from Ryan.)

But, Grant's Farm was still a fun place to spend the day. Especially with family.

How was your weekend?

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