Distractions

This is what happens when life distracts me;

Radishes the size of my fist ☻

I so have to make this rug

When I first saw this rug on Meet Me At Mikes Blog I just had to check it out. Can you imagine crocheting this by hand and without a hook. It was designed and made by Jean Lee. Her website, Ladies and Gentlemen states "Jean's obsession with vintage doilies grew to epic proportions when she created these full size area rugs using cotton rope. PURCHASE HERE The Mega Doily rug will be featured in Meg Mateo Illasco's upcoming book, "Crafting a Meaningful Home" (STC Craft/Melanie Falick Books, Fall 2010)"
Something tells me I'm not going to be able to wait for the book to be published. My brain's already ticking away with how I should start this project. I wonder if Cotton Piping Cord
would work? Is it obsessive when you start thinking things like - that rope looks about as thick as her third toe, if I measure my toe I could get almost the exact thickness of rope that she used for her rug? I better end this post, I think I need to take a Prozac. Well I'll take it after I get a quick look at all my old doily patterns. I defiantly will need an oval pattern for a rug under my dining room table ☻

Reusable Cloth Snack Bags Free Tutorial

Forget the disposable plastic bags and make a greener and prettier alternative. Make cloth snack or sandwich bags with this tutorial from

Click Here to go to tutorial

Wedding Roses all crocheted and ARMY Afghan reposted on my website

Well with all this rain (24 days of rain out of the last 30) I haven't been able to get the garden finished planting yet, but I did get all those Damn Wedding Roses crocheted for my nephew's wedding. Which is this Saturday, but boy did I cut that one close, they went in the mail today. I don't know what I was thinking when I designed that pattern.
I did get My ARMY Afghan pattern re-posted to my website. It's kind of an abbreviated pattern, enough to crochet the afghan, but I still have to re-post a more detailed pattern this fall when I get more time. Right now, if this rain ever stops, I have to much to around here on the homestead and in the garden. Add all that with a sick grandchild, my Master Gardner class on Wednesday, my granddaughter graduating kindergarten on Thursday and a family reunion on Saturday and I think I have mush brain syndrome.

This really erks my goat!

Well if I had a Goat it would, I guess I should say This really erks my Llama! My Granddaughter is in Kindergarten. Our School District has been going back and forth on deciding if they could afford to have summer school. Now the grade school summer program has always been more of an enrichment program. At first summer school was only going to be for Junior and High School students who had failed a class. No problem there, that makes lots of sense. Heck when I was growing up that was all summer school was. Well they sent out the final decision on summer school, It is now going to be an abbreviated version of summer school for all grades. Hey, great my granddaughter went last year as a pre-kindergartner and loved it, this is great. But here comes the part that really erks my Llama!  Due to the budget problems the school district will only be paying each student that attends the summer school program $50.00? Excuse me, since when has the world changed so drastically that people think it's proper to pay a child who's 6  years old $50.00 to attend summer school? This just seems so wrong in so many ways. Maybe if they used the money they intend to pay the students they could have the full, not abbreviated, summer program. What has happened to the idea of kids learning to excel because a summer school program reached them in a way that is fun and educational, and not because they are paid to go. Where's the accomplishment in that?

Happy Mother's Day New Jersey Crumb Cake Recipe

Happy Mother's Day to my Mum, My Daughter and all you Mom's out there.
My Grand Daughter has spent the night. Last night we made homemade Pizzas from Scratch, and this morning we made New Jersey Crumb Cake. Which tastes EXACTLY like Entenmanns crumb cake!
 I found the recipe online a few years ago and it's definitely a family favorite.

Ingredients:

CAKE



1/2 cup margarine or butter
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
3/4 cup milk
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla


TOPPING


1/2 cup margarine or butter
1 cup sugar
2 cups biscuit mix
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4-1/2 cup powdered sugar
 
 Directions



(1) Cream butter and sugar.
(2) Beat eggs and milk; mix with butter.
(3) In another bowl, mix flour and baking powder, then add to butter mixture.
(4) Stir in vanilla.
(5) Pour batter into a greased 9 x 13 pan.
(6) For crumb topping: Cut butter into sugar, biscuit mix, and cinnamon.
(7) Sprinkle over batter in pan.
(8) Bake at 350° for 30 minutes or until done.
(9) Top with the 1/4 - 1/2 C powdered sugar when cool.

My Garden Bucket

My Dad has a Bucket Buddy. He uses it to carry all his tools around as he's working on a project. I wanted something like this for my gardening. First I found the Fiskars Garden Bucket Caddy I really like this but I wanted one that was well basically free, Hey I admit it I'm CHEAP.

                      

I found this Simplicity Pattern at a Thrift Shop and picked it up to buy it, figuring that I could adapt the pattern to a large bucket.

Then I walked past this  for 50 cents and knew I had my Garden Bucket.

The Garden Bucket is basically an Apron belted around the bucket. So I cut the pockets off the shoe organizer and sewed them onto an old canvas belt and cinched it around the bucket. I had enough pockets to make a second belt which I cinched around the lip of the bucket so those pockets hung inside the bucket. I love my garden bucket. It's not as tidy as the store bought bucket, or as pretty as the Simplicity Pattern, but the bucket was free (left over from a dry wall project), the belts were something I was going to donate, and you can't beat a 50 cent gardening project.

My Dryer Is Doing It Again.

It's trying to die on me. First last Fall it started humming then it would die on me. My husband said bad motor. No problem before his neck injury, I'd say honey help and he'd fix it. Now I'm Mrs-fix-it. I went online and Googled dryer humming and low and behold up popped Appliance-repair-it.com I Love this site. It confirmed my hubby's diagnosis showed me diagrams of my dryer and I found the part I needed and fixed the dryer all by my self. Next the dryer stopped spinning, back I went to Appliance-repair-it.com where I learned all about idler pulley and belt assembly. Wam bam Thank you very much I fixed that problem too. Now it has stopped heating. This time I get to use an ohmmeter. Apparently its either/or both the heating element or the hi-limit. I don't mind being Mrs-fix-it. But I don't think Mr-Fix-It ever has to worry about making sure the Mrs. feelings aren't ruffled because she can no longer fix the things herself. I know when I do things that my Husband used to do he sometimes feel like I don't need him anymore. Anyway back to the dryer. I'm not in a real big hurry to fix it. With Spring here I'm back to hanging our clothes outside on the line. But with all the rain we have been getting maybe I'll rethink that. Hubby wants to just buy a new dryer but It's not that old. Besides this is getting personal between me and this dryer, and I will WIN!

Check out this Video of Cosy Sheridan

singing

Happiness is Waiting, Hang your laundry on the line

  

It's on her EROS album  

French Fry Cutter Love

Since I've been cooking from scratch, I've had lots of success's and lots of failures. I still haven't found a homemade bread recipe that will tantalize my Hubby and Son's Wonder Bread taste buds. Needless to say I haven't been baking much bread because I was getting very fat since I was the only one eating whole loafs of bread by myself. They're not big fans of my switching their margarine to real butter either, but I'm sticking to my guns on that one.
Home made french fries are a big hit with them. Ironically my cooking status went up a lot of notches when my daughter brought me home this french fry cutter from a Thrift Store. My home-fries all of a sudden got a lot of Wow Honey/Mom these fries are delicious. Who knew that this simple, easy french fry cutter could make them taste so much better then just using a knife to cut a potato into french fries. I think it's because they now look more like the frozen store bought kind, but hey I'm not complaining. This cutter is so simple to use, and quick to. And maybe when the wire slices thru the potato it add some extra flavoring to the french fries. Who knows? I do know that if my house ever catches fire everything can burn but I'm grabbing the French Fry Cutter as I run out the door ☻

The Girls First Night Out

Today was very tiring  and productive. My son and I spent the afternoon getting the Girls Coop habitable. So tonight they are all tucked in with the heat lamp keeping them all warm and cozy.