Sweet Jam Jar Tags to Download & Print

How sweet are these little tags??

You can find the printable download over at Hamburger Liebe. It's a lovely blog to visit.

 

Happy Day!

Tracy

 

 

 

I Made Patio Curtains! And They Look Nice..

This past week I made these patio curtains out of cheap paint drop cloths:

 

Since I don't live out in the country :( privacy is an issue in my back yard. See the neighbor's house just beyond mine? Those people are super nice. But, they LIVE outside! Summer, Winter, Spring and Fall, they're outside. I go out back to let the chickens out of the coop at around 7:00 a.m. and the neighbors are out there. I go out in the afternoon to give the chickens a snack and check on the garden...they're out there. I go out in the evening to put the chickens back in the coop...they're out there. I think you're getting the picture?

 

As I said, they're very nice people. But, when they're standing at their back door, they're looking directly into my yard and onto my patio. Sometimes I just want to be able to go outside in the early morning with my hair sticking out all crazy and not have to see anyone. These curtains have given us a bit of added privacy. Well, at least on the porch.

 

I had seen these curtains on Pinterest and it seemed like an inexpensive way to solve my problem. I did this project on the cheap. So along with the painter's drop clothes, I used wooden replacement broom handles for the rods. At $7.00 each, they were the cheapest option I could find at Home Depot. I think they look great!

 

You can see how I attached the wooden rods here:

 

 

I used those metal brackets that come in different sizes. I had to push them out a bit from the wall with those additional small pieces of scrap wood (see them? behind the brackets?). Otherwise the curtain rings wouldn't slide to open or close because they would have been right up against the wood. Like I said...I went cheap here, so I just made it work.

 

I simply hung the drop cloths with clip-on curtain rings from Walmart. I slid them onto the broom handles, then attached the broom handles (with the curtains hanging on them) to the wall with screws. Once they were hanging, I got my trusty scissors and cut the bottom of each curtain to the length that I wanted. I didn't bother to hem and no one has noticed.

 

For the tie-backs I used pieces of the scrap drop cloth that I had cut from the bottom. I folded the edges over and used my hot glue gun to secure the seams (no sewing thank you very much!). Then, I marked off a stripe with masking tape and painted it black. I attached some velcro to the ends, staple gunned it to the wall and post. And viola! Curtains. When I want to close them, I just undo the velcro on the tie-backs and slide them closed. And, the whole project took about an hour and a half. Love them!

 

Happy Day!

Tracy 

It's Paxton & Pence...

We now have twins in the family! This past November my stepson Tony and his wife Rhiannon brought these to little cuties into the world:

 

The little love on the left is Paxton and the one who appears to be singing :) is Pence. They are the sweetest little boys on this plant. Bar none! Identical? No. Adorable. YES! And what's not to love about new babies? They're SO cute, they smell good and they're just so tiny.

 

We're so enjoying getting to know these little guys. I just can't get enough of them. The one I'm holding above is Paxton. He's the "little guy" because he was a couple of pounds smaller than his brother Pence when they were born. He's catching up now. I'll post more photos as soon as I have a chance.

 

Happy Day!

Tracy

Jonathan & Maxwell..

This sweet, little 'ol guy is Jonathan. I just finished making him a little red party hat and black polka-dot collar. Cuteness!!

 



 

And then there's Maxwell. I made Maxwell from a salvaged old bear. His head is now on a cute, new body made from old quilt scraps.

 

Sweet little guys!

 

Happy Day!

Tracy

Two Legged Rototillers!

I love my girls! Stella and Rosie give me fresh eggs most days and they're so sweet and entertaining!  I've had them for a full year now. I have to tell you though, that I'm surprised at how much damage they can do to a yard. These two are confined to their "pen" area, so the damage is confined:

 

Since we have a weed lawn, it would be just fine with me if they roamed all over the yard. My husband on the other hand, insists that they not "free-range" around the yard because he doesn't want chicken poop all over the place. It's a valid point. They poop. A lot.

Isn't it amazing that there isn't a single blade of grass in their pen area?? I thought for sure that this spring they would have fresh grass to nibble on. But not one little sprout! I give them kale and lots of veggies, so the do get to eat fresh greens each day. But who knew? They're basically two legged miniature rototillers!

Happy Day!
Tracy

Summer Means Strawberries!

My husband brought home a flat of these on Monday:

  Strawberries = SUMMER!

There is a small farm stand in Napa on the Silverado Trail. Every year my man brings home strawberries from this stand and every year I turn a bunch of those berries into this:

Strawberry Preserves

I spent a good portion of the day on Tuesday making strawberry preserves. There were so many berries in that flat that I ended up making two separate batches. This is a good thing since everyone in the family now expects strawberry preserves every summer :)  I ended up with about 29 half-pint jars. It's so good on buttered toast, mixed into plain yogurt or on ice cream.

In the past I've used the Barefoot Contessa's recipe (it's good - but I add pectin to it), but this year's recipe came from this book:

Putting Up by Stephen Palmer Dowdney. I do a lot of canning (including pressure canning) and I'm always on the lookout for interesting canning recipes. His recipe for strawberry preserves is delicious.

One comment that I'd like to make about this book is that he uses the hot-pack inversion method quite a bit. I have used this method and been successful with it, but I do prefer the hot water bath when I make jams or preserves. I trust the Ball canning methods and mostly stick to them. I'll use this book for recipes, but process them in the traditional way. I'm looking forward to trying his recipe for Sweet Potato Butter (which can be made into an easy pie!), Garden Vegetable Soup, Charleston Creole Sauce, and Pickled Asparagus.

Here's the Strawberry Preserves recipe from Putting Up (hopefully he won't mind me sharing it)

Strawberry Preserves:

10+ cups strawberries - tops removed, diced or quartered (next time I'll use around 12 cups)

1 Tbs butter

1/2 C fresh lemon juice

2 boxes powdered pectin (2/3C)

14 cups sugar (yes..14 cups!) divided into two batches of 7 cups each

Prep your jars.

Add all ingredients except for the sugar to a large pot. Bring to a boil. Once a boil is achieved, add one 7 cup batch of sugar. Bring it to a boil again until it can't be stirred down. Then add the second batch of 7 cups of sugar. Bring to another rolling boil and boil for 2-3 minutes testing for jell after two minutes. Once it passes the jell test, can it and process. As mentioned above, he uses the inversion method. I like the hot water bath method.

So yummy and worth the effort!

p.s. I did a little math on this. It cost roughly $1.40 per jar for me to make these preserves, so I think it was well worth it. I didn't include the cost of the jars because those can be reused. Although...they do disappear when I give canned goods away. 

 

Happy Day!

Tracy

Who's a Bad Blogger??

Oh...I am! It's been way to long since I've made a post and I have no excuse other than that time flies! Well that...and I've been captivated by these two girls...

My neighbor's mom got two baby chick as Easter "play things" for her granddaughters. It was all good until the chicks got to be a little big and a little to much work. So, I adopted them.. :)

I love these girls! Two Buff Orpintons...and they are adorable and sweet...and oh so pretty. These gals are like Siamese twins. They are always together. They are around 14 weeks old now. Their favorite snacks are grapes and cheese!

The other day I went to let them out of the coop and I found them cuddled up like this:

Enjoying the morning sun.

 

Happy Day!

Tracy