Underwear Repair Kit

I was going through old photos today and I came across some pics of the gag gift that I had purchased last Christmas for Hubby's company Christmas party and I thought you might find it as humorous as I did *grin*.

The underwear repair kit is the perfect gift for the handyman in your life that loves to do things on the fly!

It comes fully equipped with white out stain remover, duck tape, elastic, stick on patches, safety pins and even a needle and thread for those tough guys that also have a domestic side :)

As you can see with the help of these supplies you can return those worn out, rag tag undies back to their former glory!

But wait!! Maybe it's not a cosmetic problem at all but, hmm, how should I put this delicately.... maybe they've lost their new car aroma *snort*. Oh my goodness these photos just kill me! LOL.

Please note that this repair kit cannot possibly help you in all situations and no matter how well you think your underwear look after their 'fix up' the little lady at home ultimately has final say *grin*.

Okay, I seriously needed that laugh today and I hope you got a chuckle to :) If you would like to get your man one of these kits I would be more than happy to let you know how to find one! They are produced by Running Press and the ISBN is 978-0-7624-3225-7.

Hugs,
Rosina

right now, I AM

...reflecting on how blessed I was to be able to take my youngest son, in the middle of a busy morning in the city, on a mini nature walk excursion where we sucked up the sun, spotted jelly fish, smolts ,waterfowl and watched a sea plane take off all while big brother and sister were at the museum. A special time for mama and her boy :)

Hugs,
Rosina

Vintage Find

I hit the jackpot!!
On my last visit to the thrift store I hit the mother load of vintage sheets *grin*. As I rummaged along the racks of bedding, tablecloths and fabric remnants I couldn't find anything but worn out bedding and kids sheets but there at the end of the isle was a bin full of sheets that had been deemed worthless and were a quarter of the cost of the rest of the ones hanging.

I nearly passed it by but thought what the heck... one little look won't hurt. Good thing I did :)

I just love the bold colors and big flowers and they are going to be perfect for quilt backings or maybe even a funky quilt top :) Now I just need more!! LOL.

My mom surprised me with this great little mini ironing board today to. I've been running back and forth from the table to iron pieces for my QAYG quilt and this is going to be perfect to set up right beside my sewing machine. I'll be able to cut, iron and sew all without moving. Plus the backside of it is so yummy with it's retro flowers and gaudy orange LOL.

Hugs,
Rosina

Guardians of Ga'Hoole ~ Owl Cookies

Yesterday I surprised the kids with a special outing into town to watch the new animated movie The Guardians of Ga'Hoole based on the book series by Kathryn Lasky and to get a chance to see a real live owl!! The MARS (Mountainaire Avian Rescue Society) was at the theater to do a little talk all about owls and what their rescue society does and they brought along 'Shakespeare' a Barred Owl who is their educational ambassador. The kids loved it! Both the owl and the movie :)

As soon as we returned the home the kids began pretending they were owls and so far it hasn't stopped *grin*. So I thought it would be fun to make some owl cookies and owl masks to keep on with the owly fun!

I had ran across a picture of owl cookies on craft gossip but they were made from store bought sugar cookie dough and since we don't have anything like that readily available here I thought that it would be just as easy to whip up a batch of sugar cookie dough :)

So here it is... the make your own dough version of it *grin*.
Trust me if you can make cookie dough and know how to wield a rolling pin then this is going to be easy LOL.

4 eggs
2 cup sugar
2 cup unsalted butter

Cream the butter and sugar together. Add one egg at a time and beat really well until the butter mixture is super light and fluffy.

1 tsp. baking powder
5 cups all purpose flour

Add the flour and baking powder to the butter mixture and mix just until combined. You don't want to over mix or it will start to turn your dough tough. Once you've got it all combined, scoop out roughly 1 third of the dough into a separate bowl. Don't worry about being completely accurate, just eyeball it up. This is going to be the center of you owls eye :)

Now add
1 cup unsweetened cocoa
to the remaining 2/3 of your dough and mix until the cocoa is blended in evenly. This is going to be the outer part of your owls eye.

Now comes the fun part of shaping your plain white dough into a big snake shaped log. On a piece of wax paper, saran wrap or a non stick silicone mat (whichever you have will work) roll and squeeze your dough outwards in a log shape until it is about 18 inches long. By the time I had the length my roll was about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. As soon as you have finished wrap your log in saran wrap or wax paper and place on a flat surface in your refrigerator for about 10-15 minutes to firm up so you can handle it without worrying about dimpling or breaking it.

Next is to take your chocolate colored portion of the dough and shape it into an 18 inch long by 8 inch wide rectangle. Of course the kids couldn't resist squeezing and squishing the dough so this was a perfect job for them *grin*.

We did it on another sheet of wax paper and then I put an additional piece on top and ran the rolling pin over it to take all of the humps and bumps from the hand prints out of it :) Do not refrigerate this portion of your dough. You want it nice and soft for the next step!

Your log of white dough should be firm enough now to take out of the fridge now. Unroll it and place it on top of your chocolate rectangle and you are going to roll the chocolate layer around the white just like you were rolling up cinnamon buns :) Use your wax paper on the bottom of the chocolate layer to keep your hands from getting sticky and to aid in the smooth rolling of it. Don't worry it is definitely not hard to do and once it is all rolled up you can roll the whole log around on the counter in the wax paper a couple of times to make sure the two layers stick together nicely and you get a nice round shape. Place the entire log in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes to firm up again.

Now that you have one multicolored log of sugar cookie dough you're ready to put your owl faces together! Take your knife and slice off rounds of your dough roughly 1/4 - 1/2 inches thick...

and place in pairs on your cookies sheet. Make sure that the two pieces touch each other in the center and you will find that there will be a slightly flat side on each of your rounds caused by the pressure of cutting your log on the counter so place those flatter sides together in the middle :)

For the beaks use unsalted or raw cashews. Press them into the lower part of your center seam leaving the pointier part of the cashew out of the dough so that it looks like a hooked owls beak. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 350 degrees fahrenheit for 10 - 12 minutes or until just starting to brown and firm up around the edges and the centers are slightly puffed up.

As soon as your owl faces are cooled you can use your favorite icing recipe or frosting from a can if you like *grin* and add your eyeballs and lashes. I used reeses pieces because we had them on hand but you could use smarties or m&m's if you like to.

Just in case you want to know what my icing recipe is it's a simple butter frosting of 1/4 cup of butter and 1 1/2 cups icing sugar beat together with 2-3 tablespoons of milk until it comes to a squeezable consistency that you can squeeze through your piping bag. Another super quick way to create your chocolate icing would be to melt chocolate chips or bakers chocolate squares in a heat proof bowl. This works really well in a pinch *grin*. Another tip is if you don't have an actual piping bag you can use a regular ziploc baggy and just cut off one of the bottom corners and voila you have an instant piping bag :)

This recipe made 24 big owl faces and I hate to say it but we've eaten half of them already! LOL.

Sooooo good and super cute :)
Have yourself some owly fun to!

Hugs,
Rosina

Potholder Pass Holiday Edition

I couldn't resist joining in the holiday round of Potholder Pass :)
You make two holiday or winter themed potholders plus a handmade ornament and you get the same in return. I thought it would be perfect to have a lovely new holiday set of potholders for Christmas dinner and I just love surprise packages *grin*. If you are interested in joining in you have until tomorrow and you can sign up here by leaving a message that you want to join :)

So to feed my Christmas creativity I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of the annual Quilting Arts Gifts magazine. It always kicks my holiday spirit into high gear and it is chock fully of so many great projects!

flickr pic via lindakl

But if that doesn't get your crafty motor running and you need something immediately more visual then here are a few scrumptious holiday themed mosaics to feed your crafty soul *grin*.

flickr pic via vivie95

Loooove it!!

Hugs,
Rosina

Handwritten Emails

What can I say... I've been playing all day *grin*.
I came across a really fun website called Pilot Handwriting that allows you to upload your handwriting and then you can send handwritten emails with that little bit of a personal touch since so few of us actually hand write snail mail letters anymore :)

I couldn't resist trying it out to see if it actually worked so I printed the template, filled it in and then uploaded a digital image of it. I was actually amazed that from the photograph it did a good job of replicating what I had written but the template could really use a few more guidelines because as you can see above it doesn't quite flow together properly and it must be because I didn't get the letters in the exact right place in each of the squares. In any case it was a fun way to waste away the afternoon! LOL.

If you are looking for a great project to spruce up your letterhead to your pen friends then this quick feather printing tutorial is something that you must do. LOVE IT!! So easy and I still have a few penpals that I write letters to. Plus I know the kids are going to want to try this out to :)

Have fun playing this weekend!
Hugs,
Rosina

Beautiful Beasts

The local herd of Roosevelt Elk have returned to run amuck around our fields leaving destruction in their wake.

You would never think that this stunning bull and cow would do anything but graze peacefully along with the rest of their herd as they pass through but so far they have ripped limbs from the apple trees, eaten the tops off of the young trees and now that the rainy season is upon us they will tear up the fields with their massive hooves.

But despite all of their faults I am continually in awe of them. The fall brings the cows along with this years young ones and they are never far from their overprotective leader. The moms are extremely skittish and it is quite rare that they allow me to get close enough for decent photos. Today must have been my lucky day *grin*.

We were making breakfast in the kitchen and would have never known that they were silently grazing behind the hedge if we had not seen the massive antlers of the bull rise above the shrubbery!

My oldest son and I crept out the back door as stealthily as we could, across the back lawn, through the hedge to find ourselves crouching behind the tractor while being watched intensely by the bull. I thought it was best to put the tractor between us and the herd because if you have ever seen them go into survival mode you know that you don't want to be out in the open *grin*.

We only had about ten minutes to watch them before something spooked them and they bolted for the corner of the fence that they repeatedly break through and were gone. If you're interested in seeing more photos of them I've got more in my flickr account :)

Hugs,
Rosina

right now, I AM

.... still stumped as to what type of fish this is that the kids found in our irrigation ditch, with its spiky back and more spikes on its underside. It is providing us with a GREAT opportunity for research!

I'm inspired by Earth Mama to take part in her weekly post of a simple sentence and a photo that inspires me or makes me take notice of what blesses me each and every day :)



Below is an excerpt from her blog:

Today, I am starting a series called "right now, I AM". Every Wednesday I will post a post with one image combined with a short sentence that starts out as "right now, I AM...". This simple exercise helps me to take a moment out of my day to open my eyes, take a look around, and see something wonderful that is right in front of me that I can truly appreciate. Whenever I do this simple task, I can feel my heart swell with gratitude for the life I have.

Maybe you will join it to :)
Hugs,
Rosina

Farewell Summer... Hello Fall

Today was officially the last day of summer but I think it left us well over a couple of weeks ago. September 1st brought rain, clouds, cool weather...



and today we officially started to burn the wood stoves again.
Hubby cleaned both of the chimneys last weekend making sure they weren't clogged with any soot from last winter and he and the kids spent the morning filling all of the wood boxes to the top.

For now we won't really do a lot of burning but just enough in the mornings to take the chill off or to warm up the house after a couple days of repeated rain which really brings the temperature indoors down. I'm looking forward to snuggling on the couch under my blankie though and watching the fireplace crackle *grin*.

While they all did the manual labor outside I took to my sewing machine and got a couple more blocks for my quilt as you go quilt finished :) I actually managed to tear myself away from my underwear making so that I could get back to what I had originally been doing *grin*.

I really do jump from project to project at lightning speed and could seriously use a task master cracking the whip behind me to get some of my unfinished projects done! Sometimes I think that blogging helps because I feel the need to show you all what I've been doing LOL.

I haven't quite decided if I'm going to give this quilt to my daughter for Christmas or I'm going to keep it for myself yet *grin*. I do have a whole stash of fabric that I bought for a special one for her so I'm sort of leaning towards keeping for myself. It would be so bright and cheery folded on the bottom of my bed :)

What projects are you working on right now? I'd love to stop by and see what you're all up to!

Hugs,
Rosina

Undie Update

Well I still haven't got any of the cotton/lycra fabric that I need to finish the leg and waist bands of my undies (hopefully tomorrow) but that's definitely not stopping me from sewing more :)

Who wouldn't want to make more! Have you seen how stinking cute these little boy ones are?! They are adorable with their little boy fly flaps in the front *grin*.

My 4 year old is completely crazy about the little owls on them and I've got him and his sister so excited about them that they are begging to try them on :) I am seriously thinking about making these for Christmas presents for everyone I know LOL.

I just need to figure out how to make them in my size now!

~ Rosina

Inspired Ideas

Oh my goodness Amy from Inspireco has done it again and created something amazing :)

Her new zine 'Inspired Ideas' is sure to bring a little joy to your day today.
Check it out... I know you'll love it!

Hugs,
~ Rosina

Curing Fish

Every year I try to can as much fresh salmon as possible to keep us eating delicious fish all through the winter and spring and with the huge sockeye run that came through here this summer we were able to get some great prices on sockeye and humpies fresh off the boats!

With fifteen fish in the freezer I was planning on getting around 48 pints of canned salmon but Hubby has a slightly different plan this year. He has decided that he is going to smoke a bunch which is sooo good but is going to cut into my stash *grin*.

So today he cleaned and scaled eight of the fish and then filleted them so that we could coat them with a dry brine of brown sugar, salt and seasonings for smoking.

We were just down in the cold room checking on them and they smell fantastic! Tomorrow morning we'll fire up the smoker and toss some in and I'm going to experiment with canning some of the smoked fish to. I'm thinking that I better get some of the smoked stuff squirreled away or we may just eat it all as it comes out of the smoker *grin*.

Mmm, can't wait!
~ Rosina

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup ~ Recipe

I really do love fall :)
The blustery wind, chilly temperatures, burning fireplaces, beautiful reds and golds that adorn the trees, crunchy maple leaves underfoot and SOUP!

I have been waiting to make soup for quite a while now, slowly stocking up on bones and roast broth in the freezer for those cold dark winter nights and it's finally time! The first of September the temperature took quite a dip and marked the official start of soup season *grin*. So I whipped up a big batch of chicken noodle soup using the left over chicken from dinner the night before and I thought I'd share my recipe with you just in case you've never tried making your own homemade chicken stock :)

One roasting chicken never really does much more than one big yummy chicken dinner with all the fixings for our family of 5 and then usually chicken sandwiches the next day so soup is a great way to extend it by two more meals :)

Start by picking off all of the meat left on your chicken. It's best to do this right after dinner the first night when the chicken is still warm and none of the fat drippings have congealed on it from sitting in the fridge. It's amazing how much you can get off that little bird if you really work it over LOL. Now you can toss all of those bones and bits left from the picking back into your roasting pot if it is one you can put directly on your stove top or into a storage container for the next day when you are ready to make your chicken broth and put all of the good meat in another container for finishing off your soup at the end :)

When you're ready to start making your broth fill a large soup pot with:

• your chicken bones
• 4-5 carrots
• 2 large onions
• 3-4 ribs of celery
• 1 whole head of garlic cut horizontally in half
• and a big bunch of fresh basil leaves if you have it :)

I usually trim the tops off the carrots and peel them, take the skin off my onions, wash the celery and then just break all of them into large chunks for the pot. For your garlic there is no need to peel the cloves of garlic because you are going to strain all of this out of your broth so you can just cut the head of garlic in half horizontally and toss it in the pot *grin*.

Once all of your vegetables are in the soup pot along with your bones, fill it nearly to the top with fresh water, place it on your stove top and simmer gently for about 3-4 hours to really meld all of those great flavors together.

About an hour before you plan to strain your chicken broth you can start getting all of the noodles and vegetables for your finished soup ready.

I always like to use 5 or 6 large carrots cut into rings, 4 ribs of celery cut into chunks, 2 scallions diced, and this time I threw in an entire red pepper that I diced :) Now these vegetables are only a suggestion! If you want to add potato or parsnip do that, or if you want to leave out the red pepper then do that to! You can have any vegetable combination that you like :)

If you want to have noodles in your soup you can also pre cook your macaroni, shell, or fettucine noodles now to. Use about one cup of dried noodles, boil according to your package directions and then strain and set aside for finishing your soup.

***The reason that I like to pre cook all of my vegetables and noodles is so that when my chicken broth is finished cooking I can toss all of the veggies, noodles, chicken and seasonings into the pot and it is all ready to eat! No more waiting for vegetables to cook in the soup broth thus extending the cooking time any further *grin*.

As soon as you have all of your veggies chopped up, heat a stainless steel frying pan with a drizzle of olive oil in it to keep anything from sticking and toss in your vegetables so that you can stir fry them until just tender. As soon as they are to the tenderness that you like remove them from the stove and set aside.

You are now ready to finish off your soup. Yay :)

In your kitchen sink place a pot or bowl that is large enough to accommodate all of your boiling hot chicken broth that you have simmering on the stove. You are going to place a strainer inside that bowl and very carefully pour your pot of hot broth into the strainer so that all of that clear yummy broth is caught in the empty bowl and the bones and boiled vegetables are in the strainer that you can lift out of the bowl and toss.

Put your clear chicken broth back into your pot on the stove top again and add your pre cooked vegetables and noodles, your chopped chicken that you saved from picking it the night before and season it to taste with salt & pepper and more basil if you like and cook for a few minutes more just to reheat all of your veggies and meat :)

Mmmm, so delicious and sooo good for you :)

Serve up a hearty bowl of that wonderful homemade chicken soup that you worked so hard at making *grin* along with some fresh buns and your family will seriously love you forever... I know they just LOVE you to bits already! LOL.

PS. Check out the Wholesome Whole Foods and Food Renegade weekly link up for more great recipes and articles :)

Hugs,
Rosina