Pretty Potholders

Look at the gorgeous potholders that arrived in my mailbox yesterday :) My lovely swap partner ended up being from right here in Canada and I just LOVE what she created for me. The cute little quilted christmas tree is actually made with same fabrics that I used for my partners potholders! Great minds must think alike *grin*.

I adore the stitching on this potholder, the way it created hills and valleys around the little squares of fabric... so crazy creative!! It actually reminds me of a game of pac man *grin*. They are perfect for my kitchen as it is red and the polka dot binding is just fantastic :) I don't think that I can bear to use them though in fear of staining them so I think that I'm going to use them on my coffee table for resting a candle jar on. That way I can enjoy them all throughout the holiday season and they won't get any pot roast or pie stains on them *grin*.

Along with the potholders came this super cute little felt christmas tree decoration to. Again more stitching so lovingly placed all over it. It will be a perfect addition to the handmade ornaments that the children and I have made for the tree :)

Thank you so much Val!!!
Hugs,
Rsoina

Batten Down The Hatches

We've started to winterize the house.
Garden hoses have been removed and drained, water valves closed tight and a tool kit is being placed on the wall right above our water pump for emergency removal when the water starts to rise in our basement. The kids did a sweep of the yard and brought in any stray toys out in the field, bikes were brought closer to home and the ride on mower was tucked safely in the garage.

Last year we nearly lost the bikes and the mower when everything went under water and the swift current pulled things down river as we flooded on November 16th, and with the last flood in January still fresh in our minds we're being proactive and taking care of business now, not when the water is already knee deep *grin*.

Our house was built in the 60's and still has the original aluminum single pane windows which are notoriously drafty. Brrr is an understatement! They actually grow solid ice more than 2 inches thick on the inside of the windows during a cold snap and I remember as a kid sleeping with my touque on just to keep my ears warm LOL. So to combat the cold and prevent heat loss Hubby and I have been putting up shrink wrap plastic to act as a thermal barrier for the last couple of years. Awesome stuff!!

You run a strip of double sided tape all around the window frame and then stick on a piece of the plastic sheet....

...hit it with the heat gun and it magically shrinks up the plastic so it is super taut and it keeps the heat in. No more ice on the windows and no condensation either!!

The children's rooms and ours are all done along with our laundry room and now I'm considering seeing if we can find some that is large enough to do the giant bay windows in the family and dining rooms. We already notice the heat staying longer and it keeps us from burning to much wood which is our main heating source :)

I've got some old denim that I've been saving in my craft closet and over the next couple of weeks I think I'm going to sew some draft stops for the bottom of the doors starting with the porch door by my computer desk. My feet are freezing as I sit here *grin*.

How about you, what sort of things do you do to winterize your home?

Hugs,
Rosina

right now, I AM

...enjoying solitude, a moment, a snippet of time, entirely my own, no sounds, the room is empty, the beds are full and I can reflect on a day well spent.

Solitude is soul’s ‘solo’
Without it heart is hollow
~ Mula Veereswara Rao

Hugs,
Rosina

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Last Vegetables in the Garden

The nights are growing colder up our neck of the woods and with a few frosty mornings lately I thought that maybe we should head out to the garden and pick some of what is left still growing out there :)

Any bits of lettuce and radishes that were left behind have now gone to seed but we have a row of red cabbage that is flourishing in the wet weather. I think the kids were quite surprised to find that they had grown so big!

Everyone had a turn tearing off the large bug eaten outer leaves and pulling the heads, roots and all out of the soil :) Harvesting is sooo much more fun than weeding! I don't remember seeing so much enthusiasm when it was time to pull chickweed, thistles and other weeds *grin*.

Here's one of our larger ones. It must have been around 8 inches in diameter and quite heavy. As I had my little mini photo shoot with the kids you could see that their arms were getting quite tired from lifting them up *grin*. They're such good sports for their mama LOL.

All that's left now are the leeks. They are doing fabulously despite being completely surround by weeds *grin*. We stopped weeding a while ago. Part laziness, part master plan as the weeds were covering the soil and keeping it much more moist than when the dirt was open to the sun and then it dried out so quickly. Haha, see there is a method to my madness!!

I'm not quite ready to pull them all as there are way to many to just eat so I would have to blanch them for freezing so I think I might mulch them and see if I can prevent them from freezing and be able to pull them fresh from the garden as I need them :) How long do you leave your leeks in the garden?

Hugs,
Rosina

Preserving Fall ~ Canning Pumpkin

I couldn't bear to let our carved pumpkins go to waste so I had the kids bring them inside to me this morning and I got to work chopping them up for canning :) I just LOVE the smell of freshly sliced and grated pumpkin and this will let me enjoy this time of year just a little bit longer. There's nothing like cooking up a pumpkin pie in those dark winter days and triggering wonderful memories of fall :)

They have a bit of a tough skin to peel but as you get going I find that it gets easier. You start to get the feel for the right pressure you need to apply to your knife while keeping your loose fingers clear in case it slips *grin*. I'll admit it slipped on me once and it sort of give my heart a jump start! LOL.

I had already washed some of my pint canning jars in hot soapy water with a splash of bleach to disinfect them as they had been sitting in the crawl space all year so once I had all my pumpkin peeled I cut the pieces into 1 inch thick spears roughly the height of my jars but short enough to leave the 1 inch head space needed for a proper seal. What at time saver!! When it was time to pack the jars all of the spears were the exact height so there was no need to mess around trimming them to fit :)

I thought that I would share with you how I can pumpkin just in case you want to try doing it with your pumpkins to :) Pumpkins are a low acid vegetable and very capable of growing botulism if processed improperly so make sure you use a 'pressure canner' and NOT a 'water bath'.

When you have collected all of your jars, sealers, rings and have your pumpkin peeled and sliced it's time to prep you pumpkin for packing into your jars. Pre-heat your oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit and place all of your pumpkin spears into a large stock pot and cover with water. Bring the pot to a boil and let it gently boil for a couple of minutes only. You will see that your pumpkin spears are starting to turn brighter orange as they start to cook and you only want them to be barely fork tender. You are going to pack your jars hot so even if you don't think they are quite done turn off the burner anyways because as you pack your jars the ones in the pot will continue to cook while waiting to come out.

Put on a clean pair of rubber gloves and grab a jar :) Your rubber gloves are going to be your body armor as you grab hot spears of pumpkin out of the pot and pack them in as tightly as you can vertically into your jars without mushing them. As soon as you have filled a jar, use a ladle and pour in enough of the hot water from your cooking pot to cover your pumpkin spears and make sure you still leave that 1 inch of empty head space at the top of the jar. Wipe the rim clean with a cloth so there are no bits of pumpkin where the sealer will touch and pop the jar into the oven to keep warm while you pack the rest of your jars :)

As soon as you have all of your jars filled with pumpkin and liquid it's time to get your sealers heated. I usually use Bernardin sealers which recommend that you only heat them to 180 degrees. Check the directions on your box as they may be different and if you happen to have old sealers you may find that they still say you can boil them for a full 5 minutes! I must say I sure do miss the old sealers that you could just pop in the pot and boil without worrying about over heating them *grin*. Once your sealers have been heated as directed, remove your jars form the oven with your rubber gloves on again and put on a hot sealer one at a time placing the finished jar each time directly into your pressure canner.

With your pressure canner fully loaded clamp on your lid, place it on your stove top burner, and turn the burner on high. As soon as your canner starts to 'vent' out of the steam pipe time it for a full 10 minutes and when the time is up shut the valve or place your weight on the steam pipe depending on which model of canner you have.

Process your batch at 10 pounds pressure for 65 minutes and that's it :)

Now if you don't have a pressure canner or just don't want to do all of that work *grin* then you can definitely freeze your pumpkin! I had way to much for my canner and I only wanted to do one batch so I grated up what was left of my pumpkin.

Our favorite cake and pie recipes call for two cups of pumpkin so I measured out 2 cups into each of my freezer bags so when I want to use one it will be exactly what I need :) You can also freeze pureed pumpkin, pumpkin butter and pumpkin pie filling as well.

Three pumpkins later I have 18 beautiful pints of canned pumpkin, 6 packages of grated pumpkin for the freezer and 1 blistered finger from all of the peeling *grin*. If you have a favorite pumpkin recipe that you would like to share with me I would love to hear about it :)

Hugs,
Rosina

PS. Looking for more great recipes? Check out the Hearth & Soul Hop & Real Food Deals :)

Happy Halloween

Oh boy did we have fun tonight!
Last night we celebrated Hubby's birthday which we usually do with him today as he's a trick or treat baby *grin* but with him having to leave for work we did it a day early and tonight we had our family ghouly food party :)

I spent the morning creating eyeballs out of radishes and olives, mixing up a pungent yet tasty 'rotten' cheese log, and figuring out how to make my own black sanding sugar :)

I always have a fun drink for the kids and this year it was an orange juice spritzer with a touch of grenadine to give it a nice red color and then added a couple extra touches with the black sanding sugar and black twizzler garnishes.

We had our rotten cheese spread with crackers and radish eyeballs for our appetizer and then a main course of eyeball soup for our entree *grin*. Oh my goodness was it hilarious! I didn't tell anyone that I had popped in some bocconcini cheese balls with little olive irises and as they slurped up their soup, one by one they discovered these odd little lumps in their soup bowls!

Everyone was brave enough to try them except for my daughter. Even though I assured her that they were just cheese she refused to eat them LOL. They actually were delicious in the soup as they sort of melted in the heat :)

It is a Halloween tradition for me to take the kids to the Rocky Mountain chocolate factory in the city just before Halloween and let them pick out their favorite candy apple. They make the most AMAZING apples with fun faces, sticky sweet caramel topped with chocolate and the perfect tart granny smith apples inside :)

Since we don't go out trick or treating this is my special little treat for them. Plus it's half healthy with that giant apple in there right?!

I hope you all had a wonderful evening whether you go out trick or treating, celebrate Samhain, honor the earth for the fall bounty it provides or don't do Halloween at all. Whichever you did I hope you had a lovely time :)

Hugs,
Rosina

Happy Birthday Halloween Style

It was all about Halloween today :)
We started our day with a hunt for fireworks which we successfully located at the nearby corner store and then headed home to tackle our pumpkins. I had been waiting until the last day to carve them as we have a bear around our property right now and I didn't want to draw him close to the house with the smell of fresh pumpkin *grin*.

All three of the children had their very own pumpkin and as they plucked out innards I sifted through the bits for seeds to roast for munching on later. I just love roasted pumpkin seeds :) It was great to watch them carve and the scary faces take shape. My little guy insisted on trying to carve his with a butter knife because mama isn't quite ready to let him wield a sharper knife just yet but in the end he had to enlist the help of daddy because his knife just wasn't getting the job done LOL.

Halloween happens to by Hubby's birthday as well but he has to leave for work tomorrow so we decided to celebrate his birthday today so that he wouldn't miss out on some of the Halloween fun :) I had quite a few different plans for ghouly food and waaay to much for just one meal so we decided to keep it a little tamer for daddy as he's not so crazy about 'eye of newt' juice and some of the other things I like to make for the kids *grin*. So tomorrow we are going to have a second party with eye ball soup, rotten cheese spread and more! Oh do I love halloween meals :)

So we kept it tame for daddy and had roast zombie leg (pork roast), mashed brain with bat blood (mashed potato & cranberry sauce) , vegetables and eye of newt juice (lemonade with tapioca pearls). I just couldn't help myself but call everything crazy names and the kids loved it :) Of course that led in to some, um, very interesting dinner conversation as my oldest wanted to discuss just how do you kill a zombie *grin*.

Hubby loves ice cream cake so much that he had the kids quite convinced that he wasn't going to share. You can see from the photo that he was doing a pretty good job as he attacked the cake with his fork!

To end our birthday celebrations we shot off all of our fireworks and I think startled the neighbors LOL. After the first couple of ear shattering bangs we could see a spotlight pop on down the road as they checked out just what was happening up our neck of the woods *grin*. The kids didn't want daddy to miss out on any of the fun so who could say no!

He's another year older and even more loved than the year before :)
Happy Birthday Hub-a-licious *grin*.

Hugs,
Rosina

Holiday Package Ready To Ship

Ta-Dah!

All finished :) My little holiday ornament turned out even better than I could have hoped and I'm seriously going to have to make one for myself now *grin*.

Here is everything that I'm sending to my secret swap partner for the holiday edition of the potholder pass. Both of the potholders have the appliqued bird design on the front and the candy cane striping for the backing. I wasn't sure how I was going to add the potholder hooks but I decided on using red rik rak and embellished them with a tiny red heart and to accompany the potholders is my little stumpwork ornament.

I sure hope my partner will enjoy it as much as I did making it for her :) The whole package is all wrapped up and ready to be dropped off at the post office tomorrow morning and I can't wait to see what I get *grin*.

Hugs,
Rosina

Nature's Larder

I've been putting the finishing touches on my special stumpwork ornament that I'm giving to my Potholder Pass partner :) I had mentioned in my last update that it was out of one of my older inspiration magazines and here is a photo of what the original projects look like. Aren't they amazing?! Mine is considerably larger since it is an ornament for a Christmas tree but these ones are not even 2 inches in diameter.

Everything has to be in the mail by Sunday and I'm right on track to get it all shipped by the last day LOL. So much for this being the fastest swap I've ever completed! Somewhere along the way I got sidetracked... thus is my life *grin*.

The above photo shows a side view of the raspberry that is covered completely in french knots and the accented with little beads :)

For the leaves I used a special satin floss that sort of shimmers depending on how the light hits it. It's a DMC floss number S700 and I think that it gave the whole project the little extra glitz that I was looking for :)

So tonight I'm going to finish attaching my little red berries that are awaiting me all pinned in place and figure out exactly how to anchor my acorn without shifting the satin threads surrounding it. I find that the instructions in the magazine are a little vague which makes finishing the project a little tougher but it's coming together nicely and tomorrow I should have a completed photo to show you along with the potholders that are finished to :) Yay!! Then I can move on to new projects *grin*.

Hugs,
Rosina

right now, I AM

....savoring the sweet moments I just had with my youngest baby this evening as we shared the enchanting scenes and sweet poems from one of Salley Mavor's books full of three dimensional felt people and scenery. The pictures provided prompts for such wonderful questions and a much needed snuggle at the end of a busy day :)

Hugs,
Rosina

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