Sweet Ninja

A Pickle A Day

It all started with this..

In a desire to live more simply I bought more stuff...doesn't make sense right? Anyway with big dreams of a small farm, or at least big garden, somewhere in my hopefully not too distant future I decided to give home canning a try.

Since my little potted deck garden isn't about to yield what I need I hit up the farmer's market and scored some cukes which I sliced into spears.

Next step wash the mason jars and heat them to 180 degrees. Since I don't have a thermometer at the moment it was a bit of a crap shoot but seems to have worked out fine.

While the jars were heating in the canning pot (I read you can also warm them in the dishwasher which I may try next time) I cooked up the pickling liquid:

1 quart white vinegar

1 quart water

3/4 cups sugar (next time I'll cut this in half because the pickles were a little sweet for my taste)

1/2 cup canning salt (I used Kosher)

3 T pickling spices

Basically just cook it on the stove until the sugar and salt are dissolved.

While Tinkerbell kept me company and gnawed on the box that the canning kit came in I packed the jars. This is where it got a little tricky and I had to call in reinforcements. You need to take the hot jar out of the pot and empty it of it's water. Then stuff it with the sliced cukes. I also added 1 garlic clove, 1 bay leaf and a bunch of fresh dill. Then fill the jar with the hot pickling liquid up to 1/4 inch of the top of the jar. Get the metal lid on the jar and get it back on the canning pot with out letting the jar cool down. This is where Bill had to step in and assist with the rotation of the hot jars. You then bring the water to a boil and keep it there for 15 minutes. Then turn the burner off and let the jars sit for 5 minutes in the hots water.

You then take the jars out of the water and set on a dish towel with at least 2 inches of room between them. Let them cool for 12-24 hours then take the metal ring off to test the seal. If it's secure you're good, if not you're screwed! Not really, but you do have to go through the canning process again with new jars if that happens. 

All-in-all this whole thing took about 45 minuted and I ended up with five tasty jars of pickles! There are, however two more tests for these pickles to pass though. Next week I plan on giving a jar to my pickle expert nephew. I'll let you know his review. The other test is to open a jar in a month or two and feed them to friends without anyone getting sick. The metal tops are really vacuumed down tight so I think I'm good but since this is the first time I'v done this I'm the tiniest bit skeptical. Regardless..next stop...jelly!

Gone Fishin'

Okay…actually crabbing but who’s being technical? I just returned from spending four days down the Jersey shore for our annual fourth of July trip. The weather wasn’t super conducive to hanging on the beach although I did give it try, goose bumps and all. So to fill the time we rode bikes, barbequed, crabbed and played a good number of drinking games. We also watched some non-professional and marginally dangerous fireworks. There were actually people running off the beach and some children who will be forever traumatized but all-in-all they were entertaining!

 And just for entertainment purposes here a pict of my big cat Miles. He's about twice the size of my other cat and still growing, but mostly in the belly area these days. Miles is at least part Maine Coon which means he can keep growing until he's five. Right now he's about three.

No. I'm not stalling. I have been working on things. I Just haven't shown you yet.

How does your garden grow?

Like this

first harvest

Renegade Crafts and Unruly Heat

I read a lot of blogs and lately I’ve been hearing much unhappiness with the new Typepad. I’ve been hitting a lot of glitches (especially when it comes to uploading photos) but I’ve been keeping the faith that they will be worked out shortly. Last night though takes the cake. i wrote a long post about the Renegade Craft Fair with picts and a whole bunch of links. When I hit save to post it the little timer wheel spun for way longer than usual then my post disappeared! Super annoying and it has me thinking that when my Typepad plan is up in August I’ll be moving to Blogger.

Any way, I’ll try and re-create last nights post......

Saturday I took a trip out to Brooklyn to attend the Renegade Craft Fair and I was delighted by the amount of creative folks/ goods there. I was also surprised at how friggin’ hot it was! I think I got heat exhaustion because that’s the only explanation for me pulling of at a Wendy’s (really out of character for me) to get some fries that I completely covered in salt before eating. Then I went home, showered and passed out. The fact that I also got a chocolate milkshake while at Wendy’s isn’t that unusual though..

So here’s a snippet of the treasures I scored at Renegade.

This may be my favorite find from Dead Bird. In case you can’t tell from the photo it’s a shadow box with cut paper inside. Cat from Dead Bird said the piece was inspired by her own kitty who tends to be chipmunks inside.

Here’s a little needle holder that I’ve been coveting from The Small Object. It’s so tiny and cute! My needles are very happy about their new home!

And I’m really enjoying this perfectly proportion horse bag from 31 Corn Lane. I’m doubting it’s hand-madeness though since it was only $10.  The bag was lined with a horse print that matches the silk screen on the front of the bag and the zipper pull also features the same horse.

Also seen in the top photo are a couple treats from Something’s Hiding In Here who has a great booth and beautiful hand screened note cards. Unfortunately I can’t remember who I got the cards from. And she was so sweet because I told her I wanted to frame them and she actually obliged my request for her to sign them. Sorry talented artist/crafter whose name escapes me.

Some other folks worth checking out are elloh, sprout studio and fernworks.

I've Got Summer Tummy

Warm weather perfection!
Grilled veggies...
with assorted toasts: 1-goat cheese, pesto and Parmesan 2- munch with honey 3- red pepper tapenade with goat cheese
 and the perfect dessert of raspberries, Newman's Ginger Os ans sun tea

Work it Rosie!

Finally! With out further ado...a new item in the shop. "A Robot's Busy Week Dishtowels."
 

Hand silk screened with an original illustration depicting just how much work robots really do. These have actually been ready for a little while but I finally got around to taking picts and posting them. Although robots apparently work very hard ...I don't.

And some of that wool got put to good use today. I invited my nephew over to go in my community's pool but sadly it was closed. We made a little craft instead that was all his original design. This little owl, whom he named Hoot, didn't take too long to complete. With teamwork we got it done in just enough time before his attention span wore out. He even forgot about the poison ivy on his face...and elsewhere...for a minute.

Liar, Liar!

Yup....I lied. I don't have anything completed to show you. I even contemplated finding a half done project to finish up but out of allllll the half done projects I have none can be quickly finished. Let's be honest I didn't really even start one of the projects I'm making from the materials I showed you the other day. Ok, I started one but didn't get very far...YET!

My main excuse is that is was near 100 degrees here all weekend so I HAD to spend the time outside in a pool. It wouldn't have been right to be locked inside. Then...when I was going to work on something today I got a splinter under my nail! And it broke! And part of the wood is still there throbbing!

I got the splinter while photographing some boots out on my deck.
 

I bought these sweet kicks on Ebay but they didn't fit so I just re-listed them. It's my first Ebay listing. We'll see how it goes. I have hope since when I was bidding on them there were others right there with me.










Also I realise I post I wrote never posted and I have no idea why. It was a Happy B-day to my Dad post with some picts of the "Miniature Golf," game we set up in my parents yard. My hole was themed, "The Garden State." Here's a peek at it.


























...and...I ....Promise I'll get to work!

Making Time To Make

Ever have a ton of ideas in your head but no time to actually carry them out? That's where I've been for a while now. Between working full time with a minimum of of a three hour total commute a day and freelance work I've been struggling to find time to work on my own stuff. Even my weekends have been pretty packed lately which is sure to only get worse with summer right around the corner. I'm not complaining about that though because that's the fun stuff. A girl needs time to craft though!

We'll I've got some plans and I've got some new materials. Here's a peak at my stash but I'm not going to tell you what it's for. Okay... some of it I'm not sure what it's for yet. But here it is and I'm promising now to have a full finished project to post by Monday. I said it, "promise." Now I have to! Wasn't this supposed to be a craft blog any way?
Fabulous wool felt. This pict doesn't do the colors justice because it's late and there's no natural light in my studio right now.
An embroidery that I did a while back that's finally going to serve a purpose. And what's that behind it? Vinyl?...Hmmm...?
And the sweetest dancing animal fabric aquired today at Purl Patchwork.