Pickles!!

I am so proud of myself!  This past weekend I made pickles for the first time ever!  The best part is the cucumbers came from my very own garden!  That's right!!  I grew them myself!  I only ended up harvesting enough to make 4 jars of pickles but it was super exciting.  We have to wait a few more days before we can try them but the boys are excited to be my guinea pigs.  For Christmas my wonderful hubby bought me Food in Jars so I could get more canning tips and try some new recipes.  This is a fabulous book and the author has a wonderful blog full of tips, tricks, recommendations on equipment, give a ways, and more. 

Since I started my hand at growing vegetables, I have wanted to grow pickling cucumbers so I could make pickles.  I finally did it this year.  To my surprise it was super simple.  I didn't have great luck growing them.  I expected to get a much larger yield than I did, but I'll cut myself some slack as it was my first attempt. 





Hopefully they will meet my expectations and taste fabulous!

This Moment

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by Soule Mama.

Camping Cut Short

Camping in the Northwest can be iffy pretty much year round.  You might call it a box of chocolates.  You never know what you're gonna get.  Camping the first week of August, in the middle of the state however, pretty much guarantees you dry weather.  Well, not this year.  We had planned to spend two nights camping.  Instead we spent one night camping, in the rain.  Woke up to two sick family members.  Tried to have fun anyway and went bowling and played mini put-put.  Thing 3 threw a fit about 7 holes in, sat down and refused to play.  Then refused to move from the shade under the tree.  Back at the campsite a swarm of bees had made themselves at home.  Thing 2 wouldn't even go into the campsite!  So we called it.  Packed up the gear and headed home while the rain started to come down again. 

I did get to try out my birthday present!  It took a while to figure out the cooking with coals thing, but managed to make a delicious raspberry dump cobbler and used the lid for pancakes.  It definitely cooks slower but I think it just takes time to get the ratio of coals for the food and conditions.

Birthday Present

If you had told me 10 years ago, or even 5 years ago, that I would be excited about getting a dutch oven for camping as a birthday present, I would have said you were nuts! You get dirty camping. You have to sleep outside. And the bugs! Don't get me started on the bugs! What changed? I guess giving birth to boys did it to me. Or maybe it was the introduction of Scouting into our lives that did it. My brand spankin' new 12 inch deep dutch oven has been stripped and seasoned and ready for it's inaugural camping trip! Back in January I attended a Scout leadership training where they offered all sorts of classes for leaders to take. One of which was a fantastic class on dutch oven cooking. The instructor was a master dutch oven chef. I mean, this man actually competes in dutch oven cooking competitions and brings home the ribbon! I had no idea these things existed! Dutch oven masters and dutch oven competitions! Who better to learn the ins and outs of how to use a dutch oven from. Tomorrow we head out for three days, two nights of camping at a lake about 3 hours away. It's the lake I spent a week at every summer with my family growing up so it holds all sorts of memories for me. Last night hubby and I, okay, I poured thru my dutch oven cookbooks to decide what recipes I should try. This trip I will be making a raspberry cobbler, biscuits, pancakes and eggs with this bad boy. Wish me luck!!

Jamboree Trading Patches

Thing 1 has been working hard for over a year from attending meetings to fundraising to be able to attend the National Boy Scout Jamboree that happens only every 4 years.  There is just about everything a young boy would want to do from archery to gun ranges, skate board parks, to mountain biking, rock climbing to scuba diving.  With all of these wonderful activities to do, one of their favorite activities is to patch trade.  Scouts come from all around the country and even a few from around the world to jamboree.  Each troop designs a set of patches that represents their area.  For instance, a set of patches from Detroit is all about American built cars.  Being from the Northwest, our patches were Native American artwork.  Scouts meet other scouts from all over the country and trade patches with each other.  As soon as we found out about this activity for Jamboree, I knew Thing 1 would be interested in this in a big way and managing the patches could be a messy thing if he was just throwing them in his duffel. 

What's a quilter to do?  Design a bag of course!  I designed this bag to be large enough to hold all the patches but small enough to be able to throw in his day pack.  It had to be masculine so he would actually carry it.  It has just a simple zipper on the top with a ribbon tied to the pull.  Inside there is one divider.  One side stitched with KEEP and one side stitched with TRADE so he could keep his council patches that he wanted to trade with others separate from those he had already traded for.

When you give a hand-made to a 14 year old boy, you have to accept the fact that you might only get a "thanks mom" type of response.  You know the one.  Small voice, no inflection, no emotion.  It's the same response you get at the end of a school day when you ask how was their day.  "fine".  Thing 1 surprised me by being super excited about it and gave me a genuine "Thank you Mom" with a hug!

Bag front

Bag back

Bag inside with divider

This Moment

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by Soule Mama.

Big Boy Room

Amidst all the cars, sea of Legos, video games, Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, soccer, karate, laser tag, did I mention video games?, just sometimes I'm able to do something with my boys that actually interests me as well as the boys.  A few summers ago I was working on a project and Thing 1 said he wanted to sew something.  Of course, that prompted Thing 2 to want to participate as well.  I proposed they help make a quilt for Thing 3.  It look well over a year, but the boys stitched all these car blocks and road sign blocks for their baby brother.  I handled the piecing and quilting but what a special project to work on with the boys and to have for the youngest of the family.  Of course, this called for a room makeover, converting Thing 3's room from a little boy room to a bigger boy room.  The finished piece is now proudly hanging on his wall.

 

Tow Mater and Lightning McQueen cross stitch projects hang over the new dresser.

This adorable kid table has been passed around the family quite a bit.  It was in my hubby's room when he was young, I believe it spent some time in storage to then be dug out for my nephew's room.  It has now made it to Thing 3's room and looks so cute!

The Transportation quilt on the bed was originally made for Thing 1 when his nursery was converted.  We worked on each block together, him deciding which car or truck block we would make next and what color it should be.  It has spent time on the beds of all three boys now.

The name letters were super simple to put together.  A little bit of paint, some striped scrapbook paper and a few top coats and voila!

A special little corner for reading and a few toys.

Thing 3 loves his new room!  I wonder how long the Car theme will last before it needs another update.