Yes, we still "Tuesday"...

We have tons of fun from the past few weeks to blog about. But, with the holidays and Molly moving, we have not kept up on posts. So, to ALL our loyal readers, all 5 of you, after the new year we will be back on track!

Project #10 Boutique Style Baby Blanket

Molly and I needed to catch up on some baby gifts and also make some items for a charity auction basket so we dug into our stash and made a couple of these blankets, some burp cloths and bibs. This is a pretty easy project yet has quite a "Wow" factor! Sarah, this one's for you! Instructions for making the blankie you admired last night. (I told you there would be shout out for you on the Tuesday's blog!)

Fabric required:
Baby Satin or Pajama Satin (Washable - not prom dress satin, if you will!)
Minkie or Baby Chenille

Cut satin to 35"x40"
Cut Minkie/Chenille to 30"x35"

Lay wrong sides together, minkie centered over satin.

Carefully fold satin over minkie and fold under a scant 1/4 inch hem and pin as you go.

Fold and miter your corners. This part is a tiny bit tricky, just takes a bit of practice! Even if this is not done perfectly, it is really OK. My favorite baby blankie, we will call it "Hugga" for the purposes of this blog, had messed up corners. It was my favorite place to stroke and rub for comfort. Hugga now sleeps with Lindsay. Messed up corners and all.

Me Pinning. Note the "I Voted Today" Sticker.

Topstitch close to the edge of the satin.

Do a pivot turn and stitch your corners. Start the next side.

Fold, roll, and tie with a fabulous bow. Now you have a very impressive gift. Who wouldn't want one of these?

Baby Z trying it out - just to make sure it was baby approved!

And Baby K rolling on the floor of the sewing room/her bedroom with her Elephant "Tangles."

Today's lunch. Grilled Cheese Sandwich and Dr. Pepper - nothing like an ice cold Dr. Pepper! Not a fruit or vegetable in sight. A Grilled Cheese Sandwich made with real plastic cheese (Today it was velveeta, generic Kroger Velveeta to be exact, Kraft singles could work, whatever plastic cheese you prefer.) This is actually the best way to make one. I promise. I have a fridge full of expensive fancy cheeses. We like them - they have their place. But for grilled cheese? Plastic is the way to go! Tastes just like one from Sonic. Or Red Robin.

Project #9 Mending Steve's Clothes - totally boring.

It seems our blog posts tend to have a theme - something fun and crafty as well as something that is developing a homemaking skill - canning, jams, etc. Well, today's installment is "Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without." Steve has started to say he needs some wardrobe updates, his shirts are showing some age and it is time to get a couple new ones. I remembered I had this basket in my sewing room full of clothes that needed repairs. And they have sat. And sat. And sat. So, I decided to tackle them! All of these clothes were in perfectly fine, practically new condition, they had just been unfortunate victims of door knobs or nails or something or had crummy buttons that kept cracking. One shirt needed 3 new buttons. Two shirts had tears near the tail - where they will be tucked in. One shirt was a gift and since Steve will not wear a long sleeve shirt to work, it was waiting to have the sleeves shortened. (I have done this with a fair number of his work shirts - no one would ever know). A pair of pants had a tear near a back pocket. Same with a pair of shorts. I don't have a bunch of pictures of the afters or really close-ups of the befores but you get the idea. Fix stuff. It is easy. Why go out and spend easily $150+ on 4 work shirts, 1 pair of pants and 1 pair of shorts when I can fix ones he already has?

Custom Covered Mattes

Project #8 Covered Matte Boards
First we bought mattes to fit in an 11x14 frame at the dollar store.

We then purchased 11x14 frames from the thrift store since we would be spray painting them anyway. Spray paint frames the color that works for you, we chose white.

Next, we gathered scrapbook papers to match our girl's bedrooms. Meredith went for the colorful look since her girls have a colorful room and I went with the Shabby Chic look for Brynley's room.

Cut/tear scrapbook papers to various sizes and piece together on matte board using Mod Podge. You can also paint the Mod Podge over the paper if you would like a slightly shiny texture.

Finished mattes before frames are added.

Finally, put mattes in frames and you're ready to add your favorite pictures. We will be using black and white photos in ours.

Best.Salsa.Ever.

This salsa has become a tradition while we are working. It's pretty good for you (besides the chips) so we don't feel too bad when our lunches mostly consist of this!

Recipe - Courtesy of Cheri Harrison

1 large slightly firm avocado

1 large tomato

1 can Shoepeg Corn drained

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

Dressing:

1 Italian dry dressing mix

2 Tbls. Olive Oil

3 Tbls. water

Dice tomatoes and avocado fairly small, add beans and corn. Mix dressing in separate bowl and combine with other ingredients, chill. Serve with tortilla chips or just use a spoon!

Raspberry Jam

Project #7 Homemade Raspberry Jam - Canned
We started out with 12 pounds of fresh raspberries, yum!

Next we washed all berries and jars, leaving jars on the heated dry cycle in the dishwasher. When canning jam, it must be poured into hot jars!

Measure out berries before they are mashed (something we learned by mistake!) and mash with a potato masher.

Our recipe calls for fresh lemon zest, lemon juice, water, pectin and sugar.

After follwoing cooking directions, stiring constantly, remove pot from heat and scrape foam from the top.

Using a funnel for canning, pour raspberry jam into hot jars.

Process jars for 10 minutes in a boiling water canner. (If you have a pressure canner, it can be used as a boiling water canner)

The finished product - 12 pounds of raspberries yields about 24 half pints of jam

Pears

Project #6 Canning/bottling/preserving pears

We started with two 36-38 lb cases of Utah pears. Yum! I (Mer) have done pears before. Molly had not so we needed to do pears so she could decide if it was worth the trouble.

Peel pears using a fruit/vegetable peeler. They skin cannot be blanched off like peaches or tomatoes. Bummer.

Cut in half and remove core.

Pack in quart bottles and add syrup (we use extra light) to 1/2 inch head space. Process for 30 minutes in a water bath or steam canner. BTW, I love my steam canner. A friend at church convinced me to buy one. It uses way less water than a water bath canner so it heats up faster and does not create as much heat in the kitchen. Process times are the same as for water bath.

Yummy pears still bubbly hot!

We were going to run out of jars after 20 quarts and still had lot of pears left. We decided to make baby food and pear butter. Cut, quarter, and cook until soft.

Run through a blender and then press through a sieve to remove skins and excess bulk.

At this point you have baby food. We freeze in ice cube trays. Each cube is 1 ounce. We each made 8 cups of baby food. I have more ready to freeze in the fridge.

Now, on to the pear butter. (2 qts pulp, 4 c. sugar, 1/4 c OJ, nutmeg). Cook and stir until thick and "mounds in a spoon."

"Just keep stirring, just keep stirring, just keep stirring, stirring stirring stirring..."

PSA: No one tells you that this stirring and thickening part can take 2 hours or that your kitchen will look like this picture of my microwave or that you will get splatter burns on your arms. And your ear. And your toes. Moving on...

My half of the haul. Molly took hers home already. 10 quarts of bottled pears, 2 1/2 pints pear butter, and 8 cups pear baby food. Oh, I kept the extra 1/2 pint of pear butter since I get to clean my kitchen. Goodness; it is a sticky mess!

For lunch: Corn chips with homemade salsa, quacomole and pinto beans and peanut butter pie.

Eek!

Project #5 Eek Halloween sign found project here

Purchase 3 opening frame (this one is cheap from the $ store...)

Enlarge letters E E K in various fonts. Use newspaper for printing

Eek sign ready for your Halloween Tabloux. Funny story. I told Molly now that we had our EEK sign done, we had to get our Halloween Tabloux ready. "Oh crap. What's a tabloux? Do I need one?" hehehe...I explained it was her displays of holiday crud. Always a good laugh or two when I am with my sister!

Birthday Celebrations!

Today we are celebrating the birthdays of our dear husbands who both turn 35 today. Yes, both are celebrating their 35 birthday today and no, we did not marry twins! Check back this week for more installments of Tuesdays with Molly. We have lots of work and fun planned!

Friday, September 26th

Project #4 - Autumn/Winter Table Sign

A friend of ours who has a vinyl lettering cutter showed us this project. We started this a few weeks ago and did not take any progress pictures, but here is the finished product.

It is a two sided sign, one sign reading "Autumn" and the other "Winter"

Blocks Measure approximately 3 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches

Each block is painted and then decoupaged with a piece of scrapbook paper

Distress blocks with sand paper

Adhere vinyl letters to each side of the blocks

Attach blocks together using 3/4" hinges

Beans!

Project #3 - Pinto Beans!

This week, with a lot of time on our hands... Meredith and I have strayed from working just on Tuesday. We had a blast learning how to can pinto beans, it was so easy, I can't figure out why we haven't done it before.

We forgot to take step by step pictures but here are the basics:
1. Put 2/3 cup of dry beans in pint jar
2. Add 1/2 tsp. of salt
3. Fill with water leaving 1 inch of head space
4. Seal lids and place into pressure canner
5. Process for 75 minutes at 15 pounds of pressure

6. Voila! Your beans are ready to use in soups, salads, as a side, or refried!

Tuesday, September 23rd

Project #1. Canned Tomatoes. We didn't do a ton. Enough for a first try.

Two 20 lb cases of tomatoes. Courtesy of Bountiful Baskets.

Blanch tomatoes in boiling water to loosen skin.

Remove skins. It slips off easily.

Remove stem and any hard, fibrous areas from the stem end.

Tightly pack quartered tomatoes into quart jars, add additional water and lemon juice (to preserve color and add acid) leaving 1/2 inch head space.

Process for 45 minutes water bath or steam canner. Or, process for 10 minutes at 10 lbs pressure in a pressure canner. (We have all varieties.) We used the steam canner today.

40 lbs tomatoes yield 22 quart jars of tomatoes for our pantry and food storage.
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Project #2 Message board with chicken wire and decoupaged clothes pins/clips. Project found HERE.

Two ugly thrift store pieces of artwork, spray paint, clothes pin (AKA chip clips at our homes) and a role of poultry wire Found in garden section at Lowe's.

Spray gray primer. Dry. Spray black paint. Dry. Sand to distress.

Decoupage scrapbook paper scraps to embellish clothes pins.

Use wire cutters to trim poultry wire to size and staple to back of frame using heavy duty stapler.

Molly's finished memo board in natural daylight.

Meredith's finished memo board in the evening.

These are so cute! Now we want to make more...


A preview of the "before" for next Tuesday.