Purse!

I went to visit my parents a little while ago and my two sisters came at the same time. It's tradition to always have a project to do when we all get together, so this time Summer had the idea for us to all make a purse. I was excited because it gave me a chance to sew and they could show me how and help me with the hard parts. Most of the purse was pretty simple, and was a good way for me to practice sewing in a straight line and around a curve. Mom and Wendy finished their purses in one day, but mine kind of dragged out longer. The end part was really difficult, so Mom helped with it. The bottom is an oval and you have to fit it on and sew it together, but it really doesn't fit together, and the sewing machine doesn't really go in a circle like that....somehow Mom got it to work and then I finished it up. I had fun with the zig-zag stitch, going around the raw edges and making them look smooth and finished. I went around the bottom of the purse twice with that just because it was fun.



And now I have a really cute purse! It was kind of fun to see what fabric we all picked out. It really showed each person's personality by the color and pattern on the fabric. Mine was bright blue (everything I love is blue) with flowers and butterflies, Wendy's had cute cherries on black for the outside and cherries on white for the inside, and my Mom had a really pretty fall looking material with fall colors that looked like trees, and the inside was pretty sparkly swirly red. I was kind of surprised Mom didn't make hers blue because she loves blue a lot too. Summer didn't make a purse because she was just helping me, but the purse she made at home was pretty cute with flowers and pink and brown.

And when my girls at church (I teach the mia maids) saw my purse they all said how cute it was and that they wanted to make one too! So we might have a couple mutual activities to make them purses.
Thanks for the idea and help Summer!

Making Applesauce

A couple days ago Greg and I picked a bunch of apples off a tree on the side of the road. There were so many! If I had a ladder I could have gotten to a lot more. Anyway, now I'm making applesauce!



I spent many hours peeling apples yesterday. I started at about 4:30pm, and cleaned things up around 11pm. Greg helped for about 45 minutes while I made dinner. I just got myself set up in front of the T.V. with all the apples and a cutting board and box for garbage and got to work. This picture is about 3 hours into it...I didn't know that Greg was taking the picture. (Wednesday night)



I'm probably going to dream about peeling apples now. When I was picking blackberries at mom's house I would see bushes with clumps of berries hanging down whenever I closed my eyes. Now I see tiny green bruised apples. I still have about 1/4 of the box left to peel today. It sure would be nice to have one of those peeler corer slicer things. I was wondering if it would even work though, for these tiny apples. They might be too small for it to do the job very well.



It's kind of tricky with the slicer we have. The tube that gets cut out for the core is so big compared to the apple. It would be just right for the big apples you get at the store, but it takes a lot of good apple with it.



Either way, the apples were all free, and the sauce is so good. It's worth it.

(A couple days later)
I'm getting back to this post because I finally finished the applesauce! A friend let us borrow his apple corer/slicer/peeler and we picked some more apples at his house. Greg used that new tool to cut up all the rest of the apples while I got to work food processing them into smaller pieces and cooking it into applesauce. (I left some chunks though--it's better a little chunky instead of like soup.) As it started looking like applesauce, I added some sugar, a little brown sugar, lots of cinnamon, a little lemon juice, and a couple quick shakes of ground cloves. This applesauce turned out really good! It smelled like apple cider while it was cooking. The final count was 16 quarts, which might be just enough to last the rest of the week. Well, it will last longer than that if I use my will power, but this is good stuff!

I'm learning to sew!

I've had a sewing machine since before I got married, but I haven't known how to use it. The plan was that Summer and I would buy sewing machines, and then have sewing lessons from Mom...



Well, I ended up being too busy dating this really great guy, and then we got married and moved away.



I only had one sewing lesson with Mom. We threaded the bobbin and threaded the needle. I also did a few test runs to see how to make it do different kinds of stitches, and that's pretty much it! So when we moved into this place and I saw the ugly horrid dirty broken blinds (or place where the blinds were) I decided I would just have to replace them all with curtains.




Now I'm on a quest to learn how to sew. I was kind of afraid to start by myself, thinking I might do something really bad and break the machine or the needle...But after some encouragement from Wendy, I decided to just go for it. Greg is pretty good at sewing too, so I felt better that he was around and could help me figure some things out.



I was glad the thread was already in the machine and on the bobbin. It just happened that it matched the material for my first set of curtains, so I got started pretty fast. I will have to change the thread for the next set of curtains though. The rest that I make will all be more of a creamy white color. We decided to just make bla boring curtains that match anything, since this is a rental and we will be leaving them here. I'm excited to make better curtains that I really like for our next home. (Hopefully that won't be a rental.)



I wanted to do this post when I finished the first set of curtains, so I could show you the finished product, but I will have to just post that picture later. I'm going to Girl's Camp tomorrow for a week, and then when I get back I will go visit my parents for another week...so it will probably be awhile before I get back to work at the sewing table now.

(p.s. Sorry that last picture is sideways...I didn't notice until just now, but I really have to pack for Girl's camp, and I don't feel like going back to fix it.)

(p.s. again...Do you like my plants in the background? The bigger one is the zebra plant, and there's a cactus and a peperomia too. I don't know what the other one is called.)

Memories Tag

I found this on Kaela's blog and thought it looked like fun. So I copied her post, because I didn't think I could explain it any better.

Here is how:

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember.

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory of you. It's actually pretty funny read to the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

Attack of the killer weeds!

The lot next to us is completely empty...That is, completely empty except for the mass of crazy killer weeds!



They started out as tall scary looking and sweet smelling purple flowers.



Now as they are mature and are ready to release their seeds, they have turned into a bunch of white fuzzy fluff balls that fly around in the wind. It looks like it's snowing.



The previous person who lived here said it actually got so bad last year that they could hardly see the road from the house. We have been in contact with some city authorities who have assured us that action is being taken against the weeds.



The owner of the lot has been fined a couple hundred dollars, and then for every day it's not taken care of it will cost an extra $100. I don't know exactly how much the guy has racked up so far, but I hope he is motivated to do something soon!

Fresh Tomatoes!

You can't imagine the feeling I get when I look at these tomatoes. A movie replays in my head of buying the little seed packet and starter stuff, planting the seeds in trays and watering them every morning. They grew so big and lovely in our bedroom window, and then almost died when I put them outside...and now, beautiful red tomatoes!

My Trip to Utah!

A couple weeks ago I went to Utah with my friend and helped her pack up her house. We drove there in her van. Then on the way home, I drove her van and she and her friend both drove big moving trucks. It was quite the adventure!

65 Mile Bike Ride

Greg and some of the boys from church went on a big bike ride last weekend. The goal was to ride 50 miles the first day, then camp overnight, and ride 15 the next day. They made it, and I think they had fun too.

Yummy Treat/Snack

Inspired by Kaela's post about marshmallow ice cream, I thought I'd put up one of my favorite snacks. It's kind of like s'mores too, only nothing is melted.



It's just chocolate chips, marshmallows, and animal crackers. Or if you don't have animal crackers, graham crackers or cheerios are good too!

The Peppers were saved!

As you can see, our pepper plants are doing much better now that they live inside their little home.



And really, the whole garden is doing very well! (Despite the harsh wind) We had a pretty big windstorm last week that tore some of the leaves off the pumpkin plants, but I think they are recovering just fine.



These are my crazy weird carrots. I think I know what I did wrong, so next year I'll do better and hopefully get a crop of normal looking carrots. This first garden has been a really good learning experience for me. It's kind of fun to figure out what I should have done, and the consequences of my ignorance really haven't been that bad...I can handle funny looking carrots!



This is the first of the yellow crooked neck squash. I'm excited for these to mature. I love squash!



If you look hard, you can find about 11 tomatoes in this picture. I can't believe how many tomatoes there are! I think we're gonna get slammed with a whole bunch of ripe tomatoes all at the same time. That's when we'll pull out our salsa recipe and get to work!



This is the first tomato to ripen this season. I cut away the leaves that were shading it (tomatoes like direct sun on the fruit to ripen faster) and it started turning red really fast. I'll probably pick it in a day or two and have it in our salad. I almost can't wait for it to ripen all the way--I'm excited to pick the first tomato and eat it!



...And whenever I'm in the garden, I get that song playing through my head, "The prophet said to plant a garden so that's what we'll do!"