100th Post

It's funny that today I would log on after almost a month of not blogging to find out that this is my 100th post! Crazy I say, it doesn't feel like that, I still feel as though I'm barely getting the hang of this whole blogging thing. It's even more amusing to think that I was wondering if I even would come back. Lately I've been feeling like blogs are to braggy you know? Look at what I bought, made, did etc. I'm not effectively conveying what I originally wanted in this space. Well, whatever, maybe the next 100 post's will be better, and hopefully more enjoyable to read.

Lately my crafting has taken a bit of a back seat to life. Homeschooling is getting off to a great start this year, we are going through a very laid back charter school and it's turning out to be a great choice for our family. We are doing all sorts of fun things that would have otherwise been impossible on our shoestring budget and I'm using the exact same curriculum I would have picked independently. With the help of my husband and the teacher we are working with I really foresee this being a more enjoyable year for me.

We have also been enjoying the last bits of summer left, that is the summer fruit that's left. A friend of ours gifted us with about 20-30lbs of organic peaches which became smoothie peaches, pie peaches,

and peach fruit leather. We were SO excited to give fruit leather a try using our new dehydrator given to us from the depths of our friends garage. So happy to find out that it did in fact work, yay! A really great way to use up the slightly bruised peaches.

Weekly trips to farmer's market have been a must around here, trying to scoop up the last of the years strawberries to freeze for winter's pie's and smoothies. Northern California Farmer's Markets have the most awesome strawberries, truly they have no comparison to the little hard ones in the grocery store

The prices are unbeatable too, I think what I have photographed there was just a little over $20.

Gifts of Graditude

It has taken me awhile to get back into the rhythm of things after our wonderful trip to the beach. Honestly I think I was dealing with a little post-beach depression! I grumbled and lazed about thinking of all the fun we had and wishing we were still there for a good week, I think we all did really. Now things have gotten back to normal, the laundry is all caught up and regular routines are (mostly) back on track. I knew the first thing I wanted to do once we reached homeostasis was to get some baking done for the wonderful family members who dog-sat and kept our plants from wilting. You all know how I feel about pies, they just make everything better! Triple Berry Pie, the recipe is from my first post ever :D

I hope everyone else has a great weekend, I think I may be doing a little bit of preserving and we might even get in a little family day trip. Summer is almost over and even though I am longing for fall I want to make the best out of this lazy time.

Red

I'm seeing red in a good way around here. I got some of the last strawberries of the season at the farmers market today, which have been frozen for smoothies. I hope they have a couple more half flats next week so that I can fill up my freezer with these sweet things.

Perfectly ripe tomatoes came from my friend Ryan's garden, gotta love friends with over producing gardens! These were hastily made into salsa to feed the freezer.

I tend to live my life kick by kick and this summers kick? Preserving of course. I am hoping to make this into a habit, it's really seeming to be cost effective.

Knitting News

There will definitely be more pictures from our trip, but for now you will just have to settle for some knitting news. The long car ride and the lazy morning at the beach gave me many happy knitting hours. So much so that my sweater is actually starting to look like a sweater!

The bodice is about 3/4 of the way done now and then I just have the sleeves. I am having so much fun knitting this that it's really hard to put it down. I hoping that it will be done in September when the Mister and I go away for the weekend.

At The Beach

We are just back from four awesome days up at Patricks Point. Warm camp fires, waves crashing, seaguls flying, sunsets, starfish, seashells, sea lions barking, long morinings, good memories, and even some good knitting time, yes four days was just not enough.

I can't wait to share more, but for now the laundry beckons....

Dot Paints

Swimming lessons are over, gymnastics are over, and we are between camping trips right now. The weather has really started to heat up and we have been spending more time indoors then originally planned. Our art supplies are dwindling and I really need to start thinking about my order to the discount school supply this fall. Then I remember that I still had something that I had never used, my dot paint bottles!


The girls went to town and made a much bigger mess then they usually do with things, well it's was just P really. One of the reason why I love dot paints so much is because of the lack of mess, but really Wild Thing can make a mess out of anything!

I just love how there personalities shine through already in there work. P is wild and beautiful and very interesting.

L is drawn to beautiful things and loves learning new things.

I would love to hear some other easy summer craft ideas, especially those will small cleanups!

Pie Makes Everything Better

I don't know how you feel about pie, but for me it seems to be a sort of cure all. I'm not talking about sitting down to eat a nice warm piece of pie and finding heavenly bliss I think it's much more then that for me. It seems that whenever I find myself upset, stressed, or in a funk that I seem to find myself in the kitchen baking a pie. Now I know this probably sounds quite ludicrous, to leave the house in chaos, unplug the phone and bake a frickin' pie, but it works. With all the crap that can go on in this life, all the things that can go wrong, tear you down and leave you dry, sometimes something as perfect as pie can just seem to wash that all away. Maybe it's the rhythmic rolling of the dough, the gently way you have to handle the crust, or just the sugar I don't know. With uneven crusts, gooey overflowing insides, and slightly crisp edges it has such beauty in the imperfectness.




And really how can any day be truly horrible when there is pie involved?

Latest hat for One A Month had me changing thing up a bit. I decided to knit this one for a chemo patient instead of the homeless. This was a much funner knit!

P.S. This post sounds WAY to perfect, pie and charity knits, come on! But honestly I was horribly PMS this week and didn't do much else besides knit and eat deserts ;)