Sauerkraut

Well, I missed the start of the Sauerkraut class as I was um, delayed at the health clinic. My finger and the car door had a bit of a fight. Obviously the car door won. Luckily my parents, in town to teach the Sauerkraut class, were troopers and went on without me.

I was able to film and get photos of most of the fun. I'm hoping sometime before the end of the year to get a video edited.

Chopping up the cabbage, I love the community effort and working outside!

Shredding, weighing and salting in the kitchen

Stomping, nice to have lots of helpers for this, although they don't seem to be working much in this photo.

Who knew so many friends would want to have a five gallon bucket of cabbage fermenting in their basement! I'll keep you up to date on our fermenting as we go along. Hopefully in a few weeks we will have a tasty macrobiotic treat!

Not much crafting or anything else for a few days, as I let my finger heal. I'm hoping by the weekend, cross your fingers for me!

Sharing Traditions

Waiting at the acupuncturist, with a little bit of knitting and choco to keep me company.

Waiting for the weekend to begin. My parents are in town to teach a sauerkraut making lesson. How cool is that! My father grows 200 cabbages each year to make sauerkraut with, most of which he gives away. Amazing. A few people are gathering tomorrow with clean 5 gallon buckets, salt and 'the stomper' I will document with photos for next week.

Whatever you are up too, have a great weekend!

Lots of fall crafting

The weather has turned, the days are shorter and there are soooo many projects going on at our house right now. A couple to share today.

A too bulky not used scarf deconstructed for that fabulous pink and orange wool. I'm feeling more elf hats are on their way!


New aprons to celebrate the finale of canning season! Thanks too my canning partners Charlene & Wendy, and Grant Family Farms for the amazing produce in our preserving share. 10 bushels tackled and on the shelves ready for winter!

'Tea Cup' apron pattern from Anna Marie Horner's 'Seams to me, 25 new reasons to love sewing'. Loving the custom bias tape for the edge. Great instructions in her section 'maybe I'm biased'.

Embracing Mistakes

Have you ever figured out you made a mistake, waaaaay too far into a project to fix it. That happened this weekend, so I decided to embrace it! I'm choosing to see my mistake as just a personal handmade touch, adding my own unique flair to the project if you will. Maybe you will see it maybe you won't...



This project is fairly easy.

1. Cut your orange, yellow and white fabric into strips (mine were 3.5", 4", 4.5").
2. Sew strips together with 1/4" seam allowance
3. Cut into triangles. Because I was making mine reversible with the candy corn fabric (Hancock fabric), I cut my triangle 6" at the large end and 1/2" at the pointy end (sewing the two triangles with a 1/4" seam makes a perfect triangle point).
4. Sew two triangles right sides together on the two angled side edges. I used a 1/4" seam allowance making a perfect point when turned.
5. Turn and press.
6. Insert 'flags' into black binding tape, spaced however you like and zig zag closed. I leave 2' at the beginning and end of the bias tape to use when hanging.

I used 1/4 yard of each solid color, 1/2 yard the candy corn print and 6' of bias tape. This made 12 flags.

This same process in different colors makes a great re-usable decoration for parties of all kinds!

Spooktacular sewing!

This was a great quick project to add some Halloween spirit to our kitchen.

First, I cut Halloween shapes in wool felt. Then sewed them together using invisible thread. I used my sewing machine, although the project could be completed by hand.

If using your sewing machine, backstitch at the beginning and end of each shape then keep sewing for a few inches before adding the next one. (My invisible thread broke a few times during sewing. Because the bobbin thread was still intact, I just re-threaded and started with the next shape.)



This weekend: Candy Corn Bunting (then on to Christmas gifts, I promise!)

My Hat!

A hat for me!

(OMG, I don't think I've seen this angle of my face for a while, look at all those moles and freckles. I'm turning into my grandmother! Love her, but OMG!)

Harvest

I struggle with the grape harvest every year. Our grape vine grows on a fence next to our back yard entrance, which I use multiple times a day,the smell has been HEAVENLY the last two weeks. I just did not want it to end. Then I noticed the squirrels were going to harvest all my grapes for me. This year it seemed like everyone was loving the grapes...




Then I moved on to Yogurt (as promised). I used the crock pot method for incubation and besides needing to stir milk for 10 min. to keep it from scalding, while a one and a half year old really really wanted to help, it was very easy.

I was not impressed with my end result. It was very runny and mild, not tart at all. I'm thinking I need to let it incubate longer and maybe add the powdered milk as suggested in other blogs to thicken it. Overall, I'm not sure it is worth it for me. When I can buy great live cultural yogurt in jars locally.


Homemade grape juice on the other hand is always worth it! Two more weeks of canning and were finished!!! Then on to Christmas crafting.

Holiday crafting begins!

A little sneak peak of our holiday wrapping paper! It's going to be a family affair.

Check back tomorrow, I'm going to try yogurt making tonight!