But better than a menstrual cycle. Well, only slightly. My pictures are so awful you might get cramps from them.

I keep meaning to post more than once a month it just seems that I don’t have anything I think is blog worthy happening or I get too involved in other things. I try to keep a lot of the business stuff to a minimum but at times when I’m working alot, it’s all I have. Luckily right now I have a lot of garden and such that I can talk about.

BLUEBERRIES!!!
Every year my Aunt goes up north and gets us blueberries - Wild Maine Blueberries. Not that I needed to describe what kind they are because there is no other kind. Don’t argue with me, there is no other kind worth blogging about. I got 15lbs. It’s not been washed or picked over so that’s the first thing we need to do, dump it in the sink:

Remove stems and hard berries (until you get tired of it, then you just throw it all in)

I packed up 5 quarts for the freezer, the rest went into the blueberry lime you see in that pot up there. It’s so darn good. And it’s the one jam that sets up reliably for me every year:

I forgot how much I did now. I think there were 5 or 6 full pints and 5 or 6 half pints. Lots of jam!

NEXT!
Up next in the canning expedition is to take care of the green beans. maybe put up some pesto and then I have a request. NJStacie wants some Tomolives. We picked a bunch for experimentation the other day:

Once I figure out a good recipe, I’ll let you know.

THE BAG

I had to change it. I made it more square, I got rid of the zipper and added a flap from the collar of the jacket (gotta love those wide 70’s collars). I need to find a button I like for the flap. I sewed the collar together but I left a hole for a large button. Hopefully the button I fall in love with will be the right size. I also altered the strap. I added another clip to it to make 2 handles from the one tie. One handle makes it an 8 or 9 inch drop and the other strap is so I can wear it across my body. Terrific for trudging through the airport from terminal A to terminal “way the hell over there in another time zone”.

THE KNIT/SPIN

The 4 ounce challenge starts today. More info is on Ravelry HERE The photo above shows what I’m working on. I can’t be a part of the contest but I can play along and cheer on all the participants. Then at the end, I’ll hopefully have a good working pattern. Stay tuned.

I wanted a new bag. Ok, I fess up, I almost always want a new bag. I am perfectly willing to construct my own. Which also means I have a ton of bags. This time I wanted a leather bag but I wasn’t sure how I was going to go about finding the material I wanted.

A $5 jacket at Goodwill was the answer.

There were far more expensive jackets but this one was a belted button up jacket devoid of buttons or a belt. The belt would have made a great handle/strap but I wasn’t going to cry over small details. I happen to have about 60 men’s vintage ties (don’t ask) and I knew I had to have one that would work.

I set about cutting out the lining:

Which I saved. It would have been a great lining material if I hadn’t had some great skully stuff that was dying to become something. Then I cut out all the little icky parts that I wouldn’t be able to use:

This is what I was left with:

Great usable pieces of leather. Once I had these I set about putting together the front - the only thing I knew I had to have and then worked the rest of the pieces around it. I didn’t have a pattern just an idea. I have a few pieces of leather left over too. My machine was being pretty finicky about working on the leather so it’s going out for a cleaning while I head out on my grand trip to Convergence and Michigan to teach. When I get back I will finish up the small details to make it a polished bag or even pull it apart to completely reconstruct it.

You see, I thought it was too small, and monkied with it till it was larger. But it’s too large now for what I was thinking and I don’t like the “decorative” details I did at the top. Just looking at it sitting across from me, I want to head down to the sewing room and start taking it apart now. I’m going to use it the rest of this week and it will probably go back under the knife before I head out on my trip if I have time.

Front:

Back:

The pictures don’t show that it’s larger on the bottom than on the top. I have another bag that’s like that. It’s a little hard to get into when it’s chock full (no matter what size bag I have, I’ll fill it) but it’s also hard for things to fall out so I don’t mind the small difficulty. Still I think I’d like it to be more square and less big. Maybe I’ll just have to go to Goodwill and find me another jacket to slice and dice. This would be a great overnight luggage sort of bag.

Again!
It’s here!
You ready?

I am:

All Coopworth - some plain roving and the batts are Enchanted Knoll. I’m already working on the Champagne party so that will probably get finished first unless I switch wheels and move on to:

The basket is all going to be thick and thin - the 2 colors of Shetland will be a marl and the black shetland will have to wait for the big wheel to do a 2 ply yarn that will match the other 4 colors for a fair isle. But lets not forget a bucket of hap hap happy handpaint by Helloyarn and Southern Cross Fiber.

If you haven’t joined up yet - head over to Ravelry. David and I are once again hosting this together and going to be dishing out some good Southern Cross and Spunky prizes.

Ice cream is a big part of our menu around here. I don’t like to eat much of the commercial stuff from the market as it usually has too much sugar and the flavor always seems a little off somehow. My own ice cream, I can make it how I want. I tried 4 new flavors of ice cream last week and I wanted to share 3 of them with you. Why not the 4th? It was a chocolate one and I have a house full of chocolate lovers who informed me that while it was good, it still wasn’t quite right. Back to the drawing board.

Cheese Cake ice cream:
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1.5 cup whole milk
the juice from half a lemon
3/4 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
Mix all of this in a blender. I tried to do it with a good mixer and it was still clumpy - you need it smooth.
Then stir in 1/2 cup heavy cream

Refrigerate until cold. Then plop it all into the ice cream maker and let it do it’s thing.

This stuff is so good. Ridiculously good. I think it’s especially good with fruit on it.

Mmm cherries….and a homemade warm graham cracker

Original Cream Cheese Ice Cream recipe

Coffee Gelato:
5 egg yolks
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup of heavy cream
1/4 cup of super strong espresso
2 heaping teaspoons of ground espresso

Mix it up thoroughly - cool for 3-4 hours then do it up in your ice cream maker.

I ground the espresso really fine. If you wanted crunchier chunks then you would just grind it a little coarser. I loved the little specks that it made in the final ice cream. This is my favorite. It needs some kind of orgasmic OMG kind of a title. I was in love with the Cheesecake one, until I finished this one. so so so good Best coffee ice cream that I’ve ever had.

Original Coffee Recipe

Last but not least
BlackBerry frozen Yogurt
This started with homemade yogurt that I strained so it was just a little creamier than chevre cheese. It wasn’t firm but it was definitely thick. I’m not sure it needed to be that thick but it was still really good.

3 cups - strained plain unflavored no sugar yogurt
1 tsp Raspberry flavoring (liquor or extract)
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup of Blackberries. (I had some frozen from last year, I just thawed them out before mixing in so they’d break up good)

Mix it all up and refrigerate for at least an hour (longer if all your ingredients weren’t at least a little cold - Then using your ice cream maker, do it up right. Original Frozen Yogurt Recipe

Sorry for the lack of photos folks. It didn’t dawn on me that they’d all be eaten so quickly that I wouldn’t get pictures. Luckily I had a bowl of the cheesecake one the first night I made it, otherwise I wouldn’t even have that one.

For those of you that aren’t just skimming, you really read, you might have seen that I said something about a homemade graham cracker. I’m a sucker for graham crackers but uneasy not knowing what’s in it. I decided I had to make my own.
There’s something still a tad off about these. As soon as I find the right recipe or I create it, I’ll let you know.

Last week we took a walk down to the nearby cemetery. Not for any reason other than it was a location at a dead end road that we could walk safely and the girls could frolic a little off their leashes. Today the wee one begged to go back there for a walk. This time I decided to bring the camera but I don’t think either of them knew I had it until I started to document the zombie take over.

Baby Boogie was walking in front of me and 9goingon20 behind. I noticed Baby Boogs holding her arms in a funny way:

Then I noticed the big one was doing the same and all of a sudden somehow on the way to the cemetery my little girls had changed into zombies:

I wasn’t afraid though I probably should have been as they got me too:

Strangely enough we all collapsed at what could be a family marker (no, I’m not sure if this particular King is related).

Then another funny thing happened. Baby Boogie and I recovered while 9goingon20 did not….She didn’t like this and attempted to bite the wee one again and change her back to a zombie.

It worked.

I think….I think that’s her dead zombie look. She’s not always that convincing.

After the zombifying they seemed to be happy and walked off hand in hand.

This lasted a good five minutes before they turned into little girls again and started fighting. I’m thinking of turning them into zombies permanently if that will make them get along.