Bagels

I know that sometimes I seem to post things that seem a bit random and off of the general crafty, gardening, farming topic but to me it is all related. Take for instance my husbands desire to make bagels. Yes, you can make bagels in your own kitchen. You just need a willingness to delay gratification and investigate the process. Agricultural living takes time. You do a lot of things for yourself and enjoy the process of doing it. It really is a lifestyle and the satisfaction that is had from "doing it yourself" lasts much longer than the experience of plucking the bag from the grocery store shelf! Thanks for the bagels baby, you are amazing!

Kneading out the dough

Shaping into bagels

Boiling the bagels

After baking and coated with poppy seed goodness!

Happy Valentines Day!

From our Valentine Tree to yours!

National Bird Feeding Month

Its National Bird Feeding Month! This month was established as such in 1994 in an effort to encourage individuals to help feed, water and shelter wild birds through the winter. Food stores are typically low and a little extra helps go a long way. The benefit to you is what you may get the opportunity to appreciate in your own backyard! You might be surprised by what you would find just putting out some heated water! So dig out those sunflower heads that I told you to stash in the garage and don't cut down the flower seed heads quite yet as there is still some forage value left for our feathered friends.

In the Mood for Love

THIS IS A VALENTINE SPOILER!

IF YOU WANT TO WAIT

FOR IT TO COME IN THE MAIL,

DON'T LOOK!

I put these together the other day. I hope they make the recipients as happy as I was designing and making them! A little embossing, a little vintage lace and of course just the right amount of red to say you are truly in my heart! We all need a little bit of something to get us through these winter days!

Valentine Prep

Preschool Valentine party is Friday. Despite being under the weather, it was time to get cracking! I am already uneasy about the quality of food served at school so I was definitely not going to contribute to the sugar overload that is sure to ensue. I thought about bags of carrots tied with pink bows but have probably found a happier medium here:

I die cut the hearts and let A decorate with stickers to her hearts content. After picking a few pencils to keep for herself, we taped the rest to the hearts. Daddy helped her pick out the dandy felt bag and stickers for carrying them to school and bringing her loot home. We had fun and only spent $3.00 on pencils! The rest, we had!

Searching for Signs of SPRING!!

I am not a very good winter dweller. I need long warm days and the sun warming my body to feel happy and healthy. This time of the year is really a drag on my spirit so I am constantly looking for some kind of sign that SPRING is on the horizon. Punxsutawney Phil gave me some hope on February second and I also have found this hopeful sign in the yard:

At this time, I would like to scream at the top of my lungs "THE CROCUS ARE COMING!"
Hold onto to hope my friends, as the fortune cookie says: Good things shall come your way.

Craft Table Catch All

There never seems to be enough room on top of my cutting table. Scissors, tape measure, notepad all in the way all the time. Well I decided to get crafty on the problem the other day and came up with this:

A super tidy place for everything!

You will need about a half yard of fabric and some heavy duty interfacing.
Cut two fabric pieces and one interfacing 9 by 21.5"
Cut two fabric pieces and one interfacing 7 by 21.5"

1) Attach the interfacing per the instructions to the wrong side of one of the like sized rectangles.
2) Sew the small rectangles right sides together across one long side. Trim seam, turn and press.
3) Layer all three pieces together matching the raw edges at the bottom. Your large rectangles will be right sides together sandwiching the smaller rectangle that will be right side out on both sides. Sew around the entire rectangle leaving a 6" opening on the top to turn through.

4) Press back seam allowance in un sewn area. Trim seam allowance in all other areas, clip corners and turn. Press everything.

5)Stitch across the top to close the opening.
6)Use some chalk and a straight edge to mark your stitch lines for your pockets. I did one large enough for my scissors, a smaller one for measuring tapes and notepads and a pencil sized one.

7)Stitch your lines the width of your pocket and be sure to backstitch on both ends.
8)Lastly apply your velcro. I used self adhesive velcro on the table edge and then stitched a same size piece to the back of the organizer. DO NOT try to sew on self adhesive velcro! It makes a mess of your machine!

9)Viola! Attach to your table and be happy that your scissors will never be lost under piles of fabric and all these handy things will be stored at your finger tips!

If you find this confusing, there are a multitude of tutorials out there for crayon organizers that use pretty much the same steps! Many of these people have way more tutorial experience than I do!