paint

in general, i like to finish a project before starting another one. however, january has been all about the unfinished! during the course of the month, i had two books that were started and unfinished (luckily i did finish one by the skin of my teeth just before book club, a pillow that is about halfway finished, blocks cut and partly sewn for a stocking, and a few mending projects. you'd think i'd finish some of these things before i took on another project, but no...i decided i was going to bite the bullet and paint our office!

well it started out this lovely (insert sarcasm) blue. i'm sure it totally worked for the previous owners, but it was mostly making my head hurt. also...the room was a complete disaster. isn't that the ideal time to paint?

anyways...we had leftover paint from our bathrooms, and we happen to totally love the color. it's coconut husk from behr in case you're curious. i've also been drooling over striped walls on pinterest lately...thus the stripe wall. and i LOVE it.

it's not perfectly styled or organized (you'd laugh if you saw the opposite wall with the piles of clutter), but i like to savor the happy parts in the midst of the mess.

so...now i can get back to finishing my other projects, right? (actually, i'll be painting the bedroom next...so those will just keep waiting.)

and the stockings were hung...

this is the first year in many that i haven't been in the middle of thesis research, coursework, or getting ready for a Christmas baby...so i decided i'd load on the projects! 

two of my most Christmas themed projects were a Christmas table runner for my mother-in-law.  {i love how it turned out.}

and stockings.  i didn't really know what i was getting myself into...they were a lot of work, but i enjoyed the process {for the most part} and LOVE how they turned out.  i've got enough fabric to make a few more for any future kiddos...so these will last our family for quite some time {hopefully forever}.

anyways...it was a crafty Christmas...and i think that made it even more fun than usual!

pears

lest you think i am an overachiever, let me start by saying this venture was slightly accidental.  not accidental as in i accidentally bought 10 quarts of pears, but accidental in the fact that i had not planned to set out on this venture alone.

you see, i have this goal...to become involved in my ward.  so seeing an opportunity, i signed up for 'canning groups'.  'great', i thought, 'this is a great way to be doing something and meet people'.  little did i know that the term 'group' was being used very loosely.

a week or so after signing up i got a call from a friend in the ward.  she found a great deal on pears and wondered if she could pick some up for me.  i thought that sounded like a great idea...that is until she said they weren't really going to be able to do the groups...since it was the weekend before school started.  but by then...it was too late.  i was stuck...with 10 quarts of pears.

so i peeled.  and i peeled.  and i peeled.  then i got excited and started filling jars...but i only filled 3 1/2 jars...so i peeled some more.  and i peeled.  well, you get the idea, there was a lot of peeling involved. 

it really wasn't as technical a process as i had imagined it would be.  hot water.  sugar.  lids.  steam canner.  and lots and lots of time.  and peeling...don't forget the peeling.

luckily for me, all of my jars sealed and i can call this venture a success.  but i must give credit where credit is due.  first to my mother-in-law who gave me the steam canner a few Christmases ago...thank you, thank you, thank you!  and to my own mother...who answered several distressed questions and gave great over-the-phone instructions.  thank you, thank you, thank you!

my jars are currently sitting on a shelf in my cold storage room...much too pretty to be eaten.

pickles

in an effort to make use of the massive quantities of cucumbers coming from my garden...i ventured into the land of pickling.  luckily, i saw a segment on studio 5 (a utah morning show) on pickling. 

i opted not to process them, so we'll be eating 5 pints of pickles in the next 2 weeks.  let's hope they're good!

next up...dilly beans.

kale chips

in a random turn of events i came home with a bunch of kale from a visiting teaching appointment last week.  with the kale came specific instructions on how to make kale chips.  i've been hearing lots of great things in the nutrition world about kale chips for quite some time now, but just haven't gotten around to making them.

so...here we go.

tear your kale into 'chip' size pieces leaving out the main stalk (i hear it's bitter)
brush with olive oil and place on cookie sheet
sprinkle lightly with seasoned salt
bake for approx. 6-8 min in a 400degree oven

as for the result...i would call them...interesting. 

they had a slightly veggie taste, but mostly tasted like the seasoned salt (which i sprinkled generously...next time i would go easier on that).  the texture was the interesting part...it was almost like eating dry leaves...but more tasty.  they were fun to eat in a way, just because of the way they crunched in your mouth.


i would say that if you have a burning desire to eat kale (which is chalk full of nutrients) this would be the way to go.  for me, being extremely picky about texture, they were a bit strange.   

anyways...an interesting venture into the world of kale.

congo bars

so you know when you eat something and it totally hits the spot...and then when it's gone you're still thinking about it weeks later.  (well, maybe that's just me and my relationship with chocolate.)  well that's what happened with the congo bars. 

my mom made these when i was visiting in early may...and here it is almost the end of june and i still can't get them out of my head.  so i broke down and made them.  i say 'broke down' because a) they are slightly complicated [a two step process is just beyond my 'easy' qualification]...and b) i'm pretty sure i can eat the whole pan by my self [my bike and i will be spending much more quality time together this next week to compensate].

so now the pan of deliciousness is cooling, the anticipation is killing me, and my house smells incredible.  i think it's time to crack open a cold diet coke to celebrate. 

garden 2011

three summers of marriage.  and three different garden plots.

of all three, this one is the largest...which also means it took the most work to get ready.  but after a lot of sweat, i finally got it planted this morning.  we're taking a low-key approach this year and hoping for the best.  i mostly used the seeds i had left over from last year, along with a few extra plants.  i got the strawberries from a friend (thanks keri!) back in april.  in addition to the strawberries, we've got basil, cilantro, dill, a green pepper, two varieties of carrots, radishes (just to space out the carrots...who actually eats radishes?!), three varieties of cucumbers, marigolds, beans, and a pumpkin.

the previous owners of our home put in this nifty little irrigation system...we'll see how it works for us.

i love gardening.  for some reason, turning over the dirt, adding a little water and some seeds is very therapeutic for me.  i'm sure it won't be perfectly weeded.  and who knows how much of it will actually produce, but for now...i'm just enjoying it.