My Current Project

Our house was built in 1979. We wanted an older house because we liked larger bedrooms and living room. Our old house (that was new when we moved in) had a tiny formal living room. It fit our piano and our couch in it and that's about it. It was kind of a waste of space because we couldn't really use it if people came over. I also really wanted a formal dining room. Well, because our house was older it also came with older decorating. It had recently been painted, but it felt cold to me. When we first moved in we took out the forest green carpet and put a wood floor in. I've been slowly painting the inside of the house and it was time for the dining room.

I've been loving molding for awhile now and really wanted to put some in. My husband cut it and put it up and I painted.

The top is Tobacco Road by Kwal. My husband installed crown molding on Saturday. Hopefully we'll get it caulked tomorrow and painted soon too, since we have people coming over on Wednesday. And as I'm thinking that I'm realizing it's probably not going to happen. We'll try! I'll post the finished product later!

Dogs

I'm not much of an animal fan, but for some reason this fabric was the first in a long time that I got excited about. Maybe it's because it's "boy" fabric. Maybe because I'm obsessed with orange and teal lately. Who knows, but the last 6 months there hasn't been any new fabric that I'm super excited about. Whatever the reason I decided to buy a charm pack of this and just spent the last 45 minutes making a disappearing 9 patch. I was thinking I'd make a baby quilt as a gift (for nobody in particular), but both my boys have already claimed it. I may be making another.... and adding extra fabric to make it a little bigger.

It's a Witch!

Having a girl is so much FUN! As I was looking at Halloween costumes for her I noticed a theme. Almost all of them had tutus for the skirt. So I decided to just make my own. I found the purple witch hat and decided we'd have a purple witch instead of a black one. It helped that the jacket came in purple too. Then I made this easy tutu with black and orange tulle with purple ribbons and just added leggings underneath. She loved it!

Skirts!

Going along with quick, easy projects I've discovered a new sewing love- SKIRTS! Not for me, for my 18 month old. The first one I made was this easy wrap around skirt. I lined it with coordinating dots. Let's face it, she's not going to keep those chubby knees together so the inside is going to show.

Then I got on a roll. I discovered that I could make an easy skirt in about a half hour out of scraps I had from other projects.

How many skirts does an 18 month old need? I want to keep going but I should save some fabric for another size. I also made two coordinating skirts for my nieces with just the main color and the band fabric switched. I forgot to take a picture though.

I'm a Carpenter!

Ok so I only did the painting. Saws freak me out. I'd like to keep all my fingers. About a year ago my friend saw these shelves in a catalog. For a three foot shelf it cost $99. Each. She made some herself for her living room. A few weeks ago she wanted to make more for her kitchen and I joined her. She cut, I painted.

Here is a close up of one of mine. I made three and they cost about $60 for all three. Much better than $300. The most expensive part was the corbels.

Here are all three on the wall in my living room. I need to figure out a better way to decorate them and I need to put something behind them, especially the lowest one, but I'm happy with the way they turned out.

Remember when...

I used to quilt? Remember how I used to actually post? I feel like those days are getting few and far between. I haven't quilted since about June. It's not that I don't want to, it's that I have a super busy 18 month old. I feel like I need short projects because it may be awhile before I get back to them. I need projects I can finish in an afternoon.

Also, I'm to the place with quilting that I don't know what to do with the quilts I make. I've thought of making baby quilts (short and sweet and can easily be finished quickly). Do I really need a lot of baby quilts? I thought of selling them on etsy. Do people really pay that much for them though? Also, none of my quilts are perfect and I'd feel bad if people expected perfection and I had made a mistake... which is the rule and not the exception.

All that being said I have been working on several projects in the past month. Keep checking back this week as I will post them here. Most are craft things, but the biggest project that I've recently finished is not a craft item, but the longest and most important one.

Back in June my husband and I bought new couches for our family room. Our old ones were falling apart. I loved those couches when we bought them, but over the years my tastes have changed dramatically. I wanted something neutral that I could update through the years with colors and pillows. We went with boring beige. I'm in the process of making and buying pillows to brighten up the room.

Have you seen all the cute ruffly pillows out there? The ones that cost anywhere from $20-$60 each? Even when they are only made of felt? You have got to be kidding me! There is no way I can afford that. I need about 4 of them. Again, do people really pay those prices? So I did what I had to do. I made it myself.
This was my project yesterday afternoon. Notice the boring beige couch in the background. I plan to recover the pillows in the same boring beige fabric as the couch in a not so boring fabric soon. Anyway, this pillow cost about $4 for the felt at the most and the pillow insert cost maybe another $4. I'm not really sure since I had the felt from another project where I way overestimated the amount I needed. I bought the pillow insert a long time ago as well.

I found a similar pillow I loved for $45. I didn't have a pattern for this as I was just borrowing the basic idea, but here is my version. It took less than an hour to make. I'm not sure how long as I stopped to answer the phone, comfort a 7 year old who was worried about his French report today and stop my 4 year old from hugging my 18 month old too much (yes, that's a serious problem in our house.)

Anyway, check back over the next few days to see what else I've been working on!

Jalapeno Jelly Recipe

I've had a request for my jalapeno jelly recipe. This makes about 5 half pints.

3/4 pound jalapeno peppers
2 cups cider vinegar, divided
6 cups sugar
2 pouches liquid pectin
green food coloring (optional, but recommended)

Wash peppers; drain. Remove stems and seeds. Puree peppers and 1 cup vinegar in a food processor or blender. Combine puree., 1 cup vinegar and sugar in a large pot. Bring to a boil; boil 10 minutes stirring constantly. Stir in liquid pectin. Return to a rolling boil. Boil hard 1 minute stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Skim foam. Stir in a few drops of food coloring (I forgot to do this once. The jelly turned out a more yellow green color than brighter green. It looks more appetizing with the food coloring). Ladle hot jell into hot, sterilized jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Use 2 piece caps. Process 10 minutes in a boiling water canner.

I also made some yellow pepper jelly. Green, red or orange peppers can be substituted for yellow peppers.

Sweet Pepper Jelly

7 sweet yellow peppers
1 jalapeno pepper
1 1/2 cups cider vinegar, divided
1 1/2 cups apple juice
1 package powdered pectin
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 cups sugar
yellow food coloring (optional- if using another color pepper make sure the food coloring matches the color of pepper you are using)

To Make Juice: Wash peppers; remove stems and seeds. Pureehalf the peppers and 3/4 cup vinegar in a food processor or blender. Puree remaining peppers and vinegar. Combine puree and apple juice in a large bowl. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Strain pureed mixture through a damp jelly bag or several layers of cheesecloth. Measure 4 cups juice. Add additional apple juice to make 4 cups if necessary.

To Make Jelly: Combine juice, powdered pectin and salt in large saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly. Add sugar stirring until dissolved. Return to a boil. Boil hard 1 minute stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Skim foam. Stir in a few drops of food coloring. Ladel jelly into hot jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Adjust two piece caps. Process 10 minutes in a boiling water canner.