One Down Three to Go

 Check out the blog candy I won from Kathy over at http://quiltrestoration.blogspot.com/ Thank you Kathy, I LOVE IT!!!!

One of the four quilt tops is done!!!

Isn't the fabric as cute as it can be? I can't wait to cut into it, maybe tomorrow night if the grands don't give me fits tomorrow! I know just what I am going to make, now to dig out the pattern and start cutting. Thanks so much Kathy!!

After Karsyn and Mason left tonight I put it in high gear to finish up one of the Christmas quilt tops. With hubby at the bike rally I don't need to do much cooking so I had the evening free, all for me!!! I am so glad I was able to finish this up so I could determine if I will need more fabric to work up the rest. Sure enough I don't have enough white for the sashing and I have nothing left to do the patchwork borders, grr I have done the math for the white so I know what I will need as well as the backing. Need to crunch more numbers for the piece work border. I really don't want to have a pile of leftover fabric on my hands. The idea I had in mind for names on the quilt won't look right. I am going to wait till our girls weekend to decide,  figure with 4 extra pairs of eye's we can come up with something.

As much as I hate to do errands on the weekends Saturday morning I will be out and about early so my list making is underway. I need to hit the quilt store to pick up the Christmas fabric for our cabin getaway, mail boxes, stop by the big box store for extra thread, then the bank to make a deposit. The rest of the day should be free play time for me, unless SIL #2 has to work, then I will be dragging Kara all over town. 

Leap Year Sale

 February 29th one of the on line shops I like ran a one day only leap year sale, 29% off. I have had my eye on a steam juicer for awhile, couldn't pass up this sale! I love the little man in brown, he brings me great boxes.

Mason man showed up with a smile on his face today!! Gave me the time to work a little on one of the Christmas quilts.

I am super excited to finally have a steam juicer. From what I have seen on line it should be really easy to use (my kinda gadget). With all the tomatoes we had last year that we couldn't use I plan on making tomato juice this year (please garden treat me good). Apple juice is also on my list, maybe grape juice if I can get to the mountains to pick some, we could make carrot juice but it's to yucky for our taste! Can't wait to give it a try!!!

Mason was back to his sweet self today, that gave me time to do a little sewing while he hung out in the swing talking to me. I think I have figured out the adjustments I need to make since the pattern I had was off so things should go a little faster from here on out, fingers crossed. I still need to come up with an idea for name tags to hang on the packages, what's in my head may not work. Hopefully this weekend I can fire up the embroidery machine and play around. My goal is to finish at least one Christmas quilt top before we have our girls weekend at the end of the month. I don't want to get to the cabin only to find out I don't have enough fabric to work with. I also finished the second baby boy quilt this morning before my little guy showed up so the deck is clear to move on to some Christmas cheer!!

Spring is here

 This bunch of bananas turned into.

 This overnight. If I can keep them hidden from the family they make great banana bread or banana ice cream. For the most part they are just for snacking.

 Mason and I took a stroll around the back yard today checking out all the new wood piles from Saturday

 Its hard to tell from the photo's but these 2 piles are way over my head, no way can I pull wood from them unless I use a ladder.

 Here is the last of the wood piles, we have enough wood now to last us LOTS of winters!! All from the trees we had taken out last year, they were HUGE trees.

Our Camellia bush is about to be in full bloom.

Not much of a post tonight as I am dog tired from having Mason all day and Karsyn from lunch on. Talk about a run for your money.....they were not good babies today!!! Supper tonight was a bowl of cream of wheat and toast, filling, fast, and easy. I'm off to open more windows (its 72 degree's) dig out some summer PJ's and hope for a good baby to show up in the AM!!!!

Before and After

 Carrots ready for the dehydrator.

 Same carrot tray when they are done.

 The whole shebang before the dehydrator.

The finished product, one quart jar and enough vacuum packed for about a pint jar. AMAZING

Mason man and I had a pretty quite day.

 I had picked up chicken breasts on sale yesterday for $3.49 a pound that needed to be washed and vacuum sealed as well as bananas that were .49 cents a pound I wanted to dehydrate for snacks. We worked both up in the morning then a little regular housework, planted some yellow onions, and on to a food inventory excel spreadsheet that I hope will help me know more what we need and when we need it. I do a pretty good job keeping up with what we have and need in my head but sometimes I forget to engage my brain when I hit the grocery store. Of course I always have a list but when I find a super deal it would be nice to know if we really do need it. Other than bottles, burping, playing, and diaper changes it was an uneventful day.

 I am happy to have a nice laid back day now and then. I could have pushed myself to do more but I decided to pay attention to what my body was saying SLOW DOWN. I have Karsyn (Lord give me strength) and Mason tomorrow, Mason only Wednesday then all 3 of the little ones the rest of the week I need to pace myself  HA!! Tomorrow is another day, plenty of time to take on a little more, for tonight it's a boring book and bed for me!!!

Sunday Power Nap

 Cutting up the carrots goes pretty quick using the slicer, once the piece gets small I throw it into the small colander to slice with a knife. No need to lose a finger even over a yummy homegrown carrot!

 After the carrots are sliced I steam them then transfer to a dehydrator tray.

 Then they get a good spray of lemon juice before they are loaded into the dehydrator.

 One of the little boy quilts finished.

 I pieced the backing to add a little interest and save on fabric.

 Hard to see the quilting, I did free motion quilting using the stippling method.

I  followed hubby over to a friends house to get a photo before they headed out to "Daytona Bike Week" Hubby will be having a full Mancation week!!

This past week has been UBER busy with getting things done around the house, having the grands and working in a few extras I had my heart set on to get done. For the most part I did get lots accomplished but still haven't had time to start even one single Christmas project. So much for a full month of Christmas cheer in March! I might get to work in a couple of projects this week, for now the second baby boy quilt is ready to quilt and bind, I want the decks cleared before I take on anything extra.

The house is back in OK order after 8 full days with one or more of the grands, the yard is in good shape after SIL #2 and hubby worked a little magic We hired a couple of young guys to split and stack wood  for us Saturday soooo glad I didn't have to be involved in that endeavor other than writing a check!!! I hit the grocery on my way home after seeing the boys off and got in on a bit of a deal for chicken breast we were getting really low. Then home for a little afternoon nap which turned into a 5 hour nap!! Holy Hannah I didn't realize how tired I was until my head hit the pillow!!!! Of course I woke up with a nap hangover but it was still worth it.

Hope everyone has a great frugal, productive week with a little fun thrown in!!!! I have decided not to set any goals this week, just go with the flow and whatever mood I am in.

Harvest Time

 The weather is just to nice to stay in today so Kara and I decided to bring in a few carrots from the winter planting.

 As I dig she held on to her favorites.

 Kara is big into kissing, hard work means lots of kisses.

 We had a time of keeping her from eating the carrots before they were washed. She continued to say "Yumm" then try to take a bite.

 Yet more kisses, I am telling you this girl is all about kisses. Kissing in the garden is a great way to spend the afternoon.

 Finally a clean carrot to munch on.

 We pulled about 1/2 the bed of carrots. Now the real work begins.

The first wash is done, now on to the second wash were I will scrub the beauties with a veggie brush.

Kara pooped out on me and is down for a little rest, I am thinking that's a good idea!! I have most of the second wash on the carrots done but my hands are so water logged I am taking a little break before the action begins again. Its on to chopping, steaming and dehydrating, by  the morning I will be ready to seal them in a jar or vacuum sealer bags. This was our first year to try and grow carrots over the winter and it worked out WONDERFULLY!!! We still have 1/2 a bed that I didn't pull, most were a bit on the small side so I will give them a more time to grow before I do another planting.

I love a day when we can get out and dig in the dirt, having hubby home to play along is great, having a grand with us is more than we deserve!!! SO BLESSED.

BTW, yes that is the real color of my hair, totally white (we have 3 grown DD remember) NO, that is not the real size of my body!! Bending over a raised bed adds 10 to 15 pounds, having a extra large tee shirt on adds an additional 10 to 15 pounds, hubby with a camera who doesn't have a clue how to take attractive slimming photo's I figure added and additional 10 to 20 pounds don't you think? So that's around 50 pound over weight YIKES (the total should be 20 pounds, give or take 10 pounds, I will go with the take side)

Dehydrating Rocks!!

 I have had a lot of questions about our dehydrated foods. This is an old photo of my dehydrated food jars, it has expanded GREATLY over the past 2 years!

 I am thinking this is summer squash in the dehydrator, for the most part the dehydrator lives in the laundry room unless I am working on stinky stuff then I move it to the garage.

When our jars are full I vacuum pack the extras then refill my jars from my dehydrated stash. This is a photo of dehydrated sweet potatoes.

 When a mood strikes me I move on it quickly that's how we ended up with the over the top great dehydrator we have. I had seen video's of  Tammy at   http://www.dehydrate2store.com/ and was amazed at what all she could do with dehydrating, so super cool!! I thought one day I should give it a try, I love anything and everything that has to do with food and cooking. Not long after I had seen her video's I was chopping up celery but only needed 3 stalks. I knew as soon as I was putting the extras in the refrigerator I would end up throwing it out within a week, what a waste! The more I thought about it I began thinking, now if I had one of those fancy dehydrators I wouldn't be wasting the $.79 cent celery, I could just chop it up and dehydrate it to use whenever I needed.

That's it, I bought a $300.00 (they are cheaper now) dehydrator to save .79 cents in wasted celery!! Talk about overkill. While waiting for my money saving (HA) purchase to arrive I began watching more and more video's on dehydrating and reading everything I could get my hands on. I realized that since I can't pressure can on my stove I could use the dehydrator to put up veggies from the garden that would otherwise go to waste. My confidence and skills (you don't need much) has grown over the years, now days if it's not moving it very well might get dehydrated. Cooking a soup, stew and such is so fast and easy, all the work has been done ahead of time. I just need to throw a handful of whatever veggies I want in the pot and walk away.

Personally I would invest in the dehydrator Tammy suggests even if it is priced higher than what you might find in local stores, it has more than paid for itself in the few years we have had ours. Check out her site, she has great video's, recipe's tips and tricks. http://www.dehydrate2store.com/

I am in no way affiliated with Tammy's site, just passing on info that I think is well worth your time if you are considering dehydrating!!