Yes, I Can!

Rainier cherries, all year long, or while supplies last.

I absolutely love Rainier cherries, love, love, love them. If heaven has a flavor, I'm pretty sure it is the flavor of Rainier cherries. The problem is, living in Wisconsin, this type of cherry is only available for about a month, and usually costs somewhere between 7 and 8 dollars a pound. My local grocery store usually has them on sale for about one week a year, and in the past, I eat all the cherries I can that week and dream about them

But this year, I decided to change all that. I decided to stock up and can the cherries. Last year, I canned peaches, pears, and homemade salsa, all with good results (which reminds me, I need to pick up some peaches and can those, too), so I was reasonably sure that I could handle cherries as well.

I didn't go overboard at the store, I bought about 5 or 6 pounds of Rainier cherries (and ate a fair amount of those). I opted to can whole cherries, with the pits, for two reasons, 1, I plan on eating them whole anyways, and spitting out the pit is no big deal, and mostly, 2, I'm lazy and didn't want to pit 5 ponds of cherries.

Ready to be canned!

Yesterday, I settled in, cranked my iPod and assembled all my canning supplies (which isn't all that much, I'm still new to canning). I removed stems, washed, and poked all the cherries (to prevent splitting). I prepared an extra, extra light syrup (I used about a third of the sugar called for I the recipe for extra light syrup). I debated about using sugar at all. I researched and found it was safe to can in just water, but sugar helps to maintain the color and firmness. I decided I'd use a little bit of sugar, and hopefully find the middle ground between limited sugar and maintaining the deliciousness of the fruit.

Once it was all ready, I packed the cans with cherries and syrup, processed them and let them cool. I ended up with ten pint jars of cherries, and I figured there are 25-30 cherries in each jar, so I canned somewhere between 250 and 300 cherries. That should be enough to last me at least a couple months.

For anybody interested in getting started with canning, I have found several resources to be very helpful, particularly the Simply Canning website and the National Center for Home Food Preservation (a division of the USDA). Check them out to get started!

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How Does My Garden Grow?

I love growing plants. Or maybe, I just love the idea of growing plants. Either way, since about high school, I've spent time and money on attempting to get plants to grow, with varying degrees of success. Currently, the oldest plant in the house is a hibiscus plant Pippin and the cats gave me last year for Mother's Day (though in all fairness, before that, I had a shamrock plant I had kept alive through college until Bode decided to eat it, knock the pot off the counter, and scatter the roots beyond all repair).

Anyways, for many years, I've spent this time of year browsing around various garden centers, planning for the day when I had my own home and could grow all kinds of things in my own yard.

So, now I have my own home, and I started planning my garden. I picked out a patch of the yard, it was kind of low-lying, so I figured we should build a raised garden bed. I researched it, and started to plan it out...

And that was as far as I got. Husband and I just never got around to getting the materials, the thought of weeding wasn't impressing me (chalk that one up to hours of my childhood spent in a giant flower bed, pulling what I thought were weeds, but usually turned out to be the plants that were supposed,to be growing there).

After taking those factors into consideration, I decided that container gardening might be a better option. After all, we have a big, beautiful porch that gets very little use. I invested in some Earthboxes, plus wrangled up two more from a previous (failed) experiment with container gardening. Then, I went out and got soil, fertilizer and plant and got set up for planting.

Knowing that he'd spend the entire time barking if I didn't, I figured a way to allow Pippin to join me on the porch. I looped his leash around one of the rungs on the deck railing, and brought him out a bowl of water. Pippin then spent my planting time happily assisting and napping (mostly napping). Once the dog was situated, I set about planting.

It didn't take too long for me to realize just how heavy a cubic foot of dirt is (because , face it, you can call it potting soil or potting mix, or whatever you'd like, but really, it is dirt). Of course, it wasn't until I had two of the four boxes planted that I remembered that my mom gave me a pair of gardening gloves last year. At that point, my hands were so caked with dirt that it seemed pointless to up them on. Next time, I'll remember, really, I will. By the end of my project, I noticed the huge mess I had created on my porch. But the plants were planted.

My Earthboxes were filled with tomatoes, zucchini, bell and jalapeño peppers, and strawberries, there are two hanging planters on my porch railing with dahlia bulbs, and we put in a flower bed with some lily bulbs in front of the fence (though I'm starting to doubt that those will grow).

Now, if I just can remember to water everything.

 

 

I Just Needed My Size 9 Needles

This afternoon, I was going to start a ghost hat for my niece's Halloween costume. I went upstairs and found my all time favorite hat pattern, Kim's Hat's from Last Minute Knitted Gifts (amazon link). This is a versatile pattern that has instructions for sizes from babies to adults. It is my go-to pattern for hats.

So, I read the pattern and it calls for size 9 needles. Not a problem, I have interchangeable needles, so I just need to dig out my size 9 tips. I store my tips and spare cables, and other knitting supplies in the ottoman in the living room, which I open up only to discover I could lose a cat or a small child in the mess that is inside. And I simply cannot leave it like that.

The simple hat has just added a more complicated facet. I don't have a before picture, and I apologize for that. It was an impressive mess.

Can you even picture this all stuffed in the ottoman?

First thing first, I took everything out of the ottoman. And there was a lot of stuff. Bags of yarn, knitting patterns, knitting books, magazines, various tools, fabric scraps, plastic bags, partially completed projects, and all kinds of other things.

Then the organization started. The first step was easy enough, I took all the yarn upstairs into what can only be called the "Yarn Room" (at some point I'm going to have to organize in there, but not today). Then the magazines and books went upstairs to the bookshelf.

This step was quickly followed by my assigning each of my works in progress (WIP) into its own project bag. Most of the WIPs fit nicely into my small project bags, a couple purchased through Ravelry, a couple from Interweave Knits, and a couple came with other purchases. I needed a bigger bag for a couple of the projects, my scrap sock yarn blanket and my Tree of Life afghan. The scrap sock blanket fit nicely into a bag that came with a set of sheets and the Tree of Life went into a red cloth bag I had lying around. I decided to keep the Scrap Yarn Blanket in the knitting basket by my couch and the Tree of Life blanket would go back into the Ottoman (I need to sit down and figure out where I left off, and the whole project requires concentration, its not something I can just pick up and knit a couple of rows).

Next, I tackled the tangled mess of needles and cables. For sock knitting, I have fixed circulars in the main sizes for socks (US 0, 1, 2, and 3, in case you were wondering) in a variety of materials and from a variety of brands (it has been a long search to find my favorites, but that's another post entirely). For each size, I used a Waste Not Sack, designed to replace plastic baggies, and then used my trusty label maker to label the outside of each bag.

I'm not going to lie, I love my label maker!

Each of the four cloth bags then went into a larger bag. I used one that came with a Clinque bonus, I have so many of those Clinque bags, I could never put them all to use. Then I added my storage case of needle tips into the bag along with the package of spare cables (these were already pretty well organized, but were just floating around in the abyss that was the ottoman). I had discovered three needle sizers while cleaning out the mess, so added one of those to the bag (I only find the stupid things when I don't need them).
The result? All my needles in one place! Which should make it much easier to find the size that I'm looking for (including the elusive size 9's).

Namaste Buddy Case

Next, I tackled the problem of all my knitting tools. In addition to needles, I've acquired a lot of other tools in my knitting career. Some of these, scissors, stitch markers, tape measure, darning needles, etc, are used for almost every project. Others, cable needles, stitch holders, pom pom makers, crochet hooks, are only used for some projects. Also, I had some spares, including extra tape measures, scissors, darning needles to replace the ones I will (inevitably) lose. I decided to store some of the essentials that are used in every project into my Namaste Buddy Case. The Buddy Case has the added advantage of being magnetized, which helps to keep track of some of the smaller items. The other tools, along with the spares, went into my Knit Happy Fold 'n Go Notions Box. Both of these containers now sit on top of the knitting basket next to my spot on the couch, so I can easily grab the tool I need.

Mission Accomplished!

Finally, it was time to put stuff back into the storage ottoman. There was a lot less to put back in! The storage ottoman now contains my needle bag, my yarn swift, my ball winder, yarn scale (to determine how much yarn was used/is leftover) a couple balls of leftover yarn (the stuff I use as big stitch holders and for provisional cast ons), and added my craft box and bead container to the ottoman. There is still room in there, so I probably will eventually put all of my craft supplies in there (in an organized fashion, of course).



Ah, the satisfied feeling of actually accomplishing something!

Maybe This Time It'll Stick

I'll admit it, I'm not an organized person.

Now, as many people I know, including but not limited to my husband, my college roommate, my parents, and my in-laws, are all laughing hysterically and nominating me for the "Understatement of the Year Award," let me continue.

I'm not an organized person, but on occasion I put effort into becoming one. In my head is a picture of myself idealized. That person that looks perfect every day, has an immaculately clean house, plans healthy tasty dinners every night, goes to the gym at least three times a week, and on and on and on.

But the real me has a messy house, is sitting on her couch in jeans and a Doctor Who t-shirt, is not wearing make-up, and is unsure whether or not she brushed her hair today. She's the same person that fed her husband Hamburger Helper for dinner last night, and will be feeding him fast food tonight. She also watches way too much TV, starts things that she never finishes, and has the sense of humor of the average fourteen year old boy.

I'm not entirely certain that the real me would even like the idealized me. But that doesn't stop me from from trying.

Recently, I decided to start using coupons. Not in the Extreme Couponing sense, (I work in a grocery store, extreme couponers seem to be a giant pain to me) but in the saving-a-couple-of-bucks-a-week-might-add-up sense. With the best of intentions, I flipped through the Sunday paper and clipped the coupons, filed them in a little box.

And promptly forgot about them.

Not to be put off, I decided to keep a coupon database to help me keep track of the coupons. I marvelled at my own brilliance. No more digging through the box thinking, "I could have sworn I had a coupon for sugar in here." So I diligently entered in the coupons, categorizing each one, checking expiration dates, amounts, and the fine print.

And promptly forgot about them.

Today, I went to enter more coupons into the data base, (about three week's worth--don't judge) and discovered that almost every coupon entered in there had expired. Sigh.

But, I'm going to try again. My babystep organization goal is to plan out menus, make lists, and grocery shop only once per week (even though this seems pointless now that I'm back at the grocery store and will be there several times a week). Hopefully, when I go to make my list, I will think to pull up the database and look for the coupons I actually will use.

Eventually, somethings gotta stick, right?