Jar of Salad

I stumbled across something on a blog that, I kid you not, has become life-changing for us.  We are huge fans of salad, but so many times when I buy all the veggies that we like some of them, especially the lettuce, seems to go bad before we eat it all.  And with all the negative press that prepackaged bags of salad get I’m just  not as excited about buying them as I used to.

This is it – Jar O’ Salad!  I’m not going to put all the steps here as it’s not my idea, but hop over to the Salad In A Jar blog and see how she does it.

 

Basically I buy the lettuce we like, wash it, spin and put it in jars sealed with the Food Saver about once a week now and we are good to go.  I used wide-mouth quart size jars for “salad for two” and the wide-mouth pint size jars for salad jars that I can grab and eat for lunch.

Because I’m only messing with the cleaning and prep work once a week we don’t have lettuce going bad.  And the healthy benefit is that it is so easy to reach in the fridge and grab of jar for dinner.

By the way, the photo of the single jar up above?  That lettuce is 8 days old in that jar.  We ate it for dinner that night and it’s just as good as the day I sealed it.

 

* Linking to Works For Me Wednesday

Cable Baby Blanket

The baby blessings are all around and that means quite a few knitted baby blankets.  The wonderful thing is that there are so many beautiful patterns and yarns to try, so every blanket will be unique and fun to knit.

 

This blanket was knit for a dear friend’s daughter’s baby boy.  He isn’t due for a couple of weeks yet, but he did try to make an early appearance.  I guess he just can’t wait to get here and meet his new family!  Fortunately he changed his mind.  :)

 

The pattern is the Cable Blanket from the Debbie Bliss book Simply Baby.  This is one of the very few times I’ve bought a knitting pattern book with really the intention of only knitting one pattern.  But the knit and purl cable really struck me and once you fall in love with a pattern there’s not much else you can do.

 

I used Knit Picks Shine Sport yarn and the color is Hydrangea.  I *love* this yarn – it knits up so soft and has great stitch definition.  Really there is only one negatives to the yarn - the fact that it comes 110 yard/50 gram balls which means there are a lot of ends to weave in.   But the finished product is so wonderful that it’s worth it.

Now to wait patiently for him to get here so I can get a picture of him with his blanket.   Prayers are with the family as we wait. 

 

* Linking to Get Your Craft On, Toot Your Horn Tuesday, Take A Look Tuesday, Topsy Turvy Tuesday, We Did It Wednesday, Whatever Goes Wednesday

Sunsets From God

We were able to spend some time this weekend at the lake – just the two of us and the dog and our daughter.  Because the weather was mostly overcast and rainy it turned into a very relaxing respite from a busy week.  Even though we didn’t do much in the way of ordinary lake activities, we did have a great time together.

Saturday night we did take the boat out and while we were at the gas dock I looked across and saw the restaurant.  It’s on the 2nd level and the 1st level is just support for it to float.  Now interesting, to us anyway, the lake flooded in 2007 and this restaurant was under water.  When you go in now there is a line high up by the ceiling – on the 2nd level mind you – that shows how high the water got.  They rebuilt and it’s become quite a hub on the lake.

 

With the fall weather here we opted to sit outside on the patio while we had dinner.  It was so enjoyable to watch the boats below us and the waitress was telling us stories of some of the things she’d seen on the water.  :)

 

After dinner we headed home, seeing some of the boats coming in for the night.

 

And as we were riding in the boat, Lynne’ and I up at the very front to fully appreciate the incredible sunset, well to be honest we were a bit overcome.

The colors of the sunset were beyond stunning.  Lynne’ turned to me and said “Sometimes when you see something like this, you know that God has done this purely for us to enjoy.  And this is a perfect example of what the word awesome truly means.”

I couldn’t agree with her more.  Thank you Father for all the awesome things you give us to see and enjoy.  And may we never lose the wonderment and enjoyment of your creations.

 

* Linking to Spiritual Sundays

Friday’s Fave Five #107

I have been Snoopy Dancing all morning because it’s Friday!  Most definitely I do not want to wish my life away or for it to go any faster than it already does, but I’m also most definitely looking forward to the weekend.  :)  Check out more Friday’s Fave Five or join in – it’s fun!

1. Mentorship Class at Church – This class is turning in to so much more than what I originally thought it would be and that is so great!  Learning about modernistic and post-modernistic society, philosophers and the reasons why people think and believe the way they do.  Our pastor has a PhD and taking this class is really challenging my mental capacity in a good way!  Equally as good as the class is the great conversation that Keith and I have on the way home.  I sure do love that man.  :)

2. French Vanilla Coconut Milk Creamer by So Delicious – I switched to this creamer some time back and absolutely LOVE IT!  There’s no fat, no sodium, no cholesterol, low carbs, low calories and tastes FANTASTIC!  I have really struggled with my coffee creamer as I know the major brand name I used was so bad for me.  But I love, love, love my coffee and couldn’t find anything good to replace it until I found this.  Now I’m happy as a clam and loving my coffee again!  It really is the little things….

3. The birds are back!  I decided to save some money and buy the store brand of bird seed at the major big box retailer and they were so not impressed that they left me to find greener pastures.  We went to the store the other night just for the purpose of getting the kind I used to use and now I have the Disney scene in my yard again with all the happy birds and squirrels.  Note to self – apparently generic is not good enough for the birds around here.

4. My Beloved and my family – I received a sort of blow this week regarding some health things (not quite ready to fully share yet) and my heart is just so full from the love of my husband.  Sometimes when he looks at me with those big eyes and then kisses me – even after being married for 30 years I still swoon.  His support and love mean the world to me.  And along those lines – I’ve been amazed and blessed by all the support from my family this week.  It’s so much easier to face things when you are not alone.

5. Fall Colors and Flavors – It is *finally* cooling off in Texas and while that is good and bad (I really will miss summer fun), I’m ready for it.  I love the colors of fall, the fall decorations, pumpkin anything (especially coffee – hoping my coffee “supplier” has the new pumpkin K-cups!), fall purses, sweaters, boots – just fabulous!

Brooklyn Loves Gymnastics!

I kinda sorta borrowed this photo from my daughter-in-law’s Facebook.  Because seriously, when I saw this it made me smile so big.  Hard to believe that at 3 years old she already seems so big to me.  And my word does she ever love her gymnastics class!

This little girl makes her grandma smile and love her more and more each day.  :)

A Gathered Zippered Clutch for the Opera

So as I’m getting ready for us to go see The Blue Man Group it hits me that I really don’t want to mess with my purse.  In addition to worrying about where it is I have a little problem with setting my purse on the floor after seeing a special on 20/20 or one of those shows – I just can’t do it now that I know about all the germs.  The problem though is that there are things that I simply need to carry with me!

Then I remembered seeing the Gathered Zippered Clutch all over the blogs right now and decided Bingo! – there’s my answer!

 

I pulled from my fabric stash everything except the zipper, which required a quick trip up to Hancock Fabrics.

 

I followed the Gathered Clutch Tutorial and couldn’t be happier with the instructions or with how it turned out.

 

There were no instructions on how to add the strap, so I actually had to wing it, which is something I’m not the best at.  In case anybody needs measurements for it, I cut the fabric for my strap 3” tall x 13” wide and sewed it in at the very end when sewing the sides together.

Some notes and thoughts:

• I only had lightweight fusible interfacing here and it definitely needs the medium weight to make it more sturdy
• I didn’t add the divider pocket or card holders, then saw afterwards that she says if you don’t have either of those to add fleece or canvas to make it more sturdy.
• Really for my needs – Lip Ivo, ibuprofen, cuticle cream – I didn’t need a clutch quite this big, so the next one I make will probably be smaller.  Personal choice.  :)
• This was the first sewing project I’ve done since starting the room rearranging in our house and it took far longer to find all the necessary tools than to do the sewing.  I do see how this could be completed in a bit over an hour if you are set up.

A last note on the fabric – I was thrilled to actually use some fabric I had on hand, though I admit it sometimes scares me to cut into my fabrics.  I do love these fabrics and I know that once I cut into them they are gone – isn’t that silly?  But now that I’ve done it I’m so tickled with actually using what I had that I know I might be on a roll now.

 

This is what I cut into and I’ll bet I’ve had it for probably 10 years (and yes, I know the fabric is dated, but I still love it).  At around that time I used to belong to a fat quarter club from somewhere online that would send a coordinated packet of 8 fat quarters once a month or every other month.  I probably did it for a year and every one of those packets is beautiful – and I have no idea where they are from.  So any fabric sellers out there take note – be sure to put your company name and url on your tags so we can return and buy more!  :)

 

** Linking to Get Your Craft On, Show Off Your Stuff Sewing and Crafts, I’m Lovin’ It, Show and Share Day, Sew and Tell, Get Your Craft On