2 x 4 Crafts

I know that you have heard my self-proclamation as a craft hoarder.  I admit.  When I see something, I know I can make something out of it, or make it into something, or use it for something.  So over the years, every time we had a home project, I saved all the little pieces of wood.  Someday I would make something.  Well in this new house, for the first time, I have an area to put my saws and sanders and drills, etc.  (I've been collecting those too!)  So again, realizing that I had all of these 2 x 4 bits and pieces.  I took one piece and sawed it into assorted lengths and cut some triangles out and voila!  Not so scary black cats!

OMG!  This was the easiest project ever.  And they turned out so cute.....but what about those chunky triangles from where I cut out the ears?  Hmmmm, triangles.....Halloween.....Candy corn!

And while talking about scraps.....I also have a boat load of fabric.  I found this little piece of off white fleece and made snowmen.  I have made these before and they are always good sellers.  There is quite a bit of hand work that goes into them, so I do several.  Sew.  Then stuff.  Then add the embellishments.  Kinda seems to go faster in an assembly line, huh?

Well it is back to work for me.  Getting ready to work on some wine bottle covers.  A quick trip to Colorado this week to pick up some of my inventory for my September shows.  Go ahead, my peeps!  Get your fall on!

Pumpkin Time

I know that the weather is still soooooo hot out, but I am thinking Fall and beyond.  This week I have been working on pumpkins, pumpkins and more......

You know, one thing about moving.....you find you how much stuff you have.  I have always professed to being a craft hoarder, but when I moved a box of 1000 paint sticks, I knew it was bad.  So I went to work on finding some uses for them.  Ornaments have always been a great seller at shows for me and I made these a few years back.  Since I am in a new area, I thought, maybe everything old is new again, isn't it?

Let me show you how to make these super cute little ornies.  First, cut the paint stick into pieces.  I cut 2 pieces 4" long on the straight part of the stick.  The piece that is curved is a bit less than that.  After I had cut a few, I knew to cut between the O and the M and right before the F on finest.  Sort the pieces, straights and curves

 On the curved pieces drill two holes as shown.  I stacked three or four on top of each other before drilling.  Set these aside for another project.

 And I used the teeniest bit I could find.

 On the straight pieces I drilled two holes on the horizontal side as shown.  Also note that I am drilling over the edge of the table so I don't put any holes in my table top.

Paint whatever color you choose.  I used an espresso brown.  Be sure to cover the edges.  Acrylic paint dries pretty fast so if you are doing several, one side is probably dry by the time you get them done so you can flip them over.  Always paint the back!  It just looks tacky and unfinished if you only paint the front of a project.  Print off your sayings.  I used a brown card stock.  You can use whatever paper you want.  I got my sayings from:  HERE   You can also read thru her tutorial.  I just changed mine up a little.  You can make your own wording as well.  Just be aware if you use the ones that I did, they are actually used for the larger paint sticks.  I cut mine inside of the cutting lines and they fit fine.

Next coat one side with Mod Podge.  I love these little bottles that you can get either at Target or Dollar Tree for $1 because they won't dry out like the large bottles sometimes do.  Any ModPodge will work but I used glossy.  I applied with an old ratty brush  generously.  Be careful that you use enough to hold the paper down but not so generously that it leaves lumps or dries in a glob.  Even tho it dries clear, it still will be a clear glob if it is on too thick.

Put your paper or cardstock down on the Mod Podged stick.  Center the best you can.  Don't worry if you cover the holes.  I rolled the wooden handle over the cardstock to make sure it was down smoothly.  

 Once dry, add another layer of ModPodge  to the outside edges where the wood meets the cardstock.  While still wet sprinkle glitter over .  If you want to put some on the cardstock, you can.  Just be careful that you can still read the words.  You can also spray some glitter blast over the entire project.
Let dry completely.

By now you may have covered up or otherwise filled in the holes that you drilled.  I used a heavy upholstery needle to clean out the holes.  Cut wire to put thru the holes, back to front.  I cut mine about 9 inches long.  Bend the wire and using a pair of needle nosed pliers, twist into a circle as shown in this pic.

Add embellishments.  I used little pieces of greenery and an assortment of pip berries, bells, buttons, ornaments. 

These will also be fun to make with Christmas paper on red paint sticks.  I think I will try something like that next.  You could also be creative and put names on the ornaments or dates.  Get creative!  I  would love to see what you do.

I hate pears ...Part II

I don't know if you heard or not, but I have developed a hatred for pears.  Just kidding.  It's not that I hate them, it's just like that friend who comes to visit and stays way too long.  And these pears, stayed way past their welcome.  But through weeks of preserving, I came up with the following:

6 quarts of pie filling, some frozen, some canned
7 pints of jam
7 half pints of pear sauce (like applesauce)
6 quarts plus 9 pints of pears, some in medium syrup, some in heavy syrup
14 half pints plus 18 pints of jelly
11 half pints of pear butter

What I learned from this experience:

1. Get some help.  My poor arthritic hands still ache from all the peeling and coring.
2. Use a crock pot.  Yep, the crock pot is great for making pear butters and even cooking the pears for jelly.  I had two going at the same time.
   
    
3. Use a turkey fryer.   You know those burners you use with a huge pot when you are frying a turkey.  Well, they work great for canning.  Just take your canner outside and heat it out there.  It doesn't heat up your kitchen and cooks so much faster.  
4. Don't waste anything.  We have three chickens who got a lot of the scraps. But there were more than even the chicks could eat.  I have a composter that I used for most of the rest.  And honestly, we took some of the bruised and overripe pears back out to the orchard for a treat for the deer and squirrels.  
5. Share!  Anything handmade is better when its shared.  I always feel that there is a lot of love that goes into anything handmade.  (Even if there is swearing and complaining involved.)
6. Enjoy!  I probably won't be chowing down on pears for a while, but I am so proud of what I accomplished.  

Here is my own recipe for pear butter in a crock pot (could also use apples):

         Pears   I used about 4 quarts.  Basicly, I filled up the crock pot.  Peel and core them and cut them into pieces.  Not too little.  Add a half cup or so of orange juice, or in my case, I had so much pear juice, I added some of that. Put them in the crock pot on high for an hour or so.  Check them to see if they are soft.  This is where the fun comes in.  Do you have one of those immersion blenders?  Also called a stick blender, you just plug them in and they mash up the pears right there in the crock pot!  No need to get out the mixer, or change bowls, or make any additional messes......good Heavens, this is messy enough.  Don't mash them too much, just the consistency of thick applesauce.  If you don't have an immersion blender, you can use a potato masher, or a regular mixer or food processor.  Now spice this baby up!  I added 3-4 cups of sugar.  Taste it.  You can tell if it needs more.  Add a half teaspoon each of ground cloves and allspice and a teaspoon of cinnamon.  Mix it all up, turn to low and let it cook.  You might stir it every couple of hours.  But to tell you the truth, I added another half cup of water, put the lid on, and went to bed.  

      The next morning, the house smelled like warm apple pie.  I sterilized my jars and lids and filled them and put them in the canner, boiling for 15-20 minutes.   

I think I have decided that I still love pears.  Like that friend who stayed too long, I will have them over.... for tea and biscuits..........

I HATE Pears!

Did I tell you how excited I was to discover that on our newly purchased property we have a small orchard?  We have cherry trees, a peach tree, and two pear trees.  There are also so blackberry bushes and some unidentifiable foliage.  So excited when the cherry trees were blooming.  So bummed when the birds ate them all.  So excited when the peaches started growing.  So bummed when the squirrels ate them all.  But Hark!  No way, Jose', are you gonna eat my pears!  That's when I saw a large deer on his hind legs reaching up into the branches, stretching to pick my yet unharvested fruit.  What is a girl to do?  The pears still looked green, so to the internet I ran......

It seems pears are a weird little fruit.  They ripen from the inside out, so by the time they look ripe on the outside, they are too ripe on the inside.  Pick the pear and let it set for a couple of days and see if it ripens, Google told me.  So that is just what I did.  And guess what!?!?  It actually ripened into a someone small but tasty piece of sweet goodness.  By the time this had transpired our friendly deer had held a pear eating party and harvested several of the sweet treats from the lower limbs.  "I know!" I declared to my hubby.  "Lets go buy a picker!"  Though he was not nearly excited as me, he has learned to pick his battles and gave in to my basket on a stick.  We loaded up the UTV and drove back to the orchard.

We picked for an hour or two, cursing the half eaten pears that were on the ground, feeling smug in knowing that we had picked all the fruit that was in the reach of even that tall buck.  When we had filled the 18 gallon tote, we happily called it quits for the day and retired to the house, dreaming of pear butter, and jam, and all things pear.  

The next day I started my first batch of pear butter.  It really wasn't too difficult with the help of a crock pot and an immersion blender.  The house smelled heavenly.  On the second day, in the midst of my pear jam making, hubs announced that something had gotten into the pear trees and eaten more of the remaining pears.  No way!  How could it be?  Not easily convinced, I made the trek back to the orchard.  The ground beneath the trees was covered in partially eaten pears.  NO!

So the next morning, I grabbed the picker, a bucket, another tote, and hubby grabbed a step ladder and off we went to the orchard.  Four squirrels ran from the pear tree and barked at us the entire time we were there. We picked for hours.  No longer were we able to harvest an entire branch.  We were now picking one pear at a time, using the basket.  We picked both trees.  Hubs stood on the 6 ft step ladder, with his 8 foot extension picker and picked all he could reach.  Lets see:  6 foot ladder + 6 foot hubby (Actually 5'8, but who's counting?) +  8 foot picker = 20 feet.  Right?  We were exhausted.  My neck hurt from looking up for hours.  We filled the 18 gallon tote and the 5 gallon bucket but had to leave some pears at the very top of the tree.  Hubs wanted to climb after them but I generously said, let the birds and the deer have them (besides he had only just gotten out of the hospital a few weeks prior) (and I was tired!)  

The next morning, hubs reported that the pears that were on top of the trees were gone.  Again, I had to see for myself.  Sure enough, those dastardly little squirrels had harvested every last one.  Almost relieved, I returned to my pears.  So rough and dirty, we harvested 18 gal + 18 gal + 5 gallon for a total of 41 gallons.   I looked it up and there are 8 gallons to a bushel, so we harvested a little over 5 bushel of pears.  To date, I have made two batches of pear butter, pear jelly, pear jam, two batches of canned pears, pear pie filling and baked a pear pie.  My love of pears has dwindled.  My hatred has grown.  

I still have nearly two bushel to go.  If they were pretty pears like these, I would give them away.

But for the most part, they look like these distorted, under sized, and scarred.  I have to heat them to get them peeled.  

But we are loving the wonder of growing and preserving our own food.  Left to right:  Pear jam, pear butter, canned pears in medium syrup.

 Pear jelly

 Frozen pear pie filling.  (Freeze flat so that you can stand the bags up in the freezer drawer, like in a filing cabinet.)

So, I guess to sum up, me and pears have one of those love/hate relationships.  While my hands hurt, and I am mopping pear juice off my floor, I hate them.  Ask me again in January.....