Don't worry, I'm not giving up yet

If you ever wanted to know how bagels get that slightly glossy look, wonder no more:

MmmmMMMmmm! You can't beat homemade bagels. Okay, let's be honest, you can't beat homemade anything! The guys at Jeff's work are starting to complain that their wives only shop in the freezer and boxed dinner sections. Poor guys. I should bring them lunch someday...
I didn't go garage saling again this weekend. (I know, I know, I'm slacking!) My excuse this time is that I wanted to get caught up on a few things around here so I can get back to working on Etsy. (Or start working on Etsy?) I've spent the last two days baking, cleaning, doing laundry, and grocery shopping. Throw in the usual meal prep and clean-up, a couple softball games, training for a half-marathon, and I don't have much time for Etsy-related activity! I was complaining to Jeff the other day that my 'hobbies' are all so time-consuming. He suggested I quit Etsy. Uh, no, sorry honey, not gonna happen! I barely got started! Plus, I would give up everything else before I gave up makin' stuff because that's really what I love the most. So, hopefully Monday finds me sewing like mad!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Us

My poor guy with his red eye. Not pink eye. It never got green and goopy, I'm thinking (according to a few people that I had talked to about it) he may have wiped snot in it because he did have a runny nose. It's better now.

Happy Dad's day!

Happy Father's day to my Dad (aka: Papa Freddie), my 'other Dad' :) and to my dearest Jeffery! I hope you all have a fabulous day!

Chicken Pot Pie

Mmmm, we love chicken pot pie around here. It is definitely a more tedious meal but, so worth it! I thought I'd share the recipe I use. It is a slight variation of Marijane's recipe from the "H" family cookbook.

Chicken Pot Pie

2-3 potatoes, cubed
1/4 c butter
1/2 c onion
1/2 c flour
3/4 c milk
2 c chicken broth
1/2 tsp salt (or more)
1/4 tsp pepper (or more)
1 tsp sage
1 1/2 tsp basil
2 Tbsp parsley
3 c chicken or turkey, cooked and chopped
3 c frozen vegetables

Crust:

3 c flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 c butter
1/2 c canola oil
4-6 Tbsp cold water

Boil potatoes about 10 minutes until soft (not too soft, they will continue to cook in the oven). In saucepan, cook onion in butter until tender. Stir in flour, salt, sage, basil, pepper, chicken broth, and milk. Cook and stir until thick and bubbly. Remove from heat. Meanwhile, combine flour and salt in a bowl. Cut butter into flour until crumbly. Add oil and toss with a fork until well combined. Add water, 1 Tbsp at a time, tossing with a fork each time until well combined. The dough should be just moist enough to roll our without crumbling. Divide dough in half, roll to fit bottom and sides of 9x13" pan. In a separate bowl, combine chicken, potatoes, and frozen vegetables. Pour into crust. Pour the broth/milk mixture over top and cover with remaining dough. Cut holes in top to vent. Bake at 450 until crust is golden. (Original recipe says 15-20 minutes but I think mine actually takes around 40 minutes.)

The original recipe also calls for 1/4 cup chopped pimento but I have never been able to find it and it is still delicious without it!

Weekend Treasures

My only find this weekend was a pair of dress pants. I didn't own a single pair, until now. When Jeff and I fly under his company name we are supposed to be somewhat dressed up. Considering how often I need dress pants (I've gotten away without them up until now!) I was happy to find a decent pair at a garage sale.
I only went garage saling on Friday and I was pretty lame. I just wasn't in the mood. Maybe because I had grocery shopping to do when I was done and who wants to do anything once they finish running all over town? I wasn't having much luck anyways so I called it quits earlier than usual. I won't be going out this weekend because we have our annual St. Johns church services in the Keweenaw. (For which, I am really looking forward to. I get to see my family!)

10 months

Adrian is 10 months old as of yesterday. I took a few pictures today but I'm seriously struggling with getting clear shots. It's partly me, and it's partly the camera. I think something is wrong with it because I can't even get a clear shot with flash. Jeff noticed it too.


This little man is starting to stand up on his own, he walks all along the furniture, I'm sure it won't be long until he's doing the real thing. I know I shouldn't push it but we have camping to do this summer and it sure would be nice if he was walking!


He also has teeth coming in. Like crazy. I noticed his insicors were trying to come in and I was looking again today and it actually looks like his front teeth are making their way out as well. He was a little cranky for a few days (when we were camping!) but Hyland's teething tablets have been working great. I haven't had to give him anything in the past few days, he's being a tough little guy! I guess I'll see how long it takes for them to actually pop through, it could be days or it could be months!


We are still working on teaching him signs. No new ones right now but he is figuring out how to sign 'milk,' 'eat,' and 'buh-bye.'


I still think he is practically perfect, little digger that he is! He is such a happy baby, strangers on the street, er, in the store, always ask if he is always happy and my answer is always 'yes.' We are very lucky to have such a good-tempered little boy! He's a little jokester too, he's always making faces and funny noises to make us laugh, I really need to take some videos! Today, I was 'getting him' and he was grinning away and then took off. He waited until I got close again, and crawled away. It was so funny, that was the first time I've seen him crawl away so I would chase him.


He sure is a fun guy to have around! :)

What's Yours is Mine

Jeff has had this sweatshirt for so long and never wears it. I finally figured out that he doesn't like the neck/collar part so I put it in my pile of "projects to do." I have always liked that it is a shirt that is thick like a sweatshirt so I decided to make it mine!


(How do you like my 'props?')
I cut off the sleeves at the seam, used one of my own sweatshirts as a pattern and cut out the body. I sewed the side seams and reattached the sleeves.


I tried this thing on about a bazillion times with each step to make sure it fit right. I was pretty long and these hips don't do long shirts very well. I shortened it but I also wanted some kind of gathered waist. The easiest and fastest way to do that was to make a drawstring waist. There was a rather large seam at the bottom so I cut it off to use as my drawstring holder (I know, my terms are so technical). I used some of the excess fabric from resizing to cut into strips for the string. I sewed them end to end and pulled on them to make it curl.


At this point, I could have stopped but I wanted the sleeves to look a little more girly since it was such a masculine looking shirt to begin with given the wide collar and dark color. I cut them to about 3/4 length, gathered them and sewed the cuff back on. I think I'll have to redo this sometimes because the sleeves aren't as short as I would like them. I also wanted to cover up the Old Navy logo so I sewed strips of fabric all willy-nilly to cover it up and add some texture. (Um, who says that???)


There you have it. One shirt wasting away in the closet now has a use again!

Making Money the Easy way

I discovered Gazelle a few months ago in a roundabout way in my never ending quest to save money. They are an online program that buys your unused electronics and recycles them. You can choose to receive you money in the form of a check, wal-mart gift card, amazon.com gift card, or through paypal (which is pretty awesome too, by the way). They make it super simple. You type in the name of your item, answer a few questions about the condition of the item and they send you a prepaid shipping label for FedEx. I sent our old phones a while ago and if I remember correctly, I was able to get over $20 back, and $10 was thanks to a bonus code! If you decide to use them, be sure to check retailmenot.com for any bonus codes. Some items won't get you any money but Gazelle will send you a shipping label and recycle it anyways. Check it out!

No Garage Sale finds this Weekend

We were camping!


Yeah, he's wearing socks. In the dirt. Dirty dirt. I just bought shoes for him before we left because I only had flip-flops for him. The ground was kind of wet considering it had rained the night before so I figured I would rather ruin a pair of socks than a pair of new shoes. They'll get dirty eventually but it just didn't make sense to buy new shoes just to drag in the dirt. I'm starting to wonder why I went out of my way to buy them before we went...


It rained for a good deal of the trip but Saturday afternoon was positively beautiful. We played bocce ball in the beach area. We were at Pewabic State Park and the beach area was pretty far from our site. Luckily enough, our fellow campers had a bike trailer that we used to pull our boys.


We knew it was supposed to rain all weekend but everyone agreed that it wasn't worth cancelling our trip. I figured if we canceled, the weekend would be beautiful so I would rather take our chances. It rained Friday night, cleared up for the day, and started up again in the evening. Jeff had picked up a couple tarps before we left just in case. It's a good thing he did, we would have been stuck inside, or soaked, otherwise.


The guys were chuckling about the amount of food we brought. Kate and I planned out our meals together so neither of us would have "meal envy." Of course, we brought plenty to snack on as well. Like that double batch of monster cookies...gone in two days! Maybe it's the T*r*la in me but, I didn't want anyone to be hungry! Camping is all about eating if you ask me. We went home with plenty of leftovers but at least we weren't lacking!


Adrian is teething right now so he's been a little cranky but otherwise he was a pretty good camper. Especially when I consider how he was in our arms most of the weekend. He's crawling like crazy and starting to stand so, sitting still isn't exactly the ideal (non)activity for him. He didn't mind crawling around the tent...when I was with him that is. It would have been nice if he would crawl and play in there while I was outside but he wanted nothing to do with that. Hopefully our next camping trip is a little drier so he can get down and play! That and, maybe he won't try to put every rock and acorn in his mouth!

I'll make it quick.

Camping this weekend.
Monster cookies are done.
And half eaten.
Just kidding.
Lots to pack.
Rain and thundershowers all weekend.
Oh dear.
Softball game tonight.
Jeff's, not mine.
But you probably knew that.

That's all.