Decorating your canning jars

Besides using my jars for canning, I also like the way they look around the house.  They serve many uses in my house, candle holder, button container, candy corner corraler, etc.  I decided to  put together a little photo tutorial to share over at A latte with Ott, A  she is having a canning party this week.  Stop by her blog and check out all her fun recipes and ideas and visit the linky party.

I am all for deocrations that are reusable and easy to move from one jar to the next in the event I actually decide to use a precious jar of home canned goodness. 

I made two versions and here are the final products.

FYI Just imagine that jar filled with little pumpkins. 

(Many were sacrificed during the making of this tutorial)

This projects requires the following

sewing machine or needle and thread

scissors

elastic in your choice of size, I used 1/4 inch width

fabric or ribbon in several sizes and colors

I started with fabric for one jar and ribbon for the other.  I measured my jar and doubled that to get the length of my fabric and ribbon.  I also took away an inch and that was my measurement for the elastic.

Here is the ribbon and ric rac I used for my Halloween jar along with the elastic cording

Here are my strips of fabric.  I cut them with a pinked edge so they would have a more primitive rustic frayed effect.

next you are going to go to your sewing machine or grab your needle and thread.  we are going to sew two lines of stitching and create a tunnel for our elastic to go through.  Make sure you make it wide enough fo ryour elastic and to allow for whatever you will use to thread your elastic through.  I like to use a large safety  pin.  You can see it in the pictures below.

When you have your little tunnel made start threading your elastic thru until the end is even with the edge of your fabric or ribbon.  STOP at this point we are going to make a few stitches so the elastic stays put and we can keep threading our elastic thru so our material will gather up.

Once we secure the first end, continue threading the elastic thru and secure on the other end with a few stitches, either by hand or using your sewing machine.

Once your elastic is secured at each end, put right sides of fabric or ribbon together and sew the edges together.  Seam allowance is what ever you think works for your fabric.  You may also heat seal your ribbon ends at this point to keep from fraying.

And here is the finished product.  I trimmed my fabric down on the first one I made.  I think it looks better this way on my jar.

Enjoy. 

 Tomorrow I will be canning meat sauce.  Stop back in and see what I come up with.

Its a makeover

Many thanks to Dreamlikemagic for my business makeover   I loved working with her and am very pleased with the process and finished product.

Check her out on Etsy here Dream like Magic


 

Its time to PARTY!

Ok,  so its a canning party, but hey, a party is a party and these days I will take what I can get.  ;) 

Ott, A from aLatte' with Ott, A and her partner in crime Jenn from Mess Hall to Bistro are hosting a Canning party this week.  Stop over and check out all the fun canning jar craft ideas, canning recipes, and canning tips.  I am linking today to their linky party, and I am sharing my canned BBQ Chicken adventure. 

This is my first official year where I feel I can wear the badge of "Canner".  I have been a gardener for quite a few years and this year decided to go all out.  Part of the reason I set out on my canning expedition was to simply find a healthier way to feed my family.  We are a part time family of 6, most of the time family of 3 and every other year a family of 2.  Feeding this many by buying organic is costly.  And up until this year, I thought buying organic was the only way to feed my family and be assured I was providing healthy foods for them.  But I found by canning my own foods, I know what is in each and every jar, and it puts a smile on my face. 

I must admit, I am still having a really hard time breaking even a single seal on a jar of my precious green beans.  A month or so ago, my neighbor and I decided it would be a great idea to each buy a bushel of green beans.  For those of you who don't know, that's about 33 pounds of green beans.  Mine yielded 18 quarts.  I gave away two, the rest are tucked away nicely in my cabinet. Where they will reside until I get really really hungry, have a recipe that calls for green beans.

Today, we are a family of 2.  My dear sweet husband, is deployed,and I found I am still buying those large packages of chicken breasts, because lets face it, its cheaper.  I decided to can most of them, with a little BBQ sauce. I found a recipe in the Ball Blue book and got busy. 

I decided to raw pack my jars.  I had 6 boneless skinless chicken breasts.  I sliced them up into thin slices that would be tasty on a sandwich.  I seasoned them with my favorite spices and prepared the BBQ sauce.  I thinned out a sauce that our family likes and heated it up on the stove. 

I packed the raw chicken in my jars, I used 2 quart jars.  I wished after this was done that I had started with more chicken, and made a few more jars.  After raw packing the chicken I poured the hot sauce over top.  Using a butter knife I swished the chicken around in the jars releasing as much trapped air as I could.  Leaving an inch head space on the jars.  Lids and seals were warmed, and jars were wiped cleaned, lids and rings were affixed and place in the pressure canner.

Everything I read said to process for an hour 30 minutes for quarts at 10 pounds pressure.  I followed the manufactures instructions for my pressure canner.  I was a little leery of canning meat, but it looks yummy and we cant wait to try it.  

I tried the little trick this time of adding vinegar to the water bath, I am reporting that it works.  Clean happy jars!

Here is my next item to hoard enjoy.  Come back tomorrow and I will show you how to dress these babies up for hoarding gift giving.  Later this week I will be canning meat sauce for spaghetti.  Yummy!  I welcome your comments, concerns, or questions ;)

Linked up at

We have a winner

I had so many entries for this giveaway picking a winner with the random number picker was difficult.  Good thing is, I wont have to pay shipping! Mamabee, my friendly neighbor was the winner. I am sure little bee is going to love this!  This will be dropped at her door this afternoon, shhhhh. Stay tuned this weekend for an awesome new giveaway.

Table dismemberment

Awhile back while visiting the house of my neighbors parents, I came across an item I just had to have.  Problem is I'm super cheap. (just disregard the recent purchase of my Bernina 830, lol) My neighbs mom had this cute round coffee table that was once a dining room table.  Ever since I had been on the lookout for the perfect, cheap, round dining room table to turn into the cutest little coffee table. Well fast forward to a month ago when I bought a dining room table that was quit large from a different neighbor.  It was her mothers, and she talked about how it was their table as children, blah blah blah.  I was having a hard time thinking of dismembering someones dinner table, where they might have once shared great memories, so, I moved on.

Fast forward to last weekend during our Indy excursion, Mamabee found a small round table that the previous owners had left.  Problem was solved, it came home with me.  Thats what I'm here to show you today.

Here is the before, just pretend the legs are attached and its standing upright.

It was just about 100 degrees outside where we live, so I brought this project inside.  Make sure that you pick a place on your nice hardwood floors that you had just cleaned, the spot right next to the white couch, that was also just cleaned because your big bad nasty dirty dog decided to nap on it.  Yep thats the perfect spot. now you need some supplies, since we are wanting to take this from dinner table to coffee table, I used a jigsaw, and a palm sander, your gonna need an extension cord.  Make sure you take safety measures.

First leg off, now three more.

I sanded the bottoms of her legs.  They will get felt pads but I wanted them smooth before I painted. I took my legs outside and I painted them a toupe color to match a side table I already have in this room.

Here she is (and the big bad dirty dog who nastified my white couch!)

The top is laminate, and I wasnt in the mood to fool with painting it, because you see I have the perfect fabric picked out to make a table cover for her, and her matching side table.  More to come on that later.

Have you modified something that you would like to share?  Please leave a link in my comments.

Thanks for stopping by.

I love pickles

Are you here to enter my giveaway?  scroll down there are a few hours left!  Come back this Saturday for another giveaway!  You wont want to miss this one.  Im hoping it appeals to more then the last. ;)

I love pickles.  Its that simple.  My girls love pickles.  We could easily go thru a jar in a weekend.  It's been done.  Every year that we have lived here I have planted a garden.  Amongst the flowers in my landscape you can find green beans, green, red and yellow bell peppers, zuchini, summer squash, eggplant, jalapenos, cucumbers, brocoli, tomatos and an array of herbs.  I scored the coolest job ever working for a local country store, selling flowers, herbs and vegetable plants.  My husbands only request was that at weeks end I broke even.  There were questionable weeks, shhhhhhh.  lol  During the season I turned my none gardening friend into a gardening fool. We will call her Abbey. Hi Abbey! She had about a 20 by 20ft plot that was set up for a swimming pool.  For safety reasons, she didnt set it up this year so we made full use of the plot.  It was filled with sand so we werent sure how the plants would do.  To our surprise, they are thriving! With the help of Mama bee, all her plants were successfully planted.  I know when I showed up with more plants each week that Mama bee wanted to strangle me.  But she will soon be enjoying the fruits of her labor;) 

I helped Abbey harvest a couple dozen cucumbers last week, combined with my harvest of jalapenos we got to pickling tonight!  Mama bee and I made strawberry jam last month, so I felt like I knew it all when it came to canning.  Mama bee made it look to easy.  The process for canning pickles was a little different then jam.  We used the recipe for kosher dill pickles on the back of the canning salt bag.  It says to wait 3-4 weeks before using your pickles.  So, I have a long wait to see if all our hard work was worth it.  In the mean time, we are going to have more cukes, and will try a bread and butter flavor recipe. Possibly a wickle recipe for relish.  Yummy! 

Here is what we started with tonight

I have a pressure canner.  I like to have all the best tools for whatever I am doing.  I dont like to be ill prepared for the job. lol  So, I purchased it years ago when I was attempting salsa.  I have a regular canning pot that I thought was a lobster pot. Who knew?!?!  I couldnt find it tonight.  Apparently it has disappeared in the process of cleaning and packing our basement.  So anyway, here is our hot water bath getting all bubbly and excited!

I am sure in the canning ettiquete guide there is something about not putting jars of different sizes together, but it was dark and it was getting late, and ...  I didnt care. lol

I was hoping for the magic pop of the lids when I took them out of the bath, but apperently they popped while bathing.  So no magic pop. The lids were firm, so I am taking that to mean they are sealed?  when they cool completely I will check the lids again.  If not sealed, they will hit the fridge and all will be good!

Here is what we ended up with

4 quarts of dill pickle spears, 2 pints of dill pickle chips, and 2 pints of dill jalapeno chips.  We knew we were going to have extra pickle brine so we went out to my garden and decided on jalapenos!  Who knows, maybe they will be good! I will let you know in 3-4 weeks.  The recipe says they have to sit for that long before eating. Do normal people really wait that long? ugh 

Next week we are going to make bread and butter pickles.  Yum!  

Have you pickled before?  Have any tips or tricks?  I am also hoping to try a Wickle recipe!  Hot and Sweet pickles.  Might make a really good relish.  I will report back on that one too!  Leave me your ideas or comments. 

Sweet dreams!

Happy Monday!

So happy to have this weekend behind us.  I pray for our neighbors that they have much luck with selling their house and then that the luck trickles down the street to our place.  lol  Spent the weekend in Indy helping friends get their house ready to sell.  They had rentors, I guess you could call them, and the house was left in disarray and needed paint in just about every room.  We spent many hours painting, priming, painting, did I mention we painted?  lol  Luckily floor cleaning was left to the pros and they are coming tomorrow! Another friend and I found our way to the cutest little quilt shop, on our way out empty handed I spotted some fabric that screamed her name, then some super cute Amy Butler fabric followed me home.  What can I say, I love her fabric.  I have just the project for her.  More on that later.

Hope you are passing the word that  my giveaway is coming to an end.  Go spread the word and I will chat with you all tomorrow.

Have a great week!

Weekend getaway

Dont forget to enter my giveaway.  I know there is a little girl in your life that you can give this too, or donate to. 

This post has very little content that will interest most.  We are heading to Indianapolis to help a neighbor and do a little shopping.  Since Betsy(my new Bernina 830 sewing embroidery machine) came into my life, I have had dreams of things to make and quilts to finish.  My quilt frame wont be here til August, but I hope to get a few quilt tops finished by then.  Anyway, we have the gps programmed with stops at several quilt shops, and then a short stop at Trader Joes.  We dont have one here, and I havent been in a awhile.  It should be a treat.  If you are from the Indy area and have any shops that you favor, drop me a note and I will add it to my list of places to go. 

Since the hubby is deployed we arent celebrating fathers day, so mama's having a girls weekend!  I see lots of painting, camping out, and new quilt fabric in my future.

Happy Fathers day my love!  and to all the dad's out there.  Have a great weekend, see you bright and early Monday.

Hot Locks and a giveaway!

A little while back, I was given the opportunity to review a product from WOW Toys.  Let me tell you, this was a fun product! The dolls are properly named HotLocks.  They offer lots of hair for your budding beautician to practice on.  Lots of hair accesories to adorn her "locks".   Hours of fun.  With the product to review we were given a second doll to offer to my readers.  She has gone unclaimed.  So I am reposting this giveaway.  All you have to do to win, is leave a comment on this post. Please give me a way to contact you if you are not otherwise registered.  This giveaway will end next Monday, June 21st, at midnight.  I will post a winner on Tuesday.  Here are a few pictures of these cuties



While visiting my list of favorite blogs to read I stumbled upon Sinful Southern Sweets page and she has an awesome giveaway going on right now.  Check her out here 

Feel free to share my link and if you have a giveaway, share yours in the comments below. 

Good Luck!

PS-I'm linked up over at  Cocktails with Mom   ,   Suburban Saving Mama  ,   5 Minutes for Mom  ,  Go Graham Go  ,  Jolly Mom

Check out their link-up's of great giveaways

Movin' on up

Almost 3 years ago we moved from the Ft Campbell area up to Evansville to be closer to our kids.  We roughed it out in an apartment until I found the most charming of places in a quiet little neighborhood just steps away from our kids.  They have since moved and we have itchy feet to find a new home too.  I am leaving this up to the husband.  Since I chose our current home(and bought it, while he was in the field, and never even saw pictures) I've decided he gets to pick out the next one.  We have our eye on one.  We are hoping WHEN our house sells, crossing fingers, that it will still be for sale.  Since I am leaving the house selection up to the hubby, I am anxiously awaiting the purchase of new furniture.  When my husband and I moved in together we had a mixture of hand me downs and left overs from our past.  Im not one to get rid of anything with life left in it, so as things reach the end of their use they have been replaced or repurposed.  One thing that has well outlived what I expected was our sofas.  The hubby and I have very different ideas on what our next sofa will be.  Since we are sure to have a family room and a living room, I am guessing we will each get what we want.  Here are a few I have picked out.

There is only one requirement, well maybe two.  First one is, has to have room for the hubby and I to nap together on it, side by side of course, and it has to be comfy. There are so many choices out there.  Its a toss up.  I love the seating a sectional brings but I love the look of a sofa and chairs. What to do?  Anyone have any opinions on fabrics or sofa brands they would like to share?  I would love to hear your opinions.

I cant believe how many sofas this website has http://www.csnsofas.com/   And great prices!

Check it out

Key Fobs for everyone!

Not to long ago, right here on this blog, I announced a new item that was going to be appearing in my shop.  Only problem is, it never showed up!  lol  Seems that I have been selling these cuties, but never added them to Etsy.  Well today will be the day!  If you have been wanting one, your wait is over.  Head in to my shop this after noon and place your order.  Here are some recent orders.

Since Betsy's arrival(that name still hasnt grown on me) I have been an embroidering fool.  Lots of fun stuff leaving the house on a semi regular basis.  Some things dont leave the house.  Im finding new things to personalize everyday.  If I can hoop it, it gets some lovin'.  Im not so sure how my boys are going to feel about this. ;)  Maybe they will get in the spirit with me! 

More to come on the embroidery front.  But I just wanted to share these cuties, and let you know you can stop by my Etsy shop and get one for yourself.

Enjoy

Happenings

Wow, Im finding it hard to believe that my last post on here was back in April. Has it been that long?  Life has happened in our house these past two months.  Husbands deployment, started a job outside of the house, school, soccer, softball, girl scouts, and an array of house projects I was determined to start.  Yes, those house projects were started, some were finished, others(many) are still in progress.  I hope to have the paint and dust cleared by the time hubby comes  home for R&R.  That may just take a few all nighters!  I have had many a sewing order, most of which took way to long for me to produce because of the schedule I was trying to balance.  And somewhere in there Momma got a new sewing machine!!!!!! Yes, I did it.  Its a Bernina.  Im thrilled.  I also picked up a quilt frame.  That is on back order but will be set up in my home in August.  Here is a picture of her.

We call her Betsy.  But the name hasnt been growing on me.  We might need to rename her.

In order to keep the balance, and keep my house straight, I vowed to stay off the computer.  This is what led to the 2 month hiatus from my blog.  Im working less, activities for summer have stopped, and house projects are coming together.  Hopefully this will give me more time to get on here and post. 

If you have made it this far, you really need to check out MamaBee's blog.  She has a super cool giveaway going on for a gift certificate to one of our favorite websites.  here is her link http://mamabeefromthehive.blogspot.com/2010/06/giveaway.html

Go enter and buy your self something cool when you win

New item in my shop

This isnt a new idea.  I posted the original, oh, a way long time ago.  But, today, I got a round to adding these to my shop listing.  They officially have their own category.  And for that I am pretty excited. 

These are my rag tag wooby's! 

Welcome

CSN Stores Product Review

Weeks ago I posted about a wonderful oppurtunity to review a product from CSN stores .  I showed you a sneak peek of my item in my Last supper post.  I wanted to be able to give an honest opinion and felt that was only going to be possible after several uses and washings.  My opinion hasnt changed, THESE DISHES ARE GREAT!  I was given a bright green colored Brown and Bubble set of Rachel Ray baking dishes to review. 

The quality of the colored coating on this cookware was awesome.  Evenly coated, no flaws, and perfect color coverage.  These dishes are a stoneware product and much lighter then I expected and lighter then other stoneware bakers I own.  They nest nicely with one another and inside of my other bakers.  I was intially discouraged by the thought of where to keep these but had no problem once they arrived.  They are rated up to 500degrees F.  I cooked at 425 at different levels of my oven with no problem.  I did find the bakeware turns a strange burnt green color when cooking close to the heating elements, but after it cools, the color goes right back to the original finish.  After doing this ahandful of  times, they are still the same apple green as when they arrived and still have the same shine.  These are dishwasher safe and clean up sooooo nice.  They work great for hot or cold dishes.  Perfect size for a hot dip or baking a whole chicken.  Handles make them easy to carry, easy to pass and serve.  Great color to add to your table.  Lets face it, presentation adds to the taste!  These would make a great house warming, wedding or birthday gift for that special cook in your life. 

Thanks again to CSN stores,  Check them out!

Where have I been? and the last supper

I think I have mentioned before that we are a military family.  For most active duty soldiers, deployment happens pretty regularly.  We have been preparing and getting ready for that in our house.  Its customary that we have the last supper. I was blessed this year that I received a product to review the day of the last supper.  I will post about the review in the next few days.  But here is a glance at our last supper.

I busted out the valetines table runner, only I flipped it over.  The heart plates from Traget clearance, love it! (green baking dishes are my review product) The theme was love, because he is my love, and we are going to miss him.

I made steak, crab cakes, mac n cheese, green beans, cream corn, mashed potatoes n gravy and apple slices.  Basically a dish for each of us that we love.  Comfort food. 

We ended up having a second last supper because flights were changed. The second was Subway.  We normally have the last supper out somewhere on the way to drop him off.  So getting to have a sit down last supper with all the kids was wonderful. 

Deliquent am I and we have a winner!

Good sunday morning to everyone!  Its been a long week and I am sooo tired.  I will post more about why later. But let me first get to our winner! I used the randon muber generator and the number was 7!  Yeah Amanda!  I sent you an email and look forward to you receiving this little goodie. 

As promised, its a giveaway!

I have been brainstorming about what to add to my shop.  I wanted something useful that I could offer at a reasonable price, and of course that was "SEW CUTE!"

Here is what I came up with. 

My camera died after this picture was taken.  Of course the kids have used all the batteries. But, I wanted to post this today.  Better pictures are coming. Promise.

So I am giving away this Cupcake key fob.  The giveaway will end midnight CST on March 19th!

Here is how to enter

1. Follow my blog and leave a comment here that you did.

2. Become a fan of our facebook page here, then leave a comment here that you did.

3. Make a purchase from my shop here, leave a comment here that you did.

That is three ways to enter, or do all three and triple your odds!  On March 20th I will use a random number generator and pick a winner.  Make sure you're not set to private, or leave me a way to contact you in your comment so you won't miss out.  I will post the winner here as well.

Good luck! oh, and feel free to let me know what you think of my new creation, hint hint...

Unique oppurtunity that I think you're gonna love!

I was recently approached about doing a product review and know you will love the product too!  Grab a seat on your favorite bar stool and stay tuned!

Here is a peak at whats to come...


Tomorrow I have a giveaway to offer.  Check back and invite your friends too.

Oh my

Tomorrow it will officially be a month since I have posted on here.  So I am planning to do a giveaway.  Its a new product I am adding to my store and I think you are going to love them.  Stay tuned, more to come in the next few days.  You won't want to miss it!

I've been featured and yummy pretzels!

A few days ago, on one of the many papercrafting blogs I read, Taylor from Taylored Expressions posted a jar of cupcakes she made.  I'm normally not a story-teller-comment-leaver, BUT, with deployment looming overhead it reminded me of something I made for my husband while he was deployed.
It was nearing his birthday, and I'm not much of a baker to begin with, I get along, but nothing spectacular.  I had sent cookies and such but nothing that lasts very long, with shipping taking nearly 2 weeks, you have to eat things right away once received.  Well, my husband isnt a big sweet eater so I know when I send things it will probably go to waste or to the community snack pile.  SO, I had heard rumor of baking bread in jars, canning bread basically and figured I could do the same with brownies and blue berry muffins, some of our favorites. I had no luck finding the directions on how to do this so I made up my own. I found some wide mouth, 8oz, glass canning jars at our local grocery and decided these would be the perfect size for muffins and brownies and went to town making him some goodies that would hopefully last the travel to him and something he would be able to enjoy for a few weeks to come. It worked and I will be be doing this again this week so I can show you how I did it.

So no post is really complete without some photos, so I thought I would tell you about some yummy pretzels I made with a recipe from Mamabee . In true Carole fashion I had to make the recipe my own and here is what I did.

Here they are before cooking and after rising, I definitely need to work on my technique!

I added cinnamon, sugar and raisins to some, italian seasoning and garlic salt to a few, and diced jalepenos to  the rest.  When they came out of the oven I brushed with butter and topped with the appropriate seasoning, cinnamon sugar, grated parmesan cheese, and sea salt.

And here they are toasty brown.  Some had been sampled, shhh...

They were very misshaped, but oh so yummy.  Just like pretzels from the mall, but better!

Its a sushi party!

Party? well not really. The girls and I love california rolls.  Our local grocery makes fresh sushi and its so yummy.  I secretly shop there more often so I can bring home a tray or two of these little yummy treats.  Here lately I have made it a meal, and that requires more trays, meaning more cash out of the pocket, and I might as well have gone out to a restaurant for what I spend.  My dear frugal husband always suggests making our own, so I took him up on that last night and here is what we did.

I started with the smaller size seaweed sheets.  Thats all they had at the grocery yesterday so I decided they would have to do.  I love the smell of this stuff, its weird I know.  Yum!

I used my rice cooker and used pearl rice.  I read somewhere that is the best for making sushi, but I am not expert, and I am self taught, so go with what feels right to you. I smashed a thin layer of rice on the seaweed, you need to leave about an inch on one end, will explain that later. I added some avacado slices, imitation crab meat and cucumbers tothe center.  I have also used other things, there are no rules here, what ever sounds good to you!

I left about an inch on one end, you need to start rolling from the opposite end, when you get them rolled up, moisten the area you left free from rice, and then use that to stick and hold your roll together. 

When you are done rolling them up, use a very sharp knife and cut them to the size you like. A few of mine are only about 1/2inch, I overstuffed my rolls and I like them bite size. 

Im hoping for Valentines Day this year to attend a Sushi making class.  If I do, I will be back with more yummy sushi goodness. 

Enjoy