Labor Day (has sound)

Upcoming Projects

I love when Joann's has a pattern sale! I've been watching for a Simplicity sale because I wanted to make the pajama pattern. Have you noticed that it's hard to find cute nightgowns that are not grandma gown, but not teenage nighties? I love this pattern and can't wait to make it! Well, the sale was 5 patterns for $5, and I wasn't sure if you got the sale price if you bought less than 5, so I picked out the other 4 patterns. I'm totally syked to start these. Especially with some of the fabric I pulled from the remnant bin.

Happy Fall!

Ok, so I haven't blogged in a while. I've been working on the same project in craft group for 3 weeks, and I didn't actually finish the project before that. That's not entirely true, I did complete a pair of baby shoes (so cute!!), but they don't match, so I'm still trying to figure out which one I did wrong. Ü Here is my new rag wreath. I painted the turkey and then tied all of the wreath. It's a great project for leftover fabric,or in my case, fabric you inherited from your grandma that is out of date. Love you Grandma, but some of these fabrics were blah! Anyway, super easy project, just a little time consuming.

Yum, Cheesecake!

I love Bakerella's blog! She has such cute ideas and is a really talented food photograper. (I am not, which is why you get one picture out of the eight I took!) I decided to try her recipe for cheesecake and it turned out. Even if it does have the rather large pacman mouth crack in the side (looks around innocently). Sam and I made this last night and it was really easy. I did some research on how to prevent cracking and most people suggest a waterbath when baking. I'll have to try that next time. I'm thinking about cutting it into slices and freezing them b/c I love love love frozen cheesecake!

Update on the Pizza

It was delicious! The one I pictured wasn't quite cooked long enough, but the other two were better. None of them were particularly crispy on the bottom. I think next time I'll cook them on the bottom rack so the bottom will cook faster than the top. Homemade pizza is definitely being added to our fav list! BTW, does anyone have a good recipe for a pizza sauce? The ones I find are always too thin and too bland. I don't want my pizza to taste like a can of tomato sauce.

Our Garden 2009

We realized the other day that we hadn't posted anything about our garden this year. This is really surprising because our home improvement project was to redo the patio this year. I really like how it turned out. The tall side fence was solid when we moved in, but we took down the slats and Sam reattached them in the open pattern here so that we can get some sunlight and air in the back. There were pavers covering the 2nd half of the patio, but between Maggie being out there (ew!) and the fact that they were not put on a bed of anything, they had to go. We put some sand and pea gravel in instead. Sam built me the large planter. Didn't he do a beautiful job!! And you've got to love my city, Lee's Summit gives away compost for free! So that's what we filled it with. This year we started with plants from Wal-Mart. I won't do that again. While some plants are doing well (the zucchini, tomatoes & cantaloupe) others look sick and/or strange. The cucumbers are curling. It's so strange. In all the times I've grown cucumbers, I've never had them grow like this. The one I picked last week looked like a Zat gun! Next year, I will plant from seed and go for a bush variety. The butternut squash looks terrible.
(it doesn't help that when it was growing across the ground, Maggie trampled it one day), but it is really producing. At last count, we had 6 squash growing! I thought the zucchini would never produce, it kept blooming flowers and then dying, but we finally have 3 zucchini growing. I LOVE NATURE, it's so cool as long as I don't have to spend too much time in it! The green beans have been my biggest disappointment. They really look sick. I wonder if they need fertilizer or something. I'll have to try a different variety next year. I planted the peppers by the tomatoes, but I don't think they get enough sun since the tomatoes went crazy!!! I've already majorly cut them back once, and I may do it again before the season it over. Then comes the canteloupe. I think that's the prettiest plant we have. We've already had to redirect it from taking over the tomato cages and Maggie's doghouse. We have about 5 canteloupe growing. Here's the pickle, only Sam eats canteloupe! For me they are a definite YUCK!! I'm going to have to research ways of preserving canteloupe or give them away. Any suggestions?
I had to include this photo b/c I really like the squash flowers and you can see a new squash growing in the uppper left side.

Here's what's growing so far. This is our roma grape tomatoes, a butternut squash, a cantaloupe and a funky cucumber. We also have some greenbeans and zucchini. Oddly enough, our basil did not come up, so I'm going to try herbs in the house next.