Summer Blog Challenge Day # 8

Not including blogging, your favorite guilty pleasure...

I try not to do things that make me feel guilty...but there are a few things I love to do but I don't let myself do them too much.  I suppose that is the meaning of "guilty pleasure."

In that vein, I would say my favorite guilty pleasure is sleeping in late.  I work part time, and I often don't have to work until 10:30 in the morning.  My husband works at a shop and generally leaves for work by 6 am.  I love to spread out, take over the whole bed (well the parts of the bed not occupied by dogs...) and sleeeeeeep.  Ahhhhh.  Since Trev and I can't have children, I think this is probably something that not all grown-ups can indulge in very often.  If I had children, I would definitely have to get up when they decided to get up.  My fur-kids would rather sleep all day, so as long as I make it to work on time it's all good.

Booger, Shiloh, and Lola hogging the couch...

Oh, and Dairy Queen double fudge cookie dough blizzards with extra oreos isn't bad either...if you have a thousand calorie splurge room in your diet...

TGIF, and take care of you!

Summer Blog Challenge #7

Post a Picture of Something That Makes You Happy



Esther, Tom, and Jeanne (age 15)

Please excuse the picture quality and the mullet/huge glasses I am sporting.  This is a picture of my Grandma, Esther, and my Grandpa, Tom.  I love this picture of Grandma because you can see that little orneriness in her smile.  My Grandma and Grandpa have always been there for me, and I appreciate so much all of their love, help, support, and advice through the years.  My Grandma was my BFF, my confidant, and my rock.  She died on November 14, 2002.  It was devastating to me.

I still think of her everyday.

Have a great day, and take care of you!

Summer Blog Challenge Day #6

Nicknames You Have and Why

I don't think I have a true nickname...at least not one people say to my face!  Ha!

My brother and sister call me Sissy because I am the oldest sibling (by a long shot) - My brother, Jacob, is nine years and three days younger than me.  My sister, Sarah, is six weeks shy of being twenty years younger than me.

When I am at the shooting park, my husband and a few others call me Deadeye Dick because I am very accurate when shooting...slow but accurate.  I make head shots with alarming regularity.  Deadeye Dick is actually the title of a Kurt Vonnegut novel.

Take care of you!

The Best Little Book of Preserves & Pickles

For the next several weeks I'll be highlighting some newer canning / preserving books.  I decided that I really shouldn't review the book without at least trying one of the recipes...so I'll also be showing you the results of my efforts.

Author Judith Choate has put together an affordable, easy-to-follow book with several recipes for "easy jams & jellies, chutneys & condiments, sauces, spreads & syrups."  She begins with a chapter of basic information about ingredients and a chapter about equipment and techniques.  There are then eight chapters of recipes.  There are a wide range of recipes that, for the most part, had ingredients I had heard of and would actually be able to easily acquire (if I didn't already have the ingredient in my pantry.)  This is awesome because Nebraska does not necessarily have "fancy" ingredients found in some cookbooks...and if I haven't heard of it or I don't know what it is...I'm a little leery of spending my hard-earned pennies on it.  Maybe that's just me...

Also, this book is designed for small batch preserving.  I like small batch preserving because it is easier when you are canning by yourself.  Or, if you bought to much of something, you can preserve the goodness rather than letting food going to waste.

In addition to traditional jams, jellies, chutneys, preserves, conserves, relishes, and pickles, she also has recipes for canning your own:

• sauces and marinades like teriyaki sauce and barbeque sauce
• dessert sauces like white chocolate sauce and red hot apple syrup
• condiments and dressings like fresh horseradish, spicy beer mustard, and hot and sour salad dressing

Anyway...I made "Mom's Special Strawberry Preserves."  I love that each recipe begins with QUANTITY: how much the recipe should make and METHOD and SHELF LIFE.   For example, the strawberry preserves said that the recipe should make 4 - 1/2 pint jars.  With water bath processing, the shelf life is 1 year.  With refrigeration, the shelf life is 6 months.  This is excellent information for beginners and old-hats alike.

The preserves were a three day process, but the time commitment was not bad on any day.  The first day involved cleaning and coring the strawberries and adding the sugar.  Day two was around an hour worth of heating up and boiling the strawberry / sugar mixture.  Day three was the longer time commitment.  Heat the strawberry mixture back up to boiling and water bath for 10 minutes.

The recipe said it would make 4 - 1/2 pint jars.  I actually got 5 - 1/2 pint jars.  I am completely okay with that!

There's only 4 jars in the picture because my brother had already stopped by to take one jar home.

What's your favorite fruit to can?  Have a wonderful and wacky Wednesday, and take care of you!

Summer Blog Challenge Day #5

Your short term goals for the month and why those goals...

My June goals are:

1)  Complete Cooper's Quilt

2)  Complete the new cover for the library bird's birdcage cover

3)  Complete doxie-mobile

4)  My husband and I are trying to NOT go out to eat at supper (dinner or the evening meal to those of you non-Midwesterners) more than two times this month...we'll see...

Why these goals:

1)  Cooper's Quilt was supposed to be given to him for his 2nd birthday on May 12...oops!  Trying to not be more than one month late!  I just need to stop being lazy!  (I worked on it today...not too much more and it will be done!!)

2)  The library bird's cage cover is in atrocious shape...tatters really...it's embarrassing and we have lots of folks coming in for the summer reading program.  It really shouldn't take long, so I just need to stop being lazy!

3)  I've had several stuffed dachshunds cut out since January.  I'd really like the pieces to get out of my craft room, so I just need to stop being lazy!

4)  My husband and I have a terrible habit of eating out 3 - 5 times a week (for supper.)  There are several reasons for this...we used to drive truck, and we got used to eating out more than not...we don't have children, so we don't feel as required to eat at home to teach good habits...it's easy...we're lazy...we like to choose different things...you get the picture...Bad Jeanne & Trevor...so we make "goals" like this on occasion...

What are your plans for June?  Have a wonderful evening, and take care of you!

This is a blog hop...so check out some of the other super blogs participating in the challenge:

Summer Blog Challenge Day #4

Meaning behind your blog name.

Well...to be honest, I began this blog without a whole lot of forethought.  It was nearing New Year's Day and the whole "resolution" thing, and I was feeling like I was not doing as much as I could or should.  The "coulda, woulda, shouldas" are not good for anyone.  So I decided that a blog would help keep me on track -- continuously pushing to get projects done -- because I would be somewhat accountable to my loyal group of followers.

I started trying different titles to find one that hadn't already been taken by other phenomenal bloggers.  I love sewing...I love recycle craft and doing what I can to help the environment...hence the title.  I probably should have added cooking or baking, reading, bicycling, dogs, but I decided it was okay to add all kinds of content to my blog even if it wasn't in the title.  I mean SEW RECYCLE BAKE BIKE WOOF LOVE is a little bit much, don't you think?

Have a great evening, and take care of you!

Summer Blog Challenge Day 3: 15 interesting facts about yourself

I don't know that there are really 15 interesting things about me...and what I think is interesting, other people might think is boring.  But, here goes:

1 - I have a very eclectic / wide-ranging taste in music.  The 34 days worth of music currently on my iPod has country (1930s to current), rock (1950s to current), classical, show tunes, lots of Christmas, some hip-hop, and bluegrass.  My favorites are the Beatles, Hank Williams, Merle Haggard, and Brad Paisley.

2 - I love football...Nebraska Cornhuskers and pro football.  If there is a football game on, I'm probably watching it.

3 - I didn't know what I wanted to be when I grew up, so from high school on I worked in a corn research facility, as a certified nurses' aide, a nanny for five children, a semi-truck driver, and as a financial processor for 401(k) plans.  Now I'm a librarian, and I love it!

4 - I wanted to be in the military more than anything as a teenager.  I had the paperwork done for the Naval Academy, but I was born with a heart murmur that can be heard with a stethoscope.  As a result, I was disqualified from any military service.  My husband served in the United States Marine Corps for four years; that's the closest I will ever get to "serving" the military.

5 - I graduated from a class of 14 people.  I moved into the school my senior year, and two of the graduates were foreign exchange students from Germany. 

6 - I live three doors away from my mother-in-law and father-in-law.  I wouldn't have it any other way.

7 - My husband and I compete in an action handgun league in a USPSA (United States Practical Shooting Association.)  I shoot a .45 Kimber Custom in the single stack division.  If you don't know anything about guns, that won't mean anything to you...I love this new hobby I've taken up.  I shoot at targets and am ranked based on the accuracy and speed at which I finish the course.  I'm not very fast, but I am accurate.

8 - I love to read fiction books (especially cheap romance novels), but I rarely go to a movie.  The last two movies I saw in the theater were "Crazy Stupid Love" and "I Walk the Line."  I love to watch documentaries -- especially history or true crime, but I don't care to read non-fiction unless it is about crafts or cooking...and really, those books I just browse.

9 - I love brussel sprouts.  I only get them a few times a year because Trevor thinks they are disgusting and stink up the house.

10 - While I love to quilt and sew, I cannot do "YARN" crafts...crocheting and knitting are beyond me!  I have tried, and failed, and tried again and failed again...it's just a nightmare!

11 - I love to bake and can.  I have cut back majorly on baking because I also love to EAT all the things I bake, so in an effort to keep my waist under control, I took up running and bicycling...and reduced my baking A LOT a few years ago...**SIGH**

12 - I am a naturalist in that I do not wear any make up.  I rarely paint my fingernails.  I do shave my legs, though...just in case you were scared.  I figure that make-up is just a waste of my sleeping time, and it usually just makes me break out on account of being blessed with really bad skin.

13 - When I am not biking around town, I drive a 1999 Nissan Altima with a stick shift.  I prefer driving a stick shift...for some reason, automatic transmissions make me antsy.

14 - I don't really like to travel.  I like to camp at small campgrounds around Nebraska, but I don't really care to go on 'vacations' per se...I miss my dogs and my bed too much.  The last time we went out of the state was in 2008.  We drove to Las Vegas because I wanted to see Cirque du Soleil Beatles Love.  The production was AMAZING!  The drunks who threw up on the bus...not so much.  Too many weirdos for us; We ended up coming home early.

15 - Trevor and I have been married since 1999.  We met on the job...we both drove semi-trucks for the same company.  It was love at first sight for me.  I asked him out the first time...once he said yes, we never looked back.

I just got done canning some strawberry preserves and blackberry jam.  I hope you are having a great Sunday, and don't forget to take care of you!