A Lot Of Things

I canned fig jam yesterday. Of course I had to do "several" taste tests before the

 sweetness was just right!!!!! I just hope this will last until the winter months.

A Zipper spider has made her home right outside my garage eve.

Grandma's Lillies are in bloom. I was told last year that lilly isn't their correct name so let me know of the correction please.

Next I snapped a photo some sort of mushroom that seemed to have cracked open. I love  the blush color surprise inside.

Finally we've had a string of strong winds lately so imagine my surprise when I discovered  a bird's nest on the ground (no pun intended) the other morning. No eggs or babies, thank goodness!!

Monday, Monday

Pop over to Judy's to see other DWM participants.

First, see my little man, Austin with his quilt. Isn't he a cutie!!

Sorry, I just had a GoGo moment. He has a cowlick that his mommy can't seem to tame. You can just make it out if you look carefully. He's such a happy baby and weighs a ton already. I know this because every time I get to play with him and lift him over my head a few times, I'm completely worn out, my arms feel like limp noodles.......LOL

Here's what I've gotten done along with baling hay & canning.

A little machine embroidery. It's not much but I think I'm back in the saddle again!!

Here's hoping everyone has a great last week of July...........can you believe it's the end of July!!!

Grape Juice The Old Fashion Way

I couldn't resist making grape juice concentrate from the Mustang vines on my back yard fence.

• Just pick, stem, rinse several times, let sit in water over night.
•  Next morning bring to a rolling boil while crushing.
•  Strain all thru cheese cloth while cooling. 
• Squeeze remain juice by twisting in cloth.
•  Bring juice to boil, add about 1/2 cup lemon juice, stir. 
• Add at least one bag of sugar while stirring. At this point taste.
•  Add more sugar, one cup at a time until "you" are comfortable with the sweetness. 
• Pour hot liquid into storage jars and refrigerate. It lasts for months this way but if you love grape juice, it will not last very long at all!!

When serving add a few tablespoons to a glass of water or to Ginger Ale.

Enjoy!!

Grape Jelly

Whew!
 Here's a quick recap of my Mustang grape canning escapades ....

After fermenting over night. The smell is wonderful.

After boiling & simmering for an hour or so.

Here's how the grapes look after I pulverized them a couple of times.

Final results - 4qts, 8pts, 4 half pts.

There are loads more grapes on the vine but do I have the energy to pick and process them. Only time will tell but this old girl is tiring!!!!!!!

While I was canning my Cowboy came in from golfing with his buddies & had changed into his work boots to begin cutting in the hay fields. He decided to leave the golfing attire on. I just had to snap this photo.

Vitis Mustangensis

Nope, it's not a sickness, it's grapes. Wild grapes, that is.

Mustang grapes are all over my fence this year. The birds have been munching on them for a couple of weeks so my Cowboy suggested that I really needed to get out there before all was lost.

Among the grapes are lizards, spiders, a snake or two & my favorite.....wasps!!

I dawned my hunting gear (minus the shotgun), a pair of shears and some wasp spray to harvest the grapes.

Here's how much I've cut off so far. I'll be canning jelly &  my Cowboy wants to dabble in some wine.....we'll have to see if that pans out.

Now I've picked all the stems off & will pour sugar over top & allow to sit over night.  I'll add a little water and Pectin and pretty soon we'll have grape jelly!!

There are tons of wonderful jelly recipes on the Internet to try out, this is just one of many.

In July?????

This was the skies in my neck of the woods for the past several days.

Overcast & 69 degrees.

Then this morning I woke up to this.....

Fog! Oh my word.......fog in July.....in central-ish Texas.......it's nearly unheard of and fascinating to me. This next week is scheduled to get back to the "normal" sunny, 95 to 100 degrees.......so I'm thinking what a nice change this as been for the month of July in central-ish Texas.

I hope where ever you live that you're enjoying the weather.

Out of My Mind

The hay process has stopped for the moment due to all the wonderful rain we are having here in central-ish Texas. I say that because this type of rainy weather is unheard of in the middle of July in Texas and the temp is 70 degrees but nobody that I've spoken to is complaining.
Anyway, I decided to get in some machine embroidery but first I'd have to load the CD on my new computer. Of course I have forgotten how to do that so I pulled out my trusty Janome Handbook, got out the CD and started to read the instructions.
Aren't you proud of the fact that I actually was reading the instructions!!!!
I got to the part where it mentioned that I'd need to insert the "dongle" when prompted.....
"DONGLE"
......omg......where is my dongle. This is not something that can be easily replaced.
I couldn't remember where I'd put it and if the handbook hadn't shown a picture of it, I'm not sure I'd have remembered what it looked like. This was like losing my MoJo..........omg.......
So, I started searching. I knew it couldn't be in too many places.

1. Looked the my Janome carrying case......not there.
2. Looked in my Janome front storage panel......not there.
3. Looked in several thread drawers under my Janome........not there.

At this point, I began to panic but was still hopeful. I started a more serious search.
I poured out all of the drawers under my machine......btw, that's eight of them and thread, scissors, needles and other sewing paraphernalia were everywhere... (sorry I didn't get a photo of that mess because by then I wasn't thinking clearly....as in hair standing on end, glasses askew, rumpled clothing and frayed nerves)

Have you ever heard that you can't see for looking????
That was me because after ten frantic minutes or so where I'd overlooked the "thing," I found it..........can you say WHEW!!!!

Here's what the dongle looks like. I thanked the Heavens, kissed my dongle and happily had my computer identify it.

By then, I was totally out of the mood to do any machine embroidery.

FYI.........put your dongle where you can easily find it.

Monday, Monday

I finished the borders and machined "The Duke" last week. Some of you aided me by voting on your favorite setting, 1 or 2. I went with #2 because it was the last one laid out and I just didn't have time to rearrange it back to #1....who has been in that situation...I was just too lazy tired to rearrange.  The last border was done from the leftover strips and last bigger pieces from the kite fabric, which, BTW, is one of my all time favorite fabrics. Why I didn't purchase several bolts of that fabric, I just don't know (LOL).
The quilt measures 36 inches square and will be given to my help hands ladies.  I was determined to get this one finished even though I was canning and baling hay, (Oh, I'm the helper in the hay baling process but it's still takes up a lot of my time).  If it doesn't rain again any time soon, we'll just do a couple more weeks of baling. I can't believe I'm hoping for no more rain in the near future. It's been unseasonably rainy and wet here in central Texas......don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining one bit.
I've scheduled this post to appear on Monday and I hope it works. It's Friday now and I'm off to do more canning and mow the yard plus a few more chores that have to get done.
Make sure to stop by our wonderful hostess, Judy to see what other are doing in the great month of JULY!!

Near our hay fields some of the cows were grazing. We rode over to give them some cookies (range cubes) and I spotted this little heifer, a tiger stripe. She stands out in the crowd with her coloring and boy, can she run.

Mug Rug Thursday

The winner of Froggy is #15 Lefuntz. 

Congratulations to you!!! Just leave a comment so that we can talk!!

Wow, my summer is in full swing what with gardening, canning, cutting and baling hay and many other happening that life has thrown my way so I'm going on a hiatus from Mug Rug Thursday for awhile but I'll be back after life settles down. I should be able to post once a week but who knows!!

I hope everyone is having a great month of July. I say that instead of "summer" because some of my blogging friends are experiencing fall and winter in other countries. I am so blessed to have such wonderful friends who bring a smile to my face each time I get to sit down for a few minutes to read your blogs.

Anyone else busy with life's wonderfulness????? I'd love to hear what you are doing.

Monday, Monday

Make sure to visit Judy, our hostess for Design Wall Monday!!

Most of you remember John Wayne from THIS post .......at the time I made this one, I had no idea what I was going to do but as the 4th of July company visited on and on my mind began to wonder....don't get me wrong, I love family but after all the laughter, BBQ, potato salad, beans, pies, and iced tea.......I needed some down time.

I tipped-toed to the sewing room to ponder and pulled out some cowboy type fabrics. I squared up John by sewing strips around him and trimmed to 12 1/2 in. square.

I chose one of my favorite fabrics as the "kite" design. Normally, the kite would be a square piece of fabric (a foundation, if you will) with the "kite" drawn in, then sew varied size strips of either side.

Here's a sample of each block. I love the look of it. I added the rawhide/cowhide fabric to opposing corners.

First audition arrangement....BTW....this is a fractured diamond design.

Second audition arrangement.......which one looks better, do you think??

Goodness in a Jar

Can you believe it's already July....OMG!

These are peaches from our local farmers market. They are sweet & I can't stay away from them. 

I decided to pickle this batch because my Cowboy said he remembered is mom's pickled peaches from childhood. That melted my heart so off to the old Internet to find a good recipe, I went. There were several to choose from and it took me a couple of days to gather the necessary ingredients before diving in. The following are what I used. There are tons of recipes out there, you just have to choose for yourself.

• White vinegar
• Sugar
• Pickling spices in a bag
• Cinnamon sticks
• Whole Cloves
• Fruit Fresh
• Mason Jars

I placed a cinnamon stick & a few cloves in each jar before processing them. Let me just say that I save everything I can because you never know what you'll need or can use in another recipe.

The syrup leftover from the canning is divine. I can't tell you how delicious it taste, so of course it went in the frig to be use in a meat dish.....AKA.....pour a cup of it over a ham before baking or over a pork roast and bake or a fourth cup in a cobbler before baking.....I need to stop cause I'm getting hungry.

I hope everyone has a great Fourth of July. I'm already planning for ribs, roasted corn on the cob, potato salad and apple pie (with some of that peach syrup baked in)....oh, and cracker pie. Yes you read it correctly.

Take care!!!