canning party of two

i had the urge to can. i get it every so often. like i did last year. i called my canning partner-in-crime kelly and we synchronzied our schedules with the local fruit production. apricots, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries were in season. we set a date. i made a run for fruit. kelly brought jars, sugar, and pectin. for our first batch, we started with these.

turned it into this.and then into this. apricot jam.
we also made apricot spice jam, apricot and raspberry jam (yummy!), apricot and blueberry jam, raspberry jam, and mixed berry jam. seriously folks. we were in the kitchen for 8 hours. we ended with over 70 jars of varying sizes to split between us. my feet hurt. my legs hurt. it was 85 degrees that day. the kitchen was 82 (remember we don't have central air). the air was sticky. i was sticky. but both kelly and i agreed... canning is a very satisfying project. we now have wonderful, scrumptious jams to share with friends and family.

i'm giddy

remember my obsession with this fabric? different colorway here, but same fabric.

well, thanks to jenny over at little green notebook, 1.5 yards are headed my way, at an unbelievable price. maybe i'll do this with it.

*via*

now if somebody could just help me refresh the sewing skills i learned in the eighth grade.

a dog's perspective

pixel here everyone. i thought i'd tell you about my saturday night. mommy and daddy took me to the dog park. you know, cause they really have nothing better to do on a saturday night. here's a view of nearby mt si from the park. isn't it pretty?
here's daddy and i in motion. he loves to fling the tennis ball and i love to chase it.
i go way out. can ya see me? can ya see me?
i head back toward daddy and wait for the next toss. we do this over and over and over and over. they're trying to wear me out so they can have some peace this evening, not that i ever act up. no, not me.here's the moon rising.
time to go. this is where mommy had a cow when she saw my dirty feet cause then she'd have to bathe me when we got home. another favorite chore of hers on a saturday night. she likes chores.
we stopped to look at the elk herd nearby on the way home. exciting saturday night, huh?

progress and a giveaway

this was last week. steve and a friend removed the dining room windows, made a BIG hole, and filled it with gorgeous new french doors.
as you can see (below) there's still so much to do. such as, trim out and paint the doors and replace the siding on the back of the house. (this was a huge debate between hubby and me. he wanted to do a different finish under the porch roof, such as painted cedar shake to match a finish on the front of the house. i wanted to keep things simple, have just one finish on the entire back of the house. i think i won, but as you can see, nothing is up yet). excuse my scraggly plants in the planters. i refrained from potting anything new in the container pots until the porch was done. that's on my way -too-long to-do list for this weekend. i'm also thinking of painting the adirondacks.
anything exciting on the agenda for your weekend??

and....thanks to carlee and tiffany at deliciously organized, there's a pixelimpress giveaway. pop on over there to enter to win a set of these.have a great weekend!

buzzzzz

our lavenders went crazy this year! even the bees loved them.

bowlful of cherries

i'll be wondering into the kitchen every now and then for some of these. rainier cherries. the best.

i'm obsessed...

with this fabric.

bengal bazaar, teal, kelly wearstler

lee kleinhelter has a pillow made of it available at her shop pieces.


and, yikes, lost my source.... but isn't it gorgeous in this setting?

new goodies

there's lots of new stuff over in the shop.

wide stripes
thin stripes
ikat!
chevron ikat
fishscales
and more chevron
still lots more to add.

pasta!

saturday night we tried out our new pasta machine. my in-laws got this for us for christmas. we finally got around to making our own pasta.... 7 months later.
floured and waiting to cook.
cooked!
and we served it with roasted veggies from the farmers market.
dessert was berry crisps with vanilla bean ice cream. crisps are my favorite go-to dessert. they're effortless. some oats, little flour, little brown sugar and butter for the topping. filling of your desire. and bake at 350 for about 20-25 mins. yum. our perfect summer meal.

progress

this was our backyard last friday morning. the start of building the roof to our new patio.

these two (steve is on the right and his handy helper on the left)


and their supervisor spent 12 hours friday and 12 hours saturday building the roof. it is done. it is beautiful. it has the heavy hardware i requested.
the triple pane window will soon be french doors. it leads to our dining room. can't wait for those.

this is a glimpse of the final product. i love the ceiling!
good job, honey. nope, make that superb job, honey.

happy 4th!

be back next week with tales of our weekend. it's gonna be fun! happy long weekend!