I am a domestic goddess (with a full-time job)

Growing up in Utah, it's a good chance you grew up with a parent or other family member standing over the stove, slaving away over a hot stockpot of something-or-another getting put in bottles and eaten throughout the years.

My Grandma Belva was that lady in my life. she would make everything from salsa, jam, and mustard pickles, to regular dills, peaches, and pears. That stuff always tasted better than the store-bought stuff (and looked a lot better too). Both my mom and my mother-in-law have also influenced me. Apricot jam one year at mom's, and a weekend full of spiciness at my MIL's making salsa.


This year Tom and I want to do it on our own and perpetuate the tradition. We did a little research, and started the garden this spring with everything we'd need. 


So, today I got all my canning gear at Winco. They had the best prices by far for new jars (I didn't check Wal-Mart I refuse to shop there on principle).

Total bill $45.75:
Pints = $6.98x2
Quarts = $7.98x2
OOO and one of those lid wands for $1.50
Fruit pectin = $1.30x2
Small Ball freezer jars 5 count= $2.65x2

 I'm happy! now we'll be able to make our salsa and the spaghetti sauce as the veggies come on.

I think I'll ask Santa to get a pressure cooker for next year. This year we're only doing tomato-based goods. So, between the canning stuff my grandma gave me (pint pot with lifter, funnel and can lifter), and my mom's supplies (quart pot and lifter), I'll do water-bath this year.

Oh, and I almost forgot - Went to Barnes & Noble and got the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving.

That and a mag my mom gave me inspired me to go to fruit way in Brigham City to get fresh fruit to make freezer jam.


I love this lost art, and hope Tom and I can perfect it and keep trying new things. Gimme a holla if you know any good recipes!!


Ta-Ta,

Jen

Dill's space themed bedroom, and summertime so far

It's been a busy time since my last post. From painting and playing, to more activities galore, here's what we've been up to lately.


I had a pay period where I worked 37.5 hours of overtime (and it got me nowhere but that's for another post). With that extra money, I was able to afford painting and decorating my son's room.

I really wanted to contribute to the room by painting these three 12x12 canvases I had lying around. Not quite done yet. But another couple of hours and they'll be good to go.

We also celebrated Dillon's birthday with friends and family:

Trent helping decorate the front room.

Crazy Kayla

Grandma checking out the birthday banner that took FOREVER to make :)

Me, Laci, Dillon, Kayla and Nana Angie

And awesome Elmo cake that Shaunasee and Lindsey made for the party. Dillon LOVES Elmo.

Fantastic cupcakes

Dill got so many presents I'm saving some of them for Christmas so he isn't too spoiled.

We went camping at Marsh lake. It was Dillon's first camping trip, and he did so good I might want to go again. we stayed for 4 days, and had family stop by during that time too. Dillon calls them, "My kids". I hope that we can do get together's like this, and see our kids become close:

Emma picking flowers to put in her hair

Put em up Fischer! He got Dill doing it too :)

Helen looking pretty

Such a good dad

He was kissin' rocks right and left. Maybe he'll grow up and be a Geologist?

He loves his cousin Kelly. They are close enough in age that they played quite a bit.

pretty girls

awww cayceee

:)

Being more creative, and paying attention to life has been my goal this year. I wouldn't be able to love life without my family and friends. It has been a fun summer so far, and much more to look forward to. I'll be posting soon about the fun of canning and making freezer jam.

Until then,


Jen

July's gonna be busy - Kid room research/ideas

Hello readers,

My little boy's second birthday is this month (my how time flies), and my plan is to redo his room. Right now as it is, it used to be my grandmother's office. It has good carpet but the wallpaper is circa 1980 or 90 something, and is totally not meant to breed imagination. So, with some overtime money I've been earning, I'm hoping to buy/make some fun stuff.

I mulled around a couple ideas and thought outer space would be something he could keep for a few years, or until he's old enough to do something that's his idea.

Here are some random things I found surfing the net that might inspire you to use the web for more unique stuff. Enjoy!

I saw this cute homemade space room and it totally inspired me: 





I dig the one dark blue wall and one yellow wall - My son's room is a little small to go that crazy, so I think I'll do one wall a shade of dark blue, and the rest an eggshell or yellow-toned white.

I saw these decals on amazon.com, they are part of the Olive Kid's Out of This World collection. TOTALLY cute for the dark blue wall:

Then I saw that they have curtains. I think I could make my own, but these are really cute too:





I want to go to the fabric store anyway, so I might get a like theme, and get enough to make big floor pillows for next to his book case too.

Went to Ikea and got this stuff:

 

Lots of blue going on, so I gotta squeeze some primary color accents in. I really love crafting, and saw these adorable signs on Etsy.com that I'm considering buying or using as inspiration:

Also, since I am artistically inclined, The below really cute positive affirmation paintings are adorable, but in the wrong theme. I thought I'd use them as inspiration, and paint spaceships, aliens, planets or something instead of the animals. I found 'em on art.com:

This payday I can finally start putting stuff together and making my purchases. I'll post pics of my projects, and the room painting process. I love my little guy - he deserves to have a fun space where he can sleep and play. I hope he'll like it!



More to come!!!

Jen

Projects Galore

So having bought my grandparent's home in January, my husband and I have spent the last 4 months trying to make it our own. That has included ripping down the wallpaper in multiple rooms, textured walls, painting, cleaning, and trying to spread out a 2 bedroom apartment's worth of furniture into 3 bedrooms, 2 living rooms and a den.

Needless to day I needed decor hard-core.

We're by no means rich, so I haven't been able to afford Ethan Allen to come in just yet. But a cool idea that my momma and a few blogs I read do, is take ideas from the expensive places and make it yourself. Amanda from craftsbyamanda.com, had this totally cute idea of French Fruit Wall Art taken from a high-end store. To get my creative juices flowing and to fill some wall space, I followed her tutorial and came up with this:

 It was a really fun project. As I add more decor, I will definitely keep these somewhere in the kitchen.


I've also been trying out the sewing machine my mom gave me. I am a TOTAL novice, but here's what I did:

The next thing I really want to do is tackle window treatments for the entryway. Any suggestions?


Jen

a window to my soul

I don't know about you, but there is nothing like a song that really speaks to you. A song that expresses who you are and what you're feeling at that exact moment. It's as if you can close your eyes and know there's at least one person out there that feels and thinks, and might even be a little bit like how you really are. I love that feeling.

This is my creativity tonight - listening to music really loud with really good  inexpensive headphones.

Here's what I'm feeling tonight: thankful, spiritual, optimistic, contemplative, crazy, in love


What are you feeling?

Poetry and Pictures

I've had long weekends the last two weeks. I've done all sorts of things like: cooking, cleaning, went to lunch with mom and an old friend, shopping with some of the in-laws, textured my kitchen walls, hung out with my sisters, and spent time with Tom and my happy baby boy. Made me really appreciate our time together. In all that, I couldn't stop thinking about my responsibility to myself, and my agreements made at the first of the year to spend more time being artistic. 

I think I mentioned a little in my last post, the book The Artistic Mother by Shona Cole. In it, I am supposed to follow a 12 week program that will put my family (mostly my baby) into my art, and create meaningful pieces that I can decorate my new home with. By now, I should have been a lot further in my journey. But I am sadly still on week one. But no more procrastinating! I am setting the record straight!

She gives you weekly deadlines in easy projects that you can do if you make the time. I am making a personal commitment to every other night spending at least an hour on this. So by next Sunday, I will share with you my fun of week one.To start, there are 3 things in my action plan: Project, Poetry, and Photography. For Project, I have to make backgrounds for future art. For Poetry, I have to read a poem every day (Posting them on here might help). For Photography, I have to list Dill's activities and plan action shots. 

In my excitement to get started, i made a little head-start. Here's a poem I just read, and really hits home. My Grandma Belva's favorite author is Rudyard Kipling. In all his writing, I really wanted to find one that had personal meaning to me, so that when I thought of it, I thought of her. and I finally found one. Maybe I can use this in upcoming stuff:

If

Rudyard Kipling

written in 1910 for his 12 year-old son John

---

If you can keep your head when all about you
     Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
     But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
     Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating
     And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
     If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
     And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
     Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
     And stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools,

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
     And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
     And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
     To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And hold on when there is nothing in you
     Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with cowards and keep your virtue,
     Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
     If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
     With sixty seconds worth of distance run
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
     And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

I hope that he will want these virtues in his life. Hopefully I can show them to him. But a start is to have this up somewhere in the house to read. I'm saving this for later. 

Until then, 

Jen