My day on the Think Christmas Blog hop

Hello and welcome to my stop on the Think Christmas Blog hop!! There has been so much inspiring work and we are only on day two. I hope you enjoy your time stopping by my blog today and I hope you continue on with us for the next 5 days!

Thank you to Lesley and Madame Samm for putting this hop together. I really do enjoy taking part, being inspired, cheering for fellow blogger and being cheered on by others.

Okay you came here to see blocks.............so here they are!!!!

I saw this first block last year and pined it so I could make it this year. However, the web site it was on was taken down. I didn’t let that stop me though as I stared at the picture until I could figure out how to make it...luckily that didn’t take too long. This is my version of “Ryan’s Holiday Ribbon Block”

My second block is the 1^st block I ever made. I have a whole UFO of this log cabin and still had scraps laying around so I figured why not whip another one up for this hop! 

My third block is a little Christmas tree inspired from “Christmas at Bear’s Paw Ranch by Eleanor Burns and Staff” I am planning  on making another one and then adding the two together with pinwheels to make a table runner. 

And last but not least my block. This block is from the “Christmas at Bear’s Paw Ranch by Eleanor Burns and Staff.” It is part of a wall hanging. This was my second attempt at making flying geese. I think I am going to have to buy a flying geese ruler so make the rest of this project. 

I hope you enjoying my blocks. I enjoyed having you stop by! Now make sure you check out the other amazing stops on day 2!!

Mrs. Pickles-------This is me!!!

Quilting Fiesta

 Jane's Fabrics and Quilts

Scrapbox Quilts

From This to That 

Buzzing and Bumbling

No Loose Threads

Deborah B 

Judith Handmade Treasures

Gran-Knot-Y Embroidery Lady

Susie's World

Think Christmas / Harvest Monday 30/07/2012

Today is the first day of the Think Christmas Blog Hop. You can click on the button on the side side of my blog for the full 7 day schedule. My day to post is tomorrow. Today's lovely hosts are

Cotton Addiction 

Vroomans Quilts

Kris Loves Fabric 

Moosestash Quilting

Paws for Stitching

Threading My Needles 

Just Let Me Quilt

Living4quilting

Doodling in my Mind

Quilt Doodle Designs

**************************************************************************************

Wow here we are at the last harvest Monday post of July!! Summer is going buy way to fast. During the 23^rd to the 29^th I was able to get in a few good harvests.

I got my 2^nd tomato of the year. It is quite a bit smaller than the first one at 45g

I did a good cut of all my spinach and was able to get 1.3kg 

I also cut down all my lettuce and got 3kg of it!

Weekly total 4.75kg

Grand total 10.5kg or 23.14lbs

Radish 5.2 or 147g

Basil 2g

Radish 5.26 lbs or 2.39kg

Lettuce 3.615kg

Spinach 1.81kg

Early Girl TOMATO185g

Chives 85g

Rhubarb 2.33kg

I am linking up with Harvest Monday’s over at Daphne’sDandelions. Go on over and see what everyone else is harvesting

Sewing Saturday

Today I am going to try and get all my blocks done or started for the up comming blog hops I am in.

I will be posting on July 31st
I will be posting on Aug 21
Not sure when I will be posting yet.
I am also thinking of doing a beginner quilting 101 advice blog hop. If anyone would be interested in taking part by creating a post let me know via e-mail saskriver (at) hotmail (dot) com. 
Have a great day

Week 7

The past week in the garden was a good one. Everything is on track and looking yummy. There are a few things that are on the verge of being ready to harvest.

Here is the main garden at week 7

okay bad picture....LOL

Some of the highlights this week are

The Brussels sprouts are not doing much of anything in fact look at the little one beside it.....its dying.

 In fact a lot of my cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower are looking the same way....not good!  

The spinach loves this new area. It will be time to trim them up today. 

The spinach also found some new friends...look at all these tomato plants that have come up! I know I should pick them, but I kind of want to leave them too!  I think they may be cherry tomatoes though and I already have lots of them. 

The Kohlrabi are just about ready to harvest, or well at least this one is the other are painfully slow 

The peppers and eggplants are finally showing some life. One pepper plant is blooming 

The first cucumber is starting to form 

Look at these little zucchini babies’ growing...there are about 10 that I could see 

And the New garden

So there you go there are some of the highlights for week 7

have a great day!

Thursdays Kitchen Cupboard

Its Thursdays day and I am linking up with Thursdays Kitchen Cupboard over at The Gardener of Eden.

This week I am taking a break from my weekly cook book challenge to show you something a little different!

This past week I have started preserving my harvests which is always fun! 

As I showed you on Monday I harvested 2.3kg of Rhubarb. I was able to get 6 2cup bags in the freezer and used another 2cup fresh to make a cake. 

I totally forgot to take pictures of the cake,but it was yummy! In the cake I was also able to use some crab-apple butter I had made last year so that made the cake extra special.

Rhubarb Cake

2c raw rhubarb

1C brown sugar

1/2C white sugar

1 egg

1/2C butter

1C apple sauce (I used a jar of my crab apple butter)

1/2tsp salt

1tsp vanilla

1tsp baking soda

2C flour

In a large mixing bowl cream sugars and butter, add egg and salt. Stir in applesauce, baking soda, vanilla and flour. Add rhubarb. Pour into pan and sprinkle with 1/4c white sugar and 1tsp cinnamon

Bake are 375F for 30-35mins

I also preserved some of my chives. I chopped them all up and then flash froze them on a cookie sheet. After about 30mins in the freezer I then put them into a container and popped them in the freezer. I may try drying some next time.

I was also able to get a large enough spinach harvest that I could use almost a pound of it in one of my favorite summer time recipes....Tipsy Pasta. I make this in the winter too, but using fresh from the garden veggies makes it that much better!! I have posted this recipe before you can see ithere.

Have a great day

Harvest Monday 07/23/2012

This year I am trying to be a little smarter when it comes to harvesting. Last year I would pick a day and just harvest as much of everything as I could. That usually left me exhausted and the fridge stuffed. This year I am just trying to pick a bit everyday so I don’t get too overwhelmed. With that said what was I able to harvest this week of the 16^th to 22^nd

I finally got my butt in gear and harvested the rhubarb. It was getting pretty big. This is one of the larger leaves...HUGE I put a marker on for scale

I was able to harvest 2.33kg

I did another cut of lettuce and got 340g or 12oz

The chives needed to get a hair cut 85g

My first TOMATO!!!!! 140g

Weekly total 2.895kg 6.38lbs

Grand total to date. 5.758kg or 12.69lbs

Radish 5.2 or 147g

Basil .1 2g

Radish 5.26 lbs or 2.39kg

Lettuce 615g

Spinach 1.8 oz or 51g

Early Girl TOMATO140g

chives  85g

Rhubarb  2.33kg

I am linking up with Harvest Monday’s over at Daphne’s Dandelions. Go on over and see what everyone else is harvesting

Have a great day

Trying

I am trying to make a few changes to my blog, but alas I am not as techno savvy as I thought....LOL

So if you see strange things happening..........you have been warned....LOL

Week 6

I am almost a week behind in my garden update, but like harvest Monday and WIP Wednesday its better late than never right.

We had really wet weather in week 6 in fact it rained for 5 days straight. I wasn’t too upset about that since it hadn’t rained in a week before that so the garden was in need of a good soak. The downside too all the rain is that now the weeds have completely overtaken my garden. I was doing such a good job until the mosquito problem and then I was doing an okay job and now......ITS REALLY WEEDY!! Oh well As long as I can find the veggies through the weeds I will be okay. I am going to try and weed a bit tonight since it is finally not a big sloppy mud pit out there.

Here is the main garden at week 6

Everything is really taken off. Here are a few little highlights

This some of the broccoli I started in door. The leaves are huge, but nothing has started broccolifying yet...LOL

cabbage is starting to head 

So pretty! 

Onion to the right broc, cauli and cabbage on the left...weeds...everywhere... :(

Pak choi is ready to harvest I think. I read that you can start to take the outer leaves as soon as they are 1.5inch wide...so we shall see 

Strange flowers coming up in herb plot

Raspberries are starting!!! 

Yellow raspberries 

 These are potatoes.....all very bushy!!

Mixed row beets in the front, then spinach, radish, lettuce and carrots way in the back 

hard to see, but beets are ready!! 

3 HUGE zucchini plants.....what what I thinking!!! 

Zucchini is flowering  

And here is the new garden. The pumpkin and spaghetti squash are really starting to grow!

Spaghetti squash is flowering

Pumpkin is loving it over here 

This is sunflower that fell over....but still alive I may just leave it...lol

 My little patio garden is doing great too. We finally moved the Early Girl tomato into a larger container. She is doing a bit better now and has some presents for me. I have noticed that the fruit is a little small though...oh well.

Looking forward to next week.