Organization! And a garden update.

What lurks behind these bright red doors? Pandemonium and chaos?

No longer! This is my baking cabinet, and this level of organization has been a long time coming.

While I'm missing a couple things, like a large flour container for my bread flour, I am pretty pleased. It gives me a great sense of calm to open it now. 

Ahh, organization. If Gabe and I ever get around to getting married (next fall, I believe) I very well may register at the Container Store or something, that it just how much I love organizing things. :)

And now, the garden update you've all been waiting for.

Sadly, it failed. Well, it's my fault, really. I re-potted everything, and then stuck it all outdoors. But since this is Vermont, we have late frosts. And my poor little plants didn't make it. Well...

A tiny little pea plant did! I dumped everything into a compost pile, and the guy who mows our lawn mentioned to me the other day that there was a pea growing in it! So it was harvested, and Ben and I ate one pea each. Very yummy! I'm not too sad however, as we have been enjoying the CSA share that we purchased this summer. 

New Pajamas

The top two sets were a special order for my friend Ashley (gifts for kids she babysits for) and the bottom one was a birthday gift for a family friend's newly 3 year old!

Kid Crafts

I have had the pleasure of watching my neighbor's two little girls recently. I am pretty sure that I should've just given birth to a 6 or 7-year-old child, because they are so  much fun!

We did tie-dying, which I am now addicted to! So much fun! We all did shirts, and a pillowcase, and some onesies. The most exciting part for me was that the kit I bought came with enough dye for 2 sessions, so as soon as I accumulate more t-shirts, onesies, socks, anything white! I will do it again! And the next time I will realize that they are really serious when they tell you to wear the gloves, since the pink color just finally washed off of my fingernails yesterday.

We also painted rocks, and wooden birdhouses I bought at JoAnn's. The rock painting was also super fun - I could've painted every rock in the yard! Salt dough beads were also made and painted, but not photographed. Can I open a summer camp or something?

And we baked! Blueberry-Peach Crisp. Yummy and easy. They're coming to hang out with me again a few days this week, and I'm having fun thinking up new activity ideas. :)

Jam!

Ben and I went strawberry picking with some friends a couple weeks ago, and needed something to do with our vast bounty.

I decided to try making freezer jam, since I really love strawberry jam, but feel a bit too intimidated by the actual canning method (lots of boiling, worrying about botulism, etc.)... maybe someday, but not today!

I picked up the pectin and some "special" freezer canning jars at the local grocery store. Other than that, all that was needed was a TON of sugar, and the berries. It was very easy!

And I yielded 9 yummy jars of jam. Minus the cost of the actual plastic jars, they cost me about $1 each... which compared to the $4/jar I spend on jam at the store is a pretty good deal.

And I used enough pectin! My jam jelled... and has been enjoyed on many sandwiches and english muffins since!

I also used the remainder of my leftover pectin to make some hot pepper jelly... the verdict is still out on that one. It didn't jell within the week the pectin said it might take, so I threw it in the freezer anyways, and have yet to try it.

Ben's Room! Again!

I have been doing more crafting for Ben's room! I made this bedskirt for his crib, which finally matches the rest of the stuff in his room, and is actually long enough to hide the stuff under the bed. I also made this "fake quilt", called such because the "quilted" fabric is really just one piece of fabric.

See? I think it's cute, and matches the farm theme of the room. Maybe someday I'll be bold enough to actually make him a real quilt!

Up next for his room? Farm-animal-izing this light:

 

And making a cow print pillow for his "lounge" corner:

Lemon Cupcakes

Occasionally, I do make cupcakes that aren't from Martha. Often I don't have the ingredients on hand that she wants me to use, or I think she's doing something the hard way. I usually turn to the internet for recipes at that point, and found one I liked from Better Homes and Gardens.

Yet these cupcakes almost didn't happen. I was making them to bring to a friends house a couple weeks ago, when the weather was REALLY hot, so I decided to make them the night before, since running the oven in the middle of the day didn't seem like it would be the best idea. It was 9:30 pm, and I had the batter all mixed, the oven preheated - and the power went out. I put the batter in the fridge, hoping it would come back on, and 13 hours later, when it finally did, that batter was yucky. Thankfully I still had enough of all the ingredients on hand to make another batch. That's one of the things that I like so much about baking - you can take a common set of ingredients, and combine them (with the addition of a few other things unique to each recipe) and make so much! I always have those basics on hand, and since I love lemons more than the Pope loves Jesus, I had plenty of those too. So the cupcakes happened, and they were yummy.

I used a melon baller to take out little pieces from the middle, and filled those with lemon curd, then added the cream cheese frosting.

They would've looked cuter with some yellow sprinkles on the top, but I didn't have any on hand. They were quite good though, nevertheless.