Getting things done and some crafting in between.

Tried my hand at water colouring some stamped images for cards last night.  

So I worked on getting some things crossed off my list again yesterday. The cooler temperatures have invigorated me, or they remind me that summer is over and I have a boatload of stuff that needs to get done. But in any event, it is working. 

Yesterday I picked tomatoes from the garden (no photo), and made some pasta sauce for the freezer. While the stew was cooking in the crock pot, I fried a pound of bacon and put it in the freezer for people to make toasted bacon and tomato sandwiches when they feel the urge. There is no sense growing your own tomatoes if you can't enjoy a mouth watering bacon and tomato sandwich. Nothing is better. I also shredded 2 cups of cheddar for the freezer. I don't want this block of cheese to also disappear before I have a chance to use it in a recipe. I mowed the front and back lawns. I also baked a bread pudding for dessert. Last night I looked through the grocery flyers and then tried some water colouring with my distress inks. I slept like a log.  

Carrots and brocolli for the freezer

This morning started with the Costco pickup and then some grocery shopping at Food Basics. I picked up lots of bargains....10 pounds of potatoes, five pounds of carrots and five pounds of onions for only $1.88 a bag. Broccoli was only 88 cents, so I picked up four. Once home, I washed, peeled and cut up the vegetables for the freezer. Boy that freezer is well fed. Because the peelings were washed beforehand, I put them separately in the freezer as well, and took an older  bag of peelings out of the freezer and into my crock pot to make some veggie broth this afternoon. The broth that results from cooking down these peelings is very good.

 I bought 4 pounds of lean ground beef for $15 and two packages of chicken leg quarters for $1.48 a pound. I bought some items from my grocery list, including 2 jars of apple sauce to make the bread crumb biscuits this weekend. My total bill came to $55.69.  My next stop was Michael's. They are having a major sale this week. I spent more here than I did on groceries....$68.92 (and it came out of my grocery allowance for the month). Hopefully, I will be so busy crafting, that I won't notice how hungry I am this month. Ha, ha, ha.  Anyways, I don't have a lot of photos taken today, but I did promise to show you some past photos of Christmas crafts I have done in past years. These things I have made for Advent calendars or stocking stuffers. Just in case you thought I was a great crafter, I want to blow that myth out of the water by showing you that I am not.  These are not difficult at all, and there are simple patterns all over the internet. 

I made two of these owls one year which are really heating pads for kids (15 seconds in the microwave), but the kids just used them as bean bag toys. The double layer of flannel is machine sewn and filled with rice, and  features are hand sewn with felt pieces.

Large chocolate bars wrapped with printed white paper with hats and scarves made from red felt. I tied the tops closed with jingle bells and crimped the bottom edges together. 

Dove soap bars wrapped in tan-coloured  wash clothes and ends (ears) tied off with red ribbon and jingle bells. I glued on googly eyes and red pompom nose and stuck brown pipe cleaner antlers into the opening at top. You have probably seen these done at Easter with white cloths to look like Easter bunnies. 

I made slim boxes from a pattern I found on-line here at Kerry's  Paper Crafts and put 4 dollar store pencils inside with a dollar store Xmas eraser in  the bottom of the packaging (you can find the bags in the cake decorating section of  Michael's for packaging pretzels). I made the round labels with stamps and punches I own. 

Thanks for reading. Have a relaxing or productive week-end, whichever you prefer.