Perfect fit
Ma’!! Get’er off me!!
The look on duke’s (the big black & tan)face is hilarious. He is disgusted!! Jenny does not care at all! She just wants to play dadgumit!
Cuddle buddies <2
Dogs: my daily companions
Pinspiration: recipe: 3 ingredient customizable homemade coffee creamer
I LOVE coffee!! And every morning I fix it the same way. Creature of habit.
I pour creamer in the bottom of my large coffee mug. I pour coffee on top. No spoon no stir. Just sip
My routine now includes the making of my own creamer. With a recipe I found on Pinterest. And best of all, it’s customizable!!
1-14oz can sweetened condensed milk
14oz heavy cream (here’s where you substitute for your fav dairy, milk, soy, almond….)
2tsp vanilla extract (also customizable)
Pour all ingredients in a 1 qt jar with lid & shake it up good! Store in fridge. Length of freshness depends on your particular dairy or dairy substitute.
I made mine with heavy cream. It’s extra thick!! But the flavor is amazing!! Next time ill mix it with regular milk just to see if it tastes as good. But seriously, this is delicious & all real ingredient. And for about $6 (local prices) I’ve got 2 qt a worth of ingredients. My new regular recipe 
*note*the heavy cream makes this too thick, in my opinion. I think it thickened over night in the fridge. It’s currently the consistency of very thin cool whip. It tastes great but not what I am going for in coffee. That I HAVE to get a spoon out and stir just doesn’t tickle my fancy. So I’ll be making with milk from now on. Which, by the way, is a very thrifty option anyway! A gallons of milk is about $4 and I’m only using a cup of it per mix!! A can of sweetened condensed cream is about 65cents. I use one can per mix. Cheap!!
Sewing: the pattern lies!! Here’s the quick fix!
This top is at about 5-6″ to wide for me!! It’s so frustrating to put the $ into the fabric & accessories & my time into the creation for it to be a waste!! Lets see if I can fix this 
I used my serger for the first time. I am in LOVE!! Why was I so intimidated by this machine?? It’s way easy & rewarding to use. Did I mention I LoVe this <;3
Dadgum, lookie there!! I fixed it! Woohoo!! And I LOVE this shirt!!
I LOVE sewing. I HATE patterns that lie to me!! I am so sick of spending money on fabric that I love, getting my hopes up for becoming an amazing home seamstress. To have my dreams dashed by a pattern that doesn’t fit when I follow the measurement guides. UGH!
This particular pattern is an “easy” pattern. Perfect for beginners. Not if it doesn’t fit when you’re done!!!
I measured myself, I took my time, I sewed with care. And the dang shirt is too big!!! Grrr!!
My only consolation is that there’s potential to fix too big.
And I did it!! What I did was:
Flipped my sewed shirt inside out and laid it on the table
I took a top that is comfy and laid it on top and eyeballed it even on each side.
I put the arm pits as close together as possible but the just didn’t meet up. That’s ok
I took a sewing pencil & drew a line. Starting at the armpit & going in to the fitting shirt. Then down the body of the fitted shirt all the way to the bottom.
I put away the “good” shirt
I pinned my front & back later together on the line I drew & then used a basting stitch down the new sides
I flipped the shirt right side out & tried it on. PERFECT!!
Flipped it back inside-out and used my serger to finish my seams.
This is my first project to use my serger on. Let me say, it’s LOVE!! It is EASY!!
My shirt fits wonderfully now and I am simply happy <;;3
My mom says: take your body measurements and use them on the pattern pieces (if you cut on fold just use half your measurement). Make sure you go to mid side to include in your measurement #s. and realize you'll have that, typically, 5/8" seam on each side.
Ill be trying that tip next time. Obviously using the patterns typical measurements isn't reliable
Garden: finished tilling. Next comes the hard work!
After adding new tires, searching for a missing bolt & pin that jiggled out from holding my tires on during tilling, dealing with a stubborn no-start spell & then the bolt & pin fell out from holding a tiller tine on. I took the yard machine back! I traded it in on a craftsman front tine tiller. It has more cc engine power, more substantial back tires, and tilled the remainder of my garden with zero frustration!! In fact id almost go so far as to call it easy. I am in love with my tiller!! Look at that garden. It’s approx 45×15 and its named Garden #1 or the Main garden
I didn’t remove the sod before hand. So now I’ll go over the space with a rake and start pulling the uprooted grass out. I anticipate this to be the sucky part of making my garden. But worth it!!
Garden: the new front tine tiller
This is my Christmas gift to myself, and really the whole family. I’m unselfish like that. A shiny new tiller. This one is a front time tiller. I am So excited to have this piece of equipment!
When I got it home I noticed it has some extremely cheese-weenie back wheels so I had the hubs pick up something a lil more sturdy. And pimped my tiller
Then I gave ‘er a go! I won’t say it’s easy. It’s not…at all. But boy does it turn up some beautiful earth!
I am working on the initial ground breaking of garden #1 this fall & winter. My goal is to till the garden a few times between now and spring. The idea is that each till will turn up grass roots. The grass roots will dry out & die. So hopefully it will be much less weedy when I plant in spring without the use of chemicals.
It’s a pretty good work out too! It kept trying to run away from me. So I was holding it back which made it jump & bump & was a rough hold! So I’m holding on through the rodeo ride & also trying told hold back from going too fast and keep it in a straight line. Yep, one row wore me out!!
It’s hard, but if it was easy everyone would do it. And I’m just thinking man this is going to be an awesome garden! I can’t wait!!
Egg candling & pinsperation olive & cheddar herb bread
I saw the olive cheddar & herb picture on Pinterest and knew I had to try the recipe! It’s a good’un! First, it smells delicious, all herb-a-licious baking. And then it just looks so dang pretty and artisan-y baked. And finally it tastes Olive-y and cheesy & herby & bread-y and dipped in olive oil or bruschetta it’s danggit good!
I used the metal cone-ish shaped heat lamp with a regular bulb, cut a hole in a piece of cardboard & candles this egg. Now rumor has it, that if you gather your eggs daily & refrigerate them, candling is unnecessary & all eggs will be just fine for eating. I guess candling is for when you are planning to incubate eggs. Learn something new every day! Well, I won’t be picking eggs up out of a nest to do the hard work for a hen. So I may never candle again… Time will tell.
Update: yesterday’s olive & cheddar bread made yummy croutons for loaded potato soup today!
Chickens: yay!! Finally, my 3rd egg
My 3rd precious egg!! I love my ladies again <3
