Carrot Cake Jam

Ok, so I had a bumper crop of carrots from my garden.  I didn't want them to go to waste, so I started searching for recipes.   I've already made 4 loaves of carrot bread, one big old carrot cake {that our Sunday School class gobbled up and I'm making another one today :)} and last night I busted out my canner to make....

CARROT CAKE JAM!
Doesn't that sound delicious?

It was super easy to make...getting all the jars together was probably the most time consuming part!

Big old bowl of carrots...had to grate them all up!

Into the water bath for processing!

= 10 delicious jars of jam!

Can't wait to taste it...so happy all my jars sealed!

If you'd like to make some...here's the recipe!

Carrot Cake Jam

2 cups finely shredded carrots

1 cup finely chopped and peeled pear

1 15 ounce can of crushed pineapple (juice pack, undrained)

2 T lemon juice

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1 1.75 ounce pkg of fruit pectin

4 cups granulate sugar

2 cups packed brown sugar

1/4 cup raisins or flaked coconut (optional)

1 tsp vanilla

Combine carrots, pear, pineapple, lemon juice, cinnamon and nutmeg in 4-6 quart pot.  Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.

Remove from heat and stir in pectin until completely dissolved.

Bring mixture to boil, add sugars. 

Return to full rolling boil, boil for one minute.

Skim off foam with metal spoon

Stir in coconuts/raisins and vanilla.

Ladle into jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace.

Process in water canner for 10 minutes.

Makes 7 half pints.

Enjoy!

Recipe is from BHG Canning magazine!

happy day!

Sue

Doodle Lampshade

I needed a reading lamp for over my reading chair.  Not a whole lot of choices out there, so I went with the simplest (cheapest!) one I could find.  It came with a plain white plastic lampshade.  Ugh.

That's ok, though, because I have Sharpie markers and paint.  A little while sitting at the kitchen counter and I had hand doodled and painted the shade into this....

Ha ha!  Cute and funky. 

After I did it, I thought about all the other ways I could have decorated it.  Stamped it?

Anyhow, no matter...Emma loves it and it adds a little quirkiness to my reading spot!

happy creating to you!

Sue

Sharing this at Transformation Thursday!

Scrapping 6 x 6

i adore scrapping 6x6 layouts.  Generally, they are easier to do, they come together quicker, and the finished product doesn't take up tons of room!  Plus, you can replicate them pretty quickly and they make great X-mas gifts for the grandparents!!!

I have been utilizing my new MW goodies....and since four kiddo's have barely nothing scrapped for them in the pasty, oh, ummm...2 years?  I figured I should get to work!

Here's what I was up to!


Sam's Layout:

 Emma's Layout:

Madison's Layout

I also entered this layout in the MW Week 2 Challenge. 
You had to use a flower, and something metal.

As you can see below, I used a metal flower!

Jacob's Layout

I also entered this in the challenge. The flower is a punched and layered flower underneath the bottlecap (my metal).  I machine stitched swirls on this layout as well.  Really, the challenge was about adding embellishments to your layouts...so I think mine qualify!

I chose 6x6 layouts because I am making mini albums of my favorite pics of the year for each kid.

I have some doozy pics (see Sam's!)

It was actually pretty nice to just lock myself into the craft room and work on some projects.  Haven't done that in a while!

Happy Crafting to ya!

Sue

birdhouses

Hi All!

Well, last weeks Summer Kids activities went a little haywire, but I'm back this week to share some fun ideas to keep your kids occupied for the summer and have a great time!

I purchased some small pre made birdhouses at Walmart for $2.77 each and st up a container of paintbrushes and leftover paints on styrofoam trays.

The kids each got a birdhouse to paint...

The key to this project is to not PANIC about the paint!

Lol, now I'm  a little bit of a clean freak, but my old standby is

a good old vinyl tablecloth.  With four kids at home, I need something cheap that I can

change out if it's destroyed.  I change them from season to season, holiday to holiday, you name it.

Madison went with the "orange flame" look.

I swore that the birdhouses were all going to end up a

muddy brown color!

We'll call Sam's creation a "key lime" color!

 

Jacob went with a multitude of colors,

and Emmy went with a "rainbow" roof look.

All beautiful!

Here they all are, drying on the countertop.

All we have to do is drill some small holes in the top to add string to hang.

Emma wants to hang them all in one tree!

This was an inexpensive, eco friendly project that

kept the kids occupied and the birdies happy!

Happy Crafting!

Sue

Memory Works Challenges

June Challenges

This month over at MemoryWorks, they are celebrating their 10th birthday!  They have a whole month full of challenges to choose from.  These are my submissions for the month!

Birthday Card Challenge:

Been away from papercrafting tooooooo long!

blessings!

sue

Mobile's

Last months issue of Scrapbooking, etc left me itching to make something for the girls room yesterday.  The space above their headboards is lacking so I decided to make some mobiles to suspend from the ceiling.  :)

Emma's is made from scalloped flowers..i tried to replicate the mobile from the magazine...the hardest part was decorating the frame it's suspended on!

I added these letter beads, simply tied onto the ends of the strings, to weight them down.

Madison's mobile is birdie-inspired!

Hand cut birdies, each a little bit different with "heart" wings!

Sweet birdies sprinkled with scalloped circles.

All suspended on bamboo skewers! 

Easy and it add's a little whimsy to their rooms!

Blessings!

sue