Popsicles

Yeah, I made popsicles.  The weather hasn't been that warm out here (while the rest of the country has been hating the heat, the Pacific Northwest has been wondering when Spring was finally going to arrive).  Since the weather's been uncooperative, I settled on buying frozen sliced strawberries.  I do have some strawberries in the garden (unlike last year), but not more than what I could eat while picking :-)

• 3 cups sliced strawberries w/ sugar (i.e. 24 oz container of strawberries from Wally World)
• 2 bananas
• 12 oz coconut milk (for some reason I had a gallon of coconut milk that I froze in ice cube trays & used 6 2-oz cubes) 

Combine in blender and pulse until the desired consistency.  The fat in the coconut milk helps keep the crystals small and gives the bars a creamier consistency.

I filled my large ice pop molds, my ring pop molds, and 3 out of 6 of my small pop mold spaces (a "Back to Basics" brand set that was cheap at Bi-Mart).

My favorite storage boxes

I love fishing boxes.  Not those big tackle boxes, but the Utility boxes that both Plano and Flambeau make.  Yes, these same companies make the bead boxes that you can find at JoAnn's and Michaels, but the fishing boxes tend to be cheaper and easier to customize.  I keep jeweler's tools, beads, silver (the rust inhibitor boxes keep the silver shiny), KAM snaps, and my machine needles in these boxes.  Not to mention paint brushes, drawing pencils, and charcoals.

I typically pick up my boxes from the local Bi-Mart store, but when I wanted a certain size and configuration (to fit into my fishing tackle box-turn art box) I found what I needed at http://www.tacklewarehouse.com.  The prices are good & they offer a 10% military discount.

Sweet Bernette - Conquering Corners

Total "Yay Me" experience today.  I've had a serger for years and it's been cussing fodder and straight-lines-only.  Last year, I picked up a vintage Bernina Bernette 5-thread serger that had hardly been used because it intimidated its prior two owners (love Craigslist).  Today I finally managed round (outer) corners without totally screwing up.

Threads had a short "buy this copy" bit on how to conquer your serger.  The thing that I had never thought of worked - stop and lift the presser foot while going around the corner.  This made a tight turn easier and less like trying to turn an old pickup after the power steering failed (ocean liners turn easier).

Now Cakes' two yards of Rampunzel fleece is a real blanket!

My Favorite Homemade Cleaner

I received this recipe as a wedding gift.  No joke.  The crunchies will probably flip because it uses ammonia instead of vinegar, but I really like how ammonia cleans.  It's an amazing degreaser, but folks are turned off by the smell (but for some reason highly perfumed stuff is fine) and the scare factor (just don't mix it with any product that may have chlorine bleach in it).  I've actually used ammonia solutions to wash years of cigarette smoke scum off of walls and blinds easy-peasy.

To make 2 quarts (conveniently, the size of an ammonia bottle):
1/4 cup Ammonia (I use Lemon)
1 cup Rubbing Alcohol
1/2 teaspoon dish soap (I'm bad and just do a small squirt)
Water to make 2 quarts

I use this stuff everywhere: to soak off the gunk on the stovetop, to clean my laminate floors, my daughter's "artwork" on the furniture (the alcohol helps dissolve ink).

Too Many Hobbies....

I collect hobbies.  Maybe it's because I get to buy new tools with those hobbies.  My hubby's probably one of the few guys in the US who is actually able to get away with buying a tablesaw "for the wife" for Christmas.  Yes, I actually asked for one.  After all, I'm the one who bought the circular saw.

My latest "find" has been Tunisian Crochet.  I learned how to crochet ages ago with granny squares out of scrap yarn at, go figure, my gramma's.  I picked it back up a few years ago as a means of staying sane while hubby was in surgery.  I needed a zen task to keep me busy and a book wasn't going to cut it.  Now that I have a two-year-old, it's just about the only thing that I can work on without worrying about what the kiddo's going to do.  She has my tool habit and has figured out that the box under the sewing machine makes the machine (and mommy) make noise.