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Mike being Menaced by Oscar, the Pocket Monster

Making Apple Butter

We had a great little apple tree in the yard, and it produced a lot of apples. So we decided to make apple butter. Of course we didn’t have much in the way of the right tools for making this easy, so it was largely done the hard. It was a lot of work. As you can see, the guys did most of it.

I seem to be missing the next couple pictures. One of a crockpot full of apple sauce (which is what you have after the skinning and pressing through a strainer: Only one pot of apple sauce.) Then the canning process, which actually goes into jars, and then I should have a picture of the final product. Hopefully, I’ll find and post those later.

Crochet Octopus

Things I’ve Made Before

  1. Crochet: Beaded Heart Doilies – For a few years all the crochet I did was small doilies. My 2006 project was a beaded heart shaped doily. I made at least a dozen in various colors. Might seem odd, but I found the pattern for a ring pillow, which I made for my best-friend Andrea’s wedding. I liked it as a stand alone doily so well that I kept making them.
  2. Crochet: Faery Pouches – These are from 2005 (and before). It takes me 3.5 hours to crochet one of these.
  3. Painted picture frames – pine frames from Ikea, sanded, painted black, and rubber stamped with metalic ink. For Xmess 2005 I made one using acrylic paint on the rubber stamps, and there were that I glued confetti to.  
  4. Portraits – The gift version of this is a card that says “one hour photoshoot to be scheduled with me, within the next year”. In addition to that, I usually spend 1-3 hours selecting and touching up digital photos, and I give the recipient/model a CD of all the shots, in a printable form. 
  5. Astrology, Birth Charts (usually as birthday gifts) – Hand drawn graph and one page of basic data. 
  6. Key chains – I haven’t made any in years, but I have a few left over from the last time, and plenty of stuff for making more. When I was a kid I made them with leather strips, pony beads and feathers. The last time I made key chains (mid-90s) I was hand stitching many different kinds of beads onto scraps of suede. These were not very duarable. I had just started making some with round leather cord, fatter beads and pendants or charms when I stopped. 
  7. Baking – I love to bake. I make marvelous cheesecakes, and also sweet breads (which is more like cake, but isn’t frosted, and tends to come in a bread loaf shape)