Remember this sorry little 11′x11′ room?

Which was later cleaned and somewhat organized to look like this:

Well, it’s kind of finished now. It’s now a very workable space and I can actually complete projects somewhere other than the kitchen table. YAY!

I took at least 100 pictures today, and about 20 a few weeks ago. This room is very very hard to photograph.

I even tried to take a video with my fancy new Flip Video Camcorder from my Prilosec sponsorship, but it eats batteries like no other.

Of course I couldn’t find any batteries to replace them with.

Such is the life of a mom.

The project table is completely handmade by me and my dad. We used plans from Knock Off Wood. Here’s the top and the cubby sides.

I’ll go into it in a little more detail later.

I’ll have to slowly buy or make some pretty baskets on containers to go in here.

Love these stools from Overstock.com

Handmade string balls made by one of the boys.

There was two.

One of them bit the dust, or rather, the dogs water bowl.

The string ball, not the boys.

Well, okay, they usually assault the water bowl at least once a day, but they don’t melt.

Unless you count the dirt that melts off.

I should make some more. String Balls, not boys. Maybe a little girl but that’s a different subject.

Now maybe I can get these bad boys quilted and bound and in use.

And what craft room photo shoot is complete without a picture of a cat.

I used Martha Stewart Hydrangea flat paint for the walls. I also painted the ceiling and all the trim, but can’t find the names of them. They’re the same ones that were recommended on the paint chip palette. No worries about everything matching together. What a smart girl, eh?

I can’t seem to find a decent sample color online, so you’ll just have to squint and imagine you can tell the true color of everything.

I do hope to make some roman blinds or curtains for the windows. And the baskets I mentioned earlier. I definitely need some artwork and other pretties to hang up and keep me happy while I work. I would really really love a stereo or MP3 player of some sort in there too. I work so much better with music.

So, that’s the S.M.O.R.

What do you think?

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• Confession.
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• March Daring Bakers – Dorie’s Perfect Party Cake

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It’s really a central part of our lives from Mayish to Augustish. Even in the house it’s just too easy to veg out and keep cool.

BUT! I have done some stuff lately. I swear. I have proof!

I made this clock for my brother a while back, for his birthday.

It’s pretty hard to photograph this, but oh well. I got lucky enough that a local BMX shop gave me the chainring, after I offered to buy one. Funny enough they had a similar clock displayed in their front window.

The tutorial is here. Mine is not nearly as cool, but hey I was working with what I had.

I also made a cover for my sewing machine. I figured that plastic one it came with wasn’t good enough for the new craft room. (More on that soon.) Also, the melted hole in it from the iron didn’t help any.

I just used the dimensions from the old cover, plus seam allowances, and threw together a rectangle with ties on it. I backed it with flannel, because it seemed like the thing to do. Isn’t that fabric gorgeous? I got it on a whim at a local mill end store. Kicking myself for not buying more.

Sewing Machine Cover tutorials:

• Sparkle Power! – This is pretty much exactly what I did.
• Sew Inspired
• Chez Larsson

Last, but not least, a new ironing board cover. I love making these things. It makes me actually want to iron. Yuck.

This is also more fabric I picked up on a whim. This time from IKEA. Their upholstery fabric is the perfect length from regular ironing boards.

I always leave the old covers on, for padding. Sometimes I’ll throw a layer of fleece in between too if I have big enough scraps.

Here are a couple ironing board cover tutorials:

• Stop Staring and Start Sewing
• Clearlytangled
• Communing with Fabric

That’s it for now. I hope to have more soon. I ordered some goodies.

What are you working on lately, or do you have any interesting tutorials to share?

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• As Declan would say…
• Major Update time
• Market Tote Swap done!

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Step One: Find a lovely Jicama. One you fully intend on eating. Make sure it’s not irradiated – a Farmer’s Market of some sort is your best bet.

Step Two: Place Jicama on your counter and contemplate what to do with it. For a few weeks. Begin to worry what to do with it when it starts to sprout vines, kinda like potato eyes.

Step Three: Get creeped out when the vines get long enough to reach out and caress you while you’re cooking.

Step Four: Name it. Herbert is what I went with.

Step Five: Find a pot, mine still had some old soil in it. Partially fill pot with cactus soil, after reading on the Internet that Jicama needs really good drainage. Place the Jicama in pot so it’s top is a couple inches down from the rim. Put more cactus soil around the bulb. Realize you don’t have enough cactus soil and top it off with some compost mulch. Leave the bulb sticking out of a soil because you think it’s pretty.

Step Six: Put it in a sunny location and water sparingly. You don’t want the bulb to rot.

Step Seven: Worry when the vines start to dry up and die and notice that it has no real leaves yet. Decide that all the info that you read on the Internet was right and that Jicama is really hard to grow. Give up hope and leave it alone.

Step Eight: Realize that it’s starting to get really nice leaves. Feel your sense of accomplishment swell.

Step Nine: Allow your green thumb to take full credit of your awesome Jicama Vine. Decide you’ll worry about replanting it later, when it’s not so blastedly hot in AZ.

Notice: Jicama is highly toxic in most forms. The leaves and vines especially. I find mixed information on the toxicity of the pods. Apparently they’re fried and eaten in some cultures.

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• Irish Stew and Oat Bread
• Pay It Forward or, Free Stuff!
• Chicken and Dumplings

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I have lots of excuses, but no real reasons. Maybe it’s my short attention span?

Summer is on full blast here in Arizona. When I say full blast I mean you walk out the front door and are literally blasted with Summer Heat. My poor garden has seen better days.

Today

Considering we get to plant sometimes as much as a whole season earlier than other parts of the country, I can’t complain. We ended up with more tomatoes then we knew what to do with. We made many batches of salsa and lots and lots of fresh tomato slices. I even experimented with ketchup, but it turned out way way too sweet and pretty much inedible. Boo.

The boys wanted in on these pictures.

This is one of a few big harvests. We basically ended up with a lot of squash, jalapeños and tomatoes.

Does this look like a zombie version of that guy from VeggieTales to you? Me too!

We also planted ONE “honeydew” plant and ended up with a few good sized melons off of it. It’s still going strong though. It LOVES the heat apparently. It takes up a huge amount of space still. It’s not a honeydew by the way, I’m thinking maybe a Crenshaw or Casaba melon.

Those leaves are about hand sized, for reference. In the bottom right, is my Spanish lavender bush. It seems happy to have a little bit of shade.

The heat is causing the jalapenos to be red and small from the start.

Some straggler tomatoes. About 70% of the cherry tomatoes ripen okay, the others succumb to the sun and shrivel up.

I’d say all in all, the garden was totally worth it. There’s nothing quite like finding your boys nestled in your garden filling up on tomatoes.

Some things I’ll do differently next spring:

• Space out the tomatoes a smidgen more.
• Cage them immediately, and continue to support them as they grow.
• Read up on cucumbers. I think that by the time my pickling cucumbers came up, it was too hot. You can find itty-bitty inch long cumbers one day and the next they’re shriveled and gone.
• Plan for sprawl more. The tomatoes overtook the green beans, dill and carrots. The one squash plant took out the lemon thyme, cilantro and most of the spearmint.
• Possibly plant a week or two earlier. I don’t have to worry about frost much, but I do have to worry about the sun killing things right as the fruit matures.
• Possibly some kind of shade cloth over the whole thing too.

So, that was our garden this year. Still debating on when to rip things out to prepare for the winter garden.

How did yours come along?

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You might also like these related posts:

• It’s not a garden, It’s a Jungle.
• Garden
• Recipe: Outback’s Shrimp Enfuego

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It’s really all about the ties of family, the strength of love and appreciation for the leaders in our life.

What better way to show you love your mom then by posting old pictures?

There’s Dad in the back.

Uncle Darrin, Grandma Betty, Mom holding Cody.

Bonnie and I front and center. This was 1989.

Hence those glasses. No, kidding. They’re lovely Mom.

Also 1989.

Grandma Betty and Bonnie, Mom and Cody, Grandma List and Charlie, then me.

Nice Barbie.

1991.

Grandma Betty, Mom holding Erin, Grandma List and Cody.

Pretty Mama.

And just to prove I haven’t always been goofy looking:

Aug '85. Almost three years old.

So make sure today that you give your mom a hug, tell her that she means everything to you, and be thankful for what you have.

And that she got rid of those glasses.

KIDDING! <3

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The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness.

~Honoré de Balzac

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He’s pretty proud of that garden.

Do you have any special helpers in your garden?

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You might also like these related posts:

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• It’s not a garden, It’s a Jungle.
• Phew!

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And that this is what they looked like when I planted them?

Wanna guess what they look like now? No, really. Think about it.

This is Arizona, it’s hot. And as much as I hate to admit it, gardening is a never-ending ‘craft’. You can’t just plant it and forget about it, like you can with most of the crafts I do. I’m not so great at ongoing projects.

Which is why I’m quite tickled (and slightly overwhelmed) that they now look like this:

April 23rd, Box 1

Notice how they’re still pretty much within their beds and you can sort of see all the individual plants.

April 23rd, Box 2

Yeah.

Not anymore.

May7th

It’s a jungle.

Which is awesome, but Holey Moley.

How am I ever going to tame this thing?

I’m really hoping that we’ll get some veggies off of it before the heat makes them go dormant.

Also thinking about putting some kind of shade over it.

I learned awhile back that if the night temps don’t get low enough, it doesn’t matter what I do, the tomatoes will stop fruiting, so hurry hurry little tomatoes.

Heirloom Brandywine Tomatoes

Sweet 100 Cherry Tomatoes

Roma Tomatoes, possibly. Hard to tell in there.

Jalapeño

Crookneck Squash

Green Bush Beans

The cucumbers and honeydew are coming along nicely.

We picked some radishes the other night. I think they were crowded.

And there’s lot of herbs too. Cilantro, Dill, Lemon Thyme, Spearmint, Stevia, Chocolate Basil, Chocolate Mint (I can never seem to pass up all the chocolate ones).

There’s carrots buried in there too.

Maybe next year, I wont pack in so many tomatoes.

How does your garden grow this year?

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Because of said blogs, I’ve realized that I need to pay more attention to decorating my own house.

Thrift stores are a great place for finding one of a kind items, especially if you have an eye for refurbishing or updating things. You have to realize the potential of things, I guess you could say. My husband doesn’t quite get it, so I often get ‘What are you going to do with it?’ or ‘What is it?” or ‘Why on earth did you buy that?’. In general I get kidded for alot of the “decorating” I do.

Recently I had a tough purchasing dilemma. My mom, the boys, a friend and I were at Goodwill, when Mom mentioned there was a really cool green chair near the back but it had some rips in it. I didn’t think much of it. I mean, a green chair, right? As I strolled towards the back… Okay, so as I calmly walked to the back while my kids were fighting like wolverines in the cart, the chair caught my eye.

See what I mean? Would that not have made you look too?

I think I sat on it for a good 20 minutes deciding what to do. It was $25 on half price. Problem was it had rips, like mom mentioned. I even sent a picture to my husband and asked what to do. Sometimes it’s easier to let him decide. He told me sure as long as it was in good condition. Yikes.

This is the seat. It was two smaller rips before my boys noticed it. :S

I just couldn’t pass it up though. I bought it!

I was so upset and angry when they loaded it for me though. The guy loading it put it on a box dolly and drug it across the asphalt, doing even more damage to it around the bottom edges then it had before.

My mom thinks the chair is awesome, but Matt still makes fun of me for it. He just has no sense, right?

The color above is more true to life, and it obviously needs a real home, other than stuffed in my front sitting room. From what we can tell it’s real leather and someone covered it by hand, hence the slightly erratic nailhead trim. But that’s all part of the appeal for me.

I’ve looked into leather repair for it, but honestly I think the little lamb skin on it is perfect. It also helps reduce the stickiness of bare legs against leather that I dread.

So, what do you  think? I LOOVE it!

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I happen to be super blessed in that Cody is staying with us for now. He makes our lives full… full of all kinds of stuff.

Like girl drama. I’m glad I was never that way! Ahem.

And dirty socks.

And he selflessly tutors my two innocent children in ways to get themselves hurt or in trouble.

He’s a fine upstanding example of trouble.

See this?

Tarantula Hawk

Cody pissed it off.

And this normally placid flyer stung him. Ha! Poor guy, just minding his own business when some giant gets all huffy about a sting and douses you in Carburetor cleaner.

Or how about when he tries to show Declan how to ride BMX, like a pro yo.

This is what Declan comes back looking like:

Now, what do you think Cody looks like? After all, Declan was under Cody’s tutelage when this disaster happened.

Are you ready for it?

No really, you should be prepared.

Let’s look at this more closely, shall we?

Click for larger version

Nice huh? And that’s just his face.

This is right before all the scabs came off.

Pretty huh?

I don’t have pictures of the time after that. He still has the scabs on his shins. Probably should have got stitches.

So that’s a very small glimpse of Life with Cody. I wont even go into where I spent my entire Tuesday evening because of him. Stay tuned for more Cody adventures.

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Not too long ago I decided I needed to change things up and order something different. I settled on the Shrimp En Fuego. It’s a lovely combination of Shrimp, Mushrooms and Tomatoes in a spicy cream sauce served over an open baked potato. Yum, huh? It seems that when we eat out, I almost always get something heavy in mushrooms since Matt refuses to eat them.

(Photo by Sarah Caron)

Since we don’t often eat out, I decided I’d try and wing it at home after finding a great sale on shrimp. The Internets weren’t so helpful for a recipe, so I gathered all the tips I could find about it and dived in. I can’t tell you how alike it is compared to Outback’s because I don’t have the option to try them next to eat other, but it turned out really good. Spicy.

Shrimp En Fuego

Serves 4, doubles perfectly

Ingredients:

• 4 Baked potatoes, preferably with the skin salted and oiled
• 1  jar Cheesy Ragu Classic Alfredo Sauce (I was lazy and didn’t make my own)
• 1 Tablespoon Chipotle Chili Powder
• 3 tablespoon Chili Garlic Sauce (Commonly called Rooster Sauce, and found in the ethnic food section of most markets)
• 1 pound fresh shrimp (frozen may be substituted, if thawed), deveined and tails removed.
• 1 pound mushrooms
• 2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
• Salt and Pepper
• 1 package cherry tomatoes, halved.

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Scrub potatoes and poke with a fork a couple times. Rub the outsides with olive oil then roll or rub with medium grind sea salt. Place in oven and cook until desired doneness.
3. When potatoes are almost done, combine alfredo sauce, chipotle powder, and chili garlic sauce in a medium sauce pan. Warm over medium heat, stirring occasionally.
4. If you wish, the amount of chipotle and chili sauce can be adjusted now. I had to keep the spices low or The Hubs and The Boys wouldn’t eat it.
   

   My food photography isn't very good, but you get the idea.

5. While sauce is warming, sauté shrimp, mushrooms and minced garlic over medium high heat until shrimp is pink and mushrooms are tender. Add salt and pepper to taste.
6. If you wish, you can add the sauce to the pan of shrimp and mushrooms, mixing everything together, or keep them separate. Place open potato on a plate, layer with shrimp and mushrooms, then sauce with halved tomatoes on top. (It looks better that way. For the ease of feeding my horde I mix everything together.)
7. Don’t forget to turn off the oven.
8. Enjoy!

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