Making Ginger Ale!

UPDATE:  The gingerale was a success!  Sadly I have no pictures because by the time we remembered to take some, it was all gone!  This was well worth it! 

Sugar, Lime Juice, Fresh Ginger Root,Yeast, Water

An old 2 Liter Bottle

Grate the ginger root

Yeast on Sugar

Using funnel, pour into bottle

Squeeze the lime juice over the grated ginger and mix

Pour slurry through funnel into bottle

cap and mix gently

Pour in fresh water

Fill to neck

Cap the bottle and gently mix.  Store bottle in warm place for 24-48 hours.  To test for readiness, if you push on the bottle and it feels firm like a bottle of pop, it is ready to go.  If it dents, it needs more time.  DO NOT let sit for too long.  Bottle may burst!

Homemade loom!

I will post instructions on making this loom soon!  We are making them for school this year and we are putting together a bunch of kits!

Homemade loom!

Weaving with a variety of materials creates some great textures!

Combine yarns to create something truly original!

                                    

Using old plastic shopping bags makes a nice mat to put under a plant.  

I just made a plant mat this morning using my homemade loom! 

.

Coffee Roasting

The green beans!

The roasting process

Ahhhhhhh....freshly roasted coffee!!

Sealed in a bag for freshness!

Our roasting apparatus!

We LOVE our coffee so when we learned that we could roast our own at home, we just had to try it!  We use a couple of popcorn poppers and a lamp chimney! It only takes a few minutes in the popper before you start hearing the cracking of the beans!  They come out a beautiful deep brown and smell heavenly! Once we have roasted our coffee, we store it in bags with a one-way valve. 

Colored Rice

I like to use plastic cups.  They can be used over and over again and they stack nicely for storing! 

Basic food coloring produces some very vibrant colors!

1/2 c. rice, 6 drops of food coloring, 1/2 tsp. white vinegar.

Put rice in a cup, add food coloring and vinegar, mix thoroughly with fork.  Line a cookie sheet with tin foil.  Spread out the rice and bake at 200 degrees for 45 minutes to dry the rice. 

Woodworking. . .

Hat and mitten drying/storage rack.  These work great especially when the kids are coming in right now with WET hats, mittens and scarves!  They dry so fast!

Shelf with hooks

Knitting. . .

Pot holders and trivet. Knit using 100% cotton Yarn

Knit two 6" x 6" squares in stockinette stitch.  Put together using an icord cast off. 

Hot pads and Trivet

Trivet - knit a 4 stitch icord and sew into a coil.  Make sure it is laying on a flat surface while sewing.

Dish Towel knit with 100% cotton

seed stitch border, embroidered stitching around the edge of seed stitch.  Inside is all Stockinette stitch.

I like to add random stripes to my kitchen wares to add a bit of color and tie it into the decor.

                                                       Sweater Jacket - May-June 2011

Newest Project:  Sweater "The Dude"
This is a magnificent sweater with lots of cool intartia designs!  I am making this using 100% undyed natural sheeps wool.  It uses size 6, 10 and 11 needles with 32" cord.  So far I have about 8 inches of the back done.  I will try and post updates periodically!

  

You can find thousands of patterns at http://www.allfreeknitting.com/

Making Vanilla

Start with a bottle of good Vodka...
Add in 16 Madagascar Vanilla Beans
Put in a cool place for about 6 months...

                                                           Vanilla after about 10 days

Vanilla once it is bottled and labeled!

(We will add a picture of the beautiful dark vanilla when it is ready again.)