Cart For My Canning

Over the last few months, I have acquired a new hobby that is taking up a huge amount of space in my tiny little kitchen.  It's a worthwhile hobby, which is leading to other new hobbies for me.  The best part about these hobbies is that they will (hopefully) be saving my family money, in a lot of different ways.

The original new hobby is canning.  Yep.  I'm a canner and I'm not ashamed of it.  I'm slowly emptying out my chest freezer and canning everything in there that I am able to.  Money saving benefit of this is:  as I empty out my freezer, I won't need such a big, electricity hog, and will be able to invest in a smaller one.  My ultimate goal is to only need it to store milk, baked goods, and flat frozen freezer meals.  It's coming along.  However, I digress.  

The canning equipment is space consuming.  Canning pots (I have a water bath canner and a pressure canner) are BIG.  Really BIG.  They take up a lot of space, and that is space that is better used for food that has been canned, or dry ingredients, or just about anything else.  And then there are the towels, the funnels, the lid lifters, the lids and rings themselves, the jar lifters, the pectin, canning salt, citric acid...... The list is really endless.  And it took over my pantry space quite rapidly.  

Since I have been challenged by one of my friends to get my house cleaned up and organized before the end of the year, I figured this was a good place to start.  I had been on a hunt for a decent cart that can support a lot of weight (that pressure canner is heavy), and store a lot of stuff.  And it had to fit into an area that is about 30in x 25 in.  It had to be under $100.  It had to be sturdy and long lasting.  It had to look decent.  

TALLY HO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  The hunt is on!!!!!!!!!!!!

After a couple of months of searching, something appeared at Overstock.com. (No, this is NOT a paid advertisement for them.  I'm not getting anything from them for mentioning them.  This just happened to be where we found the cart.)  Now, Overstock is not my usual go-to place for shopping (thrift stores are really more in my price range), but my mom pointed me in the direction of a really cool cart that just about met all my requirements.  

On Friday, it arrived (three days sooner than originally expected.  Awesome job Overstock!), and was put together.  

 It came with a handle, but I really didn't need it so we didn't put it on.  If there comes a time when I do need it, we still have it tucked away, and will be able to use it.  But it's just perfect handle-less.  

I also had that set of three clear plastic drawers tucked away in a closet, and had used them for some sort of craft supply, but I cleaned it out and am putting it to MUCH better use.   

The three drawers store my funnels, lid lifters, jar lifters, pectins of varying sorts, lid tightener, cheese cloth and jelly bag.  I'm probably going to replace the drawer pulls to something a little cuter, because that's how I roll.  

I also found two small crates when I was cleaning out, These crates are perfect for sorting my rings and plastic lids.  

I can now organize them according to size (wide mouth and regular) which will also speed up the process a little bit.  It was a troublesome having all the rings and lids in one box, and forever trying to sort through them.  Also, the crates aren't enclosed, so if the rings are still damp from being washed, they will be less inclined to rust, because the air flow is better.  Labels for these two crates are coming, and when the arrive and are attached, I will be showing them off.

I already had my lids (also known as "flats") sorted into plastic CD boxes I got from our local dollar store.  I sort them according to "Used" or "New".  The "used" lids are not used for canning, but kept on hand in case some sort of weird crafting bug strikes me, or I want a lid on a jar, but don't want to seal it.  I can use one of the used lids for that.  

I will be properly labeling the boxes later on.  These boxes are stackable, so when my supply of new lids gets out of control (and it will), I can have one box for wide mouth lids and one for regular lids.  

The top shelf is reserved for my "babies".  I actually took down all the large stock pots I use in canning and fit them into the large water bath canning pot on the right.  The lid rests on a pot on the second shelf.  Moving all my big pots to one location freed up space for my empty jars that are currently waiting to be filled with produce from the garden we are putting in (one of my other new hobbies, but that's a future post).  

I now have room under my pantry shelves for my 5 gallon buckets of bread flour and all purpose flour, which is great.  I also have an extra small bucket down there for empty bags or for berries when I get on a berry canning roll.  (It's easier to put unwashed and unprepped berries into the small bucket while prepping them for canning.  But more on that in a future post, when strawberries are ripe.)

So that's pretty much it.  It's a just another chapter in my perfectly imperfect life. I'm loving it, and it's coming along in an awesome way.

Organization? What's That?

Today I was asked what my five favorite organization tips are.
(Insert blank stare.)
My only thought was "Five?  I don't even have ONE!"
And then the real fun started. 
I make Rosaries and bags for my church every year for the First Communion class.  It's something I enjoy doing, and feel honored that they ask me to do it.  And you would think that I would know to make extras, for last minute kids that join the class, or move into the area, or whatever.  But I never do. (Trust me..... this is leading to a point)
This year, when the end of year extras came in, I literally had to dig through  mounds of beads and findings and tools and papers (well, you get the point)  to find my rosary making supplies. 

It was not fun, and cut into the the time that could have been spent actually making the darn things.  Everything was scattered throughout my living room, hither and yon in quite a disturbing manner.
After 4 hours of searching, I finally found all the supplies I am going to need, and figured out what I am going to need to order.   I also found one of my old jewelry making cases that will be perfect for storing just those supplies in.  

It's large enough to hold everything, but small enough to be portable.  (Rosaries are great for working on while I am waiting at doctors offices, watching th kids at  Tae Kwon Do, and places like that.)   

  It has a box for tools, one for black beads, one for white beads,











two for other supplies,

and some space left over in the bag for the bagged Rosaries.

 As long as I keep my act together,  I shouldn't have any problem keeping these things in their case, nice and neat, and most importantly,  knowing where they are when I need them.  (See, I told you I would get back to the organization part of this...)

So now, when someone asks me what my five favorite organization tips are, I can tell them about this one, and be satisfied.  One bit of organizing is better than a blank look, after all.

St. Patrick's Day: Wearin' of the Brown?

It's St Patrick's Day.  A day of celebration, green beer, corned beef and cabbage.  Wearing green.  Partying hard, right?
Well, not so much.
See, I was born and raised Catholic, and weirdos that we are, we look at St Patrick's Day a tiny bit differently.  St. Patrick's Day is actually Feast Day.  The Feast Day of Saint Patrick, which is actually not his birthday, but the day he died, and is considered a day of solemnity and holy obligation in his honor.
So, while the rest of the country celebrates with parties, wearing a lot of green, and chasing leprechauns, we spend it quietly, and saying some extra prayers.
Tonight we'll eschew corned beef and cabbage, because corned beef is fairly expensive, and my kids don't really like cooked cabbage.  (I'm sure they will grow into liking it, just like me, but I'm not going to force it.)  We'll probably have pizza for dinner, because that is our treat when my husband works late.
So we spend a quiet day, concentrating on the spirituality of the day, instead of the partying.  It's another peaceful day here (well, as peaceful as it can be), and it is lovely.  Spring is in the air, and we are all feeling so very blessed.

Have a blessed Saint Podraig's Day.

Spring Cleaning: A Time of Renewal, Rebirth, and Hope

I always used to chuckled when people would mention "spring cleaning".  I never did spring cleaning.  Maybe once or twice when the boys were babies, but never really since then.

This last year, I really started to take a look at my life.  My house, my family, our finances.... And I was disgusted.  We were existing, but not living.  We were struggling.

Cooking in our tiny kitchen was nothing short of a nightmare.  Storage in our kitchen was nonexistant.  Our dining room was turning into a catch-all room, as was our living room.  The living room was also my work area for my business.  And it was out of control.

Over the next month or so, I'm going to be concentrating on my "Kicking Butt Campaign".  I am eliminating things I don't want or need.  I'm going to utilize the great ideas I have given to other people,  and using them myself to regain control of my house.  I will reuse what I can, and get rid of the rest.  I'm going to make my house a home, to the best of my ability.  

The way I'm doing this is quite simple.  I take one small section of one room, figure out what I want it to look like, and then do my level best to make it look that way.  If I have to move furniture, I do it.  If I have to scrub down the wall, I do it.  Some of the stuff that won't get used gets thrown out.  I discovered that my public library is needing some supplies for their summer kids program, so I'm working hard on sorting out the supplies they will need, and packaging them up.  Some stuff is being donated to my children's school.  

Summer Library Program Donations

School Donations

I figure there is always going to be someone who will need some of my stuff more than I will.  So my spring cleaning regime this year is going to be several months long, and with a lot of stuff leaving my house, going to people and places that can really use it, into a yard sale box, for when we hold a yard sale this spring, OR into the trash, because no one in their right mind would ever want it.

How are YOU tackling spring cleaning this year?

 

Let's start at the very beginning...

A very good place to start.....

Hi.  Welcome.  Come on in.  Sit down.   Just push those books off that chair, and have a seat.  Would you like some coffee?  I have a pot.  It should still be warm.  Maybe.  Ummmm... How about tea?  I could make you some tea..... If I can find it.

Yeah.  My life is far from organized.  Or perfect.  I live in a small house.  If you took about 200 square feet off, it would probably qualify as a "Tiny House".  But that's okay.  Less room for stuff, or so I've been told.

I'm in a time of change right now.  I am an artist that dabbled in a lot of different art forms.  Jewelry, painting silk scarves, painting wall paintings, collages, note cards.... I had quite the little business going.  But then.... it stopped earning money.  And it stopped being fun.  And it was time for me to get out.  So, now I sit here, with my living room looking like a craft store blew up all over it, and wonder how my life came to this point.

And I realize one important thing:  I did it to myself.  I was so in love with the idea of having the "perfect everything" that I went crazy trying to make my business into a complete one-woman show.  I would look on various social medias, and get depressed.

Why?  Because my life wasn't like what I was seeing.  It wasn't picture perfect all the time.  In fact, it was no where near perfect.  I got so caught up in the race to have a perfectly clean house, a perfect business, the perfect clothes, the perfect attitude, perfect children, and perfect meals that I forgot something.  I can't do it all, and I can't do it alone.

When I teach art to the kids at school, I try to reinforce one major idea:  No human being is perfect.  There is only one perfect being in the Universe, and that is God.  And we are NOT God.

Of course, did I listen to it as I preached it?  Nope.  But I am now!

So, come with me on this journey.  It's a journey to realize just how perfect I am (oh, and you are by the way!) without all the trappings of social media.  Let's make our lives perfect for us, and stop comparing ourselves to standards we can't possibly achieve.

We will cover cooking (pictures of a messy kitchen included), crafts (paint spills and all), DIY projects (sawdust and drywall dust EVERYWHERE), cleaning and organizing (because we do some of that), and generally living within our means, and learning to be happy with it.