Pictures from Our Thanksgiving and Trip on the Polar Express

I'm thankful that I have wonderful extended family who always welcome us into their home.

I'm thankful that my son loved putting up their Christmas tree. He was so earnest in his unwrapping of the ornaments.

I'm thankful for an Aunt who suggested we take a day trip as a family to ride The Polar Express in Hood River, Oregon.

I'm thankful for the best friends who joined us,and hot cocoa,


and wonderment,


And a Great Grandma who is still young at heart.

I'm thankful for Elves.

and Santa Claus.



But most of all, I'm thankful for believers.
Can you hear it? The sweet silver jingle of that bell?

Simple Mama.

Happy Thanksgiving

Live long, and prosper. From our house to yours this Thanksgiving day.



Simple Mama

Christmasing...

Already? Lots of Made-in-China decorations in the stores. Christmas music on the radio.

What's a girl to do?

Start in on the Christmas crafting of course by making some walnut shell jingle bell ornaments.
The Boy loves these. They jingle softly when you shake them. They're natural, beautiful, and simple.

You can buy these at my Etsy store, Green Baboon Designs.

Or...make your own. Carefully open up a walnut (we use a butter knife to pry open the shell), and remove the meat. Place a small jingle bell inside one of the empty halves and use glue (white or super glue, depending on how little the hands are that are helping) to glue the two halves back together. But don't forget to add your ribbon loop before closing it shut.

And remember....


Simple Mama

New in the Shop Today

Our home is fragrant with the lovely scent of beeswax this week. We've been cracking walnuts and washing acorn caps.

Aren't these darling candles adorable?! We float them in a shallow bowl of water with a few brightly colored autumn leaves for ambiance and charm.
Walnut Shell Candles
Don't forget that during the month of October, $1.00 from every sale in my store, Green Baboon Designs is donated to the Susan G. Komen Foundation for breast cancer research.
Acorn Cap Candles


Simple Mama

Make It! Apple Print Bunting

Wow. I have no idea where the time has gone. I looked at my calendar and then looked at my yard and realized autumn was well and truly upon us. Leaves are falling, canning is complete, the garden is tucked away for the winter, and somehow we've managed to go weeks without doing any organized crafting, save a few random crayon colored pictures.

You might remember earlier this year when I managed to score a car load full of burlap coffee bags for free. I used the rattiest, dirtiest bags as weed barrier in my garden - I even planted potatoes in one, which worked out well and will be repeated in the garden next spring. I pulled the nicest bags - the ones with interesting prints, clean burlap, and fewest tears and placed them carefully in a pile in our garage, thinking I might do something crafty with them.

As I was sharing an apple with my son last week, I remembered seeing an apple print project on
Martha. I knew as I watched juice dribble down The Boy's chin, exactly what we were going to do with that burlap.

For this project you'll need:

Burlap - free is best, but you can buy it from a fabric store as well.
Red, black, and green tempura paint
Paint brushes
Shallow plates to hold paint
Scissors or a rotary cutter
An apple
Fork
Newspaper.

I pulled out my fabric mat and my rotary cutters and made short work of a burlap bag. I cut twelve 6"x6" squares and placed them in a single layer on some newspaper to catch drips. Slicing my apple in half, I used a fork to pierce the skin and create a handle.

I filled two separate plates with paint. One red and one green. I had The Boy liberally paint the apple with green paint and start stamping.


After the apples were dry, I took some black tempura paint and a small, fine brush to add some apple seeds and a stem to each print. Using hemp cord, I found that my coffee burlap bags had a weave open enough that I could just thread the string through. We alternated red and green apples and hung it from our fireplace mantel. The perfect autumn bunting for our living room!


I love how rustic and simple this project is. And the total cost for us? One apple, tempera paint and string, which we already had on hand.
Taking time to notice all the seasons,

Simple Mama

Putting Food By

Pardon my absence. I've been busy doing this:

spicy plum sauce, salsa verde, pickled pears, mixed pickled veggies, blackberry lemonade concentrate, zucchini relish

And turning some of this into a plum chutney:

And then there were these:spicy dilly beans

And some of these:

Which are so delicious!

Mexican style spicy pickled carrots

and turning these:dried elderberries

Into this:elderberry syrup

Yes - we've been elbow deep in produce, fruit, and canning jars. We're getting ready to tackle the tomatoes and pears next. Salsa, spaghetti sauce, and vanilla pears soon to be on our shelves.


How is your autumn canning going?

Simple Mama

The Studio

Our house in the suburbs has more than enough space for all of us. In fact, we generally have two rooms that aren't utilized on a regular basis. My son's room, since he sleeps in our room in his own bed, (yay for family bedrooms!) And our guest room - which is used maybe once or twice a month.

We've often talked about downsizing to a smaller home with more land, but with the current housing market, we've decided to delay looking and make our home a place that we're content with, happy, and love now.

So we dumped the guestroom. We thought briefly about turning my son's room into the studio, but on the off chance that he decides he wants to start sleeping in it, we decided we better leave it as is. (Sorry friends and family - we'll have a blow up mattress and a nice couch for you.) We turned the now empty room into a studio for my Etsy store, Green Baboon Designs.

I just love this space! I'll probably be tweaking bits of it as I go along in order to find the most optimal and efficient workspace, but right now it is everything that I had hoped for.

The first thing we had to tackle was that mess of wool that trailed all over our house in various wicker baskets and plastic containers. I knew exactly what I wanted. The Ikea Expedit shelving.


How great is that? It's so nice to be able to see exactly what I have, what I need, and to pull it out when I want it rather than search through bin after bin. On top of the shelves I have a few wicker baskets with what we call "fairy bits" around here. Cotswold curls for doll hair, angelina fibers for shimmer, silk strands for detail. The clear bins hold some of my acorn caps that my son and I collect in the fall from the local parks. The small pillow was an embroidered sampler my grandmother made - incredibly dear to me.


The workstation is a dining table my neighbor was going to get rid of when they upgraded. Its large flat surface works perfectly for me. I chose to extend a hanging light (also from Ikea) over the desk to further illuminate my needle felting area. The shade also has embroidered flowers on it - so sweet. It's imperative you have excellent lighting when felting. Those slender needles are s.h.a.r.p. I can look up and see the beautiful floral bunting I purchased on Etsy from LoudMouse.

On the other side of the room is my shipping station. It's always a little cluttered. Printer, packaging, ribbons, tools, etc. The green shelf was gifted to me from one of my aunts, and it blends in perfectly with the rest of the room.

The pièce de résistance? This print I picked up from dpsullivan. My. Green. Baboon. Freakin' sweet. I still need to have it framed - it wasn't until this weekend that I had an actual place to put it. I can't help but smile every single time I look at it. It fits my personality, my shop, and my workspace perfectly.

I'm planning on spending many a happy hour in here creating. I'd love to see your workspace if you have one.

Cheers,
Simple Mama!

In Which the Crazy Canning Commences

(Excuse the awful photos. I have no excuse, except I'm too busy to care.)

Summer finally decided to show up in the Pacific Northwest. About 1.5 months late, but she came. By this point in the year I'm usually 3/4 of the way done with putting food up for the season. This summer is different. I've hardly even started. However....


The peaches came in:
Which required putting up peach lemonade concentrate and canned peaches in a light syrup.

And then the beans decided to grow - which meant spicy dilly beans:
The dilly beans usually go quickly, especially when my brothers stop by to visit.

The next thing I knew, I was elbow deep in zucchini. I made my standby - zucchini gummy candies and still had enough left over that I decided to make extra zucchini relish. This stuff is delicious in tuna fish sandwiches, with grilled cheese, or in a tartar sauce. Hot dogs and hamburgers too if you have any grilling left in you this summer.
Zucchini Relish

10 cups shredded zucchini
2 white onions, chopped
3 shredded carrots
1 green pepper, chopped
5 tbsp. canning salt

Mix together, let soak overnight. Rinse in cold water, squeezing out excess liquid. Put in large pot with:

1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp. tumeric
1 1/2 tsp. dry mustard
1/2 tsp pepper
2 tsp celery seed
1/2 tsp baking soda
3 tbsp cornstarch
2 1/2 cups white distilled vinegar
6 cups sugar

Cook all ingredients on medium heat, stirring often for 30 minutes. Process in water bath canner for 10 minutes.

Yields about 6 pints.

Happy canning!

Simple Mama

Melted Crayon Canvas Art

Bless me Internet, for I have sinned. It's been....eh...a really long time since I've blogged.

Back in May, my son caught pink eye. Not a big deal, as lots of kids get pink eye and live to tell the tale. The problem occurred when he passed it on to me. Thus began my tale of woe and misery. Four months of recurrent illness. Pink eye, bronchitis, sinusitis, pneumonia, on top of a dislocated finger and a trip to the emergency room for my son after he fell and shoved a stick clear down his throat.

Oh yes, we've been busy here. Physical therapy appointments, numerous doctor appointments, specialists, allergy tests, sleep studies. You name it, and our family has probably done it recently.

We seem however, to finally all be well and mended. (Shhh....don't tell anyone, I don't want to jinx it.) Our house is a mess, appointments with friends backed up, craft supplies have been sitting silently for months waiting for someone (me) to get up and do something with them.

A few weeks ago while browsing Pinterest I came across a melted crayon art project that looked simple and beautiful. I just knew that this was exactly what we needed to get our creative juices flowing again.

Using two boxes of Crayola crayons (64 count) The Boy and I picked out our favorite colors in each, in some cases doubling up on our favorite hues. We lined the crayons up at the top of the canvas, with the pointy ends facing down. Pulling out my trusted glue gun, I secured each crayon to the canvas, making sure the Crayola name was facing outward.
It's been warm here for the past few days, but not nearly hot enough to melt the crayons by leaving them in the sun, so I found my old hair dryer which hasn't seen proper use in over two years and set it to the highest setting. Propping the canvas up at an angle, I set The Boy to the task of carefully warming the crayons with the hair dryer:

It didn't take too long for the crayon wrappers to turn shiny from the heat and melting waxy goodness. Impatient as we were to see a finished art project, we left the heat on high the entire time we were melting the crayons. This led to a little splatter and caused the crayons to drip in an irregular fashion rather than melting in lines straight down, but I have to admit, I rather like the look.
Had we demonstrated patience, we probably could have turned the hairdryer to low after the crayons started to melt and allowed that straight down drip. Something to aim for next time.

My son was thrilled with how beautiful the rainbow art turned out. He wants us to hang the picture in our bedroom so that we always have "a pretty rainbow to wake up to." How sweet is that?

This was such a stunningly simple project with a big return. How can you not look at this and smile?


Happy to be back,
Simple Mama

This Moment

{this moment} - A Friday ritual inspired by Soulemama. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

The One Where We Were All Sick or Injured.

Pardon my absence. My little family has a rough go of it lately. Recurring Pink-Eye, flu, sinusitis, bronchial infections, double ear infections, emergency room visits when The Boy fell out of his camping chair and ended up with a stick down his throat. Dislocated pinkies, physical therapy.

We're trying to mend and heal here, but it's been a rough road the last several months - seriously it feels like we haven't been able to catch a break in about 5 or 6 months. Please send healing thoughts into the universe for us if you will.

We'll be back when we can.

Simple Mama

Friday Kitchen Love

Chalkboard contact paper purchased from Amazon. Pretty neat, eh? I love how this little project turned out for my dry goods storage. And when I need to change out the contents of a jar, relabeling is a cinch.


How do you organize your dry goods?

Simple Mama


PS - for those of you wondering where I get my bottles
And a link to the chalkboard paper.

On Growing Cultures

I love fermented beverages. The fizz, the tang, the slightly sweet/slightly vinegary taste really speaks to my palette. I was first introduced to Water Kefir about a year ago while taking a class on the fermentation process with a friend. We were sent home with a jar of water kefir grains and a head full of knowledge. I managed to keep those kefir grains alive for about 6 months, until one day I decided to try fermenting orange juice. The result was gross and my poor kefir grains never recovered. Lesson learned. If I want a citrus taste to my kefir, I add it after the main fermenting is done, and not directly to the vessel which contains my grains.

Recently I had another friend pass along some of her excess grains. (They multiply, in case you didn't know.) We're back in business! Currently I'm brewing a batch of plain sugar water. Once I strain my kefir grains out, I'll add a dehydrated fig to the bottled water and allow it to continue to ferment gently on my counter for a few days before placing it in the fridge. I like to add the resulting water kefir to my green smoothies. Water Kefir Grains - translucent and gelatinous.

Brewing my water kefir. This jar usually sits on top of my fridge, where the slightly warmer temperature helps the grains do their thing.

I'm also in the process of brewing my own kombucha tea. I acquired a kombucha SCOBY -symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast- from a different friend (we're all fermenting freaks, right?) and got to work. The process is similar to water kefir, but the SCOBY looks very different from kefir grains and you ferment tea, rather than water. Here, take a look:
You can see the SCOBY floating up near the top of my gallon glass jar. Kind of gross looking, actually. It's like a weekly science experiment in my kitchen. With each brew, the SCOBY mother creates an off-spring. Pretty soon I'll have SCOBY's to share with local friends. Once the 10 day minimum main fermentation process is finished, I fish out the SCOBY and start a new batch brewing. The original tea is bottled with a teaspoon of sugar and, if I want, some fruit. It's allowed to ferment on my counter for an additional 3 days before I pop it in the fridge to stop/slow down the fermentation process.Kombucha passion fruit tea with (L-R) mango, blueberries, fig, and straight up.

These drinks are not only full of beneficial bacteria, but they taste delicious to boot. Home brewed kombucha is a much milder flavor than the kombucha tea you can by in the health food stores. If you have the opportunity to try your hand at either water kefir or kombucha tea, jump on it!

Cheers,
Simple Mama