Summerbreak means mornings at the local park

Right, as you can see the everyday posting fell to the wayside a bit.  Summerbreak and being a stay-at-home working mom has taken it’s tole this year. So, far it has been one of those summer’s where the temperature spikes and the days fly by so fast you’re left wondering where the day went.

On the homemade crafty side of things,  I did manage to play around with some sorbet recipes.  The first two batches that I made were awesome and sweet. The second batch was sweet but froze like a brick in a bowl.

I went online in search of some kind of sorbet recipe that could be used without the aid of an ice cream maker. There were a slew of links that I got all excited about until the end where they put the mix in an ice cream maker.

Not to be to fully discouraged, I retyped my search into Google as “make sorbet with NO ICE CREAM MAKER” and much to my happiness  that search worked.  I came across a fantastic little foodie blog called Not Without Salt by Ashley E. Rodriguez.

Strawberry Sorbet

Ashley’s blog  had answered my desperate search to provide my family with some homemade sorbet goodness without using an ice cream maker. Her recipes are easy, tasty and more importantly they work. The only exception was when I used whole milk as a replacement for the heavy cream…it turned out like a brick that I ended up breaking apart to use for smoothies but that was my fault.

So, if you are looking for a good homemade sorbet recipe visit Ashley’s blog and try out the various cream and non-cream syrups here:  Ice Cream Sorbet Without a Machine

Technorati Tags: homemade sorbet, stay at home mom, summer break, wahm

• Free Scrapbook Quotes – by Heidi Payne on her blog My Crop Room
• Plantable Greeting Cards – DIY project at Instructables
• Make a Fixed Roman Window Shade – by Centsational Girl Kate
• Valerie over at the Frugal Family Fun Blog has some good ideas for crafty Father’s Day gifts that the kids can make!

Technorati Tags: crafters, crafts, online crafts

What I wanted to make was a blanket but decided starting with a scarf would be more my speed. I went about making the scarf using number 7 needles and recycled yarn.

I didn’t like the scarf at all. Enjoyed knitting but wanted to make something more useful since it’s summer and my family has no use for scarves right now. So, I flipped the scarf and knitted along the side of it trying to figure out what I wanted to do. I ended up making a bag.

This bag has been super useful and surprisingly has held the weight of 12 library books, various grocery items and even three full two liter bottles without ripping. That’s not something that any crochet bags I’ve ever made have been able to pull off. This bag stretches to accommodate the weight but doesn’t rip. I even stuck the 12 library books in it and hung it from a door handle for three days waiting to see if it would break and it didn’t.

Now, it’s not a shoulder bag. You stick your hand through the bag strap on the side and then wrap your hand down, which oddly enough doesn’t hurt the wrist at all in the way a plastic grocery bag would when carrying heavy items.

All in all, I love this bag. It’s pretty, useful and saves my wrists when carrying heavy items. When I take it out people have asked if I made it and am always proud to say that I have.

I’ve had some requests to make the bag for others who have seen it in action. Haven’t gotten around to making another one yet but do have two started using size 6 circular needles and size 1 straight needles. Only problem is that I just make it up as I go using the knit stitch with some purling for part of the bag handle. There is no pattern. I don’t even know what the stitch number is for casting on. When I figure it out and finish the other two, I’ll let you know how they went.

~Laura~

Technorati Tags: handmade bag, knitted bag, knitting craft, learning to knit, no pattern knit bag, recycled yarn

I have been up to a lot during SA’s hiatus period.  We increased our family size for  the past school  year.  Our niece was born. Our friends had babies, got married and some passed on. I got engaged. We’ve had birthday’s and school functions and I increased my freelance work.  We’ve posted so many photos to the family website: www.thevalladonfamily.com that we ran out of room and still have a bunch of photos to upload.

We started growing our own food in the dining room through coconut fiber potting and hydroponics. Currently, we have six romaine lettuce plants that are doing really well. Also have some garlic chives, stevia, chocolate mint, tomatoes and strawberries going.

That about wraps of the general items for what’s been going on. Tomorrow, I’m going to post about the craft projects I need to do, have started and completed.

~Laura~

Technorati Tags: family life, grow food in apartment, laura jean karr

Writing for pleasure took a back seat there for a while and I didn’t realize how much just being able to write for myself actually meant to me. I missed it. I missed looking at Simple Abnormality everyday. I missed the interaction with others that had been built up over time. The “missing” things part is where the new direction for SA comes in. There will still be pagan topics presented but I’m also going to throw in all the crafty things that I do and blog more from a personal place than before. With the new direction of SA, I like to think of it as one woman’s blog among the millions that are out there but it’s my little corner of the web.

A new area in particular that I’ll be looking into more is knitting. I learned how to knit a few months ago and still can’t read a pattern to save my life. The first project morphed from a blanket, to a scarf and then ended up becoming a self-designed bag. Yellow, handy and for some reason can hold three two liter bottles without ripping. There will be a post on that bag at some point and there will be pictures.

~Laura~

Technorati Tags: laura jean karr, simple abnormality