Crocheted Purse

This is a new little passport bag-style purse I made for Little Bit. It was supposed to be for her birthday, but it actually came around about four days later. Oh, well. It's a little too Pepto Bismol pink for my liking, but she loves it. She's going through this pink phase. I guess every little girl does. I was mostly a tom boy when I was little, and I STILL had that pink and purple stage. Go figure. But she really likes the beads on it, too, and I was quite pleased with how that turned out. They're not sewn on separately, but actually crocheted right in. That way, it not only looks nice, but they're a lot sturdier, which is good when I have two three-year-olds running around the house. I need to make me one like this, only in fall colors (and no beads). Would be nice to grab when I just have to run to the store and don't want to take my tote bag of a purse with me. :)

Homemade Butter

Well, I finally did it, after talking about it for months and months. I've finally made my very own homemade butter. And am AMAZED at how quick and easy it was. Seriously. Just popped the cream into the food processor and BAM! In just a few minutes...not even that long, I had butter. I must've had it at EXACTLY the right temp. or whatever, because it didn't even take the 5-8 min. everyone online said it should have. More like two. Cool.

Of course I did have to pour up the buttermilk and then rinse the butter repeatedly with ice water until it ran clear (which was easy enough)...then get all the leftover water out. (If you've never made butter, the ice water doesn't mix with the butter, but you have to squish and mash the butter really good to get all the remaining droplets that stick in all the little nooks and crannies.) That last part was slightly a pain (and stupidly, I let a big hunk of the butter fall into a dirty bowl in the sink while trying to do this...I didn't have it squished good to the side...sigh), but I think it would be much easier if I could find my cheesecloth, which, of course, I can't. Naturally. And the store didn't have any that I could find, so I guess I'll have to order me some more or wait until I go to the kitchen store next time.

But back to the butter...I saved some just salted, then jazzed up the other as honey butter. And oh my goodness, it's good! I tried some on some homemade blueberry mini muffins just last night, and "OH! MAN!" I am seriously going to start doing this on a regular basis. I am most certainly sold on this and esp. the honey butter, though my Little Bit insists the plain butter is best. SHRUG Go figure. To each his own, huh? :) Still, never thought I'd see the day when my child was telling me the plain was better than the SWEET. Kind of odd. Oh, well. :)

Anyway, this is what they looked like, only there was much more...this is after having eaten a big portion of it...

Migraines

I want to apologized for being scarce lately, but I have been hit with a plague of migraines these past few weeks and so, of course, haven't gotten nearly as much done as I would have liked. I will try and be back soon with a few pics of some stuff I finished a bit ago. Despite the pain and suffering over here, I am optimistic things will be much better soon, as I can already feel Fall in the air, see it in the angle of the sun, despite the still 90 degrees temps during the day. Fall is coming, and that always makes me happy!

Happy Monday everybody!