prickly pear JELLY!!!or more like syrup

After all the prickles were out, we decided to make jelly... ooohhh how i love prickly pear and peanut butter sandwiches.
     So I carefully poured the pears into my canning pot and boiled for about 10 min. Then took about 5-8 of those little suckers and blended them up in my blender.
     Then poured that into a strainer lined with several layers of cheese cloth, and pressed out the juice with a potato masher and just picking up the cheese cloth and squeezing the dickens out of it.
     Then you have beautiful fuchsia colored juice to make jelly or make prickly pear margaritas... (i canned the jelly using the water bath and the instructions from the pectin package)although this time, it didn't set up as well as it did last year, and its more like syrup, so i may try and redo it or just use it as syrup.... so happy canning!!!

Prickly pear Pickin

 Well this is my second annual prickly pear extravaganza!!! One of my sons(the other is getting to cool for this kind of stuff) and my two daughters, got our wagon, our bucket, and our tongs and headed off to the neighbors down the road to pick prickly pears or tunas or cactus fruit... whichever you prefer.  They were just perfectly ripe and as i warned for the 20th time to my 4 yo not to touch the cactus or the prickly pears... she tripped and fell into one... and got quite a few prickles... so we had to go home to get them out and then return the next day... so this process can last a while when you include the kiddos... but they beg to go and love to do it... i guess once you get the prickles, you probably will be more careful next time.

 They are such pretty fruit... and i love the color of the juice... fuchsia!!

  Tomorrow will be the jelly making... see you then!!

So many craft ideas...CAN'T FOCUS...PINTEREST ITS YOUR FAULT!!!

OMGoodness... let me just tell you... like you don't already know... that there are so many cool craft ideas out there.. and i just want to make them all....what do I do.... i should just focus on a few and prefect them... but NO... i just want to try them all and then what happens is that i don't do any of them very well... HUMPF.....

well i am really blaming this all on ....pinterest.com

i just get on that site and can't get off and then get overwhelmed... because i just want to a do it all......so that is were i sit... overwhelmed.... NOT GOOD!!!  to many great craft ideas floating around in my head... HELP!!!

if you have not been to pinterest.com ... it is a must but BEWARE....its addicting.... the kind of addicting where you just want to feed your kids cereal for dinner... so you don't have to get up to make anything.... not that I have ever done that or anything...haha... have a pinteresting day!!!!

Yippee Yahoo!!!! Its FALL!!!

HAPPY HAPPY FALL DAY!!!! I am so excited, its the first day of Autunm. I can finally feel it in the air. And i can finally turn of my A/C. Living in this high desert... we have to run the a/c constantly from may to sept or even oct. and i am just delighted that i have been able to turn it off at night and in the morning til about 12 or 1pm.. then it still want to kick back on in the after noon... yesterday my kids we playing on the trampoline with the hose... so its still quite hot in the afternoon... but at least we are getting a little morning break...

and i  am also a bit jealous... of all you bloggers out there that are doing your harvesting and canning and preserving.... with your bounty of fruit and veggies... and in my little garden i am going to go out and pick my 8th tomato... that i grew this year... oh well i guess i will have to go to the farmers market and see waht i can buy to can and preserve.

I just went to a canning class that was informative, and learning alot of things that i was doing wrong... so thats good!!i did not know you shouldnt tip the jars when getting them out of the water bath to get the water off... try to keep them level as possible...

 a bandanna table cloth i made for a summer time feast

 some cute piggy toes that have gotten a fresh coat of paint

Did anyone have one of these banana seat bikes when they we younger???? well a new project is to try and fix this on up and bring some glittery life back to it! Im thinking green and orange with a sparkly glitter seat.


OH and i am so excited... I just made my first ETSY sale.... Thank you to Karina in Belgium for purchasing one of my chicken bags.... YIPPEE!!!

Have a great day!!!!

Soccer, uncluttering and maybejust maybe some cooler temps??

Hello all... i have been busy...like a bee...(note to self...see about getting beehives)... i am an official soccer coach. I volunteered to coach the little ones 4-5yr old for my sweet baby dill's soccer team. They are such a crack up!!! So, I had a friend (thanks paultaylor) that said that he had brought barbie dolls to show the little ones how the game was played.... so i did the same... well the kids were like... WHAT IS GOING ON HERE... I am showing you how to play the game of soccer with these barbie dolls.. the two boys on the team were not amused and the girls.. thought it was funny... anyhow when i stuck them kids on the field to play... they just stood there and no clue what to do... well so much for barbie... after a couple of scrimmages they kind of got a clue on what to do... so this should be an interesting season... oh and by the was... this is also my first time at coaching anything and i have never in my life played soccer... so like i said it should be interesting.


    So I am also decluttering.. not by my choice but by my husbands... so that had not really been going well... but its got to be done and at least we have a clean..er garage.. that we still can't park in..

   And finally.. im hopin and praying.. that its starts to cool down ovah heah!!!!

oh and has anyone seen The Help.. i really want to go see it,, now that i have finished the book!!!

Here are a couple of things i just put in my etsy shop... check them out..Happy day!!!!

Coolness....where are you????

When is it going to cool off!!!!! I am really ready to be able to go outside.. without sweating!!! I am sure you people in the cool mountains or you people with those cool ocean breezes don't quite understand... the 110 degree dry desert air, but many of you that are also from the desert can understand, that Arizona really does have its own sun... and its just different from any where else. Although we don't have much humidity(sorry peeps in the south, its just crazy where you are too!) its just time to cool down here....

     all this talk might be related to the fact that my a/c in my car is broken for the 2nd time this summer and im a little tired of driving around and being soaked with sweat and my hair looks like i just got off a motor cycle when i get to my destination...well on the brighter side of things..here is what we have been doing lately..

 repainted and recovered my dining room furniture...

 goofing around with family photos...

 climbed some trees...

 saw a really cool old truck... that i would love to have...

 roasted some of our green chilies that we grew...

 kids did a mountain bike race in flagstaff.....

     swam in the creek by our house.....fun times had by all!!!!
have a great day!!!!

well... i guess that was it....summer is over!!!

Everyone here has started school... yesterday!! Mano. mano. how the summer flew by!!!Ours was taken up by all stars baseball... and swimming lessons...and then we did get to go on a trip to my parents for a week... which was super fun... got to go to a real lake...(not an Arizona lake, where you have to watch out for cactus) a real lake, that pine trees grow right down to the water... it was sooooo nice. We stayed in a great little cabin(thanks brother for that) and went out for a nice boat ride...caught a chipmunk in a box trap fished, ate, drank and then ate and drank some more.... fun stuff!!!

But now... yes its back to school... well i mean trying to figure out what to order for school... mental note.... need to order math books and science books for kids.... O.K. will post pictures of the trip soon.... i had to purchase a disposable camera for the trip, because a person with a degree in photography doesn't always remember to bring her camera(husband was not happy... since we are still and will always be paying for the student loans that paid for the photography degree) so i have to go get them developed which seems so old school and i barely remember how to do it.... so if you haven't started school yet... ENJOY the rest of your summer