Makin jam and syrup!

The last couple days have been so productive! Yesterday the hubby got off work at 10:30, I had been up cleaning and organizing my craft studio since he left at 6:00 am. We decided to tackle the garage. So we started at one end and created three piles: a pile of Genna's boxes and furniture that I need to take to Genna for her new house, a garbage pile and a goodwill pile. We worked in the garage until 5:00pm then called it a day.

Today my friend Jessica came to make jam and syrup! One of our friends gave her 30 pounds of blueberries!
Plus she brought strawberries too.
That's a whole lotta berries! Jessica had already washed 3 1-gallon ziplock bags and I washed all these up tonight and ended up with 3 1-gallon ziplock bags also. I am going to make jam and syrup tomorrow.
It was a fun way to spend the day =) Which we finally had rain today! Such a nice change, I LOVE the rain! And the fog.
I fixed us a chicken salad for lunch that we wrapped in lettuce leaves, one of my favorite recipes, I use it with tuna too and sometimes put it in a whole wheat pita. I bought 2 roasted chicken breasts from the deli this morning, skinned, boned and diced it, cut up some carrots, celery, onion, almond slices, dried cranberries, and organic mayo. When I make it with tuna (albacore) I sometimes add pickles too. I've used dried cherries, and raisins also if that is what I have on hand. So good! And good for you, the organic mayo I use from Trader Joes has no sugar.

We made a batch of strawberry jam, blueberry jam, strawberry/blueberry jam and blueberry syrup.

Andrea stopped in to say Hi! She just returned from working in Alaska and I gave her the photo album I had done for her. We are so glad she is back!!! We missed her!

Potluck at Jessicas!

My friend Jessica invited a bunch of us over for a potluck! It was so fun to see all my ex-coworkers again!
It was fun eating, and chatting!
Being goofy and no drama!
Jessica I am coming back to sit here on your front porch and have a glass of wine! Love it! Thanks for having us all to your home.

On our way home from Walla Walla we made several stops... we decided to continue our pretending to be tourists and stop at some of the places we had always said we wanted to stop at and a few of our favorite stops too! My sweet hubby had been wanting to stop at this winery, he was intrigued with the name!
He had me take a picture of him standing in front of the little replica of an airplane.
The wine names are fun bomber girl themes. Their web site is here.
Our next stop is one of our favs! The cheese factory-
for squeeky cheese!
We had a lovely picnic lunch at a park-
while listening to a live Jazz band play up there under that building.
Then we stopped at another fav to check out the antiques and the fresh fruits and veggies.
We came home with a few goodies =) Plums, rainier cherries (my favorite) an orange gingham apron, a juicer-(the hubby had broken my previous one a couple weeks ago)
4- old Kerr jelly jars-what do you think I am going to use those for? Can you guess?
And an old Ball jar!
The other items we came home with were onions. We couldn't leave Walla Walla without a bag of sweets!
And of course our haul from the wineries we visited!!!
Have a sweet week!

Catch up on crafty stuff...

Warning this is a crafty post!!!

It's been a while since I posted any crafty things so I thought I would post a few of the things I have done in the last few weeks. A few cards...for a couple of special friends!

I had fun adding a couple personal touches.
A little jewelry making... hadn't done any in about a year or more! My cousin Rachel and my friend Jessica inspired me to get back into it!
I am working on a few more, but ran out of beads! Ha! I was trying to use up what I had on hand.
I think I will do a pair of earrings to go with this bracelet.
I have been giving out my homemade Triple Berry Jam to different hostesses and friends, and of course I need to decorate them before giving them! =)
A little fabric, ribbon and buttons and its done!
Loving my wrinkle ribbon! I am having a hard time using it! Hehe! But I know where to get more ;) ETSY! I could try making my own, hmmm maybe I will.
I hadn't made any wine labels lately either! Picked this bottle up at Trader Joes.
Stamped a new label using waterproof labels and the Festive Labels stamp set from here. (The stamp set is at the top of the page and the labels are on the bottom of the page.)
Used some ink to make the label look a little aged and added buttons then cut around the image pulled the backing off and stuck it to the bottle.
I then made a vintage-y looking tag to go around the top with some fabric, buttons, ribbon, an antiqued paper doily and a flower made from an old book page.
Such a fun hostess gift! One of my favorites to give!
Yes, my bottle came out of the fridge! Haha! I wanted to make sure it was ready to serve when I gave my gift, so I chilled it then decorated it then chilled it somemore!

Have a lovely evening!

Snoqualmie Falls

On our way back from Walla Walla I decided to make a quick detour to Snoqualmie Falls, it had been on my list of places I wanted to visit. So glad we did! It was beautiful!
I want to stay in The Salish Lodge and Spa someday, maybe this winter... overlooking the falls! =D Check out the link by clicking on the name... you will be drooling too. At first I thought I would have my dog sitter stay with miss Koko, but check out their pet policy. They will have fresh water, food and their signature home made dog biscuits ready in the room! Miss Koko is very excited =D
We usually stop in Issaquah for mexican food but this was a nice change and it was too hot to leave miss Koko in the car. LOTS of people though!
Scott was the photographer for this little detour, which doesn't happen very often! Ha! We made a few other stops too, I'll post about them next!

*sigh* I'll be back this winter to enjoy your spa and quaint rooms with fireplaces!