Red Pepper Jelly

With the end of summer comes canning season! Last year I didn't get to do much canning (for a good reason!) so it was nice to be able to return to canning again this year. So far we have canned peaches, salsa, spaghetti sauce, jam, and my most recent addition—red pepper jelly! I've wanted to try making red pepper jelly for several years now, so I finally did it.

I looked up a few different recipes and modified them a bit. I ended up using three cups of pepper purée, which was basically just four red bell peppers chopped up in my food processor, along with two jalapeños. Then I also added a cup of apple cider vinegar, six cups of sugar, and two packets of pectin. It turned out to be just as easy as making a batch of jam! I guess, since I didn't strain the bits of pepper out of it, that technically makes it red pepper jam, but you can hardly tell the bits are in there.

My recipe ended up making six small jars as well as some extra that went into a container in the fridge. I am very happy with how it turned out! My only complaint is that it could be a bit spicier. Next time I'll add another jalapeño!

Look at that beautiful colour! My favourite way to eat red pepper jelly is on crackers with goat cheese. So delicious (and pretty)!

Rain!

Fall weather is here, and we are loving it! These kiddos love water in any form, and they have been having a blast making giant splashes in their pool, "watering the garden", and making mud pies. For the last few days, our times outside have involved getting thoroughly soaked, then going back inside for hot chocolate. Give us wind and rain over a sweltering summer day anytime!

Storybook Art

There is an art project that I'd been wanting to do for a really long time. I got the idea from something I saw on Pinterest - someone had painted a picture on the page of a book. I loved the idea of combining text and illustration, and immediately came up with a project I wanted to try - taking a page of text from three of my favourite children's stories, and painting a picture on them of what the text was describing. I wanted to do it as something to put up in Steven's room. At that time we were still living in the townhouse, so Steven didn't even have a room yet, and anyways I was busy and couldn't find the time. So the project waited.

But this week I was finally able to find time for my storybook art project!

Probably the trickiest part was deciding how to get the text of the book excerpts I wanted to use. Of course, there was no way I was going to tear a page out of a book! Especially a book I enjoy. Perhaps the only exception would be if a copy of the book was absolutely falling apart and was about to be thrown out, but I didn't really want to take forever trying to find such copies of the specific books I wanted. I considered photocopying the pages, but it's hard to get a good quality photocopy of a page from a book. In the end I typed out the text from the pages I wanted, which actually worked quite well, because I could format them the way I wanted them.

The texts I chose were the beginning of The Hobbit, the lamppost passage from The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, and the end of the epilogue from one of the Redwall books, Marlfox.

I used a mixture of glue and water to attach my "book pages" to three canvases. There ended up being some wrinkles in the paper, but I thought it still looked ok. For my illustrations I used acrylic paint, but I watered it down so that you would still be able to read the text behind it.

The finished artwork hanging in Steven's room! I am so pleased with how it turned out!

If you were to make storybook art, which stories would you choose?

Full Circle Wrap Skirt

I think everyone has one: that piece of clothing that you've had for years and keep wearing because it's just so nice and comfy. For me, that was a black skirt that I've had... well, I can't even remember when I got it, that's how long I've had it. I can distinctly remember wearing it at theatre camp in the summer of 2006, so I've had it at least 11 years, but probably quite a few more. Let's just say it's getting pretty worn out. Finally this winter it was time... time to replace the skirt.

In order to be a suitable replacement, a skirt would have to be comfortable and all-purpose, able to survive anything from a day running around with the kids to hiking a mountain, as well as making me feel pretty and being nice enough to wear to church. That's a pretty high standard!

I didn't have much hope of ever finding such a skirt by chance, so I decided to try making one. After some Pinterest research, I settled on this tutorial.

The next challenge was finding fabric, since fabric isn't cheap, and I was going to need a lot. Thrift stores often have fabric, but rarely in a large enough quantity. I ended up going to check out a local fabric store, and it turned out that they were having a sale that day and their clearance fabric was 50% off! I found some that I liked, and although it only had 3.5 metres left, I figured I could make that work. (I did, barely.)

The first step was cutting out the pattern. Well, the FIRST first step was folding the fabric in half and laying it out flat, which was probably the hardest part of the whole project. I chose a "knit" fabric that is stretchy and flowy and lovely, but wow it did not want to lie flat.

So once THAT was done, I began measuring out the pattern. My fabric was a bit too small so I had to fudge it a little by making one side the length that I wanted the skirt and the other side a little short, but because it is a wrap-around I figured I could get away with it.

After marking out my pattern and pinning it within an inch of its life, I cut it out. Because the fabric was folded in half "right sides in" (does a knit even really have a right side?) I cut both pieces at once.

Then I pinned and sewed together the one seam needed to attach the two sides of the skirt. Then, in theory, the skirt was done!

In theory.

It did work, but because the fabric was stretchy and heavy the nice waist that I cut exactly the right size for me stretched to be way too big for me! The skirt is supposed to go around your waist twice and it went around three times. So it still worked as a skirt, but kind of defeated the purpose of having a full circle skirt (which is that it is super flowy and full and spins really well). So after some problem solving I decided to add a waistband - one that isn't stretchy.

Digging through my box of fabric I found a brown sheet that I think was a candidate for being made into a cloak at one point in time. It was an almost-shimmery fabric, and I liked the colour combination with my purple skirt. And along the end it had nice band of fabric that was just the right length and had a seam all ready to go! I just removed it from the sheet with a seam ripper and sewed it onto my skirt.

Though only time will tell if my new skirt will live up to it predecessor, I am very pleased with how it turned out!

A special thanks to Jesse and everyone else who took care of the kids on several occasions so I could work on this project!

Writing

I like writing.  That may seem obvious, given my dogged determination to post consistently on this blog, even if I don't always manage to.  Really, writing is the one thing that I keep making time for that doesn't involve taking care of my family (though I do often write about my family).

As a child I liked writing stories. I still have those stories (complete with hand-drawn pictures), and the little notebook of story ideas that I was always adding to. As a teenager my focus changed to script writing, as I began directing homeschool theatre.  I adapted books into the scripts that I used for the productions I directed.

Once I started going to college I stopped writing for fun.  I had to write so much for my classes that it just wasn't in my top 10 list of things to do when I had free time.  Toward the end of my degree, though, I began this blog.  I wanted a way to express myself and share about my thoughts and experiences without getting annoying on Facebook.  I also thought it would be a good way of staying connected with friends and family who live far away.  Most of my writing on here involves my thoughts on random topics, musings and encouraging words, poetry, updates on my family, and sometimes a recipe or diy project.  But no fiction.

I've missed writing stories.  I keep trying to; in fact I currently have 3 stories that are partly written.  But I've found it hard to actually finish them, or even make significant headway.  My years of college and blogging have grown my confidence in my non-fiction writing, but because I haven't written much fiction I often doubt myself and my ability to write something worthwhile.  But now I have an opportunity that I'm really excited about!

It is a project called "Captives".  It's being run by someone I met through school. He has created a fictional world and has invited people to create a character to be a part of that world.  The participants will be writing about their character in a chapter by chapter, serial format, while the editor gives them promps and starts to weave all the smaller stories into one bigger story.

I'm very excited about this opportunity, because it gives me a reason to write fiction again, but in a very controlled way.  It's just one chapter at a time, so I can't be tempted to over think things and jump around like I often do when I try to write fiction.  It will also give me deadlines which will force me to keep writing, even if I think I'm too busy or feel stuck.

"Captives" is being hosted on Tumblr, which is where all of the chapters will be posted as they are written.  I wasn't on Tumblr before, but joined so that I could be a part of this project.  If you are interested in following along, here is a link: Captives

Also you are welcome to check out my new Tumblr page if you're on Tumblr.  It's not much at this point, because I'm still trying to figure it out.  My page is called Mama Bard.

As a side note, trying to figure out Tumblr has made me feel much more empathetic toward those who struggle to understand social media, especially those from older generations.  I've been using Facebook (and Twitter to a certain extent) for so long that it just feels natural.  But trying to understand Tumblr has been a bit of a challenge! I think I'm starting to get the hang of it, though.

Anyways, I'm super excited for "Captives", and I hope you'll follow along as the story starts to unfold.

Rainy Mood

We had some stormy weather last week.  Lots of rain, and some high winds too.  I like stormy weather.  Ever since I can remember, I've always said that "windy" was my favourite kind of weather.  I also don't mind rain, which is probably a good thing since I live on the wet west coast.

There is something very comforting about the sound of rain.  I can remember camping with my family as a kid, listening to the sound of the rain pattering on the roof of our tent trailer.  When I got older I loved to go for walks by myself, even in inclement weather.  There have been many times when I have been caught out in a downpour and taken shelter under a tree, listening to the sound of the rain and wind rustling the leaves.

A few years ago I was introduced to a website called "Rainy Mood", which plays the sound of a rain storm.  It's one of our favourite things to listen to.  If you haven't heard of it before - you're welcome!  You can use this link to check it out: Rainy Mood

Even more exciting, however, is that you can combine Rainy Mood with YouTube videos!  There are pre-made mixes on the website, or you can make your own by changing the URL from youtube.com to rainymood.com but leaving the rest of the video's URL the same.  I use this feature to listen to music and Rainy Mood at the same time. 

My personal favourite is two hours of Celtic music by Adrian Von Ziegler.  It fits with the sound of the rain so well, and makes me feel like I'm getting ready to go on an adventure.

Listen to it here!

What have you been listening to today?

Scarves and Tea

What do scarves and tea have in common?

They are both things that I have a lot of but hardly ever use.

For some reason I really like the idea of scarves.  There are so many beautiful scarves that I own or would love to own, and yet I almost never wear scarves.  The other day I was thinking about this as I was looking outside at the beautiful spring weather and realized that all winter I only wore a scarf twice.  All winter.  I know scarves aren't only worn in winter, but my scarf-wearing habits (or lack thereof) are certainly not about to change because the weather is nice.  I guess I'm just not an accessory kind of person.  But even though I know all of that, I can't bring myself to get rid of any of my scarves.  They just sit in my closet, taking up space, waiting for a time when I might get around to wearing one of them.

I have a similar problem with tea.  I love tea, I just don't drink it very much.  I will usually offer tea if someone is over, and if they want it I'll have some too, but it's rare for me to just have a cup of tea by myself.  Last time I checked I had at least 15 varieties of tea, and I'll happily get more if I ever have an excuse to. There is just something really nice about getting a new kind of tea.  (I especially like fruity teas.)  And I would also love to get into using loose leaf tea... though I'm making myself wait until I use up more of the tea I already have.  But at the rate I go through tea, who knows when that will be?

Scarves and tea.  There are probably other things like this in my life too.  And it bothers me.  I want to live simply, living with less, with the things I actually need and use.  Our lives get cluttered with stuff so quickly.  In the past I have found it very freeing to get rid of things that I didn't need or use (like the time I got rid of over half of my clothes).  Now that we are anticipating moving within the next few weeks, this is a perfect time for me to go through our apartment, getting rid of things that we don't need anymore.  I don't know if I'll have much luck with my scarves or tea (who gets rid of tea????) but hopefully there will be other things that I can pass along to make our lives cleaner and lighter.

Game Review: Dungeons and Dragons

This game review was long overdue, so I figured now was a good time.  Every now and then I like to tell you about a game that I have been playing lately, and I certainly have been playing D&D quite a lot.

To start off, just a disclaimer that I realize D&D is a huge game, with multiple editions and endless possibilities, so I'm not trying to be comprehensive in any way.  I'm just going to tell you a bit about my experience with the game (5th edition) and what I think of it. 

D&D is a role playing game, with each of the players creating a character that will be going on an adventure together.  There are many different options for different races (like human, elf, or dwarf), class (like ranger, fighter, or wizard), and background (like hermit, criminal, or entertainer).

In order to play, someone needs to be the storyteller (generally called a dungeon master or game master) who decides what happens, narrates the story, runs the monsters and "non-player-characters" that the characters meet on their journey, and encourages the players to interact with each other.  There is generally a map, and each of the characters have a figurine that they can use to show where they are on the map as they talk with each other and describe what their characters are doing.  Generally if you want to attempt doing something, you will roll one or more dice, and your success depends on how good the roll is combined with your character's ability in that area.

I think that someone's experience of D&D will depend a lot on the people that they play with.  The storyteller does a lot to set the tone of the game, and the players can have a varying degree of seriousness or lightheartedness about the game.  In most of the games I have played there have been lots of jokes and laughter.  We get into the story, but have a lot of fun while we're playing.

Playing D&D does take quite an investment if there isn't a game already happening that you can just join.  The materials and supplies aren't cheap, and it can take quite a bit of time to create characters and prepare the story (even if you are following a prewritten story).  But it can be well worth the investment, especially if you have a good group of people to play with!

For more of my thoughts on D&D, check out my video: 5 Reasons Why I Enjoy D&D

Check out some of my other game reviews here!

My Top Ten Favourite Movies

It's time for your favourite game show: How well do you know what movies Leane likes?!!!

Just kidding.

(But actually, if you want to guess what my top ten are, go ahead!  I'm curious how many you would get right!)

It's pretty common knowledge that I'm not really a movie person.  I'd much prefer a book (for alone time) or a game (for social time), however I am slowly adding to the repertoire of movies that I have seen.  Today, just for fun, I thought I'd share my current top ten list.

Just for the record, I count series, trilogies and sequels as one movie.  Because they kind of are one story.  And then I can list more movies!

Here we go!  My top ten, in no particular order (but kind of in order):

10. The Penguins of Madagascar
This comical adventure of four penguins is full of laughs.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.

9. Singing in the Rain
An old classic with lots of great singing and dancing.

8. Pride and Prejudice
The long one.  With Colin Firth.  It is the best Pride and Prejudice.  Hands down.

7. The Croods
Ever wonder what the typical American family would be like as cave men?  Look no further.  Lots of humour and some touching moments.

6. Epic
As epic as a story about tiny people and forest critters can be.  I like this movie for its humour as well as its portrayal of relationship dynamics.

5. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
A normal man's redemption story.  It makes me want to pack up and go traveling every time I watch it.

4. Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
This movie never fails to make me feel young, brave, and confident that good will always win.

3. How to Train Your Dragon (1 & 2)
A powerful coming of age story.  With awesome dragons.  I want to ride a dragon so bad.

2. Inside Out
Welcome to the world of emotions that live inside your head.  This movie is absolutely brilliant, and if you haven't seen it yet you should go watch it.  Right now.

1. The Lord of the Rings
My preciousssss...

What are some of your favourite movies?  Were you able to guess any of mine?