Furry Critter Heating Pads

So....my niece is a veterinary technician at a clinic. She asked me about making some microwaveable heating pads for them to use with the dogs and cats. So I scrounged through my fabric scraps and came up with some assorted sized heating pads. I used some flannel fabric that I had, and filled the bags with wheat berries. I thought maybe someone else might want to make some of these and maybe donate to your local vet clinic so I decided to come up with a simple tutorial on making these.
First of all, get yourself some sturdy material - I decided on flannel, and I have some odds and ends here to use. Decide on a size and add about an inch to your measurement for a seam allowance. Here is my fabric, cut in a 15 inch square - I cut on a fold on one side, you could use two separate pieces also.
Put the right sides together and stitch three sides of your heating pad, leaving one end open. If you cut on the fold, you'll only have to stitch up two sides. Here is what you'll have so far: Turn right side out and press. Then you will want to take the open end, fold over the edge approximately 1/2 inch and press to the inside. You don't want to forget this part! Next we're going to sew 'channels' on this so that the wheat berries will stay distributed across the pad somewhat, instead of being one large lump in the corner. Lay the pad flat and measure where you want your channels to be - I went with 2 inches on this - as it was 14 inches wide it worked out well. I pinned the open end, placing each pin at the 2 inch interval. I also placed a pin at the opposite end at two inch intervals so that I could keep track of where I wanted to sew. You can mark this however you want - chalk, pins or some other removable method since it's on the right side of the fabric. I just love my little pincushion - it's an emery cushion, from Dottyral on Etsy. It gets a workout!
Now you're going to sew from one end to the other, using the pins as a guide, or whatever other method you used to mark your fabric with. It's not that hard to keep the lines relatively straight once you get started. And anyhow, it doesn't have to be perfect - it will still work if it's a bit crooked! And here it is, ready to fill - see why you wanted to press in that edge now? It's all ready to stitch up as soon as you get it filled.












Now get out your wheat berries, or rice...you can use either, and your funnel(makes way less of a mess) and carefully fill each section about 2/3 full. You can lay it down and distribute the berries to see how full it is and adjust accordingly, just be careful not to spill everything out! Now all that's left to do is to stitch up the end, just be careful not to spill out the contents - make sure you are stitching both sides. I always backstitch beginning and end to make sure it is secure. And here is your finished heating pad - along with my quality control officer Icarus, checking to make sure it's acceptable :)

Salsa Anyone?

Gee, everything seems to come back to food. But food is so good...and we're having so much fun with our farm goodies. This time I got the wild hair idea of making salsa. Mind you, I've never made salsa before in my life. But we've bought this fresh salsa from a store in Lancaster that is just fantastic, and I thought 'hey, I can make this stuff...it can't be that hard'. I have this little cilantro plant that I'm trying to grow, or keep from dying...whichever. And then in our box of produce from the CSA we got heirloom tomatoes, onions, garlic and a fresh bunch of cilantro. It was a sign - I definitely needed to make salsa. The stuff we bought from the store had cilantro and extra garlic - the other ingredients were simple so I figured it was worth a try. Chopped up a fresh organic onion, fresh organic garlic, fresh organic heirloom tomatoes and fresh organic cilantro. Added some salt to it and there it is - homemade fresh organic salsa! It tastes better after it sits for a while to let the flavors mix together. I did learn that a little cilantro goes a long way. And you should always watch where your fingers are as you're chopping it - thankfully, I still have the top of my thumb although it does hurt. Ow. Next time maybe I'll throw a dash of lime juice in it just for fun. A big bag of tortilla chips and we're good to go!

Raspberries!

On Saturday, Chelsea and I went berry picking at Spiral Path Farm. This is the CSA farm where all our organic goodies come from each week. It was a bit of a drive (like an hour and a half!) but we really wanted to see the farm though. We got up at the crack of dawn and drove forever it seems to way out in the middle of nowhere. Very pretty countryside way out there - and the farm is beautiful. We scrounged around the black raspberry bushes but they were already sort of picked over by the time we got there. We did manage to get some though. Picked up a few extra vegetable goodies, had some mint tea and grape juice...and some really awesome raspberry dessert stuff - yum!

Washed up our rasberries - decided that what we really needed was a pie. Everyone needs raspberry pie, don't they?? : ) Mixed up some crust, then the berries and stuff....and here we have a fresh baked black raspberry pie!

Wow, this was really good......hit the spot. I must tell you though, after the heat, bugs, scratchy bushes and all....I'm much more willing to pay the price at the grocery store for berries!

Birthday time again...!

Ok...it's that time again. Mom's birthday...but what to get an 86 year old woman with dementia? (same thing as last year, who's to know?) Ok...I know that sounds bad...but hey, I know there are plenty of you caregivers of elderly people with Alzheimers who will understand. I think the weird sense of humor keeps us a bit saner. But I digress....back to the issue at hand. After much back and forth about what options there were, we decided that a swing to put out in the yard out front might be a good idea. Mom seemed to like the one my aunt has, and we figured it might get her outside to sit and enjoy the fresh air once in a while. And then on a trip to Wegmans, we saw this swing set and thought "Aha!"...this is perfect.

Unfortunately, what we got to bring home was this lovely picture of a swing on a freakin' huge cardboard box.

What fun...this thing weighed a ton and was awkward as all get out. Pry the thing open and, wow.....what a fun bunch of metal bars, fabric stuffs and a whole raft of hardware. At this point I am wondering why this seemed like a good idea in the first place. Wouldn't a nice sweater or some earrings have been a wiser choice??

But hey, it's here now...make the best of it. I can follow directions and put stuff together. The parts are sort of large, heavy and a bit difficult to wrangle around but after a day and a half, much swearing and dropping of tools...we have progress:

Not bad, huh? It was finally starting to look like a swing. A bit more aggravation, going back to tighten up all the bolts (because Mom falling on her butt in the front yard with swing parts all around her was not what I had in mind for her birthday and I'm sure she wouldn't have been thrilled either) and we finally had us a swing. Now for convenience sake, and to keep it a surprise, I was putting it together out back - we then had to carry/drag the thing out front. Another bit of mad fun. But it all worked out in the end, and Mom seemed to like it, except for the part about perhaps we should put it here, there, and everywhere else but where it was. Mission accomplished - Mom's birthday gift looked good and next time I'm going to pay someone else to put crappola like this together. :)

Organic Veggies!

Well...welcome to my first ever post on a blog. I have absolutely no clue as to what I'm doing here - read at your own risk!

I'd like to share with anyone that is interested, our newfound fascination with organic vegetables. We decided that to do our part to stimulate the economy, we'd spend our government money on a share in a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). For more info on CSA's check out this link: http://www.localharvest.org/csa/rg/csa/

We bought a share in a local farm, not too far off - they deliver to drop off spots in the area and we get to go pick up our bounty each week. Fresh veggies, fruits, herbs.....whatever is in season at the time. What fun! And we get to try new and different stuff we've never had before.

A few days ago we picked up our first box. A little strange at first, driving up to a stranger's house and creeping into their garage to haul off a box full of goodies. Boy, were we excited...imagine getting all worked up over

some vegetables and stuff?? We came home and checked out our fresh, organic goodies - here's what we got:

Carrots, spring onions, redleaf lettuce, basil, potatoes, baby spinach, swiss chard, radishes and frissee(a type of lettuce).

What fun - everything was fresh and tasty. We had a couple of awesome salads and the carrots were crunchy and sweet. The farm so nicely provides a newsletter in the box, which includes some recipes also. As we were sort of new to swiss chard I decided to make the swiss chard and potato recipe that they included. If you'd like to try it too, here you go:

1 bunch of red or green swiss chard, chopped fine

1 large onion chopped

4 garlic cloves minced

1-2 red or green peppers diced (left these out, peppers and I don't mix!)

1/2 lb. bacon minced before cooking

3 Cups sliced boiled potatoes

2 Cups shredded cheddar cheese

Heat 2T olive oil in a large skillet. Add bacon, onion, garlic and red pepper. Stir until veggies are cooked through. Then add chopped swiss chard, stir until it wilts, then cover pan and let steam for another 5 minutes. Butter a 9 X 13 inch pan and cover bottom with half the chard mixture. Then layer with half of the potatoes and half the cheese. Top with the rest of the swiss chard mixture, rest of the potatoes and the rest of the cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

<---This is our dish of swiss chard and potatoes - it was very good!  Can't wait until the next box of farm fresh organic edibles....mmmm!