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Over the years, I have endeavored to make jams & jellies; preferably with ingredients from my own garden, but also with store bought. For instance, I bought some watermelon juice at the grocery store and made some jelly with it. It definitely tastes good, but I didn’t add enough pectin. I will be able to rectify that issue by emptying all of the jars back into my jelly/jam pot and adding more pectin to it. I keep waiting for a cooler day for this, but somehow Mother Nature went from pre-heat to full blown broiler mode this summer in east Tennessee. If...

Today is Local Yarn Store Day! Local Yarn Store Day is a brick-and-mortar yarn shop appreciation day created by TNNA (The National NeedleArts Association) members. The seventh annual LYS Day is taking place today (April 27th) and is designed to show support for small businesses while bringing together a unique community of knitters, crocheters, weavers and spinners to drive awareness and celebrate the craft. Finding a great LYS is always a boon for fiber crafty people. There are few places where you can buy yarn and then sit with other crafty people and knit/crochet something with that yarn. Established knitters/crocheters offer advice...

Does anyone else remember making those pot holders from rings of knit fabric by "weaving" them on a special little board with pegs? That was my first sojourn into the world of making presents for family members when I was young.  Once I learner how to knit & crochet, my selection of possible  handmade goodies was made broader. Now everyone was getting scarves and bedsocks, regardless of the fact that most of my family lived in south Florida. It was the thought that counted, right?  Then I became a teenager/ young adult and I felt that handmade gifts weren't worth the time...

One mainstay in Wooly's garden every summer is tomatoes and one of Wooly's favorite ways to use them is to make salsa. Why not just buy it at the store? One word: FRESH! One of my favorite quotes (my, I have a lot of favorites today!) is "Store bought tomatoes taste like disappointment!" Store bought salsa is the same for me. I gleefully await the time when tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic and parsley (or cilantro) are ready to use in the kitchen. Now salsa appeals to people in many different ways. Some like it chunky, some like it smooth. Some like...

It was a dark and...nah, just a dark night in May 2021 (May 26th to be exact). My three cats, Lzzy, AreJay & Beaker started carrying on, hissing & growling, down in the basement/garage. I headed down the stairs to go check. I thought maybe a possum or raccoon had wandered in, so I grabbed a broom to shoo it out. Nope, it wasn't a wild critter. It was a skinny half-grown kitten who walked right up to me, purring. As I sat down to figure out what to do next, she climbed up onto my lap, still purring. Yep, the sound...