New Name, New Venture

I've been Sugar Shack for a while now, but thats about to change. I've been thinking, and thinking, and thinking about this for a while. Opening my very own Etsy shop. Two of my daughters have one and have had success, so I'm thinking (again with the thinking) I could do this.
Since the Sugar Shack is a name linked to a lot of different ideas from candy to cookies, to me, finding that Esty name not being used, can be tricky. So in the next couple of days you may see my name change. So don't leave, its still me, I'm still here.

And Ohhhh wouldn't it be fun if one day I was a brick and mortar store! But alas, I  do have a tendency to get ahead of myself,  I'm just excited to start somewhere.  Ahhh but a girl can dream can't she? :)

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?

Yesterday our church did something they haven't done in a while. Put together a bit of a mystery dinner. You could either sign up to be a host or a guest. As a host you put down the number of people you can accommodate and as a guest how many will be going. You have no idea who will be arriving on your doorstep till the day of as a host, or whose home you're going to be going to as a guest.
I signed up as a host, and I will have to tell you that it was a fair bit out of my comfort zone. The not knowing began to get to me a little, the night before. But since I want to step out of being comfortable all the time, this really was a good thing and turned out to be such a fun thing to do.

Now for the food. The other thing you begin to wonder, are they going to like what you've made, so you cross your fingers and hope. I believe what I made turned out alright and here it is.

Lasagna Soup. I found the recipe on pinterest but didn't actually pin it or like it, silly me. Not on purpose but because it was so simple, I just added the ingredients to my shopping list, and memorized it. Now I can't find this recipe. So if its yours, please speak up so I can give you the credit you deserve!

 Here it is.

900 ml of chicken broth
1 340 ml can of diced tomatoes
1 340 ml can of pureed tomatoes
1 pd ground meat of your choice.
1 lg onion
1-2 cloves garlic
6-8 crushed lasagna noodles or 1/2 box pasta of your choice.

Brown your meat and sauté your onions and garlic.
Add everything else, but the pasta. Simmer away.

Cook your pasta separately till its almost done and then add it to the soup, along with a cup of the pasta water. Simmer a little longer until noodles are completely cooked.

Season your soup to taste. I added a bit of Italian seasoning to mine.

Garnish with a spoonful cottage or ricotta cheese

and top with a healthy dose of mozzarella

See, super simple, and it was quick to make. I also think it would make a great crock pot soup, but again add your pasta at the end in the same manner as above, or you'll have very soggy noodles.

Since this is the winter that won't end, its a great one to add to your comfort food list. :)

A Little bit of Sunshine.

After Season 4 of "Downton" was finished, I was feeling a little ho hum, and so the British lover in me needed a British fix. In walked " Call the Midwife". I was not disappointed. (but since I just finished watching season 3, I'll soon be going into withdrawal again.)

Of coarse while watching, I've analyzed everything from furniture, to the clothes they wear. And oh have I been drawn to those cute sweaters that Jenny Lee wears. But this yellow one was the one that caught my eye.

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But since  bright yellow looks a little off on me, I thought I might warm it up a bit. I picked Knit Picks

cornmeal in palette yarn. Here it is so far.

And low and behold Jenny showed up in this little sweater. If your thinking I'm crazy and they're the same sweater, they're not, I checked. Totally different design and colour. Its kind of hard to tell but my  yarn colour is more like the second sweater.

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 And you had better believe I've got a little red number all lined up too, but I'm saving that one for Christmas. :)

My very first Sweater.

Here it is....my very first sweater.

I had such high hopes for me and my sweater. We were going to spin around on the hilltops of Austria singing. It was going to be such a grand adventure, but all hope was lost when I made a huge mistake.I eyeballed miscalulated how much yarn it would take to finish. My mom had given me some of her yarn overflow and I thought there would be plenty. You can see where  I switched to a funky coloured blue and then to grey to finish, which I almost ran out of too.

What I was going for was a 1940's farm girl feel, to the sweater, so I actually shortened it slightly from the pattern. Which by the way came from the Craftsy class on " My first Sweater". It was a great class and I learned a lot.
So I'm pretty sure if I wore this to do some farm work, the cows wouldn't mind the few oops I made.              
                                                                                     :)

Optimizing 2 of the 3 R's

As most of you know ( and if you haven't guessed by now) I'm a big reuse, recycle, compost kind of a girl. Its my goal this year to reduce my carbon footprint, even if its by a tiny bit. And I believe I'm off to a good start, doing just that. I've already reduced my garbage output, and my gardens are going to thank me for all the lovely compost I've dumped on them this winter. I've not bought one stitch of new clothing, only made myself new things with stuff I've already had or if i did buy new, it was a renewable resource like wool to make sweaters.  Oooorrrrrr I've boughten from the thrift store!!!

One of these lovely printed vintage sheets is going to be my Easter Skirt!

So far I've made jama pants, and kids spring/summer/fall hats. Aprons and a skirt is up next. There are a couple of things to remember when buying them. Top sheets are the way to go for sewing, but don't discount the bottoms, even if they are slightly worn. Tear them up and crochet yourself a rug! You could put these lovelies on your bed as well. Some are like brand new, and were probably saved for special guests, and who wouldn't want to crawl in between these pretty little things. :)

New found Love.

Since it's been way too cold to work on furniture in my garage this winter, knitting has become my new found love, but not without it's ups and downs, as it is in life.

This is my second knitted sweater. I found the pattern for free on the internet.

My first sweater and I are not on speaking terms right now. Why you ask?.....because it decided that it had, had enough of being blue and wanted to change colours. A.K.A I ran out of yarn. So these are my newbie mistakes and how you can avoid them.

These are all 50 gram balls, but their yardage is different on each one.

So check the pattern for yardage first! Most new patterns will tell you, some old ones don't but a great place to find all kinds of helpful things is Ravelry. They've got patterns to buy, freebies, and people will put notes with the pattern itself. Which is a great thing for someone like me starting out! And youtube will also help you along.

See this

That's your gauge. Also very important to do. You don't do it and you can end up with something way too big or way to small. Who wants to go through all the work of knitting something that won't fit.

Now what I learned knitting this little sweater.

Buttonholes! Real honest to goodness buttonholes. I'm not a fan of the yarn over type. So I took the time and learned how to make a buttonhole.

Seamless sleeves! Working from the shoulder down, in the round using two circular needles. I tried magic loop as well. It worked till the end of the sleeve when things got a little small, then I changed back to the two needle version to finish.

I also realized that I like wooden needles over metal ones, but thats just my preference.

      I can't believe I waited this long to learn how to knit, but better late then never. :)

Ahh Winter!

I love winter, but this is getting ridiculous. Its icy coldness just doesn't seem to want to end.
On my up side I've been tangled in yarn. On my down side, my skin is taking a beating. Now I'm not one to use lots of lotions and potions, I'm more of a quick face wash, and get on with the day. But this winter I've needed to combat the drying and windburn my face has been taking while out walking my dogs.
I'm also not going to put just anything on my face, so for the past 2 months, I've been trying a homemade concoction and if I could love an object, I would love this. But since thats not possible I just really, really, really like this stuff, plus its a recipe that turned into a real lotion.

 Follow this recipe exactly ( I can's emphasis this enough) and I promise you won't be disappointed. My face is thanking me for it. And if your looking where to find some of things you'll need, check out Well. They are an online pharmacy that I've been using for a few years now. Living in a small town, far from things I can only find in the city, it has been wonderful using this Canadian Company.
                                        So I'd say testing over and this one's a keeper. :)