More Winter Preparations

Wow, the past two weeks passed in a flash.

This past weekend, my sister, mom, and Nik got together for a canning fest. In a short 48 hours, we whipped up a couple batches of apple butter, pumpkin butter, marmalade, and tomato sauce. The stockings will definitely be stuffed with some tasty treats this year!

Between the stirring, tasting, and canning, the last Schu girl learned to knit. And while we had less time for crafting than we anticipated, I was able to experiment with freezer paper stencils for the first time {more on that soon}.


Oh, and we ate. First it was the black bean soup from Pepperknit's post. We dressed the soup up even more with a dollop of the roasted red pepper spread from Trader Joe's. yum. Then it was the harvest cake recipe shared on Apartment Therapy. Another yum. I just had a slice before writing this post, and I have to say that even three days old the cake is just right.


I noticed that throughout the weekend I would end up interjecting a blog reference into almost every conversation. How could I not when you guys are full of such great ideas? It would be a craft idea here, a recipe there, on and on. I love it that the introduction of blogs has created such a rich community full of creative people. fun fun

And while I'm at it, here are a couple more blog posts to check out::

January One has an awesome contest going on ~ Danskos anyone?

And have you checked out Mamie's new products? great for the holiday giving!

And finally, between the Christmas knitting, I finished something that I can actually talk about. This was just a fun cowl made from a combination of Malabrigo, Blue Sky Alpacas Chunky, and some buttons. I knit until I ran out of Blue Sky, and I was worried that it was a little tight around my neck at first, but with some wearing things have loosened up!


This pictures were taken in the bathroom at school. It has large, southern facing windows, and I realized that it provides all of the light I need to take pictures on dreary fall/winter days... you may see a whole series of bathroom shots this winter. Consider yourself warned.


I'll share more soon, have a great day!