Psalms 19:14

"Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer." ~Psalms 19:14

JoAnn Happenings

So you should know by now that I work at JoAnn Fabric and Craft Store.... Right? Well I have been for almost a year now, and all is going well. Though the first excitements of it all have worn off alittle, and it has become mainly just work, I am still enjoying the customers that I meat, as I try to assist them in finding all they need for there various projects.

Well as of July I have learned alittle more than just working the cash register and the cutting counter, I have been helping the the custom frame shop that we have in the store. Where you can bring in various art pieces, cross stitching, photographs, and even jerseys to be framed just the way you would want it to look like, hanging on you wall. What is neat about the whole thing is that as a custom framer, you are the only employ actually doing some form of craft work in the store, and being payed for it!!

Here is an idea of what we do (Thank you Google for pictures:)

We kinda have a wall of frames like the on below, to choose from and our back room, where we put them all together, in a way looks like the one with the man working, except, there are only gals that work in our frame shop :)

You can frame all sorts of things,

In all different sizes,

Or even different frames them selves.

Even though I have only taken a few orders and put together a few frames, The frame shop has been a whole new experience that I have never had, and I'm glad to learn new things!! So if you are ever wanting to frame some art work, or pictures, I hope to see you in the frame shop!

WPC Family Camp

Last week was our annual Beach Camping trip!! What a memorable time we all had. Playing in the cold ocean, diving for the volley ball in the warm sand, and enjoying the warm weather!! This years trip made up for last years, cold, overcast and sick time. For this year was one of the best, not only weather wise but also we had some pretty competitive volley ball matches, fellowship with Church family, camp fires on the beach, hymns sings and a short talks on forgiveness! Though I did not pull out my little point and shoot camera very often, I did capture a few good photos of the wonderful weather and time we had. 

The pools of water when the tide was out!



Me!! I love this one!!




The wonderful view we had of the sun setting!!




Almost gone...




I love how the sun even though it is not seen, reflects of the water and sand!!

It seemed to take for ever to come, but seemed to fly right by, I am very thankful for the vacation time that I was able to have and enjoy with all of my Church Family!!

Just as a side note, through out the trip I was reminded of Psalms 8 and read the passage just about every day I was there, So here you are a great passage about the Wonderful Works of Gods creation.

Psalms 8

"O Lord our Lord how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. Out of the mouths of babies and infants, you have established strength because of you foes, to still the enemy and the avenger. When I look at your heavens, the handy work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of ma that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, all the sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the sea. O Lord our Lord how majestic is your name in all the earth!"



Thanks for Reading,

Rebecca

Strawberry Fruit Leather!!

Well I did it!! I made fruit leather for the first time!! Though I made it through the process successfully... I learned more of how it works:

1. Don't blend hot stuff in the blender... leads to a mess :)

2. The pan that you use to dry the leather matters... I need a better pan!!

3. If you don't want it to take more than 12 hours to dry, don't fill the pan so full!

4. And last, make more than one serving at a time... Only enough for a couple of days.

This is  the recipe I used... I won't make you read it, but I thought it was a good one. I also had some idea of the process from this book... I love that book, very resourceful on allot of things!!

Well here are some pictures along the way!!



Boiling the Strawberries down.



Blending the Strawberries, to make a puree

 

Like I said... wrong kind of pan :) Here it is going in...



Here it is after about 30 hours of drying... Do you see my finger marks from when I was checking to see if it was done :)




Yummmy!! I love the color!

 


Here I am eating some... after ALL my hard work ;)

  

Hard to tear.... not really!!



Okay here it is... the picture you have been looking for... You can get me now... LOL

Well there you have it!! My first try at drying fruit... I have learned quite allot and can't wait to try other fruits or mixes of different kinds of fruits together!!  Hope your first day of July is going well, I know from where I am at, I am enjoying the warm weather... and I can't wait until the 4th!!
~RebeccA

Chili Lime Shrimp

Shrimp is one of those yummy (at least some think) things that you don't get to have very often. Well we cooked some up on fathers day, in some butter and garlic. But we had an extra bag of them, so when I saw this recipe I thought I would give it a try.... Just to let you know, it was good, abit spicy but you could always change it to how ever you like. Okay for the recipe.

You will need:

1tsp. Shredded Lime Peel

1/4tsp. Lime Juice

1 Jalapeno, Seeded & minced (I used canned ones)

1TBL. Minced Garlic

2TBL. Olive Oil

1tsp. Chili Powder

1/4 Cayenne Powder

2TBL. Cilantro

1TBL. Honey

1 1/2 LB. Shrimp

Mix all ingredients, Except the shrimp. Place shrimp and marinade in a zip lock bag, or use the bad they came in. Marinade for 20min, flip bag over half way through. DO NOT marinade longer than 20 min other wise the lime will start cooking the shrimp. (something I didn't know :) Now in the recipe they say to grill the shrimp, by placing them on squires, but because I don't have a grill, I cooked them on the stove in the marinade and a bit of butter. I think either way would be good! Now if you don't like it spicy or if you like it MORE spicy put less or more of the spices in. Dad likes it spicy so he added more cayenne pepper. Well here are a few pictures through out the process.



Here is my shrimp marinading!!



Just as the shrimp was finishing I started a pan with 2TBL. of butter

 

Here is the lovely shrimp cooking, on med/hi for about 20 min. or until warm and bubbly



And now I was just about to enjoy the yummy shrimp!!



And there you have it!! It was really easy and good, some times those recipes are hard to come by! :)

I hope your Wednesday is going well, as well as your week!! :)

~RebeccA 

Strawberries...Strawberries... and More Strawberries!!

On Saturday I was able to go Strawberry picking!! A friend and her sister took me to a local berry picking farm! We spent about about out in the field, and altogether we got about 25 pounds. I picked for my self 8Lbs. They were only $1.25 per lbs. Which, I thought was a good deal! Spent 10 bucks on fresh strawberries!! After getting home I started to proses them, de-steming them, washing and cutting up about half of them to use. Oh and of course through the proses I was eating them... They were so good!! The sliced strawberries I placed in a zip lock bag to freeze. Then on that day I placed the rest in the fridge so that I could make freezer jam today.  Well here are some pictures of the fun I had along the way!!



Don't hey look so perfect?!! This was my favorite pic!



The processing, cutting, washing, and eating!



Here they are before the fun began!



The perfect Strawberry!!



The cut up ones to freeze!! Maybe they may become a pie, or smoothies, or maybe even syrup!!







Today's part, mashing the strawberries!



More Mashing!!

The berries after the proses of adding pectin, sugar and lemon juice. Ready to pour into containers!!



The lids, marked for storage.



Here are half of the amount I made. This is one batch.



And last the yummy Jam, setting in the fridge!!

Stay tuned for making fruit leather!! That is what I have planned to do with the left over strawberries!Well that is all that is new around here, I have been working still and still tryng to keep up with the house work and my etsy store!! I will try to keep you updated on the things going on around here as summer is here and more things going on to enjoy the warm weather!! Thanks for reading!
~Rebecca

A Porch Garden

 Living in the city is nothing like the country. This has been a little bit of an adjustment I have had to make especially with some of the things that I liked to do with more land. One of these things is gardening. You can't do to much with a back porch but this season I am determined to make the most of it. Last weekend I went to an herb festival, and picked up a few plants.  When I was on the farm I would plant the seeds myself. But because of the good deals I found, I couldn't help but buy a few starts. These are what I found.

                                                                                Mint

Rosemary

Basil

Garlic Chives

Echinacea

And this is another picture of Basil, I just liked this one too!!

And Lord willing my little starts will turn into vibrant fruit barring herbs that bring seasonings to my cooking!! :) I also plan to either get more seeds or plants to fill up the porch with more flowers or herbs, and maybe a few vegetables.