A Good Place To Take Note

Or maybe a good time to start taking note. Last year Shaun and I had our first garden together and I wound up with the desire to learn how to home can our produce. I canned tomatoes, salsa and lime pickles that Shaun loves. I never expected that he would have opened our last jar of pickles this year in May! As many as I felt I made and canned last year it looked like to me they would have lasted us the rest of our lives! Which led me to wonder just how many jars I made. I really have no clue.



This year I have started a home canning journal to keep log of what I have canned and how many jars I have made. So next year I will know long they have lasted us and know how many cucumber plants to grow next year. This year from the 3 plants that we have I am on my sixth batch and each batch uses 7 pounds of cucumbers. That doesn't include the cukes that we have given away to friends or eaten.



In conclusion, journals are great for keeping record of more than just daily stuff. Love it!

Jazzy Notebook Covers

My jazzy little notebook covers were a project I did this past spring. I made one for each of my nieces and gave them to them for helping in my wedding this past June. They liked them so much that they went home and made more! They are super easy to do if you have the right stuff... and a sewing machine.

Here's what you need:

3 pieces of fabric - preferably not a real flexible fabric
1 piece of ribbon
appliques - buttons, patches, iron-ons... whatever you want for the front
iron
sewing machine



First step: cut your 3 pieces of fabric... the big piece 17 x 11 1/4 and 2 smaller pieces 5 x 11 1/4



Next decide what you want on the front of your notebook cover and sew or iron it on. Be sure that your placement of these items will be positioned on the front... unless you want them elsewhere.


Take the two 5 inch flaps, fold over and sew down one edge of each flap.


Place two flaps face down onto bigger piece which will be face up. Pin down the edges of each flap to be sewn together. Turn over and iron down about 1/8 to 1/4 inch on top and bottom. Pin ribbon to top to be sewn in.



On your machine sew around the edges about 1/8 of an inch all the way around. Cut a slit just to the seam line in corners. I like to do this on anything I make that has corners to make them pop out pointed like they should. Turn cover inside out and go around with an iron. Insert spiral notebook and waalaa... you've made a special notebook cover for whatever project you have or for each subject at school.




This one is for me. I am going to keep up with all the things that I can for the pantry this year. It will be handy to pull out in years to come to see how long each canned item in our pantry lasts us and how much I need to make from year to year.

















P.S. Sorry the pictures are all over the place! I'm new!! It'll get better.... maybe. Enjoy the project!