The Wigglebutt Blog

For your viewing pleasure~ ~ ~ ~ A super duper random post☺ Did I mention I got a rock tumbler this past Christmas? (Thanks Honey!) I. LOVE. MY. ROCK. TUMBLER. The colors are even more awesome in person. I'm thinking wire wrapping;~) An update on the liqueur ..... It's awesome!!! But only after I ~re-fruited~ with frozen fruit. I totally recommend using the frozen fruit! It has a much stronger fruit flavor. YUM! I did take the time to play with some copper wire. Since finishing up with the 'jam-fest' I have also canned two batches of salsa, 16 jars of "dilly beans" (pickled green beans☺) 20 jars of hot, pickled cauliflower (LOVE that stuff!) and so far, 6 jars of  "Mom's" pickled beets. (I am completely addicted to this canning thing) Oh, And the alien has hatched;~)  The Alien   Alien Hatchlings They are calling for rain this weekend and  I actually hope they are right this once. I really miss my clay and a rainy weekend wo...

I am 47 years old and have never 'successfully' canned anything in my life. Until now. In the last month I have canned over 100 jars of jam. I made Blackberry Jam, Strawberry Rhubarb (good strawberry flavor, a little sweet) ~~then after altering the recipe for my taste~~ Rhubarb Strawberry (more rhubarb than strawberry and not too sweet) Outside of strawberry rhubarb pie, I never really had any use for rhubarb until I found this recipe for rhubarb butter . (You may have guessed that I have an excess of rhubarb. When we bought the house, it came with rhubarb;~) Anyway until now I always considered rhubarb to be pretty much sour celery, but the rhubarb butter is AWESOME. I've made two batches...so far. (FYI:   If you try it, it calls for 4# of rhubarb, the research I did says that  1 pound equals approx. 3 cups, she says you'll end up with about 15 -16 cups. I settled on 14 cups and called it good.) Then after getting a case of apricots from these very sweet people ...

(As usual my 'Summer Blogging' is proving to be very erratic☺) But, I'm sure no one is going through Wigglebutt Withdrawals;~) I finished filling and planting my pots for the front of the house. I have the usual flowers, but I also am trying tomatoes in two of the pots, strawberries in one, pablano peppers in one, cucumbers in one and herbs in another. Hopefully my gardening skills have improved over last year (Lily says "Hi") View from the side of the house. Usually I put a pot of flowers on top of my whiskey barrel, but I made this Fairy house,oh, maybe four years ago?  And it has been living in the shed this whole time, I figured it was time to bring it out. Maybe it will bring some magic for my crops;~) I also replanted a slew of perennials in my center garden. I ordered them from a wonderful company, Bluestone Perennials. They are wonderful! This was my second time ordering from them.  This time didn't go quite as smoothly as the first time due to an...

nothing but legs☺ still kinda wobbly one of them was a real go-getter Oh yea, and in yesterdays post I referred to our visitor as "she".   Well, he came back later in the afternoon and we noticed the beginnings of his horns;~) I had wondered why "she" didn't have any babies with her;~) So far, the male has found the garden but didn't eat any of my newly  planted perennials as he WALKED RIGHT THROUGH the garden. Momma and babies haven't yet found the garden. So far they have stayed to the side of the yard. Wish me luck☺

It's that time of year again. Time to be outside.    The last couple of weeks I have been planting, weeding, watering and, on a couple of occasions, I was able to just chill in my lawn chair. The weather has been absolutely awesome. Warm and sunny. After last summer having almost 40 straight days of rain,  I'm hoping for a little more sun this year. And so far it's been great. In the planting department, I finally got all of my containers planted  and the shipment of baby perennials I FINALLY got (long story) should be hardened off enough to plant tomorrow. Once I get everybody in the ground I will take some pictures so I have some before and after shots;~) It's also that time of year for visitors. Once she spotted the sprinkler she had to check it out she got within about two feet then turned and ran Ok, we're gonna try this again here we go Oooohh, what do we have here? oh wait, I was heading over there "Oh! It got me again! I'm otta here." ...

at least not by me. Not any time soon.   I absolutely love the way this necklace came out  but it was the biggest pain in the butt. Granted, I have to fight the urge to be a perfectionist and sometimes I lose,  like with the components of this necklace. Which means a lot of the time consuming part was me tearing out  and re-doing the seed bead parts. (Seed beads. I hate them but I am addicted to them. Go figure.) This necklace started with the focal made by Juls of JulsBeads (if you've been around a while, you know I am also addicted to her work or should I say her art) Each one of her beads is a work of art and whenever I make a piece of jewelry that contains her beads I always feel like it "needs to be worthy". That's when the perfectionist kicks in.  Juls focal, swarovski crystals, black onyx, polymer clay disks, tubular peyote and spiral rope stitch I had a vision of the finished piece before I started and this came pretty close. I like it☺