A Happy Thanksgiving to All!

I've been working on a plethora of projects, but none so enjoyable and relaxing as crocheting.

I've slowly developed my crocheting skill as I've worked on more projects this year.  I'm thrilled to be able to offer some scarves and such in my Etsy store, TheHuntshire.

As I spend this afternoon winding down with a cup'a tea, some good jams by Bon Iver, and continuing some work on my latest scarf, I am thankful for my hardworking and soft-loving husband who affords me the luxury of being a housewife.  I can pursue my interests by day and enjoy time together as a family when he returns every night.

Looking back on my posts this year, there's lots of events that I am grateful God made part of my life:
☺ We were able to give The Piggals a new place to call home.  They bring joy to everyday moments and have been a creative inspiration to me.
☺ We found a new veterinarian for our pets that we trust.
☺ Our little family's had ups-and-downs health-wise but everything seems to be improving.
☺ Living in a place where mowing the acres with my little tractor and spending the day doing these simply wonderful things can happen.
☺ I've been blessed to visit with my cousin and Hubby's family several times this year.
☺ The development of my new pumpkin pie that I'll be making again tomorrow in preparation for Thanksgiving (but with a ginger-snap crust!).

I just opened my Etsy shop for commissions this morning and I feel so thankful to be able to do something I love while providing something beautiful and useful that will enhance someone's life.  I  look forward to how this year will end and all the new things that will be part of our lives next year!  I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving and can find many nuggets in your life to be thankful for!

XOXO
-Kate

Bring a smile to someone's face (even if it's your own!) and order and Autumn Sky Openwork Crochet Scarf today...just in time for Christmas giving!  Handcrafted and made to order with love!

How to Make an Autumn Care Package!

Christmas is coming soon with all of the gifts and cards and well wishes, but that doesn't mean that you have to wait to send a care package to someone you love.  

It's a great time to show someone that you are thinking of them!  Sending a care package before Christmas can show that you don't just want to give them a gift because society dictates that you should.  A non-Christmas gift can feel extra special and be uplifting.  A lot of people tend to get depressed near the winter holidays because they can't be with family or friends, they can't spend as much on gifts as they'd like, or they have Seasonal Affective Disorder.  

An uplifting little "I'm thinking of  you" gift basket won't take away those difficulties, but can sure show your support.

Do you have a child, sibling, or friend in college; a loved-one stationed away from home in the military; or know someone who lives alone?  They'd be so happy to check the mail and find a care package from you!  I'll share some of the methods I use to choose good items to include.

Gooey popcorn balls without corn syrup!

My mother lives hundreds of miles away and we haven't seen each other in many years so staying connected is sometimes more involved than a telephone call.  We both have subscriptions to Netflix and so one of the ways we remain confederate is by ordering the same movie or TV series and watch "together".  Currently my husband and I are watching Dr. Who season 3 "with" my mother.  The other day she suggested that I make some popcorn balls and I thought that would go great with our TV-time!  I haven't made them in well over a decade, so it'd be good to enjoy them again.  I really, really don't like the pre-made ones available near Halloween at the store, so I just haven't had them at all.  Fall is the classic time for these treats, but I think they're great for snacks during baseball season as well.

I love the flexibility of seasonings for these, too. They are little blank canvases and you can even enjoy flavoring each one individually if you like to also!

 I tried to follow a recipe since I was just starting to stretch my popcorn-ball-making muscles, but almost every popcorn ball recipe calls for corn syrup. Well, I'm not a big fan of it in general.  It serves a purpose, but I almost never use it and don't keep it on hand.  Running out to the store for one ingredient is a waste of an hour since I live in the boonies, so I made due with what I had...and I threw recipes out the door.

Make popcorn
I popped a pile of popcorn in my cast-iron dutch oven.  Like, maybe 8 cups.
A bit of oil in the bottom, set the temp. to medium, shook it around to coat the kernels with  oil, and put the lid on with a small gap. After most had popped, Hubby dumped it out onto a piece of parchment and then put only the popped popcorn back into the dutch oven and discarded the kernels left. 

Make sticky-candy goodness!
Not being too sure what would make a chewy, gooey, but not overly sticky (messy) candy, I just winged it.  Y'know, because I make candy all the time! (I don't!) and because it's so easy! (it takes practice!).
The only ingredient amounts I actually measured was what I started with: 1/2 C wildflower honey, 4 giant Campfire brand marshmallows, and 1/4 C water.  All of that went into the pot on medium.  Once the marshmallows melted, I added about 1 T of butter and turned the heat to low.

It did that foamy, swirly, bubbly, thing that liquid candy does so I thought I was golden!

Not so much.

I dipped a piece of popcorn in, blew on it until it cooled, and tasted.  It was a sickly sweet honey flavor.  Ew. I mean, I like honey but this was like

"I'm a queen bee and I love honeeeyyy!!"

So I added a bunch of salt, like probably 2 Tablespoons of sea salt (but I wasn't measuring). 
Then Chinese five-spice, vanilla bean paste, a few Lancaster caramels (I figured, "Hey, what can it hurt? They already taste like ooey gooey caramel!")
I added a pinch of cinnamon, more salt, a big spoonful of dark brown sugar, granulated sugar, and a bit more butter.  Many tastings.  It was getting better.  Now it was more like

"I'm a bee-keeper and I love honey!"

I dropped a bit into cold water and it was at ball-state so I poured it over the popped corn, stirred, and let it cool a bit while Hubby was setting up our TV watching area by the fireplace.  We don't keep a TV in the living room, but we wanted to snuggle by the fire during our Dr. Who marathon, so he moved it <3  He's the best.

Make the balls
Then we PAM'ed our hands and formed the balls and placed them on the parchment to cool.  If the candy coating isn't cool enough it will be hard to get it to stick together instead of sticking to your hands, so make sure it's cool enough (you also don't want to get burnt by the liquid candy!! It gets super-hot.)

Pack 'em up
After the shows were over, I packed the remaining balls away by cutting the parchment I had already used and wrapped each ball like a piece of peppermint candy and twisting the ends and securing with a rubber band.  I save those fat blue bands that come on broccoli, so I just cut them in half to make two! 

Next time
These came out pretty good and the consistency of the candy was perfect (by sheer luck), but it took everything but the kitchen sink to tone down that strong honey flavor.  My takeaway from this is that I won't use that much honey for them again; it just added too much flavor. 
Some ideas to try instead:  Marshmallows (a'la krispie treats), just break down and buy corn syrup next time I'm at the store, or use granulated sugar.

Thanks to Mom for the idea, Hubby for the ambiance and companionship, and everyone who makes the awesomeness that is Doctor Who!

Beautiful Skies and Promises of Better Days

One of the things that I am so thankful for since moving here to the mountains is the beautiful and awe-inspiring vistas.  Natural beauty is abundant here and even on the foggiest, dreariest, coldest day, the soul-filling serenity is as boundless as God's Love.

I have many days that I spend in pain and imagine how much harder my life would be if I didn't have the benefit of being able to stay at home while my husband works hard to support us.  Even on my worst days, just looking out of the window from my bed and seeing a fawn play with his mother or the birds soar, or the gorgeous sky fills me with hope and happiness.

I am not sure what this life has in store for me, and I will never stop looking for greener grass, but in the meantime I am happy to stop and smell the roses...or watch the sunset for the five-hundredth time.  If this is all there is, I am learning the patience of contentment.

Sappy Reflection Time is over.

So July is a busy month of birthdays in my family (lots of folks getting busy in September!).  My sister-in-law's fiancee, Brother, Father, and Hubby were all born in July.  Hubby and I invited the fiancee and family up for his birthday and we had a fun day of fishing, catching up, and of course, eating a lovely summer feast.

Brother has had some medical issues; he just found out that he has a bleeding ulcer.  I am unsure of how truthful he's being about the pain or the diagnosis because of discrepancies his story has had when telling Mother, Hubby, and me.  But I love him completely, fibs and all.  I hope he finds the  fulfillment he is seeking and desperate for.  I feel like he is lost in this life but that providing him with a guide would blind him further. I think it's in his best interest to find his own way out of the hole so that his roots will be firm.  He's been helped out of the hole so many times that he has become weak and reliant.  I hope and I pray that he will see the lights before his life is over and he has too many regrets.

Here's one of the cards I made this month

This was taken in our driveway. Just another cute bunny crossing the driveway...and then I embellished it using the Aviary app on my phone.  I thought this was pretty cute.

Gaming with Mom

     For the last decade or so, I would be considered a hardcore gamer.  I finally got my own PC not long after I got married in 2001, but I had been gaming on console since I was about four and playing Pac-Man on the floor on my mom's Atari 2600.  My mom was awesome that way. How many women get their little girls into gaming?  We played Frogger, Super Breakout, Combat, and Pac-Man the most.  I was also selected to be in a computer class when I was in kindergarten in Florida.  I remember playing something like Space Invaders on these strange-looking computers.  Those old computers looked as odd as the new microwave we bought that wouldn't even fit in our little farmhouse kitchen.  Instead, it sat on the back enclosed porch and set fire and sparks to anything with foil on it...who knew?!  Since then I have gamed on nearly every console produced and enjoyed it as a hobby immensely!

     These days I spend a lot of time playing games because my real passion, having a hobby farm, seems out of reach, so I sit in my dark house and, I like to say tongue-in-cheek, I am "Saving the World from Evil...Again!" as that is so often the premise to games.  I even made that the tag-line for my gaming blog, Limited Addiction.  I have been a life-long story enthusiast.  I love writing, reading, and listening to stories.  I love movies and tv because of the stories.  I really love and miss a tv show that was on PBS when I was younger where a storyteller would read a story (usually an older one) while I watched someone draw out some of the scenes in charcoal.  I loved it and am still inspired by it.  My point is, I love stories and love gaming because of it.  It is so rewarding and thrilling to play through a story!

     It is so much fun to talk to my mom and hear how she is playing Kingdom Hearts again, but this time on the hardest difficulty, or how she's stuck on a boss in Beyond Good and Evil and do I remember how to beat him?  She's in her sixties and lives in a tiny rural southern town, and the nearest game store is twenty miles away, but she is still a gamer!

What's the first game you remember playing and how did you get into gaming?