Is it that time again?

It feels like it's been ages since I last blogged. Quite a bit has happened this week. We're still enduring a heat wave, and I swear that our little AC is losing the battle. We're supposed to get a reprieve from the high temps this week, and I so hope they're right. We had quite a storm not too long after I finished my last blog post, complete with golf ball-sized hail and hurricane-force winds. One of the pine trees out front decided to split open and fall over right in front of the house, and I am SO, SO grateful it decided to fall AWAY from the house.

Look at this tree. Just look at it. All falling over and crap.

 Had the wind been blowing the opposite direction, our master bedroom would have been crushed. That would have most certainly moved our rental search priority to DefCon 1. Speaking of which, last Thursday we took a look at a rental property that we liked very much. We may not get it because it's a tiny bit more expensive than we would like, but hey, at least we found something. That's a great improvement over the "no pets, no longer available" luck I've been having. We will prevail. With time and perseverance, we'll find a place that's both in our target price range and has the features we're looking for.

Now that I've given you a personal update, here is the real reason I'm posting today: HOMEMADE STRAWBERRY CHEESECAKE ICE CREAM.

Wipe your chin; you're drooling.

This stuff is delicious, and it wasn't difficult to make! I found the recipe in a Philadelphia Cream Cheese  advertisement in my latest issue of Better Homes and Gardens. It really does taste like cheesecake with strawberry topping. It even has graham crackers in it! I made this for dessert as part of our Independence Day celebration, and I have to say, I'm pretty proud of myself. Anyway, without further adieu, here's the recipe:

Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream, courtesy of Philadelphia Cream Cheese

Ingredients:

• 1 pkg. (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
• 1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk
• 1/3 cup whipping cream
• 2 tsp. lemon zest
• 1-1/2 cups fresh strawberries
• 3 HONEY MAID Honey Grahams, coarsely chopped

Directions:

• Mix first 4 ingredients with mixer until well blended. Freeze 4 hours or until almost solid.
• Beat cream cheese mixture with mixer until creamy. Blend berries in blender until smooth. Add to cream cheese mixture with chopped grahams; mix well. Freeze 8 hours or until firm.
• Remove dessert from freezer 15 min. before serving; let stand at room temperature to soften slightly before scooping into dishes.

See, what'd I tell ya? EASY! Go make some. You won't be sorry!

PSSST! By the way, you don't have to use the name brand stuff. I didn't. But don't tell Kraft I told you that.

Too hot to do anything

I had a revelation a few days ago. I'm not very good at this whole blogging thing. My inspiration for blogs comes in fits and starts, so regularity doesn't really fit into the equation. Even when I say to myself, "I need to blog today, " oftentimes, life gets in the way, and I end up doing something else. I want to post more regularly, and I think the only way to do that is to actually schedule my blogging time. If I constantly gather my blogging inspiration and sit it aside, then I should have enough material to sit down and crank out a blog for you all once or twice a week. It's a nice plan.

That being said, it's too hot to do much of anything right now. I don't have to tell you about the heat wave because it's pretty much been all the news has talked about lately. Well, I might have to tell you, if you live underground, since temperatures remain fairly constant and comfortable there. But then again, if you live underground, you probably don't read my blog, so... Anyway, our poor little AC unit is having a hard time keeping up with this triple-digit heat. Our house is so poorly insulated that we can't keep it any cooler than the mid 80's. Which causes me to think. Why is it that I find a low humidity, mid 80-degree day outside to be beautiful, but when it's in the 80's in a climate controlled house, I feel like I'm going to melt away? I digress. Back on track. It's been pretty warm; so warm that I haven't even been playing WoW, which would be my usual indoor pastime, because my computer will kick out too much heat. All I've wanted to do is sleep, since the heat makes me sleepy.

I have managed to get a few things done in between sleepy times. Last night I sewed new curtains for my bedroom. The day before I got the shape ready for a paper mache project I'm working on. The day before that I painted a new sign for my living room. I want to get pictures up for you guys, but my laziness always stops me just short of doing so. Anyway, I can't fight it anymore; I'm taking a nap. Catch you guys later!

Life in Flux

All I want to do is settle down on my little hobby farm with some chickens, a cow, and maybe some ducks. I want to plant a garden and line-dry my clothes. I want to chase after my little one while she collects dandelion blooms for me to make dandelion jelly. Is that too much to ask?

Well, we still haven't sold our NY home, so we couldn't buy a place here in NC. We were fortunate enough to find a landlord who didn't mind our 108-pound monster dog or our cat. He also let us put up a clothesline and plant some vegetables, even though it makes mowing the lawn more difficult for him. However, our landlord informed us that on his birthday in January, he'll be officially retired, and he'd like to sell his rental homes. He said he won't kick us out if we want to stay, but I'm not sure if that means he expects us to buy this place or not. So, always prepared, we've been doing some searching for new places to rent. But good grief! Finding a place in our price range that will let us have our mutt is proving near impossible. It's a good thing we've got until January.

So if you don't hear from me, well, I'm too busy looking for a place to live.

Treasury Mania!

It's been quite a long time since I've put together any treasuries on Etsy, but lately I've been inspired to do a LOT of them. I started with one about dragons, but then I moved on to making treasuries that commemorate my favorite movies:

I have so much fun putting treasuries together. There are so many great items on Etsy that it's easy to come up with creative ways to express a theme; however, it's very difficult to limit yourself to just sixteen!

So go on, give my treasuries some love! etsy.com/people/AshleysCrescentMoon/treasury

P.S. To my friends and relations - any of these items in my treasuries would make a great gift. Hint, hint; wink, wink!

Gardening Picture Blog

It's picture blog time! It's May, and here in NC, that means gardening season is in full swing.

My corn is knee-high. Every time we go check on it, my little one asks if it has ears yet. She has a hard time believing that will be even taller than mommy in just a few weeks, so I can't wait to see the look on her face when it is.

I had some volunteer pumpkins this year. Apparently my compost didn't finish cooking enough to kill the seeds of our jack-o-lantern from the previous Halloween, so when I moved the compost, I got a few sprouts. I honestly didn't expect them to make it, so I didn't put much effort into helping them grow. In spite of my neglect, the sprouts survived, so I recently put a small fence around them so that my landlord wouldn't run over them with the lawn mower. I now I have an impromptu pumpkin patch, and I hope not to have to buy pumpkins for jack-o-lanterns this year.

I keep getting a handful of peas at a time. I will definitely have to plant more peas next time, because these are SO delicious, but there isn't enough of them to share.

I finally gave up on my bare root strawberries sprouting, and so I purchased potted strawberries instead. This is so much nicer than looking at an empty pot.

Here's a ladybug hanging out on our carrots. These are Danvers heirloom carrots, and the roots are just starting to turn orange. I can't wait to have fresh carrots with my salad!

My tomatoes are now taller than this, and they're starting to bloom. The 2-liter bottle is my totally advanced watering system. It has holes poked in the bottom so that it can gradually deliver water to the plant's roots. Soon, I'll need to make cages for them. Homemade salsa, here I come!

This is my first time growing potatoes, but they seem to be doing well. We'll see whether or not they actually produce, because all I did was plant some grocery store potatoes. A lot of books I've read say that store-bought plants won't produce because they're not seed potatoes and have been treated with something to prevent them from sprouting, but these potatoes grew eyes and leaves within a week of me bringing them home. I thought it was worth a shot, so we'll see how it goes.

I planted some more lantana in my little one's butterfly garden because I just can't get enough of the the stuff. I just love the blending of colors in the blooms.

Be sure to stay tuned for my craft picture blog - coming soon!



Progress Report

You know, it occurs to me that I never followed up on how I'm doing with my resolution to buy fewer prepackaged items. I would say overall it's going well; I have not purchased cookies from the store since my last shopping trip in 2011. I have successfully made my own laundry detergent and granola cereal* since January. I even made my own liquid dishwasher detergent**. If my family needs a snack, I'm on the job. The only snacks I buy from the store now are chips, saltine crackers, and the occasional box of graham crackers (this may change shortly, as I have found this promising recipe). I now no longer purchase Hamburger Helper mixes, or Pasta-Roni mixes, or Zatarain's rice mixes. I also stopped buying packages of shredded cheese; if I need shredded cheese, I now use my once-neglected Pampered Chef rotary grater. Alas, I haven't worked my way up to making my own cheese.

Now for some honesty. How do I like making my own things? Well... It's more time consuming, it's more messy, sometimes it's hard. I don't always feel like making cookies for my husband or mixing up a batch of granola for breakfast. I definitely don't care for cleaning up the kitchen afterwards. Sometimes I try to make something, and it goes terribly, horribly wrong. However, I still love doing it myself. I feel pride and a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day. I get to bond with my daughter, who just loves to help me in the kitchen. I think the food tastes better, and I know it's better for us. (Have you seen the amount of sodium in a box of Hamburger Helper?) All that, and I save money too. My grocery bill averages anywhere from $50 to $100 a month less than before, and that's without using a single coupon. Typically, my trips to the store are also quicker, since my grocery list tends to be shorter. So yeah, I'd say the benefits outweigh the burden.

Here's a list of things I still want to try to make myself:

• Baby wipes
• Mozzarella cheese
• Household cleaners
• Wheat Thins
• Chocolate syrup
• Fruit leather (previous attempts were unsuccessful)
• Pop Tarts (my daughter is begging me to do this)
• Gummy bears (also my daughter's idea)
• Various and sundry seasoning mixes
• Pretty much all condiments except mustard

Think I can do it? We'll see.

*I don't follow this recipe to the letter. I leave out the almonds and raisins, because almonds are expensive, and I don't always like raisins in my granola. I melt the brown sugar in with the honey and oil instead of mixing it with the dry ingredients because I feel it coats the oats better this way. Also, I don't bake the granola for 40 minutes. Maybe it's my oven, but anything past 20 minutes, and the granola gets dark and tastes burnt. Pro tip: if you want granola clusters, don't stir after you take the granola out of the oven. Let it cool on its own and then break it up into clusters before storing. If you like loose, flaky granola, then by all means, stir away.

** I'm all for natural cleaners, but I don't recommend making this detergent. It's not at all cost effective because it calls for liquid Castile soap, and once the detergent is cool, it clumps up and is impossible to remix. It worked great for cleaning at first, but over time, I noticed a film on my Tupperware and glasses, even when I used the recommended rinse aids. I went back to using a phosphate free, eco-friendly premade dishwasher detergent when I finished up using the batch I made.

Dead or 85

So, you haven't heard much from me because I've been busy:

Had to include the picture Az and Lucy worked so hard on. It looks great!

My guild leaders issued a challenge to all Outliers to help the guild achieve the Stay Classy Achievement, which awards an eighth bank slot to our guild bank. I offered to help by rolling an orc rogue, Teyerahshank (unfortunately, TyraShanks was taken). She is currently level 83, and I'm hoping to achieve max level by the end of next week. For the Horde! For Outliers of Draenor!