Bread and Butter Pickles..........

Our cucumbers did so well this year that we had enough to make dills and bread and butter pickles. I found a good recipe on SimpleRecipies.com. This was my first time trying to make pickles. We ended making 2 batches.

Sunday Dessert.....

So I stole a piece right after these pictures were taken.......I made it so I deserve to test it out...lol.

This is a Rhubarb Apple&Pear crumble pie with flaky cream cheese crust. We had some leftover rhubarb from last weekend that needed to get put to good use.

Here is the recipe

CRUST

1 cup flour

8oz cream cheese

1 1/2 stick unsalted butter

dash of salt

mix in a food processor until it makes a ball

chill ball in plastic wrap for an hour or a day until ready to use

TOPPING

1/2 cup flour

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 stick unsalted butter

dash of cinnamon

1/4 cup rolled oats

mix in food processor until it makes pea sized balls, leave in processor and cool in fridge for 30 minutes

FILLING

2 stick of rhubarb(small 1/2" pieces)

1 large apple(small 1/2" pieces)

1 large pear(small 1/2" pieces)

2 tbs lemon juice

1 tbs cinnamon

1 tbs corn starch

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2-3/4 cup white sugar to taste (plus a dash for after)

1/2 cup water

mix in large bowl

heat on stove top or microwave until apples, pears and rhubarb are tender and sauce it bubbly

cool mix off in fridge for 30 minutes

heat oven to 410

roll out bottom crust and place in pie pan

fill with cooled filling

sprinkle topping evenly over the top.

Bake at 410 for 20 minutes until the crust is lightly browned and crisp

remove and let cool, sprinkle lightly to dust with white sugar.

Enjoy!

Sketch up!

Over the last few years I've learned several different programs, CAD, Sketch-up, Illustrator, Photoshop and the list goes on. But the one I like the best is Sketch Up! If you like woodworking you'll like it even more! I like making stuff that is usable and cost efficient. Why but a $3000 deck, dresser, cabinet.....when I can Sketch it and build it. I can fit it in if it's something I really want or need. Our desk is the prime example! We needed a desk, I found one I liked built it in sketch-up, used my plans and built it myself. Turned out great! I learned a-lot and made a few mistakes but now I know!

Here are a few of the plans I've been working on lately.

Classic Tall Dresser based on a picture I found on-line

Desktop Hutch

Wall Organizer

Other miscellaneous projects

Garage shelves.....part two

About a year and a half ago, right after moving into our new home, we started building these shelves for our garage using this article at Family handyman. I actually modified them using sketch-up to tailor fit them to my garage, you can find them on my Facebook page here. The actual build of the top shelves are just like my plans but the lowers changed. It worked great but never really finished it up. I mean we finished the shelves but I wanted to add lower shelves for all of my "junk". So I decided I would get up at 6........so Michelle set the alarm for 6, work me up 4 or five times and I got out of bed around 7. With the coffee brewing I set out emptying the whole garage and cleaning the floor. I think we have an unusually large amount of spiders living in there so I also cleaned around the windows where they hang out.

It all

went pretty well. Here are a couple pictures.I actually ran out of plywood but when I'm done it'll have two sets of lower shelves instead of just one. On the left I'll be adding 3 shelves to allow for sotrage of some of our larger things.

A bit obsessive......

I admit, I'm pretty obsessive about things. When something catches my attention I go through a phase that is pretty only defined as being obsessive. I have to learn as much as possible about it.The prime example is the desk In our office. It is a custom built "knock off" version of the Pottery Barn Bedford Desk with a CPU and a 3 drawer file. Why not buy it from Pottery Barn?

Well for several reasons! It's over priced, it's MDF, it's smaller then I needed....the list goes on but I think you get the idea. So I began obsessing over it. I found pictures and craigslist ads, I even did a recon mission to look at the desk in the store. I got the idea that I could use Sketch-up to make plans for it. I learned about building basic cabinets on You-Tube. I bought some tools....mainly a Kreg Jig, some clamps and a new miter saw. I was completely determined that I would build this desk for a fraction of the price and that is exactly what I did. I built 2 versions of this desk. My first which I consider a learning piece and the one that's I my office.

While building my second desk I found Ana's Knock-Off Wood. It was pretty interesting that someone else was doing exactly what I was doing but on a much larger and organized scale. If you've never visited her site then you are missing out. I found her site aimed at woman but It seems like I am a welcome part of that community when ever I post over there. She has nearly 100 plans for Furniture Knock off's from Pottery Barn and West Elm. It's pretty amazing. It's even more amazing if you've ever built plans in Sketch Up because you know the time required to get everything correct.

Now that my desk is built we plan to finish up the office. I've designed several Knock Off Pottery Barn plans such as the bedford Smart Hutch, Large and small charging stations, Patch Work Flag and the Display-it Storage Mirror From PB Teen.

I Will be building a few more items for the office such as Knock Off Holman Shelves and ledges, Picture Frames (which I think are pretty darn cool) and a modified Desk Top Hutch.

Check back to see these and other projects, plans and pretty much what ever else catches my attention.

This is my first post to a hopefully long and interesting blog experience. I'm the father of two beautiful girls and the husband to their beautiful mother. We live in our 2 year old home we basically designed and had custom built. Most of the posts you'll find on this blog will be the adventures of our crazy life as we navigate through our the twists and turns and watch our girls grow older. I hope you enjoy some of the projects and adventures that follow. Life is pretty interesting and if I'm any good at this then this blog should be just as interesting.