August is such a great month to make homemade ice cream! The days are so hot and some cold, creamy ice cream goodness is just the thing to bring some relief!  
     I had heard that using half & half instead of heavy cream to make ice cream was a possibility and I decided to give it a try! Sometimes the fattiness of heavy cream leaves a coating on my tongue that i don't love.  Using half & half seemed to totally cure that problem.  Of course, adding cream cheese to this recipe actually adds fat to the recipe anyway, plus that delicious cream cheese tanginess gives the authentic cheesecake flavor and richness to this ice cream!  

       I think that I have a fabric addiction! Now that one major fabric retailer has closed its doors, I've been on the lookout for all of the sources of fabric I can.  It is as if I can't get enough of it!  And then, when I have the fabric, I look and it and try to decide what I want to do with all of this beautiful stuff!  It is so much fun and the fabric is so beautiful to me that I want to use every last scrap of it.  A project using scraps was necessary! Not to mention the collection of fat quarters that I can never resist! 
      I came across a way to make a quilted tote bag that seemed simple, and I thought it would be great to convert that method to making potholders or hot pads!  I've been needing some new ones and after I made a few  I decided that  they would make great gifts, because I certainly didn't need as many as I was making! I can't stop myself! It is so much fun to choose the colors and prints to put together.   If you click Read More, I've laid out a complete tutorial to help you start making your own fabulous quilted potholders. Warning: Addicting! 

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     It is the miserably hot time of year here in Phoenix.  My Spring/Summer garden has had it and so have I as far as going out to work for very long in the garden.  This morning I went out pulled out the last of the dead tomato plants with their last few sunburned and yellowed stragglers of cherry tomatoes on them.  Only a few other plants remain, alive and trying to survive in this heat, some pepper plants, malabar spinach and some oregano that is thriving! My goal to have something that I can harvest throughout the year has been met, and that makes me feel satisfied!  But, now is the time to get my soil and plants ready to go in for my Fall/Winter garden, and this is definitely not the time of year that I want to be out doing that!  So, I am doing what I can inside, in the air conditioned house while I wait for the temperatures to come down just a bit.  Let me tell you what I'm doing!