trike progress

I've been getting a lot done on my trike project. Its almost finished except for a few small pieces that I need to make.

 I decided to go ahead and make a coroplast tailbox for it, Just need to make a lid and figure out how to hold it to the trike.

I'll be running 12v rear lighting that I made from some broken tail lamps out of various cars that I have worked on at my day job.

My anniversary PRESENT! How could I forget?

As a follow up to my anniversary post, I want to share what Brian made me for our anniversary. It is a travel bag. I've been talking about wanting one for some time. Something just big enough to carry the necessities...phone, cards, keys.  Being the awesome husband he is Brian made one for me. I LOVE hand made gifts! Especially from him.

Salt and pepper shakers

I use to have this thing for buying "cool" salt and pepper shakers that don't look like your typical shaker. I ended up with a couple of expensive, modern looking sets that are completely impractical. They are a pain in the rear to refill and don't hold very much. We don't use very much salt when cooking so I guess that was my reasoning to myself when I bought them. We've been buying S-n-P in bulk and have just been spooning it out of the bag because these shakers are such a pain. Well, that is a pain as well and today I had all I could stands and decided to make my own shakers.

I really like the shape of these and they are so sleek and see through and the top is cut at an angle. The bottom looks like stainless steel (it's coated plastic)...

...but this is how much it holds. You put the salt/pepper in the bottom and then screw it back onto the top. A cherry tomato doesn't even fit in the bottom!

This set looks even more like stainless and they don't fall over. They wobble, like weeble wobbles. ("Say no more. I want them!") They don't hold much either.

My new salt shaker made using a jelly canning jar and lid.

I poked holes in the lid using a knife

It holds pa-lenty of salt

I even made a matching one for the pepper.

I'm sure this will help me be more efficient in the kitchen.

Pickles

We received a water bath canner for an anniversary present, and we have been harvesting lots of cucumbers so we decided to make a batch of pickles. We followed a basic recipe and added jalapeno, garlic, black peppercorns, and grape leaves. We will let them sit a couple of months and see how they turned out, hopefully it works because we are making more tonight!