I have taken up the craft of handmade journals. As for canning, don't skimp on your pressure cooker; get the biggest one that your stove can reasonably heat. Also, the best gifts of home canned food are pint-sized.

Can you show us your kitchen, kellydamnit? The theme sounds fun! I've never seen anything decorated in WWII bomber girl before.

I need to recover the dining room chairs, and add a thick layer of foam. Recovering is a snap, but the foam adds an element of unfamiliarity to the task, so, y'know, eek. But I have the fabric all picked out: four different upholstery remnants in various shades of toasty browns, cream, and ecru. Very pleased at that prospect.

I've been making a lot of simple jewelry (beading only! No smithing!) and (though I say it myself) lately I've been more and more pleased with the results. Anytime we settle down with a movie, the bead boxes are likely to make an appearance.

Photos of the kitchen? Crazy to see it!

(and hey, any good advice for mine?)

Only one: I vastly prefer sanding sponges to sanding blocks for projects like this.

Thirding the photos of the kitchen. This has always been a secret fetish of mine and I'm dying to see what you did!

I find I like to knit in the summer. I've also joined a scuba club and am going to try for my AWD and maybe a couple small things, like maintenance as well.

OK, just texted the roommate to see if there are batteries in the camera, so I should be able to take pictures of the kitchen tonight.

I want to repaint our main living area. It's a project that's been on the back burner for a while. It's a dull khaki color now, and it's dreary and just not right. I'm going to paint it a buttery yellow again.

I made very pretty curtains that cover a large set of sliding glass doors two years ago. Reality has kicked in and I need something more practical. The kids constantly use the doors to go to the backyard.

I can a lot in the summer, mostly jellies & stuff, although I did do tomato sauce one time. I just do it with a big stockpot of boiling water; I've never had a canner or a pressure cooker. Buy a box of jars from the supermarket - they have a handy booklet explaining how to do it. Or I guess it's probably very googleable.

I like making mosaics in the summer because you can do it outside - they're way too messy to do in the house. This year, though, of course I'm moving and as soon as I've moved I'm going to put in a big veggie garden. Busy! Yay!

Does "working out more" count as a project?

Aside from that, I want to spend this summer learning more about how to work on my bicycles by taking them apart and cleaning everything and putting them back together. I've got a giant book on bikes that my mother gave me this Christmas, and it's about time I put it to use.

I also want to see how feasible painting my bike bright yellow would be, ie, do I need to sand all the original paint off, if I can paint it myself, how expensive the whole ordeal would be, etc.

And I also want to see how your kitchen looks!

Kelly - canning is really pretty simple if you follow the rules, especially water-bath canning. But since you want to make spag. sauce, water-bath canning probably won't work since it's only safe with high-acid foods (tomatoes are acidic, yes, but when I can salsa I have to add lots and lots of vinegar or lemon juice). I know (mgl) people do otherwise, but you are risking botulism and spoilage.

So, if sauce is your goal, you'll need a pressure canner, and they can get pretty pricey. But if you buy one, most come with a cookbook and instructions. Before you know it, you'll be canning everything.

I make a killer sweet zuke relish every summer from our garden, yummy sweet pickles, salsa, hot peppers, pickled green beans, beets . . . we eat all winter off the stuff, and I still have lots to share. Canning is the shit, yo.

This is a good place to start, though it is a commercial site.

Yay photos!

I'll be canning fruit this summer when the trees start bearing. I'd also like to do pickles again, although I'll have to buy the cukes.

Anyway, my summer projects, save one, are fairly boring. Install a cat door, Dry-Loc the basement, clean and panel the storage space. The fun project though is making a baby!

The juniper bush on the left corner is gone now, and I am going to put in a deck that wraps around the corner of the house a bit from the kitchen door.

We have decks in back but this way we'll be able to hang out and be neighborly.

Ah, with rental property, the projects are never done. Here's a broad list:
* TOP PROJECT all summer, rebuilding the barn (it's a real 150-year-old stable, you know, a garage for the horse, with an upstairs even, but one side is falling apart because of water damage and needs repairs to the foundation, the joists, and the wall structure, and then residing)
* Rescreen the screened porch (even though it faces the street that 30 years later has become a noisy pedestrian thruway)
* Major tree trimming (at least three branches bigger than 6" need to come down, to raise the tree's crown)
* Open up another bedroom in this apartment that I'm using so my nephew can move in, and complete the bathroom

That's the big stuff. The little stuff list is longer.