• Around home - Blog - Kitchen

    T Tuesday: homework edition

    August 6, 2018 - By 

    Once again I missed last Tuesday linkup with T stands for Tuesday. Typically I write then post immediately on Monday evening since we have so many folk are at least 6 hrs ahead of me. Last Monday I spent canning and baking since it was slightly cooler in temp.

    yummy goodness from the garden and CSA

    Check out these super long beans from the CSA

    I borrowed the tall jars from my neighbor and gave her one of the finished as payment. These beans will be awesome garnish for Bloody Mary’s.

    By the time the evening came about I wasn’t feeling particularly motivated to write. Fast forward to Tuesday morning I realized since Mini-me had to be to work early I could stop by and see my old knitting group. The group is very small now, in fact there were only two gals there that day. It was nice to get caught up on all the news anyway.

    When I returned home I tackled a project that has been on the todo list for well over a year. We had a new front door installed by a friend and we told him we’d take care of the painting and trimming of said door. I stained all the wood of the jams of the door and when it was finished it looked really weird without trim covering it.

    So I tackled the job that Mr. G had been dreading. I learned a few things from working with my dad as a kid so I was up to the task. While I was still working, I heard a car door slam outside . Mr. G had come home for lunch. I had wanted to surprise him with my handiwork complete. I’m pretty proud of my work. Mr. G was so glad it was done. He joked with me that if he’d know I could do that he’d have encouraged me to do it long ago.

    Later that afternoon on the way home from picking up Mini-me we noticed the license plate in front of us. 

    It was from Honduras! Over 3100 miles from home. Crazy!!!

    I’ve been busy with many other things such as finishing an art journal, collecting and packing stuff for J to take to college in two weeks, eco dye papers and completely smashing my phone. Yep that was an expensive day. Thankfully I’ve got a new one and seem to have everything restored to my liking.

    T stands for Tuesday

    What are you doing today?

  • Around home - Blog - Kitchen - Outdoors

    T Tuesday: outdoor goodness edition

    July 23, 2018 - By 

    The summer is flying by. I’m so thankful to be enjoying some of it outdoors. My garden is thriving with the abundant rain, heat and humidity.

    This is the first year I’ve had any luck with cucumbers…they are nearly taking over the garden!!  So far I’ve picked only two. I’m hoping there will be many more for all the space the vines are taking up. My green beans are producing like crazy. Unfortunately I bought the wrong seeds. These are the ones with a bit of a texture on the bean..sort of like a peach. Blech….we like to eat our green beans raw from the garden. The texture just doesn’t work for me. I’ll be making these into canned spicy beans.

    My yellow pear tomatoes are big but not producing much. Makes me kind of sad. Hopefully they are just a little slow this year.

    We have been getting our weekly CSA box in addition to our garden. We are really enjoying this again this year. So many fresh veggies. I’ve even done a bit of juicing. Trying to use the veggies in a different way. 

    This was beet, carrot, apple and ginger. It was SO GOOD!!!!!!

    And pretty too! Speaking of pretty…did you spy my freshly stained deck rails? They were so bad…basically down to raw wood. It was a couple labor intensive mornings. I’d have to stop each day when the temp climbed over 90°F.

    The great outdoors has so much to offer us. I’ve heard it said and couldn’t agree more that Minnesotans are all about spending as much time outside as possible. We endure extremes in temperature and several different kinds of weather in one day isn’t uncommon. 

    As you can see by my crazy tan lines…I spend a bit of time walking in my sandals. LOL  Marvin even gets to occasionally visits to the great outdoors under close supervision. And yes, he really is that big…no trick of the lens. FYI—I wear a size US 9 (40 EU).

    T stands for Tuesday

    Tuesday holds a visit to my friend in her “new” house. I’m super excited to see it and her!!

    What are you doing today?

     

  • Around home - Blog - Creativity - Outdoors

    T Tuesday: dream catcher, deer deterrent edition

    July 9, 2018 - By 

    Its been a busy week with the Independence day holiday smack in the middle. Lots of time off for everyone. A wedding, drivers training, a parade then cookout followed by local fireworks.

    First the wedding…it was lovely and sweet. The crazy thing is I used to do before school care for the groom. Yikes…making me feel old. 

    We did the traditional parade and cookout with the neighbors. Mini-me brought a friend this time. After we returned home about a dozen of J’s friends came over and braved the heat of the garage to play board games and hang out until fireworks. A large game of Nerf Wars eventually broke out. I’m still finding Nerf darts in the yard.

    The next morning I got out of bed and literally hobbled to the bathroom. I couldn’t figure out why my feet hurt so much….

     

    Then I saw this. I walked just a little bit on the 4th. Good thing I was wearing my walking sandals.

    So I bet you are wondering if I’m ever going to get to the dream catcher, deer deterrent portion of this post.

    I made this dream catcher one day basically just as a test. One to see if I could follow directions and two to see if using a non perfect circle would make things weird.  I also wanted to see how to adding beads to the webbing.

    My grand experiment taught me several things. I decided I like the asymmetrical  look of the webbing. I also like the organic look of the bent tree branch I used for the frame. I decided to hang it from our service berry tree right over my Tiger Lilies in hopes of scaring the deer away. They have already stolen the tops of two of the stems. The remaining ones are full of buds. Fingers crossed that it works!

    I can always dream right?!?

    T stands for Tuesday

    What are you doing today?