Catching up

Sorry about the silence around here. April is always a busy time for me and then I was having technical difficulties. I am still playing catch up but for today I thought I would share a photo from our family Easter. Besides the usual traditional things we sometimes do something a little different and this year I got down the kiddie pool and we had races. Rubber Ducky Races. Using battery operated, hand held fans for power.

You can't see the finish line very well in the photo as it is just a string. (look for the tape on each side of the pool)

Chew proof

Bought my dog a new toy today. Crazy looking stuffed bird with a noisemaker that made three or four different bird sounds... for about two minutes. He crushed the plastic box inside. He is now pulling out the little black threads indicating nostrils. The round ball like eyes will no doubt be next. Some toys he is ever so gentle with but others he takes on as a challenge. A timed demolition derby. Ahhh I just heard a sigh of boredom. Another one bites the dust. I need a new source of dog toys. Somewhere between cute and pit bull proof. Any ideas?

And no he is not a pit bull. Momma was a Blue Healer and Papa was a Black Lab. So medium sized, lovable, hyper at times and way too intelligent!

Peppermint Marshmallow Pops

This is a fun and easy little treat to make your cup of hot cocoa special. It is just large marshmallows with a lollipop stick dipped in melted chocolate and then rolled in crushed peppermint. I made some with white chocolate for my granddaughter and these with milk chocolate so also a nice way to use up leftover chocolates and candy canes!

The rest of the... pastry?

I used the rest of that package of puff pastry to try out another new recipe, called Instant Chocolate Pastry. OK, now how could I NOT try that? I mean fast and chocolate. To top it off it looks fancy and tastes great. Yeah, this was a keeper!

It is actually filled with Nutella but I like that and suspect you could let your imagination run wild when it comes to the filling. I know mine was as I waited until it was time to try them. If I hadn't had company I might have pulled the old "Life is short - eat dessert first" rationalization.

There is actually a third recipe in this group but this and the elephant ears were my priority to try. They are so good I guess I will have to give the other one a shot as well.

Leftovers or recycling?

This past winter we had long hard freezes which are very rare and I decided I had lost most of my plants since I have the philosophy that if it can't survive on it's own it doesn't belong. Well, I do water most of the time. But covering plants just goes against my grain. That being said I fully expected to have to replace almost everything after this unusual weather and I have done that with some but have been pleasantly surprised by the resiliency of many others. Could it be because I do not coddle them that they are hardier?

At any rate I thought I would share this wonderful return. Now the morning glories sprouting in the back, I half expected. Half expected because they do reseed themselves but as I said I do not coddle so it was a 50/50 chance in my book. But the green onions! Now they grew beyond my dreams. One of the baggers at the grocery store told me that if I planted the root end of the green onions I was buying that they would grow. Hmmmm. I could not resist and since I just throw away that part I poked them into the dirt and watered when I thought about it. That was last fall. Look at these babies now.

I actually know nothing about growing green onions. Was I supposed to pull them before they bloomed? Do you think I can harvest these and replant the root end again? Anybody ever done this? I haven't seen that bagger again so I can't ask him. This is cool. Even if I pull them and can't eat them I am happy that they even grew and bloomed.

Oh yeah, and being into reusing things did anyone recognize the 'pot'? It is the lid from an old kettle style bbq grill. That vent makes perfect drainage. And the pink 'bird' was a gift from my daughter made from a gourd!

Where have you been?

I could not figure out how to post this as a gadget so decided it would be better as a post anyway. It is a map of the places you have visited in the United States. The fact is I have lived in most of these states at least once. And a few places overseas. My daughter was in a conversation about how many places you have lived in and discovered they were counting cities not states! She attended three different schools in three different towns for seventh grade alone. Yes, it has been an interesting life, but I am glad to be settled down now.

OOOPS! I just realized I missed Arkansas!

Elephant Ears

I ran across a recipe for easy Elephant ears recently so this morning I decided to give it a try:

Boy are they good! So much better than store bought, if I do say so myself! My only regret is that I only made half a batch.

making cards

I continue to make cards to send to my mother. Recently I purchased a stamp that said "April showers bring May flowers", thinking I might make a card using some tatted flowers. I still plan to do that but almost immediately afterwards I saw a card and directions for using pressed flowers over at Eileen's blog.

I then dug out a stash of old pressed flowers from a few years back and made this. Very plain and simple and fast. I rarely manage that combination. But it was great as I am still sorting paperwork and files so do not have much time to be creative. Which explains why my inspiration was so much more detailed than what I whipped out. Besides, she had small flowers for her 'window' and all of mine were large ones.

However, I really think this needs to wait for April to be sent so that leaves me needing another card to get made and in the mail toot sweet! Never fear, I have a couple of others I want to try and ran up to Michael's for a new punch set yesterday so I will get right on those.

Spring

Spring will officially arrive tomorrow but my Azalea is so pretty already. I had put it in this pot originally so I could move it around until I found the perfect location, even though I intended it to be planted about a foot from where it is in this photo. A few weeks ago I decided that was indeed the perfect place and had someone over to dig the hole only to discover that the phone line not only runs RIGHT THERE but it was only buried about an inch deep!!! I know they are supposed to put it deeper than that and am just very grateful that it was not damaged. Trouble is that is the perfect spot and my mind just does not want this planted anywhere else. So for now it remains in the pot. But it is stunning, don't you think?

Valentine Socks at last

I kept getting side tracked from finishing this last sock.

Of course that is another way of saying I was getting bored with this project. I am glad to have them finished. I will pack up the sock loom and patterns for another day and get out something faster.

Actually I have a kit for a lacy scarf that I would love to do. Or there is still that bolero for my daughter. I found another pattern to try with that yarn. And then of course there will be baby things. Yes, another grand baby is on the way. There are always lots of things to choose from. But for now I think I will put on my new socks...