HOMEMAKING DREAMS

A Few More Dishes

2012-02-01T06:20:00.000-05:00

I really love odds and ends of dishes that I pick up here and there.

This single cup:

A couple more chicken plates:

A bowl with a chip or two:

Close ups of the newest chickens:

I am planning to replace the Christmas dishes that are usually on display in the china cabinet with the some of my dish collection finds. Hope to show you soon.

January Blooms

2012-01-28T18:44:00.000-05:00

Today I strolled around our yard in what is supposed to be the dead of winter. At first glance there certainly are a lot of brown, dead looking plants. But, after looking a little closer I found some signs of life. The earliest bloomers are gearing up for Spring!

This is an old flowering Quince Bush. Don't let the delicate blooms fool you. There are thorns in there!!

This is an equally old Camellia Bush.

Of course there are yellow daffodils in this spot every year this time.

Its been a very mild winter. You just can't beat days in the 70s in January!

On My Sewing Table Friday

2012-01-27T06:30:00.000-05:00

Here are some things I've been working on this week.

This baby boy stacked coins quilt is pin basted and ready for machine quilting.

30 3 1/2 inch Cheddar Bow Ties made using leaders and enders. These are so much fun to make. I am able to use small scraps and the number of blocks grow without my realizing it. I'm not sure how big a quilt I will make using them, so I'm also not sure how many blocks I will need. But it will be HUNDREDS!

68 Jacob's Ladder blocks done. I have committed to making at least three blocks a day. The way I have been able to do this while working each day is to cut out three blocks in the morning before going to work and then sewing them together after I get home.

Two Never Ending Jobs

2012-01-18T06:38:00.001-05:00

I know I am not alone in this, but at my house there are two jobs that are never ending and you have to stay on top of them....

One is laundry. I don't mind doing laundry that much. After all, the machines do all the work. Its not like I am washing clothes in the creek on a rock or like my grandmothers and mother, using a wringer washer on the back porch or in an outbuilding. I just have to put the laundry in the machines and keep it moving along.

When I am at home on Saturdays or other days off I love to start the laundry first thing in the morning and keep it moving all day until finished. It gives me something to do when I take a break from sewing or other activities.

My hubby says he has magic clothes. They just appear on the bed all clean, folded and sorted for him to put away into his drawers.

I also do my mother's laundry. At the nursing home we had the option of doing the laundry ourselves or if we put her name in the clothes with a laundry pen, they would do it. I said, no thanks. I will keep her clothes clean myself. That's just one small thing I can do for her that's no problem at all.

This is a recently made clothespin bag hanging in my laundry room. I will make a few of these all along so they will be available when the weather warms up this spring.

The other never ending job is keeping the dust bunnies under control on the hard wood floors!!! Isn't this terrible?!!! Its not as bad as it looks. We have a fan in this room and this spot is located on the side of the room where there is a draft every time the front door is opened. All the dust bunnies are either blown or sucked over this way and they congregate here. It only took a minute to get them up, but I couldn't resist showing you how I was NOT on top of this job for a few days!!! Believe me it was only a few days!!

What jobs do you have to stay on top of or they will take over your house?

My Indoor Gardens

2012-01-14T20:05:00.004-05:00

Its been a very mild Fall and Winter here so far, so I haven't really had a reason to get Spring Fever yet.... but I've been looking at my flower beds wistfully lately, planning out what I might do in the spring and summer this year. Most of the plans include beautiful flowers, but low maintenance!

I have too many plants that have to come inside during the winter. Just because my aloe plants have a zillion babies each summer doesn't mean I have to save them all! But, I can't stand to throw them out and I don't have enough plant-loving friends to take them off my hands!

In the sewing room:

And at my office I've become the plant doctor for plants that get sick. You know how you get a plant as a gift and you leave it at the office where it gets scanty light and water? Well it happens all the time at my office. I can't stand to see the plants just thrown out, so home with me they come to get well.

And a Spring resolution that I've made: I must NOT go to the clearance rack at Lowes because I see too many plants that are only $1.00, but have so much potential!

Current Food Lion Deals

2012-01-14T07:00:00.000-05:00

Food Lion brand sale:

As you may know I live in a rural area, surrounded by lots of small towns. The only options I have for groceries are Food Lion, Walmart and Piggly Wiggly. I can travel to a couple of larger cities, but its just not worth the gas money to go so far out of my way. So, I have found that normally I can get the best deals at Food Lion, especially if I buy only what is on sale using my MVP card and use as many coupons as I can.

I am jealous of all of you have access to double coupons and other promotions like that!

But, I will concentrate on getting the best deals at my Food Lion.

1. Food Lion has a good deal going on right now until February 7th. For each Food Lion Brand you purchase, which includes My Essentials, Home 360 and the Food Lion store brand, you earn 25 cents which will print out on a coupon to be used on your next order. The minimum is 4 items, so make sure you buy at least 4. The maximum in one shopping trip is 40 items.

On my trip yesterday I earned a coupon for $7.75 on my next order. This can be rolled, which means I can use the coupon to buy more Food Lion products and earn more coupons.

The best way to "do" this deal is to buy items you actually use and would buy any way. But the biggest deals are those items that don't cost much anyway. These items include yogurt, vinegar, mustard, macaroni and cheese, canned vegetables, tomato paste, etc.

Store brand yogurt is only 22 cents, so if you buy 4 containers you spend 88 cents, but earn a coupon for $1.00. Then on your next trip, buy 4 more with the coupon and get another coupon for $1.00.

Another good item to stock up on is tomato paste which is 39 cents. After you receive your 25 cents per can, the price is only 14 cents. I like to put a tablespoon of tomato paste in things like soup, chili and spaghetti sauce. So, once I open a can and use what I need at the time, I freeze the rest in "heaping" tablespoon size portions. I wrap each one in plastic wrap and place them in a zipper freezer bag. Then I just take out what I need later when cooking.

I also bought some small bottles of vinegar. Did you know drinking a tablespoon of vinegar is helpful for leg cramps? I don't normally have cramps, but my hubby and his sister do and this home remedy helps them. Of course, there are lots of uses for vinegar, so its a good thing to have in the kitchen.

2. Its also a good week for some basic meats. I don't know about you, but I refuse to pay as much for hamburger or chicken as I would for steak!!!

So I'm stocking up in the freezer this week split chicken breasts that are 99 cents a pound and ground chuck which is $1.99 per pound. This sale is only good through Tuesday.

3. For some reason the Food Lion brand "Lite" coffee is still marked $2.97 a bag, while right next to it the regular Food Lion coffee is $5.99. We like the half caffeine coffee and so every time I go to the store I pick up 3 or 4 of these to stock up on. Coffee is another item whose price has gone sky high! And these will qualify for the brand sale saving you another 25 cents on each one.

Heading Home

2012-01-10T06:30:00.000-05:00

When I was making our daily pot of morning half-decaf coffee today I looked out the kitchen window seeing mostly darkness, a little fog, a car or truck headlight or two, lights in distant neighbors' windows and the above items.

The picture is one of my favorites simply because its title is "Heading Home". The Amish horse and wagon is heading down the path to home. There is a winter landscape and a barn quilt on the barn.

The picture gives me a bittersweet feeling. I head home as often as I can and I'm never there enough. But, after all, aren't we all heading home in a more permanent sense?

The plants, chicken and snowman/star round out my daily view. In the daytime I look beyond these items to see fields which change with the seasons. Its not unusual to see some deer foraging for food. The bird feeders and birdhouses also provide some entertainment.

What do you see out your kitchen window?

I hope you are safely heading home today!

Some Recent Sewing.....

2012-01-03T07:34:00.000-05:00

A Christmas quilt in progress, doing one block a month. It should be finished by Christmas 2012.

A cloth grocery/tote bag.

I've started sewing clothespin bags for Spring and Summer. This one and the grocery bag are in my Etsy Shop.

The Pillowcases I worked on during 2011 and gave as Christmas gifts:

Some of the 26 Jacob's Ladder Quilt blocks I've made so far. Not sure how many I will need for the entire quilt... but lots more!

A Good Thing To Remember

2012-01-02T07:47:00.002-05:00

I received this picture as a Christmas gift. Immediately upon opening the gift I realized that this would be the perfect Bible verse to be my theme for the year 2012!

... and in all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your paths. Proverbs 3:6.

Happy New Year!

2011-12-30T06:31:00.003-05:00

These dollar store calendars are hanging on the wall beside my desk at work. The last couple of weeks I have had one foot in 2011 and one foot in 2012. I am ready to let go of 2011!

How about you?

The Mystery Gift

2011-12-24T19:35:00.000-05:00

My hubby has had a gift hidden in the spare bedroom for a couple of days and I was forbidden to go in there. I was so surprised to find out what the gift was! He had the old treadle sewing machine cabinet that belonged to my grandmother refinished! I really, really love this gift.

This is one of the most thoughtful gifts I have ever received. It means so much to me that he would go to the trouble to have this done and keep it a secret.

Here are a few before pictures that show how bad the condition of the cabinet was.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-21T05:21:00.000-05:00

From Homemaking Dreams:

I hope that all of you have a very Merry Christmas... and

May your homemaking dreams come true in 2012!

A Special Tree

2011-12-11T15:34:00.002-05:00

***** update on Mama: She is improving, but far from well, and has been transferred to a rehabilitation/nursing center. Our hope is that she will be able to go home in a few weeks. She was very, very sick last week. I honestly did not think she would make it for a little while there! Thank you so much to all who were concerned for her and me.

I haven't had time to or the desire to do much Christmas decorating this year. My daughter, who is always so thoughtful, brought me this pre-lit tree, fully decorated. She knows I love snow, so the tree is decorated with a snow theme and even has a snow tree skirt. She, my son-in-law and grandson snook the tree in and surprised me.

I love this tree and..... my daughter!

Update

2011-11-30T06:40:00.003-05:00

A few of you have asked how Mama is, so I thought I'd give a small update.

She is very sick this week, in the hospital with Shingles. This has really thrown her for a loop. The combination of her age, being on dialysis and her other health problems have made for a very sick lady.

I thank you in advance for your, care, concern and prayers!

Debbie J.

How to have a 48 Hour Day

2011-11-21T05:56:00.003-05:00

First an update of my mother: Dialysis is very hard! She is adjusting to it some, but I don't know if anyone ever fully gets used to it. However, she is feeling better. On the Monday after Thanksgiving, she will have her permanent access for dialysis put in, which is called a fistula. This will involve a couple more days spent in the hospital.

Since my schedule is even more busy now, I've not had time to post too much on my blogs, but I'm trying to get more organized and hope to get back into the swing of things.

Having a 48 hour day is not my idea, but I love the book called, "How to Have a 48 Hour Day by Don Aslett, as seen HERE.

My favorite concepts from the book are to have a front log, be early and not procrastinating. I am trying to incorporate these ideas into my day to day life. Since I work full time, help care for an elderly parent, and try to maintain my home life, I can use any help I can get!

My hubby has been a lifesaver! He has been doing almost all of the cooking and has been my support and my rock throughout this "new normal".

I am making lists, lists and more lists!

The front log is simply a list of all the things you need to do, whether they are recurring things, or projects that need to be done once. Then you just keep chipping away on the list when ever there is a spare minute or block of time available.

Thanks to this method, I have already finished my Christmas cards! I did this while hubby was driving my mother and me to one of her appointments. I was sitting in the backseat and worked on them while were going down the road. Then when I had a few more minutes later that night, I tweaked some of the addresses. I didn't seal the envelopes because I would like to include a picture of my grandson in some of them.

I am also benefiting greatly by not PROCRASTINATING! I never thought I had a problem with this until I started noticing that I would think I could just wait and do certain small things later. Now I am trying to do things RIGHT NOW while I am thinking about it.

Recently this has included: answering emails, folding and putting away clothes from the dryer, , doing some chores from my front log, even if there is only a few minutes available. Little minutes add up to hours!

Small Town America - The Dialysis Center Waiting Room

2011-11-02T13:45:00.000-04:00

(Not my mother's walker, but a nice one!)

My mother has shown some improvement in that now she can get around with her rolling walker and not the wheelchair so much. Our current problem is that its hard for her to get into those SUVs and pickup trucks that most of my family own. My Little Ole Lady car is the only one she can get into without the help of angels.

Who are the angels, you may be wondering.

...The van driver who helped me the first time I took Mama to dialysis qualifies as one. I was not used to dealing with wheelchairs. I parked too close to the curb. I didn't know you could push a button and open the door. But he did! I don't know what I would have done without him.

...A brother who works nearby and shows up at just the right time to help get her in and out, is another angel.

...My husband who has offered to drive us to dialysis on Saturdays and then to help me run errands and pass the time while waiting for the treatment to end.

....The two ambulance drivers who teamed up to put her into the front seat of a small SUV are also angels in disguise.

".... I was sick and you took care of me... (Matthew 25: 36)"

There are so many personalities in the waiting room at the dialysis center. Most of the patients are not able to drive themselves there and back, and the length of time of the dialysis treatment is unpredictable.... and so they wait... Because of this they all get to know each other and they love to talk. Kidney failure doesn't care what your walk in life is, so all kinds of people end up in one small room.

You can learn all about a person in just a few minutes, when that person is eager to talk. One recent new friend from the waiting room is who my husband has dubbed "The Cowboy".

The Cowboy is a small man wearing jeans and boots, probably about 70 years old, with a weathered face After about 15 minutes I knew his heart. He loves horses, riding horses, teaching kids how to ride horses. Sadly, dialysis has taken a lot of this away from him.

When I asked The Cowboy how many horses he had and if he still rode them, he said, "They ain't goin' to take everything away from me!". I hope the cowboy can ride horses for a long time to come...

An 11 year old neighbor girl, named Australia, is another love of his. Her mother was killed in an automobile accident in Texas when she was only 2 weeks old. So, he and Australia's grandmother, Ms. Helen, went to Texas and brought her back to North Carolina. Australia can ride a horse like nobody's business, right through the middle of town, in the mountains or anywhere, thanks to The Cowboy. She loves the cowboy and he loves her.

I caught a glimpse of Australia when she came to the door of the dialysis center to let him know his ride was there... She is as pretty as the place she is named after.

When a dialysis patient exits the treatment room to the waiting room, they look pale and weak. Some of them are nauseated and some of them experience cramps. Some of them have a loved one waiting for them and others ride a van or on a gurney in an ambulance. Some are amputees and use prosthetic legs. They are all ages.

But they all have one thing in common. Dialysis is their job. It keeps them alive and so they go.....

Sunshine and Shadow

2011-10-27T06:48:00.004-04:00

Life is a little hard right now. Mama is home and undergoing dialysis treatments on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday of each week. She is not doing well with all this. She is weak and has to be moved around in the wheelchair instead of her trusty rolling walker. She can't be left alone and so our family is taking care of her. The good thing is that she is eating well and we have hope that this is only a temporary thing and that she will get stronger. At 86, its not that easy to bounce back!

No matter what we are going through, the seasons keep rolling along.

This picture is of my daughter and grandson enjoying one of the last warm days of fall:

The cotton is gone! I have really enjoyed having it right outside the door all summer and fall.

Have a great day!

Our Fall Garden

2011-10-19T07:25:00.001-04:00

*** Update on Mama. She is still in the hospital and the dialysis treatments she has had in the hospital have been going well, except for the fact that they wipe her out afterwards. I hope that the side effects will get better when she gets used to having the dialysis. Fingers are crossed that she can come home today. Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers.

*********

We still have a few veggies growing outside. These squash are almost ready to start picking. It won't be long before we have a frost, maybe 2 or 3 more weeks, so we need to eat them while we can!

This is the fall garden. These plants are the squash from above, turnips and rutabagas.

Okra:

These are Bell peppers grown in pots that I grew from seed earlier in the summer. The good thing about them being in pots, is that I can protect them from frost by moving them inside a building or under a shelter.

A Small Update

2011-10-14T07:11:00.003-04:00

Update on Mama: Her Nephrologist made the decision that she does need to go on dialysis and so today the surgery to insert the Portacath will be done. I'm not sure how much longer she will be in the hospital, but I suspect at least 2 or 3 more days. As much as I dread this new burden for her, I realize that it is a blessing that dialysis exists to help her live a much longer life. So, "it is what it is!".

Thanks for your comments, thoughts and prayers!

A Couple of Updates

2011-10-11T06:11:00.005-04:00

I haven't mentioned my mother lately, so I thought I would give a little update on her. She is 86 now and slowing down in the things she is able to do. She is still able to attend church every Sunday, but other than that is pretty much home bound.

This week she is in the hospital with kidney function problems. We are hopeful that the doctor can stop the rise in her creatinine levels so that she doesn't have to go on dialysis. For three weeks now the level has hovered around 6 and so her doctor is highly recommending dialysis if the number doesn't come down in the next 2 or 3 days. We could really use your good thoughts and prayers right now! Dialysis would place a great burden on Mama and we are hoping and praying to avoid it.

I will be scarce on the internet this week, both in posting on my blogs and leaving comments. But, I wanted to show you the finished "Razzle Dazzle" quilt. I apologize to those who may have already seen this quilt on my quilting blog.

I can't for the life of me get the pictures on my camera to download to the computer, so I had to settle for these taken with my camera phone, and then sent to my email address.

It was very windy when I was trying to take the pictures.

I hope all of you have a great week. Thanks in advance for your thoughts and prayers. I will give another update on Mama when more is known.

Octoberfest Chili

2011-10-07T06:17:00.005-04:00

Here's how I made our chili for our private Octoberfest last weekend:

Octoberfest Chili

1 lb (or more if you like it meaty)Browned hamburger cooked together with cut up onion and bell pepper. (drained of course)
1 can of original rotel tomatoes
1 regular sized can of diced tomatoes (mine were flavored with garlic, or italian herbs or something)
2 regular sized cans of white beans (navy, great northern, etc.)
2 regular size or 1 big can of pork and beans.
1 large dollop or big rounded tablespoon of tomato paste ( I freeze individual portions of canned tomato paste, because a whole can is too much.)
1 scant tablespoon of chili powder (I pour what looks like a little tablespoon in the palm of my hand and toss it in. It may be less than a tablespoon.)
Sprinkle in some Cumin (optional)
1 cup of water

I'm sorry some of the ingredient amounts are so vague, but chili is one of those dishes that I throw in a little of this and a little of that. Each time its a little different.

Let simmer until flavors have mingled awhile.

We still have three more October weekends, so lets celebrate!

Glimpses of Home

2011-10-06T06:34:00.000-04:00

Octoberfest

2011-10-05T06:25:00.006-04:00

We had our own little private Octoberfest last weekend. We had really nice cool weather and it was perfect for making chili and sewing!

These Hamburger Pinwheels went well with the chili. The recipe can be found HERE.

Quilting progress:

Sorry, but we didn't have any Octoberfest dancing! Maybe next year......

I hope your October is going well!

The Barn

2011-10-04T06:30:00.012-04:00

We've been living in the farmhouse for a year and a half now. The house had been renovated, but the outbuildings were in need of some serious repair. This barn was a solid structure, but needed a lot of work. Here are some before and after pictures.

Those plants beside the barn are our okra.

The sky

2011-10-03T06:45:00.000-04:00

We have had the most beautiful blue skies and puffy white clouds lately. Another one of those things you might not notice, but if you pay attention you will be in awe!

Here are a few pictures.

Early Morning, Early Fall

2011-09-28T06:42:00.003-04:00

I was enjoying an early fall morning recently. It was hovering between mist and fog. The outdoors isn't looking like fall yet, but the summer look is fading. The transition from summer to fall can be seen in the fields as the farmers finish up their harvests. I've seen some tobacco fields that haven't even begun to be "cropped". I would think the farmers are feeling a sense of urgency to get all the crops out of the fields before the temperatures begin to dip lower in October.

It'll only be a couple of months before this Thanksgiving Cactus that has been spending the summer outside will be blooming.

Before first frost I will cut back this Mandevilla and overwinter it in the house.

Our one lone pine tree with the mailbox in the background.

We have been regularly seeing deer gleaning the corn in this recently harvested cornfield.

A few Crape Myrtle blooms are lingering on these trees.

I hope to be observant of the changes that will be occurring in the upcoming months outdoors.

The Joys of Being Stocked Up

2011-09-26T06:39:00.003-04:00

Having a well stocked pantry makes me happy. Its so nice to make a grocery list and realize you need very little. I check off in my mind.... sugar, no...coffee, no....flour, no...., rice or pasta, no... toilet paper, no....

Any time there is a god sale of toilet paper I pick up a couple. Last week Food Lion had Charmin Basic on sale and I picked one up. BUT, when I got home there was no toilet paper in my car. I checked the receipt and I paid for it, but it just didn't make it home with me.

On my next trip to the store, I asked the cashier what I should do about it and she said to just go get another pack, which I did.

The following Monday, one of my coworkers brought me a big pile of toilet paper that her family didn't like. I gladly accepted it.

Even toilet paper can be a blessing!

A Slice of My Life

2011-09-19T06:11:00.005-04:00

Here is a little bit of fall. The Purple Fountain Grass bought for a dollar each on the clearance rack at the garden center have taken off. My hubby brought me two pumpkins recently. I like the way this one is tucked into this little nook.

Our Okra are doing well. I planted them from seed in cups mid-summer and then we transplanted them here. Hubby cuts them every couple of days or so and stores them in the refrigerator. When we accumulate enough to cook, I usually fry them. Yesterday he cooked lunch and fried 2 pans full. I have to admit that his were better than mine!

This is my current project. I finished all 72 blocks yesterday and started sewing the blocks together into rows. I have been posting about it and some other quilting projects on my other blog, ANGEL SCRAPS QUILTING.

I had to laugh when I saw how tall these Lantana bushes had grown in front of the drive through menu at McDonalds. Anyone who needs to order from the bottom will have a hard time. I've totally kicked my sweet tea habit. Drinking Diet Cokes isn't the healthiest alternative, but at least its better for watching my calories. I need to switch to water, I know, I know!

This picture was taken out the back door of our home. The cotton is very sparse in this field, as we did not have much rain the entire summer. In fact, I've seen fields that have already been picked with this much cotton left over.

I have to tell you this story. My hubby was mowing grass a week ago, when a car stopped on the side of the road. Three young people got out and proceeded to take pictures of each other in the cotton field while pulling their shirts up and revealing their bare chests. They were far enough away from him so that he didn't see the "details", but he could tell what they were doing. OK, whoever you are, that was kind of weird!

Well, that's a slice of my life for this week. Fall begins later this week. YAY!

Morning Glory

2011-09-14T06:01:00.001-04:00

Bittersweet

2011-09-12T06:25:00.006-04:00

Its time to say goodbye to the Zinnia bed......

One last look......

Sign of Fall

2011-09-08T06:46:00.005-04:00

While sewing this on Saturday....

...I kept hearing a rumbling noise....

When I checked to see what it was, this is what I found:

Okra Fritters

2011-09-05T15:36:00.005-04:00

We planted a late row of okra and they are finally beginning to bear. This means we will be eating okra until first frost.

My mother often talks about how her mother could cook such delicious meals and made use of everything in delicious dishes. One thing she reminisces about is her mother's okra fritters. Evidently, when there were only a few okra, she would make okra fritters. I'm sure feeding 11 children was a challenge, but my grandmother rose to the challenge and excelled in the kitchen.

I don't know the recipe Grandma used, but I came up with my own. Basically, I made my fried cornbread recipe and just added some okra that I partially cooked in the microwave. I added a small amount of chopped onion, but I don't think it added anything to the taste of the fritters.

The batter:

Frying in the pan:

The fritters:

The verdict: We like them a lot. I made too many! I think they will be good reheated on a cookie sheet in the oven on a low temperature.

I also put away in the freezer one bag of mashed potatoes for a side dish to a future meal.

Happy Tuesday!

Friday Sewing Report

2011-09-02T05:52:00.004-04:00

Happy Labor Day Weekend!

I'm looking forward to the three day weekend. I hope to do some sewing and housekeeping.

I've set up some sewing projects in the sewing room to work on beginning now and during the fall and winter. I posted about this yesterday on my quilting blog. Click HERE to read that post.

I would also like to restock my Etsy Shop and so last night I made the above clothespin bag. Click HERE to visit. I looked back through the items I have sold and this is the 8th bag I've made using this fabric.

Another item I plan to make for my Etsy Shop is a Thomas the Train quilted play mat. I found enough of the fabric to make 2 more mats. I've had some interest in these, so hopefully someone will want one for their little boy. Christmas is coming, you know!

My grandson enjoying his mat last summer:

I hope you enjoy your weekend!

Spiderman Fabric Basket

2011-09-01T06:19:00.003-04:00

I'm on a mission to finish some UFOs, aka WIPs. What ever you want to call them, I hate to have them hanging around.

I cut out this fabric basket quite a while back and finally got down to the business of finishing it up earlier this week.

I'm going to fill it up with books and other little boy goodies for a surprise for my grandson.

Its nice to finish something, even if its something small!

Photos of the week

2011-08-30T20:58:00.004-04:00

My grandson is four!!!

This is an old Southern home that has been turned into an accountant's office, and is located right beside the CVS where I shop. Imagine the sound this huge old tree made when being uprooted during Hurricane Irene. The city workers had quite a job cleaning up the portion of the tree blocking a major street in town, but this part of the tree hasn't been removed yet.

Cat on a hot tin mailbox!

Freezer Inventory

2011-08-30T06:15:00.000-04:00

The thing about freezer cooking is that you must continue to put more food in the freezer consistently in order to keep the inventory up. You also have to keep a list of what is in there in order to know what you have and make sure you use what you have. I've really been enjoying having a variety of meals and meal starters in the freezer.

Sunday, after the power came back on, I did some batch cooking of chicken breasts that were on sale this week for 99 cents a pound.

Here's a list of what is in the freezer now:

Browned ground beef and onion (1)
Individually wrapped baked chicken breasts (5)
Shredded BBQ chicken for burritos (1 bag)
Baked cubed chicken (1 bag)
Great Northern beans (3 bags)
Chicken Broth (several bags)
Oatmeal muffins
Slices of banana bread
Brownies
Shredded boiled chicken (1 bag)
Vegetable beef soup (3 bags)
Hamburger Patties (4)

These are the freezer foods we've eaten since I began seriously putting them away:

Chicken pot pie and dressing
Italian chicken
Chicken Tetrazinni
Meatballs
Meatloaf
Hamburger stroganoff
Hamburgers
Chicken Pastry using a bag of broth
brownies
oatmeal muffins
banana bread

Most of my freezer inventory is made up of meal starters. During my next batch cooking session I hope to freeze some side dishes and possibly complete meals. I think some bags of rice would be handy.

Good Night Irene

2011-08-29T06:59:00.004-04:00

Hurricane Irene has gone on to hassle some other people. Our damage was minimal because Irene's track was east of us. We did have high winds and lots of rain.

The zinnias didn't like it:

The plants have been carted back to their places:

A little rearrangement:

Hopefully this week will be quieter! No hurricanes or earthquakes I hope!

IRENE, GO AWAY

2011-08-26T05:52:00.004-04:00

I hope we won't need them, but the flashlights are ready!

IRENE GO AWAY!

Work Night Sewing

2011-08-25T06:30:00.000-04:00

I had a request to make some burp cloths, so I've been working on that the last couple of nights after work.

Here's my work in progress.

I love to pick up unusual fabric from the remnant bin at fabric stores and fabric departments. I just check the size to make sure its big enough to use. Actually, no matter how small it is I can usually use it in a quilt. This Boyd's Bears flannel was a recent find. It was about 22 inches wide, just big enough to make two burp cloths. I washed, dried and ironed the fabric before beginning. Then after placing the fabric right sides together, I cut 2 sets of rectangles about 11 by 22. I traced around a cup on the corners to make them round. Then I sewed around the edge leaving an opening for turning. After turning and pressing, I sewed a decorative stitch around the edge.

I think these will be so soft for a baby to lay his or her head on Mom's or Dad's shoulder.

Here are a couple of the burp cloths that will be quilted. So far I've finished the tops, but will make the quilt sandwich, quilt and bind them over the next few days.

The burp cloth sets will include three quilted ones in pinks and two of the flannel Bears ones.

On the to do list! Some how over time the Grandma Quilt that I have been hand quilting has become a work space for all the scraps I have been pulling to make burp cloths, mug rugs and various other sewing projects. Its right beside the ironing board, so I just reach over and find the color of fabrics I need, iron it and then cut it. Its turned into quite a mess, so I plan to straighten this out and actually start the hand quilting again, after several months of not touching it.

In fact the condition of the entire sewing room has deteriorated to the point I need to straighten it out so I can enjoy sewing more.

Quilts and Quakes!

2011-08-24T06:37:00.002-04:00

Two rare events happened yesterday! I finished a quilt and we had a rare earthquake. Feeling an earthquake is the weirdest feeling. I wish I had known it was coming, so I could have paid more attention. At first I thought it was someone working on the roof of our office building. Then I thought it was a freak tornado or storm, but the skies were blue. When it was over and I told my coworkers it must have been an earthquake. They thought I was crazy, but it wasn't long before we found out it really was an earthquake.

Of course, there was no damage from the earthquake. Now if Hurricane Irene will stay out to sea, we can get back to normal around here.

Here is the quilt that I finished. My summer quilting has been almost nonexistent. Time to get back on track!

Pantry Possibilities

2011-08-23T06:34:00.008-04:00

Sometimes you have to use your imagination to come up with some food storage ideas. Most any nook or cranny of your home can serve this purpose, if you just look around.

Not all of them have to be utilitarian either. Some can even add to the charm of your home.

Here are a few areas that make up my pantry!

Just be sure to tell family members where everything is, so no one panics when they need a certain food item.

Weekend Freezer Baking

2011-08-22T06:39:00.002-04:00

Lately on Saturday mornings I have been doing some batch freezer cooking. This past Saturday I dedicated my time to doing some baking. The yield: Brownies, oatmeal muffins and banana bread. I packaged them into individual servings and popped them in the freezer for some quick breakfasts and lunch box treats.

The brownies were from a box mix, but the oatmeal muffins and banana bread came from the Hillbilly Housewife Website HERE and HERE. I loved the way both of them turned out. The muffins are healthy and not too sweet. The banana bread came out moist and tasty, thanks to the step by step instructions. The recipe called for grated orange peel, which I didn't have on hand. I will definitely be making more of these with the grated orange peel to freeze and to give as gifts.

Here are a few pictures of my freezer baking session:

Freezer Cooking Report

2011-08-19T06:00:00.007-04:00

This is the first week that I really put the freezer cooking I've been doing to the test. The result: YUM!

Three of our nightly meals were from the freezer.

1. Hamburger Stroganoff served over egg noodles: I froze 2 bags of browned ground beef and onion. The morning of the day I was to use it, I put one bag on a plate in the fridge. When I got home I dumped it into a frying pan, added the ingredients and heated it through. I cooked the egg noodles and heated a can of tiny sweet peas. This fed 3 adults for supper and provided 3 lunches.

2. Italian Chicken: On my freezer cooking day I cooked some boneless chicken breasts smothered in pasta sauce. After it finished cooking and cooled, I put the chicken and some of the pasta sauce in a freezer bag. In preparation for the meal this week, I put the frozen chicken on a plate in the fridge to thaw. When I got home from work I dumped it into a baking dish covered with foil to heat. After about 30 minutes I removed the foil and sprinkled some mozzarella cheese on top and baked for a few more minutes to melt the cheese. I cooked a small box of spaghetti to serve the chicken over and also fried some okra. To add a little more flavor to the spaghetti noodles, I added a tablespoon of butter and some Parmesan cheese. This was definitely a hit with us all.

3. Hamburgers: I froze hamburger patties, individually wrapped. After deciding how many hamburgers we needed, I placed them on a plate in the fridge to thaw. When I got home I just cooked the burgers. I also made potato salad. Delicious!

Eventually I hope to have a good supply of side dishes in the freezer as well. This week I was able to use some main dishes from the freezer, but had to come up with side dishes.

Saturday my plan is to do some baking. I want to make some muffins, brownies and cookies for the freezer. Sorry "Little Debbie"!

My Pantry Plan

2011-08-18T07:15:00.001-04:00

Question: If for some reason you weren't able to buy food, for what ever reason, how long could you survive?

Lately, I've been feeling the urge to stock our pantry so that we have plenty of food on hand in case of emergency and also to save money. I'm not going to take it to the extreme, but I think having a good supply of food is a smart idea. You never know when hard times will come or an emergency will happen.

I spent some time this week organizing my food storage shelves:

The steps I am taking to achieve a well stocked pantry:

1. Research on line and examine our eating habits to come up with a list of items to buy.

2. Organize the food storage areas that I already have so that the extra food can be stored properly.

3. Be vigilant about stocking up on staples during unbeatable sales, especially if the price can be reduced even further with coupons.

4. Keep an inventory of the pantry so that the oldest food will always be used first and so that I always know what is available for meals.

5. Plan menus and grocery lists around what is in the pantry.

6. Keep a list of recipes that use the pantry staples in many different ways.

7. Continue with my freezer cooking plans.

I don't have a walk in pantry or a basement to store food in, but I can use what I do have to the best of my ability, so that my family will be provided for.

Sorry I don't have any pictures. Camera problems this morning!

Happy Thursday!

Blooming Tuesday - Mid August, 2011

2011-08-15T19:22:00.013-04:00

Its Blooming Tuesday at Mrs. Green Thumb Jean's blog.We are creeping toward the end of an extremely hot and dry summer in Eastern North Carolina. We have watered our plants almost every single day!

Here are a few that are still looking pretty good.

A close up of a red Petunia right after being watered.

The Zinnias are still blooming, but I do need to do some serious dead heading!

Lavender Petunias:

Sweet Williams:

Yellow Four O'clocks:

A different view of the Zinnias:

Crinum Lillies:

This lime green Coleus has grown to be a HUGE plant!:

I love how these Gerbera Daisies mimic the ones on the flower pot:

The back door of a birdhouse:

I put these two pictures at the bottom so as to not freak you out too much!

The Cotton Field

2011-08-15T05:56:00.005-04:00

A Southern Summer experience... walking barefoot through the sandy soil in a cotton field.

Lack of rain has kept the cotton from growing as big as it normally would and the soil is dry and powdery.

Pantry Dreams

2011-08-11T06:39:00.002-04:00

Back in the early days of my blog, I regularly participated in Frugal Friday at Biblical Womanhood. In looking back I did 57 of those posts! I thought it would be a good idea to repost some of the oldest ones, especially when I've got a busy morning and no blog idea in sight!

Here's one that goes along with the posts I have been doing this week. I hope you enjoy the re-post.

I love looking at pictures of pantries and thought you might like to see these pictures I found in a couple of library books. Having a pantry is a very frugal and economical thing to do and getting ideas from other pantries can be very helpful in getting motivated.

These books were published in the early eighties. I checked out several "organizing books" and noted that none of the newer books had information about pantries.

This is a quote from one page:

"The larder is an old-fashioned idea that's worth a second look. The handsome built-in storehouses featured here are great for cooks who like to stockpile canned and packaged foods when they're on special at the supermarket or who buy large quantities of their favorite fruits and vegetables at height-of-the-season prices.

If your larder is primarily for fresh produce, its best to keep it cool and dark. Use wire shelves or vents to the outdoors (cover them with fine window-screenmesh) to keep air circulating, and avoid storing any bruised or damaged produce."

So being frugal by having a pantry, aka a larder, is definitely not a new idea. But, most of us don't have pantries like these, so we have to make do with what ever we have. Any cabinet, closet or box can be the start of your own pantry.

Here's a post about my pantry with pictures that I did for Frugal Friday once before.

I hope these pictures will give you some great ideas for creating a pantry/larder or for improving the one you already have.

I especially like the pictures that have shelves for cookbooks.

Pantry Buster

2011-08-10T06:16:00.006-04:00

One item on the menu last night was green beans. When canned vegetables are on sale at a good price I tend to stock up on green beans, whole kernel corn, creamed corn, garden peas and mixed vegetables. The only problem is that we don't eat the green beans all that well and I seemed to have accumulated quite a few cans of them. I put together this side dish last night using two of them.

I also had some small potatoes and some ham bits for seasoning vegetables. So I made a pot of green beans, potatoes and ham bits. It was pretty good, nutritious, fairly low calorie and went well with the bbq chicken.

I carefully checked for the oldest cans of green beans by checking the expiration dates. That's an important thing I am trying to be consistent about. Over the weekend I found a can of cranberry sauce and a box of brownie mix that had recently reached their expiration dates, so I made sure to use those immediately. I was so glad to save them from being wasted.

Once I opened the package of ham bits/seasoning meat, I divided the remainder into 4 or 5 small individually wrapped packages and placed them in a labeled ziplock bag in the freezer. That way they won't spoil before I can use them. Since each package contains just enough to be used in one side dish, this will be very convenient.

Most of our main dishes come from the freezer and the side dishes come from the pantry. I hope to put together winning side dishes that we will come back to over and over.

Tonight its fried bologna sandwiches!!!

Our Menus For This Week

2011-08-09T06:44:00.004-04:00

Wow, what a busy weekend with all the freezer cooking I did! I want to direct your attention to a new blog on the blog list on my side bar. Cutting Back Kitchen is a great blog if you are interested in freezer cooking and saving money in the kitchen. Katie writes very informative articles containing recipes, money saving ideas all from a Christian point of view.

Here are my menus for this week, some of which have already been eaten. I tend to plan my menus from Saturday through Friday, since I usually buy groceries on Friday.

Saturday: Chicken Pot Pie, Dressing

Sunday: "Planned Over" Chicken Pot Pie, Dressing, Cranberry Sauce and Brownies.

Monday: We celebrated a family member's birthday with Lasagna, Broccoli and Cheese, Garlic Bread and Cheese cake with 25 candles on top!

Tuesday: Oven Barbecued Chicken with Carolina Treet BBQ sauce, Potatoes Au Gratin, Green Beans

Wednesday:Fried Bologna Sandwiches, Chips/and or leftovers

Thursday: Eggplant Parmesan. There are at least a dozen eggplants on the one plant in our garden! I may change this to some other kind of way to cook eggplant. I don't really like them, but its a shame not to use them. I will be looking for homes for the eggplants because I'm sure there are some egg plant lovers around here somewhere!

Friday:BBQ Meatballs, Macaroni and Cheese.

Happy Tuesday!

My Freezer Cooking Weekend

2011-08-07T17:33:00.010-04:00

Now that we have a small chest freezer, I decided to give freezer cooking a serious try. I feel pretty successful in that I was able to store away in the freezer a good selection of foods in the limited amount of time I had over the weekend. Now that I'm getting the hang of it, I want to gradually add to my stash of freezer foods.

Here is a list of what I accomplished:

2 gallon freezer bags and 1 quart bag of homemade vegetable beef soup, using our home grown tomatoes as the main ingredient

1 chicken pot pie and dressing for 3 adults

5 bags of chicken broth containing 2 cups each and 1 quart bag containing 4 cups

Italian chicken cooked and ready to reheat. I will add mozzarella cheese on top before baking.

1 bag of 20 Italian meatballs.

1 family size chicken tetrazzini

1 meatloaf mix (unbaked)

1 bag containing 2 cups of cubed baked chicken

1 pan of bbq chicken that I put in the fridge to be eaten Tuesday night.

6 individually wrapped brownies.

I made a huge pot of the vegetable beef soup and wanted to only put the amount of soup needed for a meal in one bag. These are the mugs that we like to use for soup, so I measured out how much each mug holds and then put that much in each bag. Each mug holds 3 cups, so I put 6 cups of the soup in each bag.

Some brownies for now....

And some for later in the freezer. My hubby can put a frozen brownie in his lunch bag and by lunch time it will be thawed and ready to eat.

I will use these meatballs to make spaghetti and meatballs, sweet and sour or bbq meatballs. If they taste good, I plan to make several more bags because they were easy to make and freeze well. I laid them out on a plate to freeze individually before putting them in the freezer bag.

Here the chicken tetrazzini was cooling before I put it a gallon size freezer bag. When I am ready to serve it, I will let it thaw in the fridge, then put it in a baking dish and add some cheese on top.

I also made some tomato juice for my hubby. I put some in the fridge for him to drink while it was fresh...

and these freezer containers hold more for later.

I think having some meals and meal starters in the freezer will make a huge difference in the ease of menu planning. We'll see!

This post in linked to Stone Gable's "ON THE MENU MONDAY".

Afternoon Tea, Anyone?

2011-08-04T06:47:00.004-04:00

This is a set of five teacups and saucers given to me by my sweet sister in law. Aren't they beautiful?!! I love them. My sister in law and her husband received them as a wedding gift over 50 years ago. Since she knows I like tea cups, she thought I would enjoy them.

The name of the pattern on the bottom of the cups is "Old Foley", James Kent Ltd, Staffordshire, Made in England, 5440 and there is a hand written "11" on each cup and saucer.

My thanks go to my Sister in law!

Lunch! A very frugal thing

2011-08-03T06:17:00.003-04:00

I take my lunch to work most of the time, thanks to my hubby who packs our lunches every morning. In the summer my favorite thing is a ham sandwich with tomato. I take a small tomato in a separate container and slice it right before eating the sandwich. It is SO good!

A recent lunch:

From the side:

Hubby believes in making a substantial sandwich!

There is no telling how much money we have saved by taking our lunch. He really loves to take leftovers, which helps to keep them in check. Besides the fact that we save a lot of money, there aren't too many choices for him in restaurants because of the location of his office.

Happy August and Menu Plan Monday

2011-08-01T06:37:00.006-04:00

Its always nice when a new month begins. Its like a new year, just on a smaller scale. Its like turning over a new leaf and a chance to start over again. I'm excited that August is here, because it means we are getting closer to Autumn!

Here are some things on our menu this week:

BLTs made with our home grown tomatoes

Cream Cheese and broccoli Chicken
Pasta
Peas

Spaghetti
green beans
Homemade bread (Thanks MJW)

Vegetable beef soup
Grilled cheese sandwiches

I Hope your August is great. It'll be in the upper nineties here this week, actually flirting with 100, but that's ok. It won't belong before we'll be experiencing some football weather.

This post is linked to Organizing Junkie's Menu Plan Monday.

A Little Napkin Sewing

2011-07-28T06:57:00.002-04:00

I have been doing a little sewing, in between the summer busyness going on around here. I wanted to make some more napkins to match my table runner. This fabric has a definite Fall look about it, but that's ok by me. August is next week. Can Fall be far behind?

I made these napkins larger than I usually do, in one layer. I found a tutorial on line that made mitering the corners very easy. I could not understand some of the other tutorials, but this one worked well. Then I used a leaf stitch on Big Brother to put a little decorative stitch on there.

Mitered corner napkins with decorative stitch:

Front:

Back:

Crock Pot Cooking with Fresh Veggies

2011-07-27T06:48:00.005-04:00

I love to cook using my slow cooker, but my slow cooker cooks too hot and fast to trust on its own for a whole day while at work. But, it does great if I'm only away from home for a few hours. So using the slow cooker on Sunday mornings is perfect.

Summer time is also a good time to use a slow cooker because it doesn't heat up the house like an oven would.

This past Sunday Morning I made Beef Stew in the slow cooker. It turned out great! I used some of our ripe tomatoes, potatoes, onions, carrots, a small package of stew beef and a few spices.

Tomatoes are plentiful right now, thanks to my hubby's unceasing effort to keep them watered all summer.

They are in buckets:

On Tables:

Pretty Tomatoes:

Ugly Heirloom Tomatoes:

All shapes and sizes!

Want some?

Blooming Tuesday

2011-07-26T06:28:00.004-04:00

Today is Blooming Tuesday at Mrs. Green Thumb Jean's Blog.

My hubby made this huge bouquet of crepe myrtle blossoms. Wouldn't several of these be pretty sitting around at a casual outdoor party, such as a cook out?

My hubby also made these two teacup bird feeders for me. I love them!

Here is part of the process of making the china cup bird feeders. My hubby found the things needed to make them at a local hardware store. I bought the china cup and saucers at a thrift store last fall.

A bouquet of Zinnias on the kitchen table.

This is the Mandevilla that I overwintered this past year. You may remember it as the plant that kept trying to get outside at the dining room window. Its come a long way. I hope I can keep it through another winter.

These are wild petunias. I wish all the plants in my yard fared as well as these do. I don't do anything to help them, yet they grow and grow, happy as can be.

On the eastern side of our yard are cotton fields, as far as you can see. They are just beginning to bloom.

Can't wait until late fall, when the whole field will be covered in white cotton, just like snow.

Decluttering and Organizing the Laurndry Room

2011-07-25T06:44:00.004-04:00

Before: I love my laundry room, but things sitting on the shelf fall over and look cluttered. In fact, two bottles of shampoo fell off and sit behind the water heater. As far as I can tell, they may be there forever.

After: I organized all the items on the shelves into plastic containers. One contains personal items, such as shampoo, soap, contact lens solution, toothbrushes, etc. One contains cleaning and dusting cloths and kitchen towels and cloths. The other two contain cleaning supplies of all kinds.

It definitely looks neater!

Growing

2011-07-23T16:28:00.007-04:00

Ever notice how the heat doesn't really bother kids? This one is almost 4 years old. I can't believe how time flies.

Even though he is getting taller and lankier, he won't catch these Zinnias this year. Maybe next year, when he will almost be a kindergartner.

Let me tell you a little about this special guy. Even though there were other foods that I personally would have preferred, he ate watermelon, tomatoes, strawberries, boiled egg and a brownie, for lunch. He skipped the lasagna altogether! Generally when he eats a meal at my house, I know that I need to have some raw fruits and vegetables on hand, because that's what he will want.

Cool Breeze!

Our Newest Crop

2011-07-21T06:31:00.004-04:00

The first crop of okra that we planted never came up, so we are trying again. I grew these from seed in recycled cups.

In an effort to outsmart the heat and drought, we planted them here with a soaker hose all ready to go.

Farming is hard, even in our small kitchen garden. People who farm for a living have a hard job!

No Waste Equals Work

2011-07-20T06:15:00.004-04:00

I made an apple crisp Sunday. It was good, but it didn't fall in the category of recipes that I would post on the blog or probably use again. I really didn't have the ingredients on hand that would have made it spectacular! I had some apples in the refrigerator that had been there for a while and I made the apple crisp to prevent them from going bad.

It takes a lot of work and vigilance to make sure there is as little waste in the kitchen as possible. Especially this time of year when there are fresh vegetables coming in the house quicker than you can process them. Picking peas before work and then shelling them after work and then freezing them the next morning before work is one way to handle this!

You have to be vigilant about what is in your refrigerator, freezer and pantry, to make sure you are using things before their expiration date or before they turn to mush.

Sometimes its easier to just buy new food than to take the time to make meal plans using what you have.

I'm trying to do better.

Blooming Tuesday

2011-07-19T06:34:00.001-04:00

Its Blooming Tuesday over at Ms. Green Thumb Jean's Blog.

Yesterday I showed this picture, which I love. Well, here it is again,as well as some more pictures from my yard this past weekend.

Peekaboo bird houses:

Mr. Sunshine catching some sun:

A garden angel and tiny Lantana blooms.

A butterfly showing off his wings:

The Zinnias are still blooming around the birdhouses.

Another color of Sunflower:

These two are in competition for the brightest pink.

Eggplant blooms! I wish I liked to eat them....

A Sweet William in the middle of a bunch of mint.

Lots of color:

A Little Sunflower Whimsey

2011-07-18T06:52:00.002-04:00

On this beautiful July weekend, I walked around the yard looking for some interesting little things to photograph that I might normally have missed.

I was so surprised when I looked at this picture and noticed the blue sky with fluffy white clouds in the background, even if I did accidently include my hand!

These are other shots, but none of these had the same cloud formations.

Can you tell I really like Sunflowers?

Have a great Monday and look for something you might have otherwise have missed.

A Slice of My Life

2011-07-15T06:48:00.005-04:00

I already knew this, but, it makes more of an impact when you see it in person.

HEIRLOOM TOMATOES ARE UGLY!!!

In contrast, a gentle breeze blowing through the Crape Myrtle trees, blowing the tiny blooms around like snow, is beautiful! The picture doesn't show the detail, but there is a carpet of purple on the ground.

My weekend plans: Peas, tomatoes, squash and quilting, and oh yea... cleaning, laundry.....

Cooking With Fresh Tomatoes

2011-07-13T06:49:00.002-04:00

We are getting lots of tomatoes from our little kitchen garden and I am trying to make use of each and every one of them. We've been eating them in salads, on tomato sandwiches and I've been freezing them.

Leave it to me to make a pot of chili on the hottest day we've had so far this year! But, you can't beat the taste of homemade chili, spaghetti sauce or vegetable soup made with fresh home grown tomatoes. You just have to make sure the air conditioning is working well before you decide to cook one of these in the summer time.

This is how I used the tomatoes to make chili yesterday after I got home from work.

I put a pot of water on to boil and dropped the ripe tomatoes in, a few at a time. I set the timer on the stove for 1 minute.

As soon as the buzzer went off I lifted them from the boiling water with a slotted spoon and transferred them to a bowl of ice water With an assembly line going, I continued the process over and over until all of the tomatoes had been boiled for one minute and then cooled.

The tomato peelings slide off as if by magic and there is very little waste. If I tried to peel the tomatoes with a knife, I would never peel them this perfectly. These are all of the peelings from a big bowl of tomatoes.

These are the tomatoes after the peelings were all removed.

Quartering the tomatoes on a cutting board is the easiest way to get all the cores and any spots that need to be trimmed off. After removing the bad stuff I cut the good stuff up into small pieces and added them to the pot that I was using to make the chili in.

I brought the tomatoes to a boil and cooked them until they were the right consistency. I added beans, browned ground beef cooked with onion and bell pepper, chili powder, a little salt and pepper, cumin and whatever else I saw in the spice cabinet that I thought would work.

Yield: Mugs of chili with a little cheese sprinkled on top, served with crackers.

This was a good meal, but it would be REALLY good in October!

There is a season for everything.

2011-07-12T06:19:00.004-04:00

Yesterday I noticed that the school supply displays are going up in all the stores and the school supply sales are in all the drug store sales papers. The Fall decorations are out at Dollar Tree! Today and tomorrow our temperatures will break the 100 mark, but remember this picture? Only 6 months ago, our yard looked like this.

I love living in a place that has such a variety of weather!

Summer Activities

2011-07-11T06:26:00.005-04:00

Its that time of year when my outdoor activities are restricted to early morning or very late afternoon. The rest of the days are spent indoors, or running outside for a max of 10 minutes at a time.

I've been working on this baby quilt with "Don't call me Betsy" for a couple of weeks and yesterday afternoon I I enjoyed the coolness of the indoors and finished the top. Its the Kaleidoscope pattern. I'll be quilting it this week.... as soon as I get a crib size quilt batting.

"FLOWER CHILD" for baby Aven:

Early Saturday morning I picked peas and put up 4 more bags. That makes 14 bags so far. I also froze 2 more bags of tomatoes.

Here are some of the morning glories. They aren't coping too well with the heat, poor babies. I think I need to quit watering altogether, and what ever lives, then only plant those next year. Just kidding! But, I do want to plant more drought resistant plants to cut down on the work load of watering all summer around here.

Happy Monday!

Debbie J.

Autumn and Winter Dreams

2011-07-08T07:10:00.004-04:00

In typical summer fashion, its VERY hot and humid here in Eastern North Carolina! I'm not whining, I promise. Just making a statement....

I am dreaming of a cool, crisp fall or winter day when I will have a nice pot of vegetable soup simmering on the stove.

These "maters and peas" will come in handy!

These new cucumber plants already have tiny baby cucumbers on them. You have to look close!

We filled in some vacant spaces in the garden with some new tomato plants that I grew from seed. These are called "Box Car Willie".

The cucumber plants will grow on the strings hubby has provided for them.

Its been a busy week! Hope yours was good. Have a great weekend too!

Storing Provisions in Summer, Part Two

2011-07-06T06:44:00.005-04:00

A few of my summer blooms:

Growing your own plants from seeds is much easier once the weather is warm enough to keep them outside. I planted some more tomatoes, okra and cucumbers and placed them in a sheltered area, where I could water them and monitor their progress. They will be planted in the garden to replace other plants that have either finished producing or died. The Tomatoes are another heirloom variety called, "Box Car Willie". The good thing about having a long growing season is being able to grow plants from April until October.

These tomatoes are ripening on the counter and will be either eaten, canned or frozen.

A bucket of zuccini, peas and eggplants.

Over the weekend I froze 10 pint bags of peas. In the South these are called Field Peas.

Ready for blanching:

Wow, its July 6th already! Hope your summer is going well.

Storing Provisions in Summer

2011-07-05T05:55:00.003-04:00

This summer I am working on "storing provisions in Summer". This Bible verse keeps running through my head as I work on canning and freezing:

Look to the ant, you sluggard, consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest. Proverbs 6:6-8.

This verse teaches us that we should be wise and plan for the future. Not everyone has access to a garden or have produce given to them. But everyone can make the best of their own situation to provide food for themselves and their family. It doesn't mean that you have to have a pantry full of home canned goods.There are many ways to be wise with planning our food for the future.

There is also the Bible verse: She is like the merchant ships, bringing her food from afar. Proverbs 31:14. In our day, "afar" could be the Kroger or Food Lion across town.

"Summer" could be anytime that there is a good sale or its the time of year for a certain food to be plentiful. It could be a farmer's market or the local produce stand.

Even the person who lives near a store and purchases food daily or weekly as needed can plan menus and shop wisely.

I have been learning about canning this summer and so far have canned 20 quarts of sweet pickles. I have plans for canning more items such as jelly and tomatoes.

Saturday I tried my hand at pickled squash. I will only put up a few jars of these as a trial to see if they are something we would really make use of. So far, hubby loves them! If our squash supply holds up I will try to put up 8 more pints.

They are pretty to look at!

Pickled squash are easy to make. You layer squash and onions with pickling salt and ice for 3 hours.

The liquid is made up of vinegar, sugar, celery seeds, mustard seeds and tumeric. Add the rinsed squash and veggies to the liquid and bring to a boil. Add them to the jars and process in a water bath canner for 10 minutes.

My new favoritte sound? The sound of a canning lid going "PING"!

Reader Input - Eggplant

2011-07-02T09:45:00.002-04:00

How do you cook yours?

Regrouping for July

2011-06-30T06:40:00.003-04:00

I've been inspired to be more organized, more frugal and to get more things done lately. I'm not sure what has triggered this... But, I've seen some interesting blogs lately and revisited LAINE'S LETTERS and FLYLADY.

I felt such an accomplishment after working in our bedroom over the weekend, that I hope I will be on a roll to work in other areas of the house. Trust me, there are several areas that could use some help!

Even though I was tired and not in the mood to really do anything, here's what I did after getting home yesterday.

1. Cooked supper and cleaned up the kitchen.
2. Watered outside plants in containers
3. Decluttered my car.
4. Gathered up all library books to be returned and put them in the car.
5. Threw away a pile of magazines, sales papers, church bulletins, etc. that had accumulated on the ottoman.
6. Spent a few minutes deadheading the Rose Campions that have been dead for a while.
7. Picked and washed squash
8. Cut out the remaining triangles of fabric needed for the Quilt Along I am doing.
9. Put a load of laundry that was washed before work in the dryer and folded them.
10. Went through the bills that needed to be paid for July.

The three areas I want to work on in July are: 1. Spending less; 2. Getting the house organized, cleaned and in order; and 3. work on and enjoy my gardening and quilting.

I hope to limit the money spent at the grocery store in July by making the most of fresh produce and by using whats already in the pantry.

Have a great Thursday!

Summer Time Eating - Good and Frugal

2011-06-29T08:40:00.002-04:00

Food in the summer time is so good! And easy on the pocketbook too.

A delicious summer time meal was these grilled pork chops, corn on the cob and squash. The corn was given to us, the pork chops were on sale and marked down (still had 3 days on the expiration sticker) and the squash were grown in our garden. Total cost of the meal, enough for 3 or 4 was about $4.00.

The jars of pickles are adding up, one small batch at a time:

The makings for BLTs:

Freshly dug potatoes sizzling in a pan:

These cucumbers and squash are washed and waiting to be eaten. I like to peel and slice a couple of cucumbers, place them in a small, shallow dish with a little vinegar. Sprinkle a little salt and pepper on top and you've got a delicious fresh vegetable to snack on while cooking your meal.

Now is the time to take advantage of all those fresh veggies and fruits, while they are available. Between what we grow and what we are given, we usually can't even eat it all.

What's your favorite summer food?

A Stroll Through My Garden

2011-06-28T08:53:00.002-04:00

When I was growing up the garden was the place where vegetables were grown:

The yard was where flowers, shrubs and trees were grown. So I feel a little fancy calling my yard, "my garden".

But, when I looked at these pictures, I realized most of these plants were growing in containers. So the Blog Post Title should have been "A STROLL THROUGH MY CONTAINER GARDEN", I guess.

My 86 year old mother went to a private school through 8th grade and this desk was used in that school. There's a good chance that she sat in it at one time or another. Its a small child's desk, maybe 1st grade through 3rd grade. The desks were connected to each other in rows and bolted to the floor.

The Zinnias are doing well, considering they have been battered by two windy thunder storms recently.

Some other spots in the "garden".

This post is linked to MRS. GREEN THUMB JEAN'S BLOOMING TUESDAY. Why not take a stroll through some gardens, much prettier than mine!

Farmhouse Decorating and Decluttering

2011-06-27T08:42:00.002-04:00

One of the easiest and definitely the most frugal way to redecorate a room is to declutter it. I spent the majority of the day on Saturday decluttering and cleaning our bedroom. This meant I needed to work in the closet as well, because some things in the bedroom needed to be moved there. I cleaned underneath all the furniture, except for one that was too heavy for me to move. I plan to clean under it soon.

A white, summer weight blanket helped to lighten up the room. The colors of pink and brown in the room come from the quilt which is the inspiration piece. In the summer we remove the quilt at night, but when Fall comes, all we need to do is pull the quilt up over us.

The vintage chair was in the kitchen, but I think it looks nice here.

The painting on the mantel was inherited by my hubby. It was painted by a deceased family member. The colors in the roses and the frame go with the pink and brown colors in the room. The little white rabbit was made by my hubby's mother who did a lot of ceramics many years ago.

Do you see the painted over crack on the wall. These walls are made of plaster, which is one reason you don't see a lot of pictures and things on the wall. I do think it gives the room character, though.

Inside the fireplace is our wicker, fabric lined laundry basket.

I removed all the "junque" that was on my dresser and made this runner. Then I added the flameless candle, pictures and silk flower arrangement. These things were already in the room, I just rearranged them. Before, I had jewelry, perfume, a basket of nail polish and other assorted clutter on there. It was not attractive and made it hard to dust.

I have been saving this little bird's nest that the wind blew into the yard. Those "eggs" are marbles that I found in the yard too.

I had enough fabric left from making the runner to make the small pillow on the bed.

The Fan may not be pretty, but its a necessity! At least its small and a nice color!

A vase of pink Zinnias and the first Crape Myrtle blossom of the year.

In Flylady style, I am choosing a room and then concentrating on it until its clean, decluttered and decorated. I have a little more to do in the bedroom and the bedroom closet needs a Saturday of work too!

After The Storm

2011-06-24T07:17:00.002-04:00

We got a good soaking rain, also some damaging winds. But, no worries! Everything has been put back to normal. Several of my favorite flower pots were broken, but other than that, there was no permanent damage.

I hope all of you have a wonderful weekend.

Don't forget to check out my Quilting Blog if quilting is of interest to you: Angel Scraps Quilting.

Bloom Where You Are Planted

2011-06-23T06:34:00.003-04:00

I snapped this picture on the way out the back door of my office this week.

I am always amazed when I see a plant growing in the most adverse of places! Why is it that its so hard to grow flowers and vegetables due to lack of rain, too much wind or other conditions, but a weed can grow in a place like this?

This reminded me of a post I did a year and a half ago and thought was worth reading again:

Plants are like people. Sometimes they grow and thrive even though they are planted in unlikely places. I know, like me, you've seen beautiful flowers growing in the summer time in the tiny amount of soil in the crack of a sidewalk. This is really one of God's little surprises for us which we can often find if we'll just keep our eyes and hearts open.

So what are some ways to bloom where you are planted? Here are a few I can recall just from yesterday:

1. Dealing with grouchy people on the telephone? Be sweet. You might be the only person they have talked to lately who isn't a grouch back! Honestly, at my office people will call us to ask for the phone number of our competitors! I will usually look the number up for them and give it to them. You never know what's behind this. Maybe they can't read well enough to find the number or don't have a phonebook. I want everyone to be kind to my family members in situations like that, so I try to be nice to people, who don't always deserve it.

Remember this scripture: Hebrews 13:2 “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares."

2. Exasperated by the long line at the grocery store or post office? It will NOT do you one bit of good to let it make you mad! Life will go on.... even if it is delayed a few minutes while waiting in a line! And that little old lady clerk at the counter... could use a few kind words.

And who knows what disaster you may have missed by being delayed a few minutes. Many people were saved from the 911 disaster because they missed the train, stopped to buy something at the drugstore or were sick. We will NEVER know, in this life, the ways God has protected us. I'd rather be waiting in line at the Post Office that involved in a car wreck!

3. Family members didn't wipe their feet and there is a lot of dirt on your floors? :o) Might as well sweep it up and get over it! The day may come when you would love to have that dirt as a reminder of their presence, but they won't be there because of what ever life sends your way.

I realize that these are just day to day inconveniences. I am blessed that I live in America, have a good job, a comfortable home, plenty of food, and loved ones who love me. So many people in the world are REALLY planted in places and circumstances that are very hard for blooming!

So did God plant you in your current situation, like he does the beautiful wildflowers growing under adverse conditions? Its something to think about. If He planted you there, he can also move you to a better situation just as easily.

Have a great Thursday!

The Five Minute Rule

2011-06-21T06:39:00.002-04:00

I posted about the Five Minute rule 2 or 3 years ago, but its worth another look.
This is a good reminder to myself to get more organized!

The five minute rule is kind of like the rule I try to follow at work, "Only handle that piece of paper once".

This is how it works:

If it can be done in five minutes or less, take care of it now, rather than doing it later. By getting rid of little things immediately, you can focus on the bigger projects.

These are some things this rule could be applied to in the kitchen area:

1. Make a gallon of tea
2. Declutter the "junk" drawer
3. Unload the dishwasher
4. Plan a meal
5. File a recipe clipped from a magazine
6. Wipe off the counters
7. Clean out the coffee pot
8. Clean the kitchen sink
9. Straighten the silverware drawer and de-crumb. LOL
10. Organize the spices
11. Take out the trash
12. Wash out the pet's dish
13. Set the table for the next meal
14. Take out items for the nightly meal from the freezer
15. Fill Water pitcher for fridge
16. Straighten up cookbooks or recipe box
17. Shake the dirt out of a rug and sweep around it
18. Go ahead and freeze that meat so it won't get old! (can you tell I have failed to do this before?)LOL
19. Prep the veggies for this week's salads.
20. Start a grocery list

Some of these things can be done while waiting for someone to get dressed, or while you are chatting with your Mom on the phone. If you've got a minute (or 5) before you have to leave the house or start some other project, you can get a small job done.

You could even make a list of five minute jobs to have available for when that five minute slot of time becomes available.

Doing these small jobs when you think of them, if they take 5 minutes or less, will help to make your life much less stressful!Take it from someone who tends to procrastinate!

No Whining Monday

2011-06-20T06:42:00.004-04:00

Good Morning Everyone!

We finally had a small amount of rain last night. It was only 1 1/2 tenths, but everything is refreshed this morning. Hopefully some more pop up showers will pop up here this week.

The weekend went by so fast! But that's what happens when you are really busy, which we were. There was a family get together on Saturday, Father's Day and another family member's birthday.

I finished this pocketbook for Friday Night Sew In and posted about it on my other blog, ANGEL SCRAPS QUILTING, Saturday. I enjoyed using it for Church yesterday. I switched the purse insert to the new bag and in less than a minute I was ready to go.

Have a great day and remember, NO WHINING!

The Morning Glories

2011-06-15T06:13:00.002-04:00

My grand dreams of blooming Morning Glories haven't quite turned out as I had hoped. I was under the impression that they were just weeds and would be easy to grow.

Well, not in my short experience. Part of the problem is that we are very dry here. I have been watering the wilted plants every day, but they just aren't looking all that healthy.

Tomorrow's forecast is for rain!! My hubby and I won't know how to act if we aren't spending all our after work time watering plants. Maybe if we start getting some regular rain the Morning Glories will take off!

In The Kitchen With Debbie - A Kitchen Mess

2011-06-14T06:48:00.003-04:00

My kitchen has been busy lately! Summer time is canning season and we have lots of birthdays in our family which means cake baking.

Saturday I had a batch of pickles in process and made a pound cake for my hubby's birthday.

This resulted in quite a mess.

Ready to go into the oven:

An old fashioned poundcake with chocolate glaze:

The kitchen was cleaned up and I am looking forward to making more pickles and canning my first tomatoes.

I bet none of you ever let your kitchen get in a mess!

Monday......

2011-06-13T06:14:00.001-04:00

A Few More Blooms

2011-06-10T05:53:00.005-04:00

Here are a few more blooms from my garden.

I hope you all have a good weekend!

Simple Summer Joys

2011-06-09T06:30:00.004-04:00

Oh Yeah, Summer doesn't start for a couple more weeks. Well you'd never know it here! We may reach 100 today.

Blooming Tuesday, Early June, 2011

2011-06-07T07:11:00.006-04:00

Its Blooming Tuesday at Mrs. Green Thumb Jean's Blog.

The Zinnia garden is coming along well. We are in a very dry spell right now, so we have been running the sprinkler on several areas of the yard. Otherwise, they wouldn't be nearly this big. Just a few more days and there will be a riot of blooms here.

One of the Daisies I bought on the clearance rack. Poor thing, its kind of weird, don't you think? :o)

My sister gave me what was a tiny Butterfly Bush that she ordered from Home Shopping Network. I planted some Petunias around it in this pot and all of the plants took off and are huge! And the red, white and purple clash quite a bit. Oh well, the butterflies don't care!

Here are some more blooms from around the yard.

Happy Blooming Tuesday!

The Weekend Kitchen at Homemaking Dreams

2011-06-04T08:20:00.003-04:00

Here's what's going on in the kitchen at our house this weekend:

One thing I want to do this summer is to place cut flowers in the house. The Zinnias are a wonderful flower for cutting and they are almost ready. This bouquet is made up of yellow and orange Lantana and Day Lillies. The Day Lillies are not a good choice for cutting because they close at night and their life is over! But, the Lantana is great. It makes a great filler for the vase and they last a long time. The only problem for mine is that they are orange and so they won't go too well with the many pink and red flowers in the yard. Hopefully, some of the Zinnias will be orange, so that I can make a more peaceful arrangement of flowers.

I decided to go ahead and purchase a water bath canner. I figured for less than $20.00, it would be a great tool for homemaking. Our cucumbers are just beginning to bear and we don't have a huge cucumber patch, so I may be making small batches of pickles all summer. I estimate that 24 quarts would be plenty of pickles to last us a year. It would also be nice to have some extras to give to friends, neighbors and relatives. So my goal is about 30 quarts of pickles.

I also bought a jar lifter which is a necessity when canning. It worked well and made the job much easier.

My second batch of pickles was made in the new canner and consisted of 2 quarts. They turned out beautifully.

I am researching some more recipes that I can make in the new canner. Water bath canning is limited to pickle type recipes, jelly type recipes and tomatoes. Some possible choices are pickled squash, pickled okra, watermelon rind pickles and green tomato pickles.

We also found a used good quality, small chest freezer for sale and jumped on it. The freezer is fairly new, so it will be more energy efficient than an old freezer would be.

Right now it only contains some grocery store convenience foods, but as the summer goes on we will add frozen vegetables and meat bought on sale.

Here are some menu ideas I plan to implement this week:

Turkey polska Kielbasa cooked with onions and peppers served over rice

Hotdogs with the works, slaw

Meatloaf

Lasagna

Chicken Pot Pie

Jello with fruit

On any given day the side dishes will be based on what is coming out of the kitchen garden. Right now there are squash and cucumbers, so we might have fried squash, squash casserole or squash fritters. You just never know what form the squash will take around here!

This morning I am going to the grocery store and will spend some time planning and preparing for the upcoming work week.

From Mug Rugs to Frying Pan Rugs

2011-06-02T06:10:00.002-04:00

My hubby does almost all of the kitchen clean up at our house. I do almost all of the cooking. It works out great because he is very good at loading and unloading the dishwasher. In fact, he's very particular about it and will come behind me and rearrange the dishes and silverware if I try to do it myself.

So, it came as no surprise when he requested me to make some frying pan rugs to go between our set of three teflon coated frying pans. He read somewhere that you should put something between them to prevent the ones on top from scratching the ones underneath. He has been using paper towels, but a folded dishtowel or a dollar store potholder would work too.

I made our frying pan rugs just like mug rugs, except they are round and I used store bought extra wide bias tape for the binding. I need more practice on sewing on the bias tape, but these turned out great for our purposes.

First I machine meander quilted a square and then I used plates in the two sizes needed to mark the shape of the bottom of the the two frying pans. Then I cut out the circles with scissors. The bias tape was sewn on totally by machine.

This was a quick project and made my hubby very happy. Hopefully this will add to the life span of our frying pans.

Yes, I know my hubby is a keeper!

Adventures in Pickle Making

2011-06-01T06:16:00.003-04:00

Somehow or other our entire extended family ran out of Mama's homemade Southern sweet pickles this year! Without these special pickles, chicken and potato salad are just blah. My siblings and I have been pitching in to make the pickles, since my Mama isn't physically able to do so any more.

Over the weekend I made the first pickles I have ever made entirely by myself.

The recipe is found on the back of the Mrs. Wages Pickling Lime box and you can see it HERE.

This was just a trial run to test the recipe. Our cucumbers have just started bearing, so we only had enough to make 1/7 of the recipe. It takes some math to figure out the amount of each ingredient to make 1/7 of a recipe, but it can be done. Over the weekend we also cooked a turkey which I posted about on Monday. I made a big bowl of turkey salad last night from the leftovers using the pickles and the pickles make such a difference.

These are some of the tools needed to make pickles. I need to buy a canning jar lifter. My handbook said I could use some "stout" tongs, so I used these. They worked ok, but I definitely need the jar lifter!

These are the ingredients needed for the pickles. The fact that there is a lot of sugar in the pickles contributes greatly to their deliciousness.

The pickles go through three periods of soaking in different ingredients. First is the lime soak. Second is the ice water soak. Here are the pickles soaking in the sugar, vinegar and spices.

I plan to buy a basic water bath canner, but for this trial of the recipe I placed a folded towel in the bottom of my biggest pot. The purpose of the rack in the canner is simply to keep the jars from touching each other and the bottom of the pot.

Since I was only making two pints, this worked out ok. But, I need a real canner if I am going to do much pickle making or other canning.

If these guys keeping growing as fast as they have this week, I will soon be making a full batch of the pickles.

The cucumber vines should soon start growing all over this trellis that my hubby made.

My 53rd summer is going to be a busy!

Celebrating Thanksgiving on Memorial Day

2011-05-30T19:23:00.001-04:00

I know its a little unusual, but we cooked turkey, dressing and giblet gravy this Memorial Day Weekend.

The turkey was bought at 39cents a pound and had been sitting in the freezer taking up valuable space. Cooking turkey takes planning and since I was off work for a few days the plan was to put the turkey in the fridge to thaw earlier last week and then to cook said freezer space thief over the weekend. So Saturday I cooked the turkey.

After much discussion, it was decided that we could have dressing with the turkey. If we were going to do Thanksgiving, we might as well do it right! I had cornbread stuffing mix and the other ingredients needed on hand to make Mama's dressing recipe. I cannot express to you in words how delicious the dressing was! I have helped Mama make it at her house at Thanksgiving, but never on my own at my house. It turned out every bit as good as Mama's. I'm sure no one wants to know how to make it in May or June, but maybe I'll post the recipe in November.

Have you ever seen sliced boiled eggs in giblet gravy? My hubby's mother made it that way when he was growing up, so I tried to duplicate her recipe. It was pretty good.

It may be May 30th, but I am still as thankful as I would be in November for all our many blessings. I am thankful for all the men and women who died for our country, not just on Memorial day, but all year long. Being spared during the recent tornado outbreaks is a blessing indeed. My list of blessings is long.

Eating a thanksgiving Meal on Memorial Day isn't such a bad idea after all!

The Summer of my 53rd Year.

2011-05-29T17:37:00.003-04:00

I've been enjoying a few days away from work and the world to just "be". Summer is almost here.... and its my 53rd summer. I'll never be 53 during the summer again, so I've decided to make it a good one. The best thing about summer is that it comes right before fall, which is really my favorite season. You know how Friday nights are fun because its the night before the weekend? Well I feel the same way about summer. Its the pre-fall season. Time to enjoy and savor each day.

So how can I make this a special summer? By stopping to smell the roses,zinnias and marigolds and picking a few to go in the dollar store pitcher/jug thing I bought; by making my first grown from seed and made from scratch Southern sweet pickles; by spending a satisfying morning in the garden deadheading and weeding; by savoring that first drippy delicious, home grown from seed tomato sandwich; by sewing some neat projects, both for myself and others; finishing up some crinkly, soft quilts; drinking coffee early in the morning while walking amongst the flowers and/or veggies... and I'll let you know what else.

Friday was just such a day to begin my 53rd summer. I sewed to my heart's content. I made myself some girlie things to make everyday life a little more feminine and special. I was alone.... all day.

Here are the results. A new zipper bag made from several black prints. There are zebra prints, polka dots, florals and other kinds of strips. I quilted these in the ditch and magically, the zipper I had on hand was the right size and went in perfectly.

I will use this in my pocketbook to hold money, my debit card, my drivers license, and library card.

I was on a roll, so I decided to make another one in this red and black cherry themed fabric. This one will hold tissues, and other small necessities in my bag.

I made myself a new bag with this black and white rose fabric. Its a very light weight bag. I didn't put any pockets in it because a friend gave me a new purse insert that I can moved from bag to bag in a flash! Imagine having several bags in all kinds of colors that I can change out on a whim! The purses will go together faster because I don't need to worry about adding pockets to the lining. They will be inexpensive because I have fabric scraps on hand or if I choose to purchase fabric, I will only need about 1/2 yard which will not cost much.

This is the first bag I have made for my 53rd summer!

Here's the inside which shows the purse insert. It divides up the bottom of the bag wonderfully with places to store checkbooks, a small photo album, and the new zipper bags above.

I was also in need of a new make up bag. I don't own or use a huge amount of makeup, but it needs to be stored neatly and out of the way. When the opportunity comes up to go away overnight, I can just grab the bag and go.

Some scraps of this cute green floral prequilted fabric were in my stash. I decided to make a basic bag without spending a lot of time on it. No pockets or zipper. It closes securely with two strips of velcro. The inside seams were made using the overcasting stitch on Big Brother. Its very light weight and I love the way it stows away underneath the bathroom sink. Before I had a basket that I had to drag out and put away after putting on my makeup. This little bag is so much more fun and convenient.

And did I mention it was fun to make and cost nothing?

I'm really happy with the beginning of my 53rd summer. How about you? Which summer are you going to be experiencing this year? Whether its your 16th, 30th, "yikes" 53rd or 75th, lets make it a good one.

I gotta go cook my pickles!

Another Use For Cloth Napkins

2011-05-26T06:17:00.003-04:00

Anything that is reusable, instead of disposable, is a money saver. Cloth napkins are a wise investment, especially if like me, you have plenty of fabric scraps to make them from.

My hubby picked our very first squash of the season, washed them and placed them on a napkin to dry.

Country napkins in my country kitchen.

SUPPER!

Beauty in Unexpected Places.

2011-05-23T06:36:00.002-04:00

Sometimes I get caught off guard by coming across beauty in unexpected places.

This is a picture of the employee entrance at my office taken last week. My coworker received these on her birthday, but poor thing, she has terrible allergies and can't stand to smell flowers. So, she sat them on the back stoop.

I couldn't miss seeing these, but sometimes there are those magical moments that you can miss if you aren't paying attention. Lets be on the look out today for those unexpected ways to appreciate the beauty in an ordinary day. I'll let you know later today if there's anything in my day worth sharing. :o

One week later

2011-05-21T15:03:00.002-04:00

We will be picking a few squash today. I may make a squash casserole for lunch tomorrow.

Cucumbers don't grow as fast as squash, but almost!

I need to dig out Mama's pickle recipe and purchase the ingredients. It won't be long until we can make them

The Versatile Blogger

2011-05-19T06:56:00.002-04:00

Thank you very much Freda of THE ADVENTURES OF THE EMPRESS OF THE UNIVERSE for presenting the VERSATILE BLOGGER award to me. I appreciate it!

Freda is a fantastic quilter and does such a great job with her blog!

When accepting the award, the recipient is supposed to list 7 things about themselves that others may not know, so here goes.

1. I once lived in Garner, NC in 1979, which is where American Idol contestant Scottie McCreery is from. Does that make me almost famous? :o)

2. I am the youngest of 5 children, raised on a tobacco farm. We were sharecroppers and lived in a huge farmhouse well off the main road. There were 2 large ponds in which I swam and fished. I grew up on a true homestead, so I guess that's why that lifestyle appeals to me now. My childhood memories include things like killing hogs, working in the tobacco, picking produce and helping freeze and can it.

My sister and me in the late 1950s.

3. I once took scuba diving lessons. I was a strong swimmer at one time and thought I'd be good at it, but failed due to the fact I just didn't like it. Oh well, I guess I learned to quilt instead!

4. My job is being a paralegal which I have done for going on 24 years now. I also do bookkeeping. If I could choose what I do at work, it would be to sit in a back room doing the books, where I never had to talk to the public. But what I really want to do is retire early!

5. I have been blogging for 4 years! (I think its time for a celebration give away)

6. I have self diagnosed myself as having obsessive compulsive disorder. I'm one of those people who check to see if the coffee pot is off 3 times and then one more time before going out the door!!!

7. My favorite food is spaghetti and doritos. My least favorite would be greens, like collards, turnips, etc. I am a carb addict!

I'm not too good at passing awards along, but if anyone would like to reveal 7 things about themselves, I would love to give you the award!

Early Morning After The Rain

2011-05-18T06:44:00.003-04:00

I couldn't resist showing you how much the Zinnias have grown! I'm shooting for June 15th as the first date to be able to pick a vase full for the kitchen table.

The kitchen garden looks all refreshed.

Look how these clothesline Morning Glories are rappeling up the trellis, like a mountain climber. There is visible growth every day.

Blooming Tuesday

2011-05-17T06:35:00.007-04:00

On the side yard, underneath the Crepe Myrtles, there are Chives and Rose Campions. The chives have about finished blooming and now the Rose Campions are in full bloom.

Some brightly colored Coleus, a pot of begonias and a fake sunflower.

The Clothesline Morning Glories are making progress toward their destination.

This post is linked to Mrs. Green Thumb Jean's blog for BLOOMING TUESDAY.

It Won't Be Long....

2011-05-14T15:50:00.007-04:00

It won't be long until we will be are feasting on the Lord's bounty!

The first squash:

The first cucumber:

The tomato vines have blossoms. Its a miracle that these have grown so big and healthy because they were rather puny looking grown from seed inside seedlings.

Like I said it won't be long....

Regrouping and the To Do List

2011-05-12T06:45:00.000-04:00

My "get organized" tools:

I am working on being more organized. Every now and then everything, both at home and work, get extra busy and I start to feel out of control. Probably because I AM out of control! Symptoms of this are:

1. A messy, disorganized pocketbook.

2. Constantly behind on housekeeping chores.

3. Not knowing what we will be eating.

4. Running to the grocery store more than is normal.

5. A general feeling of stress.

6. Not knowing what to wear each day.

7. A messy car.

8. Not knowing what to do next, because there are so many things to do!

9. A biggie: Not reading the Bible consistently.

When I go through this, it always helps to start making a to do list and that's what I have been doing this week. I try to include the things I must do, as well as a couple of things it would be nice to get done.

I cleaned out my pocketbook too! Today I will declutter my car.

There is a wonderful series of posts on the to do list, at the COUNT IT ALL JOY, which is helping me get motivated in this area.

Happy Thursday!

A Mother's Day Remembered

2011-05-09T06:55:00.005-04:00

My family knows what I like and showered me with these things. Its wonderful to be remembered with love and I wanted to share with you.

I love benches and had been wanting one to go underneath these windows on the front porch. My hubby had a nearby carpenter to make this one for me. You may remember my red bench that's inside. This one is made exactly like it and the wood is as smooth as silk. Both are sure to be family heirlooms.

My daughter loves gardening as much as I do and put together these two beautiful blue and purple plant combinations. One is for me and the other is for my mother. I love them!

My son gave me this red and white hanging basket, which I promptly hung on the shepherd's hook outside the kitchen window. I can look at it often to remember his thoughtfulness.

My sweet little grandson picked out this water wand for his grandma. Isn't he something? He knew exactly what I needed!

My newest co-worker remembered me this Willow Tree Angel. She has recently lost her beloved mother and even though she is too old to be my daughter since she just turned 40, she wanted to remember me and another "older" co-worker. This angel is called "Sunshine". I love the sunflowers in her lap.

Friday This and That

2011-05-06T06:34:00.004-04:00

Time to return these to the library! With this many books out, if they are late just one day the fine could be quite large!

A friend requested three mug rugs to send to her three sisters who live in other states.

The field to the west of our home is planted in corn this year! Its already growing quite big and will soon be a temporary wind break and privacy screen. Do you remember that movie with Mel Gibson and his children and the aliens in the corn called "Signs"? I'll try not to think about it! :o)

The fields on the three other sides of our home are planted in cotton. So next Fall it will look snow all around us.

If you are as ready for the weekend as I am, then you are quite excited! I hope you have a good one.

Wednesday Blooms

2011-05-04T06:07:00.007-04:00

I was working out of town yesterday, so I'm a little late for Blooming Tuesday, but here it is anyway! This post is linked to Ms. Green Thumb Jean's Blog.

This is a plate that was in the garden section at a dollar store. I'm not sure I like it here in the shade garden. It may be bordering on looking a little too much like clutter. But I like the words on the plate. It can easily be taken down if I decide to.

These red and white petunias could be the flower for NC State, so they are popular at our house.

The Sweet Autumn Clematis and Morning Glories are ready to climb on this trellis.

The Zinnias are up and growing!

A Geranium, lavender, Rosemary and a trailing vine.

A Rock Geranium growing in.. where else? The rock garden.

Some small Hydrangeas bought on clearance. Can't wait for them to grow and bloom.

The clothesline trellis with small Morning Glories, ready to start climbing, I hope.