Late April 2009, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.
I went around the yard after dinner and took some quick snaps before my head exploded from the pollen! I got my first cold in a while-I think over a year. I just bought the daisies last Friday. I had the herb pot and did plant herbs in it-Rosemary, Oregano and I think Thai Basil. My pond is running well.
I know-two posts in one day. I am stalling going to the grocery store as I’m a bit pooped from getting the pond up and running. The water from the hose was running slow as molasses. I figured the tall container the water plants came in would work for the pump and it’s perfect. The water still smells a bit mucky-may have to let some of it out and add more fresh.
Also cleaned out my social networking connections-good-bye to MySpace, Multiply and Tribe. I met some awesome pals through Tribe, but I feel my blog, Flickr and Facebook are enough for me right now.
Off to the store soon-we need everything!
I didn’t get my act together until after dinner. Brian and I both slept better, but he’s still having GI issues. He brought home cheesesteaks and only ate half of his-I ate all of mine. I took kitty for a walk as I see I’m not the only one who gained a few more pounds this winter. ; ) I then got the rake and cleaned out a few more spots and completely wiped myself out. Bri did come out and clean up the debris, hoping that moving around would help. I can’t believe how much tall grass got in my irises and roses. They are going to be a bugger to weed.
I was happily stitching on a new cross stitch piece-Herb Bouquet, and lo and behold-that blasted linen-I was a stitch or so off. I was thinking about stitching around it, but it messed up a stem on a plant. Rats.
So that’s about all the excitement besides Sean having to write 5 papers by May and not getting a good grade on one he worked so hard on. A Facebook friend and former high school pal John, said he would take a look at Sean’s papers to help him. He use to help under grads at Harvard with their papers. What a nice guy. I told Sean and I think he appreciated that.
Finished ‘Just Hatched’ egg ornament, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.
Here’s the finished gift I made for my niece who will turn 10 the day before Easter. Let me tell you, it’s not easy to make an egg shaped ornament, especially since I had to make it bigger as my piece was larger than the template. I added some chiffon peachy ribbon to the light green corded thread.
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Right outside my front door were these sweet little crocus flowers:
And the forsythia bushes are a bit damp, but ready to open. We planted these from ‘slips’ of our moms’ bushes. Either yard has any left now.
Window views Nor’Easter March 2, 2009, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.
Yes, from the windows. I believe I opened the front door to take this shot. We got about 10″ of the white stuff. Bri got to work fine-it’s only 3 miles away. The only place I worried about was our road leading to the one lane bridge-very downhill.
I do a lot of sorting and a bit of cleaning yesterday. My mom would say I was cleaning out my nest if you understand what I mean. I must have slept in the same weird position for 4 hours as my neck is complaining.
I plan to keep quiet and warm today.
Want to play along? Kelli over at ‘There is no place like home’ is hosting a meme. You take your first blog sentence for each month of 2008 and add a favorite photo from that month too. Be aware that most of my ‘first’ sentences have nothing to do with the photos. :O)
January-
That’s my life for the last few days.(I had been sick and so had Brian)
February-
Let’s start off February with a fun event thanks to Lisa/Oceandreamer’s 2nd time around hosting it.(One World, One Heart blog giveaways)
March-
This is my mom’s birthday last year and my youngest brother is giving her the cupcakes that I made to blow out the candles.(for a Photo Hunt)
April-
It’s 70 degrees outside!!! I’m inside and wearing a sweater though.
May-
Thanks to Scrappy Jessi for hosting this fun event.(showing our childhood toys)
June-
Like I did last night!
July-
I really did see a camel! (a place on our road had several exotic pets or boarders)
Strasberg, PA 7-30-08, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.
August-
Today I’m sharing my baby book.
September-
I can’t believe it’s September already!
October-
….the cataracts are gone! Well, that may be so for my mom in a few hours.(My mom had both her eyes done, and one got an infection, so she had to have a third operation!)
Celebrating after 28 yrs!, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.
November-
This is from the Philadelphia Flower Show 2006.(We try to go every year since I am so snap happy)
Grant Park and a new beginning!, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.
December-
I just realized that I was pretty much on the go for over a week, since my birthday on the 19th.
Yesterday I felt a bit frantic as every cookie recipe I looked at called for something I needed to purchase. Bri and I went on an early evening shopping trip to an almost empty store. They didn’t have unshelled pistachios for a cookie I want to try (recipe from Jennifer) and a few other things. Today I made ‘candy’ (I say that loosely)- Chocolate Cherry Bourbon Balls that my pal Warren said I should try. Brian went for a booze hunt in the basement and came up with a gorgeous bottle of Taylor Kentucky Bourbon. It had a ’68’ on the bottle, and sure enough it was from 1968! Bri did a Google search and found the exact bottle. The little balls are very potent! I don’t know how many anyone will be able to eat without feeling tipsy-lol.
A condensed ‘I recommend’-
What made my day was finding a recipe for Peanut Butter Pinwheels which has to be the exact recipe from one of Peg Bracken’s ‘I hate to cook’ books. I made them as a teen and loved making them, smelling them baking and eating them! I made some and the following are photos of the rolled up peanut butter dough with the melted chocolate inside, to the finished product. I may bake a batch of easy peasy 7 layer cookies when I finish here-all in one pan-and finish up the rest tomorrow.
Recipe for
Peanut Butter Pinwheels-
Taste of Home-Best & Loved Cookies and Bars (there is a new edition every year it seems-I only have last year’s issue which I recommend)
Sent in by Kandy Dick
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
2 Tablespoons milk
1 1/4 cups All-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (6 oz) semisweet chocolate chips
In a mixing bowl, cream shortening, peanut butter and sugar. Beat in egg, and milk. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; add to the creamed mixture.
Roll out dough between wax paper into a 12″ x 10″ rectangle (I think it could be a wee bit bigger). Melt chocolate chips; cool slightly. Spread over dough to within 1/2 inch of the edges. Roll up tightly, jelly roll style, starting with long side; wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 20-30 minutes or until easy to handle.
Unwrap dough and cut into 1/2 inch slices. Place 1 inch apart on greased baking sheets. Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool. Yield about 4 dozen.
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Brian took some outdoor shots-we need to get the tripod out, but here’s an what it looks like:
The bluish lights are LEDs that I had on the Christmas tree a few years ago. They are very energy efficient.
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This is a wide view of our side yard taken by Brian, my husband, almost 4 years ago. I know exactly where he is standing-at the corner of the house. I have chairs near the holly bushes there in the summer-they are quite larger now. The tree on the right is one of two Chestnuts that we have-I have a love/hate relationship with them. We don’t have many trees that provide shade and they do. But they are the messiest trees around-they drop 3 things a year-catkins, burrs and then leaves. I wanted to keep with a winter feeling as it will be winter on the 21st.
My Aurora Borealis pin collection, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.
These are my vintage pins featuring Aurora Borealis rhinestones-which are my favorites. I found most of them on eBay over the last few years. I thought I’d show these as there may have been a Northern light phenomenon in the local area. A scientist from the Franklin Institute said that may be what has happened, but he’s going to look into it more. Here’s the story about it.
I received some lovely things in the mail too! Karin, my friend from Illinois sent the cute pampered card with the robe and slippers. She enclosed a gift card for Bath and Bodyworks inside.
Angela from NY sent a handmade card with lovely flowers. She made a miniature card to fit inside a pretty card box she made for me. She used one of the adorable flower fairies as the main design. She also sent the cute dolly that says ‘You are sew special’. Barbara from the Netherlands sent a sweet handmade scissor fob that she bought from Deborah Thorpe of Midsummer Night Designs (I think etsy.com)which she turned from a necklace to a fob. It has a sweet sampler on it. Donna, a flickr pal sent me an altered tin featuring a baby in a nest. Donna used vintage jewelry in her art, so that ties in with showing you my pins. : ) Thanks ladies, I love them all!
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I went to the dentist and got the filling replaced that was just replaced at the end of August-no charge-he even said he could have done a better job on it. It looks a ton better too. Also went and did most of my Thanksgiving dinner shopping and plum wore myself out! I had to only pay $6 for a $23-20 pound bird! I never cooked one that big before, but we like leftovers here!
Sean will be heading home Saturday night after the last football game of the season. We aren’t crazy about him driving at night, but he’ll have a pal with him.
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November snow captured by Brian out the window this morning. We only got an inch, but my mom got 4 inches and she’s only 23 miles away.
Week #2 of ‘I Recommend’ had no participates. I’m thinking Sunday isn’t a good day. Anyone have any suggestions? I thought it would be fun. You can share anything you like or have tried. A recipe, a car!, a book. Anything!! : )
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Yesterday I decided to tackle some tidying up in the bedrooms. Since your bedrooms should be the ‘cleanest’ rooms in the house ‘ *cough, cough*! I used my trusty static duster (I already recommended it a few weeks back) and went to town. I even went through old make-up and tossed eye shadows and lipstick (since I mainly wear lip gloss now). I did this because I got an all new Ulta make-up kit (pink one for $19.95) as an early birthday gift ( the store is nice, but the women who work there are so snooty). I also cleaned out a basket I keep next to the bed for books. I had really stuck a ton of stuff in it. I ran across some baby photos of me and Sean-I do think it was actually from the hospital when Sean was born! What? So I’ll scan them to share. I remember mom bringing in my baby photos to show Bri and his parents and I must have stuck it in the basket. Shame on me! Oh, even the hospital bracelets were in the envelope.
Here’s some:
Bri tried to get the leaves up with the attachment for the mower, but they were so wet, they were sticking in the chute that leads to the containers. He said he cut a lot of them up. To me, leaves in any form kill the grass. I’ll have to see what he did. The front yard looks ok. I wanted to know if he had added any to the garden to add some goodies to the depleted soil and he said no. Ah the joys of a too big yard with too big trees.
I’m not going to get any bloodwork done until next year either. I told myself I wouldn’t do this, but then I wasn’t feeling good most of the time. I’ll tell you it has to be stress mainly. I have my mom saying weird stuff. I can’t beg for my brothers to bother with her. They can be asses if they chose to be-I think it’s awful. Letting a 78 yr old lady take trash down a 100 ft stone driveway twice a week! And that’s just one thing they don’t do. Aren’t guys suppose to take care of their moms? I told Sean he better dang make sure he does! ; ) I was reading a forwarded email from my uncle about how a lady who had had a double mastectomy and her faithful dog ‘Lucky’ had been sorrowing after her while she slept. Lucky brought all his most cherished possessions and put them on the lady. Lucky gave her a reason to get better. My mom needs a Lucky.
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Anyone know a good gift for a second marriage? We aren’t really close to Bri’s cousin, but he invited us to the wedding. Since we missed his brother’s gala wedding a few years ago (because Bri’s dad, his uncle wouldn’t attend), we thought we’d go to this one since his dad isn’t well-so he has an excuse.
Collages & Creative Goodness 