m.o.M - mother of Michael

Well, Hello There Handsome!

Yipee! Four days ahead of schedule, my first Diakon radish sprout!

This little guy was up first thing yesterday morning and by the time the day was done, four more had poked up their little heads!

In other news, this was my giggle for the day yesterday:

A new plant marker!

But They Were Just Starting to Fit Like a Glove!

New gardening season...new gardening gloves. It was time.

 

Too Pooped to Post

What have I really been up to?

Well, February is "Thing-a-Day" so I've been cranking out "Things" out like mad!

You can see all my "Things" here!

Is It So Wrong to be in Love with a Pillow?

My mother had, in my opinion, impeccable taste.  Unfortunately, her taste is not my taste. Case in point: this pillow which matched the pelmets on the windows and contained all the colors in her bedroom.

Now that her bedroom is now my bedroom, the pelmets are down and I'm slowly making it my space. It's a process; sometimes happy, often sad and always bittersweet.

So when I saw this tutorial for a cute wallhanging from FlamingoToes, I knew I had to do something with what she had done. Since I have more art and decorations than I have walls, it had to be incorporated into something else; something I need.

And what do I need, you might ask? New coverings for those bed pillows!

Tada! I now have one done! I love it, love it love it! Really. I do love it! I keep 'wandering' into my bedroom to admire this pillow that I so love.

It's funny that I had fabric onhand that was surprisingly similar to that shown in the tutorial. I guess it was just meant to be because I think it looks great on the cream-colored raw silk background.

I've been saving the raw silk for something special and by jove, I think we've got it!

Thanks again to FlamingoToes! Check out her blog because she has some other tutes and recipes that I'm definitely going to try out!

Spring's Hope Eternal

Even though we haven't had the snow and ice, Florida winter is still cold...to me.

And after spending day after day after day after day unpacking boxes, going through things and carrying load after load after load to the thrift store, I couldn't take it any longer! Besides, my darling husband had the day off. (I'm not really thinking that this was his original idea of what we would be doing alone together on Valentine's Day though)

Today was the day the vegetable garden was started!

We hauled all the cinderblocks we could find at our other house over here and I began plotting out where my raised beds were going to go.

Michael headed out to the store and bought the wood to build something I've alway wanted! A picket fence to go around my garden area! Yipee!

After the four foot square raised beds were established, it was my turn to go to the store for the compost.

I returned with 300 lbs of cow manure,120 lbs of mushroom compost, 120 lbs of organic compost and 264 quarts of peat moss.

That's a lot of s**t!

It was a good day's work and I know my veggies will be successful - especially now that I am a master canner! (Wink wink)

As for that romantic dinner I had planned tonight? Can you say "leftover meatballs?"

Too Many Cooks...

make some great eats!

Maybe it's the weather, maybe it's because Saturn is in retrograde and maybe we're just hungry for some great food, but today has been quite the day in the kitchen.

It started with our first canning experience: Orange Marmalade with oranges and lemons fresh off our citrus trees. I used Alton Brown's marmalade recipe because the recipe the Ball's Big Blue Book of Canning (or something like that) required 12 to 18 hours of time between the first and second cooking. In You Can Can, the recipe called for liquid pectin which I didn't have.

Just by looking at it, I think I'll make the peels smaller next time, but the flavor is great right now!

Since that experience merely amused us instead of providing the instant gratification we so desperately desire, we moved on to dinner:

Michael's meatballs which I can eat hot, cold or room temperature! Garlicky, cheesey, meaty goodness!

Homemade tomato sauce with a couple of meatballs thrown in for good measure - YMMMM!

And pasta...there's absolutely nothing like fresh pasta!

 

For now though, I'm going to relax in my kitchen garden, drink a glass of wine and restrain myself from nibbling. I'm hungry and I want to stay that way until it's time to dine!

And finally:

I'm now comatose. Do you think some elves will come in and clean up the kitchen for me?

 

 

 

Who Are You? Doot doot, Doot doot

So I had to write a profile for Swap-bot, something that may become my most current obsession. This is what I came up with:

About Me

I live in a small town between Cocoa Beach and Daytona Beach. It's kind of like nowheresville, but I love it here!

During the summer we spend a lot of time at the beach and not enough time kayaking in our beautiful lagoon.

I have a nine-year old son and a nineteen year-old daughter. I often joke that I'm going to change my son's middle name to "whatwasmymotherthinking", but he's a funny kid and we have a good time together.

I have a lot of interests and way too many hobbies!

I love to cook, but not to bake (that's my husband's thing and that's just fine with me.)

I love to travel, but can't stand cruises. I like going places and learning about the people, the area and especially the food of the region or country.

I can be obsessive about knitting but prefer to do it in solitude instead of groups - I guess you could say that I don't play well with others.

I'm crazy about color - big, bold, noisy color - and white. Lots of white to show off all those loud colors.

I'm a warm weather girl who believes the only place ice belongs is in my scotch and the only snow I want to see is in a paper cone drizzled with sticky red syrup.

My sense of humor can be a little odd, but I'm blessed with friends who must "get me" because my best pals have been my friends for 20+ years.

I believe that if you can count your friends on one hand you are truly blessed. I enjoy my many acquaintances, but I honor the difference between an acquaintance and a friend.

So, there you have it: That's kind of me in a nutshell.

Favorite Music

There's generally classical music playing constantly in my kitchen.

Those who really know me, know that I know more words to more 70's songs than should be allowed for someone who can't carry a tune if her life depended on it!

My musical philosophy is that if you can't sing well, sing loud!

My iPod is bursting at the seams with podcasts. I love love love podcasts! I listen to knitting podcasts when I'm knitting, gardening podcasts when I'm gardening, organizational and life-coachy podcasts when I'm cleaning or decluttering.

Did I say how much I love podcasts? I fear my family is going to stage an intervention.

Favorite Television

Cooking shows are probably my favorites: Top Chef, Next Foodnetwork Star and anything that includes Anthony Bourdain. I adore Anthony Bourdain.

House is another favorite and I'm really enjoying Kathy Bate's new show, Harry's Law.

Can you keep a secret? I working my way through all six seasons of Nip/Tuck on Netflix, but shhhh - let's just keep that between us, okay?

Favorite Crafts

Any craft I'm doing at any given moment is my favorite.

 

I didn't know I would have that much to say about myself. Like this blog, it's kind of narcasistic but, hey, what's a day without a bit of narcasism in it, right?