A Garden Update

Yesterday's Garden Harvest

I am very proud to say that we have a bumper crop growing in the garden thanks to the rain. Unfortunately, it's not really something to be proud of. You see, that bumper crop is grass. More specifically, fescue for you farm people out there. Yes, it got away from us with all of the scattered thunderstorms everyday last week.

All was not lost though, the peanuts look happy amidst the fescue backdrop. (You will just have to take my word for it, I wouldn't dare show anyone a picture of my un-weeded garden at this point. Just use your imagination. Yep, that's it- only worse. ) Uncle Bubba has some corn taking off. It towers us all at around 7-1/2 feet! He planted a variety called Bloody Butcher. We will never know what it looks like all "bloody butchery" and dried. We all ate it........... Maybe next year we'll have the patience to see what it turns out to look like when it's all dried and "red" like.

Our corn went through a little "spell". More specifically, a dry spell. It was planted much later than Uncle Bubba's corn so as to not cross pollinate with it. Our corn is Blue Dent. Hey, do you think that red and blue corn would cross to make purple corn! Naaaaah, it was just a thought. It would be fun eating purple corn though. Back to the story at hand.

Our blue dent corn measures about a foot and a half tall I would say. The bad part is that it's not going to get any taller thanks to the dry spell. It actually has ears on it. Those ears are only about 6 inches from the ground! Despite it's stature problems, the Blue Dent did manage to produce one ear already. You will see it in the picture above. I was hoping it would be all blue like and all but I guess I'll have to settle for "variegated". Anyway, I'm going to cook up that one little ear tonight and let the kiddos fight over it. Hey, we don't waste anything around this house...

My biggest upset or should I say, surprise this year in the garden was formally my squash "switch-a-roo". If you follow me, you might remember that my yellow crook necked squash turned out to be zucchini (I spell that word wrong every time) in disguise (that word too). Get this, I scavenged through the fescue and spotted these little yellow balls growing next to my cucumber plants. I've lived around gardens enough to know that cucumbers only turn yellow if you leave them on the vine too long. Well, these guys weren't there at all the other day, now they appeared suddenly. Guess what? Another seed mix up. My pickling cucumbers have somehow managed to be some kind of cucumber that I remember seeing in a catalog once. I can't remember what they are called but hey, they smell like cucumbers, they look like a cucumber on the inside, and they taste like cucumbers. (They are in the photo above in case you were wondering).

Well, the garden started out a swamp, went through a quick drought, grew the opposite types of vegetables than were planted, and now is growing some fine looking fescue. I guess that all is not lost. Someone once said, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again". Looks like I've got a lot of "trying" on my hands next year.

Life gave me Lemons...Guess what I did with them?

A couple of weeks ago, I bought this huge bag of lemons. It sat in my refrigerator for some time before I had enough time to deal with them. You know what I'm about to say next.....

Life gave me lemons, so I made lemonade. I really did make lemonade on a very stressful day. It made me feel better knowing I made lemonade out of those lemons.

It was good too......


Lemonade: (one of the simplest things to fix, this side of toast)

Start with about six regular sized lemons and cut them in half across the center like in the photo.
Squeeze all of the juice out of them (a manual juicer is great) or if you were like me, my juicer is packed up in a storage container so I improvised. I squeezed with my hands (worked almost as good as a stress ball, by the way) through a colander to keep the seeds out.

This part is all up to you: Add as much water to this as you prefer. I used about a gallon. The sweetener amount is up to you too. I stared with 1 cup of sugar, stirred, and added as much as it needed to taste good. Some people like to throw in a mint leaf for extra taste. I didn't have a mint leaf, so sadly, I didn't get to find out if this is true. It wouldn't have mattered anyway, the kids drank every last drop within five minutes. I'd imagine that the mint leaf wouldn't have had much time to "mix" with the lemonade anyway.

For a sugar free version, just mix the lemon juice, water, and stevia powder (or liquid) to taste.

Yum, yum in the summertime.

Friday Fill Ins

Go to Friday Fill Ins to "Fill In" your own!

1. Sitting outside in the quiet shade during a slight breeze, is my favorite summertime past time.

2. My favorite John Hughes movie is Flubber (I know, I know, he didn't produce it, he just wrote it) I'll be honest here, I had no idea who in the world John Hughes was until I had to look it up to answer this question!

3. Minky fur fabric is something I love to touch.

4. The full moon makes me nervous because I know that people tend to get "goofy" during the full moon.

5. While answering these questions, I'm waiting on my husband to get home, it's really late, and I'm super sleepy right now.

6. When daylight fades my mind starts to focus on getting some sleep!

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to figuring out what to do with more figs than I have room (and canning jars) for, tomorrow my plans include going to my cousin's wedding and Sunday, I want to finish sewing some trick or treat bags that I have been working on for days and days!

Don't You Just Love it When Someone Comes Up With a Smart Idea?

The other day, one of my kiddos needed some dental work done. What does this picture have to do with that? Well, this is a photo of this nice vase that was in the bathroom. Why did I take a picture of a vase in the bathroom? Don't ask me, I figured I'd come up with some reason for it eventually.

That reason is this: This is usually the first sight that a parent gets when going into our dentist's office. They get an immediate "tour" of the facilities. It's just a fact of nature. Kids are drawn to the bathroom, no matter where they go.




Probably a lot of dentist's offices around the country try to make the experience a pleasant one. Some probably, like ours, paints cute murals all over the walls of the waiting room, cleaning rooms, and exam rooms. Our dentist has a jungle theme going on as you can see here.


They even came up with the idea that if you let kids play video games before they are called back, they might be more relaxed and not panic as much when the dentist comes at them with drill in hand. This photo only shows one video game, there are many more. As a matter of fact, in the second waiting room, there is an actual game cube set up. Oh yeah, if video games aren't your thing, you can watch a movie in all three areas if you want.


And if video games and movies aren't enough to make you look forward to a dentist's appointment, there is this thing. Can you believe it? They installed a play center "over head" of all the chairs in the waiting room. Yes, for real.

I knew something was up when they called the day before and told me to make sure the kids wore socks. I guess any parent would raise an eyebrow when they were told that their kid needs to wear socks to have their teeth worked on. Get this, if you forgot your socks, they give you a pair to borrow- go figure. Luckily all my kiddos had socks on and didn't have to borrow any. When the kids leave, guess what they get along with bags of prizes? Frozen yogurt. Yeah, seriously. (Perhaps it's insurance that you will be coming back to see the dentist- thank you sugary treat?)

Now, do you get the same impression that I did. I thought, "Wow, somebody got it right. Kids will actually "beg" to go to the dentist from now on!"

This guy was just begging to have his picture taken. Did you notice it too? He lives at a dentist's office....and......he has perfect teeth.

A Wordless Wednesday

What's new? It's up to you this time.

I've just come to realize that it is almost impossible for me to make a blog post without searching (sometimes, frantically) for a photo or two, or three.....(you know me). Well, today, I'm not going to post a photo. I'm going to gab a little. (Just a little- don't worry, I promise not to bore you to death).

I'm getting a little "ancy" (ancy- is that a word- did I spell it right?) in the sewing department. You might have noticed the little poll in the top right hand corner of my blog. I just wanted to get a little feedback on what kinds of things I should be carrying in my Etsy shop. I've always tried to carry a wide assortment of items but I've wondered what kinds of things that people might be wishing that some Etsy shop out there would make more of. So, if you have a little time, click away on the poll. If there is something that is not listed that you would like to see in my shop, please, oh please, feel free to comment and tell me about it. (I don't bite).

You may not know it but there are a lot of unfinished projects lying around on or under my sewing table. There are also a lot of "flops" too: There is that insulated, fabric lunch bag that I keep forgetting to buy the velcro for (it's been 6 or more months), the poor "bodiless" dragon with the warped looking head because I lost several key pattern pieces and tried to improvise (I need to disassemble my son's dragon and trace the pieces so I can help the poor old bodiless dragon- just haven't had the time to "sneak" and do that without him knowing), the endless tries of the patchwork pony collection that all went wrong and look like mutated cows with bad hair cuts (the only on that turned out well is the guy on my blog banner and I can't part with him- he's my unofficial mascot) , chapstick without labels (I'm too cheap to buy colored ink for the printer- Hey, I could be buying fabric with that money!), and last but not least, there are the boxes of things that I have collected that I have been meaning to sell as supplies. Who else but me would have a case of empty jewelery boxes (uhhh, I don't sell jewelery), a dozen or so of empty thread spools (those are useful you know), bunches of soap making supplies (scents galore people), and those three embarrassing boxes of fabric scraps that I can't find it in myself to part with (no explanation necessary for that one). With the mentioning of all of this, can you get some idea as to the state of affairs on my sewing table. You just don't want to know.......


So, to make a long story short, let me know what you'd like to see more of in my shop, Minnie Maes. I'd appreciate the feedback and maybe you might see some of your suggestions popping up in the near future since the sewing bug has bitten me again. In the mean time, while I'm waiting, I promise I'll go clean up my table.

Minnie Maes just got a little "hippie"

This week, I listed two new little tote bags in my shop. The fabric choices were one of those split second decisions that, took place, just like that- in a split second. Hey, I'm on a never ending search to find a good deal and pass those good deals along to others in my Etsy shop. The little tote above is a result of "a good deal" that I ran up on. As a matter of fact, I still have hot pink and bright yellow in the fabric that these two little bags were made of. (Hmmm, what can I make out of hot pink peace symbol fabric?......)


These little guys measure approximately (hey, I don't sew by any rules you know) 7-1/2" tall by about 5" wide by 3-1/4" deep. They would be perfect for a few paperback books, a wallet, keys, or whatever. I'd use these guys as gift bags myself if it were up to me.

If you think you are groovy and hip enough to handle the details (or if the 60's are calling you back), just click on over to Minnie Maes for more details on how to purchase these guys.

What's Outside Scott's Car Windows- a little "ducky" and "buggy"

Sometimes Scott sends me little photos of odd things that he sees "outside his car windows". This particular time, he saw these critters:


Could it be an ugly duckling? Yep. Kinda looks like a buzzard in the head. If it weren't for those webbed feet, I would say it was a buzzard. Anyway, this webbed footed creature (that honestly, resembles a buzzard, in my opinion) hangs out in the parking lot at a Mexican grocery store.


These are his friends. They hang out in the bushes just outside the grocery store.


Still more of ugly duckling's friends that also hang out in the parking lot at the grocery store.
No one told them that there is no water to be found around parking lots.

This is the praying mantis that hangs out on top of the newspaper box, just outside the Mexican grocery store. Do you think he is aware of the impending danger just a couple of feet below him in the form of a buzzard looking duck?