Choice Morsels

  Today's "Finds" are some amusing pictures from my Pinterest "Stuff I Like" Board: This one with the kid on the phone about the cooties just cracks me up! Then there's this: How to Get the Most Out of A Photo Booth: And For Some Geeky Fun... How About This: It Does Exist! ...with a bit of clever photo shopping...a Stargate. Or This...A Time Traveler's Convention! (The Delorean's are a reference to "Back to the Future" & the blue police box, a Dr. Who reference...for those who don't know.) And Finally This... Who doesn't want a photo of their Groomsmen being chased by a Jurassic Park T-Rex? We attended a friends wedding at condo recently and, for fun, the bride walked in on the Star Wars ending  Triumphant March. I think a bride walking in on the Darth Vader suite would be funnier!  :) ****** If you were going have a fantasy wedding themed on a movie, TV show or comic now

The Mama Kat prompt suggestion for today was,  "List 7 things you'd rather do then clean the bathroom..." However, cleaning a bathroom isn't my most dreaded chore. It's washing dishes that I hate.  I just let all the stuff that doesn't get put in the dish washer pile up because I'd much rather be... #1)  Diddling around on my computer... #2)  Organizing my messy desk... #3)  Cleaning the garage... #4)  Doing laundry (though I don't like folding and putting stuff away either. See item #1) #5)  Doing just about anything else I can outside--mowing, hedging, weeding... #6)  Watching a DVD movie on T.V... #7)  Just sitting on the sofa watching the birds visit the feeder outside... ***** Plus I saw this photo below in Pinterest, about sewing a dust-mop on your tot's shirt who isn't crawling yet. LOL. (I added the motivation poster!) ***** So, what's your most dreaded cleaning chore? Than

 Today I'll be working on adjusting the castle wall blocks I'm edging the veggie bed with. To make the end work out, I end to adjust the height of both sides. Tomatoes are planted in peat pots in my sunny kitchen window. Some old Basil & Bell Pepper seeds are in wet napkins wrapped in plastic to promote sprouting roots, so I can tell which seeds are good. I was going to post Daffodil pictures today, but my memory card for my camera finally kicked the bucket. I'll have to pick up a new one before I take any more pictures. So instead of outside pictures, I have a couple pictures of fresh flower bouquets I designed: First: this years Christmas vase with white & lime green flowers! This was a $16 Walmart bundle consisting of white lilies, white alstromeria, white carns, white mums, baby's breath and large green spider mums, button mums & light green pixie carns. Each lily blossom only lasts a couple days and needs to be trimmed off, but new ones k

Greetings! Last week of January! Today I had my quarterly hair cut & color appointment, so my hair looks all spiffy again. The hair washing/conditioning is probably my favorite part! I see a pair of Mourning Doves roaming around under my feeder, cleaning up whatever has been tossed out by the smaller birds and I've spotted their nest in a high pine branch above. Today's Good Eating recipe is Toll House Pie!  It's basically a chocolate chip cookie in a pie crust! Very rich. Despite being a Nestle Toll House brand recipe, you can use any brand of chocolate chips you happen to prefer--even Hershey Special Dark! This recipe makes one 9-inch pie, so if you want to serve more then 8 people, you'll need to double it! It also freezes well, if you want to make two and freeze one for another time! It would make a great dessert for your Valentine! Toll House Pie Ingredients: 2 eggs 1/2 cup all purpose flour 1/2 cup sugar  1/2 cup firmly packed brow

I worked as a floral designer in a flower shop for 17 years and saw many a Valentine's Day. Because the demand for roses is so high, wholesalers raise the prices florists have to pay and, in turn, the florist have to charge you more per dozen. S o, todays find is my advice on choosing & caring for those vased roses: Things to Understand About Roses: Lovely, fully open red roses! #1) They are very prone to bacterial stem blockage that prevents them taking in water. This results in a flopped over head. Even the most careful care at the florist or at home can't necessarily prevent this. It's the nature the of beast. #2)  No rose stays in that neat bud shape you see in photographs.  Their goal in life is too open fully for bees as they would in the wild.    How Long May I Expect My Roses To Last In A Vase?: I'm sorry to say the answer to that is somewhat vague--it really depends on the color and breed of rose, where the vase is located, whether the

The Mama Kat topic for today is:  "The best part of my day is..." I guess I kind of fulfill that famous Folgers Coffee Jingle: "the best part of wakin' up is... "some kind of coffee.. .in my cup." The first best part of my day is Hubby finding my head somewhere under the covers to plant a kiss on my forehead, then the second best part of my day is that first cup of coffee. Usually a mix of Decaf Community Coffee and regular Chocolate Mint 8 O'Clock Coffee. The next best part of my day is our cat, Sunni, asking me to take a time out, away from the computer, let her sit on my lap for a little attention. We rest together that way, she and I. The final best part of my day is when Hubby comes home and we trade stories about how we spent our days.    Then the cat sits on him. So what's the best parts of your day? Thanks for visiting!

Today is quite springy--almost warm and my back yard is suddenly filled with birds! Cardinals, Doves & Jays. Plus I just filled the squirrel-proof feeder with fresh, sunflower-seed heavy wild bird food, so Chipping Sparrows, Chickadees and even a Nuthatch are darting in to grab a seed! I saw a Hummingbird stop by the Hummingbird feeder, too--much to my surprise.  I don't usually see them so early, but then I don't always have a feed still relatively full of nectar hanging out there! It was old nectar. Since October. So I quickly made up a batch of fresh nectar, cleaned the feeder and refilled it. Though, I don't think birds really have taste buds. I want to work outside, though I'm giving them a chance to enjoy the fresh food a bit first, because my presence will disturb them once I do go out, since my project area is near the feeder. The photo below is my current project: walling in my veggie garden space and raising the dirt level. Next: a sho

I was out picking up pine cones this cold sunny day. I use a grabber stick to pick them up, the kind you can buy in a handicapped aid section. We have a couple, since we used to use them for picking up aluminum cans when we had someplace to sell the aluminum per pound. Now I just use it on pine cones and plop them in a mop bucket carry. Figure the bucket holds a minimum of 20 and I filled and emptied it 8 times, that's 160 cones.  Did I say I have a lot of pine cones in my yard? Today's Garden Pictures include my indoor flowers on my indoor Snake Plant and my new birdhouse I just hung outside the other day! First, a close-up of my Snake Plant bloom: It sits outside all summer, then blooms this time of year every year. This year it's got 4 bloom stalks up! Notice the tiny clear droplets? I didn't realize it had those until I took this close-up. They look like water droplets, but I touched one--it's a tiny dewdrop of sap. Next: My New Bird House!

I just read bad news for Cadbury Creme Egg lovers!  The Kraft Corp, which is the manufacturer, is changing the chocolate coating recipe from real milk chocolate with dairy in it to a cheaper "standard cocoa chocolate mix" that has no real dairy.  They are also changing the 3-egg packaging to just 2 eggs. You can read the whole article here . If you love Cadbury Eggs, perhaps an email/letter writing campaign might be in order? Today's Good Eating recipe is a great tummy-warming one-pot winter meal called, "Unstuffed Cabbage." Simple ingredients you can have ready to eat in less then 30 minutes!  Serve it up with some cornbread or garlic bread and you have a feast for a king! Unstuffed Cabbage Ingredients: 1 lb of lean ground beef 1 cup chopped onion 1/2 of a medium head of cabbage (about 1 1/2 lbs) cored, quartered & cut into inch wide strips 1 can (28oz) crushed or diced tomatoes (organic, fire-roasted or regular) 1 Tablespoon packed

Welcome to Mama Kat Thursday!   Today's topics is: "A year in review! So compile your most popular posts & pictures from 2014!" So, here they are: my most visited posts ranging from Good Eating Monday recipes to Garden Pic Wednesday photos to Mama Kat Thursday blog prompt stories! If you've read them before, you can read them again and if you're discovering them for the first time, enjoy! Good Eating Monday: Blueberry Muffin Cake:   A recipe for this delicious lemon-blueberry  bundt cake! 60 Visits Garden Pic Wednesday: Coneflowers!  Lovely pictures of both my own pink  Coneflowers and also a picture of my  Mom with hers.  59 visits Mama Kat Thursday: 10 Fav Snacks : My list of 10 favorite childhood snacks. 59 Visits Mama Kat Thursday: A Sweaty Problem : A story about my Hubby's sudden allergy to underarm deordant & how we solved it.  59 visits Mama Kat Thursday: Lipstick & Ugly Toes:        

Winter color in the garden is hard to come by, but here in the south we have one shrub that blooms between December & February, brightening landscapes with it's rose-like blossoms. Camellias. Thus their nickname: "Rose of Winter." Actually they can tolerate temps to minus 5 degrees and as hot as 100 degrees and there are 3000 varieties! I don't have any camellias actually in my yard, because the standard shrub needs yearly pruning back to keep in check, otherwise they can become huge and ungainly.  I often see camellia gone wild in abandoned landscapes. Last time I asked about dwarf varieties, the garden shop down the road was bleak on the topic.  But my neighbor has a pair of standard size red camellia shrubs on the border between our houses and I enjoy those. In fact, I take of pruning them into an upright tree-like shape, so they won't turn into 20 foot wide monstrosities draping into my landscape!   The people who originally built the house

Welcome to 2015!  In 1975, when I was graduating high school, I did the math on how old I'd be when the century turned in 2000 and 42 seemed sooo far away!  Now 60 seems too close! Did you make any resolutions? This week I'll be working on putting away Christmas stuff. Outdoor trash pick-up won't be until Saturday, so I can take my time un-decorating the tree.(it's a live tree) I resolved to refurbished my two outdoor wreaths with new ornament balls & re-doing the ribbon on the two pine cones that hang on the front door as I brought them in this year. The pine cone hanger was one I made years ago when some particularly shapely cones were plopping around my yard. I saved a couple with a bit of stem on the rear, ribboned them up and have been using them ever since, but the intense sun faded that ribbon, so they needed new. For the wreaths I used light blue, silver and purple plastic ornament balls of various sizes, some glittery, to replace previous old and fa