Choice Morsels

I know it's actually Thursday, but we were out of town and I'm a little off schedule, so I'm posting garden pictures, which are easy. I worked outside this morning on my front bed out by the mailbox---the white clover around the edges was getting out of hand. It was gray and misting rain while I worked. I decided to remove the clover edging the bed next to the driveway, sodding the clumps of it into barren sandy soil near the trash can where nothing grows. I think the clover will and I can mow it. Then in the bed, on the front and other side edges, I edged the clover with some landscape cloth pushed into the ground a couple inches to create a barrier between it and the rest. Over that and the rest of the bed I lay down some newspaper and topped it with wood mulch. Along the bed edge next to the driveway, I replaced the clover with some Creeping Jenny volunteers and some Shamrocks. I also ordered some flower seeds today:  Pink Hibiscus and Gaillardia (blanket

I wasn't inspired to use any of this weeks actual Mama Kat prompts, but there's been a number of amusing incidents reported around town in our local newspaper Police Blotter and I decided to share those.  Hubby and I often get a laugh out of some of the reports, because people are either just dumb or kinda weird. So, here it is, the best of the Police Blotter: On Jan 12, police stopped a car traveling 100 mph in a 45 mph zone. The driver said she was not aware she was going that fast, but thought she was "just cruising."  She was handed a speeding ticket and an opportunity to tell it to the judge. ***** On Jan 18, police responded to a call from a woman who said she'd been jumped by a man and two women who struck her over the head with a pistol. The victim said the suspects had been looking for marijuana because she deals marijuana. She did not want to press charges or fill out a written statement. ***** On Jan 23, police responded to an add

I walked around to the back yard today and suddenly saw my Cheers Daffodils were all starting to all pop open! They bloom cluster heads of miniature white double flowers and are delightfully fragrant, smelling just a little like baby powder. Once I finishing my outside shots, I cut all the fallen stems and put them in a vase in the house. What they look like outside: Some stems stand upright, others flop over. The stems are hallow and the blossoms tend to be top-heavy. I bought the bulbs a good number years ago. A closer view of one of the upright stems: A close-up of a blossom cluster in a vase: On the table: I put some Gardenia greenery in the vase to hold them in place. You can find Cheers Daffodils in most garden catalogs.

Today's recipe is from the "Taste of Home" Magazine of skinny Slow Cooker recipes: Tangy Bean Soup with Cheesy Cornbread Dumplings I tried this last Friday and it's a very good warm chili-flavored bean soup topped with delicious little cheesy cornbread dumplings.  Having tried the recipe, I found the liquid ratio for making the dumplings needed adjustment, so I researched what was common in other recipes and corrected that here. I find it useful to saute onions til transparent with a little olive oil before adding them to the soup because it softens their flavor so it's not sharp. The photo is mine taken at lunch the next day, so the dumplings had absorbed all the broth.  Tangy Bean Soup w/ Cheesy Cornbread Dumplings Ingredients 2 (14 1/2 oz) cans of chicken broth  1 (16oz) package frozen mixed vegetables 1 (15oz) can black beans, rinsed and drained 1 (15oz) can pinto or kidney beans, rinsed and drained 1 can (14 1/2 oz) diced tomatoes,

I have ton's of beautiful flower pictures and I'm always trying to think of unique artistic ways to use them so they become more then just a bare "photo of a flower." This Happy Easter card is a new creation this week represents a style I'd like to explore more: It's a photo of a blue Hyacinth from my garden a couple years back that I altered in photo-shop and my graphic program to have a colored-pencil/watercolor art feel. Then I applied the lettering in Zazzle's design platform prior to publishing. The text on front and inside can be personalized by the customer to what they wish to say. Artistic Blue Hydrangea Religious Happy Easter Card

The Mama Kat I chose today is to, "share a recent purchase."   L uckily, I happened to have made one. It's actually got a weird, amusing back-story. I have several braided rugs in my living room that are square red, blue & tan colored, like this one, pictured. One a large area rug, one is a 5 x 7 in the entry and two are 3 x 5.  One of those 3 x 5's is in front of this sliding glass door, here. We've had these rugs about 7 years now, since we had the floor redone. Well, this past week, I decided to clean several of those rugs with 409 spray & vacuum rug cleaner. Once it dried, I vacuumed. When I got to this rug in front of the sliding glass door, my Hoover vacuum suddenly snagged the rug's corner, sucking it up on the brush. I turned off the vacuum to un-snag it and when I pulled it out, the braid on the corner was torn away. I cut it off, but on closer examination, I realized the whole corner on the underneath had hard, crusty, blackened

This clump of Daffodils in my front bed just all suddenly burst open over past two days!   They have such cheerful happy faces! Hopefully, it will be sunny tomorrow, so I can try for a better shot. I have fond memories of Daffodils growing up. We lived out in the country and there was this area that was about 15 by 25 feet on the other side of the driveway near the Dogwood tree that our parents planted with Daffodils. Every year that area would be a field of Daffodils, thicker every year. Mother said she tried to dig some up to take with her when she moved to Terre Haute, but they'd buried themselves so deeply by then, the were impossible to dig up.   Here's another project I did last Wednesday. .. I'm killing all the Liriope (Monkey Grass) that's gotten rather thick here, along my neighbors fence. It's brutal to have to dig up, since it's roots form a thick mat. So, instead of digging, I just cover the area of Liriope I want to kill reall

Today's delicious recipe comes from the "Taste Of Home" Skinny Slow Cooker Magazine edition I picked up at the grocery. I was tired of so many recent Pinterest recipe fails (which I don't publish).  Taste of Home recipes are tested and more of a sure thing. So, today's I'm serving up Slow Cooker "Country French Pork with Prunes & Apples." This pork loin came out perfectly seasoned and so tender! It calls for " herbes de Provence ," which is a mix of summer herbs representing that region France. Lavender is a big ingredient in it among a dozen others.  It's unique and not one you can substitute for. I discovered I love it, though and use it in tuna salad and salmon salad or any meat or vegetable dish! McCormick makes it and I found it readily available where I shop. I didn't peel my apples and used instant chicken bouillon broth and it came out tasting fabulous.  It does take a 5 or 6 quart slow-cooker for this s

Today's creativity was  repurposing recent birthday cards into "new" blank Birthday note cards! I get Birthday cards and Anniversary cards in the mail, which happen to be the cards I most often need on hand. Sometimes I can dual purpose a standard size card into both an Birthday card and a blank any occasion card---such as the starry card pictured in the photo, here: the  top part worked for birthday and the bottom, for a blank, any occasion card. What you need for this project: Cards you want to reuse A box of 4 x 6 stock cards, colored or white, available from any craft store Rubber cement or favorite craft glue Scissors A template cut to the size you want to use on your card stock for tracing. (You can use the back of a greeting card for one) Pencil for tracing with a good eraser Directions: Then just take a card you want to repurpose, arrange the template over the image, trace a light outline with you pencil, cut out with scissors, apply