Before and After: Shed Exterior

As you come down the walk to our front door, you are looking directly at our shed (this is actually a photo from the back of the house – didn’t have one from the front. But you get the idea). And it hasn’t been a sight that was welcoming.

So even tho you can’t actually see it from the curb, it was part of what I wanted to work on with my “curb appeal” projects.

So here is the new look for the shed…

Much better… yes?

I painted the trim around the window and door to match the soffits. I’m not sure if the corners and that crossbeam should be painted dark also or left alone. What do you think?


Before he left, Himself leveled up this area so I could fill it in with marble chips. Eventually we are going to concrete the driveway and this area will be part of that. So I opted for a low cost solution until then.


All the accessories (except the Wal-Mart flower pot) came from TJ Maxx/Home Goods.


I bought the metal pieces for a project I was going to do in the living room. But plans changed and now I needed to find someplace to use them. After a few coats of spray Spar poly I think they make cute ‘shutters’! They are a Home Goods find too.


This planter came from – Home Goods! LOL (Can you tell I really like that store?) OK, I already know some of you are rolling your eyes at the silk plants. It’s called “making do”.

It wasn’t ready when I could buy plants in the spring AND it’s far from the water source. I’m getting real here… I won’t be dragging a hose up there to water and unless it is a cast iron tough plant, it’s not going to survive. Next year I’ll put some varieties of sedum in the planters but it just didn’t happen this year.

Besides – it looks cute from the front walk.

The far side has 4 lilac bushes, which I will soon get mulch around. It’s been too darn hot to fool with it now!

The boxwoods on the side are a late fall project… once I’m sure the birds are no longer nesting, they are going bye-bye. To a certain few people boxwood smell like… well, they smell like cat pee. And I’m one of those people. BLEH!!!

If they have good trunks there are a couple people in my bonsai class who will make bonsai out of them. If they have the typical branchy trunk, a different friend wants them for some wood carving project. Either way, they won’t be wasted.

They will be replaced with more lilacs.

Tornado?

Thursday when I was in town for my art class there was a storm. We could hear the thunder and the pounding of the rain. When I drove home it was after dark but I noticed a lot of branches and leaves on the road.


Then Friday I get up and see a BIG limb down from one of our sycamores in the back yard. And there are leaves plastered all over the house. Hmmmm.


Across the road my neighbor is sawing up tree pieces in his daughter’s yard. The big sycamore in the back yard of the cabin was missing at least a third of its top!


About 50 yards away one of its huge branches is up in some other trees!


I had to go back into town to drop of some donations to my favorite charity thift stores. It is then I see all sorts of branches and trees down.


AND a shed was almost on the road in a mangled mess! Wow!


Later I was up in the front yard and notice wood pieces scattered all the way across the yard. So I investigate. These weren’t just “wood pieces” … these things were splinters of an oak tree. SPLINTERS!!!!! Some of them as long as 3 feet. From the bark, it was an oak… a big, old, strong oak. And they were in a path, more or less 10 feet wide with most of them pointing in the same NW to SE orientation like they had been laid out. There were so many they could probably almost fill the back of my small pick-up. (Photo shows some of the small pieces – saved to show Himself when he gets back. The one in the very front is about 10" long. Notice how they are dirt covered and one has leaves driven into it?)

There had to have been an F0 tornado that was not quite touching down, but rather ‘flicking’ things as it went along. I’ve checked over the house today and it is fine.

I am SO GLAD I was in town, as I would have been scared to death!!! (But it would have been kinda cool to see too…)

Movie Review: "Eat Pray Love"

Best Friend and I decided that a ‘chick day’ was much needed. And part of that day was going to be spent at the movies watching a chick flick.

We chose “Eat, Pray, Love” with Julia Roberts. I’d heard of the book but have not read it. So I had no expectations to be filled.




It’s one of those “is this all there is to life?” themes which can be thought provoking when done right. I did connect with her need to rediscover – or discover – herself. In the movie, she says “I used to have this appetite for food,… for life… and it is just gone…” That is one of my fears that I will someday feel that way.

I’m sure it was hard to cut the book down to a 2 hour, 15 minute movie. I think they did a fairly good job. The transitions weren’t jarring. The scenery was lovely. And from the credits it seems local actors might have been used in the locations.

While it goes thru a difficult life journey, the movie keeps a light side too. Particularly funny moments include the renting of her apartment in Italy… learning the ‘proper’ way to speak Italian… an attempted seduction in Bali… and her arrival in India.

After watching the movie, I pulled up info on the book and read some quotes. There are some excellent ones. "I am burdened with what the Buddhists call the 'monkey mind' -- the thoughts that swing from limb to limb, stopping only to scratch themselves, spit and howl." So I’m thinking perhaps those who have read the book might be disappointed because it seems the book may be a hard act to follow.

That being said, it’s a fun and thoughtful movie, an enjoyable matinee with your girl friends.

And you might want to hit a good Italian restaurant afterwards…

An Expression of Myself

"Sounds of Silence" by Kimberly Santiago



I enjoy creating. Doesn’t really matter if it’s a photograph, a scrapbook page, a meal, a necklace… And I enjoy the opportunity to learn how to do something new.

A few weeks ago Best Friend and I were leaving Hobby Lobby when I noticed by the door there were listings for classes. Hmmmmm. Basic jewelry and cake decorating didn’t interest me, I can do those. But there was one called “Mixed Media” with a display of a cool piece of art.

I wrote down the info… and lost it.

The next time in the store it was only a few days before the class and the display was still up. I was still interested so I wrote the info down again… this time in my calendar. And this time I emailed the instructor Kimberly Santiago. http://kimberlysantiagoart.blogspot.com/ She answered my questions and asked if I’d like to sign up.

My reply, “Yes, I would like to take it. Totally new adventure for me (i.e. – I haven’t a clue what we’re doing but it sounds grand!)".

I came on class day with a few things I had collected, mainly some scrapbook paper and some stamps. I had an idea of what I wanted to do.

Our pattern was the piece of art at the top of the page done by Kimberly. But she encouraged us to do our own take on it, to make it our own. (Which is good… because that is what I usually do anyway. I’m not good at being a copycat!)


Certain things were the same… the paint colors we used… the paper on our bird. But where our hearts took each of us was totally different.


Soon we were engrossed with what we were doing.


Halfway thru I wasn’t sure how it was going to turn out but I was having a lot of fun.


In the end, they were each as individual as the person who created it. Margaret’s was about her granddaughter in Australia.


And mine was about travel.

Sorting, sorting, sorting...

We are NOT having fun yet…

Right off the top, I have a word of advice for you… LABEL YOUR PHOTOS!!! Who, what, when, where. Trust me… you’ll be thankful… There’s even special pens to write with that won’t mess up the dyes in the photographs.


I’m going thru boxes of photos that I have just dumped in as I found them. Some are in envelopes and some are single photographs.


I’m using these photo boxes I picked up during half price sales at Hobby Lobby. They have a place on the front where I can drop in a label for each box. I’m using categories that work for me. Broad ones like “pets”, “flora”, “fauna”, “landscapes”, etc. And specific ones such as “SW Trip ‘04”, “Day Trips”, “Grandma”, and so on.

They also come with index divider cards – but I’m not at that point yet. But when I do they will fine tune the sorting. Such as with “pets” I will then have dividers for “Patches”, “Sabre”, “Tsion” and so on.

The good thing is once I get the photos into their own box, I can take a box with me when I know I’m going to be waiting or when I’m traveling and need something to do in the down times.

For my hard copies, once I sort them, I will scan the best into my computer. (I have a lot of photographs so I can save only the best).


As I said earlier, my photos since 2006 are in digital format. But I am making it a point to make a high resolution copy of the best of my shots. Most I print out in a 4x6 size, but the very best are printed at high resolution in 8x10 size. These 4x6 will have their own box.

Then all photos will be backed upped on both my external hard drive and a couple DVDs.

Then it will be time to work on displaying them…

BEARS!!!

Last month I read this post by Cory on her husband's road trip with two of his buds. Go take a look at it and then come back here…

http://willows95988.typepad.com/tongue_cheek/2010/07/three-guys-three-bikes-three-without-a-tent.html

I can completely understand poor Francis!

I will be the first to say it… I am NOT a “Let’s go camping!” kind of girl. My idea of roughing it is having to stay at the “Sawing ZZZ Motel”… if you know what I mean.

So when Himself and I did our mega 5000 mile, 5 week road trip thru the Southwest (TN-AR-TX-NM-AZ-CA-NV-AZ-CO-KS-MO-TN) I thought I was being a good sport to agree to camp at a few of our stops. (Why does a man who is a retired career soldier and ‘camped’ for a living want to do it on his vacation too?)

I got online and made reservations at Yosemite. I picked a beautiful campsite on the edge of the campground. How peaceful! I was actually looking forward to it.

Then we arrived at Yosemite…one of the most beautiful places on earth. Spent the day exploring and hiking from gorgeous place to another. Then we checked in at our campground.


And were handed by the Helpful Ranger a 1 inch thick packet of information, tips and rules about … BEARS.

No one had said a word about BEARS when they took my reservation. There was nothing about BEARS on the camping part of the web site (at least in ’04).

No… now when there is nowhere else to go for the night, they tell me about BEARS. Mind you, I think they are magnificent beasts. Huge, carnivorous magnificent beasts.

The first brochure shows a photo something like this:

(this photo was taken at Yosemite by a ranger!!!)


Then the brochure cheerfully informs you that each camp site has a “bear locker”. This metal container is where you are to store your deodorant, soap, shampoo, lotion, tooth paste, food and anything that has come into contact with food.

Where they serious?!?!

The Helpful Ranger assured me that it was quite serious.

I said “Fine! I am sleeping IN the bear locker then because I am WEARING deodorant, soap, shampoo, AND lotion!”

Helpful Ranger tells me that is not permitted.

Terrific. My bottles of deodorant, soap, shampoo, and lotion are sitting in an iron bunker while my deodorant, soap, shampoo, lotion laden body is sleeping in a nylon tent. Can someone explain the logic of that to me?

Then Helpful Ranger tells me that “if BEARS should appear during the night, I should have a set of pans in the tent and bang them together loudly to discourage the BEARS.”

Yeah right… or they might think the banging pans were calling them to supper…

Helpful Ranger was not amused at that. You know what? Neither was I!

With a last warning from Helpful Ranger that we were not to harm or harass any BEARS we might see (!!!), we headed over to our camp site.


Oh my goodness!! It was next to a rocky stream among huge pines… and peeking thru the pines was Half Dome.

It almost made me forget about BEARS.

Almost…


Except were things that kinda brought them back to the front of your mind…

… like claw marks on a tree higher up than 5 ft, 9 inch me can reach.

And since Helpful Ranger is no longer around, Himself decided to take over the job and become Helpful Husband.

His suggestion? That we take our marshmallows and ring them around the camper closest to us (about 3 spaces away). That way the BEARS would go there first and I would have time to escape.

… I gave payback for that at a later date…

We also ate at a restaurant because I refused to have fresh food smell wafting from our camp site. (Hmmmm… there was an ‘up’ side to this because when it comes to camping, ‘food and cleanup’ is always left to the wife…).

Once back, we settled in for the night. Himself happily curled up in his sleeping bag, snoring away. (Please God, don’t let the BEARS think it was a new BEAR in the park and come investigate!)

Me, wide awake with those pans close by. I probably dozed off a half dozen times that night for a few minutes at a time.

The next morning *someone* wakes up bright-eyed and ready for the day. That *someone* was not me…

Then Helpful Husband informs me that he had considered sneaking out of the tent during the night and scratching on my side of it.

I’m glad he didn’t. He really wouldn’t have like what I would have done with those pans…

Herbs - Desserts and Beverages

Yesterday was my second herbal cooking class with Diann at Diann's Greenhouse ( http://www.diannsgreenhouse.com/ ). The subject this time was desserts and beverages. Himself was surprised that you could use herbs with desserts, and outside of the mints many people don’t associate herbs with sweets. But there are many that lend themselves to desserts… lavender, basil, bay, lemon balm and verbena – to name a few!


Diann always does a fantastic job with the classes. They are fun, informative and TASTY!


We were greeted as we arrived with a glass of fresh basil limeade. So good! It’s made mojito-style which is fun!


We discussed and sampled various brands of the new sweetener on the market. It’s made from the stevia plant. Each one is made a bit differently and tasted quite different too! A few I found quite bitter. My favorite was “Truvia”.


The classes are very informal; if you have questions you ask as the class goes along. It’s more like a bunch of girlfriends getting together and cooking up something good!


A bit later into the class Diann fixed us a cup of herbal tea.


And added a bit of fun to the tea with this unique way of sweetening it – Honey Lemon-Lavender Teaspoons. It’s basically a hard candy poured into a spoon and hardened. Then you stir your drink with it. Some of the ladies said they made great lollipops too!


Here is the table laden with all the desserts we learned about.


“Faerie Blossom Cookies”

These are made with lemon basil and lemon balm. SO good! Very much like a shortbread cookie.


“Lemon, Dill, and Pistachio Sharing Cookie”

You’ll recognize this from the dill class. I was happy to see it again!


“Citrus Almond-Basil Cake with Orange Sauce”

This was a gluten free recipe and very good. Moist and crumbly, it didn’t really need the sauce… but it sure was good with it.


“Mint Crème Brule”

She had me at ‘crème brule’ and this did not disappoint. I think I’m going to make these up for St Patrick’s Day next year.


“Herb Sticks with Pesto”

To balance out all the sweetness, Diann had these savory little crackers for us. Totally addictive!


“Candied Leaves”

I think Diann said there were lemon balm, mint and rose geranium in the plate. She also used them to garnish the other desserts.


“Queen Anne’s Lace Jelly”

Yes, that invasive “weed” can actually be used to make a very delicate jelly.


“Lavender Biscuits”

One of my favorites from the class. I think I could eat these every day for the rest of my life. There’s a new bread in my regular line-up!


After we all loaded up our plates, we sat and visited before we each left.


Diann sent us out with a take-home plate of samples. (Guess what I’m munching on as I write this?)

And here’s the recipe for the scrumptious biscuits:

Lavender Biscuits
(from “Edible Flowers” by Donna Frawley)

2 cups all-purpose flour sifted
2 Tbsp lavender flowers
2 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
½ tsp baking soda
1/3 cup shortening
2/3 cup buttermilk

Heat oven to 450 degrees F.

Mix flour, lavender, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda into a bowl. Cut in shortening thoroughly until mixture likes like meal. Stir in almost all of the buttermilk. If dough is not pliable, just add enough milk to make a soft, puffy, easy-to-roll dough.

Round up dough on a lightly floured cloth-covered board. Knead lightly 20 to 25 times.

Roll a little less than ½” thick. Cut with a floured biscuit cutter.

Place on an ungreased baking sheet and bake 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown.
Makes about 2 dozen biscuits.