Happy Wednesday!

I don't post as often right now and it's all because at one time or another I somehow copied over a link that keeps taking me out of my blog to who knows where and I don't know how to find it and get rid of it. And Then when I try to work on my Things to Do I have to continually fix the spacing on it. And of course, I don't know how to fix that either.

Need I say that I am tech-challenged? I don't know how to figure it out and everywhere I've looked for help doesn't seem to help.

So I get frustrated and go outside to dig weeds. Aaahhh, that soothes the soul.

Anyway, I've been busy, busy, busy.  The Denton Community Market had their first 2nd Saturday on April 10th and it was a huge success! We had about 20 vendors, music, and coffee. As the weathers warms and the Farmers get to come out and play, it should be an even greater success and a very pleasant place to go on each 2nd Saturday. Please join us and the DCM next 2nd Saturday on May 8th you'll be glad you did.

I've been in the garden, and have lots of pictures to show. I just can't seem to find them just now - hmmmm.

Okay, we'll get back to that.

I've been crafting, crafting.  Here are some pictures of a couple of things:

This started out as a small folder that I covered in paper and added all the doodads. The flower is a silk flower that feel off of something in my house that I took off the plastic and glued on the card. The button is a vintage button that I picked up in my thrift store travels. The little goodies are things I sent along as some "specials". It's not a fancy card, but it was my first card handmade card and I think it came out pretty good. My swap partner liked it as well.

And another swap I did is for an ATC. This is my first as well.

For my first, it came out pretty good. I was pleased.

So where am i doing all these swaps, because these are just a couple I've done, and I've been in several already and I am so addicted. It's called Swap-Bot. I don't remember how I found it. If you do go there - beware - you WILL become addicted and so far I have found NO cure. Although I haven't really looked for a cure at all. It is so much fun!

I'm also working on the baby shower for my little Angelique. I'm making a flag banner right now and almost have it finished. I took a baby crib dust ruffle and cut out triangles (that was a challenge - who knew that could be so hard to do) and then sewed them together. I'm making the 'binding' - not sure what to call it - and because I have meetings tonight and most of the day and evening Thursday, I won't be able to finish it until Friday.

Also, Ryan is graduating so we are planning his grad party. Family will be coming in from Ohio and we plan to have a party here at home. The weather should be cooperating at that time and there shouldn't be any rain.

Okay, I have to go. I came across a blog for a shop in McKinney that I want to visit called Smitten so I'm off on an adventure! I'll get those pics up for you and PLEASE bear with me as I try to get this whole blog mess figured out.

Happy Easter!

I'm off to see Snow this morning and then back home to work in the garden then fix a roast dinner for my guys. I also need to get my Easter eggs done. I was busy working yesterday and forgot all about making them! I want to have them done by the time Huny gets home from work. Enjoy your day!

A little bit of a flower show...

Despite or because of the snow, rain and wind the flowers in the garden are coming up! It's wonderful and I'm enjoying being outside again.

I've had these in the garden. I call them Audrey's Iris. Purple is not one of my favorite colors, but Audrey's Iris is almost a deep purple/black color and I love the throat of it. It is white with a purple streak down the center. I'll be thinning this out after it finishes blooming.

This little guy is my unknown. It came up last year too, and I still don't know what it is or where it came from. It is a tiny flower, maybe not more than 1 inch across. The stem is about 8 inches, if that. It's a cheery flower and it makes me smile.

Around the corner and up the street is a lot where a house burned down. Last spring I was driving past this lot and see all this flower growth coming on. I rushed home grabbed my shovel and bucket and went to save these flowers from a life of oblivion. I really didn't know what I was saving to tell you the truth because none of it was blooming, except for the grape hyacinths.  This snowdrop was a pleasant surprise this spring. I love it and it has such a wonderful scent.

Grape Hyacinths from the same lot.

This is a lavender colored Iris that I saved as well. It looks a little washed out here, but it is beautiful.

This came from the same lot, but on the other side of where I was digging and I got this just a few days ago. I don't know how I missed it last year. It's a miniature jonquil and it smells so sweet. I just love it. Huny doesn't like it because he says the flower is too small.

I have a couple of other things coming up from this rescue mission, but they are blooming yet. I'm excited to see what comes up!

These are my 50cent Hyacinths that I got from WM. They were just a little stubble in the pot and I brought them home and figured they wouldn't grow this year, but surprise! I love them. Hyacinths are one of my favorite Spring flowers. The flower in front is a 50cent daffodil that should be blooming today - hopefully!

This is an heirloom Cemetary White Iris that I got from Petal Pushers last year (Update: Petal Pushers has closed.) and this year it bloomed. I love the yellow beard.  All that greenery you see below the flower are my poppies.

The spineless cactus is from a fellow gardener and it came from TWU. The violet is a stow-away from somewhere. I think it came from Audrey's garden.

Pretty.

I don't know what this is going to be. Hmmmmm.

Audrey gave me these boots for Christmas one year. This spring I'm dressing them up with marigolds. Don't you just love that flower? I have them everywhere in the summer. The little corner behind the boots is my container garden that keeps growing. I have a pot of Marjoram because Huny likes that herb and I use it fresh in a lot of my cooking, there is a pot of alyssum to lure the butterflies and bees, the red flower is a dianthus that we got the first year here (3 years now) that I have divided, divided and divided. It's in every corner of the yard. The butterflies love this flower.

Right behind this is my new garden that I just got started. I going to fill it with herbs and more of the dianthus and we'll see what else. Yesterday Huny was being lumberjack and was splitting wood and one of the last two logs he had to do had a great hole in the center of it. I swiped it to set in this planter. I'm thinking of planting a silver thyme in it. Wouldn't that look pretty coming out over the sides of the log? I haven't started the pictures of that yet, but this is my project for today.

In the house, we have the tile down in the entryway and in the front closet. The baseboards are up and Huny got them painted. There is stuff EVERYWHERE in the house. The sun is shining and who wants to be STUCK inside the house????!!!! And anyway there's no place to put anything yet.

Yoohoo! A great reason to be outside!

Well, the wind has died down from the gale forces of yesterday to a pleasant breeze - thank goodness! It is going to be a great day in the garden! Have a wonderful Sunday! 

Denton Community Market - Opening April 10, 2010

Opening on Saturday, April 10, 2010, The Denton Community Market will be held on the second Saturday of each month through October 2010. Centrally located near the downtown square, the Market respresents the diversity of the Denton community and features a variety of products and services from local farms, artisans and business owners.

Local produce from neighborhood gardens and local farms offer fruits and vegetables, herbs, flowers and floral arrangements, dried spices, honey, coffee and teas, and canned jams and jellies. The farms specifically provide milk, cheese, eggs and meat. There are also offerings from local business, entrepreneurs, non-profits, and social action groups. They provide their products and services on site as well as information about upcoming special events, meetings, and activities. Entertainment is part of the festive environment at the Market. Music is featured from local musicians. Jugglers and other street performers are also present.

This event is new to the Denton Community and we hope that you will visit us this day and every second Saturday and help to make this an event that will become a weekend destination for our city.

What happens when you take......

A couple of placemats that I got from somewhere. Sometimes I really do wonder where it all comes from :) . I really don't know where I got these, but I had them and well, the backs were not in the best of shape and I didn't want to throw them out and I thought about donating them to the thrift store, but in the end I saw

POTHOLDERS.

I played with them a bit trying to see what would be the best way to make them and this is what happened. A great way to recycle.

2010 - Year of the Tiger and Tigers - Struggling to Survive

Donate Now to Help Save the Tiger

I am a Tiger.
As few as 3,200 tigers remain in the wild.
For more than a million years, this "King of the Jungle" reigned over a vast territory stretching from Turkey to Russia. Today, sadly, their habitat is disappearing--tigers occupy just seven percent of their historic range.

2010 is also Year of the Tiger

According to the Chinese Zodiac, the Year of 2010 is the Year of the Tiger, which commences on February 14, 2010 and ends on February 2, 2011. The Tiger is the third sign in the Chinese Zodiac cycle, and it is a sign of bravery. This courageous and fiery fighter is admired by the ancient Chinese as the sign that keeps away the three main tragedies of a household. These are fire, thieves and ghosts.

Snowball has been moved from the hospital in Arlington to Cooks Children's Hospital in Fort Worth. She had a button put in her belly and they did something else to her stomach as well. She was not eating her bottles and the doctos felt that this was what needed to be done for her. So she had her surgery and so far she is doing well.

I took Cora up there yesterday and we visited with Angelique for a couple of hours. She is SOOO cute. She looks good, her coloring is perfect and she has a temper when her diaper doesn't get changed. Jeez.

She had to have her medicine put in her button and that was not a happening thing for her. She did not like that one bit and she was letting the nurse know it. They have to insert the syringe into a hole in her button and there is a little bit of pushing going on there and that is the part that she doesn't like. I imagine that it hurts a little bit for her still.

She needs to eat her bottles and as soon as she is consistent with eating from the bottle then the button can come out. I had a little talk with her and let her know that she should try to eat a little bit more from her bottle each time so that we can get rid of that old button.

She should be in the hospital for a couple of weeks more and then she comes home. 

Yoohoo!

I teased her a bit about actually having two nostrils now. We never could see one of them because it had a tube up it all the time. She just gave me one of her "oh nana" looks.

Sweets for my Huny

Because of the weather Huny has been at the airport for more hours than I have seen him this week. During the snow he was gone for the duration, but it's one of the things that he loves about his job. He wasn't sure when he would come home so I didn't have a meal cooked for him and once he did get home we ordered Chinese since we hadn't had that in a good while.

Yesterday he came home earlier than we thought he would so I fixed him a meatloaf dinner with mashed potatoes, gravy, peas and rolls. This was our Valentine's dinner since weather was due to come in and we didn't know if he would be home today. So far, it looks like he might be coming home in an hour or so.

But, I did fix him some white chocolate covered strawberries with red sprinkles and I got him a card and one of those $1.00 Wal-Mart heart candy boxes. I think he will like it whenever he gets home.

The card is a store-bought one, but I fancied up the envelope a bit with some craft paper and lace. I had fun making this. (I was actually trying to put the lace on top of they Huny label, but it turned out better this way, I think). The tulips and the love word  came from a magazine that I was throwing in the recycle bin.

I have a fire going and a beer waiting for him, and even though he's getting leftovers, it will still be a good evening.

Happy Valentine's Day!

List to Live By ... Author Unknown

1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.

2. Life is too short to waste time not taking a chance.

3. You can take care of you.

4. Stay in touch with friends, old and new.

5. Pay off your credit cards every month.

6. You don't have to win every argument. "Agree to disagree".

7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.

8. It is OK to get angry with God. He can take it.

9. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

10. The past is the past. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.

11. It is OK to let your children see you cry.

12. Don't compare your life to others. It’s your journey that is important.

13. If a relationship has to be a "secret", you shouldn't be in it.

14. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God never blinks.

15. Take a deep breath and then another. It calms the mind.

16. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.

17. Make room for something useful, beautiful or joyful and donate something just as wonderful for someone else’s joy.

18. It is never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.

19. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take "no" for an answer.

20. Today is special. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, and wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for “the” special occasion.

21. Over-prepare, then go with the flow.

22. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple, yellow, or orange, or all three together!.

23. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.

24. Frame every so-called disaster with these words ''In five years, will this matter?"

25. Always choose life.

26. Forgive everyone everything.

27. What other people think of you is none of your business, and why should I care anyway?.

28. Time heals almost everything. Give time, time.

29. However good or bad a situation is, it will change for the best for you.

30. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

31. Laugh!

32. Believe in miracles.

33. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.

34. Show up and make the most of your life now.

35. Growing old, getting wrinkles – yoohoo!

36. Your children get only one childhood.

37. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.

38. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.

39. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

40. The best is yet to come.

41. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

42. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift.

What a week!

Just like our Texas weather to go from balmy 70 degrees to a brrr it's cold 39 degrees. But that is okay because we will get to build a fire tonight.

News on Angelique is guarded this week. She had a pretty bad spell where she stopped breathing and her heart stopped. She was moved to a bed with a heat lamp and was kept in a more sterile part of the NICU for a couple of days. She was moved back to her crib and taken off of oxygen yesterday. She was a little cranky (I guess I would be too if I kept getting poked and prodded), but she seemed to be sleeping comfortably and she took a full bottle of milk. They suspect a bladder infection was the culprit. She's on antibiotics, high blood pressure meds and who knows that else. She has tubes everywhere. At least the little snowball is doing better and hopefully she'll keep getting stronger each day.

I did get to tell her about the work in the garden we did and that she needs to get strong so that she can help her Nana. I can hardly wait for the kids gardening stuff to get in the stores.

She is up to 5 lbs 4 oz and she is just about too big for her premie clothes. I didn't get pictures yesterday because I didn't want to add another disruption to her day, but I'll be out there again next week to see her.

We spent the week splitting the wood that we had cut, cleaning up the yard a bit and I planted some Texas Supersweet Onions and Georgia Sweet onions. I'm excited about that!

We got a little bit of rain as well and our compost pile compressed a little bit. I weeded up a bit up front and have some poppy seedlings coming up. yoohoo.

I have the itch to get in the garden, but I keep telling myself that it's still winter and to wait a little bit before I start getting in the dirt.

At HD they had fruit trees out and we thought about getting a peach tree, but really in a couple of years we will be thinking about whether to move from here or not, so we decided not to get one. Why plant a fruit tree when we may not be here? We have a pecan and a maple tree planted so I think that those two trees will be enough for the yard until we make a final decision.

Listended to a smidgen of Howard and he said a way to organically get rid of weeds in the lawn is to use vinegar. Going over to his site to check this out because I don't want Huny to use weed and feed stuff on the lawn.

New Pics of Angelique

My precious Snowball. I hadn't seen her for a while and when I walked in she was wrapped in this blanket and looked just like a fuzzy snowball. The name stuck. She is now 4 lbs. 2 oz. and is in a crib, but still in NICU. She was still on a breathing tube but that should be coming out soon. Hopefully she will be home in another month or so.

Me and Angelique

Mom (my daughter, Cora) and Angelique smiling for Nana.

Resolution = Flexibility

So how many of us actually stick to the resolutions we make at the beginning of the new year? Not many, if any of us do. Resolution is a word that to many sounds so final and as if there is no flexibility involved. But maybe if we see a resolution as more of a lifestyle change, or as a goal to be met then perhaps those 'resolutions' we make won't be so hard to keep. Seeing a resolution as a more flexible way to change things in our lives makes the end result seem as if it is something we can achieve. Lifestyle changes and goals have the flexibility in them to move in the direction that we didn't see at first when we made the choice to change.

Everyday life is not set. We wake up one morning and the path we saw for the day is way off course from what we had planned.

My 'resolution' is not such a big one in the grand scheme of things. But I felt that I HAD to get it done and it HAD to be done NOW so that I would have it DONE for the next time I looked for a recipe. So I pulled out all the bits of paper, books, notes, copies, etc. of all the recipes I have on just ONE shelf and had it all spread out and was thinking that I HAVE to get this finished NOW. Talk about pressure and all for a recipe book.

At the end of a couple of hours I thought I'll NEVER get this done, just LOOK at ALL these recipes. WHAT was I thinking? This will take DAYS.

While going through this self-imposed pressure cooker, I was surprised to see how many recipes I have cooked. A pleasant surprise. And, I did manage to find the potato pancake recipe that I've been looking for since Thanksgiving - yoohoo! Of course, now I don't have any leftover mashed potatoes, but at least now I know where to find the recipe.

Taking a walk away and then coming back to see it all laid out on the couch I decided to get real. It was crazy for me to think that I could get it started and finished just like that. This will be a project that will take days to get finished, and then it will be an on-going project since I am a recipe-holic. I put the ones I had cooked in a separate folder and put the others in another folder and put it away. For now. Instead of trying to get it finished all at one time, I'm giving myself the flexibility to take my time with it. To work on it a bit at a time. I want to have fun with this project and I was NOT having fun.

So I went to Barnes and Noble to take a breather. While there I found a notebook just for the idea that I have to keep myself in order in the kitchen. I didn't get it, but it was a great inspiration tool and I'm again looking forward to working on this project.