Can You Stand Another Crocus Picture?

I know you have seen first crocus pics for the past two months. I really believe I am the last person in Blogville to get a crocus bloom (just for the record the first tiny crocus bloomed last Thursday)  It may be boring to you, but it's my FIRST BLOOMS OF THE YEAR, signalling that spring has finally arrived.  Therefore, please pretend I am a new grandmother and I have just opened my wallet and two dozen baby pics cascade to the floor...just grit your teeth, smile and tell me how pretty  my baby is.

Come on now, you have to admit that this is a darn good looking clump and they are already closing up for the night. Yes, I am quite proud of this clump of crocus. It's the best little spring clump I have had in my 23 years of gardening.

I even spent about an hour outside cleaning up some of the front flower beds. I cut down 2 wheelbarrow loads and decided that was enough for my first outing.  Hopefully, it will be warm today and I can do more.
Because you were kind enough to read this far, I have included some container eye candy from my file called "Container Ideas".  I think most of these pictures were snagged from HGTV's site.

Picture #1 would be gorgeous on top of my main arbor.  For the past couple of years, I have not planted anything up there. It was too much work lugging a hose 50 feet to water it. But last year I had a faucet installed right near that arbor, so I think I will plant the top of it this year.  The second pic is just a color combo I like.

And OMG, wouldn't you love to own that home with those spectacular window baskets and that stunning side porch?

Pic #4 is a nice combo for a wall planter. I own a couple of those planters and thought it might be an interesting combo to try.
Happy Hump Day!

Shop Like a Hawk

It has been about six weeks since I went on a clothing shopping spree. I like to get the lowest price I can, so I watch  like a hawk  --it's an art...wait too long and your size is gone....buy too early and you pay too much... when I feel the price is right,  I swoop down and snatch  up my prey!


Sunday I swooped from my early-morning perch and all of these fell prey:

I own two or three of these already. They are shirts I like, so I bought a second color. Most of these I will wear opened with a tee. The first brown shirt is extremely sheer (I own a rust-color and love it). You have to wear a shirt under it; I will probably wear orange to add some pizazz to blah brown. That black/white checked shirt will perk right up with a  summer white tee and some fun jewelry.  I like 3/4 length sleeves for work because of the air conditioning.

DH will probably have a little snit when he realizes I bought clothes again. Oh, well, he knows it's clothe me or retire me from the work force. He always chooses the clothing. :)

Red Velvet Whoopie Pies

I finished the whoopie pies yesterday.

They are cake-like with a filling of marshmallow creme and cream cheese. There is no other sugar in the filling so it is not very sweet, which I liked.
I found the recipe here.  Update:  Thanks, Pea, for mentioning the frosting recipe on this page. I did not use that one. I found one that called for 8 oz. cream cheese and 1 7-oz jar of marshmallow creme.  I just whipped it until fluffy (albeit very sticky!). 

We had our first lightning/ thunderstorm last night. Our power got knocked out for over two hours. How did people ever live without electricity? 

I think all that rain got rid of the last piles of snow in my yard. Now if it dries out, I can get to work in the gardens.

For dinner last night, I  made these chicken crescent sandwiches:

Here is the recipe from the Pillsbury site:

Pillsbury Chicken Crescent Sandwiches

INGREDIENTS:


1package (3 oz) cream cheese, softened

1tablespoon LAND O LAKES® Butter, softened

2cups cubed cooked chicken

1tablespoon chopped fresh chives or onion

1/4teaspoon salt

1/8teaspoon pepper

2tablespoons milk

1tablespoon chopped pimientos, if desired (I left out and put in cooked carrots instead)

1can (8 oz) Pillsbury® refrigerated crescent dinner rolls or 1 can (8 oz) Pillsbury® Crescent Recipe Creations® refrigerated seamless dough sheet

1tablespoon LAND O LAKES® Butter, melted

3/4cup seasoned croutons, crushed



DIRECTIONS:

Heat oven to 350°F. In medium bowl, mix cream cheese and 1 tablespoon softened butter; beat until smooth. Add chicken, chives, salt, pepper, milk and pimientos; mix well.

Separate or cut dough into 4 rectangles. If using crescent dough, firmly press perforations to seal. Spoon 1/2 cup chicken mixture onto center of each rectangle. Pull 4 corners of dough to center of chicken mixture; twist firmly. Pinch edges to seal. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Brush tops of sandwiches with 1 tablespoon melted butter; sprinkle with crushed croutons.

Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Just before the power died, I finished this wonky house block.

Last week I did a mock up on my computer and this is what I am working toward:

I only need to make 4 or 5 more house blocks, so it won't take too long.

Roamy the Fudgie Explores Michigan's Mackinac Bridge as He Enters the Land of the Yoopers

Because he is interested in becoming a bridge building engineer, Roamy spent a lot of time exploring the Mighty Mac (as the 5 mile-long suspension bridge connecting Michigan's two peninsulas is fondly called). The bridge connects the city of St. Ignace on the north end with the village of Mackinaw City on the south.

"Mrs. Zoey,"  he asked before we crossed the bridge, " Could we stop here and get out of the car so I can check out the substructure underneath the bridge?"  He is such a precocious little gnome. 

"Impressive," he said as he inspected every little detail. "I wonder how long it took to complete this bridge."

 I informed him that the building began in 1954 (waaay before Mrs. Zoey was born) and the bridge opened to traffic on November 1, 1957.

"Amazing," he replied. "Mr. Zoey, Could you please drive across the road to the lighthouse?"


How could Mr. Zoey  resist a sweet face like that? 



As all with  most young boys, Roamy loved this cannon near fort Michilimackinac. (I know some of the  native American words are tough to pronounce - Mish-el-mac-a-naw)

We drove through Mackinaw City (the city ends in a "w", the bridge and island end in a "c"--yet both are pronounced the exact same - mac-a-naw--very confusing, I know).

"Mr. Zoey, why are there so many fudge shops in Mackinaw?" Interesting that Roamy should notice the overabundance of fudge shops.

Over the years the city has become known for its fudge. Tourists are referred to as "fudgies" because they buy so much of it.

Roamy talked us into buying 4 different kinds before he was finally ready to jump back in the car and cross the Big Mac.  I told him he was now an official "fudgie".

Roamy seemed a bit agitated as we drove up the slow incline to the halfway point of the bridge. I noticed a few sweat beads on  his brow as we drove along the outer lane (next to the water).

 I informed Roamy that we were now 199 feet above the water.

"How deep is the water below us?" he asked. Did I detect a tremble in his voice?

"250 feet," I replied.

PLOP! The noise startled me.

Poor Roamy passed out cold from freight!

 There are many people who fear crossing this bridge. Some absolutely cannot drive themselves across. The toll takers call them "timmies" -- people who have to stop and ask for help in getting to the other side of  the bridge.  It is said that many timmies have to get in the backseat and close their eyes as one of the bridge workers drive them across the Straits of Mackinac.  Even some big  burly truck drivers have to have the Mackinac Bridge Authority take the wheel of their rig to drive them across. 

Luckily we had all that fudge. I waved a big hunk of chocolate almond across Roamy's nose and he woke right up! 

Within 60 seconds he was all better and able to stand as we approached the toll booth to enter Michigan's upper peninsula.

It was an enjoyable honor to host Roamy.  I hope he had as much fun as Mr. Zoey  and I had introducing him to Michigan's Mighty Mac and taking him  into the land of the Yoopers (residents of MI's upper peninsula are referred to as Yoopers---it comes from the abbreviation UP for upper peninsula).

Tomorrow I will pick another destination for Roamy. I will email the person selected. 

P.S. Roamy has decided that his vocation may not be designing bridges. He says that perhaps a florist would be his true calling.

Roamy Arrives in Northern lower Michigan

Never heard of Roamy? He was living in a garden in CT, when one February day he had a sudden itch to travel. He left home in the middle of the night, leaving a note for his family that he would return in one year. He has been traveling around the United States ever since.


 His family misses him and in an attempt to keep up with Roamy's travels, they set up this blog.  
 
In our get-acquainted chat, Roamy told me that so far he has been to these starred states:

Through chattering teeth, he said that so far Michigan is the furthest north he's traveled. 

I think he enjoyed Missouri's weather last week a bit more than he likes the still freezing temps in Michigan.  He was not really dressed for temps in the mid 30's, so I took him over to the sunny side of the garden so he could warm up. 

 He thought the garden was a playground and seemed to have a lot of fun running around and climbing on pieces of garden junk art.

He was pretty tired after the long journey from Missouri so he had a quick dinner, asked me to notify his family that he was in good health, and went right to bed.

This weekend we are planning to take him to visit the Mackinac Bridge (where the arrow is pointing on the map). He's pretty excited about that. He said he once dreamed of being a bridge engineer. He's pretty young, so his dream may still come true.

Roamy only sticks around a few days and then gets the itch to move on. He will be looking for a friendly place to visit next, preferably in a state he has not yet seen. If you would like to host Roamy, please leave me a comment and I will let let him choose his next state later this weekend.

Update on the ATV win:  It's been sold already. I never even saw it.  I guess I will have to haul rocks my usual way -- in a wheelbarrow. :)

Look What DH Won on April 1 -- and it's NO joke

This beast is a Yamaha Grizzly 350 4-wheeler! Worth over $5,000!!  DH is very lucky in drawings like this. This is his biggest win thus far.

Now what are we going to do with this thing?  Maybe I could use it to pull a big garden cart full of flowers...or some rocks.....you know how I like rocks. Mine are not nearly as big as Karen's monsters, so this would work to lug them around.

We won't be bringing it home until next week. Hopefully, we can sell it. I am sure there are lots of people who would just love one of these. 

I Have Not Had a Very Good Week

I like to keep this blog light and fun so I won't go into details, but I have had a very bad week.  Now and then out of nowhere we are thrown down a rough road. Somehow we find the strength to keep trodding down the path.....
So when I got home this afternoon, I decided I deserved to open this bottle of wine that the Big Kahuna gifted me with last month.

I can't even pronounce the name.

I do love having a boss who likes to buy good wine. He usually gifts me with a bottle of whatever the latest case to arrive at the office is. It's always fun to break away from my $14/box grocery store wine and pretend to be an oenophile (a wine aficionado or connoisseur) like he is.

He keeps saying that he has turned me from a teetotaler to a lush! I have to say this dry white wine is very good--prior to his vino teachings, I hated dry wine. Now I like the dry whites; I even like some of the reds....so maybe he's right! LOL.

So far I have no plans for the weekend. I will probably stay home, clean, cook, sew and maybe begin to read one of the novels I won.

I hope you all have a good weekend!

Hodgepodge Week

I have not been doing many post worthy activities this week, so I will just touch upon a few miscellaneous endeavors.

I half baked some red velvet cookies.

I guess these are actually fully baked, just not completed. They are supposed to be sandwich cookies. Since I made them around the same time I made the cupcakes, I decided to freeze them at this stage. At some point I still intend to make the marshmallow/cream cheese frosting that goes between two cookies.  You will probably see these again in a week or two.

Recently I won a contest on Heather's blog, Books and Quilts.  It was a publisher's give-a-way for two books from the Crafty Chica, Kathy Cano-Murillo. 
I am excited to find an author who centers her novels around the lives of women with a passion to create and
am expecting some light entertainment—along the same lines of the culinary mystery novels I love to read. I understand it's a very contemporary story with a heroine who blogs, sells on  Etsy, etc.  It should be a good read. Thanks again, Heather!

I've spent a few hours of fun and frustration creating these wonky house blocks.

It took four tries before I finally decided on these bright colors.

Oh, Boy, judging by this sight, it's not looking like a good year for my lilies and hostas.

I need to get some deer repellent spray soon. This is what I use to repel the big brutal beasts:

It has worked very good for me. But-- and it's a big but-- you MUST spray it on every few days.  I have learned to love the task. I keep it in a big sprayer and lug it around every couple of days when my hostas and lilies are bursting from the ground.  If it rains, I do it as immediately as I can once the rain stops.  It lasts quite a long time because you mix it with water. If the malicious creatures hang around all summer, then I have to continue to spray the hostas all season. I don't bother with the daylilies because I have a lot of them and it would take forever. So if the deer desire daylilies for dinner, they can have them.

Other Gardens that Inspire Me

Like many of you, we got hit with that big snowstorm a few days ago. It did not bother me much since I was fortunate enough to be able to search garden sites while being lulled by the buzz of someone else pushing the snow blower.

I found some inspirational photos from this site.

In the riot of color in this garden, it is the red table that catches my eye. I have a similar table with four chairs. It came to me red. I hated the red color and have painted it 4 or 5 different colors in the years I've owned it.
 For the past couple of years, I have been considering changing it back to red! I am unpredictable like that.

Look how gorgeous succulents can be in triplicate hay racks.

Cute tree trunk table and candle chandy....


Oh, to have a little cottage up north with a view like this! It seems like I have drooled over this one before.

Gray Color Schemes and the Best Salad Ever

I am really getting interested in gray interior wall colors.  We need to paint my sewing/computer room and DH's tiny office within the next few months.  I am thinking that gray walls might be our new color.

For my sewing/computer room, I am thinking of gray and yellow...after doing a quick google search, it seems like gray/yellow is all the rage for 2011... from bedrooms to tablescapes.....who knew?

I like the light silver/gray walls with  light yellow accents.

I already have a bit of gray in that room. My storage chest and my sewing machine desk is already black/gray.

I would just paint the black areas in a nice oil-based light yellow. The more I think about it, the more I am liking this color scheme.

DH has a tiny office next to my sewing room. I am thinking of painting both rooms in light silver/gray, but using orange  accents in his little office.  I found this gray/orange office on the net:

I really like this office space. Of course this one is "designed" with nothing in it,but complementary items. DH's office space is much more full...books, etc. that are not in the color scheme colors so his would look very different.

I will think more about colors later.

Right now it's time for dinner.  Sunday I went grocery shopping with DH and I bought a mango. I was not sure how good they were, so I just bought one.

I made a big spinach, mango,strawberry, grape &mandarin orange, red onion & pecan salad with poppy seed dressing.

OMG -- it was delish! I am going to make another one tonight.  If I am able to choose my last meal, this would be it.

I Made Cupcakes Again

I just bought the cute tulip liners yesterday. This time I made my own frosting--nonsweet buttery red velvet cake frosting.-- (much better than the canned stuff that I used last time).   I tinted it peachy pink.


"Why pink?" I will pretend you asked because the question is the perfect segue to the reason I am posting twice today.

Pastel frosting goes nicely with the cupcake table runner I recently finished and wanted to show you.

I am now done  posting for today. I am going to eat a cupcake.

RED VELVET CAKE FROSTING

1 cup milk

2 TBL flour

1 c. granulated sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1 c. butter

Cook flour and milk in double boiler until thick, stirring constantly. Let milk mixture cool completely. Cream sugar, butter and vanilla until light & fluffy (takes about 8 minutes). Add the cooled milk/flour mixture and beat about another 10 minutes.

Makes enough for 2 dozen cupcakes

Welcome Spring!

I ventured  outside in mid-thirty degree temperatures to snap a few pictures of my zone 5 garden just a few hours before it became Spring 2011.

Look at that snow bank behind my rockwall garden--It's gone down about 3 feet in the last week (we had one 60+ degree day), but it's still huge!

 Right next to the house in the backyard the snow is almost gone....now what did I stick in the ground to overwinter?

Ah, a closer inspection jogs my memory. I bought 5 Silver Mound Artemesia last fall and did not know what to do with them, so I just left them in their plastic containers and buried them in the ground in front of a basement window.  It looks like they will survive.

Now what's this hole? It looks like a skunk has already been digging in the front yard right under the living room window.  But look, there is a little spot of new green growth - a grape hyacinth.

This tiny little garden is the only one with no snow.  I can't wait until it is warm enough for me to go out and cut down the dead foliage.  I have not looked at the forecast for today, but right now it is 19 degrees, so I probably won't be out there today.

I hope it's more like spring where you are!

Garden Projects to Remember in 2011

How do you all remember those wonderful ideas you had in the previous year for your garden?

I almost never remember anything that I thought of last year. I have been trying to add text to my pictures to remind me of the changes I want to make. I save these pics in a file called "Remember Next Year".  If I remember to look at them, then I have a chance of actually making the changes.  But most often I don't look at them until it's too late to do anything.

This afternoon I was checking out Microsoft Office Picture Manager (since getting a new computer last June, I still have not found a good way to keep track of my pictures--I really hate when they change everything. I used to use Dell Photo Somthing or Another, but it's no longer available). Anyway I came across these pictures:

On this pic, I have had to remind myself not to do anything because I can't stand to see bare soil in my gardens (drives me nuts!).

I had already forgotten all four of these.  Now I know what I will do with the blue morning glories seeds I recently purchased!

How do you all remember what you thought of the previous year?