One flower Brightens my Day

Last Friday I got this big bold Gerbera daisy bouquet from one of my work customers. She has a group of people who come monthly for a banquet luncheon meeting.

Attached was this sweet little card:

What a pleasant surprise.

I added the flower to this bowl of fall gourds.

Every time I walk by, I smile.

Later today I need to get outside and bury these perennial pots in the ground next to the foundation. 

The first two are Crocosmia.

The last time I tried to grow them, they died out during the winter. It will be a lot warmer next to the foundation, so I am hoping they will survive and maybe even look like the ad next year.  I have had very good luck overwintering  ligularia (the third container) here. 

Haan Review & Productive Saturday!

You can get a lot done when you get up before 3:00 a.m.   Especially if you fall asleep at 8 p.m. as I did last night.

By 7:00 a.m. this morning, I had finished machine quilting my Christmas tree skirt and used my Haan steamer to clean 3 floors and a bathroom.

I spent the afternoon cooking and made chocolate chunk cookies, chili, and  Michigan upper peninsula beef pasties (meat & veggie pies).

 

Look at these colorful veggies --potatoes, rutabaga, celery, carrots

 

that go inside the pastie

We like these with beef gravy, but a lot of people prefer ketchup.  We had them for dinner tonight and I froze 4 for meals later this winter.  I make them without a recipe, but you can just google "Michigan pasties" to find a number of recipes as well as the folklore behind this old miner's lunch recipe.

 

I am getting a lot of use from the Haan sanitizer I ordered two weeks ago. 

 

 

Such a lovely slender work of art...

I am happy with this purchase, except for her tendency to topple over

although if she had not fallen over, you would not see  the 15 steam holes that seem to be quite a positive feature with this brand. :)

 

 

 

You can push these two buttons

 

to release this hand held unit which is easier to maneuver around areas like bathtubs,

countertops and even commodes.

Do you see the steam at the top?  I am hoping that it is sanitizing as it claims to do.

I think this steam sanitizer is just that....something to use if you only want to sanitize otherwise clean surfaces.  I don't think it would be very useful if you have very dirty floors, etc. It does a good job picking up little spots of spilled coffee like this

I have used it three times since I got it just over a week ago.  After using it on the kitchen, hallway and bathroom floor this morning, the cleaning pad looked like this:

You just toss the dirty pad in the washing machine/dryer and it's ready to use again. It definitely picked up the dirt from the past three days since I used it last. It is way easier than cleaning on my hands/knees as I have done for the past 30 years. 

So far I am happy. It even matches my other favorite cleaning machine--my Dyson vacuum cleaner.

I just hope it holds up for at least a few years to justify the $185 price (which included four extra cleaning pads).

Who from the House of Reps is Reading my Little Blog?

It appears that someone from Philadelphia posted my 2009 maggot-in-canned-tomatoes post to facebook....

and someone from the US House of Reps stopped by to read it.  Look at the bottom two entries....

 Can you imagine?  It must have been a dull day on Capitol Hill!! ( I have whited out the IP addresses so whomever it was could not be identified.)  Since they checked in at 1:53 pm, I hope they were on their lunch hour.  I would hate to think our tax dollars are paying for them to read my blog.  LOL.

Vintage Thanksgiving Ads

I love advertising from bygone eras.   

 These beer ads capture the pink and grey color trend in the early 1950's.

Notice how formally dressed everyone is. Do any of the men at your Thanksgiving table wear a suit and tie? 

Another example of the popularity of the color pink.

This ad is more modern (1960's probably).  Dad still wears his tie!

How about this yummy salad for the day after?

When I first saw this, I thought YUCK!  But after careful examination, it is probably cranberry gelatin with fruit as the outer layer for a turkey salad filling.  What goes better with turkey than cranberries?  It might just be delicious.

The most shocking ad of all is this one from the 1930's advocating a Camel cigarette be smoked between each course do help digest the meal!

FOOD EDITOR — Miss Dorothy Malone says: “It’s smart to have Camels on the table. My own personal experience is that smoking Camels with my meals and afterwards builds up a sense of digestive well-being.”

“THE BEST MEAL I ever ate would be a disappointment if I coldn’t enjoy Camels,” says William H. Ferguson, salesman. “I smoke Camels as an aid to digestion. There’s nothing like Camel’s to set you right.”

picture source-- click to read the full ad

Old Gold got into the turkey day action, proclaiming at the end of this ad, "You'll thank the day you bought your first carton."

 

I hope you enjoyed seeing Thanksgiving from bygone eras as you begin to think about your own holiday meal.

 

Pinecone Christmas Decor

While searching for some new Christmas decorating ideas, I came across these rustic pinecone items at the Horchow site.

This year decorating in a rustic style is somewhat appealing to me.

 

I think I could easily make my own by gluing cones to this topiary form (that I used in a previous year for a candy theme):

 

I also have a number of  paper mache reindeer that I could use.   

I think I remembered these  deer being smaller than they are.  Now that I see the picture, I don't know if I want to devote that much time and effort to changing their appearance.  Gluing sounds easy, but I think it would take many hours to get them on just right. I may have to be happy just admiring a rustic woodland holiday theme in other people's homes. 

 

Are any of you decorating yet?  I know it's early, but this is usually when I begin mine.  I get it all done, but don't turn the tree on until the day after Thanksgiving.  This year I plan to cut down on the decorating.

I Must Remember this Date

Today may be the last day that I scrub my floors on my hands and knees. I like clean floors, but I am really tired of  crawling around on my hands and knees to get the job done.  Last year I bought a Swiffer and it works OK for a touch up, but it's not so great for the weekly (weekly-- in a perfect world) deep cleaning.

So this morning I searched for reviews of floor sanitizers and I found that the Haan has a good rating. I had never even heard of this brand, but then I have never looked for this type of product.  I decided to trust the reviews I found and I ordered the latest Haan model.

 It should be here by next weekend.

According to the advertising, the Haan S175 kills 99.9% of germs with no chemicals. You just use tap water and the machine heats it to over 200 degrees and it cleans and sanitizes.  I cannot wait to get it!

After  cleaning my floors the old-fashioned way, I  went outside to walk through the gardens.  It's been a month since I walked this area.  I was startled to see this leaning tree with the bark gone at the bottom.

 I gave it a slight push (wearing my long winter coat that makes my arm look incredibly HUGE).

 It fell to the ground!

Whoaa! I felt like Super woman! :)  I guess it rotted away.  Good riddance is all I can say. 

Yesterday my sweet husband, knowing that I had a pretty bad week,  came home with these pink roses for me. 

Aren't they lovely? I like them in this Mason jar.  They even smell nice.  It's rare to find a rose with a fragrance these days.

I hope you all had a good weekend. I was happy to stay home and get caught up on my household chores.  I hope you did something more interesting!

Blog Break

Sorry for the long time without a post.    I am not ill.  I've just been super busy--mostly work related. 

Thanks to those of you who faithfully check in each day. 

I hope to get back to blogging in a week or so.

Cold, Wet, Rainy Weekend

The weather this weekend was not a bit nice. Luckily I checked the forecast and knew the rain was coming, so we went out at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday in just above 30 degree temps to put all the deck containers away for the winter.  We worked for just under three hours and had everything cut down and stored for the winter. 

We felt good about that.

Remember the two whiskey barrels with the big Tropicannas? 

No? 

O.K. here is a reminder:





this is the same container today:

We removed everything, tossed out the annuals and have the tender corms & rhizomes in the garage to dry out.  Normally I would have used the hose to remove all the soil, but it was too cold, so I just shook off what I could. In a few days all the soil will shake off.

I think it's amazing that those huge striped Tropicanna leaves emerge from these rather small rhizomes that are drying out in my garage.

 

It has rained so much this weekend that we had flood warnings.  It is still raining now.

The rain has been good for the burning  bush that we moved last weekend.  I snapped this photo from my bedroom window:

  I stood at my living room window to take this pic of the front yard:

The sedum autumn joy is turning its deepest color now.   I may cut it all down next weekend.

This weather is perfect for staying inside and  cooking.

Last week my mother-in-law gave us these colorful peppers from her garden:

 I needed to do something with them before they rot.  So I stuck them under the broiler to blacken the skin.

Once blackened I covered them with foil and let them sit for about an hour.  Then I removed the skin and turned them into this roasted pepper garlic tomato sauce

that I used in place of purchased spaghetti sauce to make a beef spinach lasagna for tonight's dinner.

I hope everyone had better weather for their weekend, than I did!

Mixed Cheese Potato Stacks

We had these for dinner last night.    I was going to make scalloped potatoes in individual casserole dishes.  Then I thought of trying them in stacks. I've had a major case of stack love lately. Just about anything looks better and is more fun to eat when served as a stack.

 I heavily sprayed some muffins tins and put one slice of potato in each.  I lightly seasoned each slice, then put a small amount of a four-cheese Italian mix on top.

 I made 3 more layers of the same.  I heated  1-1/4 cups of milk and 3 tablespoons of butter in the microwave for one minute, then put about 3 spoonfuls of the liquid in each muffin tin (I had a total of 21 stacks).

 It makes a bit of mess, so make sure to spray the entire top for easy clean up.

I covered the tins with foil and baked at 350 degrees for half of an hour.  Then I removed the foil and added more cheese on the top - Muenster cheese on some and cheddar on the others.  After baking another twenty minutes uncovered, they looked like this:

 I let them rest about 12 minutes before removing from the tins and they held together quite nicely.

 

DH proclaimed these keepers.  I like the Muenster-topped stacks the best. You can use any kind of cheese you like. 

Poorly Planned Burning Bush Planting

In 2010 I moved this huge burning bush from the front yard to the rockwall garden. 

As usual I was moving plants on the spur-of-the-moment and did not even realize that I had placed it directly behind this cherry tree.  From the side where I was standing, it appeared to be the perfect spot.  Once I walked around to the front, I knew I had made a big mistake.  It takes a lot of work to move this one, so I just left it.  It's been bugging me ever since. You can see that the color is not nearly as vibrant as the one to the right, which gets plenty of sun.

Today, DH put in a ton of muscle power to dig this huge planting hole through hard, rocky soil

 so that I could move this shurb again.  This is the area where we put it:

Did you know that golden privet turns purple in the fall and even has purple berries?

Here is the same shrub in the summer:
 
It's a lovely bright chartreuse color. I do enjoy shrubs that have a dramatic seasonal color change.

Here is a view of the newly planted burning bush from the back of this privet shrub with a backdrop of orange maple tree leaves:

In this view you can see the other two burning bushes in the rockwall garden where it used to live.

 I am hoping that next year it will survive and turn the same vibrant red as the others.

Here it is looking through lavender seed heads from the garden directly across the grass path:

In addition to moving this monster shrub, we spent a  few more hours digging, hauling heavy furniture to the basement, etc.

When we went outside at 9:00 a.m. everything was covered in a light sheet of ice! It got down to 28 degrees last night.

Ice on the top of the potting bench:

 the top of the glass table:

and frozen droplets on the chair back:

It was only cold for a short time as once we got moving, we warmed up pretty quickly.

 

Now we are both pooped and just relaxing as we await the chicken/potato stack dinner I have in the oven.

I hope you all had a great weekend!