Light bulb goes off - Elevated Plant Stand

The other day, I was assessing the situation with my house plants. I have four African Violets and they do best right beside my window in the kitchen. BUT I cannot seem to get them in the precise place to get enough sun. So, I balanced two of them in the window sill and the other two on top of jars. Well....you guessed it, they kept getting knocked over.

UNTIL.....I remembered the tall "Carousel Candlestick" I purchased years ago from Southern Living at Home, when I was a consultant for them. So I balanced the larger violet on top of that and it worked better, but not perfect.

Here's where the light bulb went off.

The salad size plate that I got in my consultant kit with Southern Living at Home....I had never figured out anything to do with it (for 11 years!). Voile'!!!!!

Glue them together and make them into an elevated plant stand!

So I did! I had some E-6000 adhesive from a different project I had done, so I used it. I put a thin bead of the E-6000 on both the candlestick and the plate.

I let it dry to get a bit tacky, then put them together after about 2-3 minutes.

I love it! I am so thrilled that I finally figured out something to do with these two pieces.

I grabbed something close with a little weight to it to keep the pressure steady. (That is a jar with chick grit in it for my Serama babyies that live in the house).

And I actually thought to get out my level to be sure it dries flat and level.

I let it dry for 24 hours and ta-dah!

I just adore this piece! I am now on the hunt for more candlesticks and mis-matched plates to make more of these elevated plant stands!

Cajun Candied Popcorn

While making several batches of the Candy Coated Popcorn I posted about yesterday, I kept trying to think of other flavors to make besides the Jell-o flavors.

Two of my husbands favorite food items: Popcorn and Tony Chachere's Creole seasoning.

As David would say "Slap yo' Momma good!"

Cajun Candied Popcorn - Regular

Cajun Candied Popcorn

Using the same recipe from the Colorful Candied Popcorn, making one MAJOR change.

12 cups popped popcorn
1-14oz can Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk
Tony Chachere's Creole seasoning: 2 Tablespoons for spicy OR 3 teaspoons for regular

Heat oven to 300 degrees. Line shallow roasting pan with heavy foil, extending the foil over the edges of the pan. Butter foil. (I used a 13x9 pan and regular weight foil. Worked just fine).

Remove all un-popped kernels. Pour popcorn into pan. Keep warm in the oven.

Combine sweetened condensed milk and creole seasoning in a saucepan. Heat and stir over low heat until this starts to thicken slightly and gets bubbly, 4-5 minutes.

Pour over popcorn. Using a wooden spoon, stir gently to coat. Bake 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes.

Carefully turn out onto buttered foil. Cool. Break into pieces or clusters.

Cajun Candied Popcorn - SPICY

Have fun and enjoy!

Too Cute Not to Share!

Source: Tatertots &Jello

Found this tutorial today! Love, love, love these trees! Best part is you can use the foam tree cones for another project after you make these Burlap Trees! Click the name link below to be taken to the tutorial.

DIY Burlap Trees

Definitely something I plan to make for decorating this year. Very inexpensive, too!

Here's three great suggestions for the cone trees after you make your Burlap Trees! All from the same blogger :-)

Ribbon Covered Tree

Fabric Covered Tree

Paper Covered Tree

I think I will make one of each above, since I will have three cones to use! The best part is I don't think I will have to purchase any additional supplies to make the three of them! SCORE!

Enjoy!

Colorful Candied Popcorn

This was time consuming and messy to make, but well worth it! This stuff is delicious!

Popped my popcorn.

Mixed my sweetened condensed milk and jell-o together. I used Berry Blue flavor in the photos. I made a second batch, using Lemon jell-o. I wasn't sure how it would taste but I love it! The jell-o flavors do not stay very strong on the popcorn, but the Lemon was outstanding. Doesn't taste lemon-y at all!

Lightly butter the foil to spread out the coated popcorn.

After coating all the popcorn, turn it out onto the buttered foil and spread out to dry.

Now, the finished product!

I found out about this recipe in a blog post here.

The recipe comes from the Eagle Brand Milk website and can be found here, or click the link below.

Candied Popcorn

12 cups popped popcorn
1-14oz can Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk
1-3oz box of jell-o or other sweetened gelatin

Heat oven to 300 degrees. Line shallow roasting pan with heavy foil, extending the foil over the edges of the pan. Butter foil. (I used a 13x9 pan and regular weight foil. Worked just fine).

Remove all un-popped kernels. Pour popcorn into pan. Keep warm in the oven.

Combine sweetened condensed milk and jell-o in a saucepan. Heat and stir over low heat until this starts to thicken slightly and gets bubbly, 4-5 minutes.

Pour over popcorn. Using a wooden spoon, stir gently to coat. Bake 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes.

Carefully turn out onto buttered foil. Cool. Break into pieces or clusters.

Enjoy!

We have new girls!

A local friend of mine gave us 7 hens & pullets today! Well, total of 12, but I was picking up some for yet another local friend, so we kept 7 for ourselves. Since we had the bloody massacre here in September, it is nice to have more chickens around. We were down to just one American Barred Holland pullet and two babies that we hatched from Trader Joe's "fertile eggs". We are about 99% sure they are white Leghorns. BUT it seems one is male and one is female. Way to go! (I have a trio of Seramas in the house...babies, though)

We had to do some creative rigging on the barn, since it is set up for horses (previous owner of this place) and I wanted to keep the new ones secure for a few days while they learn where their home is now.

Anyone that knows what the wind is like in the Texas panhandle knows that the plastic won't stay stapled up there like that for long.  After doing that, I changed directions and used an old "heavy duty" (and I mean HEAVY DUTY) shower curtain liner that I got for the kids bathroom, but quickly hated and removed, and stapled it around the lattice. This worked perfectly. So later this week, I will get 1.5 more pieces of the latice and two more of those shower curtain liners and create three of those panels and take down that awful looking other stuff. They will work perfectly for shelter from the wind, rain and snow.

Looks awful, but only temporary for a few days. Most importantly, the girls are secure and protected from the elements. Heat lamps keep it nice and noticeably warmer in there.

This is just way too neat!

I found this tonight, on a new site I stumbled on to...

Source: Knitting & Crochet Community

I definitely am going to make this! So neat and unique!

Click Here for DIY LED Lighted Rug

Have fun with this! Anyone that makes it, please leave a comment and tell about it!

Two Fall and Pumpkin Cookbooks - FREE

I stumbled upon these two FREE Kindle cookbooks this morning and wanted to share.


   
What a fantastic time to find these! Enjoy! I'm off to whip up a few goodies myself.

Between me and the barn

this morning is this...

It's a good thing my wonderful hubby got me these two weeks ago!

We had a huge thunderstorm come in and start around 3:30 this morning. It woke up Gregory and I for about 2.5 hours. Both children and I are sick, so sleep is what we need, not storms to awaken us. We had some storms and short lived fall weather early in September, which is typical here in the Texas Panhandle. Now, I do think it is here to stay. The forecast is for more storms today, tomorrow and on Sunday. We will see. The rain is wonderful, though. This summer (in my opinion) wasn't as dry as some have been here since I moved here in 2006.

See the little inset on the page to the right? The Early Look at winter? We are right on the outside edge of "colder" than normal for October! YEE HAW!!! I love the weather here in the Texas Panhandle! Maybe we will have snow before Halloween like we did last year!

I am finally back to my blogs! Kids are in school and David has returned to work in Afghanistan. Time for me to get into a schedule and a groove and "get 'r done" around here. I will be doing a "Summer Recap" post to share all of our adventures from June through September around here. Believe me, there wasn't a dull moment.

I've started a couple of new blogs, though just informational ones, and as soon as I get them up and going, I will share them here.

Now I'm headed to start a movie, get Gregory started on watching "The Lorax" (he loves that movie) and do some crocheting.

Missing you all

With my huge blanket post of the happenings in May, I thought for sure, I was back to blogging on a regular basis.

Then...

*We bought a new house, which was a major nightmare
*I broke my finger, had to have surgery on it, it was immobilized for 4 weeks, and is still in a full time splint
*We moved into the new house, me with my injured hand
*David came home on R&R

So my full time return to blogging didn't happen and summer is nearly gone.

I cannot wait to get back to blogging and visiting with all of my blog-y friends. I miss visiting all of your blogs with such great ideas, recipes and stories of what is going on in your worlds.

Now I sit here at the airport in Albuquerque, NM, waiting to board our flight to Las Vegas. The kids are with their father, it is just David and I flying.

We are going to Vegas for our wedding and honeymoon. We are so happy and excited! Our wedding will be on Friday night, at 7:30pm Pacific time.  Here is the link for any that care to view it. It will be live and then remain available for 16 hours.

David and Amy's Wedding

See you in September! I can't wait! I will have photos of the wedding and of the new house!

A happy day!

I wish I could say the pins are out of my hand, not until Wednesday. BUT....

We have a brand new baby chich that hatched last night!!! It is a Serama (who would have guessed, eh?) from hatching eggs I got from my friend, Laura, of Castle Delight Seramas. I have waited so long to hatch some babies from her eggs!  This hatch was awful. Because of my hand injury and not feeling so great, I would forget to turn them on schedule and several times, the humidity got way too low before I caught it.  Next time...we will have a much better success rate, I am sure.

So "Tidbit" is an awfully lucky and strong little baby with a huge will to live. This is the tiniest little baby chick I have seen, much less ever hatched myself. From head to tail, it is only 1.75 inches long....that includes it's beak!

I'm calling it "Tidbit" for now...once we can tell the gender, it will get a *real* name.

Pip!!!!! 9pm 7/20/2012

under the heat lamp

The ash trays that I use for biddies food and water (with the glass marbles to prevent accidental drowning) is 4.5 inches across. You can see just how tiny Tidbit is.

Finally...something I am able to do with my injured hand <3

Have a great weekend!

Popping in

...just to say I am alive and a hand injury is just the absolute worst! Surgery and two pins, cast off later this week and I will be back into the swing of things around here.

Here's something beautiful, just to share.

Have a wonderful Sunday! See you back here real soon!

Forced to slow down

Friday...I was so excited! I had a lawn crew coming to finally get this 1.18 acres of jungle under control for me. THEN I had so many plans for the weekend. Finish the afghan for our grand-son due to arrive any day, finally get my raised bed garden put in before it's too late, catch up on laundry, SEWING!!!!.

These images are after 24 hours post-fall.

THEN....it all was a dream. When the lawn people were here, I had gone outside to talk with them, then headed into the house. The back "stairs from he!!" got me. once and for all.  They are the worst steps I think I may have ever seen in my life. They are welded steel and very steep. I have tripped, stumbled, fallen...so many times since moving here 14 months ago. Here we are...just a couple of weeks away from them being gone and WHAM! I started up the stairs, then my hand was screaming...not certain how it even transpired.

My hand is broken in two places. I see the Orthopedist on Thursday, so then I will know all of the future details.

Obviously there is no crocheting or knitting any time soon. My daughters are helping as much as I force them to they can around the house and garden. Sewing/quilting, I will be able to do before anything else, but that will be quite a while, too, I am sure. So much for the baby projects I planned to do this weekend.

It could have been so much worse, I am aware, but right now, I am pretty down about being halted in my tracks. Those dumb stairs!

It is for sure I have plenty of time now for computer work (one handed) and reading and watching movies.

Sunday Share {Week-10}

Good beautiful Sunday morning! Are you ready to take our Sunday stroll and go visiting?

6-in-1 Easy Mexican Meals - Sidetracked Sarah

DIY Magnetic Pin Plate - The Mother Huddle

Tie-Dye Shirts Using Sharpie Markers - The Art Girl Jackie

Sticky Lemon Rolls with Lemon Glaze - The Kitchn

Slippery Pot Pie - Home Joys

It's going to be crazy hot here today. I will be indoors enjoying the air-conditioning. Enjoy your day.

Let's go for a walk in photos

I was outside in the yard this morning taking photos and thought to myself that all these pretty photos would make a great post to show you around my yard/flowerpot garden.

Not looking great, but I still have hope. I had been neglecting all my little pretty plants and they almost died on me. A little Miracle Grow and they will look great really soon.

Pat-a-Pan squash blossoms. Never heard of it before, but the fruit is cute and edible, so I thought I'd give it a try.

Baby ears of popcorn for David! I honestly think my man can eat popcorn every single day and never tire of it.

Baby Big Bertha bell pepper.

A tiny little marigold flower trying to do it's job as a natural insecticide.

Rhubarb is something entirely new to me. Never grown it, never even eaten anything made with it. Oh the places we will go things we will do to grow food.

Baby heirloom tomato. This variety (can't remember the name) is the semi-equivalent to Roma.

Babies that I started from seeds. I know one is squash, maybe two. The other, I am not certain what it is.

Strawberries!

 

 

Harvest time for many herbs again!  Chamomile, Lemon Verbena, Oregano, Sage and Thyme.

See the baby Basil plant?!

Three different corn varieties, Okra, Cantaloupe and Watermelon(I think). Must re-pot all of this very soon!

New growth on the rose bushes that I nearly let die.

Well, that was my morning walk around the yard. Hopefully in a week or two, everything will perk up and look wonderful and provide lots of fresh food for our family.