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.