This & that

I visited my momma this week and was greeted with a bunch of beautiful morning glories that are climbing the lattice on her front porch.  I had to get a pic of them, even though the pup (Buddy) started jumping on me and nearly sent me tumbling down the yard.  That would not have been a pretty sight!

Here's Rocco at about a year and a half old.  Isn't he a gorgeous rottie?

I found these mushroom salt and pepper shakers at Goodwill the other day.  I certainly don't NEED more salt and pepper shakers, but they were so darn cute I couldn't resist.  I (GASP) paid full price for them too-which was 99 cents a piece!

This mug is from Goodwill too.  I loved it because it's handmade.  It looks like they pressed flowers into the clay.  I think this side is gorgeous-the other side, not so much.  It says Northwestern PI CPA Chapter.  I think I'll just use it for decoration only and just keep the pretty side facing outward.

And I don't think I've ever shown this bank.  Larry's uncle (he's passed away now) gave a bunch of these to family, long ago.  He had them made from old post office boxes.  There's a slot in the top for your change.  He wrote the combination to open it on a slip of paper and taped it on the bottom of the bank.  I've always loved this bank, I think it's so cool! 

My friend, Dawnie, (I say that alot on here) shared some of her yard sale finds with me!  (Lucky me, right?)

(By the way, Dawnie's beautiful home is filled with wonderful antiques, mostly from Goodwill and yardsales!)

Welp, that's all for now-have a good day!

Rug washing day

What a beautiful fall day here today!  It didn't take long for these guys to dry.  (And they smell so good!)

I hope you are having a beautiful weekend wherever you are too.  :)

'Indigo'

This is Indigo.  Surely someone, somewhere, has named their child Indigo.  Indigo is made from thrifted sheets and shirts. 

Edited to add:  I found an 'Indigo' as I was looking at a soap website.  Kawinkydink, I guess!

************************************

 Today's haul:

I hadn't been to garden for a few days and that's what I found.

 I'd say the garden has paid back the-I don't know-$15.00 I spent for seeds.  I still have tons of seeds left, so next year-hopefully, I'll spend less than that!

Have a good day, everybody!

Miscellaneous

My neighbor gave me more tomatoes and I had a few from my garden-so I made some more juice yesterday.  I should have done it a few days earlier though-I had to throw quite a few rotten tomatoes out!

Isn't my prized watermelon beautiful?  Tastes good too!

I thought I would share this VERY simple recipe for sour pickles.  Mom's been making these forever!  This recipe is in the little hand written recipe book that my mom gave me as a bridal shower gift-oh, so many years ago-the one  I replicated last year and gave as a Christmas gift for my sisters, my mom (I think?), my daughter, and my niece.

I've always really loved these pickles and they could not be more simple to make.  The dry mustard gives them zing!  Oh, yeah-I used zucchini, not cukes because I had no cukes-but I did have zucchini.  I just scooped all the seeds out and used the firm outer part.  Worked like a charm.


Sour Pickles

2 Tablespoons of dry mustard
2 Tablespoons of salt
4 Tablespoons of sugar

Put above ingredients in quart jar.  Fill with cucumbers (or zucchini) and then with vinegar.  Keep in fridge.  Make sure the lid is on tight and shake now and then.  Enjoy in a few days!

Saturday afternoon-Larry and I went to a wedding reception.  (It's very rare we go anywhere together and it's very rare that Larry would go to a wedding reception-but the groom was his buddy.)

What a perfect day for a fall wedding!  The weather was beautiful!  The colors were lovely and so were the bride, groom, and the wedding party.  I loved the building the reception was held in-it was a coal loading building for trains back in the 1900's.  I loved the architecture.  Oh, and they passed out these paper 'hot air' balloons and lighters-the bride and groom lit the first one and then guests could light them and off they went into the sky.  I wish I would have gotten a pic of a bunch of them in the sky together-but I was too busy talking!

I hope everybody has a great week!

'Goldie'



The name 'Sunny' is already taken.

 

So this is Goldie, named for the yellow she contains.  (I'm grasping at straws here!)  Goldie is made with thrifted shirts and sheets.

  I made three rugs this week-yeehaw!

I also made this cut and tie fleece blanket for my daughter's friend.  Daughter asks, Mother makes!

Have a good weekend, everybody!

'Viola'

I made another rug yesterday-oh, yes I did!  I named this one 'Viola' for the blues and purples that I used.  These rugs go pretty fast for me, when I have the fabric yarn all ready to go.  My basket of rag balls has gotten considerably smaller already!  Viola is made from t-shirts (some thrifted and some given to me by lovely friends and relatives-have a t-shirt that's ready for the rag bag-just give it to Holly) and thrifted sheets.

Ahhh-this isn't a viola, it's a dayflower (thanks, Mary!) that I found near the woods.  Yes-I was in the woods again-only this time on the opposite side of my house.  I also found apples, acorns, wild grapes, oak leaves, and pine cones-but daaa!-I didn't have my camera with me.  I need to take it next time.

Oh, and doesn't Rocco look cute there?  He's thinking that I am going to throw this tiny flower for him.  Probably because I throw rotten tomatoes and weeds for him to go and fetch.  In fact, as I was taking photos he started jumping at me so he could grab this wee flower.  A 130 some pound pupper jumping at you-not good!  I love him anyway, though.
Have a wonderful Wednesday, everybody!

Watermelon!

Ah, watermelon-we love you so! 

I didn't grow this one.  Larry's uncle gave us this BIG homegrown watermelon from his beautiful garden.

I ate the end.  Hehe-I'm sneaky-hardly any seeds

Here are two of the watermelons from my garden, that I just picked this morning.  The big striped one must weigh 15 pounds or so. When I cut into it-I'm sure I'll be taking photos of the momentous occasion.  I know you're on the edge of your seat!

Speaking of watermelons-I decided to display this awesome watermelon rag rug that my mom made me about 16 years or so ago-again.  I had it out for many years-I used to be really into watermelon decor.  But I ended up putting it away because I kind of got out of that phase.  But now she's out again, to be displayed in all her glory. 

Afterall, in my opinion, there's no such thing as too many rag rugs!

Have a wonderful day, everybody!

'Ivy'

It's been a while since I've made a rug.  I've been cutting t-shirts and ripping sheets (outside) here and there, but today was the day-I made a rug.  This is Ivy-named for the green in her.  Ivy is made from three thrifted sheets and it looks like five t-shirts.  Some of the shirts were thrifted and a few were holey ones that were my beautiful niece, Jess's.

I thought about going outside to find some ivy and use it as a prop-but thought better of it, as I didn't want to get into any 'poison' ivy.  I just used my little glass bunnies for props instead.

Here's a photo using the hipstamatic app.

And here's a photo using the shakeit app. 

I'm still playing with my ipod touch.  Why?  Cause it's fun!

Have a wonderful day!

Yesterday's rainbow

It's SuperRocco!

It's a bird!

It's a plane. 

It's SuperRocco!

Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive,

able to leap tall buildings in a single bound!

It's SuperRocco!

Have a nice day, everybody!

Grape sauce?

I picked probably 10 or so pounds of grapes that I found on our property.

I picked them from their stems and washed them good.  Then I threw them in a pot and cooked them up all hot and bubbly.  Then I put them through my little ricer (food mill).  The  house smelled wonderful.  It's pretty much the same process I used for my tomatoes.  I just winged it.

I was left with about three quarts of grape sauce.  It's really quite thick!  I think it should make wonderful grape freezer jam.  Now I need to get some sure-jell.

Here's the little ricer (food mill) that I used.  It's now stained purple!  My co-worker bought this for me at a hardware store in town, not long after I got married.  She didn't want me to make lumpy mashed potatoes.  I have yet to use it for that.  In fact, I haven't made mashed taters in years!

I hope you are having a nice day!

Tomato, tomahto

My lovely neighbor gave me a small box of tomatoes a few days ago.  So with those and a few of my ripe ones, yesterday afternoon I got my butt in gear and made some tomato juice.

We *heart* mater juice!

I washed the tomatoes throughly, roughly cut them up, cutting out any bad spots.   Then I cooked them up until they were hot and bubbly and smelled devine.  I ran it all through the ricer, which took out the seeds and skin.  Then I salted the juice to taste and voila-

four and a half quarts of tomato juice!  I threw three in the freezer and one and half in the fridge.

Up next-grape juice!

Have a nice day, everybody!

Stuff I found in the woods

The woods around our home are so very beautiful.  I really have never appreciated HOW beautiful, but I'm trying to now.

I think this mushroom is very cool!  So cool-I took many pics of it, as you can see.

I only noticed the bug after I uploaded these photos.  I'm so thankful I didn't grab that berry and stuff it in my mouth!

Fungi can be fabulous!

I'm not sure of the name-but here are some pretty little wildflowers.

Here's another wildflower for which I don't know the name.

We have grapes (I call them concord grapes-but I'm not sure that's what they actually are) at the edge of the woods near the road and near our yard!  This is the first year I've noticed them-but they've had to have been here for years.

I eat these seeds and all.  They have such a wonderful flavor.  I think I may make grape freezer jam with them.

Oh, look!  I found this strange man, er-I mean my husband, in the woods too.

I hope you are having a good weekend!