Noodles

I made chicken soup yesterday and decided to put homemade noodles in it. Had some extra dough, so thought I'd try a couple different disks to see what shape they make. This one makes little shells.

This one makes fettucini.

This one makes tiny fettucini.

Still have a few more disks I haven't tried yet. I just love this PastaMatic!

To Quote Jed Clampett, "Pit-i-ful, Just Pit-i-ful."

That's the best description of my old herb garden. The mint had grown into the oregano, so I wasn't sure what was what anymore. The ground wasn't very good here, either. You can see the big mound of green on the left. At one time, that was one little oregano plant. It grew...and the mint grew into it. There's a little thyme plant, some parsley that came up again, and the chives. To the far right, there are a few tarragon plants coming up again. Guess I didn't get it all dug out last year. That stuff grows taller than me. Unfortunately, I didn't know about tarragon when I planted it, and I got the wrong kind. This was the Russian kind, and it's worthless. I'd like to find some of the French and/or Spanish.



Here's my new herb garden. It's between the patio and the sidewalk that goes from the house to the church. I transplanted some of the chives and the thyme. You will note on the right, that the mint is now in a pot where, hopefully, it will behave itself. I also planted some seeds in this bed--parsley, oregano, basil, cilantro/coriander. There are a couple more I'd like to get yet.

My Garden So Far

It was such a nice day out today. Dale tilled part of the garden for me, the part that hadn't been done yet. In the foreground, along the fence is where the peas are planted. The next wet strip is lettuce at this end and onions at the other end. Next strip contains garlic this end and the raspberry plants that are doing quite well already. To the far side, and also along the far end, are rhubarb plants. That lighter-colored area in the far corner with green things in it is where the horseradish is. We don't till that and we don't fertilize it. We don't even water it that I remember. And it's still just as happy as can be. We've battled it for years. No more. We decided we like it. Now watch; it'll probably all die out this year.


A close up of the horseradish and a couple rhubarb plants. Keep an eye out for the horseradish reports. That stuff gets bushy.

Here's a view from the other end.

The Good and The Bad

The Bad: Both cars were out of commission and had to be hospitalized this week. Worse, Dale's tooth became very bad and had to have an immediate root canal. He was just going to have the dentist pull it, but he wouldn't work on it until after Dale had been taking antibiotics for a certain length of time. The pain got so bad that we had to find a different dentist that would work on it NOW! Poor fella was feeling so bad most of this week that he didn't want food or his computer...and that says a lot. Finally, today he is starting to perk up.

The Good: Pauline's birthday party was real nice. Our visit with Jeff's family was real nice, too. The kids sure were having fun with the present we gave Derek for his birthday. One part was a tape measure for his tool box. They went around measuring everything--and I do mean everything--furniture, each other, us, tongues...

We've been getting some rain so things are starting to grow and blossom. The snow peas are popping through quickly now. Spent a bit of time outdoors yesterday weeding around the peas, garlic and rhubarb. Good therapy for a stressful week!


Today I attended a tea in honor of volunteers at the nursing home. Each of us received a gift bag with a garden theme. I put the hummingbird feeder out as soon as I arrived home. Now we have one for the patio area :-) We had put our old one out yesterday because Dale thought he'd seen a hummer by the window above the flowers.

Diamonds? Rubies? Furs?

Forget 'em!

I got what I really wanted today...


..
Manure!

Dollhouse Progress

The walls are painted and the roof is on.



The roof is painted.


A bit of wallpaper downstairs...



Windows and trims:



How do you like it?

I still have some inside work to do. I'm thinkin' maybe wood floors and a shelf or two. Hmm, now that I look at it, I'll bet it would have been cute with chocolate-colored roof and trims instead of gray.

Springtime in Northern Michigan--Part 4

At last!




Notice the open window!

VBS Project

I'm working on a dollhouse for one of the prizes for VBS this summer. It is a small, inexpensive kit that I got for half price. Nothing fancy, but I think it'll be cute.



Here's the beginning of the instructions. Notice the warning that is posted on most dollhouse kit instructions: "Don't Panic" LOL


Here's how it looks to begin with:


First, find the pieces you need to start with and sand.


Starting to take shape!



Ready for a coat of paint before going any farther.

This doesn't look so great in this picture, but it's a cute little window seat in the bay window. There are 24 microscopic nails in those 4 hinges--'bout drove me nuts! The doors are ajar in this picture so it doesn't look very neat.

Springtime in Northern Michigan--Part 3

Need I say more?

Here's One Reason

...Why I don't do very well making miniatures.

"Make Pasta"

That was the reminder that Betsy emailed me. When we were watching the food channel Tuesday evening, one of the chefs made homemade pasta. I mentioned that I had been given a pasta machine and wanted to try making some, but just hadn't gotten around to doing it. Well, tonight's the night. Can't believe how easy it is with this machine. I'll be doing a lot more of it. This machine has several disks; I'll need to find out which makes what kind of pasta.

Fresh pasta cooks very quickly, too. Yum!

What a Week It's Been So Far!

To start with, coming home from grocery shopping on Monday, I was about 6 miles from home when smoke started coming out of the steering column of the car. Yikes! So I called Dale to come and get us. The car was towed in and is now repaired. We can pick it up tomorrow. When I asked Dale what the repair cost was, he answered, "Somewhere between Ouch and Boing!" Happy thought, indeed.

Tuesday morning, I headed downstate to attend the Ladies Tea at Betsy's church. When I arrived at her house, two eager little faces were watching at the window for Grandma!

One of the things Betsy was signed up to take to the Tea was cupcakes. We had fun working on them together. Here's one tray; aren't they pretty? They were a big hit.

This morning, after we did a bit of shopping, I headed over to visit my parents for a few hours before I came home. Dale and I decided we should give my dad his flag now, even though his birthday isn't for 6 more months. Here he is with the certificate:

Here he is with his flag, wearing his Vet Chaplain hat:

And here he is with his Korea Veteran cap:

He has a flag pole in his garage that someone is going to install next week. I think he's eager to get this flag up and flying!

By the time I arrived home, my sinuses were feeling pretty crummy, so I took some meds, got ready for bed and drank some tea instead of going to prayer meeting.

Tomorrow starts big-time catch-up after being gone for two days, but it was worth it. I really enjoyed it.

What a Difference Two Weeks Makes!

These pictures were taken Monday--just 13 days after my post of March 25. Here again you are looking at where my flower bed is, and the mailbox that has gardening tools. Looks different, doesn't it? Now we've got to find time to get out and do some yard clean-up!






Sunday morning, my garden was all covered with snow still, but before the evening service I could walk out to it on bare ground and see--rhubarb coming up!!!

Spring Cleaning Surprise

I've been doing a bit of sprucing up in some of my dollhouses. Today I found something that I had found before, but forgotten about. See the little folded paper that was hidden behind the door of this bedside table?

Here's what it says:

Sweet, eh? Love you too, Betsy!

There is a downside to this mini cleaning, though. I've found that, although all my houses have Bibles in them, it appears that the little people aren't reading them; they're covered with dust.

"These two are wedded, and no man can part--dust on the Bible and drought in the heart!"

Any dust on your Bible?

Cookies

Here is a very good cookie recipe. They may look like chocolate chip cookies, but they are not. They are very, very delicious cookies with chocolate chips added. I got the recipe from my Grandma Robbins many years ago, and just added the chocolate chips upon a suggestion from a friend. You could add anything you like to the recipe instead--M & M's, nuts, whatever. (Actually, I believe nuts were in the original recipe, but I haven't been using them because several friends don't care for nuts--and it's less expensive.)

My Grandma's Cookies:

Mix together:
1 cup butter or margarine
1 cup oil
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tablespoon buttermilk (I use a pinch of buttermilk powder and a spoon of water)
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar

Add:
3 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 cup oats
1/2 cup coconut
12 oz. chocolate chips

Mix together. Make into balls, then flatten slightly on cookie sheet. Bake about 11 minutes at whatever temperature your oven does cookies best. Makes about 5 dozen.

Long May It Wave!

The flag we ordered to be flown over the nation's capitol on my parents' anniversary arrived here yesterday, complete with certificate. This is my dad's birthday gift this year. His birthday isn't until October, so I'm wondering if we'll give it to him early. So...do I make this an exercise of patience, or do I use a little wisdom and give it to him while the weather is nicer and he can enjoy it more?

No More...

Dirty clothes on the floor for the little people in my brown house!
(Looks like I need photography lessons. This is blurry and doesn't show the texture of the hamper.)

As I was saying before...

It's Springtime in Northern Michigan!



Believe it or not, my flower bed is right out there. That mailbox, if you can see it, holds gardening tools.

Carpenter Judy

Here are a couple bedside tables I've been working on for one of my dollhouses. My little people were starting to complain about their lamps sitting on the floor.

She's getting famous!

Kate's picture was in the paper again. This time she was doing massages at the Ladies Day at the Senior Center.

Springtime in Northern Michigan

Okay, so it won't be spring for two more days--just thought you'd like to see how it looks when it's 'almost' spring!