Cards and Beans

Crate of string beans
Inside Card

Outside Card

Took a time out this morning to work with the new clear cards from CTMH, the more I worked on this card the less I liked it, DURN I hate when that happens. I love working on acrylic mini albums and usually they turn out great but for some reason I just couldn't get in the grove with cards this morning. It may have had to do with my ever growing to do list around the house so I couldn't focus, maybe tomorrow I will have better luck.

Worked the crate of beans pictured last night, string beans are a pain in the butt. Got up bright and early this morning, as in before the sun came up, to blanch beans and get them in the dehydrator. Lots of work but they should be worth it this winter, and if that wasn't enough I just finished canning 8 quarts and 1 pint of tomatoes. Now on to mowing the back yard and I might be close to having a handle on the to do list for the day.

Cause it's cute

I bought this pasta machine a few weeks ago for no reason other than I though it was cute. We do like pasta and noodles but I have never had the desire to make pasta, still don't today! Pasta is cheap as dirt, use a coupon and buy it on sale you might even get it free. I can't justify this pasta machine for any reason other than I liked it and wanted it that day in that moment, which is so not me. Maybe over the winter I will dig out a cookbook and give pasta making a whirl or maybe I will just let Tyler use it for play dough, don't know and don't care, I just like it.
Today will be a long day of cleaning, lawn work, desk work and such. We are having Bobs Sister and Husband in for the holiday so I need to get things in order and plan a few meals (love that)
We are still on Baby Girl Hines watch so I need to get back on top of domestic endeavors around the house just in case she decides to show up this week, if not the Dr. will induce her next week. Spent yesterday with Kelli and Nathan trying to fill time so they would relax a little, spent way to much money and didn't get a single thing accomplished, but they left in a little better mood and a few home improvement projects to work on. I do have some things set out in the scraproom ready to go but that might not happen today, time will tell.

A Day Overflowing with Creativity

Started this morning at 6:30 and I am still at it, UGH
I have been so busy lately that I haven't taken the time to get baby girl Hines port-a-crib ready to go at our house so Kelli and I spent most of the day reworking the nursery set a bought awhile back. I couldn't find any thing cute for a port-a-crib so I purchased a full size crib set and worked a little magic with scissors and the sewing machine. I turned out so darn cute, now I will have to surf the net to find another for baby girl Kundla due in a short 3 months.
Also worked on tons of flower clips for all the babies that have come along lately, hope I can finish them tomorrow.
Once the sun went down and it cooled of a bit I canned a round of tomatoes, got a batch of cucumbers in brine to can tomorrow and last but not least just finished a bushel of beans to get in the dehydrator overnight. It has been a very LONG day.
To top the day off Kelli went into labor around 5:00 this afternoon, just got word from the hospital that they are going to send her home for now, she is in good steady labor but is not moving along very well so they want her to try and rest at home and of course keep walking. Looks like Baby Girl Hines is gonna be one of those marathon labor kinda gals. We are hoping she will give Mom a break and show up tomorrow.
Nanny plans on putting her feet up and working on flower clips and enjoy the air conditioning as soon as I get a few hours sleep!!

Baby Girl Hines

I spent most of the day with Kelli and baby Girl Hines, Kelli is now going to the OB/GYN twice a week and of course is so afraid for the baby, her blood count was down to 4 a few weeks ago, she is now up to 8 after loading up on iron, OJ and lots of water, Dr. still wants the count higher but more than likely she will still need a transfusion at delivery. Baby girl Hines has been having trouble with her heart rate so she is tested twice a week on a monitor, scary stuff for a first time Mom and a very worried Nanny. I have taken over the taxi service going to Dr visits, Kelli doesn't need to be driving when she is feeling light headed add to that the heat that has been overwhelming for everyone, sooo Monday's and Thursday's I will be on Dr duty from 8:00 AM until noon or later.

We went to lunch with Heather (prego Daughter #2) and Tyler after spending a little time shopping to cheer Kelli up. Needless to say no scrapbooking happened today, but the important thing is both girls were laughing and seemed more relaxed.

Tyler was the big winner of the day, I picked up a little Heavy Earth moving equipment for him on our little shopping trip, he can now do some landscaping around the new house

Pickles

Pickles, now sleep............

Working the beans

Green Beans Before
Green Beans After

For the past 2 days I have been working beans from the farmers market in the evening then dehydrating overnight. Our beans are coming along but it will be weeks before we get enough to begin dehydrating them. Since purchasing my fabulous double oven stove with a glass top I am unable to use a pressure canner unless I want to add a second stove (ain't happening) The only options we have are to freeze beans or dehydrate them, I am trying to get away from freezing any more than I have to, therefore dehydrating is the way to go. I had forgotten how relaxing it is to set down at the end of the day and work a bunch of beans, I know it sounds crazy but it really is restful. When we were little and lived with our Grandmother we would set on the front porch and work beans at night, my sister and I didn't last long on the beans, we would end up chasing lightning bugs while Mamaw worked.

As fond as those memories are I can tell you setting in the Den with the air conditioner running and a little background music is heaven, it is over the top HOT here, setting on the deck to work beans would not be a pleasurable experience.

Today is FINALLY pickle day!! Got up at 5:00 AM to start, so far I have the Kosher Dill and Bread and Butter pickles finished, on to the regular dill and lime pickles but I have run out of canning jars so it is a trip to Wally world for me. I also need to hit the farmers market and pick up another bushel of green beans (We do love our beans) Our garden is putting out lots of cucumbers but not enough to can as many as I need right now so I will fill in with a few from the farmers market.

If all goes as planned and my Prego Daughters don't have any issues I should be able to work in the scraproom tomorrow, I am excited to finally have the time to work on some of the new clear cards from the latest cattie.

Vandals In The Garden

For the past two nights something has been mowing down the corn, I might not be as aggravated if they were eating the corn but it looks to me like this is just pure vandalism. I have no idea what varmint is doing the dirty work, gonna have to surf the net for suggestions on saving what is left. We don't have the square foot garden fenced in so that might be part of the problem, we didn't want to go to the time and expense fencing it in if it wasn't going to work. The jury is still out on the square foot garden, the only thing it has produced so far is radishes that were the size of small marbles. I can't blame the garden on the radishes, I planted them pretty late and the heat has been so bad for the past two weeks they wouldn't have done well in the regular garden, time will tell if the square foot garden is gonna be a keeper.
I hit the framers market yesterday afternoon to pick up a few more cucumbers to add to my pickle pile, they had the most beautiful green beans ever!! They were perfect, no spots, dirt, and fresh out of the garden, the fella had just pulled up in his Gator with a load of the beauties when I arrived. I got them along with Zucchini and some summer squash from our garden in the dehydrator last night, directions say 12 hours to dry but looks like it is gonna take a little longer. We LOVE green beans!!! I could eat them morning noon and night, I will be headed back today for more. Our bush and pole beans have lots of blooms but no beans yet, I know even if they produce like crazy it won't be enough for us so I am gonna stock up now while I can.

I am off to the kitchen to start the first round of pickles, hopefully my prego daughters won't have any issues today to drive me crazy, I would love to get all the pickles up this week so I can cross that off my list of things to do

Splendor Cards

WooHoo, a few cards to post finally!! I still have 2 more WOTG kits that I haven't even opened yet and another order that is due in the first of next week but at least for now I was able to accomplish a little something. My room is a huge mess, before I can get anything else done I am gonna have to give it a little TLC. With Kelli's baby due any day now I have had lots of last minute projects that she has wanted me to do, art work for the walls, hair pretties, rewire lamps, etc. Heather moved 2 weeks ago so she has given me her own pile of to do's. They just keep stacking up in my room. Why is it when my girls get in the mood to nest I end up with the mess and extra work?

Plans changed this morning, I meet Tyler for breakfast then had him until this afternoon, no pickles canned this morning :(, however we did put up blueberries Bob brought in over the weekend from the farmers market. Suckers went in the freezer, no dehydrating for them ever again. Laundry is almost finished, vacuumed the house, quick mop of the hardwood floors, cleaned out the refrigerator and general clean sweep of the house so I should be able to get on the cucumbers tonight! You can never tell around here anymore what might come up and throw a monkey wrench in the plans, with two pregnant daughters this summer I am learning to be more flexible (not my forte)

Tomatoes can also Read

Well it seems that our tomatoes also read this blog, I requested a few days ago that they step up and give us a red ripe tomato for father's day, low and behold check it out, they came through!! Within the next week or two I should be able to start canning tomatoes.

This week pickles will be the main focus around here, I had hoped it might cool off a bit before I fired up the canner again but no such luck, it is gonna be hot as h.... all week so I will be getting up early (as in before the sun is up) then after the sun goes down I will be at it again.

I have had folks ask how we are getting so many veggies out of so little space, one of the ways is to go vertical, I plant the cucumbers close to the fence so that they grow up the fence, this frees up space in the garden and makes picking the cucumbers very easy, I still have to dig around on the ground for some but heck that is easy, no more cucumber plants spreading all over the place.

Also found a little time to play in my room this weekend, check back tomorrow to see a few cards I was able to finish, not sure I will be able to get much more accomplished in my favorite room this week, but I am always hopeful!

Just a short post this morning, I am headed out the back door to get the potatoes planted before the heat sets in today. Tyler and Bob needed some "guy" stuff to do yesterday so they pulled the broccoli for me, I now have the room to plant potatoes in the regular garden and we are gonna give them a try in the Square foot garden as well, should be interesting to see what the difference will be in the two environments.
I need to get started on pickles this week, really wish the heat would let up for a few days so I could get on canning, however I don't see that happening. Looks like I am gonna have a few very sweaty days ahead of me. Here is a great site for some canning recipes and out of the box canning, foodinjars.com. Best books on the market are "Ball complete book of home preserving" or " The big book of Preserving the Harvest"
I dehydrated green and yellow onions yesterday, I had read that they would be stinky when they were processing. YA THINK!!! Stinky is not even close to the aroma we had in the house, the fumes were so strong that our eyes were watering in every room of the downstairs. The next round of onions will be moved to the garage or deck, no more dehydrating in the kitchen for them but they turned out beautifully.
Update on the dehydrating of blueberries..... it took 3 days in the dehydrator to hopefully finish them off, I say hopefully because some of them were still a little sticky when I finished so I don't know if they will hold up. Bob LOVES blueberries but I won't be using the fancy dancy dehydrator again to put them up, from here on out they will be frozen. Here are the steps to dehydrating blueberries if you are interested, of course you have to carefully wash them first then they need to be blanched, after gently running cold water on them to cool down you need to poke a hole in each and every one with a toothpick to help the drying process and then wait 3 days for them to dry! Are you kidding me!! Nope that's what the directions say and that's what I did and that's why I won't be doing it again.

A Little Creating Today

Worked in the garden early this morning before the heat was too bad, finished all the errands then spent the heat of the day working on headbands for Baby Girl Hines and Baby Girl Kundla. They turned out so cute, not sure the lampshade do them justice!! I had every intention of hitting the scraproom but decided I better get the hair pretties ready for the baby girls, Baby Girls Hines is due July 1st but she seems to be getting in a hurry the past week and giving her Mom a really hard time.

Bob is off tomorrow, we plan to tag team the garden and yard. I mowed and weeded this morning so we should knock the rest out pretty fast then I WILL GET IN MY ROOM!! We have seed potatoes to get in this weekend and a few more herbs but that can wait, it is time to play!!!

Hummmmm

I am just wondering if my Broccoli might be reading my blog.... for the past 3 weeks I have planned on pulling it up. We have continued to get a good size bowl a few times a week since I harvested it weeks ago, but it really is past time for it to go and something else to take its place. Went to the garden this morning and wouldn't you know I ended up getting two large bowls of broccoli. I just don't have the heart to pull it out yet, so as long as the plants want to keep producing who am I to turn them down. We will all appreciate the extra pots of broccoli soup this winter that we are getting now from these past their prime plants.

I want to state right here right now that I expect the tomatoes to step up to the plate, I have pampered you enough, it is time to do your thing!! I can only hope my tomatoes also read the blog, I would love a few red ripe tomatoes for Fathers day. Lots on my to do list and even more being added to Bob's list, until my thumb heals Bob is gonna have to take up my slack and do lots of the dirty work in the garden. We also plan on getting the potatoes in this weekend which will be a bugger of a job, we haven't even tilled the area yet :(.

I hope all of you are having some fun in your own yard, it is a ton of work but so worth it, thankfully most of our flowers are perennials so they don't take the time and effort that the garden does, nothing like setting on the deck in the evening watching the fireflies and enjoying the flowers that can show off without my help.

Coupon Queen

Wow 2 posts in one day!! I have had so many ladies ask me about coupon's that I thought I would share a VERY short post on them. Check out Coupon Mom and other great sites for tips and information.

I do coupon, lots, it is hard to see from the photo's above (should have scanned them) but this is an example of a few weeks of grocery receipts.

Spent $62.63 Saved $51.20

Spent $55.64 Saved $72.20

Spent $42.53 Saved $65.19

Spent $77.04 Saved $47.18
As you can see some weeks I do better than others but I save a bunch each week!! I get coupons from the Sunday paper and on the Internet, if the Sunday coupons are super good I buy several papers. I ONLY buy what we eat!! If I get a free item coupon I will use it and give the product a try but I never ever buy what we don't normally use. I buy meat only when it is on sale then repackage it into serving sizes that are right for our family using the Food Saver. Many times you will get lucky on a buy one get one free item in the store, if I have a coupon for that item I use them both so the reality is that at times I end up with both items free. I have a very large pantry and extra cabinets in the laundry room for grocery store food, home preserved food is separate, at any given time I might have 4 boxes of lets say crackers because they were on sale and I also had a coupon. You have to be diligent in rotating your food so nothing goes out of date but once you get use to it you will find it a breeze to do.

Check out the sale paper each week, compare sale items to your coupons and buy what you will need for now or in the future, once you have your pantry stocked it will become much easier to do. I rarely pay full price on anything at the grocery store.

My Husband thought I was nuts a few years back when I seriously began using coupons and the sale flyer's, he changed his tune fast when he saw we were saving on average 60% and still eating the good stuff. He now is my biggest cheerleader, he even likes to go to the grocery store with me. I have to tell you it is quite a thrill when the clerk hands you a receipt and says you saved $70.00 or whatever the amount is. I try to shop in the early morning or late at night when the store is not crowded, it takes time to use coupons and I don't want to be blocking isles and such for others, I also think better when I am not distracted by crowds. Give it a try for a month and see how you do, I would bet you too will catch the bug, who doesn't like to save money?

Down Day

The best laid plans seem to always get sidetracked! Our youngest Daughter who's baby is due in 3 weeks has been having problems with her blood count for the past week. Yesterday we both finally snapped and headed to ER her count had been down to 4!! The OB/GYN had suggested she do treatments with an Oncologist/Hematologist that were experimental at best last week. After meeting with him yesterday morning, getting info, calling friends and family to do a little research and digging we came up with NO WAY!! She is to close to delivery to go that route when there are other options. So long story short a transfusion is the safest route to go.

This morning the wind is out of my sails, I was in bed asleep by 8:00 last night and was in no hurry to get up this AM, my body seems to be saying rest, just beeeee for a day, so I think that is what I will be doing.

I do have blueberries in the dehydrator that I started yesterday, not sure I will be doing many more of them, what a pain. I have zucchini, summer squash and broccoli that needs to come out of the garden today and be dealt with but other than that an extra cup of tea and a good book might be just what my body needs for now. As we say in the south, Tomorrow is another day Scarlett.

Durn Ouchy

Sauerkraut
Yesterday I was whizzing through a bunch of cucumbers when I cut the heck out of my thumb, I was being stupid and didn't use the guard on my slicer, it is a pretty good cut but I didn't want to set in ER for 7 or 8 hours to get stitches so I hope I can keep it clean enough to avoid infection. I might should have gotten a tetanus shot... hope I don't end up with lock jaw or something.

Good news is the cucumbers and 10 pounds of Lima beans dehydrated beautifully so all is not lost. I also won't be doing any yard/garden work for a few days, need to keep the dirt out until the cut heals some so I might just get a little scrapbooking done! Yepeeeee.

I had a few questions in e-mails this week about my fancy dancy new state of the art dehydrator so I hope the info below will help everyone out.

1.) I purchased the Excalibur dehydrator, after lots of researching it seemed to be the best on the market.

2.) Different foods take different times to dehydrate, there is lots of information available to give you an idea of how long everything takes and also what foods need to be blanched/steamed before dehydrating. I prefer steaming over blanching.

3.) I use the Food Saver vacuum packer once the food is ready, it is worth every dime, we use it for repackaging meats, freezing etc. Watch the sales at Kohl's for the 40% off deal.

4.) I am only dehydrating veggies from our garden or 2 local farms for things we are not growing, I don't want anything that I can't trace the origin of. You can dehydrate frozen foods but I am sticking to fresh foods only.

5.) Once I have a good variety of food dehydrated I plan on making some pre mixed soups, casseroles and such. This could really help our daughters who all work outside the home, maybe a little less eating out, I can only hope! Ha

Cabbage Patch

16 heads of cabbage and 4 pounds of carrots
Love tools that work harder than me!

Finally something other than cow poop in the wheelbarrel

I am almost done with our cabbage patch! Well I thought I was done on Saturday when I went to the garden to decide what to plant in the space that the cabbage had been using when I discovered we still had 2 more heads of cabbage we had left behind, not sure how that happened, its not like cabbage is a small plant like say a radish or something. It may have had something to do with the over 90 degree heat we have been having lately or maybe we just sub-consciously didn't want any more cabbage in the house to deal with, whatever it was I will certainly finish off the last two heads today along with a basket full of cucumbers and a batch or two of broccoli. We planted jalapeno peppers, bell peppers and cantaloupe in the cabbage space, with a little luck maybe they will be happy in their new home and give us lots more to eat. I should have pulled the broccoli this weekend but I am still getting a few bunches from the little sprouts a few times a week so I am hanging on to them. The carrots and okra I planted last week are both up, I should be able to thin them later in the week and hopefully just let them go, I am over the high maintenance plants, they can suck the life right out of you!!

So here is the really exciting news, I LOVE the dehydrator!!! It is so easy to use and it will be a dream to store the food once it has been processed. Pictured above is 16 heads of cabbage and 4 pounds of carrots, isn't that incredible? I am over the top excited about this dehydrating deal and Bob is on board all the way, he will no longer have to worry about my can goods overtaking part of his work room. I also canned 12 jars of sauerkraut but decided against freezing any cabbage I just dehydrated all of the rest, that will really help with freezer space, Bob is all about saving freezer space for meat. The only draw back I have found with the dehydrator is that the house smelled like cooked cabbage all weekend, I think I even smelled like cooked cabbage after awhile but it was still worth it, I would imagine cauliflower could be a real problem as far as odors in the house but we don't have any in the garden this year and we don't like it enough to buy at the farmers market so maybe the smelly part is over for now.

I am off to the pick your own farm today, we need more broccoli than what our plants are gonna give off this year, note to self plant more next year. I also need to get the house back in order, we spent most of the weekend in the yard and garage. I did have a little energy left last night to at least get in the scraproom and plan a few cards using the new stamp sets that came in last week, maybe I can find the time to whip a few out today or tomorrow, fingers crossed.

My New Kitchen Tool

I am a sucker for tools in the kitchen and scraproom, I love having things that are work horses in both rooms, they save me time and money, gotta love that. This week my fancy new state of the art over the top useful Dehydrator came in!! I have already used it for zucchini, summer squash and carrots, it is remarkable how easy it is to turn my veggies from the garden into preserved food. I don't mind canning, in fact I enjoy it most of the time but storage is an issue for me. We don't have a basement and I keep my pantry full, I have added lots of shelving in the laundry room but still I run out of space. I also freeze many of our garden veggies, we have 2 refrigerators and one full size stand up freezer but they too become stuffed to the gills by the end of summer. My vision with the new dehydrator is I will be able to preserve everything from the garden this year with no waste and very little storage space. Checkout "dehydrate2store" site if you want to get inspired by an expert in dehydrating foods, this lady is amazing I hope someday to grow up to be just like her!!

I know this is as crazy as you can get but I get so angry when I buy celery, onions etc and only need to use a little of it, I wrap up the rest with every intention of trying to use it before it goes bad but that doesn't always happen. I know we are only talking about less than a dollar for celery but still I hate the waste. With the dehydrator I can have celery, onion and everything else ready to just throw in the pot or skillet and I am ready to rock!!

Today we are bringing in the cabbage, I will can some into sauerkraut, some will be frozen but most I plan on dehydrating for soups and casseroles, even Bob was impressed when he saw that 2 pounds of carrots will fit in a Ziplock sandwich bag and only 1/2 full to boot. We also need to get the last of the broccoli in, I have been freezing it so far this summer but today I will be dehydrating the last of it. So grab a cup of tea and go to the dehydrating 2 store site, relax and watch this ladies incredible video's.

Moving is hard work

Short post today and still no scrapbooking done this week. I thought why not share a photo of one of the Hydrangea bushes that are showing off this year. I realized after I took the picture that I had left the wheel barrel in the photo UGH! Oh well envision this.... the wheel barrel is used to bring in my abundant bounty of veggies from the garden.... OK that is not true, a basket is big enough right now for what we are producing, the wheel barrel is for hauling mulch and cow poop to the garden.

Heather and Shannon moved into the new house yesterday after a nightmare of problems with the moving company, luckily the moving in process was perfect!! I spent the day with them unpacking, Heather is 4 1/2 month's pregnant and high risk so I had to watch her carefully along with Tyler who was all over the place after school. I am back at it again today as soon as I can drag my tired old body out of the house. I had thrown a roast, potatoes, carrots, onions and peppers in the crock pot for supper thinking a home cooked meal would be nice at the end of the day. All of the kids ate like it was their last supper but I was to tired to eat anything, gonna pace myself better today!!

I did receive a nice UPS box yesterday with a COOL new tool that I plan on using a lot this year but you will have to tune in tomorrow to see what it is.

PS. Kitchen/Garden related not scrapbooking :(, but I am over the top in love with it!!

New Additions

Blueberries

Raspberries

This past weekend we added Blueberries and Raspberry bushes, I don't expect much from them this year but hopefully by next year if we can figure our a way to fight off the birds, squirrels and rabbits we just might have a pretty good start on a few new fruits in our own yard. Our yard is full of birds, it is truly a bird watchers paradise, we have even had an Eagle visit twice this year, I think he lives over on the lake and maybe just takes a field trip every now an then, if you have never seen an eagle up close it is a very intimidating experience!! They are huge!! Poor AJ was afraid to go out alone for a few days after we had our visit. I am looking into friendly ways of keeping our berries and birds for next year, I don't mind sharing extra bread and worms with the birds but I would like to keep the fruit for ourselves.
No scrapbooking today I will be heading over to Heather and Shannon's new house to help with the movers. The moving company didn't calculate well when they sent the truck yesterday so everything didn't fit, added to that problem they also showed up 4 hours late!! I put my foot down at 10:30 last night and forbid Heather from going back for another load at the old house, she had taught all day, did the walk through at the new house, cleaned at the old house and brought a load of stuff to my house and had yet to eat supper. This is not a good idea for a 4 1/2 month pregnant Mommy, Shannon and our other Son in Law Nathan loaded a truck and both Tahoe's until 1:30 AM to get everything removed from the old house before closing this morning, the moving company had better be prepared to take a financial hit on this move!!! Poor kids are already worn out, but the new house is wonderful, they will look back at yesterday and laugh in a few years.
Tyler is not too excited about the move, I ask him yesterday if he was ready for his new house, he said "No I think I might freak out", are you kidding me this kid is 3 years old!! We plan on getting his room and the kitchen completely set up before he gets home from preschool/daycare today, maybe that will make the transition a little easier on him, we can only hope.

Short Post

Just a quick post today on a couple of cards I finished last week, I received my CTMH order yesterday and can't wait to play around with the new stamp set I received that works so well with the Splendor paper line but that will be for another day.

Today I have Tyler and his dog Cody, the sweetest black Lab ever born, the kids are moving today and tomorrow so i get their boys for a couple of days, that should keep me plenty busy. I was able to pull the rest of the lettuce yesterday and put in carrots also added more dirt to the low spot in the garden and planted more asparagus. Today I need to remove the broccoli add okra and more bell peppers, not sure that Cody and Tyler will cooperate with my plans, if not tomorrow is always another day.

Weeds B Gone

Before
After
So here is the deal with weeds in the garden, the before photo are weeds after just 3 days of rain and not getting in the garden, Holy Hannah I can't keep up. For the last 2 days I have worked triple time to weed and lay down a heavy layer of mulch from the compost pile. I put down so much mulch it could cut the oxygen off a scuba diver so hopefully it will smother out the weeds that I can't seem to stay on top of. We have more growing this year than ever before, maybe to much, I am having a heck of a time keeping it all up. The fun part comes when we can finally bring in a basket of veggies to cook or preserve, fun but even more work, YUK. I have my fingers and everything else crossed that by Tuesday I will be on top of the garden work so I can get back to having just a little bit of time for scrapbooking, a girl can dream!!

It's A GIRL!!

We found out yesterday that our oldest Daughter will be having a girl, so we will be having 2 new girls for Sunday dinner this fall!! Our youngest daughter Kelli's Baby is due July 1st, Heathers is October 31st, I need to make a trip to AC Moore and pick up 2 new Christmas stocking kits, it will take me the rest of the year to have them both ready for Santa.

Here are 2 cards from the Splendor workshop on the go I was able to work on this week, I still have lots more paper and embellishments in the kit so maybe I will be able to get a few more things done next week.

Our weekend will be full of garden work and boating, we have zucchini, yellow squash, cucumbers, lettuce and radishes ready to harvest, yepee, lots of fresh veggies for Sunday dinner.

Finally Layouts

I finally had the time to finish 2 layouts from the "Splendor" workshop on the go. I have had the layouts 90% done for over a week but just couldn't find the time to decide on photo's and finish up some of the stamping. I did add a few more photo's than the workshop guide called for but that is the beauty of the kits, once you have the layout built you can do your own thing. I even worked on a few of the cards from the workshop, more on them tomorrow. So how did I find the time with all I had to do? I got lucky, we had a storm come up late in the afternoon that lasted for hours so no garden work for me yesterday, scrapbooking instead!! I still have lots of new product that I haven't been able to get around to but for now I at least got something accomplished and I used photo's from 1997 so I cleaned out a few more oldies but goodies.

Finding the time

I struggle in the summer to find the time to scrapbook, our garden and yard take up so much time along with canning, freezing and my newest addition that will be in any day now a dehydrator. We have had over 3 inches of rain again this week which means I get to mow the lawn 2 times a week instead of once, and of course the weeds in the garden go crazy with that much rain so weeding is an everyday event. Add to that my time with Tyler 2 days a week, one day a week for errands and such, and of course Sunday is family day and dinner, it doesn't leave much time to be in the scraproom.

I recived a new shipment from CTMH last week that I haven't had a minuite to play with :(, I have my fingers crossed that maybe I can get back to a layout that is just waiting for photo's today but I don't have my hopes set to high.

My to do list is a mile long so today I will just share with you a photo from our ride over the holiday on the Harley. We are working on visiting country stores in North Carolina this year before they are gone, we are using a GREAT book written by a local author Mike Lassiter from Davidson NC, "Our Vanishing Americana". I ran into this book at our own country store which happens to be featured on the front cover "Davis General Store", the owner Silas Davis is a hoot, he is a walking talking encyclopedia of how to's in the garden and around the house, a trip to his store can eat up hours of time digging around for what you want and getting tips on the latest garden or yard problem. Bob and I started shopping at his store when we first moved to NC 19 years ago and are so happy to see his business has picked up over the past few years with the release of the book. We were able to squeeze in lots of miles on the bike and visit 3 general stores along with Murry's Grain Mill I hope I can have the time to scrapbook our little trip someday!! Wish me luck in getting a layout done this week!!

Recipe Box Finished

I finally found a few minutes to get the recipe cards and dividers finished. Now comes the hard work of filling out the recipe cards, ugh! I may take the time and do our favorites on a word document so I can just print them on the PC. I give new Brides a recipe scrapbook along with a gift card to a kitchen store for a shower gift. I send out the pages to family and friends to fill out then compile them all in a binder scrapbook, takes lots of time and money. I plan on switching over to these cute and easy to make recipe boxes, we have 3 Bridal showers coming up this summer. I need to have a rainy day so I can get busy on them. Very short post today, Tyler is with me, the house is a mess after the long holiday weekend, and the garden is in desperate need of weeding, sure could use a snow day.