Saving the herb plants from the cold. . .

As I said in my previous post the weather turned very chilly here on the South Gulf Coast. 

The temps dipped into the 20's over night and I would surly have lost my potted herbs and tomatoes.  They all came inside for the past two days, lined up along the front hallway.

It was time to harvest some of the Sage, Basel and Parsley.

I love to cook with fresh herbs and dry mine all year.  I cut the stems and hang them upside down in the window mostly but there is not much space, so some get cut and placed in pie tins for a few days.  It really does not take long to dry when snipped with scissors into tiny pieces. I just leave them to air dry for a few days, then store in jars.

Sage

Basel

Once the potted plants were thinned they went back in the hallway and will stay until the temperatures rise above 50' during the night.

The aroma in the kitchen is wonderful.  I love the look of the drying herb plants also. Wish I had more room to hang them.  How about up in the rafters?  But then I don't have rafters and besides, they would get greasy from all the cooking, don't you think?

One day, I will have a green house!

"One day"

* * *

I'm linking up to

Fertilizer Friday 

Outdoor Wednesday 

Alphabet Thursday, the letter H 

Critters need to be warm too, but they gnawed through my....

All the cold weather from the Northern States came down to Florida this past two nights.  We went down to 27' and it was cold enough for me to put on the central heat in our house.

My sister and I thought this might be a good day to warm up in front of the slot machines at the Hard Rock Casino.

 We got in the car only to be greeted by the "Check Engine" light and I thought better of driving the hour to get to the casino and instead took my car to the mechanic.

 Well once I got there and they looked into my hood,  all the guys started  laughing and told me that a critter did some damage.

 Seems Squirrels needed some refuge from the cold we were having and they climbed under the hood of my car to get warm. They then began to gnaw the censer wires.  The wires were no longer connected and this caused the "Check Engine" light to come on.

 They then started gnawing on  anything they could get their little buck teeth on. 

Like my 'air filter'.

They then started gnawing the panel that is closing off the engine from the inside of the car cabin. The mechanic told me, they chewed into my glove box and started nesting.  He also found the feminine napkin that I kept stored in the box, chewed to bits inside the engine.

I was amazed at how much damage the little critters did in just a few hours during the night!

 

 I took the advice from my mechanic and went to the Home Depot and got a bottle of pest spray that will last 30 days against critters.  I sprayed the entire engine area and am sure I used much too much spray.  

They will not do that again!  

Now I'm a Squirrel lover and every day I toss peanuts out on the back deck for my many critters.  

If their little escapade did not cost me so much money, to repair the damage, it might have been funny!

What kind of problems has the first winter weather caused you all this past week?

'Stay Warm" 

* * * * *

I'm joining Jenny @

Alphabet Thursday

Making a Chochet Hook User Friendly. . . .

Now that the Holidays are behind us we will all be getting back to our daily lives.  Today all the outside Christmas lights came down and the storage boxes filled with ornaments went back into the store room.

My sister picked up her crochet again and has had enough of her teeny crochet hook that has been bothering her fingers.  The small sizes are really hard to hold when your not used to one. We both sat down and tried to find a way to make it more 

"User Friendly"

  In other words, thicker so holding it would be more comfortable.

We thought of wrapping something around it.  Tape would get sticky with time.  Something like a straw. long with a hole that we could slip the hook into?  The only Crochet Hook she brought with her,  is thicker and the wrong size. I told her to use it anyway. 

Ha, what do I know about Fillet Crochet?

We then went to the Home Depot thinking we could find something to enlarge the handle..  The guys at the store were no help really.  A woman coming in with a crochet hook really turned their minds to mush. It was rather funny really.

We did find a long pipe, tube of sorts, that one would use under a sink for the water to flow.  It was more like a straw and we thought if we filled it with glue.. no, that's not going to work? 

Then I went out in my store room and there is was.  A rather used bottle of "Round Up" a weed and grass killer.  The tube was perfect!

I cut a length and soaked it in Dawn and hot water. 

The water tube was much too large.

The plastic tube from the spray bottle fit perfectly.

All we needed to do was push it into place and there it was.  Just what was needed to make the Crochet Hook comfortable to hold.

No more sore fingers.

Using your imagination and searching around your home will always find the solution to a problem.

* * * * *

I hope everyone is happy and recovering from all the hustle and bustle of the Holidays.

Time to get back to life as you know it or life as you would dream it to be.

I'm linking up to

Tuesdays To Do List

Creative Bloggers Party Hop  

Tip Me Tuesday 

Wow us Wednesday 

Saturday Night Special

Ring In "The New Year" with "Dark Chocolate, Peanut Butter Fudge"

I've been invited to an early New Years Eve gathering for our neighbors on Saturday, and everyone was asked to bring something simple.  Finger foods, both savory or sweet.

"Peanut Butter, Dark Chocolate Fudge"  

Now that sounds good to me!

The recipe is very simple to make.  I used little paper cups, rather than a pan for the Fudge.  
A bag of Dark Unsweetened Chocolate Chips, a cup of Peanut Butter, a stick of Unsalted Butter, a large teaspoon of Vanilla,  a half cup of Powered Sugar and just a few tablespoons of half and half. Place sauce pan into a double boiler. I used a larger pot with about 5" of water.   Bring all to a roaring boil.  Remove from the heat and in about 5 minutes  stir in as many nuts as you like, I used about a half cup of chopped walnuts.

I also put a few mini marshmallows in  the cups before spooning in the Chocolate Fudge.

These little single serving portions make it so much easier when giving as a gift.  No fuss and no mess, especially at a party.

I'm a lover of Peanut Butter cups and this recipe is really wonderful.

I've been thinking how fast this past year has flown by.  It's going to be a New Year soon.  I for one am so pleased 2012 is coming.  After three years, in middle of  the So. Pacific, my daughter and her family will be coming back to the states to live and this makes grandma so happy!  A  3 or 4 hour flight to visit them is so much better than 22 hrs on 3 planes. 

(and that does not count lay-overs)

It will indeed be a

"Happy New Year"

I'd like to wish all my bloggie friends a wonderful New Year ahead.

I'm linking up to

Saturday Night Special

Looking Back To All My Projects In 2011 . . .

Looking back, I sure was busy in 2011.  I must have had home projects going on 10 of the 12 months.

The Kitchen was completely re done,

Built a Faux Fireplace,

Built two Desks,

New Flooring for the entire downstairs,

Created a Front Porch,

Numerous crafty projects.

I look at the photos of the "Before Kitchen" and still ask myself, "Did I do that?"

  

The kitchen today.

Then both Mr. N and I needed a desk for ourselves and the lack of space caused me to get my creative juices flowing.  I could not find two desks to fit anywhere in the house, so I simply built both of them.  My laptop desk was built in an odd space behind the kitchen dishwasher cabinet.  It's now my favorite space to do my PC work and I have somewhere to store my purse each day. 

Mr. N is very happy with his space. Now he can find 'his' stuff and not insist "I tossed it".

Mine

His

Then there was the Fireplace and new Flooring I've been wanting forever.

This link tells the story of all I did this past year and those who inspired me.

My final project for 2011 was my new Front Porch.

That was a fun messy project.

Now I can sit and watch the world go by and no longer have the snakes and puddles in the mud.

Before.

After

Thinking back to 2011 puts a smile on my face for so many reasons.   My Cardio Doc is  happy to see me each 3 month check up, when he really did not expect me to live this long.

This was indeed a busy, happy, healthy year!

"Bring on 2012" 

It's going to be even better!

 * * * * *

 I'm linking up to

Transformation Thursday

Favorite Furniture of 2011 

Saturday Night Special 

Metamorphosis Monday  

.

"How to Salvage a Holiday Disaster"

Did you ever have to choose from 'tossing it' or 'fixing it'?

My Christmas Pumpkin Pie was one of those disasters that was very upsetting to me, but I chose to 'fix' it rather than put it down the garbage disposal.  It took two cans of pumpkin and other ingredients and would have been such a waist!

I'll tell you what I did, or rather, did not do. 

Sugar

I forgot to put in the sugar!

I started out as a Chef years ago.  It got to where I cooked and baked so much I had no need to read a recipe or measure the ingredients.  Well,  I forgot the Sugar and luckily I was the one to take the first bite of my bitter Pumpkin Pie. After making my apologies for not serving the pie, (I did not offer a reason to my questioning guests)  I put it aside and offered a substitute dessert.

That night I did the repair work needed to the pumpkin mixture and added the missing sugar.

All I did was whip a cup of sugar into the pumpkin mixture.
The crust had to go.  

My sister asked "why are you tossing the crust"?  Well, I can't really put the updated Pumpkin in that soggy crust and rebake it.  The Chef in me needed to make a new one.

I baked the new pie for about 30 minutes, just long enough for the sugar to incorporate into the mixture and gave the crust time to get flaky.

It worked!

I was able to salvage this Pumpkin Pie after all.

I wonder how many people had such a disaster happen during their Holiday Meal?

Tomorrow I'll be making a really good cheese cake to bring with me to a New Years party and I'll be sure to list the ingredients on paper before I put it into the oven.

New Years 2012 is just a few days away. 

Where did the 2011 go?

I'll be linking this post to

Alaphabet Thursday

Potpourri Friday 

((hugs))

A Few of my Christmas Gifts, and my First (and only) Gift Exchange. . . .

One of the wonderful Christmas gifts I received.  

What could this be?

(more on it later)

Although Christmas was pretty quiet this year, I had a great time talking to the kids on Face Time and the phone.  My sister and I both spent most of Christmas Eve tracking Santa on the Norad site. I know it was all fairy tale but

when Santa was delivering  his load of gifts to my grandsons in Guam I had tears in my eyes!

 My thanks to all the military men and women who manned the computers to allow us to use this great tool!

On Christmas morning, I lit  the fireplace, turned on the Christmas tree lights and put on Christmas music.  It really felt nice to be celebrating with my sister and husband.  Then we exchanged gifts and opened those sent from the kids.

When I opened my gift from my sweet sister all I could do was say, "What is it"?

then when I looked further into the paper work a large smile came upon my face.

It's a solar light for the garden.

I hung it on the front tree and waited for the darkness to fall.  

Wow, is all I could say. 

Now I want more for my back yard!

How cute is this!

 

Thank you Dolly, I so love this beautiful light

My Son and Daughter-in-law in Juneau sent me another great garden toy.  A light house wind chime, from Maine.  

It actually sounds like a buoy.

Thank you Tom, Michelle and my sweet grand daughter Eve.

I received so many nice gifts from family and friends but there is another that put a big smile on my face... this one I'm in love with.  Single serve coffee pot from my daughter Cyndi.  She took the hint way back in November and really heard me talking while we were shopping one day.

(don't you love it when they listen to you?)

Thank you Cyn!

Mr. N gave me something very special.  I've been wanting a good, right hand, middle finger ring and he really took the hints way back when.  The ring he pick out was a beautiful white gold,  imbedded with diamonds and quite lovely.

I needed to take it to be sized.

Of course my sister and I had to go to see all the sales the day after Christmas, but first I made a stop at the Jewelry store.   As I was talking to the Jeweler all his rings kept coming into view and I spotted  one that really made me happier.

Blue Sapphires are my favorite stone, and there it was just begging me to exchange Mr. N's ring for it.  "What do I do", is all I could say to myself?  Then the Jeweler told me it was $200.00 less than my new ring.   

I tried to rationalize my decision by telling myself how Mr. N would love that I saved him that much money.

Exchanged!

My ring will be ready in a week or so and I can't wait! 

Christmas is such a wonderful time.  It's amazing how we Christians hustle and bustle around trying to get our gift shopping finished.  Oh, the pressure we put on ourselves.  But, when Christmas day arrives and we see the joy and pleasure on the faces of our loved ones, it's all worth it!

Well, except when we spend much too much money!  

I'm one of those women who shops for Christmas all year long.  Today I went to Michaels after Christmas sale and stocked up on wrapping paper, ribbon, a few new ornaments and craft kits for my grandsons, for next Christmas.  70% off all, and that is how I save money.  The gifts, I shop all year.  When I'm in a store in February and see something for one of my family members, at a good price, I buy it and store it in the back of my closet.  By the time November rolls around, I'm just about finished.

Now it's all behind us for another year.  We will ring in the New Year in a few days and start anew.  

I wanted to close by thanking all who thought of me this Christmas and to let you all know how much I love you!

(Just to let you know, when I came home and told Mr. N what I did, he was fine with it.  

"If it made you happy then it's ok"  Thank you Mr. N.)

x0x0x

I'm linking up to the after Christmas party

Tuesdays To Do List

Show off Your Stuff 

Saturday Night Special