We got a little less than 2/3 of my storage unit cleaned out YAY! A day or two of some hard cleaning and such and I should have that sucker knocked out and that bill eliminated… a month ahead of the goal I set for myself YAY! GO ME! Thanks to my mom for the use of the truck, and to my Dad, DH, and DS18 for moving all the stuff in and out of storage and the attic! I figure one day next week once the kids are back in school, the DH and I can go knock out the last of what is left in storage. No sign of Mickey the Mouse thank goodness… but I DID discover that little buzzard ate my paper mache skeleton torso I worked over a month on! Oh let me see him when I’m cleaning!
Ok, so the first bit of news… It was a good mail day yesterday! I got my free samples from Proctor & Gamble, Sams, Kotex, some seeds, my Burpee catalog (YAY!), the new JoAnns ad and coupon, and some other things! I love getting mail… and lots of it! I could’ve done without the very high electric bill or water bill, but the catalogs, free samples, etc were all super cool!
So, the other day I told you about a FREE seed offer from Wintersown.org where you print out the page request and send it in with a SASE and you would get some seeds. Well, I had sent mine in a couple of days after I printed it out and OMG I got my envelope back yesterday in the mega mail. Let me tell you , my envelope was FULL! I received 10 bags of seeds… I got on bag/packet of each of these seeds: tomato, Swiss chard, Purple Vienna Kohlrabi (aka a German Turnip), Eastern Bluestar Amsonia Tabernaemontana, Evening Primrose, Switchgrass, Celosia Plumosa, Cleome White Sparklers, Calendula, and a wildflower blend! So it’s off to the research for me! If you haven’t done this offer yet, ya gotta try these out! Who knows what types of seeds you’ll get! Follow the link to WinterSown.org and look on the right for the link to the free seed offer. It’s definitely worth your stamps!
They also let you know how to donate seeds to them as well… and I plan on it. Seeing as I have a big cup full of Poblano seeds I gathered and a few other seeds as well, I am gonna print out some of their cute seed envelopes and mail them as a donation to them. I have 12 envies of Poblano seeds ready to mail right now… hope they enjoy them. Now I am just waiting on the offer from Dinner Garden I completed… will let you know when that one comes in.
More news on the topic of gardening, seeds, etc… we had to harvest the first strawberry! It was trying to start being squishy on one side. Since it was bright red, you see me with my first berry of the season. I sliced it and we all tried it… OMG!!!!!!! Sweet, juicy, and oh-so-wet-myself-yummy! And I grew it on my own so that made it taste even better LOL! I can’t wait for tons of these delicious bites of heaven to come to me! Mom has some wild berry vines growing and taking over her shrubs in the back yard, so next week I will be adding those to my lovely hoard of plants invading my back porch! I imagine she doesn’t want them choking out her shrubs, and I love picking the berries… so let’s have some fun! LOL… I was gonna go hunt a bunch down on the sides of the road, but hey, this is safe and free so why not! LOL… get enough of them and you can make some most awesome jellies and jams, cobblers, fried pies, and SOOOO much more! So stayed tuned for pics of me in long sleeves sweating like crazy to get a ton of these berry vines transplanted into huge pots and hauled home.
My Dad mentioned something about the law and selling plants with patents. I am doing some research, but the preliminary reports show that I am ok as long as I call the companies and ask if its ok as long as its not a giant number of plants. Its part of the US code, so I am doing some legal research now (good thing my old job was all about legal research LOL!) about everything I need to know about seed propagation for profit. To Jean- thanks for the comment… as for the Brandywine tomatoes, we have never tried them. I would love to try them, but I don’t think I’ve even ever seen them locally. I would have to research them, if they would even grow in my zone. I did notice that Burpee has giant watermelon (supposed to grow to 200 pounds YAY! LOL) so I might look more closely in their catalog. I am thinking one giant pumpkin and one giant watermelon and I would be set LMAO! Oh I can see my landlord’s face with giant melons and gourds in my yard!
And then we have some funny/silly gardening news. Madison and I have come up with a new planter idea for next year! We have decided to make “The Purple Planter”. As we quickly skimmed through the Burpee catalog, we noticed all the various fruits, veggies, etc that come in/grow into purple foods… Eggplant, tomatoes, turnips, beans, lettuce, etc. So we figure we can build another planter and paint it purple. Inside the purple planter, we can grow nothing but purple fruits and veggies LOL! We think it would be kinda cool… and it would DEFINITELY be interesting to watch grow and flourish! LOL! Soooo... Dad... you have any paint from the front room left? LOL!
However, we do have some sad garden news to report… out of 8 corn plants… only 3 are still hanging in there. I have lost 5 of them. I have also lost 2 out of 3 of my bush pickle cucumber plants too. Not sure what happened… but we are praying for the remaining plants in the planter. I might go pick up a couple more bush cukes if I can find them… but I’m gonna try to avoid buying too many other things now that everything is pretty well established. The only other additions will be the seeds that grow that I don’t sell.
Alrighty… news on the craft horizon. I found this great gift box idea and I thought it was simply adorable! So I had to share it with you.
Craft Idea of the Day: Rascally Rabbit Gift Box
What You Need:
Oval box with lid (7-1/2 x 10 x 5 inches)
12 x 18-inch sheet of pink stiff felt
Stapler
Crafts glue
Double-sided tape (optional)
5 sheets of blue paper
White, black, purple, and yellow paper scraps
Thin white wire
1-1/2-inch pink pom-pom
2-1/2-inch white pom-pom
White crafts fur scraps
Hole punch
Orange curly ribbon
Instructions:
1. Cut two 4 x 18-inch ears from felt. Staple ears inside the box along top edge.
2. Cover box and lid with blue paper.
3. Have an adult cut a 1/8 x 4-1/2-inch slit on each side of the lid and slip over ears.
4. Cut out face pieces and glue to front of box. Add wire whiskers, a pink pom-pom nose, and white pom-pom tail. Glue a small piece of fur to top of lid.
5. Punch two holes at the top of each ear. Thread one curly ribbon through each ear. Knot ends together to create a handle.
Ok its time for food news… I made these last night for my gang in hopes there would be a few left but fear not… the family never lets me down to devour every piece of food I made! LOL! I am sure you could use other cuts of chicken for this recipe, but I had set out legs, so that’s what we had… along with corn, mashed potatoes, and some biscuits that were left over from the big breakfast I cooked in the morning.
Oven Fried Parmesan Chicken Legs
Ingredients
12 chicken drumsticks
2 cups grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup Italian bread crumbs
1 egg
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
Directions
If desired, soak chicken in 1/4 cup salt for about 1 hour to reduce the amount of blood that “cooks out” of the chicken.
In a shallow bowl, mix together salt, pepper, paprika, oregano, garlic, bread crumbs, and cheese. In a separate bowl, beat egg until lemon colored.
Dip chicken in egg, coating well. Roll in cheese mix.
Bake at 400 degrees F (205 degrees C) for 45 minutes, or until brown and crispy (flipping half way through the cooking process will make them crispy on both sides).
Well kids, after all is said and done, you’ve got another craft idea, another meal idea, and hopefully a lot of inspiration to boost up your day. I think today is lazy research day for me as we prepare for a family outing to the big farmers market in Houston tomorrow (if the rain holds out). Supposed to be clouds in the morning and rain in the PM, so we’ll watch the weather today before we decide. To each and every one of you, thanks for reading and I hope you continue to enjoy my blog everyday. Peace, Love, and tons of HUGS!!!
Sorry to hear about the plant loss, but theres always that chance, even with a green thumb. So far mine are doing pretty good, but they dont like it this cool. Will have to keep my fingers crossed for a little while longer.
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot! Now I want oven baked chicken! I'm gonna have to cover my eyes during the food section because I always come away hungry! LOL
howdy there texan!!!!!
ReplyDeletei picked up a pack of seeds for you this afternoon.... Brandywine... will get in the mail tomorrow. I couldnt find burpees but I hope that they will grow well. you should have the perfect climate... it has a long growing season. which you have there.....
I picke doup some rugs for the kitchen and a boc on sale for all my 12 X 12 scrapbook papers.... now to relax!1