Fantastic Broccoli Salad

I just posted this recipe on Jan CAN Cook and didn’t want you to miss it.  This one’s a keeper, ladies.  ~ Jan

Here’s the quick link…

Garden pictures in late July…

This hasn’t been the best year for my flowers, despite micro irrigation, the extreme heat is taking it’s toll.  We also had rain last night, so things aren’t as perky as they could be, but it is what it is, so on with the show…

The begonias are doing well, despite the heat.  the window box is flourishing, and when I look at pictures of this battered Adirondack chair, I’m reminded of the stain that is sitting in the garage.  I was going to spruce up my chairs, then it got too hot, I lost interest, maybe next year…

Here’s a closeup of that window box.  I’m a big fan of begonias, they're colorful, they tolerate extreme conditions and best of all, they’re cheap!  You get a lot of bang for your buck with begonias, I’ve spent big money on this window box in past years, and the results were no better than they are with the begonias.

And a few years ago, I was so excited about planting balls of flowers, but the thrill is going, maybe this is the last years for the balls of flowers, and maybe not.  This is not the summer to make any long term decisions about what I want to do in the garden.

I bought this statue of a little boy reading a book years ago.  It’s always been a favorite, it’s battered now, too, but I don’t mind the deterioration of it so much.  It’s old, like yours truly, it’s weathered a lot of storms over the years.  I’m a big fan of asparagus fern as well, but never bring it inside, it always drops needles in the house and it’s more trouble than it’s worth to try and winter it over.

Ryan bought me the wind chimes in the left corner of the above picture when he lived on Whidbey Island.  They tinkle and remind me of him.  It always makes me smile, moms do that, smile when they think of their kids…

This was Mother’s birdhouse and her wind chimes.  This birdhouse is ancient, and the chimes are standing the test of time really well.  I like having some of her things around me, it reminds me of what was important in her life and what she enjoyed.  And the older I get, I find I enjoy a lot of the same.  Who would have thought it…

I got the bright idea this year to plant boxwood in two large pots and surround it by impatiens, actually I think it was my friend, Veronica’s idea.  Well, the impatiens grew really large so you don’t see much of the boxies peeking thru, but they will grow, they’re just slow.  The impatiens are pretty droopy this morning, but they will perk up when they dry off a bit.

Another one of those flower balls.  Okay, so they look pretty good, maybe I will keep them next year after all.  Scarlett will think about it next spring!

The herbs need a haircut.  They are not the beauties they usually are, but the rosemary continues to thrive.  And yes, that’s a pot of rabbit manure in front of Butterbean’s rabbit hutch. The pot was hubby’s idea and rabbit manure is the best fertilizer, after all.  It does help to take it out of the pot and put it around the plants, though. 

And then there are the carrots.  If you have a bunny, you have to plant carrots!

They aren’t very big yet, but bun-bun doesn’t care.  That cwazy wabbit goes bonkers every time I pull one.  Sweet little creature…

And this is the way my garden looks this 27th of July, 2012.  It could look worse, considering the heat we’ve had.

The key to organization is containment….

I really do try to practice what I preach, and anyways, if this doesn’t keep me organized, it sure is cute, faux chocolate brown alligator and leopard print, what’s not to love?  I can never find a pad of paper when I’m at the computer, so hopefully this will help and I do love that lining, and I have a matching file box.

Oh, I’m such a cheap date.  $12.99 (TJ Maxx) and I’m a happy girl….

100 year-old Idaho woman on Jay Leno Show

If you need a giggle this morning, give this lady a watch.  She’s not the Fruitcake Lady, there will never be another Fruitcake Lady, but this one is just precious, too.

Her mannerisms remind me so much of my mother, thanks for sending Carlene.  This is a treasure.

Here’s the link…

Whaddya mean there’s no internet?

We’ve had issues for about a month now, intermittent signal, annoying as heck, too!  My neighbor Marti has same ISP as we do, I call her, she always has a connection.  Soooooo, I finally gave it in and called for a technician to come check the lines.

Now, I hate worse than anything, for these guys who have barely started shaving, to come to the house.  This one was a bit older, I’ve had worse, some of them are cocky, too, probably trying to appear knowledgeable so that people won’t notice that they just started shaving.  But anyhoo, this one said we have too much voltage coming into the house.  Too much voltage?  Now that’s a new twist, I haven’t heard this one before.

But the fact that he had to call his supervisor to confirm that this was the problem leaves me a bit skeptical as to how much he really know.  And he spent a lot of time in his truck, I figure that he was probably Googling for answers.  Nevertheless, he took away half our voltage, and for now I’m up and running.

But like I said, it’s intermittent, it may work today and not tomorrow.  He said the hot weather was affecting the cable.  Duh, it’s buried.

But what do I know, I just sit here, looking at the outdoor thermostat, and day after day it  says 99, 100, 101, you know the story, yours does too.  I can’t wait for November, surely it will cool off by then!

Houzz, the best thing I’ve found since Pinterest

If you love decorating, or just looking at beautiful houses, this site is for you!!!!!

Okay ladies, I always share my finds, well actually I didn’t find this one, my friend, Nisha, told me about it, but you all will just love this.

It’s pictures, thousands and thousands of pictures of beautiful rooms like the one above.  There are interior rooms, exterior shots, gardens, all styles of homes, it’s a decorator’s dream.  And the kids rooms are amazing!

For instance, I’m looking at kitchen photos right now,  and they have 98,135 kitchen design photos.   No, that’s not a typo, they have ninety.eight.thousand kitchen photos. You can filter by style if you want, or browse all of the pictures.  You can drill down and just look at breakfast nooks or islands or cabinetry, and much, much more.

I found this picture above by going to the kitchens area, and in the search box I typed, in quotes, “country kitchens” and started browsing.  I saw this picture and I’m like, oh, I love that mural over the stove.  *sigh* a girl’s gotta dream, and I do love roosters!  You can spend hours and hours on this site.  In fact, you will probably be wishing that Jan had never shown you this.  ;o)

After you register with their site, login and then you create your own ideabooks with the photos you like.  I even found a kitchen gadgets area, and of course I was all over that like a hot potato!

So go to houzz.com, sign up and start having fun.  If you have an iPad, there is an app you can download.

Prepare to be amazed at the selections.

~ sez jan gushing at the sheer magnitude of beautifulness…

My Awesome Pottery Barn Knock-off Bulletin Board

My bulletin board looks so much better than Pottery Barn’s for a fraction of the cost.  I’ve wanted one forever on the wall behind my computers in the sunroom.  My friend, Veronica, and I have had many discussions this past few months about my bulletin board, looking at a ton of pictures, discarding ideas, including frames and collages, and I kept returning to a simple bulletin board, because if you know me at all, I tend to overdo everything, and I knew whatever I decided on would be stuffed full of treasures, so the more simple the bulletin board, the better.

On my blog entry of June 30th, I posted about what I was going to do, and it all came together really nicely.  John and Deanna were visiting over the 4th, so John picked up my “Document” fabric from The Fabric House in Nashville.  (Yes, they take phone orders if you are interested).  I had picked up my Designer Tack Bulletin Board at Menard’s, the size is just a bit smaller than the Pottery Barn Bulletin Board, theirs measures 48 x 36”, mine measures 48 x 32”.

It was stifling hot the morning that they put it together for me, but my guys are troopers, they sweated it out, with me sitting in a chair giving them specific instructions and taking pictures.  Here’s how it played out…

After a trip to the local Lowe’s, hubby purchased 1” x 3” strips to make a frame for the board. 



Then he reinforced it with additional strips in the center so that it would be stable, cut plywood to fit, here you can see how it’s looking so far.

Note:  When you mount the plywood to the inside of the 1x3” frame, you have to indent it from the top side so that when you place the Designer Tack Bulletin Board on top of the plywood, the mount is flush.



Next came the sanding to smooth out all the edges of the raw lumber.



Then they fit the bulletin board inside the frame, making sure that it fit correctly.



The next step was gluing the bulletin board to the plywood. This was accomplished with a glue gun and a tube of Liquid Nail. After John applied the adhesive, he took the smooth edge of a box to smear it evenly over the surface.

Then you put the bulletin board on top of the glue and at this point you drag out everything heavy that you own and put it on top of the board so that the glue adheres evenly.  Then you go away and leave it to dry.

And this is my granddog Izzie, she had nothing to do with this, but I thought you would all enjoy a picture of seeing her cuteness.

Next we had a bit of a hiccup.  It happens, there were no instructions, we just made this up as we went along.  I thought that we needed foam behind the fabric, why I don’t know, but after we put foam on the board, I could quickly see that it would have made it too cushy and that wasn’t the look I wanted, so we discarded the foam.  Bad picture, sorry

At this point, yours truly actually got up out of her chair, put down the camera and pressed the fabric and the guys started stapling it to the board.  I’m getting excited now, because it’s all starting to gel!  Did I mention how great this fabric is?  It’s 54” wide, so no seams, it’s woven fabric, it has texture and body, and it only cost $16.49 a yard.  John bought a yard and a half, but I think a yard and a quarter would have been plenty.  The extra fabric did allow us to position the script exactly where we wanted it.

 

If you’ve never upholstered anything before, it’s not that hard.  You have to cut your fabric so that you don’t have a lot of overhang, and the edges are finished by folding the fabric envelope style, it’s something like wrapping a present, and the whole thing is accomplished by using a staple gun.

First you staple the middle of the top, then you staple the middle of the bottom, then you continue to stretch and staple the entire top and bottom of the board.  Then you turn it sideways and do the same thing – staple the middle of top and bottom, stretch the fabric so it’s taut and staple the entire sides.  Then you fold the ends envelope style, hiding all the raw edges, and fold it and staple it so that when it’s hung, the folds are on the top and bottom so that they aren’t visible from the side.

This sounds difficult, it isn’t, once you start doing it, you will get the hang of it quickly.  And of course when we finished it, we had to date it, because that’s what you do when you create your personal masterpieces.



And now it’s time to put it on the wall, and I know, you’re all thinking, oh it looks okay I guess, what’s the big deal…

Well, dear hearts, it’s not the bulletin board, it’s what you put on it.  And here it is, the finished product, well not exactly finished, as bulletin boards are always a work in progress, arranging and rearranging as the seasons change and your family grows.

Without further ado, drum roll, please for Jan’s better than Pottery Barn’s bulletin board.   TADA….  (click pictures to enlarge)

You be the judge, which would you rather have?  The one above from Pottery Barn for $170 after shipping, or Jan’s for $60.  I know, I know, I’m highly prejudiced, but I just love it!!!!  Even though I have stuff plastered all over the script, I think that the lettering just gives it another dimension. 

If you’re wondering what the ruler thingie is at the top, hubby got it at a tag sale, it’s an old  lumber grading stick.  I was selling it on eBay, decided it was just perfect for my board, so I stopped the listing and confiscated it to anchor my snapshots.  I have a ton of picture frames, so I used some of them, too.  I found all kinds of things around the house to use, it’s fun to see what you can come up with.

This was such a fun project, it was just like the old days, Larry and John working together.  Next we’re going to be heading to Nashville, as Deanna wants a crown built for above her bed, they’re going to drape gauzy fabric around the bed and anchor it with the crown.

So that’s my bulletin board, if anyone is interested in making it and has questions, just send me an email.

Happy Crafting…

~ Jan

Poor, pitiful me…..

I woke at 3am, my throat was burning, my ears were hurting, I was congested, but I went back to sleep thinking that I would be fine this morning.

Yeah, sure thing.  I feel like heck, crap, hell!!!

Everything aches, I have chills, my nose is running, my eyes burn, I’m one miserable old(er) girl!  I called Lindsay, she started having same symptoms yesterday afternoon.   I shouldn’t complain, poor Linds feels like heck, crap, hell!!! and she’s 8 months preggers! And my buddy, V, is having similar issues as well.

I should just post a picture of that bulletin board and be done with it, but I want you all to see how we made it happen.

But, once again, it has to wait.  Right now I’m going to curl up in the chair with an afghan, Maggie and a cup of hot tea and will this to all to go away.  *sigh heard round the world*

I’ve been on a holiday…

I have been visiting my favorite little person in the whole world, so the bulletin board post has taken a back seat.  It’s coming soon, I’m playing catch-up right now.

Abby at 33 months is just amazing.  She tells her Mama when the arrow is green and it’s time to turn when they’re in traffic, she fusses at the cars in line ahead because she’s in a hurry to go, she calls the traffic line painted on the concrete the “finish line,” and she tells her Mother that her mobile’s batteries are dead and that she needs to buy new batteries.

She brought me her Doodler Pad where she had drawn pictures and told me that it was an “Illustration” and that she made it.

She loves taking pictures with our cell phones, and having her picture taken as well. I see Grammie buying her a “real” toddler camera for her birthday.

She cried and cried when we left, not because we were going, but because we were taking the iPad.  And now when we power down the iPad and she see’s the Apple Logo, she say’s, “It’s a MAC!”

She amazes us, as your grandchildren amaze you.  It’s so much fun being with her, and only five more weeks until her little brother is born now.  Grandchildren, what a beautiful thing…

Not today after all…

Life is unexpected, but that’s what makes it fun.  Bulletin board has to wait, sorry guys, I know, I know, I PINKIE swore, too.

Later…

My bulletin board is finished!!!!!

This has taken way too long, but it was such fun.  And yes, I’m the queen of overkill, so there is a lot of stuff on it, but I do love it.

All my favorite things right in front of me on the computer, so now I can gaze up and look at them anytime I want.  Lots of smiles to look at.

But we all know that bulletin boards are never finished, and I’m missing some friend’s pictures, but I’ll add to and take away when I have time.

You want to see it?  Just for all of you, I not only have pictures, but detailed instructions in case you love it, too, and want one.  Coming this afternoon. 

Pinkie swear…

~ jan

Tis the season…

The kids just left, the house is too quiet now. *sigh* It was such a good visit, despite the gawdawful temperatures that have turned my Home Sweet Heavensville into Hellville, we had a wonderful time.

I won’t even go into how nauseating this heat is, you’re all right there with me.  We had so much fun, despite the fact that we were prisoners inside the house.  Even the fireworks weren’t as enjoyable as past years.

We did have Posey County cantaloupe, pictured above, which is the best fruit you’ve ever put in your mouth. It’s grown nearby in sandy soil, prolific, despite the draught this year, and the flavor is absolutely amazing.  Deanna just loved it, it was so refreshing…

We did venture out to the movies and actually saw something that we all enjoyed, The Lucky One.  It was so good, here’s a trailer if you’re interested.

John helped us all week,  it was wonderful to get things done.  Best of all, he and LC built my bulletin board, which is totally fabulous, imo.  I took lots of pictures while they were building it, and I’ll post soon.  It turned out better than I thought it would, and I knew it would be great, the fabric just totally makes it!  I’m so excited.

We had great food, too, I posted recipes for White Wine Sangria and Lemon Raspberry Muffins on Jan CAN Cook.

But for now, I’m going to eat lunch, kick back and just do nothing.  Then I must finish up the new header.  I’m almost there…

~ jan

George W. Bush, a great humanitarian…

Strip away the politics, look at the picture for what it is.  Such a kind man, doing such good work….

And no, I didn’t vote for him, but somehow I don’t see our current president doing this with white children post presidency.  I know what you’re thinking, and trust me, I’m the first to admit that race shouldn’t factor in here, and it doesn’t at all in my eyes, and I would think not for 99% of the women that read this blog,  but I’m just sayin….

And don’t worry, I’m not going all political on you, this, and my prior post, are just a coincidence, pinky swear ;o)

~ Jan, getting real this morning…

Medicare Supplement Insurance just went up by 37%

Hubby has Mutual of Omaha supplemental Medicare plan, it’s a highly rated plan with good coverage, and it costs him $101 a month.

His insurance agent called yesterday, they just raised the premium to $138 per month, that’s a 37% increase, and I’m afraid that this is just the beginning!

THANK YOU, PRESIDENT OBAMA 

Happy July 4th…

John and Deanna came yesterday to spend the 4th thru the weekend with us.  She brought me the loveliest flowers from her garden.

Veggies from her garden, too.  I sauteed squash, onions, and peppers in bacon drippings last night.  It was wonderful!

I went to the woods yesterday, and picked Abby’s very, very favorite flowers, Queen Anne’s Lace,  put them in a Ball Jar with red food coloring, just like Mother used to do.  John had a big smile on his face at the memory.  This morning they are starting to turn orange, I’ll post another picture once they are colored.  We’re visiting Lindsay and Ryan later this month, I want to color some for Abby, too.

They brought Petunia, the bunny, it was too hot to leave her at home.  They had just come in the house, Izzie is fascinated with Petunia.  She just lays and gazes at her in her crate, and Petunia inches up nose to nose with Izzie.  Aren’t animals the most wonderful thing?

And that’s our July 4th so far.  It’s another scorcher, already 95 degrees at 11 o’clock, so we’re obviously not going to be picnicking by the river to watch the fireworks like we normally do.

But, oh how I love having my family around me, so we’re in for a fun weekend.  John picked up my fabric for the bulletin board, so the guys are going to build it for me.  More pictures to come.

Keep cool and have a wonderful holiday!

~ jan