THE List | #1

Oh, do you remember when I decided to have a list of things I wanted to do before I died? Well, I sorta didn't.

BUT!! I'm back, AND I know something I would like to add to the list!

 I want to learn how to play a STEEL DRUM! 

Like really KNOW how to play one.

Inspiration for this goal actually came from my ten year old! He was accepted into the marimba band at school. I happen to know they have two steel drums and make some of the coolest music this side of the universe....

                                                               I might be a bit biased though. ^.^

Bake Sale: September 2010

I AM A CUB SCOUT!

(well the parent of a couple anyway.)

Did you know that I bake sale my brains out almost monthly?

Did you know I mostly cheat at this by buying store bought cookies and arranging them in a cookie tin just so? Did you know? So?

So.......I have resolved to actually BAKE the goods I bring! I'm going to be "THE MOM". Oh yeah! (Said like the Kool-aid guy. So rad.)

My first bake sale of the 2010 was in September. I opted to make something of the apple persuasion since it's fall.

...and I cheated.

In my defense it was SEMI-HOMEMADE. For the September bake sale I used a box apple struesal muffin mix...but I made from scratch the maple icing for the tops.

The verdict stands: NOT A HIT! The icing was PHENOMENAL! BUT the boxed muffin mix was whole wheat...and dry! I will not ever, never, (blogspot as my witness), EVER make the apple struesal muffins for bake sale again....

The icing though, the icing was a keeper.

Recipe courtesy of Food Network and Paula Deen.

Maple Icing:

2 2/3 cups confectioners' sugar

3 to 4 tablespoons milk

1/4 teaspoon maple extract

In a small bowl, combine confectioners' sugar and 3 tablespoons milk; stir well. Add additional milk to reach desired consistency. Stir in maple extract.

Yield: 1 cup icing 

The List

Have you seen the movie The Bucket List? I haven't. I've been told it has something to do with lists and dying and good times? Am I wrong? I should watch the movie sometime I suppose.

Anyways, from what I gather, a bucket list, is a list of things you would like to try before you die..try or do or see or feel or live..before you "kick the bucket". 

I think that's a pretty nifty cool idea, don't you? I don't like the term "Bucket List" though, so I'm just going with THE List....(kitty is attacking my bum through the office chair, she is telling me it's bedtime!) 

Anywho, I will start having an ongoing "list" of things I would love to do!

What would you put on your list, may I ask?

Meet my little friend....

COCO BUTTERS!

Isn't she a doll face?

This thing about kittens....

The thing about kittens...or cats for that matter, is they pick you, you don't pick them.

The thing about me is...I love cats.

The thing is, about three weeks ago (August 6th to be exact), this kitten chose me to be her (most likely a her) 

soul mate.

Imagine this:

I'm working. Printing and marketing and stuffing envelopes. I'm typing and filing and MEOW!

Let me re-iterate...meow meow meow meowmeowmeow.

KITTY? kitty? Is that a kitten?

(this is the part where I tear through the office door and march up and down the length of the building looking, searching, am I crazy or what?)

Would you believe...Just would you? There was an itty bitty, teeny weeny, ball of fluff crying under my print shop?!

The thing about kittens, especially when they're abandoned, is they are most certainly too afraid to pick you.

The thing about me is... I am not patient...but the thing about this...

Well the thing about this is... I was patient. 

....and the best thing about it. 

Is she loves me...

and now I need lots of kitty litter.

The Tale of Two Tomato Plants | Part Two

Do they not embrace? Did I not declare this a story of LOVE ?

Did I not say that my father-in-law was the champion of all things earth bound?

...and you wanna know somethin' else? ....do you?

Mama's got TOMATOES!

The Tale of Two Tomato Plants | Part One

This is a story. A story of adventure, woe and love. This is a story about tomatoes. 

Okay, alright. It's a short...very short, brief, few sentences about my tomato plants. It started about 2 or 3 weeks ago. I had visited a friend. She quickly quipped upon my arrival, "You NEED tomato plants!"

(No, she really didn't say it quite like that, but that is how my brain translated it.)

I made excuses. Would you like to hear them? It went something like this.

Why are you getting rid of them? I don't have pots. I don't have soil. I don't have fertilizer or Miracle-Gro. I don't have stakes. Where can I put them? I've never grown tomatoes. I heard they are hard to grow....

I HAVE A BLACK THUMB.

Surely if you give me these dearies you are sending them to vegetable death row. Do you not love them?

She replied, "They are easy to grow. Here's some pots and do you want to put these in the back of your car?"

Tough love. 

They sat on my front porch for a while...not watered, not planted. I put them in pots...and well the evidence of my black thumb is apparent.

My husband had given up on the wilted beauties.

The champion of all things earth bound (my father-in-law) came to their rescue. I bought the potting soil, but he supplied me with the knowledge (and a few supplies) to bring these darlings back from the dead. (zombie tomato anyone?)

Here is the recipe for Eternal Vegetable Life:

 

Fill a pot with potting soil.

Dig the hole where your tomato will go.

1/2 cup of fertilizer in the hole. Mix it in the with the soil.

Fill the hole with Miracle Gro. Quite a lot if your plant is on the brink of death.

Put plant in the hole. Fill hole with dirt. Find a stick, or stake, or whatever and tether your tomato plant to it!

If the leaves are wilting and dry, you aren't watering it enough. 

If the leaves are turning yellow, you are watering it too much.

You can spray pesticide until blossoms form. Otherwise leave it alone.

Make sure it gets a TON of sunshine.

I have done these things and already the plants have improved. Will they bear fruit? Will they survive?

Stay tuned!