Post Card Frid...er... Saturday

Yep, a day late, but I have a good excuse! I was getting ready for a party last night. It was small but it was fun, and maybe more on it later, hehe.

In the meantime - here is my offering for this week!

This is my actual book of the postcards people have been sending me for... decades (Criminy am I old!). There are actually enough postcards that don't fit in this album that I need to make another book. Unfortunately, I can't find the type of book anymore that lets me put different sized pictures in the same album. Time to hit eBay, I guess, see what's there.

Anyway, I digress  ;-)

This is one of my favorite postcards I've ever received. Some of my friends know I collect them, and so find really unique ones to send me. This one was from years ago, when my collection was much smaller. Still one of my faves, though. 

Because look at that - that is *wood*. Yes it is - a wooden postcard! And so awesome because instead of just bringing it back with him and handing it to me, my friend knew that I preferred them to be sent *from* the place. And to send this bad boy, he had to go to the post office! Why? Because the wood won't go through the sorting machines and had to be hand cancelled (that stamp with the date, location, etc) so it could be sent. How cool is that!

Here's the back. Yes, once upon a time (and sometimes still) I was known as Pepita, lol. 

Hope everyone has a good rest of the weekend!

:)

Contest, Drawing - Whatever You Want to Call It!

Hey There! Will you take a look at that!

Yep, that's right, two more embroidery projects done. And you know the best part? I'm giving them away!

Yep, I sure am! If you would like to be entered in the drawing to receive one of these fine, hand embroidered (by me!) dish towels, just leave a comment to answer the question:

If you were to buy one of these, how much would you pay?

The reason I ask is because I'm toying with the idea of doing more of these and possibly trying to sell them on the side. I want to make sure it would be worth the time and effort to do it. Before you comment, let me give you more details...

1. The towels are decent quality, though much bigger than I realized when I bought them, ha ha. They are approximately 29x29 inches. Yeah, I know, lol. Here's a picture of one unfolded:

2. They are 100% cotton, washable and dryable. Even bleachable, yes, even with the decoration. More pics of the backs.

3. No, I did not draw the designs, lol. They are iron on transfers that someone else drew and they sell almost anywhere you can find craft stuff.

4. The one with the peppers took a bit longer as there's more detail. Should that make a difference in price? I'm thinking most people probably wouldn't understand the difference, but I could be wrong.

Everyone who comments about my question will be entered into the drawing for one of these babies! I will draw the names in a week, next Wednesday, April 2nd!

So once more, here's the question  :D

If you were to buy one of these, what would you pay? 

Thanks!

:)

I Really, Really Can't...

I'm telling you, I really can't make this stuff up. And I'm not.

Look at this bad boy - isn't he gorgeous? Apparently he lives at Costco. Yes - *Costco*. I saw him today when I went to do my monthly shop there. I went to a different store, and viola! There he was. The person I talked to said usually he's only out in the early mornings, and it was strange for him to be there. Here's another one of him:

So, right now I'm on spring break. And since I have no plans on going anywhere (in fact, I am having a party on Friday, hehe), it's time to get some stuff taken care of around the ol' homestead, right? One is the thermostat for the AC/heater. Admittedly, the heat doesn't get used all that much here, haha! 

But what's been happening is that the AC wasn't turning off. In other words, if it was set for 76, it just kept running and running and running until I froze and went and turned it off, usually around 73  or 74, sometimes lower. Got the Fix It Guy to come yesterday to look at it and the gate to the fence. 

The first thing he does is pull the thermostat off the wall of course. Do you know what he found? BATTERIES. Yes - BATTERIES. Now this is a thing tied into the electrical system. Looking for batteries to change never, *ever* crossed my mind. He seemed a little surprised too, but not quite as badly as I was. So - problem solved. New Batteries. He didn't charge me for my ignorance, thank goodness. I think he's just happy he can speak Spanish to me and I (mostly) understand him.

But that's not all today! Heck no! Hit "Read More" to read more!

Post Card Friday

And here we are again, with the new feature Post Card Friday!

Honestly, I have so many cool ones, I might start doing two at a time, ha ha! For now, however, just one.

As you can see from the photo above, this one is not from the US, lol. After doing a bit of research (well, typing in the name on the stamp in Google, lol), it seems this one was sent from Austria. Here are the stamps:

Which means I'm guessing that the little poem on the front is German? Here's a close up of it. If anyone can tell me what it says, that would be Awesome!

Here's the entire back of it. Again, it just amazes me that this was sent before there were such things as zip codes. In fact, this one doesn't even have an address - only the name of the street! And the city and state, along with "U.S.Amerika". How did these things ever find their way?!

And here is what I can read of the message. 

Ubermais Moraw (?) 27 Dec 1910 (?)
This merry little couple brings you our kind thanks and best wishes for a happy new year. We should like to have you here and hope that we shall see you again.in dear Meraw

Yours truly,
F.N. L. (long name I can't really read well)

And that is my offering for Post Card Friday today. As always, please leave comments if you like it, can tell me what anymore of it says, etc. To me, these are just too cool to ignore!

:)

Post Card Friday - Quickie

Yep, it is Post Card Friday!

I will have one up later this afternoon. I tried to take pictures of one this morning and they were worse than usual, if you can believe that, lol. So I determined that I would do it after work, when there is no possible timetable that has to be adhered to (other than the usual Friday night activities - ha!).

So - if you read this at all, then now you know you have something to look forward to!

:)

A Few Observations

Yes, I've done this sort of analysis before, but some stuff has been flitting about in my head and I figured to get it down for now.

This is most people's planting and growing season, in the rest of the country (or the start of it). And it's not bad here in South Florida, but it will soon get hot, hot, hot! And from what I gather, it's hard, hard, hard, to grow some stuff here when it's that stinkin' hot. 

What I've also discovered is that, as it stands, I can either only grow maybe two things - or I need to expand. The point was, as you recall, to try a few things as an experiment. I've discovered some things that grow, many that don't, lots of places in between.

It seems, however, that to really get enough yield to even have enough to make servings, let alone have any left to freeze, I need to plant a *lot* more. As in, several tubs of green beans, rather than just one. Same with peas. Grow some regular tomatoes. Expand the potatoes. Bell peppers for now are good, lol. 

So I'm thinking I might throw a few seeds into what I already have, but all expansion will come in the fall. 

That's the plan, anyway. Talk to me in a few days or a few weeks. Guess we'll see how it goes - ha ha!

:)

Sunday's Activities

So - Sunday ended up being pretty dang busy for me. A good kind of busy, I felt very productive. 

But I am still feeling kind of tired from it. How sad is that? It sucks getting old sometimes...  ;-)

Anyway - here, in addition to the ham and scalloped potatoes that I also made Sunday (and posted day before yesterday) are the activities that kept me so busy.

Cookies!

Yes, I did it again. I made cookies. I've been in the mood, one of my classes was about to start a unit on cooking, and it was St. Patrick's Day on Monday. So here are the cookies.

Before:

And After:

They were supposed to have shamrocks on them, but I was unsuccessful in my stencil making capacity. So they just ended up with green and white frosting (yes, remembered the milk this time!), and decorated with sprinkles. They were a hit though.

Next - Pizza!

This was also for Monday, for the second place I work. A very nice woman who works there is retiring soon. And she's said that she loves pizza and would do almost anything for pizza. Now - I don't want anything, but figured it was time I rustled something up there. 

She said her favorite is veggie, and my student likes cheese. So - half veggie (with some veggies from the homestead, of course!) and half cheese. Behold the piza:

And there you have it. I did the usual household stuff Sunday, too, so yeah... busy day. But good!

:)

From Marvelous to...

Yes, it is still another Marvelous Monday. Only it is also a Tired Monday. Got lots done yesterday that I was going to share today, but well... I'm too tired, lol. I'll get it up here tomorrow. 

In the meantime, hope your Monday was Marvelous and you're now ready for Terrific Tuesday!

:)

The Gospel of Ham

The Gospel of Ham - According to My Mom

Ham and Scalloped Potatoes. Forgot to take a picture
before digging in, so here is one from after.

My mother *swears* that ham can't go bad. I'm not sure about that, I'll be honest. But I will also admit I've never seen it happen. I've seen them dry up due to lack of proper covering. But go bad? Not so far. She says that even if it gets mold on it, you can just wash it off and it's good. Ewww.

That I will not be doing. Ever. 

Other tidbits of Ham Wisdom:

1. Buy ham with the bone in. It has better flavor (I have found this to be true.)

2. The way to cook ham? Put it in a roasting pan, covered well, and cook it until it "changes texture". If you've ever had ham this way, you understand what that means. Yes, it's yummy.

3. Ham bones are what you make bean soup out of. This one - all Mom. I've seen her do it, and her bean soup is a frequent request when she visits. But yeah... even knowing her "secret" ingredient, this isn't something I've mastered. 



Ham is pretty dang versatile, however. I had a ham in my freezer and a couple of weeks ago, I was in the mood. So I brought that baby out and cooked it, ate it with sweet potatoes and homemade applesauce.  (what else? ha ha).

But that left a pretty big hunk o' ham left. I've eaten it on salads, put it on sandwiches, mixed it in my frambled eggs with cheese. Tonight - ham and scalloped potatoes! They were De-lish! I actually modified what my mom usually does to them, and I think, well... they might have turned out better. Yikes! I know, it's hard to say it, but it may be true in this *one* case.

Here's another picture of it if you didn't notice the one up top, hehe:








And cooked up a storm today! Will post more of that tomorrow.

:)

Guess What!

Okay, so I just couldn't stand it today. Take a look at this - guess what it is:

Yep, that's right Baby! That's a potato in that awful picture!

I couldn't stand it, I had to look today. So, there it is. Hopefully the rest of those plants all have little potatoes under them that will grow into bigger potatoes.

When I say little, I mean little...

Another one:

Anyway, let's hope for the best!

:)

Post Card Friday

I've seen this on some blogs, having a regular "feature", and so I decided to do the same! 

I've collected postcards for years. Ones to me, anyway. Whenever anyone told me they were going on a trip, I'd ask them to send me a postcard (for all you young whippersnappers out there, once upon a time there was no such thing as Internet, let alone phones that would allow you to instantly text pictures from whatever amazing locale you found yourself in. Just sayin'. lol)

It wasn't until a student of mine brought me a book of old postcards he found at a flea market (see the post Here) that the idea came of collecting *other* people's old postcards. Like - old postcards. Older than me. Older than my Granny ever was.

This same student, on his last day of class with me, brought me another batch of them (he is awesome, by the way!). So I figure between the ones he's given me, and the ones sent to me over the years, I should have plenty to post for Fridays galore!

So here is today's postcard! 

Yes, notice the writing on the front. The back says it's only for the address (pic below). 

The note says (or as much as I can read of it):

Dear George,
     Many thanks for the cards and the interesting letter. I will answer it one of these days. We are going Manitton (?) this morning as I think (?) but did mail you this card. The scenery here is beautiful. Glad you had such a (unreadable word) vacation. Love to all from Aunt Al (?).

The year on here is unreadable (to me anyway). But if you notice, there is a one cent stamp on the postcard, and the address has no zip code! Can you imagine? NO Zip Code! Amazing...

So there you have it - today's Post Card Friday. I know I'm a dork, but if you didn't already know that before you started reading, it's best to learn it now.

:)

Quick Updates!

Just a couple of quick updates until I can get more done and posted this weekend  :)

First - Peppers!

Holy Cow! I started watering what I thought were nearly dead pepper plants. It seems like the more I water them, the more peppers there are! I'm not trying to count my peppers before they are picked.... Okay, that's exactly what I"m doing, lol. 

Right now, between the two plants, there are FOURTEEN peppers! Yes - you see that correctly - 14 pepper plants of varying sizes. How awesome is that?! Here's one that's turning yellow:

And I guess soon Jorge's true identity will finally be revealed. He's got blossoms all over him, so hopefully they will turn into limes. Or lemons - I'd be happy with lemons, though the lemon tree was supposed to go to Amazing Andy. I might have to call him and compare tree status. He may already know who has the lemon and who has the lime. Or if one of us got something else...

Anyway - here are some pictures. If you know definitively, by all means, speak up!  :D

And that'll do it for now. More soon!

:)

Marvelous Monday!

Now, before you go on about how horrible Mondays are, there are a few things I'd like you to think about.

First - If you are reading this, you most likely made it through the weekend relatively unscathed. No house fires, floods, car accidents, the list could go on and on. I will take a boring weekend over a stressful or scary one anytime! I'd bet you would, too.

Second - It's a brand new week! 

Yes, I understand not everyone gets this concept. But it's sort of a... "do-over" if you will. Last week sucked? Well, here's a brand new one with the possibility that it won't. Know it's going to be busy? Well, that's just job security, right? Things not going right in some area of your life? Well, here's a chance to start a brand new week, with no mistakes in it yet (I think that's from a movie, but I don't remember which one, lol).

Third - If you still want to remain pessimistic, then think of this - only four more days until Friday... ha ha!

So Happy Marvelous Monday to everyone! I'm working on mine.

:)

More Food!

So - it's been a crappy couple of weeks, for various and sundry reasons. But at least things on the ole homestead are continuing to plug along! I'm ready to get back to it, because it seems there's something new every day  :)

Today - Farm Animal Pancakes.

Yes, you read that correctly. Farm Animal pancakes. I saw this pancake griddle thingy on another blog I follow, and thought it was supremely cute. So whether or not I need another pan or dish or any other type of cookware, I bought it.

Look - isn't it cute?

The molds are just a little larger than a silver dollar (if you remember what those are, ha ha!)

I didn't do anything fancy, just the standard Bisquick recipe, and followed the pan's instructions for how much batter to put in. 


Man - were those things fluffy! At least, well, at least they didn't burn, ha ha! Take a look:

So - next time I do this, I will definitely cut down on the amount of batter. But you can sort of see the shapes in them. They might instruct you to put that much in there so that both sides will get the imprint, but yeah... less batter next time.

Yum!

:)