Morning Glories

I've always loved Morning Glories. I even put packets of their seeds in our May baskets that we handed out. I planted several thinking that I would have these gorgeous lush vines dotted with beautiful blue flowers growing along the house by our back porch. I had visions of morning solitudes, sipping a cup of tea on the porch while enjoying the flowers...like my very own personal English garden.

Instead, I got THIS:

Not very impressive, is it?

Funny thing is is that I can now walk out to my overgrown summer garden and see THIS:

Yup, Morning Glory vines are covering the entire garden! I never planted one darned seed out there but there they are, blooming and thriving!
Ironic, huh?

Guess I'll just enjoy these beauties from AFAR!

Weekend sewing

This weekend was too hot to do anything but stay inside in front of the fan with a huge glass of sweet tea! I set up shop in my sewing nook and made this little quilted table runner from my scrap pile.

It went together in a day. I pieced long strips on the machine and cut them to make the smaller squares. I used a free form stitch to quilt the front to the back.

It's colorful, rustic, and totally NOT perfect....but I love it!

I wonder how long it will take before the boys rip it off the table and use it as a cape or blanket for Abby.....*sigh*

Anybody know what day it is?

I'm in the middle of a night shift stretch and not quite sure what day (or night) it is! I never sleep well doing this...you just can't get it dark enough in your room to convince your body to get restful sleep! So taking a break from blogging til Monday when (hopefully) I'll be recovered!

Planning for the Fall

Let's face it, if you're a gardener in Texas your crops are done with! Even with intensive watering there isn't much that can survive heat indexes to 120 degrees! So I've resigned to let the earth reclaim the summer garden and turn my sights to the Fall...

Fall gardening begins in late September here in south Texas. I've decided to let my garden plot "rest" for a year while I feed the soil and just garden out of the raised beds Doug built for me.

This year our Fall garden will consist of:
carrots
parsnips
turnips
collard greens
brussels sprouts
broccoli
spinach
swiss chard
green onions
a LARGE variety of lettuces

and three new things I've never planted before:

leek (which are already growing)
kohl rabi
bok choi

I am sooooo over summer and ready for crisp, cool Fall weather to begin!

Ahhh, rain!

We got a much needed rain and break from the 115 degree heat indexes yesterday! The back of our home faces north and we can see these storms moving in.

It's awe inspiring and a little bit scarey!

More leaf castings

Kyle and I made a few more leaf castings with plants from the yard. I think this week we'll venture out in the woods for some exotic finds. Our caladium leaves turned out so beautifully, I don't know whether to paint them or not!

Here is our elephant ear birdbath:

And one of two banana plant leaves:

We tried casting some of our fig leaves but the surface was rather "scratchy". Whatever that "scratchy-ness" is adhered to the concrete and we didn't get the smooth detailed finish that we got with the other leaves.

I guess in art or in life it's ALL trial and error!

Meatless Fridays

This week's meal is simple and filling and another great way to sneak veggies into the kid's diets. We usually keep a big bowl of cheese tortellini in the fridge for snacks but this recipe dresses it up a little. It's a wonderful summer meal!
This week's Meatless Friday meal is:

Greek Tortellini Salad

2 bags of cheese tortellini from the freezer section
1 pt. of cherry tomatoes
sliced olives
1 cucumber seeded and sliced
feta cheese
1 tsp. oregano
salt & pepper to taste
Balsamic dressing

Cook and drain tortellini according to package directions. Mix all ingredients except feta and allow to chill for one hour before serving. Sprinkle salad with feta just before serving.

Make a splash!

A little too much 'Shark Week' for John Paul, perhaps?

When it's too hot to play outside...

Puzzles, checkers, marbles, and books.

What do you do to stay cool?

Leaf Casting

I first saw leaf castings in a garden specialty store many years ago. They had a huge elephant ear leaf cast sitting atop a cement base being used as a bird bath. I was really taken aback at the beauty and intricate details of the casting. While being made of cement, it was still very fragile and delicate looking.
For years I've had dreams of filling my backyard with small gardens and art made by my children or my own hands. I was looking online for some simple art projects for the boys and I stumbled upon how to make leaf castings. It's easy and inexpensive and our first try at it gave us an exquisite art piece for the garden!

First of all you need some damp sand or dirt. Mound up the sand into the form you'd like your finished project to be. I wanted our elephant ear leaf to be "bowl" shaped so I heaped the sand into a small hill.

When you've finished shaping the sand, cover the mound with plastic. This keeps the sand from getting onto the concrete. Next, lay down the leaf onto the plastic. Make sure you choose a leaf that has nice veining on the back and is not marred with insect holes or rips. Remember, you are casting the BACK of the leaf!

Now it's time to mix the concrete! We used Quickrete (approx. $5 a bag at Home Depot). Mix the concrete and water a little at a time until you get a brownie batter-like consistency. You do not want the mixture to be too soupy as the slurry can get under the leaf and make for an unattractive leaf casting. If the mixture is too dry,you won't see the vein details of the leaf. You want the mixture to sit on the mound of sand and not slide off.

Be sure to pat, pat, pat! This gets the concrete into all the fine lines and veins and releases minute air bubbles. Go about 1/4 to 1 inch to the edge of the leaf.

Place a plastic bag loosely on top of the leaf casting and do not move it for at least 24 hours. This is very important to avoid breakage. The air temperature should be on the cool side, but not below 40 degrees. If you are experiencing hot temperatures, make sure you prepared it in the shade and it can be misted a few times a day if you think it’s curing too fast, but the bag alone should keep it from curing too quickly.

After 24 hours you can gently turn your piece over and peel away the leaf. Place your finished project some place safe to continue curing for up to 72 hours. At that time you can paint or seal the finished piece!
I think I'm going to place our first casting on a large stump under a particular eave of our house where water runs off pretty fast during rainstorms. I even think I may cast several other large leaves to make a cascading "down spout" for the rain water.
This is such a beautiful and easy project for the whole family and I think these last few weeks of summer will be filled with creating works of art for the garden ~ and maybe a few gifts for friends and family as well!

For more tips and tricks from the garden check out
An Oregon Cottage: Tuesday Garden Party

More crafty ideas at:
Creative Jewish Mom

Meatless Fridays

Here is another summertime favorite made meatless and pretty healthy for you! Kids will eat this up and never, ever miss the meat! Make a large batch of this and put half in the freezer for a quick meal for another night. This week's Meatless Friday meal is:

Sloppy Lentil Joes

3 cups water
1 cup lentils, rinsed
1 cup chopped onion
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups chopped tomato
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
1/2 cup ketchup
1 teaspoon mustard powder
1 tablespoon chili powder
2 tablespoons molasses OR brown sugar
1 dash Worcestershire sauce
salt and ground black pepper to taste

Combine water and lentils in a saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until tender, about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile, cook onions with the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat until the onions have softened and turned translucent. Add tomatoes and garlic, and cook for 5 minutes. Stir in tomato paste, ketchup, mustard powder, chili powder, molasses and Worcestershire sauce; simmer 5 to 10 minutes until thickened.
Drain lentils and reserve cooking liquid. Stir lentils into sauce mixture, adding cooking liquid or water as needed to obtain the desired "sloppy joe" consistency. Serve on whole wheat buns.

Doughnut Muffins

You read that right, DOUGHNUT MUFFINS!
And you really, really should make a batch right now!
These wonderful muffins taste exactly like a fresh cake doughnut...and you're going to want to eat it warm right out of the oven (so make them before the kids get up!)

Doughnut muffins are my new BFF!

Don't judge me.

For the muffins:

1 3/4 cup All-Purpose Flour
1 1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon Nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon
1/3 cup Oil
3/4 cup White Sugar
1 whole Egg
3/4 cup Milk

For the topping:

1/4 cup Butter
1/3 cup White Sugar
1 Tablespoon Cinnamon

Grease one standard size muffin pan.

Combine flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon. Combine oil, sugar, egg and milk. Add dry ingredients and stir only to combine. Fill standard sized muffin tin with the batter, using about 1/4 cup per muffin.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a bowl. Combine the white sugar with the cinnamon in another bowl. Shake muffins out while still hot. Dip muffins in butter, then into the sugar/cinnamon mix. Let cool.

Makes 1 dozen.

You might want to double the recipe.

Wascally Wabbit

Remember the celery cutting I was growing? All the rain we've been getting really set it off into a growth spurt! I was going to be able to harvest our own celery soon until this fellow showed up:

Now the celery is GONE!
I'm not just talking about a few stalks missing, I mean the WHOLE dang root!
That thief just took it and ran!

Anybody have a good recipe for rabbit stew?

Teenage boys...

This weekend was full of birthday celebrations. Kyle turned 13 on Thursday and Ryan turned 16 on Sunday. The only thing I wanted in all the world was to get a picture of my two teenage boys together...

Now stop it with the silly poses!

Quit fighting!

C'mon!!! It's NOT funny!

Seriously, these pictures will be the only thing I have left
when you leave me at the old folks home!

REALLY?!?!

Put the dog down!

In the end, this was the best I could do:

Get a good look at those faces.
They may be on the next 'America's Most Wanted'.