march moments

March has flown by just like the notorious March winds.

Winter lingered, spring slowed … all good in my book.

I don't mind waiting longer for "hot and humid."

March photos: each month begins with our mentor group gathering;
a visit to the Spring Show; a birthday celebration with "angel cakes;"

Littlest One climbing stairs and turning one; Grandparents' program at Little 

One's School; Little Brother spent a day with grandma that included yard work

(he loves to work); a trunk show I did not attend; a farewell party for a coworker;

and a wonderful book club. Moments to remember ...

… and getting them on the blog will help the memory.

Joining Cheryl in her "Gathering the Moments: A Month in Pictures"
and Mary in Mosaic Monday.

the garden show

 The Gardener and I went to the Southern Spring Show a 

few weeks ago. It had been years since I had gone to one.

So many fresh ideas and new technology.

 We saw old windows repurposed in many ways.

It was amazing to me all the work for just a few days of the show.

The main display room was black with artificial lighting so photos were hard to take.

This is the backside of the potting shed two photos up.

Award winning outdoor fireplace and patio space.

No artificial flowers that I could see.

Part II will be coming . . .

Blooms

The upside of having several old trees cut down in front of our house is sunnier rooms 

in winter, and planting three new trees. Two of them are Redbuds, my favorite flowering 

tree. I love the deep tones of the pinkish lavender and their "wispiness." 

Because of our lingering on and off again winter weather, the blossoms are slow 

to open, which is fine by me. More time to enjoy them!

Joining Monday Mosaics today!

chair recover

At our mentor meeting this month 

we learned how to do a simple 

dining room chair recover.

I emphasize the "we" as I've been looking forward to this tutorial for a long time. I knew it was a fairly simple procedure but I think the real challenge is in choosing the right fabric. Which, yes, would not be

easy for me.

We also gave each of them a staple gun designed for a woman's hand.

Makes the stapling much easier.

It's hard to believe there are two more meetings before our 

two years with them are finished. 

We'll miss the girls (as we call them.)

Then it will be time to begin again with a new group.

looking for signs

There are signs that spring is on its way, but nothing like these photos show.

These photos, now made into "notecards," were all on my blog in years past,
which makes me realize how far behind our spring is this year. 

I know it will come, but while waiting, I'm
joining Vee's NoteCard Party !

angel food

I'm (sort of) ashamed to say I have never made angel food cake from 

scratch before. Odd because my mother made them all the time.

(Do you remember angel food cakes cooling upside down supported by a ketchup bottle?)

When I told (not so) Little One that we were having them over for her mom's birthday, 

her immediate comment was "What are you doing for decorations?" Followed by

suggesting her mom's favorite was "angel cake" and cupcakes would be nice.

So off to P*nterest I went and found what I needed.

Since I totally focused on making them (no multi tasking), 

they came out pretty good. Light and airy like,

well, something an angel would like to eat.

My favorite is the cream cheese frosting…and the very pale pink color.

Why I've photographed one with Mr. Rabbit I'm not sure.

But the bottom corner photo looks like I've climbed up into those

green leaves and am looking down on Rabbit talking to Cupcake at a party,

like in Sabrina, where she looks down from a tree at her heart throb flirting at a party.

Joining Monday Mosaics

a gift

A friend of mine took ill overnight. Healthy one day and near death the next.

Her immediate future at this point is unknown (to us.)

I watched an interview of the brother of an American on the flight gone missing.

He said how his brother viewed each day as a gift. 

The Gardener, just two weeks before the plane went away, 

flew out of the same airport on the same airlines,

headed in a similar direction.

So the news clutched at my heart.

Look around you, look outside.

Grab up today. 

It is a gift.

at home

Our house is filled with old things, including us.

Many could tell family stories, some several generations back.

And books. Lots of them.

All this winter, the Gardener and I have said there is 

no where we would rather be than tucked in at home, sweet
home. But now,  just today, it seems like spring is here
and we may find ourselves drawn  
o  u  t  s  i  d  e.

Joining with Mosaic Monday.

Words and Letters

 For the photo challenge today I turned this to black and white after adding
a tad of "exposure"and giving it some "warmth"and "sharpness" in my simple iPhoto program.
I wonder if this used to be Joe's corner barber shop.  LOL

 I don't think I used a flash with this but the shine is probably from the piano light. 

Since I have used this photo before on my blog I altered it a bit by making it a "warmer"

 hue in my iPhoto program and added a bit of "contrast" and "highlights."
I had this post all ready when it suddenly came to me that this photo is not actually "words."
But it could be considered "lettering" -- musicians read the notes to play
music that at times can speak as well as words to us.

My grandfather's spelling book. Look at the varied fonts.

I think I cropped this to make it a close in photo but did not use a flash.

I couldn't resist this "bonus" found at the

Spring show last week. Lovely, colorful lettering 

on a black canvas. The little hanging things, by the way,

 are bits of plastic water bottles on string.

I enjoyed this photo challenge as I love letters and words and enjoy

photographing them. I am joining Donna's Photo Challenge today.

Burned Broccoli Tutorial

Having the grandies over is one of the sweetest joys of life, but it can be distracting. The other day they stayed for supper and insisted on helping me prepare the meal, every.step.of.the.way. Washing the broccoli, handing me potatoes, washing dishes … finally all was ready and we went to play while the meatloaf cooked. Towards dinner time I got the broccoli started cooking--planning to go turn it down in a minute as I was just in the next room and we were so busy building roadside rest stops (because we had lots of small pieces) with the Lincoln Logs. See Little Brother here reading one of his dad's Richard Scarry books. Wouldn't you be distracted?

In time I thought I heard some rather loud gushing sounds and an odor began to fill the room. Actually smoke began to fill the room. Man! Had I started cooking the broccoli? I had totally forgotten. How long ago had that been?

The kitchen was filling with smoke and an awful burn smell and steam was spewing out of the pot. I removed it quickly and placed it on a small cutting board which immediately turned black. I threw open the windows. With it being 20 degrees outside I couldn't leave them open for long. We brought in fans and did the best we could but the smell just filled our nostrils. Later when I took the kids home their dad sniffed and said, "Where have you been?" He stripped the kids right in the laundry room, started the washer and took them up for a bath. Yes the smell of burn was in their hair.

The tutorial is this: How to get rid of the scent of burn on a very cold day (researched). Wash all linens, take a shower and wash your hair, remove all burn remnants from the house, run fans, boil cut up lemons, place open dishes of baking soda in adjoining rooms, place chopped onions in a bowl of water and set out to absorb odors, and spray F*breze (sparingly). This was my favorite: line a jelly roll pan with tinfoil and sprinkle sugar and cinnamon over it along with a tablespoon of butter. (This might also work when your house is on the market.) Place in 200 degree oven for four hours. Mmmmm. It worked. Dinner cooking in the crock pot all the next day also helped. I'm guessing I'm the only one in the whole wide world that has ever done anything quite so stupid ...

February Finish

 At first I thought February was a rather quiet month until I looked at photos.

From left to right: The month began with our mentor group and talking

about make ahead freezer meals; we gave them each one to take home.

Then a visit to a friend's farm coincided with welcoming a new nephew.

The snowstorm of the decade, decorated with spring tulips and
rounded out by Valentine's Day.

Playing with a new app. A loved one's funeral. And my beloved

Gardener traveling completely around the globe.

He and I were both happy and thankful 

when he was home-sweet-home.

Linking to Cheryl's Gathering the Moments and
Little Red House's Monday Mosaics.