Never lose your serving spoons again!

My daughters graduation party was yesterday. We held it down in Pittsburgh where most of the family is from. This required lots of packing, preparing and both vehicles because we had wayyy too much stuff! Many people told us that they were bringing various dishes and we had a huge buffet planned. Not wanting to run out of serving utensils, I decided to pack a bag full of extras to take with me. 

I'm familiar with the ones that I use every day but I was pulling them out of my reserve supply also. I'm never going to remember what is mine and really didn't want to be standing in the kitchen saying "did anyone bring one like this? If not, it's mine" I decided to mark them somehow.

I had bought a roll of printed Scotch brand packaging tape on clearance and decided that it would be perfect for this use! I simply wrapped a piece of tape around the handle of every utensil that I was taking and voila....I knew what was what! No guesswork and no confusion. They washed up nice at the party, and peeled off very easy afterwards (don't run through the dishwasher though!)

Easy peasy. Just the way I like it!

~L


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Easy cookie ice cream cups

I am one of the strangest bakers you will meet. I can make some really complex stuff, but I cannot make those premade cookie dough cookies you buy in the cold section of the grocery store. I've tried so many times it's not even funny. They either burn, stay raw or worse yet...the chips burn to the baking sheet and the cookies are hard as rocks. Yuck! Unfortunately for my children I'm cheap and there is a local store that always sells these thing at a huge discount. I can't resist. *sigh* Poor kids. 

Putting in wire tomato cages (without losing your mind!)

Putting in tomato cages has to be one of the most frustrating things I do in the garden. I don't know what makes it worse....the flimsiness of the wire legs or the rocks underneath the soil. Either way every year I feel like I'm going to lose my mind when it's time for this chore! Half the time they didn't get in deep enough and when the plants became too big, they start to knock the cages over.

At that point I end up putting wooden stakes in to try to keep the plant from tipping over. What an ordeal! I mean...this should be fairly simple right? 

• Place the cage over the tomato plant. 
• Press the legs firmly into the soil several inches. 

That's it. Except if you press too hard, the legs bend. If you hit a rock, the legs bend. If you don't get all 3 in the same amount...the legs bend. Sheesh! This year I decided to try something different. I used a fence stake and a mallet to simplify the process.

Why I shop at the teen clothes store

Sometimes I feel a little silly shopping in places like Rue21. Granted I do have a teenage daughter so I could say it's for her. Except when I need to try something on. lol the thing is, not only do they have cute clothes (that are usually more hip than this 41 year old 'old lady' is!) They put their clothes on sale really cheap. Like $3 each cheap! 

This is awesome for my teenager but even better for me who can run through clothes like you wouldn't believe. Almost every week I wash a load full of hoodies....you know those sweatshirt type jackets? Yeah...those. I swear by the end of the week every single one has either chicken poop or fawn puke on it. Or a compost tea spill, or dirt, or....you get the idea.

Which brings me back to Rue 21 this week when I found out they were having a sale. I picked up 2 jackets for $3 each. I have to admit pink rhinestone skulls aren't really my style, but the chickens don't seem to mind. I also got some sweatpants for $3 each and a bunch of t shirts and tank tops. It's garden season and I need to look good while I'm digging! lol 

The only major problem in this plan is that these things often get confiscated by darling daughter. Then again.....normally I can't even get her to look at a sale rack, so maybe that should be my new goal!


~L

Easy Cherry Cheesecake Dessert

This is one of those 'saw it on pinterest and just had to try it' things. except....it didn't work out so well (which explains why I'm not linking that original post). The original was thick, gluey, bland and had wayyy too much crust. I hate, hate, hate when that happens! Especially when the original recipe was accompanied by beautiful photos. 

I mourned this dream of a dessert turned tasteless lump, then I got moving on fixing this thing! I added some of this, took out some of that....remade it 3 times...lol So here is what I finally came up with:

Beginners guide to companion planting

I've been working on the garden lately. A little late, I know but better late than never right? Anywhooo, last year I decided to focus more on companion planting. It's kinda nice because it really makes my garden planning easier! Once I discovered that certain vegetables grow better by certain herbs or flowers, my garden sort of planned itself.

This post is updated for 2022 now that I have 9 years experience with companion planting.

What is companion planting?

Companion planting is placing different plants close together that enhance each other's growth, discourage pests and diseases, or have some other beneficial effect. There are plants that need a lot of nitrogen and other plants that put nitrogen back in the soil. Some plants naturally deter pests. 

Certain flowers attract pollinators, which every garden needs. By placing complementary plants by each other, they all thrive.

For instance, plants that use a lot of nitrogen like corn would be placed by plants that put nitrogen back into the soil like beans. Companion planting is also used to protect plants from insects that like to snack on them. Certain plants repel certain insects and you would plant those plants by the ones the insects are attracted to, hoping the insects would stay away from both. 

I started by planting beans amid my corn and couldn't believe what a difference it made! Then I added marigolds by the squash to repel squash bugs and it actually worked! So I've done tons of research and different experiments each year to get the most out of companion planting.

Pond makeover

We used to have 2 Sebastopol Geese. We bought them one of those preformed ponds to swim in, I believe it holds around 150 gallons. They absolutely loved it! Unfortunately we decided to sell the geese, since they loved playing in the yard and we couldn't let them out as much as we would like.

So the goose house and the goose pond became the duck house and the duck pond. Then the ducks learned how to fly out and decided their favorite pastime was sitting by the patio door waiting for us to come out and pooping. YUCK! 

Between that and the fox problem we decided they would be better off (and safer) elsewhere and they were sold too.