Speaking of Veggies...

It has been such a long time since I updated this blog....but for good reasoning....

Any thoughts?

Picklefest 2011....

I have been dying to make homemade dill pickles for years. A friend of mine makes wicked ones so I enlisted her help, as well as my new found friends, Tim & Dave from the Hutterite Colony just east of the city!!!! And voila!!!!
WE HAVE PICKLES!!!!!
Zee following is zee story of how zee cucumber becomes zee pickle...grab your popcorn, put your feet up and enjoy!!

FRIDAY NIGHT
After picking up my 40lbs of cucumbers from the Farmer's Market, 5 lbs of dill and 5 lbs of garlic, I return home to unload.
The evening is spent with help from my dahling hubby in the prep so we are reading to rock and roll first thing tomorrow morning!!!
Splish splash...Bootybella's cucs are takin' a bath...

Drying off on paper towels...

The freshly bathed and dried cucs settle in for the night in a garbage bag lined box...

My 40lbs of baby cucs juuuuuusssttt fit into our downstairs fridge, to stay crisp for the night before their big debut tomorrow morning!


SATURDAY MORNING...
One full dill head went into each sterilized mason jar...

A "minimum" of 3 cloves per jar...just for the bottom, of course we put more on the top!!!

The dill heads & garlic cloves patiently await the arrival of the cucs....

As far as the eye can see....

A sea of pickles....

Packed pickle jars awaiting dill & brine (oh yeah, and of course MORE GARLIC!)...

Fresh dill sprigs to top each jar...

Ingredients for the brine....

And just incase you wondered what "37"jars of pickles looked like....



And just because I hadn't had enough, why not pickle some spicy beans and a jar of peppers?????
Like the cucs, the beans started out in an icebath to be cleaned.....

Tipped all the beans....

In goes the dill, garlic and cayenne pepper & chilli peppers...all to help create that "KICK"!

And finally we will add the blanched beans, covering with a brine and sealing!

And I figured I would pickle a jar of peppers - something to give the guest that you want to leave your house!!! All I know is "I" am not eating any of these!

Fingers crossed that they all seal and I am gonna be in pickle and bean heaven for the next year....ummmmm...and apparently I will need an abundance! Wink wink, nod nod!!!

Stay tuned....
MWAH~

"Sexy Deck"...

Well, finally complete!!! We built this 3 tier deck 2 years ago and finally got around to staining it up! It was a long journey because it wouldn't quit raining in this country for more than a day!!! Now that is it done, maybe we can have that deck party we have been talking about having for the past 3 years!!!

Back corner of deck with garden planters...

My dahling hubby spent countless hours on his knees (he also had these sexy green foam knee pads that he wore while working) putting on the stain to our gorgeous deck!!! Sorry ladies, I didn't manage to snap a photo!! All his "sexiness" paid off cause now I got me a "SEXY DECK!"

We ordered too much rock for the front flower bed so just decided to incorporate it into the back yard....

Cherry Tomatoes...

Peas...

Yellow Beans...

These container gardens are perfect for the city gal that wishes she had the space to plant a garden of fresh produce! My amazing friend had these things in her pots, called "Plant Nanny's" and they are terracota spikes that go into the dirt. You then fill up an empty wine bottle (of course this would mean that you would have to drink the contents first, so be very careful!) and turn it upside down in the "Plant Nanny". As the plant is "thirsty" it will draw water from the bottle! Genius!!!!

And this concludes my backyard tour!! Off to soak up the rays on my "SEXY DECK"!
MWAH~

Ta-Da....The Finale!!!

Well.....the topsoil finally arrived and everything got cleaned up and put away, just in time for a nice fresh rain. That soil looks so nice and black I could hardly wait to get muckin' in it!!!

From the driveway...

This is what is looks like from the road driving up to our home....

So we also decided to pull up all the pea-gravel that we had down the other side of our home. We replaced it with a darker mulch and the "heaviest-dutiest-tarpiest" stuff to go on the ground under it!!! I don't want to see another clump of grass, thistle or anything growing on that side of my house other than these beautiful trembling Aspens that we staggered. I saw them staggered in someone else's yard months ago while driving around to get some ideas, and loved the "natural" look it gave, as opposed to planting them in one symmetrical line...

This is what is looks like from straight on....this will be stunning once they develop...

Dogwoods & Purple & White Hollyhock...sorry mom but I think it is beautiful! Haha!

Before I started digging holes all over the place, I carefully placed the plants in their pots where I thought I would put them. This was a good hour long process, since I am so bloody indecisive!!! Something else that I did was drew my flowerbed out on a sketchpad, building a key on a separate page. I drew circles with numbers in them on the sketch, then on the key you just have to match up the corresponding numbers to find out what plant is planted there!!! I thought I better come up with some kind of system, seeing as someone was bound to come over in the next 40 years and say "OMG - that is stunning - what is it?" Bwahahahaa!!!

What a find from Wally World of all places - this rock fountain pretty much blends into the front fascia rock of our home...AND, it was on sale!!!!

When I stopped for the day, this is what was left to look at...

More plants...that didn't get planted yet...

And finally, here is a shot of the Rock Fountain, the Dogwoods, my Guacamole Hosta, and some others...

So as I promised to post when this beautiful creation was completed, I am soooo excited to share these photos with you! Although this project will be an ongoing one, adding to the large empty space in the middle, and any spots here and there, I hope you are half as pleased with this creation as I!!! I would love to hear your suggestions of what I can fill my spaces in the bed with!
MWAH~

My Long-awaited Flower Bed....

So I have been dreaming of having a place to muck around in, to plant perennials and pull the odd weed or two. But with the way they build homes so close together nowadays, they leave you with limited space to accomplish the building of any flower-bed or garden. But this summer, once it finally arrived, brought with it hope that I would finally get a space to fill with luscious green foliage and scent-full blossoms!!!
And so the breaking of the ground began....

A deep trench needed to be dug first, then packed with a mixture of sand and gravel to eliminate the shifting of the rock down the road - or so I am told - I hope this is the case....

I had many ideas of what I wanted but after many trips to the rock depot, I settled on this slate look, as it went with the exterior of the home so well. So we began to lay the base layer of the wall...

Once the base was complete, the wall got built up, piece by piece, leaving a jagged modern look to the bed.
During the building, some rocks were glued to each other to for extra reinforcement.
This is what the bed looks like just prior to topsoil fill - the smaller areas still need to be filled in with smaller pieces of slate...

And this is what you see when driving up to the front of the house, from the road....

Will be taking more photos and updating as we go, but so far, I am pretty pleased! What are your thoughts?

Lilac Season...

So I planted these two lilac bushes in my back yard 4 years ago now. And every year, the odd branch blossoms and I have to refrain from lopping the branch off and taking it into my house to fill the air with this cherished smell.
But this year, both bushes had multiple blooms...so today, I could contain myself no longer...

I love this varietal, with both the purple and the white...

And a close up so true, you can almost smell it...

MWAH!

A 40th Birthday Giggle....

So I saw this stamp set called "Girlfriends" by Art Impressions and knew the exact application!!! I would make a 40th birthday card for an amazing girlfriend!!!!


I pulled out my copics and got coloring to add some pop to the card. I was inspired by a fellow cardmaker, Brandi Wiggins with the freehanding along the edges of the stamped image!



And what's a fun girlfriend card without a little "blingity bling"???



Hope you enjoyed this little gem of a card!
MWAH~

Recipe Card Dividers Tutorial...

So those that know me know I am a recipe junkie!!!! I have recipes collected from my grandmothers to my mother to friends from near & far. I also love to play with recipes and alter them to create wonderful yummy concoctions to please my palate!!
But I have struggled with how to "organize" all my treasures!!!! And then I found these...



I have purchased 4 (yes...four...as I said I have ALOT of treasured recipes!!!) for my project. I print all my recipes on 4x6 recipe cards, so these tins are the PERFECT FIT!!!!

This tutorial will teach you how to make some amazing recipe card dividers that will have your recipe box gasping in sheer excitement!!!!

We will start off by talking about some of the products you will need to make these beauties....

A Scotch TL901 Thermal Lamintor - awesome investment!!! My DH bought this for work, but I have scooped it up and totally earned it's value back ten fold!!!! We got it at Wally World for $35 - best price we could find around!


1-2 packages of Scotch Thermal Laminating Pouches (20 pouches per pack - 5mil - 135x185mm) - I found these as well for the best price at Wally World at approx $5 per pack...


One package of velum paper and my pdf of "The Ultimate Recipe Label Collection"...


DSP packs...I used two of these to complete this project, but keep in mind I made ALOT of dividers...


Word Window Punch (SU), Making Memories Chocolate Brown Paint, & Make Up Applicator Sponges...
You will also require adhesive (I used my PINK ATG gun which worked marvelously!!!) and a pack of recipe card dividers (I picked mine up at the Dollar Store for $1 for a package of 50! Smokin' deal!!!)


LET'S GET STARTED: Place adhesive on one side of recipe divider card. I did two cards per 12x12 DSP piece. Place them on one edge of DSP, butting right up on top of each other. Once adhered, use exacto knife and trim them off DSP.


Flip your recipe divider card over and run adhesive on the unfinished side, lining up on the excess paper from your DSP sheet...


If you haven't done so already, turn your laminator on to heat up. I recommend with this laminator to change the Heat Setting Switch to 5mil from the regular 3mil setting, as these are thicker objects going through your laminator...


Trim the excess DSP from around the recipe divider card...


I then took a chocolate brown paint and some make-up sponges (these are cheap and work great for edging!!) and applied a quick coat of paint to all edges of the recipe divider - it antiqued it up a little!!! It also helps to cover the edge of those nasty cream colored divider cards from the Dollar Store!!! LOL!!!


Finished altered recipe card dividers.....



Place your altered recipe card divider into the laminator slip...Next you will have to take the categories that you print out on velum or card stock (I used velum as I liked the finished look it gave my projects!) and the Word Window punch, and punch out your category title. Carefully place this on the top tab part of the recipe divider (I chose not to adhere these down as you can see the adhesive through the velum - it just sealed it in place when I laminated it! - If you are using regular card stock you can definitely adhere to divider!)


Feed the lamination sheet, sealed side first, into the laminator and watch the magic begin...


Coming out of the bottom of the laminator...


When it comes out of the laminator, this is what it should look like...carefully trim the excess with an exacto knife.


And here is the finished product!!

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial and I would love to hear everyone's feedback on this project.
If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me via email at bella013175@hotmail.com
MWAH!!!