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Category Archives: Crafts & Hobbies
Random Friday 5 +1
One of my favorite ways to cook squash is Parmesan Squash sticks baked in the oven. We like them room temperature and dip them in ranch dressing. The yellow squash are really tasty baked this way.
I cooked a mess of asparagus beans and also a mess of regular green beans to compare the taste. I used the same herbs/spices and cooked them the same length of time… all day long.
My husband and I agree we like the asparagus beans best. They had a richer sweeter flavor and delicious. It was a small amount of them that I’d picked and there wasn’t much of them so it was good that I also had the regular beans cooked too.
We’re anxiously awaiting some more asparagus beans to mature so we can enjoy another cooking of them. We’re also hoping to have enough to freeze some too.
There was 2 dozen of our green onions left in the garden and they were getting nice size. However, if a big enough rain comes, they’d take a second growth and ruin. So my husband harvested them and we cleaned/chopped/bagged and froze them.
I know, I know, folks think onions should be dried out and kept in a cool place… Unfortunately, everytime I’ve tried drying onions in their skins/stalks about 3/4 of them rot. So, this year we decided to freeze them. I like them frozen. I open the bag and take out what I need and return the rest to the freezer. The frozen onions are handier for cooking since they’re already cleaned and chopped.
I got a few more new tools. I used some of my husbands pliars and they were too awkward for my hands. I got a couple blisters from struggling with them. So, I bought me a set of pliars that ought to be more comfortably for me to use.
Do you know what this strange looking plug is for? A couple of my cameras came with one of these. I looked it up and discovered that it’s a travel converter plug in for 110 to 220 Voltage. It’s handy for it to come with a camera that has a battery charger, in case one decides to travel to other countries that have different voltage electrical outlets.
And as an added bonus, I wanted to post this photo of my harvest from the other day. Seeing freshly harvested veggies makes me happy. 🙂
Wishing you all a great weekend
of pleasant weather & happy harvests.
Fishing Lures & Fingernail Polish the New Paint
My Husband is a fisherman. He was in search of a spinner bait with a purple blade. He couldn’t find one in our area and decided to buy one with a shiny silver blade and paint the blade purple.
Sounds an easy enough task. He needed enough paint for only the one blade. In the old-days we would’ve bought a small bottle of model paint for him to use. However, in our modern times, model paint is sold at specialty stores not in our area. Buying a bottle of paint online wasn’t an option because of shipping. Short of purchasing a large can of spray paint, the only other option was auto touch up paint. Seems a great idea, the touch up paint comes in little bottles and many colors. That option was nixed with the $15.00 price tag per little bottle.
Standing there in the auto department, I had an idea… What about fingernail polish? I posed this to my husband and he thought it might just work. So, we were off to the cosmetics department and found oodles of polish in every shade and sparkle under the sun. It took only a few minutes for my husband to find a perfect shade of purple and it was just a couple dollars for the bottle. Thankfully, it’s a brand I’m familiar with and am fairly sure of it’s quality and longevity. Cool! 
I took several coats over a couple of days. My husband says the color is perfect. He said, “It may even catch a big enough fish to win a tournament.”
The color is vibrant and shiny. Thankfully, it has time to ‘cure out’ and for the layers to be dried and sealed before his next fishing trip. I’m curious to see how long it’ll hold up being cast oodles of times and many fish hits. 
So, there you go, if you need only a bit of paint and don’t want to spend a fortune, try the fingernail polish department, You may find the perfect color at a better price.
Wishing you all a colorful day of sunshine & smiles.
Ready for Rain
For a while now, I’ve wanted to make a rain chain. I think it’s a quaint and cheerful decoration.
I found a website that has helpful directions on how to make a rain chain.
There was a few things I needed to do differently from the directions.
I didn’t want to hang a chain under a gutter spout because if we decide to move, it’s something that we’d need to fix.
I toyed with the idea of hanging the chain from a shepherd’s hook and let it dangle over a container. It took me a day or two to think of a bird bath.
The chain would have to be shorter over a birdbath, but I decided a few small buckets might be quite charming.
I finally had it all worked out in my mind, I just needed to get my supplies together. It took a few weeks, but finally I had them all gathered up.
We worked on the flower bed off and all during last week and set up the bird bath. The weather Sunday was a bit chilly, but nice enough for us to stay outside and make my rain chain. It was quite late in the afternoon when we got started on it and after dark when we finished.
The stone dangling from the bottom of the chain is a small garden stone I bought last year. It set on my patio table because it was too small to put in my garden. I was delighted when I discovered it was the right weight and size to use with my rain chain. Pretty neat huh?
I plan to plant annual flowers around the birdbath and also I might even plant some chard for tasty color. Oh and I plan to put my garden flag hanger there too… as soon as I make a flag for it…
I can hardly wait for the next rain so I can see how my rain chain is going to do. I hope I can get a clear photo of it in action to share.
Wishing you all cheerful days of sunshine.
Wordless Wednesday – More Cool Tools
Joys Of Creating 