Never Fear, I am still Here!

Yes, Yes I am! You would think that I fell off the face of the earth, but I have not. Sigh, I blame the warm weather. All winter I could not wait for Spring. Well here it is and I feel like I am on a roller coaster.

Scary, exciting, unsure of what is around the next hill but in the end it is fun, exhilarating. That is what Spring has brought me. The kiddos have field trips, fun days and only few more days until school is out. The Memorial Day weekend brought parties to go to every day. My husband's cousin, bless her heart, lost her two year battle with breast cancer, so a period of mourning. A wedding next weekend and our a move. We have two weeks until our move, one that as a family we are excited for. Despite living around boxes, eating off of paper plates, drinking out of Solo cups, we are very ready for our new adventure!

So buckle your seat belts, keep your arms and legs in the car at all times, and join me as we continue on this crazy roller coaster ride!

Mother Nature Teaches Patience.

Being a patient person has not always been one of my virtues. I would like to think that after all these years I have achieved some strides in this department. However, just when I feel I have mastered this trait, I am given another lesson. I am the student. This time Mother Nature is my teacher.

For the last two months now I have been in gardening mode. I have been ready!  The seed catalogs are riddled with post-it notes, highlighted, and are now badly tattered from hours of  reading. Seeds have been ordered, all heirlooms. From those ordered seeds, seedlings have been started, and have now been transplanted into bigger containers. The garden beds, all beautifully composted and tilled twice sit waiting for their new occupants. See I told you I was ready, well more than ready, it has almost turned into an obsession!
But all my preparation has came to a screeching halt. What? Why? It is the end of April right? The Farmers Almanac and the seed packages say that some things can be planted by now. Yes, Yes, in theory. By now our cold crops would be in the ground.  But ours are still sitting tucked in their packages, waiting.

Patience: The capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset.
 *Yikes! Maybe I have not mastered this virtue...

This year we have had a very cold, wet Spring. Temperatures have been way off to say the least. One day warm, sunny and Spring like, next day cold, freezing and even snow!

  Granted it was not much in accumulation, but you get the picture. Brrr!

Last week one of the local farmers was on the news stating that they are two weeks late with Spring planting! With the first of May less then two hours away (well for us Eastern time zone folks) let's hope the weather stays nice as it has been for the past two days. I see the end of the lesson! Yippee! What? I still have to wait?

Despite the warmer days/nights, we have another "snap-foo." We are possibly moving in June. We have been searching for the perfect place, for us it is OUT of the city limits. Granted my pick would be to a farm, but I am happy enough with the place. It is a small town out in the country. I grew up in a small town and love the fact that my kids will get to now. However, remember I said "June?" As a gardener most of the veggies would be the ground by then. At the moment I have 19 heirloom tomato plants that will need to be transplanted a second time, seedlings of broccoli, cauliflower, eggplant, Brussels sprouts, Sweet peppers that will more than be ready for the earth by then. Remember my beautifully composted, tilled garden areas? They will not nourish my plants. I will be starting fresh.  So today I headed up to the local garden center and purchased larger pots, soil for transplanting these babies for their future move. Grumbling to myself, I might add, how this, again, this was not on my "Spring Agenda, This is NOT part of the plan I made!" Do not get me wrong, I am beyond happy to be moving, as much as you can. It is moving, right?

Maybe good old Mother Nature knew something that I did not when I sat under my quilt, seed catalogs and gardening journal sprawled all over my lap this Winter/Spring and made my "Master Plan." Yes, yes she did and that would be that I needed more lessons in Patience. 

Russian Blini

Spring Break is here for our children. This means that breakfast does not have to be a "rush job." We can actually cook and enjoy our first meal of the day. Today my daughter requested that I make our Russian Blini recipe. We do not have Russian roots, but received this recipe from our son's Russian language instructor.

A Blini is a thin pancake, resembling a crepe but thicker. Traditionally they were filled with sour cream, or caviar. They can be filled with any type of filling. Or you can eat them as a stack. Whatever tickles your fancy.

The recipe that we use:

Russian Blini

2 eggs
1 Tablespoons of  White sugar
1/3 teaspoon salt
1 Cup of flour
1 1/2 cups of Milk
1 Tablespoon of butter, or vegetable oil.

In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, sugar, and salt. Once that is combined, add the flour and milk into mixture. Mix until batter is smooth. The batter should be thin, like this:

 

Next, heat your pan or griddle. Add the butter, or oil to coat the pan. Once pan is heated, Pour 2 Tablespoons of batter in the pan. Tilt the pan to spread the batter out evenly. When the edges are crisp looking and the center of the blini appears dry, flip over and cook for 1 minute. Remove the Blini to a plate. Continue this process to finish up the batter. Stacking them as you go. (this requires a watchful eye so that you do not burn them. They cook fast!)

To serve, spread desired filling, fold in half and fold in half a second time. Today we used mixed berries that I cooked down. The only thing missing was a bit of whipped cream!

 

Hippity Hoppity DIY Crayon Bunnies

This project just screams "oh, do me!" If you have any children in your life, you know that eventually you will have crayons that get tossed aside and that are no longer used to color with. You know the crayon that has been colored down where the nice little factory point is nothing but a nub?Then to be discarded never to be used again? Admit it we all like using the ones with a point!  Well, do not throw them away, they are treasures. (Yes, I am a crayon hoarder) You can reuse the old crayons for a lot of things, but our favorite is to make new crayons. Especially when they can become cool shapes, like bunnies!

 DIY CRAYON BUNNIES

Here is how to do this project:

 For the project you will need a metal pan. I used a Wilton Rabbit cake pan. I have seen these crayons made in cupcake pans. However, using shapes makes for more fun!  Sometimes you can find these pans at thrift stores or garage sales. Re-purposing is the best!

 Collect old crayons. Peel off the paper wrapper. This part is a bit tedious and your fingernails will be multicolored and sore. I usually employee my husband or kids to help in this effort.

Once all the paper is removed, break the crayons up into as pieces. This is when your creativity comes in! Group like colors and hues. You can also place the crayons in desired ways you want them to turn out, for example a rainbow that is layered.

 Fill the crayon pieces as much to the top of the pan as possible. But do not go over. See the above photo for the right amount. You want enough crayon pieces to create a thick crayon, but not have it spill over.

The final step is to melt them. Because I used a metal pan, I used my oven. Set your oven as low as possible, I had mine at 200 degrees. Put your pan into the oven and allow the crayon pieces to melt. This does require a watchful eye so as to not burn the wax. As soon as all the wax has turned into liquid, remove the pan. Set in a safe place to cool down.

Once the wax is cooled, you just pop out the new bunny shaped crayon! If the wax does not remove well from the mold, try to gently tap on the back of the pan, or use a butter knife to loosen the sides. Don't use too make force, or you will break your crayon mold. But if that does happen, just break it up and use it for another bunny crayon.

Of course to give as gifts you have to put them in cute little baggies and use fun Easter tags! 

 

My 15 minutes of fame!

I am not really a "Toot Your Own Horn" type of person, but today I cannot help it and I have to share!


Drum roll...

I have been featured with other U.S chicken owners in this month's edition of Your Chickens magazine. The magazine was originally started in the UK. However, in January they kicked off editions for the United States. The magazines are available at Tractor Supply stores and online. Each month they feature American chicken owners. The magazine has caught my eye several times while I was in Tractor Supply. It is beautifully done and provides wonderful information regarding our feathered friends. I have shared who to contact further down in the post if you are interested in being featured. Simon is very helpful and prompt. I hope you do, I would love to hear your "chicken stories." You may also find information on their Facebook.  page. If you do tell them, that Heather from The Whimsical Feather sent you.

 

 
 

Content editor Simon McEwan says: “We are delighted to be a launching in the USA and would like to thank all those American henkeepers who have contacted us. We have had a fantastic response. We would be very pleased to hear from more of you, with about 200 words and a high-resolution photo of you with your chickens. Just email us at: yourchickens@archant.co.uk.”


 

Still waiting for Spring? Why not pick up a new hobby?

 I do not remember wanting  Spring to come as much as I have this year. Living in Ohio we have crazy weather. For instance, Sunday it was almost 60 degrees and sunny. Today some light snow flurries are falling and it is cloudy and cold.

What do we do here? We take it in stride. We take what we can get and maximize our time.This year between the daily life stuff, I played with a bit of fiber crafts. I found on Pinterest some cute little bird designs and took some creative license. So I pulled out the embroidery hoop and thread, and made these cute little hen and rooster designs on our pillow cases. Yes, I am chicken obsessed, how can I not be! My poor husband has to sleep with chickens now. Honestly, he did not mind and to join in the fun, he set his alarm clock on his phone to a rooster crowing. Yeah, the first morning I heard it I jumped up half asleep, thinking our hens were crowing, stumbled into the wall while trying to get dressed. Ha! Ha! Honey, I hope you enjoyed your laugh.

I thought about adding more to the pillow cases, but I liked the simplicity of it. With that in mind do not judge the lack of ironing, I am a simple girl who does not like to iron if I do not have too.



My next project is doing a blanket for my youngest son. I am crocheting it. Now, I am far from  fiber craft perfection and still have a LOT to learn. At this time I can just do the basics. Knit and purl, single and double crochet, and do the basic stitches in embroidery.


My goal is to learn more. I am such a hands on learner, that watching a video or looking at book are not always the best way for me to learn. Locally we have a Fiber Crafts group that meet a few times a month. I hope to get to one of those craft days and learn some new skills.

Hopefully, I can do this before the weather gets warmer, because after that happens, It is all about Garden 2013!

It's Time to Play in the Dirt!

This post my be redundant, I have to say, but playing in the dirt makes for a wonderful day!

Oh, the dirt!

Planting we will go!

Construction of a great find!

Took all but 5 minutes to set up. Voila! A dog and cat proof area for my seeds! *Notice to the right, "photo bomb" dog rear end, she was so interested, but keeping her distance.