Today's Flower

I got this Orchid given for my birthday it's called Alice Girl.  It's wet and dreary here today so not good light.  This photo was taken with the flash on.

This photo was also taken with the flash on.

This one without the flash on.

This one also without the flash on.  That is snow on the ground in the background, not the sun shining!!

For more today's flower posts, please click on the link

When your eyes are greedier than your stomach.............

that's how I feel everytime I go out for a meal at a place where there is a buffet.  We were out with the kids on Saturday night to celebrate my birthday........it's not until Monday, but this was the best time for us all to get together.  So dd booked us a table at the Mandarin Restaurant, for those of you who live in the GTA (Toronto area) we went to the one on Weston Road, south of Rutherford.  We normally go to the Brampton location, but this one on Weston Road was sort of central for everyone.....well except us!!

It's a Chinese restaurant, but it has a full range of Canadian food, which is great for dh, as he is not fond of Chinese food.  Of course when you are paying $23.99, or it could have been more, I'm not sure.  You of course want to get your money's worth, so of course back and forward we all go.  I must say I go prepared, wearing a pair of elasticated pants, a baggy shirt and comfy shoes!!!

I have a sweet tooth, and am a sucker for creme caramel however they also had creme brulee, so of course I had to sample both to make sure they were okay for everyone else to eat.  They have some sort of mango pudding/jelly thingy which is to die for.

Now all the staff were of oriental descent, which makes sense right?  What didn't make sense was they all had "western" names and all spoke with a "thick" oriental accent?  Just an observation, that's all.

It poured down for most of Saturday, good weather for ducks, bad weather for doggies who don't like going out in the rain.......no need to say any more.........

On the way home from the restaurant the snow plow was spreading salt on the road near our home, which confused us, as the temperature was supposed to be above freezing all weekend.  As long as it doesn't snow, I don't really care.  I keep checking my flower gardens daily to see any sign of spring bulbs but nothing yet......

Did you remember to put your money in your Daily Savings Pot today?

Today's money saving tip:

Don’t buy drinks in restaurants and bars – water with lemon is free

One of those days not sure what to talk about................

(THIS POST SHOULD HAVE BEEN PUBLISHED ON SATURDAY, SORRY)

so I guess I will just chit chat about this and that.


Friday was a dreary wet day and very foggy.  However on a positive note the temperature was above freezing and at least the snow is starting to melt.  Mind you with the rain comes the mud, and that is one job we must do, get a load of gravel for the driveway to cover up the dirt.  I still haven't seen any of my bulbs popping through the dirt yet, but at least I can see nearly all the gardens now.


We finally got the quotes in for the work we want done in the house this year.  Dh is working six/seven days a week at the moment, and that will continue until at least June.  So we are getting a company to finish drywalling the attic, and do the taping, mudding and sanding.  They will also be sorting out our bedroom ceiling as well at the same time.  We have given them the go ahead with that, so that should be done in the next week or two.


The other main job we want done is some work in the old basement and two new windows in the new basement.  We haven't given the go ahead on that job yet, as that is a big and expensive job that is labour intensive and although we need to do the work, spending that amount of money frightens me.  I do think we will go ahead with it, but that work won't be done until sometime in April when the weather turns a bit warmer.


Now I am not sure how many Ontario readers I have?  If anyone in Ontario shops in the Zehrs grocery store's would you mind saving your grocery store cash receipts for me.  We are fund raising at the church I go to and one of the fund raising things is collecting the Zehrs receipts.


It's March break here in Ontario this coming week, so I saw on the news that Toronto airport was super busy with people escaping the winter for more sunny destinations.

Also on Saturday night/Sunday morning the clocks move forward, as its Daylight Savings Time.  We used to be a week behind Britain, but the USA decided to change that, and of course we Canadians followed suit......

I took this photo of a wall in Meaford last September, just thought I'd show you it.

Did you remember to put your money in your daily savings pot today?

Today's money saving tip:

Make Homemade Organic Fertilizer using this recipe  Bit of an ususual combination but it may work........

By the way, I have a question for you all.  Do you actually like the Money Saving Tips, and the Daily Savings Pot reminders?

Sewing, Molly and recipes....

As I said at the beginning of the week I am having a sewing week this week.  Got the two quilt blocks done that I had to do.  Got my apron made.  I used Simplicity Pattern #2691 It's fully reversible and wraps around your body.

I made this for a fundraiser/competition.  For every apron that is entered $5 is donated to a mission in Tanzania  You can win a $100 gift card for Cobwebs and Caviar, the quilting store where I am part of the block of the month club, or a free class.  I don't anticipating winning either but thought it was all in a good cause.

This is the front or the back of the apron:

This also could be the front or the back of the apron, depending on your mood?

This is a close up of the fabric, it is black and beige, sorry about the quality of the photo.

I thought I'd show you what I did with the blue English Paper Piecing, I am liking the border I put on it.  There is a lot more to be done on it.

I didn't do any sewing on Thursday, as I was busy with other things.

Now Molly had a super busy day on Thursday guarding the property from "marauding" squirrels, all from the back deck.  It kept her busy all day.  Mind you all that guarding had her worn out.  So much so she collapsed on the sofa for a well deserved rest........

That's her new thing by the way to hide her face under the pillow when she is sleeping!  Still have her on 1/2 pill per day for her allergies (the steroid one).  I have tried cutting her back to every other day, but she scratches like crazy.  I'll try cutting her back again by the end of the month, as by then she'll have been on her new food for six weeks, and the bee pollen a month.  Otherwise she is well.

Did you remember to put your money in your Daily Savings Pot today?

Today's Money Saving Tip:

Use your microwave oven to cook meals.  It doesn't heat up the house, it cooks the food faster and there are hundreds of recipes out there for microwave cooking, including my recipe for carrot soup.

Here are a couple of links for recipes that are made in the microwave:

http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/cat/109/

http://www.recipezaar.com/recipes/microwave

Skywatch Friday

I took these last week when the sun was setting.  Although we still have snow there are a lot of bare patches now as we have had temperatures above freezing for the past few days.  The Spring thaw is upon us.......

For more Skywatch Friday posts please click on this link

Closet photos.....finally and the nerve of some people...

Back in January I suggested to dh why not build a closet in our bedroom.  That shouldn't take him that long to do.  Two months later we are finally getting close to finishing it.  So I thought I would show you some photos.

A good friend of mine lent us three of these temporary closets to use until we got some closets built.  Thank you Paula.

We built the closet at one end of our bedroom, so it is around 10 feet wide and about 2 feet deep.

This is what the closet organizer looks like. It was bought from Solutions and is custom made for our closet. It took dh and I about an hour to install it. We have used this type of system before and it's really good quality and well worth every penny. We also paid a little more to have a bronze finish rather than a white finish.  They generally have closet sale in January/February.  Dh has still to change the sockets in the closet.

It didn't take me long to fill it!!

These are the doors; the one on the right is what they looked like before I started to stain them.

This is what the doors look like hung on the closet. They had one coat of stain on them, Minwax English Chestnut, and then three coats of Minwax clear varnish semi gloss and then one cost of Minwax clear varnish gloss finish. The two at either end slide behind the two in the middle.

We still have the handles to put on the doors.  The ones that came with the roller/hanging kit, are a bright brass colour and look cheap and tacky, so I need to find some, just haven't got around to it.  We still have to get the ceiling fixed in the room, still waiting on a quote for that.  I have the cornice molding to sort out, wood filler and stain on that.  Also there is some shelves to put in a small "closet" that we moved from one end of the room to the other.  I'll take a photo of that when it's done.  I also have to make a lace curtain for that as well; it will all make sense when I have taken the photos.

Now for the nerve of some people story.  So I was talking to "R" who is our next door neighbour from our old house, and it turns out the people who bought our house last year have put it up for sale.  Now being the nosy person that I am, I wanted to know how much it was up for and see if there were any photos of it, to see what they had done with it.

I email Sue our real estate agent to get me the info, and she emails me the info back.  I look at the main photo and think something is odd, so I then look at the next photo and think, that hall table just looks like ours.  I then look at the next photo which was the dining room, and yep that is our furniture.  They were using our photos????

So I email Sue and tell her what's what.  She emails me back to say she has put in a formal complaint to the Toronto Real Estate Board and they have 24 hours to remove all those photos, or else be disciplined by the board.  Can you believe that?

I have got more sewing done, but will post photos of it all on Friday, as I have rambled on enough for one day!!

Did you remember to put your money in your Daily Savings Pot today?

Today's Money Saving Tip:

It cost us $525 for the closet organizer and an hour of our time to hang it up.  For a closet company to come in and do the same we would be paying at least $1,000 to $2,000.  We still got the custom closet feel for half the price and it is a super simple thing to do that will add value to the house.

Total cost for our closet, probably around the $1,200 mark, as we had to buy more expensive trim to match the rest of the trim.  We bought solid pine doors, at a cost of around $325, then the organizer was $525.  However it has added value to our house and looks as though it has been there since the house was built.

This week's column and other "stuff"

Here is a link to this week's column on the Eden Valley Messenger. If you feel like it, leave a comment, I'd really appreciate it.  The photo is of a sunset, not a sunrise at the end of the column.....

I had a busy day on Tuesday, doing all sorts of bits and bobs.  Below are some seeds I am starting.  On the left of the photo are four sections of the egg carton with White Spruce seeds.  I have no idea where I got the seeds from.  However I don't know if they will take, as I soaked them for twenty four hours and only three of them sank in the water.

On the other end of the egg carton I planted some marigolds.  I know I am a little early with them, but thought I'd give it a go.

I got a bit of a shock on Tuesday.  I was taking out the ashes in the morning, and had to empty the metal garbage bin I put them in.  So I walked over the snow (photo below), to throw them by the fence.  Luckily I had my wellies on, as the snow turned out to be as high as the top of my wellies.  What shocked me more, was my feet sunk in the snow and my body kept going, so I ended up flat on my face in the snow!!  The weather has been gorgeous these past few days, but there is still a lot of snow still to melt.

I managed to make a start on my apron, but have found a couple of more projects to complete now, so I guess I will be sewing next week as well!

When dh came home from work, we also installed the closet organizer so I will be spending Wednesday filling it with all our clothes.   I will post photos of it on Thursday.

Did you remember to put your money in your Daily Savings Pot?

Today's money saving tip:

Tips to make your fresh cuts flowers last longer:

1. Flowers always keep best when cut under running water with a sharp (un-serrated knife). Make the cut in the stem at a slant.

2. Before placing your flowers in a vase, be sure to remove any leaves that would be under water, but avoid removing any thorns (from Roses) as this shortens the life of your rose.

3. Prematurely Wilted roses are a result of air bubbles and/or bacteria. To prevent air-bubbles simply cut a new stem (under running water and at a slant).

4. Warm or Cold Water? Lukewarm is best for most cut flowers, but use Cold water for any flowers resulting from Bulbs such as tulips, hyacinths, etc.

5. Think your cut flowers look nice on your table with your fruit bowl? Think again! Fruit releases a natural gas that will cause your flowers to "age" and thus die sooner.

6. Keep Away from Direct Sunlight

All tips from this site

I know I have mentioned this a couple of times, but I am loving Swagbucks.  I just cashed in my points again on Tuesdays night for another $5 Amazon e-card.  That will be $40 worth of Amazon e-card I have received since the end of November.  If you want to know more just let me know, as its so easy to do.