growing celery and other pinteresting things...

I have posted about growing green onions from their roots before.  If you want to see that post, click here.

I've been doing it for years....long before pinterest came along.  I think over the last 20 years, I've spent a grand total of 5 bucks on them...maybe not even that much, and that is only because sometimes when I've moved, I've left them behind in the yard.

Last month, I read on pinterest that you can do the same thing with celery so thought I'd give it a shot.  Since mine had no roots on it, I scored the bottom with a knife.

 Then I stuck it into my herb garden on April 11th....

Not quite a month later and we have this....new life! 

If it continues to do well, I will make a spot in the garden and do a small row of it.

While browsing sewing ideas, I saw this one about a toothbrush holder made from a hand towel....

and liked it so much I made 3...

then I found this pin on home made Rosemary Mint fabric softener and had to give it a try.  

It works quite well which makes me happy since it cost just pennies to make.  I found this on the same site as the eye makeup remover I posted about   She has other cleaning recipes I am going to try out too.....

Turns out , I'm not the only one playing on pinterest.   

Kaela  found this pin where you freeze yogurt into little dots.  She used strawberry flavored yogurt and squeezed it out of a plastic baggie....

....and liked it so much she has done it several times.   Don't you love her "bowl?"   hahahaha!

nothing like eating out of a cupcake liner container! 

last of Cancun

The week we were in Cancun was wonderful.....the last 2 days were spent between the beach and sight seeing.

Kayaking with the family.......

trying something new...

We spent one entire day at  Chichen Itza.  The name means water hole of the Itza tribe.  The Mayan civilization had a population of over 12.5 million people and those who had water holes were the most powerful.

The main ruin is still under restoration but this side it complete.  The Mayans were amazing mathematicians and astronomers....which is quite interesting since they didn't have telescopes.  (Dean kept saying stuff about aliens.....)
Serpents going up meant it was a shrine and serpents going down meant it was a temple.  

The serpent shadow ripples as the sun moves which makes it look like the serpent is moving....this is a temple.  The serpents were going down.

if you stand in front of the temple and clap your hands, it will sound just like a bird call.....amazing!

here are some heads of the serpents....these were on the platform across from the Sun temple

.Here was a shrine.  They call it the Shrine of 1,000 Pillars.  They don't know what the pillars represent.  It was creepy knowing that people were sacrificed here.   They ate their hearts.  (ewww)

the table where the person to be sacrificed was behind this....

Way  across from the shrine and outside the stadium was this.....each stone was engraved with a skull.  

There were over 1,000 skulls, each depicting a decapitated captain from the game.   Historians argue over whether the victor or the loser actually lost their head.  Since human sacrifice was an "honor," many argue that the victor was decapitated, not the loser.

Outside view of the stadium...entrance....

The stadium...you can see how large it is from this photo.  Royalty would sit while everyone else would stand on the top of the walls.

See the small building at the end of the photo.  It had a mirror image building on this side.  If you stand in front of one end and shout, you can hear your voice clearly at the other end.  

The hoop the ball went in to.  If you ever saw the Disney movie "El Dorado," it will make you think of this stadium....I think they used it for inspiration.   The ball was made of rubber and weighed roughly 9-12 pounds.  They had hip belts....hands were not permitted.  These hoops were on the tip top of the wall you see in the above photo!

On each side, the walls were decorated with engravings of the team......

Here is the water hole which the place is named for.  A GORGEOUS and large sink hole of fresh water that goes down to 150 feet.  They have found human remains.  (another tidbit from the Disney flick....they called their's Shelbalba.....this sink hole is named something close to that.)

I opted not to go....the water was too cold for me and I wanted to take photos.......this place was beautiful!  

 the specks in the lower left photo are PEOPLE!

This was one excursion that we need to do again just to finish it.  There was simply too much to cover in one visit.  Our tour guide said we needed about 3 days to really see it all.  After spending the day there, we all agreed he was right.  We didn't get to do any poking around or looking at the minor ruins....just not enough time.

De-stash Challenge...April

I joined Ana and Lynda's Destash Challenge this year.....and have done remarkably well.    I've made scarves and cozies and beds and such. 

This month, I was preoccupied with end of the year work stuff and other things so I didn't de-stash as much as usual.

In fact, I ADDED stash by going on a quick trip to a yarn store in Mississippi with a co-worker.   It was SUCH fun.  The drive was a quick 30 minutes and we had a blast.   After shopping, we had a really good lunch and headed back home with our goodies...  Some of this will be made into finger-less gloves, some into a scarf and some into who knows what...

I'd also been looking for a particular yarn for about a year...and looking HARD for well over 6 months.  
I finally found it on Ravelry but it took an additional 2 months to find someone willing to sell it to me.
The yarn is so lovely, it was worth the effort...I can't imagine why this lovely yarn would be discontinued!

Then I found these on sale 50% off and couldn't pass up the color....teal, light or dark is seriously the BEST color!

Then I bought some more yarn to create this shawl for our trip to Cancun.   I thought it would be fun to make this instead of a toy for my "drop" this month.  I left it for the lady who did our house keeping every day.  Dean wrote her a sweet note in Spanish....we saw it on her cart later that morning when we checked out.





I did manage to make 3 more pink scarves for the Pink Scarf Project.  Since I am making so many of them, I am only buying yarn I find on sale.   I have now made 8 scarves!  My goal is 12 so I have 4 left to make before October.

I made 2 of this light and lacy one.  This yarn is incredibly soft and was perfect for the open weave.   I love the pretty fringe.   

 I only found 1 skein of this yarn so made a long, chunky scarf out of it. It is also very soft but it looks best doubled and tied close to the neck........

I also made another cell phone case...I seem to making these constantly....

Going to a yarn store is like a kid going to a candy store.......but the good thing is that you don't rot your teeth out....and you get to create pretty things.......

Cancun part 2

One of the neat things about the resort was the art they had everywhere.   The walls were covered with enormous tapestries and sculptures were tucked here and there in hedges and on lawns.   

This was in front of one of the restaurants we went to for breakfast.  

and these two were in the foyer.

when we were leaving, a little boy of about 2 had wedged himself into the textile sculpture and his mother was taking photos of him....it was so cute!

The kids ready to go out for evening, waiting on us......before.....

  after........

They were the only kids on the trip and everyone complimented them.  They are such great kids, we are truly blessed.

One night we went to a Fire show and to kick things off, the MC sent a cute girl off into the audience to bring back 3 male "volunteers" to go on stage.    As it turned out, they had to try and do the dance moves he did.
OH.MY.GOSH.  It was very funny!   One guy was terrified and the other guy just couldn't get it together.

Matt was the best of the 3 on stage and he won a spa package.  (He gave it away since we were going to the ruins the next day.)  
He enjoyed being a celebrity the rest of the trip with people coming up and talking to him, asking him to dance, telling him what a good sport he was and how funny he was on stage.  (He was the only one not intimidated by the MC.)   He kept saying he could "get used to this" and maybe he should go in to acting!

Then the show began, and it was so neat!  They used all sorts of props, one guy sat in a chair upside down and rolled the fire with his feet.  The girls used hula hoops....we kept waiting for their hair to catch on fire.

They had 4 guys in the back with percussion instruments and 1 of them chanted throughout the show.  It was really a wonderful show.

Cancun, part 1

Dean went on a client trip to Cancun....and we got to tag along.    I was apprehensive at first but we had a great time.   The kids have good grades and hadn't missed too much school this year so we took them along, they've earned it.

While Dean was busy catching up with co-workers from other states, I enjoyed a little downtime watching the dolphins play....

they would jump and splash and play right in front of me

the kids hit the water and then wandered around the resort to do some exploring...

Later that evening, we had dinner and enjoyed good company......

then we walked around a bit, just taking everything in...

One good thing about living in Louisiana is that the humidity didn't bother us one bit!

We woke up early each morning and worked out before eating breakfast....

we spent one entire day at the beach....played in the water, watched the birds and iguanas....amazing.   I still believe that our beaches in Florida are more beautiful but the color of this water was breath taking!

I lived in Florida for over 20 years and the beach still has a hold on me.  Beach sounds of waves, birds and wind lulls me to sleep so fast it was embarrassing but so wonderful.....

For the Crock Pot: Stuffed Bell Peppers

My husband loves stuffed bell peppers and so do I...sort of.  I don't like to eat the bell pepper but I love the flavor it imparts on the stuffing mix.     My mom has the world's BEST recipe but I keep forgetting to get it out of her recipe file.

Here is a recipe I adapted from a co-worker.  They are really good...and simple to make.
Just a note: my peppers were so large I had to use two large crock pots at the same time, 4 in one and 3 in the other.  If you have an oval crock pot, you can fit more inside.   Look for peppers with good flat bottoms that don't have the bottom end curling back up inside.

2 lbs ground beef
4-8 large clean green peppers depending on your crockpot
1 box  Spanish rice mix
chicken broth
14 oz can tomato sauce (I used 28 oz since I had 7 peppers.)
14 oz can diced tomatoes for rice.
1 small onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced (I'm lazy so I use the stuff in a jar.)

Saute the minced garlic and onion til soft but not browned.  Add the ground beef and brown.
Pour off any grease.
Add 1-2 teaspoons salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper and 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce.  
Mix well and set aside to cool a bit.

Take the box of rice and cook it according to the directions.  (I use *chicken broth instead of water)  I prefer this kind....

While the rice is cooking, clean your peppers, then cut the tops off and hull out them out of seeds and ribs.
Check for brown spots on the inside of your peppers and scrape them off if you find any.  
    

Mix your rice and beef mixture, taste and adjust seasonings if needed.

If you like cheese, do this part, if not, skip it.
Here, I added a couple of large handfuls of shredded cheese to the mix.  (f you do this while the mixture is warm, work FAST...)

Spoon the mixture into the shells, packing it in up to the top, then carefully set them aside.  You want them all packed evenly.  

Spray your crock with Pam up the sides for easy cleanup.  
Pour a little tomato sauce in the bottom of the crock.

Stand your peppers up and tightly squeeze them into the crock.  You don't want them slumping over once they start softening from being cooked.

Pour the rest of the tomato sauce over the peppers, sprinkle with salt and pepper and top with cheese.  I prefer them with cheese, it also helps keep everything together once the pepper softens.

Cook on low about 8 hours or 6 hours on high.  Peppers can be tricky,  if they are thin skinned, they may cook faster and get mushy so keep that in mind when setting your temp.

Spoon a little of the sauce that collects in the bottom of the crock........and enjoy!