Starting My Garden

Spring is coming... no matter what the weather is doing.. my little garden has signs of spring.. little shoots poking through the dirt in search of sunshine. So I decided to get started in the house too.  I  started with some flowers that hopefully will be filling the hanging planters in a few months and filling the yard with color.

Using egg shells here... dirt is a mix of potting soil and coffee grounds and egg shells.

Toilet paper tubes... just like the egg shells I can plant these directly into the planter boxes once they are ready to move outside. 

 Here are the seeds.... collected over the years from flowers I love.

Now I mist with water twice a day and watch so closely for any tiny signs of life.  This week I will be planting some herbs.. thinking I may get them already started though.. I am not very patient and want them now :)

Another Oregon Weekend

Last weekend we were in Portland for the garden show and learned that this weekend there would be a model train show... Dave also knows someone in Oregon who is building a motor home on a semi truck frame in the area so once again we headed to Oregon for a weekend trip.  It was amazing... every time we visit Oregon I love it more.  This last weekend we first headed to Dave's friends  house.. which is near McMinniville Oregon.. and while we were driving through there we saw this

which turns out to be a water park at the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum.  Talk about amazing... you go up inside the plane and then ( click on the link to see pictures) there are tubes coming out of it into the building that you slide down... so cool!  

That is only part of it though.. the Spruce Goose lives there...  I am so excited .. this thing is huge.. you hear about how big it is.. but until you are standing there under it.. you have no clue.  So amazing in so many ways.

This place is filled with a lot of planes and some tanks and at least two buildings full of stuff... and the outside has stuff all over too... you can walk up to and touch.... they also have Imax movies.. and just a lot of things to do.. this is the kind of place that you need a whole day to explore.. we had 30 minutes :(  Good news is.. we will be going back with a whole day just to spend here.

So off to friends house and we got to visit there and see the motor home he is building.. look forward to watching it progress over the next year and I am sure there will be more posts about it :)  Then we decided to heard to Tillamook to spend the night... wanted a place near the water and closer to Portland for our trip on Sunday.  Found a nice hotel for real cheap... it even had a telephone in the bathroom.  Gross!!!  lol but other than that it was very nice.. the breakfast in the morning was basically nothing so we headed into town to find a small town place.. found a pancake house that was great.. service was top notch and I had biscuits and gravy with sausage just like grandma used to make.. no store bought mix here :)  We then drove around town a bit.. did not have very much time which was bad because we now have found another place where we want to spend a good long week.  So many things to do in this little town.... we drove past the cheese factory.. have to go check that out.. I am going back there for the tour and some cheese.  Then we headed out to the beach.. wanted to see the light house..

So beautiful... we were so lucky.. the skies cleared up and we were able to spend some time just taking some pictures and enjoying the day. We played on the beach a little bit but then spent more time up here on the cliff with the light house.. the views were just amazing. 

                                       

Checked out another Air Museum.. this one in Tillamook.. Noticed it in the dark when we drove into town.. a HUGE building... when we drove out in the day light we were able to see just how huge.. look at this plane parked in front of the building... HUGE!!

You can check here for some history on the place and stats on its size and some pictures.. this building was built to house blimps.. in 1942.. to keep our coasts safe... amazing!   Again we did not get to go in.. just did not have time.. we really need at least a week in this area.. between the beaches and the cliffs and the shop and the cheese and the blimp hangers...SO SO much to do!

We did make it to the model railroad show in Portland.. which was the big reason for heading that way.. and it was not as big of a show as we had thought it would be.. but it was still a nice show. Lots of things to see... and a lot of kids there.. it is nice to see so many generations getting involved.  My favorite part of the show was Dave taking all the pictures... he took a lot of fun shots and in so many of them you can not even tell it is model railroad stuff and not a real train.  I only took a couple of pictures.. I am not really good at this type of thing.. all of my pictures you could tell it was model rail roads.. lots of people in my shots... my favorite picture that I took was this one of Dave taking a picture :) 

That was our second trip to Oregon in as many weeks... and I am not sure how we will fit some more in there but I know I need to spend more time there .. there is just never enough time... every minute seems to lead me wanting 5 more.  I am guessing that is good and bad... good in that I will never run out of things and places I want to go and see... and bad in that I will never be able to get them all seen and done. I am not sure how anyone is ever bored.. there are so many things to do and places to see. 

I am thinking we are home for the next few weekends... we have the shop so close to being done.. and a list of orders to start working on.  We have a bigger vacation/road trip we are planning for this summer.. and a couple smaller ones.  My sisters wedding is coming up in a month so I will be making a lot of cake pops and treats... and getting ready to be puppy sitting :)  This next month should be wonderfully busy just with stuff around here :)

Weekend in Portland

It seems as if it has been raining ( buckets of it ) for weeks now.. and it has not been that bad... not really.  Friday we took off for Portland with a stop over at my parents house.. and it did rain cats and dogs all the way there. Traffic was horrible and it took us forever.  People .. Turn on your lights if you are driving in the rain... it truly increases your chances of being seen and not ran over.  It was so grey.. and wet but the Space Needle was still looking awesome!

Finally made it to my parents and had a wonderful dinner and visited... we spent the night there and had a great relaxed visit in the morning before we headed out... in the rain.. for Portland.  We finally were able to stop and check out a log furniture store we had been wanting to see... it was a nice place.... we stopped at a lot of places this weekend that we have driven past many times and it was either too late or we were in a hurry. It was great.... found the chrome shop, it was closed, but we know we want to stop when we can.. and we found a couple of great train/hobby shops in Portland.  

One of the best things that happened was that as we drove over the river into Oregon.. it stopped raining... so we were able to do all our running around and stay dry.  Even found a little sign of Spring 

Saturday night we stayed in Salem and had dinner at Adam's Rib Smokehouse and it was so good!  Dave had the turkey and I had the ham and we switched up half way through... oh yeah some of the best smoked meat I have had in a long time!

Sunday we headed to the Garden show.. which was the whole reason for being in Portland... I had won some tickets from Linda of Steider Studios .. she had a giveaway to try to get more people to her facebook page.. so.. if you are interested in Pacific Northwest Artists.. or Beautiful glass work... this is her facebook page Here and her shop is Here  She has hand made buttons, bowls, platters, garden ornaments, bracelets and so much more! The treasure box above shows off one of the things I loved while looking at her stuff.. she explained how she draws on the glass with the gold.. it is so much more beautiful in person even. 

We saw so many things we liked and would love to work into the yard.. and we saw great ideas for lots of things we want to make :)

 Love this big bulky table and mismatched chairs

Fun Lanterns

I am really excited to start thinking about the back yard... I do understand that it will be 5 years or so until I really can start adding in things like lanterns... but.. I am still excited and making my lists :)

~Michelle

Happy Valentine Cookie Love

Last year I made these for Valentines day... this year Dave and I are over 130 lbs less than we were last year.. so I will not be making these.  When there are more than two of us in the home to help eat them.. I will make them again :)  I could not just let Valentines day go by without some cookie love though so I thought I would share these with you :)  Have a wonderful day!!

This is my favorite sugar cookie recipe... well one of them! This one is really easy and always taste great.

Mix together

1/2 cup ( one cube ) softened butter
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup white sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla *you could add a little bit of another flavor.. almond is so good.. peppermint for Christmas*
1 egg

add in

2 2/3 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

I put it in the fridge for a little bit ( while I get the sprinkles ready ) just to make it a little easier to handle.

Drop by spoon (small.. cookie will be about double the size) onto the cookie sheet and then using the bottom of a glass you have dipped in the sprinkles to flatten the dough with.

Bake at 350 for about 7 minutes, you want to catch them just before they start to brown.


You can use a heart shaped cookie cutter.... then try the butter cream recipe from java cupcakes to frost them. They are so good! I am not used to decorating anything, having as many kids as I did it was about how many I could make and how fast.. they could eat them faster than I could cook them.. and they could care less what they looked like. So I need a bit more ( ok a lot ) practice with my decorating.

Dad uses Facebook to teach daughter a lesson

Dad uses Facebook to teach daughter a lesson: A 15-year-old puts up a Facebook post bashing her parents for making her work too hard, dad reacts by posting a video response to her grievances on her Facebook page.

This dad is awesome!! I am so disgusted with how many parents think it is their "job" to be their childs best friend. They let their children do whatever they want.. be rude and mean and hurtful. Use the cover of "expressing themselves" or some such BS. Parents who allow their children to run free on facebook and twitter and in real life. It breaks my heart to see so many children not being taught respect.. for others or for themselves. When my kids were growing up.. and still ... I have always been known as the bitchy mom... my house always has had rules...and I followed through with consequences and often my kids did not like me at all... at times they picked going to their dads where there was no rules.. but now they are all over 18... and all moved out doing their own things and paying their own bills.. and I am able to work on real friendships with them.. because I worked hard at always being their mom first.. my Job was to teach them to be adults... to be able to think and manage their own lives... to be independent.. to keep them safe.. not only from others but from themselves. When we as parents do not do the job we signed up for when having children.. we teach them a lot more than we think.. and none of it is good... our children know we quit on them.. they know we are failures... that we just did not care enough to put in the work... when you do a half ass job.. no matter the job.. it comes back to hurt you and every one involved. We as parents will make mistakes.. but we always need to do our best.. we need to teach by example.


The dad Tommy has posted some updates to the first video and you can read on his facebook page  Here 

*This is my blog and my opinions on parenting.. based on my experience growing up and raising kids .... if you do not agree that is your right.

Dessert on Sticks part 2

Yesterday I made more cake pops.. last batch here... trying out all the to see which ones will be best for sisters wedding.... These both get my vote for Yes!

I used a confetti cake mix... with a cream cheese to mix it up and hold it together. In half I added some coconut and then dipped in white chocolate and then coconut and the other half I did with no coconut and just dipped in sprinkles. I would not do the valentine sprinkles for sisters wedding.. but since I am giving away this match and it happens to be close to Valentines day I thought this would be fun. Dave said that they taste like the pink and white frosted animal cookies.. but in cake and on a stick... well they do.. and those cookies have always been one of my favorites.

So now I have made... chocolate peanut butter cake balls.. .. just chocolate ones.... dipped Oreos... and dipped peanut butter cookies...S'mores..... then confetti cake in white chocolate.. with and without coconut. I am thinking I will skip the peanut butter cookies.. the chocolate peanut butter cake balls are already a for sure...I am thinking I want to do a chocolate mint cake ball.. thinking of wrapping the cake around a jr mint... also have thought of a wrapping it around a rolo... I am thinking of maybe a fruity cake... strawberry.. maybe... I am not sure.. What flavor combo would you love??

Back Yard Oasis

Love this site www.BlueWheelBarrow.biz and anything we do not end up doing ourselves I will be calling them about.. they just do amazing work and are awesome people! They have some great information on their blog too about native plants.

The house is all finished... it is our castle now... and the shop is in the finishing stages. Was almost starting to feel lost without a new project to be focusing on. This weekend we started really talking about the back yard and the plans we have for it. We have not done much in the yard in the last 5 years... we did clean up the parking areas.. lined them with rail road ties and filled in with gravel and rock. Cleaned it up and gave it some definition.. looks great but we have so many more things we want to do. We basically have 3 sections to the yard... the driveway and parking area.... the front yard.. and the back yard. The driveway/parking area is mostly done.. needs a bit more gravel.. every 3 year or so.. also would love to get some of it paved some day.. but that is a long ways off in the future. The front yard... that is going to be a lot of grass and some work along the front of it to give it some curb appeal.. but... not in a hurry for that either. The back yard... we have big plans here.. going to turn it into a whole other living area :) Well that is our plan at least. We started with the fence.... need to get that finished.. then we will build a deck area and a patio area .. put in a new hot tub... lot of native plants and walk ways and a trellis. We are just in the planning stages of it and talking about it stages... We will start working on it.. already have started with the fence... and we need to get that finished and get the big huge monster ugly trees out of the yard this spring.... not sure how long the rest will take... but it feels good to have a new project to really start thinking about now that the shop is getting close to finished :) Now I can start collecting photos of the yard I want.. and start thinking about what plants we want in it.. want to keep it native so if we leave for a few weeks in the summer we do not need to worry about watering it or mowing it... just the front yard will need mowing. We will have lots of water features and some fire... different areas to just hang out in listen to the birds and watch the sunset... sit around a table and play cards in the evening... enjoy a bbq with friends... roast some marshmallows over the fire pit... lol doing a lot of dreaming here... not only of the back yard we will be creating.. but of spring and summer and time spent outside just relaxing and enjoying each other and our lives. If you follow me on Pinterest you will see all the photos I am pinning for my backyard plan.. if you need a pinterest invite.. just send me an email Michelle_Ballard@hotmail.com and let me know you want one..I will send an invite back :)


Found this photo on www.penick.net where there are a few with the type of look I want.

Thankful

Saw this today and had to come write about it. I have always told my kids to remember to be thankful for everything you have instead of asking for more. If one is not thankful for what they have then why would they think they deserve more. It is not just about saying thanks but about showing it. In how we treat the things we own, the relationships we are in and the strangers we meet is how we show if we are thankful or not. I hope that how I live my life has been a good example of this for my children ... I am very thankful for all that I own, the relationships I am in and the strangers that I meet. Writing this makes me smile.. I love my life!

Saw this on Pinterest* which lead me to a great new blog to explore (here)

*Warning ~ do not click on the link for Pinterest unless you have a LOT of time to kill.. it is way too much fun.. finding so many fun things I want to make.. and places I want to go and recipes and ideas and so many new blogs to read... it is a major time killer :) If you do have lots of time to kill and you would like an invite .. just get me your email and I will send you one right away :)

Dessert on Sticks

Today I spent some time in the kitchen. My sister is getting married in March and I am going to be making some desserts on sticks. Cake pops and S'mores were the plan today. Needed to see how many one cake makes and how long it takes.. so I know what supplies to get and how long it takes to make enough.

S'mores on sticks = easy easy easy.. and fun! Take the marshmallow.. dip in melted chocolate.. stick the stick in there and then sprinkle with crushed graham crackers. Twirl them over an open flame to toast the edges and they are ready to go!

Next time I am thinking I will not crush the crackers so fine.

Next up.... Peanut butter / chocolate cake pops. This was my first adventure with cake pops.. I have done a lot of cake balls.. but this was the first time getting them on the stick. I did not think anything about it.. until I had the ball slide right down the stick in to my hand. Needed a plan.. so I decided to take the cake ball.. then dip the stick in the melted chocolate and slide it into the hole and stick them back in the fridge for a bit... it worked!! Yay!! Dip and cover in crushed peanuts!

I made a few more... everything was the same.. but instead of peanut butter in the cake I added a chocolate cream cheese thing I made up... and then half of them I dipped in crushed MnM's ( again I crushed them a little too much.

I also left some plain.. just chocolate/chocolate. I was thinking all the time about the different things I could dip them in... or thing I could put in them.. I could put a rolo around each bit of cake.. or maybe a jr mint... I really want to do some coconut ones. I am thinking I need something with a white cake.. not everyone loves chocolate.. hmm I could do those in white chocolate.. any ideas there?

Walk on the Beach

Yesterday I spent some time on the beach.. it was warm ( for Jan) and so calm.. just walked and listened to the water just lapping at the shore.. no big waves. Ran into a friend with her two cute little dogs so walked with them for awhile and did some catching up.. was a wonderful walk.  Found some treasures and took some photos.  Very relaxing enjoyable couple of hours.  Today my shoulder is screaming.. but it was still worth it :)

Pretty green sea glass

Even though the sun was setting I just did not want to go 

Sea glass photo was added to Weekly Top Shot
Thanks to Madge @ The View From Right Here for the invite :)

December 5th 1969

That was the day I was born.. thanks to Heather from Home to Heather I went to find out ( here ) what the number 1 song was the day I was born.  I did not know the song by name.. or the group....pulled it up on youtube.. from the album cover.. I still did not know but I did start laughing.. then the song started.. oh yeah.. I know this song.. lol but the cover still has me laughing.. the cover makes me think of the too sexy for my whatever song.

Wordless Wednesday

Wrapping up 2011

Wrapped up the year by heading back to Montana and spending a few more days enjoying Yellow Stone and just being together!  Last year was truly wonderful and I am so excited for the new year. Big plans are to just keep going... keep working on getting healthy... keep working on our new shop... keep having fun and enjoying life!  

Bald Eagle

                                          

Bison

Paint Pots 

Some of the photos of our winter tour through Yellow Stone.. Some day I hope to live close enough to visit here anytime I want.