Flowers, flowers and more flowers!

My friend, Susan, and I went to the Oregon Gardens, one of our favorite places to visit and relax. They have a cute little gift shop, plants for sale and a tram that takes you around the 80 some acres of botanical gardens. Visit their website to really get an idea of how many gardens there!

Artichokes!

Have no clue what flower this is. Anyone know? Let me in on it please!

The beautiful iris.

The dainty foxglove...

The vibrant lily!

The mesmerizing maple!

The luscious lavender

Summer has been amazing so far! I'm going through my pictures from Montana and will report back!

Introducing the Enchanted Chicks!

Okay, time to let the cat out of the bag (no pun intended). If you've noticed I haven't been posting a lot lately. I've been focusing on something so much more exciting! Here it is......introducing The Enchanted Chicks blog! Click here!

If you want to learn to live life filled with enchantment, join me and three other Chicks on our journey to living and breathing an Enchanted Life. We hope you will too! Follow us!

Off to Montana for a few days!

To meet sis and family for a fun filled trip of horseback riding, good food, great family time and more! Emma is going to be a good sport and make sure everything is taken care of at home. Even her little dolphin buddy. Don't you love it when kitties let you do anything to them? :) She even cleaned the little dolphin key chain.

When I get back I have an announcement to make on a grand introduction of *something* but I can't tell right now. :) I'm so excited. It's been in the works for sometime now but until then you will have to hang on tight! :)

Hurry It's Lovely Up Here!

I'm not just the crazy cat lady, you know? I'm the crazy plant lady. I actually sing this song to my plants and flowers (okay, I whisper sing it because my neighbors will think I'm nuts). I really think it has helped them grow. Seriously! I've memorized every word. :)

My favorite actress, Barbra...from a great old movie called On a Clear Day You Can See Forever!

Weekend ramblings...

So as I was having breakfast this morning on my deck....

I noticed something really creepy invading my peppermint. I seriously thought the body snatchers were coming to get me. Alas, it's just that darn spittle bug...

But my lavender is doing great....

And I promised myself NO MORE but look at those eyes....and no I am not taking her. :) A new kitten at the shelter reminds me so much of my Mocha when she was little. She's only 3 1/2 weeks old and fits in the palm of my hand. Cuteness overload, right? *sigh*

Have a great weekend!

Atrium Green

One of my favorite movies is Green Card with Andie McDowell and Gerard Depardieu. Have you seen it? The movie has the most beautiful atrium/conservatory that I've dreamed of having...so I decided to compile some images that will be in my dream book. The rooms are all airy and mainly adorned with the colors green and white. How much more refreshing can one get with decorating?






Happy Hump Day!

Scenes of Summer...

Well, it feels like summer anyway. :)

Fresh strawberries and lime...

And a cat with a partial haircut. He got tired of hearing the scissors go snip, snip and proceeded to try to kill my hand.

A little fun, a little growth and a good breakfast

A great ride with the boys...

Watching the strawberries come up....

And a little cilantro, parmesan scrambled eggs...

Equals a great weekend! Hope you're having one too. :)

Stevia and weekend activities

First off, I wanted to post this weekend but had issues with my blogger account and couldn't. Grrrr..it was very frustrating but I finally figured it out this evening. I hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend and thanked all our veterans, active duty soldiers and heroes who gave and are giving their lives to protect our great nation.

I've been looking for a Stevia plant everywhere and I found it at the chicken festival held by the cat shelter this past weekend! We had so many great vendors there and very fanciful chickens. You know, the ones with the big mops on their heads. I love those chickens. We even found a home for a chicken that was given up to the shelter. As soon as we brought the cute little bugger out someone offered to give him a home with their other chickens. I love happy endings. Anyway, I digress. So, one of the vendors was a local lavender farm and, of course, they brought some hen and chicks (the plant) and several other herbs. There was a single Stevia plant that had my name all over it. :)

Stevia is known as the natural sweetener with ZERO calories. The plant itself is from the daisy family. The Native Americans in Paraguay have used Stevia for hundreds and hundreds of years not only for it's natural sweetness but for it's medicinal properties as well such as controlling high blood pressure and diabetes..mainly through the lack of calories. Stevia has also been widely used in Japan over the last three decades.

You can find more info here on Stevia's website. The best part about Stevia is....it's all natural.

Anyway, a few fun pictures to share from this weekend...

The cute little chicken that got adopted...

My deck is turning green! Guess who sits on the ground?

My newest Hen and Chicks plant (middle). It looks like a lotus flower. :)

And just a little artwork I made for the chicken festival. It sold! All proceeds going to the cat shelter. :)

Little morning fun with Quincy...

As soon as I woke up I knew I had to tease him. He sleeps at the end of my bed where all the down fluff is like a a big fluff king. A very short video...and I cut off the part where I dropped the camera and had to give him big fat kisses on his belly! :)



Hope you had a wonderful weekend!

Homemade Pop Tarts

Everyone is making homemade pop tarts! So, since I love being a follower...I joined in and made some fabulous chocolate pop tarts. Truth be told I was really craving something sweet one morning and since I didn't have my good 'ol standby of Pillsbury's Orange Danish Rolls, I decided to search the internet for something that would satisfy my sugar craving. There were so many recipes to try out there on the internet but I ended up going with King Arthur's recipe here.

My favorite part...

Ready for the sun tan bed...

I did end up washing the second batch with some egg-white and sprinkling a little sugar on top before baking. They were SO yummy and my tummy was satisfied.

My bleeding heart....

She's blooming ever so beautifully on my deck. :)

Happy Mother's Day Mom!

First of all, I'm alive! Just barely. I've been sick for two weeks and seriously, how much nose "stuff" can one have in one's body? Blech! I'm feeling a little more human though.

I have so much catching up to do including two trips, one with my sweetie and one with my mom and brother. Oh and a few garden updates as well!

But this post is for mom today. Mom, you are the best mother any girl could ever ask for. Thank you for being encouraging, for being strong for me and teaching me to be strong, to have a good heart, for giving me your beautiful genes, for teaching me how it's important to be young and positive on the inside and most of all...for being my best friend. I love you mom. I even like sharing your colds. ;) Lol!

She used to always sing this song to us kids. I'll never forget.

XOXO

Homemade Granola!

Where has time gone?! I swear the older I get the faster time flies. About a week ago my best friend, Susan and I made tons and tons (and I mean tons) of homemade gluten-free granola bars. What we did was find a basic recipe and made variations with the goodies that we added. It was so much fun and by the end we were having a grand 'ole time and drinking some wine. We ended up with tropical granola bars, cherry almond granola bars, Almond Joy granola bars, and even one called TMW granola bars (Too Much Wine granola bars).

OMG these dried cherries were to die for! I could eat them just as a snack alone!

Time for wine...

The wine miraculously gave me super fast stirring powers!

And voila...the yummy, hearty, gooey goodness...

And our basic granola recipe:

Dry ingredients:

1 1/2 cups Gluten Free Rolled Oats

1/2 cup Gluten Free Oat Flour

Any filling you desire!

Wet ingredients:

1/4 cup Molasses

1/4 cup Honey

1/4 cup Peanut Butter

2 Tb Fruit Juice (your choice

1 Tb Vegetable Oil

Okay so Susan is the mad scientist when it comes to recipes and tweaking and changing and perfecting. So, she figured out that for this recipe we use 3c + 3 tbs dry ingredients to 3/4c + 3tbs wet ingredients. So, whatever is in the list of dry ingredients, just make sure it equals the 3c + 3 tbs and whatever wet ingredients you desire make sure it equals 3/4c + 3 tbs. Does that make sense? :)

Anyway, it worked for us! They were delicious...and now I have one hundred pounds of granola to last me the year. When the wine started flowing, we couldn't stop making. LOL!

P.S. Sorry about the spacing issues on this post. I get so frustrated with pictures and spacing. Am I the only one with this problem or am I the only one that doesn't know the secret? :)

Mr. Quincy is a calendar pinup!

Thanks to Ms. Kitty and daddy Egmont, Quincy won the photo contest hosted by Ms. Kitty and dad over at A Cat's Golden Years! We are so proud of Mr. Quincy. He is finally a star. Lol! Every three months Ms. Kitty has a calendar contest. We find it very fun and a great way of getting to know the other kitties out there! This month, Quincy is Mr. April. He is also in the company of some very gorgeous kitties! Neytiri and Maui. These beauties are making Quincy look very good. :) Feel free to swing by all these kitty blogs and you are sure to get your PURRRR ON! If you want to download the calendar, go over to Ms. Kitty and her dad Egmont's blog and they will have a link! By the way, Ms. Kitty recently had a golden birthday very close to Quincy's birthday. She is a beautiful young 17 year old. Swing over and checkout the beautiful golden eyes she sports. Thank you Ms. Kitty and Daddy Egmont for hosting a wonderful contest!!

Fashion tidbit of the week. A little of everything...

Wear a statement piece that stands out like my hot pink watch. Layering it with feminine bracelets creates a funky, sporty, yet dainty look. Like I said, I'm a Gemini, so for those who can't make up their mind like me, why not combine it all?

Container Beets

Yep, this is the new addition to my container garden this Spring. Beautiful, aren't they? I love beets and I thought this Spring I will plant something new and exciting in my deck garden. I'm starting my Spring cleaning, including the deck, and have my list of veggies and herbs I want to grow. I thought they could use a new friend. :) So, here's to new friends and a new victim for my palate!

Got any new friends in your garden this Spring?