Thyme In The Garden

This past Wednesday, the neighborhood ladies went to a really neat place. Thyme in The Garden is the name of the place. It is run by a really nice lady who is a master gardener. She specializes in herbs. She has a number of opportunities at her place. You can come and tour her garden, take a cooking class, have a luncheon, or just come by and purchase some of her unique herbs.

There was about a dozen or so of us. When we first arrived, we took her tour. She has all kinds of plants, anything from fennel, several types of basil, lemon grass, some herb that is suppose to take away a migraine, and my favorite--chocolate mint, yumo!!! The chocolate mint smells just like it too.

After our tour which took probably 45 mins or so, we went in to her dining area, and were treated to some of the best food I've had. Spring Thyme Soup, Oriental Dill Salad, Crusty Herb Rolls, Chicken Salad Pie, and last by not least, Pecan Fudge Pie with Raspberry Sauce. Everything was delicious. She even gave us the recipes. I've been looking over them, and they are actually easy enough that I will be trying them out, in fact, I have my grocery list ready. I will be heading to "Wally World" today after I drop my youngest son at a Boy Scout campout tonight. I just can't wait to try them out.

Happy Mother's Day, Ya'll!!

Today is Mother's Day. My husband had to work. He usually does not have to work on Sunday's, but today started the annual outage at work. I can't believe they scheduled it on Mother's Day...oh well, no biggy. I just know there are a lot of mom's out there that would have a problem with it. I was able to spend the day with two of our four children (the oldest lives in another state, and the other one is out at school--also in another state).

Yesterday, I went with the ladies at church to the Baton Rouge, LA Temple, and had a nice time. Even though it is a good four plus hour trip (one way), it gives us time to visit and get to know each other a little better.

When I came home, my dear husband had carefully arranged a dozen yellow roses in a vase for me. They were absolutely beautiful! I love yellow rose, especially with babies breath. They were so pretty, that I just had to take a picture of them and share them with you all.

Newest Project

Girls camp is coming up in a few weeks, and it got me to thinking about some of the neat things my daughter made for and at camp when she was going to. One of the things she made that was a big hit with the girls was a bag made from a pair of old jeans. Now, I am not much of a sewer, but I was able to find a set of pretty easy instructions to make this handy bag for camp. In a couple of weeks, our girls are going to make these so they can have something to lug their camp books and other camp essentials around in.

I pretty much followed the instructions, but did have to change things a bit. They had you sewing everything by hand. First off, my hand stitches are not that strong, and second, I have very week hands and fingers, and did not think I would be able to push a needle through some of the layers of denim. So, I used my machine. Also, I had to do something a little different with the handle. The handle would not be long enough the way they had you do it, so I took two strips and sewed them together to make it longer. Now, don't look too close, because, like I said, I am not much of a sewer, but I'm pretty happy with the outcome, and can't wait for the girls to make theirs!

Here's the instructions: http://www.threadbanger.com/post/2642/how-to-turn-old-jeans-into-a-sweet-new-purse

A Crazy Life

Been out of pocket for awhile...We went to Tennessee for Spring break and was unable to get to a computer, then we came home just in time for Youth Conference at church, which we were all involved in. This week we've been getting ready for Scott's surgery, which is today. So...I guess you could say, I've been just a little busy. Hopfully, next week, we will have our lives back to normal, whatever that may be...

The Beauty of Spring

Spring is definitely in the air here in Louisiana! One day we have beautiful weather the next day horrible storms! I guess we have to have the rain in order to have the wonderful colors we experience here...

We have been trying to walk everyday, but some days it is just too stormy. Lots of thunder, lightening, hail and wind, so we stay in on those days...

But...the days with no rain, we are out there walking and enjoying the sights...

I decided to bring my camera the other day so I could share some of the wonderful colors of our neighborhood...

The Azaleas are especially beautiful...

Most people have pink Azaleas, but there are other colors--red, white, peach...

Hope you've enjoyed the colors of Louisiana as much as we do each day. Of course, it is much more prettier in person...

What You Think?

Ever since I can remember, my sisters and I have loved to craft. Growing up in the 70's we got into macrame and jewelry making. One of myy sisters has since made a career out of jewelry making by selling her items in various boutiques, writing books and she even has an about.com site and other blogs on all her gorgeous stuff.

Not only did we do macrame and jewelry, but we also got into crochet. I can even remember crocheting things with our fingers--no needle needed. Several years ago, I was experimenting on new media to use in jewelry. Actually, my sister was working on a mixed media book at the time, and that inspired me. As I was brainstorming with myself, I wondered if one could crochet beads. I started goofing around and found that yes, that is possible. I made a couple of necklaces that everyone seemed to like, and then gave them away as Christmas gifts. Today, I was playing around with my beads and made this necklace out of some cheap glass beads my mom had bought to make some jewelry with. She gave me the leftover beads, and I decided to try to use them. This was a fun, simple and cheap project. If you can chain stitch, you can make this necklace! Hey, this may even be a good project for pre-teens who would like to learn to crochet....

A Stormy Evening

The last few days have been very stormy, which means, we have been staying indoors. Last night was suppose to be the stormiest evening of all. The way the weather people were talking, we were going to be getting widespread tornadoes. Because of this, I had planned an evening hunkered down with the family.

As the day wore on, it looked as if we were looking at late night storms. My dh called to see if we all wanted to go out to eat at the favorite Mexican Restaurant. One of my sons was wanting to spend the night at a friends house, and the other son was not wanting to go anywhere (he's pretty much a homebody), so it was just the two of us. By the time dh got home it was 7:00. The storms still didn't seem anywhere near, so we headed out. When we got there we found we were not the only ones that had the idea of going out to eat.

We always like going out to eat, and we've taken our kids with us a lot, even when we had four very little ones. We took them out to eat to teach them how to act, and they have always been very good. From the beginning, though, we taught them that you do not get up and run around, and that you use a quiet voice, etc. I have found, though, that a lot of people do not teach their kids manners when going out to eat.

As a college student, I was a waitress, and it really got on my nerves when people let their kids run amuk. Numerous times, I can remember a kid barreling into me when I had a full tray of food or drinks--not fun. Last night was a night mare. As I mentioned before, the resturaunt was very busy. Many of the patrons were families, and most of these families let their kids run wild. I could not believe it! These kids were probably around 9, 10 or 11--old enough to know better. The resturaunt had a free ice cream machine at the front, so after you pay your bill you can get an ice cream cone for the road. These kids were running from the back of the resturant to the front and back again getting numerous ice cream cones. There were about 10 boys in all. They would run, get their cones, run back, finish their cones, and then run back for another one, making an extremely big mess of the machine. This went on the entire time we were there. Don't get me wrong, I love kids--I got four of my own--but I really hate it when other peoples kids are making such a nusinance. Not one time did I see an adult say anything to these boys.

When we got done, we went up front to pay our bill, and decided that we really did not want an ice cream cone. It was really a gross mess, and I noticed the kids opening doors on the maching and sticking their fingers and hands in it, I just really could not believe it. Anyway--it was nice to get back home to a quiet house...and the rest of the night was pretty quiet too, as the storms we were so worried about past us by with just a few drops of rain...