Bountiful Blessings

I am so grateful for friends. My friend Leona recently went away on an anniversary trip and she asked us to pick her garden for her while she was gone so things wouldn't go to waste. What a bountiful blessing! We picked the garden twice and were blessed with many many tomatoes, peppers and two meals worth of beans. This is a picture of just a few of the veggies we received. Praise God for He knows what we need even before we ask and He always provides!

Happy Thursday!
Blessings,
Liisa

New Mommy Care Jar

I thought I would share an idea I had to brighten the day of a new mommy who was feeling weak having a bit of a hard go after some difficulties with the birth of her son.
She is such a sweetheart and I wanted her to know I was thinking about her and praying for her. I came up with a gift in a jar. Just a few little things but I think it turned out cute.
Here is a picture of the finished jar....

I used a soother paper punch on the tag and layered it over a piece of blue card stock. I used a scrap of fabric and tied on some raffia for a bow.

Now here is a picture of what I put inside....

I put in...
-6 decaffeinated tea bags - 2 green, 2 earl grey and 2 English breakfast
-2 "gourmet" lollipops
-Chocolate  - you can never go wrong with chocolate!
-I put some candies in a little zipper baggie and topped it with card stock and did the same for some caramels.
-A tube of lavender chamomile hand cream
-A little bag containing a set of magnets I made ( I will post about those soon!)
-Not shown here but I did add in a small note pad and a cute pen.

She was quite pleased and I was happy I could bring her a little something. It was really fun coming up with things to add in and I think I may do this again for other occasions.
Blessings,
Liisa

Meal for New Parents

Just a little quick picture of how I  packaged a meal for friends of ours who just had the cutest little boy. ~smile~

I am always trying to figure out the best way to bring a meal to someone so I thought I would share what I came up with this time. I don't want people to have to worry about washing dishes and returning them to me so I thought I would use a disposable pan. I didn't want to bring several pans so I got a rectangular one and put the meatloaf in one end, put the mashed potatoes in one corner squared them up to make room for the corn and sprinkled the potatoes with grated cheese. The corn I put in a baggie so they could pull it out and heat it separately as it did not need as much time as the rest of the meal. I think it worked well. I labeled the top with instructions to remove the corn and just heat the rest in the oven. That and a chocolate cake in another disposable pan and the meal was complete ~smile~
Blessings,
Liisa

I Love Long Walks on the Beach

Hmmm....sounds like a cheesy dating profile doesn't it! hahahahaha!
Seriously though my super romantic hubby took me for ice cream and a walk along the boardwalk at the beach to enjoy the sunset last weekend for our 31st "dating anniversary." We started dating when I was 15 and he was 17 so being teenagers we always celebrated our dating anniversary and we just kept going. ~smile~  I don't mean we do anything big and no gifts or anything but we acknowledge it and celebrate a little bit. I think it is important especially in this day of divorce and quick relationships to celebrate milestones and who doesn't love an extra excuse for a romantic evening out. *wink*
So take an opportunity to sneak away with your hubby and enjoy a nice time alone to celebrate your relationship.

Blessings,
Liisa
P.S. This is a Lake Huron Sunset - so pretty!

Menu Planning

I am getting started on menu planning for fall. This summer has been so super busy and we have been away so much, that added to my hubby's deep love for barbecuing and flying by the seat of his pants menu wise means that I have not had a menu plan since June! Yikes!
I love to have a menu plan. It makes me feel like I am in control of my day, I know what to buy on grocery day, I can save money and I never have to wonder what I am going to throw together at the end of the day. I thrive on lists and plans and order and feel all askew and unsettled when there is no plan not just with menus but in general so I am really looking forward to the settled pace and routine of fall as much fun as we have had all summer.

So what I am doing to start is spending the time to go through all my recipes and writing a list of meal ideas and where to find them so when I get down to actually planning the monthly menus I have a list of ideas and I can write where the recipe is right on the plan for each day. I have done this before and it saves so much time when you go to prepare your meal. Instead of just reading Katie's Taco Casserole on Monday I can know that it is in the Fix it Fast Gooseberry Patch cookbook on page 84. Also doing this gives us so much variety and prevents me from getting into a rut. I can use this list for all my future menu plans and won't have to go through cookbooks, recipe cards etc. every time I menu plan.

Just a little glimpse into what I am planning. ~smile~
Happy Monday!
Blessings,
Liisa

P.S. As you may be able to tell from the picture I love Gooseberry Patch cookbooks. They are so cute I love all the little tidbits and drawings on each page and the recipes are really good. ~smile~

Gifting Veggies

I had an abundance of cherry tomatoes and I planned to share them with a couple of neighbour ladies. I had them just in zipper baggies when I came across an idea in an old issue of Country Woman. The idea is to make paper cones to hang on doors. It kind of reminded me of May Day baskets.
Here are a couple of pictures of the ones I made.....

They are simply pretty card stock rolled into a cone shape. I stapled them together and added some tape to secure the edge all the way down. Next I punched a hole on either side of each cone and threaded through ribbons and tied knots to anchor. Inside I added a cone of wax paper (that I didn't staple or anything) just to keep any moisture away from the card stock. I filled them with alot more cherry tomatoes than you would think they would hold and headed out to deliver my gifts.
It was pretty early so I was able to just hang them on their doors to surprise them whenever they came out. ~smile~
I saw one of the ladies at church today and she said she was so thrilled to find it hanging on her door and wondered where I bought the container! hee hee! She was surprised that I made it!
It was a just a way to make a simple gift a little more special so I thought I would share it on here.

As a side note you can never go wrong picking up Country Woman magazines at second hand stores and yard sales. The information is always good and I grab all the ones I come across and save them to read at the time they would have come out. For example the one I found this idea in is from August/September last year and I kept it to read now though I bought it several months ago and I have spring ones I am saving to read in the spring etc.

Happy Sunday!
Blessings,
Liisa

Fast Fix for Under $4

This cute little bird cage planter was a gift I received a couple of years ago. It had ivy and several other plants in it and was really cute. I also received the bird as another gift and added it in. The only problem with it was that I have a black thumb not a green one and I bring death to plants everywhere! I tried over the years to pull out the plants that died and add in new ones but finally it got to the point that all that I could keep alive was a couple of wee little ivy plants. Yep it was pretty sad looking and it bothered me every time I looked at it. However it is such a cute planter and I love how it looks on the counter.

Enter the Fast Fix for Under $4! It occurred to me at last that I do much better with fake plants so off I went to the dollar store. I purchased some floral foam, a bag of moss and a stem of leaves. It took me less than 30 minutes to change something that had been bothering me for years into something that makes me smile.

So much better! ( It looks more like realistic plant in real life. ~smile~) I am so happy and it is a relief to be done with the struggle, I can just enjoy how cute it is and stop killing plants!

Blessings,
Liisa