Ube Mochi Pancake Mix

This is a family favorite from Trader Joe's but it's a limited seasonal thing. The best part it's also gluten free. I stocked up to ship a case to the boys. 

The stove at the Carmel house isn't level (not even close) so making pancakes has been a challenge for my SIL. It's his thing make pancakes and I like to encourage the guys to cook. 

I purchase two electric skillet (don't ask me why I got two) so when they do come out to visit the boys can have their pancakes. Someone gave me an opened box (they didn't like them) so it gave me a chance to test out the skillets and they both worked out well. I think I will leave on down at the Carmel house along with all the other spare kitchen equipment I'm picking up. 

Holiday lights for the win

I don't have any lights in my tiny back yard and no outlets. With the weather being so hot, I had to think of something so I could spend some time out here after dark. 

During the holidays down at the Carmel house, we ran into the same problem of no backyard lights. I did string a bunch of Christmas lights which was a challenge as there was only one outlet far away from the deck. Burned out many strings of light and blew the fuse several times. I have to be much more selective of how many I use this year! :)

I picked up a few boxes of new lights at the Dragon because I really didn't want to dig through my packed Christmas decoration boxes just to pull out the lights I all ready had. 

It does give me enough light to watch a movie or at least see where I'm going. I love the festive look and it makes me happy!

Shun Kai Knife Score!

You never know what you will find at a thrift store!  Shun Kai is one of my favorite brand of knives!

I was clean up the very large knife drawer in the back room that I'm sure hasn't seen daylight in years. Most of the knives are junky, still useable but nothing special. Way more bread knives than anything else. 

I was very shocked when I saw the wavy pattern on this knife. Hoping that I was right it was a Shun Kai made in Japan. I was gifted one by my daughter years ago and I only use it when I need something sliced super thin. It's kept its edge for many years. It's very $$$ but at the Dragon I only paid $4. Whoever priced it years ago didn't know their knives!  Well very knife they priced was $4 so I'm sure they didn't even look at it. 

Goebel Cows

Yes, I picked up some more brown spotted cows. Only paid $7.85 for them on the Maxsold online site. At some point they will go into my booth at Cottage Crafts.

Busy week with the HD having it's big summer clearance sale. Big discounts happening all week and next week is by the grocery bag sale. Fingers crossed it goes well. 

Very Good Score

Picked these up for only $1.00!  Long story but I'm working on getting rid of some random link that keeps hacking my blog!
 

Bumper Crop of Apricots

This was my first attempt at drying apricots. I didn't use any type of sulfur or acidic products the commercial growers use. I didn't have time to order anything as I wasn't expecting to get enough apricots to dry. Last year I think there was only one and the squirrels got it. So with this bumper crop, I pulled out my dehydrator (I have it at Buzz's house) while they were gone. I gave the apricots a bath in lemon water which I think just keeps them from turn totally brown. I also didn't dried they all the way which would hopefully keep them chewable. Have to say it was a failure. Maybe next year if I'm still here, I'll make jam. I did give a lot away and added many to my morning smoothies but there's only so much one person can eat! The squirrels did help out a lot, eating at least a dozen a day. 

Food prep during a heat wave

With all the extreme hot weather I've been meal prepping a whole lot more. Now that I have my bbq set up makes it a little easier to cook without heating up my little studio. 

I grilled marinated asparagus (a favorite) and being that it was so hot, I added it to a salad with leftover Costco baked chicken.

Fried rice of course is my go to comfort food and I always make enough to have leftover. 

Do Crows Follow People Around?

There are some crows that I swear follow me around. It started at Buzz's house where I would give them any rodents I trapped. They really liked it and would be waiting every morning at their feeding spot in the backyard. It is a really big backyard so as soon as I walked away they would swoop in and carry it off. If it was too big, they would eat it down until it could be taken away. I started to notice when Buzz's owners weren't home, two crows would get fairly close to me at my place and start yelling at me. One of them would always perch right over my parked car. I don't feed the birds at my place because it just attracts the squirrels who end up eating everything. I do have bubbling water fountain which sees a lot of action in the morning. The crows have even pulled the tops off my sunken clay pot that are full of water, it's a gardening thing.  When I was at Sumo's house last month a crow would again get close to me in the morning and  start chatting me up. I'm not sure if all crows do this and it's just wishful thinking on my part I have winged buddies. :) 

High End Thrift Store Meaning

People always give me the evil eye when I say I volunteer at a high end thrift store. It doesn't mean things are priced high, it means we get really high end donations all the time. Yes, we do get the junky trashy stuff too but with the store being so small, we process those things out to be recycled or donated to other non profits. I noticed in the men's section (in the backroom) that all these shirts were obviously dry cleaned before being donated. Then I saw the monogram on the collar. I've never seen that before so I looked for other marking because I was curious. These were custom tailored shirts, all in perfect condition. Now the debate is what size are they. I'm guessing medium, slim fit. 

Happy Dragon is gearing up for our big clearance sale starting July 10th, even things in the locked case will be on sale. I think this is the only time the locked cases go on sale. 

Then starting on the 17th, it a bag sale for the clothes. Whatever you can get in a large grocery bag (we provide) for one money. It will be my first big sale and I heard it gets crazy!

Disco Night

It was my grandson's fourth birthday. My SIL surprised everyone by ordering a disco ball. 

I just knew it was going to be a wild party once that ball got spinning. :) 

Furniture had to be moved out of the room because even during normal play time, the boys like jumping off any surface they can climb on. 

A friend suggested the back drops, which really added to the whole disco feel. Everyone had a great time!

Pink Whitehall Cube Pitcher

Normally I don't pick at estate sale, as everything is full retail. On Sunday when I was out running errands I stop at one that on the way to my next stop. I'm on the hunting for a Big Shot XL base plate, so thought maybe a crafter's lived there. 

On the third day of any estate sale, things are 50% off but that also means things are very picked over. The house was pretty much empty and I was about to leave when I noticed that some of the kitchen cabinets were closed. So of course I opened them, you're allowed to do this.  I found this pitcher ($8) which surprised me. There were some matching glasses (6) in another cabinet ($1 each) so I got the whole set for $6.00. It's not a money spinner but I think I can get $25 for the whole set. If the pitcher and glasses were together, it would have sold sooner. 

There were a few other things but the estate person realized I was a picker so the prices, even at 50% were full retail. Being it was the last day, I would think it's better to sell it for something than pay to have it hauled away.

Over loaded with apricots

I can't even remember the last time I picking fruit from my garden!  

When I moved into my place almost 2 years ago, the first thing that had to be done was clear out all the dead trees. Then prune  all the trees that were left back into looking like trees instead of bushes. The yard looked like a giant spider web with all the wild branches going everywhere. I didn't even know what some of the trees were when I first moved here. 

This year, all the trees are doing their thing. Two different types of apricots, almond, fig, and persimmon. The yard is slowly turning into a nice low maintenance garden!  I'm away so much I won't ever have a vegetable garden again, I have a very active squirrel population living in the trees above.