Bunny birdbath

I'm so excited about my latest addition to my garden!  I've been wanting a real bird bath but of course I  also wanted to be able to thrift it. This bunny bird bath was free on NextDoor, so I snatched it up in a heart beat! I decided to make this section of my garden a little sitting area. The street noise is way too loud for it to be a relaxing place to sit but the birds will enjoy it! At some point I will add a bench and maybe a little table. I will try and add some nice ground cover once I get the soil healthy. Still I'm so thrilled to finally have a real bird bath and finding it for free!

Gnome at Home

The Gnome at Home project is getting closer to being done!  Tami at Cottage Craft did a super job of adding a door to the bird houses turning it into a gnome house.

I now have to decide if I should paint it a bright color or go with a forest mossy look. I did find some doll furniture I hope will fit into the Gnome house.

If you don't remember what this project is here's the quick update. 

Everyday the boys will check the Gnome's house for either a surprise or clue to where the Gnome has left his treasure. They only get the clue/treasure if they left something in return for Gnome.

 

Little Garden Surprise

If you've been following my blog, I've been working on bringing back (make healthy) the soil in my front yard. I've only done a little planned planting of some border plants but that's about it.  Several squash plants have sprout from the compost so I let them go wild. This volunteer sunflower popped up this week from the bird seed feeders. It was such a nice pop of surprise color!

My garden will never be a lush green oasis but once the permeant edging plants are mature, will at least not look like a vacant lot. :) 

Cutie Pie Buzz

This past week I've been babysitting this cutie - Buzz. In this photo he's pouty because I wouldn't give him a third bowl of popcorn. Normally we have our popcorn outside but with the weather being so hot, it was more comfortable to put everything in a his bowl. 

While I'm there I take care of the bird feeders which there are a lot of! Nice to enjoy my coffee out on the deck and watch all a the bird swoop in. They are so use to being fed, that some of the little ones fly in while I'm filling the feeders! Still working on training the crows and they make really good work of eating up all the mice I've been catching. I know it sounds gross but the crows really do enjoy it and it's so much better than throw the mice into the trash cans. I'll be spending most of September with Buzz as his family will be traveling a lot this fall. 

Quick trip to Turkey

Something I always found sad was meeting women who are afraid to travel without a partner. That they live with regrets or angry that they never got to see the world. Then old age catches  up with them and they can't physically travel.

I raised my children to be very independent and confident in how to navigate the world on their own. It makes me so happy to see my children flying off to visit different countries and experience the world. I started traveling internationally on my own over 25 years ago when I realized who I was married to at the time wasn't comfortable going anywhere they didn't speak English.  If I wanted to see the world I would have to do it on my own. 

My daughter made a quick trip to Turkey (only a four flight from the Netherlands) to meet up with a college roommate who was doing a site visit. I know the logistics for the trip had be intense as both of them have young children at home but they made it work. Looking forward to hearing about the trip and all the spices they are bringing back!

Squash Plants 2023

I've been slowly working on the front garden area, trying to get the soil back to being healthy. With all the years of neglect the soil is pretty much as hard a cement. I've been doing direct composting but I know that will take a long time to get anything to grow. 

Some squash plants sprung up near my compost bin so I just let them grow. If nothing else there is life in the yard and the bees seems to like it. I was going to take out the apple tree which is more like a bush because most of the branches are diseased. But it started flowering again so I'm leaving it for the bees. I will cut it way back this winter. The apples are so terrible even the squirrels won't touch it. 

Auction week

When I see these  type of cabinets pop up for auction, I just know it's going to come home with me. Because of the high catalog number, I had hopes there wouldn't be too much interest in it.  Right after I finished inspecting it, another group of newbies to the auction started checking it out. over hearing she was willing to pay $300 for it, I had to do a lot of soul searching if I should really stretch my budget and just go for it. I ended up paying over $525.00, that includes the auction fees which is full retail. You know me and I hate to pay full retail for anything!  At some point I will sell it off but for now it's on my work table. 

The top drawers can hold 12X12 paper which I found interesting. Not sure what that would have been used for back in the day. 

Coddled Eggs

There was an estate sale that happened this weekend in my neighborhood but I wasn't planning on going because it was being done by a local high end estate company = $$$$. From the photos they published online, the estate had some very nice things but I know everything was priced over retail. 

On the last day of every estate sale, things are usually 50% off. I decided to stop by just to see what was left. It was very slim pickings but I did manage to fill a box. When I went to check out the first totally was $120.  I said nope, she went down to $100. I seriously looked down at the box and said "I'm a reseller and the profit margin is so narrow on this box (which was true), it isn't worth $100 so I'll pass on the box".  She was a little shocked that I would walk away. I knew they only had another two hours before the sale was over so I offered $50.  I still think was a little high but I did really want these egg coddlers. 

One of the things I've been looking for is a pair of egg coddlers. I want to make some for the boys when they come out to visit but it takes 8 minutes to cook an egg. Having two would make things go a little faster as we all know toddlers who are hungry can be little cranky. They original had these tagged for $18 each, which is over retail. Even at $9 I still wouldn't have picked them up. They're vintage and I'm pretty sure they were never used to make eggs. Can't tell you the exact price, as there were several other things in my box, but it couldn't be more than a few dollars. 

There was a lot of nice paintings and artwork that wasn't selling, and that was sad. Artwork doesn't sell well on the secondary market. 

Gnomes at Home - Continue

I'm still working on my "Gnomes at Home" project. 

One of the ideas is for the gnome to leave a note in his house with clues as to where one of their many treasures are buried out in the yard. Some will be marked with a little flag. It will help them learn colors and shapes. 

 I asked a quilter friend for some of her scraps and we all know quilters have a huge stash of scraps!  I cut them into triangles and I will also stamp images on some of them. 

I needed bamboo skewers for the stakes, so I went to ranch 99.  I'm also putting together a birthday basket for my son with all the strange Asian snacks that I find that will fit into 12" shipping box. Came across some interesting KitKats (he has a sweet tooth) so picked up everything but the green tea one. I know that one doesn't taste to good IMO. While I was visiting a friend we were sitting out in her gazebo and she said she brings out her sewing machine to sew there when the weather is nice. I gave it a try here at Buzz's house and it was lovely!

Now I'm off to paint the little "lion, witch and wardrobe" cabinet I have for another finding place for the gnome!  

While I'm babysitting Buzz, I'm also taking care of all the rat traps. You can't feed all these birds on property this big and not have rodents running around. The traps are very $$$ but they work super well. The best part is how easy it is to remove the rodent without having to touch it. 

I'm working on making friends with the local crows, so when I get a rat or mouse, I leave it out back for them to snack on. They do clean it up super fast so it's not as gross as it sounds. I think I'll add this to my Christmas list. :) 

Child's Cookbook Finally Found!

I think learning how to cook is a life skill everyone should learn. I can't believe how many people I run into who know nothing about taking basic ingredients and make a meal. 

I've been in search for a child's cookbook, written for a preschooler, meaning easy, edible and with pictures. I like cooking with a real cookbooks and hopefully I can instill that love to my grandson. Yes you can look everything up online but to me it's not the same. 
I'm prepping for the boys visit this winter and one of the things I want to is have the learn to follow a recipe. I got lucky and found this 30 year old book at GW in excellent condition. It was exactly what I was looking for! 

sushi and Hawaii macaroni salad

It's Obon season for all the Buddhist churches here in the Bay Area, so the Japanese super markets are running specials on all the festival type foods. One thing I love about living here and one of the big reasons I moved back is for all the ethic grocery stores. I made sushi rice and yes there is rice under all those toppings. 

With the weather being so hot, I also made Hawaii macaroni salad.