Herbs growing in hanging basket and containers.

Last year I realized that I had spent so much money and time planting flowers, I know that flowers are beautiful in the yard and patio deck....but I thought about why not plant some vegetables and herbs in containers?  These plants once they grow, I could have used them for my cooking and many more....here are some of my plants growing in containers....they're really growing fast....and later on I probably be able to dry some of them up and use them as dried herbs for my cooking.....as I said last year, I had couple of them growing in the soil such as basil, rosemary, chives (they re-grow back), cilantro and thyme....this year, I planted them all in containers....tomatoes and Yukon potatoes are growing in the soil this time...green and red bell peppers are growing in containers filled with straw bales. Idaho potatoes, red potatoes and sweet potatoes growing in a container covered with straw bales as well.  I will be posting them once they're grown, they're sprouting at this point and time.  As I planted them a little bit later, early May due to our weather-spring did not begin until mid May....

 

 

Homebaked "Cinnamon Rolls"

HOME BAKED CINNAMON ROLLS:

Wonderfully light and not too sweet cinnamon rolls.  These puffy cinnamon rolls are delicious with a bite of mixed cinnamon, light brown sugar, unsalted soft butter into the dough.

For 2 DOZEN ROLLS you will need:

1 pkg active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water (105F to 115F)
1/2 cup milk, scalded and cooled
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1/3 cup soft unsalted butter
1/2 tsp kosher salt
3 1/2 to 4 cups of unbleached all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 egg
soft unsalted butter to brush after baking

CINNAMON BUTTER for filling (recipe below)
Mix 1/2 cup soft unsalted butter, 4 Tbsp light brown sugar, 2 tsp ground cinnamon.  Put it aside.

PREPARATION:
1)  In large bowl, dissolve yeast in the water.  Let stand 2 to 3 minutes.  Add milk, light brown sugar, soft unsalted butter and kosher salt.

2)  Beat in 2 cups of unbleached all purpose flour until mixture is smooth and satiny.  Add ground cinnamon and egg.  Add 1 cup more of unbleached all purpose flour, beating well. 

3)  Cover dough.  Let rest for 15 minutes.  Sprinkle some remaining flour onto a board.  Knead dough about 5 to 8 minutes or until smooth and elastic.  Add flour as needed.

4)  Place dough in oiled mixing bowl.  Turn over to oil top.  Cover.  Let rise 1 hour or until doubled.

5)  Turn out onto lightly oiled board.  Roll out to 20 inch square.  Spread with Cinnamon Butter.  Roll up jelly-roll fashion.  Slice into 24 pieces.  Place onto greased baking pans.  Let rise about 1 hour until doubled.

6)  Bake at 375F for 20 to 25 minutes.  Brush hot rolls with additional soft butter.

 

Hand Made Coupon Bag

I have been thinking of making my daughter a "coupon bag" or "coupon folder", she had been using a folder for sometime and it looked messy because some of the coupons were folded and some were not all the same size.  So I thought of making her a new one so she can just pull them out from the top instead of having them all in different pages or spaces.  What I have done here was: I went to Hobby Lobby as this store will be closing and moving to another area of the city, I found "photo albums" which were on sale 50% off and "inserts" 40% off.  This is how I started to create something different on this photo album.  I cut up the plastic pages in order to have the opening on top, so to pull out the coupons from the top.  The photos are the finished product of "hand made coupons bag".

 

 

 

Saturday Morning to some of my friends on the other side of the world...

Happy Saturday to all my friends in Asia....Enjoy your week-end!

Hosta Plants

Hosta plants are sprouting finally....these are some of them in front of our yard...can't wait till my "bed of roses" start blooming.

 

HANDCRAFTED JEWELRIES

The following pictures were jewelries I first created when I started to make jewelries as a hobby.  These jewelries were given as gifts to family, relatives, and friends.  I thought that these were easy so I started to make more intricate and complex jewelries, from wire-wrapping to crocheting wires, and peyote stitches. 

 

When is Spring Coming to Mid Westen States?

The weather in the Midwest has been either cloudy, windy, rain, freezing rain, or snow :-(  I guess we're being punished as we had an early spring last year. Snow that fell last Thursday had melted away;

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

due to the moisture and precipitation coming towards us, the forecast for this weekend will be more rain coming.  :-( Here are some of my flowering plants I had in the middle of May 2012....the above photos were my roses last year....they're located on the west side of our house. I also planted some vegetables and herbs which were located beside our fence.

Renovated Bathroom

After a month renovating the kitchen, our next project was the "bathroom" ~ we stripped the old wallpaper, change the paneling, change the light fixtures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 and painted the walls, painted the cabinets as well.  Shown are the before and after what we had done in the bathroom.

Renovated and Repainted Kitchen Cabinets

Bob and I did a lot of work in our kitchen last year.  When I came to stay with him the year before, I did not like the lighting as it was dark and no windows except for the sliding French door separating the deck and the kitchen.  We decided to renovate to make it a little bit brighter and make the kitchen bigger to look at.  Pictures shown here were the before and after of how we dismantled all the cabinets, sanding the cabinets and repainting them, and putting them back into its own place. It took us at least a month to finish the entire kitchen. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 These cabinets were all scratched, color was dull and the handles were also old.

 

 

 Bob used a sandpaper machine which was faster and easier on each cabinet.

 The color of paint gave life to these cabinets, it brightens the whole entire room as well.

 

As you can see, the before and after of our kitchen, the color of the cabinets brightens up the room.....I do not need to turn all the lights on..(hahahaha) a place where I can bake and cook.  Hubby also made me a "spice rack" which is located in the corner top counter.  Renovating and painting was a tedious job; however our basement needs a lot of work too.  It has not been looked after for many years...oh well.....thanks for reading...and hopefully we will see you again....