Boy does time fly it has been so very long ago since I've posted anything.
Four years ago November 11 my Daughter and I opened a cafe in our small town, we had lots of fun running it. In April of this year we decided to close the doors and sell, it was a very hard decision, but due to many different   factors we decided this was the best for both of us.   We never regretted it.
I am hoping to post once a week with creative thing I have been working on, so Good-night to all.
Jacquelyn

Summer Flowers

This is my flower pot tree. My husband put it together for me and we then went to a local greenhouse and they had all their plants on sale so we got a box full and plant the pots they are looking great as some of the plant were not looking so good when we got them, they were a bit root bound.

This is our vase tree our friend Bob made it for us my Mother had ordered a bottle tree from a magazine and when it came it broke so she as if Bob would like it for a pattern and this is what he came up with it is smaller than a bottle tree. We put a string of Christmas tree lights in the vases it looks really good at night.

Don't you just love the center color of this flower.

Hope you are enjoying your summer and all the beauty that is around us.

Jaci

Sunflowers

I have a beautiful bouquet of
Sunflowers
on my dinning room
table this morning

I did not go out and pick them just to have a

bouquet on the table today

.....No....

The wind and rain blow through our town last night an this is what my flowers looked like this morning.

So I went out with strips of cloth from an old tee shirt and tied them up.

Hopefully they will stand nice and tall again in a few more days. Lets hope for now more wind and rain for awhile. Now I am off to pick up and the sticks in the yard. Enjoy the next couple of pictures and have a great day.

Jaci

Summer Flowers

Nothing Says Summer Like Sunflowers

I never can figure out what to grow in the flower bed at the front of our house. So this year as I was going through my seeds I quite a few packages of sunflower seeds so out to the flower bed I went. First we sprayed it with round up as the weeds had already started to take over, after the weeds died and we dug out some mulberry bushes I took the tiller to the beds, then sowed the seeds and this is what came up.

I just lover to what them open to see all the different colors and shapes. There are a couple that are in the very front that have a different shaped leaf that I can't wait to see what the flower will look like. So enjoy the colors will add a few more later as they continue to bloom.

Have a Great Day

Jaci

New Year

Just a quick note to Wish everyone a

"Happy New Year"

Also check out my Daughter's Blog http://edekerkm.blogspot.com it will be

interesting seeing what she will be writing about.


Have a great Year!

Jaci

"Happy Holidays"

"Holiday Time"

I have been busy decorating the house and baking for the holiday. I have also done a bit of shopping.

The Martin has been enjoying the winter wonderland that has been popping up in the house.

"Rats you found me!"

"OK, I'll pose for you now. I'm so cute,don't know why you call me Brat"
"I sure am glad this isn't real snow." ..................."Now stop following me, I know I should not be up here. I can't wait for the Chrismas tree to come."

We don't have the tree yet, I think it will be very exciting as Martin

(AKA Brat) loves to climb so stay tuned will be, most likely bringing you pictures of him in the tree.

Have a great day

Jaci

The Garden

Yesterday I spent the day out in the yard with my son and husband; we had a very productive day. We worked on a project that has needed to get done for the past two years. Due to some medical problems last summer the project got put on hold and we have been so busy this summer not had any time to work on it. Your are now asking what this project is, well we needed to finish off the retaining wall around the sand that was brought in a couple years ago to build up our patio we finished half of it by building a rock wall to hold the sand in place and covering the sand with pavers but then we ran out of summer so it was left to finish last year but I was laided up all summer so it was left again. To now to yesterday, no Monday night we were able to get some dirt from some friends so several tons of dirt got dumped on the lawn. So now to Wednesday morning up (not too early) and oh, Son was hungry and since he isn't home to often now I made us a nice breakfast. So well feed we headed out to the garden and stated moving dirt and rocks to build up one side of the patio. We used rail road ties on the others side and due to the slope of the yard did not have to retain the back side of the patio. The project was moving right along when,
Oh no,
we dug into the drainage pipe that drains the rain gutters so had to stop the momentum to fix that. But we got back on track and the walls went up and the dirt was moved. The dirt was leveled out this morning; well almost still have lots of leveling left to do and need to sow grass seed on the new dirt. It will sure be nice to have a level yard to mow, the rest of the dirt was pushed into the dip were we cut down some trees. So stay tune for more updates

.

The Taste of Summer

"MMMMMMMMMM"

Went out to the garden today and found we finally have a few larger tomatoes and an eggplant. We have been eating a few cherry tomatoes which are good but you just wait for the big ones to turn red. This summer has not been so great for the garden, to cool so it has set everything back a few weeks. The peppers really are hating it don't thinks we will get many. We also has some problems with a wood chuck, who kept getting in. He ate the cabbages, beans zucchini, and lettuce so I replanted them and they are coming along slowly.

I didn't think to get a picture of the eggplant before cutting it and breading it for eggplant parmesan. So here is the eggplant breaded and ready to fry can't wait. There are a two more within a couple of days of harvesting.

My herb are also doing well they have liked it this year, I made pesto Wednesday and still have lots of basil to use so will make up some more next week.

Hope your gardens are starting to produce.

There sure is nothing like having grown your own food.

Have a great Day!

Jaci

July

July has been very cool this year. My flowers are loving it but we could use a little rain right now. This is a picture of the flower bed that was put in a couple years ago, it survived a year of neglect, you can see were I extended it this year, next year I will have to split some of the flowers as some of them are overtaking.

I have planted some mint next to the foundation of the house to hopefully it with take over since right now all that seems to grew there is creeping charley. You can see the nice patch of it growing already, I just love having the fresh mint on hand.

Here is the veggie garden, this was taken a couple weeks ago the tomatoes are taking over now, we have eaten a few cherry ones. The lager ones are taking their time. The peppers have been hating to cool weather and are not doing well, hopefully it will get a bit warmer and we will get some rain soon.

Well, hope you are having a great summer.

Jaci

Sunny Day

Hi,
Well, school is just about done. I have 3 more days working there, but tomorrow I start my new job. I am going to be the baker for a new restaurant opening in Story City. I am getting very excited, can't wait to be creative again. The only draw back is that I will now have to change my sleeping habits, change for a night owl to a morning glory?
The Cafe is call the Old Opera Cafe http://www.theoldoperacafe.com/ the cafe is open for coffee right now and will be open for meals on the 1st of June.
Right now I am sitting our on my patio enjoying the sunny warm morning what a wonderful day.
Hoping your day is as great
Jaci

Sunny Saturday

What a beautiful SUNNY Saturday.
Got up this morning made a pot of coffee, started a batch of bread, and cleaned out the deep freeze. I then got a call from my daughter to see if we were going to have coffee, "pick up a couple of donuts and come on over the coffees made." When she got here we took our coffee out to the patio to enjoy the sunshine. We then spent some time in the hot tub, as we where sitting there I saw a garter snake craw up the terrace (on the other side of the patio). When we got out he was still there eating a toad. I got a couple of good pictures it you don't want to see them don't look at the bottom of this blog.
I have been eating rhubarb and asparagus.
The spinach that I planted a couple of weeks ago is up, hopefully the rabbits won't get to it first.

Hope you are all having as nice as day as I am.

Jaci

Now if you don't like snakes don't look any futher

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Hi

I know it has been a bit since I have posted Life has gotten very busy lately. I am going to be starting a new job sometime is the next couple of weeks. I will be working at the Old Opera Cafe http://www.theoldoperacafe.com/ I am very excited to start on this new adventure.

Hope you all have a wonderful day the sun is shining on us today, the grass is getting greener by the minute what a great day.

SPRING?

Spring is just around the corner. It is almost 70 degrees and sunny today what a wonderful day. Now it is time to get the rake out and clear away the winter’s clutter.
My poor garden was much neglected last year. I had surgery in March that had some complications that were not resolved till August; it took several months to get back on my feet. So the garden was left on its own all last summer. I did get some flowers that came up on their own and had a couple of tomato a plant in the vegetable garden but that was all that got done.


One of the last things that did get finished last fall was they pile of wood we had got cut, split, loaded and taken to my parent’s home. The wood was from the trees that we cut the first year we lived in our house (we have lived here 5 ½ years) so it was time to get rid of it before it just rotted away. We had a nice warm fall day to cut it up but the day after was the first snow of the year and so the cleanup was left for the spring. Also my husband is a bit of a junk collector and the pile of wood hid it so now that needs to be sorted and put in a new hiding place.

Some of my goals this summer are to plant the rest of the north flowerbed, rebuild the terraces at the front of the house. I also want to work on getting the rest of the patio finished, I have to build a stone wall to hold the sand in place then find some black dirt to fill about 8”-12” deep. I plan to put a new herb bed in this area of the patio, it is closer to the kitchen then the bed I have right now.

These poor flamingos are hidden by the dry overgrown grass. This is where the patio need to be finished see the large rocks they need to be moved so I can start building the stone wall.

Stay tunned for the Spring clean up and the renewal of the garden.

Have a Happy St. Patrick's Day

Jaci

Mouse

EEEEKKKK!!!!

I found a mouse in my house. I think he may be harmless.

This little mouse showed up in my house today. He is really cute and fun for my cat to play with. Our local welder really has an artistic hand. When the weather get better I will take a few pictures of his garden and show all the neat things he has made.

I am off to a class this weekend taught my Cindy Valentine. http://www.cindyvalentine.com/

She is a wonderful designer I am looking forward to a fun weekend spent with my stitching friends.

Have a good weekend!

Jaci

Mmmmmmm BREAD

I was shopping at Sam’s Club before Christmas and was browsing the book section. A book on bread called Beautiful Breads by Margaux Sky http://margauxskyfood.blogspot.com/ caught my eye. I am always on the lookout for a new bread idea this book had several intriguing looking breads, so in the cart it went (it was even on sale). When I got home I had a look through it and put it away so I could concentrate on Christmas baking. Christmas came and went we returned our Son to Chicago and things got back to normal.
The book was sitting there calling me. So I went to see if I had all the ingredients for the bread and I did. Out came the mixer and the bread was soon under way. Not only did I make the Peanut Butter-Chocolate Fudge Bread

but also the Horseradish Parmesan Bread, I substituted Assiago cheese for the parmesan because that is what I had on hand.

The smell of these breads baking was just wonderful and it was well worth all the trouble of making these breads.
We had one loaf of the horseradish-assiago for an appetizer and part of the second loaf with supper. We had the Chocolate Peanut butter for desert. The next day I used what was left of the Horseradish-Assiago for prime rib sandwiches with sautéed onions and peppers. We did not eat all of the peanut butter bread what was left was made into bread pudding which was to die for. There is one more recipe that I really want to try it is grape jelly bread so stay tuned it is not too far off in the future.

Well there is only a few minutes left of my birthday. I was a good day, a very busy day. I made lunch for a group that was meeting at the church, chicken noodle soup ( home made noodles), home made bread and assorted cookies, I also worked my kitchen job at school. My husband took me out for supper with some good friends at a local bar that makes the best pizza around.

So it was a fulfilling day.

This is what I got from my husband

Isn't he cute, he was made by a good friend and local welder and he doesn't get fur on anything but he is a little bit heavy and cold.

My daughter got me a ice cream cookbook and a sushi cookbook they should keep my busy checking out new recipes.

You all have a good evening and keep warm

Jaci

Romantic Valentine Dinner ?

Valentine’s night we decided not to go out this year, thought about getting a couple of good steaks but decided against that. There was a small pan of unbaked lasagna in the freezer that was made at Christmas time so out it came. There was also a bit of roman lettuce left in the fridge, I made a garlic dressing, (if you both eat it, it is ok) and a bit of assiago cheese for the top. And a good bottle of wine from a local winery Eagle City Winery http://eaglecitywinery.com/pages/ The lasagna came out of the freezer and we went to sit in the hot tub and enjoy the last of the afternoon sun. When we came in the lasagna went into the oven and I sat and helped Todd set up his Facebook account. The salad was made just as the Lasagna was finishing baking. We got our salads, OH we need something a bit romantic is there a candle to light? Luckily there is on in the candle holder Todd made me for Mother’s Day, matches? I remembered there is a lighter in the kitchen that is used to light the stove when it is being temperamental.

So the scene was set candle, wine, and good food. We then sat down with our meal Cops. That is what old married folk do sometimes for a Romantic evening.

We both enjoyed this evening because of the bad night we had for our anniversary. We went out to a restaurant and had poor service, mediocre food, just a bad night.
We ended the evening with Todd’s valentines present Coffee Ice Cream. I had made it Friday before he got home so he had no idea. I had put it in the freezer with his card thinking he would get some ice to put in a drink but he had a beer instead. He was surprised when I got it out and set it by him. We both had a bowl. I stopped at one serving but that was hard to do as it was really good. Todd did have a bit more, it was sure worth the effort to make it and the recipe will be one I make again. The recipe for this ice cream came from Simply Recipes http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/004377coffee_ice_cream.php

This does show that

Love does come from the Heart.

Hope you all had a very

“Happy Valentine’s Day”

Jaci