Finding Balance - Yin and Yang Quilted Sweatshirt Jacket

Summer is passing and winter is approaching the mere principles of the Chinese yin and yang symbolism. Unity of opposites in conflict but dependent upon each other in creating balance. With the completion of the Yin and Yang piece I strive for balance in my own life and to my dear friend to whom I gifted the piece to. This piece was fun and moving to create. Each piece of fabric was laid and stitched uniting the light, dark, bright and pale patterns of the fabric together as a whole. Reminding me to balance family, friendships, work and play on a daily basis for a holistic healthy lifestyle.

Easy Garden/Plant Remedies

I just found some of these home remedies for common garden/plant problems. I haven't tried any yet so don't know the effectiveness of any of them. Since all are made with items typically on hand in the household you don't have much to lose to give them a try. Let me know if any work for you.

Slugs: This one seems to be well known and does have validity. Beer traps for slugs. Using a mason jar or other jar of similar size. Dig a hole and place jar in the ground so that the top of jar is level with the ground. Fill jar with beer leaving 1 inch head space. The slugs will belly up to the bar and dive in.

Tomatoe Blossom end rot - put crushed eggshells around plants

Black spot on roses - 1 part milk to 2 parts water. Spray roses once per week. The lactifern in the milk attacks the blackspot fungi

Deer - I don't know about this one...would take a whole hen house to rid the deer around here. But I guess if they are just bothering certain plants it might be worth a try.
Blend 4 eggs to 1 quart of water, put in sprayer and spray plants

House plant insects - soap water, I have used this successfully on aphids

Powdery mildew - Soap water & baking soda.

Spider mites & mealy bugs - blend habenero peppers & water, put in sprayer and spray once per week. DANGER..take care to wear gloves when working with hot peppers.

Healthy Oat & Fruit Muffins (2.5 points value Weight Watchers)

Mmmm yummy, here's a low fat, low point muffin recipe for all you weight watchers out there.

ENJOY!!

Healthy Oat & Fruit Muffins (2.5 points)

1/2 cp Wheat Flour

1/2 cp White Flour

1 cp Old Fashioned Oatmeal ( I have also substituted 5 grain cereal)

1/4 cp Wheat Germ

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 cp splenda (can substitute honey, sugar or any desired sweetner)

3/4 tsp salt (can be reduced or omitted)

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp cinnamon

2 ripe bananna's mashed

1 egg

1/2 cp applesauce

1/3 cp craisins (can subsitute raisins, or fresh fruit)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees

2 Combine dry ingredients

3. Combine wet ingredients

4. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients

5. Stir carefully just until dry ingredients are moistened DO NOT OVER STIR

6. Spray muffin tin with oil spray or use muffin papers

7. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full

8. Bake for 18 minutes turning pan 1/2 way through or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

9. Makes approx 9 muffins

ENJOY!!! For weight watchers points value is 2.5 per each muffin

Goodbye Spring, Hello Summer

It has been difficult to fit in time to keep up the blog as I had wished. A whole month has passed since I last posted, school and work has occupied much of my time over the month of June. I was able to get out and shoot some pics from the gardens between the rain showers, studying and working. Even though the weather has not been kind to us we have been able to enjoy beautiful floral bouquets, fresh herbs and salad greens from the gardens.

Planting continues and we are waiting patiently for the vegetable plants to start producing. IF the sun ever decides to shine, we should be seeing some raspberries soon. The spinach and radishes are beginning to come in now and we are eagerly awaiting; zuchini, greenbeans, soybeans, broccoli, cabbage, beets, carrots, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and other goodies.

A pictoral tour

Since my first post, the arrival of decent spring weather has allowed us to get outside and prepare the grounds for the growing season. Early crops of flowers, perennial herbs, lettuces and rhubarb have already been harvested and put to use in the kitchen. The first crop harvest was mint for the mint juleps to celebrate the 135th running of the Kentucky Derby. The lettuce crop has been bountiful providing lot's of fresh greens for salads. Memorial Day celebrations included a rhubarb pie with fresh from the garden rhubarb and a grilled salmon complemented with a fresh dill dijion sauce.

Below is a slideshow that I put together of pictures that I shot around the grounds of flowers, herbs & veggies. In future posts I will include recipes.

Becoming Blog Savvy

Over the past couple of days I have been weaving my way around the WWW catching up on the latest communication technology, more specifically blogging and twittering. Here I am making an attempt at my first blog. Not at all sure what is going to go on here but I've got some ideas that I'm sure will evolve over the next few days once I am comfortable moving around and setting up the blog page(s). I'm always game to learn something new. Stay tuned for future posts.