When Life Gives You Lemons

For several days I've been trying to share about when Life Gives You Lemons, but Blogger was not cooperating.  I finally had to upload the photos I wanted to use to a Picasa album in order to share them with you.  This is not my first choice, but, well, life was giving me lemons.

Really, life has given us lemons literally!  We are experiencing extremely cold weather here in the desert with freeze warnings nightly.  Ever tried to cover a lemon tree to protect it?  Not an easy job, so we had to pick all the lemons.

 

We lost most of the tree a few years ago and this is the first lemon crop we've had since then.  Not as many as we sometimes get which may be a good thing since we had to pick them all!

 

 

Do you know how little lemon is called for in recipes?  Even lemon bars and lemon muffins only use 1 to 2 lemons each.  Though I didn't count the lemons, I barely made a dent when I made these.....

 

 

yummy lemon bars.  Or these.....

 

 

lemon poppy seed muffins. 

 

 

This very old lemon reamer helps juice the lemons.  I have another one that has California Fruit Growers, Los Angeles imprinted in the glass.  I thought I had a green depression glass reamer, but have not located it since the last move.

 

 

This was a prized Christmas present this year from our daughter, Beth.  Does she know what I like or what?  She found this vintage piece on her friend's Etsy Shop.  I have not polished it.  I love the patina.  Sorry for the quality of the last few photos, they were taken at night which isn't the best time to take photos.

 

So what is your favorite lemon recipe?  Will you send it to me?  As you can see, I need to use a LOT of lemons!

 

Hope if life is giving you lemons, you have found a way to make something sweet from them!

 



 

xoxoXOXOxoxo

 

Lois

 

 

 

C'est la vie!

Hi friends, I don't know about you, but there are phrases we hear that just fit our lives for a time.  The French version of "That's Life" is one of those that has stuck with me since high school French class.  For the past couple of years events in our lives that have changed things for us have us saying, "It is what it is!"  Sometimes you can control things and sometimes you can't -- c'est la vie!

For some time now I've been wanting to make a chalk board.  They are all over Pinterest and Blogland.  But, I didn't really want to jump in with both feet and do a wall or anything big, so decided to start small before tackling making one of the larger frames I have into a chalk board.  You know -- work out the kinks on something not quite as significant!

This little chalk board was purchased in the late 80's or early 90's, can you tell?

This little base was part of a gift.  The other part was a tile with strawberries painted on it and the purpose was a white board.  I never quite got around to using it, but decided the base could work for the little chalkboard.

So I painted it white.  I also antiqued it, but I didn't take a photo of that step.

Then I taped off the chalkboard so I could paint the frame.  You do know that if you hold a razor blade down tight you can get a clean cut, don't you?

So much easier than trying to use scissors!

More of the white paint for the frame which was also antiqued -- again, didn't take photos of that step.

Next the frame was taped off in preparation for the chalkboard paint.

This is what I used.  It just seemed like a sprayed on surface would be easier to use.

This is after the first coat.  In between coats I sanded.  This was especially necessary on this project because the surface had the country greeting and heart snowflakes painted on it.  I did 3 coats, sanding in between each coat to make sure the surface was smooth. After 24 hours, I rubbed chalk all over the surface to season it.

I used a Bistro Chalk Marker from Hobby Lobby, but I think the next message may be done in regular chalk.  This looks a little "painty" to me.

The key is from Sweet Salvage Now Showing that I told you about here and here.  The little chalkboard measures 9-1/2 x 7-1/4 so you can see how LARGE this key is!

And the key to life?  "C'est la vie!"  Just take it one day at a time -- and pray a lot!

Hope your life is wonderful today!

xoxoXOXOxoxo

Lois

Plans vs. Reality!

This past holiday weekend, the plan was for me to stay with two of my darling grandchildren while their mom, our daughter, Mindy, took their two sisters to Camp Surf in CA on a Girl Scout outing.  The trip had been months in the planning and all went well until Thursday evening when Mindy's body decided to try to pass a 7 mil kidney stone.

L on the left was to go on the trip.  Her goal in life, having just turned 10, is to become a professional surfer.  How she will accomplish this while living in the desert is beyond me!  H, on the right was to stay with me along with her brother C2 shown below.

C2 and L just celebrated their birthdays last week. They were born 3 years and 5 days apart so usually share a family birthday party.

A1 was going on the trip as well, but she avoided the camera at the birthday party!

The plan was for me to arrive in time for dinner with Mindy's husband, Mike, and C2 and H.  An early morning phone call from Mike changed that to, "How soon can you get here we are on our way to ER."

By the time I got there, a two hour drive, plus I was not ready to leave when we received the s.o.s. call, surgery had been scheduled and a replacement G.S. leader with CPR training had been found for Mindy.  The girls left several hours later than planned, but there were no disappointed girls except for A1 and L who had thought their mom would be going, too.

The surgery went well and by midnight Mindy was in her own bed with lots of pain meds!

Since things had not gone as planned, at least one of the outings I had planned for the kids got to be shared with Mindy.  Mike was working the weekend so he got left out -- sorry, Mike!

Culver's concretes were a hit with H and C2.

C2 took a photo of a pale, but smiling Mindy and me.  Perhaps a lesson on composition is in order.  The straw does not enhance the photo too much even if it does match my shirt.

The girls enjoyed Camp Surf and L even "caught a wave and rode it in".  A1 is convinced that the sunburn she got will give her skin cancer, but they loved the experience.  Even though Mindy was disappointed as well as in pain, she said the good part was she got to spend some time with her mom.  The next time, though, she wants me to bring my sewing machine and make curtains for the great room.  If I had known in advance that their Internet was out, I would have taken the sewing machine this trip instead of the computer!

Plans don't always work out as we plan, but good times can be had in spite of the change!

Hope you had a good Memorial Day weekend.  Thank you to all of our veterans!

Blessings,

xoxoXOXOxoxo

Lois

It's PINK!

Hope you are all having a wonderful Saturday! 

For those of you who know me well, you know I'm not a fan of pink.  Oh, I like it okay, but not in large doses.  When we moved to Alabama a few years ago we bought a pink house.  And I mean pink!  Every room was pink.  The carpet was pink.  There was pink tile on the fireplace.  The trim was painted pink!  There was pink wallpaper in the kitchen.  There was pink floral wallpaper in two bathrooms! Fortunately the house was brick or it would have been pink -- in fact it sort of was pinkish, but not PINK!  My studio was Pepto Bismol pink!  I spent the first 2 months painting over the pink.

Yesterday morning, we had a tragedy.  My hair dryer broke!  Now for those of you with long straight hair, I'm sure you are thinking, "Big Deal!"  Those of you who wear your hair really short are having the same thoughts.  But I just had my hair cut earlier this week in a chin length A-line cut. AND my hair is wavy.  This is not a good combination.  If my hair is cut right, I can get by with it curling up on me, but this cut just didn't work with the waves and curls.  This cut needs a hair dryer and a bog round brush to look right.

Since I had to go to the Post Office anyway, I went to buy a hair dryer. Fortunately, I did not see anyone I knew so no one knew how really bad I looked!  It's not pretty folks!  Well, actually, the hair dryer kind of is, even if it is pink.

I was about to pick up another boring grey dryer when I noticed the one next to it by the same manufacturer was ON SALE!  Of course, the photo on the box was pink, but it was HOT pink.  That's the best pink there is unless we are talking roses, then the best is pale pink, but that's another topic.

So here is what I brought home.

It is kind of cute, isn't it?

It is definitely not boring grey and has 3 settings so I can keep from burning my head and frying my hair!

I know, it's not a quilt and it's not even what many people would consider a "good thing".  However, when I go out tonight, I won't have to hope no one sees me because my hair is nice and smooth, the way it is supposed to be.

XOXO,

Lois

Murphy's Law Strikes Again!

Hello Friends,

Last time I wrote I whined  about  Murphy and his really annoying law.  Well on Monday, this happened.

This happened in downtown Phoenix, but the car is sitting in the garage here so the light isn't so good.  It is an old car, but it gets good gas mileage.  It has a lot of miles on it, but it gets good gas mileage.  With gas pushing $4 a gallon, that good gas mileage thing is important!  Besides it has been paid off many years.  Did I mention it gets GOOD gas mileage?

This is what happens when the hood goes UNDER an SUV.  It's not pretty!  No one got hurt.  The airbags did not go off.  We were not traveling very fast.

The other cars, yes CARS, were not damaged.  Only our little old car was messed up.

The bumper is messed up and the lights don't all work. But no one was hurt!  No injuries, that's huge!

The dents are deep.  It goes in for a face lift tomorrow.

I really like my little car.

It's zippy.

It fits nicely in parking places.

I hope they fix it fast!

So I will leave you with something good.

My lavender plant survived the winter.  I LOVE lavender!

Today I am photographing the completed Des Moines Star clone quilt.  I'm waiting for the light to be at the right place for the quilting to show up best.

No more Murphy's Law days!  I'm tired of them.  On to the good stuff.

Until next time,

Lois