Artificial Nest

As soon as my friends on Facebook caught a news story of the local Carolina Waterfowl Rescue needing help from crochet and knitters, they started sending me messages. I sort of felt special that so many people remember that I like to crochet.

As soon as I read the article from the news, I was interested. I contacted them to confirm and make sure they were still needing little nest. I know how places can get an overwhelming amount of support from caring people.

Every year I choose something to donate my talent too. I always feel like God gave me the gift of crochet, so this is my way of giving back. Once, I crocheted fifty tiny baby hats for an orphanage in Haiti. I have also donated crocheted baby hats to local hospitals for their preemies. Last year I donated a box of red hats for "Little Hats, Big Hearts". It's a charity that provides resources and raises awareness about congenital heart defects and hospitals all around give each baby born in February a little red hat to wear. Here is the post.

So I was happy to find something else to donate too. The waterfowl rescue is reaching out to crocheters and knitters to supply them with some artificial nest for tiny birds they rescue. I found some wool yarn at the dollar store and thought it was perfect for this project as it was a natural fiber and natural colors.

I am allergic to wool so I have never made anything with wool fiber but I could not resist. Fortunately, the wool did not irritate me at all while making these. The texture is cotton soft but the structure is hard and stiff. Like a rug. 

They are not made perfect and even have a few flaws, but I think that adds to the nature of the purpose. They only asked that the nest be crocheted using two strands of yarn and stitched tight so the little bird legs would not fall through the holes. I whipped these up in just a few hours and shipped them to their location. I hope they can be of use.

Looking at these make me think of little nesting bowls. Well, that's exactly what they are.

If you crochet and would like to help. Click HERE.

LandMarks

It is known that when a man travels he remembers roads. When a woman travels, she remembers landmarks. Ask a man for directions and he will say, “Turn on hwy 74 then take a right on 485”. A woman will say, drive about 3 miles, go under an old brick bridge then turn right at the okie dokie hotel”.

This is true for me.

I could get back home from anywhere by just remembering things I seen along the way. 

Every time we go to the beach there are always little reminders that tell me where I am and where we will be turning next. 

Here are just a few things I notice we pass that have not changed in years. Excuse the photo quality as I took them through the car window going down the road.

The oldest landmark we pass is this unfinished boat.

I call it the SS Minnow. You know, Gilligans Island boat. Looks just like it to me. This boat has actually been sitting here since I was young. I have even emailed the company that sits behind it, trying to find out information on this boat. I think it has a story and I’d love to find it out. I never get a response. 

When we pass cotton plants, corn fields and red barns, I know what city we are going through.

Here is an old SunFlower moving tailer. It has sat in a field beside the railroad track for years. The field will be tilled and crop will be planted. They  just work around the trailer

 I think it would make a great photo prop. My guess would be this tailer is from the 70s.

I know we are not far from our desitination when we pass this old junk pile with a couple of silos sitting beside it. I didnt catch a photo of the silos but I did get a shot of the sign that sits out front. Sometimes it will say “free puppies” on one side, but the other side always says, “dressed hogs”. 

Everytime we pass this, Nick will snicker. Then we both start laughing. Why? Well, because after passing it one day, I asked Nick what dressed hogs were. Without flinching, he responded “ It’s pigs running around in little tuxedos’. After a long pause of thought, I laughed. But I did have to think about it a minute. So, yea, we still giggle everytime we pass the “dressed hog” sign. 

We had a great weekend at the beach. I can’t wait til we go again in May. We will be taking our daughter with us. We always have fun on the beach and I’m looking forward to it as I count down the days. 

Happy Mail from Cali

My sweet friend Annette is a maker of crafty stuff. She is also another Nutrisystem Ambassador. How cool is that? I love how we can follow and support each other on our weight loss journey and be able to share craft ideas at the same time. You can find her on Instagram under the name "Mexicanstew". Her names comes from her being Mexican and married to a Stewart.
Is that not the cutest thing?
I was thinking, If I created a name like hers it would come out something like "Americandime"

Well, I got my first Happy Mail the other day. When I came in from work there was a package for me sitting on the counter. My husband smiles and says "your popular today". It was from Mexicanstew. I tore into it not knowing what I was going to find, but I knew it was going to be good.

Inside was the most adorable little hand made greeting cards. Now, she had no idea I loved greeting cards, but I do. Especially the ones that are blank inside. I hate shopping for cards in the store and you can't beat a pretty handmade card with a personal hand written note inside.

There was also one of her handmade lotion bars. I will keep this one in my purse. It's good for dry skin and even safe enough to use on your lips. I love lemon smells and it just so happens to be the fragrance of Lemon Grass.

To top it off, she included one of her little draw string bags shes makes.
I have been all over the house thinking of what I can use it for. I will be heading out of town this weekend and will be taking it with me. It could be used for a makeup or a jewelry bag. But I plan to either use it to pack my lingerie in my suitcase or carry a small crochet project in it. decisions, decisions.

You can find items like these in her Etsy shop but you may have to wait until she gets it stocked back up and running.

Handmade With Love From Texas

I have always wanted to make my own soaps. I just never understood the whole concept of buying soap to make soap. I got to thinking about it and thought, “I guess it is the same as buying wax to make candles”.

Every time I go to small shops where handmade soaps are made, I am always drawn over to the rack to admire them and take a sniff. However, I have never purchased any bars of homemade soaps. Never have I even tried a bar of it. I always use liquid soap at home.  

My blogging friend Benita made some goat milk based soap and I was excited when I receive a few of them from her in the mail the other day to try. I immediately opened one to try it out. I was impressed! I loved the smell and silky feel of these little soaps. The light fragrance of honey almond smelled clean and fresh. 

I'm sold! So far I used the soap on my hands and face and love the feeling it gave my skin. I plan to use it in the shower next for an all over feel.

I was amazed at how creamy it felt without making my skin feel oily but yet made it feel hydrated and soft. I accidentally got a little in my eyes and it did not even irritate them like most soaps will.

Would you just look at that lather!

Making soap could be fun as I have read about so many different fragrances and ingredients you can use. Benita has given me the inspiration to try making my own. I’m still not sure I could pull it off as good as hers are. I am doing a loofah garden this year and the loofah sponges will be ready to harvest in the Fall. I think this would make a great combination to homemade soap projects. 

Head over to Benita's blog ,Chasing Quaintness and check it out. She is so talented and her post are fun and interesting. 

She also host link parties you can join in or just look around. 

PS: I think she should really sell these soaps!!

Clovers

I’m trying to get my thoughts together so I can be ready to celebrate St.Patricks Day. This is when we usually take our first beach trip of the season but with all the rain we have been having, we decided to wait a week.

I had my nails painted green for St.Patricks Day and now Im looking for a green shirt. This is the only time of the year you will see me wearing green. For some reason, when I wear green, I am grumpy and hateful all day. I just do not know what it is that does that. I can wear an olive or army green and I’m fine but I have to avoid the greeny greens. 

March is when we see most of the weeds taking over the yard letting us know its time to start the lawn mowing. 

Speaking of weeds, our yard is full of clovers. This brings back memories of when I was young. All the girl friends would sit for hours combing through clover patches trying to find a four leaf clover. If we were lucky we would find a few. The odd to finding one is 10,000 to 1. 

It was always fun. Even now, when we go out for a walk, sometimes I get left behind while I squat down to a patch of big fat clovers. I have not had much luck latley finding one. I read over at Andreas blog that her grandmother left behind 238 four leaf clovers she had found during her life. 133 of those were found pressed in her Bible. Isn't that just the sweetest thing? She has a cute little post about it HERE. 

I made some green eggs and ham muffins this morning for breakfast and will have my traditional bowl of Lucky Charms Cereal on St. Patricks Morning. 

For the muffins, I place deli ham inside muffin cups, filled with egg and cheese and baked for 20 minutes. The topping is smashed avocado. This was so delicious. Each cup is about 80 calories and has 9 grams of protein. 

My daughter and her boyfriend will be coming over for dinner on Sunday. We will be having Cornbeef Brisket, Cabbage Steaks and Taters. I still have to decide on a little dessert. I may just pick up some cupcakes from a deli. 

What are your plans for St. Patricks Day?

(Pictured above)Recycled Burlap Rice Bag and more can be found Ricelove.org.

Use Code: LILIDI_MEO and get 20% off any item.

Protein Crepes

I'm always playing around in the kitchen looking for new things to eat that fit into my diet. Foods low in calories and high in protein are what I look for.

I found a recipe for making crepes and and thought I'd give it a try. I have never eaten a crepe before but I am familiar with what they are. Crepes are basically very then pancakes rolled around a filling. You can make them sweet or savory. I made them sweet. I also made them using Nutrisystem Vanilla Protein shake mix. You can use any protein powder but I just so happened to have Nutrisystem brand laying around. Go figure that.

I wasn't sure what type of filling would work for the inside so I picked out two of my favorite things from the fridge. Cool Whip and Cream Cheese! Yea baby!

I made the filling the night before. It consisted of  8 oz cream cheese and 1 cup of sugar free Cool Whip. I mixed the cream cheese alone first. This is important so you do not have lumps. (I learned this the hard way while making a tart last year). Once the cream cheese is smooth, mix in the Cool Whip and store in the fridge until ready to use. I suppose you can mix in flavors such as lemon or honey but I left mine plain. I just wanted a sweet creamy filling.

When the morning came, I was ready to make my very first crepes.
The crepes were easy to mix and only consist of two ingredients.
I mixed together 1/2 cup of egg whites and a serving of vanilla protein shake mix to form a thin batter.

I poured a small amount of batter in a heated skillet and spooned it around a little to spread it out into thin pancakes. Flipping them was the hard part. This made about six crepes. Mine are not that pretty but, HEY! It was my first time.

Once each crepe was made I rolled them around a layer of cream cheese filling and added some blueberries. I sprinkled a little powdered sugar on top just to make them more pretty and devoured them in no time. 

They were absolutely the best thing ever! The vanilla protein mix made the crepes a little sweeter than a waffle but not quite as sweet as a doughnut. They were perfect. Nick even gave them two thumbs up.

You can find several recipes for crepes online but this one was the easiest for me as the vanilla flavor was already in there.

Best of all, they were rather healthy, sugar free and full of protein.

Blessed Walk

It has rained so much here in the Carolina's that I'm thinking of starting a rice garden.

When we see a speck of sunshine we throw on our tennis shoes and take off for a quick walk. That's exactly what we did. I had just came in from work, and sat down to dinner. It was ten til six when I finished eating and the sun was still out just a little. In other words, It was not raining at that moment. I asked Nick if he'd like to take a walk. He said, "sure", as he has never turned down a chance to go for a walk.

We enjoy walking through the neighborhood and around the creek. We will nickname the neighbors we do not know and make up names for the squirrels, owls, chipmunks and cats we see wondering around from time to time.

As we walk, we like to talk about our day, the news and what's going on with friends and family. He will even listen to me talk about blog stories I read. We also laugh and joke with each other along the way.

This walk was not as warm as it looked from the window. I barely dressed for the occasion and forgot my toboggan, so we made this walk a quick one. One direction the cold breeze would cut through my ears and throat, while in a different directions the sun was warm on my skin. I was complaining a lot about the cold and just wanted to go in. I do not like being out in weather colder than my age.

Half way through our walk, I looked down and saw a little card laying in the middle of the road. The floral print is what caught my eye. Nick rolled his eyes as he does not like me to pick things up I find. "I need to pick this up", I suggested. "It has a little Bible verse on it". It was like someone had dropped it just for me to find.

The other side had a little prayer on it. I slipped it in the waistband of my spandex leggings and headed home. It was a little blessing and made me feel guilty from complaining about the weather. Despite all the rain we have been having lately, It's being poured on us for a reason and we need to accept and find happiness in everything God has blessed us with.

This little card now hangs on the board beside my desk at work.

Sugar Free Chocolate Mug Cake

Today I want to share with you this delicious mug cake I made. Now you know from some of my past post that I love the little meals and desserts you can make in a mug. Simply because they do no ruin my diet. If I make a whole cake, I will eat the whole cake. I do not have a stop button on sweet stuff.

Not only is this a sweet dessert but it's also considered sugar free as it uses a natural sugar substitute. I'm all in with this one and I must say "this is one of the best mug cakes I have made. It had the same texture as a real oven baked cake.

Mine wanted to puff up and run over but it was an easy clean up.
I enjoyed eating it right out of the mug. It would have even been better with a scoop of ice cream.

Chocolate Mug Cake

1 egg (beaten)

2 tablespoons Cocoa Powder

1 tablespoon Almond milk or Cream

2 tablespoons Splenda ( I used Xylitol)

Pinch of Salt

1/4 Teaspoon baking powder

1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla

Mix well and pour into a greased mug or ramekin.
Microwave 1 min 20 seconds,
Top with powder sugar, icing, nuts or chocolate chips (optional)

ENJOY

There is only 130 calories in this little goody.
Go ahead, eat it all by yourself.

Poke Bowls

We always try to visit new eating places that come to town. The most recent is a place called Poke Bros . It is a franchise so there are other locations in different areas. I was excited to see one open up around here.

I have never had a Poke' Bowl so I was excited to try it.
I guess you wonder what it is. Right?
Well a Poke' Bowl is a Hawaiian Cuisine and basically Sushi in a bowl. If you like Sushi, you will like these. If you do not like Sushi then you still need to try it. What most non Sushi eaters do not understand is that Sushi is not always "raw" fish. I will not eat anything raw, not even cookie dough.

Poke' Bros. was a small "hole in the wall" place, located on the East side of town. The bright glowing sign hung above the entrance.

I could not help but think the sign pointed to the bakery next door.

As we entered, we walked up to the counter and placed our order. You can create your own bowl or pick from one of their signature bowls which is exactly what we did.

I chose from #3. The Hula (shrimp). Again. I stay away from the raw fish and stick with shrimp or crab meat. My bowl was loaded with meat and veggies. They added several sauces and toppings that I could not even pronounce. It was all perfectly layered on a mound of extra sticky, sticky rice.

The staff was super nice and offered us samples of sauces before they applied them to our bowls. They even let Nick sample a few pieces of raw fish that was cut into thick cubes. He liked it but I refused to even try it.

We were satisfied and amazed at how good the food was. We finished off our meal with some delicious Mochi Ice Cream. 

Mochi is ice cream wrapped in rice dough. They are fun to eat. I talked about them before on another post here.

We plan to visit Poke Bros again and try different varieties each time.

Have you ever tried Poke' Bowls?

Bloomers

The rain finally let up and we have been able to enjoy the sunshine. It has been warm enough for me to slip on a pair of shorts and a tshirt before heading out for our afternoon walk. For a while I thought the tanning be was going to be the only source of rays I was going to get.

It felt good to get outside. We saw a lot of signs of Springs. There were a lot bloomers. Flowers blooming and trees budding. 

The Bradford Pear trees were the first to greet us with there stinky fragrance in the air (I call them fish trees).

I am glad I took my camera with me so I could take some photos along the way.

The Butter Cups (or Daffodils) were loud and proud and I could tell they were wanting their photo taken. 

My Camellia bushes were full bloom. These beauties bloom twice a year. Once in the spring and once in the Fall.  

I had to ask my face book friends what this plant was. I am told it is a “Hyacinth” It was hiding between some bushes in my neighbors yard. 

It was so pretty. I had to reach out and pet this one after I took a photo. It just looked fluffy and needed some attention.

I have an onion garden in my front yard.

The yellow bells (also known to me as a hickory bush) are in full bloom too.

My butterfly bush has new growth and the day lilies and Easter Lilies have broke ground. 

And to think, when you first seen the title to my post, you thought about these.

(Source)

Come on, you know you did.