Wine country!

   

   Wooooooo! Excellent wine, romance, cheese, fudge, local fruit, bicycles and vineyards, what more could you ask for in a weekend?  We  celebrated by spending our 29th anniversary in #Palisade Colorado.
The western slope has WONDERFUL award winning wineries, set among a picturesque landscape of orchards, vineyards and B&b's. Its like a quaint mini #Napa valley, oozing with small town charm and friendliness.
   My adorable husband sent me an incredibly beautiful floral arrangement, in my favorite color, ORANGE! It was so impressive I just had to take it with us to grace our room.
   We stayed with Cathy, Tom and resident dog Bogart, at the  Victorian B&B www.adivinethymebandb.com. Divine Thyme was  tastefully decorated with antiques, beautiful lighting fixtures and hardwood floors. Included were many adorable special touches that put it above your average B&B. Things like a HUGE, delicious, beautifully decorated cupcake in our room on arrival, and cute little he and she rubber ducks on the edge of the tub. Each room had  a dvd player and  fridge stocked with water and soda, there was a lovely hostess service station with snacks/drinks in the common living area near the nice selection of movies and big screen TV.
   The B&B had bikes for 10$/stay so, we chose to enjoy the beautiful landscape filled with  flowers, Victorian homes and fruit stands by cycling! That was exciting because we haven't been on bikes in years. We adventured off to a couple of wineries for tastings and to scoop up some gifts for friends and family. We enjoyed cruising around in the cool morning and early afternoon hours. Then it was back to the B&B for a wine and cheese lunch in the gazebo and a nap!
  In the evenings we enjoyed the outdoor hot tub and  sipped champagne. The tub had a cool color changing light we enjoyed. Saturday and Sunday mornings we slept in then enjoyed  lovely breakfasts served by Cathy.
   It was a lovely, romantic, fun filled weekend!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We stayed in the Vinyardview room, decorated in crimson and gold

 

 

 

Wine and cheese lunch!

 

 

Beer Grain Dog Treats

   My dear hubby of 29 years brews beer and wine @ home. Like anything else homemade, you can control ingredients, additives, preservatives and processing. Its cheaper and you get exactly what you want! After "the mash" (hot water filtering through grains, barley etc. to extract goodness... Think like coffee brewing) there are left over soft, grains. We often add them to the compost, but there is lots of healthy nutrition still available in the grain. So, he decided to let our pups benefit! He found a recipe on the web, and altered it a tad.

WARNING... DO NOT FEED DOGS HOPS OF ANY KIND! They are FATAL to dogs causing malignant hyperthermia! Treats are made with the grains only.

We have done it two ways.

     The first (easiest), all the dough was pressed onto a cookie sheet into one large mass. The treats were then cut into squares, mid cooking, while warm and pliable. When cooking was complete the treats are broken easily along score lines into squares. You can cut any size treat square you like.
The second option (cuter but more time consuming) is to cut the dough into cute shapes (i.e.. dog bones and paw prints) the same way you do sugar cookies. This is also done mid cooking while dough is soft and warm. Either way the dogs LOVE them!! In order to make the shapes nice, we used a metal spatula to loosen treats from the cookie sheet, and GENTLY broke away the excess. We did this after the treats finished baking and cooled just enough to handle. Then we returned all to the oven for overnight drying. The excess treats were broken up into small treat size.

 HOMEMADE peanut butter is a HEALTHY bonus, NO additives or sugar and it's EASY with the food processor. I got my recipe here. I used  planters roasted peanuts, but next time I may try buying raw peanuts and roasting myself. First the recipe...

 

 

Then the cool pix.

We, Dante and Kokomo, think it's extra cool we get homemade beer grain treats! (notice the cat, Pandemonium photo bombing)

 

We are twins from same litter but, look and act VERY differently. We both will however, lay down or sit and stay for a yummy treat!

                                    Dry treats stored in treat jar for later!!

 

 

Massive can of peanuts from Sams. We like peanut butter

 

 

An unusual find

  

I LOVE unusual, different and original. Here I'm sharing an unusual find. I do collect and also weave my own baskets. I'm always on the lookout for exceptional, useful baskets that serve a purpose other than dust catcher. Please comment or email me your exceptional basket finds, One can never have enough!

   The baskets in the pic are two of my favorites that I purchased. They are fair trade,
hand-woven African Grass Baskets. I purchased the shoulder bag at the local health food store natural grocers or vitamin cottage and the other market basket at a local import shop (now closed). The website www.alaffia.com offers them as well. The shoulder bag is very attractive, unusual and roomy! The market basket is huge and so sturdy. It holds more weight than the craft store type baskets. I LOVE to take it to the farmers market and fill it full of local fruits, veggies and flowers.
    The baskets are made from wild-harvested savanna grass, which requires very little water/nutrients to grow. Therefore the grass is plentiful and sustainable even in the most degraded soils. Members of the cooperative (those in Africa who do the weaving) receive stable, fair incomes and health care for their families in return for their weaving knowledge and skills. Win win situation by purchasing and using them for groceries, etc instead of plastic land filler uppers! Plus, the grass really smells sweet and pleasant.
   I really like the leather material they put on the handles. It makes them very comfy to carry and adds a nice decorative element. I will be purchasing more!

French Braided Messy Bun

This is my cute hairstyle for work today. I'm an RN so I wear it up while working. I got the idea from some wedding pics I saw this weekend on Facebook. I started with a traditional French braid straight down the back. I left a significant amount for the tail. I used 1 " curling iron to curl up tail at the bottom of the braid and sprayed with big sexy hairspray for hold. Then I wrapped the braid into a bun leaving the curled tail out and to the side.It had a nice asymmetrical look, front and back. I secured with small bobby pins I fluffed up the tail into messy bun style. Lastly for a finishing touch I added 2 shell  flower clips. Style stayed all day 10 hours @ work :)

The beginning of an Exciting Creative Blog

     I'm taking my daughters advice http://pibears.blogspot.com by starting this blog. She tells me other people would be interested in all the creative activities, décor etc. I do. Hopefully some of you out there will enjoy my photos and ideas. I'm kinda new @ the technology thing , soooo, here goes nuthin'.

The profile pic above was from her wedding last August. I will be adding a page of the beautiful handmade wedding décor we did. For starters if you like the necklace and earrings in above pic I made them from Swarovski crystals in colors to match my gown. It has a beautiful copper flower clasp. (pic coming soon)

Summer Garden!

 I'm taking my daughters advice http://pibears.blogspot.com by starting this blog. She tells me other people would be interested in all the creative activities, décor etc. I do. Hopefully some of you out there will enjoy my ideas. I'm kinda new @ the technology thing , soooo, here goes nuthin'.Summer is here and the garden is in full swing. We have a small raised bed garden in the middle of suburbia that is amazingly productive. I LOVE to grow my own, as organically as possible, and rarely resort to chemical pesticides. The basket holds this mornings harvest.My darling husband builds the beds/trellises etc. This year we are trying something new. We are going vertical with the tomatoes and cantaloupes instead of traditional cages and a ground patch. This  will save space and I'm using mesh produce bags to form slings that support the cantaloupes. I am earth friendly and reduce, re-use and recycle when possible! Best of all, these cantaloupes were FREE! They came from seeds from last years crop. Last years crop was FREE TOO! They sprang up voluntarily in the rose bed in the front yard out of the compost! We harvested and shared 20 or so melons. They were super sweet and delicious. Composting is easy with modern day bins, makes great FREE fertilizer with your kitchen scraps while keeping stuff out of the landfill! And on occasion you get 20 cantaloupes as a bonus!!!

Our bountiful raised bed Garden in a small space

This mornings harvest

Vertical cantaloupes

baby 'luope nestled in it's mesh hammock

Baby cantaloupe not a baby any more. Now joined by several others. All comfy in their mesh Hammocks. So far the mesh works well:)