Making Green $$ and being Green

You're looking at $21.00. Ok, I'm sure of you are scratching you head and saying, poor thing she's really gone over this time. There are 7 ink cartridges in this zip lock bag from computer printers. I had them tucked away and kept forgetting to take with me when I'd shop at Staples. So, they've added up. You receive $3.00 everytime you recycle a print cartridge at Staples. When I took these in, they did something on their computer and when I signed in a couple of weeks later I saw I had a $21.00 credit. I've printed my receipt and am ready to do some shopping.

So, by being Green and recycling my cartridges I'm making Green...yep real green $$ money. Thought I'd pass along yet another tip to help the environment for your children and your grandchildren.

Is Mother Nature Confused? Mixed up?

This is a yellow tulip in my backyard. How, or why the red appeared is beyond me. This is not a new tulip, one in fact I've had since my daughter was in grade school. It's always been all yellow. My daughter was in grade school 15+ years ago. There was no red on it last year. Click on picture to see it larger, do you see a tiny bit of red tipped on the edge?

As of today, I finally have a way to decrease picture size. On the recommendations of a friend who's techy, I downloaded a free software program called Irfanview. I don't really know how to do much yet. But, I was able to change the size of this photo from 3000 x 4000 pixels to 1500 x 2000 pixels, then when I loaded it here, used small. Believe it loads faster, and should use less storage?

I have a free trail of Adobe Photoshop Elements, but I find it very difficult to use, and only once was I able to change the size. After I did it, I couldn't tell you how I finally did it. So, when the free period is gone I will not be buying it, I will be uninstalling it.

So, what do you think is Mother Nature Mixed Up? What happened to the tulip?

Before and After

I've shared a few of pasta dishes with you before, but thought it was time for another. As the pasta (bow tie) is cooking, slice red and yellow peppers (slice not chopped for nice larger pieces), sliced fresh mushrooms, red onion. Sprinkle with olive oil, add pine nuts, and 4 or 5 sliced sun dried tomatoes. The veggie mix will be cooked in the microwave for about 4 minutes covered. Wait til your pasta's almost finished so the veggies aren't mushy. Quickly brown Andouille Sausage (don't need but about a cup). You'll add the sausage to veggie mix so don't over cook when browning it.
When pasta is drained (I like al dente) return to pot, throw in 3 -4 handfuls of fresh baby spinach, top with veggie mix mixture, mix til it seems coated, the spinach will be lightly wilted but not mushy. Serve over pasta, sprinkle freshly ground Romano cheese.

Quick, Easy, Pretty, and pretty darn good if I do say so myself. And I do. lol

All you need to top of the meal is a nice glass of wine and good loaf of bread. Not garlic bread, the sausage is very full of flavor so the garlic bread would fight it.

I call this Andouille Pasta Vegetable Medly

Messy Yarn Organization, and Packing?

I always go through this when I'm trying to decide what yarn to take. You want things that don't take up much room when you fly so no bulky yarns. Sometimes I think it's wiser to have nothing but 1 or 2 skeins of real basic yarn and do scarfs or squares; but then you've got more bulk on the return. Sometimes I think baby items are good, lighter weight yarn; but that also means I need to pay attention to patterns. On the plane sometimes counting stitches and rows can be an issue.

Sooooooo, this mess on the floor is my attempt to organize and decide what to take, what to work on; what's the right size and amount of yarn. What size needles, should I only take crocheting or both knitting and crocheting etc.

I have a basket right by the chair, which tends to be where I put things I'm working on, left over yarn from items I've recently finished etc. And after a period of time, it's a mess and I no longer remember what's in there. So, I dump it and re-organize. Take some I'm not really using to the basement shelves, bring other stuff up etc. It's always such a process. Seems I always do this before I pack.

Sooo, right now I've put a bag of purple, white, and lavendar light weight yarn in a zip lock bag with a crochet baby sweater pattern and the right size crochet hook. This is obviously a girl combination of colors. So, to of set that, I also found a camo type dark yarn mix where I can use the same pattern for a little boy. That's probably going in my carry on bag. Then something to knit in my suitcase. That way I have variety. Or I'll flip it around. But, at least I've picked out the yarn for part of it.

Silly Squirrels, Must be NUTS

Several weeks ago we spotted this one, lone red tulip in the yard. Not in the flower bed you can see just to edge of the picture. This flower bed is NOT where I've planted tulips at all as a matter of fact. What is a fact is that all the red tulips are on the side of the house, this picture is in the back yard. Now birds can sometimes drop seeds and things can sprout in odd places; but tulips don't have seeds. In fact their bulbs are pretty good size, AND their planted on the surface but about 6 inches below the soil. So.........me thinks some silly squirrel is nuts. Rather he or she was planting nuts, dug up my bulb thinking it was a nut and never remember to come back to it for dinner along the way. Or perhaps he or she did come back for a snack and realized....hum, that's not a nut!
Here's a close up my lone tulip. Intended to dig it up to transplant it back where it belongs after it bloomed; but it's been raining alot and so, I've not gotten that done.

We enjoyed it's beauty just the same.

Miracle of Birth, and Laying an Egg

The other day I traveled to Urbana to help Daddy take his 90 year old Sister to the doctors. This Duck has made herself a comfy nest right beside the door to the doctor's office. I mean right beside it. See the drain, the door is to the left about 8 inches. There were tons of people in and out in and out. We were there about an hour and half and the poor Duck surely had lots of interruptions. Someone else there waiting got her the bowl of water and some stale bread. What a busy place to make a nest to lay eggs.
Apparently, she had already layed the eggs. See the white there in the very front? One of the nurses came out to check on her and said there was a pond back behind the office; but there were often cats there. She figured the Duck felt safer close to the building with all the people.
She didn't squawk as we all watched her. I'm not as close as this looks (wanted to give her some space); used my Zoom and then cropped the photo here which makes it appear I'm closer.

Birth is such a miracle. Wonder if the doctors office staff has little ducklings there yet to watch over?