In and Out ~ Out and About January

Hi! A January round up of disparate parts, aka a January jumble!  January is almost over, can you believe it! A whole month since Christmas.

The other day my friend L invited me along to the Big Target, a bit of a drive to the recently redecorated Target. In her case for spring cleaning supplies, me?--just poking around. The redone store is beautiful, very clean, if a bit overstocked with clothes instead of housewares---btw, swimsuits are in, big big big selection of colors styles and sizes! Get 'em now, don't whine in July. And my faves of stripey tee shirts and baggy corduroy pants in dusty pastel wide wale corduroy.

I always walk in these big stores and promptly forget why I came! So another favorite thing to do is to poke around the Dollar bins, while getting thoughts together. Nothing for making Valentines, too bad, but some cute tea towels [mini quilt backs!] and a cute pink ticking stripe apron. Not so thrilled with this indigo and white towels. I bought two, I saw the B and thought Beach. Brunch, Do Brunch---how silly.  $1.oo.

I didn't find the shelving I wanted, or pet stuff, or Mrs Meyers cleaners [peony? no.], but I enjoyed their new fresh gourmet grocery section. They stock these lovely fresh pastas---gorgeous, unusual and tasty.

These are lemon burrata stuffed. what is burrata?

 I also got the mushroom half moon raviolis, I forget the name.

The lemon ravioli have the most adorable 1/2" yellow and cream striped dough, with lovely creamy , lemony filling.

I made them with a simple sauce of fresh lemon juice, butter, pepper, and tarragon.

A bit of parm. Steamed asparagus, also from the Target gourmet shop, on the side.

These pastas freeze well so next time I may stock up for evening home alone when my kids are away skiing. Good selection of cheeses too!

Next, Bed Bath and Body works had their annual sale. I am a candle junky so had to stock up.

These will be for late winter, spring, and summer too.

How could I resits a daff candle!

The inside candle is pale creamy yellow, like butter.

Spring into summer pretties, daylily [?] and peach Bellini.

Anytime, maybe soon. I like herbal, lemony scents.

And how cute is this , a Pugicorn dispenser for hand sanitizer, gotta fight those cold and flue germs, may as well smile while doing.

Back home, a different day, Mo stalking the meatballs I make to freeze.

See him sneaking in, sniff sniff sniff? "Who, me!?"

He ended up on the chair but mean ol' mom [me] shooed him down.

And I want to share with you my gorgeous new flannel sheets, from Boll and Branch.

These were a Christmas gift from my kids. I added white velvet flannel pillow cases too, as my sets seem to be missing. So no more holey sheets, and oh so cozy. [but yes, I am sure I will patch my old flannel sheets,  just too soft to discard yet.]

Pompom throws finish off my very tempting winter bedscape, it's hard to get up on windy mornings.

Another tiny winter joy: after Christmas I always hang my chandelier crystal suncatchers in my big windows.

It's silly, I suppose but finding rainbows in odd places, each day different, give me so much happiness in the dark of winter.

Back outdoors, Mo and I found the first daffodil shoots on  January 20th. January has been mostly mild, so the daffs have peeped out.

Another sunset walk though the grey fence lane. This is where we meet the feral cats who are making friends with me if not with Mo, poor little man.

Notice the deep rose sunset, not so red or orange--- or aquamarine. The pink tones are a sign of spring! And very welcome, like the longer days that are noticeably occurring on clear evenings.

Yesterday we had the darkest of rain days---but another hopeful event: the first rainbow of 2020.

Have a good week!

love

lizzy

gone to the beach....

Flowers Bloom in Winter

Hi guys!  It's mid-January, time to plant my indoor flower bulbs for forcing.

Bulbs planted on MLK weekend will bloom by Presidents Week, if things go well.

If you still want to try Paper White Narcissus, I just received my bulbs on Friday.

I order from the same seller on Amazon. They come fast but not next day. I dithered about doing blue grape hyacinths instead this year. Oh that heavenly blue! I found them at the same seller, "prechilled for forcing" but there are 30 bulbs in the bag and they cost so much. So, I guess, no. (The bulbs also got poor reviews but so many folks--not you of course!--have really brown thumbs, so grain of salt to the zero star crowd?)

You may recall the gorgeous Costco tulips from last year, in the tall glass cylinder:

I saved it to reuse this year for the paperwhites. No pebbles or seaglass needed.

It has a scary looking  pronged and fanged plastic insert that holds the bulbs in place.

    

Here we go!

I couldn't fit in all my bulbs

s

o I did a smaller cylinder vase with pink faux seaglass, a gift for a friend once it gets going,

and another in this recycled hyacinth vase.

I'm not sure the hyacinth vase will work, no support of the gangly daffs, so I put it on the corner cupboard shelf to keep a close eye.

And this! My year long project of a beautiful amaryllis given to me last Christmas. I followed the online instructions for making it re-bloom; it summered over outside, dully green and ugly, hidden in the zinnia pot on my deck, then was dug up and washed and stored in a box in my dark cold entry area for two months..Oh it looked so white and nasty when dug up,  eeew  

But here it is, delicate green sprouts, crispy brown skin, and great health.

It's in my mom's Swedish glass hyacinth vase, in water instead of potting soil. I hope this is a success.

All the bulbs are given water up to the root bases.

And set up on the pine bench which is against a cold wall and doesn't get any direct sun.

It will take a few days for the shoots to unfurl and roots to start. As they progress and even bloom, they can of course be brought out to display and admire. Approx. 3 weeks to begin blooming, 5 weeks til finished.

While I wait for that, I've been filling the house with inexpensive potted forced bulbs from the supermarket:

.tiny Tete a Tete yellow daffs, tiny as your fingertips.

In pretty Staffordshire pitcher[s].

I love this set of c 1840? pitchers, especially the birds and butterflies,,,, the colors and picotage.

My dad recycled and  regrew these tiny daffs, purchased every year, and the woods' floor outside the kitchen window would be a carpet of tiny gold flowers come April or May.

The white hyacinth is doing well. Not so spectacular to look at but it smells so delightful.

And when I don't buy the little potted flowers, I indulge in the early spring cut bouquets.

I usually don't like mixed bouquets but I love this assortment, called, I think, ''Spring Gathering". Everything comes home tightly budded, only green, and over a couple of weeks the flowers unfurl, much to my delight.

The colors!

And, well. Pussy willows too. Prob I only buy them for, really, those tiny catkins.

....

We had a brief snow day Saturday. Mo is dressed up in his snow day pjs, hoping hard that if he is very unobtrusive I won't make him go out in the dreaded storm.

''''

The paw print "pillow" is actually a hard shell kennel disk. Heated in the microwave it stays toasty warm for almost 24 hours. Mo loves his, especially for cozy sleeping at night.

Spaghetti and meatballs were delish! But the oat and choc chip breakfast bars were a huge Fail, very disappointing.here  or   HERE
All the snow, except a few drifts, gone next day!

Hope you all are safe and warm.

love

lizzy

gone to the beach....