Holy Gifts for Early Shoppers!

Tags

beading, Car jewelry, Car rosaries, Catholic, christmas, handmade rosaries, Mary, rosaries, St.Michael

Please have a look at a few of my new bronze rosaries!  I have wrapped each bead by hand to ensure their strength and durability.  In designing them, I was determined to make each rosary heirloom quality while keeping the prices as reasonable as possible.  I hope you enjoy looking at them!  Want to reach me?  nan4pax@hotmail.com

I’ve also included an image of a few rear-view mirror car rosaries that I designed especially for that little something Christmas gift for the one who has everything.  As an added bonus, I kept the price of these low low low!  Great gift for teachers, teens, mom, even your brother who used to beat you at everything!

Rear-view mirror car rosaries ~ Oh my gosh! Only $10 each!

black faceted glass Ave beads paired with 8mm faceted light golden glass Our Father beads. Please note the ‘drop of His blood’ near the crucifix.

True Bronze St. Michael center, Crucifix and Mary medal. Bronze color findings and wire. Exquisite! $72

Simply beautiful pale yellow faceted glass with true bronze.

spectacular true bronze Mary center and crucifix, along side a ‘drop of His blood’ suspended from true bronze immaculate heart medal. $75

St. Michael protect us!

True bronze St. Michael center, Mary medal, and Crucifix. bronze color findings. ‘a drop of His blood’ crystal $68

Very unusual for a rosary! Perfect for the gentleman in your life. tri-color Ave beads + hematite bead placed within a matching hematite circle bead.

Sweet baby blue 4mm Ave beads with a special true bronze center, Mary medal, and Crucifix. This rosary, though smaller (not shorter), continues the built-to-last tradition. special low price of $52

As usual, I’m asking all of you to pray for peace.  And each other.  There are a lot of hurting people in the world today.  Let’s make an effort to do what we can to help each other.  Good for you?

Tags

brain tumor, Faith, fall garden, God, hay bale garden, life, religion, spring garden, straw bale garden, surgery

Well, it’s over.  It was a good run and I enjoyed it.  But now it’s gone.

What?  Oh.  My garden.  I’m talking about my garden.  It’s finished.  The season is over for us.  I  made my last harvest this morning.

It’s a pitiful sight

 

Man, it was fun!  I thoroughly enjoyed straw bale gardening and YES, I will do it again!  We harvested TONS of cucumbers, green onions, parsley, basil and cherry tomatoes.  Add to that snap beans, yellow squash, zucchini, eggplant, green onions, parsley, basil, and little round watermelon in smaller amounts.  I can’t even put into words how delighted I was from the first bloom to the last tomato salad. I’m sad to see it go.  Remember what it looked like in the beginning?  

Next spring time I intend to have a HUGE straw bale garden!  I’m trying to decide whether or not I want to incorporate some kind of material to make a raised garden bed that I can drop a straw bale into and go from there.  Oooh, so many options!  I’m thinking along the lines of tin, cinder blocks, or cedar.  Any suggestions?

There won’t be a fall garden this year although I had big plans for one.  I recently discovered roasted broccoli and for sure, I wanted to plant that!  It will have to wait till next year.  Before my next post, I will have a pesky little brain tumor removed.  It is non-cancerous and my recovery time should be short.  Piece o’ cake.   I’ll be glad to get it over with.  The anticipation is killing me!

I’ve had a lot of surgery in my lifetime.  Gall bladder, appendectomy, and various others we won’t go into.  I never have been scared to get cut.  But this time it’s different.  They will have to remove a piece of my skull.  Gaaaaaa!  The only good thing is that I get a new hair cut out of the deal and I do need one of those.  A change up, something to spruce up my look.  Good thing my friend gifted me with a cute little pink hat!  Oh, another perk, I will be sans tumor, sans headache, sans wondering if I’m going to have a seizure.

I find myself thinking all kinds of unexpected things like ‘am I going to die’; what will happen to my beloved, should I designate certain belongings of mine to certain people?  Where are the insurance papers and my will?  Where do I want my ashes to go?  Could I just see my children and baby grands one more time?  Should I put clean sheets on the bed?

It’s crazy.  My husband told me I seem to be a little short on faith for a Catholic girl.  Wrong.  I’m not short on faith at all.  I know God’s got my back.  I know He has orchestrated this according to His will.  He has a finely tuned choreography in place.  And I trust Him.  I trust Him more now than ever.  In fact, if I didn’t have this beautiful relationship with Him that I do, I wouldn’t survive even the anticipation of this surgery.  He is mine and I am His.  Listen to this:

Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.

John 14:1-3

He promises that where He is, I may be also.  Wow, that’s love!

*******************************************************************************************************************************

Y’all pray for peace.  And watch the presidential debates, too.  Make an informed decision with GOD as your advisor.  This is such a crucial time in our country’s history, to say nothing of what the rest of the world is going through.

UPGRADING MY CRAFT…

Tags

craft, Father, Holy Spirit, Jewelry, Mary, Mother of God, prayer beads, religious jewelry, rosaries, Son, wire wrapping

…AND TAKING IT SERIOUSLY…

As you may know, I have a serious devotion to Jesus through His beloved mother Mary.  (for all of you Protestants who don’t understand, Jesus is #1.  His mother reminds us of His constant love and devotion.  She gently teaches us all about her son and points us in His direction.  She in no way takes His place and we do not worship her.) I have been inspired to use my creative abilities to make rosaries and I have watched my efforts grow as I learn new styles and designs.  I am now crafting heirloom rosaries, sturdy and made strong enough to be handed down through generations.  I have learned to wire the beads in such a way as to insure they won’t break easily.   The whole learning curve has been trial and error, stop and start, then restart, take apart again, again, again.  But I have loved it and I hope to never stop learning new techniques and growing more in my craft.   I use semi-precious stone beads and other materials such as Czech glass and percosia.  I use silver plated wire, copper wire, bronze colored wire.  I like to add a red tear-drop shaped bead to most of my rosaries to symbolize a ‘drop of His blood’.  It’s sort of my signature on the rosaries I make and serves as a reminder that our precious Jesus shed His own blood for EVERYone of us.  My latest ‘new’ thing is using true bronze crucifix’ and centers.  They come from a designer who casts the piece using a mold of vintage and antique pieces, the results of which are stunning in my opinion.  It is such a pleasure to work with these fine pieces!  I still love the silver plated look, and hopefully soon, I will be able to work with sterling silver.  That is my goal.

Having said all of this, I’ve come to a crossroads about where I want to take my craft.  Should I sell on Etsy?  Develop a brand and open a website of my own?  If you have a prayerful heart, I would appreciate your prayers and insights.

unusual multi-sided glass beads.

and it has a nice weight to it.

pearl finish glass, Swarovski crystal, At the foot of the cross crucifix

pink, black picture jasper, true bronze crucifix and center

Obsidian beads flanked by copper plated Our Father beads. Copper color center and crucifix.

African Turquoise Ave beads, copper color center and crucifix

gorgeous red percosia Czech glass. True bronze center and crucifix

Hematite Ave beads and moonstone quartz Pater beads. Auspice Maria center.

Y’all pray for peace please.  The world is in a fine mess.  It’s all completely upside down and not at all what God wants for His people.  Let’s pray that collectively we can get our act together before it’s too late.  Amen.

THE HONOR IN GARDENING

Tags

gardening, God, hay bale garden, PICKLES, straw bale garden, vegetable garden, VEGGIES

I will admit that my hay bale garden has gone farther than I truly expected it to.  To my amazement, we have actually gathered a substantial amount of produce, mostly cucumbers, but nevertheless, actual produce!  Folks, I’m here to say the newness of this foray into home-grown veggies has not lessened.  No, not one bit.  I am still as excited now as I was when I put the first plant into the first bale and after this year I will henceforth refer to myself as a newbie veggie gardener no longer.  I shall call myself a 2nd year novice.  Yep.  I earned that.  And I will continue to stroll the garden 2-3 times a day (or more) and gaze at nature’s process lovingly, dutifully inspect foliage and fruit, and gauging growth.   I hope that this time next year I will feel the exact same way as I do this very moment.  Exhilarated.  What can I say?  My heart makes a direct connection from what I see in the garden to what my soul feels and knows to be true.  Oh, that God.  He is amazing isn’t He?  Applying God to the equation of gardening makes this process more than just simple gardening.  It calls in the universe, creation, and divine mercy.  Ok, I sound kind of crazy but that’s not important.  In the world we live in today, it takes eyes of faith to see anything good these days.  And the eyes of my heart and soul receive this gift of the garden with thanksgiving.  It is an honor to pick cucumbers and tomatoes.  Simply an honor.

The hay bales are holding up well.  If you recall from a few posts ago, I was supposed to use straw bales but was unable to locate any in our area, so hay bales it is.  We have had an incredibly rainy season so I haven’t had to water the garden but one time.  Kind of makes me feel silly since I adjusted the layout of the bales to accommodate keeping a soaker hose covering the top of each bale and not the ground.  My tiny garden looks like a maze instead of the straight north to south rows.  Next year I will make the adjustments to the soaker hose instead of the bale placement.  It will look better that way.  (and I will be a second year garden novice, therefore, more experienced, lol)

Another change I plan to make will be placement of the plants into the bales.  This year it was easy to go crazy dropping a plant into every available place.  Suffice it to say, I was a bit over zealous with plant placement.  Those bales are packed.  Just about ever inch is covered.  Couple that with the fact that we have had far more rainy days than sunny ones, and the outcome is perhaps a bit over crowded.  I’d say so.  Who knew cucumbers could run around in circles, or that cherry tomato plants could grow eight feet tall?

strawberries peeking out from under the green beans

Those are cherry tomatoes? Holy Cow!

I was told to expect mushrooms growing in the bales. Harmless but not good to eat.

I’ve had a few let downs, but I chalk it up to experience.  The bell peppers are almost non existent.  Bummer.  And so far I have only been able to save one eggplant before finding and deleting the voracious green offender.

Yes, I did smash that ugly worm. I’m sorry. Don’t eat my eggplants!

I’ve had a lot of success I think.  I’ve harvested enough basil to dry and fill half a baby food jar.  believe it or not, that’s a lot of basil!  And chopped green onion tops, got a bag full of ’em in the deep freezer.   Oh, and guess what?  I harvested enough cucumbers to make 24 pints of pickles!!  Yes!  I did!  My first time ever!  And it’s only the beginning.  Thank You God.

WE HAVE PRODUCE!! Update: Hay Bale Garden

Tags

day lillies, Gifts, God, God provides, hay bale garden, novice gardener, religion, special love, straw bale garden, tomatoes, vegetable garden

I’m so excited I can barely contain myself.  Despite the fact that I am beyond -er- 60, I feel like a 10 year old kid when it comes to my garden.  I. am. obsessed.

What can I say?  It’s fun.  and it will be more fun next year when I invest in REAL straw bales instead of hay bales, although so far, the hay bales have worked out well.  Check out the pictures!

my only bell pepper.

yay! squash!

Love zucchini!

I think these are Amelia tomatoes.

Big boy tomato

really? One strawberry? Actually, I saved this plant from the nursery and it is coming back.

cherry tomatoes and straight 8s cucumbers

burpless cucumber. Is there really such a thing?

Good thing my grandkids like watermelon! There might be a lot of them.

did I mention I planted watermelon?

Got beans?

Now for a little eye candy ~ an explosion of day lilies! 

Oh Father God, I humbly thank you for the bounty you provide and for the privilege of learning to garden.  You are ever-loving and hasten to prove it to us and teach it to us.  May we be always conscious of you and quick to show our gratitude.  And may we never take it for granted.  Thank you for your gifts.  Thank you for your love.  By the life of your son Jesus,  amen.

HAY BALE GARDEN UPDATE

Tags

bouganvillia, gardening, hay bale gardening, straw bale gardening, tomato, vegetable gardens

Don’t mean to bore anybody but in case you haven’t noticed, I get pretty excited about some stuff.   And today, by some stuff, I mean straw bale gardening.  And spring time.  I’m really excited about spring time.  It’s like the whole world wakes up to another chance, a do-over of sorts.  It’s fresh and new, young and vibrant.  If you recall from my previous post, I have started a hay bale garden this year.  It is supposed to be a straw bale garden but I couldn’t find straw bales anywhere.  My friend who has horses offered hay bales to me and who was I to say no?  I’m glad I did because I’m having so much fun!  It is still a work in progress, and there is no guarantee that the project will be a total success but so far I am tickled with the results.  So here we go, have a look at my garden…

cucumbers on the left.

We put fencing over the center of the bales to help keep the plants supported, and ran a soaker hose from the beginning to the end which is the reason some of the bales are perpendicular.  They aren’t supposed to be like that according to the book I read, but I didn’t want to lay the hose on the ground in between the bales.  Seemed like a waste to me.

my poor sweet green bell peppers. They look awful. But the good news is that I have red and yellow bell peppers and they look awesome!

sweet millions cherry tomatoes

eggplant, not so great

I put some cardboard on the ground to keep the watermelon vines from staying wet.

You can plant all over the bale. I managed to tuck a few watermelon plants in here and there.

tomatoes and a little watermelon plant peeking out from the bottom. today I planted beans along the bottom of these bales so they can climb up the fence. They won’t shade the tomatoes because the bales are laid out north to south.

Look! a tomato!!

As you can see, I planted some marigolds because they are supposed to keep bugs away.  Doesn’t seem to help that much.  I don’t want to dust for bugs so I hope they decide to get on with doing their job!  I’ve been warned that the hay will probably sprout and make a mess of things.  Even if that happens, I’m still having a great time with the garden.   Every day I walk up and down the rows and stare at everything.  I try not to miss anything.  It’s wonderful and peaceful.  By the way, I did find a source for STRAW bales next year.  Later this summer, I will buy about 20 of them, which is twice the bales that I have this year.  I’ve got big plans!  Next year – beets, potatoes, carrots, and anything else I can think of.  Oh, broccoli!  Cabbage!  Can. Not. Wait.

I’ll leave you with a few pictures of the rest of my flower beds.  Turn the page if you get bored.  Really, it’s ok.  I’ve turned into the crazy old garden lady.  I admit it.  😉

bottle brush bush

knock out roses

This is my tribute to Paris – a reminder of a fabulous weekend waay back in 2001 in that very city.

purple, chartreuse, and variegated sweet potato vines.

The basil came up!

I can’t remember what that pretty pink flower plant is. I got it last year, lol, must be a perennial!

this clematis grows about 10-12 inches a day!

A boganvillia planter from my bff Sue, and a bbq lid planter from my bff Pete.

onions, parsley, basil, and succulents.

This lettuce WILL be lunch tomorrow!

In the beginning…

Today April 22, 2015

Tend the Garden

I hope you enjoy this beautiful blog post from Stuart M. Perkins. It truly touched my heart.

Storyshucker

A longtime friend commented during dinner that her next door neighbor’s son was on the path to nowhere and constantly in trouble. She thought herself clever referring to him as “a weed in the garden of life”. Although an avid fan of barbed words and wit, I found her comment harsh directed at a kid who was barely a teenager. He was dismissed and labeled as worthless. A weed.

“But maybe he’s a pokeweed!” I said in a positive tone.

She rolled her eyes. I recognized the look of resignation on her face. The look many of my friends have when I spit out a puzzling one-liner and they know a story is coming. She sipped her drink and grinned, arms crossed in silent permission for me to proceed.

Years ago I had a yard packed with plants. It was full of boxwoods, azaleas, and geraniums surrounding a dogwood centerpiece…

View original post 611 more words

MORE GARDENING PREVIEW PHOTOS…

Tags

garden, hay bale gardening, Louisiana Iris, spring 2015, vegetable gardens, wisteria

JUST IN CASE YOU’RE INTERESTED…  you may not be and that’s ok.  I don’t want to bore anyone but you have to know that I love seeing before and after garden photos.  So if you don’t want to see more of the same, turn the page.  🙂

The hay bale garden is planted, fenced, and has the soaker hose inlaid.  The fencing is used primarily to support plants such as tomatoes, and viney things like cucumbers.  I have planted squash, zucchini, red, yellow, green peppers, egg plant, strawberries, watermelon.  The bales are supposed to be single file, north to south orientation, but I didn’t want to water the air with the soaker hose, so I turned a couple of bales to allow for a continuous run of soaker hose.  It’s quite possible I planted too close together.  We will see.

Drawing butterflies like crazy!

watermelon plants peaking out of the sides of the bales. I put cardboard on the ground and will cover that with pine straw to keep the grass down while the melon vines spread.

strawberries tucked in the corner.

So folks, if this thing works and God says the same, next year I plan to have MORE bales!  Stay tuned for more pics later.  Yes, I will post more.  I can’t help it.  I’m so excited.  I may have to throw in a good dose of holy water as a failsafe!

I planted an old bbq pit with green onion sets and have parsley and basil in pots surrounding it.  Last year it was full of flowers.  My beloved husband is the cook in this family so I wanted to do something nice to keep his favorite herbs near the kitchen door.

The onions have come up already. No sign of the parsley. Tough seed!

Thanks to Faye Fontenot for her gift of bits and pieces from her garden, including this beautiful calla lily.  It’s blooming for the first time.  I love it!

I have two wisteria growing on my pergola.  One I brought from my previous home, and one I planted here.  The one I brought from home is just now blooming big, strong, dark blooms.  The one I got here was supposed to be white.  Not!  It has already bloomed and is filling out lots of leaves.

This is a view of our pergola from our deck behind our double wide palace!  You can see the wisteria on the left has already bloomed.

The Louisiana Iris’ are blooming!!  Thank you to Deborah Fontenot!

 

SPRING 2015 PREVIEW!

Tags

Angels, bouganvillia, Easter, gardening, God's gift, hay bale gardening, Jesus, Joel Karsten, straw bale gardening

He is risen! Happy Easter everyone!

I’m getting ready to plant a vegetable garden.  Yes, a real one.  I’ve got big plans this year.  I’m trying hay bale gardening.  Really, it’s supposed to be a straw bale garden but nobody in this area bales straw anymore because it just isn’t in demand.  People used to use straw to bed their animal stalls with, but with wood shavings so easily available, the use of straw has faded in the south USA.  So I ended up with hay, Bermuda hay to be more specific.  I imagine this hay will sprout before too long and when that happens, I’ll just have to do my best to ward it off.  The benefit of not having to dig in the low down ground (Our soil is horrible) might be worth it.  We will see, and then I’ll let you know how it goes.

I set the bales up on a north/south orientation as recommended by Joel Karsten in his book, Straw Bale Gardens.  At first, I lined them up into three rows, then kind of bridged them together with additional bales.  With that, I was able to run a soaker hose along the top of the hay bales without interruption. I haven’t planted my seedlings yet.  That will happen after Easter.  But I have purchased them already;  tomatoes, red, yellow, green bell peppers, onions, strawberries, yellow squash, zucchini, watermelon, banana peppers, parsley, basil, lettuce.  Yes, I AM expecting success!

The potting soil is recommended by Joel Karsten to use for planting medium. It doesn’t take much in the bales.

Cool, huh.

Moving on…

My lettuce is growing! I hope it’s not too late in the season.

Indian Hawthorn, day lilies, and lorapetulum also known as fringe plant. I chopped it way back after it started blooming – maybe an epic mistake!

My friend Janet and I “made a pass” through Forest Hill, Louisiana the other day.  It’s been said Forest Hill is the nursery capital of the world.  I can’t say that’s the truth, but I can tell you there are more nurseries than you can shake a stick at.  Probably hundreds.  While I didn’t get everything I wanted, I did get everything I needed for a jump start on getting my place planted up and looking pretty for Easter.  That is important to me, folks.  Why?  Because it’s the one gift I can offer my Lord God on this very special Holy Week.  He gives us many good and wonderful gifts and what we do with them is our gift to Him.  I know you’ve heard that before, probably more in the context of using our assets to help the poor, etc.  For me, it also concerns my efforts in manipulating the land, the plants and seeds, our landscaping.   It’s not the Garden of Eden, more like the Garden of Weedin’.  But considering our poor soil and my limited knowledge of gardening, I am happy with the way things look.  Compared to some, I don’t have much, but compared to others, what I have is heaven.  I offer it up with love and hope He is pleased.  Please enjoy the following photos.  Remember it’s just the beginning of Spring.  I’ll post more pictures as the season progresses and the plants grow.  And I’ll keep you updated on the hay bale garden – success or failure!

I love this part. Purple and lime green sweet potato vines.

impatiens

Bridal wreath

knock out roses

double impatiens and variegated sweet potato vine.

That’s us.

She looks happy!

Day lilies need thinning. Need some?

double wide palace

What I love most about my home is who I share it with.

New bed, see my Great Aunt Kathrine’s hostas coming up?

new butterfly bush

verbena

comfy little fellow.

this is where my seedlings will stay until they go into the hay bales.

begonias, caladiums, wave petunias

You can see the top of the old bbq pit hanging under the pergola. It is planted with all kinds of gorgeous flowers. can’t wait till it fills out!

my basil is coming up!

This is an old bbq pit I turned into an herb garden. I have green onions and parsley planted in it.

This succulent reminds me of my Grandmother. She used to grow these very successfully. I get my love of gardening from her.

I’ve had this old fashioned rose bush for nearly 20 years. I even drug it to St. Landry when I moved here 14 years ago!

And they smell heavenly!

My sweet sugar baby angel.

Any and all comments and suggestions are much appreciated!  Blessed Easter to you all, and don’t forget to pray for peace!

 

 

 

 

Now I’m a spiralizing Fool!

Tags

cooking, dieting, food, grain-free, home-made potato chips, paleo, pasta substitute, spiralizing, vegetables, veggetti

Lucky lucky me!  Thanks to my cyber friend Emily Huval, I belong to a group on facebook that celebrates an eating style devoid of wheat, grains, and some seeds.  I feel terrific because of it but I must confess, I do fall off that wagon occasionally.  Since I don’t have an allergy to wheat, it’s not too bad.  I am not as bloated when I avoid starches.  I feel like I am eating cleaner, if you know what I mean, and my skin looks better too.  I don’t miss eating bread as much as I miss eating sweets.  I love me some sweets!  And there are lots of sweet recipes associated with this eating lifestyle.  I am filling up on veggies more than breads.  I bought a “veggetti” (see this post: https://nantubreunlimited.wordpress.com/2014/09/08/breakfast-bombs-veggetti-fun-in-the-kitchen/ ) and I shredded many a zucchini with it to use in place of pasta noodles.  You would be amazed how delicious it is.   I love it but the only thing was that the size of the veggie to be shredded was limited to – yep – about the size of a good zucchini or yellow squash.  At least, that was what I limited it too.  And my hand always finished up with a cramp in it from turning and twisting the veggie to get everything out of it.

Then I bought a serious spiralizer.

This is NOT a paid endorsement! I just like the product!

I only thought I was having fun before.  This thing is great.  I can slice onions, potatoes, all kinds of veggies.  Basically anything I can fit on the thing, I can spiralize.  Three blades are included to cut small, medium and wide shreds.  I can even make potato chips with it.  Please enjoy the following pictures I took today.  I experimented with a couple of potatoes, starting with the large blade.  The shredded potatoes were so pretty!  Yeah, it doesn’t take much to tickle me, lol.

You can even make potato chips.

I can see a project coming on for the next time my grandkids come for a weekend!

This is what the potatoes looked like after my husband fried them.  I’m looking forward to spritzing some sweet potato spirals with olive oil, salt and pepper and baking in the oven.  Or making some veggie chips.  Or pasta substitute noodles.  My favorite topping is Italian sausage, mushrooms, onions, peppers, and pasta sauce.  Somebody sing Halleluiah ’cause it tastes like heaven!

chips!

That little plug is all that’s left of a potato after spiralizing. Cute, huh?