It’s kind of fun to keep a journal. Starting out with what you are grateful for, what would make today great and daily affirmations. Plus a couple of other things that make you feel good, and motivate you like a quote.

I like the above quote. I also found a quote that said that whatever makes you uncomfortable is your biggest opportunity to grow. So you must step out of your comfort zone to grow. You have to expand boundaries and take risks which is crucial to personal growth.

Inspirations are always helpful and they make days more inspiring.

The above Spring bulb plants were in my Email for ideas for mothers day. I think that the colors are beautiful together and are an idea for colors that look good together for a flower garden.

Anna Griffin crafts are sold on HSN home shopping network. The above kit for Dad’s day is so awesome. So fun to make a creative card using her kit. The above kit is for what she calls a wallet card kit.

The above is what comes in the kit and Anna Griffin usually includes ideas for finished cards.

They are called “wallet cards” because you actually make a wallet style card with the kit.

The wallet opens up and you can put a gift card in one of the slots.

The kit lets you design all kinds of wallet style cards that have slots for a gift card inside.

Such a cute idea.

Another kit from Anna Griffin, that is neat, is her botanical kit to make beautiful craft cards. She is going to be on Craft Day on HSN on May 7th. She was showing her newest kits on her website that are going to be in that show.

Anna Griffin kits are fun because everything is there to make creative cards that are kind of Victorian and would be difficult to be found in a store.

Anna also had several card kits that are just beautiful.

She had an Emellishment kit that was awesome looking.

All kinds of roses for embellishments in her kit.

A juice machine is a nice tool to have in the kitchen. The juice machine that I have cost almost as much as a kitchen aid stand mixer. To wash it, you have to take it all apart and it has to be put back together just right. To use it correctly, there are all kinds of videos on Youtube. That’s what is nice about Youtube. You can get directions for almost everything.

And that is some inspirations for this last Monday in April. The leaves are really coming out on the trees now and the Spring bulbs are starting to flower. It’s beginning to look a lot like Spring.

Today on TV I saw Dr. Fuhrman’s Eat to Live lecture. I have seen it before and I lost weight when I followed the tips that he had suggested. I like the two magnets for the front of the refridgerator for inspiration on sticking to the idea of making leafy salads the main dish in 2 meals a day.

Dr. Furhman suggests prepping and organizing healthy food in your refridgerator. The main thing that he stresses is that salad greens are the best food you can eat. Also mushrooms and onions.

I like the above glass food containers for the refrigerator that can be found on Amazon. They organize the refridgerator really nice.

I like how he spells GBOMBS with Greens, Beans, Onions, Mushrooms, Berries and Seeds using the first letter of each of the words.

I actually like all the foods that are Dr. Furhman’s top Super Foods. He says to avoid sugar, oils and processed foods.

The recipe for Dr. Furhman’s no oil, extra creamy Hummus has Garbanzo beans, tahini, lemon juice, white miso paste, cumin, aquafaba and garlic powder. I pinned the recipe on my Furhman board on my Pinterest.

I also found a recipe for roasted beet Hummus. The recipe called for garbanzo beans, roasted beets, water, tahini, lemon juice, beet juice, Balsamic vinegar and garlic powder. I pinned that recipe on my Furhman board on my Pinterest.

The above is a guide for what to put in salads.

Dr. Furhman’s green smoothie has frozen fruit like half pineapple and half mango, banana, kale, chard and/or spinach, liquid (water, coconut water or unsweetened nut-milk and ground flax seed. He suggests to have it for breakfast.

The Hummus rolls sound really good. I think I heard him say that you can eat all you want of these types of food.

The above no oil Split pea and sweet potato soup sounds good. I pinned that recipe on my Furhman board on my Pinterest.

I found a recipe for Furhman’s Fudgesicles that I pinned on my Furhman’s board on my Pinterest, also.

Most of the salads called for no oil dressings. I found 2 such recipes for the dressings and pinned them on my Furhman’s board on my Pinterest. But I noticed that people use Balsamic Vinegar for a dressing as well.

I also saw a cute blouse on the J Crew website that was on sale. It was orginnally $70.00 and marked down to $24.00.

I like the 3/4 length sleeves and vertical stripes are slimming.

I also saw a neat hair product that is supposed to give your hair volume. You just put in your hair after you shampoo it.

Amazon has the above silicone containers that you can use to poach eggs in your Instant Pot pressure cooker. It takes 3 minutes and you have to immediately release the steam

The Eat to Live diet sounds easy to do and very healthy. I have good intentions, but I like olive oil to sautee onions and mushrooms. Like today I made sauteed onions and mushrooms added to broccoli-cauliflower rice. I added lime juice and butter to it and I enjoyed it. But I will try to eat more salads and prep them.

They had a fitbit on a todays special on one of the home shoppers today. It had 2 bands and a charger that came with it. It’s supposed to measure your steps each day and also measure your sleep patterns. Plus you got 3 months of Pandora for music. To me, that small little moniter on your wrist is stupid. I don’t want a computer on me 24 hours a day. It’s worse then a cell phone giving off radiation in my opinion. Plus you would have to have magnifying reading glasses to read anything on that little, tiny screen. Plus it cost $159.00. No thanks. Although, actually it’s kind of neat.

So over and out from rainy and chilly April in Vermont.

I came across the above smoothie recipe that sounds really good. It starts by juicing blood oranges and navel oranges that are peeled and sliced along with carrots and beets that are peeled and diced plus ginger. Then the juice is poured into ice cube trays and froze overnight. When you are ready to make the smoothie, add a handful of the juice cubes to a blender, then add flax seed, vanilla Greek yogurt, cranberry-pomegranate juice and fresh raspberries. Sounds healthy to me.

I also saw the idea of a grey V-neck pullover that is perfect for this time of year.

Then I saw the idea of using dried herbs to make sachets. My favorite combination that I saw was lavender flowers, rosemary leaves and cedar shavings. They added lavender oil and tossed the essential oil gently with the dried herbs.

They put the sachet in little bags like the above. I found the above sachet bags on Amazon. I think they would be cute for the closet and also bureau drawers.

They also had Lavender Flowers on Amazon.

Then P. Allen Smith showed how to get 16 different herb plants in a 4 foot square raised bed. What a neat idea for a raised bed like that for herbs.

Then I saw a container idea that had all the makings of a salad. Love it! ❤

The above is what Martha Stewart suggests for lunch. Sounds good to me.

I usually use Newman’s Olive oil and Vinegar dressing on a salad because I like it. But I also like to make a Vinaigrette in a little mason jar by just mixing Dijon Mustard, minced garlic, vinegar, salt and pepper with olive oil. Barefoot Contessa says to use Champagne Vinegar and California Olive Oil. Also to add enough salt and pepper. I usually use Apple Cider Vinegar and it’s still good to me.

Johnny Scheeper catalog has a new variety tulip that is the Parrot Tulip. I think that it is beautiful.

I love Peonies anyways, but a new variety that Johnny Scheeper’s has is the above Sorbet Peony. ❤

I got the above Cuddl Duds pajamas from QVC. They come with the matching socks and I just love them. They are like baby pajamas and they are super comfortable.

Then I saw a recipe for flourless Morning Glory Muffins. They are also dairy free and have apple, flaxseed, oats, honey, banana, cinnamon, ginger, carrots, raisins and walnuts in them. I pinned the recipe on my Pinterest Muffin board.

And that’s the ideas that I have come across for today.

Martha Stewart drinks a green juice every morning that she makes by using her juice machine. I read that the green juice contains spinach, cucumber, parsley, cheril, fresh ginger and orange peel. It sounds very healthy to me and I think I will try it.

The recipe was in Martha’s book “Living the Good Long Life”. There is only one book left on Amazon, but the book has some really neat ideas in it.

I also saw a recipe somewhere for Granola bars that looked easy and also healthy. The recipe called for 2 cups of quick cooking oats, 1 cup almond butter, 1/2 cup sliced almonds, 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips and 1/4 cup or more of honey with optional salt and cinnamon to taste. They just combined everything in a medium sized bowl and then stir until well combined. Add more honey if needed to hold shape. Then they lined an 8×8 pan with parchment paper, allowing the paper to fall over the edges. Then press the mixture into the pan. Then place in the freezer for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until firm. Remove paper from pan and then cut the large square in half. Then cut each half into 6 rectangles. Wrap bars individually with parchment paper or plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator or freezer. You can use dried cranberries, and different nuts such as cashews. You can also add in 1/8 cup flax seed meal, 1/8 cup chia seeds, 1/8 cup sunflower seeds. Add a tablespoon more honey for each addition.

Sounds good to me. I would use chocolate chips from King Arthur Flour. If you have ever tried their chocolate chips, you would know why. I would also use organic quick oats from the Food Co-op.

These sound sort of like those “Kind Bars”. I wouldn’t mind swirling some dark chocolate on them. I have not tried the recipe and do not know how good they are. I would only like them if they are soft like the Kind bars. With the honey in them, I would think that they might be.

Then I saw a recipe for Polish Casserole. It sounded easy and also kind of tasty. The recipe called for penne pasta, smoked Polish kielbasa cut in 1/2 inch slices, condensed cream of mushroom soup undiluted, shredded Swiss cheese divided, milk, green onions, choppped and Dijon mustard as well as garlic cloves. I pinned the recipe on my Pinterest Casserole board.

The above pair of shoes are from Target at a very reasonable price. They are stylish and would be nice to have. They look like a very expensive designer shoe.

The above sandals look like the Tory Burch designer sandals. Only they are a fraction of the price. They are on famousfootwear.com and are called women’s Canyon Sandal. They are $39.99 and you can get 15% off with the code SOGOOD.

Even if it was 4 blocks away. I spent a summer on Nantucket Island years ago and totally loved it. We were within walking distance of Brandt Point and the Jetty Beach. We had a beautiful apartment called Stilldock apartments and I worked at a gift shop called Four Winds just within walking distance. I had the best tan ever that summer as I went to the beach every morning before work.

A really neat idea for a roasted beet salad is to make a tower with the roasted beets and using goat cheese. Some roasted pecans, sliced cucumber and baby greens. Then chopped scallions on top with Newman’s Olive Oil and Vinegar dressing.

I love the above idea with white tulips and the purple accents. Then the apple blossoms.

Last year at King Arthur Flour In Norwich, VT they had a class where you could take a baking class and then go to Woodstock and make something out of pottery at a pottery place. The pottery was farmstyle like above.

King Arthur Flour also had a Mothers day workshop class where you made the above pie and took the heart shaped pottery home with you along with the pie. The heart shape pottery was from the Woodstock pottery place.

The above heart locket is from the Bradford Exchange. The name of it is “Love holds our family together.” I ordered the locket for my daughter in law and personalized it with the birthstones of her children and their names. Her birthstone is April which is a diamond and the heart diamond in the word love is real and is her birthstone. It was shipped out this week and should be here in a few days. It took forever to get personalized. Like 6 weeks or so. But I think that she might like it.

And that is my thoughts for today.

The Forsythia is starting to come out now. It’s so pretty.

A local farmstand opened last week and they have colorful plants in their greenhouses.

They also have herb plants which are so fun to have.

I bought some Johnny Jump Ups which are my favorite. I like them because my neighbor where I used to live planted some by her mailbox. Our mailbox was close enough so that the Johnny Jump Ups spread over to our mailbox. They spread like mad and are so colorful.

The leaves are starting to come out on the trees now. Love the Spring colors.

Lemons and Daffodils with blue is so Spring.

Lemon cheesecake is always fun to make in the Spring.

Also a Tulip bouquet is just a breath of Spring.

Rainy day reading is always fun in the Spring.

A casual outfit idea for a Spring day.

I love it when the Farmers Markets open and they have home-made soap.

Spring is always a time to organize and do Spring cleaning.

Spring is also a time plan a garden space and order from the seed catalogs. Also study garden designs.

Maybe buy some herb plants for a container garden.

Spring is one of my favorite times of the year. It’s also mud season from all the rain, but the rain helps bring Spring flowers when the sun finally comes out for a few days.

I like to remember the fun of a farmhouse type front porch like my Gram had. Always laughter and fun times ringing out in the early evening after a beautiful summer supper. Gram always had a beautiful garden and she had fresh vegetables from her garden. My aunt was a cook at a private school and she always baked home made pies in the summer from the raspberry patch that they had. Plus she was always baking cookies that she put in a Piggy cookie jar. My younger brother and I could never get a cookie out of that jar without her saying, “I hear that little piggy squeeling”. But we always managed to run off like bandits with scrcumptious home-made cookies.

The minute we got to the farm, we would get into our play clothes and Grandpa would let us ride horses. Actually he would just lead the horses around with us proud as anything on those horses.

Then they had a croquet set that we would set up and have fun playing.

My Grandpa was tall and lanky and wore coveralls. He was always up at 4:00 AM to start chores. He was a kind, gentleman and a hard worker . Whenever they went to town, he wore a 3 piece suit. My 2 older brothers used to stay at the farm for a few weeks in the summer to help with haying. They always got money for working, too. And being teenagers they loved to have money to spend.

I loved how my Gram planted all kinds of flowers around the porch. She was always working in her gardens.

We always liked to visit that place in the summer when my Dad got 2 weeks vacation. We always stayed with our grandparents at least a week. Then we would sometimes stay a week on a lake near there in a rented cottage. I can remember my Mom making corn chowder on a rainy day and my brother and I along with several friends enjoyed the chowder on a screened in porch overlooking the lake with the soft rain falling.

Those really were kinder, gentler times.

I can remember visiting there when my son was about 3 years old. Gram was up working in her garden and came running down to greet us. She adored my little son. She had some corn on the cob from the garden with lunch and she laughed at how my little toddler son asked to have special picks that hold the corncobs on each end. I really miss my grandparents. It brings tears to my eyes sometimes to remember how precious they were.

They had almost 100 acres of farmland. My aunt’s husband sold it to a bunch of hippies. Now the place is more or less very different. But we will always have beautiful memories.

I was talking with the people that own the place now and I suggested that they were a bunch of hippies. They said most people call them rednecks. Whatever. They destroyed the place in my opinion. It will never be the same.

But God bless them. They love the place as much as we always did. I’m sure they love the place as much as my Grandparents did. But it broke my heart to see graffiti on the posts of the porch and junk in the yard. But they are logging the timber and they are college educated I guess and are making money from the rich soil they call black gold.

In their later years, my grandparents rented a piece of the land to a person that used if for gardens and he sold the produce to a place in Nathanial Hall in Boston.

I guess families are a thing of the past. Communes and free living are where it’s at. I will never be comfortable with it. Not ever. I’m just glad that I have memories of different time.

To honor my grandparents, the above is what I would have built. I totally love the style and it reminds me of times gone by. I totally love it. The farmstyle porch and the landscaping.

Martha Stewart’s Seal Harbor kitchen from the Home Depot would be the new touch with the farmstyle kitchen sink being a nod to sweet memories.

A double oven to bake all kinds of home made pies and cookies just to honor Aunt Mavis. Plus be able to have family gatherings like old times with all my precious grandchildren.

A greenhouse to start early plants for all kinds of gardens is a new touch. The above is a greenhouse that my brother built for his house. A greenhouse similar to it would be the perfect new touch.

A kitchen garden that is like a living salad bowl to honor my Gram who loved to garden.

And then Peonies abandonally placed here and there like I remember.

All kinds of old fashioned flowers here and there.

Spring bulbs that are planted in the Fall and they come up every year in the Spring. Daffodils are so sunny and beautiful.

A secret garden for tea. My Gram’s heritage was from England and she loved tea.

Lots of land for gardens galore.

I love embroidered pillowcases and the above remind me of the pillowcases that Gram always had.

The above is the diningroom that is a new version of my Gram’s diningroom. It’s everything she loved.

And that is a start on a way to bring back memories and to honor people that are no longer with us, but who must never be forgotten.

I like the cute ideas people have like the above. So cute how the flowers just spill out of the container.

A beautiful Spring garden is my favorite dream and even the thought of it makes me smile.

I love harbors and sail boats. They always make me smile.

A firepit with a lake view. What’s not to love about that?

I love the above sign that they have on Nantucket Island.

The above view from a living room is from a harbor town in Maine and it’s a townhouse. So beautiful.

A little black dress goes with everything and it’s always in style.

Keeping things simple and smile.

Yesterday I went for a walk and it seemed so good to have a little decent weather. The above is Mt Ascutney view from my walk.

The above is Easter sunrise service on Mt Tom in Woodstock, VT. So beautiful. You can look down on the whole town of Woodstock from Mt Tom.

I sometimes wish that I had gotten more education. Or at least a different type of education. I mean school was not preparing me for what life was all about. Knowing how to budget money, how to land a good job and the importance of a good income. Also if I wanted to marry and have children, how to raise them. I mean how do you know what it takes to be a good mother. Doesn’t that matter at all? Are you just supposed to know how to hold a family together and the importance of honesty, integrity and giving of yourself. But also being good to yourself so you can be good to others. Also the importance of choosing a good husband. It can make or break your life. No, people do not naturally have that knowledge. They just do not and it’s not fun to be labeled with a divorce and messing up childrens lives as well as your own. Children deserve to be born into a loving environment with parents that are mature and nurturing. And to just be thrown out there in the jungle to make mistakes that could have been avoided with a little guidance, is just not right. When you are young, you think you know it all. Well you don’t.

I saw the above and read what I needed as a blogger to buy on Amazon. Mostly it was about a planner. Then a good camera, a special light if you were a fashion blogger and took selfies, spending money to make money.

The planner that they reccomended was the Bloom daily planner.

The planner had a lot of inspirations and tips that are perfect for a blogger.

Then if you work at home, you are your own boss and the above mug was reccomended.

I like inspirations and if I see ones that I like, like the above, I save them. Mostly I save them on my Inspirations board on my Pinterest.

I like little Binto box type containers and the neat idea above to pack containers with all the fixings for a turkey taco salad. They just mixed a taco mix in ground turkey and fried it up. Then they had containers for Greek yogurt, pico de gallo and shredded cheese plus a slice of lime. Then just some shredded lettuce. Very healthy and also yummy.

The above is the container on Amazon that they used for the fixings for the turkey taco salad. I love them and am going to get some.

The above is the containers that they used for the meal prep. I think it would be fun to have prepped meals in the fridge to have on hand.

The above cow cake was made by Gesine Bullock for Cabot cheese for their 100th Anniversary. Gesine is Sandra Bullock’s sister and she also had her own food network show. She lives in Norwich, Vermont and has a big white colonial house with her hubby, Raymond who she sometimes calls “Raymo”. She also teaches baking at King Arthur Flour and has her own baking school at her house. I love that cake. The skill that it took to make that cake is awesome. She is a self taught baker as well as writing several awesome cookbooks. She also is associated with Cabot cheese and is a lawyer as well.

Gesine made the inside of the cake a buffalo plaid like the label on Cabot Seriously Sharp Cheese. So clever and she used red velvet and chocolate cake and then a chocolate frosting.

When Gesine first went on the food network and the show was filmed from her house in Vermont, I totally enjoyed every single episode. Some day I want to take one of her classes in Norwich. She also has a couple of classes on line on Craftsy which changed their name to Blueprint and I had access to those classes. I really liked her pie baking class and her French pastries class.

I also like the Create channel and P Allen Smith. He has some neat cookbooks and also recipes from the garden. He has some of the most beautiful gardens that I have ever seen. I love the above show that I watched where he put a tomato plant in the middle of a container and then herbs for pizza around the container.

He had rosemary, basil, flat leaf parsley and thyme plants that he put in the container. Then he told how to cut the herbs in a way that would make them grow back more and more.

The above is the pizza that he made using the herbs from the container that he called his Pizza herbs container. What a fun idea.

There are so many fun ideas out there.

Serving this salad in cucumber rings as pictured will give you major presentation points for a special occasion

Ingredients

2 tablespoons chopped pecans

2 medium cucumbers, peeled

3 cups mixed baby greens

2 cooked thick-cut bacon slices halved

1/3 cup shredded or matchstick carrots

1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese

How to Make It

Step 1 Place chopped pecans in a single layer in a shallow pan.

Step 2 Bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes or until lightly toasted, stirring occasionally. Let cool 30 minutes or until completely cool.

Step 3 Using a Y-shaped vegetable peeler, cut cucumbers lengthwise into very thin strips just until seeds are visable. Discard cucumber core.

Step 4 Make a ring with the cucumber strips inside a small, see through glass bowl.

Step 5 Fill each cucumber ring evenly with mixed greens, next 3 ingredients, and toasted pecans. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Drizzle each salad with 1 Tablespoon White Wine Vinaigrette, and serve with remaining vinaigrette.

Step 6 Note: Y-shaped vegetable peelers can be found at most kitchen, home goods and discount store.

White Wine Vinaigrette

Ingredients

1/4 cup white wine vinegar

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 garlic clove, minced

1/2 cup olive oil

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

How to Make It

Whisk together 1/4 cup white wine vinegar and next 3 ingredients until blended. Add oil in a slow, steady stream, whisking constantly until smooth. Whisk in salt and pepper to taste. Store in the refrigerator in an airtight container up to 1 week.

Makes 4 servings

A good morning for heart warming coffee for sure! It has rained all week here and the rivers are all really high and there are flood warnings.

Little kids always love puddles on days like this.

It’s just a good day to stay warm and cozy inside with a nice cup of coffee.

If you people watch, little kids will linger a little ways behind their Mama’s and walk and splash their feet in any puddle they come across.

Today is the perfect day for a nice bowl of hot soup and a Spring type wrap.

On days like this, there is always a kind of fog that is heavy in the air and the ground is covered with dew from all the rainy days in a row. Rural areas are quiet and peaceful.

I like coffee mugs and collect all kinds of them.

I love farmers markets and food co-ops. And what is not to love about an ice cold mug of craft beer. So I guess that I was born in the right state. 🙂