Lemon Facial Toner ~ Butterfly Pea Flower Tea? ~ Weeding

I am trying a new facial toner to use at bedtime.  It's made with real lemon juice.  In the past, I have made one with rose petals.  I do have yet one more new recipe to try, but it uses a flower I would have to buy.  I'm on the fence with trying it yet.

Question for tea drinkers?  Has anyone tried butterfly pea flower tea?  Any benefits of drinking it?  Good sources to purchase the dried flowers for tea making?  

Question for those who crochet - what's the best beginner crochet kit for someone who wants to learn?  I have all the supplies, but I thought a kit would be a great way to teach the basics and actually make something too.  I see Knit Picks has kits, but wondered if any of you had suggestions.  I have another person asking me to teach them.

Or....if you have a book suggestion, and then I can put together the yarn and hook for the person, that would be great too.  I learned from my Mom, so have no "how to crochet" beginner books here.

(One of many books)

I have a bunch of library books to look at yet.  I have just been putting it off, as I'm exhausted at the end of the day.  I flipped through a few of them, and that's about it. 

The song "with a little help from my friends" comes to mind on a daily basis here lately (ha ha!).

I was gifted these garden knee pads by one of the kids.  I've used them once already, and love them.

I am back to weeding, but have only had one full, good day of it.  The weather is whacky for us again.  It goes from storm weather, to rain, to cold and windy, and so forth.  I have purchased disposable covers to put over my medical boot to keep it clean and dry.  It works for now.

 I have not meant to turn my blog into a "recipe" blog, but with everything I do, taking 5 times the amount of time to get done, there hasn't been much to post about.  I don't think you'd enjoy me prattling on about how I managed to get myself to my dental cleaning, and survived the long walk to get in and out of the place.  It's always busy, and the parking lot is always full.  I was actually late, but they smiled as they saw me hobbledehoy into the office (see, I'm prattling on...).

Having said it takes me longer to get things done, I have had little time to read or to crochet, but I have added a few more rows to the current baby blanket. 

I have also finished another baby washcloth (using discontinued thin cotton yarn).  

Lemon Facial Toner ~ Butterfly Pea Flower tea? ~ Weeding  © May 2024 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

Cleaning and Organizing ~ Books ~ Wild Violets ~ Homemade Rosehip Infused Oil

I'm getting some odd jobs crossed off the to-do list lately.  One was to wash the bed cover and bottom sheet from the spare mattress upstairs, and to wash a quilt we took out of storage for a few overnight guests.  They were all dried on the clothesline and put back into storage until we get cracking on the upstairs repairs and updates.

I'm sort of rotating from room to room, trying to get things cleaned up, organized, and back to normal, but some rooms like the utility room and the upstairs will take a lot of work yet.

I'm working on a few lighting options for two other rooms.  We've already began the search, but it's not on the important list, so it's whenever we are out, sort of fun searching.

I'm ordering items I need for the vegetable garden, but I do need a trip to the garden store soon.  I'm ready to tackle the flower beds as soon as the rain leaves this week.

I started a small batch of rosehip oil, but I had to re-order my organic jojoba oil.  Sheesh, the price of it has really gone up (what hasn't?), but it's still cheaper than to buy the oil already made for skin purposes.  I just learned that this infusion is not only good for age spots, but for scars too.  Interesting to learn new useful information, but I try to get most of my knowledge from books.

Speaking of books, I just put in an inter-loan order for another book that my husband thinks I should have.  I'll update you later when the book comes in.

Did you know that this book contains a ton of recipes from the TV show America's Test Kitchen?  They won't let you read the recipes online unless you have a membership, but even with the minimal membership I cannot access their TV show recipes.  I came across this gigantic book (not to get myself in trouble with so many recipes ha ha!) and am glad I did.  I can get this book for free, any time I want, from our library inter-loan program.  I used to love watching their show, but have not been able to for over year (no cable etc here).  I loved watching them test kitchen utensils and other foods, looking for the best buy etc. P.S. The book has over 1,000 recipes.

I have spotted a few wild violets already.  This particular color is the one I use to can the wild violet jelly I posted about.

Cleaning and Organizing ~ Books ~ Wild Violets ~  Homemade Rosehip Infused Oil  © April 2024 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

Catching up.....

Is anyone else having trouble with the photo icon button uploading photos from your computer?  It's different now, and when I click on it, browse button shows up and will go to my photos on the computer, but will not upload.  Any suggestions on this?  I will try emptying cookies etc.  

I've been using the library more often lately.  However, I catch myself loaning handiwork books or cookbooks, and that gets me into trouble with new projects.  The crochet project book has 3 different crochet patterns for baby washcloths.  I may have found a way to use up some discontinued yarn I have.  I'll update you on that later.  I will use them for gifting.  There are a lot of babies being born around us lately.

The cook book underneath has a great recipes to try.  I found their breakfast baked oatmeal recipes very good.  I have two more to try.  One with pears and another  I think with mixed berries.

Had to laugh the other day.  I was puttering around the house one evening, talking to my husband.  I looked out a window and saw a pretty good size gopher.  We continued to talk and I looked out a second time, and this time (I kid you not, ha ha!), there was a stray cat doing the low and slow attack crawl, stalking to attack the gopher.  Good kitty!  I have no idea if it caught it, but it was funny to watch.  I think the cat was smaller than the gopher was.

In light of my email being hacked,  I have a question.  Is there a way to get my entire blog put into pdf maybe by a service?  I can't afford to do the blog to book, as I have been writing it for the last 15 years.  I mean, I would like to have a copy in case I have to delete my account. Then again, do I really want a copy of it?  That is a lot of material posted over the years.

Question for those with a blog - do you use the "contact form" in gadgets?  If so, where does the message end up?  In your listed email?  Not sure I want to use their gadget.  Maybe find a widget for a contact form?  I don't want it in back in my profile where it was when it was hacked.  Thanks!

Catching up..... © Nov 2023 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart