Amazon.com = Temptation

Let me tell you, getting on a good string of books on Amazon.com is just about like getting on a good string of decorating/DIY/creative blogs in blogland.

Amazon is one of those sites that has the awful but brilliant 'items you may also like' feature.

And so, even though you innocently only searched for one book, you soon find yourself with a whole string of them on your wish list.

And then the other problem is that they're all so reasonably priced.

And I want to order them all so that I can look in their pages and see what new inspirations and photos they might hold.

But today I was good. Ok, mostly good. I only bought one for $1.89. :-)

And before you know it, vintage interior decorating turns into vintage campers...

And as you wander through the many temptations on vintage campers, you soon find yourself on aprons, pies, clotheslines and any other number of topics to tempt yourself, including the title 'Dozens of Ways to Repurpose a Pillowcase' that has the cutest little girls' dresses strung out on a clothesline on the cover.

The deeper you go, the worse it gets. :-)

All of these titles are available on Amazon.com, but consider yourself warned. If I had unlimited spending money, my shelves would be full of books that are full of inspiration.

Chalk Paint: Taking the plunge

Well, I did it - I took the plunge today and ordered some of Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint to try on my crib project.

Why spend the money on the chalk paint? Because I really wasn't looking forward to sanding down each individual crib slat, and with chalk paint there is said to be no sanding or priming necessary! And, I haven't spent much of my baby things/baby room nest egg, so that's how I justified the price tag, which is steep.

The color I ordered is Emperor's Silk. Yes, it looks somewhat florescent in this paint can, which is the image on the site I ordered from, but I'm confident that once I get it and once it's dry it won't be so pink. :-)

Also, another trick to adapt and manipulate the colors of chalk paint is through wax.

Every coat of chalk paint should be sealed with wax, according to all the instructions I can find, to protect it and bring out a nice sheen, if that's what you want and you choose to buff it.

The owners of Shades of Amber, which is based on Colorado Springs, kindly gave me a call after I placed my order to clarify some order details, and to make sure that I knew every coat of chalk paint has to be first sealed with clear wax, and then dark wax added, if desired. I did not know that, and had not come across that in my research, so I was glad they called. I changed my order from dark to clear wax, and he said he's go ahead and send along a sample of the dark for me to try, which I appreciated.

So, the paint and wax should arrive on Saturday, just in time for my DIY weekend list! I just have Saturday this weekend, as we plan on going to brand at Kaycee on Sunday, but hopefully I can at least get a start on it.

Visit Shades of Amber's blog to see a few samples of what chalk paint can do, and view Miss Mustard Seed's post about the finer points of using wax on furniture.

Chocolate + Raspberries = A Summer Pie

Because I hosted company for dinner twice last week, that meant I got to bake two pies. :-) The second that I chose from the Martha Stewart summer pie series in the June issue of the magazine was Chocolate Raspberry Pie, after baking the Peach Custard Pie earlier in the week.

Again, I baked my tried-and-true Flaky Pastry pie crust, instead of the chocolate mixture they had... the chocolate would have been more adventurous, but it was already getting late in the evening, and it wanted to be chilled for an hour, so I decided to stick with the basic recipe.

Here it is, ready and waiting for the next step. There's something very promising about an empty pie crust - like a blank canvas waiting to be filled in with any number of possibilities. :-)

I first filled mine with a melted chocolate mixture. The recipe called for bittersweet chocolate, and I used unsweetened baking chocolate, which ended up probably more bitter than it should have, but, when combined with the raspberries and ice cream, it actually was a nice combination to not have sweet chocolate.

It was at this point that I put it in the refrigerator to chill and went to bed, to be continued the next morning.

This random sweet puppy face showed up on my camera in the midst of the pie photos... It must have been the doing of Scott the next morning, before I came upstairs.

So the morning's first task was to make the raspberry syrup, by crushing a few of the raspberries and combining with some sugar, cornstarch and water.

This is how it looked after simmering a few minutes.

Then I tossed the rest of the fresh raspberries with the syrup.

And added them to the pie crust atop the chocolate filling. We enjoyed it with vanilla ice cream that evening with Emily and Morgan, after a trip out to see the mares and foals, and it was very tasty and the recipe was approved by all.

Baby Update: Two Trimesters - Check

Well, we're officially 28.5 weeks into pregnancy, and that means we're also in the third trimester. Where has the time gone? In January, it seemed like we had forever before the baby got here, but now we're only 12 short weeks away from due-date.

The photo above Scott took on Saturday when we'd finished gathering and trailing some cows up at the grazing association. His big black gelding Deets was my faithful steed that day, as my mares are still out of commission, with Jazz's Cindy Lou being pretty young yet, and April still not foaled out.

So far, so good with baby growing. I had my blood glucose test last week, and all those results turned up fine. My doctor has switched me to three-week checkups instead of four, and the baby is still in a breech position at this point. I thought it might have turned yesterday, but not yet. It does still like to move around almost constantly.

Still no cravings, except that I have started to eat more fruit than I used to, and I'm still getting away without purchasing maternity pants. Of course, my most expensive ones are my most comfortable, but several of my other pairs are also still working ok.

With only 12 weeks left to go, I need to get after sanding down the crib for its makeover. We also need to plan a furniture-moving evening and invite some strong friends over, when the armoire and crib can go downstairs, as well as the dresser that will be my changing table, and the loveseat needs to come upstairs to be moved to my office at the Roundup.

We received the money to purchase a jogging stroller from Scott's sister Penny, and I need to go to one of the local baby stores here in town and see what she has. I want a jogging stroller not for jogging, but to be able to get around in all-terrain situations, like up at the ranch and in the corrals. I can only imagine fighting with those that I think of as "mall strollers." I also need to research car seats and have one of those on its way.

In addition to those purchases, I still have some DIY projects on my list, like curtains, fitted mattress sheets, chair cushions, etc for sewing projects. I'd like to make a baby quilt out of the red and green checked fabric that we used for our reception centerpieces - I thought that would be a great way to repurpose.

Speaking of reception centerpieces, I never properly posted about our wedding party on Memorial Day weekend - something I hope to get to this week. The decorations turned out nicely, and I was pleased with how they looked, and they were simple and inexpensive to put together, which was my main goal.

Roundup designer for the week

This photo was one of the main focuses of my biggest task last week - laying out the paper for Tracy, our designer, to give her somewhat of a week off.

Our intern Tressa wrote the article about how the Casper College men's rodeo team made it to the College National Finals Rodeo (CNFR) for the first time in a long time, and it was that photo above, or this one below, that I chose to use on the cover of the June 11 paper.

I didn't really know how to make the photo itself stand out in our cover layout, so what I ended up with was this image below, after I'd cut out and cleaned up the photo's subject in Photoshop, and applied Pioneer Woman's 'Old West' action at a diluted opacity - I like the drop shadow it created:

And, after creating new color swatches from the bronc saddle and from the red team vest, this is the color scheme I ended up with for the cover:

After somewhat of a fight - and figuring out how to create a clipping path in InDesign - I got the text to wrap around the image, and am pretty pleased with how it ended up.

The other articles on last week's cover featured the CattleFax report on cattle markets from the Stock Growers convention in early June, the most recent Wild Lands happenings, a new bill introduced to Congress on federal lands grazing regulations, and an update on the state's runoff situation. That last one wasn't supposed to be an article - just a short 100-word update - but my source for that information is excellent, and before I knew it I had 1,400 words in notes and another article for the cover.

So that's a little bit of what kept me busy last week, in addition to hosting dinner for the Roundup girls Monday and having Morgan and Emily Zelch for the night on Friday night. The evenings in between were spent on house projects, and this last weekend was spent moving cows at the Association and watching the Bulls, Broncs and Breakaway performance yesterday at the CNFR.

A yard in the works

Even though I got to spend some time on my yard and flowers last weekend, most of the projects have yet to be "done."

I worked on moving seedlings outside, purchased a few spikes and viola plants, and also brought home some Carl Forster grass to use as a background in my front flower beds.

Because it will be a little while until my own seedlings start to bloom, I purchased a few bedding plants to get started on some color. The grass in the middle of the planter in the foreground is some kind of grass with 'toffee' in the name, and I love it. Those two planters I purchased this spring at Menards - they hook over a porch railing, so hopefully I won't have trouble this summer with Link knocking things to the ground below.

Three clumps of the Carl Forster grass are on the left side of the front stairs, and one clump is on the right side in the smaller, narrow bed. The logs for edging will be cut in half so they're not so tall - as it is my flowers would have to be 15 inches tall before anyone could see them from the street.

This grass is supposed to be low maintenance and get pretty tall, so I think my only concern is killing it with overwatering. It gets really pretty when it's had a chance to mature and send up multiple seed heads, which turn tan in the fall and add structure through the winter months.

So far the zinnias have stayed true to their hardy nature and have transitioned well to outside. The cosmos and gazanias, not so much. Having some pretty good death loss with them, and even some of the zinnias, since the last couple days were really hot, with a very strong sun. Today is cooler, so they should get some respite and establish a little better.

I have four pots like these with some of the zinnias in them. Like I said, after the heat I'll need to replace a few of the plants that couldn't take it. They're a taller variety of zinnia, so I put them with the big spikes that could hold their own when the flowers take off and grow.

This mystery plant started growing in my wheelbarrow planter, and I wasn't sure if it was a weed or the daisy coming back. Monday evening Tracy and Jody took a look at it, and confirmed that it is, indeed, a daisy, so I've started watering it and I'll put some of my seedlings in this planter, along with some vinca vine that Jody gave me that will trail over the side.

Of course the dogs were in the yard to help me whenever I was out there working.

And Link also participated in his supervisory role, as usual. The purple plant behind him is one that I overwintered, and I repotted it in a bigger planter to give it more elbow room. A few hours after repotting I thought I'd killed it, but luckily it came right back and is happy once again. I would have been very sad if it had died, because I love it with its purple leaves and delicate white flowers.

Scott also offered his supervision after arriving home Saturday from the McNabb horse sale.

Since the weekend there have been a few tweaks to the yard and flowers, but not much. I spent yesterday evening mowing and trimming, and this morning I sprayed the rocks on the street corner with Roundup to keep the weeds out of there.

The to-do list still includes planting the rest of the seedlings, digging holes for two new cottonwoods in the front yard, replacing the lattice in the front porch, artfully arranging the patio with our big stumps leftover from firewood serving as platforms for my container gardens, and moving the last of the firewood that we won't use until fall to the north yard. I think we're officially out of wood stove season! As much as I love the stove, I'm glad we no longer need it, if only for two or three months. :-)

Peach Custard Pie and a Girls' Party

Sunday evening I spent preparing food for Monday evening's Roundup girls' dinner, which I hosted as a get-to-know-you, welcome-to-the-team event for Tressa, our editorial intern this summer, and Saige, our assistant editor.

Along with Ranch Potato Salad, Marinated Tomatoes and Dijon-Rosemary Steak and Lemon-Garlic Shrimp marinade for build-your-own kabobs, I also put together a Peach Custard Pie.

Although many pie recipes that I come across come along with their own pie crust recipe, I always stick to my mom's Flaky Pastry recipe. I'm not sure where it came from, as I just have it written on a recipe card, but it most always turns out good for me, and most times I can make it flaky.

This was one of those recipes, since it was for custard, that required the pie crust to be baked before the filling was put in.

To easily peel the peaches, you place them in boiling water for a minute or two, then remove them to an ice bath before peeling and pitting them. I remember doing this in large quantities in Georgia, where my family had access to a peach orchard - all the peaches we wanted, there for the picking. We canned quite a few in those days.

The custard filling was very simple, but if I were to make it again, I might double the amount, as my deep pie dish kind of made the custard filling look a little skimpy. As it was, I had extra peach slices so I added them to fill the pie a little more.

And here it was, crust all baked, custard and peaches arranged, and ready to go in the oven for the final baking process. Quite cheery to pair with a summer's evening dinner and grilled kabobs.

The recipe came from the June 2011 edition of Martha Stewart Living, which included a whole series of summer pies - most of them fruit. I might have to keep working my way through the recipes, as I had a hard time choosing which one to make for this event. We're having company again Friday evening - friends Emily and Morgan on their way back from Idaho - so perhaps I will choose another recipe for them.

Other than that, I spent much time last weekend working on my gardens and yard, and it was really nice to have enough time that I could take my time deciding how to plant and where to put things. The zinnias I started from seed are doing the best so far, and they took the heat of the last few days in stride. We're supposed to have cooler weather now, so hopefully that will help the spinach, herbs and other flowers adapt better to being outside. Next time I start seeds, I will start them earlier, as many of my plants are still a little too delicate to transplant. It's all an experiment!

Absence

Wow, the last two weeks sure have been busy around here. Last Wednesday evening my company arrived from Iowa - those who are pictured with Scott and I in the photo above.

Following their arrival, the whirlwind continued with moving cattle, putting the paper out, organizing and transporting meals to the Association for those who were staying up there, cooking food for Saturday's big meal in the evening, packing the last of the decorations, running last-minute errands and maintaining my sanity. :-)

We branded our calves Saturday morning, and I got to put my C} brand on our steer calves, and it sure does look pretty! Then we finished decorating and setting up in early afternoon, and even had a couple hours down time before people began to arrive for our party at 4 p.m.

My parents headed back to Iowa Tuesday morning, and I went to the office for my only day in town this week. Wednesday morning at 5:30 I left for Cheyenne to meet up with the Wyoming Stock Growers at 8, who were on an all-day tour of the JBS Swift beef packing plant and feedlot at Greeley, Colo. Since then I've been in Laramie attending their summer convention, heading back for Casper this afternoon.

I'm looking forward to relaxing and having some down time tomorrow, before Scott and I leave town early Sunday morning for the Stone Ranch branding - where I got my favorite branding photos during last year's season. Think it will happen twice? I guess we'll know Sunday evening. :-)

Seedling Sage: an update

Before I become too engrossed with work on the paper this morning, I thought I'd share a quick update on my little basement seed-starting project, because as it is these photos are way late - I took them May 11.

These are my cosmos in the foreground, and gazanias in the back.

My zinnias are doing really well.

And many of the cucumber seeds sprouted and are doing great.

These were the snapdragons... were, because I gave up on them. They were just too delicate - even watering them with a spray mister knocked them down. I might attempt them again in the future, but they need a better situation. As it is, a few days ago there were only two or three left standing, so I got rid of them in favor of my easier seedlings.

So the above photo was what the table looked like while the seedlings were still in the seed starting trays, before I transplanted.

And here is a more recent photo of the trays they're in now. Those are the zinnias on the left, and the gazanias in the middle. You can barely see some cucumbers on the right.

I transplanted chives into the roaster pans I recently purchased at Salvation Army, and have spinach seeded around them.

Turns out my chive and spinach seeds stretched a long way... the two pots on the left side of the table also have chives and spinach. I'm curious to see how they'll sprout, as so far I've only sprouted things under the clear plastic dome trays, which helps keep a much more humid environment for the seeds. This project is entirely an experiment this spring!

Upstairs in the seed starting flats I have seeded herbs - rosemary, parsley and basil. I noticed this morning that some basil has sprouted. I'm not sure about how the rosemary will do, as Link has been a very naughty cat lately, and knocked that tray off the table, so who knows how deeply some of those seeds are buried. I guess time will tell. If I even get 10 plants to sprout, that would be sufficient rosemary for the summer.

So that's the latest on the seedlings - I'm looking forward to transplanting some of them in my containers outside in a couple weeks, as well as in my freshly-tilled flowerbeds.