Dips, Diddies, Coins, & Vision Boards

Silly me!  I didn't write these recipes down!  Oops!  But you will get to see some of what I have been eating as of late. 

First up is this little diddy.  It's Brown Rice, Chickpeas, Tomatoes, and Seasonings that I made last week.  It was tasty.  I literally just threw it together!

It's been a week or a few weeks of craziness and I just jotting down my recipes totally slipped my mind!

Yup!  There were various dips, too!  Like this one!  I can't recall everything I put in it but I'm sure it was Cashews, Red Bell Pepper, Smoked Paprika, and probably Lemon Juice at the very least.

I really thought I was going to make at least a couple of soups because it has been so cold this week but I didn't have time.  As I type this it's -2F actual and wind chills in the area made it feel like -25 to -30F.  YIKES!

Here's another dip I make last weekend.  I used the last little bit of vegan mayo I had in the frig, garlic, smoked paprika, lemon juice, a handful of cashews - were probably involved - and most likely some black sea salt - but just a pinch.

What dips have you been trying lately?

I told you I was going to start doing monthly Vision Boards.  Here is my first one and it's a mish mash of things but then again I think that what Vision Boards are mostly.  Things you want to do - things to inspire you - things you want to remember - and things you want to work towards!

This month...Start Each Day With A Grateful Heart was the re-used calendar visual I grabbed from my old 2017 calendar in my office.  Instead of throwing old calendars away I re-use them as other art in some way, shape, or form.  I added a lot of peace, love, laughter type things, too!  Also time to play, do yoga, smile, socialize, etc.

While cleaning last weekend this was one of the many  past projects I found so I thought I would rehang it on the wall. 

As you may have noticed I reuse clothes hangers to hang artwork.

I have also been experimenting with my old alcohol inks again.  I hope to post some of those projects down the road, too!

I was able to reach a mini goal of setting aside a space for my yoga again but I have yet to actually do it.  Perhaps this coming week I will be able to check that off my list, finally.

Things seem to be coming along with my mini-goals.

Another mini-goal for next week is to get to the post office and mail more coin swaps!

I'm having fun with the site I found and have already doubled my collection in 2 weeks.  There is a local shop I have found a lot of them for cheap and I got my firs swap in today, actually! 

I currently have coins from 61 countries!  YAY!

Office Plant Update!

I know it has been a full week since my last post but I have had some really upsetting news as of late.  Perhaps one of these days I will share it but I'm not there yet.

In addition, I had some sort of weird flu bug from Saturday thru Monday.  At first, I thought it was a frozen flatbread pizza I had bought and not cooked right but after a couple of days and the way my body responded I knew it wasn't the pizza. 

Perhaps I was in denial or maybe it's because I'm NEVER sick.  I don't know...but it confused me.  I bet I haven't had the flu in at least 12 or 13 years (maybe more).  Plus, in 19 years of working at the place I currently work at - I have only taken a total of 4 sick days and 2 and a half of them were because of Sammy (our late dog) in 2009.

Anyhow, I thought I would do a post on my plants! 

It's been a LONG while since my last update.  The first photo above - is my treasured Ponytail Palm.  To see what it looked like when I first obtained it take a look at THIS POST from May of 2014.

In this 2nd photo, you will see a Praying Plant of some sort.  At dusk, it will rise upward like it's praying. 

This is one of the plants I recently transplanted.  Out of all of the ones I did attempt to transplant this one is the droopiest. 

These next two photos are of the same plant that I had a 'baby' or an 'offshoot' of and when I was transplanting the plants decided to try and break them up to be their own beings from here on out.  So far - so good!

You can see this one has the 'babies' that are traveling.

In the next photo, you will see how I separated them.

We re-use planters and mix old with new soil.  I use tea water, mostly, to water the plants, too!

Because we have obtained a lot of decorative tins and used box tops around the office, we now re-use these to place under the bottoms of the plants to catch any excess water.

I will never underappreciate the natural sunlight that shines thru my windows at work - I adore it!  Before I switched jobs here I was in the main office and nowhere near a window.

I'm not sure the exact name of these plants but I'm thinking they are some sort of spider plant.

I think this is some sort of spider plant, as well.  I've had this one for a while, too, but the first 6 months or more it just kept growing taller and floppy and nothing else, really. 

And then it happened!  Offshoots!  You can see two of them towards the floor.  I was thrilled!  I hope I start seeing more of these so I can try and re-plant the 'babies'.

This plant was so HUGE I wasn't sure where to put it so the last time I transplanted it (which was almost a year ago) I decided to place it on a chair.

If you know any of the names of these plants please let me know and I will surely update this post!

This one was a gift from my parents almost 4 years ago now.  They got it for me when I switched jobs.  Same company.  Different Job, that is. 

I thought it wasn't going to make it but once I started watering it with tea water it seemed to save it.  I've transplanted this at least 3 or 4 times already.  It keeps growing like crazy!

At one point it had a neat little white pouch of a bud and flower but that only lasted 3 days.

I noticed yesterday that this one has another plant growing in the same pot alongside of the BIG one so at some point I might try and start a new pot for the little one.

I don't care for the name of this plant.  It's not very P.C. so my co-workers and I decided to give it a new name instead.  Before taking this pic I had to untangle a lot of the vine.  This one seems to be doing extremely well, too, but, there isn't a real rhyme or reason to how or where it's growing.  Just every which way, really!

I LOVE the two-tone leaves on this.  Green and white on the one side and the underneath side is a rich purple color! 

I might have to find a hanging basket for this guy at some point. 

And speaking of having to find a hanging basketing for a plant - check out the next and last photo! 

Yup!  Here's an Ivy Vine Plant of some sort and it's growing and traveling and going a little nuts, too!

This started as a leaf from another plant that a co-worker gave me.  She actually gave me 3 leaves of her plant to try planting on my own.  After months the leaves weren't doing ANYTHING but after I removed the 2 weaker leaves the 3rd one started budding and traveling!

How cool is that!?  This is now about 5 feet tall (or long) - depending on how you look at it I guess.  And the only way I know it's about 5 feet in length is because I'm just over 5 feet tall (or short in my case). 

I don't see this one slowing down any time soon!  Do you have any house or office plants that are doing well at the moment?  I would love to see and/or hear about them!

 

Future Rooftop Garden

4 of us at work are going to try and do a Rooftop Garden this year! 

A co-worker and I went to an Indoor Gardening Class last night thru Jamestown Community College Warren Campus and the Penn State Ag Extension.  It was fun and VERY informative.  Much of the Indoor stuff we probably won't be doing especially when it comes to lighting, etc...but we walked away with many more ideas for the project we have planned!  I'm VERY excited about this actually! 

We will also be trying to re-use and re-purpose old equipment as much as possible - since there is so much of it around our building.

One of the main places we have decided to 'shop' for our seeds is Seed Saver Exchange.  So far...here is what we have planned from this catalog...Bill - one of our part timers was interested in A & C pickling Cucumbers.  My Mother-In-Law who is also our office manger wanted Stupice Tomatoes.  Casey who is one of our Sales People checked off Joe's Long Cayenne, Hot Portugal, Tolli's Sweet Italian, and Georgia Flame Hot Peppers.  Sam - who is our production person would like to do Amish Snap Peas, Green Arrow Peas, and Cherry Roma Tomatoes.  Then there is me...I'm interested in...Dragon Carrots, Watermelon Radishes, Alma Paprika, Mini Chocolate Bell, and Sheepnose Pimento Peppers, as well as Black Cherry, Blondkopechen, Isis Candy Cherry, Lemon Drop, Tasty Evergreen, and Ukrainian Purple Tomatoes.

Karen, Sam, and Casey have had garden's before and I know that Karen and Sam are very good at Gardening.  Casey said he would provide most if not all of the dirt, and Bill will help us out when ever he can, too!

This is just a Pre-Post of sorts to tell you what we are up to but I will be posting more pics very soon!