Why I Oughta...

On Monday, I posted a photo of the new puzzle project (1000 piece wild bird puzzle) from Kodak and talked about how it was the fourth puzzle that I had taken on during Wintertime COVID.  This puzzle had been sitting on the table for a few days, so the progress shot here below isn't the result of two days.  It is more like seven days or so.  I started assembling the border and began to sort the color pieces into piles.  Here's where it stands now:  Like every puzzle project in our screened porch that came before this one, it always feels like it gets off to a slow start.  

Here's another Disney Parks pin that was in the recently uncovered stash of pins in my closet.  This one, however, isn't new.  It is NOT on a card, so I'm thinking we traded for it off of a cast member's board or lanyard.  PinPics says that it is from 2011 (or at least the companion DLR one with Sleeping Beauty's Castle is from 2011 ). This one features Tinker bell and Cinderella's Castle.  It is billed as "It's Magic" .   The pin "starts" as a black and white line drawing of the castle.    But, when you lift up on the tab that has the Walt Disney World logo and pull, you get a little color magic show with a full-color castle with fireworks.  It is kinda neat. This is a pretty THICK pin and like I said, has a easel on the back: The easel makes it seem like this pin is best set up on a shelf somewhere, but you guys know that we have a board and not a shelf.  Seems like I'll give it a go to see if it sticks in the board and will hang th

 Ten or so days ago, I posted a photo of the completed Disney Parks pin trading puzzle (750 pieces) and mentioned that the next one up was a Kodak puzzle featuring some wild birds like the ones we see in our backyard.  Today, that bird puzzle is up.  I was given this as a Christmas gift from the Babe and we just got started on it.   This one has some birds we see all the time including the Northern Cardinal, the Blue Jay and the American Goldfinch and some less common ones like the Scarlet Tanager that I spotted up in Wisconsin and the Indigo Bunting that we saw at Waterfall Glen .  This is the fourth Winter puzzle project we've taken on.  And the second 1000 piece one - the first being a Harry Potter book cover 1000 piece puzzle that I worked on right around Christmas . 

 I've just done something that feels a little bit out of my comfort zone.  I've registered for a pizza making class via Zoom that is coming up in a few weeks.  I'm thinking it is going to be incredibly interesting and fun and I'll learn quite a bit about Bar Pizza.  There is a little bit of prep homework you have to complete before the class begins including making some dough, prepping the various items and making some sauce.  The instructor (Pizza Web OG Adam Kuban) included in the class instructions a mention of his favorite tomatoes:   Scalfani Crushed Tomatoes.  I had not heard of them before.  But, it turns out, they're available on Amazon for a 12 pack for $27.82 .  That is NOT an affiliate link. The cans are adorable.  Here is the listing below: With 12 cans, they come out to be $2.32 per can, which I can't hardly beat at the local Mariano's.  Seems like only the Kroger house brand is typically cheaper at $1.99.  And most recently, our local Mariano&#

Here's a matched set of Disney Parks pins that were in that little stash that we came across last weekend - but these are a matched set of a matched set.  Of holiday character themed-mittens.   With the whole Bernie Sanders inauguration mittens meme,  I'm so *on* trend right with this post now, amiright?  The first one below is from 2015 Christmas at the Polynesian Resort (note: not yet the Polynesian Village Resort) featuring Stitch.  And the other one on the left is from the same 2015 Christmas/holiday celebration at Disney's Contemporary Resort featuring...for some reason...Tinkerbell in a Santa hat and outfit.  Both of these are on cute cards that carry the whole mittens-theme forward and are both marked "Limited Edition".  This is the most recent of the discovered 'stash' pins from Disney Parks on the blog.  ALL of my posts about various Disney Parks trading pins can be found here .  I also have created this running log of everything I've posted

As I often do during the deep part of Winter, my brain starts to think about the garden and the projects that I'd like to take on this season.  I've done a couple of years of to-do lists and those have been good ways of forcing me to focus.  In each of those years ( 2019 and 2020 ), I included trying a metal-frame topiary to the list.  And in both of those years, I never check the idea off my list . But, that hasn't stopped me from thinking about how to pull one off.  And, as I was tool'ing around the Web recently, I came across this Etsy store that sells all sorts of topiary frame s.  They're all really great.  Go have a look at this Pikachu one .  Or this Mickey Mouse head .  They also sell a full-body Mickey Mouse which looks really great .  It is $300, so maybe a little rich for a first-timer like me.  But, there also was one that caught my attention.  It is the one featuring Auburn University's A/U logo.  Here's a screenshot of the listing below.  (Ag

Yesterday, I shared a photo of a newly cropped small fern that I tried to bring inside this Fall and promptly neglected .  I mentioned that I repotted it, fed it and the lopped off the dead stuff.  I've put it out on the screened porch in the hopes that between the moderate temperatures, the higher humidity (than inside) and the light, it will recover with some new growth.   In that post, I mentioned that this fern was the second transplant project from outside with the first one being successful.  Hence, me thinking I could revive the fern in the same way. *That* first successful transplant was a Wire Vine plant. (or Angel Vine). It is named Muehlenbeckia complexa and Nat had it out in one of our planters on our front porch this Summer.  We dug it up, transplanted it and...mostly forgot about it.  I noticed it was stressed, so I transplanted it, gave it some composted manure, watered it pretty good and gave it a haircut.  I lop'd off all of the shoots that were bare and cut