My mom always kept her recipes in a recipe box, so of course that's what I did, too. I started keeping my recipes on index cards in a small box, and then transitioned to a larger recipe box with coordinated recipe cards. Over the years, as my recipe collection has grown, I've outgrown the recipe box. I had recipes stored in a gallon ZipLoc bag, recipes on the computer, recipes saved in email, recipes on post-it notes or pages torn from magazines, etc. I decided it was long past time to get organized. I bought a three-ring binder, a number of full page sheet protectors, quite a few sheet protectors with 4"x6" pockets for photos, and two sets of dividers. I reviewed every recipe in my collection, and tossed those I'm not likely to use. I'm very pleased with the result. Here it is!
My new recipe binder
I bought a honeysuckle vine a number of years ago, and tried to train it in a small obelisk in a planter on my patio. What a joke! I spent more time trying to weave the vine around the small structure and cutting back the long runners than I did enjoying the blossoms. When the wood planter finally disintegrated this year, I bought a new pot and transplanted the vine without the obelisk. What an improvement! I must have fertilized it as well, because the plant took off like crazy. Unfortunately, I wasn't prepared for the plant to get that large, so needed to find a new home for the vine. I did a little research and found a great planter and trellis combination that works well for the spot on my patio. I chose to keep the plant in a pot rather than plant directly in the planter. This plant loves its new home!
Corner trellis planter from Lowes
Husband and I went to our local Blackberry Festival this weekend (had a great time!), and it got us motivated. We came back home, husband picked a bowl of blackberries from our crazy hillside, and I baked a delicious blackberry pie. Yum! Not bad if I do say so myself.
MMMMM, good!
I've talked about our kitties before. One is a killer, and one is a lover. Or so we thought. Dash just turned four years old, and finally got her first kill! She was so proud that she brought it to the door to show us, and was disappointed we wouldn't let her (and the carcass) in the house. If you can't tell, we are very proud parents!
Notice the mouse sticking out of her mouth!
Hope your week is off to a great start!
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I'm impressed with your solution to recipe clutter. When we remodeled our kitchen a couple of years ago, I threw away a ton of recipes I'd cut out of magazines and newspapers over the years that I knew I'd never attempt and I put aside about 20 that that I promised myself to try within the next 12 months. You guessed it -- not only did I not try even one of those recipes I kept, I have no idea where I put them. Meanwhile, my tried & true recipes are either on computer printouts jammed into my cookbooks or on 3 x5 cards in a greasy, crumbling recipe box. I've tried to find a new box, but they're all 4x6 and won't fit in the room I have on my shelf. Maybe I should try to copy your approach....
ReplyDeleteAND 25 blogger points to you for using the word "obelisk" in your blog. I've always loved that word ever since UW and its sculpture on Red Square called "Broken Obelisk."
Love these solutions!!
ReplyDeleteEw! Dash and the mouse? Gross.
ReplyDelete