Is It Too Hot??!!

Aren't my tomatoes pretty?

I'm surprised

I have any with how hot and dry

we've been

here in the NE area, actually

I think the

majority of the east coast is

suffering.

We returned from our trip to TN

and the weather

there is the same as it is here in

PA!

Hot, Humid, Hazy and just

plain

MISERABLE!

But today I'm feeling miserable.

Thursday afternoon

I started to have a dry cough

that hurt, a little.

Then Friday morning I went to work

and started feeling

dizzy, sweaty, shaky, and very

tired.

I did my job and went to the grocery

store to get some

Chicken soup ingredients.

Came home,

finished my work online, and made

soup.

I've been on my couch ever

since.

Drinking green tea, watching Hallmark

movies, or TCM movies.

There is nothing worse then being sick when

its

a 100 degrees outside.

But I'm not sure what I have.

not sure what's going on,

my boss

thought maybe heat exhaustion

but I don't do

anything in this heat.

I

HATE

the heat so I stay inside

mostly.

I drink plenty of liquids.

I thought maybe

the flu,

but its not,

the headaches and dizziness

are not fun.

I'm still coughing, a dry cough

that hurts

what in the world do I have??

So I'm home today

feeling sorry

for myself, and at the same

time,

very frustrated.

Someone

shoot

me!

Hope your weekend is alot

better than

mine!

Chillin' on a Sunday Afternoon

The weather here today was absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!! It really feels like Fall is just around the corner, and eventhough I love Fall, I don't like what comes after that, WINTER!! Which means no more Chillin' on a Sunday afternoon on the swing, reading one of my favorite magazines, Where Women Create. No more iced tea or lemonade on the swing taking in the fresh air. So I have been loving our summer. Its been unusual here, but I'm not complaining. So I took the afternoon and read, until I had to go in and get a sweater. Yes, a sweater in August.

After relaxing on the swing, I walked around my garden and picked flowers and I made a beautiful bouquet with sweet pea, black eyed-susan, coneflower, roses, lavender, mums and one other flower that I can't remember the name of, I'm having a mind block. It'll come to me later. Isn't it pretty??

Then I came in after picking more tomatoes, to make homemade salsa. YUMMY!!

I love my food processor. I've probably mentioned this before, but its one of the best gifts given to me by my parents. I use it for almost everything. It's wonderful, I don't know what I did without it, oh yea, I chopped by hand. This is a timesaver. They bought me a bread machine one year, well, I no longer have it. I made bread so much, that I wore the poor machine out. It died!! I was devastated. So now, I have a food processor. Such a loyal companion.

Margaritas please!! Time for chips and salsa!

All Staked Up

Ok, I realize I need to have three seperate blogs, one for my sewing/crafting business, the second for cooking and family and the third for gardening. But I guess if "My Casa Bella" means My Beautiful Home, then gardening plays a role in that and so does family, right? Well, I think so. Yesterday my poor husband and I spent in total 3 1/2 hours in staking up our 12 tomato plants, or is that 15, I don't remember I lost count. But I did not realize how time consuming it was to do all this, and how much it was going to cost us to purchase the stakes that better last us years to come. Our neighbor even commented that by the time we get done purchasing these stakes we might as well have bought tomatoes at the markets.....LOL. Well, she is right in one way but it would take away the satisfaction of going out to our own garden and picking the tomatoes, besides these are heirlooms which you can't by at a store and if you do they charge too much. So yes, we spent alot of money, but the seeds were a gift from a friend so the tomato plants were free. And they are delicious. I'm now waiting for the bountiful of tomatoes so I can make sauce......YUM.

Bountiful Veggies

Well, I wouldn't say they're bountiful, but its just the beginning. We've been slowly picking cucumbers, peppers and little tomatoes these past couple of weeks. But there are two problems, we're getting TOO much rain!! My poor tomatoes are not growing very big and they're rotting. The other problem, I must confess, I haven't been paying much attention to my veggies. The tomatoes need staked up terribly, because of this, they're not getting sun, not enough sun, so I'm adding to the rotting problem. I'm ashamed, I took such good care of them when I first planted them, and I've let them go wild. So this evening, my hubby and I staked up only 3 plants, out of 12!! I didn't buy enough stakes, STINK!!! So tomorrow I'll have to go and buy at least 10-15 more stakes. But I'm certain, once they're staked up, they'll do much better and I'll have tomatoes growing out of my head! One plant is taller than me staked up!! I've never seened such a thing before.
So I have lots of plans for this tomatoes, I hope they hang in there for me, I'll never neglect them again, Well, I'll try.....LOL.
By the way, all those little green ones fell off as we were staking, poor babies, they'll have to ripen on the windowsill now. Any one say, Salsa!!!??

Ok, so when I first started this blog, I started out saying how excited I was that Spring was finally coming. My flowers are coming through, everything is so green. I weeded a little this morning. Now I need to go and buy flowers. But in March I started these Tomato Seedlings. I have 4 dozen of them. Now, I won't plant them all, I will give some away to family and friends but I will plant at least a dozen or more. They were given to me from a friend and she does hers by seed. They're heirloom. I've never done heirloom before. Some of the plants I never heard of. But since I like making my own salsa and spaghetti sauce, she thought I would love these. So right now, they're growing quickly. I water them every other day and I can't wait to get them in the ground. This will be my first time doing it this way. Otherwise, I go to the nursery and by the plants. So I can't wait.