This hippo is very very tired. He's been flying all afternoon....Why? How? Good ol lawn equipment!

A fun time was had by all!

Can you spot the hippo? ^ (there)..............................................^blower!

So... this is one of the fun things that you too can do with lawn equipment. I am kinda kidding.. but thought y'all might like to see how we spend a weekday afternoon after the lawn gets mowed. Fun stuff!

Ok, y'all I think I worked out the comment section. Sorry for the delays. You have the option to comment and just put in your name, or even be anonymous. Let me know if there is more trouble!

I dug through the archive to find a pic to suit my mood. But, I didn't have a picture of chaos. Ok, it's not bad... good chaos. But what photograph can relay that word? The notebook I carry ?Neatly divided between bills and notes and lists and ideas and camera info and web host info and etsy items and the ebay list and the recipes to try... not to mention the area for um... my "meetings" with Mr.Claus. Or would chaos be the pile of pictures that I still need to find the "perfect" album for? Or, perhaps the growing collection of "food jewels" awaiting to be wired up into pendants and earrings? Then, there is the big picture of chaos... the world's state. Mankind. The environment. Maybe I tend to wrap myself up in a minute world of chaos just to escape the vastness of chaos that's just outside the door of my teeny-tiny little home. Maybe I hope that through my sites.. I can help people forget the world for a moment and just enjoy the simple little things like coffee and cupcakes and comfort food... mm sounds good to me.

The other night my hubby and I and my soon to be 2 year old went on a "date". Now, mind you the attention span of a toddler can be very short lived. Unless they're doing something the shouldn't be. Like playing with ice... or stealing tomatoes (cool waiter gave us a bowl full for her) or wanting "mo, mo" ketchup. We gave in to all her indulgences that night. Just so we could eat our steaks there... but it was worth it. She slept like a baby that night. Wait! Babies don't sleep! At least mine didn't at night. So, she slept like a dog that night. My dogs sleep ALL the time.

One of the small joys in life are homemade blueberry muffins with sugar crystals baked on top....it's just one of those summer things, along with fresh corn and watermelon and cherries and plums and peaches... man I love the produce stand.

These are the giant $5 chocolate chip cookies that they sell in Key West. Their aroma travels down Duval street beckoning the hungry tourists. You can see them start to look around for the source of the smell like hungry dogs sniffing for a dropped morsel of food. Then, they come across a glorious sight... HUGE chocolate chip cookies. Ch-ching says the baker... $5. But what a yummy $5 it is.

Another nice sight in Key West on a hot humid sticky day... ahhh a nice cold beer, to go, of course so you can still walk around and watch people following their noses into bakeries.

I filleted 4 tuna on this table. And fed lots of sea birds. Alfred Hitchcock would have gotten some great footage there. In case you're wondering... my hubby isn't a fan of the fillet table, but that's just fine cause he can back the boat to the ramp much better than I could ever dream of! So, it's a fair trade. Sushi from this table will be posted on my other site tomorrow. mmmmmm.

As I said in an earlier post, we were planning a trip to Key West to see if our pic made it a year. As the photo tells, it did. I got covered up,though. We left it just as we found it. It was a neat butterfly-ee feeling walking up to see. I don't know why. But there we are, still on the wall of a bar. In case anyone out there was wondering!

Can you believe... my sweet hubby left ALL our refrigerated items... so we had to go to the local store. AND!!!! I found a shiny new SWING A WAY for.. get this $3.99! I have the best souvenir already! YAY!

Hello friends.. weird I have more followers on my domestic site than this one... hmmm I need to start posting more useful information here! Well, I am leaving with my hubby daughter and boat for a little va-ca in Islamorada! I am bringing the laptop so expect some pics! And.. next week I am going to start putting more useful info for y'all on this site... unless there's protests? Much love, mamakeith

For years I had a "Swing A Way" can opener... YEARS I tell ya. Well, maybe that little can opener was just used to my southpaw way of using it, because it never worked right for my hubby. He got so frustrated with it one night that my can opener met its demise that way, and ended up in the trash. (sniffle...) since then, I have bought several other replacement that all broke. Or, maybe they can't handle a southpaw? My dear mother in law even got me a top of the line one as a "gag" christmas gift (she got me other things too!) and guess what? Broke. So, next week I am going to find myself a nice shiny new Swing A Way can opener. Yeah, I know I should have just gotten another one in the first place, but... then what woul I blog about?

A few years back, I purchased a ripe red tomato at a supermarket. I put it on my counter top. And I forgot about it, I went out of town for a week and came home to it. It was unchanged. So I said hmmmm. I left it there. Another week passed. Same. Now, at this time in my life, I was managing a health food store and I knew what was going on in the standard food industry. Maybe I just thought it was in an experimental phase. But no... this tomato had an EXTENDED life. Ugh. A month went by before it showed the tiniest speck of deterioration. (who needs green bags with tomatoes like these?!) I began to think, when I make cookies and bread... they don't last as long as the stores. Ugh. Now produce?
That's why I love produce stands. There's always rotten stuff around,(along with fresh, of course) and most of it hasn't traveled far to get there.Where I live we have lots of Latinos and Asians, so I can find the most unusual items, some of them would even inspire Dr.Seuss. I can always find something new and fresh... the drawback? I have to use it within a few days, because it goes bad. And, that's a good thing. (ooo I sounded live Martha Stewart there, eh?)

I keep binders with pages of magazines slipped into sheet protectors, I have been doing it since 1994, and they are my own personal "cookbooks". I will thumb through them for inspiration and lately, my (almost) 2year old daughter has developed a fondness for them. I realize that one day, they will be a small bit of food history... the same was my depression era cookbooks help to extend your food ration. These may be a bit of history... for someone one day.

I love this pic. It's my sweet husband getting a hug from our daughter. A picture is worth a thousand words. If I ever get down about life... I realize I have moments like these and it melts away any worry or stress that I have. I count my blessings each and every day.