5 thing Friday - tacos, plant babies, yard work, what I don't know, revisiting places

I accidentally bought the wrong kind of flour tortillas - the ones that you basically have to cook.  In the skillet, they puff a little and brown nicely and are delicious!

So I've been making tacos more often!  The ones above are made with pre-cooked shrimp that I sauteed in seasonings and served with tomato, cheese, and green onions.  Tater tots on the side for no good reason.

These are beef, with sauteed zucchini, onion, and orange bell pepper.  I may be a little obsessed with tacos lately as my appetite has greatly improved.

My little collection of plant babies.  I have since moved the owl house back to the garage.  Nothing had nested in it and the squirrels chewed it, so I need to repair it and figure out a better place to put it.

The deck is a nice place to enjoy my coffee.

Soon I will have a baby airplane plant for The Girl.

I don't know squat about trimming trees, and I have to remind myself of that general truth from time to time. In any case, I gave the skinny trees on either side of the garage a haircut recently.  That BBQ grill went to the curb for Big Trash Day and disappeared within hours.

For  most things I know zip about, I will hire someone.  Like getting the mower serviced. The gentleman who worked on it got it looking and working like new in less than an hour.

I read that I should revisit some of the places Mark and I enjoyed going to together in order to reclaim them as my own.  This is such a place - a brewery in Liberty Hill.  Last time we were here together, my sister and BIL joined us and we gave them a tour of Darby.

This time I mostly had the place to myself and the weather was really pleasant.  I spent an hour or so in the relative peace and thought "Mark would have enjoyed being here today". I hope this lonely time does not last forever and that these places we used to visit will bring happy memories when I return to them.

Gina

Bed pads for Darby

Slowly but surely I am getting Darby situated.  Next on my list was making bed pads, covered by a long pillowcase made out of sheet fabric, so that we aren't sleeping directly on the upholstery.  I started out with this egg crate pad we had on top of the memory foam mattress in Mabel:

When I cut it in half lengthwise, it was a perfect fit in Darby.  The sheet/duvet I had made for Mabel was deconstructed, then re-sewn into two long pillowcases that the foam pad slips into.

Voila!  Now we can slip it off to wash it easily and it provides just a tad bit more padding on the bed bunks.  On my side I rolled it up so Hubby could see what I meant by it being a bolster - I could not for the life of me get him to understand what I was doing...it cost me nothing more than an hour to make both of them, including cutting the foam.  My favorite kind of sewing project!

Now I need to get some fabric to re-cover the flannel camp pillows.*  Can't wait to stretch out in here for my first nap...

Gina

*Done
two standard pillowcases ($5) made into French fold cushion covers (30 minutes) for those old flannel toss pillows.  Inexpensive, washable, pretty.

Meet Darby

We picked up our new baby, Darby, {aka Winnebago Travato} last weekend.

Its been raining for what seems like forever here, so it was hard to get a good pic of her when we first bought her.  All the credit of finding her goes to Hubby who has been on the hunt for a travel van for what seems like the last two years.  She is 4 years old and has less than 20,000 miles on her.   She was kept under cover so she is pristine.  The previous owners upgraded her here and there, and she was very gently used.

She takes up most of one side of the driveway and attracted the attention of our neighbors fairly soon after she arrived.  We spent a day, freshening her up and adding on that cargo rack.

Come on in!

She has a nice roomy cab.  All business in the front, party in the back.

(couldn't help myself)

She has the same size cooktop as Mabel, pretty much, but a larger sink, combo microwave/convection oven, and a good size fridge/freezer.

Her bunks are very comfy.  I want to protect the cushion covers, so I  will likely make roll-up mattress pads with sheets, but I'm still working on that design...For now, the blankets are stored in Hubby's overhead compartments; miscellany and cookware on my side.

I bought Hubby a travel journal and some info on Texas state parks, which he has yet to find on his bunk. 

YES.  No more pee funnel or squatty potty.

(Also, do you see my trash can out on the curb?)

I'm going to add another shower curtain so we will have full coverage back here - its a small space but the curtain rod wraps all the way around, held by clips.

She has lots of storage.

I think we will be very comfortable in her.  We can both stand up!

Did I mention all of the storage?  We managed to fit just about all of the stuff we pulled out of Mabel, but admittedly, some of it is not needed.  Live simply is our motto going forward.

Three "silvers"!

For a minute there, I was sad to have lost so much space in our driveway.  Her home base will be Camp Rustown so we can easily jump into her, get on the road,  and slip into the night...

First trip is a mini-excursion to Fredericksberg for a wine club pick-up this weekend!  Fun times ahead, ya'll.

Gina