“… and she rejoiced as only mothers can in the good fortunes of her children.”                                                                                                                                           – Louisa May Alcott

 

We are both blessed to have had mothers who loved us very much. Roy’s mom, Phyllis, died 40 years ago this past February, and Kevin’s mom, Irene, passed away in April 2014. We dedicate this post to them. Today we are sharing a couple of easy gift ideas. We also chose recipes which remind us of our mothers.

The photos above are: (L) Irene with daughter Christine and Kevin, (R) Phyllis and Roy.

PAINTED POTS

We embellished these terra cotta pots with acrylic paints. They make great gifts and are so easy a child could do it with a little supervision. The painted flowers are very simple. Use a cotton swap dipped in paint and create a flower by making a circle of 5 dots. Add a dot in a contrasting color to make the center, then paint a simple leaf on each side of the blossom. Include a painted message. Acrylic paints dry in less than an hour. Add a lovely plant, some faux flowers (as shown) or make the pot into a gift basket. (Hint: Double-click on any photo in our blogs to see a larger version.)

 

GARDENING GIFT BASKET 

We made this simple basket out of a watering can with a few basic necessities for the garden:   a small spade, a garden claw and some nice garden gloves. Plants add nice color. Seed packets and/or a gift card to the local nursery would finish off this gift quite nicely. Don’t forget that your help planting will be very much appreciated!

 

THIS WEEK’S GARDEN UPDATE

Our seedlings are doing very well! Following directions, we are now putting them in full sun.

 

JUST LIKE MOM USED TO MAKE

We all have some foods which, when we have them or even think of them, evoke special memories. Very often, those are the foods our mom’s made for us.

Kevin’s mom Irene made great meat loaf. Here is a tasty meat loaf recipe from Allrecipes.com:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Classic-Meatloaf/Detail.aspx?evt19=1&referringHubId=998

Roy’s mom Phyllis used to make delicious soft molasses cookies.                                                 Here is a recipe for molasses cookies from Food.com.

http://www.food.com/recipe/soft-molasses-cookies-260971

MOTHER’S DAY FACTS

• Roughly 65 per cent of all greeting card sales occur within the 5 days before Mother’s Day. (Huffington Post)
• Mother’s Day is the highest volume phone day of the year. (History.com)                                                                                                                    

Click on the link below for some more interesting information (check out the video):

http://www.history.com/topics/holidays/mothers-day

JOKE OF THE WEEK

Why do mother kangaroos hate rainy days? Because their kids have to play inside.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Roy & Kevin