Apples and Peppers oh my!

Last Saturday I went to the last Farmer's Market of the season here in West Bend, WI. I was a little sad, I do love the Market here. I picked up 20lbs of Macintosh apples, 15 green and pale yellow Bell peppers, 2 dozen Cherry Bomb peppers, a couple of heads of fresh garlic and some baby carrots.

I started chopping the Bell peppers this morning. Some I will dehydrate and some I will freeze for cooking with this winter. I have a ton of Jalapeños in the freezer I plan to make jelly with, so some of the Bells will go in with that.

Plans for the apples:
Apple sauce
Cinnamon Apples for canning
Peeling & slicing for the freezer
Dehydrating (drying) Apple chips for snacking


I'm a little under the weather today, but these all need to be done before they ruin so I'm working on them a little at a time to get them finished.

Have a good week everyone. :)

The Flu.............. and a Treasury

I've been MIA for a few days, my youngest son has been home with the Flu since last Wednesday so things are a little off kilter around here. I had hoped he would be back to school today - but no such luck. It's a short school week, with the kids being off Wed-Fri of this week already. I will be picking up school work later this afternoon or tomorrow for him to start working on when he is feeling better. Poor kid is actually feeling worse today than he has in the past week and is now running fever as well. Today is the first day for fever. :(

One of my items was featured in an Etsy Treasury today - so that was a definite nice pick me up for a foggy, drizzly Monday morning. Thanks Maddo!

Chicken or the Egg? Treasury by Maddo

Be sure to take a peek at the treasury as well as Maddo's fabulous jewelry and other items in her shop!

Happy Monday To Everyone!

Vintage Wood Soda Crates, Apple Crates & Egg Crates

I have an excellent variety of vintage wood crates available at Dakorah Designs on Etsy. I have lowered the prices of my wood crates to try and make them more affordable for everyone that would like to decorate with them.

Old wood crates have a variety of uses for storage and decoration in the home, workspace, garden shed or garage. They look great in a rustic or cottage decor home. You can use them to store books, garden items for easy carry to and from the garden, displays at craft or trade shows, you can even mount them on the wall for some really cool shadow box style displays.

We like using them to store extra towels and toiletry items in the guest bathroom as well. The possibilities are only limited by your imagination!

Home Sweet Home

I'm back from a great weekend in Chicago for the NARBC Reptile Expo. Loved catching up with old friends and getting to know new friends, but I am so glad to be back home and able to sleep in my own bed. :)

Chi Town Here We Come :)

Tomorrow we head down to Chicago Tinley Park for a big reptile expo (www.narbc.com). It will be a nice, quiet weekend get away for Dan and I, without the kiddo. :) We will get to catch up with old friends and get to know new friends better as well. Hopefully we will sell a bunch of our snakes we produced this year as well. ;)

I have a ton of new items to list in the shops next week, this week has just gotten away from me while we have been trying to get ready for the show this weekend. I have a few new moss gardens that are ready for new homes now, as well as some new succulents.

I think Wisconsin just skipped Fall all together - Saturday night its supposed to be 31! I'm so not ready for this cold, cold weather just yet. The majority of my tomato plants were late getting going this year due to an extremely cool, mild Spring and early Summer, so I lost the crops off of them.

TEAM WIST (Wisconsin Etsy Street Team) OCTOBERFEST SPECIAL ~ OCTOBER 3-11, 2009

TEAM WIST (Wisconsin Etsy Street Team) OCTOBERFEST SPECIAL ~ OCTOBER 3-11, 2009


As a proud member of Team WIST - The Wisconsin Etsy Street Team - I am participating in the Octoberfest Special Team WIST Sale October 3-11.

I am offering 15% off any purchase in my Dakorah Designs shop as well as Dakorah Gardens. This does not include your shipping fees. Just enter "octoberfest" in the comment to seller section at checkout and I'll refund your money via PayPal ASAP! :)

To see other great http://wist-etsy.blogspot.com/2009/09/octoberfest-special-october-3-11-2009.html specials from Wisconsin artists, check out the Team WIST Blog. :)

Moss gardens featured in an Xmas Shopping Guide :)

I sent off one of my moss gardens for review for an Xmas Shopping Guide from Burning Moon Products. Take a look, she is reviewing some great items for Xmas gift giving. Be sure to follow her blog to see what all she adds to the blog.

The Whirlwind Tour

Whew! Its been one heck of a week for me. :) I left last Wed morning about 3am heading to Ft Knox, KY from Just north of Milwaukee. Wed evening I got to socialize with my Army Cav Scout son and his Drill Sergeants and troop Commander, then Thur morn I watched him graduate from Cavalry Scout school and officially become a Soldier.

We left directly after graduation and headed to central Arkansas for my son to pick up his Jeep and for us to visit with family members that we had not seen in months. It was a great visit, but way too quick and too much driving. We spent 3 days in central Arkansas then headed back up here to Wisconsin, with Loren following me in his Jeep. One small blowout on his Jeep cost us 4 hours drive time and I ran out of steam and stopped to get a room for the night. We finally made it home Monday afternoon about 4pm.

I am still completely drained and worn out. Its been great having my son up here to visit before he has to report to his first duty station on 5 Oct, at Ft Campbell, KY with the 101st Airborne Air Assault. The time is going by too fast for me though, I'm not ready for him to go yet.

My body is still trying to play catch up, so I havent had much time to add things to the Dakorah shops, but I did post a couple of new moss garden terrariums. One is a really cool Halloween themed terrarium, with a skeleton in a suit with a briefcase called Death of a Salesman. ;) The other is a gorgeous hand blown glass pear with moss and a big chunk of raw Amethyst.

Hope everyone has had a great week, and will have an even better weekend!