I'm still waiting for my autographed copy

Announcing the very cool, very new Chicks with Sticks Guide to Knitting! It's the follow up volume to The Chicks with Sticks Guide to Crochet. It's chock full of knitting patterns that gently advance a new knitter from beginner through intermediate and ready to stare down any challenging project. The only problem is that I don't have it yet!

Daily photo

When we moved in to our house there was nothing in the yard but three old fruit trees and tons of weeds that produced the most vicious seeds that ended up in the dog's fur, ears and eyes costing thousands of dollars to have removed. The first plant I put in the ground was a cutting of a canna lily from my next door neighbor. I wasn't familiar with tropical plants and I hadn't seen the canna lilly before but she showed me their tall stalks with red, orange and yellow blooms and I fell in love.

Daily photo

I love dahlias and for some reason this is the only one I have in my garden. It has dark black leaves that set off the faded orange blooms. Maybe I'll go dahlia shopping this weekend!

Daily photo

My friend gave me this rose plant a few months ago because her mother had bought it for herself and wasn't too interested in watering it and my friend isn't too interested in roses. I put it in the shade, gave it some food and lots of water. I didn't know what it would look like but it turned out to be an adorable tea rose. This is it's second bloom and I love the bright yellow center and the gentle transition to pale butter. Now I have to figure out where to plant it.

What I've been cooking

Did you buy too many bananas last week? Are they sitting in the fruit basket turning various shades of brown and black? Hooray! Save them, salvage them. Those bananas will make the yummiest banana bread in town. Fire up the oven, mix up this quick recipe and enjoy.

Click here to download the (new) recipe card. It's a two-sided document that has a recipe card for you and one to give to your best friend. Print the first page on heavy cardstock and then flip it over and print the second page. Use the crop marks on the recipe side to trim out a 4x6 inch card to fit in your recipe box.