Katiebird's Garden & Wildcraft

The cabinet is painted...yes painted.  No stain for that little puppy made out of different types of wood, of different eras, and some old paint that just wouldn't come off without gouging out the areas.  So paint it is.  I chose a Valspar National Trust Historic color (a creamy color, can't remember the name off hand.)   This weekend I plan on rubbing off the edges and wearing some areas down and apply furniture wax to get that vintage look.  Pictures next week!   Instead of the original ceramic-metal, slider counter top, we're going to add a butcher block counter.  My husband hates the metal top for some reason, it grosses him out.  I think butcher block will be lovely and will help it match whatever our kitchen looks like in our future house.   I really would like a Boos counter with the name showing on a side!

I was low at 62 after dinner...due to busy-work painting my cabinet and climbing around on a table and stools like a pregnant monkey-mama.  So, in we go to have a delicious Little Debbie Nutty Bar (my fave) and I eat both bars in the pack, which have 30-odd carbs in it.  Sorta assuming that the rest of my work would take care of the little extra I ate.  Well, after cleaning up after myself and coming inside about an hour later, I feel a little crabby and can't-pay-attention-ish, so I test again and it's 64.  Hmm.  That's weird. Where'd that Nutty Bar go?  I think the baby ate it before I could have any.  

So we've made the official announcement, we're going to have a baby boy in January!  Hence the reason I've been MIA lately, besides having my surgery, then going to Flagstaff, AZ for the Labor Day weekend.  But the topic of this post is diabetes-related.  The dreaded insulin resistance in 2nd-3rd trimester has started... In the past 2 weeks I have continually increased my basals at all hours to at least double what they were pre-pregnancy.  My carb ratios have also almost doubled at all times.  Today was the last straw though, I had about 50 carbs for breakfast and actually bolused for 60, just to be safe, and 1 1/2 hours later, a damn 300 blood sugar!!  WTF?  I'm just tired of chasing the numbers...so low carb we will go! My husband has done the Adkins/low carb thing before and liked it because of course, he loves meat.  I'm slightly "meh" about eating meat, etc. all the time, but feel that high protein/low carb to be ...

I've been laying low for a while, as I had my carpal tunnel and trigger finger release surgeries last week.  It's been a week and I'm still pretty limited on my right hand use.  The surgery itself wasn't bad; I had a nerve block on my arm, which is a big, bad tourniquet on my shoulder, they sqeeze all the blood from your arm, and then they numb the arm with a local anesthetic.  I chose to forego the anesthesia to knock me out, which all of the nurses were quite impressed with me.  It was very weird feeling things, but not quite feeling things.  Slowly it's getting less swollen and more mobile, but the stitches will be in until the 5th.  I'm also proud that my blood sugar was 143 pre-surgery and was 139 post-surgery.  Usually it freaks out if my body is freaking out, but it stayed put!   Speaking of body parts, remember in biology class the critters and bits and pieces that were in glass jars filled with formaldehyde?   I at...

I still sometimes forget that I pretty much need to bolus for most things over 5 carbs that go in my mouth.  Every once in a while I'll regress to the old Lantus safety-zone thoughts of, "oh a little bite here and there won't matter, it will be absorbed and covered magically."  Nope.  I was making refried beans last night and a Tequila-Lime cake (more on that later!) for my husband's birthday party tomorrow and couldn't resist taste-testing the beans, well maybe more like eating 4-5 big spoonfuls because they were so damn delish.  And had to have one of the shortbread cookies I made the other night (pure buttery goodness) and later tested to see a crappy 197 on my meter.  Blah.  Here's my new mantra: MUST-REMEMBER-TO-ALWAYS-BOLUS-WHEN-BAKING-COOKING-TASTE-TESTING!  I do have a collection of rolling pins, just like JC.   

First batch of big jalapenos are ready to go!  We usually make turkey-bacon-wrapped, cream cheese stuffed, grilled peppers, but didn't have time last week, so I tried some pickles.  Plastic gloves were a must, they were super hot! An awful lot of mustard seed in this recipe, but hopefully they taste delish!   My beautiful Trionfo Violetto beans, or as I have come to call them camo-beans and when they're steamed just to heated, they start to lose the purple coloring and look like camouflage.  We had some for dinner last night and they were nice and full-flavored. Leeks!  They will be used to make potato soup with my potatoes I have growing in pots. Pepperoncini!  Next to be pickled after the party this weekend.  I didn't realize the plant got so big!  It's nearing 3 1/2' and doesn't look like it's stopping soon.

These are the invites that I made for my husband's Birthday Fiesta in August.  His birthday is actually (one of) the dates that is said to be the BEGINNING of the Mayan calendar!  I chose the serpent motif from the Chichen Itza pyramid .  Just so happens I found the perfect paper at Archiver's that had the blue waves on the back and the fun zigzag on the front.  Of course, the fun stickers had to be added too.  Menu: A Taco and Nacho Bar Tomatillo Enchiladas Homemade Refried Beans An assortment of homemade FRESH salsas-my jalapenos and habaneros are growing insanely well-I think I have to pickle some just to save them we have so many! Tequilas and margaritas will also be served The piece De resistance: A Twinkie-pyramid-inspired cake-playing on the notion that Twinkies will survive the end of the world/nuclear holocaust/etc.  Not fully Twinkified, as to make it to scale (9 steps) with solid Twinkies would create a...