Niagara Falls photos from Canadian and NY Borders

These are photos of Niagara Falls when I went on a trip tour that included Canadian and NY tour. The three day tour included a stay at Niagara Falls NY and Toronto, Canada for one night at each city. Images include the CN tower, the highest floor has a glass floor that people could stand on and look straight down. 



I sure didn't, all I saw was a piece of glass under my feet that was hundreds of stories when looking downwards and decided not to look down.

Waterfall on Canadian side, loud thundering noise of water rushing drowns out any speaking

Famous Maid of the Mist boat tour, the moisture in the air very strong and waterdrops spray everywhere on the boat ride especially.

Beautiful Niagara have to visit to really appreciate true natural beauty.

This is one of the parks on Canadian side says Niagara Parks

CN Tower in Toronto,  the top of this tower is circular but part of the floor is made out of glass, so the tourists can stand on it and look straight down.  It is scary, I wonder how thick that glass is.

Save money by preparing foods instead of buying prepackaged

There are ways to save money from a weekly food budget without cutting back on your favorite foods, prepackaged foods cost more than foods that the consumer has to prepare from scratch, examples include canned fruits and vegetables, frozen dinners, baked goods and frozen entrees. These items save on time, but the prices can be higher in cost overall when you add it up monthly.



Pantry items that should be staples that include flour, dry milk, yeast, sugars, cornmeal, cocoa powder, and baking spices. Cinnamon, nutmeg, anise, and ginger. Vanilla, lemon, almond and peppermint extracts are good to flavor cookies and candies.



There are so many online recipes to make donuts, cookies, cakes and chocolate, to name a few items that can be made from scratch without paying the premium. My favorite sites are allrecipes.com, delish.com and simplyrecipes.com. Many name brand companies have their own websites that offer receipes such as bettycrocker, pillsbury, dole, goya, and wholesalemarkets.



Buy fruits and vegetables at farmer markets or produce stands instead of canned, on a weekly basis. These produce are fresh and are cheaper; many of these items can be grown in planters.



There are many items that can be made from scratch such as pizza dough, biscuits, meat patties and cheesy breads.



Time is the culprit in making food from scratch; but finding a hour or two during the week can save that food budget. By cooking and preparing foods from scratch, not only are there money savings but there are health benefits to be found by eating less processed foods.

I make enough dough that will last for about three weeks. I take enough pizza dough to make about two pizzas, then I freeze the rest of the dough to make at a later time during the month. The dough should be kept about three weeks, the most about a month. 



I buy pizza sauce, shreded mozzarella cheese, onions, peppers, and pepperoni. These are a few ideas that can be helpful during these difficult times instead of slashing that food budget by cutting back on favorite snack foods, make them at home instead.

Homemade Plaintains

Home made fried plaintains are great sides with pork chops or beefsteak (in spanish emapnada), when you fry cube beefsteak in flour batter.   There are two types of plaintains, there are the sweet yellow ripe bananas that have a sweet flavor to them when you fry it and are great for breakfast.  Green plaintains are not sweet but are delicious when flavored with garlic and if fried thinly resemble plaintain chips.   These plaintains are cut on a diagonal and  not too thick.  If you have a deep fryer or a deep large skillet  add oil to cover the entire plaintains add garlic powder and pinch of salt to plaintains.  As soon as the plaintains brown slightly take them out and press them with the plaintain peel or skin to flatten slightly then place in oil again.  Leave in until plaintains are crispy, eat them when they are warm.  Great with a garlic butter sauce and porkchops and lettuce tomato salad.  These are great sides with rice as well.  Sweet plaintains are great and cooked the same way, only that these plaintains are better with scrambled eggs and breakfast items such as corn beef hash.  At least I like to eat these with these items.

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Tips when painting small projects

My last project was a computer desk, I had some old paint that I had from another project that was about 4 months old.

The two colors I had were complete opposites and I wanted a strong color, not vanilla or white again, so I mixed black and white paint together and created this grape color. I was surprised I thought I would get a gray hue but I got this color instead and it worked. I saved the rest that I did not use and plan to use for a stencil project on a cabinent.

If there is old paint around consider mixing paints to create a new color and using it on a project around the home, is great way to not waste left over paint. Don't let it dry up and waste, keep it out of land fills.
There are paint tray liners that sell for about 8- 12 dollars in home stores, these are great for saving time by letting the paint not reach the tray therefore keeping it clean. Instead of purchasing one of these tray liners, just wrap a plastic bag around the tray and stretch out the bag over the front of tray tightly and place duct tape on the bottom of tray to secure it in place. Wha la, there is free tray liner.
Save money by investing in good long term paint brushes that will last you for many paint projects. If on a limited budget, and the paint brushes bought are inexpensive dollar store brushes, there are ways to make them last for at 4-5 paint projects. When I use brushes that I purchase at the dollar store, I try not to place too much paint on them because its really hard to get the paint off them. I use disposable small rollers and use the brushes for angles and tight corners, even details around furniture. When I clean these brushes I clean off the paint with water and dish wash liquid, I get the paint as much off as possible. I soak the brushes in vinegar and water with dish wash liquid and leave it for two days. This is to keep the bristles soft for future use. If the bristles seem stiff keep the brushes in water another day.

Clean and reuse those aluminum paint cans, these make great organizers around the garage, great planters, and great for its original purpose of storing paints. Use the cans to store the new created paints for up to a few months.

Best vintage postcard images from my collection

 Postcards are history saved in time through photos and vintage logos. First US postcard was sent on June 1 st 1873.

The austrians invented the postcards but the germans are credited with design and creation of first postcard.


I am starting to collect vintage Bronx, Puerto Rico and Ocala postcards, I found very few from Ocala, on eBay but found many for the Bronx. It's really interesting to see the sites that you recognize now and how the landmarks have changed throughout the century especially in NY.

This was Bronx Borough Hall in 1906, this building no longer stands, but the base and the staircase is still at same place 177th st and East Tremont Avenue.  The stairs and the base has these arched doors that are sealed in concrete block.  It is currently part of the park on Park avenue and East Tremont, about two blocks away from Cross Bronx expressway.

This is the back of the postcard, look at the penmanship that the writer had at that time , pretty cool

 Glass Boat postcard from Silver Springs

I bought this to send to family but I kept it i liked the beautiful photo postcard of the famous horse farms in Ocala

 This postcard I got on my trip to Puerto Rico a few years ago, this is the famous victorian Ponce firehouse from 1880s.  It is now a museum in Ponce, Puerto Rico. 

This is a postcard from same trip,  classic architecture from old San Juan, Puerto Rico.  Puerto Rico is over 500 years old and so is San Juan so the architecture are examples of spanish and french design.  These old style homes are very european in design and have been around for hundreds of years, along with the stone cobblestone streets.

Recycled pickle jar now a sugar canister

With a little bit of chalk paint, you can make any glass or large plastic container into a new utilitarian jar or canister. Use these recycable jars for anything for anything; such as sugar or flour canister, cookie jar or coins. I made this sugar canister from a pickle glass jar. I cleaned the pickle jar throughly by adding dawn dishwashing soap and water in the jar for a few days. After its cleaned, I would use painters tape and form a square shape or circle shape in the front center of the glass. I would paint in the center of the tape with chalkboard paint with small brush; then apply second coat after it drys. A few days later remove tape; it should retain the desired shape of a the tape and be ready to be written on with chalk. 

There are these chalk board labels sold on etsy.com for eight dollars and are great to add style to recycable jars. If you want to create prettier jars, use stencils or add embelishments to create jars that are out of the cupboards. If keeping jars in cupboards there is no real need to make them look fancy; it is just a great way to recycle large plastic and glass jars for practical purposes.

I am actually growing edible vegetables, who knew

As I plant seeds and purchase vegetable plants at Lowes,  I can't believe that the vegetables are actually growing big enough to eat.  I had some success with earlier vegetables I planted but never did it grow so big without the insects getting to them first.  


I purchased these beefstock tomato seeds from Burpee for 3.25.   I went to Lowes and purchased three cabbage plants, one tomato, three eggplants and three pepper plants. 

My neighbor who grows vegetables had given me herb plants such as cilantro, and pidgeon peas.  My neighbors have given me advice and we even give and swap vegetables.  I gave them beefstock huge tomatos and they gave me corn, which they successfully grew in their back yard.

Here are some amazing photos of my garden vegetables.

 The burpee seeds germinate within 70 days, they need lots of sun and water, when tomatos are really big remove them from plant to let ripen on counter to save them from insects and worms. Grow the tomatos in large containers and planters.  Growing the tomatos in the ground attract too many worms and insects even with organic fertilizers and insectizides.

 The cabbage plants grew after three months, I use miracle grow plant food and lots of water

This was a spanish pepper called ajes and it was given to me by my neighbor and it grew, so far only one small lone pepper