at home with the farmer's wife

Monday Morning Staff Meeting on Friday Morning

2012-01-13T02:00:00.000-08:00

Good morning everyone. We've had a snowstorm here in northern Illinois, our first of the season. Driving was positively frightening last night. I'm getting too old for this!

This morning we will be having stale leftover Christmas cookies compliments of loyal reader Thirkellgirl. I'm sure they'll taste just fine after being dunked in some nice hot chocolate.

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I want to thank everyone for their concern and inquiries as to our well being here "at home". We are all fine but there are lingering effects from the dual crises this fall. Both The Farmer and the Other Mother were hospitalized and the aftermath is that we were faced with some inevitable conclusions.

Conclusion #1 - None of us is as young as we used to be. (duh!)

Conclusion #2 - The Farmer and I have always been able to face the stresses and difficulties that have presented themselves in our lives. We've always said to each other, "Let's get through this and then we can go on." The truth is that it is becoming extremely difficult to muster the physical and psychic energies to face challenges without a backlash that equals the challenge in intensity. Stress and responsibility has become a vampire.

Conclusion #3 - Something's got to give. In this case it has been blogging.

It was made perfectly clear to me how all-consuming it is to be involved with the caregiving and coordinating in-home nurses, therapists, doctor's visits and more. It has taken it's toll.

The Other Mother is fully recovered and back to her nonsense. The other day I found her climbing a ladder and no amount of chiding or listing the dire consquences will get her to stop. I give up those efforts. My energies are best spent elsewhere.

The most troubling effect of the stress is that I've felt my enthusiasm and creativity drained away. I am hopeful that cutting back my commitments will result in a bubbling up of something more positive. I'm forever hopeful.

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Our holiday was nice and peaceful. It was just ourselves, the Other Mother and our children for the Christmas weekend. We cooked, ate, opened gifts and watched movies together. It was what we needed.

We drank Bloody Mary's on Christmas morning and had spinach and mushroom filled crepes.

Larger than life Bloody Mary.

Later in the day we had mussels, filet mignon, baked potatoes and brandied carrots. Yes, you need to come to my house on Christmas!

All the cooking and eating left a nasty mess which was dealt with by the trusty dishwasher.

Have I ever mentioned how much I hate the chore of unloading the dishwasher?

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The Daughter borrowed my flash drive while visiting and forgot to leave it when she left. No matter, it gave me the excuse to buy a new one which caught my eye on a shopping trip to the office supply store.

It makes me smile.

Yes, that's a flash drive and it's only 1 1/2 inches long. So cute and enough memory for my needs.

I seem to be on a penguin streak because here's the baby hat I'm working on for a friend's grandchild.

I'm not sure if the eyes should be crossed or not? What do you think?

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Thanks again for all you concern about our well being. It means alot to me. I would love to hear what you've been doing and also your recipe for stress-busting. I'm all ears!

........off to shovel snow.

What was that?

2011-12-22T08:56:00.000-08:00

When I posted the photos of the effects that are available on my camera. Did you wonder about this one?

What are these? Why, they're Inchies! Every trip to the library will find me prowling through the section of books on sewing, knitting, crocheting and crafts in general. This is a fairly small library and the selection is limited but I always seem to find something that I missed before. This time I found a Mary Englebreit Christmas book and something called "Inchies" by Peggy Donda-Kobert.

I love a book that sets forth a creative challenge, gives the basics and some examples which allows you to run with the idea.

An Inchie is a piece of artwork that is created using one square inch of fabric.

I guess it's the fiber form of Smith Magazine's Six Word Memoir. Now, there's a challenge.

For my first foray into the Inchie realm I chose cream colored felt. The edges won't fray and it has thickness and body. Some of my Inchies are more successful than others. I especially love this one featuring a bare tree. It was hand stitched with black all purpose thread and mirrored a design in the book.

Here's one using beads, spacers and sequins. I call it the UFO Inchie.

A hand-carved wooden leopard bead strolls across hand stitched grass. This one needs more work. I need to stitch the grass higher so that it's more visible.

Snowflake using small pearls and sequins.

Another free form snowflake using glass tubes and pearls.

It's a fun creative exercise and allows me to escape into the fog of concentrating on needle, thread and eye/hand coordination. The book shows the Inchies being used to create artistic pieces but I think they'd make cool little lapel pins.

So, there's the Inchie for you.

Picture This

2011-12-18T03:14:00.000-08:00

Here's the view from the garret.

Yes, the precipitation from earlier this week has turned to snow. Not enough to fire up the snowblower, but just enough to cover everything lightly.

My new camera is a joy to use. That's not to say that the Fuji brothers didn't give me years of good service.

The Fuji Brothers

The one on the left was purchased over 6 years ago and I remember paying over $300 for it. After 5 years it finally died. I was so please with the Fuji that I searched out and found a used one on Ebay for about $60. Almost immediately the darn battery door latch broke (these cameras are famous for this) and I've been taping the door shut since then. It always looked as if it was covered with band aids.

I've also got some big guns in my photography stable including an expensive digital SLR and a film Mamiya medium format that weighs over 8 pounds! Those are for serious shooting sessions but for everyday shots I like something simpler to use.

The new Canon was featured on the front page of Target's weekly ad for $99. It stated that quantities were limited so I made sure to be at the store when the doors opened. I bought first (on a whim) and checked reviews and asked questions later. The most important thing to me was the 10x zoom. I am very pleased with this camera. It has a large viewing screen and I actually love the fact that you have to manually pop up the flash and it has a low light mode. Here are some other modes.

Standard mode.

Super vivid color.

Color accent, which allows you to choose one color to accent, leaving the rest of the image in black and white.

There's a mode called color swap which allows you to change one color to another. I don't have an example of that.

Here's the fisheye view.

This is something cool called miniature effect. This blurs the top and bottom.

This is a pair of vintage ceramic chickens shot in super vivid mode.

There are also modes for shooting winter scenes, fireworks, beach scenes, foliage, a face detect feature,

Thus far I'm very happy with the Canon. It's the SX130 IS model.

Do you love your camera, or is there a feature or another camera that you'd love to have?

Holiday Cookie Joy

2011-12-16T05:45:00.000-08:00

Holiday cookie exchanges are the best idea. Just think about it, I had to bake 10 dozen cookies, all from the same recipe. No problem. Then the cookie exchange magic happens. I come home with 10 dozen cookies in 28 different varieties. It's magic!

Here's my batch before I bagged them up.

I prepared three batches of Martha Stewarts recipe for Cranberry Coins. There was no time this year for anything fancier than this. The are very good and have the texture of shortbread or the "sandy" cookies.

Here's the recipe, which is copied from Martha Stewarts Holiday Cookie magazine issue for 2010.

CRANBERRY COINS

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup confectioner's sugar, sifted
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour, sifted
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup chopped dried cranberries

Beat butter, confectioner's sugar and vanilla with a wooden spoon until smooth. Add flour and salt; stir just till combined. Stir in dried cranberries. Divide dough into quarters.

On parchment, shape each portion into a log about 1-1/2 inches in diameter and 4 inches long. Wrap logs tightly in parchment or plastic wrap. Chill 30 minutes or up to 1 day. (Dough can be wrapped tightly in plastic and frozen for up to 1 month.)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. With a sharp knife, slice dough into 1/4 inch thick rounds. Rotate log as you cut to keep it from flattening. Place rounds on parchment lined baking sheets, 1 inch apart.

Bake, rotating sheets halfway through, until the edges begin to turn golden, 20-22 minutes. Let cookies cool on sheets or wire racks. Cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room termperature for up to 2 weeks.

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These are nice, simple cookies that taste pretty good. They're not cloyingly sweet. I'll have to admit that I'm a big fan of dried cranberries. I love to throw them on my salad and while waiting for a batch of cookies to bake I threw them into my favorite breakfast.

Steel cut oatmeal. This batch happens to be from Hodgson Mill but I've also tried Quaker and McCann's.

Add some dried cranberries.

Delicious.

Have a great day everyone.

Staying In and Baking

2011-12-15T02:00:00.000-08:00

My hopes were high that I might get to seem some meteors on Tuesday night but alas, it had clouded up and started to drizzle. No meteors for me this time around.

This morning we were in full blown dreary mode. Here's the view from the garret window.

Actually, it looking out of my sewing room but garret sounds so much more interesting. Very Emily Dickenson. In order to take a photo from my attic I'd need to climb a ladder and enter through a small access panel in the hallway. Then I'd need to chop a hole in roof because there's no window up there. The sewing room "garret" will have to suffice.

It was so rainy and dreary that nothing seemed interesting except to go back to bed and sleep. Unfortunately cookies needed to be baked. Tonight is the Holiday Cookie Exchange. Sorry, there are no pictures of tutorials for the cookies. Y'all know how to bake cookies. You don't need any instruction from me. I made a Martha Stewart recipe called, Cranberry Coins. I'll post the recipe tomorrow. I thinks it's OK because the magazine it was published in is out of print.

Anyway, you don't want to see pictures of my kitchen when I'm cooking or baking. I agree with Paula Deen............

Paula Deen featured on January 2012 issue of Good Housekeeping.

My kitchen's a mess ya'll. There was flour and chopped cranberries bits everywhere. Not pretty. But Paula would be proud because I used lots of but-tah.

Are you a neat cook or a messy cook? I'm messy in most things I do. I like to start with a clean, neat slate but things deteriorate pretty quickly.

Tomorrow I'll show you some of the cool things my new camera can do. Today I wanted to share the rain and the cookie tales.

I'm My Own Santa Clause

2011-12-14T02:00:00.000-08:00

A couple of years ago the Farmer started doing something at Christmas that just makes us all laugh. One year our son was handing out gifts and came upon one that had him puzzled. The gift tag said, "To the Farmer, From Santa".

The only problem was that it was written in the Farmer's handwriting! We all looked at him in amazement and said, "You bought YOURSELF a Christmas gift, wrapped it up and tagged it from Santa?"

Really?

We all had a good laugh at that one. It seems that there was something he really wanted but couldn't justify spending the money. So, hey..... Santa was happy to oblige.

It became a yearly joke. What's "Santa" going to bring the Farmer this year?

I never had any intentions of following in the Farmer's footsteps but this past Sunday I was browsing through the sales flyers and spotted a camera for sale at Target. It was a terrific price. But the sales ad stated, "limited quantities".

I knew that if I really wanted the camera I'd need to be through the doors pretty early. Did I really want/need the camera? I could probably limp along with my trusy Fuji. Actually, I loved the Fuji so much that when the first died a quick death, I bought an identical used one on Ebay. I loved my Fuji Finepix!

The trusty Fuji Finepix

The screen is teenie tiny though and every one of these cameras has the same flaw - the catch on the battery door breaks easily. For well over a year I've been taping the battery door closed, only to have to repeat the exercise every time I charge the batteries. It looked goofy too.

The new camera is a Canon. I've had a couple of the smaller point-and-click kind but was never happy with them. I like something a little heftier. The most important thing to me is a decent zoom. This has 12x optical zoom and 12 megapixels.

The Canon SX130 IS joins the stable of cameras.

In case you haven't figured it out by now, I have a real weakness for cameras and sewing machines. I suppose there are worse things to be attached to.

The Canon has some cool effects. I show you one of them tomorrow.

So anyway, this was my Christmas gift to myself. And, no.... I'm not going to wrap it up and tag it from Santa.

Girls Night Out X 3

2011-12-13T08:15:00.000-08:00

After months of hospital visits (both the Farmer and the Other Mother) and coordinating physical therapist and home health care nurse visits, I find myself able to get out this week. Not only once or twice but three, count 'em, THREE evenings.

Heck, I don't even know if I remember how to socialize. Remember when your children were little and you were known as "Katie's mom" or "Tommy's mom", as if you didn't actually have a name of your own?

It feels good to get out and be with friends. This week I've attended a holiday gathering with my co-workers. Did I mention this is also the season of grab bags? I never quite know what to get for a grab bag gift but I was very lucky being in the receving end of this holiday tradition. Here's the great serving plate and tall mug I received in the co-worker grab bag.

Aren't the just the cutest? They are from Kohl's department store, just in case you're wanting these for yourself.

Last night I attended the December Bunco gathering with my neighbors. Again, so good to mingle with friends. Neighbor Lynn and neighbor Betty have been so supportive of me during these last few months. I only hope I can be as good a friend to them.

Another grab bag. This time I scored something incredibly cute. It was tucked inside this bag.

The pattern on the bag is all red glitter and I love the polka dot tissue paper. I'm a tissue paper ironer. How about you?

Here's what was tucked inside.

Ceramic snowman measuring spoons. So cute. The tag says they are from Pier One. You might want a set for yourself.

I'm going to use these measuring spoons to prepare for outing #3, which is a Christmas Cookie Exchange at neighbor Jacki's house. On Thursday evening I'll come home with 10 dozen assorted cookies. TEN DOZEN!! Gotta love cookie exchanges.

Have a great day everyone.

Cookie Magic

2011-12-07T02:00:00.000-08:00

This week has been a flurry of home health nurse visits, physical therapist visits, doctor visits and more EKG's than you can shake a stick at. Thankfully the doctor has told the Other Mother that she cannot drive.... for now. The snow will fly soon and that will put an end to her driving for the winter and hopefully this will actually be the end of her driving forever.

I do not lament the loss of "independence" because it's just a fact of life. If we are lucky enough to live to an advanced age we will lose aspects of our independence. It's reality. Anyone diagnosed with a debilitating illness is forced to deal with this reality, some at very young ages. It just IS. The sooner you make peace with this idea the better off everyone will be.

I faced illness that left me never knowing if I'd be able to function on any given day. You just tell yourself, "I'll get up and do what I can do for this day. Tomorrow is another day and perhaps I'll be able to do more."

Yesterday the Other Mother thought she might like to go to the store and shop but I know that there are issues that could cause her to faint or become weak. On advice from the medical staff I told her that was not yet possible.

"Give me your list and I'll get everything you need," I told her.

You can be assured that she does not NEED coffee cake, cookies and biscuits. But I decided, what the heck, at 90 years old you should eat what you like. It's not going to cause a health crisis, so coffee cake and cookies it was!

She's particularly fond of cookies that are sold at a local grocery store. I cannot fathom how this particular cookie display has escaped the critical eye of the government. The cookies are displayed in a large display case. You lift up the lid and use tongs to choose which cookies you like, mixing and matching to your hearts desire. They're weighed at the register and sold by the pound.

Individual loose cookies, opening cabinet doors, tongs...... probably a recipe for disaster but oh well, the cookies are wonderful.

They're made by Voortman's and since I was the shopper for Other Mother, I got to choose my personal favorites. Be still my heart. The flat sugar cookie on the left has slivered almonds, a light almond taste and dusted with sugar crystals.

On the right is an all time favorite - the Windmill cookie! The shape has changed, they used to be larger and more "windmilley". That's not a word but you get my drift. They also used to have slivered almonds on the top. Those are missing but it still has that spicey flavor that probably has molasses in the batter. OH YUMMY!

Do you have a favorite store bought cookie? I don't think any of those packaged varieties can hold a candle to these Voortman cookies. Certainly not the Pecan Sandies. WHO changed the formula for that cookie? It tastes nothing like the Sandies I remember from years ago. I do love Lorna Doone's shortbread cookies.

I'm off to wait for the physical therapist and later the nurse, then it's off to work.

I need a cookie.

Windfall

2011-12-06T09:03:00.001-08:00

wind-fall (wind'fol') n. 1. something blown down by the wind, such as fruit from a tree 2. an unexpected stroke of good luck

Yesterday's mail brought a windfall, of the second variety, an unexpected stroke of good luck. Money. A check.

It's seems I was part of a class action lawsuit and never even knew it. According to the accompanying paperwork it seems that someone sued EBay Motors and everyone who made transactions with this particular EBay seller was awarded a settlement.

Honestly, I don't remember ever ordering anything from EBay Motors, but perhaps the Son did in the past. The settlement was based on the final value fees I paid during a certain period.

Windfall. Just before Christmas and just after we found out that one of the garage doors needs to be replaced. Perfect timing.

I look a little closer.

Do you see it? The amount.

A two and some zeros. Actualy a zero, a decimal point, a two and a zero.

Twenty cents. Woo hoo...... 20 cents!!!

The Farmer knows alot about these sorts of things - cutting checks and such. He assures me that it cost at least 60 cents to cut this check. Think of all the man hours involved in compiling the lists of people involved, computing the amounts, cutting the checks, paper and ink, machines running the checks, folding them and inserting them in envelopes. Let's not forget the postage. I've already pitched the enveloped but I'm sure it was at least 14 cents. So, let's just say 74 cents to send me a 20 cent check.

Well, it's not quite the windfall I had in mind but actually it falls under my category of found money. We've talked about this before. Found money is money that I neither earned nor was expecting to come to me. It's money that's meant to pass through my hands into someone else's.

Please read more about found money here:

FOUND MONEY

If you follow that link you will also be rewarded with a black and white photo of a friend's aged but beautiful hands. Oh my, the work those hands have performed. They are beautiful to me.

The 20 cent check will be combined with a small bit of my own money and sent on to my favorite charity, TRICKLE UP. It will be used to provide small business loans to women in third world countries, empowering them to change the future for themselves and their children.

Thanks for visiting with me today. I appreciate your energy and your friendship.

Monday Morning Staff Meeting - the Long Time No See Edition

2011-12-05T08:30:00.000-08:00

Good morning everyone and welcome to the Monday Morning Staff Meeting. I think it's been awhile since we've held one of these so again, welcome!

I found this quote on Lucy's blog, ATTIC 24, and I'm applying it to my life today.

"There is great happiness in not wanting,
in not being something,
in not going somewhere."

Today and tomorrow I'm not scheduled at work and I'm reveling in that fact. My plans are to nest, do laundry, finish some painting, crocheting and whatever else comes to mind. I'd love to be "not going somewhere" but late this afternoon the Other Mother has a doctor's appointment but until that time I'm reveling in whatever strikes my fancy.

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In my mind there's nothing cuter than a lamb. How I wish we were keeping livestock here. HA. I'd have lambs and chickens for sure. Take a look at this and tell me you're not falling in love.

Southdown Babydoll Sheep

These lambs were featured at the Rare Breeds Show at nearby GARFIELD FARM AND INN MUSEUM.

Brooks Brothers has the cutest ad ever. More sheep. More cuddly cuteness.

And here's how the video was made.

I can't stop smiling. Lambs in cashmere sweaters and scarves. Heck, I don't even own cashmere! Lucky lambs.

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Do you have Christmas cookie exchanges in your neck of the woods? My neighbor is hosting one on the 15th and I'm very excited to be going. I'll try to squeeze my snowflake cookies into the schedule but we'll see, I might have to settle on something simpler.

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Got a Star Trek geek in your life? Look what I found in the local newspaper:

This is from a store called Scientific Surplus and Supply. They carry all kinds of very unusual things. Probably a great place to find rare gifts, huh? But I'll draw the line at a $30 pizza cutter.

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Thanks to all of you who are crocheting along using the EMERGENCY ROOM SCARF pattern. VEE is being very productive, having already produced FOUR! I know Sandy is also hooking along.

Dorothy asked about the hook size. When using a worsted weight yarn I generally use a size H hook. This scarf was made with a soft yarn, slightly thinner than worsted and I still used the H hook. The softer yarn gives a better drape. This was from a small ball that I had laying around and the wrapper was long gone so I can't tell you which yarn was used.

Here's a close up of the pattern. Kind of a shell-on-shell design.

Thanks to everyone for crocheting along.

LISA D - Please send me your mailing address. E-mail me at - Abscissa63@aol.com

I'll get it in the mail to you pronto.

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Have a great day everyone. I'm off to do "whatever"!

The Part Where the Author Asks Her Readers For Suggestions

2011-12-02T01:12:00.001-08:00

As you know, my brain is on a leave of absense. The time stamp on this post will read somewhere around 3:10 a.m. and yes, I cannot sleep.....so much on my mind and on my list of things to do. I'll go back to bed in a little while but not before asking you for some suggestions.

A week from Sunday I will attend a small holiday party with my new co-workers. They've decided to do a grab bag gift exchange with a limit of $15. Usually I can come up with something but in the midst of coordinating home health care nurses and physical therapists for the Other Mother the creative thinking portion of my brain has checked out.

Can you help me? I need inspiration. I need ideas.

It's a grab bag so the gift must be appropriate for anyone that might receive it. My co-workers range in age from 22 to 70, seven women and one young man (the 22-yr. old).

Have you participate in this types of exchanges in the past? What's been successful?

Thanks so much for your help because believe me, at this point in my life I need all the help I can get.

Crazy Stress

2011-11-30T10:30:00.001-08:00

We are under some crazy stress around here and I am well aware of the toll it can take. I make a conscious effort to find some time to wind down but relaxing seems to elude me.

Yesterday I worked and had to stop for groceries on the way home. My feet were hurting like crazy and this was not my idea of how to spend an hour or so after work but we needed food! People needed to be fed and the cupboard was looking very bare.

After loading the groceries into the car I headed out for the drive home. Now I was really depressed because daylight was fast disappearing. I didn't get to enjoy the day and already night was marching in.

And then it happened..... a gift. What gift could I possibly find on the drive home? A beautiful sunset, one of those that can only happen at this time of year. Winter light creates the most beautiful shades of pink, purple and blue. All my cranky thoughts immediately left my head and I just focused on the colors and the bright pink reflecting off the underside of the clouds. It was a Maxfield Parrish sky. No pictures.... I was driving!!

During these stressful days I find myself talking to my grandmother, long gone from this earth. I thanked her and the Big Guy for sending me that sunset. It just said to me, breathe, take time.

I'm so glad that some of you are crocheting along, using the Emergency Room Scarf pattern. Vee, it appears that you've figured out Row 3, if not, let me know. My friend Sandy says that the pattern works with a beginning chain of 18. See, this is why I'm not a pattern writer!

Have a wonderful day everyone.

Emergency Room Scarf

2011-11-27T03:42:00.000-08:00

UPDATE: I'm going to get my crochet hook out this evening and stitch this up to see where the directions might not be clear. Check back.

It's time to share the pattern for the Emergency Room Scarf. Why is it called that? Because I completed the piece while waiting with the Other Mother in the Emergency Room. Actually, I only had a small ball of yarn with me so it became an Emergency Room neck warmer.

Do you crochet or knit? Do you want to learn? There are plenty of online craft courses that can show you how. Like I said before, the rhythmic nature of the work is very relaxing. Those who are crocheters or knitters, I encourage you to go to the library and get a book with different stitches. If you have the basic stitch pattern, you can create any number of things. I used one of these stitch designs for this scarf.

EMERGENCY ROOM SCARF

American crochet terms.

Yarn - DK weight
Crochet hook - H

V stitch - dc, ch 1, dc in same stitch

Shell stitch - 5 dc in same stitch

CH 17.

Row 1: Dc in 5th ch from hook. Skip next 2 ch, shell in next ch, skip 2 ch, V-stitch in next ch, skip 2 ch, shell in next ch, skip 2 ch, V-stitch in last ch. Ch 3, turn.

Row 2: 2 dc in first V-stitch, V-stitch in top of next shell, shell in next V-stitch, V-stitch in top of next shell. 3 dc in last V-stitch. Ch 4, turn.

Row 3: Dc in same stitch (counts as a V-stitch), shell in next V-stitch, V-stitch in next shell, shell in next V-stitch. V-stitch in top of ch from previous row. Ch 3, turn.

Repeat row 2 and 3 till you reach desired length.

Finish off, weave in ends.

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You can use any size yarn, just adjust the crochet hook to match.

Have fun with this.

Squatters Camp

2011-11-25T02:00:00.000-08:00

On my way to work on Wednesday morning I spotted something really ridiculous. Our store is in the same area as a Best Buy. For those of you who live elsewhere in the world, Best Buy is an electronics retailer. Think TV's, cameras, etc.

There was a tent set up near the front door. Already on Wedneday morning. It goes without saying that it's cold here in northern Illinois. Too cold to be camping out for two days unless you're moose hunting. They're not moose hunting.

Yesterday, on the way to my sister's house, same sight. This time there were a dozen or so tents set up in front of the Best Buy in her town and snaking around the corner. This is just so crazy.

I'm very tired or I'd go downstairs and grab the sales flyer that's sitting on my kitchen counter. I'm pretty sure that they are not giving away any merchandise and short of that I'm not making any herculean effort to stand in line much less camp out.

The TV news crew was set up doing a story on the Sale Squatters. What passes for news these days!!

How about you? Are you going to catch any Black Friday sales? I'm going to be working one! Ugh. People already started acting wierd on Wednesday night when I worked. I'm sure to have some tales to tell.

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T18:59:00.000-08:00

I hope that everyone had a happy Thanksgiving. It's my favorite holiday of all because it's centered around family, food and thankfulness.

My sister hosted this year and I'm forever grateful. I worked thirty hours this week and lack of energy would have made it impossible for me to pull the whole thing together.

Do you have any Thanksgiving traditions? I know Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving, although a littler earlier but how about the rest of the world, is there any similar holiday across the globe?

Puttering Around

2011-11-22T09:52:00.000-08:00

Finally, a day off work! I'm savoring every moment of the peace and quiet. Who would think that you could enjoy doing laundry and puttering around the house? I am doing just that. No TV, no radio or any other sound than the white noise of the new washing machine and dryer. The puppies are even cooperating by not barking when they hear the sound of the school bus. Somehow they think that no one is allowed to walk down their street. Crazy dogs.

The Other Mother is s-l-o-w-l-y on the mend. Her doctor has order home health care to come in a couple times a week and some physical therapy also. Other than that she is somewhat laying low. But I know how she thinks!! I REALLY do. This may sound crazy but one of the first things I did when she was released from the hospital was to hide the mops!!! Like I said, I know how she thinks.

When the Farmer and I got home from work last night she was quite agitated because she couldn't find the mops! Someone is always home but the Son works 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. at the rehab center and so he sleeps all day and probably wouldn't hear if she falls on a slippery floor. The Occupational Therapist at the hospital warned her about her risky behavior and I assured him that the moment she was feeling better she'd attempt to jump back into her routines.

Mops are hidden. Foiled again.

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Thanks for all the comments and good thoughts sent our way. They are greatly appreciated. I am consciously taking time for myself, doing a few creative things that soothe my mind and help me relax. Right now the number one thing is crocheting.

This needle art has a rhythm that allows you to create a white noise in your mind. The hands move, the yarn slides through your fingers, the pattern repeats, the colors please the eyes and it's all very relaxing. I'm producing piles and piles of things that I have no plan for. Eventually, when things slow down a bit I'll fire up the camera and list them on my Etsy shop, but for now I'm just working in hook and yarn just for the pleasure of it.

It's time to announce the winner of the Emergency Room Neckwarmer. This is the piece I finished in the hours I was waiting in the ER with the Other Mother. I always draw the name the old fashioned way...... written on paper and drawn out of my special 25th Anniversary brandy snifter purchased at Goodwill many years ago.

I'm including a crocheted flower pin to keep the neckwarmer in place.

And the winner is.........

Lisa D.

Please contact me via e-mail (see my sidebar) with your address and I'll get this in the mail to you as soon as I have another day off.

For those of you who requested the pattern for this piece I'll dig around for it this evening and try to post it tomorrow.

Thanks for visiting with me today.

Rag Garland Tutorial

2011-11-21T02:00:00.000-08:00

I lieu of a Monday Morning Staff Meeting I'm going to republish the tutorial for a rag garland. Yesterday I showed you photos of my Halloween version and the tutorial (originally published in 2008) is for a spring garland. But, never mind.... you can do this in any color scheme for any season.

I wanted to post it today to allow you to gather together the supplies so that perhaps you can work on one with the kids after eating turkey dinner!

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This is an easy project that the whole family can help create. I do these in all color combinations for different holidays. The Halloween garland can be especially fun as I include strips of sparkling black sequin fabric to give it a little extra bling. Unfortunately for this garland I wasn't able to find any pastel sequined fabric. I like to use crisp fabrics with some body. In addition I press them using heavy or extra crisp spray starch.

The first thing you're going to do is decide on the color palette. I just went into my stash and pulled some pieces of fabric in pink, blue, yellow and green. Decide what you want your main color to be because you're going to cut more of those strips. My main color is a solid pink.

Next cut the fabric into 8-inch strips using a rotary cutter with a pinking blade. This prevents everything from raveling. If you don't have a pinking blade just use the one you have. This is, of course, the adults only portion of the project. I'm sure I don't have to elaborate on the dangers of a rotary cutter and I won't relate the details of my own accident!

Then we'll cut those 8 inch pieces and cut the strips to a width of 1 to 1-1/4 inches wide. This doesn't have to be perfect. After cutting a few strips you should be able to eyeball it. Once you start cutting these strips it goes pretty fast. Just pile all the strips together.

I used 275 strips to make a 6-foot garland. If you count how many you get from one of your 8 inch strips, you can quickly calculate your number. This, of course, depends on the width of your fabric. I used both 45 inch and 60 inch wide fabric. You can always cut more, or if you have too many you can use the extra strips to make a smaller garland to drape around a glass hurricane.

Now you're going to cut a length of jute or heavy twine. This gives a nice draping base for the garland. I cut the jute longer than the final desired length. Tie a loop in one end, leave the other end unlooped until you're finished.

Start tying on the strips. This is where the kids can get involved. Just loop over once, pull tight.....

and slide the strip down.

Keep tying and sliding. You don't need to follow any particular pattern, just make sure you're not bunching all the color together in one spot. The reason I cut more of the main color is that I like to put two or three strips of the main color followed by four or five multi-colored strips.

This garland was finished in one evening while I was watching TV.

I have a rough sawn cedar mantle and use straight pins to attach it to the wood. I've also draped them over the fireplace screen or across an entertainment center.

Have fun with this. It's so easy and kids love to do this!

A Little Late

2011-11-19T22:14:00.000-08:00

Halloween is past and Thanksgiving is upon us. Since things have been so busy around here I haven't had the time to share pictures of my Halloween decorations. I would have skipped it this year but it was my turn to host the neighborhood bunco group and I enjoy planning and decorating for a party.

Here's the bar set-up.

This is our new bar cabinet and mirror. Here's a narrow view of the setup.

Halloween lends itself to running wild with creative ideas. I served Bloody Marys.... of course! The framed halographic picture is from the dollar store.

I also served Toxic Tonic, made by mixing V8 Splash juice with coconut rum. The orange color of the juice is perfect and the label was a download from Martha Stewart's site. The drink dispenser and stand were a bargain - $19 at Bed, Bath and Beyond. I had a sale coupon so it only cost me $16.

The lava lamp was tucked in the back of a closet, a long ago decoration in my daughter's room.

The ghost on the mirror is also a download from Martha Stewart. I traced the design onto freezer paper, cut it out and taped it on the mirror.

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Notice the dollar store crows. This set up was the Crow Bar.

A close up of the mantle.

I love my chalkboards. Usually I write the menu on one of the boards. The candlesticks were old brass that I painted with spray paint. To be truthful I was tired of constantly polishing those things.

Rag garland on the fireplace screen. Very, very easy to do. I have them in colors for every season.

All kinds of jars from Goodwill, filled with plastic bones and eyeballs. Behind the jars I draped black tulle.

I served comfort food, meatball sliders, macaroni and cheese and a salad.

I hope you enjoyed looking at my decorating efforts and perhaps you'll get some inspiration for next year.

Thanks for visiting with me today.

And the Beat Goes On

2011-11-18T06:57:00.000-08:00

Amidst all the drama that swirls around us lately, we've discovered that the beat goes on. There are chores and responsibilies that remain static no matter what else befalls us. The truth is that at our age it gets a little pressing.

We are so grateful that our niece showed up last night while I was at work to visit the Other Mother and make the trip to the pharmacy for her meds. This woman is a bundle of energy, taking time out of raising her five girls to help us out. Thank God for family and friend is all I can say!

In between working a 12-20 hour job that has turned into 30 hours and dealing with the Other Mother's health issues, I've been trying to keep on top of my commitment to get the maintenance and updating chores on track. Translation: I'm painting again, trying to make that gallon work out just right so I'm not buying yet ANOTHER gallon.

As I near the bottom of the can and realize that it might just not be enough to finish a wall, I start hoping for the Loaves and Fishes miracle!

I'm in love with the color that I chose for the laundry room. It's from Sherwin Williams (my favorite paint) and it's called Austere Gray. Does it look austere to you, or grey? It's a beautiful shade of bluish, greenish gray.

The Farmer saw the gleam in my eye concerning this color and he's afraid of arriving home to find that the entire first floor has been painted in this hue. No worries, just the laundry room, hall and half bath.

Also, the fairly new but very cheap washing machine decided to start making noises like a piece of space junk falling to Earth. A repair visit, parts and labor would amount to upwards of half of what we paid for thing so we decided to bit the bullet and replace both it and the ancient dryer with new front loading machines.

The cost of some of these machines make you take pause. We got the basic set with a mininum of bells and whistles, no steam and washwoman to run the things. The cost of the stacking bases irked me but we signed on the dotted line, they were delivered and the old ones hauled away.

There's an added benefit to the front loaders.... it's hypnotic to watch them run through their cycles. I've been known to spend 20 minutes or so sitting on the bench mindlessly gazing at the action.

I was alarmed at the apparent lack of water. Do any of you have a front loader? It just doesn't seem like enough water to do the job. But after watching a cycle or 10 or 20 I've figured out that it gets the clothes plenty wet then drains off that water and the dirt removed, and repeats this cycle a number of times. This process means that the clothes aren't sloshing around in dirty water for 15 minutes but that the dirty water is removed throughout the process. At least that's what I deduce.

Do you have a front loader? Love it, hate it?

Thanks for visiting with me today. I will have pictures of my Halloween decor to share in the next couple of days. Better late than never, huh?

The Mother was Mugged

2011-11-16T04:23:00.000-08:00

There's no end to the drama in our lives right now. You read the blog title right, the Mother was mugged.

While walking home from church in broad daylight, two teenage boys attempted to snatch the Mother's purse. This was on the busiest street in a very large northern Illinois city. She grabbed the purse back and asked, "What are you doing?"

She said that she simply couldn't believe what was happening. The teen grabbed her purse a second time.

"Stop that!" she said.

When she grabbed the purse back the second time the would-be purse snatcher fell to the ground, at which point the Mother proceeded to whack him a few times with the handbag.

It all sounds so funny and uplifting, granny fights off purse snatchers. But you and I know that if these perpetrators had possessed weapons the outcome could have been different. The police said she was very lucky. At 1:30 a.m. the next morning a teen was shot and killed nearby.

What happened next has my family and I saddened and disappointed. It seems the local TV station visited the retirement home where the Mother lives, intent on doing a story about a senior citizen party being hosted in the building. Residents talked to the news crew, identifying the Mother as the victim that had been reported on the evening news.

No longer was the Mother anonymous and the TV reporter thought it would be a terrific story for the nightly news. Really? They approached her as asked for an interview. The Mother enthusiastically agreed. Really?

The Mother didn't dare tell my sister or myself because I think she knew what our respose would be. The news reached my sister through the grapevine and she had a discussion with the Mother, advising her NOT to put her face out there and what the implications of doing such an interview might be.

Never mind, the Mother had her chance at 15 minutes of fame and against our wishes she did the interview. I called the news director at the TV station and asked him if he was aware that the Mother has dementia and is not in a position to make good decisions in matter such as this. Five minutes later the reporter called me and we discussed the situation. I did not demand that they kill the story (I should have) but I asked them to consider all the implications. I remind them that they could cover the story without revealing and exposing the victim.

They ran the story on the evening news. The response was overwhelming and they called the Mother to do a second interview. She agreed.

It seems that 15 minutes of fame is a tantalizing siren's song. The Mother does the second interview without our knowledge and this is where things get strange.

Before day's end the Mother's granddaughter in Australia has seen the interview which was linked on Facebook. News organizations across the country have picked up the video and run it on their news programs. It's gone viral on You Tube.

Wow, what a wonderful, connected, linked, instantaneous society we live in. I'm being facetious of course. The news people at the local station have gotten what they wanted, a "funny" story about a grandmother beating off a would-be attacker. They got ratings and national attention.

And the Mother? She got her 15 minutes of fame and is riding on the rush of attention. The problem is that 15 minutes is over pretty quickly and we know what's on the other side. We've watched for years as she's struggled with the loss of memory and the agitation and anxiety that it brings. Will some criminal element remember her face and where she lives and retaliate? Probably not, but the emotional and psychological fallout on the other side of this is going to be hug.

I feel like the Mother was victimized twice, once by the teenagers and again by the news crew.

And no, I will not be linking to the video.

War of the Boscas

2011-11-15T09:10:00.000-08:00

Yesterday the Other Mother struggled with the flu. On orders from our Son-the-Nurse I kept pushing fluids and making sure that she was eating and not putting herself in dangerous situations (walking down a flight of stairs).

At about 2:30 she made an incredibly rare request, "I think I should probably go to the hospital." Oh boy, let me tell you that if she requests help she's really in trouble. So I fired up the car as quickly as I could and navigated her down the stairs and into the car. Off to the emergency room we went.

Let me tell you a little background about the Other Mother. She was born in North Dakota to Polish immigrant parents. These were no-nonsense farmers who engaged in incredibly difficult physical labor every day of their lives. Her mother never helped with the farm chores except to tend to their chickens, so when the father fell ill the son left for the city to get a job to pay for his medication. Since her mother refused to do farm chores (seeing her chores inside the farmhouse as quite enough) the work fell to the Other Mother and her sister, probably only 10 and 12 years old at the time. Like I said, they were no nonsense and the theme formed that "work was God". Work and chores take precedence over anything and everything else.

Back to the tale. I pull the car up to the ER doors and duck inside for a wheelchair, admonishing the Other Mother to STAY PUT. I return, lock the wheels on the chair and she swings her legs out. This is when things go very wrong. She's so weak at this point that she kinds of melts before me, crumpling back and starting to slide out. OH MY!!! This has actually happened before.

I yelled at a passerby to get someone from the ER to help me. The Other Mother now swings into her I'm-tough-as-nails-and-I'm-going-to-get-myself-outta-this-car....nobody's-gonna-help-me mode. All this struggling and pulling is now making her slide further.

"Just stop it please!" I say. "You're making things so much worse".

All to no avail. She's gonna do what she's gonna do. A nurse arrives and we lift and navigate her into the chair. WHEW!

The ER is packed. It's full chaos mode. Later I discover that they've actually had to call in another doctor to help with the workload. She's registered and triaged and we return to the waiting room to wait. It's 3 p.m.

How long did we wait? This long:

I brought along a small ball of yarn and my needle, thinking that I might be able to get a little crocheting in whilst we waited. Oh yeah......

One yard of waiting and more. I finished a neck warmer and could have done two more if I'd had the yarn.

There were some very sick children in the room and it was hearbreaking to seem them literally passed out in their mothers arms. I'm am reminded that the very elderly are like two-year-olds and teenagers all rolled up in the same package.

As I said, the Other Mother was raised to be tough as nails. There's a term in Polish - Bosca - which roughly translates to "Boss Lady". Let's just say that the Bosca is in charge and running the show at all times, and a Bosca always gets her way. The Other Mother epitomizes the Bosca tradition.

After some tests are done it's determined that she needs fluids and at least an overnight stay in the hospital to gain some strength. Time is eternal in the ER. All tests take an hour or two. Slow and steady as we go...... and soon it's past midnight!!

She's finally transported to her room and then the fun begins. She wants her house slippers so that she can walk to the bathroom. Walk??? No, you just collapsed a few hours ago and you're too weak for that task.

In walks a nurse right out of central casting. She's probably 6 foot tall and zaftig. This woman eminates power..... and she's Polish! She's a Bosca of the highest level. The War of the Bosca's is on!!!

The nurse takes information from us, including the fact that Other Mother does not use her cane in the house, navigating by holding on to furniture and walls.

"There vill be NO vall valking in my hospital!"

Oh my goodness. This is going to be quite interesting.

As the Farmer and I walk out into the freezing parking lot at 1:30 a.m., he turns to me and says, "Good luck to the nursing staff".

So, that's the status here "At Home". I'll keep you updated.

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In thanks for your friendship and care, I'll be giving away this "Emergency Room Neck Warmer" to one of my readers. Please leave me a comment and I'll through your name in the bucket.

More later..........

Monday Morning Staff Meeting - the Long Time No See Edition

2011-11-14T07:14:00.000-08:00

Good morning everyone! So sorry for my long absence. Thanks to all my loyal friends who e-mailed me inquiring about our health and well-being. It never ceases to amaze that I've managed to meet such wonderful people thanks to the magic of the internet.

We are somewhat healthy. The Son works at a nursing home/rehabilitation center and it's like a daycare facility, when one person gets sick the illness spreads like wildfire. The flu has made it's way through our house and now the Other Mother is sick (went to Urgent Care yesterday) with things going downhill as I type this entry. The Son, R.N. will be home in a few minutes and will make the assessment as to whether to go to the E.R. It's a good thing to have a medical professional under the roof when dealing with the health of a 90-yr-old.

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I've got a 3 x 5 index card here on my desk with notes about all the things I have to tell you. Hopefully I'll be able to do that in the next couple of days and get myself back into the writing/blogging groove. Writing is a habit that we must cultivate. Can you remember the last time you wrote something BEFORE the internet came along? Unless you're a writing professional it was probably in high school.

I've said before that my high school English teacher is cheering from heaven about the fact that so many naturally talented writers are emerging from this technology. And she's equally happy about the fact that the medium has leveled the playing field and given exposure to those people who would never otherwise have been noticed.

I've said before that Jesse White Crow is one of my favorites. He walked across the United States, stopping in public libraries to post his entries. He composes the most spectacular sentences. I remember reading as he went along and saying to myself, "If only I could put words together like this".

Here's my all-time favorite White Crow sentence:

"In a minute the coyote is over by the dry creek bed singing it's painful woes to a night that makes all of creation wish they'd mastered fire."

JESSE WHITE CROW

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I'd like to introduce you to another wonderful writer. Her name is Lucy and she lives in a 100-yr-old Victorian home in the north of England. Oh, be still my heart. Her blog is called Attic 24. I don't know what the 24 stands for but she does indeed have an attic from which she regularly takes photos. This is such a good idea I just might steal it although the view from my window isn't quite as breathtaking as hers.

ATTIC 24

Whilst poking around online, looking for crochet patterns or fellow crochet enthusiasts, I found her site and was immediately drawn in. Her crocheted blankets are such beauties of color and design, they make your heart sing. But stop and read because she shares her life with such beautiful words.

Don't miss her trip to Dorset with photos of her Mum's cottage! Omigosh, I want to book a flight as we speak. Can you imagine the cozy wonderfulness (is that a word?) of such a place?

VISIT TO DORSET

Love the lime green door and that old Esse stove makes me want to curl up with some yarn and a crochet hook.

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There will be more tomorrow including an update on the Other Mother. See you then and thanks for your loyalty, support and friendship. It means everything to me.

(Sorry, no photos today - just words.)

The Rest of the Story - Being Strong

2011-10-27T16:55:00.001-07:00

Life has once again gotten away with me. The Farmer was back in the ER about a week ago, or was it two? Anyway, they thought he might have a blood clot and his doctor sent him right over to have it checked out. Luckily, it was not the case but certainly something that had to be ruled out, especially having just been bedridden in the hospital.

It seems that I've left you all hanging, waiting for the rest of the story as to what my co-worker meant when she said Americans are strong. First of all, as Americans I think we need to cut ourselves some slack and not buy in to the negative press that floats around. I'm more apt to believe a real life person looking from the outside (another culture) in.

When I quizzed my co-worker she was very excited to share her ideas. Actually, blog reader and commenter Harriet came the closest with her appraisal:

"A very thought provoking question. I think it's a combination of attributes. The willingness to give a hand, tackle what needs to be done and get it done, go down for the count, get up, dust off your hands and keep on keeping on."

That is alot of what my co-worker expressed but the number one thing was self-reliance. She is amazed that Americans know how to do alot. According to her we are the epitome of multi-tasking and like Harriet mentioned we are willing and able to tackle just about anything.

This young woman was raised in a culture that employs lots and lots and LOTS of domestic help. Her family was upper middle class but she explained that middle, upper-middle and upper classes all have housekeepers, cooks, gardeners and other help. This is common in many parts of the world especially areas with large populations as everyone needs to job. As a child and a teenager she never had to do any chores but the downsize was that she never learned to do anything for herself. Learning to do these tasks for herself (after moving to the U.S.) gave her confidence and a sense of personal accomplishment.

She also cited something that Americans don't generally acknowledge - we are a nation of volunteers! A good portion of what needs to be done in this country is accomplished by those who ask for nothing, who roll up their shirtsleeves and get it done for the love of helping others.

The pioneer spirit lives on in those who are willing to take chances, get thrown down, pick themselves up and move on. The Farmer and I have been in dire situations several times in our lives. At one point we were both unemployed with no clue where our next mortgage payment was coming from. We were raised in blue collar households where the message was, "There is help. It's at the end of your arm."

The Farmer, with three college degrees, found a job delivering newspapers in the middle of the night. Was it beneath him? Heck no!! He did this while he conducted a job search.

We are also products of our parents. My father served in World War II and just as he and my mother were saving some money for their first house, he was called in to serve in Korea. I never, ever heard him complain that their lives and plans were interrupted. It was his duty, its was the law and he served. When he was discharged they got on with their lives.

The story of Flight 93 on September 11 points out the take-charge attitude that my co-worker notices. Knowing the grim facts of their situation thanks to the honesty of their loved ones, these people made the decision to DO SOMETHING, to not be a party to the terrorists plans. Staying in their seats would basically have made them accomplices and these everyday Americans would have none of that, even if it meant their lives.

And there you have it - self-reliance, take-charge, tackle the project, work hard, volunteering.... strength, American-style, according to someone looking in.

What's for Dinner?

2011-10-20T09:16:00.000-07:00

It's clear that on days that I work it's necessary to put something in the crock pot for the family dinner.

Even though the Other Mother has plenty of energy to work 8 or 9 hours out in the yard, she just can't manage cooking anymore. And, at 90 years old you shouldn't be cooking!

This morning I ran to the store for the fixings for chili. It's very cold and damp here in northern Illinois. The other day was beautiful and the farmer's were scrambling their combines out into the fields to get as much harvesting done as they could. The weathermen were calling for rain and cold. Driving down the road late Tuesday night we spotted the lights of the heavy equipment, harvesting corn well into the wee hours.

Harvesting the crop.

I walked the aisles of the food store, picking up the necessary chili supplies. At the checkout I ran firefighters from the local firehouse.

One of our local firefighting crews.

"So, what's for dinner gentlemen?" I asked.

"I'm making a roast with potatoes and vegetables," he answered.

"What time is dinner?"

"Six o'clock, if we don't have an alarm."

"Oh, too bad, I'll be at work."

I wonder, do they run out of the firehouse and turn the oven off? There must be a few ruined dinners.

As we were walking through the parking lot I gave them the easy recipe for shredded beef sandwiches - awesome!

SHREDDED BEEF

1 pot roast
1 pkg. Lipton's onion soup mix
1 cup water

Cut pot roast into chunks and place in the crock pot with onion mix and water. Cover and cook on high for 10 hours or more. Shred the beef and serve on crusty rolls.

Oh so good, a perfect fall dinner. Serve with a nice salad. Try it and let me know what you think.

So, what's for dinner at your house this evening?

Growing Moss

2011-10-07T09:40:00.000-07:00

No, not literally growing moss but I certainly feel like this blog has moss growing around the edges.

The little part-time job has expanded to be not-so-part-time due to the fact that a co-worker had to take an emergency leave. I hope she's back soon because I need some time to spend in my sewing room. The Farmer's recent health emergency has also taken it's toll on both of us. The thing about being older is that it takes longer to bounce back!

Truck sitting so long it has plants growing in the truck bed.

There's a young woman at work who is an immigrant, only in this country 4 years. She's happy that we're very curious about the cultural differences and are asking questions about the hardest part of her adjustment. We shower with questions dailly and I'm glad that she realizes we're not nosy but truly want to understand her culture and what makes her tick.

Recently I asked her, "What is the number one thing that stands out for you about Americans?"

I wonder about this because you never know how you come across to people, either as a person or as a culture in general. Americans sometimes get the rap of being spoiled, materialistic, lazy and lots of other negatives. I know her well enough to know that she would respond honestly to the question. If we're spoiled, she'd say it!

She did not hesitate with responding, "Americans are strong!"

Really? That's not what I was expecting. Unfortunately, customers came in and we were busy so I couldn't ask her to elaborate. She left early and I've been left to ponder her answer for a few days.

What would strong look like in her context? I was reminded of the experiences of a friend of mine who has been traveling and working overseas for a couple of years. She is stymied by the other culture's inability to take action. They sit around and discuss everything until they cover every possible angle and contingency. It takes FOREVER to do anything. My friend said the number one thing she misses in these siutations is the American MacGuyverism, the willingness to dive and and get started. She tries to impress on these people that you need to spend time thinking and discussing, formulating a plan and then DIVE IN. The original plan can be adjusted as you go along but you must get started!

I think what my co-worker is referring to is American self-reliancy, kind of the pioneer spirit. She comes from a culture that is heavily family-based and rarely do they make a move without checking everything with their family. I'm not talking about immediate family, spouse and children, I'm saying they do not make a move without parental approval, even if they're 40 years old.

What do you think might make Americans seem strong through the eyes of another culture?

It's something interesting to think about.

Monday Morning Staff Meeting

2011-10-03T05:26:00.000-07:00

Good morning everyone. I know it's been awhile since I've updated this blog and even longer since we've had a Monday morning staff meeting. I'll just say one thing, it's always something!

First of all, I'm sorry that I've got nothing for you this morning in the way of freshly baked goodies. The part-time 12 to 20 hour job has morphed into 35 hours and these old bones are feeling it. One of my co-workers is on personal leave for a month and hopefully everything will get back to normal soon.

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One evening I was watching a TV show about U.S. Marines doing some type of training. As part of this training they embarked on a mission that meant they would not be sleeping for three days. I remember talking to the TV, saying "that's totally impossible, nobody can go without sleep for three days!"

I'm eating my words because recent events have shown me that it is entirely possible. It's not something you'd want to do on a regular basis but if circumstances call for it, you could rise to the occasion.

What happened? This week the Farmer suffered complications from a medical procedure he'd had about 3 weeks ago. We were up at 5 a.m on Tuesday (I had inventory at work) and for some odd reason at 10 p.m. we weren't tired. At midnight all hell broke loose when he started bleeding. He asked the craziest question, "What are we going to do about this?"

Huh? Really? We're going to the emergency room dear.

He was poked and prodded and things were determined. But the solution required that he wait till morning when the specialist arrived. Time passed, 5 a.m. came again, 24 hours and no sleep. The nurse brings the gallon of icky solution for him to drink. And we wait..... wait..... wait..... till it does it's magic. And we wait..... wait.... 5 p.m. arrives, 36 hours awake with only a 30 minute nap. He undergoes the repair procedure and is stablized at 9 p.m.

My drive home at 10 p.m. was quite interesting. The windows were wide open, fresh air streaming in to keep me alert. The Farmer and I hit 41 hours without sleep and let me tell you it takes awhile for your body to make that up.

The Farmer is fine. He was released on Friday evening and all is well. You've heard the adage, "old age is not for sissies", tis true.

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With all the health drama lately, I'm dreaming about taking the Farmer, the Chihuahua's and running away from home.

I recently met one of the Sisters on the Fly and she regaled me with tales of driving off to Wyoming in her vintage travel trailer.

I found this one on the Tin Can Classifieds:

It's an old Cadillac hearse that's been converted to a motorhome. It makes me laugh.

Here's the COSMO COWGIRL

Click on the link and check out her cute canned ham trailer. Here's a peek at the kitchenand the cozy little bed area:

Here's another great one:

Omigosh, I want to run away. HA.

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OK, I gotta run and get some things done. I'll be back later to add a few more things. Thanks for taking time from your busy day to visit with me.

Local Events

2011-09-22T07:26:00.000-07:00

We're heading into fall and that means lots of local events are scheduled. People in this area love their fall festivals and other happenings!

There's a local Scarecrow Fest coming up and the big Pumpkin Fest in nearby Sycamore. This weekend is the fall festival at the Boone County Conservation District. This is a great festival. If you're in the norther Illinois area, don't miss it.

While reading the paper the other day I came upon an advertisement for a senior prom. What, you ask, isn't this the wrong time of year for a prom? No! It's not a high school prom it's one for senior citizens.

That's right. One of the local senior living place is putting on a prom. What a great idea. Dancing. Appetizers. Crowning of the King and Queen. What could be better? It's only $10 per couple.

I think the Farmer and I need to go but unfortunately I'm working that evening. Dang. This job is affecting all my fun.

What about you? Any cool fall events in your area?

About that job

2011-09-20T07:48:00.000-07:00

I've mentioned the fact that I got a job. Yes, another job. I'm going to keep getting jobs until one sticks!

I did like the last job demonstrating food at the local Sam's Club. Then I danced on the two-edged sword. Our very, very, VERY expensive COBRA insurance ran out. No matter for the Farmer because he went on Medicare and supplement but since I'm a relatively young chick (yeah, right) I still needed insurance for two years. I was lucky enough to be accepted into a state program that acts as a big group policy, allowing those who can't find insurance anywhere else to obtain a good policy. AND, it's 1/3 the cost of what we were paying on COBRA. The only catch? You can't work for a company that offers health insurance. My little part-time job demonstrating food did offer a ridiculous policy which paid about $20 on a $20,000 hospital bill. And so, crazy as it may seem, I had to quit my job to get health insurance.

I still visit the women I worked with because they were fun and interesting people.

The new job is with a local furniture store and my first question before I filled out the application was, "Do you offer health insurance to part-time employees? No? Good!"

Now, that's crazy.

The new job is good, I like the people alot but this is tons and tons of product information and policies for this old brain to remember. I'm going to stick with it for awhile because the Farmer and I need to tie up some loose ends before we actually retire. Some days it doesn't seem like that will ever happen. We keep putting one foot in front of another and keep our eyes on the goals we've set.

Let me say this though..... you must be flexible and not be "married" to a dream. Dreams are good. Dreams keep us focused and moving forward but if, for some reason, that dream can't be realized you must be able to reset, reorganize and find another dream to be happy with.

The Anthony Chapel - Hot Spings Village, Arkasas
No far from our retirement property.

Case in point. The Farmer and I have owned a piece of beautiful property and our intent has always been to build. The reality is that it makes no sense to build at $150 a square foot when we can find a beautiful home with a view equal to our lot for $80 a square foot. And so, like a computer we've reset and relaunched.

How about you? Is it easy for you to alter your dreams and expectations or is this something you struggle with?

Tomorrow I'll give you a heads up on some local events.

William Wren - In Remembrance

2011-09-11T01:22:00.000-07:00

In 2006 I became a part of something called Project 2996. Each person who agreed to participate was given the name of someone who perished on September 11. Since that time I remember William Wren and his family on this day.

In remembrance -

William Wren - age 61
Resident Manger - OCS Security
Confirmed Dead - World Trade Center

WILLIAM WREN

William Wren, a retired New York City firefighter, worked for OCS Securiy as fire security officers in the World Trade Centers.

Raised in Gerritsen Beach in Brooklyn, Wren graduated from James Madison High School, served three years in the U.S. Army and joined the New York City Fire Department. People remember him as a quiet, reserved man who never spoke of his firefighting adventures.

The New York Port Authority contracted with OCS as part of the additional safety precautions that were put into place after the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Five employees of OCS died on September 11, including Wren's neighbor of over thirty years, Richard Fitzsimons.

Both men were at work on that morning and Wren called his wife Pat shortly after 9 a.m. to say he was OK. But sirens were wailing in the background. Ten minutes later he called back to say that Richard was also OK and that Pat should call his wife and let her know.

That was a last time either family heard from the men. It is known that they continued to perform their duties, along with the other OTC employees who were lost - Philip Hayes, Larry Boisseau and Robert Mayo. They evacuated the day care center first, and with their intimate knowledge of the building continued to evacuate and bring others to safety.

These are just the barest facts of his life and his actions on that day. To tell his whole story, the story of his life and his death, would take an entire book. There are those who can remember him as the man who saved their lives. How would you ever repay a debt of that magnitude? You could remember.... and vow to live your life with the caliber of character exhibited by this man.

Just people..... just doing their jobs....thrust into extreme circumstances. Everyday heroes.

I want William Wren's wife Pat and their children to know that they are in my thoughts and prayers and that we will never forget their loved one or their loss.

To the people of New York: Your home was violated, your lives were violated. I corresponded with someone from Brooklyn who volunteered in the weeks and months following 9-11. New Yorkers are to be commended for their support and commitment to doing what needed to be done following the attack. They worked as a community galvanized by loss. I admire you.

I also want to remember the passengers on Flight 93. After being made aware of the events that had unfolded in New York and Washington, they VOTED to storm the cockpit and do whatever it took to thwart the hijackers plans. How totally American - they voted and waited until they were over a rural area to prevent loss of life on the ground. These were not soldiers who are trained to rush into dangerous situations and fight, they were businessmen, flight attendants and others. They were just plain citizens, like you and me, who found the courage and took a stand knowing that it meant their lives. There are many stories of heroism from that day but it was these people who, in their actions, said "HELL NO" the terrorists. Their wives, mothers and friends should also be commended for telling them the truth, confirming their love and supporting their decision to do what needed to be done. They have my undying admiration.

Sod Houses

2011-09-09T05:49:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I discussed the book, No Time on My Hands by Grace Snyder. There were questions in the comments section that I thought could best be answered in a new post.

The book is 541 pages long, which means that any review will just hit the high points. I love these types of books that tell us how people actually lived day-to-day in the past.

Yesterday Lisa commented:

That sounds like my kind of story. I love the kind of story that helps me see/feel how someone else lived, be it another time or another place.
I love that "overmuch weather". So funny. And I can NOT imagine making that quilt! Wow! That is amazing!

I also love the phrase "overmuch weather" and plan to use it to describe our overmuch snow.

Judy says:

I have this book and have seen Grace Snyders quilts in Lincoln Nebraska where they had been displayed. The quilts are amazing. I spent 2 hours in the International Quilt Study Center & Museum and could have spent more time.

It sounds like a worthwhile tripa and it's been added to my Bucket List.

Pam says:

I read this book last year, saw it on someone's blog or post some where. it was a great book, loved it! had to have my library get it from another, it was worth the wait though, I would highly recommend it!

I was very suprised to realize how many people have read this book. Perhaps it's made the rounds of quilters circles. I was surprise that she didn't really discuss her quilting much in the book.

Vee says:

Amazing quilt. And one that took a great deal of time. Stolen time? Sacred time? Precious time to be sure. Now you have me wanting to see that quilt. How closely are you able to see the details on the original photo in the book?

Her large show quilts were produced after her children were grown and her day-to-day responsibilities were not as pressing. Lots of work was done in the winter. Many years they were snowed in and she didn't leave the ranch from OCTOBER TO MARCH!!! (Caps - shouting in disbelief). Gosh, these people certainly had patience and a different mindset. The only photo of the quilt is on the front cover and it's not very detailed. I can't imagine 8 pieces of fabric sewn together to make something the size of a 2 cent stamp. Was that stamp bigger than those of today? I don't think so.

Harriet said:

Many years ago, my family "camped" our way to Colorado. Nebraska was truly amazing. The rest areas were wonderful especially because inside were huge photographs of "sod homes". It was very moving to read the captions. What struck me was: 1) one picture showed a bird in a cage hanging outside of the sod home...reason given was since no birds were around to sing it was one way women were able to get relief from the constant sound of wind and only if they could afford a bird, 2) the homes shown were so compact and to me dreary that I gained a great appreciation for those home steaders who braved living in such isolation literally in a dirt house, 3) yes the wind blew and I was able to imagine the sound that actually drove people mad.

I will get the book and look forward to reading it. Thanks.

One of the pictures included in the book was a photo of their extended family. Grace's mother kept birds and she insisted that they be dragged out of the sod house and included in the photo. The birdcages are standing behind the family members so perhaps it was this photo that was displayed. We cannot, in our wildest imaginations, know what it was to live in a sod house, isolated from your neighbors and family members back east, or in this case Missouri. People did indeed go mad.

Terri says:

I have been in two soddies in MN when we lived there and worked on the road. My hubby sold yellow page advertising and we drove to customers' businesses throughout the upper Midwest. On the road around Sleepy Eye, I think, there was a farmer who built two soddies that you could visit for a few dollars. They were surrounded by the tall tossled-out native grasses that were plowed under to make farm fields. The houses were furnished with old pieces, a treddle sewing machine, a pot- bellied stove with a cook top, a bed on the floor with a utility type quilt, a handmade cradle, and on the sewing machine there was a scrap book of newspaper articles (showing pictures with the owners) about soddies... how one was even built to be a two story home! Inside was dark and musty. My first thought was "No wonder they cooked outside - How could anybody stay sane over a winter in this place." These weren't people who were poor that came out west. They'd had to pay quite a bit to get supplies for the journey and to buy a wagon and horses or better oxen. So they were used to nice big homes with real floors and roofs, and separate rooms...
I'm always amazed at their courage and the hardwork they did.

Grace's family moved to Nebraska from Missouri. Her mother would be tormented by the thought of the lovely Missouri home surrounded by trees and lovely gardens. The stark nature of the Nebraska plains was a tough row to hoe, so to speak. You wonder if Missouri was so lacking in opportunities. Is that why they struck out for a homestead? These people were made of some really tough stuff.

Red Shoes said:

I must see that quilt...road trip!

Yes! I bet I could make a business out of this. Get a bus, set up road trips. Hmmmmmm.

ROUND ROBIN BOOK READ

My friend Sandy, in South Carolina, has suggested a round robin read of this book. I was planning to come back today and offer the book to one of my readers, so this idea is perfect. Since Sandy came up with it she will be the first reader. Here's how it works:

- Anyone interested in reading the book (and not in a big hurry) can e-mail me at Abscissa63@aol.com - express your interest in the round robin and include your mailing address.

- Sandy will read the book and I will provide her with the address for the next person. That person will read and I'll provide them with the next reader.

- I will include a small journal for each person to record their impressions. The journal will travel with the book.

Sound good?

OK, remember to e-mail me if you are interested.

NOTE: Sod home museums are located in Nebraska and Oklahoma.

Other books chronicling daily life in the past include This Cruel War by Grant and Malinda Taylor. This is an almost complete set of letters sent between husband and wife during the Civil War.

Giants in the Earth by O.E. Rolvaag is another tale of living on the lonely prairie. There are at least two other books in the series. It's really a good read.

A Homesteaders Tale

2011-09-07T19:58:00.000-07:00

Recently I read a review of a book entitled, "No Time on My Hands". It's the life story of Grace McCance Snyder as told to her daughter Nellie Snyder Yost. I first saw the book featured on Linda's blog Under the Gables. Here's her review of the book:

NO TIME ON MY HANDS REVIEW

Grace moved to Nebraska in 1885 when she was three years old. Her family had moved from Missouri and lived in a sod house. I can't even imagine such a thing. Grace either kept some journals or had a fantastic memory because she relates stories up to her 80th year (she died at 100). Her memory for people and dates is amazing.

As a child she begged her mother for bits of cloth so that she could stitch them together as her mother did in quilt making. The title of the book refers to an adage of her grandmother which applies to her life also. These people had very little time on their hands. Each moment of the day was pretty much spoken for but Grace did find some time, while herding animals, to have some daydreams.

This is not a traditional piece of writing. It's more of Grace's streaming consciousness and occasionally tales end abruptly leaving you wonder if there was more to it. Never mind, it's a tremendously difficult and fascinating life.

Grace eventually does get fabric of her own and in adulthood she begins creating quilts. Not much time is spent discussing her quilting but at some point she reveals that her quilts begin to travel the country on display and one in particular (pictured below) called the Flower Basket Quilt is considered one of the top 100 quilts produced during the 20th century. It is now permanently on display in a special case at the Nebraska State Historical Society Museum in Lincoln.

There's two things for my bucket list, view Grace's quilt and visit one of the sod house museums.

The quilt was created during the second world war. It's patterned after the design in the center of a piece of china. The petit point design was created from the tiniest pieces, 87,789 of them. Yes, I said over 87,000 pieces! Now, that's patience.

Grace states:

"I made it of triangle shaped pieces so small that eight of them sewed together made a "block" no larger than a two-cent postage stamp. The effect is more like needle point embroidery than patchwork quilt piecing. I was sixteen months making the quilt, and I used 5,400 yards of thread in the sewing."

The book is 541 pages long but it never dragged, I remained interested from cover to cover.

Towards the end of the book she states, "If there has seemed to be overmuch of weather in this story, it is because there is overmuch of weather in Nebraska, and it still has much to do with what does on in the big state. Man, with all his inventions to make life easier and better and faster, has come an amazing long way in three quarters of a century. But when Nature whips up something really rough in the way of a storm, men and all their gadgets are stopped in their tracks."

This entry made me laugh because sometimes I feel that I also make overmuch of the weather.

But, Grace McCance Snyder was right, in rural areas there does seem to be overmuch of weather.

I do love the fact that we can see horizon to horizon. I like to see what's coming!

Let's Have Lunch

2011-09-01T03:13:00.000-07:00

It's the end of summer and I thought we'd have some lunch together. I apologize that it's not ready yet and that you're going to have to go shopping with me for the ingredients. You won't mind, it's only a short ride away.

Things have been crazy this summer with graduation parties and the Other Mother's 90th party to plan. The garden and tomatoes just didn't happen this year. Sigh.

It's no matter because the local farm wives have bounty to share. They set up self-serve stands near the roadside and you're invited to stop and shop for fresh produce and sometimes eggs.

I wanted to include the above shot of the roadway with the cute little white parsonage to the right. It's a rental now because the pastor lives elsewhere.

The sign invites us to stop and have a look.

We need ingredients for our sandwiches.

Hooks hanging at the end of the table hold bags for our produce.

Can you believe how red these tomatoes are? The entire row and the ones in the basket are only 15 cents apiece. We're going to pick some juicy ones.

There's also some yellow squash and zucchini but we'll save those for another day. Four tomatoes ought to be enough. That's 60 cents which we'll put in the box.

Now, let's go back to the house and make our sandwiches. First we'll rinse them off.

We're going to need some crusty bread, salt and good quality mayonnaise. I'm putting my Blue Plate to good use. We're making 'mater sandwiches.

Nope, we don't need ham, beef, tuna or anything else, just home grown tomatoes.

Slice the tomatoes. Omigosh, can you stand this? There's not a store bought tomato anywhere that resembles this.

Give them a good dusting of salt, spread mayo on the bread. It's tomato glue, to prevent the slices from sliding out. It might not work because these tomatoes are very juicy.

Lunch is served. 'Mater sandwiches with iced tea.

I hope you enjoyed our trip to the farm stand. There are big, more commercialized stands but I prefer the little tables set up by the roadside. I doubt that this woman makes a lot of money with her excess produce but you never know. It's what my mom used to call "egg money".

Monday Morning Staff Meeting

2011-08-29T05:33:00.000-07:00

Once again it's time for the Monday Morning Staff Meeting. Wow, the past week really flew by. I gots lots done around the homestead and that's a good feeling. So much more to do before the snow flies!

The Other Mother went out and bought a pie yesterday but I am NOT going to be serving it this morning. Why? Because it's a store bought pumpkin pie and there's nothing worse on this planet. All I can say is EWWWWWWW.

With all this talk of snack food this week I've decided to serve fresh-from-the-fryer potato chips.

These are Jiminy Chips, produced at the compact potato chip factory inside our local Italian food market. Do you remember when we went on a field trip there?

FIELD TRIP - POTATO CHIP FACTORY

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I want to those of you who shared your hurricane Irene story with us.

ELIZABETH said:

We live in Springfield, MA which is about 1 1/2 hours north of NYC. It's raining awfully hard right now and the wind is beginning to pick up. My husband and I have been through a few hurricanes but never one that has come this close to home.

We both are struck by how slow the darn thing is moving...18/20 mph. Feels like it is taking forever to get here and go pass. We expect to lose power at any time and hope that it isn't out to long.

The tornado that went through Spfld. in June missed us but a severe thunderstorm on July 26 with
65mph winds took out 6 30ft. maples in our yard. Between the record snowfall in Jan/Feb, the tornado, the earthquake last week (which we felt) and now this...we are all exhausted with what Mother Nature has been throwing at us.

P.S. On the bright side of things, I now have lots less leaves to rake come October :)

I agree, Mother Nature has thrown alot at you this year already.

Millicent's son lives in Manhattan:

My son lives in midtown Manhattan. He didn't get horrific problems ~ no power outage, etc. He did say that a neighbor across the street didn't have their window unit secured enough, and it fell about 3a.m. Loud bang, cracked sidewalk. I'm not sure how far it fell. A street sign (large one) came off its pole and clanged down the street bouncing off the pavement and into the air many times. It hit a car and broke glass and dented it. Otherwise, all is well for him. Thank God.

We are so glad he is safe.

My friend in Marilyn in Norfolk, Virginia emailed me to say that they weathered the storm without major damage or losing power.

Thanks everyone for checking in.

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If you read Jen Rizzo's blog then you've already seen this. It's so amazing that I had to share.

I've been doing calligraphy for years, and taught it at several points in the last 30 years. I was sad to hear that schools have stopped teaching cursive handwriting but happy to know that some homeschoolers are including it in their curriculum.

Back in the day handwriting was a part of our day and we practiced and practiced and practiced. Something about the act of forming the letters, watching them appears as my fountain pen tracked across the paper. I still use a fountain pen and sometimes clerks look at it as if it was an archaeological artifact!

Fonts and typefaces are an artform in my book. It takes engineering skill to create a new font. Look at my header. That's a favorite of mine called The King and Queen.

Dana Tanamachi is a graphic designer and freelance chalk artist living in Brooklyn. Here's one of her projects:

I sent this along to a graphic artist friend of mine and she didn't quite understand what she was looking at. To her it looked like a label. But no, these are BIG works. Here's Dana standing by one of her designs.

I madly in love with this idea and I'm going to try a small piece myself.

Here's what another chalk artist has created.

Chalkboard architectural elements behind the bar.

Stay tuned. I'll see what I can put together.

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That's all from me today. How about you? Anything new in your life? Is your day as busy as mine is shaping up to be?

Riders on the Storm

2011-08-27T18:03:00.001-07:00

Doesn't that song title bring back memories?

Several of my online friends and pen pals are riding out the storm on the east coast. That makes them riders on the storm in my book.

Marilyn in Norfolk checked in to say that they had battened down the hatches and were waiting for Irene to throw her worst at them. They have not yet lost power and she's assured us that her kits ready, including GOLDEN OREOS! That's planning ahead. She is originally from Illinois and is knowlegeable in the ways of Biblical thunderstorms, midwestern flooding and tornados.

We've got the TV tuned in to the Weather Channel and we're watching Irene's dreadfully slow march up the coast. I notice one of the big advertisers during this period is Generac, a manufacturer of whole house generators. (Disclaimer - NOPE, Generac isn't paying me either.... DRAT!).

A couple of years after we moved in here a large house was built further up the hill from us. All of a sudden we started having water problems during power outages. We hadn't had the problem before but when the neighbors house was built it totally changed the way the water flowed, diverting alot of the flow in our direction, and the neighbor behind us. We had a small gasoline powered generator that would never start when we needed it. The Farmer would pull and pull on that cord until I was afraid we'd be taking a trip to the hospital in addition to dealing with a sump pump with no power.

Finally we threw in the towel (literally, a rain soaked towel) and decided we were way too old to be dealing with such issues. One power outage in the middle of winter (minus 40 below evening) was the last straw. We could see our breath in under an hour. We marched over to the local home improvement store and purchased a whole house generator. When the power goes out I start counting.... 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 .... BAM - power! The breaker switches over to a second panel, that trips the motor inside the generator and it starts providing power. The motor inside the unit is powered by natural gas from our gas line. When the power comes back on it seamlessly switches back to the electric grid. It's a big enough unit to run everything in our house - fridge, computers, lights, furnace, everything except the air conditioner.

I won't lie to you, it was an investment. But it was only 1/6th the cost of a power outage induced flood in our basement so to us it was well worth the peace of mind.

So anyway, everyone on the east coast stay safe. Marilyn, you have our permission to open those Oreos and dive in. Desperate times call for desperate measures. My dear friends in Ocean City, Maryland.... you are in my heart and in my mind, always. I'll be praying for you this weekend.

If anyone has Irene storm stories, please feel free to leave them in the comments sections. We'd all love to know what you are experiencing.

Serious Snack Food Addiction

2011-08-26T10:31:00.000-07:00

Trips to the grocery store involve a fair amount of stress. I do my best to avoid the snack food aisle, but if I find myself surrounded by snack foods my ability to resist melts away. I love spicy, salty snacks and one of my favorites is pepper and sea salt potato chips.

My serious addiction is for something that's actually quite odd. It's not exactly a case of pica (an eating disorder that is characterized by consuming non-nutritive materials) but on some level it's strange. Here's one of my favorite snacks:

Don't they look like shipping peanuts? You know, those extruded plastic peanuts that stick to everything when you open a box? To be truthful they have the same texture as those peanuts, but they're butter flavored. Paula Deen would be so proud!

They're corn puffs, Chester's corn puffs to be exact.

They're wildly popular. How do I know? They are very rarely on the shelves and for that I'm glad. When I turn the corner into the aisle I'm holding my breath as to whether they're stocked or not.

I know, it's sad.

How about you? Do you have any unusual snack food cravings? Tell me I'm not alone!

Natural Disasters

2011-08-25T02:00:00.000-07:00

I'm watching the Weather Channel's coverage of the approach of Irene. It's certainly not going to affect us here in the midwest but I have lots of postcard pen pals on the east coast and I'm concerned for their safety.

I have readers in Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Maine. One of the forecast maps shows the hurricane making it's way up the coast all the way to Maine!

Mother nature can sure cause calamity! My friend in California assures me that thunderstorms are a rarity in Southern California. I don't think I could survive without a good thunderstorm every so often.

The thunder and lightning are energetic and exciting, as long as the lightning doesn't hit my house.

On one of my trips to Baltimore the remnants of a hurricane rolled into the area and sat, literally SAT on the place for days. It was a constant rain the like of which I'd never experienced. It wasn't a deluge but constant, constant, constant for days. My friend took us shopping in a little town called Ellicott City which itself was something totally new to me. The shops were very old and built into the side of a huge rock face. The back sides of the shops were literally rock walls. Amazing.

On the other side of the street was a stream flowing downhill, UNDER the shops! That was scary to me. Inside one of the shops we could hear water rushing. I certainly didn't feel safe. The raging stream continued to flow downhill into a river at the bottom of the hill. A quick look revealed all kind of things had washed downstream, including a full sized refrigerator!

I haven't survived a flood and have no desire to. Moving water is one of the most dangerous forces on the planet. Water will have it's way!

My poor friends on the east coast, the same ones that are waiting for the hurricane to arrive, just experienced an earthquake. Yahoo News ran an article that explained the difference between a 5.8 earthquake on the east coast as compared to the same size quake in California, something about the crust and frequencies.

EAST COAST VS. WEST COAST QUAKES

All I know is that the quake we experienced here in Illinois a year-and-a-half ago was not the undulating wave type. It was the BAM - SLAM - knock you out of bed type. The kind that makes you believe that a snow plow has hit the house. That was not an experience I'd like to repeat. The feeling was seriously creepy. I was creeped out for days.

Wildfires and firestorms do not occur around here. Yet another natural disaster I have no desire to experience.

Tornados? Now there's something I know having been in four of them, three here in Illinois and one in San Antonio, Texas. The Texas tornado left me screaming at my co-workers who didn't have much experience with twisters. The weather turned dangerous. The severity, speed and color of the clouds told me what was coming. My co-workers were fascinated and ran to the large plate glass windows. Picture me screaming at the top of my lungs for them to run into the interior rooms as quickly as they could. Huge Air Force transport planes were flipped over like toys on that day.

Clouds roll in over the fields.

But the take-the-cake tornado was the one that the Farmer and I drove inside. Yep, being the adventurous fools that we are and actually not even realizing that a twister had touched down (rain wrapped tornado, late a night) we drove in the outside swirling edge, driving with the storm as it moved parallel to the highway. It was WILD!

I don't remember being afraid because I wasn't aware we were in a tornado. I just remember saying to the Farmer, "This is the WORST thunderstorm I've ever seen!"

Now, there's an understatement. The lighning was crazy. It was like we were in some type of wild nightclub with strobe lights going off in each direction. The Farmer crept along at 5 mph as I guided him along by keeping my eye on the white fog line on the edge of the road. Lightning struck and transformer just as we passed and the entire thing blew up in a shower of fire and sparks.

I think I'm done with tornados.

My thoughts are with those of you on the east coast. Be like a Boy Scout, be prepared, get outta Dodge and stay safe.

I'd love to hear your stories of natural disasters. I think we've all lived through one or two.

Chores - the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

2011-08-24T06:50:00.000-07:00

It seems I've spent a lifetime trying to impress upon the Farmer just how much behind the scenes work it takes to keep life rolling along smoothly. The problem is generational. We are stuck like glue to the dynamics of the generation in which we were raised.

Those in the generation before us had less advanced appliances, fabrics that required tons of work and less technological advantages. Women generally did not work outside of the home and were therefore CEO's of the homestead.

For my mother's generation keeping a clean home, managing to put us out the door neatly dressed with mended clothing and putting home cooked food on the table was a point of pride. That attitude spilled onto my generation, although things changed a bit as we moved forward through the women's movement.

I appreciate all the shortcuts and labor saving devices that have been developed, especially the advances in fabrics. I can remember my mother sprinkling the clean laundry with water from a bottle with a cork stopper sprinkler head. The clothing would be folded and rolled up and placed in the refrigerator to keep damp and cool until she found time to iron.

OH.... ironing! I love to iron but I remember it being a task of pure drudgery for my mom. We'd steer clear of her on ironing day. For me it's pleasureable to put a Netflix movie on my computer and iron.

The generational clean-house-pride is probably why I am so baffled by stay-at-home moms who have cleaning ladies. Truth be told I'd probably love to have a cleaning lady but it continues to feel wrong in my world view. Some day I'll get over it and come into the 21st century.

Another pleasurable chore is mowing. We have two acres which requires at least two hours on the lawn tractor. I enjoy being outdoors in the fresh air. The noise of the mower does not allow me to appreciate the quiet countryside but the hum of the engine does produce a type of white noise which allows my mind to wander. I've solve many a problem thinking and riding that tractor.

Within minutes of cutting a path down the side yard the birds appear, swirling and diving from all directions. At times they barely miss my head. At first I thought there was a nest nearby that they were protecting. I walked the property, searching in every tree for the nest. There were none to be found. A quick question on an internet forum produced the answer. The beautiful streamlined birds were barn swallows, drawn by the promise of a quick meal.

The mower stirs up insects in the grass and the swallows dive in for the meal. Barn swallows are just beautiful, with creamy undersides, backs and wings covered with blue/black feathers that shimmer in the light. They're so graceful and sleek, with forked swallowtails.

How about you? Are you stuck in a generational rut? Do you have favorite chores and those you dread?

Personally, I'll wash dishes all day by hand rather than unload that dishwasher!

Monday Morning Staff Meeting

2011-08-22T06:57:00.000-07:00

Good morning everyone. It's been a long time since we've held a Monday Morning staff meeting.

This morning we're going to be sharing some apple pie a la mode. Help yourself. I apologize that this is a store bought pie but the crust is quite good, flaky and light.

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Grab the September edition of Country Living magazine, or maybe you have a subscription. Fellow northern Illinois blogger Jen Rizzo's kitchen makeover is included. She had a vision and created a wonderful and warm space.

The most important part of the article to me is that fact that they included the budget. I love looking at beautiful kitchens but always tell myself, "That's got to be impossible to accomplish on a small budget." Well, Jen shows how it's done.

First she shows you how to build a kitchen island.

KITCHEN ISLAND

Here's her original "oak cave".

Source: Jennifer Rizzo

They saved money by painting the cabinets themselves and installing wood countertops rather than granite.

Source: Jennifer Rizzo

It just goes to show what you can accomplish with a vision and some hard work.

Congratulations Jen on your article in Country Living!

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The Help..

Have you read it? Have you seen the movie?

A friend and I are going to see it tomorrow. I finished reading the book in two days. Well, I wasn't working and just couldn't help but engage in a reading binge.

I liked the book but it was fiction and you know the problems I have with fiction. It seemed very true to the times, believe me I remember them vividly but I kept referring in my mind to Stephen King's book on writing. He bemoans the fact that authors rely on plot mechanisms that they chart out ahead of time and in this book I could see all those mechanisms at work. YIKES!!! A mind like mine can really pull all the enjoyment out of something. I can't help myself. HA.

SPOILERS AHEAD....skip down if necessary.

The "pie" part of the plot simply did not work. I could see that she was building a way that the maids could escape unscathed from their actions. That's not how life, revolution and progress work. There was a price to be paid and at the time it was bitter and dangerous. Someone like Hilly would never keep that a secret, certainly not from her husband who would have exacted revenge.

I do applaud the message that it was people who were brave and willing to put their necks (literally) on the line for equality. In some cases it was not an act of defiance. Rosa Parks was not a revolutionary. She's stated many times that she was just TIRED. She just was bone tired and didn't feel like giving up her seat. She never got on that bus to become a hero or to propel a movement.

By the way, the civil rights movement was actually sparked by the murder of Emmett Till, a Chicago teenager who was killed in Mississippi in 1955. His mother insisted on a public funeral, open casket with journalists present. Her insistance propelled the movement into existence.

The Help did bring back memories for me because as a kid being raised in the Chicago area, going to the deep rural south in the 50's was like going to the moon. The culture was so foreign to me. Don't me wrong, racism existed in the big city north but we lived in an integrated community and racism was more underground.

I'm glad that author Catherine Stockett was able to give the help a voice. I am anxious to see the movie because I believe in the hands of talented actors this story will be awesome.

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Do you sew? Would you like to help some neighbors in need?

I'm speaking of our neighbors in Joplin, Missouri and Tuscaloosa, Alabama. They're not right around the corner from us, but they are still our neighbors in need.

There are upwards of 14,000 families who have lost everything, including all their holiday decorations. Think about how you would feel if all those ornaments your children made over the years were destroyed? Christmas is fast approaching and these families could use the comfort of a handmade Christmas stocking.

Craft Hope has launched the Christmas in Dixie for tornado survivors project. You can help by creating a handmade stocking and mailing it off before September 23rd. The project coordinators will make sure they are delivered before Christmas. They are asking for standard size stockings (not minis) with a loop on the top and possibly a blank space for monogramming at a later date.

Complete information can be found here:

CHRISTMAS IN DIXIE PROJECT

There are plenty of free stocking patterns online.

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Have a great day everyone. Thanks for taking time out of your busy day to visit with me.

Chicken Scratch

2011-08-18T20:56:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we talked about aprons. Vee had a question about the aprons in this photo.

This apron is an examples of what is called chicken scratch embroidery. This involves doing cross stitch embroidery on a piece of gingham and creates different effects.

Vee asked, "Have you ever tried the chicken scratch embroidery for aprons?"

No, I have not. This is also on my list of things to try. I love doing hand sewing so this would be pleasurable and relaxing. Here's a close up.

This apron came from a church rummage sale and it's different than any others I've seen because this one has white rick rack applied to the fabric using embroider stitches. This was alot of work!

Have you ever tried chicken scratching? Have you ever sewn an apron? There are tons of patterns available and the fabric stores run sales that allow you to pick them up for as low as 99 cents. If you are a novice sewer, an apron is one of the easiest things to sew but still allowing you to gain some skills.

Here are a few of my favorite patterns:

Simplicity 4282 - Vintage style half and full aprons. One view includes directions for chicken scratch. Another view is an old fashioned smock-type apron with pockets. (six different aprons)

See & Sew B-5411 - Two styles of half-aprons. One has a ruffle at the bottom.

Butterick B5436 - Four style of aprons, two half aprons and two full. These aprons are sized from small (8-10) to large (16-18). This is a go-to apron pattern for me because of the larger sizes.

McCall's M6366 - Two full circle skirt half aprons and two full aprons. More modern style.

McCall's M6255 - Is your child wanting an apron, or asking to learn how to sew? This pattern is for you. It includes three different views that include patterns for both adult and child sizes. Very cute.

McCall's M6334 - Three styles of aprons, both half and full. This pattern has a twist. It include appliques designs including an owl on a branch, a chicken, tulip and a dress. Fresh and retro-modern style.

My favorite pattern? Mary Mulari's Church Ladies Apron Pattern.
The traditional church ladies apron is a classic and just screams "good food - nurturing found here"! This pattern is one size fits most and can be made reversible. I found the pattern at a quilt shop but it is available online at Mary's shop:

CHURCH LADIES APRON

Challenge yourself. Make an apron!

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Disclaimer: No, I'm not paid by Simplicity or McCalls. Downy fabric softener doesn't pay me to say good things about their Downy ball either. DRAT! It's OK. I don't have enough readers to be a paid product endorser or get my own cooking show on TV but I can assure you that it's better to be small and actually KNOW your readers. Many of you are pen pals and I appreciate your support and friendship.

A Yard or Less of Fabric

2011-08-17T21:11:00.000-07:00

I sew alot. My vintage sewing machines have thousands and thousands of miles on them. They are my trusty steeds.

The main focus of my sewing efforts are aprons. I was so happy to see them make a comeback because my grandmother and mom my always wore aprons. My grandmother's apron was utilitarian. My mom had a workhorse apron in the kitchen but I distinctly remember her changing just before guests arrived. She'd don a fancy hostess apron.

These aprons were made of dressy fabrics such as voile or netting and were more of a fashion accessory than clothing protection.

Aprons are symbols of nurturing, sustenance, love and the solid base that is a home.

My friend sent me the following piece, knowing my love for aprons, both new and vintage. I do not know the author, but I wanted to share it nonetheless.

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I don't think our kids know what an apron is.

The principal use of grandma's apron was to protect the dress underneath, because she only had a few. It was easier to wash aprons than dresses and the used less material. But, along with that, it served as a potholder for removing hot pans from the oven.

It was wonderful for drying childrens tears, and on occasion was even used for cleaning out dirty ears.

From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven.

When company came, those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy kids.

When the weather was cold, grandma wrapped it around her arms.

Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow, bent over the hot stove.

Chips and kindling wood were brought into the house in that apron.

From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables. After the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls.

In the fall, the apron was used to bring in apples that had falled from the trees.

When unexpected company drove up the road, it was surprising how much furniture that old apron could dush in a matter of seconds.

When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out on the porch, waved her apron and the men knew it was time to come in from the fields for dinner.

It will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace the old-time apron that served so many purposes.

Did you cringe a little bit at some of these uses? Did you think about how many germs were on that apron?

Well, I can tell you I don't think I ever caught anything from an apron.

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Did this piece bring back some memories for you? It did for me and not just of my grandmother but also my mom and my aunts. I'm grateful for alll the wonderful, strong and talented women in my life.

My aunt in the panhandle of Florida cooked fabulous meals on a wood cookstove, bringing in the wood and kindling in her apron. She didn't even have electricity!

Florida panhandle - Circa 1953

My other aunt was horrible crippled by a virulent form of arthritis and yet she'd don her apron, make butter in a glass jar churn and cook a huge midday meal for all the farm hands.

Here's to the apron and what it represents.

The Lowest Low of High Tech

2011-08-16T19:11:00.000-07:00

If high tech is a ladder, I'm on the lowest low rung.

My cellphone is positively high tech to me because when I was growing up even the idea of a cellphone was in the realm of science fiction. No, not in the realm, it WAS science fiction.

Recently I had to get a new battery because the old one simply wouldn't take a charge anymore.

"Hmmmmm," said the very young girl at the phone store. "I haven't seen one like this in a very long time."

That's right honey. It's old, it still works and I haven't had a contract in probably five years.

"Did you know you can get the latest phone for free? Just sign up for a 20 year contract and you can have a phone that does everything for you. Why, you can get an app that allows you to simply speak into the phone and it will do a web search for you. Watch this...... Kim Kardashian. Look at all these hits."

"Ummmmmm, no thanks," I assured her. "I'm not going to live 20 years anyway and I kinda like doing my own web searches, certainly not for any Kardashian."

My phone takes calls and makes calls. Oh, and occasionally gets a voicemail. That's it. I did figure out how to take a photograph and save it as a screensaver. This is a cool apron I saw in the bathroom of a kitchen shop in Hot Springs. I give myself an A+ for somehow figuring that out.

Low tech extends into the house also. I'm very happy to have a modern washing machine. My grandmother would have killed for one in her youth. She was the one in charge of scrubbing the clothes on a washboard in the nearby stream where she grew up in Tennessee.

Last year our old faithful machine finally gave out after 25 or 26 years of faithful service. Todd, our appliance repairman, came out and pronounced the machine beyond hope. I had been spying those slick, beautiful front loaders. I was dreaming about them, in fact. Todd warned me off. He said that he's doing $$$$ repairs on them as soon as three years into their life. He suggested buying the bottom of the line Whirlpool. Does the work, no bells or whistles.

It worked for us because, at the time the Farmer was newly unemployed. An $1,100 washing machine was not in the cards for us. So off I trudged to the local Sears appliance store and soon the bottom rung of the high tech washing appliances made it's way into our home. They forgot to mention the noise. This machine sounds like a machine gun when it's in the wash cycle. Ditto for the rinse cycle. OK, I can just close the laundry door and think about all the bucks we save.

There's just one more problem. No bells and whistles, remember? The handy-dandy fabric softener dispenser was non-existent. Drats. I hate having to catch the machine between cycles.

That's where this cool little thing comes in.

It's a fabric softener dispenser and it's positively, fabulously, low-tech and wonderful. You put in the correct amount of softener (store-bought or homemade) and pull the plug shut.

You toss it into the washer at the beginning of the wash cycle and magically it opens and dispenses the softener during the rinse cycle.

I just LOVE inventors. I guess that the motion of the spinning breaks the seal and allows the softener to escape. It's just a crazy little amazing piece of plastic.

I think it was $1.59.

How about you? Are you lower rung high tech or top of the ladder high tech?

"

Past Little Egypt

2011-08-13T23:42:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who took time to think about the geography puzzle I posed in my last post.

Susan, I wish we'd gone to Italy or cruised the Mediterranean. I mention a different continent to throw a red herring in the mix. It's just so funny to me that all those exotic sounding names are towns right here in the middle of America.

Sandra, you got it right! We drove down the far eastern edge of Missouri, following the curve of the Mississippi River. Along the way we pass towns in Missouri and across the river in southern Illinois.

Herculaneum, Missouri
Sparta, Illinois
Vienna, Illinois
Thebes, Illinois
Karnak, Illinois
and.... Cairo, Illinois

That's just a few of the names. Southern Illinois is known as Little Egypt. The name may have come about when poor harvest to the north forced people to Southern Illinois to buy grain. Other people claim it was because the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers resemble the Nile Delta.

We passed through New Madrid, site of four very large earthquakes. The largest caused bells to ring in Boston and Toronto, and topple chimneys in Maine! The earthquake changed the course of the Mississippi River and also created Reelfoot Lake.

We headed on down to Memphis and turned west to our final destination - Hot Springs, Arkansas.

It's a heck of a drive to buy some Blue Plate Mayo, but nothing else will do.

Our trip this time was packed with things we needed to do but I managed to squeeze in a massage and the Farmer got in a round of golf. The Mother (my mom) went with us and visited with some of the friends she made while living there. The Other Mother stayed home and tore her rooms apart in a kind of delayed spring cleaning.

We brought two souvenirs back home with us, a $12 pipe wrench which was used to retrieve the Farmer's partial plate from the drain, and an Arkansas state ccokie cutter!

Stick Horse Cowgirls - I promise that on our next visit to Arkansas we'll meet up and have ribs at Shorty Smalls.

What have I been up to?

2011-08-11T15:06:00.000-07:00

No good, that's for sure!

I have a job. More about that another day, just know that it's seriously cutting into my creative time. I'm feeling the itch because I'm just not sewing and crocheting as much as I'd like. My hands need to be busier than my brain. That's when I'm the happiest.

Want to play a little guessing game? It's fun. You get to guess where the Farmer and I went on vacation. I think I mentioned that we went south but that could mean alot of things. There are thousands and thousands of places south of northern Illinois and just because I said south doesn't mean that it was on this continent.

I'll give you a couple of clues. To get to our destination we passed through Herculaneum, which was west of Sparta, northwest of Cypress, Vienna, Karnak and Thebes!

We also passed through the place that felt one of the strongest earthquakes in written history.

How ar eyour geography skills? Can you guess? It's tricky.

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Finally the incredible heat has dissipated and the cooler temperatures mean we're not as cranky. I'm really afraid to look at the next electric bill, it's going to be ugly.

Thanks to Tess who has alerted me to the Russian spam bandits who have left comments in Cyrillic text. That's scary because I have no clue what it says. I think I've deleted them all. It's strange because Bloggers spam net catches most of that stuff but for some reason the Russian is sneeking through. Hopefully they're not trying to sell the Farmer a Russian bride! He don't need no bride, that's for sure.

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OK, it's date night around here which means we're headed to the free concert in the park. Does your town have something similar? We love these free concerts and it's such a treat for everyone who's feeling a pinch in the wallet. Unfortunately, the entertainment budget is the first to feel the hit.

Thanks for you patience because this blog has been languishing a bit while I struggle to get my creative voice back. Some of the bloggers on my reading list are taking and break and that's something I can understand. But, I was thinking, wouldn't it be sad if the only ones left standing were the paid bloggers, or those who are earning money by blogging? I just think the bloggers-without-agendas are much more interesting.

Have a great day everyone. Talk to you soon. Don't forget to put your thinking caps on.

Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation

2011-08-02T05:33:00.000-07:00

Do you remember that vintage movie? If not, please try to rent it because it's a funny look at what disasters can strike a vacation.

Did we have a Mr. Hobbs vacation? Yes, we did!!

Consider this a vacation postcard without the photo. The Other Mother has moved a ton of furniture into my sewing room because she's having her carpets cleaned. She's jammed stuff into the nook where my old computer sits. This is the machine that I use to process my photos. Darn.

Some of you might have guessed we went south for a week. It was HOT but it was equally hot at home too. We rented a house that allowed pets (there were only two available) and from our experience these pet-friendly houses are quite basic. The home had been somewhat remodeled but the laminate floor had a definited downward slope in the kitchen. Thankfully I did not spot a single spider in the place.

The bathroom had an odd shower that required you to walk into before you could turn the water on, meaning that you got a blast of cold water. Yikes. This bathroom also had another problem. The sink was missing the drain stopper. This is the kind of black hole that swallows beautiful diamond rings or expensive dental work.

What do you think happened? Do you think my diamond went down the drain while I was washing my hands? NO....... the Farmer lost his partial bridge when he was brushing it clean. That's over $1,500 of dental work down the drain. OOOPS.

He immediately shut the water off and forbad anyone from using the sink. A quick trip to the hardware store and $14 dollars later he had a pipe wrench in hand and went to work retrieving the bridge. Can you imagine it sitting in the bottom of that drain? Yuck.

Plunk.... out it fell and I went to work sanitizing it without melting the plastic because we didn't want to compound the disaster.

Disaster struck again when the Farmer went to put the plumbing back together. The plastic pipe cracked. Back to the hardware store and a few bucks later all was well. For awhile, that is.

Food poisoning followed soon after. More about that later.

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Thanks to all my loyal readers who have sent me postcards from their summer vacations. I feel like I've taken more than one trip this summer and that's a good thing.

Can You Spot the Tourists?

2011-07-22T02:00:00.000-07:00

The Farmer and I are leaving on vacation tomorrow morning. We've chosen an undisclosed location so that we're not bothered by the paparazzi. Honestly, can you imagine not being able to go anywhere without the scrutiny of others? Fame has it's costs and that's certainly a big one.

I bought this postcard because I thought it was so funny. Of course, you won't catch me in anything this short and I don't smoke! Neither does the Farmer. But just pretend this is the two of us, cameras in hand, looking to see the sights.

I'll catch up with you when we return. Have a wonderful week everyone.

In Praise of Vintage Linens

2011-07-20T20:44:00.000-07:00

It's still hot here in northern Illinois. Very hot and it's the high humidity that's making it so dangerous and unbearable. The grass has gone dormant. Forget about watering grass. It's impossible with two acres. The weeds are thriving though.

No matter what the heat I cannot sleep without something over me. Even the thin cotton matlasse coverlet is too much but I must have something to sleep under. This is where vintage linens come in.

Here's my collection:

There's a thrift store in the area that is a great source for vintage linens. I use these in many projects, including my aprons. Linens are the best fabric bargain - new or vintage.

I've been working with fabrics my entire adult life and these linens have a cool and crisp feel that the newer fabric just don't have. The flat sheet I've been sleeping under seems very, very thin to the touch but it's incredibly sturdy and tightly woven. There's something about it that just feels different. Like I said it feels smooth and cool. I'm crazy for it.

How about you? Do you own any vintage linens? Can you tell the difference?

H - O - T

2011-07-18T08:59:00.000-07:00

Becky, the Berkshire hog.

This is how we're feeling here in the upper midwest. Just overcome by the heat and lying low. The heat index is incredible and we're using all kinds of tricks to keep the Other Mother out of the yard. She insists on doing her gardening .... whatever. But this weather is downright dangerous.

I feel like I've fallen off the blogging wagon lately. We've been busy with YET ANOTHER party for the Other Mother's 90th birthday. Basically, I'm down with it. Enough already.

For now I'm going to pull down all the blinds, turn on the ceiling fans and try my best to keep cool. You do the same!

Gotta Love a Potluck

2011-07-14T06:53:00.000-07:00

Don't you just love a potluck dinner?

I can remember loving these events as far back as my memory will take me. My Grandma Blanche helped organize potlucks at the local Grange Hall in northern Wisconsin.

As I've mentioned before she was a little firecracker, barely 4 feet 10 inches tall. That's her leaning over in the hot pink and white dress. Look at the lady behind her in the half apron. Gotta love aprons as much as you do potlucks.

The beauty is that everyone brings their best dish, lovingly made from their best (and sometimes guarded) recipes. After awhile you begin to look forward to these dishes and if the person brings something different, chaos ensues!

Here's just part of the spread at my neighbors recent pig roast.

This was the snack station and pretty soon this table was groaning under the weight of good things. Layered taco dip, chips and dip, deviled eggs, cowboy caviar and tortilla chips were just some of the goodies.

The dining room table was loaded down with desserts and the big island in the kitchen was covered with the pork, beans and other goodies.

It was an eating and visiting fest. I love when people come together over good food and I'm so thankful for neighbors who host these parties.

But...... can you believe in the county where my sister lives potluck dinners are ILLEGAL! The County Health Department has made it illegal to have a potluck dinner with homemade food. This applies to events that are advertised to the public. A church could have a poluck if the information was kept inside the church walls and not publicized in the newspaper or any other way.

Call me crazy.... but that's CRAZY, and probably un-American. There's nothing more iconic in the midwest than a potluck dinner. I'm pretty old and I've never heard of anyone even getting ill from potluck food. The really bizarre thing about this is that my son and daughter got extremely ill after a potluck dinner but it was from the store bought milk that contained salmonella. This was a big, big story in the Chicago area and thousands of people were ill and some hospitalized. Remember, NOT from the potluck food but the store bought milk.

Call me foolish but I'll take my chances and eat that delicious potluck food.

Is there a special dish that everyone expects you to bring to these events? Are there areas that don't have potlucks. How about Europe ..... do my overseas readers enjoy potluck dinners or is this a north American thing?

Crazy Little Mysteries

2011-07-12T21:55:00.000-07:00

One day I noticed a bicycle leaning against a sign on the side of the road not far from my house. It wasn't a terribly unusual sight because there's a small roadside restaurant to the left on the other side of the road. If I thought about it a little harder I would have realized that if the owner was stopping in for a hot dog they'd chain their bike up outside the restaurant and not across the road.

Every time I drove across this intersection I looked for the bike.

Yep, still there. One week. Two weeks. Three weeks. Four weeks. I lost count, it's perhaps five or six weeks now. The bike is still there. I'm sure in an urban area it would have disappeared in a day or so, the chain cut with bolt cutters.

I'm left wondering who left it there and why they haven't returned to retrieve it. We'll see if it's still there when the snow flies.

The really goofy thing is that today I spotted the bike and a short distance on the side of the road on the left was a big patio umbrella, fully extended, just lying on the side of the road. Now this isn't something that flew out the back of a truck fully extended. Is someone goofing on us? A bizarre art installation perhaps?

The best place to live

2011-07-11T05:33:00.000-07:00

Family Circle magazine has published a list of the 10 best places to live in America. Here's the countdown:

10. Maple Valley, Washington
9. Oviedo, Florida
8. Germantown, Wisconsin
7. Trumbull, Connecticut
6. Novi, Michigan
5. Friendswood, Texas
4. Fairhope, Alabama
3. Liberty, Missouri
2. Peachtree City, Georgia

Number one on the list is......... wait for it.

St. Charles, Illinois

Yep, that's where we call home. We're the very last house on the left in rural, unincorporated St. Charles and we're actually in a smaller community that has a name but not a postal designation so officially we're in St. Charles.

It is a wonderful place to live but as I've said before it's a bit schizophrenic because of the culture clash between rural farmers and wealthier, upscale residents. It's not a fireworks kind of clash but it's very evident. Take for instance the fact that there's a Coach handbag store within 2.5 miles of Johnsen's Farm and Feed shop.

The Coach store which is technically just over the line into the next town. I walked in here once because my daughter was looking for a Coach organizer. Gosh, I got out quick because I felt out of place.

Here's Johnsen's Farm and Feed just 2.5 miles to the west.

Yeah, that's more my style. HA!

How about your corner of the world? What makes it the best place to live?

Something Cool and Blue for You

2011-07-07T21:00:00.001-07:00

Are you burning up in your neck of the woods? The weather here has actually been quite lovely lately.

The thing about living in the north is that there are things that will grow in our zone that won't grow in the south. Peonies, for example, or foxglove. One of my favorites are hosta.

Here's something cool and blue for you.

It's a large (really large) hosta. If I remember correctly, it's an Elegans. See the martini glass? It's so that you can judge the scale. This hosta, depending on the weather conditions, grows each year from 6 to 8 feet across.

So, for those loyal readers who are plagued by heat, drought and crispy brown foliage, this one's for you!

Monday Morning Staff Meeting on Tuesday

2011-06-28T05:27:00.000-07:00

This is progress! I realize that the Monday Morning Staff Meeting should actually be held on Monday, but Tuesday is certainly an improvement over Thursday.

This morning I invite everyone to have a big piece of birthday cake.

The Other Mother will turn 90 years old on July 3rd. Last weekend her church presented her with a cake and sang Happy Birthday at their annual picnic.

The Other Mother prepares to cut her cake.

Grab a piece of cake and let's get started.

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There are lots of very talented people in this world and we are able to connect via the internet. I want to introduce you to one designer who generously offers free patterns on her blog.

ARTSY CRAFTY BABE

Rebeka sells her handbags on Etsy but if you look on her right sidebar you'll also see that she has some free patterns and tutorials.

I love her market bag. Other patterns are available for sale here:

ARTSY CRAFTY PATTERNS

Thanks Rebeka for your generosity.

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My blog list is very, very eclectic. VERY eclectic. Along with a few decorating and personal "at home" type blogs, I follow a pillow astronaut.

PILLOW ASTRONAUT

What's a pillow astronaut you ask? Why, it's a test subject for NASA's microgravity tests to determine the effect of weightlessness on the human body.

She's my go-to person for all things NASA and space. And she's a Star Trek fan and all around fun and interesting person.

I also follow a theoretical physicist/super hero Ethan Siegel at:

STARTS WITH A BANG

Rounding out the science category is Scott Maxwell's blog, Mars and Me.

MARS AND ME

Scott drives for a living. He doesn't drive an 18 wheeler or an SUV. Scott is one of the Mars Rover drivers!

I also follow alot of the cookie bakers. These bakers/decorators make some of the most beautiful edible creations and they share some of their secrets.

If you remember, I attempted a decorated cookie for my niece's baby shower.

I was fun and they turned out pretty good but honestly this is SO MUCH work I can't imagine doing it for anything other than a very special occasion. These women bake and decorate thousands of cookies.

One of the bakers does wonderful things other than cookies. It's Bake at 350.

BAKE AT 350

Look at this crazy good thing.

BAKE AT 350 CARAMEL BANANA SHORTCAKE

I am never disappointed at her offerings.

One of the other cookie bakers is Nicole. She lives on the Air Force base near Minot, North Dakota. Currently she is chronicling the devastating floods in Minot. It's hearbreaking to witness people losing everything.

I can't imagine what it will take for this community to rebound. The schools are all flooded, some up to the rooflines!

MINOT FLOOD 2011

You can follow her for further updates.

LIFES A BATCH

These are our neighbors, regardless of whether they live 1,000 yards away or 1,000 miles. If you want to help, donations are being accepted by the American Red Cross.

Lastly, it's curious how many bloggers are facing huge challenges right now. It seems that each and every day there's another blogger taking leave because of physical or personal challenges. It's life, I know, but it just seems like there's a wave of tough stuff hitting people right now.

To all those blogger who take their leave - you will remain on my blog list and I'll be anxiously awaiting your return.

Monday Morning Staff Meeting on Thursday

2011-06-23T05:28:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know that's lame. A Monday Morning Staff Meeting on Thursday? Oh well, that's life around here.

The first thing on the agenda is always food. This morning we're going to be enjoying some Whoopie Pies.

These aren't just any Whoopie pies, they're two month old Whoopie pies! I just didn't have time to bake and so, through the magic of archived photos we'll enjoy these goodies!

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Thanks to everyone who participated in the "Name Those Coasters" contest. There were some great suggestions. I chose "Cool Coasters" and that means Vee is the winner. Congratulations and thanks for giving my weak brain a rest.

Vee, I'll get a set in the mail to you. Thanks again everyone.

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About that closet/pantry project. I've got two closets and one pantry painted and re-organized. There's one pantry to go. Thanks for all your encouragement on all these in-house projects. Sometimes it seems like they'll never end but as you have pointed out the results are worth all the hard work.

Vee - you were right in your assessment about what was going to happen in the paint department. The reason I moved to the laundry room closet is because I had lots of paint left over from the front hall closet. After painting that closet I still had paint left over and so I moved on to one of the pantries. As you predicted I've run out of paint! To finish the second pantry I need to buy another gallon (a quart will not be sufficient) and that means I'll have paint left over again! The cycle will repeat. I'll troll around the house for another closet to paint.

I had posted this photo of the newly organized laundry room closet.

Crossed commented, "I understand two crock pots, but two George Forman grills?"

Omigosh, I had to go back and look at the photo myself because I didn't realize we had two grills. Actually, one is a George Foreman and one is a waffle iron.

But Crossed is pretty much correct because in general we have TWO of everything in this house. Seventeen years ago we combined households when the Other Mother came to live with us. The problem was compounded by the fact that she worked for Sunbeam for 40 years and accumulated multiples of household appliances, purchased at the company store. She brought irons, electric fry pans, egg cookers, coffee pots (the percolator type), blenders, electric knives, mixers (stand alone and handheld) and more. I had my own version of this collection due to the fact that she gave household appliances as gifts over the years.

It all gets more complicated because the Other Mother was raised during the depression which means she cannot part with anything. I understand this tendancy but it has a hoarding aspect and after awhile something's got to give. Some of the older items have mysteriously disappeared and reappeared at the local Goodwill store. Since she hasn't actually cooked in 4 or 5 years they're not missed. Phew!

REBECCA left me a comment on the Big Reveal post:

"So happy for you - your place looks great. Enjoy :)
I used to visit your blog now and then. I got a new computer and lost you."

I'm glad you found me again Rebecca. I had the same thing happen to me when Bloglines shut down. My attempts at transferring my list to Google Reader fell a little short and I lost a few people along the way. The problem is that my memory is so affected that I can't even remember who I lost. That's sad.

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A story appeared recently that was a great reminder to stop and smell the roses, or in this case listen to the music.

A man sat playing the violin in a Washington, D.C. metro station. Not unusual, street musicians can be seen in all the large cities. He played for 45 minutes and performed six complicated Bach pieces.

Can you guess what happened? A few people slowed their pace and listened for a few seconds and hurried on. One woman threw a dollar in his till and continued walking without stopping to enjoy the music. The only people who stopped dead in their tracks were children!

The violinist collected $32 from twenty different people who put the money in the till without slowing their pace. Only six people stopped for more than a few seconds. At the end of the 45 minutes he stopped playing. No one noticed and no one applauded.

Of course there's more to the story. The violinist was virtuoso Joshua Bell and his subway performance had included one of the world's most complicated pieces and he was playing on a violin worth $3.5 MILLION DOLLARS. Just days before he'd played a sold out concert with tickets that were $100.

Do you think you would have stopped? It seems that our lives are so busy that it's hard to break that "gotta go... gotta go" cycle.

Stop and smell the roses, and listen to the violinist.

JOSHUA BELL'S SUBWAY CONCERT

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Thanks everyone for being loyal readers. I appreciate the fact that you take time from your busy day to visit with me.

Another Loss

2011-06-22T04:50:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know, the staff meeting is supposed to be held on Monday morning but life has gotten away with me again.

The Farmer's cousin passed away last Friday. This is the third cousin in the last couple of years, all under 60 years of age. Yesterday was the visitation and it was quite sad to see Tom, her only child, struggling with his loss.

Susan was a truly wonderful person, a generous, non-judgmental and loving spirit. She struggled with serious health issues her entire life and I always felt that she had a tinge of sadness about what her life could have been. But she was a person who pushed past that and consistently worked to make her life the best it could be under the circumstances.

Thirteen years ago Susan's mother died and she was having a terrible time dealing with the grief. I shared with her a letter I'd written to the young man the Farmer and I were mentoring at the time. She cherished this letter and I know when her son Tom goes through her things he will find this tucked away somewhere. He'll recognize that he was the young man with the clean white gloves.

CLEAN WHITE GLOVES- August, 1998

Dear Todd,

Last weekend we played a practical joke on one of our friends. Ruthanne hosted a party on Friday night. She spent the whole week cleaning her house for the party, even though we didn't care if her house was clean or not. As a joke, one of the ladies brought a pair of clean white gloves. She walked into the party with a flourish and marched around, running her gloves over the furnitures to make sure Ruthanne hadn't missed a spot. My group of friend really like practical jokes.

Yesterday I had to attend another funeral. This was the second funeral in a week and they say the come in threes. Aunt Lu died on Tuesday and she was buried today. When I arrived at the funeral home her grandson Tom was standing in the lobby. He's 18 years old, just like you. He's tall, handsome and looking so grown up in his dark suit and tie. He was fidgeting with something in his hands. A piece of white paper I thought. When I looked closer I saw it was a pair of clean white gloves. He's been asked to serve as a pall bearer for his grandmother. You will be asked to do this sometime in the future. It's a rite of passage into adulthood.

There were a few brief words. We all filed past the open coffin for the last time. I went outside and waited in my car. The pall bearers filed out and I watched Tom as he slipped on his gloves. I know he was worried that his hands would slip on the pewter rail. He was standing in front on the right hand side. He didn't notice the other five pall bearers, grown men, his uncles and friends of the family. What he didn't know was that if his hand slipped these men would have taken the weight and no one would have noticed.

It was a long drive to the cemetery. We stood for one last time in the small air conditioned chapel. The priest said his final words and holy water was sprinkled on the coffin. The pall bearers were the last to leave. Tom removed his clean white gloves, placed them on his grandmother's coffin and walked out into the bright sunshine.

I drove a little too fast on the way home, listening to Tom Petty's "Last Dance with Mary Jane".

"Oh my, my
Oh, hell yes.
Honey, put on that party dress.
Buy me a drink, sing me a song
Take me as I come 'cause I can't stay long."

I promise to drive a little slower. I don't want you to wear those clean white gloves for quite awhile.

Happy Father's Day

2011-06-19T15:11:00.000-07:00

Happy Father's Day to the Farmer!

What did we do today? We all met up with neighbors and got muddy!

Yes, we did.

It Doesn't Take Much

2011-06-18T09:49:00.000-07:00

It really doesn't take much to make me happy. A beautiful ball of yarn or some colorful fabric can make my heart skip a bit. And then there's vintage sewing machines!

One thing that would make me immensely happy would be a special spot to sleep besides my regular old bed. As I get older I'm finding the beauty of a nap or a nice cool place to sleep on some evenings.

I was entranced by the sleeping porch at Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings home in Cross Creek, Florida. I took a picture but can't find it at this moment so here's a shot from the University of South Florida.

Source: University of South Florida

That's her fantastic vintage car just outside the porch. If you sit on the bed you can see the other side of the porch. This is the picture I took of the table and the typewriter where she wrote her books.

From the porch she could see her orange groves. Can you imagine sleeping out there on a hot summer evening?

The other sleeping arrangement that would make me immensely happy is what I call a sleeping nook. I'm sure it has a proper name but I'm not aware of what it might be. It's a bed tucked into an enclosed space. A window would be great but a bookshelf is positively necessary!

This is my favorite, a bed with storage underneath, a window and a bookcase. What a dreamy space.

Sorry, I don't have the sources for those photos. If they belong to you let me know and I'll update the post to link to you.

How about you? Do you have some simple things that could bring you immense pleasure?

If it's abandoned, it's gonna burn

2011-06-17T02:00:00.000-07:00

There are lots and lots of abandoned farmhouses and outbuilding around here. The ones that don't blow over of their own accord are going to burn. This seems to be a terrible fact of life that has played itself out time and time again around here.

Sometimes the local fire department burns them down for practice, as in this case.

In most other cases they seem to spontaneously combust. I'm being fascetious because without gas or electric or the presence of a hellacious thunderstorm.....you get my drift.

This house was abandoned many years ago when the owner died and the entire property went into some kind of prolonged estate situation. It was once a really beautiful home with lots of unusual stonework. It was very large, my guess is 6,000 square feet and placed on a gorgeous piece of property.

After years it became what I called the House of Perpetual Christmas.

For years and years the wreath hung on the door. Nobody home. For awhile a caretaker lived in a separate carriage house on the property but after awhile even the caretaker left. The estate situation was drawn out and the place literally crumbled before our eyes.

At some point the police started making weekly visit to the house. This is a photo I took of a "situation" in which about six squad cars showed up. They approached the house, guns drawn.

This is not the kind of thing you want going on in your neighborhood. We were relieved to discover that someone had purchased the property for back taxes. Phew.....wait a minute, not so fast. That means nothing because it takes 5 YEARS until the person can actually finalize the deal. It's been several years since that development.

Just last week while driving by I thought to myself, "I'm totally amazed this place hasn't burnt to the ground." That's because at least three others have gone up in the meantime.

And then, the other morning neighbor Betty gives me a call and says, "The house burned down."

Isn't it amazing that she didn't even have to elaborate. I knew EXACTLY which house she was talking about. The Perpetual Christmas House. The eyesore house. The house with the gigantic-dead-tree-in-the-front-yard-waiting-to-fall-across-your-car-and-strike-you-dead house. Yeah, that one!

Here's what's left of the house. Not much. Approaching the house with the largest of the two fireplaces still standing.

The area where the family room was located.

Years ago when the house was inhabited I would drive home late at night from my job and there would always be lights and a television on in this area.

Destruction and waste.

Really, what happened to this once beautiful home is a terrible story and a terrible end.

But around here, if it's abandoned, it's gonna burn.

What did they win?

2011-06-16T02:00:00.000-07:00

I had a giveaway recently. If you remember you were supposed to guess where I was going wearing those Gypsy earrings. And, you were also supposed to guess whether I had given myself a Photoshop facelift.

BV and Marilyn were my winners but I forgot to mention what the prize was. They each got a set of these:

They are coasters that designed and crocheted. Barbara (BV) took the pictures and I'm thinking I need to hire her as my photo stylist and photographer.

I'm going to be listing these soon in my shop but honestly, they need a name! When I sent the note along with the coasters I called them "Happy Coasters" but that just seems lame. They need a good name, a name that resonates with their colorfulness....is that a word? Well, they are colorful. This is just one of the color combinations but they're all pretty similar.

Put your thinking caps on. Name those coasters. Leave me a comment with your suggestion and I'll pick one on Sunday night and announce it at the Monday Morning Staff Meeting. If you're the winner of Name That Coaster Contest I'll send you a set for yourself.

Good luck everyone!

The Neverending House Maintenance

2011-06-15T02:00:00.000-07:00

You know, house maintenance never seems to end. You finish a project and there's another one staring you in the face. I always say when you get to the bottom you've got to go back to the top and start all over again.

After finishing our big project in the family room and library/office I've decided to continue with painting closets. They haven't been painted since the house was built 21 years ago. Is that shameful? I don't know. Closets are just an afterthought in refreshening I suppose.

I bought a gallon of paint for the front hall closet and of course that was WAY too much paint. A quart isn't enough. So, my question is, why don't the paint companies enter the Goldilocks zone and offer paint in half gallon sizes? The crazy, crazy thing is that the price of two quarts is equal to a gallon so I always go ahead and buy the gallon and troll around the house looking to see where I can use the leftover paint.

Newly painted and organized utility room closet.

The utility room is next to the kitchen and I use this space not only for coats, shoes and umbrellas but to store all those kitchen appliances, crock pots, waffle irons, etc.

I'll just keep painting closets with the leftover paint until I run out. My next move is to the pantries. Oh my goodness!!! They are loaded and this is going to be grunge work, going through all those spices to determine what's old and needs to be tossed.

The Other Mother lined the shelves years ago with some fake plastic lace edged shelf liners. It's torn and awful looking so I'm thinking of replacing it with a fabric liner edged with Prairie Points and covered on top with a piece of clear tablecloth plastic that's available by the yard. What do you think?

After that I'm going to probably tackle painting the kitchen cabinets. The closet painting is just a warm-up exercise.

Tuesday's Monday Morning Staff Meeting

2011-06-14T07:14:00.000-07:00

Yeah, it's another Monday Morning Staff Meeting held on a Tuesday. What can I say? Life is just getting away from me these days. I'm definitely taking advantage of summer to get things done.

First on the list is food. This morning we're going to partake in something delicious!

These are Margarita cupcakes. I know, I know. It's early in the morning but trust me, all the alcohol has evaporated.

I served these recently when my daughter was home for the weekend. They were a hit. The only thing I would do is to sprinkle just a tiny bit of sea salt on the top.

You'll find the recipe here:

THE BROWN EYED BAKERS MARGARITA CUPCAKES

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A nearby local town passed an ordinance that would allow people inside the city limits to keep chickens. The story goes on to state that as of this date not many people have applied for the permit to do so. I want chickens but truth be told, I don't know if I've got what it takes to be a coop keeper like Jayme!

And now....... I'm in love with this:

SOURCE

What neighbor would object to looking out their window and seeing Chez Poulet? It's from the creative and talented Heather Bullard. She's teamed up with an architect to offer plans for this chicken coop.

THE FULL TOUR OF CHEZ POULET

The plans are $39 and are available here:

CHEZ POULET PLANS

She does mention that the supplies to build the coop were over $1,000 but I bet that some of you thrifters and gatherers could find ways to build it for less.

Do you keep chickens? Do you have any tips for those of us who are thinking about getting chickens?

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Here's an incredible time lapse video from photographer Daniel Lopez.

El Cielo de Canarias / Canary sky - Tenerife from Daniel López on Vimeo.

The amazing thing to me is how the clouds act like waves upon a shore. Amazing.

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I'm working on something new for my shop. Stay tuned and I'll show you pictures later this week.

Have a great day everyone.

The Big Reveal

2011-06-10T06:41:00.000-07:00

Thanks to each and every one of my readers who were so supportive during our recent fix-up, re-paint, remodel adventure. Believe me, it was difficult to see the light at the end of the tunnel when we were going up and down a 10 foot ladder! Your message was always positive, assuring me that all the work would be worth it and you were right.

Thanks also for not admonishing me to quit-my-bi@#hing and just be thankful that we were able to do this project. In the midst of it you sometimes forget to be gracious and thankful for all the positives in our lives. The Farmer has found a long-term consulting gig that allows us some level of security. This allowed us to use some funds we'd squirreled away to buy new furniture.

Now let me say, I really love and appreciate the shabby/chippy artistic look but that's something I've been doing for many, many years. The Farmer and I have never had new furniture in the 33 years we've been married. Yes, a piece here and there but it's all been a hodge podge. We decided for a more Pottery Barn look.

This is the only piece left from the previous incarnation.

This little table was something I bought to use in one of my craft booths from the past. I was a honey colored pine but I painted it black to match the new look in the room. Instead of coating it with urethane I finished it with a paste furniture wax.

Here's a peek at the new floors. The space inside that dark walnut band was previously carpeted. This portion of the room had a picture frame border of wood with the carpet in the center. After 13 years the carpet was looking horrible. We added the band of walnut to define the area.

The wood has a matte finish and it's stained with a natural stain.

We chose a brown leather sofa. We've never had leather before but we love it. I call it the marshmallow sofa because it's that soft and squishy when you sit on it.

The coffee table has tons of storage. It's split down the middle and one half has drawers underneath. The other half has a lid that lifts up and allows you to store throws, games, whatever. It's a very clever design.

Here's what the lamps look like.

This little slipper chair faces the sofa and can easily be moved anywhere you need more seating. As you can see we kept our oak stained entertainment unit, mixing it up with the new dark furniture.

We chose a counter height table and chairs to place in front of the fireplace.

This is an amazing table. It has a leaf that is stored inside and folds out like a piece of origami.

When the leaf is extended the table is very large, seating six people. When my daughter was home we extended it out and spent the evening playing games.

And last but not least, our bar cabinet. I'm totally in love with this piece. All the liquor is stored underneath, the drawers hold placemats, corkscrews, coasters and lots more. There was another piece that was more like a hutch but I wanted a flat surface that would allow me to set out food or set up the wine and glasses. For the recent party I served the appetizers here.

Now I need to get window treatment and work on accessorizing. I'm so thankful we were able to do this project and it's the last furniture we'll probably ever buy.

Thanks for coming along on the tour and thanks for all your supportive words along the way.

P.S. Everthing is from La-Z-Boy. They carry all kinds of furniture in addition to the La-Z-Boy constructed pieces. The bar cabinet is a Howard Miller piece.

The Aftermath

2011-06-07T06:57:00.000-07:00

Here's the aftermath of last weekend.

Can you guess what happened here? We hosted a graduation party for our son and by all accounts it was a great success. The weather was gorgeous! No rain, no tornados, just a beautiful sunny day.

The young-uns played volleyball and the rest of us watched from a shady spot. Our daughter made the 2 hour drive to be here and then had to turn around and drive back home. Sigh. There was plenty of food and just one hitch in the plans.

Years ago I had a friend who was a bit older than myself and a fabulous hostess. She set the bar very high. She gave me her best secret - organization and preparation. Those two things make all the difference in hosting a success event, whatever it may be.

Early in the week I gather up all the serving pieces and mentally map things out. This small dish and fork are for the pickles, this large basked for the buns, etc. The food was a little bit of a puzzle this time around because I was cooking for a larger crowd - 36-40 people. I check charts online that estimated meat per pound per person and such but in the end I just trusted my instincts.

Regardless of how packed the fridge looks, there wasn't a ton of leftovers seeing as how I had three beef briskets, a VERY large pan of hash brown casserole and salad for an army. My sister and sister-in-law thankfully lightened my load by bringing the desserts. Thank goodness for them.

The hitch? The barbecue beans were progressing along just fine in the oven, getting hot and entering into the bubbling zone but the hash brown casserole was still tepid. I had allowed the whole thing to sit out in advance so that the potatoes could defrost before baking but still the pan was large. Perhaps it would have worked better to bake it in two smaller pans.

I ran into the other room and spotted my sister.

9-1-1 - - POTATO EMERGENCY!!!

She came to the rescue and we figured out a solution. Moms have to be McGuyver's you know.

We scooped out the contents of the pan into two large bowls and heated the mixure in the microwave, returned it to the pan and it finished baking along with beans and they turned out fine. In fact, they were downright delicious.

The hit of the day? Cowboy caviar!! It's a black bean appetizer that's served with torilla chips.

Here's the recipe:

COWBOY CAVIAR

2 cans black beans, drain off a little bit of the liquid
1 can corn, drained
1 jalapeno, chopped fine
cilantro, chopped (amount to taste)
1/4 cup onion, chopped
1/2 cup red pepper, chopped

Dressing:

1/2 cup basalmic vinegar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 cloves minced garlic
2 TBSP. sugar
salt and pepper to taste

Mix together the first six ingredients in a large bowl. In a small bowl combine the dressing and mix well until the sugar dissolves. Pour over the bean mixture and refrigerate overnight to allow the flavors to combine.

Enjoy!

Can you believe I have NO pictures of the party? I was too busy dealing with potato emergencies!

Coming soon to the sky near you

2011-06-03T08:58:00.000-07:00

My friend in Maine, Vee, has long lamented about the scourge of the turkey vultures. I'd never recalled seeing a turkey vulture in this area and my naturalist neighbors concurred. We've seen some pretty large red-tailed hawks but no turkey vultures, until this week.

The other evening something appeared in the sky just north of here. Large. Very large. I didn't know what the identifying features were but my best guess is that it was the dreaded turkey vulture. Believe me when I say you'd remember something THAT large.

Last night we attended the first of a series of free concerts in the park at a nearby town. We were all sitting in the very chilly evening air when something appeared, gliding in wide circles high above the crowd. It was so unusual and so large that the entire gathering of people turned their heads skyward. Eveyone was asking, "What IS that?"

Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera handy but here's a You Tube video of a turkey vulture flying overhead.

I'm not quite sure what their arrival portends for us here in northern Illinois. Bad things? Annoyances? I'm waiting to hear from those of you who have turkey vulture experience. Our little dogs are already on house arrest due to the coyotes. More of the same?

Weapon of Choice

2011-05-27T05:11:00.000-07:00

My friend Vee is using modern methods to deal with the annoying cowbird.

A COWBIRD STORY

We must live a sheltered life in Illinois because I've never seen a cowbird or her other nemesis, a turkey vulture. Maybe I'm just a terrible observer.

We do however, have lots of other pesky critters. We've got some type of annoying bird that repeats the same call over and over and over until you want to scream.

too tweet
too tweet
too tweet

too tweet
too tweet
too tweet

Just when your irritation is ramping up they switch out the call.

tweet too
tweet too
tweet too

At this point Vee's pellet gun sounds mighty interesting.

We've other annoying critter that could use a little swat to keep them off my property. Voles! Seriously, if they stick their little heads outta the ground they're fair game for a swat. Squirrels? Ditto. Possums and biblical swarms of rabbits who consume every leafy sprout are also on the list.

Speaking of biblical, my form of swatting is low tech and taken right from the the Bible. Think David and Goliath. I defend my turf with a moose.

My sister and I were on a road trip and came across a gas station that had a terrific section of cheesy souvenirs. Some of the souvenirs were not so cheesy, including a beautiful hematite ring and my moose.

Isn't he adorable? All the better to lull the critters into a sense of complacency before I strike.

Truth is, I need a lot more practice.

I should probably try hitting some larger targets.

Say, a coyote that decides to drag deer carcasses into my yard.

What do you think? Should I go modern with a pellet gun or stick with the slingshot?

Field Trip - Nada Farm Barn Sale

2011-05-25T02:00:00.000-07:00

Let's go inside the barn and see what we can find. The first thing is a lovely vignette. There's a water fountain an architectural piece and an old wire gate.

This is the very beautiful check out area. Anne Marie's children were helping out.

I have a week spot for old suitcases and picnic baskets.

There were beautiful arrangements everywhere you looked. Lots of inspiration. This area had books covered in pages from old books. There were also some covered in paper with antique looking calligraphic writing. This is something I'd love to try.

Here's the lovely Jen Rizzo. Love the dress.

Fifi O'Neill was there, signing copies of her book, Romantic Prairie Style.

Don't you LOVE those cowboy boots filled with flowers? More inspiration. Now I've just got to find some boots.

This totally cracks me up. "Sorry, I've got to go out into the cornfield to take this phone call."

Thanks for coming along to the barn sale. Although the magic of technology allowed you to share the experience, I truly wish you could have been there in person with me. We would have sit a spell in this spot, enjoyed the evening breeze and some conversation.

WINNERS

The winner of the guess-where-we're-going portion of the contest is:

B.V.

The winner of the hasoo-she-given-herself-a-photoshop-facelift portion of the contest is:

Marilyn

You know the drill. E-mail me with your address.

Field Trip - The Boho Ball at Nada Farm Barn Sale

2011-05-24T05:43:00.000-07:00

Did you guess that we were going to the Boho Ball at Anne Marie's Nada Farm barn sale? You were correct. Thanks for the clever guesses. Belly dancing lessons? Seriously? That's a mental image no one needs to have.

I was crazy for the dangling earrings because these are not something I would normally wear. I was even more crazy for the necklace.

There are actually very good representations of jewelry I owned back in the day. At the bottom are tiny jingling bells. Both pieces are from Forever 21. I certainly can't fit into any of their clothing but their jewelry and acessories are fun and affordable.

Let's go to the Boho Ball.

Anne Marie and Jennifer Rizzo always put together a fabulous event. It's such a pleasure to be taken away to a beautiful retreat. The theme for this sale was Italian Boho. On Friday night they host a champagne preview ball and guests are encouraged to dress for the occasion.

This is a very popular event and people come from across the country to attend. We have to park a little distance down the country highway. The first thing you notice as you step out of the car is the silence.

It's dreamy peaceful out here on Illinois farmland. But being Illinois the wind is blowing, creating a soft white noise as the air moves through the grass. The fields have just been planted and soon green sprouts will be appearing. Those are the outbuildings at Nada Farm.

As I said, Anne Marie and Jen manage to put together a beautiful venue to shop and visit with friends. Throughout the space they've put burlap banners. This is the entrance and the wind blown banner says welcome.

As promised they provided a bloggers tent for people to meet up talk about whatever strikes their fancy.

The tent was so beautifully appointed, it's a wonder anyone ever left. There was an antique iron daybed layered with lucious fabrics. Hanging from the ceiling was a large colorful parasol and another parasol next to the daybed. Under the table they've layered persian rugs.

On the table were lucious chocolate candies and Jen made for us. I'll ask her for the recipe.

I can't get enough of this image. How about you?

The sale is so popular that they've added vendors and spilled out of the barn onto prairie. The evening was beautiful but the wind made it a challenge for the outside vendors. At the recent bloggers get together I met Carrie from the Hot House Market. Her and husband Don travel all over the place selling their wonderful wares. This weekend they'll be at the Randolph Street Market in Chicago. They're based in Indiana.

HOT HOUSE MARKET

Here's a peek at their booth. I love the mid-century farmhouse esthetic. Lots of cool chairs, pillows, and aprons! You know I'm crazy for aprons. They even had a couple of old fashioned clothes pin bags that would hang on the clotheslines.

Here's a display put together by one of the other vendors.

The truth is that I don't usually buy anything at these sales because I'm in that "divest yourself" stage of my life and the thought of bringing anything else into this house gives me nightmares. I did however, make a beeline for this cubbyhole piece.

Unfortunately it was already sold. Also notice the other orange arrow. I want to point out the general distance between farms in this area. That's Anne Marie's nearest neighbor. When you get further west of here, closer to the Mississippi river the farms are two to three times that distance from each other.

There was lots to love in this booth.

And look at this beautiful display. People are so talented. The blooming foxglove had me swooning. My friends in the deep south are green with envy because we can grow some fabulous perennials here in the midwest that just are a no-go in the south. I have a hosta that measures 6 feet across!

More vendor goodness. This tent was draped with some gorgeous fabric. My question to you..... do you like the trend that seems to be popping up all over the place - painting furniture turquoise? I'm not a big fan.

I've got lots more pictures. Come back tomorrow and we'll go inside the barn, meet Fifi and poke around looking at the treasures. I'll also announce the winners of the contest. See you then.

NADA FARM LIFE WITH ANNE MARIE

JENNIFER RIZZO

Monday Morning Staff Meeting

2011-05-23T05:53:00.000-07:00

Good morning everyone and welcome to the Monday Morning Staff Meeting. This morning we're going to start off by munching on some delicious candies.

These tasty morsels were at the event I attended on Friday night. Tomorrow and Wednesday you'll be coming along with me as I recap the gathering.

Don't forget to enter my contest. There are two questions.

1. Can you determine where I'm headed by looking at my earrings?

THE FARMER'S WIFE HEADS WEST

Here's another hint for you - think Boho.

2. Has the Farmer's Wife given herself a Photoshop facelift?

Be sure to join me tomorrow for the answer to those questions and some pictures of a wonderful event.

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Lots of bloggers have just returned from the spring Quilt Market. This great event is not actually open to the public, it's a trade show for show owners and others. Thankfully we are able to attend through the magic of digital cameras and the internet.

One of my favorite booths was Joanne Figueroa's "Fresh Figs". I'm in love with her esthetic and color palette.

Source: Joanne Figueroa's Fresh Figs

Look at those postage stamp wall hangings! I'm crazy for them.

You can view more photos from her booth here:

TO MARKET, TO MARKET

..... and here:

A BIT MORE MARKET

If you check out her sidebar you'll see a link to some free patterns. Yay for designers who offer free patterns! Of course you know the Shabby Fig Apron is my favorite.

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I've just stumbled across a blog that you might be interested in. It's called Mr. Goodwill Hunting. Since Goodwill and Salvation Army are two of my favorite places to find treasures for repurposing, his blog has been added to my Google reader list.

Mr. Goodwill Hunting is actually Rashon Carrawaya and in addition to writing the blog, he appears on the Nate Berkus show, something I've never watched. I'll have to check out whether we get the channel it's on.

MR. GOODWILL HUNTING

Source: Mr. Goodwill Hunting

That's a cool vintage bar cart that he found for a client.

In addition to shopping in person at Goodwill, I also troll their website. Did you know that Goodwill has an online presense and ships?

SHOP GOODWILL

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Do you have a sewing machine? Extra fabric? There's another pillowcase project. Read about it here:

PILLOWCASES NEEDED TO FULFILL SOMEONE'S COMMITMENT

No one has to ask me twice to fire up my sewing machine.

An outpouring of love and support......

PILLOWCASES START POURING IN

One of the commenters mentioned something called Little Dresses for Africa which sent me searching for more information about that effort.

These little dresses are made from pillowcases and heaven knows I've got lots of them in my fabric stash.

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And finally, it's wedding season and a young woman who writes one of the blogs I follow is being pressed into the stress factory that wedding planning can easily become. My advice to her was to follow her heart and not the crowd. Keep it simple, do what you can afford, make it your day - those were my suggestions to her.

I came across this beautiful image.

Source: Gia Canali Photography

The bride made her own gown using doilies and lined the garment with green fabric. I love it, but then again I love doilies!!

Here's link to the story of Jillian and Dax's wedding:

CALIFORNIA MOUNTAIN ELOPEMENT

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And finally, thanks to all my wonderful online friends who somehow, without my having said a word, knew that I was struggling with the isolation that comes with living/attempting to care for an elderly person. In the last few weeks I've won books and handmade items, gotten a postcard from my friend in Germany, a magazine subscription from my buddy in Texas and e-mail's galore. Thanks from the bottom of my heart. It's so important to know that we're not alone in our challenges.

Be sure to come back tomorrow for the answer to the mystery, Where in the World is ~~Carmen SanDiego~~ the Farmer's Wife?

Where in the world is Carmen SanDiego? the Farmer's Wife?

2011-05-22T06:25:00.000-07:00

Today we're going to play a guessing game. There will be prizes!

On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week I plan to take you along with me to somewhere fabulous. It will take two days because I have so many photographs of the trip. But first you're going to guess where we're going.

There's a hint included in that photograph. Look at the earrings.

Very gypsy. Very bohemian.

Actually there's going to be two prizes. I'll put all the names of those who correctly guess the lcoation into a hat and draw from there. That way everyone who sleeps late on Sunday can be included.

The second prize will be a drawing for those who correctly answer the following question.

HAS THE FARMER'S WIFE GIVEN HERSELF A PHOTOSHOP FACELIFT IN THESE IMAGES?

Thanks for participating. See you tomorrow at the Monday Morning Staff Meeting.

Read the Directions Before Proceeding

2011-05-17T02:00:00.000-07:00

Have you tried the refrigerated cookie dough that's available in the stores?

The Other Mother has a wicked sweet tooth and although I'd rather keep these types of things out of the house she won't be deterred. The new nurse informs us that as you get older your taste buds die out and the last to go are the ones that can detect sweetness, thus the wicked sweet tooth.

I'll have to admit the cookies are very, very good and there's no muss or fuss in the kitchen. However, it's probably a good idea to read the directions (and packaging) first.

Uh oh....... I think I'm in some serious trouble.

Old Dog, New Tricks

2011-05-16T05:59:00.001-07:00

My neighbors always seem to find the most interesting things to do. Two weeks ago we attended a cooking class together and it was so much fun. After 40-something years of cooking it was interesting to learn something new. The class was focused on Mexican street food, which is one of my favorites.

Think street vendor food, a hot dog cart with a twist. The idea is to create small, handheld morsels. This was one of the only times I've worked with masa harina and I've been wanting to learn how to handle it so that I can eventually make some tamales. They are time consuming but so delicious.

The Country Garden Cooking School is held in a small brick dwelling that was rescued and moved to this location.

The bricks were handmade back in the 1800's by one of the Durant brothers. It's a very tiny home but extremely cozy. It was home to elderly nuns who decided to donate the building to someone who would lovingly restore and use it for teaching purposes. The nuns were in a teaching order.

Here's Elizabeth, our instructor, who was explaining the process. We were to break up into teams and each tackle one element of the menu.

x

Sorry, no pictures of the cooking in action because we were so busy mixing and frying that I didn't have a chance to snap a picture, but here's the final product.

My team members were Lynn and Jan. We made the Gorditas, which means "little fat ones". Here's what I learned about masa. It's impossible to mix it using a spoon or pastry cutter, you must just dig in and mix it well with your hands. You'd be there all day with a pastry cutter.

Here are the potato and chorizo empanadas. They were delicious.

Do you see that white bowl on the platter? That was my favorite of all, and the simplest! It's called Simple Sour Cream and Lime Salsa. When I think of salsa, I think of tomatoes, onion and cilantro but I guess it means accompaniment. Mexican sour cream or crema, is thinner than the sour cream that's sold in our grocery stores. It's more on the order of creme fraiche. Drizzled over the food added a fresh taste.

After all our efforts we dug in to try a meal, Mexican street food style.

Here we are eating the fruits of our labors. Unfortunately, I caught them mid-bite so I've cropped out their heads. Wielding the cropping tool gives me Red Queen powers! Off with their heads!

Speaking of fruit, none in our group was a big fan of the fruit dusted with chili powder. It was HOT, HOT, HOT and even the cool juiciness of the fruit could put out the fire.

I hope you enjoyed visiting the cooking school. I encourage you to look for a similar place in your area, or start one yourself!

I'm not sure whether the recipes she provided are copyrighted but the salsa recipe is widely available so I'm going to include that one.

SIMPLE SOUR CREAM AND LIME SALSA

1 cup crema or sour cream (crema is available and hispanic grocery stores)
1/2 tsp. lime zest
1 tablespoon lime juice
snipped fresh cilantro

In a small bowl, combine sour cream or crema, lime zest and lime juice. Sprinkle mixture with cilantro and serve.

If you live in the greater Chicagoland area, check out the school and sign up for a class.

COUNTRY GARDEN CUISINE COOKING SCHOOL

Check out the photos of that very beautiful historic home. Owner Penny Newkirk has created something very special.

Goldilocks and the Tottering Elder

2011-05-14T00:25:00.000-07:00

This would have been posted early yesterday morning but it seems that Blogger was feeling ill. Hope everything is much better now.

Recently I took the Other Mother to a school function for her great-grands. A school outing with a 90-year-old (technically OM is 89 but her birthday is soon so I make the leap) is a huge challenge. At one point during the morning I learned that in order to observe the great-grands in their classrooms we'd need to climb three flights of stairs! I suggested that the Other Mother stay put at a table in the gym with a nice cup of coffee.

But, of course, she refused that suggestion and up the stairs she tottered, with me behind to break any potential falls. Let's just say that I'm challenged daily with OM's sometimes dangerous behaviors. I can't understand the attraction of putting yourself in harms way.

The students put on a nice presentation and at one point this girl took the stage. Of course I would never show her face, identifying her without her permission, but I feel that the world needs to see her adorable dress.

Perhaps this silhouette is so appealing to me because I was raised in the 1950's and 60's. Like a baby duck who imprints on their mother, I imprinted myself on the late 1950's prom dress style.

This coral dress was so adorable, with it's wide, gathered waistband and fabric flower. The hem was what they used to call a lettuce edge, all wiggly like curly green leaf lettuce. For modesty she's topped it with a little shrug. The dress wasn't too short, too tight or too revealing. It was the Goldilocks dress - just right.

When Life Gets Crazy Busy

2011-05-10T18:10:00.000-07:00

What's the old saying? It's always something!

Yesterday was the last day of college for our son. He's officially graduated from the nursing program and the pinning ceremony will be on Thursday afternoon. We are so happy and proud and he's anxious to take the state boards and get on with the next chapter in his life. He waited over two years to get into the program and another two years studying, so it seems like it was a long haul.

I had lots of plans for today. There were last minute errands to be run, a trip to the grocery store to buy food for a small after-pinning get together with the small family group that will be in attendance but as I said, it's always something.

The Other Mother was up all last night coughing and that does not bode well because she's had brochitis twice in the past couple of years. She was giving me some grief about going to the urgent care this morning but I'll be damned if she wasn't going to go. Her tack is always, "If I'm not feeling better tomorrow, then I'll go."

I was not in the mood for having the plans for our sons pinning possibly disrupted with a trip to the emergency roon on Thursday. Believe me, this kind of thing has happened before and I was in NO MOOD. The problem is that she really resists listening to me and so I enlisted the help of the new in-house nurse!!

My son got out his stethoscope and listened to her lungs.

"I'm just fine, right?" she asked.

"Sorry, grandma, you're going to the doctor. It sounds like brochitis."

And she went with me. No kicking or screaming. Heck, if I knew that's all it took I would have encouraged our son to go to nursing school many years ago!

Have a great day everyone. Tomorrow I'll be running all the errands I was supposed to do today.

Yes, it's always something.

NOTE: Yes, the doctor confirmed that she has bronchitis and commended me for getting her in early as it is in the beginning stage. She's wiped out though, as brochitis will do. We'll see whether she can attend the ceremony. She's on the big gun antobiotics. The in-house nurse has reminded her of the importance of taking ALL the meds. It is a very bad thing when people quit taking them the minute they feel better. OK, that's all the advice from the nurse today.

Happy Mother's Day

2011-05-08T02:00:00.000-07:00

Source: Martha Stewart.com

Have a Happy Mother's Day everyone!

Snookered Again

2011-05-07T02:00:00.000-07:00

Do you remember awhile back when I pulled into Mickey D's and was dazzled by the beautiful photo of a strawberry shake? The image was so compelling I ordered one and pulled away with my mouth watering in anticipation. I was very disappointed. There were certainly bits of strawberry but somehow it had an odd fake taste.

I vowed never to be mesmerized again. But you know what they say, never say never.

On my way to run some errands I pulled into Mickey D's for a large diet Coke. I don't order food from there but I do stop for the Coke because a large is only a dollar.

SHAZZAM.....there was a beautiful image of their new drink - frozen strawberry lemonade. All my resolve and willpower went flying out the window. I ordered one. Two bucks. Half the size of the diet Coke and twice the money.

Bleccch. It was awful. Once again a fakey taste and besides that I had brain freeze, throat freeze and tooth freeze! Perhaps it's because I grew up in a neighborhood with fantastic frozen Italian lemon ice and everything pales in comparison.

OK, once again I'm going to vow not to order these specialty drinks. Coffee or Coke for me please.

How about you? Have you tried this frozen lemonade?

Update on Birthing Kits

2011-05-06T03:55:00.000-07:00

If you remember, we put together birthing kits at my niece's baby shower. (Her baby is due any day now). My niece was raised in a household that believed and taught the lesson of giving back and helping others, so in lieu of baby shower games we assembled the kits.

The birthing kit was Project Number 11 at CRAFT HOPE. Shockingly, only 1 in 10,000 Haitians have access to a doctor. One in TEN THOUSAND! Women have no pre-natal care or medically assisted births and so the work of the trained birth attendants (TBAs) is so important. Their work is difficult because they do not have access to even the most basic supplies. The kits allow for a safe delivery and include a clean piece of plastic sheeting, string, bar of soap, alcohol wipe, latex gloves, hand sanitizer and a receiving blanket to swaddle the newborn.

THE FULL BIRTHING KIT STORY

Read about Kobit Sante's work here: KONBIT SANTE

Maine will be walking for Haiti on June 4th.

MAINE WALKS FOR HAITI

The latest Craft Hope project is making bracelets for orphans in Russia. Read about it here:

MAKING BRACELETS

Perhaps this is a project that you can do with your children or grandchildren. Or perhaps you could put together a few while watching TV in the evening.

I encourage you to get involved.

Royal Wedding Tea

2011-05-04T04:50:00.000-07:00

You are such patient readers. I promised you a look into the Royal Wedding Tea that I attended last Friday. I've heard it said that the news cycle is only 15 minutes but we're going to extend that and relive that wonderful royal event.

Billions worldwide watched the wedding on TV. That's alot of pressure on two young people.

My very first thought was, "They have trees in Westminster??" That was the most beautiful and ethereal touch.

The tea was hosted by neighbors Jacki and the Queen Bee - Elizabeth! Yes, Neighbor Betty's given name is Elizabeth. How perfect is that?

Queen Bee Betty was looking regal in her purple suit and matching hat. Doesn't she have the most beautiful blue eyes?

Here's Jacki, the other hostess. She's our resident Brit. Her parents were both British, she was born in Canada and now lives in the U.S. She's multi-cultural. Here she is in her beautiful hot pink hat.

The Farmer's Wife and Jacki.

As you can see, you convinced me to wear the large jewels. It's actually a vintage Weiss rhinestone set and a vintage hat. Even though my grandmother was a milliner, I look terrible in hats! Never could wear them. I was worried a bit about wearing all black to a wedding but was relieved to see that Victoria Beckham wore all black to the wedding. What does that say about me? I must be fashion forward. Or, as Betty's husband commented, "You look like someone's immigrant grandmother, all dressed in black!" He's right!!!

Here's a peek at some of the decor. Union Jacks, British magazines and a black-and-white photo taken by Jacki's uncle of Liz Taylor and others being presented to the Queen.

Help yourself to a mimosa. There's also tea and because we're Americans - coffee.

Love those mimosas.

Here's neighbor Donna enjoying the coffee.

The Mother (my mom) was all dressed up in a royal purple dress with matching jacket. She has a tiny tiara on her head. She's a huge Princess Diana fan and so she wore a pearl choker, which was Diana's signature piece of jewelry. I wonder if Kate will embrace the jewelry wearing tradition.

There was plenty of wonderful food including quiche, a pineapple and cheese casserole, wild Maine blueberries, cookies and petit fours.

I've got to show you a close up of Queen Betty's gorgeous chandelier. I just don't want to be the one who cleans it!

Here's the adorable Lynn and the ever-fashionable Ellen.

Neighbors Lynn and Ellen.

Lynn had the most adorable little hat and some sexy lacy fingerless gloves.

We had a great time visiting, discussing Kate's regal comportment, poise and great posture. Her mother did a good job telling her to, "Stand up straight!"

Jacki, Susan, Alyssa and Donna

Here's another neighbor wearing my favorite hat of all.

It belonged to her mother and I'm sure that I've got a photograph of my grandmother wearing this same style hat. She would sew all those little flowers on the hat base by hand!

Thanks for coming along to the Royal Wedding Tea. All through the services, with the tree lined aisle and her dress I kept thinking of the Lord of the Rings and Arwen.

I'd love to hear your thoughts about the wedding and the royal couple.

Wedding Watch

2011-04-28T02:00:00.000-07:00

I'm driving out this morning to pick up my mom. We're going to get up at 4:00 a.m. tomorrow to watch the royal wedding. My mom is the same age as Queen Elizabeth and has always been a fan of anything royal. Did I mention that she has a near obsession about anything Diana?

After we watch the wedding live we're going to meet up with at a wedding celebration hosted by two of my neighbors. Hats and gloves are required. I have the hat but gloves are going to be a problem. All of my vintage gloves are really, really small. Everyone seems to have had very tiny hands back then. Perhaps I'll just carry the gloves.

Also, we're going to have very Queenly handbags. No shoulder bags but proper hand bags with short handles that sit perfectly in the crook of you arm.

Did you ever wonder what Queen Elizabeth could possibly have in that handbag? Breath mints? Lipstick? Certainly no credit cards.

Are you going to be watching too? Do you have any plans to celebrate with others? Around here in rural Illinois we're always looking for something to celebrate. Sometimes we make stuff up.

Maybe I'll wear shades to throw off the paparazzi.

Should I bust out my jewels? These........

..... or these?

Which do you think?

I'd like to arrive in this.

Or do you think the Carthedral would be more apropos?

The most important part of the day will be to see the wedding gown. Neighbor Jacki graduated from fashion design school and has made wedding gowns. Her and I are always trying to figure out how the dresses are constructed. We scrutinize fabric, lace, pearls, jewels and underpinnings. Needless to say this will be a fun day for us.

Hope you'll be watching along. After the wedding we can talk about the event!

Where is Temperance Brennan when you need her?

2011-04-27T02:00:00.000-07:00

ALERT - If you are squeamish you might want to cruise along to the next blog. Nothing much affects me except for those thousands of tarantulas that I encountered crossing the road late one night in west Texas!

Mowing has become a big problem because with all the late snow and the biblical rainstorms that followed the grass grew crazily and rain upon rain didn't allow a moment for mowing. Now it's incredibly tall and clogging up the tractor.

I'm doing my best, carving off small portions and not trying to take a wide swath. As I reach the west side of our property I notice something out of the corner of my eye. Remember, I studied anthropology and archaeology so I can spot a bone from 50 yards.

Bones! Big bones. Where's Temperance Brennan when you need her? Those of you who don't understand the reference - Temperance is the lead character inn a number of books and a TV show. She's a forensic anthropogist but she wouldn't be called in on this case because these are large animal bones and not human. Phew!

It's a hind quarter or fore quarter of a deer. I'm not much wanting to find the rest of the carcass on my property because I don't want to dispose of something that large. This I can deal with..... uh, er... actually I can get the Farmer to deal with it.

I bang on the window and let him know his presence is required in the yard. He's not much wanting to be interrupted because he's working on some indoor projects and he's crabby.

We both gaze upon the remains and say a prayer for Bambi's mom.

This was a full grown deer but probably wounded or ill, allowing the coyotes to take it down.

The Farmer picks up the remains using a large pair of pruners, a multi-tasking tool.

At the recent blog get-together one of the women talked about the romanticization of country living. The romantic notion never takes into account the fact that your chickens will be killed by foxes or that coyotes will drag the remains of their evening meal into your yard. It's the natural order of things. Life and death. Food chain.

The only creatures with no excuse for living are tarantulas. Oh, and Boxelder bugs.

Staff Meeting - Tuesday Version

2011-04-26T06:06:00.000-07:00

Good morning everyone. Sorry I couldn't visit with you yesterday but we were all in a food induced coma. You know, the Easter variety.

This morning I've got some delicious cupcakes to share.

And a Reese's peanut butter egg. We're going to call upong the loaves-and-fishes effect so there will be plenty for everyone.

How was your weekend? Did you eat lots of food and visit with family and friends?

We went to my sister's home for a wonderful meal. Everyone brought something which meant it was like the best potluck dinner ever! Speaking of which, did you know that certain local health departments (not naming names here) have made potlucks illegal? Church potlucks are now illegal, unless you do not advertise it in any way, including the church bulletin. Guess these things have got to be word of mouth now. All us church potluck people are going underground!!

Here's what we ate - ham, hash brown casserole, sweet potato casserole, Polish sausage and sauerkraut, vegetable casserole, corn casserole, deviled eggs, oatmeal pie (poor man's pecan pie), cheesecake, cupcakes, Snickerdoodles, carrot cake, homemade vanilla ice cream, homemade grape sherbet ........ did I mention ham??

You can easily see why I was a little under the weather yesterday.

What was your favorite part of Easter dinner?

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I'd like to introduce you to Ryo Chijiiwa. I've been reading his blog "Laptop and a Rifle" for some time. Here's how he describes himself:

"I'm a biologically Japanese, culturally American, Germany-raised, socially liberal, politically independent, gun-totin', code writin' dude who likes to chill on his 60 acres of vacant land."

I found his blog via the Tiny House blog. Ryo quit his job as a programmer and used his savings to buy 60 acres of land in northern California. He launched on a Walden-type project, building a tiny cabin and living alone in nature.

After the Japanese earthquake and tsunami he volunteered his services to an organization called All Hands Volunteers. He's currently in Japan, using his carpentry and Japanese language skills to help the people recover from the disaster.

Today's post contains questions and answers about his service in Japan. It's very interesting to read about the efforts on the ground.

LAPTOP AND A RIFLE

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Thanks for visiting with me this morning. It's kind of a short meeting but I've got tons of things to do around this house today and I better get busy!

Easter

2011-04-24T06:07:00.001-07:00

Have a blessed Easter.

Local Grocers

2011-04-23T05:57:00.000-07:00

Thank goodness for local grocers.

There are lots of nationwide chains in the northern Illinois area but I find them to be sterile and uninviting. There are several independent stores and them seem to have better prices but my favorites stores of all are what I'll call the ethnic markets.

One in particular is an Italian grocer who has built a store nearby. They also have a store about 20 miles from here that is my favorite. The vegetables are so fresh they still have some dirt on them! There is no such thing as a waxed apple.

They also carry multi-ethnic foods such as Indian, Chinese, Mexican and Polish.

Here are the Polish gherkins.

These are little bite sized treats for the Farmer.

This cucumber and onion salad is a nice side dish on evenings I can't think of anything else.

I would like to make some Indian food but without some instruction I'm lost.

How about you. Do you have any ethnic markets nearby?

Whoopie!!

2011-04-22T02:00:00.000-07:00

I've got a couple confessions to make. Number one, I'm a very messy cook.

It's amazing to me when I see those TV chefs cooking and baking in a kitchen (and a white apron) that is spotless. How do they do that? The minute I turn on the Kitchen Aid there's a cloud of flour and cocoa floating around.

Confession number two - I've never had a whoopie pie. Seriously, how did that happen? I must lead a very sheltered midwestern life. I've eaten my share of Moon Pie in my day but never one single whoopie pie.

Several food blogs have featured them lately and the Sunday Chicago Tribune published a recipe, so I thought it was time to bake some up and taste test them.

The best part of baking is the clean up. You know, the part where you get to lick the bowl.

The first batch of whoopies out of the oven were fairly uniform in size, at least there were matching pairs.

But soon things started to go awry.

Towards the end the whoopies were getting quite large and misshapen. Shades of blue/green alien scones.

I wasn't too sure about the filling because I'm not a big fan of Marshmallow Fluff.

But it's combined with butter, vanilla and powdered sugar. The result? HEAVEN.

Here's one of the more decently shaped whoopie pies. The verdict? Delicious! The whoopie part is more cake than cookie and it's barely sweet, leaving that job to the creamy white filling.

I've heard that they are very big in Maine so perhaps I'll move there and live out my days eating lobster and whoopie pies.

Oh, I forgot. Maine gets the same winter weather as Illinois so maybe not!

How about you? Have you had a whoopie pie? Do you love them?

Sorry, I can't share the Tribune's recipe without permission but here's Martha's version:

MARTHA'S WHOOPIE PIE

Let's go to a baby shower

2011-04-21T02:00:00.000-07:00

Come along with me to a baby shower. It was given for my niece Heaether and it was wonderful. If you're planning a similar event in the future, I promise you that you'll get lots of ideas.

First of all, attention all lifestyle and creative magazines. You need to contact my sister and do a story on her. Seriously, she's got some terrific ideas. Wait until you see!

My sister is very much into vintage things. She lives in a 1950's ranch house and has filled it with wonderful, period things. Her and I both collect hammered aluminum pieces. For the baby shower she found vintage vases and plant containers from back in the day when moms stayed in the hospital for more than 24 hours. The Other Mother remembers being in the hospital for one entire week when the Farmer was born.

Here's a vintage container filled with fresh flowers, welcoming us to the party. Notice it's sitting on one of her hammered aluminum pieces.

Of course there's lots of wonderful food. Here's some nice cheese and tasty crackers.

Crackers and dip displayed in a vintage bowl.

Here's Heaether, waiting to open her gifts. My sister is explaining that in lieu of play games we are going to put a kit together. A kit, you ask? Yes, she compiled all the items needed to put together birthing kits to be sent to midwives in Haiti. Women in Haiti are giving birth without benefit of sterile conditions. The kit included a piece of plastic sheeting, alcohol wiwipes, cotton string, a few other items and a receiving blanket for the baby. It was a great feeling to know that we were doing something to help women who could not deliver their babies in hospitals.

This is a diaper cake that was assembled using biodegradable diapers. It's a cute decoration that can actually be used later.

My sister found vintage napkins and used teething rings as napkin holders.

I baked miniature cookie bites for the dessert table. These were addicting!! No way to eat just one.

Here's the cake. It was so adorable. Inside is red velvet cake. As cute and wonderful as this cake is, I'll have to admit that rolled fondant tastes like wet cardboard.

Have some veggie dip. Notice my sister's collector's baskets on the left.

She used a crib dust ruffle to run along the mantle and found all these wonderful vintage dresses to display.

It was such a cute idea.

All the dresses were adorable except one. Here's my sister-in-law and my niece Kim sitting in front of the scary clown dress.

Everybody that walked in had the same reaction......scary clown!!

This is the cutest idea of all. My sister slipped the salt and pepper shakers into vintage crocheted booties.

Remember when I baked those rubber ducky cookies? Here they are, individually wrapped and sitting in a basket for guests to take as a party favor.

Thanks so much for coming along. I hope you got some ideas. My niece kept exclaiming, "My mom created the cutest baby shower, ever!"

Monday Morning Staff Meeting on Wednesday

2011-04-20T07:17:00.000-07:00

Good Morning everyone. Thanks so much for your patience.

I want to thank everyone for their comments and e-mails wondering about the status of the midwest. It's still VERY cold and as for myself, I'm getting very impatient for spring to arrive. The robins are confused and my crocuses are popsicles.

Here's a bad video of the snow we had last weekend.

To brighten up our morning I have something that was sent by my follower and pen pal in Germany - Silke!

It's a Heidel chocolate bar! I'll say one thing, the Europeans know how to do chocolate. I took a small bite and this chocolate is very smooth and creamy. There's enough to go around for all of us to share because I'm invoking the "loaves and fishes" effect.

The packaging is beautiful. It's printed with dots of gold ink. Very lovely. But look in the rabbit's knapsack! Just what I need this morning, pussy willows and tulips.

Yesterday my friend Vee had a photo of tulips on her blog. It inspired me to seek out some fresh flowers on my trip to the grocery store. Unfortunately, they were ridiculously priced. I had to take a pass and be satisfied with some cyber flowers.

Vee also asked me if things were looking up in the midwest. The answer is NO. Penny, I would love to have a more positive attitude but I think because my house is still in such an uproar it affects my mood. It was 34 degrees yesterday, with a wind chill of about 21 degrees. Today is not much better, it's only 35.

On to happier things.

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I met a wonderful and talented woman at the recent Midwest Bloggers Get Together. Her name is Elizabeth Berg. During our round table discussion session it became apparent that Elizabeth was wanting to start a blog. Everyone encouraged her and now she's the newest addition to the blogging community. Her blog is called Fabby Chic and she creates all kinds of wonderful things.

FABBY CHIC

Be sure to scroll down and read the article about the shop she owned in Chicago. WOW is all I can say. You can expect wonderful things from Elizabeth.

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Here's another cool blog I found whilst poking around the internet during the snowstorm. It's a cooking/baking blog called Ezra Pound Cake. Isn't that the coolest blog name ever?

EZRA POUND CAKE

My mouth waters just looking at her pictures. How can these people not weigh 300 lbs?

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My blogging is broken. I am so remiss in showing you some wonderful things. I have pictures from the blog get together and lots of photos and ideas from my nieces baby shower.

I'll be sharing those soon.

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The Farmer and I are going through all our books before we put our library back together. In the process I rediscovered a fun book that I found at Goodwill. It's entitled, The Official Rules and Explanations, a compilation of laws, conclusions, theorems and principles.

Here are a few, the first one relates to me big time.

Bernstein's Law of Declining Progress -
One begins to lost interest in any given task and slacks off just as one is beginning to get somewhere in accomplishing that task.

Emergency Rule
In case of atomic attack, the federal ruling concerning prayer in this biulding will be temporarily suspended. (Handwritten sign found posted in a federal office building in Washington, D.C.)

Gandhi's Observation
There is more to life than increasing it's speed.

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Have a great day everyone. Let me know what you are up to and what the weather is in your corner of the world.

Guess what? I'm feeling better already. Getting together with you for this meeting has raised my energy levels and my mood. I'm off to put this house back together and spend time in my sewing room.

Remember my mantra, do something creative every day!

Monday Morning Staff Meeting Postponed

2011-04-18T07:06:00.000-07:00

This is the part where the author is in a very bad mood.

The Monday Morning Staff Meeting is posted due to......

SNOW

ON

THE

GROUND.

Yep, snow on the cars and snow on the ground first thing this morning. I've got to have a Bloody Mary and re-group.

Saturday Morning Drive

2011-04-16T02:00:00.000-07:00

Come along with me on a drive.

Sorry it's kind of dark but it was cloudy and dreary outside. We're still waiting for spring to show up because one 60 degree day does not a spring make.

I hope you have a wonderful Saturday.

UPDATE: The Farmer and I went out to run some errands. I can say without a doubt that midwesterners are now a very, very crabby bunch. It's 41 degrees and as you see in the video the winds are blowing hard, 20 mph with gusts. The wind chill chart tells me that the equivalent air temperature is about 21 degrees. April 16th.....21 degrees. Poke me with a fork, I'm crabby and done.

FURTHER UPDATE: Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse....SNOW!!!! I'm not talking a few little flakes here and there, I'm talking a blowing snowstorm. Not that it will stick, but still......

Hidden Work

2011-04-15T06:54:00.000-07:00

While working on updating and maintaining this house it has become apparent to me that some of our hard work is visible and in plain sight. Anyone can see that the rooms have been freshly painted. We're at a point now that I must wait for the Farmer's help in order to put bookcases and furniture back in the office and so while I'm waiting for him to be free I decided to create some hidden work for myself.

The workman took the doors off the coat closet in order to sand and finish the floors. I removed all the coats and junk that had accumulated and it became glaringly apparent to me that the closet needed to be painted.

Let me mention at this point that the man who built this house hired a female architect. How do I know this? Well, for starters he told us as much. I probably could have figured it out anyway. Why? Because of the closets!!

This house has a closet in each of the four bedrooms and a linen closet for each bedroom. There's a linen closet in the two bathrooms and two linens closets in the upstairs hallway. Then there are two coat closets - one in the front hall and one in the laundry/mudroom. And there are two pantrys!

In theory this all sounds wonderful but the fact is that all these closets quickly become filled up with who-knows-what.

Anyway, I decided to paint that coat closet. It was originally painted stark builder's white but we chose a creamier shade.

Gotta love Martha Stewart's paint colors.

This fold out brochure is great. All kinds of beautiful colors arranged in a portable form. I've used her color Glass of Milk before but this time I decided on a color called Talc.

I could live with that lovely color of dark pink but cannot imagine the hot orange on a wall.

Martha's paint chip brochure is perfect for cutting apart and taping on a wall.

You can step back and get the effect. Translation: I'm about to make more work for myself.

Several years ago I painted stripes on the wall in the front hallway. Now I'm thinking of something taupe/grey, kinda Pottery Barn. What do you think?

Here's the freshly painted closet.

Nothing exciting but certainly something that needed to be done.

Let's Bake Some Green Martian Alien Scones

2011-04-13T23:03:00.000-07:00

I've mentioned that my mom is coming here to spend the night on April 28th so that we can rise early and watch the royal wedding together. Mom is fond of all things royal.

My plan was to invite some of my neighbors but since the furniture hasn't arrived that plan has gone up in smoke. As it is, my mom and I will be sitting on those fold up camping chairs, watching the TV that's in the only piece of furniture in the room.

I've been planning the treats that we'll be munching on, including tea cakes, scones, clotted cream (a close version) and homemade lemon curd. Last week I pulled out Cory Amaro's scone recipe and whipped up a test batch.

COREY'S SCONE RECIPE

Let's get started baking scones that quickly turned alien.

Gather the ingredients, have the recipe handy.

Flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda, butter, egg and yogurt.

I faced a dilemma in the grocery store. For the life of me I couldn't remember if I had used plain or flavored yogurt the last time I baked these scones. Hmmmmm, I decided that blueberry scones would be delicious. The scones are about to turn alien.

Mix the dry ingredients. To this add the cold butter and cut it in. I love to use my vintage pastry tool.

Add the egg. Room temperature is best.

Fold in one small container of yogurt. Plain or vanilla is nice, blueberry will produce aliens.

Mix just until blended.

Flour your work surface and turn the dough out. Here's the secret to a soft texture - knead very lightly and just pat into a circle. Cut with a juice glass.

They didn't look too bad at this point. They were a light bluish purple color when I put them into the oven.

But they came out a very odd blue/green color when they were baked. Martians!!

No matter, they were delicious with a dab of butter and they were soft and moist the next day.

I'm not quite sure what the real difference is between a biscuit and a scone. I love them both. Give the recipe a try and let me know what you think.

Shopping for Fleas

2011-04-13T04:47:00.003-07:00

No, we're not really going to shop for fleas, but I thought you might like to poke around the flea market. We enjoyed the country breakfast at our Monday Morning Staff Meeting and I thought you might like to see a couple of the booths at the local flea market.

The Kane County Flea Market is pretty well known in these parts and there are plenty of booths that are chocked full with most anything you can think of.

This guy makes furniture and uses vintage elements. I recognize the doors on this cabinet as windows that would have been flanking a fireplace in a typical midwestern bungalow.

I have to admit that I'm not a big fan of the white, white, white painted furniture.

This dressing table has lovely bones and curves but I'd still love to see it in it's original wood.

This was my favorite booth. It was filled with really cool and unusual things. This Pottery Barn/Restoration Hardware look is more to my liking. She had a huge wooden bowl filled with large clear light bulbs. Very unusual but cool. She had not one but TWO beautiful vintage dress forms. Unfortunately they were for display only. Sigh.

Digging around a flea market is hard work. As a reward there's pie!

What's your style? Is it white and French or warm and earthy? Or maybe something else.

P.S. It's 35 degrees here this morning and it might snow on Friday. Sigh. Also, blogger has published today's post THREE different times and yesterday's post twice. Gremlins in the machine.

Berries, as Big as Your Fist

2011-04-12T04:58:00.001-07:00

The Other Mother went shopping last week and brought home some strawberries, bananas and apples. She usually buys several containers of blueberries also.

The blueberries have become somewhat of a family joke. The Other Mother and her sister read somewhere the blueberries help you live longer and so they both eat a tiny bit of cereal with their blueberries. Panic ensues if the blueberry stash reaches a critically low point.

Phone discussion between the two sisters focuses on the price of blueberries, as if it was a commodity being traded like gold. The Farmer and I always challenge her claims of "They say....."

"They say blueberries help you live longer......"

"Mom, you've already lived longer that almost everyone you know."

There are hundreds of variations of the "They say..." to which the Farmer always counters, "Who are THEY and why should we believe what THEY SAY?"

Anyway, it's amazing to me that in this time of global markets we can buy strawberries year round. It's always summer somewhere I guess. The berries the Other Mother brought home were as big as my fist.

Each pint only contained about 4 or 5 berries, but they were monsters. Lately the fruit is tasteless. Do you think it's because they are picked before they are ripe and ripen off the vine in shipment?

I wasn't expecting much from these super large berries but they were absolutely delicious. Very sweet and juicy. I grabbed some ingredients and ate them as Strawberries Chantilly. A co-worker introduced me to this years ago and it remains my favorite. If you give each person their own set up they can double dip to their heart's content.

Very simple.....

Strawberries
Sour cream
Brown sugar

Dip the strawberry in the sour cream, then into the brown sugar. Take a bite. Be amazed. Repeat and repeat until you've eaten all the berries.

Have a great day everyone.

Monday Morning Staff Meeting

2011-04-11T06:45:00.000-07:00

Good Morning everyone! Welcome back to the Monday Morning Staff Meeting. I hope everyone is well and read to attadk the day.

Here's what we're serving today. It's the country breakfast at the Kane County Flea Market.

It is hearty fare. There's scrambled eggs, hash browns, sausage and toast. All this for $3 because we waited until after 10 a.m., when they need to clear the breakfast stuff out to make way for lunch. Earlier there was also a choice of bacon and corned beef hash but that goes quick.

There's also coffee, tea, juice, milk and water on the table in the back. Help yourself.

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The workmen are all gone and the floors are done! I'm so happy but it seems wierd not to hear the sound of big equipment. As I've said before, I can't imagine undergoing a major renovation. The task now is to put everything back in place.

The bad news is that the sofa we ordered is not going to arrive for at least ANOTHER 4 weeks. We've already waited 10 weeks (the outer limit of the time promised to us). It's being shipped from overseas. This was news to us. Nobody mentioned that it had to travel on a slow boat from China or Morrocoo or wherever it's constructed. Everything else (made in the U.S.) is in the warehouse but I've decided not to take delivery on anything until that sofa arrives.

I'm thankful to be able to finally have some new furniture but dealing with the lack of customer service is grating on my nerves. I've been in sales, I've done customer service and I know how things should operate.

My neighbor has ordered new furniture also so we'll see how her experience plays out.

How about you? Any new furniture nightmares?

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My sewing room is a disaster which matches the rest of the house. The push is on to put everything back together and obtain some semblance of order. Right now it's chaos.

I am working on some interesting new aprons, some colorful crocheted coasters and crocheted floral pins. They remind me of the corsages that women wore on a special occasion. I'll have pictures soon and I'm going to be putting together a pattern for the coasters.

Speaking of special occasions, we have two coming up. The Son graduates from nursing school and will be pinned on May 12th. The Other Mother will turn 90 on July 3rd and we are deciding on how to celebrate. I'm welcoming any ideas you might have because I'm not going to repeat the circus that was her 80th.

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It's not clear whether spring will ever arrive. We went from very, very cold to HOT in one day! My wish would be to have some mild spring days before heat arrives. Today we're back to chilly.

The problem with cold followed by heat, a huge temperature jump, is that it spawns tornadoes. Luckily we were spared although a bunch touched down in Iowa.

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Are you planning anything for April 29th? That's when Kate Middleton and Prince William will be married.

My mom is crazy for anything royal. Her and Queen Elizabeth are the same age and my mom was a big fan of Princess Diana.

My plan is to pick my mom up the day before so that we can rise early (something like 4 a.m.) and watch the wedding live. Unfortunately, since I don't have a sofa we'll be sitting in those fold up camping chairs. We'll have tea, crumpets, scones and more. I've been baking in practice for this because crumpets and scones aren't something we Yanks bake everyday.

My favorite scone recipe comes from Corey Amaro, an American living in France. The scones are soft and tender, made with one container of yogurt. You can find her recipe here:

COREY'S SCONE RECIPE

I made them awhile back but my recent try had a funny result. I'll tell you about it and show pictures later this week.

Do you plan to watch the wedding?

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I love this video and unlike some of the You Tube commenters, I don't care if it's a commercial for a bank.

Another large earthquake in Japan today. How much more stress and danger can these people endure? My prayers are with them.

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That's all for me today. Unfortunately I've got to sort out this mess! Have a great day everyone.

All Creatures Great and Small

2011-04-03T05:13:00.000-07:00

Based on the title of this post you might think the subject matter will be all sweetness and light. You would be wrong.

I am very loving and accepting of most of God's creatures. I respect their right to carve an existence for themselves. Heck, we share this beautiful land with coyotes, raccoons, groundhogs, squirrels, hornets, owls, barn swallows, ash borer beetles (which killed our trees whilst carving out an life), hawks bigger than house cats and so much more.

The idea is that they occupy their space and we occupy ours. Now, as accepting as I am, I'm going to get a little upset if a coyote decides to take up residence in my garage, or squirrels in my attic. Which brings us to my most despicable enemy. The enemy on which I wish a firery death in hell........ the Boxelder bug.

Source

I'm not too crazy about insects in general but the Science Channel assures me that they are a valuable part of the environment. I'm not so sure but if the Science Channel says it's true, it must be so.

I'm pretty sure that Mother Nature can do without at least one species of insect and I vote for the Boxelder Bug to make the list. Unfortunately I do not have a photo of the thousands and THOUSANDS of them sunning themselves on the south side of my house as if they were on a beach in St. Croix.

It was imperative for me to act fast, before the Other Mother was tempted to dig into her 90-year-in-the-making collection of deadly chemicals. They're stored on a shelf in the garage and will someday pose a disposal threat for us, but for now my task is to keep her from using them. A quick search on the internet reveals that no noxious chemicals are necessary because Boxelder Bugs can be dispatched with a mixture of household laundry soap and water.

I quickly whipped up a batch and spray the heck out of them. They dropped like flies. (Do you wonder where that phrase came from? I do.) Unfortunately, they've found some tiny hole in the exterior of the house and they're making their way inside. That's where they've crossed the line and that's why they DIE.

Internet sources also state that these bugs live and feed off female Boxelder trees. They suggest to convince your neighbor, or whomever owns the tree, to cut it down. OK, well, Houston we have a problem. We are surrounded on three sides by heavily forested areas. Forests full of trees.

How about you? Have you ever battled these beasties? Do you have other insect invaders? I remember living in Texas and having to deal with scorpions and tarantulas but honestly these bugs are much more annoying.

Cookie Favors

2011-04-02T02:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I promised you something fun and not related to my home improvement projects. Well, we are going to do something fun in the kitchen but it includes paint stirring sticks. What possible use could paint stirrers have in the kitchen? Wait until you see.

Don't ask my how I stumbled across the blogs of some of the cookie bakers/decorators but I did and was inspired by their creativity to bake some cookie favors for my nieces baby shower last weekend. It was so much fun putting them together. I promise you can do it too!

One of the most frustrating things for me when I'm baking my Christmas sugar cookies is that I can never roll the dough out uniformly. The recipe will say to roll out the dough to 1/8 or 1/4 inch thickness. Heck, how can I tell if it's 1/4 inch without careful scrutiny with a ruler? Well, those clever cookie decorators had the solution. Paint stirrers!

Take two new and unused paint stirrers and cover them with foil. Tape them to your kitchen counter.

They should be spaced a distance that will allow your rolling pin to sit on top, thereby holding it in a raised position. Put a portion of the dough in the center and just keep rolling and the result will be a perfectly uniform piece of cookie dough! So clever. For thicker cookies you just use the 5 gallon paint stirrers.

My trust Kitchen Aid helped me mix up the dough.

Following an idea from one of the cookie bakers I decided to make rubber duckies cookies. Here they are in different stages of completion. The first task is to outline the cookie in roayl icing. After that dries you thin the icing and "flood" inside the lines. It's pretty easy although there's drying time involved.

Then I did the beaks in orange using thick royal icing. This area is small so no need to flood.

Another cookie baker showed how to do wings by drawing a line of orange onto the wet yellow icing and drawing a toothpick through. Next I gave the duckies blue eyes, packed them in cellophane bags and arranged them in a large basket.

Everyone loved them and it was a fun project. This put me in the baking mood so I decided to make some small cookie bites. These were made with some small cookie cutters that are probably meant for appetizers. One batch of dough made ALOT of cookie bites. I stopped counting at 120.

I decorated them with green leaves, pink "plop" flowers and some squiggly white. Actually the icing tips do all the work and these went pretty fast. I did them all in one evening after dinner.

Although everyone appreciated the rubber duckie cookie favors, they were CRAZY for the cookie bites. They are just really, really delicious and you can't stop popping them in your mouth. I use Wilton's sugar cookie recipe that was included on the packaging of my snowflake cookie cutters.

WILTON'S ROLL OUT COOKIE RECIPE

Visit some of the talented cookie baker/decorators and see if you don't get inspired.

I AM BAKER

THE SWEET ADVENTURES OF SUGARBELLE

THE DECORATED COOKIE

THE UNIVERSITY OF COOKIE

BAKE AT 350 (Check out her cute Scrabble tile cookies)

Remember, do something creative every day.