Getting Settled

I know you probably think this is taking a L O N G time, and, truthfully, you're right.  Getting settled in this house is going to be a slow process.  Part of the reason is that it takes me awhile to make decisions.  Especially decisions that I have to live with, say, maybe like FOREVER.  Of course, not everything will be a forever decision.  But, carpentry work will.  Therefore, I'm taking my time.  It doesn't help that we just got back from the Midwest spending time with family.  Which, was so worth it, BTW.  Today, I drove into LA to spend the evening with my HH.  We are going to dinner tonight to celebrate our 31st Anniversary!  Yes, indeed.  So, decorating decision will wait.

Of course, I don't have the right pictures with me. So, I'm going to post about the little pieces of progress that I've made recently on the new abode.  

I bought this antique cabinet back in the mid-1990's at a beautiful antique shop outside Boston, MA.  I was on my way out the door when I turned back for one last look. There it was. Calling out to me. The story is that my husband bought it for me and I made payments to him, without interest.  I wanted it bad and I had a little part time job at the time. That was back when this kind of a purchase was difficult.  

 Every since then, we have purchased several homes and they all had to have a spot in the kitchen for "the cabinet."  

 This house doesn't have that spot. It's so sad. However, there is a spot in the Family Room which is right next to the kitchen.  It may not end up holding all the dishes I've collected, but you never know.  

It's my house and I can do what I want, right?  

For now, it's in gardening mode. It's not perfect, but it's good enough for now. Part of my collection of flower frogs and hose nozzles are displayed here. I just found the spigot handles that I should add and the two lawn sprinklers are still MIA.   

This makes the place feel a little more like home. Does anybody else collect gardening items?

Return from Tornado Alley

I titled this post, "Return from Tornado Alley" because we have had quite the taste of Tornadic (that's what the weatherman calls it) weather this past week.  We had lots of tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings and sirens come our way, along with a trip or two to the basement, and lots of watching the weather. I've just returned home from a trip to watch my oldest daughter graduate from Kansas University.

 We are very proud of her hard work and perseverance.  The walk down the "hill" is the biggest deal.

 Her husband has been a BIG support.

 She threw her own graduation party and has turned out to be a great cook and hostesses. You can find her blog, more pictures and hopefully links to her recipes here at La Maison.

 I love my girls! See the beautiful bannister railing my SIL built!  He did a great job!

 We  made sandwiches, deli and veggie.

 This is a baked brie with raspberry.  It was SO GOOD.

She made a great Mac and Cheese and I loved the blue cheese with honey and pecans.

There were lots of guests, but I just had to document the visit of baby Sage from across the street.  I invited her Mom and Dad to come and visit Jeff and Lauren any time they want.  Doesn't Lauren look like a natural?  ;-)

For now, this is one of my Grand Dogs, Mr. B. Isn't he a sight? We are so thankful that the weather was fairly cooperative during last weekend for us. Sirens went off during the party and that storm ended up being the storm that hit Joplin, MO.  

Are You Kidding Me?

After my very busy day on Friday I was excited Saturday to head back to the Urban Barn to pick up my new purchases with my husband's bigger car. It is about a 30 to 45 minutes drive. When I arrived I noticed that the gray cabinet I had paid for was not in it's original location.  I just figured they had moved it, getting it ready for pick up. Well, evidently not. Can you believe, that some "lovely" shopper had taken the sold sign off of it and bought it on Friday?  The store personnel was different than Thursday when I had paid for it. Needless to say, they were very upset. They have vowed to call the "lady" and get it back. I think that's a long shot.  If someone will stoop that low, they're not going to be gracious and give back the cabinet. The shop gave me a refund, of course.  The cabinet was to go in my powder room and was perfect. Unfortunately, I never took a photo of it.  Maybe that's a good thing..  

  I did however end up with my chalkboard.  Unfortunately, I was a little less excited about my purchase than I was an hour before. Today I had time to play with it and really like it.

 It's perfect in my entry way.

Lesson learned, if at all possible, take what you pay for with you immediately.  

Has anything like this ever happened to you?

Food - Clothes - Fun

Have you heard of CAbi? Last night I hosted a show. CAbi is short for the Carol Anderson by Invitation clothing line. You invite your friends to your home, you feed them, the consultant shares the clothing line, then you start shopping with the consultant becoming your personal shopper. Girls tried on different pieces, getting friendly feedback and sizing suggestions.  It's loads of fun and their clothing is very high quality.  Hosting a party gives very nice discounts as well.  We had an age range from 19 to 62 and they all found something they loved.

 They're lookbook has the clothing on models and us "regular" types. Although, this lovely lady looks pretty fabulous as a "regular".

Our lovely hostess suggested a menu of simple food.  Well, sure.  I always aim for simple when I have company.  Why would I want to go and do something SIMPLE?  GEEZ! 

No, I have to make a lasagna recipe that I've never made before. It came recommended to me by my daughter who loves to cook and loves the Cooking Channel.  This is Pesto Lasagna from EVOO on the Cooking Channel.  It starts with a bechamel sauce which is a fancy name for a white sauce that takes forever to make.

It also calls for homemade pesto, which I wanted to try except for the fact that I have no basil plants and buying enough basil at the local grocery store would've broken the bank.  So, I bought a jar of very lovely, organic, pesto straight from Italy.  

I did venture down to our local cheese shop and bought a very fancy parmesan cheese called Grana Pandano also from Italy.

Sorry there is no "after" photo.  There were 25 people at my house by then and pictures were not  on my mind.  Let's just say, they wolfed it down and it was a big hit.  That's all that's in it, so it was good for the vegetarians in the group, although almost everyone ate it.

For dessert I made Barefood Contessa's Lemon Cake. I can't find this recipe online for you.  But, it is in her Parties cookbook. You can find it here. This was also time consuming, but SO WORTH IT.  She has you pour a lemon syrup on the cake while it's warm and that's before the lemon glaze. I did put fresh raspberries on it before serving, by alas, no pretty photo.  

 We did fun, clothes themed table decorations.

 Did somebody say, "keep it simple"?

Seriously, I didn't hear you.

Antique Distraction

I had to take my brand new car in for repair before it even reached it's 900 mile mark because of random freeway rock damage. So, while waiting for the diagnosis, I visited the Urban Barn for a little diversion from reality. I hope you enjoy the visit too!

 I love the little red chair.

Garden decor from old plates.

 This suitcase would hold a lot of yarn.

 I love the paint job on this little cabinet.

 Touches of my favorite blue.

 Lots of peely painted furniture.

I almost went home with this beautiful chalkboard.

 I had to think about it. I may have to visit it again when I pick up the car.

Beautiful upholstery job on this old sofa. Hope you enjoyed the visit. I left without buying anything, but took several measurements and photos for reference. What piece are you hunting for these days?

Paint Color Help

Hi there, I've been off line for a few days. I have a WIFI connection and when you pretty much use up all of the 5G that you have available before the month is up, you stay away! Supposedly, we cannot get internet at our new home, even though all our neighbors have Verizon. I resolved it for the moment by getting the WIFI from AT&T. But, it has it's limitations. No streaming video for us, no You Tube tutorials. I guess I need to start hassling Verizon again.  Okay, on to something much prettier.

I wanted to share with you something I discovered last week.  I've been trying to make paint color decisions.  I like some of the house colors and other's need to be changed.  My biggest fear is that the new color I pick will not work with the colors that are staying.  What do you know, Sherwin Williams to the rescue.  Now other companies may have a similar system.  I'm just tooting SW's horn today.  

They have brand new color collections put together by HGTV designers.  In these collections all of the colors work together. I just picked the one that I liked and also had VERY similar colors to what is already in my house.  Now, I can pick any of the other colors and they will work with what I already have.  Genius! Check them out at Sherwin Williams.  I am seriously considering Accessible Beige and Sedate Gray.

Also, you may not have known this little tidbit.  I didn't.  On the back of some of the color sample cards is a code, i.e., LRV 83 or LRV 49.  This little number gives you the light reflective value of a color.  So, if you need to lighten a room and don't want to paint it white, you can choose from other colors that have a high reflective value.  Isn't that helpful, and who knew?  Did you?

 

Mother's Day Tags

I played with Picnik the other day to make Mother's Day tags for some gifts our church is giving out on Mother's Day.  I used the Clip Art Collection CD from Somerset Studio for my graphics.  Try it out, it doesn't take much time at all!

Tea, PSE and Me

I bought a new coffee mug at Starbucks the other day. Basically because it's so cute and designed by Cath Kidson. I've loved her designs for many years. I bought her books back when it was a sacrifice to do so and poured over them for hours. Well, I thought I'd use this cute mug to participate in the fun Texture Tuesday challenge by Kim Klassen.  Little did I know how much trouble I'd have doing that.  

Let's just say, Photoshop Elements and me are not very compatible at this point.

I'm headed to Barnes and Noble today for a how-to book. I'm sure it's something simple I was missing, but I spent WAY too long trying to figure it out. Such a waste of time. Hope you enjoy my lovely strawberry waffle breakfast anyway. Head over to Kim's to see what I was trying to accomplish.