Category — Random

I posted some photos of our trip to Wisconsin on Facebook and my sister commented, “I would like to see pictures of the rest of the house! It looks so pretty!” Although I’ve spoken of the cabin and posted a few pictures before, today I will fulfill her wish and show you the whole thing.

One reason I call Jeff and Jen’s vacation home a log mansion is because it is drop-dead gorgeous. And the other is because my husband, Dave, grew up in a simple and modest vacation log cabin in northern Wisconsin. It was built by his dad, several years before Dave was born. Sadly it was sold in 1987. I stayed there one time, in 1986 when Dave and I were first dating. And next to it, J & J’s is truly a mansion – even Dave’s mom agrees!

The Hopkins’ cabin was originally without running water (there was only a hand pump), no inside bathroom – instead of an outhouse (as seen above from a 2007 photo, and NO, I never went in there!). No heat besides what the fireplace provided. And no electricity until the mid-1960s. Once the electricity was in, the pump became electric and a bathroom was added. But as Dave told me, “Even then, when we lost electricity due to storms, it could be out for days at a time. I remember one time it was out for at least 3 days. So we still had to revert to using the hand pump, and the outhouse, and that is why we kept the kerosene lamps and the gas refrigerator and stove.”

This photo of the Hopkins’ cabin was taken in 1955.

And this one was taken in 2007, the first summer we spent a week at Jeff and Jen’s. We drove over to show Marissa and Connor the mystical place their dad always told them about… “the cabin in the North Woods.”

[Read more →]

Remember, way back when (as in April 2010), I got new carpeting? My house looked like THIS! All of the furniture and stuff that was on the carpeted portions of the house got moved onto the marble tile portions of the house. And the new carpet was installed.

Then do you remember when about a month ago, in a super-long post, I told you all about “a day in the life” of the cooking school and I said,

“The only solution is to have my marble floors stripped and polished, once classes are over at the end of the month. Now those are before-and-after photos I promise to show you!”

… remember? Well, the time has come.

Upon our return from a relaxing and rejuvenating two-week vacation at our BFF’s log cabin (which is really more like a log mansion) in Wisconsin, I moved all of the furniture and stuff that was on the marble tile portions of the house onto the carpeted portions of the house, and the next day the floor guys came and did their magic.

[Read more →]

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, are three very important actions in our world today. As we strive to go green, these three actions do many things. It reduces the waste that ends up in landfills, keeps good items that still work out of landfills, and keeps materials that can be used again – you guessed it – out of landfills. It results in less hazardous waste being compressed into the ground and a greener cleaner Earth.

Alright, that’s enough preaching, let me show you one way I reduced, reused, and recycled. Hopefully, that’ll inspire you to do the same.

For the Teen Week graduation class, I always purchase flowers and have the kids use them to arrange centerpieces for the dining tables. Naturally, we had a red, white, and blue theme last Friday. Forty-eight hours we were leaving town and I didn’t want the three bunches of flowers to go to waste.

[Read more →]

The fruit on my fig tree is ripening just in time…. for me to be out of town… and unable to harvest any. No matter, the birds are flocking to the tree by the dozens and feasting on them.

I don’t have a clue what kind of bird this is, but every day, all throughout the day, there are between 10 and 20 of these black birds chowing down on my figs.

[Read more →]

Good Sunday Morning!  Is this image not one of the most beautiful things you have ever seen? I can not begin to tell you what joy it brings to me. Peace, happiness, calm, just joy! Keep reading to learn where it came from…

Yeah, so guess what I just read on, Heather Bullard – Lifestyle Blog, which by the way, is where the gorgeous image came from and is one of my very favorite blogs in the whole wide world?  This is what I read…

“Posting on a Saturday. I’m sure I’m breaking all kinds of professional blog rules.”

What?!? Posting on Saturdays is against “professional blog rules”?  Man, am I ever in deep trouble. Not only have I posted on a Saturday 135 times, but as of today, I’ve put up a new post 141 times on a Sunday in the nearly three years since I created this space. I’m guessing that if posting on Saturday is against the rules, then posting on Sunday is … well, nothing short of sacrilegious!

[Read more →]

Back when I was a regular on Valley Dish, I would post links to the videos after they aired. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to me for quite some time, the links weren’t permanent.  After a specific length of time, they would just disappear.  As a result, I ended up taking them all down. Since I had been on the show about two dozen times, I was pretty bummed about that.

Well, good news! Today, while searching AZCentral.com, I stumbled upon one of the old segments. I searched further and low and behold, I found most all of them, with permanent links! YAY!! The only two I couldn’t find were the final show and the taped segment from when Tram came to our house and filmed the S’mores Party in my backyard.

[Read more →]

Don’t you love it when something you need or want is also perfectly and beautifully packaged?  I confess I’ve purchased things just because of the packaging, bought wine because I liked the label, and been attracted to something just because it was in a gorgeous box, bottle, or jar.  Take the jars above.  I snapped them up at Marshall’s a couple of weeks ago.  I wasn’t looking for Onion Relish, Pepper Relish, Chipotle Mustard, bottled dressing, or olives, but because of the jars, I went home with them all.

I could not resist these condiments in “collectible European drinkware”, so I ended up buying all they had on the shelves… a total of six jars – I mean six collectible European drinkware!

The same company, Braswell’s Select in Georgia, makes this Vidalia Onion & Pepper Dressing, packaged in a lovely little raised emblem cruet. I can just picture a bunch of wildflowers in it after the dressing is long gone.

And my heart nearly skipped a beat when I spotted this wonderful olive jar.  Yeah, it’s a weakness of mine, one of the many!

But all of these are nothing compared to receiving something personal that is unexpectedly packaged to perfection.  That was the case when a student of mine said that if I needed any more eggs this week, I could purchase them from her.  Farm fresh eggs from someone’s backyard chicken coop? YES, please!  I handed over my $4 and the next morning…

[Read more →]

While Peggy and I were working on her herb/garden crates the other day, she mentioned that she had a dream. She dreamt of a solution to my apron problem… you remember… THIS ONE.  Yeah, the one that I ranted about last year at the end of summer classes.

[Read more →]

It’s the unofficial start of summer and time to wear your white shoes, linen, sandals, straw handbags, seersucker, etc.

And if you’re lucky, maybe you can take off to white sandy beaches…

If not, how about cooking up some white food?  Need a little inspiration? I’ve got more than two dozen ideas for you!

[Read more →]

… summer kids cooking classes begin on Monday! I spent the entire day yesterday shopping, cleaning, clearing off the kitchen counters, pulling out the school supplies, and generally working my rear off!

Remember how excited I was back in July when I set up my cute little vignettes around the kitchen?

Yeah, those had to go, to make room for the 5 cooking stations for the 10 kids who will fill the kitchen, beginning at 10:30 on Memorial Day.

Here is what my counters look like now.

Seriously Boring!

[Read more →]