Author Archives: Ellen

Three or More? ~

So I’m trying to figure out exactly what the 3 or more boundaries are. I’m going out on a limb here. I’m going to show you the inside of my kitchen cupboards in our home in Washington that definitely have more than 3 in all of them. I’ve been asked many times where I store all my thrift store finds. Where do I put all the dishes that I enjoy. On Monday for Metamorphosis  Monday I showed my kitchen with all my great cupboards. Well here’s what’s inside of them.

Everyday dishes, Italian Countryside by Mikasa, that I bought at Macy’s for a super price. Soup bowls and cereal bowls and tea mugs and dessert dishes that were all purchased at Goodwill or other Thrift stores..

Wine glasses, Water Goblets, and on the top shelf some of my creamer collection. Bottom shelf all our coffee making accessories…

Water goblets and Cocktail glasses. I really enjoy different styles and shapes of glasses.

Serving bowls, serving trays,  platters, and bread baskets.

My large platters and some cutting boards.

Cake plates and shower and tea plates, doilies, napkins, place cards, mirrored coasters.

More luncheon plates. Some thermoses. Oh and those old fashioned glasses for my gin and tonic ( don’t tell my mother).

The cupboard above the refrigerator. My sets of champagne flutes in their boxes for special occasions. My pitchers, vases, fondues, punch bowl, cookie cutters, etc.

 

I really love these divided drawers for my flatware.

And right under my everyday stainless is another drawer with dividers for my serving pieces and extra stainless.

Knife drawer and knife sharpeners.

My Le Creuset and my bake-ware. Maybe I should just insert here that I was a Home Economics Major so these are just the tools of my trade. And while I’m inserting stuff…can you feel my pain that I am living 1200 miles away from all this equipment. :0)

 

My baking, measuring, and other stuff drawer.

More specialty equiptment and my large stock pots.

More bakeware. This is where the cake pans, bundt pans, muffin pans, pop over pans and mixing bowls, etc. are.

Springform pans, tart pans, pie pans.

I’m so sorry for this boring post but now my insurance company knows some of what they’ll need to replace if anything happens!

So does anyone need to borrow something?

For more Three or More visit Tam at The Gypsy’s Corner.

 

Blue Monday ~ Antique Valentine Postcards

Welcome to Blue Monday which is hosted by Smiling Sally. If you’d like to join in head over to her blog.

Today I’m showing you some antique Valentine Postcards that Dear’s Great, great Aunt Emma received in 1909, 1910, 1913 and 1915!

Dear’s Aunt really enjoyed Postcards so her loved ones made sure to send them for many special occasions.

Sending Happy Valentine Greetings to all my Bloggy friends…

Now click on over to Smiling Sally’s to see some more blue.

 

Metamorphosis Monday ~ Kitchen in Washington

This is what my kitchen in Washington used to look like. I don’t have a lot of before shots because I wasn’t blogging back then and I also don’t have any of my photos that are this old on cd’s and with me in California. Wah, wah , wah…

Please notice the Oak cabinets and the rectangle patched space on the ceiling that used to be a fluorescent light fixture. We had a total of 4 of these fixtures in this kitchen/eating space and we would always kid around and say that we could do surgery on the kitchen island or dining table because it was so bright. Well this was the beginning of changing out all the fluorescent lights and putting in can lights and pendant lights over the island. There is blue wallpaper behind the stove top and above the sink and under the kitchen cabinets. All the appliances and are white or off white.

These photos were taken at one of my daughter’s birthday parties. This end of the kitchen used to have a sliding glass door to the outside porch. Boy did I hate these vertical blinds. Amazing how these kids have all grown up. 2 are married and 2 are engaged to be married and one of the married girls is pregnant with her first. And I suppose that is a kind of metamorphosis, but back to my kitchen. I fussed to my Dear one about those cabinets and walls and sliding glass door and vertical blinds and here’s what he did all by himself with help from our boys.

Here’s the view from the kitchen through the spot where the sliding glass door used to be and the porch used to be. The porch is now our family room and the sliding glass door opening was moved over to the left somewhat. I really love this space and am so happy the slider and vertical blinds are gone forever.

Here’s a view of the kitchen from the family room. No more fluorescent. No more Oak finish cabinets. No more blue wall paper. Dear painted the walls and cabinets 3 shades of green all from the same family (base color). He put fixtures on all the cabinets. He installed tile on the walls below the upper cabinets around the sink and above the stove top. He added decorative fruit tile above the stove top also. We traded out all the white appliances for stainless or black. He put in a new kitchen window with white molding. And trimmed out the door openings with decorative trim moldings.

I ended up finding all these random shots of different parts of my kitchen since the redo. Here’s a closer look at the decorative tile.

This is the opposite wall from the majority of the cabinets.

A closer look at the two shades of green on the cabinets and the hardware.

The Kitchen island where we generally set out our food buffet style. Our next projects in this kitchen will be to replace the counter tops and the flooring. Since we are living in the condo in California right now these projects are “on hold”.

For more Metamorphosis Monday visit Susan at Between Naps on the Porch.

 

Almighty Father of Mankind ~ Hymn

Almighty Father Of Mankind

Almighty Father of mankind,
On Thee our hopes remain;
And when the day of trouble comes
I shall not trust in vain.

In early years Thou wast my Guide,
And of my youth the Friend;
And as my days began with Thee,
With Thee my days shall end.

I know the Power in Whom I trust,
The arm on which I lean;
He will my Savior ever be
Who has my Savior been.

My God, who causedst me to hope
When life began to beat,
And, when a stranger in the world,
Didst guide my wandering feet.

Thou wilt not cast me off when age
And evil days descend;
Thou wilt not leave me in despair
To mourn my latter end.

Therefore in life I’ll trust in Thee,
In death I will adore;
And after death will sing Thy praise
When time shall be no more.

Words: Michael Bruce (1746-1767).

Music: St. Peter (Reinagle), Al­ex­an­der R. Rein­ag­le, 1836

I attended a funeral on Saturday and will be attending a funeral on Monday and I thought this hymn was a great hymn in light of  the death of these dear saints of God…

Aren’t They Cute?

Our drive to and home from the funeral on Saturday was quite treacherous at times with rain squalls that turned the freeways into rivers. We saw a few cars that had hydroplaned and ended up in the medians or in accidents with other vehicles.

But we made it there and home again just fine and it was worth it to see these cuties, my mom and dad.

Here are the song sheets from the funeral with the same songs in Russian and English side by side.

A closer look at the same song here in English and below in Russian…

I was pleased that I understood most of the Russian message at the funeral service. The English message delivered by my brother Steve was challenging…

Welcome to my bi-lingual world…

Some of you asked if Dear is Russian and the answer is no. He took Russian in college and he can read Russian. He sang with our Russian choir when we were dating. Dear is half Swedish and half English, Welsh and Cherokee. :0)

Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head…

See the wetness out this window? We have had rain in Southern California for the last couple of days and we are promised some more rain tomorrow. I find it very refreshing being a transplant from the Seattle area. I was happy to have to pull out my great Marmot raincoat!

Tomorrow we are travelling across town to Whittier for a funeral. The Aunt of my best friend from my Russian Baptist Days in L.A. died last Saturday. My friend and her cousins (whose mom died) were connected in many different ways to my family and extended family. Our Russian community is all inter-connected in hard to explain ways. So it will be a day of tears for the grief her children are feeling from saying goodbye and a day of rejoicing in knowing she is with her Savior in heaven. A day of remembering our friendships and re-connecting and seeing the kids “all grown up”. A day of looking at someone and thinking “oh my I know who you are but I can’t remember your name right now”. Does that ever happen to you?  We will sing in Russian and sing in English. We will hear messages in Russian and a message in English. We will pray in Russian and pray in English. We will gather at the church, then head to the graveside, then we will all meet together for lunch.

“Therefore in life I’ll trust in Thee,
In death I will adore;
And after death will sing Thy praise
When time shall be no more.”

Hope you all have a day filled with an awareness of the God who made this world for us to enjoy and numbers our days…

Friday’s Fave Five

Our first Friday in February. Time to think back over the last week and choose 5 favorites. Our hostess Susanne provides Mr. Linky for you to join in if you’d like. So head on over and join in on the fun.

1. Saturday morning walks with Dear are always on the top of my list. We had a low tide walk this last Saturday and saw lots of birds and collected several shells. We generally start these Saturday morning walks before the sun rises.

2. On Sunday after a great church service filled with worship we headed to Agoura to do some antique shopping. We found a nice Italian restaurant to have a snack before the stores opened at 11:00.  Hand Rolled Meatball Sandwich – Topped with Marinara Sauce and Mozzarella (we grind our own beef & pork) Mama’s Italian Kitchen in Agoura.

3. We decided to add a DVR to our Fios service at the condo. I never imagined how simple it is to record programs we want to watch later. No punching in start time or end time. I just click on the show and it takes care of recording it no matter how short or long it is. Then when we decide to watch the programs we get to skip all the commercials. That was a favorite this week.

4.  Eating in every night this week. We’ve had some good eats. Can you tell food is an important part of my life. :0)

 

5. Dear and I are still walking during the week and working out on the bowflex. Those work outs and walking with Willow most days  really makes me feel better. On Thursday we had some real good rain in Camarillo so Willow and I didn’t walk. Even though she grew up in Oregon she doesn’t walk in the rain :0)

For more Favorites visit Susanne at Living to Tell the Story.