Tag Archives: Homemaking

Transitions in Mosaics…

We are in transition mode around this old house. One project seems to lead to another.

Although that tower CD holder held all our CD’s it was very hard to find the right CD looking sideways and very difficult for my failing close up reading abilities to read the titles of the CD’s on the bottom of the tower. Since we have room under the hearth we decided to go with these baskets to hold the CD’s. I can pull the baskets out and easily read the titles. Before Katie moved to North Carolina she alphabetized the CD’s in the tower by artist. I kept them that way when I switched them to the baskets.

I first put them in the center together but found out that this area gets warm from the fireplace so I put them on opposite sides. I also re-arranged the floral containers. I’m happy with these changes for now.

Soon I’ll be able to show you the redecorated Guest Room #2. Dear and our son Josh picked up new mattresses on Saturday and Laura and I put the bed linens on the bed. This was the first bed set Dear and I bought ourselves way back in the 70’s. We pulled out Katie’s old metal bunk bed and replaced it with our Queen Anne 4 poster bed. Stay tuned for the whole transition in the near future.

I’m also in process of creating a tablescape. These goblets are an odd shade of green/blue and I haven’t found the right fit for them on a table until yesterday. I’ll come up with the rest of the setting for later in the week.

We had a good productive weekend. Our pastor started a new series of messages today called “Desperate Days”. Judging from today’s message we are going to learn a lot.  Hope you are all doing well.

Linking up with Mary at Little Red House for Mosaic Monday.

A Few Things…

Katie has added a few personal touches to her first home. Decorating will be at the minimum for now. She ordered enough to make them comfortable and when Andrew gets home the two of them will add any extra pieces together. There are still bookcases and such at our house for them to bring across the country after the wedding in March in Seattle. For now we are really enjoying the sofa and loveseat and the Keurig. Coffee and a place to sit and enjoy it in the morning…wonderful.

Our round trip to Raleigh went well and the new used car is safe in the garage with a 30 day pass to get it on and off base. We used the washer and dryer last night and they worked well. We are going to lay low today and recuperate. Tomorrow we hope to have a play day at the seashore!

A storm rolled through last night and we got to experience some of the lightning that we hear is pretty common around these parts. Living on a Base it’s hard to figure out whether the booms you hear are thunder or artillery!

We are also learning the best times to go to the Commissary. It’s good to avoid it on payday or the day after. If you go on payday you will experience crowds like you do on Black Friday! And don’t get stuck on base at quitting time.

God has really helped us through little and big things here in North Carolina. We are looking to Him and for Him in the details of each day. We are blessed because of all that God brought to pass 2000 years ago…

Grateful!

We are so grateful that God brought us safe to Camp Lejeune and that Katie has her and Andrew’s keys to their new home.

It was no easy feat for the two of us to get all these suitcases off the luggage carousel at the airport, into the shuttle van, into our first hotel, into our rental car, out of the rental car and into the new home. We are both so happy to have that part of this journey over! Today we shopped till we dropped.

Tomorrow we have to attend a fire safety course on Base and try to get cable/internet services set up. Wow, we are heading into December already. Do you have your tree yet?

Friday’s Fave Five ~ Pacific Northwest…

Time to look back over the last week and remember things we are thankful for. Please visit Susanne at Living to Tell the Story to join in with this great exercise.

Wow it’s hard to believe I’ve been in the Seattle area for almost a week already. So many favorites to share from this past week.

1. Spending time with 3 out of 4 of our children. Our daughter Katie picked me up from the airport and we stopped for lunch at the Corner Cafe in Bothell where my sister Lana G! met us for lunch. Then on Sunday I met up with our son Josh and our DIL Laura at church. What an amazing service…I needed my hankie the whole time. Later in the day Josh and Laura came by for a couple hours. I got to speak on the phone with our son Dan and hear he’s doing well at Academy. He graduates on November 30th. Good times…

 

2. Getting some things done around the house that really needed to be done. Katie and I got the lawn mower started and I was able to mow most of the lawn before the big storm rolled in. Got soaked the last 15 minutes of mowing :0). I’m tackling one room a day inside to get a much needed deep clean done around here before Thanksgiving company arrive. I’m pleased that the guest room is ready and on Thursday I got the living room done which included dusting all these books and bookshelves!!

and the Guest Room. The couch has a very comfortable full size pull out mattress.

 

3. Walking in the sunshine along the Sammamish River trail with my friend Beth. Beth and Dave became our good friends through the friendship of our son Dan and their son Jamie that started in 2nd grade. That was over 20 years ago!!

 

4. Finding the recipe for this soup on a bloggy friend’s site and making it for dinner on Thursday night. This is a tasty soup and so easy to make!! Just scroll on down to the post after this one for the recipe and instructions.

 

5. Looking forward to seeing more of my Northwest friends. Hopefully walking with my buddies Jody and Jan on Saturday. Then looking forward to Dear joining me here on Tuesday along with our Thanksgiving company my brother Tim and his wife Letty. The room is ready Tim and Letty!!

And a bonus looking forward to…

My son Josh invited me to tag along with him to the MLS Championship Cup Game at Qwest Field on Sunday night! L.A. Galaxy is playing Real Salt Lake for the title. We’ll be sporting our Seattle Sounder Colors and making these teams feel welcomed in the Great Northwest! Since my other home is in Southern California and I was born in East Los Angeles I’ll be cheering L.A. Galaxy on to the victory!!

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Metamorphosis/Blue Monday ~ Master Bedding

This week I’m combining Metamorphosis Monday with Blue Monday. Our bedding in our Master Bedroom was getting very tired looking and we found a pattern that both Dear and I could live with. Since the new bedding is mostly blue and green it made perfect sense to combine our two Monday events. I appreciate Susan at Between Naps on the Porch and Sally at Smiling Sally for their gracious hosting of these fun events each week.

Before…

A buttery yellow duvet cover and slightly lighter dust ruffle. Green and yellow accent pillows.

After….

When I first started looking for a new fresh look I was really discouraged at what I found especially the prices. I just couldn’t justify spending $249.00 for a Duvet set. We found this April Cornell Duvet Cover with two shams at Home Goods for $34.95. Now that’s what I’m talking about! Then at a different HomeGoods I found an April Cornell green sheet set with pillowcases for $29.95. The dust ruffle was $14.95.

Now I was on the search for some throw pillows to finish off the look. Again I couldn’t justify spending $20.00 to $50.00 a pillow. On Friday I made a special trip to the Ventura Main Street Thrift stores and was so excited to find these three pillows, 2 blue, and one green for $4.95 each. It was like they were just sitting there on the shelf waiting for me.

 

 

We’re enjoying our new fresh looking Master bedding.

To see more Met Monday visit Susan here and to see more Blue Monday visit Sally here.

Have a wonderful week everyone!

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage unless I pay them a lot of money. I’m slowly cleaning up many posts from this time period and deleting their ugly grey and black boxes with a ransom request. Such a time consuming bother.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

If you happen to be on-line today and visit my blog a very Happy Birthday to you Dear Beth! I thank God for bringing our families together through Dan and Jamie!!

 

When I was at Von’s yesterday buying a few things I spotted these sweet pink heart bowls and plates that they had marked down 60%. I bought two of each and came home inspired to set the bar for a nice Valentine meal for Dear and I. So I’m thinking some steaks, baked potatoes and salad will be good. Got the bubbly chilled so we’re all set to go.

 

Enjoy your Valentine’s Day and I hope you all feel loved and show love to those in your path today!

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage unless I pay them a lot of money. I’m slowly cleaning up many posts from this time period and deleting their ugly grey and black boxes with a ransom request. Such a time consuming bother.

Busy in the Kitchen

 

I’m busy in the kitchen today. Tomorrow 6 ladies from my Bible Study Table are coming for tea at 11:00. If you don’t see me around you’ll know why. I’ll be putting little tea sandwiches together, making scones, brewing tea, and setting the table. I’ve made the chicken salad for sandwiches, the cream cheese and chives for the cucumber sandwiches, little heart red velvet cake, and dream cookies. The Mock devonshire cream looks ok and I bought the lemon curd. Now I’m off to mail my Valentine Cards so they get to Washington and to buy some flowers for the table. Hope your day is going well. If I don’t get the “last minute panics” I’ll even take some pictures to show. See you soon.

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage unless I pay them a lot of money. I’m slowly cleaning up many posts from this time period and deleting their ugly grey and black boxes with a ransom request. Such a time consuming bother.

Tablescape Thursday ~ Red-White-Black

Tablescape Tuesday is now Tablescape Thursday! To see some pretty Tablescapes visit Susan at Between Naps on the Porch.

 

 

My table today was set in honor of my brother Tim’s birthday in January. This would make a fun Valentine Day Table, too.

 

Some of the details…the Pineapple candleholders are silverplate, Godinger. I bought them at my little thrift store. Napkins are Martha Stewart K-Mart from her Christmas line. I think they don’t scream Christmas. The napkin rings are from Pier 1, a gift from my son and wife. The rose etched goblets are from Goodwill. The red, white and black salad/dessert plate is from T.J. Maxx and oh my I paid T.J. Maxx full price for them $3.99. What a splurge on my part :0). The red chair scarves are from Target after Christmas clearance.

 

Am I boring you yet? The dinner plate is from Pier 1 clearanced for $1.64. The white chargers with black beaded rim are from T.J. Maxx and were clearanced for $1.00 each.

I’m happy to say that we actually ate food at this tablescape and had a very nice time celebrating my brother’s birthday. Here is our salad course. We also had Steak, Creamed Mushrooms, Roasted fingerling potatoes and a Limoncello Cream cake for dessert. UPDATE: So I didn’t include my true confession this week. Here it is…I did not make the Limoncello cake I bought it at costco. It was from the Cheesecake Factory. Here’s a link to a great recipe that should be pretty much like it. Limoncello Cake Recipe.

 

My younger brother Tim and his wife Letty.

For more tablescapes make sure you visit Susan at Between Naps on the Porch.

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage unless I pay them a lot of money. I’m slowly cleaning up many posts from this time period and deleting their ugly grey and black boxes with a ransom request. Such a time consuming bother.

Tablescape Tuesday ~ Bar Scapes for Two

Time flies when you are having fun! It’s almost Tuesday again and time for some more Tablescaping fun. Today I’m showing two variations on table settings at our bar in our little condo. Susan at Between Naps on the Porch is the hostess for this fun event. Click on over and see the variety of fun, romantic, elegant, practical table settings that have been created.

I’ve been away from the computer for a couple days so I’ll be playing catch-up on Metamorphosis Monday and Blue Monday.

 

The chargers are from TJ Maxx clearance. I used my everyday white dinner plates and then added the salad plate that I found at Marshall’s on clearance. I love plates with country scenes on them. The martini glasses, that I use for pretty desserts, too, were from target a couple years ago.

 

 

I changed up the tablesetting at the bar with these square grey chargers and square white plates and a small decorative plates that are “White Russian” plates. I love the little cocktail glasses I found with the Russian Cossack dancers on them. The napkin rings were a gift from my DIL and Son last Christmas.

 

 

My true confession for this week is that we did not eat at these settings. Don’t judge me too harshly, though.

Now head on over to Susan’s for more Tablescape inspiration.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007 to 2015 hostage and has replaced them all with ugly black and grey boxes asking for a ransom to have them re-published. Such a frustrating bother as I go through each post to delete the ugly boxes.

Metamorphosis Monday

Welcome to Metamorphosis Monday hosted by Susan at Between Naps on the Porch. I really think this is going to be fun. I’m in different stages of metamorphosing some things so for today I’m digging one up from the past. Now don’t be too shocked when you see the “before” shot.

My daughter’s room before…

My daughter’s room after I helped her clean up (What a nice mommy, I am)

Now all we have to do is re-decorate!!

For more transformations visit Susan at Between Naps on the Porch.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007 to 2015 hostage and has replaced them all with ugly black and grey boxes asking for a ransom to have them re-published. Such a frustrating bother as I go through each post to delete the ugly boxes.