Casa Amada - Our Beloved Home

Crazy Day!

2009-05-04T13:30:00.000-07:00

Today is one of the craziest days this spring, and it is scheduled almost down to the minute! I feel like my feet hit the floor on Thursday, and I haven't stopped running since.

So why do I pick this day to start blogging again? Guess I am feeling the energy!

This afternoon is like a finely tuned machine - work for 2 hours, pick up daughter #1 from school, go to the orthodontist, drop daughter #1 and son #4 at T-ball game, work for 1 hour, feed son #2 and son #3, pick up daughter and son from T-ball, drop off sons #2 and #3 to their Little League game (thank the Lord they are on the same team), feed daughter #1 and son #4, work 5 more hours and hope the man picks up sons #2 and #3. I have racked my brains thinking of something that is quick and easy, can be modified for the budding vegetarian son #3, and can be reheated and still be yummy, thus serving dinner in at least 3 shifts. Oh, and of course, something that everyone likes, which is a tough job lately.

So, today I am throwing together No-brainer Twice Baked potatoes with bacon (or without!). Yeah, it's not exactly Nutrition Police-approved, but today, I don't care. Maybe daughter #1 can whip up a fresh green salad to go with.

I just now threw in some bacon onto a sheet pan and into the oven for those that still eat meat (most of us) and maybe even all of us once I torture him with the smell of bacon.

I then washed 12 small potatoes (some red and some small bakers) and put those on a cookie sheet after stabbing them with a fork (get some aggression out) and put those on the second rack.

After I take them out in about 40 minutes, I will let the potatoes cool. On a quick break from work, I will halve them and use a little scooper to hollow out the insides (5 minutes) then mash the potato guts with some cheddar, sour cream, a little butter and some bacon (first scooping some on the side for vegetarian boy). I will broil them off as needed this evening.

Oops - that bacon is smelling more than ready - be right back!

Anyway, here's the basic recipe idea, adapted for our family:

http://www.recipezaar.com/Yummy-Baked-Potato-Skins-43908 - No photos yet, but I will try to take some later and share with you.

Bye - gotta work (I love my job, working from home!)

2009-03-09T14:12:00.000-07:00

Hey! I figured out how to reset my password, because it has been so long since I posted, I forgot it!

Maybe I will post again, but then that way, I wouldn't win the worst blogger ever award!

And the color of the day is . . . .!

2008-06-23T03:12:00.001-07:00

Aw, you peeked!

A royal color! A velvety color. Endless variations, from almost pink to almost blue. Soft or strong, I love purple!

Here is my alium, honestly, regally purple. The queen in my garden. Well, actually, I am, but we won't tell her, because then she wouldn't bother putting in her presence next year, so we shall let the pretense continue, shall we?

Lush lupine. I cannot decide whether I love it more for its stalks of color, or its charming leaves, little spokes of delight.

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The wallflower - so delicate-looking, but so hardy, so strong! The lowly maid of flowers. Works diligently all summer long, under difficult conditions, not asking for much, but making things beautiful.

Lovely lilac, so delicate in color, so heady in scent. It does NOT get better than this! I don't understand that glue-sniffing I read about, but lilac-sniffing -- now we are talking! I could stand here all day and hyperventilate trying to take in all this perfume, and never get enough!

Okay, okay. I'll bet you have figured me out. I am going to come clean. I don't think it is DECEPTION as much as it is just FOCUSING ON THE BEAUTY. Yes, that's it. I am taking close-ups of all these georgeous, colorful blooms because they are beautiful and we want to look at BEAUTY!, not at the weeds, the bare dirt patches,the paint peeling off the pickets, the pavers that have yet to be sunk into the ground and have TALL grass growing like crazy all around them because they are too high to mow OVER and my weedwacker has run out of that acrylic string-stuff. And then there's the FUNGUS I am not purposefully hiding; the mushrooms that keep popping up, growing taller than my basil, almost, because of the dreadful, unrelentingly damp eternal spring we are experiencing. I said damp, okay? I am not kidding. The high we hope to get to tomorrow here in the Puget Sound is a whole, whopping 67 degrees! And that is why I am still taking photographs of lilac and lupine and aliums - because we are stuck in spring mode here in the Pacific Northwest, and while good portions of the country probably have tomato plants as high as their hips and with fruit on them, here I have 4 drowning little tomato starts that are about 1 inch taller than when I put them in the ground 6 weeks ago!!!

Enough of the rain rant. Sorry. As I was saying, I feel like focusing on the beauty rather than the raw, naked truth about the weedy, naked, disrepair of my garden. So, close-ups are all you are going to get right now, okay? Then maybe one day, when I am strong enough, you will get the WHOLE picture. Kinda like a garden version of what Martha did a few weeks ago here, baring herself in all her natural glory:
She's a brave one, she is. She tells it and shows it like it is. Me, with my tunnel vision, I am just going to have to focus on the BEAUTY!

2008-06-16T10:19:00.000-07:00

True blue flowers are few and far between; I do have a few real blues, though. I don't even know the name of this one. It is a groundcover. It dies back brown in the winter, but comes back early in spring and is covered with these beautiful little blue, star-like flowers, as small as the eraser of a pencil.

Here's my favorite blue flower; I can't say it is my all-time favorite bloom, because I am drawn more towards scent, and lilacs and roses are definite contenders there, but this ranunculus is just so beautiful I could stare at it all day.

Such a little bit of work for such beauty! These were a gift for my birthday last year from a friend. I just stuck the bulbs in the ground last October and up they all popped this spring! And I think they will continue to do so for years.

Color in the garden

2008-06-13T10:53:00.000-07:00

I love summer. I love the weather (although here in the Pacific Northwest, our weather has been more March-like lately, cold and wet and blah). I love the gardening. I love that my husband, who is a teacher, is home all summer. I love that volleyball, baseball, cub scouts, and schooling are all taking a break for a while. We can kick back and just enjoy each day, and each other, without running around at breakneck speed.

In the spirit of summer (and in the hopes that it eventually arrives to the Seattle area), here is a garden tour by color. Today, our color is red, one of my favorites, and especially striking against the everpresent gray of the sky (okay, I guess I've made my point about my disgust with the weather, right?)

Here is the red of our maple:

Here is the red of our front door:

Now, a lovely gerbera daisy that was a present from my sweetie-pie 5-year-old on Mother's Day:

Here are some little red glass marbles in our mosaic house numbers; whenver we come home, they greet me cheerfully:

That is our red garden tour for the day - tomorrow we will have my other favorite color, blue.

Ha! A post to say I will post soon!

2008-05-28T11:36:00.000-07:00

Okay, I am going to start keeping up on my blog better. I cannot believe nearly a year has gone by without any substantial posts. Life just flies! I have been trying to work full-time and homeschool 3 kids, and there is not a lot of leftover time. But I will dedicate a few minutes a few times a week - that's not a lot, right?

Cozy, yet fuzzy, living room

2007-11-28T12:14:00.000-08:00

Here's a peek at our new, warm, and cozy living room. You only get a peek because my daughter's phone (the only current working camera in the house) does not come with a wide angle lens, or even much of a plain, narrow, blurry lens. So while we enjoy a warm, cozy living room, you get to enjoy a fuzzy one. Perhaps by day I will be able to get a slightly better photo. I will try again soon. In the meantime, these are what I have.

She lives!

2007-11-27T14:08:00.000-08:00

I have been gone a LONG TIME! At first, summer just took over and the hours and days and weeks flew! Then a new full-time job, training away from home at the end of the summer, and then incorporating working full-time from home with homeschooling 3 boys and keeping house - a juggling act I could not possibly add another ball to, or risk having everything fall down around me! But now we are in a rhythm, things are as smooth sailing (as much as they ever will be, anyway), and so I have decided I need to journal our adventure, so here I am again.

Summer was wonderful, our corn grew tall and we had 2 meals from our tiny crop (7 whole stalks!). We had paste tomatoes and Early Girls (yeah, right!) and they grew taller than I had ever seen, and so bushy, but the tomatoes were green until SEPTEMBER! I must have picked at least 100 pounds of tomatoes from 7 plants (really, no kidding!)in September, most of them green, and for 2 months every few days we checked them and turned them in their boxes, and brought in the red ones - we made roasted tomato sauce, and oven-dried garlic tomatoes in olive oil, and regular tomato sauce. We had BLTs, and tomatoes on sandwiches, and every day my sweet husband would come home from work and pluck one from the pile, wash it, get the salt, and eat it like an apple. We also gave them away to family and neighbors.

We also grew pumpkins and zucchini - the kids started looking at every dinner suspiciously, trying to find where I had hidden the zucchini that night - shredded in a tomato sauce, in egg burritos, in chocolate "surprise" muffins. We also had our first experiment in growing broccoli and I am not sure if we were doing something wrong - the yield from 10 plants was not even enough to feed us 2 meals - not sure if we will grow the broccoli again. We also have a good (yes, almost out-of-control) pile of mint going and now I know what I am going to do with it next year - we have discovered mojitos!!

And that was summer. We did not travel anywhere. My daughter went to Oregon for a choral festival, and my eldest son went to Colorado for a baseball tournament. And my sweet husband and I slowly but surely kept on working on the living room.

First, we stripped our ceiling beam of some hideous, water-stained 1960s veneer and then cleaned and sanded the beam. Next, we scraped the hideous popcorn ceiling and patched our gouges in the drywall, and then we textured the ceiling with a rustic look. Then we painted the ceiling a fresh white and painted the walls several colors before we settled on the current green (and that may change, but not now - we am living with it for a while). Then we started on our "built-in" bookcases that were to flank either side of our fireplace and then we built the mantle on top and attached it all to the wall. Then the molding went up around the beam and the ceiling, and around the floor, and then we caulked and painted the bookcases, and I think the only thing left to do in the living room is to decide which tile to use to tile around the fireplace. I am leaning towards a small, tumbled travertine tile; we will cover the wall surrounding the fireplace and the raised hearth, which we thought we might remove but have to work around - it is NOT coming out of that wall. It took us almost a WHOLE YEAR! just to do that - in little bits and pieces, here and there when we had an hour or two.

I will post some pictures of the work in progress over the next few days, and then I will get ahold of a camera and give you a final, as it is for now, version.

A view of the yucky ceiling, in process:

Choosing the right color is not an easy thing:

Time to build the bookcases:

Yes, I helped, too. Really!

One down, one to go.

Okay, now what do we do?

Uh, now to find a piece of wood that goes all the way across - what do you mean they don't make them that long??!! (unless you want to special order, and it will cost you an arm and a leg!)

Next, to figure out how to build up the mantel - what do you mean they don't make crown molding that long, either?? Who planned this, anyway?!

Almost done, just some finishing touches!

That's it for now -- tomorrow I will give you some updated photos with it done (except for the tiling, which we will get to after the holidays!

Gardening Galore!

2007-05-29T09:05:00.000-07:00

Whew! We did so much gardening on Sunday and Monday! I had to wait until my Sweet One could help me take up some grass before I could plant the vegies because my back is rather quirky, and I didn't want it going out on me again, so - I had to wait. And the patiences paid off. I had some sodless soil, and after loosening it up and adding lots of rich compost, I filled it up quick!

I put in 8 tomato plants (I want more but don't have the room right now), 7 corn stalks (for fun for the kids), lemon balm, golden oregano, 34 basil plants (hey - I like pesto!) pumpkins, squash, and green beans. Right now they are all tiny, but I am hoping they take off fast!

I also have a little patch of garden where I have spread cosmos and calendula seeds, and something is sprouting, but I am not sure if they are the flowers or weeds; we shall see soon.

I think I have a handle on the black spot that was threatening to devour my climbing roses. It might be because I have been spraying them with non-fat milk (a home-made remedy I recently heard about and had to try - yes, really!) or it might be because I have removed every leaf that had some on, which felt like half the leaves on my 4 poor climbing roses. But they look a lot healthier now just after a week or so of this treatment, and I am about to be the proud momma to 60+ blooms.

I also have over 30 oriental poppies growing, 20 hollyhocks, gerbera daisies, salvia, rosemary, lavender, wallflower, begonias, dahlias, and a few annuals that I could not resist. I had promised myself I would not buy anything other than perrenials this year, and would try to grow as much from seed as possible. But walking through a nursery makes you kinda forget that annuals are NOT on the list! But I only spent $6 on annuals. Really. Don't you believe me?

Anyway, the weather is finally heating up around here! Yesterday was georgous and the rest of the week is supposed to be nothing but sun and mid 70s and that is saying something! I am going to be out in the garden all week weeding and pruning and watering, and I am happy.

And the winner is . . .

2007-05-28T07:50:00.000-07:00

Sorry it took so long to get to this! This weekend turned out to be very busy! So late Saturday evening we put everyone's name into my Mexican blown-glass pitcher

and we drew out . . .

Ele at "A Bit of Pink Heaven."

Congratulations, Ele!!

Please excuse the photos - my "real" camera is on the fritz and these are high-quality photos taken by my phone!

T agged!

2007-05-25T08:01:00.002-07:00

Martha from Elizabeth Hill Cottage tagged me LAST WEEK to reveal 10 things about myself, but I have not been able to post for a while, but today, life's demands are not as insistent, the children are still sleeping, and I am already finished with my morning shift doing transcription, so I have some time!

1. I never finish any craft I start. I have good intentions. When I go to the fabric store, my husband rolls his eyes, probably wondering where we are going to find the room to store my NEXT unfinished project. I have boxes filled with good intentions . . . a beautiful sweater that I started knitting for my sister over 20 years ago, fabric for a mobile of cute bugs I was going to make for my baby (who is almost 5), curtains for a house that we moved out of 14 years ago . . . you get the picture.

2. I can't stand to cut my hair. Once in a great while, I get fed up with it and have it cut to a bob at my chin then I let it grow again until it is halfway down my back until I get fed up with it . . .

3. I love books. They are like treasures! I adore books. The best place in the world is a library where the books are FREE! When we drove up to the library the other day, my 4 year old said, "oh, mom's going shopping again!" The best kind of shopping - free books!! I love magazines and newspapers too - just give me someting to read. If I have to sit still for a while (doctor's office, passenger in a car, I go stir crazy if I don't have something to read.

4. I have a black thumb. But I will not let that deter me. I will change my destiny! I will grow something! Actually, I have pretty good luck with vegetables, but flowers and house plants - if they enter my domain, they are history, no matter how much love I shower them with. So, I am going to read and educate myself until I know what I am doing and I am going to conquer this horrible trait and GROW FLOWERS! (How else am I going to get that cottage garden?).

5. I love to cook. I love the colors, scents, tastes, the steam, the sizzling sounds. But with a hungry family and limited time, cooking has become daily drudgery. Trying to come up with a new meal - healthy, delicious, and something that all 7 of us like - it is a formidable task. It seems that the joy dissipates when every one's hungry, there's at least 3 who do not like broccoli, and you have to fix that meal in less than 30 minutes because we have to go to ____________ (fill the blank). So I enjoy cooking on the weekends; it is more relaxed, there is more time usually.

6. I want to go hang-gliding. When I was a teenager, I made a list of 100 things I wanted to do. There is a lot I haven't gotten to yet, and hang-gliding is one of them. I have always wanted to ffllllyyyyyyyy! I ain't getting any younger, so I am not sure if I am going to be able to cross this one off my list.

7. I love to sing. I can't stop singing. When some one says something, it reminds me of lyrics to some song I heard somewhere, and I start singing them. I have duets with Andrea Bocelli or whoever else is on the radio (my children think driving in the van is a torture chamber - "Gee whiz, just join in, too", I say. They say, "We want to hear the 'real' singer!") I borrowed my daughter's IPod at my son's baseball game and started singing along with the Beatles, and she told me she needed her IPod back, please, right now.

8. I am a night owl. I could easily stay up until 1 a.m. if I were allowed to listen to my own natural rhythm. But I make myself go to bed ( by 11:30 so that I can get up in time for my morning shift). I struggle to get up by 6 or 7 every morning - especially in the winter when it is still dark outside.

9. When in high school, I did some vocational testing and scored high in engineering and visual perception. I scored the lowest on typing ability/office work. For the majority of my working life, I have typed for a living. Life is strange.

10. I hate typos. I can spot them from a half mile away, practically. I can just be scanning something I am reading in a book, newspaper, or a business sign and it is like the typo is highlighted in neon - it jumps out at me. And it drives me crazy. The one that drives me crazy the most is the misplaced apostrophe - like "FREE KITTEN'S" when they make a plural into a possessive. Drives me crazy!!! Of course, I seem to be immune to spotting my own typos - a serious glitch in my detection system.

Can you spot these typos? - Another blogger had this posted a while ago.

Frequestly? Our? This from the FAA website!

There - that's it for now! I thought it would be hard to come up with 10 things, but once I started, they just kept coming.

Now I have to tag 3 others - Cottage Bethy, Jen at The Cottage Nest, and Kim at Daisy Cottage.

I wanted to post for Inspiration Friday, but thought I should get this done first, so I will post for Inspiration Saturday this week. Then on Saturday evening, we will draw the winner's name for the soap basket; you have up to 5 pm on Saturday to enter the drawing. I will not have a chance to get on my blog to post the winner until Monday morning, so stay tuned.

2007-05-16T08:40:00.000-07:00

Taking a cue from Meg at her Little Cottage, I wanted to see what my color was. I know what my color was, but I wanted to see if a computer program was intuitive enough to get it right.

BLUE

You give your love and friendship unconditionally. You enjoy long, thoughtful conversations rich in philosophy and spirituality. You are very loyal and intuitive.

Find out your color at QuizMeme.com!

Well, I am annoyed. How'd they do that? They got it right! Blue is my favorite color. I know odds are . . . I mean, how many colors are there to chose from? But some of those personality traits are right on. I guess they have good questions. I just hate to be predictable. I wonder what color that is . . .

Variations on a Theme

2007-05-10T08:30:00.000-07:00

My guys play hard. And when they're done, they drop. I noticed a theme in some of my photos and I thought I would share . . .

A busy birthday . . .

Rough game . . .

Can't . . . get . . . through . . . this . . . meal . . zzzzzzz

Naptime for me and my nutcracker . . .

Man, that was some game! (Yes, the whiffle ball is duct-taped!)

Snuggle time with big brother . . .

Sweet, aren't they?

Down the Garden Path

2007-05-07T12:08:00.000-07:00

Welcome to our picket fence and arbor my husband and I built last year. The cutting and glueing of the multiple pieces of wood that went into the curve at the top was an experience that tested the strength of our marriage like nothing else. Truly. Well, that and a certain winter car trip from Chicago to Seattle, but that is another story . . .

We are very happy with our white picket fence and arbor. We have 2 different types of climbing roses that we are training up over it and they have taken off this year - I hope to get them over the arbor by the end of the summer. But there is no pathway from the arbor to the front door. During the fall, we redid our front lawn (well, okay, it was 90% weeds/10% lawn) from scratch and now it is lush and green. We did lay down landscaping material down before we seeded to protect our path-to-be. It is held in place with bricks and stones. Besides getting a cottage garden growing strong, my goal by the end of summer is to lay a path.

This is going to be another do-it-ourselves project. I have been looking at all sorts of projects, including pouring concrete into molds, like this cobblestone path project featured by Lowes, or making our own molds by making some forms out of wood, pouring concrete right into shapes cut into the ground, or spending the big bucks for stones from a big box store. I want this path relatively wide, so if I used a mold, I would lay it double-wide. If any of you have laid your own path, I would love some advice and to hear about your experience.

Cottage Charm Give-Away reminder

2007-05-06T16:04:00.000-07:00

Just a reminder - you have until May 26 to sign up for the cottage give-away. If you have not already, go to this link, which will lead to you lots of lovely blogs with lots of lovely goodies they are giving away.

I am giving away a basket full of handmade soaps, bath salts, and a few fizzing bath bombs; whoever has their name drawn can choose from mint or lavender.

I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend!

Holy hollyhocks, Batman!

2007-05-04T08:00:00.000-07:00

I love hollyhocks. The riotous color reaching to the sky! Nothing says cottage garden like a flock of hollyhocks massed against a picket fence.

I used to have hollyhocks at our old house - a dear friend have brought over some of her plants that were extras - they were plentiful and sturdy and provided a plethora of babies every spring. When we moved, I was so distracted by all the machinations of moving I completely forgot about the hollyhocks and a few special roses that we had there.

Sometimes I think about sneaking back there, in the night, wearing black and carrying a shovel . . . but something keeps me back. Probably my husband. And the thought of explaining to whoever caught me what exactly I was doing.

So I have tried two summers in a row to grow hollyhocks from seed. Nothing has sprouted. Nothing. I was suprised when I found this bag in Costco last month, and decided to take a chance on it.

It couldn't be seeds, and I knew hollyhocks didn't grow from bulbs or corms, so what was inside there? Last week, I found out.

They are a root system with a little plant starting to grow on top. Well, if I didn't kill them planting them, I should get some hollyhocks! Lots of them, I hope - there were 24 of these little guys in the package. We will see what grows.

And if they don't, well . . . maybe you will hear on the news of a woman being arrested in Edmonds, dressed all in black carrying weapons she asserted were gardening tools, professing she was just "reclaiming" her hollyhocks.

Strawberries and Summer

2007-05-03T09:41:00.000-07:00

One of my sons had been pleading for a strawberry cheesecake all winter, but I told him we had to wait until the strawberries were fresh.

These are not local berries; we will have to wait until around the middle of June for strawberries around here. Then we will go out to the fields and pick enormous buckets full of them, to freeze and eat later and to make jam, a memory in every bite of the warm summer day that we pick them. Usually, we visit the U-pick farms for blueberries in August, but the children are clamoring for strawberries this year. The younger ones always eat more than they put in the buckets, but most of them are older now and we should bring home quite a pile! I am so looking forward to June, and summer, and picnics.

Until then, we don't mind California strawberries.

Manufactured homes

2007-05-02T12:25:00.000-07:00

What does your mind envision when you hear that term? I think in America, the phrase conjures up something less than ideal, something perhaps not as sturdy as a home built in place. In fact, it does not maintain its value in comparison with the built-in-place homes.

Now, the manufactured homes are not quite the same as modular homes; the historical Sears home is a modular home - from 1908 until about 1970, one could order their Sears home from a catalog and have all the parts delivered, which they would put together themselves (or, I imagine, arrange to have something else do it). You can read a little bit more about that here.

Now, take a gander at these incredible homes. These are made in Finland, where the reputation of a manufactured home is not quite the same. I discovered these homes through Rikka's blog. I am amazed at their beauty! I would like to order one, although it may not be worth the cost, having it shipped from Finland!

COTTAGE CHARM GIVE-AWAY - click here to leave your name!

2007-05-01T12:25:00.000-07:00

Thank you to Kim at One Woman's Cottage Life for starting this wonderful Cottage Charm Give-Away!

This will be Casa Amada's first give-away! I am participating in this cottage give-away, along with many other wonderful people, and would like to offer something made by me in my cottage industry - a basket containing 2 hand-made artisan soaps, along with a jar of scented soaking salts and a few bath "explosions."

The recipient of the give-away will get to choose either the basket full of lovely bath goods all made with either peppermint essential oil - very refreshing, and perfect for summer, or lavender essential oil, a very clean, fresh floral. I will contact the recipient the day of the drawing and get your choice from you then.

All you need to do is leave a comment here by clicking the post title, up above. Please provide your name and a way to contact you. On Saturday, May 26, we will draw the name of the recipient of the basket.

And don't forget to go to Kim's blog to see all the other wonderful give-aways going on.

Sharing of the Green

2007-05-01T11:51:00.000-07:00

Two posts in one day!

Well, just wanted to enjoy some green instead of complaining about it. So here is a photo I took yesterday of my beautiful Bleeding Heart.

Painting Woes

2007-05-01T10:30:00.000-07:00

Okay. I have been working on this living room for MONTHS, which happens very slowly when extra time, money, and energy all converge into one moment (a rare event around here!).

So, the next project, as I have been saying for a while, was painting the walls. I thought this would be the easy part. But paint selection was, for some reason, very difficult. Figuring out what looked good in the light of that room, and then the mood we were going for, making the actual choice, and then getting my husband on the same page. Whew. That took weeks of staring at different colors on the wall.

Isn't this lovely. This is what we gazed at in puzzlement for weeks, in the daylight, in the evening, at night, as we finished stripping our beam, scraped the popcorn off the ceiling, primed it and applied a new finish.

It was clear to me that I loved the Sherwin Williams Hearts of Palm. It is not a pastel, that's for sure. It's cheerful, uplifting, sunny. That is just what we need during the long, dreary Pacific Northwest season called FallWinterSpring, where is is gray and rainy, or gray and snowing, or gray and just misty. On the above picture (I don't know why our wall looks so distorted - it does not look like that in person!), the Hearts of Palm is the color to the left of the dark green that we first chose a few months ago and rejected as soon as it was on the wall.

So, the choice was made and all we had to do was to get it on the walls. I had already primed with my favorite, good-for-everything primer, Zinnser 1-2-3. So I took my little paint strip from Sherwin Williams and went to Lowes to have it mixed into their main brand. They said, no problem, we have Sherwin Williams' formula for Hearts of Palm right in our computer. They mixed it and home we went. Later that night, when the kids went to bed (fingerprints avoidance technique), I started painting. It didn't look right, but I am tired, it is dark, and the last thing I want to do is start questioning my paint color choice. But it does not look right. Where's my sunny pear green? I reasoned that maybe it just needs to dry and it will look right. Right? Wrong!

Where's the sunny-ness? Where's the cheerfulness? This has too much blue in it, where's my yellow? I WANT MY HEARTS OF PALM!!!!! All that agonizing over a color - I am not compromising at this point.

So, with encouragement from some helpful folks at the HGTV message forum, I am going to take this paint back and start again. Yes, I want to be done with this room. But I want it done right. I have this picture in my head about the way it is going to look one day, and I am holding out for that. If it takes me all summer!

INSPIRATION FRIDAY - BEDROOMS

2007-04-27T19:05:00.000-07:00

I love everyone's idea of Inspiration Fridays. Here are some sleeping spaces that I have collected from magazines and websites that I really love. I am really torn between cottage and rustic - I would like to make our home a "Mexican cottage" with more color and less white, but I love the serenity and peacefulness of a white bedroom.

2007-04-25T14:03:00.000-07:00

I have been gone a long time from here - between baseball, remodeling, and life, I have not yet mastered the art of keeping up my blog. I shall post some pictures very soon!

Finished mosaic mirror

2007-03-14T14:48:00.000-07:00

Whenever I finish a mosaic project, it leaves my hands and my home. I really need to make one for our own home. But not now, we'll just put that on the ever-growing to-do list. My husband is encouraging me to mosaic around our fireplace, but that is a serious step and not one I am really ready to take just now. I have plans for a mosaic bird bath for the front garden, but I guess it would be more appropriate to get the front garden growing first.

I really wanted to have something substantial to show you, but we are still just struggling with paint choices - isn't that silly! Next time I write, I am determined it will be about house project progress.

In the meantime, I will just share a photo of my finished mosaic. I am thinking about making a ton of these and selling them at our summer's farmers market this year.

Bye-bye for now - next time I post, I will have new paint on the wall. And new texture on the ceiling. And then a fantastic fireplace. No, maybe I won't wait to post that long.

MOSAIC MADNESS

2007-03-08T12:53:00.000-08:00

Why do I always make the same mistakes over and over again? In coming up with items for an auction, I committed about a dozen items. I do not actually have these things. I intend to make them, though. Isn't intention 9/10 of the law, or something like that?

Anyway, it came to my attention that the auction was fast approaching, and NOTHING WAS MADE! Where does the time go?

So, my action plan was quickly drafted according to which would take the longest to the least amount of time. From curing (soap), to drying (mosaic grout), to merely bottling and arranging in a basket (bath salts), or tying together (no-sew polar fleece lap blanket). I could do nothing else, not even buy paint samples, until this was all done!

The soap is now essentially done, so onto to the mosaic. I whipped up this plan in about 10 minutes late last night. This was my "rough draft" just laid out to make sure I had enough tiles for my plan. I used one of those Ikea mirrors.

And below is the committed final version. Because those tiles and that glue ain't goin' nowhere. This went so much more quickly than I thought it would - I was done in less than an hour. I even had help from a few of my resident artist children. My in-house consultant, Maria, was called from her Algebra several times regarding which type of tiles to use where, and Sam chose the beach glass pieces to fit into the tight spots - I guess we would categorize this particular homeschool moment as "Exercises in Spatial Awareness." The photo really does not do these tiles justice. They are so beautful; the color variations and the way they reflect light.

Now all I have to do is grout. Tonight. So it will dry before Saturday. Which color for grouting? I am thinking maybe blue.

Next stop - bath salts and bath fizzies! After I go for an energizing walk in this rain.

Soap's On.

2007-03-08T11:30:00.000-08:00

No, not soup. Soap.

I have been working like a madwoman cranking out logs of soap for an auction. So, if you were wondering if I had done ANYTHING with my living room yet, the answer is still NO!

But I did make soap. It makes the house smell SO GOOD! For the auction, I have made 4 logs of "slice-your-own-bar" soap, lavender, morning mint, lemongrass and ginger, and vanilla cream. Now I am putting together 2 baskets of soap goodies, mint and lavender, which will hold a few bars of soap, bath salts, and bath "fizzies." I still have to make the bath salts and fizzies; will do that this afternoon. I also have to mosaic a framed mirror and tie together one of those polar fleece no-sew throws. Gotta turn it all in Saturday a.m. PANIC TIME!

Here are a few photos of the soap-making process:

Here I have prepared the molds and lined them it with our expensive, exclusive supply of an unseamed Ziplock bag, and taped it into place. My husband made these molds from an online plan years ago, and they are holding up very well.

Here is the mold after putting on the end caps and securing them with our high-tech holding-together device, rubberbands tied together.

Next, here's the part where children are banned from the kitchen and are preferably in bed: I prepare the lye solution carefully, first using the online lye calculator at Magestic Mountain Sage, then adding the lye to the water (never the other way around - could erupt in a volcano of lye!). I always do this in the sink, so if there is an overflow, it is contained safely.

This may look like boring pitchers of water, but this is the lye solution. I have only 2 molds, so only 2 batches at a time.

The lye heats up HOT! It needs to be around 110 degrees for mixing with the oils, so I mix the lye solution first so it will cool down by the time the oils are ready to add.

I use coconut oil because of its lovely lathering properties once it has been saponified. It is a solid oil at cooler temperatures. It is hard to get out of the container when it has been cold, so I stuck it on top of a heater vent for a while to let it soften a little. Easier to scoop out that way.

I measure out all the oils next, being very precise with measurements (if there is not enough oil or too much lye, we could have lye-heavy soap and THAT is not moisturizing!) I weigh out the hard oils first (the coconut oil and the stearic acid) to start them melting in the microwave, then add the liquid oils to cool down the warm, melted solid oils. When the lye and the oils are at about the same temperature, which can take up to 40 minutes depending on the house temperature, I add the lye solution to the oils, stirring thoroughly to incorporate. The soap mixture starts to get cloudy at this point.

Next comes out the most worthwhile piece of equipment for soapmaking that I own; the stick blender. Ten years ago, I started making soaps and it would take me 3 or 4 hours of regular stirring to get the oil and lye molecules to bond together and achieve the almighty "trace," the point where the spoon you are stirring with leaves a "trace" of itself on top of the soap, kinda like vanilla pudding consistency. Now it only takes about 6 minutes with the beautiful stick blender. You are done mixing the oils and the lye solution when the mixture comes to trace,and that is when you can add additives like scent and color and any herbs you want. This was the pattern the stick blender made as the soap came to trace.

Choosing the scent is the hard part . . . only because there are so many essential oils and fragrance oils to choose from. And endless combination!

And trying to figure out what color I want for which soap is the next hardest . What you see in a pigment or other colorant is not necessarily what you get when you mix it with your soap; the lye really has an effect on the final color in your soap, and so does the color of the oils that are used. Some oils are more yellow (or green, like olive oil). So, here are some color tests I did this week with my current soap recipe:

I will keep these cups as reference for the next time. When I was making the lavender soap, I couldn't find my old notes about which pigments I used for which soaps, so I guessed, and guessed wrong. I did not want green!

After adding in the fragrance and colorant thoroughly, I hurry to get the soap poured into the molds before it gets too hard.

Here is my soap. I love making soap; everyone in the house has their own favorite, and I love to give them away as gifts. I love the way the house smells while the soap is curing, and I just enjoy the creative process. From left to right: Morning mint, lemongrass and ginger, vanilla cream, lavender (color experiment gone awry), another mint which is slightly more yellow because it was made with a greener olive oil, and lavender (intended color).

Now I better go get busy with the bath fizzies and bath salts. And the mosaic mirror.

This Green is OUT!

2007-03-07T15:26:00.000-08:00

Well, put it up on the wall and that confirmed my suspicions. No way. Too dark. Too blue. And we have 2 cans sitting here. Never again will I buy paint without getting a sample first. I was SO worried that my husband would come home and say "looks great!" I did not say anything when he came in the door, and neither did he. Over the next few hours, in my head I was scheming for ways to handle this. I just knew my thrifty husband was not going to have a problem with this paint color, because it would mean that we would have wasted our precious $$ on 2 whole gallons.

Underhandedly, I had it all worked out; I was going to figure out which paint to use by putting samples on the wall early in the a.m. as soon as he left for work, figure out which was the ONE as they dried, then by 2 pm run to the store and cover the whole wall with it and say that's that. Too late for any discussions.

But I didn't have to be sneaky. He broached the topic after night fell and the wall looked SO DARK. He mentioned how dark it was. I was so right on it; I had been praying for the moment. "Oh, I agree! We really need to lighten it up, don't we?" Whew! That was easy!

So I am looking for something a lot lighter and a lot more yellow. Kinda like the background to this blog, I think. There is a Laura Ashley Olive I am considering that recently came to my attention, and Kim at One Woman's Cottage Life has been considering Hearts of Palm by Sherwin Williams, which I also really like. So I will get some SAMPLES instead of a huge gallon, and go from there. Will share!

It's not easy choosing green . . .

2007-03-02T09:04:00.000-08:00

We are going to use American Traditions blanched thyme for two of the living room walls. I think. When I had my furniture out, it was the perfect choice, and believe me, we had about 30 samples up on the wall.

But now it looks too blue. I thought there was more yellow in it. I am second-guessing myself, and that is not good. But it is only paint, right? We can paint again if it is not the right color, right?

Hmm. I would just like to finish this room and be done with it. Our official family sports season is arriving fast and furious - volleyball for my daughter, baseball for 2 sons, high school soccer for another son. I remember this - this is why my garden always looks the way it does. It is coming back to me. NOTHING gets done when spring sports starts. So I have to do this NOW.

So the decision is weighing heavily. I am not going to wait until the ceiling is done. I am going to actually put some on the wall today, and share how it looks - please tell me what you think!

As I said, it looked good with our sofa. We will see how it looks on the walls. The east wall has the fireplace on it, and we are going to build flanking bookshelves and a mantle all the way across that wall; they will be white. The west wall with have the piano and more of the Blanched Thyme. In theory. The south wall runs into the hallway, and I do not want to take that color all the way down the hall (too dark), so we will wait until the first two walls are done to see what to do next. The north wall is all windows and a door, which we will clean up and repaint white along with the trim. The door I have not decided to paint yet; I am toying with the idea of white. It is in it's natural wood state on the inside, and it is red on the outside, which I painted last summer.

I am searching for a lighter green for the hall and to segue into the kitchen. As you should know by now, the kitchen cabinets will be red, with a light countertop. Right now (and you are beginning to realize how indecisive I am) I am considering Sherwin Williams Garden Sage for the kitchen walls and the hallway.

But now, I must get to work!

Winter Sowing

2007-02-28T18:57:00.000-08:00

We are in the middle of a winter snow, so it is the perfect time to plant some flower seeds for spring, right?

I am going to grow a cottage garden this year. I have already established roses and will be adding more (I have to put the bareroot plants into the ground when the snow disappears). Last year, we took a visit to a lavender farm near Sequim and got lots of young starter plants that were put in the ground late summer.

So, I am adding poppies, delphium, hollyhocks, phlox, cosmos, salvia, and daisies.

Well, don't think I am crazy. I have just heard of a method of sowing seeds that is done in the winter. People have been doing this for a while and apparently it actually works. So I am going to take the plunge, take the chance, and see if any of my seeds (1) sprout, and (2) survive to spring. WinterSown.Org details how this can work.

In previous years, I have done the peat pots, the growing containers with the plastic lids, the sowing of seeds 6 weeks before our last frost, which is May 15 here. Usually I cannot wait until April 1 and make the mistake of sowing too early. My second mistake is in not having enough space to put in grow lights anywhere - space is at a premium here, and is mostly used in growing children. So inevitably my seeds sprout, get long and leggy searching for sun, and then die. The only thing that has ever survived this method are the amazingly sturdy calendulas.

The new method that I am itching to try is the winter sowing method. There are 2 online support groups that I have been reading that also detail the method, and everyone's particular variations:

Garden Web forum

Garden Guides forum

I have been saving gallon-sized milk containers and water bottles. I will then sow the seeds, tape up the bottles where I have cut them to open them, and put them outside in the cold, in the snow. And then, voila, magic will happen. I hope. I have a very positive attitude about this because it couldn't be any worse than previous attempts at starting seeds. There is absolutely NOTHING! to lose. Except a few seeds.

In the Pacific Northwest, spring and summer gets going a little late. In my garden, the amount of sunlight that filters down through and around the evergreens is barely enough to grow tomatoes that are harvestable before the first frost. And corn gets around shoulder high, maybe. Even sunflowers struggle. So the sooner I can get those seedlings going, the better. I will journal how my garden grows this year and show you how the winter sowing method is working for me. Wish me luck!

Creating a cottage home

2007-02-28T15:28:00.000-08:00

I just love this book by Cynthia Overbeck Bix. I have read my share of dozens of cottage style books and ogled all sorts of photos, but this one is the cat's meow! It is full of all sorts of inspirational photos and descriptions. They say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but it is the cover that grabbed me. These are my favorite colors, the inspiration for my home. Warm, happy colors; visually interesting, texturally interesting. I am hoping I can pull this off, even though it is taking me a while!

So far, we have finished cleaning up our beam and are preparing the ceiling for receiving the "Venetian plaster" that we decided on. Then we will paint; I am a little nervous about the color we have chosen. American Traditions Blanched Thyme. It is a little on the dark side, but I hope when it gets up on the walls, we can get a true picture of how it looks and decide whether we want to live with it or not.

On our weather front, I just wanted to share that has been snowing here today. Who would believe we were in the Seattle area? We have had more snow days here this year than I can ever remember. It is kinda crazy. It is nothing like they get in the midwest or the east coast, but is a novelty for us.

Cub Scout Blue and Gold dinner

2007-02-23T16:04:00.001-08:00

The boys in Pack 60 have their annual Blue and Gold dinner, and have a Dad & Son cake baking contest. Every year, there is a theme, and this year it was Hawaii, or Aloha, or some such thing. Anyway, it is really fun to see the boys working in the kitchen, and all the planning that goes into this in advance.

Above is Antonio's cake, which obviously is a beach scene, with sharks just offshore. What the photo does not show are the plastic palm trees and candy bananas on the sand, which were added, OF COURSE!, after this shot was taken.

Here is, obviously, a Hawaiian volcano spewing licorice, uh, I mean lava. There are lava rocks which have been thrown down to around the base of the volcano which are actually chocolate. And there were several arguments about whether or not dinosaurs should belong climbing up the volcano, but since we have no proof that there was a T. Rex on Oahu, we convinced Sam to play it safe with just a little turtle and another palm tree - again, not pictured.

This is truly fun. Seeing all the other boys' cakes at the dinner was really enjoyable. There must have been 5 different volcanoes and several beach scenes, including Ken (you know, Barbie's dude) and GI Joe both riding surfboards on 2 different cakes.

Making progress

2007-02-22T09:36:00.000-08:00

We've been hard at work here the last week. The ceiling has finally been completely stripped of the dirty, crumbling popcorn (I am SO glad that is gone), the beam is being sanded down to its natural state, and plans are in the making for bookshelves and a mantel surrounding the fireplace.

For the ceiling: After reading about the difficulty in creating a smooth finish to the ceiling, and knowing we are definitely not ceiling experts, drywall experts, or actually any other kind of home renovation experts, we decided to take the easy way out, and actually get the kind of rustic cottage look we want anyway. We will use Behr's Venetian plaster, non-tinted, for a soft white, textured plaster look. First, we will prime with the Zinnser BIN primer and then we will apply the Venetian plaster.

Here is a photo of the plaster technique on a wall from Behr's website:
But before we go any further on our ceiling project, we have to finish the beam. It does seem one thing always leads to another and we are never finished. To think that this started just as a simple wall paining project, but I could not BEAR to think about painting the walls before we had removed that popcorn!

So now we are sanding down the beam. There were some shallow cracks in the beam that I filled with wood filler - that is the orange-colored strip you see running across the beam; that has now been sanded off. There is now a fine powder all over the room (we have sealed this room off from the others with plastic) . It was going pretty fast yesterday, and then everything seemed to take twice as long. At the end of the evening, I figured out I had accidently switch to the fine, finishing grade sandpaper instead of the tougher stuff - no wonder things slowed down! (Heather - thanks for loaning us the palm sander - if I burn out the motor, I will get you a new one.) I should finish this today, and then we can clean up the dust all over the floors, walls, and ceiling, and get to the ceiling by this weekend.

There has been debate about whether to leave the beam in its natural state, stain it darker so it will stand out, or to paint it white to match the other woodwoork that will be in this room and help it to blend in. I would like to live with it for a while in its natural state and try to find some corbels for the ends, to dress it up a little bit.

Anyone know what kind of wood this might be? I will post a close-up later so that I can get help identifying this wood.

Kitchens - Dreaming in Red

2007-02-07T14:00:00.000-08:00

Homemaking Meme

2007-02-06T11:24:00.000-08:00

Aprons – Y/N? Yes, when I remember and when I am cooking with tomatoes or chocolate.

Baking – Favorite thing to bake: Hmm. Does pizza count? And pumpkin bread. And double chocolate almond biscotti.

Clothesline – Y/N? No - I would love one; love the fresh smell, but hate the crispy towels. Here in the Pacific Northwest, things would just get wetter than when you put them out.

Donuts – Have you ever made them? Yes - learned how during an English class in high school in Hawaii - Portuguese malasadas

One homemaking thing you do every day: Dishes, dishes, and more dishes. And can't forget the sweeping.

Freezer – Do you have a separate deep freeze? No. NEED one, but not enough plugs in the garage.

Garbage Disposal – Y/N? No. And don't miss it.

Handbook – What is your favorite homemaking resource? GOOGLE!

Ironing – Love it or hate it? Hate it and I am not ashamed to admit it. Luckily my husband loves it, finding it peaceful and calming (WHAT?!)

Junk drawer – Y/N? Where is it? Yes. I have eliminated it, but it keeps coming back, in the kitchen "desk" area.

Kitchen: Design & Decorating? Well, would like to get around to it someday. Have a vision of red cabinets, stainless steel 6-burner gas stove, 2 dishwashers (see above) and either granite or talavera tile
(do I sound confused?).

Love: What is your favorite part of homemaking? The cooking. The feeling I get (quick - feel it - it will be over in an hour!) when it is all tidy and clean.

Mop - Y/N? Yes. With PineSol. Not frequently enough (uh, that would be hourly) on these white vinyl floors the previous homeowner picked out - guess they didn't have kids.

Nylons - Wash by hand or in the washing machine? Don't wear them if I can help it.

Oven - Do you use the window, or open the door to check? What window - do ovens have windows?? How come mine doesn't??

Pizza - What do you put on yours? Varies all the time. Favorites are the old pepperoni standby, and the BBQ chicken special with a base of sour cream, then mozarella, then chicken shreds, and finally drizzled with Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce.

Quiet - What do you do during the day when you get a quiet moment? HAHAHAHA.

Recipe card box - Y/N? Yes, both a box and a binder, not thick enough, crammed with recipes from friends, mom, and AllRecipes.com.

Style of house - An early 1960s modern monstrosity being slowly and reluctantly dragged into a cottage home, complete with picket fence and rose arbor.

Tablecloths and napkins - Y/N? Not usually. For tea parties only.

Under the kitchen sink - Organized or toxic wasteland? Closer to toxic wasteland - was okay until I convinced Sweet Husband that he could install the new refrigerator's water line himself by drilling unseen into the kitchen floor which resulted in flooding, a HUGE plumbing bill, and a huge hole chopped into the floor of the cabinet under the kitchen sink; will be repaired one day.

Vacuum - How many times per week? Never. Don't own a vacuum. My youngest asked what one of those were when we passed them at the store. Have hardwoods, tile, and soon-to-be-disposed-of vinyl. I just sweep, and sweep, and sweep. And then mop.

Wash - How many loads of laundry do you do a week? Homemaking is part of our homeschooling curriculum, so 3 of them do their own :), but including son #1's 1 load, daughter #1's 2 loads, son #2's 2 loads, and then dish towels, bath towels, adults clothes and other 2 sons' clothes and sheets, at least 15 a week.

X's - Do you keep a daily list of things to do and cross them off? No. Should, because I forget everything.

Yard - Who does what? I actually love to use the Weedwacker and to prune. Sweet husband or oldest son typically does the lawn. Sweet Husband and I do the flowers. Sometimes, if paid by the nickel, the younger ones will pull dandelions (except the youngest, who brings me "flowers."

Zzz's - What is your last homemaking task for the day before going to bed? I work at my transcription job the last 2-1/2 hours of the day, so at 11:30 pm or so, I stumble to bed doing no more than turning the heat WAY down for the night and checking the locks.

My husband, "Le Chef"

2007-01-24T20:49:00.000-08:00

You are looking at a luscious Pecan Mocha Torte. At least it LOOKS luscious. It was made by my husband for a friendly contest at work for desserts. He came home with a prize for most esthetically pleasing. He said it didn't taste bad, either. Between the two of us, we have made this torte 3 times for contests and auctions, but have never tried it before! The children are starting to protest that every time we make one, it goes out the door for someone else. So we will make another this weekend and actually taste it.

My sweetie is quite the culinary artist. It's really a fair trade if he cooks dinner and I get to clean up the kitchen. The "clean as you go" method he learned in his long-ago career has been forgotten, but man, does he know how to cook!

Mocha Pecan Torte
Source: Better Homes & Gardens cookbook
PREHEAT: 350 degrees

1 c. butter
1-1/3 c. semi-sweet chocolate pieces
6 eggs
1 c. sugar
1-1/2 c. pecans, toasted
1 c. sifted, unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 c. coffee liqueur or strong coffee
1 recipe "mocha glaze" below
2 ounces white chocolate, melted
3/4 chopped pecans, toasted

1. Grease a 9-inch springform pan, line the bottom with parchment paper. Grease paper and dust with cocoa powder; set aside. In a small, heavy saucepan, combine butter and chocolate. Stir over low heat until low heat until melted and smooth; set aside.
2. Place eggs and sugar in a blender container or a food processor bowl. Cover and blend or process until smooth. Add 1-1/2 c. of the toasted pecans; blend or process about 1 minute or until nearly smooth. Add melted chocolate mixture, cocoa powder, and liqueur; blend or process just until combined. Spread batter evenly in the prepared pan.
3. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 35 to 40 minutes or until sides are puffed and set about 2 inches in from the pan. Place cake on a wire rack; cool thoroughly. Loosen sides of cake, remove sides of pan. Invert cake onto rack. Remove parchment paper. Place rack with cake on a baking sheet. Pour warm mocha glaze over cake, covering top and sides.
4. Pour melted baking bar into a plastic starch bag. Snip one corner of the bag to make a small opening. Starting at the center of the cake, pipe a spiral to the outer edge. Draw 8 to 10 lines with a toothpick from the center of the cake to the edge at regular intervals to achieve a spider web effect. If necessary, chill cake until glaze is partially set, but still sticky (5 to 10 minutes). Press nuts onto sides of cake. Transfer cake to plate and refrigerate. Makes 12 to 16 servings.

Mocha Glaze:
In a medium heavy saucepan, heat 3 T. butter and 1 T. light-colored corn syrup over low heat, stirring occasionally until butter melts. Add one 6-ounce package (1 c.)semi-sweet chocolate pieces; still until melted and smooth. Remove from heat. Add 3 T. butter and 2 T. coffee liqueur or strong coffee; whisk until smooth.

Comments, please?

2007-01-19T18:29:00.000-08:00

As soon as I figure out how to put the code into my blog, anyway. I thought I had enabled comments, but it appears I have to work harder than clicking an option in order to have that happen. I am researching and will try to put that on this weekend!

By the way, I thought we would finally be back in business in finishing the removal of the popcorn off our ceiling this weekend, but not gonna happen . . this is the weekend my husband has to grade his student's finals and turn in grades for the semester. And it is also the weekend of the boys' pinewood derby race. And baseball practice. And a church potluck. That takes care of that, I guess. My back is not in the best of shape and I need him to move furniture out of there before I can get started. So maybe a quiet evening this week. If we can find one of those - haven't seen one in a while.

2007-01-18T23:33:00.000-08:00

Superheroes. I am always surrounded by superheroes. And knights and kings and dragons. Oh, and let's not forget Buzz Lightyear. Who knew that so many adventures (and misadventures) lurked in this house? Who knew that a girly girl would grow up and have FOUR boys! You only see 3 superheroes here because the 4th is now too old now for anything except baseball, football, and basketball. Yikes - the testosterone in this house is almost palpable. Thanks heavens I have a daughter to discuss girl things with. Like volleyball.

Cuppa tea?

2007-01-17T21:05:00.000-08:00

My daughter made these delicious scones; we will keep some and send some over to me mum. Although we do bake scones from scratch, these are made from an authentic mix that you can buy at the British Pantry. We all love our tea around here. This teacup used to be my grandmother's; now it it one of my treasures. My mother is a born and bred Englishwoman, and in the early 70s and my siblings and I lived and went to school in England for 3 years. We came to know our grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins. And develop a taste for good tea, Hovis bread, and lots of lovely sweets. Oh, and let's not forget the fish and chips, and the best bacon in the world! I wonder if you have ever heard of beans on toast, which is a delicious breakfast and sometimes quick dinner with a side of yummy bacon. Sounds strange, I know. I just wonder if anyone else in the United States has beans on toast with bacon . . . with a pot of tea, of course.

RED DOOR

2007-01-17T07:15:00.000-08:00

Did I say I liked red? Well, I do. I like blue, too, but this door just seemed to be begging to be red, so last year I helped it. Then I created this mosaic number plaque to our house.

This year I plan on mosaicing my husband's old guitar and hanging it on the wall, underneath a mural. I might use this company - http://wallwords.com and I will probably use something like this from Shakespeare- If music be the food of love, play on.

Working from Home

2007-01-16T12:11:00.000-08:00

I wake up in the morning, and stumble from bed, straight to my computer. I can hardly open my eyes, but I can feel those little bumps on the keyboard and am able to put in my passwords, and I "punch" my 21st century time clock with a click. Then I put on my headphones, open up the transcription program, and by the time my eyes have adjusted to the light, I am typing my first medical report of the morning. Invariably, by the time an hour goes by, my youngest is up. I stop working for a minute, get him some breakfast, and then back at work for a total of 2 hours. Every morning, Monday through Friday. Then just after the younger ones are heading to bed at 9 pm, I am back at work for another 2-1/2 hours. I never imagined I would be doing this at this point in my life. This is not an exciting job. It is not creative. It is not even a well-paid position. But it fits the bill. I get to work in my robe and slippers. I save on gas, and there is no commute to endure. I am here for the children when they need me. I know I am not climbing any corporate ladder, and I am definitely not creating any masterpieces. But I am contributing to the family coffers, and I get to flex my mental muscle a little every morning. I took my transcription course through CareerStep http://careerstep.com, but I did it through Everett Community College's online class: http://www.everettcc.edu/medtrans . It was a good way to go.

Way Down the Project List: The kitchen

2007-01-14T14:00:00.000-08:00

Our kitchen needs work. Lots of work. Sure, it has the basics. There's the old, lovely gold oven (1970s??). It kind of works; we've learned most of its quirks, like it runs about 30 degrees too hot and the bottom rack (borrowed from another oven) doesn't slide out. But I can turn out some decent meals on it, so it stays. For now.

Then there's the dishwasher. The soap dispenser section doesn't open on its own anymore, so we just put the liquid soap straight onto the door. When the dishwasher door is open, no one can open the fridge. In fact, when the dishwasher door is open, no one can walk through the kitchen at all. And the control buttons on the outside of the door are a big temptation to the 4 year old, who often changes the settings, unbeknownst to me until I wonder why the dishwasher has been running for 1-1/2 hours and find out it is set on "pots and pans" again.

Then there is the knife drawer. If I walk by, it pops open. I shut it. It opens. I shut it and wait. It stays put. I start to walk away, and it opens again. It's me against the knife drawer. The crowning glory of our dated kitchen is the strip of wallpaper circling the top of our kitchen walls, displaying a series of chickens and cows. It has just got to go!

When I have completed all my other half-finished projects, I am going to get to work on this kitchen. The wallpaper will be the first to go. Then the scratched and burnt Formica counters that I suspect are original to this 1962 house. Then I will re-arrange the cabinets so that the kitchen is more efficient and we can open the fridge or the dishwasher and not block all other activity. I have a vision of what it COULD be . . . and it includes red. I love red kitchens. Warm and welcoming. Here's a red kitchen I swoon over - this was torn from a magazine several years ago. I can see this kitchen in my house, with copper pots hanging above a new gas range. Sigh . .

Snow, Snow, Snow

2007-01-13T21:58:00.000-08:00

Snow everywhere! Cold everywhere! So we went with the flow and put up paper snowflakes on the windows, and made cute little snowpeople cupcakes. Here's a picture of one of them - he did not last very long! This particular one was made by one of my nieces - they all came over one evening to spend some time with us and every one of us made one of these. One way to enjoy the snow and stay warm!

A day of frustration AND excitement

2007-01-10T12:21:00.000-08:00

Today I am very frustrated.
No, I really didn't smash my keyboard. But I am frustrated.
I am have been playing with some blog skins and messed up my formatting and I cannot figure out how to resize or move my photos. But I have to just let this go. I will move on and not try and change this blog skin 5 times in 20 minutes - that may have had something to do with it.

Today I am also excited. In the past day, I have heard from 2 different branches of the family tree; 2 distant cousins, both descendants of the Trompari family of Finland. Background: My great-grandmother Tilda, who died soon after I was born, emigrated from Finland at the turn of the last century. Riika, who lives in Helsinki, emailed me with some new information about Tilda's family. Riika and I are extremely distant cousins; I can't quite figure it out, but our family connection might be from the 19th century. On the other hand, Riika also helped me contact a stateside cousin who is a granddaughter of one of Tilda's sisters, Sanna. I am storing all this information I get and one day, when I have some time, I will put it all together - it is like an intricate puzzle.

Stockings were hung . . .

2007-01-03T16:50:00.000-08:00

. . . by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there. Apparently he had arrived by 3:45 am because the stockings were discovered, celebrated, and emptied by then.

The Nutcrackers are taking over . . .

2007-01-03T16:45:00.000-08:00

Here is the boys' Nutcracker collection, taking over our buffet. They each add at least one per year - where is the overflow going to go?

Angels

2007-01-03T16:42:00.000-08:00

Here is our daughter's angel collection, which finds its home on our piano.

Our Christmas

2007-01-03T16:19:00.000-08:00

Usually in this house, some of our decorations come out at the beginning of Advent, including our nativity scene and the Advent wreath. Then we go find a tree; we have chopped ours down on a tree farm a few times, but not recently. After we decorate the tree, we put up the five stockings for the children.

Usually a windstorm obliges us with enough green boughs to fill the mantle, and this year we had a windstorm that not only produced enough evergreen limbs for the entire country, but knocked out power to hundreds of thousands in our area, some more than a week!

Between the power outage, our furnace giving out, our living room renovation attempts, and a family illness, we managed to keep to tradition for the most part; we put up a tree, we hung the stockings, and put out our daughter's angel collection and our boys' Nutcracker collection, which, with all 4 boys collecting, has now exploded. We even did a little cookie baking.

Getting ready for Christmas!

2006-12-19T07:21:00.000-08:00

We were trying to get the ceiling done and the walls painted before we put up our Christmas tree, but the big wind storm on Thursday night had other ideas! We lost power at 11 pm and had branches and pine cone torpedoes crashing around us all night. The next morning, we had a warm, lovely place to go at my mom and sister's house in Edmonds - they had not lost power. So we cozied up and hung out there for a day and a half. We came back to our house for more supplies when the power came back on - yeah!! So we went back to our base camp, packed it all up, and then moved back home. It then took us over 3 hours to figure out that the gas furnace was blowing COLD air!! It was still 45 degrees! We hung in there for a while trying to figure out how to light the pilot light, but that did not work and after a long time on the phone trying to track down a heating repair specialist, we packed it all back into the van and headed back over to Edmonds again, where we stayed until Monday morning - it was like one long party, especially Sunday night. We actually had a grand time, but it was time to go back home when the heating guy finally fixed the furnace.

So, project Christmas began. The popcorn project is now abandoned; the plastic has come down and furniture is going to put in the living room temporarily. We all trouped out and picked out a tree. This is our first Noble fir - it is very different from our usual Douglas fir - very elegant, but quite spare. Later we will get lights on it and then decorate it when we can all gather together this evening. We have never been this late putting up a tree.

Got a photo . . .

2006-12-14T12:54:00.000-08:00

Here's a picture of the partially done ceiling. This is taking A LOT more time than we had initially figured. We have almost done to the beam. One thing rolls into another. Last week, we ripped the veneer off the beam and I intend to refinished that. Right now it is covered with some type of glue, or who-knows-what? I think we did not time this very well, but my husband is off starting Monday for Christmas vacation and we will jam on this and get it done quick.

Project of the week

2006-12-14T11:53:00.000-08:00

Have we put up our Christmas tree? No. Have we even got down our boxes of ornaments? No. We have, at least, been able to put out our Advent candle and it has been lit a few times for the meals we have been able to share when we are not rushing somewhere.

What is the delay this year? It is our ceiling. Our lovely popcorn ceiling. We have been looking at it for a long time, saying "this has got to go!"

We started by talking about painting the walls in anticipation of some furniture we have ordered, first we decided that the popcorn must be removed. We always talk about what needs to be done, but getting around to it is another matter. Somehow, talking led to action this time and we have scraped almost all of the ceiling above our little kitchen eat-in area, and are moving into living room territory. Then we have to patch the gouges we've made, smooth everything over, then paint the ceiling, then paint the walls.

I will post a picture of our progress after I figure out how to do that.

The kids are wondering when the Christmas tree is going up. So am I!