The Adventures of Garrett Squared

Menu Plan for Week of 2/27 Part Deux...The Recipes...

2012-02-28T07:00:00.000-06:00

Michelle over at Michelle's Little Piece Of Heaven reminded me that I didn't include any recipes, so here are the winning recipes from last week...

Tuesday:

Grilled Honey Chicken with Oven Roasted Potatoes and Steamed Broccoli with Greek Seasoning

This was a big hit! It was cold and windy so I didn't grill the chicken. I sliced it as I would for stir fry and cooked it stovetop. HUGE hit! NO leftovers!

1.5 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts

1/2 c chili sauce (I used the Great Value brand)

1 lemon, juiced (I just used real lemon lemon juice)

3 T honey

1 T Olive oil

1/2 tsp thyme

In a ziplock bag, combine chicken, chili sauce, lemon, honey, olive oil and thyme.

Chill for 30 minutes.

Remove from marinade and grill.

(I cut my chicken into strips like I would for stirfry and kept all of the marinade with it to cook in a pan since the weather was too cold and windy to grill)

I also put the broccoli into the sauce and chicken like a stir fry and a side of brown rice.

Oven Roasted Potatoes

Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil.

Combine 3 lb red potatoes, quartered

1 T Olive Oil

2 tsp rosemary

Salt

Pepper

Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes or until tender.

Wednesday:

BBQ Quesadillas with Fruit

NO LEFTOVERS Again! This one is definitely a keeper!

Crock pot recipe makes enough chicken for the smoked chicken white chili too.

4 lb split chicken breasts (I used boneless skinless breasts)

18 oz bottle BBQ sauce (I used KC Masterpiece Hickory Smoke Sauce)

8 oz shredded fiesta blend cheese

Flour Tortillas (I used low carb tortillas which worked very well with much less sodium and fat and carbs)

Olive Oil

Place chicken in Crock-Pot.

Add 1/4 c water.

Cover; cook all day.

Move; cool slightly.

Take off skin; de-bone & shred meat (just shred if you used boneless skinless breasts) Save half of the meat for the Smoked chicken White Chili

In a bowl, toss chicken w/BBQ sauce to coat.

On each tortilla, spread 1/2 c meat on one side; top w/cheese.

Fold in half.

Add 1 tsp olive oil to hot skillet or griddle; brown each quesadilla on both sides to melt cheese.

Cut into wedges.

Thursday:

Smoked Chicken White Chili with Cornbread

I actually switched this one and the pork chops. The White Chicken Chili turned out Oh So Good! Lots of it for more meals--I filled the crockpot with the chili, so there was a LOT, but we ate a LOT!

This recipe uses the remainder of the chicken from Wednesday...

(the original recipe cooks this in a dutch oven, but I used the crock pot again)

1 stick butter

1 lg onion, chopped fine

4 stalks celery, thinly sliced

3 tsp minced garlic

5+ Jalapeno slices, chopped (I used green bell pepper because my parents don't do spicy hot)

2 T flour

4 chicken bouillon

4 c boiling water

2 T liquid smoke

2 c milk

2 cans great northern beans, undrained (I used dried great northern beans (7 oz dry beans is one can cooked) that cooked in the crock-pot with the other ingredients to avoid all of the sodium and fat in the canned beans)

1 can white corn, undrained (I used frozen white shoepeg corn to avoid the sodium)

3 c shredded chicken

4 oz shredded cheddar cheese

In pan, melt butter; saute' onion, garlic, celery and jalapenos until softened.

Blend in flour, stirring to break up clumps.

Dissolve bouillon in 4 c boiling water.

Gradually add broth, liquid smoke and milk to mixture.

Bring to a boil.

(at this point if you are using the canned beans and canned corn, you can just combine everything and heat through---otherwise...)

Put in crock-pot with beans, corn and chicken.

Cook on high for 4-6 hours or until beans are soft.

Top with shredded cheese if desired.

Serve with cornbread.

Friday:

Mandarin Pork Chops with Rice & Steamed Asian Veggies

Once again, no leftovers! This one is a keeper and doesn't take long to make! :) Bonus!

1.5 lbs boneless pork chops

11 oz can mandarin oranges, drained, reserving juice (I used light juice because I couldn't find packed in water)

1/4 c brown sugar

1/4 c ketchup

1 T vinegar (I used balsamic)

1 tsp mustard (I used prepared yellow mustard)

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cinnamon

In a large skillet, brown pork chops; drain.

Combine juice from oranges, brown sugar, ketchup, vinegar, mustard, salt and cinnamon.

Add to pork mixture with oranges.

Cover and simmer for 45 minutes.

Serve with rice and steamed Asian veggies.

These recipes are all from Emeals.com with some changes that I have noted to work with low sodium, low fat, low carb and low sugar for heart and diabetic diets.

Enjoy!

Menu Plan for Week of 2/27

2012-02-27T20:30:00.000-06:00

Last week I did a menu plan and blogged it for the first time. I thought it might be fun to critique how everything turned out...

Monday:

Apple-Cheese Frittata with Broccoli

Two of us were okay with it, and two didn't like it, so out it goes! Sorry Apple-Cheese Frittata! You're fired!

Tuesday:

Grilled Honey Chicken with Oven Roasted Potatoes and Steamed Broccoli with Greek Seasoning

This was a big hit! It was cold and windy so I didn't grill the chicken. I sliced it as I would for stir fry and cooked it stovetop. HUGE hit! NO leftovers!

Wednesday:

BBQ Quesadillas with Fruit

NO LEFTOVERS Again! This one is definitely a keeper!

Thursday:

Smoked Chicken White Chili with Cornbread

I actually switched this one and the pork chops. The White Chicken Chili turned out Oh So Good! Lots of it for more meals--I filled the crockpot with the chili, so there was a LOT, but we ate a LOT!

Friday:

Mandarin Pork Chops with Rice & Steamed Asian Veggies

Once again, no leftovers! This one is a keeper and doesn't take long to make! :) Bonus!

So, 4 out of 5 isn't bad!

So, on to this week:

Monday:

Garlic Seasoned Hamburgers with Mashed Potatoes

Tuesday:

Teriyaki Chicken with Oven Baked Potatoes

Wednesday:

Spaghetti with Meat Sauce

Thursday:

Pot Luck--eating out!

Friday:

Fish probably. During Lent all of the Catholic Churches have the most tasty Fish Frys! yum!

Have a great week!

Thursday's Things In A Row (On Sunday)...Valentines...

2012-02-26T18:00:00.001-06:00

Pat at A View From The Edge has Thursday's Things In A Row. I have been bad and missed it for a couple of weeks, but here I am to catch up on Valentine's Day celebrations...

On Valentine's Day my parents and I headed off to Columbia, MO for a lunch at Cracker Barrel. I LOVE THAT PLACE!!!! A little shopping and a lot of good food! yay!

So here are my Valentines...Mom and Dad...

Here is a row of tables with the oil lamps...

And out on the porch is this row of rockers...there is even double rockers for lovers...

On Friday, my Valentine, Gman, flew in so Mom and Dad and I surprised him at Olive Garden for another Valentine's dinner. Oh YUMMMMM!!!! It has been a while since I have been there, but oh man was the food good! And I topped mine off with one of those little shooters--Amaretto Tiramisu! Hurt me! It was so good!

Here are mom and dad--see mom showing off her sassy pink fingernails? Cute huh?

So, Happy Belated Valentine's Day--or as I like to say, Happy VD!!!!

We Are Grandparents!

2012-02-21T11:38:00.000-06:00

I just received a text message from our son. We are grandparents!

Isn't she cute?

Her name is Roxie.

Welcome to the family Roxie! :)

Menu Plan for Week of 2/19

2012-02-18T13:16:00.000-06:00

I noticed that some of you like to post your menus for the coming week. This week I am actually getting it together to cook for poor Gman and I thought I would share with you!

This is always subject to change without notice!

Thursday is Meals On Wheels delivery day when dad and I deliver and then go to lunch and then head to Wal-Mart for their shopping.

Last week we headed out for an extra excursion to a local Apiary to get local fresh honey. Yum! :) I got a quart of honey and 100 Amaretto flavored honey sticks. Yum Again!!!! Dad and I dove into those on the drive home...

This week we are headed to the Amish stores. I want some of their yummy butter and some dried herbs and veggies and some quinoa (pronounced keenwa), lebanon balogna and I am sure I will find some other goodies! Yum again!

Monday:

Apple-Cheese Frittata with Broccoli

Tuesday:

Grilled Honey Chicken with Oven Roasted Potatoes and Steamed Broccoli with Greek Seasoning

Wednesday:

BBQ Quesadillas with Fruit

Thursday:

Smoked Chicken White Chili with Cornbread

Friday:

Mandarin Pork Chops with Rice & Steamed Asian Veggies

We eat leftovers on the weekend or Gman cooks! ;-D

PS I subscribe to emeals.com and receive 2 menus per week which gives us 14 recipes to choose from plus the shopping list!!!!! I subscribe to: Low Fat Wal-Mart Meal Plan and Regular Wal-Mart Meal Plan. I chose the Wal-Mart plans because when moving around in the 5th wheel, there is always a Wal-Mart nearby!

Why 2 menus? Well, sometimes I just don't like some of the recipes on one list, so I get the recipes on the other list.

We eat a low-fat, low sodium diet but it is quite easy to convert the regular menu for our diet since I have been doing it so long.

Happy Saturday!

Happy Valentine's Day 2012

2012-02-14T08:00:00.000-06:00

More of the postcards from my grandmother's collection...

For Our Boys In Service...

Don't forget that once you get her heart, you have one more thing to do!

Have a most Wonderful and Happy Valentine's Day!

Thursday's Things In A Row...Happy Valentine's Day!

2012-02-09T15:49:00.000-06:00

When I was at the store the other day, I saw all of these cute boxes lined up just waiting to hold that special gift for that special person...

And a bunch of kisses--except for one that seems a little shy!

Joining Pat at A View From The Edge for Thursday's Things In A Row. Check out her blog and see all of the fun rows!

Fake It Til You Make It?

2012-02-06T08:50:00.000-06:00

This came to mind the other day when I was catching up on some of the other blogs and found that many are talking about happiness right now. Well, with longer nights and shorter chilly days it is something we do think about more often.

My hubby of almost 32 years knows me better than most. He has always maintained that he really likes the fact that I have a positive attitude and that is something he has always appreciated about me.

Let me tell you about a time when I didn't have a positive attitude and how it was "fixed".

Stay with me though...

I had an awful pregnancy. I was sick the whole 9 months. I was so sick that from my 12th to my 14th week of pregnancy I was in the hospital on IV's because I was so sick. I looked something like this:

During this pregnancy we moved 3 times, living in 4 houses. I tried to go back to work but just could not handle it and under doctor's orders quit for the duration even though I really loved working!

During the last couple of months of my pregnancy, I had to lay down all of the time because when I stood, the baby was pressing on my blood supply and I would faint. Oh and I was STILL sick!

Add to that it was summer and one of the worst summers on record and the local lake that supplied the water "turned over" which caused the water to taste terrible and a warning to be issued for children and pregnant women not to drink it.

Back then, bottled water was not as it is today. You could get it in a gallon jug or the 5 gallon water cooler jugs but that was all. No cute little individual bottles.

3 months after I gave birth to a wonderful bouncing healthy baby boy (with whom I fell completely in LOVE the first moment I looked at him!) we had the opportunity to lease purchase an old 1960's double wide mobile home. This was during the time when mortgage rates were running 18-22%--yes folks--that's right! 18-22% for a MORTGAGE loan!

Of course, we never thought we would be able to own ANYTHING with those kinds of interest rates!

The trailer was set up in a mobile home park and we moved in forthwith. Uh, after moving in we found out that the furnace worked. Great! The next summer, however, was another scorcher and we found out that though the a/c ran, it didn't cool the house much and to run it cost us an arm and leg for not much relief. With a baby!

Money was tight since we were both raised by stay at home moms and we had decided that I would not go back to work and would stay at home and raise our child.

We were kind of stuck in the trailer, had only one car and no money to speak of and after always being trim, I was now very overweight.

The small country church that we were attending seemed very cliquish and had few if any other babies. I didn't feel a part of that church at all.

I was miserable. I was depressed. I saw the world in shades of black. Not even sure if there was any gray peeking through. (are you depressed now???? Well, hang in there with me...)

One day I decided that my life was so miserable it had to change!

I don't do fake real well, so faking it was not a real good answer for me, though I don't think people actually realized how I was really feeling.

I tried a thankfulness journal but it didn't help. What did I have to be thankful for? (don't judge! Just read on!)

And the thankfulness journal was more of an internal thing--it just didn't work for the external world problem!

So, one week while sitting in church listening to yet another sermon on how we should be thankful for what we have, I thought I should have SOMETHING to be thankful for, right?

I made the decision that day to write one honest Thank You note each week to someone. Anyone. For ANYTHING... (thank you for not running up on the grass and running over me--uh NO Thank you for the bill for my electric/water/gas that makes my life easier/harder to pay--uh NO! Thank you for raining in the windows the other night and getting everything wet even though it didn't cool down enough to feel like we could close the windows--uh NO NO NO!)

That was a hard Thank You to write! It was so hard to find something. I finally found a little thing and wrote the note. The next week, the person who received it was so pleased that I thought of them and told me so. It had lifted their week!

The second week was again hard to find, but I did and again, the person was pleased. Rays of light were beginning to pierce that black world...

After a while, I was sending out 2 and then 3 and then 4 and more Thank You cards each week. The world was in color again! People were friendly and the world was no longer tilted but was righting itself! The more I LOOKED for things to be thankful for, the more I FOUND things to be thankful for. Hmmmm....

By looking for good things to thank people for, I had taught myself to see the good--no matter how small--and after a while, that was the norm for me--to see that good stuff. It became natural to see the good, the help, the fine people that were sent across my path.

We still lived in that trailer, with one car, with me overweight and staying home to care for our son while pinching pennies to do so, but now the world was brighter and friendlier. Because MY VIEW had changed I was looking for the good stuff. Because I decided to look harder and make myself accountable by sending those honest notes each week.

I now find that when I smile, people smile back and the day is brighter. And that is GOOD!

So, fake it til you make it? Not so much for me.

But an honest peering through the darkness to actually pick out the good stuff, while making me accountable through the written word, brings about a whole new way of viewing the world--And it is good!

One For The Money...

2012-02-05T14:36:00.000-06:00

Last night we ventured out to the movies with our friends. Gman and I rarely go to the movies, but being in the mood for a light hearted romp, we decided on the movie "One For The Money" based on the Stephanie Plum series written by Janet Evanovich.

I have read all of the Stephanie Plum novels and was looking forward to the movie--with reservations. You know how sometimes they make a movie from a book and really mess it up?

Well, this show is really pretty much in keeping with the spirit of the books. They added scenes from many of the books in the series (Like when Grandma Mazur shoots the turkey at the dinner table--not in book one, but oh so funny!) and Ranger talks in complete sentences and has actual conversations in this movie.

While sitting by the restrooms waiting for the others after the movie, I heard others talking about the Stephanie Plum novels and started chatting. We had a great time comparing the movie and books and all agreed that though it included many scenes from other books, it kept the spirit and was fun. The books are a SCREAM and so funny! Even the guys in the chatting hall group were reading the books! LOL

All in all, I have to say that it is really pretty funny and a fun, light evening.

After the movie we headed for Bandana's BBQ. It's been a while since warm BBQ weather, so it was time to enjoy some smoky meat with choice of sauces and sides! Yum!

We had a fun time while eating and then the manager came over to the table to chat for a bit. Nice guy and good sense of humor (you need that with us! LOL)

Our waitress, Tara, was a doll and we found out that she is getting ready to go into the armed forces which endeared her to all of us. A brave choice.

As we were sitting there chatting, Tara asked if we would like a dessert. Uh, no, plenty to eat actually.

This started a conversation in which Gman and I extolled the virtues of the homemade cobblers with ice cream that we like to eat at Marlene's out in Marthasville, MO.

Then we all looked at each other and decided that some cobbler or pie with coffee would be a lovely way to end the evening and who has better pie and desserts than Bob Evan's!

We Piled into the van and headed across the bridge to Bob's. I was in the mood for the Cherry bread that they only have in February. It is different because it is made with maraschino cherries. Oh Yum and double YUM YUM! The other's got pie (coconut cream and lemon cream) and cake (the biggest piece of chocolate cake with ice cream, chocolate syrup and whipped cream you have ever seen! Yikes!) and we became acquainted with our waitress, Katrina. She was a real hurricane! (okay--Gman and I both thought of that at the same time! Is that SICK or what????)

Katrina is quite a gal and a real treat to talk with. Great waitress as well!

So, full of BBQ and sugar, we finished what turned out to be our progressive dinner, headed back to drop our friends off at their house and then head back home.

It wasn't until I got home that I saw that two pieces of that cherry bread had 558 calories and 24 g of fat! Oh MY!!!! I was glad I only ate one slice and brought one home! But, YUM... :-)

Thursday's Things In A Row...Denny's

2012-02-02T13:53:00.000-06:00

Hi all! Today I am joining Pat in Thursday's Things In A Row. This is so much fun and what fun I had getting this shot!

Gman and I were having lunch at Denny's. We noticed that there was a long table set up for a large group and it turned out to be a group of ladies from Lakeview (that's what they told us!). They were so cute and such good company! What a fun group!

So, as we were leaving, I just asked if I could take their picture and put it on my blog. "What?", they asked...

"The World Wide Web", I told them.

Oh sure! So, here they are waving at you! Aren't they a fun bunch????

On the way out Gman said, "Thursday's Things In A Row?"

Yep...He knows me too well. LOL

;-D Happy Thursday all!

The Office Revealed...

2012-02-01T10:35:00.000-06:00

Yep folks, I am still alive! Uncle Sam wanted some funds and forms and you know what a task master HE can be! You don't mess around with Sam!

You may have noticed by your blogs that I am catching up. I am up to Friday, Jan 27, so I still have a ways to go, but what fun! You guys have been busy!

Well, I have been busy as well. As I started in this blog, BHG has their little organizational guide that I like to follow. One room or area per month and in a year you are organized...or at least better. ;-D

So, this is the before...don't judge...or do...

You'll be happy to know that I shredded and discarded 4 of those big black bags of stuff that I was totally keeping for some strange reason! Sheesh!

So, here it is now...

Look! You can see the top! :-D

Of course, living in an RV, you find space where you can so this is actually the dining table. We tend to eat sitting in the living room so what the heck, right?

I used to collect tins--this one seemed perfect for my pens and pencils...

I needed something to hold my post-it notes and letter openers so I meandered down the street to the local antique shop and came home with this...

How fun is that? AND it won't break!

Then, I was trying to decide where to keep the bills and saw this napkin holder (which I had!) and decided it would work perfectly! Sorry about the NASCAR holograms! I have to enter those at NASCAR.com, but they had the site down to revamp that area for the upcoming season. I can put them in beginning today though! I hope there are good prizes! :)

Not sure if you noticed but above the desk are very solid valance boxes (made of fabric covered wood) that make a shelf, so I am using that space as well...

I would like to put the checks in one of the wooden boxes but I am afraid I will forget where I put them! A mind is a terrible thing to lose...don't judge...

This row of boxes were actually from candles that I purchased at Sam's Club after Christmas several years ago. Candles smell wonderful and the boxes are perfect for cute storage of small items...

This is the before of the stand at the end of the "desk".

And now...

This is the other filing drawer before...

And now...

I just LOVE this lamp! I found it at a little shop that was going out of business last year and had everything something like 80% off. Yay! Well, not for the shop but yay for the deal!

And I found this little leather covered wooden box years ago in a little boutique in our small town in KS. It just called to me and has been hold candles--when you open it, the aroma is divine!

I hope you liked the tour of my "office".

February is the Kitchen--Oye! I have been thinking about some things in there and have some plans for it that I think you are gonna enjoy...even in such a small space!

Thanks for dropping by! Have a great day!

Tag...You're IT!!!!!

2012-01-28T15:19:00.000-06:00

I was tagged by Petites Passions who has a fun blog (that's actually HER kissing the Eiffel Tower!) and this looked like a fun game to play, so on to the game

............................
All games have rules, so here are
The Rules:
1. You must post the rules.
2. Post eleven fun facts about yourself on the blog post.
3. Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post, and then
create eleven new questions to ask the people you've tagged.
4.Tag eleven people and link them on your post
5. Let them know you've tagged them!
...............................

* ELEVEN FUN FACTS ABOUT ME *

1. I live in a 5th wheel--because we thought it would be fun--and it IS! :)

2. I like genealogy as a hobby. I have met some of the nicest folks while searching for ancestors.

3. I was a realtor before heading out on the road. Again--I met some of the nicest people doing that!

4. I have found that I like to do digital scrapbooking. My first opportunity was just recently when I started taking a genealogical scrapbooking class with several other bloggers. Fun!

5. I love NASCAR! Nothing makes me happier than hearing 43 800hp cars start their engines and spending a day breathing in exhaust and tire smoke! Uh--#88 Dale Jr and just about any driver but Kyle or Kurt!

6. I am just about ready to venture out and begin making a t-shirt quilt out of my son's t-shirts that I kept as he grew.

7. I won an award for sewing in the St. Louis area when I was in high school home-ec. (I never realized it, but many people don't know I have ever even touched a sewing machine! LOL)

8. My husband and I have lived in more than 30 houses--and owned 12 of those!

9. My niece and I stood in a parking lot in Kansas and watched while a tornado formed right over our heads! (no one ever said I was SMART--but it WAS fun!)

10. I am totally addicted to the shows Gold Rush Alaska and Deadliest Catch.

11. I had a labrador retriever that had his Therapy Dog International and we went to the nursing home in our town to visit people. A lady there moved for the first time since she had an accident to try to pet him! It brought tears of happiness all around!

*Petite's Passions QUESTIONS FOR HER TAGGED FRIENDS*

Where is your ideal retiring place? Wherever the 5th wheel is parked and my dogs and husband are--hopefully someplace warm in winter and cool in summer...
Which food you do not see yourself eating? SHRIMP! Allergic to all shellfish...
If you have an opportunity to ask one question to your favorite celebrity, who and what question will it be? Dale Earnhardt Jr "Can I ride in your car?"
What do you think is the most romantic food? Chocolate--gotta be chocolate!
Who's blog do you visit the most? Pat's at A View From The Edge a fellow full time 5th wheeler and a lot of fun!
If you are to award one blogger who and what would it be? Pat at A View From The Edge for having the most fun with her blog and giving me the most smiles! It would have to be a smiley award!
What are you passionate of the most? Family--including the dogs!
What other foreign language do you wish you could speak? Spanish or French
Which era in the history would you like to go back for a visit and why? The 1950's. I don't know why, I just like the thought of a simpler time that looked forward to the space race and new technology.
Were you a member of a club in high-school? If yes, what was it? Honor Society--Is that a club?
Do you prefer Savory or Sweet dish? BOTH!!!!! I love BOTH!!!!!

*My Questions for my tagged friends.*

1. Would you travel to the moon if you could buy a ticket like you do for air travel?

2. What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?

3. What is your favorite decade? Why?

4. If you could own any vehicle--which one would it be?

5. Snowmen or Precious Moments?

6. Route 66 or Highway 101?

7. Eat out or Eat In?

8. What is your worst habit?

9. Where would you like to go on vacation if money was no object and why?

10. What do you do to relieve stress?

11. What is your favorite room of your house?

Tagged Blog Friends

Pat at A View From The Edge

Mama Tea at A Farmish Kind of Life

Kimberly at Camp And Cottage Living

Oz Girl at Oz Gal Moves to Oz Land

Gail at At The Farm

Hillbilly Mom at Hillbilly Mansion

dr momi at Homesteading At Redtail Ridge

Jen at Jen-Gen's Family History

Lavender Dreamer at Welcome to Lavender Dreams

Carrie at Saving 4 Six

Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart

Quilts...Thursday's Things In A Row...

2012-01-19T16:23:00.000-06:00

Joining Pat a A View From The Edge for Thursday's Things in A Row...

My Mom's Floor...

No, I didn't just bring this to the party.

Last October, our cousins from PA came to visit my parents.

This is Carl, My Mom, Hilda and My Dad.

Hilda likes to quilt and always has one with her. She quilts by hand. I don't know many people who actually sew the quilt together and quilt it all by hand anymore, but she loves it.

As she was sitting in mom and dad's house quilting, she kept looking at the floor and said that the floor just looked like a quilt block. Here take a closer look...

So, Carl got down on the floor and made a copy of the square on the floor and then at Christmas these came in the mail...

A row of mom's floor! Isn't it pretty????

And there was this row for spring...

And this one for summer...

And this one for Autumn...

Cool huh? Which one is your favorite????

Thanks for stopping by for Thursday's Things In A Row. Now head over to Pat's for more rows...

Thursday's Things In A Row...Chocolate????

2012-01-05T21:12:00.000-06:00

Joining Pat at A View From The Edge for Thursday's Things In A Row...

I was at Wal-Mart and couldn't resist snapping a picture of these chocolate bars.

First for the flavors...

Beef Jerky Chocolate???? New Orleans Chili???? Peach--well that isn't all that weird...Hickory smoked almond chocolate???? Sweet Cherry Pecan sounds downright tame in this batch huh?

And then, did you notice the bottom of the display???? Really??????

I'm thinking that didn't quite come across as intended. What about you? LOL

Have a great day!

Organizing for the New Year!...

2012-01-04T14:16:00.000-06:00

Several years ago I ran into a month by month organizing and storage plan at Better Homes and Gardens. You can get a copy of it here. It gives one room to organize and create storage (creative or traditional) per month--including the basement and garage! So, after a year, you should be organized and stored.

I like to start this every January since the first month is the office. If you have one, organize it and clean it. If you don't have one, it has creative ways to carve out spaces for just about any space. I really liked the recipe for a vintage home office. One of the clever things that I saw was to use a muffin tin as a drawer organizer for office supplies. Cute huh? It has many other tips for any room of the house.

This is great because it is time for me to organize and get all of my tax figures ready for my accountant. Yeah I know, I just said a four letter word! Tax!

Okay, Tax isn't a four letter word actually, but I think it deserves to be in the four letter category--don't you? ;-)

So, here is my desk area. Remember, I live in a 5th wheel--and my 5th wheel doesn't have a desk area built in as some do. (Note to self--next 5th wheel get the built in desk...)

So, I took over the dining table. Gman and I haven't used the table to eat for years--even in our houses, so what the heck, right?

Do we all agree that it is time to find the top of the table again?????? Uh--Yep...

So, I drug in my personal shredder and a large trash sack and I am getting to work on all of the stuff.

This year I also invested in the Neat Desk scanner. I LOVE IT! I can say that if you don't have one and you have to do receipts and such for taxes, this is a LIFE SAVER!!!!

I am currently using it to scan in my genealogy papers as well so that I can clear out my file drawers to use them for other storage to get things out of sight--like copy paper and desk supplies as well. It scans quickly and will also scan both sides of a paper so you don't have to run papers through twice.

I also have a flat bed scanner because there are just some things that need to be scanned on a flat bed or at a higher resolution than is available on the Neat Desk.

You can see on my desktop that I have gathered up all of the Christmas Cards that I purchased after Christmas for next year and put them in a labeled shoebox which is destined for the basement of the RV with the Christmas decorations. Last year I bought extras and put them away where I could find them.

I have yet to find them! LOL

This year, I should actually find them before Christmas when I get the rest of the decorations out! I should already have put away my Christmas decorations, but the weather decided to get cold! I mean, we are in Missouri and it does get cold in January. Last year it was frigid and SNOWY!!!! This year it has been around the 40's and 50's. yay! LOVE IT! But it decided to be 16 degrees on Jan 2 with a frigid biting wind. The forecast is around high 40's later this week, so I am gonna put it away then. Sounds good, right?

Aside from the physical cleanup, I try to clean out my computer files.

Some get backed up to my external drive and some just get more organized in the computer.

I recently joined the GeneaScrappers over at The Scrappy Genealogist. We are taking our genealogical files and combining them into a scrapbook--two of my favorite hobbies. You'll get to see the pages as I finish them on Scrapbook Sundays...I already did the Title Page and my Family Tree and Pedigree. I should probably mention here that my Pedigree is happy MUTT! ;-)

One of the first things we did was to do a family tree with photos of the people on the tree. I found that it was quite a feat to find the photos that I knew I had. It took FOREVER to find them on my computer. Are they on this one, were they on the other one that died and I now have it's hard drive in an external case? Are they on my backup drive? Cripes!

I did finally find them--and felt like I should take a nap because it took so long! LOL

As I was working with the PSD files that are used in the class templates, I found that Paint Shop Pro X3 (I have used PSP since it was PSP 2 in beta testing back in the early 1990's!) no longer handles the PSD files correctly. It handled them just fine in PSP9 when Jasc still owned it, but since Corel purchased it, the files don't read the colors correctly or work with the layers the way that it should. DARN! Why did I upgrade?????

So, I downloaded the trial version of Photoshop Elements 10 so that I could work with the templates for the class and found that it also has an organizer. Hmmmmm...

My tiny little mind started to whirl down the lane with what this could do and boy is it great! It is so great I had to buy the program--if only for the organizer!!!!!!

I had all of my digital scrapbook files in a scrapbooking file on my computer. Of course, it had a lot of files in it and I had to make copies of the files so that I could file them in the different categories. This was eating my hard drive at a fast clip!

With the Elements Organizer, I found that I could take one copy of the file, drag it into the organizer and drag it into the different categories that it pertained to and then just store ONE file instead of 10 on my hard drive! Now my scrapbooking file has only a few broad categories like Paper, Embellishments, Alphabets, Word Art and I can go into the Elements organizer to find the items I want.

So, let's say I want to do a New Years page. I click on my New Years category in the organizer and find this. Now it is easy to put my page together.

Or, let's say I want to do Thanksgiving...Voila!

Just want everything that has Brown in it? Here you go...

Cool huh? And NO DUPLICATES NEEDED!!! (can you hear my hard drive sighing????)

I then started thinking about Genealogy and my recent search for those pictures. Yikes!

So, I started a Genealogy file on my Elements Organizer. Now, when I have documents and photos that belong to different people, I can store one copy on my hard drive in a file but drag it to all of the people to whom they pertain. I have them categorized by year now on my hard drive instead of by family and sub family and sub sub family...

This works for all documents so now when I want to find all documents and pictures that belong to a relative, I just click on the relative and up come all of the documents associated with them--no matter where they are filed on my hard drive!

I can think of so many things that this is gonna help with! Think about the census or wills or obituaries that have a lot of family members listed. No more multiple copies in many family files. Just one copy and the organizer!

Can't you think of a bunch of things that need to be organized into different categories for easy access? Recipes? Bills? Receipts? Whatever!

I am quite sure that the papers and photos from the family and scrapbooking will take more than the 30 days allotted by BHG for the office, but I have a system that I will work at as I have time.

So, how about you? Any organizational ideas? Do you have a system to get organized?

Everything New--Isn't...

2012-01-03T21:39:00.000-06:00

Tonight I was reading a family diary from 1862 and saw that they were finding the same way of life that Gman and I have adopted!

How about that?

Happy New Year 2012!!!!

2012-01-01T07:49:00.001-06:00

A Happy New Year to all!!!
We hope that this year will bring Health and Happiness to all of you!

From my grandmother's collection of turn of the century postcards...

My Tree & Pedigree--Family History Album Week 2

2011-12-26T09:55:00.002-06:00

Looking at all of the old family photos for the tree has been so much fun! It took a while to search through my backup disk, but here it is!

I decided to add the birth and death years on the pedigree chart.

Now on to my Week 3 assignment to get caught up!

Rectory Tour 2...

2011-12-22T08:00:00.000-06:00

Today we are heading up to the second floor and the attic of the rectory.

So, up the stairs...

This tree is on the landing as you go up to the second floor...

There are many nativities throughout and this is another one...

The first room is the craft/art room...

Another of the German feather trees gives inspiration for Christmas decorating...

Isn't this cloche filled with thread just adorable???

Now off to The hunter's bedroom...

You walk in and see this bobcat on the bed...

Doesn't the buck above the bed look cute with the greenery?

A black bear...

And this boar above the dresser...

I just LOVE the burlap around the bottom of the tree which is decorated with pheasant feathers, berries and antlers...

The end of the hallway upstairs...

This huge tree was on a turntable so that you can see the whole thing--as were most of the trees at the ends of the hallways.

The Irish Bedroom...

See the map of Ireland on the wall?

See all of the shamrocks, leprechauns and green ornaments?

The Patriotic Bedroom...They said that this room usually has a bed but it was taken out for the tour because it took up too much space for the tour. Each of the pictures and pieces of Military memorabilia came from people from the local parish and cover every American war or conflict...

A suit of armor--perfect for the military room door!

Thank you to all of our service men and women!

This one is special to Gman and me--it is the Wizard of Oz room...

See the mural on the wall to the right? We could never get a good shot of it due to the number of people, but so nicely done! You walk in on the yellow brick road painted on the floor...

This was in the closet...

The wicked witch...

Her hat was used as the tree topper. How cute is that???? All of the ornaments are the Wizard of Oz characters.

This bottle of wine was on a little shelf in the room and is actually from Wyldewood Cellars located in Mulvane, KS--just about 25 miles from where we used to live. They are known for their Elderberry juice and wines as well as other fruit wines. See the wheat and tornado along with the ruby slipper and yellow brick road?

Now we are headed into the bar area.

This feather tree is just like Nina's, but her tree was white and located in the bathroom...

This is Bridgette--the priest's dog. Tonight she is sporting a pink velvet bow with a rhinestone.

The tree on the bar is decorated with wine corks, wine corkscrews and other wine related items. How apropos...

Doesn't this just sparkle???? So pretty!

On up the staircase to the attic. This is on the landing as we make the corner in the staircase...

Do you think Nina should use my mom's dressmaker's dummy and do it up like this next year in her house????

You know, my mom has one of those dressmaker's dummies....hmmmm....

And now we enter the attic. Last year was the first year they allowed people up here. It is semi-finished...

The table just inside of the door...

The closet holds quite the doll collection!

Another of the feather trees...

Isn't this chandelier pretty? Just look at the huge crystal ornament hanging down from the bottom! I really LOVED that!!!! If you look to the right just past the chair you will see Bridgette's stocking...

A cozy sitting area...

The bedroom area has Santa and Mrs Claus taking a rest...

The desk and tree...

Isn't this carousel horse pretty? I think Tom should have one for his carnival collection...

As we get downstairs we see this beautiful nativity at the end of the hallway...

Back downstairs on the way out, we see the bathroom. The mirror is all ready for the season and the ornaments in the middle say "naughty" and "nice"...

And from the rectory we enter the church where the bell choir was practicing for their evening performance...

And with this, we exit the church...

After the tour we were hungry, so we headed over to Stone Hill Winery to eat in the horse barn. The tables are in the stall...

The lighting at the ends of the tables is located in the hay mangers...

I love the way they hung wreaths on each of the harness pegs...

I had Schnitzel with Spätzle and potato pancakes. Yummy! Did I mention that I am German? Well at least part of this mutt (aka--ME) is German! LOL We came from the German part of Pennsylvania and enjoy a lot of German cuisine.

So, full of good German food and eyes still full of what we just saw, we piled into the van and headed back home...

Thanks for coming along!

Herman Rectory Tour 1...

2011-12-21T15:54:00.000-06:00

Last weekend Tom (my brother), Nina (My SIL), Heather (my niece--Tom and Nina's daughter), Matt (Heather's Hubby) and I headed to Herman, MO located about 20 miles south of High Hill. The town was established in 1837 nestled along the Missouri River as a German settlement. It is home to many fine wineries and great German architecture.

This will not be as in-depth as the tour of Tom and Nina's house since I don't have the history of the items included, however, I have a lot of pictures to show you. So, it will mostly be pictures...

Speaking of pictures--my camera battery died on the first floor of the tour, so thanks to Matt for sharing his pictures with us!

Come on along!

We are headed to the church that you see here--St. George Catholic Church--well actually the rectory attached to the church. You can see the Missouri River behind the church...

Here is the front of the church.

Let's head inside the rectory. Let me just warn you that this tour was shoulder to shoulder people! Getting shots of anything without a lot of people was truly luck! Just ignore the people and enjoy the decorations...

We enter into a dining room/living room area painted pink with gold stenciling around the walls, so let's have a look...

Look at the cute little bottle brushes in the tea cups...

I love the hydrangeas on this tree!

A pink German feather tree...

Is this a great way to use a birdcage or what???? I want to find a neat birdcage for Tom and Nina. They could use it in their house tour next year! What do you think?

Then we enter into a very wide hallway (we will be criss crossing this area throughout the tour)...

Lots of lights and swags of greenery march down the hallway...

On the other side is this swag of Christmas cards. Great idea, right???

This is an entry area...

Santa and the kids...looks kind of 50's or 60's to me--how about you?

And how about these guys? 40's? 20's? So cute!

And across the hallway we get an idea of what is ahead through the doorway...

Can you tell what the decorations are???

Silverware! Spoons, gravy ladles, ash trays--It's even sitting in a silver ice bucket!...Cute, No???

Next to it is a setup of silver coffee urns and after dinner drinks...

Is this punch bowl beautiful???

is the kitchen...

Nina spent a lot of time in the kitchen and told me later that the cake and the cones were made from chinelle. Clever!

This was on the island

Isn't this a beautiful way to display your silver tea and coffee pots over the sink?

There are stairs in the kitchen leading down to the cellar...This is the first year, they have opened the wine cellar with over 250 bottles of wine to the tour...

Another German Feather Tree on a wine barrel

The grape press. My dad made one of these when I was young. He used it to press apples and make cider! Yummmm...

More than 250 bottles reside in these racks...Check over there to the right in the doorway--see the duck? That's Tom--he's a #99 Carl Edwards fan--AFLAC!!!! Quack! Hey! Carl is from Columbia, MO--not far from here...

This HUGE bottle is from a local winery--which we will visit later tonight...

This looked like they use it as a potting table...

We all loved the way they displayed the crocks on two saw horses!

Do you think they actually use that old saw??? And don't you just want to know what is in the brown glass bottles with corks????

Is this a cute way to include a plant stand???

Cute votive holders with crystals hanging from the ceiling...

I love the way they used the silver candelabra...

This little humming bird is celebrating Christmas while waiting for spring...

Now we enter the Dining Room. The theme this year is Mardi Gras...

Isn't the reflection in the glass pretty?

See the lady in the mask? She was the guide for this room...

Another view of her...

There were a pair of these lamps. They are tiffany. Heather and I both wanted to take one along...

Behind the dining room is an enclosed porch area...

You can see a mask from the dining room in the window by the tree...

Back in the hallway is this creche--three levels of the Town of David...

The other end of the hallway has this tree with a village of Herman. The houses under the tree are made of paper by a local artisan...

This is the halfway point of the tour in the priests office. This is where we signed the guest book and went on up to the bedrooms on the second floor.

As we get ready to go upstairs, look at what we see! I DID say it was German!

Lederhosen--Herman is a German Community after all!

Tomorrow we will head upstairs to see the bedrooms and attic...

See you then!

Christmas At Our Place...

2011-12-20T08:00:00.001-06:00

Well, you have seen my brother's house all decorated up for Christmas so I thought I would invite you to our place.

I finally put the tree up on Sunday so come on in and see what we have done...

This stocking was made by me from ribbons that my grandmother saved from the funeral arrangements of my grandfather decades ago when ribbon was actually satin and silk.

Cranberries and barn stars swag across the slideout opening in the living room

With this sign of invitation to all.

My snowman perches next to a couple of my birdhouses on top of the window valance.

Across the room are the dog's stockings hung with care from the window valance.

And here is our tree. It travels with us in the basement (the area in the underbelly of the 5th wheel). When we decided to take to the road, I gave myself two metal file boxes (each about the size of a full sized file cabinet drawer). The two file boxes hold my Christmas/spring/Easter and my July 4th/Autumn/Halloween decorations. If I overflow those boxes I have to get rid of something. Period! All of you who know me, KNOW this is really a big deal for me!

Above the window are two ornaments that some friends gave us this year knowing we are crazy NASCAR fans.

Each year we get an ornament that has meaning to us.

This was from 2006 when we went with my brother, Tom and his wife Nina and their kids for the show in Wichita.

This one was from 2009 when we were up in the Hudson Valley in NY. Dunkin Donuts were everywhere, so we just couldn't resist this little guy!

2010 found us in Missouri at Kan-Do Kampground in Danville. The owners say it's all about the frog, so we decided on a frog. I looked and looked and Kathy, the owner, presented me with this little guy. So cute!

This is the 2011 ornament. A small camper with a wreath that says Missouri. This is because this is the year that we bought Little Blue here in Missouri. Little Blue is our little 24 ft guest house/office/vacation home.

This little red bird perches on the top of the tree. It is one of only two ornaments that we have from Gman's mom.

The gold ornament is the other ornament that we have from Gman's mom. See the little poinsettia? I found this at a restaurant called Marlenes in Williamsburg. They have a little second hand shop there that I like to check out while waiting for our food and there it was. It's so little and flat and perfect for us!

This Cardinal was also in the package and since we are in Cardinal country and the Cardinals won the World Series this year, why not?

Did I mention we are crazy NASCAR fans?
Can you guess who we follow?

So, take a nice look at the tree...

The glass is from our ride on the Branson Belle when we went to Branson this year.

Love our Labs!

A case of Coca-Cola in the "snow"

Thanks for coming by for a visit!

Merry Christmas and Happy Healthy New Year from our house to yours!

Victorian House Tour Part 6...

2011-12-19T08:00:00.000-06:00

Here we are on the last tour of the wonderful home of my brother, Tom and Sister in law, Nina.

If you need to catch up, you can see the first tour here, the second tour here, the third tour here, the fourth tour here and the fifth tour here.

Today we are heading to the Violet Bedroom (AKA the Master Bedroom).

As we leave the green room and cross the hall, we see this vignette. The plates on the wall give you a hint of the room to come and the photo below them is Tom and Nina's daughter's engagement picture. I totally LOVE that picture--of course, my friend and I took it but I really DO love it! :)

In the old wash bowl you see a large collection of pound puppies and kittens.

Let me take this time to introduce you to the pound puppies in the family:

The newest is Miss Bailey. Tom and Nina just adopted her in October. She is a sweetie!

Bailey's dog sister is Mimi. She was an ugly dog. Her nose had been broken at some time and is at an angle--which doesn't slow her down at all!

This is our troop of pound puppies. They have all been rescued.

Our son has a pound puppy--our grandpuppy.

Tom & Nina's daughter and son in law have 5 little pound puppies and a pound kitty all rescued from shelter and their son has two pound puppies and two pound kitties.

I can tell you that the best puppies for us have been pound puppies and if you are looking for a new family member, check out the pound! Our favorite breed is mutt! :)

Back to the tour...

As you walk into the room, you will see this dresser. Is it not wonderful with the marble in the middle and the mirror with the interesting shape? See the great lamp with the huge chimney? It really puts out the light!

For some reason, the wallpaper looks as if it is pink on the background. It is actually cream. It must be the way my camera read it. Anyway, you see another of Nina's ladies and there is Gman in the doorway.

Here is another view of the dresser and do you see the fan on the floor? Tom and Nina collect these. They call them hand chopper fans. They really do put out the air! I remember that my grandmother always had one of these when we visited her in PA. They didn't have a/c, so fans were the norm there.

You can see the side of the daybed.

This is the full daybed. They found it in Wichita while visiting Gman and me. My camera was set for auto flash and the light from the windows made it think it didn't need more light.

Anyway, this daybed is an antique and unique in that you can pull a strap and the cushion flips out into a full sized bed. I have never seen one that does that. It must have been the cat's meow when it was new! I know it still is!

Let me tell you a secret about this daybed.

Tom and Nina used to have a king sized bed but when they found the perfect bed frame it was only a full size. Tom was able to make it into a queen bed, but a king would not fit right. This displaced the dogs. So, the dogs got this daybed as their bed!

Yes, their labs do sleep on that daybed--though one of them jumps in with Tom and Nina every chance she gets!

This is the bed. They found this in Wichita too. Actually, it was a small town southeast called Winfield. Didn't Tom do a great job of making it big enough for a queen? You wouldn't guess it was ever just a double! The bed is sporting a pretty purple bow and some greenery. Not too much because if there was more, where would Tom hang his glasses when he goes to bed?

The skirt on the bed is a vintage skirt and the had resting on it is as well. Nina wears the hat from time to time.

The round box to the left of the skirt is a hoop. It is a collapsible one that when you pull it out, it expands like one of those balls you can buy.

The round brown box holds a man's vintage collar.

Honestly? I don't know which would be worse--wearing that collar or that hoop! Yikes!

This is Tom's dresser. Nina put a bow on that one too--but Tom can take it! LOL

You can see a little better shot of the had and gloves, glasses and opera glasses.

And this is the armoire. Isn't it beautiful with the bow and lights and greenery. And look at the ornaments. See the white moon flowers? They have little crystals hanging from the center.

Oh and there is Nina's slip! Geez Nina! Do you have to leave your underwear out???? LOL

Actually, it is vintage and very pretty with eyelet.

So, let's head down the stairs and outside to view the lights at night...

And with that, Tom and Nina thank you for visiting and wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy New Year!

Family History Album Week 1--The Title Page - Scrapbook Sunday...

2011-12-18T08:00:00.006-06:00

Jen at The Scrappy Genealogist and a group of Genealogists (both professional and hobbyists) have decided to take a course by Jessica Sprague called "Family History Album Class 1" which incorporates two of my passions: Genealogy and Scrapbooking! How fun is THAT???

They started before me by a few weeks, but I am hot on their trail!

Jen welcomed me with open arms and told me to come on along! This is great fun and I wanted to share my Week One Title Page of the album with you!

See the blue tag there by the keys? I was thinking about putting "We Put The Fun In DysFUNctional" on the tag. What do you think? I know--I have a strange and wacky sense of humor!

I had a LOT of scrapbooking supplies when we decided to sell the house and contents and take to the road in a 5th wheel, free spirits (read insane!) that we are...

I kept my scrapping supplies, but man do they take up a LOT of space in a camper! And they are HEAVY! I was trying to figure out a way to lighten that load and free up that space.

Then, I found digital scrapbooking, but had not yet delved into it much.

When I saw this class and the blog group that was starting to go through the class together I just HAD to join in the fun and get my feet wet!

I use Paint Shop ProX3 and have since it was Paint Shop Pro 2 in beta. The course suggests Adobe Photoshop or Photoshop Elements and uses PSD files. I have used PSD files with PSP before and they worked just fine. However, since Corel purchased PSP, it no longer correctly reads the CMYK files (PSD files) since version 9 when it was still Jasc Software. Rats!

It took me a while to figure out what the problem was, but after some research on the web and the diagnosis of the problem, I downloaded Photoshop Elements 10 trial to do the pages for the course and found the Organizer that is included with Elements. What a great thing! I am using that for all sorts of organization of files for both scrapbooking and genealogy files! I will share those things in the future. I will obviously be purchasing Elements!

Don't let all of that technical talk scare you--Elements is really very user friendly and Jen provides help and has some links to videos that show you just what to do! You can do it! Come on along...

So, what do you think of the Title Page?

Victorian House Tour Part 5...

2011-12-16T11:43:00.000-06:00

I know that this is not Monday. I was having some problems with Blogger or my internet connection or my computer or all three. Oh, and then there was a special project that I started which I will share with you later...

At any rate, it's all good now!

You may remember we saw the outside of the house on Tour one.
Then, we headed to the Dining Room and Kitchen for some yummy treats and a recipe on Day Two!
Day Three found us in the Living Room and Front Parlor.
Finally, we headed upstairs to visit the Frog & Turtle Tree, Tom's Office and the Master Bath on Day Four.
You can click on any of the above to catch up with the tour...

I do have to make a correction about the candlestick telephone in the Living Room. I said it was a reproduction--which they originally had there.

However, Tom told me that the one in place now is REAL!

Not only that, but he drove 150 miles one way to get the phone--in the fog--both ways.

Then, the phone was a mess. Yucky! It was black with filth and had to be cleaned up.

Then, Tom polished all of the brass by hand and had to rework the innards so that the phone would work--which it does. It was a gift to Nina.

You can click on any of the pictures to enlarge them for a better view, too!

So, walk on down the hallway and we will go into the

Green Bedroom and Sleeping Porch.

At the end of the hallway by the door to the Green Bedroom is the carnival. See Tom's collection of Ferris Wheels and Carousels all resplendent on a snowy table? The metal wheels are kids toys from long ago. The largest carousel is a cookie jar and the two smaller ones go around and play music.

Below the table is another little train and in the middle is a carousel that my dad made. Nina painted it and when you twist the horses around the pole the strings holding them wind up and when you let go, it goes around and then back and goes for quite a while. It's actually fun to play with! To the right is a Trans Syberian Orchestra program and ticket with a carousel. Tom and Nina and their kid's and their spouse and finace' all meet up to see TSO at Christmas. In 2006 Gman and I went with them when TSO was in Wichita. It was really a great show and worth the price for sure! In fact, Tom, Nina and the kids are meeting up in KC for the show this weekend.

These toys give you an idea of what the Green Bedroom is about--the kids...

As we walk into the room, we see the bed. See how Nina made a frame for the bed out of a couple of corbels and a golden scarf with lights? How easy is that--but so cute!

On the bed is a pair of baby sweaters and hats and a Christening cap. Those belonged to my uncles--they were twins. One of the twins died of scarlet fever when he was about 6 months old.

The photo album on the bed holds more vintage postcards that we found at my grandmother's home. They are so very interesting! Some of the cards are from a resort that hired my dad to take pictures and then made the postcards for people to purchase as souvenirs.

You see the red Eastlake settee at the end of the bed? You can see a Christmas book...

And in this picture You can see a teddy bear and doll that I believe belonged to Nina as a child--so you KNOW they are OLD....lol..just kidding Nina...

This room is always green, burgundy and gold so it is ready for Christmas with just a bit of decoration.

The ceiling fan has red ribbon and dripping greenery and a really pretty swirled ornament.

The dresser is sporting it's own little christmas tree in burgundy and gold and notice on the floor next to the dresser are some old ball gloves. They were my dad's when he was young (remember the pictures of him and his brother in their ball uniforms in the hallway?) I found a picture of me when I was 2 years old with one of the gloves on.

Above the dresser is a picture of a little girl with her dog. I LOVE that!

Oh, the door? No, it isn't a closet, it is the second upstairs bathroom. It is useable but not completed for decorating.

And the little box next to the doll?

It's a Nina Ballerina! Remember, though, that Nina pronounces her name with a long I instead of a long E. It's her name anyway, though, right? She got this as a kiddo as well.

Look to the left of the dresser and you will see this piece. It is a turn of the century humidor as would be found in a store. The inside shelf is slats which have little pull out zinc trays under them. These were to hold water to keep moisture in the cigars.

It actually belongs to me but it doesn't fit in the 5th wheel so Tom is keeping it for me.

That is only fair since Tom found it in Kansas City. Gman and I built a house in 1996--this was our "last" house (the "last house" in a series of "last" houses LOL) and it was built for us. We picked out the lot, chose the plan, changed the plan to fit our tastes, changed the tub to a 9 foot jetted cultured marble tub with cultured marble walls (BOY DO I MISS THAT!!!!) and were there every step of the way. I changed the floor in the kitchen and dining room to oak tongue and groove which the builder was skeptical of doing, but after it was done, he started doing it in a LOT of his new builds.

But I digress...

The basement had a bar area which Gman, Gjr and I finished off. I wanted the bar to be unique and had been looking around for a while when Tom spotted this piece. It was perfect and became my bar.

Later, when we sold the house, I couldn't leave the humidor behind! I used it in my office as a display case for my collectibles, with file storage in the bottom. Then, when we sold our next house and contents to go on the road in the RV there were a few pieces that I just could not part with. This one went with Tom and Nina to their house.

Let's look more closely at the contents...

See on the top is a semi that looks a lot like one of Tom's big trucks. The little wooden truck on the right was from Mexico and a gift from my other brother one year. In the middle are a selection of Dodge pickup trucks. Did I mention that Tom is a Dodge man? Yep--he loves his Dodges. Come to think of it, I guess I do too, since I have been driving them for years and years and currently have a Durango--which I LOVE! See the Little Red Truck? There in the middle with the wood paneling on the side and the chrome stack exhaust. I remember those from when I was in high school. They were so cool! I found some of these trucks as I was shopping estate sales and little shops. I didn't find one exactly like Tom's but the red one on the left in the middle is similar--just a year or two off.

And inside the case is a collection of little cars and if you look closely, there are even some soap box derby cars that he made in boy scouts. In the middle is a ferris wheel and on either side in the back are headlights. He said he is not exactly sure what they came off of but look at how neat the glass is in the lights. If you can identify them for him--let me know!

On the floor to the left of the case is a child's wicker rocker with a much loved stuffed bear. I'm guessing here, but I think it may be their daughter's bear.

On around the room is this curved glass china case. At the base of the case is a baby doll cradle holding a rabbit. Tom made the little cradle for his daughter one year for Christmas. Isn't it cute???

Now for the case. This holds some of Tom's older trains. He likes trains. On the top on the left and the top shelf are some train cars that were given to him by my friend Kathy last year. They are wonderful old cars!

On the bottom two shelves are some trains that have been in our family since we were all kids.

And on the second shelf...

Is Gman's train that he received in the 1950's when he was a kid.

On around to the left is this vanity wearing it's Christmas finery. Little Santas (Elves???) flank the pretty angel resting on a cloud of lighted gold.

See the toys on the floor there? I think the little bubble gum machine was made by my dad. Tom & Nina will let us know if that is wrong.

Now, back across the room to the left of the bed is a window. Let's go look out...

See the sleeping porch??? Sleeping porches were put in for the heat of summer. You could go out to the porch and sleep in the breezes but still have some privacy. Many have beds that suspend from the ceiling like porch swings to nap or sleep on.

In this case you can see that the "kid" has been out there.

See the telescope to the left? I remember that at my parents while I was growing up. I remember that and a chemistry kit (and the spots around the chemistry set from when things blew up!!!!) and I believe those were gifts to my brothers. I think I looked through the scope a few times, but frankly, I was much too crazy to stand and gaze through a scope at the stars--and Tom was not so much willing to have his bratty little sister break his stuff.

Let's look more closely at the stuff on the porch...

See? Another train This is the newest in the collection and hales from Bass Pro Shop. It chugs and whistles and is just all around fun. It is a G scale (or Garden scale) train. Tom has brought some of his garden train buildings and animals in as a village around the tree. In the summer, those buildings and cars are in the train garden outside by the gazebo. They are thinking about doing a garden tour this year. What do you think? Wanna see the water gardens, train gardens, shade gardens, cutting gardens, vegetable gardens and the secret garden? Perhaps tour the greenhouse? Well, that will be later, of course.

See the little peddle car over there in the corner? And a Tonka truck? Their son loved his Tonka trucks! He loved Bob the Builder. He loves all things construction equipment and trucks!

Gosh! This ended up being a bit longer than I thought it would be, so we will save the master bedroom located in the bay for my next post.

See you then!

Victorian House Tour Part 4...

2011-12-09T15:42:00.000-06:00

Yoohoo...

Up here...

Today we are headed upstairs.

If you missed the main level tours, go here for the outside on day one.
Here is the dining room and kitchen on day two.
And here is the living room and front parlor on day 3.

Come on up and let's check out the upstairs!

First, take a gander at some more of that wainscoting that Tom made from those 100+ year old beams!

The plates on the wall to the right are metal portrait plates. Sorry! I didn't think about the fact that you might want to see them. If you do, let me know and I will scoot over and takes some pix!

See the light? There are beads dripping off of them.

That stuff at the end of the hall? Well, we will get down there later...

This is the staircase that we just came up. Take a second to ooh and ahhh over the wainscoting again!

The pictures on the right are family pictures. Some are old and some are not so old, but we are going to look at what I like to call the amphibian tree. During the tour, I misspoke and called it the reptile tree. The lady and her kids were not sure they wanted to go up!!!! Ooops!

See? It is actually turtles and frogs. Tom collects those.

Come closer...

It is hard to see all of the little guys on the tree, but they are all different kinds of turtles and frogs--even some beanie babies!

At the top is a huge bow made by Nina.

Isn't the blown glass turtle cute? But, a frog with wings playing a guitar???? Really????

See the prince over there on the right? And just below him is a bride and groom frog? See them? Well, I snuck them onto Tom and Nina's 25th wedding anniversary cake which I made. When I found it, I just KNEW it was THEM! :)

And down here around the bottom are the victorian stuffed frogs along with a couple of brass turtles--their shells come off and I am not sure what they actually were--perhaps salt cellars? Speaking of salt cellars, see the glass piece on the left? Sorry. Didn't get a great picture of it, but it is a frog too. And see the little frog on the golfball on the right? Tom likes to golf. He and Gman golfed in a couple of tournaments this year. Once, GJr got to come and play as well! Fun times!

I never noticed the plates on the wall next to the tree, but they are from the World's Fair, which takes us into Tom's office...

This light in Tom's office is the only original fixture in the house. It was originally in the front parlor but was brought up here. Nina festooned it with drippy greenery and a big old bow.

See the wall of cabinets that Nina is working in? Those are bookshelves with some of Tom's collectibles from the World's Fair to NASCAR and golf balls.

The door to the left of the glass doors holds a pull out shelf with the computer and the TV.

This is Tom's desk. It is was a cabinet grand piano. When Tom and Nina found it, the insides had been removed, but the cabinet makes a wonderful (if really HUGE and HEAVY) desk!

There's a little village here and you can see Tom's revolver. There is also a viewer with a slide of the big ferris wheel from the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. Tom collects memorabilia from the St. Louis World's fair since it and the house share some history.

See the picture of the dog to the right? That is Lady. She was smitten with Tom and totally Tom's dog! She was a great family dog, but really showed a great love for Tom. Great dogs should always be remembered!

The papers on the desk were also from the World's Fair.

This is another shot of the desk. Here you can see Tom's collection of guns--both antique and not--as well as knives and a brass powder holder.

Above the guns are a collection of arrowheads. My dad got each of us a collection from the Schuylkill region of Pennsylvania which is the area that our family originated.

To the right of his desk is the loveseat and the newest member of the family, Bailey. She was adopted from a local shelter just before Halloween. Does she look like she is sticking her tongue out at me????

Did I mention that Tom collects memorabilia from the 1904 World's Fair???? Well, here are some of the plates and on the little shelf are some of his paperweights.

See the pictures of the ferris wheel? Tom really likes the ferris wheel (also known as the observation wheel or big wheel). It was HUGE!

The wheel was 264 ft high and had 36 gondolas. Each of the 36 gondolas could hold 60 people which gave the wheel a total capacity of 2,160. It carried 38,000 passengers daily and took 20 minutes to complete two revolutions for the cost of 50 cents. The wheel was originally put up at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, IL in 1893. The wheel rotated on a 71-ton, 45.5 ft axle.

The wheel was dismantled and eventually transported by rail to St. Louis for the 1904 World's Fair after which it was destroyed by controlled demolition using dynamite on May 11, 1906.

Tom & Nina worked and traveled for years for a local carnival which traveled throughout the central US (and still does though he no longer works there) and still has a great affection for ferris wheels and carousels.

This bookcase contains more of the memorabilia. See the row of etched seashells on the second shelf? And see the ferris wheel books behind them? You can click on the picture to make it larger so you can look closer. All of the pictures can be enlarged by clicking on them...

This is the door to the main bathroom which is located in the 1905 house addition right above the kitchen. Let's go in there...

This was originally a single large room that is above the kitchen, mudroom and bath off of the mudroom. Tom and Nina divided it into two bathrooms.

See this row of cabinets? These are the ones that were originally in the kitchen. They were moved into this room and they created a wall behind which they created a large walkin closet.

This is such a great cabinet to put all of the linens, TP and other things needed in a bathroom with both glass cabinets and closed cabinets.

As we come into the room, we see the pedestal sink and get an idea of the decorating scheme for the master bath with the white feather boa above the antique mirror.

Look at the ceiling and you can see the really cute tongue and groove ceiling.

While I am not all that excited about pictures of loos, I thought I would point out how cute the toilet is. See the fluting and the china flush handle?

This is the tub area. I am SO JEALOUS of the jetted tub! And who wouldn't love to pull the curtains shut along that beautiful rail system and just enjoy a quiet soak?

That is one of the main things I really miss living in an RV!

I suggested that a bunch of iridescent ornaments in the tub would look really cute and look like bubbles. Nina said perhaps next year. We're gonna have to check back next year to see if we get bubbles! ;-D

At any rate, see how she hung the shiny snowflakes and the vignette on the shelf with candles, the oil lamp and white roses?

Look at the cute little vignette next to the tub on the window seat.

Isn't that little feather tree adorable sitting in the antique potty chair? And the branches and lights make such a cute picture!

And here you see another view of the tree and one of Nina's portrait plates and some more of her angels along with some shiny jewel ornaments on the shelf topped off by another white feather boa.

So, that's all for today...

Gman is flying in shortly so we will continue our tour on Monday.

We will head to the other end of the hallway and visit the guest room, sleeping porch and the master bedroom which is located in the bow front!

See you on Monday! Have a great weekend!

Victorian House Tour Part 3...

2011-12-08T18:54:00.000-06:00

Today we continue our Christmas House Tour of my brother Tom and his wife, Nina.

Day one we toured the outside of the house--if you missed it, you can see that here...

Day two we toured the dining room and kitchen--if you missed that one, you can see it here...

Before we leave, Kim @ Cheap Chic Home has requested a closer view of the light over the dining room table and I am happy to accommodate! So here you go Kim! You can click on it to make it larger. It has birds, twigs, beautiful blue ornaments, pearls, iridescent snowflakes and TONS of ribbon!

Now, on through the kitchen (grab some cookies and punch and wave goodbye to Nina!) and we will head to the living room.

You see what looks like a window with dishes displayed and the doorway? Well, the window looking thing was actually the door originally and the doorway was a window that looked out to, well,
uh nothing--the mud porch.

So, to get out to the back of the house, you had to step down into the kitchen and back up into the mud room. The flow was off so Tom switched them. Makes more sense now and gave more room in the kitchen without the extra door.

Oh, uh, why is there still an area that looks like a window? Uh, seems there was not enough wallpaper to cover that section so he did the display. hehe...

You can see their victrola there and you can tell Nina is really into angels too. There is a cross stitch of roses to the right of the flow blue dishes--that was made by their daughter--who Nina likes to say is so careful that the back looks as good as the front!

I actually never noticed that the flow blue plates hanging above the little "window" look as if they came from the 1904 World's Fair. Hmmmm... I learned something new today too!

You can see another little tree behind the settee.

You're gonna love this...

A group of ladies came to view the house and two of them didn't feel they could do the stairs, so they decided to stay downstairs while their friends went upstairs. I asked if they would like to have a seat on the settee and they looked really startled and asked, "You can SIT on these????"

Uh Yep. Even the two labs have been known to sit, uh, lay on it. HeHe. Nina says she does try to keep the lab sitting to a minimum though. LOL

See the coffee table? Keep that in your mind...

And more of the carpet from my niece's house...The room in her house was large
enough to get two nice sized area rugs for this house! Great huh?

Across the doorway from the "window" is this huge desk. I know they have a name--my grandmother had a HUGE one. I want to say they were lawyers or accountant's desks because of the large bookcase above. At any rate, isn't it GREAT???? I totally love the way that the part that folds over the work area is curved.

The china in it is the hand painted floral china with the gold edges and stuff. This is MY kind of china! I love to look at the flowers...

The candlestick telephone works--it's a reproduction but looks cute.

See the gout stool in front of the "lady's chair"? My son found that for Nina one year for Christmas and it matched the chairs!

See the little table that the lamp and phone are resting on?

No?

Well perhaps you can see it a little better in this one. Not much but a bit.

Anyway, this little table and the coffee table were purchased by Nina's mom who saved the Eagle Stamps to get enough books to "buy" them! She said her mom only shopped at Kroger so she could get the stamps.

Do you remember those and S&H Green Stamps and I seem to remember one that was like Gold something or another--it was gold with red I think. Remember how when you purchased
laundry detergent you got glassware or towels? Oh and my older brother, Terry, got green glasses when he purchased gas at a certain (I want to say Gulf) gas station!

But I digress...

Those tables are a great keepsake from Nina's family and will go to her daughter...

You may have noticed Tom's derby and cane in this picture. He actually has a collection of canes you will see when we get back to the hallway.

And the little Eastlake chair sitting in front of the armoire. Is that armoire magnificent or what????

This houses the electronics--TV, stereo, yadda yadda yadda. I can't remember if this is
one that they scored in Kansas when they came to visit or not.

You spied the window I am sure and this is what is in it. It is recessed and while not really a bay window, it is cantilevered out and is the perfect place for the nativity.

See all of the angels???? My favorite is under the table on the right hand side. It is little and has a pointy hat on. I was telling Nina how much I liked that little angel and she said
she found it at the dollar store. Boy am I cheap or what???? LOL

Across from the window area and next to the victrola is the stove. Do you just LOVE the nickel plating on it? They had a candle in it since it was plenty warm in the house with the people coming through.

Next to the stove is...

The Fairy Garden! That was my fish tank. I was happy (Oh SO VERY HAPPY!!!) to donate it to the cause when Tom built this for Nina after their trip Asheville, NC to see the Vanderbuilt mansion.

Would you like to see a closer view of the inside of the fairy garden? Let's...

If you click on the picture you can look inside and see the waterfall with little fairies cavorting
around. See the butterfly on the left? Nina found it perfectly preserved in her greenhouse.

On the right hand side just in front of the little wire gazebo you can see a dragonfly. It was also
perfectly preserved in her greenhouse.

In the middle, just to the right of the little arched gate you can see a little disk with another dragonfly. I found that one perfectly preserved in my little camper when I was cleaning it for our son's visit at Thanksgiving, so I carefully picked it up and took it to Nina for her fairies...

With that, lets head to the hallway. This is the opposite end of the hall from the Bride's Basket display. So, this is the visitor's entrance. See the hall rack? There are some of Tom's canes and some old umbrellas.

See the beaded purse hanging down by the poinsettia? It is truly exquisite! So much work! And much heavier than
you might imagine!

Those are the high school senior pictures of my niece and nephew (Tom and Nina's kids).

Next to that is a piece of garden statuary surrounded by lights and tulle. Isn't it pretty?

Above the angel in the frames are pictures of my dad and his brother (still in short pants and dresses--any of you
familiar with that???) his mom and dad, my dad and his brother in their ball uniforms and in the gold frames are
pictures of my grandfather as a young boy.

Have you noticed the Wainscoting in the hallway and stairs? This is not original to the house but has a really interesting story.

Tom has a trucking company and he drives this rig delivering steel.

While hauling from a warehouse in Granite City, IL, the warehouse that was built in the 1800's needed more room.

They removed their wooden heart pine posts and replaced them with steel I-beams to carry more weight.

Tom asked what they would be doing with the wooden beams and was told they would be throwing them out. Tom asked if he could have them and they said "SURE!"

He loaded them on his semi and took them to a local Amish Sawmill where they were sawed into boards for him. Each one was 12-16 feet long and beautiful 100+ year old heart pine!

Tom brought the boards home and ran them through his planer, put the beads on them and cut the tongue and groove into the boards. This all became the wainscoting for the whole hallway both downstairs, upstairs and up the staircase! Didn't it turn out great?????

He's good like that...

Now to the Parlor which is located in the bow front of the house.

As you come in you see this little vignette. Isn't the oil lamp neat? I LOVE the extra tall chimney on it!

You can see more of Nina's ladies. That is a mirror. You fold it out and there are mirrors on the other side of the lady portraits.

And then there is the pickle...

This is the German Christmas Pickle Ornament...

I purchased one for them years ago because it is an old German tradition. You hide the pickle on the tree and the person who finds it gets a gift or an extra dessert or gets to eat first or whatever special prize the parents decide on. The one I purchased for them was burned in the fire when their first greenhouse, garage and part of their camper burned. Nina found this one this year and it is finally replaced. There will be a pickle on the tree again! :)

I know it is silly, but I just LOVE the pickle story! :)

In this picture you can see the little table. The photo on the bottom of the table is Nina's mom when she was a youngun...

Next to the little table is a settee that I could not believe Nina even looked at twice when she bought it. It was SO incredibly BAD, broken down and looked like something had NESTED in it!

She brought it home and used Kramers on the frame, Tom glued the joints to make it sturdy again and then they took it to Herman and had it upholstered. Didn't it turn out beautiful???? She's good like that!

You can see more of Nina's angels above the settee, and next to the settee you can see their other victrola. They are obviously some of the yuppie Victorians with TWO Victrolas--don't you think?

Across the room from the settee is this pump organ. You sit on the really uncomfortable stool and put your feet on the pedals and pump for all you are worth while playing the thing! I mean to tell you, it's a workout--and it DOES work.

They found this on a trip to visit me and Gman when we lived in KS. It came from Cowtown in Wichita where it had been used in a playhouse. The lacquer on it had turned black with age when they got it and Nina sat night after night stripping (the organ!) and cleaning it. I think her labors were rewarded!

You can see some of her lady vases and hanging on either side of the organ are stone lithographs that they found.

The pink chair is a pedestal rocker and you can see the zither on the floor by the organ.

This is her collection of carolers and little family photos and china. The cabinet is original to the parlor. You can also see the fireplace.

The fireplace sports a little parlor stove that Tom found on Ebay. It was in Illinois.

Here...this is a better shot of it...

It is also nickel plated. This is the original mantel, covered right now with a wicked cute lace mantle cloth, but the fireplace had been closed off for some time so Tom & Nina decided on black marble for the part where the firebox would have been.

It is flanked by a pair of Eastlake chairs and an Eastlake mirror. More of her cupids and beloved portrait plates
are in residence here along with a camelback mantle clock.

And now for the BIG part of the Parlor...

The Christmas Tree surrounded by Tom's "It's A Wonderful Life" Christmas Village!

Isn't it BEAUTIFUL?????

This year the tree had a little accident. One of the screws on the stand that hold the tree up was rusted and decided to give way! Ack! The tree came down...

On the village!!!!!

Luckily, only a couple of ornaments broke and there was some minor damage to a couple of pieces of the village, but it could have been MUCH worse!

See the angel at the top of the tree? Tom got that when he was five years old. All he wanted for Christmas that year was an Angel and he has had her ever since. They call her Tinkerbell...and she survived the fall! Yay!

See the light in the middle of the room? Tom gave that to Nina one year for Christmas.

He hung it on the ceiling--which looked like this at the time!

Also at the time, the walls were all down.

This is my dog Charms walking through the wall to see Tom--Doors? We don't need no stinkin' doors! LOL You can read more about the restoration on Tom and Nina's website here...

Tom did the design on the ceiling and you can kind of see that there is a strip of mahogany running through the floor that mimics the ceiling. Isn't it neat??? Tom's good like that...

Let's take a closer peek at the village shall we?

I love this main street with the Merry Christmas and bells across the road. I so remember that from the movie!

And over here is the train which goes around the track. You can make what they call the three favorite sounds--chugging, the whistle and the crossing signal. I LOVE playing with that!!!!

See Mr Potter's house up there all by itself?

If you look closely on the upper left of this picture,

Here--closer...you can see a lighted piece that is next to the bridge where Jimmy Stewart was going to jump but Clarence jumped in instead.

Coming this way from the bridge on the left is the car that he wrecked into the tree. There are so many things to see in this village! Tom has been collecting it for YEARS!

This concludes the tour of the first level of the house...

Tomorrow we will head up these stairs (see all that glorious wainscoting????) to the second floor...there is a lot more to see...

See you then!!!!!