A TABLESCAPE, NEW CHAIRS & SOME COOKING!

Hi everyone!  It's the start of a new week and we have been so fortunate to get up to 50 degrees today!  If the sun were shining it would be very spring like.  The doors and windows are open anyway and I've been having a great day in the kitchen which I'll tell you about later.

I hope all of you had a great Valentine's Day. It was just dinner at home for me and The Husband.  I think I mentioned in my last post on Thursday that I was making a pork loin roast.  I had a fantastic recipe.  After I prepped the roast with the grated zest of a lemon and about 1 tablespoon of fennel seeds, I roasted it on a bed of sliced  lemon, onion and a fennel bulb.  It was SO good!

I set the table for two (I wish my pictures had come out better, I am having trouble fixing them...something about my file format.  Anyone know what that's about?).  I used my wedding china which is simply a set The Husband found at an estate sale a few months after we got married.  It had been in this family for 70 years which makes it about 95 years old now.  I really do prize it.

These precious little heart sachets were made by .Suzan  She used to sell them.  I have a little basket filled with them.  The lavender still smells lovely!

My centerpiece was simple and I placed a few framed pictures inside a wicker tray to share the love!  The Husband really loved my extra attention to the dinner and table and while we sipped our wine, we caught a bit of Mansfield Park on the television across the room.  How romantic is that?

Friday Emily and I were off to the furniture store, which coincidentally is the store where she is a designer.  My goal was to find the fabric I truly wanted either for the chairs I have, or for totally new chairs...whichever was least expensive. Lo and behold, I fell in love with this chair.  Nothing fancy, it's on the small side so it will fit well in my living room.  I picked out a light, creamy, tweedy fabric.  You can see the arm cap from my floral sofa on the back of the chair to see how they will look together.  So, I ordered two chairs and with a sale going on I paid less than if I were to get my two existing chairs reupholstered.  So, The Great Chair Adventure is finally over.  Now I have to get the living room painted and a new area rug!  Stay tuned!

Across the street from the furniture store is a new Whole Foods.  I had never been to one and dragged Emily over there to do my grocery shopping.  "You really don't want to do your grocery shopping here, Mom," she kept saying.  My eyes glazed over when I saw the produce department.  It was huge and bright and colorful.  The whole store was!  But I didn't recognize any of the product names, couldn't find my good old Dunkin Donuts coffee or Special K cereal.  The dog food was in the meat freezer.  It didn't take long before I felt like we were on another planet!

The bakery was awesome, we picked up a pie, some brownies and some individual creme brulees.  We bought some fruit for The Husband and I found a nice bottle of pinot grigio for $7.00.  But this is not the place for groceries, not for me anyway.  It reminded me of a Trader Joe's on steroids!  We had planned on stopping somewhere for dinner, but instead we bought Cokes at the closest McDonalds and ate the brownies and Veggie Straws on the way home.  Money saved!

Abby needed a few snacks to bring to school for her night class tonight.  It sounds like she's back in kindergarten, but no, this is her last year of college.  Her classes are much smaller and specialized now and the group of future teachers has narrowed down.  So, I found this recipe on Lynn's blog a few weeks ago and made it today, Buffalo Chicken Muffins.  They are just awesome.  This is Lynn's picture, too.  I highly recommend that you go to her blog and get the recipe.  These would be great to bring to a party, or to serve a group coming over to watch sports.  I did double the recipe, you will want to as well!

I hope your week is off to a great start.  I'm finally out of the kitchen (okay, I made cookies, too!) and I'm moving into the laundry room!  I'm joining two parties this week, Marty at A Stroll Thru Life for Tabletop Tuesday and Kathleen from Cuisine Kathleen for Let's Dish.  Kathleen has had a death in her family.  Please leave her a comment to let her know you are thinking of her.  See you later in the week.