WHITE WEDNESDAY & THRIFTY THURSDAY: COTTAGE WHITES

Today I am linking with Kathleen from Faded Charm Cottage and Leigh from Tales From Bloggaritaville for White Wednesday and Thrifty Thursday respectively. Have a seat!

Another perfect fall weekend at the lake. By now you know we spend every weekend there, so I probably don't need to say where I am at. But I am doing a lot of decorating and changing things around there that I don't do at home so I think I need to mention it. I got a lot of R & R in after being home from Las Vegas for only a day and then heading up to Michigan, which is nice. I was feeling the crunch of the time zones, but that's good. Keeps you on your toes. Or bum, as it were. While The Husband worked outdoors, putting away lawn and patio furniture and knocking down sand castles, I busied myself in the kitchen making a 15 Bean Soup with Chicken. Nothing special. You just purchase the bag of beans and use the little packet of flavoring inside. I added a fresh chicken breast cut in slivers for the last hour and it turned out quite good. If I were at home where my fridge is better stocked, I think some celery and green onion would have been great in it as well... So soup and some bread for sopping up all that juice was on the menu at Blondie's Diner and afterwards we sat by the fire...okay. Stop now, Jane. I sat by the fire. The Husband sat up in the loft in front of the Bears game. It sounded romantic for a second there, didn't it? My neighbor Susie came over and we had wine and some nice conversation. She picked the last of my tomatoes for me and most are the size of cherry tomatoes. I sliced them up and we had those on mozzarella cheese and crackers....oh, heaven! What ever variety I had that she picked, they were tart and sweet at the same time and so fresh!!!! The good old Husband was upstairs stomping and clapping and never knew what he missed!! ;-)

My favorite old pot bubbling away...The kitchen is not finished yet. I have no drawer pulls or knobs, thus no fingernails. I don't think Resident Carpenter is coming back now that he is no longer in residence. But let's not go there. I feel really at home with the way the house has turned out so far and somehow the details will be pulled together. I have so much more to show you and I think I will start taking pictures of the master bedroom which is just about finished other than some artwork I am framing. I will hint to you that a wonderful and generous artist/blogger has gifted me with an incredible amount of her work and I will be doing a post about it. In the meantime, please visit Karen at A Scrapbook Of Inspiration. Her work is fabulous and she sells quite a bit through her Etsy Shop.

I have been having a thing for chairs lately. A 'chair affair', if you will. Whether I am in a thrift store or antique shop, they beckon to me. And no matter what, like stray cats, I always have room for them. (Actually I have no cats, but I would if I weren't allergic). The chair with the basket on it you might remember from some of my summer photos. It sat under the oak tree on our patio with a pot of geraniums on it. It made it through the summer fine, but the paint had a yellow tinge from the iron in our water, so I painted it white again. I found the other chair with the rush seat at a little fleatique store in our lake town and I painted that white as well but left the seat natural. I have to touch up a few smears and I was running around the house like a madwoman trying to find my Mouse Sander to distress the paint a bit before I took the picture. Alas, my Merry Maid, Emily was at the house the weekend before and her idea of cleaning is to hide all my stuff. lol!! So I'm still stressing over the distressing... I have the chairs in the kitchen where my future Hoosier cabinet will go. What I like about chairs is how they can be used for little vignettes; holding a plant or something treasured, in a bedroom with a collection of pretty purses...well, maybe I just have weird ideas, But I do love these thrifty chairs that I paid no more than $20.00 for.

This is one of the pillows that Barb from French Elements made for me. Pay no attention to the lack of trim on the walls (and the crumbs for that matter).

I finally bought pumpkins!!!! Some are huge. Sue from the Farm Stand at the Lake had a neat assortment of all shades of oranges and yellows, in all sizes and shapes. I found a big one in the shape of a squash!! When I get my porch all arranged I will post it. I bought a few bunches of wheat from her. Isn't it nice how pretty something so natural and simple (not to mention wholesome) can look? I put the two bunches in a jar on the table.

Finally I have this wicker shelf thingie that the previous owners of the house left me. They literally left it hanging on the bathroom wall and I used it for soap and towels...nothing special. For 18 years!! It was thrown into a junk pile when the bath was gutted and for something that I just left hanging on a wall for 18 years, I scrambled to save it!!! It is in good shape, it just needed a bath and a good coat of white spray paint and now it is ready to go in to my freshly painted blue & white bedroom, which I will show you soon.

My bedroom has a combo beachy/garden theme if there is such a thing! lol!! Hey, maybe I have started a new style~Shabby Beach Garden Chic!! I wanted to do seashells and pretty sandy beach pictures and then I found a floral duvet cover that I had to have! Please do not read tropical. Just beachy and shabby flowers. So this is my shelf and on it I will have seashells and flowers and something old and something new...Shabby Beach Garden!

Visit Kathleen and Leigh and all the participants in these events by clicking on the links at the beginning of my post. I hope you enjoyed reading about my finds! Have a wonderful week! :-)

SIGHTESEEING SATURDAY: BLONDIE GOES TO VEGAS!!

Happy Saturday!! Today I am linking up with Christine of Christine's Home & Travel Adventures for Sightseeing Saturday, of which she is our gracious hostess. If you have any pictures you would like to post of a vacation or trip, this is the event to to link up with! Today Christine is taking us to Stockholm, Sweden, and I am taking you to Sin City!! I have to admit first, that these are the worst pictures I have ever taken in my life and that is because I just bought a new camera and did not brush up on the manual before leaving, so everything came out terrible. Please bear with me.

I mentioned that we go to Las Vegas every October with a group of people that are related to my husband's business. We have been having this get together for about ten years straight. Every year we stay in a different hotel and this year it was Ballys. Below is a picture of our room from the 22nd floor. Ballys is nice enough, but I have stayed places I have enjoyed more (and some less). After so many years you have pretty much seen everything there is to see as far as shopping and sightseeing, so that leaves shows, gambling and eating, and we did our share of that. So here are some pictures:

The mountains were wonderful to wake up to every morning, as well as the leaning tower of Bellagio (!). I warned you these would be awful pictures... It is on my agenda to stay at the Bellagio because one of my all time favorite movies is Ocean's Eleven. Oh, how I love that movie, I must have seen it ten times!

The grounds of Ballys.

Next door is Paris, where we stayed last year. I loved it. On our first day we had lunch here at Mon Ami Gabi.

The Husband frowns on me for taking pictures of the food, so I take pictures of the menu...

All of the wives went to see Cher at Caesar's Palace. It was a very good show. I have never been a big fan of Cher musically, but I have loved her movies and I loved the Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour from the Seventies, from which clips were shown. And true to form, she wore elaborate costumes and head pieces in almost all of her numbers. She isn't much of a dancer, but the scenery was fantastic, as were the backup dancers. She's quite cute too. She said, "People are always asking me why I keep making comebacks..." Pause. "WELL WHAT ELSE AM I GOING TO DO???". Again, my pics aren't great, but she is really pretty, even with the surgical enhancements.

The Husband and I went to the Venetian for dinner one night at a restaurant called Buschon. Last year we ate at Mario Batalli's restaurant in the Venetian and after my stay at the Bellagio, this is next on my list. Then I will be satisfied not having to go to Vegas again. There are other places to see (ask Christine)!! The entire hotel is one big work of art.

The Husband in the entrance.

A terrible picture of an outdoor walkway.

Now these pictures are even worse because they are pictures of pictures. They are instamatic since my camera was doing so poorly. These are group pictures at some of our joint dinners.

I would be the blonde.

And so we arrived back home a few days ago and I am $400.00 up. I probably blogged more when I was there than I do at home just to pass the time!! I saved money that way too!!

I plan to be in some events next week now that things have slowed down again. I want to thank everyone that responded so kindly to my last post about my mother in law. I am sure she is up in heaven smiling right now at all of you. And I also want to let you know that my dad is being evaluated medically before starting radiation and they think he will be finished with the treatment by the holidays. I am so happy. His doctor says that he is healthy and fit and so I am hoping and praying for the best. Thank you again so much!

WRITER'S CHALLENGE #1

Today I am joining a new event created by Lori at Family Trees May Contain Nuts, which is a Writer's Challenge. Our topic for this first challenge is 'What is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for you'. There is a growing list of ladies joining this event, so if you want to sign up, visit Lori for the details. The list is getting longer, and you can already read some of the very special posts that have been written, including Lori's, which just brought tears to my eyes.

Below you will see a picture of a young Blondie sitting on her little Toyota GT with two little boys. It is in the driveway of the home I now live in and have lived in for the past 24 years. You see, at the time this picture was taken, I did not live there and I had no clue that I would, or that these two precious little boys would soon become my sons.

I was dating my future husband who had been widowed the year before after ten years of marriage and was left with his two beautiful sons as a single dad. His wife had died after a three year battle with breast cancer. Jeffrey and Kevin were just two and three years old at that time. She was only thirty years old and although I never met her, I learned she was a spunky little Irish girl that loved life, motherhood and family. And what a wonderful family she had...

After dating my husband for awhile, we became engaged. Of course it was a delicate situation with Patty's family, especially her parents. My husband was extremely close to them. I hadn't met them yet and not only was their son~in~law getting married to this little blonde, this little blonde would become the mother of their grandchildren...

I met my husband's inlaws about 4 months before the wedding. They are a very tight knit, warm and loving 100% Irish family. Considering they had just lost their oldest daughter, it took time for our relationship to grow. But just to show you what a class act his mither in law was, she loaned me her pearls to wear on my wedding day...
I don't think I am showing off the pearls here. I think I am hiking up my stockings!

Our relationship grew as I struggled to become a wife and mother. I went from being a single working girl to a married mother of two little rambunctious boys overnight. And I continued to work full time. I think I earned my mother~ in~ law's respect with my juggling and hopefully, common sense. We began to visit longer when she watched the boys for us and family parties became easier and really a lot of fun. I nearly broke down and cried when she introduced me to some friends as her daughter~in~law. That was really the brass ring for me, and it seemed to open up a million doors. No longer did I feel the need to prove myself to her. We moved on to a closer, more meaningful relationship.

My husband and I had two daughters together over the next 3 years, Emily and Abigail. Nana had a special affinity with Emily, her first granddaughter, saying they were both 'old souls'. I think she was right. Emily pretty much gave everyone trouble except Nana, and not only did they play with toys together that Nana kept at her home, they had long conversations!! When we had Abigail, we gave her my mother in laws name as her middle one.







As I became a mother to her grandsons, , she became more like a mother to me. I never once, not once, had a moment where I had the need to complain about her, be put off, or feel anything but great love for her. I think she was proud of the way I raised the boys. She would ask me what to get them for birthdays and Christmas, what their baseball schedules were, how they were doing in school. She always treated me like I had been there mother since day one.








My mother in law passed a way a few years ago. She was bedridden for awhile. I would go over and sit by her bed and we'd talk until she got tired and then I would read her favorite magazine, Bon Appetite, while she dozed. Near the end I would gently lift her fragile body up into a sitting position next to me on the bed to help her circulation. She abhorred pain medication. In her last hours I repeated over and over how much I loved her and thanked her for all the wonderfully nice ways she had always been to me. This tiny little lady, one whom I was so afraid of twenty years ago, someone I wanted so badly to please and gain the respect of, I now held her hand, laid my head on her chest and cried. I never had to try to gain these things from her. Her heart had plenty of room in it for me.


xoxo
Jane

I was told by my good friend at Aunt Amelia's Attic, that a wonderful young girl named Nancy is sitting by the bedside of her husband who has been suffering from a terrible infection for over a month. This poor man can not even speak. Please visit Nancy at Cold Springs Studio with some words of encouragement and a few prayers. And visit my 'Aunt'. She is one fantastic lady! Thank you friends...

WHITE WEDNESDAY: AROUND THE HOUSE

Today I have linked up with Faded Charm Cottage for White Wednesday. It has been a gray, blustery day here in Chicago and I spent it in my jammies; blogging, straightening up, blogging, a little nap, blogging, a shower. This really is a great way to do it without getting that numb feeling in your bum and wondering when you last spoke to a real person! It was so depressing outside, I decided to make a nice meal in the crock pot. This is another great thing to do while blogging~let the crock pot do the work. I cleared out the vegetable bin; potatoes, carrots, onion, squash and tomatoes. I threw in a few pork chops for protein and some curry, cumin and nutmeg for a sweet little twist. Oh, it smelled so good. I put the tomatoes in whole and they just sort of burst and went everywhere. It was a very good meal.

So I thought to myself this evening, as the wind was blowing like crazy, this is a good time to just walk around the house and take some pictures and do a post, and then I thought White Wednesday would be fun. The news said we are having 40 mph winds. Wow!! If my picture is not in the Weatherpixie icon, it means I was blown right out, along with that little Golden Retriever that is not mine. So here is what I have:

Above and below are pictures of some of the blingy jewelry I have on my dresser. There are some white pearls so I thought I would include this in my post. I hope I am not cheating! Christine from Christine's Home And Travel Adventures did a post on how she stores her jewelry. I had asked her because i know she has a lot of beautiful pieces and I am so disorganized when it comes to my jewelry. Plus, Emily & Abby mix theirs with mine, which is okay because we all have the same taste and there is more of a selection this way. So I bought one of these jewelry trees, which is so cute. It can hold anything; necklaces, rings, bracelets, earrings... I love it. I also keep a little crystal dish to hold other items. I like how the light reflects off all of this.

It still looks messy, but it is an organized mess!

I have a thing for birds like most everyone. These are little white chippy birds that I keep on a chippy table in my living room. They are so cute!

This is a little pitcher and jar of shells that I made. Abby brought the shells home from Florida after this last Christmas. I noticed a bad odor coming from her room about 2 weeks after getting back home and discovered her shells in her half~unpacked suitcase. Ooooh...(nose wrinkling). I cleaned them up a bit in some bleach and water and decided to display them in a jar but instead of layering them with sand, I used strips of crinkled, recycled packing paper. I am not 'green' by any means and I need to work on that, but I was appalled that the bags of sand that they sell at Target are 'Made In China'. I'm not political and maybe I need to work on it. I guess I did. When it is 'Made In America', I will buy it!!!

This is a pretty little vignette on a cabinet in my living room. The pitcher needs to be changed out for fall (it is still doing it's spring thing!!), and I have St. Francis there, who I believe I am a true follower of. Someday I will do an animal stories post. I like this photo because of the reflection (I was on the floor). The lace curtains are white, I made them from a vintage tablecloth years ago and you can see one of my favorite pictures by the front door. It has white matting.

This is a pretty dove lamp on the upper level of the cabinet. I fell in love with this in Naples and had it shipped home.

My good china stacked in a glass cabinet.

These candles are actually vanilla and are a creamy color, but the lighting is making them yellow. Hope I'm not cheating! I bought these fleur de lis candle pillars last week at a local gift shop. They were marked down to $22.50 for the set. They are heavy silver plate. The candles should be pillar but I need to find a good drip less candle before I trust anything on these candlesticks.

A stone covered birdhouse which was a gift from my sister a long time ago. Isn't it pretty?

And finally a lamp with a green and white ticking stripe shade. One of my favorites.

I want to thank you for joining me on White Wednesday. Be sure to visit all of the other participants showing off all of their pretty whites. It is a nice reprieve from all of the bright fall colors we are seeing now. Have a wonderful day!

xoxo

Jane

VIVA LAS VEGAS, THE WIVES & BIG HINTS

Well, here we go again. Off to Las Vegas, an annual trip with The Husband and group of people integral to his business. And The Wives. Do you feel the same way that I do about The Wives? You know, your husband has some friends and the next thing you know, you are all getting together and you get to meet The Wives. They are nice enough, you make small talk, sometimes you are even thrown into more er....intimate situations with them, such as having them as guests at your lakehouse. You are now in what was a familiar setting, only with The Wives running around in jammies and various attire, borrowing dental floss and asking for Spiced Chai Tea at breakfast... Well, sure, I would have to be a zombie, not to mention terribly ungracious not to make attempts to befriend these Wives, but when they leave, I have a hard time controlling the urge to do the happy dance. So off we go to Vegas. Over the years I have perfected the Blondie Code of Vacation Rules. Blondie does not like to have breakfast (true). Blondie likes to watch Oprah and takes an inordinate amount of time to get ready for the day (true, and if the hair will not straighten properly, I don't have lunch either). Blondie thinks that all trips require a 2 hour siesta from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. (True, I like to read, talk to the kids on the phone, order room service or hit the mini bar for one of those mini bottles of wine and a bag of M & M's). I like to emerge about 7:00 p.m. (like an nocturnal animal) for our group dinner where inevitably, The Wives are seated at one end of the table together. I get to hear all the gossip about their day at the pool or in the sauna or when they got their facials or massages in the salon. They try to include me in plans to shop and I graciously manage to get out of that because The Husband you know, has a black belt in shopping, and we have to do that together.

This is not so much the ordeal I am making it out to be. These are all very nice women. I am just sort of on the shy side and don't open up to people that well. But I have had one on one lunches with a few of the ladies here in Chicago, and if the food is good, I actually enjoy myself. Anyway, we leave Saturday for 5 days in Sin City. The Wives and I will be seeing Cher. Ooh la la. Hasn't she retired about six times already? I am excited to see her costumes and headdresses.

I take you from the bright lights of Vegas to a rainy day in Three Oaks, Michigan where The Husband and I stopped for breakfast Saturday morning on the way to the lake. This is one of those quaint little somewhat artsy towns in the middle of nowhere. We ate at Bailey's (horrible picture above. There was storefront seating so I just couldn't stand in front and take a picture with people eating right there and it never occurred to me to go across the street). The owner is French and there were some very cool things on the menu. I had Eggs Benedict over Crab Cakes. Imagine...Three Oaks, Michigan! I wish you could click on larger but somehow my computer ate up that option and I don't know how to fix it.

Two little toney shops across the street...

...and an art gallery

...and a butcher shop. Think you love the pig in the window??

Aren't these cute?? There is something that sort of makes my arm hairs stand on end when I see something adorable like this, all the while knowing they are selling the same thing inside in a much different form.

Now this is something that I have wanted to post about for the last few weeks. Blondie bought a sewing machine! I really didn't want to say those words. I want to say The Husband bought me a sewing machine and I will tell you why. A few years back I went through a time in my life when I was really down in the dumps. One day The Husband came home, dragging in an artist easel, a beautiful cherry box with a huge assortment of oils and acrylics and watercolors. Bags of pastel chalks and colored pencils, the finest brushes and canvas. He set it all up and said, "Paint!". I thought he had lost his mind. Years ago I used to draw and paint, but I sort of fell out of it. He was trying so hard to get me off my bum and do something. Well, sadly, I didn't do much but Emily whipped off a few oil paintings in no time at all. Okay, to speed this along, he bought me a new bike this summer so that we could ride together, and again, to get me off my bum. This is going pretty well, but I could be doing better. And then he surprised me with a fishing pole a few weeks ago and I am embarrassed to say that although I love to fish, I haven't tried it out yet (said very meekly...). But Emily tried it. Somehow this all reminds me of that saying 'A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle'. Hmmm...

So anyway, for the longest time I have been wanting to sew. On a machine. I could kick myself for not trying harder when we had sewing in Home Economics in high school. Threading the machine and following the pattern really boggled my mind. But now when I see the beautiful creations our blogger friends make, I really long to do the same. So I hinted to The Husband that I'd like a machine. I googled machines and showed him all of the ones on sale. No response. I bought the book Sewing For Dummies. He nodded and said, "Good idea". What I really wanted was for him to buy it for me! Why? Because if I failed, it was his idea!

It didn't happen. Last week I went out to Joann's and a lovely girl helped me pick out this beauty. See Martha on the front:

I have to think she would approve of my endeavor. Heck, she may have the same machine. I can see her whipping out pillows and curtains when she is not standing knee deep in a cranberry bog or collecting rare eggs from her ostrich coop. But here is the thing...I don't have a clue what to do with this bad boy. The only thing standing between me and 7 sets of curtains for the Summerhouse is the User Manual. And I am terrified. The Husband really hasn't said anything. A few days after I bought it, he said, "I see you took it out of the box." Last week he said, "Oh, you put the cover on it." (Have to keep dust from collecting). But I am going to do it!! I have a very adventurous To Do list that I am working on. Sewing is at the top followed by learning to ski and then para~sailing...I mean it. It's a new improved Blondie.

But first things first. I need to go shopping for some 'Cher' worthy outfits and then I am going tanning. Sewing can wait until after Vegas...

Have a happy week!!

xoxo

Jane

IT'S FALL Y'ALL!! AND A TABLESCAPE!!

It's a fall party, hosted by Rhoda at Southern Hospitality!! This is a wonderful way to see every one's fall decorations at one time and get inspiration to create even more. My decorating started at Crackle Barrel, as you can see from the above photo. Yes, those are my bags. And the big red one is much lighter than when I went in! I wasn't planning on doing any harm to my wallet, and then I saw that some of the fall items were discounted to make room for Christmas decorations. Oh my! The funny part is, as I was looking at the dishes, promising The Husband that I wouldn't go overboard, he started to pick up matching pieces saying things like, "You have to have the matching salt and pepper shakers."!! Well knock me over with a feather!

And look at this sweet little squirrel holding his acorns, which are the salt and pepper shakers! How cute! No wonder hubby loved it!

We were on our way to the Lakehouse, so once we got there I got busy setting up a little tablescape with my new little dishes. Nothing like playing house at my age! I decided again to use some veggies since they went over so well in my last tablescape...

Aren't these eggplant beautiful? My friend Sue, who owns the lake farm stand told me to simply roast these right on the grill as they are, no foil whatsoever. They turned out gorgeous. I sliced them in half, warmed up a bit of salsa that I had made that morning with the tomatoes I grew out behind the Summerhouse. I spooned that over and then sprinkled them with some grated mozzarella cheese. Oh, delicious!

At Cracker Barrel ,I bought the brown salad or dessert plate that has little leaves and acorns textured on them and the sunflower bowls. I also bought cute little sunflower S & P shakers, but when I saw how cute Mr. Squirrel looked with his acorns, I used those in the tablescape. The white dishes are my everyday Gibson, the napkins are from Marshall's. The tablecloth is vintage (and in need of some TLC sewing repairs).

I love this little squirrel candle holder. He is bigger than he looks, about 6 inches high and he has a nice gold rubbed finish.

I haven't done much decorating outdoors at the lake as I spend so much time in my English garden, so I picked up a few pots of yellow mums from Sue and she gave me some small bushel barrels to put them in as I don't like the containers they come in. This is my front porch. I took this picture just as the sun was coming up Monday morning. The Husband and I now stay until then and he leaves for work once we get back to Chicago.

I bought this little metal envelope container at Michael's and filled it with silk flowers. This is also on my front porch at the lake (at sunrise...)!!

This is a little grouping of playful squirrels hanging out on a candy dish and two candle holders. I am trying to remember where I bought these... it was recently and it was at one of my regular haunts. Maybe someone else has seen them. I made a mistake in my last tablescape and said that the votive holders were from Dollar Tree and they were actually from Walgreens. I apologize to anyone who went to Dollar Tree looking for them. I received so many compliments on them. This is why I am not going to guess at where I bought these.

Another view...

And finally the wreath on my front door that says Hello and Goodbye!!

Thank you Rhoda for all of your hard work organizing this party. I had a lot of fun and I can't wait to go knocking on doors to see what all my friends have in store for fall decor!! And thank you Susan, at Between Naps On The Porch for being our gracious hostess of Tablescape Thursday!

Happy Fall, Y'All!!!

xoxo

Jane