Impulse Shopper

We needed a microwave oven for Greenbrier. While I was in MP John went shopping for one. Instead of one microwave for here he decided to get two microwaves and a new gas cooktop for here.

Nolan's Fun Play House

Nolan follows in Dana and my footsteps. He has rearranged this closet at the guest house four times in the past hour. He seem to be happiest with his Lightning McQueen slippers front and center and appears to prefer an asymmetrical arrangement.

Surprises

It is fun when you scroll through old messages on your iPhone and find a picture in one of those messages that you may have missed. That was the case this morning when I ran across this photograph of Kate and I with Kate wearing the Van shoes that a friend of Kyle's had sent her. From the looks of her smile they agree with her.
I hope the little Autumn pieces I picked up for her yesterday agree with her too

An Autumn Afternoon

A fresh hair cut, a little shopping at Nordstrom, and a little lunch in the bistro make for a lovely afternoon

Family Breakfast

Good morning blog world. When my table is full my heart is full and I hope yours is too.

Followers

I am feeling quite honored that one of the celebrities I admire is following my "Outfits I Like" boards on Pintrest

Autumn Hydrangeas

Adding freshness to the front hall with the Autumn display of our Oak Leaf Hydrangeas.
Loving using my iPhone Blogger App to take photographs, add some text, and post all while standing up.
Blogging is fun again!

Excerpt From Betty Lou's New book

I love the way these pillow cases are monogrammed with golf terms.

Another test

This time I am trying to post using the blogger app on my I phone

I phone test

Let's see if this works.

Updates

 Added the Navy and Nantucket Red old oriental rug to the living room.

The Whale Runner from Cuttler's adds a nice touch to the nautical twin bedroom.

 Happy Monday morning!  We had a busy weekend here, how was yours?  We started off boat shopping Saturday morning and found a beautiful old Formula Cruiser that we think will be just the thing for putzing around the lake with the grand's this summer and beyond.

 Sunday we headed up north to celebrate Nolan's birthday.  Dana had a nice lunch of chili with all the toppings; cheese, sour cream, and scallions, plus yummy corn bread.  Nolal loves cupcakes so instead of a birthday cake she made red velvet cupcakes that she adorned with Cat 'n The Hat flags that she also made. 

 Pippa and Aunt Taylor having a quiet moment at the birthday party.

After the birthday party in MP we stopped in to visit some of Pippa's cousins on our way home.  Bella, (pictured above) loved her.  The three other cousins were not quite so sure that Pippa was going to fit in.  All in all they had a wonderful time. 

Not all was fun this weekend.  Dear friends of ours lost their 42 year old son as a result of a snowmobile accident a week ago last Saturday and the service was Saturday night.  It was a beautiful service with many wonderful speakers that, along with our friends strong faith, brought some peace to them during this sad, sad time.

Hug your loved ones my friends and rejoice in this beautiful day that The Lord has made.  

A Puppy And A Happiness Jar

 Finally a fairly decent picture of Pippa to share with you all.  Isn't she just the cutiest?  God made her this cute to make up for how awful she acts ;)

 At the kennel for the Rochester Leader Dog Academy they have a wall of the breeder dogs so you can see who your puppies parents are.  Here is Pippa's Dad Gabe, a fairly white, yellow Labradore Retriever.  I think she resembles him.

 This is her beautiful, Golden Retriever Mom Abby.  Hopefully Pippa will take on some of Abby's Golden traits as she ages.  She has longish hair on the back of here legs, ears, and chest so I think there is a good chance that she will.

On another note, the other night I went to Homegoods looking for another blue and white lamp for up north and found one that was recommended by one of my pintrest friends, but, unfortunately, it was too big for where I need one.  Over in the accessories section though they had two of these happiness jars that I also need for the mantle so I picked them up.  Unhappily, when we got home and lifted the back door hatch of our SUV one of my happiness jars fell out and smashed to bits.....grrrrrrr.  I have done this so many time and it makes me so mad every time.  Psssst ~ I didn't open the hatch from the inside, but John did......Not that I am blaming him though.  Ok, I am, but anyhow......Any friends, family or fellow bloggers in the Rochester, MI area, if you see one of these at a local Homegoods I would appreciate a heads up so I can replace the one that I (john) broke.  Thanks!!!

Meet Miss Pippa

Our darling little puppy from The Leader Dog For The Blind Program is now in the house.

She is the cutest thing you can imagine. We are so excited to be able to be a part of this wonderful program.

Ina Garten Homemade Chicken Stock

Good morning.  There is a big pot of homemade chicken stock (see above) simmering on the stove and the smell is delicious.  It is kind of a welcome home smell for John who has been out of town for a few days.

Yesterday on my way home from up north I stopped at Whole Foods to get groceries.  I knew I wanted to make some stock so I checked my Iphone for Ina Garten's recipe to make sure we had all the ingredients needed.  Well, for the life of me I couldn't find it.  As a result I am going to post it here then pin it to Pintrest so I am never without the recipe again.  I make stock occasionally just using what I have but I picked up Ina's, "barefoot contessa ~ how easy is that?, cook book at TJ Max the other day and wanted to try her recipe.  I have one other barefoot contessa cook book and found her recipes in it to be scrumptious.

homemade chicken stock

via: how easy is that?

(Anybody know why she doesn't capitalize anything?)

Makes 6 Quarts

3  (5-pound) roasting chickens

3  large yellow onions, unpeeled, quartered

6  carrots, unpeeled, halved

4  celery stalks with leaves, cut in thirds

4  parsnips, unpeeled, cut in half (optional)

20 sprigs fresh parsley

15 sprigs fresh tyme

20  sprigs fresh dill

1  head garlic, uppeeled, cut in half crosswise

2 T  kosher salt

2 t  whole black pepercorns

Place the chickens, onions, carrots, celery parsnips, parsley, thyme,

dill, garlic, salt, and peppercorns in a 16-20 quart stockpot.  Add 7 quarts of water and

bring to a boil.  Simmer uncovered for 4 hours.  Strain the entire contents of the pot through a colander and discard

the solids.

Pack in quart containers and chill overnight.  Refrigerate

for up to 5 days or freeze for up to 3 months.

A Snowy Morning

I was so looking forward to seeing the "S" monogram boxwoods in my front yard get their spring trim soom, but this morning we woke  up to winter weather storm advisories.  Looks like it may be awhile now before yard maintainence commences.

Leader Dogs For The Blind

We just got word that the puppy we are going to raise for Leader Dogs For The Blind is ready for us to pick up.

We had a choice of a Black Lab and a Golden Retriever/Lab mix.  John chose the later.  We don't have any idea what color it will be but I'm sure we will love it regardless of what color it is.

Next Sunday we pick her up.  You can bet I will post pictures....We are very excited to be able to help Leader Dogs For The Blind by raising a puppy up until the age of 1 when it will then go into obedience training and become avaliable for a client in need of assistance if the dog qualifies.  There are strict guidelines that need to be adhered to.  John has been studying them and will be the dog whisperer.....I will be the dog petter.

Inspiration From Tina

Oh I love this photograph enlargement feature on blogger......Are there any other neat features that I missed out on while I was away from blogging that you can think of?  Do share if you get a minute...

Well, do you all know Tina at The Enchanted Home?  She has a dream house that she has been building and she has shared the journey with her blog readers.  She is more than generous with sources for all kinds of construction items including right down to cabinet hardware.  She has broadened my base of reference in decor.  For example, before Tina I would have been more than happy to have a cute bathroom with maybe a little wallpaper.  Post Tina, all I can think of while doing the bathroom up north is floor to ceiling marble...You should see the beautiful marble variations Tina shares on her blog that she is using in her house.....Well, my little place up north is getting a very scaled down version of http://theenchantedhome.blogspot.com/2012/02/random-musings-on-saturday-afternoon.htmlbut I am loving the wallpaper that she is thinking about using in her kitchen powder room and may use that as inspiration for our guest bathroom.  

So, this morning I go to The Enchanted Home blog for my morning dose of gorgeous and was inspired to change thing up a little bit here at our house.  Tina put some big blue and white urns on her island that I thought looked great so I went around the house and found a pair of urns to put on our island too.  What do you thing?

Hum,,,not sure what is going on with the link feature here but I hope you can find your way to Tina's from this long underlined link that inserted itself into this post.????  

Estate of Grace

 Tory Burch's new Southampton House.  Have you seen it yet?  I believe these photographs of it are from Vogue Magazine.  Come on in and look around.

 The house with an avenue of sugar maples leading to the main entrance.  Isn't this just gorgeous????

 The solarium which I think was coordinated by Bunny Williams husband John Rosselli.  Gorg

 Hummmm, I think I just learned about a new blogger feature.  Something popped up under this picture and showed a number of sizing options.  I clicked on ex large and this is what I got.  Cool.  Anyway, it also deleted the picture of a table in the pool house, but moving forward.....The huge picture above is the formal approach to the wood paneled library.

 Here is Tory in her dining room with custom designed panels. 

 One end of the formal ball room enlivened by Tory for her modern lifestyle.

 A bedroom featuring two of my favorite things, Imari ironstone, and floral wallpaper and upholstery from Colefax & Fowler.

Finally a relaxing picture of the trellis pool house and the swimming pool.

I went back up in this post and found out that if you click on a picture that bar will appear for you to enlarge your blog pictures.  Very nice feature blogger!  Thank you.

50 classics for your closet

Via Matchbook ezine, page 38, matchbook's february issue.

This list has been pinned and repinned all over Pintrest.  The first time I saw it I glanced through it and thought to myself that I am pretty well covered in the classics department.  I thought I would post it on here to help with my spring cleaning and to record what I have and where I need to fill in. 

 Starting with footwear, I pulled out all the ballet flats I could find from around the house.  Seems like I have quite a few ballet flats....Above is the curated version.

Here they are lined up on the top two shelves of my shoe rack in our closet.  The next item on the footwear list is loafers....hummmm, a couple of shelves of loafers also made it back in the closet.  Most of my sandals are at the cottage and the few I have here are lined up around the perimiter of the closet on John's side.....He loves that of course.  The next two selves are sandals and black pumps...The tall boots are in another section of the closet but I have not gone through them yet.  Here in Michigan we generally wear boots only in the winter.  This winter has been the exception and my boots have gotten very little wear.  I need to keep that in mind when I begin to go through them to make sure I don't get rid of too many pair.