A Few Cottage Pictures

 Hello all.  Last weekend was rainy, cold, and windy but at sunset on Saturday night the sun came out and cast the most beautiful gold glow over everything at Dana's cottage.

 She is still fluffing the inside so here are a few pictures of the outside of the cottage.

 When we were up north over Memorial Weekend we scoured all the antique shops in Northwestern Michigan and we were able to fill the front porch with a lot of nice old wicker and ratan pieces.

Here is a sneak peak at what is to come of the interior of the cottage.  It is going to be adorable! 

Forget-Me-Not

Hope you had a good Memorial Day weekend!  We had a great time at the cottage, but we were so busy hunting, gathering, and rearranging that there was no time to photograph the results.

So, I greet you this morning with this picture taken in my laundry room of a Forget-Me-Not plate that hangs over the dryer, by the window, and with an appoligy for no cottage pictures.

Back To Boyne City

Wow, what crazy weather we are having here in the USA!   Our hearts and prayers go out to all those in harms way and those recovering from the devistation caused by the tornadoes and flooding.
 
Hopefully Memorial Day weekend will end up being nice and peaceful.

Tomorrow we are going to Boyne City on beautiful Lake Charlevoix in the north-west portion of the lower penninsula of Michigan for the Memorial Day weekend.  Our family spent summers there for many years before relocating to Harbor Springs.  After selling the cottage there we were renting most summers.  This year we are back in Boyne City and happy as can be about it.  Our daughter and son-in-law bought a cute little cottage there right across the street from where our son and his wife keep their boat.

I will be back next week with pictures.

Mother's Day

Wishing you all a very happy Mother's Day.

This will be the first year that my sister and I will be celebrating Mother's Day without our beautiful Mother but she will always be in our heart.

The Pear Trees About To Burst

The first signs of Spring are beginning to appear after weeks of cold temperatures and rain. This picture, out our front door, shows the Bradford Pear trees that line our streets about to burst into full bloom.

If you disregard the mess that my garden is in, because it has been too cold and wet to get out there, you can get a glimpse out our back door of the tree lined street ready to put on its finest show of the seasons.

Hope things are warming up in your part of the world if you are in the Northern Hemisphere.
I am sooo over this cold weather!

Home Made Lemoncello

A week ago we went to an Italian Cocktail & Dinner Party where the host and hostess set up a Make-Your-Own Lemoncello bar. They provided all the lemons, canning jars, decorative jars, the directions to complete our Lemonchello at home, and the little bags to carry it all home.

While at the party we each pealed the skin off of five lemons and put them in pint sized jars. After that we added a cup of any kind of vodka, that we chose and were instructed to bring to the party, into the jar.

The rest of the instructions were printed out on these cute cards that were attached to our take-out bags. If you click on the above picture you can see them close up.

Because we had a busy weekend I am a few days late in completing the process but I don't think that will cause any major problems with the mixture.

This morning I boiled the sugar syrup, let it cool to room temperature, added the marinated lemon mixture, then strained it into the decorative bottles. It was a little tricky straining the mixture and a bit of it went down the drain but all in all it was time consuming but easy.

If you are looking for a theme for a Dinner Party I would highly recommend incorporating making your own Lemoncello into the program. It was a big hit at the party and it takes care of your party favors in a big way too.

My whole house smells lemony delicious too!

Royal Wedding

Congratulations to the Royal Couple!

I can see a nap in my near future. Up this morning at 2:30am so as not to miss a minute of the Royal Wedding festivities and what a treat it was. Everything was so beautiful and the memory of the handsome grooms Mother made it very emotional.

Did you watch? What did you think?

Family Love

Hope you all had a good Easter weekend. The weather in Mt. Pleasant was beautiful for Dad's annual Easter Egg Hunt. Here he is posing with his nine great-grandchildren.

We love you Dad and thank you for all the wonderful memories you have created for us all over the years!

Easter Basket Prep

We use the same baskets year after year for our nine grandchildren, but four of the baskets are missing this year. OK, who took their baskets home last year? Hehe. The twins and their brother and sister won't be with us this year so we combined the missing four baskets into one that we will deliver to them tonight so the problem of the missing baskets is solved for this year.

Grampa G went with me this year to get Easter basket goodies. Predictably, the baskets this year will be filled only with candy. Parents B E W A R E ! I tried, I really did, to add the usual non-sugary treats like usual but Grampa won so good luck with the kids bouncing off the walls Easter morning ;)

Thankfully they won't get their baskets until after church, a dose of healthy food at brunch, and the Easter egg hunt at Grampa-Great's.

I hope all your Easter prep's are going well if you are preparing for this holiest of days for Christians around the world.

Blessings and much love.

Majolica Flowers and A Good Report

It is another rainy, overcast day here so this picture of our china closet in the dining room is the closest thing we have to a garden view around these parts.

On a happier note, this morning was my weigh-in day after my first week on WeightWatcher's and I was very excited when the scale reported that I had lost 4.6 lbs.

Stella & Dot

What a surprise it was when I spotted a vendor for stella & dot at a gymnastic meet a couple of weeks ago. Anyway, to pass the time between events I ordered a few pieces that I had had my eye on for sometime on-line. Saturday it arrived.

I am looking forward to putting some outfits together to go with all these cute pieces. Any suggestions are welcome.

It is snowing like crazy here is SE Michigan. Not very conducive to thinking spring outfits....Yuck!

Prayer

Since 2000 these two books have been an important part of my prayer life.

This morning the Power of A Praying Parent seemed like it needed updating. The covers were worn off and the pages were pretty tattered from eleven years of use. I joyfully saw that Stormie Omartian has a book for praying for your adult children and decided to order it to replace the Power of A Praying Parent.

I love The Power Prayer books and look forward to checking out this new one. Have you used any of Stormie Omartain's books?

Alternatives

A few adjustments to an English Breakfast to make it more WeightWatcher's friendly.

1. Use one whole egg and one egg white instead of two whole eggs.

2. Spray the pan with Pam instead of using butter.

3. Either eliminate the sausage or replace it with turkey sausage.

4. Replace the white flour English Muffin with one half of a whole wheat English Muffin.

5. Replace the Smucker's Strawberry Preserves that are in the rabbit dish with the American Spoon Foods Strawberry-Rhubarb sugarless preserves that Dana gave me for my birthday.

6. Omit the butter on the muffin.

OR

Sit at the place setting next to this one and just have coffee ;) That is probably not a great idea.

Happy Saturday.

Charmed

At the top of my wish list is a charm bracelet. After consulting Tracey Zabar's book for ideas I have found The One!

This recent purchase at the Tiffany in Las Vegas to commemorate John's jackpot win has precipitated moving a new charm bracelet to the top of my list.

At a 6mm width, with a pretty end piece, and an insignificant clasp, this bracelet (also available in a length that works for me) meets the "Charmed Bracelets" requirements suggested by Tracey.

Success

On the way home from up north earlier this week the usual stop at the Ralph Lauren Outlet provided several needful items. Some things for the house, a few fresh Polo shirts for John, and a cheap alternative to one of the blouses I lost on the plane on the way to Las Vegas last month rounded out my shopping list.

The beautiful weather we had yesterday encouraged me to throw open the windows and get organized. When ever I am away, even for just a couple of days, it seems like the house is a mess when I return. Anyway, I unpacked and started the laundry first thing yesterday morning. By noon I was ready to wash our new sheets that we desperately needed. Even though I love old broken-in sheets it was a delight to climb into bed after a busy day and to fall asleep on the new, freshly laundered sheets.

On another note, my first day of WeightWatchers was a success. I felt like I was eating all day but I managed to stay within my points range and fulfilled all of the nutritional requirements. After a trip to the grocery store I calculated and marked the products that I use most regularly with their point values. I am thinking this will help me get used to the new PointsPlus system that WWs is using now. So, one day down and 160 days to go. Wish me luck!

Back At It

Have you ever been on WeightWatchers? Ever since the birth of my second child when ever I needed to take off a few pounds WeightWatchers has been the only way that guaranteed me any maintainable success.

Other weight loss programs have lured me in with their quick loss tempting lingo (Atkins, South Beach, Mayo Clinic 3 day diet), their lifestyle changing promise (Mediterranean, French Women Don't Get Fat), or their strictly defined, buy this, cook this, eat this, and lose weight, easy directions (Saving Dinner) are examples. All of these have merit but I have never been able to maintain any of them long enough to get me back to the weight that is healthy and comfortable for me personally.

So, while I have started and failed miserably at WW's more times than I can count, I am giving it a go again. They have a new method of tracking the food you eat so that will take some effort to get used to but I am committed to it. The reappearance of cute Lilly Shifts in my closet, the up-coming pool season around the corner, and my Lilly two-pieces bathing suits coming out of winter storage will be reminders that it is time to get serious.

Happenings

Happy Birthday Uncle Bill!

One of my favorite Uncles turned ninety last week and he gathered about seventy five of his friends and his family to celebrate on Sunday. He and his beautiful wife, who is two years older than he is, stood and greeted guests for more than and hour as the party got underway. He gave an inspiring speech in his strong loud voice thanking everyone for coming and kicking off the celebration. His strength and elegance gives credence to the statement....

Ninety is the new seventy!

Hopefully the weather on the east coast today will cooperate so our daughter-in-law can make it home today after spending an unintended night in Queens when a canceled flight left he stranded there overnight.

Our little peacemaker, Blake, receives his Peacemaker Award tonight. In our large rowdy family he is the peacemaker among the grandchildren. I guess that role has translated well into society too. Good for you Blake.

Congratulations to all the little peacemakers receiving the award tonight. Lord knows we need you all!

Weekend Plan

Isn't this book tied up with a big orange bow cute? Carrie came and spent the night last night to be closer to the airport for her flight to Florida this morning and brought me this cookbook that extends the birthday celebrating for another week......

We have a busy weekend coming up. The Masters on TV, John is heading downtown for opening day for the Detroit Tigers, I am getting ready to host family overnight to be close to Bridgid's gymnastic meet in the morning, then off to MP later Saturday for my Uncle's ninetieth birthday party Sunday, and to watch Blake receive a Peace Makers award Monday night.

Hope your weekend is as event filled as you want it to be.

The Kennedys' Miniseries

Are you watching The Kennedys' Miniseries? As you can see by the photograph and stack of Jackie books on my end table by where I sat watching the movie I am a long time Kennedy fan.

I have been looking forward to this move ever since first hearing about it while in production. When I heard that the History Chanel had decided not to air it I was not happy. Thankfully the Reelz Chanel picked it up.

Here is a close up of my Jackie books.

This is the envelope from the Whitehouse that my fifty year old picture of JFK came in.

Apparently someone tore the stamp off, I have no idea where it went. The envelope is post marked, "Washington 36, D.C., Aug 16, 8-PM, 1961".

It is strange to think about today that at nine years old I was so taken with the Kennedys' that I would write a letter to the White House asking for a picture and that I knew at that young age they were something special.

So, are you watching and what do you think?

Tea and Silver

The forecast for SE Michigan is dreary with rain predicted through the 15th....Yuck!

Since it looks like we will not be getting outside in our gardens any time in the near future here are some pretty flowers that do not need tending for you today.

A couple of weeks ago John and I went on a rare antiquing excursion and picked up this Crabtree & Evelyn tea set and the silver tray that is sets on. I hope this brightens your day.

Also, apparently it is Tartan Day, or something like that. Anyhow, I am waiting for Scot Meacham Wood over at "The Adventures of Tartanscot" to post what he claims will be an abundance of tartan on his blog today. If you are a tartan lover you might want to check out his blog today to see what he has in store. He is amazing and I am sure his post today will not disappoint.