Barely Blue

My hutch is fun place for me... I change it according to seasons or holidays. I like change and since the hutch is a focal point in the dining room, it gets changed often. This is what I came up with for my post-holidays look. I have used the white dishes and the blue dishes separately, but this is the first I have used them together.

I have been thinking about painting this hutch black. My curio cabinet is oak, but my dining room chairs have a black wash over them and so I think it would be ok.... but.... I really do want dark red walls for this room. So, I am thinking it would be too dark. Now I am thinking about just getting new hardware for the hutch instead. I am concerned about the size of the back plates... it may be hard to get some to cover the area. Just thinkin'...

The blue dishes are Fostoria and they are a gift from my step-mother. They were hers, a gift from her first husband. I have always loved dishes and I think she knew I would treasure these. When I was young, before I was a teen, I would go over to my Dad and Mary's and she would always have the latest Montgomery Ward catalog. I would pour over that catalog and choose dinnerware sets for every day of the week ... the pretty blue and yellow print for Monday, the green mosaic design for Tuesday, and on and on it went. And of course I dreamed of the space to store it all!! I was going to write that now I can't imagine having different dishes for every day, but secretly I am still that little girl that would love it!

These little yogurt cup are part of a set that Rachel got me for my birthday last year... or was it Mother's Day? Anyway, they were from Rachel. She knows the way to my heart. The lid that you can see goes to the urn type piece that is under the doily that you see. We have a few pieces like that that are from Larry's sister, Debbie. Her husband was stationed in Turkey and those were some Turkish tresures we got from them.

The white dishes are a set my Mother-in-law got me for Christmas one year. They have a white on white floral band with a thin sliver band along the edge. For this hutchscape I went with ivy and white gardenia. I love gardenia. It is so delicate.

This is a basket that Rachel made for me for Mother's Day in when she was a Girl Scout. It always makes it into my spring decor... it's just out a little early this year to go with the blue dishes. I think these flowers have been in the basket since she gave it to me. They were just some I had on hand, but I have never changed them.

Spring really is just around the corner. As a Sunday School teacher and since I do the bulletin board in the family center at church I am always looking ahead... Easter and spring are the next things on the plans! Doesn't that make you happy?

"Unshared joy is an unlighted candle."

Thanks for letting me share some of my favorite things with you!

Simple Woman's Daybook

For Today...

Outside my window... a new snow is gently falling, covering the old snow, making everything look fresh and clean again.

I am thankful for... a solid wall next to my front door... Thanks, Robby!

I am thinking... about continuing the remodeling projects in the kitchen with paint and an island install.

From the learning rooms... we need to focus more on proper keyboarding.

From the kitchen... will be a day-late Valentine dinner. I had so much going on last weekend that it just didn't happen. On the menu will be chicken linguine alfredo, carrots, tuscan bread and peanut butter pie for dessert.

I am wearing... a jean skirt and a hot pink sweater.

I am creating... bulletin board ideas for Easter! Easter is the first Sunday in April, so I will put the Easter bb up around the second week in March.

I am going... to work on a new memory verse challenge for my SS class.

I am reading... There Goes the Bride by M.C. Beaton, One Conversation at a Time by D. Michael Henderson, and You Can Double Your Class in Two Years or Less by Josh Hunt.

I am hoping... that Larry's meeting at work goes according to God's Plan.

I am hearing... the news talk about the weather... they tell me to stay home and not go to the gym.... =o)

Around the house... is a total mess. After remodeling projects, I am thankful for the mess, and I am trying to not stress and realize it will take more than one day to get everything done.

One of my favorites... my daughter.

I am remembering... the happiness we felt waking up and knowing Kenzi was in the house... she is so much fun!

A few plans for the week: Put Kenzi's toys back in the attic till next time =o( , paint the kitchen, laundry and ironing (there are mountains!) , and make soup and sweets to take to Missouri to celebrate my Mother-in-law's 70th birthday... shhh, it's a secret!

The picture I am sharing is of one of my favorite people and me. This is Brenda. She is actually my cousin, but she is like a mother, a sister, a friend, a Spiritual Mother, a confidant ... well, just all things good! She does wear rose colored glasses and that is one of her many charms.

I am pondering these words... "Our job in Christian education is not to make smarter sinners. Our job is to make disciples." ~Josh Hunt

Stand

Pray

you never stand taller than when you are on your knees

Yesterday I bought a framed art with this quote in it. I declared it our family quote for the year. We must pray. We can try to make decisions and plan our lives and that is all good. I think the Lord expects us to plan and think ahead. But unless we pray and ask Him where He plans for us to go, what He plans for us to do, what He plans for us to not to do, we cannot be prepared for what comes our way. If we pray, when the trials and temptations come that try to hinder us as we are following Him, it is then that we can stand tall. "Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand." Ephesians 6:13 That's what we have to do to say we have truly planned. Truly prepared. When we can say we have done all, it is because we have prayed.

photo courtesy of angelfire.comu

I'm a Mover!

I was reading Beth Moore's blog and since I came in late in the "conversation" it took me awhile to figure out what she was talking about! She obviously asked whether her readers were movers or non-movers as far as furniture! One person said she had a friend come over and move things around for her then after her friend left she made pencil marks around all the items on her shelves so she would know exactly where to put them back! Funny! My things usually end up in different spots everytime I dust! And then Beth mentioned that some men don't even put their things down after work until they have seen their wife's face to make sure they are in the right house. The house I am in now doesn't leave a lot of moving options. That is very disappointing to someone that was raised that when you clean, you move. If it isn't moved it just doesn't seem as clean. The post brought back wonderful memories..... Larry hollaring out in the middle of the night when he went downstairs to get a drink of water and not knowing the furniture had been moved. (I was a night mover) Or having Robby come down the stairs the morning after the furniture had been moved and he'd stand there on the landing and cry because I had changed things. It was quite funny. I know, I am a horrible Mother for thinking so, but it just was... He does much better with change now. So, what are you? Mover? Non-mover? Daytime? Night-time? I have changed, but probably because of the house. It doesn't get moved as much and well, I am not a night mover any more. Everyone was in bed in those days... these days there's always someone up!

Christmas Eve Dinner

Since we had our family Christmas on the 10th, we decided to invite the Budensiek's over for dinner. With work schedules to consider we chose Christmas Eve. The camera didn't get used much while they were here...

Rachel and Brenna got in a cheesy shot and there was a shot of Vern sleeping on the couch.. she wasn't feeling well and since I am her friend I am not going to show you that picture! That was it as far as people pictures.... how sad!

This morning I told my sister-in-law how to load pictures on here... you know, it has to be done in reverse order... well, between telling her and working on this I had a brain freeze or something. So, these are backwards, but that's ok.... it is just a tablescape.

I didn't want to use a large centerpiece because we had a lot of food to go on the table and we had 10 placesettings. I've had these candles for years and decided to do a variation of something I saw on Shanty2Chic.blogspot.com. You can see the inspiration piece on her 12.22.09 post. I really like it and may someday do it. She has lots of great ideas! I planned to use my cricut, but I found stickers that I had and it saved me some "work." That wonderful ribbon that is on the framed wreath in the living room showed up here, as well as the berries that are popping up all over the house.

I chose the gold brocade tablecloth. I got it on clearance at BBB a couple of years ago and just love it. The plates are Pfaltzgraf Winterberry. The glass dessert dish, that we used for salad, is from Dollar Tree and the chargers were also. The globets are Claret by Libby.

The gold napkins and the napkin rings were more clearance purchases from BBB. Ryan helped a little with putting the table together and chose the napkin placement. It is one of my favorite placements.

It was a time of joy to spend the evening with our friends. The menu included turkey, dressing (not as good as my Daddy's was!)and stuffing , mashed potatoes and gravy, homemeade noodles, green beans, carrots, broccoli slaw, deviled eggs, homemade potato rolls and lots of goodies for dessert! Kathy brought all the good healthy stuff and I did the starches! We played a game exchanging Dollar Tree gifts later in the evening. Don't know who go the "best" gift... think it was a tie... Rachel with the box of rocks, (decorative rocks, of course!) or Pete with the glo-stick jewelry! It was a fun night! Great friends, great memories! We did miss our oldest boys and their girls though!

I decided decorate the chairs. Dollar Tree had amazing Christmas decorations! I got the deer in a 2 pack and I got 3.5 chairs out of a roll of ribbon. I was very happy with the way they turned out. The problem was that they ended up sliding down. I tried to use glue dots to keep them in place, but that didn't work. I will have to work on that. But they were pretty!

Here's the whole table... I loved the dark red, gold and creams. As usual, Mr. Fye asked for someone to please pass the salt and pepper. Hands reached up and then halted as they realized everyone had their own.... he laughed, we groaned... Gotta love 'im!

For a year now I have been waiting for turkey leftovers to make this recipe. I know I could use chicken, but I made it for the first time last year and I used the turkey broth and meat. It was sooo good, and I think it is one of those recipes that I probably would only make once a year anyway. Who knows. Maybe this year I will try it with chicken. Anwyay, this is what we are having for lunch today with cornbread muffins.

White Chili

In a large saucepan cook until tender:

1 T oil

1 medium onion, chopped

1 jalepano pepper, seeded and chopped

2 galic cloves, minced

Stir in:

4 cups chicken broth (0r turkey!)

2 15.5 oz. cans great northern beans, rinsed and drained

2 T parsley

1 T lime juice

1 t cumin

Bring to a boil. Reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occaisionally.

Combine and stir into chili:

2 T corn starch

1/4 c cold water

Add:

2 c cubed cooked chicken (or turkey!)

Bring to boil. Cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened.

Enjoy!

Well, the new year will arrive this week. I am ready for a new year. I am not real big on New Year Goals, but if I were, I have one I am already working on that will be accomplished hopefully by the first of April! No foolin'! I may gather some thoughts on goals and share them. We'll see. I told Larry last night I am ready to get life back to normal. He asked what that is exactly... don't really know, but I'd like to find out!

This and That

Larry informed me last night that I have several typos in my posts. He was appalled. He couldn't believe I could do such a thing! He even said I used some bad language in my typos... I haven't checked to see what that is, but it is kinda funny.

Do you all have family colors? The other day Rachel and I were talking about my party/wedding planning business and I mentioned that I need to decide on a color scheme. I mentioned that I really like dark red, black and then I like the bling.... much like Natalie's wedding (but a darker red than she had). Rachel said, "Well, those are our family colors... " A lot of what we do and have is in red and black. Larry's business colors were red and black, my kitchen, we wear a lot of black and red. I have red in almost every room in my house. Larry "got" me the picture frame in the picture. It is the direction I want to go in the living room which is open to the kitchen, and again, more red and black, but I also have browns involved, too. (The living room has been birdhouses and a casual cottage feel.) Maybe I should branch out to some other color.... but then would it be "me"? (By the way, my business name is "A Mari Celebration." ) Does your family have colors that it seems to migrate to? Colors that just catch your eye when thinking about your family? Robby's bedroom before he got married was deep red and black lacquer, but now their home is mostly browns and creams.

This is another funny thing... I found it funny... I hope you won't find it offensive... We went to Buca di Peppo for Natalie and Kurt's rehearsal dinner. Now that I think about it there were two things... They brought out calamari (the boys were eating it up until Rob got a whole "baby" one and Ry stopped practically mid-bite, he didn't know what he was eating... but he decided he liked it more than he was put off by that site and he kept on eating!) and they had salad and bread for appetizers. For the main entrees they served lasagna, chicken parmesan (really good!), and manicotti. For dessert they had a delicious cheesecake and then brought out tiramisu. I said, "Oh, that has coffee stuff, I don't like that.." Rob said, "It also has rum!" So, to be funny, I said, "Oh, well, I 'll try it then!!" It was pretty funny. I think they thought I was serious. I did try it, but I wasn't just wanting the rum!! We decided that it is ok to have it if it is in your food! Not really. It tasted horrible! And then a couple of days later I was telling Rachel about the restaurant and I said, "Rachel! There were pictures and statues of naked men ALL over the place!!" Rachel- "Mom. Did you not see the women, too? There are pictures and statues of women all over the place, too." Nope. Didn't. See. One. Woman. I know. I am horrible. Your opinion of me just changed drastically, didn't it? I am horrible, but I just thought that was kinda funny. At the time it was kinda embarrassing! I tried not to look around too much!

This week isn't so busy for us. Tonight is the Jewett's Open House and then we are having the Busensiek's over for Christmas Eve dinner. I am doing the turkey and all the starches (stuffing, dressing, noodles, mashed potatoes, rolls... all homemade), and eggs and some kind of dessert. She is doing all the healthy stuff... veggies and salad and she is doing a dessert, also. We love getting together with the Budensiek's. It's always a party!! I am sure I will have some pictures later in the week! We will have stockings for the kids to open and a big brunch on Christmas Day and Turkey Tortilla Soup for supper. Pretty low key. We are enjoying it!

Just thought I'd share those few random thoughts with you! Merry Christmas!!

December Happenings

Natalie and Kurt Friedrich's Wedding and Reception

The theme for the wedding was simple elegance with lots of bbbling! Natalie wanted to use the mirrors and containers that the church has and so I added risers for some of the mirrors to add some dimension. The roses were velvety and full.

The containers were filled with crystals and lights to frame the floating dark red rose candles.

A photographer I am not.... in person it was a very pretty table. Natalie's photographer took some amazing pictures that you can be sure I will be ordering!!

The wedding cake was designed and created by Yolanda Seese. It was beautiful! A new trend for wedding cakes is to have a "fake cake." And that is what this is. The served sheet cakes they had also ordered. They were high, moist and very good!

This is the Bride's Table. This picture doesn't do this justice... I love this effect. It is one big tulle skirt with lights and bling! It was so pretty!

There were 2 of these arrangements on the Bride's Table... one on each end. We used liquid marbles and lights to make the vase glow like diamonds.

This is the centerpiece for the Bride's Table. The church owns this candleabra, and I think I feel the need to find one of my own!

I put the toss bouquet here and you can see the red votive candles that were at each place setting at this table.

Here's a brighter picture of the one centerpiece. You can better see the bling in the flowers and the if you look closely you can see the bling in the table skirt.

Chef Harry Greene was the caterer. The food was delicious! He caters a lot of things for our district and I have heard many great things about him and we weren't disappointed. They set a beautiful display as well.

For the gift table I placed a single black band of ribbon and fastened it with 2 "diamond" pins.

It was a beautiful wedding with a beautiful bride and handsome groom! And one of their ushers was mighty handsome, too! It was a privilege to be asked to do the flowers and reception for Natalie's wedding. She is one of Robby's best friends and that made it extra special for me to be able to do it.

Now on to our family.....

This is our little Angel.... she's such a stinker!!! We enjoyed having her here sooo much! But she is still so hard to get a picture of! We did take lots of video! She is her Daddy's girl! She likes to tell stories and add sound effects actions. And she loves to do things to make you laugh! And you have to watch out for when she wants to do something to provide that shock factor!!

Oh, she is a doll!

Every year the last ornament I place on the tree is this little gerkin pickle. If you read my pervious post you know that this year it is the first and last ornament I put on the tree! The one that finds the pickle gets a small gift....

The boys usually get into it and have been known to lay on the floor and look up, or climb in behind the tree and search high and low! Makenzi got into the search this year. She kept saying, "Here pickle!" This year was a challenge because there were 9 trees in the living room so I gave them a hint and told them that it was on one of the 3 big trees! I don't think they thought that was much help...

Kristi found the pickle nestled in the area that all the trees come together! The problem was that with the wedding and all the changes to this year's plans I forgot to buy the pickle gift! :o(

Kristi was a good sport and said it was just fun to look for it!

When the kids attended public school, on the last day of school when they got off of the bus I would have hot chocolate and cookies waiting for them. When we started homeschooling and then when Rob and Rachel went to college the day hasn't been as "set." But it happens every year. Now, not so much for the last day of school before break, but just for the fun of doing it.

We use this egg nog set that my sister made for my Daddy. It is so much fun to drink from these little boots! We have to have several refills, but maybe that is part of the fun!

This year we had sugar cookies (always on the menu!) cinnamon crunch cheesecake bars, and peanut butter cookies.

Rob and Kristi got me this sleigh serving dish for Christmas! It is so me! And it fit right in with my other kitchen Christmas dishes!

Several years ago I bought this Debbie Mum set. I do enjoy it. Most of my decorating is not cutesy and these provide a bit of whimsy that I probably need!

Here's the set with the cocoa in it! It sure was yummy!

The guys are so good to join in in all the fun, too!

Doesn't he look like the little boot is just his style!!

Kenzi wanted to have her picture taken like Papaw in front of the oven! She's so much fun!

I would have included pictures of the others but they are on the memory card that Rob accidentally took home! Since we have already had our Christmas so early, I get confused in the store and then think I am missing out on all the clearance sales!

"Christmas is together time."

~Charles Shultz

We enjoyed our together time with our family. This year's whole holiday season has been very different. I won't go into details but even with it being different I still had the joy of having all the kids under one roof. I loved hearing my boys play video games and laugh together and me not being sure which son it was laughing so hard at the other's mishaps! Until they would talk they'd sound so much alike. And watching Rachel with Makenzi is a joy... she is not really a baby person, you know. ;o) But she is a Makenzi person! Yes, it was wonderful together time. They will be back in Febraury and yes, I am already on the countdown!