This past weekend was devoted to that holiday activity of procuring and decorating the Christmas tree. We have a small house, but refuse to limit ourselves to a small tree, so furniture gets moved and access to the kitchen from the living room becomes somewhat limited in the name of holiday cheer. Continue reading
I co-hosted a bridal shower for my cousin Molly over the holiday weekend. When Aunt Jenny proposed the idea, she suggested a brunch, then after I agreed, followed up by asking for a proposed menu. It wasn’t until she asked for a shopping list that it sort of dawned on me that by co-hosting, I would be catering the whole she-bang. Why yes, I’m fully capable and yes, I do happen to actually do that particular activity from time to time for people I’m not related to, but always in the role of the very capable assistant, never do I actually assemble the menu and recipes and shopping list myself. I’ll admit, I had a moment where I wondered WTF I was doing, with a wavering in confidence before I got over myself and just went with it.
A good bit of our adventures throughout the year tend to fall into two categories – events my husband has to attend for work that Edie and I tag along to or things we do with our dear friends the Smileys. Occasionally, the two merge, like this past weekend’s adventures – Pat’s employer, James River Association, hosted an oyster roast down in Lynchburg at Kegney Brothers featuring Will’s Christchurch School oysters.
2015: The Year of the Captain. Continue reading
A new entertainment center for the den gave me the chance to do some re-arranging in there recently. In addition to moving around the furniture and artwork, I realized we needed another lamp to really make the room work, ideally a floor lamp. I just so happened to have one in the basement I’d been wanting to work in somewhere up here, but it needed a new lampshade. I have this habit of finding cool old lamps for a song (or less) and then topping them with some uberly expensive lampshade – Exhibit A in this would be the very cool lime green ‘gloworm’ lamp in the living room found in the basement of a college boyfriend’s apartment building back in the day currently sporting a three figure silk lampshade. I assured my dear husband this would not be the case in this particular lamp, one that my friend Bonnie had sitting by her front door one day, awaiting drop off at Goodwill. Because I cannot walk past a free lamp without bringing it home, I grabbed it of course. I had a shade that had once been custom made for a lamp that had been mine as a girl, that is currently housed in Edie’s room. The shade had seen better days but I knew, with some love, would work fabulously on the floor lamp. Take a look :
After months of being over-committed and months after I said I was going to stop being so over-committed, I’ve finally, FINALLY, reached the point where life has slowed down somewhat, where I don’t have to be somewhere seemingly every minute of every day, where I’ve gotten through all my commitments without adding anymore on. That in itself, my learning “NO” is pretty stupendous. That this has just so happened to coincide with the first frost of the season, pretty much wiping ‘deal with excess produce’ off the to-do list until next spring as well as trying to keep up with two gardens means that I have suddenly found myself with something called ‘free time’ that I’m not exactly sure what to do with. Of course, the holidays are fast approaching, so I have no doubt I’ll busy myself with that, but that’s fun busy – making and baking and visiting with friends and family? That’s definitely the stuff life is made of, much more than lots of ‘work (no matter how enjoyable and meaningful it is) busy’. Continue reading
My garden looks rough. There’s no way around it. Granted, it’s the middle of October and everyone’s garden looks rough. August and it’s lack of rain combined with September and early October’s deluges have just left everything looking rather unfortunate. Partially inspired by an article I recently submitted for publication on the topic of how to winterize one’s garden and partially inspired by the purchase and renewal of the house behind us that has sat vacant for well over a year (and had slipped into neglect the last few years before that), I found myself with a few free hours the other day and decided to do a little bit of a clean up in my sunny perennial bed, aka, the ‘down by the side of the road’ garden. Continue reading
My friend Mollie turned 40 last week and over the weekend, her husband Will threw her a party. Saturday afternoon, after Edie’s soccer game, we headed over to Urbanna to help her celebrate. I’m not sure if the party was a surprise, but our showing up, along with Mollie’s friend Ro, definitely was.
Tuesday afternoons, I lead an after school cooking program at a county middle school for PB&J Fund in conjunction with the local Boys & Girls Club. It’s my second semester doing this and I really enjoy it. All I have to do is show up and teach the kids – PB&J fund does all the lesson planning and ingredient shopping and I swing by their kitchen on Market Street Tuesday afternoons on my way home from my day job to pick up whatever is needed for the day’s class. Continue reading
It’s a grey, rainy Monday morning here. Summer is fading fast – the cherry tree in the front yard, always the first to drop her leaves, has been bare for a few weeks and the dogwoods are quickly changing color. It seems as a good as any to catch up on posting pretty summer flower pictures.
Chicken Wire & Paper Flowers 