Soup's On!

Instead of Saturday morning coffee at Mother's, we are doing Sunday lunch at our house.

Cheesy Vegetable Soup, Dutch oven bread and a take home....Cinnamon Biscuits.

Shall get a walk in this afternoon. The sun is shining, its suppose to be 50 degrees. HUGE reason to celebrate.

I saw several robins this past week. Also, yesterday I stepped out on the back deck (still covered with snow) to combat my hotflash, and I discovered hyacinths leaves popping through the ground up next to the house. One must have HOPE! That was my sign.

Our backyard

Enjoy this wonderful day! Gotta run and put my bread in the oven. Great smells forthcoming!

 

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Friday Five

One. Folks I'm slackin'! Just hitting a lull in posting. Things are just a little blah this time of year.

Two. One week from today, I'm a great Aunt for the second time. Excited. Baby blanket still in the works. Sneak peek.

 

Three. Got all my clothes laid out and ready to pack for Florida. Just around the corner!

Four. Tried a new chicken salad recipe this week. Got great reviews. Chicken, red grapes, celery, green onion, pineapple, almonds and bowtie pasta. Dressing was mayo and coleslaw dressing. Quite tasty.

Five. Heard on the radio, our weather/temperatures are a month behind. March has had February average temperatures. April slated to be March like temps etc. Cool summer predicted. Oh great!

Any big plans for the weekend. Knitting is on my agenda! Hope to share baby pictures next week on Friday five!

Babs~

 

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Success and Failure

As you witnessed in the last post, I made the valances for the windows in the dining room.

Yesterday, I made a roman shade for the kitchen window. It turned out great. Key to success, measure, measure, measure and a great tutuorial. http://365days2simplicity.blogspot.com/2011/04/easy-no-sew-roman-shades.html

Now onto the failure.

Hot Cross Buns. They look lovely however, very heavy and very dry. Sorry Pioneer woman, your recipe failed me and now is crumpled up in the trash as are 3/4 of the buns!

It snowed last night! Yes, you heard me correctly. So HAPPY I'm headed to Florida again in a few weeks.

 

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DIY Valances

Oh I am so darn excited. I have been wanting to do something with the windows in my dining room for so long. Currently I have white mini blinds on them. I do like the blinds but they are just so plain. They need an updated look. First I thought about roman shades however, the one window is like 78 inches wide. I thought the roman shade would be too wide for the window.

While perusing my beloved blogs, I stumbled upon an older post from a very talented woman named Diane. Her blog is In My Own Style. Diane is so creative and I really admire her creativity.She has quite a few tutorials for window treatments.

Fast forward, I went with her quick and easy, no sew window valance.

Before:

After:

 

I am real happy with the end results! What do you think? So relatively easy. You MUST have a good measurer. That's mandatory. Thanks Richard. He gets into those 1/1000th's of an inch and all that stuff.

Up next, for sure a roman shade for the kitchen window. Picked out fabric today. I think it will compliment the valances well! Stay tuned!

Happy First Day of Spring. Mother Nature didn't get the memo in our neck of the woods.

 

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Friday Five on Saturday

One. So happy it's officially spring. You can tell around here. The snow has melted some. The piles that were four feet high are only two feet high now. As I look out as I write, the whole yard is still white.

Two. We found out Baby B ....Jojo's sister will arrive one week earlier than planned. A 04/4/14 baby girly!

Three. Three of the loves of my life! Well actually four....one is hiding in the oven!

Four. It felt so great out yesterday, I actually pulled the winter mats out of my car, cleaned the inside, vaccuumed, washed windows of the car and wiped down the interior. All done outside in the sun without my heavy winter jacket on! Progress.

Five. Had the best onion rings at MCC last night, Doo Drop Inn style. We stopped there first and had them as an appetizer then mozzied over to the Knights for Friday Nite perch. It was a fun night. Lots of people, saw my BFF, Trina too.

Made Hot Cross Buns yesterday. Picture tomorrow! Stay tuned!

Have a great weekend folks!

babs~

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Having Fun!

I made another fun little vintage earring bracelet this past weekend.

Now my next project is a DIY Valance or two for the dining room. I've got the material. Just need the other supplies and my husband. I can't measure accurately. He is so precise!

Fabric for valance.

Stay tuned for end result.

 

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Happy St. Patrick's Day

Proflowers.com image

 

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Friday Five

One.
We've had some decent weather here this week.  A few real cold days but a few milder.  We saw 40 degrees and will in the near future also.  We are all doing a happy dance.

Two.
My husband's nephew was in a serious car accident last weekend.  He has a head injury and many broken bones.  We've been up at the hospital visiting his family.  He has one long recovery ahead.

Three.
Busy week.  Doctors appointments, book club, meeting  up with friends for coffee and dinner.  Trying to clean in between.  Got to declutter.  I did do a few cupboards.  It is just an ongoing task.

Four.
So excited to be heading back to Florida.  My dear friend Junebug already contacted me to ensure I squeeze a visit in with her.  We're going to be busy and have so much fun.

Five.
Tried out two new recipes this week.  Beef Barley Soup - it was delicious.  And Bayou Bars.  I sampled these down in Florida.  We had desserts from 4Rivers and one was called a Bayou Bar.  I googled the recipe and made them yesterday.  Pretty yummy.  Now I have to get them out of the house.  Any takers?  Shortbread-ish Pecan crust with cream cheese layer on top.  Baked to perfection!

Hey everyone.....enjoy the upcoming weekend.  Do something extra fun!

Babs

Sure, Why Not?

 

Toby: " Aunt Barbie, I don't want to go to the kennel when my Mom and Dad go to visit Drew. I would be so lonesome and I don't like strange places. Would you fly back down to Orlando and stay with me?"

Aunt Barbie: "Oh Toby, of course I will. You know how much I love you and I'll take good care of you."

Toby: "I promise I’ll be a good boy and even cuddle up and sleep with you at night."

Aunt Barbie: "Do you think it would be O.K. If I bring my friend Lynne along? She has a cute doggie too. Her name is Snickers, but she will stay home with her Dad. Promise you'll like Lynne!"

Toby: "Yah, that'll be great."

Aunt Barbie: "OK Toby, done deal.....tickets purchased. See you soon! Maybe when Aunt Barbie returns from her 2nd trip to Florida, it will be springtime here in Michigan."

Lynne and Snickers!

 

 

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iMac and Apple TV and Netflix

Got it all!  Now I need your suggestions.

Using an iMac is so different from the iPad.  I'm sure I will adjust.  It's pretty awesome so far.

Apple TV.  We only have basic cable to I thought I would upgrade a bit and bought the AppleTV adapter for movies.

I signed up for Netflix.  Any opinions out there?  Netflix, Hulu, HBO?  What do I really want.  Netflix seems to have older movies.  What about watching TV shows?  Can I get HGTV, CNN, etc. somehow?

HELP?

Friday Five

One.

Home after spending three weeks in Florida. Feels good!

Two.

Read a book on the flight home. Pretty good. Little cheesy too. Hopeless by Colleen Hoover. Book Club selection for this month.

Three.

Getting back into daily routines.

Four.

Missed the doggies. They were so happy to see me last night. Tales were a waggin'.

Five.

The ongoing de-clutter, organizing, focusing saga restarts.

 

Please be sure to do something fun this weekend!

Babs~

 

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Home

Arrived home on Paczki Tuesday. Tradition upheld....over to Mother's to enjoy coffee and paczki. We ised to make them but a local bakery does such a good job and it's so much easier on us!

Prune, Raspberry, bavarian cream

Phil is the thinnest he's ever been.

What might you be doing for Lent? Giving something up, doing good deeds? Personally, I'm a good deed person. I'm going to work on doing some paying-it-forwards.

 

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Rocco's Tacos

We were going to grill out yesterday but what the heck...why not try another great stop.

We had a delicious meal. We had the Molcajetes.

Molcajetes are Rocco’s version of an authentic fajita baked and served in a lava rock bowl from. Mexico. Served with flour tortillas, lettuce pico de gallo, cotija cheese, guacamole, sour cream. We chose the Surf and Turf version. Skirt steak, chorizo, chicken and shrimp in a roasted garlic salsa verde. The bowl arrives sizzling to your table...like 500 degrees.

You also can order Guacamole prepared tableside.

The ambiance is very upbeat, the place is very busy. The food....excellent.

Loved this chandelier in the lobby.

Another great Orlando experience. It's so great having family that live here. They show us all the best food spots!

 

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The Weekend

It's a gorgeous day today. Sitting here in the sun, soaking up the last of it before we head back to the Polar Vortex. We hear it ain't pretty! So today, a day at our home away from home. Reading, relaxing, sunning, a few pitchers of Sangria and grilling out! PERFECT day.

 

Just finished this coffee table book. Very sad. It's a recount of the events that occurred from the Secret Service man who was assigned to Jackie Kennedy.

We went to New Smyrna Beach yesterday. It was freezing on the beach. We didn't last long at all. So we headed to The Breakers for a fish sandwich. DELICIOUS. Fresh lightly blackened fish....oh my.

Mike and I at The Breakers

The Breakers

We came back home and relaxed outside with a few bottleds of wine and dessert.

These desserts are courtesy of SaraBelle. She works for 4Rivers Catering in Winter Park. Delicious...lemon cakeballs, chocolate cake balls, red velvet cupcakes and a few little parfaits. Oh and different colored dipped oreos, brownies and some shortbread coconut bars too. We voted the lemon cakeballs as Number 1 and I don't even really care for lemon.

So, as we wrap up our vacation, it's going to be just more relaxing and packing. My suitcase is going to be stuffed.

Snow, snow go away! PLEASE!

 

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