My Cozy Home

fantastic fun at the farm chicks

This is a cautionary tale of what happens when a girl from Minnesota visits her mom in Idaho on the same weekend of The Farm Chicks show in nearby Washington.  I warn you, this post isn't for the faint of heart.  Once Mom established that she could and would in fact drive any and all bulky purchases to North Dakota so that we could pick them up to take back to Minneapolis....well, understandably, it was "Game On" from that point forward.  This bit of news led to the procurement of a chair, old suitcases, a stool, a framed chalk board, a huge pillow, a doll house, a basket....you get the idea.  Everything else that could be squeezed, rammed, folded, pushed, prodded, or otherwise placed somewhere on my person or baggage came back with me on the plane...yah, it was pure, unadulterated goodness.  Everyone should have a weekend like that.  Here are a few pictures of Evy, me, and my mom.  Steve stayed a safe distance back in Minnesota....really, it was better that way ; )

My mom brought her Farm Chicks cookbook to get signed, as you'll see below.  This is us with our excited faces on.  We were definitely excited.

 

We had so much fun in the Duchess booth.  This is where I got my fun suitcases.

Evy posing with her new doll house from Unexpected Necessities.  We'll have fun decorating it.

The Barn House Boys had such a great display - I wish I could have gotten more home with me - good thing I didn't live closer or I would have had to make an emergency trip to a U-Haul store to rent a trailer.

My new chair from Gladys at JuneBug Furniture Designs.  I could have bought out their whole booth.  Below is the back of the chair.

Look at those cute buttons!

Just a few of the fun things I got - this is at my mom's where they still sit until July 4th weekend!  The pillow on the chair was also from JuneBug and is made from Rachel Ashwell Shabby Chic fabric.  JuneBug also made the cute ruffled burlap bag hanging from the chair.

A few of the other fun things I got - pictures, books, lotion, a paper flower....who doesn't need a sparkly paper flower?

Mom and Evy with Serena and Teri from The Farm Chicks.

Yep, a great weekend. 

** Also wanted to say hi to Cathy from Red Wing, MN who I saw at Haupt Antiek Market way back in January.  She recognized me from my blog - I was shocked.  Hope you are well Cathy!!

london & a crown

  Hello my friends.  I hope you are all doing well!  At the end of September Steven, Evy, and I traveled to London for vacation.  As some of you know, I have a bit of an obsession with all things English - so I felt completely in my element whilst holidaying there ;o)  I even got to meet the beautiful, sweet, and funny Sophie from Sophie Honeysuckle.  Meeting Sophie really was a dream come true for me - we had such a great time.  My only complaint is that I wish we could have gotten to spend more time together.  We had an excellent time at Cath Kidston, Cabbages & Roses, having coffee, doing some clothes shopping, and above all - getting a chance to talk face to face.  What an excellent way to spend a day in London.  Below is a picture of Steve, Evy, and me at Stonehenge.

 

Evy and I standing in front of the Sherlock Holmes Museum at 221B Baker Street (and me with the ubiquitous cup of coffee - I realized later that I am holding coffee in about 75% of the pictures - yah, drank a lot of coffee over there)

 

 

Here we are in Bath - it was so beautiful there - and so very commercial.  It was a strange combination of the very old and well preserved buildings, churches, and cobblestone streets, paired with oddities like the Disney store, and Starbucks.  True story.

 

Little Evy turned 5 while we were in London.  We had so much fun that day.  We went to Hamley's Toy Store where she picked out the Paddington Bear and pink kitty with her birthday money.  We had brought the Emily American Girl doll with us to give to her (the Emily character is from England and went to stay with Molly in America during WWII).  We thought it would be fun to give her a doll who was from England.  She was ecstatic and likes to tell people that Emily is from England.  By the way, we have and American Girl store that is opening right by us at the Mall of America on Friday so we are pretty excited.

 

I will post more pictures of England - I just realized my picture of Sophie is on our other computer so I need to pull it off of there (as well as my pictures in Cath Kidston).  I'll also take a picture of the fun spotted green bags that both Sophie and I got at CK. 

My last picture is one of me in the crown that lovely Rosemary made for me a while back.  I meant to get updates to you sooner.  I've also got loads of house pictures to show you - I've gotten so backed up and now theres so much to share!! : )

Talk to you shortly my friends.

back from Portland, on to St. Louis - a stop in between at home

Portland was very nice even if I was there for work.  I stayed in a great old hotel, The Benson, and was able to get out and shop a little one night.  Anybody heard of Powell's Bookstore?  It's ginormous!  I spent some time roaming the isles and purchased several books and magazines for myself and Evy.  I also did a bit of clothes shopping which is always a good time.  I got home on Wednesday and am leaving again tomorrow for another work trip - this time for St. Louis.  Today Evy and I had an outing at the mall where we bought sparkly shoes (for Evy, but sadly not for me), and some fun clothes for the two of us.  I don't shop for clothes very much so it's fun when I do.  My favorite store is J.Crew (very often I realize that literally everything I am wearing (save for underthings) is from J.Crew. - this includes my coat and scarf).  I do love that store.  Anyhoo, I recently received a wonderful, and completely indulgent cookbook as a belated birthday present from my friend Boni, and at about the same time I purchased another cookbook  - nearly as equally indulgent - just  because it looked so good - "Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey" and "Cupcakes!" respectively.  Both have great covers, pictures, and recipes. 

 

"Sticky, et al" is by Jill O'Connor, photographs by Keigh Beisch.  "Cupcakes!" is by Elinor Klivans, photographs by France Ruffenach.   I wouldn't normally add who did the photographs, but they both do such a fantastic job that I had to mention them.

This is a picture from "Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey" as is the below picture.

A bit blurred, but you get the idea.  Those colors, the arrangement of the food...it's all so great.

 

This delightful photograph is from "Cupcakes!"

I recently updated the display atop the little chest of drawers in our entry.  I love old baseballs and like how they look in a silver champagne bucket.  If my friend Susan reads this she may recognize it as a wedding gift from her in-laws, which has yet to be used for chilling any sort of beverage in the 10 years we've had it.  It's been used for practically everything else though.  Also pictured is the new (old) clarinet that I recently got from an antiques store called Hunt and Gather in Minneapolis.

I think it's the combination of a classy, respectable looking champagne chiller filled with very old, beat up baseballs that appeals to me.  I don't like things to be too much of anything - it's the mixing and matching of old and new, glitziness and restrained elegance that gets me excited. 

And since it's almost Valentine's Day I am including a picture of the little hand-stitched heart that I made last February.  It's hanging in the Living Room right now, but normally resides in Evy's room.  Some of you who have been reading for awhile may remember when I made this humble little heart last year. 

Thanks to everyone who drops by even when I'm not so quick to update my blog.  I really do appreciate your comments and emails.  Thank you for always being so supportive, kind, and funny.  Talk to you when I return from St. Louis.

 

a trip to portland for work...be back soon...

Hello friends, just wanted to let you know that I'm about to leave for a few days in Portland, OR for work.  I'll be back on Wednesday and will try to get you properly updated with pictures and a post at that time.  I'm fully stocked with new magazines for reading on the flight, as well as a mystery of course.  I always feel so much more relaxed knowing that I have good reading materials for a trip - I don't dread the flight at all if I have something fun to peruse.  My iPod has been updated with a couple of new CD's I recently got, and I'm set with snacks for the flight as well.  I haven't been to Portland for quite some time.  I wish I could do more sight seeing, but it's strictly business this go round.  I hope you are all doing well.  I'll talk to you soon!

halloween countdown...

 

                                                                                                                       This is Miss Pumpkin.  She lives in Disneyland.  I'm not sure where exactly she lives in Disneyland, but I do know that she dates the local constable.  I very much wish that I lived in a town with a Miss Pumpkin who dresses like this one, and sings and dances.  Aren't they cute?  Also, can you see in the back ground of the first picture, the guy in the dark blue t-shirt standing over on the right side - sort of posing like Big Foot walking through the forest (not that he resembles a Sasquatch) - that's Steve who just happened to be in the picture and we didn't realize it until much later.  I was following Miss Pumpkin around while she was dancing so that I could get a good picture of her and I guess I got quite a ways from where we had been standing.

I had to share Miss Pumpkin with you before Halloween had come and gone.  Jeez that's a great costume.

This was another great Halloween display at Disneyland.  They do a really good job of decorating - it actually increased my enjoyment level even more to see all of the Halloween decorations while we were there. 

And, back at the ranch - the dining room table.  I just realized that the gourd on the table, to the left looks like it's plastic, but it is real - sheesh, could it be more shiny?

Little hanging black cat.  He's made the same way as a hook rug - I did not make him though.  Heck, I can't even remember where I got him.  Yes, my memory is like a finely tuned machine.

Another cabinet picture from a different angle - as seen a couple of posts ago.  My grandpa got me that calendar and I like the pictures so much.  I can always depend on my grandpa to get me a very cute calendar for the kitchen.

I just realized that I was going to show pictures of the journal that I did for Shelley.  I'll show it/them in the next post.  I say them because somehow I ended up doing two - because I can't let things alone.  One became two and that's how it went. 

Also, did want to report back that I think my memory is improving (despite not remember where black cat hanging guy came from).  I've been doing Sudoku every night before bed and really concentrating on making myself remember names and details.  Anyhoo, just wanted to let you know that I think it's paying off.  And I'm getting a lot better at Sudoku too.  Sometimes for fun I'll see how fast I can do an easier one (like a one star).  Friday night I did one in three minutes.  I'm working on a four star Sudoku now.  My life is riveting.  A real nail biter of a blog.  I can see why you stay tuned.  What will she do next ? - will it be Sudoku, watching High School Musical again, wait, hold on, maybe she'll be petting her cat with the left hand instead of the right.  It's almost too exciting.  Until the next unpredictable post, I hope you and your families are well.   

 

disneyland, birthdays, antiques...sounds like heaven to me

Hello my friends!  My family and I just got back from a week in Anaheim, CA.  My mom met us down there as well and we had a great time.  While we were there we celebrated Evy's 4th birthday, spent three days at Disneyland, went to the ocean, visited Hollywood, and of course found time for antiquing.  It was so much fun, and always tough to come back to the norm of work and day-to-day stuff that isn't nearly so fun.  I wanted to let you know ahead of time that I was going to be in California, but unfortunately our car was broken into right before we left, and multiple things were taken, including our checkbook with address.  In addition was Steve's planner, which had a packing list in it - needless to say, we were very concerned about leaving our house when thieves had our address so I didn't feel comfortable announcing our time away.  I'm including a few (many) pictures from our trip - specifically some of Disneyland and the fall decorating they did there.  I loved it! 

There's just something magical about this castle, especially at night when it's all lit up.

Some of the Disney decorations were sweet -  like this one.  Others were a bit more sinister.

A hearse at Haunted Mansion

 

Mom and Evy with more sweet decorations.

The Haunted Mansion - It was creepy, fun, and really put me in the Halloween spirit - as if I wasn't already in the mood :o)

Can you see those beautiful hanging mum baskets.  They're big mum balls.

Evy was more of the "admire Mickey from afar" school of thought.  She was all talk while in line, but when it came right down to it, she was just too afraid to hug giant mice, bears named Pooh, and Mad Hatters.  Princesses were okay though - she was all about the princess hugs.

 

This was in our hotel room on Evy's birthday.  Up next, princess hugs.

Snow White with Snow White.  Such a special day for all of us.

When we weren't at Disneyland, we were doing lots of other fun things - antiquing being one of them.  I'll show you some of the fun things I got once I get them into position.  I hope you all had a good week.  I'm back to work tomorrow for one day, and then flying back to California on Tuesday for the rest of the week for work - this time San Jose. I'm sure it will be fun, but it tires me out thinking about hopping back onto a plane and doing the hotel thing again.  I'll have some down time at night though, which will be nice.  Thanks for indulging all of the pictures.  You may see a few more here and there in future posts.