Splain Lucy Part II

Sooo,  as I shared earlier I haven't been posting recipes because of the painting mess on the kitchen counter.  Hubby and I have been busy this summer with many projects.  Some of my readers have asked why I am not sharing projects.  I have a good explanation. 

We have been asked to be one of the homes featured on the Bethany Christian Services Holiday Home Tour this December.  

Hence the notebook...

The notebook is full of To Do lists and many, many ideas.  Hubby and I are working our way through the book, paint can by paint can, door by door, room by room.  There aren't any big projects, just many little projects.  Of course, we still go to our jobs, we still have a social life and we still sleep, however; other waking moments we work on the projects, the lists and the house.

Quite frankly, the pressure to get things finished is a good thing.

We appreciate the work that Bethany Christian Services does for many reasons.  Our biggest and best is our nephew, Zach.  My brother's family adopted Zach through Bethany.  We have been blessed by Zach and we've been blessed with our home.  

It's good timing for us this year to be on the tour so after some careful consideration we decided to go ahead.  Hubby has been a big part of the plan and I could not do this without him.  It is scary and a bit nerve wracking to put yourself out there.  No denying that fact.

Besides the projects, I'm junkin'.

I've been going to many estate sales this summer because when your Christmas style is vintage you can't run to a store to get supplies in December to pick up a few more things.  Picking and junking have kept me busy this summer gathering Christmas goodies.

I am not going to blog all of my projects as I want some of the projects to be a surprise and we want there to be many tour visitors to help Bethany have a successful home tour.  Why would you buy a ticket if you could tour the house via blog?  

Please save the date, December 7, for the Bethany Holiday Home Tour.

The best part... I  am sooo very excited to see the other three homes on the tour this year.

Some well known  girls  have jumped on the tour with us...

Splain Lucy

As Ricky always said to Lucy, "Splain Lucy", and I do have some explaining to do.  

I have some catching up to do also.  This is only the beginning.

The painting continues thus there haven't been any new recipes on the blog.  Who would want to cook in a kitchen with counters like mine?  No one.

Though I did bake Almond Cookies this weekend.  They really are the best and since I was sending a care package to Danny, and I had everything out because it was my week to bake cookies for church, and I had places to go where I knew they would be appreciated, I baked around the painting mess.  Twice.

I've been out junkin' this past week.  On my way to a boating cocktail party I stopped at a roadside sale.  My hostess gift was a dahlia bouquet and since Holly and Shelly were in the car and told me I should have a vase I flipped the car around at a roadside sale and found the perfect vase for two bucks.

I'm classy like that.

 The Saturday estate sale was in Marietta and was quite the adventure.  But I got what I went for so it's all good.  It was a little sketchy.

Back to the boating cocktail party...  It was girls' night on the Renewal and we had a wonderful time.  I think you all know how I feel about boating, it's little scary for me.  Since we stayed tied to the dock I felt pretty good though I did take a some seasickness meds prior to boarding.

 I wish I had a picture of our hostess smiling because her smile is so pretty, but she was so busy waiting on everyone that my pictures of Chris are all blurry.

 Before the other guests arrived Shelly and I played with my new camera and took some shots of each other.  We're goofy like that.  But it was fun and we felt so nautical and swanky that we couldn't resist.

I wish I had taken a group shot but I was very busy having a lot of fun.  And you may be surprised to know just how many boating rules and how much terminology this non-boater does know.  

Permission  to  board?

I'm actually pretty nautical when it comes down to it.

There's more blogging coming and even more splaining.

Stay tuned.

Fair Week and Other Bits

Last week the Fair was in town.  I went on Thursday afternoon with my sisters and Mom.  Then on Thursday evening Hubby and I went in the evening with friends.  From a calorie standpoint, that was plenty.

My Grandpa had Belgian draft horses and they bring back wonderful family Fair memories.

One of my favorite NW Washington Fair bits is to visit the agriculture display and score some cookbooks.

This year Cheryl was on duty and she let me in the back room to take whatever I could find.  Oh my!  Yes, that is a butter cookbook.  Dairy and potato cookbooks=YUM!

 Sam came home this weekend and helped me clean the garage on Saturday.  Actually half of the garage.  It's a BiG mess and it's going to take two sessions.  Cleaning the garage is motorcycle storage payment at our house.  {evil laugh, bah hahaha...} This task makes young men want to sell their motorcycles.  We found some tiny treasures, little plastic soldiers and holsteins, among other things.  

Oh my gravy!  Tons of junk.  I'm gong to the dump, to the recycling center, the thrift store this week.

Sunday morning Sam brought me a mug of soldiers and sang me a little ditty.

'Best part of waking up... is soldiers in your cup...'

I love That Sam I Am and his wit.

Enjoy your Monday!

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

Our vacation, staycation, workcation is over.  Hubby and I had a wonderful time finishing projects, starting projects and perfecting projects, not necessarily in that order.  Hawley enjoyed his time having both of us around all day and he supervised between naps.

 Since we purchased three boxes of peaches in Thorp I needed to freeze peaches.  Every.  Day.  I peel, slice and chop, layer on a parchment covered cookie sheet and freeze.  Once the peaches are frozen they get broken up and stored in gallon zip bags for breakfast smoothies and pie.

 I baked peach pies.  We shared peach pies.  We ate peach pies.

 We went to garage sales out in the county and saw some interesting garden art.

 I painted and sanded many "smalls" and one large project.

 Hubby put up some missing trim in the bathroom.  It's been missing since we moved in twelve years ago.

 Hubby installed new flooring and hung new doors in the bathroom.

 Hubby sanded, stained and then applied many coats of urethane to our front door.  He originally built it and it  had weathered over the years.  Now it's all shiny again.

Hubby mowed, pruned and then pruned some more.

I cleaned out closets.

I painted some more.

Hubby cut the ivy back within an inch of its life.

We were relieved to go back to work this week.  Summer vacations can be exhausting.

Garden Party 2013

Remember Garden Party?  We have a progressive dinner with two other couples and rotate courses from house to house.  It's always a summertime highlight, it's always elegant, and it's always a 5 star quality dinner.

Well, we get tired too.  We get busy too.  We sell farms, remodel our homes, have kids home for the summer and sometimes even this elite foodie group calls it quits.

So, that said, Garden Party 2013 is a bit different than past years.

It was a potluck.  We each kept our assigned course and we cheated.

Big time cheated!

We went to the farm, Karen brought the centerpiece because she had already made it for our usual style of Garden PaRtY.  Shelly still brought out real dishes to the barn because we aren't that pathetic that we'd use paper.  No tablecloth this year, we were slummin'.  Vern was still in his swimming trunks when we arrived.  It was a casual Garden Party.

 The weather was beautiful, we had our appetizers out by the pool, they were served by Mark and Karen.

They served Sangria from a box, and a nice selection of appetizers from Trader Joes and Cash and Carry.

 Hubby and I served main course in the barn.  We served a leftovers style dinner with leftover BBQ tri-tip that we had in the freezer from reunion, sliced thin on slider buns with a nice selection of Kraft BBQ sauces, corn salad made from leftover corn from the night before, and ruffle potato chips with ready made french onion dip.  We served a red meritage wine from Barbed Wire.

 Vern and Shelly served chocolate peanut butter pie and blueberry pie ala mode purchased from Bellewood Acres.  It was served with a espesso hazelnut vodka over ice.

 While it wasn't swanky the friends were still great, the food was actually good, the setting was beautiful, the weather perfect and we had entertainment from the Abbotsford Airshow.

Karen's flowers were a hit and I hope to get a lesson.

 As for 2013, we get tired too, it's all we got, folks.  

Rest assured, we will be back next year in all of our glory!

Max's Fan Club

When we got to the farm in George on Saturday morning we were happy to see Max.  Since he has been busy harvesting wheat we didn't actually think that we'd get to see him.  It rained on Friday so he was off work for two days.  I think as crazy unhappy as Max was to be off work I was that crazy happy to spend time with him.  He was on call.  Hubby and Max were getting caught up when the fans started arriving. 

 Gabe and Owen were so happy to see Max.

 They hang on just in case he decides to get up and go someplace.

 Later that evening Jared was really trying to convince Max to do something.

 They are always trying to convince Max to take them swimming in the canal or play hide and seek or tag.

 I kind of like how Gabe is giving Kassie the stink eye in the picture below.  He may be thinking- "Max is ours, we have plans; nice you stopped by and all but Max is busy with us so don't get any ideas."

 On Saturday morning little sis Kelly got to Max first.  I wanted her to look at the camera and smile but she only has eyes for Max.

I

Max didn't say it but the phrase, I'm  kind  of  a  big  deal, came to my mind.

Sheesh.