Playing with Books

A friend of mine at work lent me this book: Oh my gosh - I think she's created a monster! Each chapter was better than the next. There are a TON of amazing projects that I am just going to have to do.

Thanks, Linda, for loaning me the book. But darn you! Now I'm going to have to go buy it! ;o)

Lazy Weekend

Kevin and I have been enjoying a very lazy weekend. While I was out Friday night, Kevin stayed home and did all of the laundry! THANK YOU, honey!! What a fun treat that was. Saturday morning, we got up late (well, late for us) and just lazed around.

Around mid-morning, we decided to go check out our favorite thrift store. I have a few craft projects that I'm working on and was looking for some specific things and thought I'd see if I could find them there. Linda has often remarked that it's uncanny - whenever I think of a project, I can go to that particular thrift store and find exactly what I need for the project. Guess what? Yesterday was no exception! I was looking for some nice vintage silverware and was thrilled to find that they had just put out a wooden case filled with it! The whole shebang was $25.00 - which at first I thought was a bit steep. However, once I got out my trusty little cal-cu-lator, I discovered that it was really a great price. I can make at least 6-sets of my project (which will become gifts) and still have a few pieces leftover for myself. Not to mention the wooden box everything came in. (I'm sure I can turn that into a project, too. Have any ideas for me?) Sooooo we bought it. Hip, hip, hooray!

Included in the box was a very cool butter knife, and a mother of pearl handled relish fork. SCORE! I knew I'd be keeping those for myself. You would too. Wanna see how cute they are?
Pretty cool, right?! Heck, I almost think those were worth the cost right there!

After we left the thrift store, we had a bite of lunch (Jim's - YUM!), and then headed to our library book store. Just inside the new library to the left, there is a really cool Friends of the Library book store. They've got a huge collection of books for sale, very inexpensive. They also have a FREE basket - YAY! The first thing that caught my eye was a freebie - an old clothbound book of the short stories of John Steinbeck. Pretty cool freebie! They also had a few other books that I'll be using for craft projects. Here's the day's take: All in all, we had the most wonderful day! It was perfect - we got to spend some fun time together, and it was a very casual, relaxed day. What more could you ask from a weekend really?

WOFA

So Friday night we had a WOFA event (Women of First Avenue). If you guess BINGO, you would be correct! It was so much fun! We've done this a time or two and everyone has such a great time we can hardly wait until the next BINGO night.

It was a bit of a soggy night, but that didn't keep the heartiest of souls away - there were 18 of us, Holly made dinner and we all brought either appetizers, wine or dessert. What a feast! Everyone brings a gift and we draw to see who chooses the first gift. After that, we go in number order until everyone has chosen something. You open your gift and show it to the group; then, when someone wins a round of BINGO, they can steal your gift. Bummer! I brought this cute scarf and a cute pair of pale pink earrings to go with. The gift I chose was a gift bag that had a package of Eiffel tower tissues, a 3-pack of emery boards and a Nordstrom gift card. Not too bad! But I have to say that, honestly, out of all the gifts there, I really liked the gift I brought the best. As luck would have it, when I won a round of BINGO, I stole it from the person who'd opened it! All is fair in love and war, though, because someone stole my Nordie's gift card. No matter, I had a GREAT time, and I was very happy with the 'gift' I brought home =)

Take a deeeeeep breath....

Does anything smell better than this??I think not! Just outside the back door on the patio we have two huge pink jasmine bushes that are in (nearly) full-bloom. Magnificent! That heady aroma is so exotic, so evocative, so ... SPRING!

Soup-er

There's been a whole lot of 'under-the-weather-ness' around here and I think the best remedy for that is homemade soup. Sooo...I made some. Or rather, I made a lot of it. Two huge stock pots full of it. One of beef barley with lots of yummy carrots, onions and celery, and one pot of creamy chicken with wild rice (and lots of veggies, of course!). Saturday evening when Kevin returned home from band practice, I asked which one he'd like to have for dinner. He had to - ahem - taste each one several times before he could render a verdict. Beef barley it was. The creamy chicken and wild rice had to wait until Sunday at lunch. No matter, we enjoyed them equally.

There is some of each residing in the fridge for soup and sammie lunches this week, and some in the freezer. Both our freezer and mom and dad's freezer as well. Oh, and Deb, we might be able to work out a trade ... say a little soup for a little tube of Crabtree and Evelyn Gardener's Therapy hand cream ;o)

Big Night Out

Last night Kevin and I went on a date. That's not all that unusual for us - we date a lot ;o) It is unusual for us to go some place shi-and-shi-and-la-and-la, though. Which is exactly what we did last night. We decided to have a late Valentine's dinner at The Melting Pot. Mmmmmm - yum! Have you ever been to the melting pot? No? Well, only go if you love good food. And you like to cook. At your table. We'd scoped out the menu before we went and had decided on the 'Big Night Out - France'. Oh.my.ga. It was sooo yummy! The first course was a cheese fondue. White wine, baby swiss and gruyere - how could you go wrong? The dippers were three different kinds of bread, green apples, carrots, cauliflower and broccoli. My fave was the green apples and Kevin's was the broccoli (say what?!). Next course, a salad nicoise - sans tuna (otherwise I would never have considered it!). I enjoyed it, but Kevin wasn't very fond of it. I think the shredded beets turned him off instantly - he says they taste like dirt. That would do it for me! I, on the other hand, love beets, so I wasn't deterred. It was quite tasty. Next was the main course. We chose a meat and seafood selection that included filet mignon, new york pepper steak, lobster tail, shrimp, chicken, duck a l'orange, and ratatouille ravioli. I didn't try the duck or the lobster, but everything else was delish! Kevin really enjoyed the seafood as we don't really eat much of it at home. (Okay, we don't eat any at home.)The grand finale was a creme brulee dessert fondue. Oh mercy - it was utterly delightful! They caramelize the sugar on top of the fondue right at your table. So cool!It was a delicious dinner and the company was absolutely perfect =) The hostess seated us in 'Lover's Lane' - nice touch, don't you think?

Who says we don't have seasons?

It is so not true!. Yesterday morning we woke up to this:So perfect, so beautiful and so close! If I had long enough arms, I could have reached out and touched it.

The Perfect Valentine Gift

... as long as it's from your heart.