Little Accomplishments

Thank you to Susan for hosting Metamorphosis Monday.  It has been a bit crazy around here.  I had many projects to chose from the  last couple weeks that would be ideal for Metamorphosis Monday, my only problem was that none of them were very interesting.  First there was the leak in my laundry room ceiling where we  had to have the roof repaired and the ceiling in the laundry room replaced.  Then there was the repainting on the exterior of the house where we had the downspout moved and it left  a horrible grey mark, and then there were the plants we needed to replace because my adorable puppy ate them...  You get the picture.  So I am not sharing dramatic changes today, just a simple little improvement, that is much more fun to share!

Kathysue and I did  a little treasure hunting one day down in San Jose.  For those of you who don't know Kathysue, she is known for her fondness of beautiful lighting and unique beautiful lamps.  Hardly a shopping excursion goes by that we don't find the perfect lamp for one of her rooms (much to the chagrin of her husband - who is a darling by the way).  At any rate, I found two of these bird lamps that look lovely in my sunroom.  Unfortunately, they don't photograph well in there so I moved this one to the dining room just temporarily.  I don't think these pictures really do them justice.  For those of you in the area, we went to a resale warehouse  that is only open once a month.  It is called Move it elsewhere.  They have a website by the same name where you can get all the details about their future sales.

Oops!  I wish you could see more of the base of this lamp.  -- You have no idea what an improvement these lamps are.  I had boring old lamps before.  They had no personality and definitely didn't add anything. My sunroom is off the master bedroom and only family sees it.   I am sure you know how these areas of the house get ignored.   This is the room with the birds painted on the ceiling overhead and we have recently added a new pet canary (that sings beautifully) to the room also.  My new bird lamps fit right in and best of all they didn't break the bank! 

Other projects I have been up to----

Here is one little square....

and this is what it looks like so far.  They are all 50's style dress embroidered on muslin.   This is one of my works still in progress....

This is a quilt I completed a couple weeks ago for my son and daughter-in-law on the occasion of their first wedding anniversary.  Her favorite colors are red and white.

This is a close up.

Best of all they liked it.  I put a crazy square on the back embroidered  with all sorts of memorabilia from how they met to their wedding.

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a wonderful day!

Spring!

Thank you to Susan for hosting Metamorphosis Monday!  I always enjoy checking out what everyone has been up to.  Spring has definitely sprung here in California and my yard is filled with the fresh Spring green hue of new growth on my plants and trees.  I just love Spring!  

I was out a few weeks ago at a thrift shop and bought this pretty green pillow with roses on it.  I thought how nice it would look on my porch. -- Well, obviously I hadn't really looked at my porch furniture in some time.  Ugh!  It was in horrible shape.  I was appalled at how faded and worn my cushions appeared next to my new pillow.

The seats on the wicker furniture are box cushions and are relatively expensive to replace, sooooo

 I ran down to Home Fabrics and for $3.00 a yard I purchased three yards of striped Sunbrella fabric!!!  I was so proud of myself!

This is another before picture---fortunately for you the cat claw marks aren't evident in this picture.

I simply folded the new Sunbrella  around the old box cushion.  In only a few minutes time and $9.00 in fabric I had a much fresher look on my porch.

That is all I managed this week.  I realize the wicker could use another coat of paint and the straw carpet could use replacing but that will have to wait for now. Have a wonderful week everyone! 

Foodie Friday Granola

Thank you to Gollum for hosting Foodie Friday which has become my favorite day of the week!  I took all kinds of pictures as I prepared this only to have my computer decide it didn't want to upload these pictures.  No amount of prodding would work, so here is the final product. This is a very simple recipe - no pictures needed really!  It is an absolutely delicious granola! 

Here is the recipe:

1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1/4 cup unsulfured molasses

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cold water

3 tab. vegetable oil

2 teasp. cinnamon

3 cups old-fashioned oatmeal

1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans

1/2 cup coarsely chopped almonds

1/3 cup flaked dried unsweetened coconut

1/3 cup sunflower seeds

1/4 cup wheat germ

2 tab. sesame seeds

raisins or other dried fruit

 milk or yogurt

Combine all of the top 6 ingredients in a small pan and bring to a boil-stirring constantly.

Preheat the oven to 325 F. Combine the oatmeal with all the remaining ingredients through the sesame seeds and mix on an old cookie sheet.  Drizzle the syrup over and stir to coat the mixture throughly.  Bake till toasted stirring every 10 min.  The original recipe says to bake for 40 min. I always bake mine for 20min total.coll granola completely and store in an airtight container.  I add the dried fruits after it is baked.  I love mine with milk or over vanilla yogurt!

Just a little FYI

The nuts are reasonable at Costco and I love the Organic Trader Joe's Yogurt

I have worked up an appetite!  Time to eat!

Welcome to my Sunroom

Welcome to my sunroom!  I was just getting ready to do some sewing and I thought why not show you my computer/sewing/watching TV/reading room!  Our sunroom is on the back of our home just off the master bedroom.  We have a family room down stairs so this is just a little spot for my husband and I generally.

This is the view as you enter the room.

This is my desk and computer--where I am sitting right now.

This is the middle of the room as you circle around.  Windows are on all three sides of the room.  I have the shades drawn on several of the windows right now.  We added bookcases under the windows on two sides of the room.  I think that was the very first home project after we moved in.  We have always had lots of books!

This is the opposite end of the room where I have my sewing table.

The enclosed book cases at this end of the room store all my sewing things--or most of them anyway!  I do use this sewing machine.  It is the featherweight I learned on, but I do have a more modern machine I am going to pull out as soon as I finish this blog.

My husband 's closet is in this room--and I am not going to show you the closet doors because they need polishing in the worst way!  So as you come around the room this wall is against our bedroom.  (I can see I really need to change that light switch!)  All of the art on this wall was done by family members.  The black and white hooked  piece is me when I was three.  My mom made it.  

The water color on the top left was done by my daughter and the oil painting of the gentleman was done by my grandfather.  I think everything else show up too small to appreciate.

If you look up to the ceiling it is sloped.  Years ago I talked my older daughter into painting birds and clouds on the ceiling.  It is had to get from these pictures but this room has a very outdoorsy feel because of all the windows.  I love her birds.  (Painting on the ceiling isn't easy so I have never been able to talk her into adding more!)

Just another view closer to the corner.  I have a shelf that runs above where my desk is and that is where this picture was taken.

This is my view today.  It is raining hard here. The perfect weather to get some sewing done!

Thanks for stopping by!

I want to thank Cass at That Old House for passing the Sisterhood award on to me.  Blogland is a wonderful place filled with warm multitalented people.  I have enjoyed virtually visiting  all your homes, and getting to know you has been  a real pleasure.  Rather than passing this award on to only ten fellow bloggers I have decided to update my favorites list.  I promise that visiting each of them is a real treat!

There are two blogs I have come across that were off my "beaten path"  that I have enjoyed tremendously.  They are the Jane Austen-forevermore site and a sewing site that fellow quilters told me about: Sew Mama Sew.  Enjoy!

Here's a yummy recipe for Foodie Friday:

Chocolate-Orange Muffins

1 orange

1/2 cup oil

1/2 cup orange juice

1 egg

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

3/4 cup white flour

salt

Mix all dry

Mix all wet in blender, including orange cut into four, without seeds (don't peel the orange!  Skin and all!)

Pour over dry, and barely mix the two mixtures together

Pour into greased muffin tins

May make 9 good sized muffins (or 12 small)

Bake at 400F for 12 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean

****Can add raisins, but dark chocolate is best!!!

This is a very easy but fun recipe.  You start with an orange.  I used an organically grown one, washed and sliced it and removed the seeds.

Put the orange with peel still on into the blender and add the other liquid ingredients.

Blend 

it all together.

Mix the wet ingredients into the dry.

Bake and eat.  YUM!

My Bathroom transformation

Thank you to Susan for hosting Metamorphosis Monday.  Peeking into other bloggers homes has been an  inspiration!   Since I haven't completed any major or minor projects in the last few weeks, here is a project we finished a couple years ago.  It was lots of fun to pull out the before pictures (taken over 20 years ago).   

Just to show you what a brave person I am ...here is our upstairs bathroom.  This is the way it looked for the first year or so we were in our house.  It is the only bath upstairs.  It has two entries.  One from the master bedroom and one from the hallway.  I want you to imagine what a busy room this was with all six of us squeezing in front of the mirror when our children were growing up!  (We do have another full bath and a half bath downstairs but this is the room we all crowded into.)

This is a view of our shower and bath.

 We put up Waverly wallpaper in the late 80's.  And yes, I sponge pained the outside of the clawfoot tub in pink!

A few years ago I decided I needed another change....

We added bead board and a shelf above it.  We also painted the walls a dark blue. (Oh, and I repainted the outside of the tub too.)

For those of you with old homes I imagine you have noticed all the brass.  Yes, I am constantly polishing it!

This wall is opposite the tub.  I love artwork everywhere including the bathroom!

We painted the woodwork under the sink to match the bead board.  The mirror and all the fixtures were here when we moved in with the exception of the lights beside the mirror.  We added those.  They are old.  I found them at a salvage shop in Berkeley.

So there you have it - A tour of my upstairs bathroom.

A close up of the "new" brass light fixtures.

The ceiling light. (That is a shadow.  The ceiling really is clean.)

The room is fairly large so I used a large carpet for the center of the room.

This tub has been on this hardwood floor for years!

Thanks for stopping by!

After a very wet week we have a hint of sunshine peeking through the clouds today.  Oh, how very welcome that sunshine is!  It feels wonderful and the air smells fresh and clean.

I wanted to show you one of my favorite plants.  It is growing near  the side entry to my home. Each time I walk past it I enjoy its fragrance.  This is Daphne.  It can be a rather temperamental plant, but it seems to love the location I have it in.  Here in California it loves the shade.  There are lots of varieties. This one happens to be evergreen and flowers profusely at this time of year. The flowers are a lovely soft pink and they fill the senses with the color and smells of early Spring.

  

I cut just a few springs and floated them in this vase.  Their fragrance will fill the whole room!

Beside my front door a few hyacinthus bulbs and cyclamen are in bloom. Yes, it certainly feels like Spring must be just around the corner.

I have quite a few camilla bushes.  This one has already started blooming.

 

Oh, and the chickens loved the sunshine too!

Abby hasn't know what to do with all her puppy energy cooped up in the house the last few days!

I think I will sit down with a few of my favorite gardening books and dream about the changes I want to make in the garden this year...  

 

I love Williamsburg and their beautiful gardens!  This book was a gift to me from my daughter who went to William and Mary.

I confess my garden will never look like any of these, but I can dream can't I?

My chickens have free rein in our backyard.  They have a coop where they spend the night but by day they enjoy the entirety of the garden.  This has the benefit of making my chickens happy.  They lay beautiful eggs and they look very content running around our pond and on the grass.  The only drawback is that they have quite a taste for lovely flowers.---- 

I don't know how I got so carried away!  I should have saved this post for Tablescape Thursday with Susan.  Forgive me.  Next week I will be more patient.  

My daughter and I had a little Valentines tea for my daughter-in-law and her mother and sister.  After tea we did a little jewelry making and valentine creating.  We enjoyed a very nice afternoon together.  It is wonderful when you can slow the hectic pace of life down a bit!

 I hope you have found your prince!  

Please come join us---

This china actually belongs to my daughter, but since I am still storing it I thought we should use it!

The cookies on the tray in the center turned out beautifully.  The recipe we used was in the December issue of Victoria magazine.  It is a delicious cookie and it was accompanied by a nice frosting (both from the magazine).  We added bright sprinkles to most of the cookies.  YUM! 

I don't have any pictures of the jewelry we made but these are large Hershey candy bars that we decorated for our favorite valentine.  Here are just a few---

This one my daughter made for me. 

The one I made for her

And the one I made for my husband.

Valentines Day is one of my favorite holidays!  How nice - A day set aside just to tell loved ones how much they mean to you.  

I hope you all have a wonderful valentines day! 

 Sent with love,  Paula