Tablescape Tuesday

Welcome to Tablescape Tuesday.
Please visit Susan from Between Naps on the Porch for a list of all of today's participants.

I've added my pumpkin bowls and tureen to the hutch.
What do you think?

It Makes a Mother Proud!

     In honor of Jacob receiving one of the highest scores (an 896 out of  899) on the  Minnesota Comprehensive 8th Grade Science Exam,  I baked him his favorite -   a Carrot Cake.

     I used the recipe from the Pine to Prairie Cookbook.  It is from the Telephone Pioneers of America, C. P. Wainman - Chapter #18

     I modified the recipe just a bit...

Carrot Cake

2c. sugar

1 1/4 c. oil

4 eggs

2 c. flour

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. soda

1 tsp. salt

1 c. nuts (I used walnuts)

3 c. grated carrots

1/2 c. raisins

1 T. vanilla 

Grease & flour 9 x13 pan or 2 -  8" round pans.

Mix & bake at 350 degrees for 45 Min. or until toothpick comes out clean.

Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz. Philly cream cheese - room temp

1 stick of butter - room temp

4 c. powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

chopped nuts as desired

     I am so proud of him.  It was such a nice surprise to open the envelope and discover the 

scores.    Way to Go Jacob!  

Happy Pink Saturday!

Welcome to Pink Saturday, hosted by Beverly, 

http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/

Be sure to visit Beverly's blog to see a complete list of all  the 

participants in today's Pink Saturday.

     My Gardens Last Hurrah!

     Everyone is decorating for fall and it is hard for me to begin.  My Garden does not  want me to give in.  It just keeps blooming and blooming!   The dahlias are so vibrant they just glow!   My Scarlet O'Hare morning glories had a slow start, but wow!   And who doesn't like impatiens?

      Last but not least, is a rose from Sven or is it Ole,  I forget.  I planted them both side by side.  They are the new hardy rose bushes for our northern climate.  Hope you enjoy the flowers as much as I do and I hope you have a Happy Pink Saturday! ~ Robyn

Tablescape Tuesday

   Last year in Foods class Jacob had to prepare a meal at home and set the table.  We documented his project with pictures and he received an A+, of course!

Now here's the part I rarely see, thank goodness it's documented in pictures!

My Dining Room Chair Seats Are Going Flat - Does That Mean My Butt Is Getting Fat?

    Yep, it's that time again.  The dining room chairs need to be recovered.  The padding inside has gone kaput!   They just don't make padding like they used too.  I mean geez, I thought I just did them....

      I ran to JoAnn Fabrics  this afternoon and lucky me the decorator fabrics were on sale!   I took a stroll through all the bolts of fabrics - too light, too shiny, too much blue (sorry Sally), too red - I have a more brick/terra cotta color throughout, floral pattern too big, too busy, too plain, too thin - lots of fabrics I loved, but just not right for this application.   Here is a swatch of the Capel braided rug that is under the table.   The dining room table and chairs were hand crafted in Montana.  The chairs are made of oak and are very solid.   What I would really like is new  sheath back chairs.  I think that they would mimic the base nicely.   

 

                                                           

      But for now, I have to re-do the chairs I have.  

      

     Here are a few photos of some fabrics that appealed to me.  Please let me know which one you would chose.

A    B      C   

These are readily available at JoAnn Fabrics.

            Then I found these swatches online at http://www.cottagechicstore.com.

  

     And Because of Blue Monday I am enclosing this photo of my lunch from our little shopping excursion this weekend.  (Could this be the reason my seats are flat?)

Hope you have a nice day,  

Robyn

I'm Heading to the Porch....

    Ahhh!  A Pink Saturday spent out on the porch curled up with a good book and a dish of strawberry ice cream.   Mmmmm!   I Hope You Have A Great Day! ~ Robyn

DOGS ON THURSDAY!

     Here is an update on this poor dogs ear.   And yet he still smiles.  It does look better. He doesn't scratch it any more. Thank Goodness!  But it is due for it's evening clean-out and squirt of medicine.  He is such a good boy.  All I have to say is "Get your ear over here and I'll fix'er up for you."  and he comes a runnin'.     The vet gave him some tablets to take and he just takes them - no tricks needed.   

     Notice the speghetti and meatball "moosh -ka".   He passed all his other tests at the vet with flying colors.   Teeth beautiful! and so on and they don't even think he's obese!

     Don't forget to vote for me at the Color Outside the Lines decorating contest!  The link is right there on my sidebar.  Thanks!

Hideously Hilarious

I stumbled upon the coolest site yesterday that I thought you would all enjoy. Once I landed there I couldn't tear myself away. Jacob and my Mom joined in and we were laughing hysterically. It is a blog mostly devoted to professional bakery cakes that have gone hideously and hilariously wrong. A few like the ones pictured here are cakes that people actually received and were submitted by some of their many followers. I chose just a few to share with you because I wanted you to experience the best ones for yourself. The blog is called Cake Wrecks.

Hope you enjoy the site as much as we did. ~ Robyn

I'm In The Top Ten - Please Vote For Me!!!!

This is a shameless plug!

I am a FINALIST in a decorating contest.  ME.

ArtieBen, from Color Outside the Lines

has selected ME to be in the Top 10!

Now it's up to his visitors to select the winner!

The winner of the contest wins 

a $200 Gift Card to Calico Corners!

Please click HERE to vote for ROBYN - Thanks!  XXXO! :)

Tablescape Tuesday and I've Been Tagged!

First things first.   I have been tagged by Susan at our favorite sight Between Naps on the Porch.  http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com     I have to list seven Random or Weird Things about me.  

       It was hard to narrow it down to just seven....Here goes....

1. I have to sleep with the TV on.  If it shuts off in the middle of the night, I instantly wake up and turn it right back on.
2. I'm afraid to drive over bridges - and not just because of the Minneapolis 35W bridge collapse.  My arms get like rubber.  It's even scarier when I have my son with me because I fear that I could kill us both.
3. Keeping in the driving vane - I avoid all highways.  I always take the back way whenever possible.   Just call me a wimp - I don't care.
4. I'm almost a shop-a-holic, I  put items in my cart and then I walk around just long enough to talk myself out of them and put them back. (Not everything, though...)
5. I enjoy a baking challenge.  There isn't a bread recipe or a three layer cake that I won't try - I like the WOW! Factor!
6. If it's not chocolate -it's Old Dutch potato chips and Top the Tater Chip Dip!   With a Diet Coke, of course!
7. I can't live without my laptop!  It's gotta be handy at all times.  The  laptop and the TV going at all times! LOL
   

    Now on to the best part - The Tablescape!

     It was a rainy afternoon with nothing better to do.  I asked my Mom if she wanted to have a little lunch and watch a movie.   So here is a quick little lunch setting with my favorite red heart plates on my vintage table cloth,  and always with my Gramma's little bird salt & pepper shakers.  

 

     Our lunch was nothing fancy.  I just doctored up a frozen pizza.  Added a sweet gypsy pepper,  fresh basil and oregano from my patio, onion slices, and more pepperoni.  Topped off with Romano and mozzerella grated cheeses it was as  delicious as a frozen pizza could get.   Good enough for a movie.  We also had a little antipasto salad.  My new favorite dressing is White Balsamic from Girard's. Mmmm!

     

  

     And you always have to have buttered popcorn with your movie.  We watched Baby Mama.

All I will say, in case you haven't watched it yet, is that I prefer the alternate ending.

Robyn

The Glory of Gardening

     The Glory of Gardening:  hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature. To nurture a garden is to feed not just on the body, but the soul.   Alfred Austin

Yea, It's Thursday!!!

Well, T-G-I-Th,! I only work a four day week so today is my "Friday" so to speak. But boy what a day it was. It was more like a day and a half at work today. It was Root Canal Central! I felt like I was working at the specialty endodontist office. It wouldn't be so bad, but you have to set out everything but the kitchen sink for a root canal. With all the infection control techniques today everything needs to be sterilized or disposed of between each patient. (Think of super spring cleaning over and over all day long - no wonder my house looks like it does....) I was just about to call it a day when a long standing patient sauntered in at 4:45 with a toothache! Oh no, Here we go again. I made it home at 7 PM! 7PM! Thank Gosh It's Thursday and Jacob doesn't have any homework!

But another great reason it's Thursday is because it is Dogs On Thursday!

Poor Miles. He has an ear infection. I have to take him to the vet tomorrow. I thought maybe it was mites. I bought mite cleaner. It's not. Poor Baby. Poor me. That will cost me a million bucks..... :(. But you gotta do, what you gotta do!

I've created a smiling fool! Now whenever I pull out my camera - Miles comes runnin' and poses and smiles. I took a pic of Jacob's first day of high school and front and center is Miles!

Down in the basement I have the basket that my four other schnauzers have all curled up in, but Miles, you know - just kept growing, and growing and he tries to fit into it once in a while. But here he is - all scrunched in - but he's posing and smiling!

I'm A Movie Star! and etc.....

     The Coen Brothers (Fargo, No Country For Old Men)  are filming their new movie,  in just- about-my-back-yard.    I drove to work on Monday and went "What the heck?"  When did the county sell that park land and turn it into a country club?  There were brick columns with an Oak Knoll Country Club placard.   I went to work and asked Dr. K if he knew that the park was sold.  He said he never heard a thing about it.  He was actually kind of upset about it.

     When I drove home there was a lot of traffic - an unusual amount.  A bunch of guys standing on the side of the road waved me through.   All of a sudden,  I'm surrounded by a bunch of 1960's cars. Ford Galaxy 500's, Mustangs,  Chevy Corvairs, Impalas,  Camaros , Cadillacs - it was cool.    Then sirens blared and arms were flailing about waving to keep me moving.  Me in my little Ford Escape.   When I turned the corner - by the new Oak Knoll Country Club - a guy threw up his arms in disgust and told me to keep moving.  They had to remove a row of safety cones to let me by.  So when the movie comes out, look for me, I'm the futuristic Ford Escape in the center of all the cool muscle cars and sedans.  

     My Dad had a  1964 Ford Galaxy 500 just exactly as the one pictured.  We called it the "Galloping Ghost".   When my brother got his drivers license in 1973 my Dad gave him the car to drive.  Of course, it wasn't "cool" white,  so he and my Dad painted it black.  The style was to jack up the back end, put wide tires with fancy rims on it, change out the muffler to a louder one,  and place a bar under the trunk so that no one could slide underneath it at a stop sign.  He welded a big chrome chain for his safety bar.  It was really "cool".  The back seat contained big home stereo speakers,  connected to an 8 track tape player!   I still have some of those 8 tracks around here.  Jacob got a kick out those.  He tried to play them, but they disintigrated as they played.  It was so funny how you would listen to a song and then it would click and change the track right in the middle of the song.  Whenever I hear the song "A Horse With No Name" by the band America I always anticipate the "click"  right in the middle of it.  

                    

     I wish I had a picture of my brothers old car - it would have been a hoot to scan it.

Now my first car is a whole other story.   I had a Mustang II.   How lame was that?  Not the cool mustang. 

   It was this color blue, without the white stripe.   I was so short that I had to sit on a driving pillow to see over the dashboard.  I did install a cool cassette player and surround sound speakers.   I had it for only a few short months.  My boyfriend Dan "totalled" it racing a friend on a country road. Luckily, he wasn't hurt, but the car I got to replace it was even lamer.

   Yeah, a Ford Maverick.  See, I told you.  I got stuck driving this car around my senior year.  I saved money on gas, because NOBODY wanted to ride with me.  The car hesitated around corners, the gas pedal would stick.   And I still had to sit on a pillow.   My Dad thought it was great.  It didn't have any rust.  It had low mileage.  The interior was like new.  He stuck a big spring on the gas pedal so it wouldn't stick.  He tried many different carburators, etc.  But it did get me where I needed to go.  

     Jacob wants a Jeep Wrangler.  I told him my Ford Escape would be good enough.  It doesn't have any rust, it has low miles, the interior is like new....

     What was your first car?

You Just Said IT Had to Be BLUE - Not Neat.

Here is a picture of "guess who's"  bookshelves and nightstand.  Made by non-other-than - Grampa!

Gardening Gone Wild!

     As the summer winds down, it's fun to take a closer look at the patio pots, and the garden and make a list  of  the  do's and garden don'ts for next year.   

     Note to self, don't have such wild and woolly pots next year.  After the plants "took off"  they just got so, I don't know, messy looking.   All of the greenery turned out to be pretty much the same hue.  It was just too much of a good thing.  

      Miss Bunny needs new stuffing.  My topiary needs new moss.  I am going to have to figure out how it is done next spring.   Last year I planted  a stone crop sedum that had a red tint to the foilage and moss roses around her and it was very pretty.  I think that I will go back to that next spring.

     I thought this Black-eyed Susan vine turned out pretty.   I planted a variegated Sweet Potato vine and hot pink Million Bells  along with Lemon Drop Lantana   in this pot.  The variegated vine was not very variegated and it blended in to much.  The lantana squeezed out the Million Bells, and it bloomed sporatically.  It was pretty when it did though.  

       I finally got a red Morning Glory.  The one planted on the patio was mislabeled and it bloomed a really pretty royal blue with maroonish stripes.  I hope it self seeds and I get one next year.   It looks like I have  quite a few buds on it - that's exciting! 

      There really is another topiary bunny in there somewhere.   I guess I neglected a few things while I ate my way through the fair.  I  gave him a trim right after this shot.  Did I take a new pic?  No.  But I really did do it.  

     This cute little Gardenia is loaded with buds.  They don't bloom.  Well, it did bloom twice.  Only after I yelled at it and threatened to take it back to the greenhouse.  I may have to do that again.   I know it really is not for our zone. I am in zone 4.   I wish the greenhouse wouldn't sell plants that don't work for our area.  It's too tempting.  

     Here is the Endless Summer hydrangea that does not contain one single bud.   It must be too shady for it now.  It bloomed the first year, and I think the second year but not last year or this year.  I am afraid to move it.  And at least it is green.   

     And here is the piece d' resistance, my PeeGee Hydrangea.  I thought it was going to be "bloomless" this year because it was a late spring -  and it super-bloomed just to prove me wrong.  The bush is about 8 feet tall and 8 feet wide this year!   Just Beautiful!   

 

TGIF!!!!

     I live for Fridays!   I work a very long 4 day week.   Friday doesn't come fast enough for me.  Don't get me wrong, I enjoy my job - oops I mean career .   I am a dental assistant.  The stories I could tell - and maybe someday I will.  For now, I like to leave the office at the office.   

     My Dad tries to claim dibs on my day off.   He usually plans his medical appointments for Fridays so that I will go along.   He values my medical opinion - after all I am a "dental professional".   Actually though it is nice to have someone along to listen and interpret some of the  info.       Today was a quick little follow-up appointment and that always requires lunch and a shopping trip somewhere.   Today we went to Culver's.  I was craving the Butterburger.   

     Jacob needed book covers.  Many teachers were requiring covers for his school textbooks and they wanted cloth covers this year.  Last year when we had purchased cloth covers for his text books the teachers insisted that they ruined the corners of the books and they only wanted covers made from brown paper grocery bags.  So after donating the book covers to the Goodwill last year, we scrambled to find book covers this year.   Walmart was a bust.  Walgreen's - nope.  Target had them - two different styles - but his books were so large they barely fit.  His math book is really big (and heavy) and the covers wouldn't fit at all.  So me and Grampa ran to one other store and found ONE that did actually fit.  If he didn't have some of the covers by today he would have lost points, especially in physical science.  Luckily, we had one cover that fit that book.   (Jacob said that quite a few kids didn't have the covers because they couldn't find them.)  Which brings us to the very expensive graphing calculator.  We purchased one last year and then somehow over the summer it was misplaced in our house.  Jacob tore apart his room, the computer room, his log cabin, and the porch cabinet that is the equivilent to a huge junque drawer -  to no avail.  I thought crap -  I didn't want to spend another $100.00 on that.  Yippee!  He found the calculator today!   It was on the workbench in the garage.  Go figure!  

     Sorry, I digressed, is that proper grammar? Anyway, they opened a new Costco  near our Sam's Club and we wanted to check it out.  They are pretty similar, but we joined anyway.   I am a member at Sam's and my Dad joined Costco.   We threw a few things in the cart like coffee,  a case of tomato sauce, a case of water, and of course their artisan breads and checked out.  We had the Berry Sundae with strawberries. Mmmmm.  But we had to go to Sam's 'cuz my Dad wanted the huge box of Minute Rice and the case of Swanson's chicken broth.   Well, you don't just buy that - you have to get the case of Hershey bars or the jumbo stick of pepperoni.   And how about that triple chocolate fudgey bundt cake?   Then of course, Ralph Lauren Polo khaki cargos were just laying there in Jacob's size right in front of me, and that new movie with Helen Hunt and Bette Midler looked good, too.  So, $172.00 of what? later....here I sit.  Did I prepare anything for supper.  No.  My Dad ran me ragged.  I made a policy with Jacob that if he completed his homework immediately after school I would take him out for dinner.   He hurried and did it!  I  was so excited.  We went to TGIFriday's!   Jacob had the Sesame Jack chicken strips and the new BBQ pork breaded ravioli appetizers.  I had the new BBQ bacon wrapped shrimp skewers and they were delicious.   I had to bring half of them home, you get two skewers of shrimp.  I realized I was eating like I was still at the fair -  for heavens sake.  

     Needless to say, tomorrow we are cleaning Jacob's room, the computer room cabinets, the cabinet in the porch and probably the log cabin.  

     

Here's Miles!

      Miles just loved this beach ball from the fair!  It was so cute!   He  waited patiently for me to blow it up and he played so cute with it when I bounced it on the floor.  He bopped it all around. Then when I said to him "Come on over,  I'll take your picture with it."  He actually posed.  He stopped, posed and smiled.  I wouldn't believe it if I didn't see it with my own eyes.  The others in the room were just as surprised.   

      

     My Morning Glory finally bloomed -  blue?   The tag called it a Scarlett O'Hare Red.  Hmmmm.  I think that the tags got switched at the greenhouse.   Oh well, it's pretty anyway!  

     Well,  I'm steering clear of the RNC!   I don't think that being tear-gassed or pummeled by a police swat team is on my agenda.  Just as well as being beat up by a bunch of anarchists!  It's all and well that they wanted to protest - but for gosh sakes - what's their message?  Peace?   Throwing an outdoor table through Macy's window proves what?   Seeing the swat team positioned all over our little downtown - even on the roof of Mickey's Diner is heart-wrenching.  I feel like I am looking at a war zone.   You know, it's probably a good thing that President Bush and Dick Cheney did not come here.  Gustav was a good excuse for them to stay away.   However,  Gustav  did more damage here than the gulf coast.   All the promised monies that should have been made has been blown away in the breezes.   People and businesses that stock piled food and drink are being stuck.   But Not the Mall of America!   Never the Mall of America!  

Just Tea For Two