Category Archives: home

Jan4

You gotta have heart

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“You gotta have heart,miles and miles of heart…” from the broadway show Damn Yankees
(a bow to my brother who sang that song in his senior play)


Anyway…I hung up my faux red berry wreath ($3.24-Happy Harry’s Drugstore) and added a little heart(49¢) on my dark teal door to warm us up for Valentine’s Day. I took down a few outside decorations and the stockings. Little Christmas is the 6th, but we may be going to Winterthur on their final day of displaying costumes from some historic movies. Kate Winslet’s gowns are included. You can actually go here and see them online!I love seeing costumes. One of my fondest memories as a teen was going to John Wanamaker (I believe) in downtown Philadelphia and getting to see some costumes from ‘The Ten Commandments (Anne Baxter’s gauzy Egyptian gown), and many circus costumes from ‘The Greatest Show on Earth’. They had ‘True Grit’ playing on a big screen for the gawkers entertainment. I guess the eye patch that John Wayne wore must have been there. That was easily about 32+ yrs ago.


My living room is more like a Victorian parlor and I bought this stained glass floor lamp a few years ago. My mother-in-law had one and I loved it, so I decided to get this. I am thinking about changing that room a little. I saw a circular sofa on Extreme Makeover:Home Edition that separates in three sections. Why couldn’t we have a little flat screen tv over the fireplace? And I want to put marble on the brick over the fireplace. (dreamer)

Dec27

Longwood Gardens 2006

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My mom, sister-in-law, her mom and Kenny and Tori came out to our house so the kiddos could open their gifts from us. Tori got a Tinkerbelle ‘head’ lamp as her main gift. Kenny got an assortment of t-shirts (his favorite thing to wear) and drawing stuff. I had chili, chicken salad tea sandwiches, ham pasta salad, fruit salad and pastries as snacks before we went to Longwood Gardens. It was jammed packed and Sean and I had to walk at least 1/2 mile to get to the front door. My mom and Colleen’s mom got pushed around in wheelchairs, though the kids got a ride when we went into the conservatory. I was using the new camera and it’s hard to get good nighttime shots-I deleted a bunch, but downloaded 60 photos! Here are some of my favorites-

Me and Tori in the main conservatory
Some of the outdoor lights
Stars on the ceiling of the main conservatory
 White tulips
Blue tree outdoors

I finally went over to the ‘side window’ and got my frequent visitor pass so I can go as much as I want. We didn’t get to see the ice skating there which is new this year. We may go again next week. I got tonight’s visit taken off the price. : )

Dec15

Home Cmas Tour Celebration

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Welcome to my humble home. : ) I’m not really finished, but I promise to add more photos. We have a red and white candy cane theme going on out front with a few snowmen thrown in for good measure. I just strung the hedge lights yesterday. That’s our new window which looks so nice inside, just wait and see!

I have a collection of snowbabies in the front window. That’s buffalo snow underlit with white lights. In the middle is a giant glass mushroom. We do live in the heart of mushroom country.

My winter wonderland tree with blue and white lights.

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A newer shot with more ornaments-missing the bottom row of lights which were replaced!

My feather tree with hand cross stitched ornaments. That’s a real feather wreath on the wall and vintage Santas under it.

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This is a ‘Martha Washington’ cabinet that belonged to my grandmom. I stitched the Santa with the green border and found the other at a tag sale.

Nov23

Thanksgiving 2006

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Care for some wine? I didn’t have any, but Sean and I designed a concoction of Sprite and cranberry juice-yummy! I had gold charger plates with my good china. I added a tea candle (gift from my sister-in-law along with an apple for a decoration.
The table again with a surprise ‘guest’-that’s Cosmo the kitty!
Hit dessert! Pumpkin gingerbread trifle-Paula Deen’s recipe (I also made her cranberry and cream cheese slices).

I also had mincemeat pie for Bri’s dad.
Mom and I relaxing after cleaning up the kitchen
A roaring fire courtesy of Brian.

I realized I didn’t post dinner food photos-I was just too busy in the kitchen. The food turned out great! I have to applaud my oven for helping out. I used a Reynold’s cooking bag and placed the turkey without stuffing in it (along with carrots, onions and celery). I seasoned the turkey with salt, pepper and sage and used a little butter on top. Along with the cooking bag, I cooked it ‘breast side down’ for the first 2 hours and then flipped it over in the last hour or so. It really makes all the difference!

I had Yukon gold mashed potatoes, green beans and bacon, brussel sprouts with garlic and bacon, yams, cole slaw and cornbread stuffing.

Oct28

Wet leaves

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Wow it poured this morning! Wet leaves everywhere! I walked around to get some fresh air and got wet feet and came back in again.
I am feeling somewhat better. My tummy only spasmed when I sneezed, so I must have really pulled that muscle there. What a great time to have that when I have stuff to put away and roses to move. I may enlist Sean to do that on Monday. There’s only about 5 roses as it is. I am hoping the new location will make them bloom again. I love roses but they don’t love where we live.
About 5 am I heard a ‘beep’ ‘beep’ ‘beep’ somewhere in the house. I couldn’t place it. Finally at 8:15 I could stand it no more (it was beeping every few minutes). I went down the basement and stood there-nope, not down there. Here it was a weather clock in the dining room window set on alarm…and no one said they touched it! Spooky-definitely Halloween is around the corner!
Have a great weekend!

Apr30

Taught him well…at least at some things…

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What a dreary day here! I did a little flower planting late yesterday-some snapdragons, the mini-marigolds and some chamomile in the fairy garden. It looks colorful and sweet.
Sean went to the ‘after prom’ event from 11 pm-5 am last night. He didn’t attend the prom, but the after prom event is open to all juniors and seniors. They started this about 6+ yrs ago so the kids had something ‘fun’ to do after the prom. They have door prizes, including a car. Sean didn’t win the car. I had trouble sleeping as I was wondering how he was holding up. No problem-he came right home and crashed until lunchtime.
So in my subject line I am talking about Sean-he is so neat and tidy with his clothes. His father is the opposite! I asked Brian to come back in the bedroom to pick out some shirts, etc for our trip. I dumped about 40+ shirts on the bed. He said he didn’t have that many clothes before I did this! He forgets what he has! They were stinky, like they needed a good airing out. So I washed half of them today though I wasn’t really up to it. He just wants to wear t-shirts and shorts. Surprise-he’s taking a couple of polo shirts to wear out to dinner. I folded all the shirts ‘just so’ and separated them (I am a perfectionist to some degree) by color and design. I can guarantee you that they will be all messed up in a month’s time. This is what happens when you marry someone whose mom was still washing his undies at age 27! I just inherited all the stuff she use to do for him. And he doesn’t really care if he looks clean and polished at all. Sean does. I found a steamer that gets the wrinkles out of clothes and he used it today. At least one cares, and the other is a lost cause.

Apr29

Seems like I’m blogging alot, I know…

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Actually I’m getting it out of my system as I probably won’t be near a computer for 4 days from the 6th-9th because of our Florida trip. We can’t wait! Brian is a bit anxious as he hasn’t been on a plane since 1989. I am praying my sinuses will be clear and I won’t have to use the bathroom too much on the plane. And damn that ‘Lost’ show! Funny how you worry about dumb things. Hey John Travolta, come get us! (he’s a pilot too). I was just suffering so much with my nose and throat today. My nose feels like it’s closing up and it’s burning. Flonase is helping, but I bet I’ll have to take a dose of Sudafed tomorrow. Crossing fingers.
Watched one of the best contestants get the boot tonight on ‘Survivor’. Here she’s a local girl from Glenolden, PA. Brian just happen to work in the same town for 13 yrs. Bet she knows the company he worked for too! She’s a ‘Prendy’ girl, went to the burb Catholic girl’s high school. I know other grads from that school (one was in my wedding party). Pretty neat. I usually pick up a local accent, but she didn’t seem as ‘Philly’ as Paul from Extreme Makeover:Home Edition.
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I didn’t plant outside, too windy. I got hung up repotting indoor plants. I did about 10 plants from Prayer Plants to Christmas cacti before I ran out of potting soil. I have another bag outside though. I’d like to combine the leftover cacti into one big pretty pot. They are one of my favorite plants. I also have a windowsill full of African violets. I do have a green thumb, don’t I? Wish me well with my sinuses. : )

Sep28

Plastic Boxes

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Ok, where would we be in this world without plastic boxes? I really need them, esp now with this ‘stuff’ sort going on in the family room. I am at a standstill because I need my plastic boxes! Cardboard won’t do! They get wet and smelly and break down to a bent up pile of nothing after a while. I want my lidded boxes that I can stack to the ceiling, see what’s inside (I try to buy the transparent ones now). I can also label them! I have two huge plastic boxes that take turns holding my summer and winter clothes. It’s a major feat for Brian to get them in and out of the attic. We have terrible closet space here. Each room has the basic closets with the two sliding doors. I actually use 1.5 closets plus an armoire and hope chest and still can’t fit all my things in them all. I do have too many clothes, but I take good care of them, so they last a while. Last year I did a major sort and got rid of about 6 bags of clothes and hung my nice tops and jackets by color-all the blacks together, etc. Back to the boxes-I remember when we were looking at houses and this one place had about 30-50 plastic boxes stacked in their basement. I was mortified-but look who is into boxes now? I can’t seem to get rid of these extra video tapes, cross stitch magazines and miscellaneous things that accumulated in this room for the last 12 yrs. Even Sean’s guitar is still sitting in front of the closet. I stuck a plastic bag over it today. Sean has had it for 6 yrs and never learned to play it and I want its former space for my magazine basket.
Guess I’ll go get some boxes in a while, even if it’s going to be raining cats and dogs.

Aug31

Temperamental Tuesday

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First, my son misses the bus on the 2nd day of school. Speaking of school, I think he’s going to like it as he sounded really optimistic when he got home yesterday. Brian was ranting at me while I was lying there in bed this morning about calling and complaining (I don’t even know the bus #) and the computer was restarting itself again on the AOL screen. This prompted me to go to AOL tech support online. The guy made me take off the AOL we were using before reinstalling a new version. Get this, it rebooted when the new software was looking for the modem! Something is rotten in Denmark-or AOL land! I did reinstall the AOL adapter a few times and that seemed to help.
I’m in the process of moving at least 300 books so we can move our existing bookcase to the opposite wall and move the computer desk where the bookcase was. I’m getting a second bookcase so it will be right next to the older on. Brian asked if that would be a lot of weight? There’s no basement under the floor, only the old cement garage floor! This use to be the garage. Plus the books are all around here anyway. I really think I will try to get rid of many of them anyway. Not only do we have to exchange things, but I need to paint in here as it’s been almost 12 years since we converted the room to living space. I love the golden butter color. I may go a shade darker just for something a little different.