Pre-Travel Tidbits

Progress on the cabinets will slow again as we are getting ready to gather our leather jackets and helmets and pack the Harley and trailer for a few days on the road. Hopefully the weather will clear and we'll have a dry trip. But if not - all the more stories to tell, I guess.

Thought you might like to see one of the new features of the remodeled kitchen that I'm going to really enjoy. My big Kitchen-Aid mixer will now be at finger tips notice to mix up something sweet and fattening! I used it today to mix up some oatmeal cookies and it was great! D thought he should raise the butcher block just a little to be even with the counter top (this is still the Formica - new ones will wait til June) but I like it a little lower. Since I'm short, it makes it nice to see what's going on and easier to add ingredients. When stored - it is out of the way and not taking up counter space. I lost some cabinet space but I think it's a good compromise. You can see above the base cabinets on either side of the new gas range. The doors aren't quite ready for the uppers but he'll be able to finish that up soon after we return. I'm actually kind of liking the open shelves for now. Having them open makes me make the effort to stay relatively organized!
Beamer has a new best friend! Meet Mr. Automatic Feeder. He is nearby at 7:00 AM waiting for his breakfast and again at 6:00 PM when he is expecting his supper. This will come in handy though when we're gone next week and our neighbor won't have to worry about getting here at the same time every day to feed this poor starving cat!


A few weeks ago I received a package from my sister. Inside were two aprons. One was my first ever sewing project for 4-H and the other was this. Neither one of us is sure where it came from. We think it is possible that Mama made it for her mother back many, many years ago. There was a time when she made some projects using gingham and cross stitch. But the condition that it is in makes me think it is probably newer than that and perhaps someone gave it to her or she made it when we were both expecting our first babies back in 1978. Although it's kind of big on me and not the most attractive style, it's fun to reminisce about our sewing heritage but sad to think there are some questions that will remain unanswered. So chalk one up for blogging as our grandchildren will have some way to go back and have access to the tidbits of our lives!

Now you'll have to excuse me as I really should be doing laundry and packing for the motorcycle trip. Fitting everything in is much easier now with the little trailer but there are still some things I have to limit ( such as shoes!). I might be able to get a post or two from the road - so check back in a few days to see where we end up!

Before, During and Other

I've been talking about this for almost two years now and I bet you all thought it would never happen. But we're finally ready for the next phase of the kitchen remodel. There's a before shot..... Now here it is during, complete with the mess of the contents of half of the cabinets spread across the counter tops. Since we are doing the demolition and re-construction in stages, I think I'll be seeing a lot of this.
And here's another "during" photo. The upper cabinets are installed, but doors and shelving won't be up until later this week. But what this doesn't show, are the completed lower cabinets, new microwave and the under cabinet lighting. So progress has been made! I'm hoping have most of it completed by Memorial weekend when we're expecting house guests. But since we've got a vacation planned for a few days before that - we'll see! Before the kitchen became a construction zone, I did a little baking. This is Rhubarb Crumb Cake using a recipe from Smitten Kitchen. We used to eat a lot of rhubarb when I was growing up. Especially Rhubarb crisp but this recipe combines the crumbly, sugary goodness of the topping of a crisp with a nice moist cake and not quite so much rhubarb. Yum!



On to the list of other random things here at the home front. Last year, the pink dogwoods were so beautiful around here that I decided to (have the garden center) plant one in our backyard.

Oops, someone planted a nice white dogwood instead! At least the garden center admitted their mistake and instead of digging this one up and re-planting a pink one, they gave me a good deal on a second tree. Hopefully, this one will be pink!

Sewing project this week was putting the binding on the little quilt that B pieced and I quilted for her little "peanut"! If anyone ever hears me say I'm going to put satin binding on a quilt, please, please, please, stop me! Maybe it was the combination of the Minkee backing and the satin, but I had the worst time getting this done and I'm not proud of my workmanship at all. But maybe little "peanut" won't care and he'll just enjoy cuddling the softness. I actually remember having a "blankey" with satin binding on it when I was very little and my mother had to replace the worn out binding because it was so well loved. I appreciate her efforts so much more now!

Hope you all have a great week. This will be a busy one around here!