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I joined this little show and tell party at http://romantichome.blogspot.com/ . It's a wonderful blog I've recently started following and I LOVE it. I thought I'd share some things that were given to me and something I gave myself! LOL
OLD ROYAL TYPEWRITERMy Dad gave me this old typewriter that I just LOVE. LOVE! My kids and the neighbor kids love to type little notes on it! I told Cole he should type his first love note (which I hope is several years off) on it because it would be SO romantic. Of course he looked at me like I had two HEADS.ANTIQUE BABY SHOES
These little booties have such a cool story. One day when I was a teenager (so like a LOOOONG time ago) my father was taking some trash that we cleaned out of our basement to our local landfill. While he was there, he noticed a very old man struggling to get an old trunk out of the back of his truck. He immediately started to help him, of course. While helping him, the man explained that his wife had passed away and he was getting rid of things that
been packed away for years. He had apparently already made one trip earlier in the day and that trunk had contained his wife's wedding dress, he said. My father felt like he couldn't let someone else's memories just be put into the dump and asked the man if he would mind if he took the trunk home to HIS wife. The man gladly agreed and my father loaded the trunk into his now empty truck. My mother was happy to have it and we all had fun going through the goodies. I can't remember everything that was in it now, since it was SO long ago, lol. BUT these delightful little baby booties and their button hook were included. I them!
MINI IRONSTONE PITCHERSMy wonderful mother in law recently passed these two little pitchers onto me from her mother. They both came with a little saucer and are just so sweet. I'm
so happy to be their new owner and will treasure them! After having them for a few days, I thought of the Ironstone pitcher I had purchased from my favorite antique/junk man, Bob. (I will be taking those photos in the next day or so...I saw Bob today and he said would be open tomorrow or the next day if the weather clears, so stay tuned, you won't be sorry!) Anyway, I think these pitchers make a very happy little trio! Also, our dining furniture set is from my grandmother-in-law as well. It's such a pretty set and we are fortunate to have it!
ANTIQUE DIVIDED RESTAURANT PLATEThe last one is this plate in the center of the photo. Click on it to make it larger and you'll see that it's divided! It's also from Bob's store and it apparently is from an old cafeteria style restaurant that was in Baltimore, Maryland. I've lived in MD all my life so I think it's extra cool! These plates are on the wall in my little entrance foyer.
Go toThe Romantic Home Blog at http://romantichome.blogspot.com/ and check out everyone's show and tell and participate too, it's fun to see what everyone shares! Just like in kindergarten!
I hope you all had a delightful and wonderful Thanksgiving. I am so thankful for my family and friends far and wide! I'm thankful for comments too :-)
I was trying to go with another song title like the past couple posts but I couldn't figure one out so instead of "Islands In The Sun" you've got this one! So I'm corny, whatever ;-)
I had a couple emails wondering where I have been (THANKS for checking on me!). I try to mostly post happy good thoughts. I'm a typically rose-colored glass half full kind of chic as I've said before. Admitedly, the longer this stuff goes on with my back the more of an effort that is. I'm going to tell you a bit about that and then move on to happier stuff, you are welcome to skip the next paragraph...it won't hurt my feelings, I really DO have somewhat tough skin!
After the first Rhizotomy on my right side (my more painful side of my spine) I had about 11 BLISS-FILLED days of reduced pain. I was SO EXCITED! THEN, it came BACK! I thought that I had perhaps done too much in my better feeling state of mind. I believe what actually happened was the anti-inflamatory that they put into the injection before they actually cauterized the nerves, wore off.
During the prep for the next injection, I was telling the doctor about the weight I was gaining like a sponge soaking up water. He said that he thought I was re-acting to the anti-inflamatory in the injection and took it out. (You have to realize that this place on surgery days is like cattle in a cattle yard and they get you in and out SO fast that the doctor never really sees your face. Every 15-25 minutes they are calling on this doctor over the intercom, "Dr. Doctor your patient is ready in the OR", Since he's not looking at my face, just my back and butt, he really doesn't know WHO he has under his xray machine. LOVELY. The poor man!) During the procedure he took the anti-inflamatory out of the injection and then I mentioned that the weight gain started before the first rhizotomy and that I gained about 7lbs in the first 7 days on Lyrica. So he says "OHHHH, you're on Lyrica, then THAT is what is causing the problem. He had me wean off the Lyrica over 5 days. Unfortunately I had NO relief after the second procedure and in fact I spent most of last week laying down and had to increase my pain medicine as per the doctors orders. He thinks so far I'm one of the cases that gets worse before it gets better. LUCKY. Enough of the Debbie Downer attitude...let's talk about my island! ;-)
We picked up the island top from our friend. We had it lightly sanded and joined together. I wanted to make sure we could still see the
original saw marks and patina. We even found WORM HOLES in one section of the wood. I got so excited over those. Yes, I'm a geek like that. If you click this second photo to make it larger, you can see them. After giving her a good bath with Murphy's oil soap,we did some internet research on finishing the piece. I DID NOT want to use a urethane product. We decided on a Tung oil finish and then topped with bees wax or another wax (we haven't decided that yet) Tung oil has the smallest molecular structure so it seeps into the wood better. I want to be able to FEEL the wood not feel the finish. Of course, we'll have to wax it like once a month but that's not a problem for Matt, he loves waxing. Wax on. Wax off. :-) We don't know how we are going to do the mahogony legs yet. They need to be cut down to size still and finished but we can decide that after we put it on the island base. It looks so different now then it did doesn't it? http://whimages.blogspot.com/2009/09/reclaimed-wood-second-chance-salvage.html I'm in LOVE!
I know I promised photos of the antique store I love but when I went by there today, he wasn't open. I will get that done soon. I can't WAIT to share it with you!
She's so purty! How sad am I to get excited about a new faucet. And a not very expensive one either! It probably helped that we haven't had running water in the kitchen now 4-5 days or something. I haven't had a built in soap dispenser since our last house and I love love love having one! Look at her lovely gooseneck! My last one had a gooseneck too but this one's a bit higher...ohhh the BIG pots I can CLEAN in there! SICK. Yes, I must be sick. I think I'd rather Matt buy me this and put it in then get jewelry anyday of the week. Yeah, so I'm a freak. ;-)
I couldn't think of a blog title this lovely morning. My friend Jeannette doesn't know I'm blogging about her. I'll have to call her. Hope she's okay with this! Hey Jeannette, funny story...one of my delightful and wonderful internet friends (Hi LORI! I totally feel like Lori and I are sisters seperated at birth except she got the good back and is able to hike mountains and stuff plus she owns a REALLY super cool dog/cat/animal care service called READY! PET! GO!) followed the link in my last post that shows Jeannette's uber cool under tree Christmas display of delightful sheep. Lori must not have had her glasses on (or she had a Bloody Mary for breakfast) and momentarily thought, "How'd Robyn get those sheep in the door and get them to pose so cutely?". I just wanted to say that I swear VIGNETTE is Jeannettes middle name. I swear the woman can plop down a huge head of cauliflower and an orange and it looks like an impressionist painting. True story, when we had our family photo shoot at Jeanette's last weekend (I will show you some of those pics when I get them from my friend, the photog), my photog friend, Kathleen and I popped our head into the kitchen to say goodbye and thank you. Jeannette had just comeback from shopping at the farmers market and on her counter was a GORGEOUS head of delish looking cauliflower (if I ate cauliflower I mean) and one single orange. Still life. I swear just those two things looked like a lovely still life painting. The woman oooozes style! This first photo is in her MUDROOM. YES her MUDROOM looks this lovely. It's this little room off the back of the house in this other photo. I go to the back door when I visit her because she told me I'm a back door friend a couple years ago. THAT's like the biggest compliment you can get from a friend!
Couple things I MUST share. While on VERY RESTRICTED ACTIVITY after today's Rhizotomy, I hope to make this ultra cool wreath from this super cool blog www.livingwithlindsay.com/2009/11/librarians-please-avert-your-eyes.html . I don't think using a glue gun is against the rules of VERY RESTRICTED ACTIVITY, do you? Also, one of the blogs I follow is having a Pottery Barn give away. WHO on earth couldn't spend 25 George's in PB? Or 2,500 for that matter! Anyway, you just have to leave a comment! Check it out. 
http://www.getyourmarthaon.blogspot.com/
I really should have closer pictures of my antique little goodies. I'm going to have to fire that photographer! Plus she used a flash and EVERYBODY knows I HATE flash. Hate it with every fiber of my being. Anyway, back to my goodies. My favorite little antique store, that I went to over the weekend had all kinds of yumminess that I could have put in the back of the Jeep in a heartbeat but unfortunately that would require larger sums of money that I don't currently seem to have. HOWEVER, I spent just a few dollars and I came home with some wonderful finds that make me 
HAPPY and isn't that what it's all about? Let me tell you about my shweeet goodies. That tall and gorgeous white enamel on metal pitcher reminds me of a lovely super model that grew up in the mid-west but her all-American beauty took her to glamorous places far and wide. She's still turning heads but she's put on a few lbs after a few little pitchers were born and she has a few wrinkles here and there but she's still carries herself with grace. Next to Pretty Pitcher are two little pint size milk bottles from dairys in Baltimore. Living about 40 miles from
Baltimore, the thought of there ever being cows there just tickles me pink. It's just a funny thought. I'm irritated with myself for only getting 2 because I like odd numbers so that's really going to bug the junk out of me until I get another. At a couple dollars, that wont set me back much and the vision of daisy's in them next summer (or if I get a bunch at the grocery store or if my husband is inspired to bring me some which will never happen because he shows his love in all the other wonderful things he does for me, ie: PROJECTS. Don't mind the run on sentence and all of the mistakes in this post that would make my 12th grade English teacher spontaneously combust) makes me happy. Follow all that?. Me neither. Going clockwise, I'm STILL in love with the saphire blue Fire King measuring cup I got for my birthday in August from the same store. It has a side spout which is pretty cool too. Yeah, I know it doesn't look blue but in the light it does have a hint of blue to it. I looked it up and as per what Bob said, that is what it's called and yes I DID get a major bargain on it compared to what I saw on ebay. School lunch money versus going to Outback Steakhouse! Moving along clockwise again. There 
is another little measuring cup, it's not that old. It's pyrex but it has a really fun shape so I couldn't resist it's call to come home with me. It's super happy sitting next to saphire blue fire king.
I promised I would take pictures of Bob's shop this week. It's called Ye Ol' Curiousity Shoppe in Churchville Maryland. I will go to snap some shots but my little one now has H1N1. First things first, I have to get her better. I SWEAR by Tamiflu, that stuff WORKS wonders. It's so IMPORTANT to go to the Dr.'s AS SOON AS YOU have symptoms.
The kitchen is still a work in progress so you're not getting photos of that yet (wink) ohhhh but I did want to show you my frugal idea for new knobs. We really wanted zink finished knobs like the finish on this B. But because we don't have an extra penny to drop on 98 knobs (I'm not kidding it's 90 something knobs in my kitchen) we purchased this bottle of hammered aluminum from Rustoleum and spray painted them! YAY us! Unfortunately/fortunately I am purchasing a new faucet tomorrow. Ours finally decided to die yesterday and my husband and my father have patched it so many times that it's at the point now that it's pointless to NOT get a new faucet. So I'm taking Peyton to the Depot in the morning to pick one out. Our dryer died the middle of last week but LUCKILY my father is Mr. Fixit and was able to take the sucker apart and we bought a new heating element that he installed. I won't tell you about the concerns I have with the small cup on top of the now reassembled and working like a champ dryer. The cup contains about 6 screws that somehow didn't make it BACK into said working like a champ dryer.
I also am having my second Rhizotomy on my lumbar tomorrow. It's going to be the left side this time. Good times. Good times.
I will go to the antique store later in the week to take some photos to show you all of his wonderful old goodies!
OHHHHHHHHH I almost forgot the Levi story. I took Levi McCoy and Cosmo Kramer to the Vet to get updated on shots. Being puppies, some of their shots only lasted a year so they needed boosters. One of the girls at the Vet is familiar with my back issues and immediately helped me by taking Levi. We go into the examining room and the dogs are tickled to death to be there. WHAT AN ADVENTURE! Happy wiggles and kisses all around for Margaret (the tech) and the Vet. The Vet and I are chatting as he's getting the shot ready and as he approaches Margaret and Levi, Levi spies the shot and DROPS onto the ground like he's been hit with a .45. He falls onto his back (I submit, I SUBMIT) and begins FURIOUSLY URINATING ALLOVER INCLUDING THE VETS SHOES AND LEGS. I'm apologizing and apologizing and then said, "I'm SO sorry, I forgot to tell you he is a submissive urinator!"
(Be warned, this post is FULL of these ) ( because I think I must talk that way too. So run away fast if you don't like them!)
Halloween was a warm night with the occasional mist of rain that luckily would disappear quickly. (Easy for me to say, I wasn't' out there!) I won't bore you with the pics of my kids (although I'd love to!) but if you are my FB friend, you've already seen them anyway. As I said in the previous post, Chili is our traditional meal on Halloween, we had the few extra people and everything was relatively uneventful. I was hoping to lay down after my afternoon of craziness but that didn't happen. The ONLY thing slightly out of the ordinary is that Cole didn't eat dinner. I figured he had sampled our own candy a bit too much 'cause as I've said before, that kid can EAT. Sunday morning he woke up and immediately we could tell he was feverish and his cough just came out of NO WHERE! Matt took him to the local Express Care and got there before they opened and was already 4th in line. Because having Cole get the H1N1 has been my biggest fear lately. Any of us for that matter, but Cole has asthma and latex allergies. I had tried many times to get him/them the shot to no avail. Luckily they've all already had the seasonal shot like every year since the twins were about 16-18 months. Because of the Latex issue, saying he's not easy to treat medically is a HUGE understatement. We'd been doing all the precautions: constant hand washing, gargling, drinking hot liquids (to send the virus to your stomach), using hand sanitizer, swabbing our nose holes with salt water. I've even
on occasion wiped mined out with a hand sanitizer wipe!
Needless to say, he has swine flu. He was prescribed Tamiflu and some guifenisin with codeine. He's doing very well. THANK YOU GOD. Really I am so happy that at least we caught it early and have the ability to get the medications we needed.
Okay, here's the part I'd love to post a poll about. Today, Cole wanted a crispy chicken bacon ranch salad from McD's. The kid's sick so yeah, you KNOW I'm going to go get it. I know my car needs gas so I grab the last 20 out of the cabinet (the perils of direct deposit leave us cash-less a lot. HECK the PERILS of my prescriptions, procedures, physical therapy etc. leave us cash-less a lot). I realize while I'm out and about that my face is going numb and I'm a bit light headed. I knew what the culprit was (your probably thinking, DUH Robyn, it's all those pain meds!) no, my fine friends, I hadn't taken my Thyroid pill since Friday when I took the last one. Call the pharmacy and of course I don't have any refills but when I mentioned the numb face, she assured me I could pick up a few! ;-) That was NICE of her. I then go to the gas station and while getting out the 20 I find a lovely but crumpled $1 in a pocket of my purse. Math genius that I am, I give the girl 21 dollars and ask for $6 in gas. I figured Cole's salad, large fries (does ANYONE go there without getting fries? I think it's now a law, right?) and a large diet Coke he was cravin' I'd be up to 8-9 dollars. As I'm pumping my tank chock FULL with my 6 dollars. A lady approaches me from the pump next to me. She's clean but disheveled (who the h*ll am I to judge I just took my pj bottoms off and put on running pants and tennis shoes to leave the house) and looks a bit shaken. She comments on how lovely Macy is. (Macy insists upon going EVERYWHERE NOW. Ever since we took her into Anthropologie and the MAC store in Richmond she thinks everything is now fair-game). Ms. Bit-disheveled then starts stammering over her words and apologizing and generally can't really get anything out. I assume she wants me to keep an eye on the little girl who was plowing through a happy meal, strapped into the backseat. Then she starts to cry and says her car is almost out of gas, and she wants to show me her purse (I'm assuming she means it's empty of money) and that the only way the little one got McD's was because she got a coupon for it while trick or treating (I'm taking my kids to THAT neighborhood next year). She cautiously and with much embarrassment asks if I can even give her a dollar for gas to get home. I pull the 5 out of my pocket and gladly hand it to her. She is GRACIOUS and blesses me. I blessed her of course because at this point, I'm just happy I HAD 6 dollars to put in the tank and some money to get Cole his lunch and buy his prescriptions yesterday and pay for the co-pay. Well, glad that my HUSBAND has a job and can pay for these everyday things that we could easily take for granted. So, do you think I did a random act of kindness or got scammed? All of this is on the heels of being in line in the express lane last week at the grocery while the man in front of me was TICKED OFF that he couldn't pay for his $25.00 worth of HOT CUSTOM ORDERED STEAM SHRIMP with his Independence Card (food stamp program). I know what my gut tells me about the lady, but what about YOU? WHAT DO YOU THINK?
This is turning into a novel!
This first photo and also the second were taken at one of my favorite places to shoot (when I was really capable of the photography for WHIMAGES.COM). YOU MUST click on these photos to see them bigger, they are so much prettier. Plus you can sorta see the house through the tree's . It's called Tudor Hall and it's owned by our local county and it's property butts up to my neighborhood. Read about it here: http://www.aboutfamouspeople.com/article1147.html and here http://www.harfordhistory.net/th.html It has such cool history! JOHN WILKES BOOTH was born there! The architect for the house was THE SAME architect who designed FORD THEATER where President Abraham Lincoln was shot! Sorta freaky fraky coincidence, huh? The pond is almost one of the first things you see when you pull into the property and the house lies beyond that tall pine in the distance. This doggie photo is of my friend Melanie's Great Dane, Jolie going after a ball. She's a beauty!
There is no way I can properly go from Swine Flu to my mean math skills, to whether or not I was scammed to lovely photos that show off
LIGHT to John Wilkes Booth and Abraham Lincoln's assassination to a delish
Cheesy Mexican Melt Bake with any literary skill is there? Well I guess I just did! HA!
Because I can't stand in the kitchen too long and the evenings seem to be worse for me pain wise (although I hope that gets better soon), I've had to change the way I cook and meal plan. Heck I NEVER meal planned before. Now I try to think of things that may have similar ingredients and do a lot of my prep work in little batches a head of time. HOLY COW, why didn't I think of this YEARS AGO. Can you say, TIMESAVER? I'm going to talk about that a little here and in the next post which will feature: Citrus Salad with Bacon and Red Onion (I love Red ONION), Catalina Cranberry Chicken and Yummy loaded golden mashed potatoes.
Because I knew I was making Chili, when I saw this recipe I just stopped. I thought, "SELF, you are already making most of that for the Chili, why don't you buy double the ingredients and get two meals out of it?" Then I said, "SELF, you are a GENIUS! Then you can freeze the Chili for a later date!" Sometimes, I really am proud of myself!
This recipe is LOOOSELY based on Kraft recipes from Food and Family Magazine. (so is the cranberry chicken and the salad...shhhh).
I'm really BAD about measuring when I cook so just kinda keep that in mind and follow your own tastes.
1to 1 1/2 lb extra-lean ground beef (I always buy 93/7)
1 onion chopped (size depends on how much meat you have)
1 green pepper chopped (size depends on how much meat you have)
1 tall jar of Taco Bell Thick and Chunky Salsa but use what you like...I do!
chili powder, salt and pepper
1 10oz bag of frozen yellow corn
4-6 big soft tortillas
1/2 -1 cup sour cream (you're gonna need the cup) I hope you have more for later as a garnish
3/4 cup shredded cheese (calls for sharp cheddar but I use the Mexican and I NEVER measure cheese so mine has MORE fo' sure!)
Green onions
Here's some other things I would suggest: Add 1 little can of green chili's, black beans, chili beans, dark red kidneys, light red kidneys, whatever 'cause they are GOOD for you. Plus you know that rhyme: Beans Beans they're good for.... nevermind. Hey, you are going to want to drain those beans, btw.
Heat oven to 375
Brown meat with onions and peppers on medium high skillet. If you are making chili too and you used way more meat and onions and green pepper, seperate whatever amount of meat you want for your chili now in a separate pot and make it while your cooking this. The hard part for BOTH dinners is now done! Okay, in the pan you are making the meat mixture for this bake in, add the salsa and corn, mix well and simmer 5-6 minutes. If you want to add any beans or chilis add them now as well, but DRAIN THEM.
SPREAD some meat mixture on the bottom of a 9 x 9 dish or a nice round dish or any dish that this will sorta fit in. Top that with one tortilla. Spread some more meat mixture, top with little dollops of sour cream (kind spread that around only on surface a bit), cheese then start over again with another tortilla. Top layer is just meat and cheese on top. Bake about 25 30 minutes. Top each square with a dollop (fun word) of sour cream and sprinkle the onions. ENJOY!
Come back tomorrow or the next day for those other recipes. Plus I hope to show you pics of my cabinets too.
I joined this little show and tell party at http://romantichome.blogspot.com/ . It's a wonderful blog I've recently started following and I LOVE it. I thought I'd share some things that were given to me and something I gave myself! LOL 
been packed away for years. He had apparently already made one trip earlier in the day and that trunk had contained his wife's wedding dress, he said. My father felt like he couldn't let someone else's memories just be put into the dump and asked the man if he would mind if he took the trunk home to HIS wife. The man gladly agreed and my father loaded the trunk into his now empty truck. My mother was happy to have it and we all had fun going through the goodies. I can't remember everything that was in it now, since it was SO long ago, lol. BUT these delightful little baby booties and their button hook were included. I 
so happy to be their new owner and will treasure them! After having them for a few days, I thought of the Ironstone pitcher I had purchased from my favorite antique/junk man, Bob. (I will be taking those photos in the next day or so...I saw Bob today and he said would be open tomorrow or the next day if the weather clears, so stay tuned, you won't be sorry!) Anyway, I think these pitchers make a very happy little trio! Also, our dining furniture set is from my grandmother-in-law as well. It's such a pretty set and we are fortunate to have it!
