Fun...

Such a fun weekend! 
Here is a shot of me and the girls at our lake house Friday night. Even though this is just about 1/3 of our group, we had a great time! I made a Spinach Tortellini Soup, Salad and bread for our dinner. I tried a recipe that was in the January issue of the Foodnetwork Magazine for Doughnut Tiramisu. It was really good! 
Before everyone left the next morning I put out Banana Bread, Granola, Yogurt and Blackberries. My friend, Arlene made two quiches, and they were delicious! 

Then, Saturday night my new sofa and loveseat arrived at our main house! I have been waiting for new furniture FOREVER, and husband finally gave the okay to order it about a month ago! As soon as I get the room put together I will post a photo! I ordered from ClubFurniture and had a great experience! I highly recommend them.

And, now tomorrow they are forcasting ice and/or snow for our area! So this will be us in the lowcountry:

Schools have already decided for an early release tomorrow and it's canceled for Wednesday. And just  to help you picture this more clearly, it is 68 degrees and sunny right now! You gotta love the south! ;)
So, to my southern friends, GO GET THE BREAD AND MILK! :)

How Was Your Weekend?

Did you do anything fun? Did you go somewhere for the long weekend?

It was pretty quiet around here...

I made homemade pizza Friday night, gah, I just can't get the crust right! Does anyone have a pizza crust recipe they want to share? Maybe it's the way I am cooking it? I don't know, but I keep trying. I figure I'll eventually get it right!

Went to see the Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit  movie on Saturday. I enjoyed it, lots of action, no bad language, not really long.... my kind of movie!

Sunday we went to church and then just stayed around the house. 

Watched my new show, True Detectives on HBO last night, while I dvr'd Downton Abbey. I just finished watching the premiere of Downton yesterday and have some catching up to do!

Got a busy week this week. I am hosting my Pokeno group Friday night and I decided to do it at the lake house! I don't have a really big group coming, but still!

Happy Monday!

Love This Show

A new HBO series, True Detective, started Sunday night. Well, I missed it being up at the cabin, but I caught the rerun last night. I love it! Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey are wonderful. And, I love seeing Woody with some hair! Check it out, it's on Sundays at 9:00.

Last night husband came home from work and said "Guess what happened to me on the way to work?"  I couldn't guess and he proceeded to tell me that he was rear-ended on the road between Summerville and Walterboro, which is a horrible road to begin with! He said as he was driving he saw a pickup truck heading towards him that had apparently lost control. It was swerving from one side of the road to the other and still going at a high rate of speed! Husband says he really doesn't remember what he did, he said it seemed so surreal as it was happening. But he thinks he slowed down and had almost come to a stop when the truck blew past  him and kept speeding away. A few seconds later he felt and heard a crunch, as the lady behind him ran smack into him! It didn't do much damage to his car, which I thought was a miracle since I think it is a piece of plastic crap! Can you tell I don't like his car? Anyway, he said her car was totally crunched in the front all the way to the engine! It took an hour for the highway patrol to get there and an ambulance that was called for the woman (she was pretty shaken up) never arrived! When husband called to see what the hold up was, he was told that they were doing the best they could everyone was handling an "incident" in Walterboro. Husband thinks the guy that almost ran him off the road was trying to flee from the "incident", whatever that was! You know how when you hear something that happened, and even though it turned out fine, you start imagining what if? Well, that's what started happening with me.... What if the guy had crashed head on into my husband, what if..... Yeah, everything was fine, but it makes you realize that things can turn on a dime!

Back To Our New Normal

Ended up with a horrible headache on Friday, so we cancelled dinner reservations for that night. But, we more than made up for it on Saturday night! 

We went to Hall's Chophouse. Loved it! 

I had She Crab soup to start and then Salmon as my entree. I was really full and barely could eat my dessert, a German Chocolate Brownie! College son enjoyed it too, he and his dad had the filet mignon. Son said his was prepared perfectly!

Yesterday I took college son back to school. It was time! I was excited for him to come home for Christmas break  but after about two weeks in, I was ready for him to leave! ;) And, he was ready to go! 

I had some contractors come to the cabin to give me an estimate on building a screened porch. One guy I really liked and he can start fairly soon. Let's hope he is resonable!

Got home late today, so I think I am just about ready to turn in! All that driving really drains me! I am not a good car traveler!

How was your weekend?

Dinner at Fish

As long as we have lived here, we have never eaten here. Husband and son are slowly starting to enjoy more seafood, so I convinced them to give a try.

It was wonderful!

We all started with something different: I had the Tuna Tartare, son had calamari and husband had the mussels. All were terrific!

Husband and I both ordered the scallops and son tried the Lobster Croque Monsieur. I could have licked my plate! 

For dessert I had the Grapefruit Tartlet and the guys got the Monkey Bar. The tartlet should be called a tart because it was huge! 

If you come to Charleston you must put Fish on your list of places to eat!

My Favorite Time of The Year...

We have reservations tonight, Friday and Saturday!

Baby It's Cold Outside! And Apparently Inside Too...

I think it was around 17 degrees when husband left for work this morning! That's cold for the lowcountry! 

Though I can't complain.

I don't live in a tent.

I know someone who does.

I found him at the library this afternoon. 

He had shelter last night.

Now, as for the photo above.... this is what I found when I went to get all my products out to dry my hair this morning! It was in the bottom drawer in my bathroom! If you can't tell, that is ice at the top! It was lying down on it's side and when I picked it up this is what I saw! You would understand now why my family always complains that it is too cold in our house! 

Hope you are staying warm and are giving thanks that you have a warm home in which to live.

Scenes from Christmas

I have been working on this post forever, but kept having problems uploading photos! Anyway, finally got some up and figured I'd better give it a go.
This year I decorated the tree in the dining room with all my old shiny brite ornaments. I love the way it looks! It brings back so many memories of christmas with my mom's family in Pittsburgh when I was younger. I really wanted to use tinsel on it too for a real vintage look, but with the one cat we have left knew that probably wasn't a good idea! I also used some of the angels that my grandmother crocheted many years ago.

Of course I had to make my little villages out of my old and new christmas houses! This church is new from my MIL this year. Also, they are kind of hard to see but I put some vintage choir/altar boys out front.

We spent the weekend before Christmas with my family. My mom loves Christmas and has such a great time planning for everyone!

We did our traditional brunch at my sister's house that Sunday morning. College son is ready to move up to the grown ups table!

Christmas morning at our house:

It was really weird without teen daughter there! But, she texted us and filled us in on all that was going on with her french 'family' and their christmas traditions!

I prepared our traditional Christmas day dinner: beef tenderloin, even though I quit eating beef this past year! Husband and son enjoyed it!


Even though there is nothing I need or want, husband surprised me with a chocolate diamond ring. There is kind of a funny story behind it: A few days before christmas a commercial came on the tv advertising chocolate diamonds. I made the comment "who would want that? I don't even think there is such a thing, it's probably a made up thing just to sell more jewelry!" And then I may have said something about not liking them!
Well, christmas morning when husband handed me a small box, he said " you can take this back I know you don't like it". I was oblivious to what it could have been, I had forgotten about the commercial! I said "how do you know I won't like it?'  and he said "because you told me". Well I opened it and had to eat my words, because it is actually gorgeous! The diamonds are so sparkly and I can't stop looking at it when I have it on! Maybe I will learn to keep my big fat mouth shut! ;)
I worked the two days after Christmas so my supervisor could have the days off. It was busy as heck! We actually had sold out tours and had to turn people away!
New Years Eve was spent at our home in the lowcountry. I had packed the car and we were headed out of the neighborhood when husband made the comment that he really didn't feel like going to the lake house but that since I wanted to we would. I told him that I didn't really want to go either, so we whipped the car around, unpacked the car and spent a quiet night at home! 
I still have my trees up, I just love to see the twinkling lights and of course I love my little Christmas houses, so I may leave everything out until next week! 
It's hard to believe that 2014 is here. I wish a happy, prosperous and healthy new year to each and everyone!