Little Cabin in the Woods...

It reminds me of a little tune about Little Bunny Foo Foo hopping through the forest, which I used to sing with the kids when they were small. I'm sure you know it too. Well a little cabin in the woods is now something more near and dear to my heart as hubby and I wrestle with the idea of a vacation home. Is now the time to buy given all the foreclosures and really low prices? Is it too much of a stretch for us? The youngest is almost through with college and we have been doing the pay-as-you-go so as hubby likes to say - when the boy gets done with school we get a pay raise. LOL!

Life has been rolling along clickity- clack since the holidays. Work has been busy and the new year seems to indicate more of the same for which I am grateful. There is some fear of creating this new obligation but I'm one to jump right to fear - it's in my DNA - so I have to be sure I'm not being unreasonably fearful. Hubby is a Steady Eddy; he can see his way through things and doesn't operate out of fear. We're a good team that way. So this is what we are thinking on this January. The photo's are of a little place on 1.5 fairly private acres about 30 mins. from Kirkwood ski resort in CA. It needs a whole new deck and it's time for a roof but has so much character and charm.
Let's just say - if things progress I'll write more. After all - think of the decorating projects!

Me and Isaac...

Hi, my name is Karen and I admit I watch QVC. Whew! OK - I'm outed now and I feel better for it. GRIN. Mainly it is part of my morning ritual to have it on while I get ready for work. There are other times, too where it is just comforting to have it on in the background while I am crafting, sewing, cooking, etc. I feel like some of these hosts are friends of mine since I've watched them for so many years. Oops, this confession is probably best saved for the therapists couch! Most importantly - I'm not one of those kooky compulsive buyers so it's not a financial problem for me to watch.

One day recently I got a note on Facebook saying Isaac Mizrahi would be doing a show and there was an opportunity to submit a fashion question - Isaac would pick one and answer it on air. Well, don't you know I submitted a question but then forgot to watch the darn show - probably went to work. Ha! He selected my question and then apparently gave his answer from a drawing table on-air, sketching as he explained. A few days later QVC contacted me and told me they would like to send me the drawing he made and signed. Fun, fun, fun!

On Kitchens And Husbands

I spend a lot of time in the kitchen these days. Yes, I do have that full time job taking up the better part of my day but since Hubby and I have committed ourselves to 'the healthy life' I'm in the kitchen lots cooking fresh food. I have to say it's not bad. I like being in the kitchen creating delicious and nutritious things to eat. The current obsession of my Hubs is to demolish, renovate, remodel, redesign, update, etc., our kitchen. I don't have a fancy kitchen and I don't seem to require one since I'm turning out some pretty decent fare despite the lack of chic design or fancy & feature rich new-ish appliances. Having recently downsized to this house a year ago it wasn't in the cards to find a less expensive home with a better kitchen than what I was leaving behind. We ended up finding a great house in an excellent location that had what we thought was a crappy kitchen. That didn't deter us - we bought it anyway - making wise-cracks about the kitchen cabinets resembling those you'd find in an RV saying ... That there is an RV, Clark or I can't believe this is a trailer. Ha ha ha! We felt it was crappy, yet serviceable, and not anything that needed immediate repair. The house had other more urgent repairs / updates needed simply to enable us to move in and those took priority. A diamond in the rough - that's how I like to think of it!




Stay tuned for more on the kitchen and our remodeling plans. Hubby has his creative juices flowing (yes he fixates on things!) and is doing all kinds of research finding very interesting appliances, cabinets, islands and such. I think it's so funny that a guy who spends almost no time in the kitchen cooking is excited about designing and building the new and improved kitchen. I love his energy and drive to collect and organize the data; and I also know he wants me to have a nice kitchen. He loves me and he never stops showing it. How lucky am I?

So enjoy these functional and dated before pictures - I have no time line for the after pictures.

Somewhere in Texas There Is A Blueberry Farm With My Name On It!

Okay - maybe Arkansas. Ha! Don't look so surprised. Yesterday was the mid-term elections here in my home state of California and the results have sunk me low today. I would never wish for my employer to discover this blog because I have devoted far more time to that dream and this post than I have to my real job today. Well, what's a fiscally conservative Cali girl to do in these politically divided times? Back in the day I'd just move on. I'd stew a bit over my morning tea and then get back at it and do my J O B. But now we are expected to do our job amid depressing election results and a SF Giant's World Series victory parade, available to view live on-line - grin. Generally speaking we have the world at our fingertips via the Internet to carry us away from our woes. Yep, chalk this day up as lost somewhere near Mountain Home, AK on a 24 acre berry farm that is, of all things - For Sale.

15 Things I Learned on a 15 Day Cleanse

WE DID IT!!!

And when I say WE I mean the hubby and me. Yesterday we concluded our 15 day cleanse mainly brought to us by Arbonne. No, I don't sell Arbonne but I do think their products are A+. I have some nutritional education behind me and I investigated with a sceptical mind before we embarked. I mean, I was looking for an excuse not to do this - you know how it goes. Ha! So if you don't have time to read further but are interested in getting your system back on track and your eating under control, email me and I'll give you all the details and contact info.

Now what did I learn during this process?

1. Chocolate is better than vanilla
2. My hubby is still crazy about me!
3. The man I married is still my best friend :-)
4. We adapt to our situation and get creative within those limits
5. This is a perfect activity for restless or apathetic empty-nester couples
6. Broccolini, raspberries and vanilla shake mix - yuck! Broccolini, orange and vanilla - Yum!
7. I'm competitive
8. We're not cheaters!
9. I finish things (man, do I love that feeling!)
10. We like doing things together, we just didn't remember that
11. You save a lot of money by not eating out
12. Yes, you can invite people to a delicious dinner while on this cleanse
13. Yes, you can go to social events and have fun - even without alcohol
14. Water is life and the solution to pollution is dilution!
15. Hey, I'm a HOT 40-something grandma married to one HOT grandpa!!

Where do we go from here? Hubby feels so good about the program and got such great results that he is continuing with 2 protein shakes with fiber boost twice a day (breakfast & lunch) for ongoing weight loss goals. I am cautiously returning to chewing all my meals but with a new level of control on quantity and content. I don't want to lose the benefits of the last 15 days. I'll stick with ...eat food, not too much, mostly plants (as Michael Pollan says).

What have you got to lose ...might as well jump!

Going to the Ball at Willow Manor

I've got my date for the Willow Manor Cyber Ball and not a moment too soon since the much anticipated Ball is today! I'm so excited that Donald Trump will be in town after all - whew! - that guy is B U S Y and it was touch and go for a time. Yes, of course I had other escorts lined up, but he was my first choice. I find Donald anything but boring, plus any man who looks good in a pink tie alredy has and edge with me. I can't wait to run my fingers through that hair - it is his hair they say!

He's picking me up in his new car - the Mercedes-Benz SLR McClaren. Luxury!!

I'm baring skin tonight...my shoulders - in the iconic black "cold shoulder dress" by Donna Karan. Darn, but I should have taken a photo of it for you. Both Liza and Hillary have worn a version of this dress in the past. I'm head over heels for it. Donna knows a woman's shoulders never get fat - it's the one place she says - show it off. Ha! My tootsies will be stuffed into the most amazing pick patten leather stilleto's I could find. Of course I expect these will go wonderfully with Donald's tie.

Mr. Trump is pretty excited about the networking opportunity the Ball at Willow Manor offers. He's a work-a-holic and so even when he is being social I'm sure he'll have an eye for a deal. I may be witness to some real property transactions - oh my!

The night is young and if you didn't get an invitation this year please do stop by Willow's Cyber Ball http://willowmanor.blogspot.com/ and check it out so you are sure to be on the guest list for next year. The champagne cocktails are simply divine!

First Day of Fall!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love Fall! What is it about Fall that draws us home? Certainly there is a change in weather - is it all because of the weather that we settle in to our homes and apartments?

Football is back and on the TV (which means Hockey is soon to follow. Yay! - Go Sharks!) so we call friends to share food and cheer on the teams. Darkness arrives sooner - already even before the time change I noted darkness at 7:30 p.m. now. Time to come in - the streetlights are on.

The vibrant but fleeting flavors of summer fruits, so fragile and short lived, as in peaches and raspberries, give way to comforting farm favorites sturdy to endure storage needs like sweet potatoes, broccoli, potatoes and apples. We dig out our favorite comfort food recipes for pies, cobblers, soups and stews, dips and snack foods and venture to try something new for company. Mother Nature - ahead of her long winter rest - puts on a final show of vibrant colors bursting in yellow, red, orange and finally brown.

When I was a young girl we lived in San Lorenzo. It was a village and not a town or a city. I always liked that - though not all that certain of the distinction. Anyway, it seemed special. The streets of our village were lined with tall sycamore trees (pictured above) and such fun we kids had when the leaves began to fall. We would pile them up and jump into them! We’d kick them up in the air, press them in heavy books to try and save a special one, crunch them up in our hand and feel them shatter under our strength, hide in a pile of them only to pounce and startle a passerby (we were snotty, what can I say?), and we would rake them. Many of us had to rake our own lawns as a regular family chore. Yes - we had chores! Since we were already out there we became inspired to rake others – for a fee. My brother, my friends and me would go door to door offering to rake the neighboring lawns for 50 cents – 1.50 depending on the size and the accepted offer. This was great entrepreneurship and how I loved feeling that money weighing my pocket down. The best part was that you only had to get them to a nice even row in the street and then the street sweeper would come by and suck them up leaving the street like new. I’m not so sure we would have loved this job if we had to bag those jumbo sized leaves!

FYI - A hybrid developed from the American sycamore, called the London planetree, is the urban tree of choice in North America and Europe. When David Bohannon built San Lorenzo Village between 1943 and 1950, he chose the venerable sycamore as a street tree. http://www.sanlorenzoexpress.com/trees.htm

Cuddle up with something or someone soft and enjoy this new season. <3 Be blessed.