Sock Burning

It's become an Eastern boating tradition. When day and night are just about equal in length, and springtime's a' coming, boat folks on the Eastern shore decide that they've had just about enough of the cold weather. It's time for their toes to be free and unfettered in the old deck shoes. What to do with those tired winter socks? Throw them in a bonfire, of course, and drink a toast to the warm days to come, and flip-flops!

A few weeks ago when we were in Maryland, we had a little sock burning bonfire nothing too big, just a few neighbors in the community gathered to keep up the tradition. It was short and sweet and a chilly night in March to say bye-bye to Mr. Winter.

Here goes my ugly socks! (A pair of mis-matched from the laundry room)!

Our little fire at one of the neighbors.

Chit chatting and keeping warm.

John, talking with the guys. Notice Ken with his socks in his back pocket? He came prepared!

It was a crisp, beautiful evening. Can't wait for the festivities to begin, and the renovations to end!
Will be heading down tomorrow morning, so I wish everyone a most wonderful weekend!

XOXO

Springtime in Maryland

O.K. I fibbed, these first two pictures are from home in Pennsylvania.

Do you know where this spot is? It is where I dug a football sized area for Stella during the blizzard. I snapped these yesterday before heading to Maryland. Beautiful trees.

We are working like dogs this weekend, but I stuck out a few minutes ago to snap a few pics.
Here, my lilacs are starting to pop. Love them!

Sure sign of spring, the first blooms of the season.

The outside here is absolutely beautiful. The inside is an absolute disaster zone.
Hopefully we will have a handle on things by May.

Meanwhile, Stella is peeking down from our bedroom wondering if it will ever be normal around here again. I think I'll take her for a walk now.
Hope your having a wonderful weekend!

XOXO

Thirsty Thursday

Happy Thirsty Thursday! Doesn't this look refreshing? I thought the ingredients were a little different, and just sounded good.

Cheers to Tangerines!!

Have a wonderful weekend my friends. If I don't talk to you before, I will be heading to Maryland tomorrow. Must keep working on the renovations so we can get our summer under way!

XOXO

Kentucky Sidecar Cocktail Recipe

1/2 oz. Fresh Lemon Juice
1 oz. Fresh Tangerine Juice
1 1/2 oz. Bourbon (a nice small-batch bourbon preferred)
3/4 oz. Triple Sec

1. Rub the rim of a chilled cocktail glass with a tangerine wedge & sugar the rim.

2. Put all ingredients into a cocktail shaker with ice, then shake it with passion for 15-20 seconds. Strain into your cocktail glass. Garnish with a tangerine twist, or for a sexy addition drop a few raspberries into the cocktail glass.

Pastorius Park

On Easter Sunday, we went to Chestnut Hill in Philadelphia for lunch and a nice walk around town. The weather was a perfect 74 degrees.

After lunch we walked through the neighborhoods, looking at all of the old houses. My son took the leash for awhile.

Our destination was Pastorius Park. It is a dog park in Philadelphia.

Stella was enjoying getting out and about today. She has been cooped up for so long it seems.

Checking out something in the water.

The is an old building in the park with some beautiful murals painted all around the whole building.

Very pretty.

All kinds of dogs enjoying the weather today.

I thought of Ina when I saw this one. Not nearly as regal as Halle!

Big Boy.

Not only all kinds of dogs, but all kinds of humans too! Wowza!

After our our long walk through town and the park, we were tired and thirsty. Now we have a long walk back to the car. A wonderful day, to say the least!
Then home to prepare a wonderful honey baked ham, pineapple stuffing, homemade macaroni & cheese, and a wonderful homemade New York cheesecake with fresh strawberries. To top it all off, Amy will be coming home. I just love it when the four of us are all together under the same roof!
I hope you had a wonderful weekend too!

XOXO

HAPPY EASTER

Stella and myself wishes all my friends and family a Happy, Happy Easter!
Have a wonderful weekend!

XOXO

Homemade Pizza

O.K. this is not my pizza, because I forgot to snap mine. Close enough, just picture caramelized red onions on top! YUMMY! This was so good that I cannot wait to make it again. Very easy too. My son asked me where I got the recipe, I laughed and said, from my head. He didn't believe me. Give it a try, you will thank me.

Ronda's Homemade Bodacious Spinach Pizza

Ingredients:

~Olive oil
~Garlic, 1 clove
~Medium red onion, thinly sliced
~2 Portabella mushroom caps (large), roughly chopped
~Bag of organic baby spinach
~Balsamic vinegar
~1 or 2 Plum tomatoes, thinly sliced
~Ball of fresh mozzarella, sliced
~Parmesan cheese for topping

1. Saute red onion and mushrooms briefly (about 2 minutes) in olive oil, then add about 2 TBSP. balsamic vinegar, salt & pepper & a pinch of sugar and stir. Add baby spinach, turn off heat, and stir until just wilted. Set aside.

2. Brush pizza dough with olive oil and fresh garlic.

3. Place fresh sliced mozzarella all around crust, then scatter tomatoes all around on top of cheese. Add a little salt to tomatoes.

4. Spoon spinach-mushroom-onion mixture all around pizza. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

5. Bake @ 450 for about 10-12 minutes, or until mozzarella is bubbling.

ENJOY

I know I have a lot of catching up to do. Will do my visiting this evening. Praise the Lord and pass the meat sauce, my husband is going on his annual opening trout season fishing trip. No hard labor for me the next few days!! I hope everyone is enjoying this beautiful Holy weekend!

XOXO

Renovation in Full Swing

This is what it looks like when I walk into our house in Maryland. Last year it was the master bedroom, which turned out beautiful! This year, it the rest of the bedrooms. This is looking into the living room. We are down this weekend to do some hardcore labor. Doing most of the grunt work ourselves to save some money.

This is our dining room. It is full of everything from the three bedrooms that we are re-doing. We started out thinking we were just going to paint, then it turned into a full fledged remodeling job. We even added a bathroom in one of the bedrooms.

This is my daughter Amy's/guest room. Beautiful view. Putting all new solid wood doors throughout. So much painting to do!!

This is my mother-in-law's/guest room, also a beautiful view. This is the room that we added the new bathroom. It will be a pretty sage color.

New bathroom in mother-in-law's room.

This will be a walk through closet between the 2 bedrooms.

This is my son's/guest room. We have twin beds and a futon in here.

This is the hallway looking down to the 3 bedrooms and the main (small) bathroom.
We are painting the wainscoting white, finally! On the left is going down to the basement.
We will be putting hardwood flooring throughout, tough decision because I kind of wanted carpet in the bedrooms. It will look nice with some pretty rugs though. Can't wait to show you the results.
So when I say I need a break sometimes from the computer, you can see why! There will be no entertaining here for little while.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

XOXO