FAMILY LOVE

Hello and Happy Memorial Day!  It's about 56 degrees here in Michigan and pouring rain, but let's not let the weather dampen our spirit and pride for what today is all about.  Many thanks to all of the men and women serving our country.  Our flags are raised to you today!

Here in the Midwest, the weather around this time is very iffy...I can remember more rained out BBQ's on this day than any other.  We came to the lake to relax and that's what we're doing.  Yesterday my neighbor, Barb stopped over.  She filled me in on how her winter had been, what was new with her family.  Then she shyly said, "I turned 70 in February."  I think my jaw hit the floor.  All of our days here at the lake, the seasons, the years...they all seem like pages and chapters in a big book.  As the narrator, my voice never changes.  But yes, 23 years have gone by and when I met Babs she was just in her late 40's with a teenage son.  And she's just the same, wearing her old shorts and blue denim jacket to hide the dirt on her clothes from spending hours in her garden.  Her ash blonde hair now a pretty shiny gray.  The same big smile and twinkling blue eyes.  The Husband made hamburgers on the grill (under the roof of the patio as it was pouring), and she stayed for dinner with us.  Our friends at the lake are wonderful, rain or shine!

I wanted to share something with you that came by UPS last week.  I think all of you know how much I wanted to do a gallery wall.  Well, I just didn't have the room so I did those floating shelves that I posted about recently.  It still bothered me that I had so little space to display pictures and there aren't enough frames in the world for all the pictures I'd love to put out.  So I found this big iron grid thingy in my Napa Style catalog and I knew it would be perfect.

I have it in my family room, just the right place as it's all about family.  Like the years at the lake, it tells a story.  My children, holidays, pets, our good times...The pictures are held with metal clips, fifty of them, and of course you can swap them out any time you want.  Now, you know I'm not handy or extremely creative, but Melanie at Comfy House just posted the other day that she had saved the metal frame from her boys crib and was thinking of using it for something like this.  I hope seeing this gives her the inspiration to go for it!

The Husband and I were in downtown Chicago again for a doctor visit.  Now is just the best time to be out and about in the city.  We drove to an area called Old Town, not far from the neighborhood that I had my little studio apartment in back in ancient times. 

We walked the streets holding hands (yeah, we still do that!), and I snapped some pictures with my phone.  All the locals were out, running, pushing strollers, walking dogs, sitting at the sidewalk cafes.

We stopped here for an early dinner.  I love this place, we've been here many times.  It has a sort of Moulin Rouge atmosphere.  The Husband had salmon and I had chicken on a bed of roasted veggies with a buttery dijon sauce.  Delicious!

I snapped a picture of The Husband working on his "new" old fishing boat in the garage a little while ago.  He can spend hours playing with it.  Maybe someday he'll actually get it in the water.  

So, now I'm off to get things ready for lunch, shish kebobs on the grill.  We''ll probably come home tomorrow.  I hope all of you are having a wonderful holiday doing what you love, with all those that you love!  See you later in the week!

XO,

Jane

SPRING CLEANING AT THE LAKEHOUSE

Surprise!  I'm up at the lake!  It was a surprise to me, too.  I really thought it would be a little boring without all the summer furniture and toys out.  We have the boys coming up next weekend to help out, The Husband has a medical condition right now that keeps him from lifting anything heavy.  It was supposed to be a gorgeous weekend weather wise, so I packed a bag and jumped in the car.  

So, we've been here since Saturday.  You might remember that a bachelorette party took place here a few weeks ago.  My daughters had told me that the place was cleaned top to bottom before and after the party.  Well, it turned out, not so much after.  There were a ton of towels in the laundry room as well as the sheets from the beds and something sticky all over the floors.  I think by now you have realized that I'm a closet clean freak.  Give me a few old rags, paper towels and cleaning products and I can make a day of it.  Since I've been simplifying so much at home, I decided to do the same here.  I started with the counter above.  I had every appliance I owned on this counter including a food processor and smoothie blender that I used maybe once.  The dishes on the shelves are used everyday, the open shelves are pretty and functional.  But a little editing never hurts!

I really cleaned up this counter.  It was a catch~all for everything.  I tried to corral it all in baskets but it was crazy, so this area got a makeover.

I took down and washed ever piece if glassware, including the 10,000 wine and beer glasses the girls brought back from their winery tours.  If you want to have a party, this is the place to be!

And I tweaked the Hoosier cabinet, my favorite thing to play with.

The washing machine ran two days straight, I washed all the floors and cleaned the bathrooms.  The Husband tinkered with his new fishing boat, and wow, what a nice boat it is!  Once it's in the water I'll take a picture of it.  I know you are just dying to see it! ;-D

So, I woke up this morning thinking we were leaving and The Husband said, "Let's stay one more night."  Fine by me!  One thing I'm not doing is cleaning!  I may go up to the big farmstand where they sell flowers and make some pots.  I'm debating whether to do tomatoes this year.  I don't know what I'm doing wrong but I never seem to get more than one or two on a plant the past couple of years.  We'll see.

And that's all I have for you now.  I hope all of you had a wonderful weekend.  The Husband is out trimming the boxwood hedges right now and I'm so excited because I'm going to try to make a wreath with the clippings.  I better go grab a rake!

Joining Brenda at Cozy Little House for Tweak it Tuesday.

XO,

Jane 

LIVING ROOM & BATHROOM CHANGES

It's a gorgeous day in Chicago, 80 degrees and totally looking like summer!  And in Blondieville, things have calmed down considerably.  I've caught up on my sleep and I feel like I have my life back.  In fact, yesterday I was thinking, well, what I am I going to do now?  The wedding seemed to use up all my free time.  Thank you so much for your nice comments, I passed them on to Emily and she was thrilled.  

I did a lot of work around the house over the past few weeks, things I had wanted to do but thought, "I'll get around to it.".  And as usual, it starts with one little change, like  a new valance for the bathroom window.  This is a very small bathroom with a tiny sink and vanity and I wanted some surface space.  A trip was made to Home Depot where they cut a long piece of pine in half for me and I found wood brackets that fit.  I painted everything with the same paint used for my living room.  DIL, Mary Clare and I hung them last week, okay MC did 99% of the work, I just stared in awe at how good she was with a power drill!

I like the extra space it gives me.  I just arranged a few essentials, most that I already had.  The jars are from HomeGoods and the hand towels, Target.  The valance is from JC Penney.

I scored a whole basket of these old, old iron hooks at an antique store years ago.  I used most of them up at the lakehouse but found one left and thought it would be perfect here. 

You might remember me fussing and fussing with this long wall I have in my living room.  It finally came together last week as well.  For some of you it might have been as easy as 1-2-3, but for me it was battling with the perfect combination of balance, shape, color and space.  Foremost, I wanted a gallery space but it had to be in proportion with the size of the room and the furniture.  I found these ledges, or "floating shelves" at HomeGoods for $19.99 each.  Let me just say that they are a real test of patience to hang.  Good old Mary Clare and her drill came to the rescue again.   I needed something organic and colorful to go with the sofa...it was all looking very neutral and I found this prints at Art.com.  Anyway, I'm happy with it and after all the crazy agonizing I did over it, it's staying like this for a long time!

A little close up of the ledges.  I found all of my frames at HomeGoods.  I had gone through my photo files on my computer and had some printed up at Walgreens.com., but foolishly ordered them in 4X6.  Most frames are 5X7.  Lesson learned. 

And finally, I had to throw in a picture of my Granddog, Rusty, here with Emily.  He just wears himself out!  He runs around like mad for a half hour and then just collapses in a heap in a corner!

Abigail is leaving for Florida with a big group of kids on Saturday.  They are renting a house on the beach for a week of fun in the sun.  Oh, I'm envious!  It's going to be a little lonely without her.  She finished classes last week.  I have flowers to plant...oh, yes, the front yard was seeded, you can see me out there every morning in my jammies dragging the sprinkler around in the mud.  Grrrrrr....I'm just going to plant a few pots for the front porch and steps, and backyard patio, I have enough watering to do.  And then I'll do the same thing over again at the lakehouse.  Hopefully we will get up there soon, plans this weekend and we have to round up my sons and some of their hunky...I mean strong friends to help with setting out the patio furniture, cleaning the boats, getting out the wave runners and kayaks...ugh, so much to do!  The Husband has been totally dreaming and preparing for his big summer of fishing.  He has driven into Indiana several times to the Bass ProShop for all sorts of crazy fishing gear.  Son Jeff remarked to him the other day, "For someone who rarely catches a fish, you sure do have a lot of stuff"!  Too funny!

I'll see all of you later in the week!

I'm joining Sherry at No Minimalist Here for her Open House Party

XO,

Jane

EMILY'S WEDDING & A TRIBUTE TO MY SWEET MOTHER

Oh, ladies, my friends, I am so excited to write this post and bring you these pictures!  You have listened to me moan and groan and fret over this wedding and I have to say, it all came out and about so beyond my dreams.  But isn't that how it always is?  So without further ado...here are the pictures and a very tiny bit of narrative from me (!!!!).  Above...we kicked the day off with some mimosas...

And as promised, my very best friend in the whole world, Snow, brought breakfast casseroles, muffins and fruit and The Husband ran out and bought donuts and coffee.  These girls so appreciated it and ate, and ate, and ate!

We had two make up artists in the dining nook.  The first one did air brush foundation and base make up...

...and the second did all of the contouring eyeshadow, lashes and lip color.  All of the girls were so excited to get the lashes...they look so natural and  as you will see in the photos, you would never think!

Back in the family room, we had, Kim, hair person, extdrordinaire, here she is working on Megan, matron of honor.

Daughter Abigail had a gorgeous updo.

Here, some of the girls had put on their dresses and were sipping drinks.

You can't see her, but the bride had made her entrance and her friends flocked around her.

And here she is, getting help with her sash,

I could cry...she looked so beautiful...but you know, I cried when they first put her in my arms 25 years ago...she was just as beautiful and precious!

A trolley waited in front of the house for all of the ladies and Emily, and the photographer and I were able to get some great photos.  These girls are so special, not just to Emily, but me.  She not only went to grammar school with them, she attended an all girl high school, which I truly think promotes a special bond among girls.  Maybe that's why she had so many attendants...they were all so close to her heart.

Being the first to get married among her friends, this morning of celebration and joyfulness was truly new and wonderful for all of her bridesmaids and we all had such a spectacular time.  I was long over being a nervous wreck and I think the girls were way beyond Jane as being the basketball, soccer mom, volunteer lunch mom and sleep over crazy lady!!  We laughed and joked and fluffed and primped.  Some of then told me how they had always envied Em for having such a pretty mom and that just made me feel so good...for what it's worth.

So here we are, The Husband and true love of my life (isn't he handsome?), ready to head off to the church.  We were ready for the best part and giving  our daughter to the most special man that she could have ever found.  At this point in my post, I can only say that it was one of the most special days in my life.  I have to wait for the photographers pictures because I just could not bring my camera, I really wanted to "be in the moment" for this occasion, I know all of you understand.

And finally, I want to say Happy Mother's Day to all of you.  This is my mom in her high school graduation picture...St. Sabina High School in Chicago.  She was always   true beauty and she was full of grace.   I am one of seven children, one brother and five sisters  I can never fully comprehend how she did it all, but she did.  We started off in the city and then moved to the flat  prairies of Western Illinois where she said she sat at the kitchen table and looked out at nothing.  But our house was always crazy and full of activity.  I think that made it easier for me to raise 4 children.  When I think of  things she taught me, it was to be a lady,  dress nicely, eat with my mouth closed, wear good shoes and carry a nice purse (God knows she was obssessed with shoes and purses!), wear lipstick,and dress every morning like you were going out or expecting company.  She was absolutely beautiful and had the best sense of humor and laugh.  She loved her children and grandchildren and could change a diaper or heat a bottle like in 2 seconds flat.  She taught my sister and I the basics of motherhood, the rest, she let us explore for ourselves.  She was gone way too soon.  As with anyone you lose in your life, you mostly cry and grieve because you will never see them again.  It's still true for me although it's been 12 years.  Thankfully, I still hear her laugh, see her curled up in her favorite chair with a book and her coffee, doing crosswords at the kitchen table or playing yahtzee by herelf.  If she were still here, that coffee pot would be full and me and my sisters would all be hanging out there...it's so hard to know that you have it all by the tail until it's gone.  I love and miss you Mom...you are so loved on this very day and forever.

Much love to all of my sweet blogging ladies and my precious sisters and brother, as well, on this Mother's Day.

XO,

Jane

WEDDING BELLS ARE (ALMOST) RINGING!

Welcome to my fashion blog! lol!  Last night was the rehearsal and dinner for Emily's wedding.  The Husband and I ran late but I have a very small part, and The Husband, I think he and Emily need to practice walking down the aisle together, they weren't very solemn.  They should probably practice that father/daughter dance, too.  Speaking of that dance, we had a lot of fun choosing what song they would do it to.  We had almost decided on one that goes something like this:

That's my daughter in the water

Every time she jumped I caught her

Everything she knows I taught her

Everything she owns I bought her...

And so on.  She finally went with a sad, drippy song that is going to make my mascara run.

So here is the dress and jacket I wore that I mentioned.   The jacket was entirely too big which rarely happens to me (smile).  It was funny, there were about 10 other girls that had maxi dresses on as well.   

And I found exactly the shoes I wanted, navy T straps with a straw wedge.  Excuse my toes, pedi today.  

The dinner was wonderful.  It was held at a place called Bourbon Street, nearby.  The whole place is divided up into different New Orleans themed restaurants, bars, clubs and event rooms.  Our room was reminiscent of an old 1920's speakeasy.  And the food was outstanding!  The Husband and father of the groom made funny little speeches.  The Husband, who is a bit "old school", gave a warning to the guys in the wedding party that they could not take off their jackets or ties until after dinner, then they were free to take anything off.  This was met with a lot of high fives and fist knocking.  Anyway, it was a great night.  We were home by 10:00 and I learned via Facebook that the party went on into the wee hours.  I haven't seen hide nor hair of my children yet today.

And finally, what's a bride to do when her wedding is just three days off and her To Do list is a mile long?  Well, go buy a puppy!  Meet Rusty, Emily and Mike's new Boston terrier.  I have a grand-fur-baby!  He is SO cute.  He follows Emily all around and came over to play with Milo and Layla.  He wore Milo out and Layla is actually afraid of him!  Emily said he slept all cuddled up with them the first night, at 14 weeks old, this was his first time out of a cage since being separated from his mother and the litter.  How sad.  As much as I want to wring her neck for the timing, I am in love with this little creature.

I didn't bring my camera into the restaurant, my kids freak out the minute they see me with the camera since they know they will be on my blog and that really irritates them for some reason.  I forgot my phone so I borrowed my DIL Mary Clare's phone and took a ton of pictures for her to email me for this post.  Well, I think my sweet little girl was one of those dancing the night away last night and I haven't received them yet!  I will include some in my next post.

So tomorrow is the big day.  Today is being spent totally at home, scrubbing the bathrooms and going over all the other rooms, tweaking a few things here and there and making some appetizers for the guests coming back to the house after the church.  I'm making Loaded Baked Potato Dip, a marinated Italian antipasto kabob thingy with tortellini, mozzarella cheese balls, cherry tomatoes, salami and olives, and finally, white chocolate dipped strawberries.  I will give you all of these links in the very near future.  

Tomorrow I will be up at 5:00 just to have some peace and quiet before the rush.  The guys are getting ready at Emily and Mike's house and the girls here.  Starting at 9:00 a.m.,  we have 2 hairstylists and a makeup lady and we all have a scheduled times to get prettied up.  My best friend Snow volunteered to make and bring over breakfast casseroles and fresh fruit and The Husband is going to run out to get the big box of Dunkin Donuts coffee and some donuts.  And of course we will have some mimosas!  He exclaimed,"Before mass?".  Once an alter boy, always an alter boy!

I will see you before you know it! :)

XO,

Jane

PRIMPING THE HOUSE & YARD

I'm celebrating spring...I think it's finally come to the Midwest.  Well, I'm pretending anyway.  We have some sort of flowering bush next to our front steps and the fragrance is blowing in through the windows...I wish I could bottle it!  I have a busy weekend ahead of me, a busy week, so I'll dispense with the weather report, I think we can all agree that we're going directly from winter to summer!

First off, I received my area rug for the living room.  The dogs took to it right away, sniffing and rolling and stretching out on it.  Milo looks like a polar bear in a snowstorm!  You might remember the debacle I went through at the post office returning the wrong size.  Well, after a week I called LL Bean to see if they had received it yet (and did they credit my account) and I got some mumbo jumbo about it taking 3-4 weeks.  Well, let's just say that after I told them I really wanted the credit so I could order a larger rug...shazamm, I got an email and we were good to go.  Nothing against LL Bean, I love them and both times my rugs were delivered within 5 days.  And I love it...so soft and thick.

Now, to mix a little bad with the good, here is my front lawn thanks to our wonderful lawn service (this is turning into Consumer Reports).  Apparently we got some grubs last summer that slowly ate the grass and the lawn service did not treat it.  Actually, we thought we were in bad shape because of the drought, but they came out a few weeks ago and said the lawn was gone and they would rip it out and reseed it.  That's the last we heard from them.  We've had this service for almost 7 years and they are widely used in our neighborhood.  They just won't return our calls.

Last week I hired a nice, small company that is going to start the work Monday. Then we plan to send the bill to the old service.   It's obviously going to be a sore sight to see for awhile and it saddens me that we won't be able to get wedding pictures in front of the house, but the backyard is fine.  Anyway, I need this like a need a hole in my head.

My week actually wasn't that busy.  I went for another dress fitting Tuesday.  The seamstress, Maria, is incredible.  It was big in the neckline and shoulders and she just pulled that up and pinned it and the dress took on a whole new look.  I hate to jinx things but I think I actually saw a bit of my waist.  Shhhhh!  I've gone 3 weeks without sweets except some cookies yesterday for good behavior, so maybe I lost 1/16 of an inch.  I think I may have lost some of my boobs, too.  That's only because I got some new bras and the Gods do not want them to fit.  Anyway, I did a little here and there around the house all week and after a long day downtown yesterday, Abby met me and The Husband at a Mexican restaurant for dinner.  I'm working on her bedroom, too, as the bridesmaids will be using it for a dressing room.  She cleaned and organized (and found some birthday presents from 2 years ago) and I have a new dust ruffle, pillow shams and rugs to finish it up with. 

The rehearsal and  dinner is Wednesday night.  The dinner is actually at a more casual place than my son Kevin's was at.  I ordered this sundress from Gap and I'm going to wear a white jean jacket with it.  I was thinking of some straw wedges for shoes, hmmmmm...what do you think?  This dress will be great for the summer when we take little trips to small towns around the lake...it will go from day to night.  And it's navy, not black.

I had to throw this in, it's not as if you can read it, but it gives you an idea of the wedding party Emily and Mike have.  Yep, this whole page.  This is the church program.  16 bridesmaids and 16 groomsmen, 2 junior bridesmaids, 4 flower girls and 3 ring bearers. The Husband thinks Emily is nuts, I think she saw too many Disney movies!

I'm hoping to post after the rehearsal so that I don't have to mix that into a post with the wedding, which is Friday.  I hope I'm not boring all of you with this.  A week from now all in Blondie's world will be back to some sense of normalcy.  I hope.  

Have a great weekend! :)

XO,

Jane