Pinterest

Well my dears, if you thought your email account and Facebook were taking up a lot of your time, let me introduce you to another social media drug. Pinterest. I can't even remember how I found Pinterest. And it must have been one of those post-deadline euphoric late night moments when I decided to sign up and start my own pinning.

You see, after the newspaper is completely finished I have a few minutes to let my shoulders relax and revel in the fact I don't have to do anything for just a little while. There are always things to do, lists to make, reports to generate, calls and emails to answer, customers to contact, story lists--you get the idea. But in the moment when I know I'm completely finished with the paper, and it's out of my hands and off to the printers, I am tired all over. (That's a line from a movie that my friends and I used to quote a lot. "You're making me tired all over.") In that euphoric moment, though I am usually really tired, I can't sleep.

I had been getting on Pinterest once in a while to look at what others were pinning, and I would repin or pin a few things. Then I found another mom friend on Pinterest, and I started to hear from some of my other mom friends that this Pinterest thing was really stealing their time. And then my grown daughter asked me if I had heard of Pinterest, and it seems she is completely hooked. But she qualifies that with how much she uses the ideas on Pinterest in her own life, so it isn't really a waste of time, it's useful.
Um. Yes.

It is useful. I've pinned things on my boards so I can save them for party ideas. I follow some of my friends to see what they think is cute, awesome, interesting, dreamy or just practical. There are some great ideas for recycling, beautiful pieces of art, recipes, ideas for children's rooms, organization ideas, clothing, jewelry, and other photos of things that could either change the way you do things, or just give you a little lift. I enjoy it. I try not to spend a lot of time on it, but it does help me feel like I've made contact with some interesting people after I've been on Pinterest.

Are you a Pinner?
You can see some of my boards at pinterest.com/marshahart

No entry, no exit

The thick ice was just too much for this poor tree to take.

The tree fell sometime in the middle of the night. Chuck had already been out to the store and when he came back he parked in a different spot, behind the cars. His truck is usually parked closer to the house, and the part of the tree that is in the bottom right corner of that frame would have landed right on top of the truck.

Our driveway was obviously completely blocked, so when Chuck left for work he drove out our back gate instead. After he was gone I looked out the window and saw a huge limb had fallen across the truck tracks in the snow.

So far those are the only trees we've found that have fallen, though I think there could be more in the forested area in front of the house. I kept hearing crackle sounds and thuds. Some of it was just heavy snow and ice falling from the huge fir boughs.

That tree is all cut up into fire wood now. It turned into a two-day job.

Ice, ice, baby

After the snow came the ice. It was beautiful.

So it snowed. And I know for a lot of places that is very normal, but for this lower land near the water it's kind of a big deal. But the bigger deal came today when our ice storm hit. That is a pretty big deal no matter where you live.

Our electricity went out, then it was on again an hour or so later. And it went off again, then came on again, and did that most of the day. I am thankful we have a fireplace so we can stay warm, and gas appliances so we can still cook. But I'm really glad the electricity came back on.

It was beautiful out there.

When the clouds were emptied, another front came through and this time we got ice. 

And since there's no place to go

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.
Our weather service predicts up to 14 inches over the next 24 hours, and high winds are expected as well.
I've been hoping for a big snow. This is a deadline week for me, so it could make life a little difficult if we get the predicted snow fall and our power goes out.

We get fierce winds this time of year. When Sean was really young we had a severe storm. I was trying to get him to sleep and was laying in his bed watching the wind bend the trees outside the window. I didn't realize what a big deal it was until the next day when we ventured out because we didn't have power, and we saw huge trees fallen into homes and across roads.

We're watching the news to see if school is in session tomorrow. Sean's school district doesn't always get the same weather patterns that we get here.

I love black and white photos, and snow.
Here are a few photos I found while I was browsing.
If I knew who the photographers were I would definitely give photo credit.

A hat, a boy and an attitude

Is it possible to hate a hat? I do. There is a hat that my sweet 9-year-old boy loves to wear, but when he wears that hat he becomes a different boy. I hate that hat. I think it looks thuggish, and if there is one mission in my life it is to make sure he never becomes a thug.

Once that hat is on his head, my sweet little 9-year-old boy who still holds my hand in the department store, likes to sit next to me while we watch a movie and asks me to read to him, becomes aloof.

He not only won't hold my hand, he turns into a boy with no sense. He starts to talk about things that are ridiculous, topics that are irrelevant and sound like they are coming from someone who knows nothing about how the world works, and is generally unintelligent.

I don't know where he is getting this stuff, but I called him on it the last time he was wearing the hat. That hat brings all of this on, but I left the hat out of it.

Instead I confronted the behavior and the language and told him he sounded like a different person, someone who didn't make a lot of sense and didn't know all of the things he knows. I explained that he is really smart, knows a lot about how to build things, how machines work, he's good at math and writing stories, and has a great understanding of the world and people. But the way he was talking didn't sound right to me, it sounded like someone else.

He was quiet for a minute and then agreed with me that he does have a good grasp of how things work, and how to build things, and that even his friends think he is pretty smart. Then he launched into some information he had learned that day and started talking like he normally does, about his plans for his future and how he wants to start his own computer company.

He is growing up, and I am well aware that our lives will shift and change as he matures and no longer wants to hold my hand, receive a kiss goodbye from me, and generally believe I am the most uninteresting person on the planet.

Our family is blended, and blended again. We have children in their 20s, and the youngest is 9. I don't want to be one of those mothers that wants to keep the baby a baby, but I certainly don't want what he becomes when he puts on that hat.

Part of me wants to hide the hat, or better yet just burn it, but the logical part of me knows that wouldn't work. I have to confront the behavior, and next time he behaves that way I will share my observation with him about the hat and how he changes when he wears it.

How do you handle the hats, or shoes, or whatever triggers a change in your child?

Some attitude adjustments I found on the Internet
This little boy's hat is kind of cool.
I think my attitude would improve while wearing this Betmar Infinity Cap from Holland Hats.
Gotta love a man in an Irish cap.

I'm not getting paid

I've been linking to a lot of company Web sites and such lately in an effort to share my little window shopping excursions on the Internet. It occurred to me that I should probably write a disclaimer and let everyone know that I have not been paid in any way by any of the companies, corporations or people mentioned in my blog. I've not gotten a check, an endorsement, a job, freebie merchandise, products, or anything resembling money from any of them. I'm posting the links just because I like to include some examples of what I'm talking about on my blog.
If a company decides to send me freebies, or anything else that could be seen as "hey, we'll give you this if you'll write about us," type of goods I'll disclose that as well.

Organized, finally

Each time Chuck and I walk into Sean's room we make a comment to him about picking up his stuff and putting it away. When we come back it either looks the same, or the stuff is moved to one side of the room and sort of piled precariously between his bulging book shelf and his over-stuffed dresser.

The other night we both walked in and Chuck made a comment that Sean should pick up some of his stuff and put it away, and for some reason I suddenly realized he had nowhere to put it.

I don't know why it took us this long to figure out that the poor kid really had no place to put it all. In our last house we had a spare bedroom that housed all of his toys and drum set, and it was the toy room. He was required to keep it clean and tidy, and my mantra for he and his friends who entered that room was, "If I find it on the floor, it's going out the door--to the GOODWILL!"

We don't have a play room here. Sean has some special toys that have been given to him over the years, and some of them are large. Probably the largest is one of the Star Wars ships. It was on the floor the other night when Chuck and I were standing there surveying the mess.

In that moment we started to plan a way to get more storage for his stuff. I started looking for a bunk bed with drawers underneath, and Chuck planned for a few shelves that could be installed on his walls to house the larger trucks and bins of Legos.

We got a bunk bed from Craigslist today, but it doesn't have drawers. I found a place that sells the drawers separately and I hope we can make it work. Bunk beds like the one I wanted for him are really expensive.

The day after Christmas we hit the sales on storage bins and got a bunch for his smaller stuff and a couple of large ones as well. New Year's Eve day we went to get lumber for the shelving, and Chuck worked on measuring, trimming, sanding and staining them. They were installed in no time at all.

What a difference already! Sean walked into his room after his bath and was so happy to have a clean floor.

It's nice for us, too. No more stepping on Legos and negotiating over trucks and other vehicles.

From the Internet
Target has some inexpensive and pretty cool shelves.
I like this unit from Pottery Barn, but we needed something on the wall.
The Land of Nod has these cute shelves.

Moosewood is so good

When I was in my 20s I worked at a vegetarian cafe. It was one of the best jobs I have ever had. I loved the people I worked with, absolutely loved my boss, and the customers were always pretty cool, too.

I never liked eating meat when I was a kid, but my parents forced me to eat it. I would pick at the meat on my plate and they would say, "eat your meat." I hated it. I vowed when I was a kid that as soon as I was grown and could choose for myself I would not eat meat. I especially did not like hamburger and cube steak.

True to my word, in my early 20s I became a vegetarian. I joined a book club back in the day, and when I joined I could pick several books for free. One of the choices I made was the Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant cookbook.

I didn't really use it for many years because the recipes called for some pretty exotic ingredients. I was living in an area that didn't offer much of anything exotic, except the little shop that catered to exotic dancers. But that's another subject for another day.

I made one recipe from the cookbook about 10 years ago. It was the mushroom pie recipe, which is found in the Finnish section. But for years I have carted that cookbook from one state to the next, and enjoyed just reading the recipes.

For the first time this year I've started to really use it. I LOVE it! Absolutely love it! Recently we were trying to figure out what to have for dinner and we didn't want to make a run to the store. We wanted to just use what we had in the pantry.

I had shrimp in the freezer and fettuccine in the cupboard, and I wanted some kind of white creamy sauce to go with it. I didn't have the ingredients for Alfredo, so I pulled out the Moosewood cookbook and threw together a sour cream sauce. It was delicious.

I've tried some North African recipes, Armenian, Indian and some New England recipes. I now live in an area of the country where exotic ingredients are readily available.

I have to toss in some meat for Chuck, but I am totally happy with the veggies and variety of recipes. I understand Moosewood has a lot of other cookbooks out there.

You can visit the restaurant if you're ever in Ithaca, N.Y.
Or you can go on a virtual visit  here.

What's your favorite cookbook?

Goodbye Christmas, hello storage bins

There was no star on top, but I placed this angel as close to the top as possible.

The big 18-foot Christmas tree was a thrill for our family, but I have to admit I was more than ready for it to come down.  Our tradition is to ring in the New Year around the Christmas tree. Technically I would even keep it up until Jan. 7, since Epiphany is Jan. 6, but I have never been able to wait that long to take down the tree. This year the tree was getting really dry just before New Year's Day. I spent the better part of a day getting all of the ornaments off of it and placed back in their boxes.

For years I made do with unacceptable holiday gift wrap and decoration organization. But there was one year, and I remember it well, when I decided the old cardboard box that I kept the Christmas wrapping paper in was just not doing it for me. I kept it in the back of the closet, and the good thing about it was the wrapping paper stood vertical in the box, but the exposed ends were all tattered, making those ends unusable.

I surveyed the disarray of bows, ribbons and tape, and I decided it was time for a change. Those things could never be found in the same place twice.

With determination and a blank check I made my way to the nearest retailer that sold storage bins. No matter the cost, my Christmas stash was going to be organized.

I still have all of those bins. I bought a smallish one with wheels, a really long one for the wrapping paper, a small pullout drawer for ribbons and tape, a few medium sized ones that varied in depth for the gift boxes, tissue paper, and gift bags.

The one bin I'm not really thrilled with is the wrapping paper box. I want a vertical one. The box I have keeps the paper relatively nice, but the rolls lay flat and the box is very unwieldy.

And for the ornaments? Well, see, I'm a recovering ornamentolic. And I'm particular about how some of them are stored. Actually, most of them. If they came in a box, I keep them in their original box. I have some Hallmark ornaments-- yes, OK, I have more than "some." But they were on sale! Those aren't the only ornaments I have. I do not discriminate. If I love it, I love it. (There was a time, not too long ago, that I had three trees in my house. One tree was all Santa ornaments, one was miniature with miniature ornaments, and the main tree...OK, I said recovering.)

I have really big bins for the ornaments. One main bin holds all of the ornaments that have their own box, and there are a couple of other bins that hold the ornaments that are wrapped in bubble wrap and tissue paper. I carefully pack them all away when we take down the tree, and I store them with love and care until I get the thrill of hanging them on the tree again.

And the beautiful thing about all of this is that Chuck understands. He really does. He loves everything Christmas. He spent a lot of time out in the cold in order to get the lights on the roof. I called him Clark on a couple of occasions, but I am really happy that he enjoys the season as much as I do.

And we wrap our lights in a similar way as well. No tangled lights here. I wrap them up kind of like an extension cord, and then I tie mine with a strong ribbon or corded ribbon. Chuck uses zip ties. It's the man version of a ribbon.

What storage methods do you use for your treasured Christmas ornaments and other decorations?

From the Internet
Which storage container do you prefer? This type or this one?

I couldn't resist sharing this catalog of ornaments...


And then there are these storage options as well.

Forest medicine

A walk is sometimes the best medicine. Last week was challenging for me, so on Saturday I took some alone time and walked through some cute little shops to look at pretty things. And on Sunday I had a bit of a stress headache, so we went for a walk in the forest. And life was good again.

Happy Weekend!

I like the blues in this a beautiful picture of snow in January. I found it here, posted by Kenneth Randolph Taylor. We haven't had even a skiff of snow yet this season, and we are all starting to wonder if we will get any at all.
Wherever you are, I hope you are having a cozy weekend.

Here are a few other things I found around the Internet.

Check out these groovy leggings by Snow Angel.
These snow boots are sporting some toggle action, and I do love a toggle.
A bit pricey, but isn't this little snowsuit adorable?

It's the details

Once upon a time I used to write about home decor and all manner of things that go with a home. I wrote story after story for a home and garden section of a newspaper, and I loved writing for that section. (The company is a different story, but I'll save that subject for another day.) I had always admired linens, plates, stem ware, napkin rings, and just about anything that would go in a dining room or on a dining table.

I definitely feel very comfortable, and experience a calm feeling, when I hold an individual salt spoon or touch a fine linen table cloth. The idea of setting a table for guests that includes place card holders, exquisite napkins and plates of all sizes stacked on a charger just seems like so much fun.

I have already confessed to Chuck my obsession with dishes. We don't have space for more, and it's a good thing. I could go nuts with china and dishes. I once wrote a story about a house that had a whole room for storing china, and the original owners had their own pattern. I was in awe.

Part of me sees it as excessive and unnecessary. Part of me loves all of it because of the details. For me there is such  fun that can be had choosing patterns of china that enhance another, the finish of the flat ware, the colors of a table runner, and design of the napkin rings.

I was feeling a bit gray the other day. I hadn't had a bad mood descend upon me in a very long time, and I don't know why it hit so hard. I've had some extra stress lately, and maybe it was just the combination of that and the constant rain lately. It rained, and it was so dark all day.

I had to return a book the the library, and I decided I was going to take a short break for myself and walk around some stores I had never been in before. I started out going to look at sweaters at Loft, but I didn't see any great deals there. And I do shop there, so it wasn't new to me.

Loft is located in a little shopping area across the street from the library. In that same area are many shops that I haven't visited, and I darted into one to get out of the rain. It was a little boutique with a lot of jewelry and Asian trinkets. I tried on some huge rings and looked around for a few minutes. Nothing there I would use, though.

Right next door was a kitchen store. Oh, wow. It was just what I needed. I hadn't been in a store with such a selection in a long time. There were many styles of individual salt spoons, little individual salt cellars, chargers, napkins, table linens, china, and all sorts of kitchen essentials. I didn't buy anything, but it did the trick for my mood. I came out of that store feeling inspired and rejuvenated.

What lifts your spirits when you're feeling down?

A virtual shopping trip from me to you:-) 
Oh, no need to pass the salt. I have my own.
And one more set
I like these napkins
Love these Italian china patterns

Movie review and a zoo

Most nights we are right here at home eating a home-cooked meal and doing chores, like laundry and picking up toys off the floor. We often rent movies from Red Box, or Netflix, but don't go out to movies very often.

The kids got movie tickets and a book of coupons for MacDonald's for Christmas from my aunt Bennie. They were pretty excited about it. So I suggested we take them out for dinner and a movie one night last week. It's always a challenge to get the kids to agree on a movie, so Chuck and I kind of chose it for them without asking.

I looked online to see what was playing and the only one that looked like a good family movie was "We Bought a Zoo." Animals are always fun.

When we got to the theater there was quite a crowd. Lucky for us it was not sold out, but we forgot that our theater is a Galaxy theater and the tickets they had were Regal. Oh well. Chuck and I had a free pass for two, so we just paid for the kids to get in. Our Galaxy theater is great. It's fairly new, and I love the comfortable seats, the drink holders and the way the seats are positioned.

The movie was based on a true story, and for me the plot was not predictable. (Something I can't stand these days.) There was real emotion in the story, and I liked the fact that though the main character (Matt Damon) was surrounded by women who wanted to "help" him get through his grief of the loss of his wife, he didn't take them up on the offer. I aslo loved how the movie showed him grieving, and how his children were grieving. But it really isn't a sad movie, it's a fun movie about hope and change and how to persevere when you have a dream.

I'm not sure where he got his money. He was a reporter. I didn't really like the ending, but over all I thought it was a good movie.

Here's a review of the movie.
Here's one opinion of the 10 best movies of 2011

Do you have a favorite 2011 movie?

I win!

Have you ever filled out one of those little slips of paper with your name and contact info for some kind of giveaway? I've done it so many times. These days I find some giveaways on blogs, and I usually enter those if it's an item I would really like or use for a gift.

As we left the Stable Cafe after lunch at Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina, there was a table with a pretty red bowl and those little "enter and win" forms. On a whim I filled out one and dropped it into the bowl. Chuck saw what I was doing and he filled out one, too.

We left and I didn't think much more about it, because I rarely win anything. In fact, I really can't remember winning anything from an, "enter and win" contest.

We had been home a few days when I received an email from Biltmore Inspirations to let me know I had won the bowl. I was so excited! I plan to use it in many ways as a centerpiece during the holidays.


A little gift package of stuff I found on the Internet :-)

Get inspired

I love this set of mixing bowls

This serving bowl is so pretty.

Welcome 2012

Our 2011 was amazing. We are so excited about what 2012 has in store for us. We know that no matter what, it will be great because we are together.

Here are some highlights from our year:

In February Sean and I celebrated Valentine's Day with Chuck over dinner at the fire station. Doesn't sound romantic, but he was working and it was so great of him to invite us to be there.

Chuck and I had a couple's night out in March and saw Tom Kimmel at a house party. Great fun.

In May we had another adult night out and saw Desmond Tutu at the Tacoma Dome. It was inspirational and such a treat to see him.

In June Chuck took us on an adventure and we saw the Nevada desert for the first time.

In July we had a date night. (I know that for most this is not a big deal, but for us it really is.)

We celebrated Sean's birthday in August, and we welcomed our neighbors for a barbeque, and some of Chuck's family visited as well.

In September we enjoyed the harvest of some blackberries and some of our garden veggies. It was fun to see the results of our first attempt at a garden, and to have time to create some tasty dishes in our kitchen.

October was my birthday month, and Lilly's. We went on a mushroom harvest adventure and also began picking some of the huckleberries. We all made some jelly and syrup from the huckleberries, and enjoyed huckleberry pancakes as well.

November was our one-year anniversary month and we had family photos taken here on the property.

We finished off 2011 with a trip to Tennessee in December to see more of our family members and enjoy some Southern goodness. And this was my absolute highlight of 2011, because for me it is really all about family and having as many shared moments as possible.