Home Wong Nga and Black Cty: February 2011

Monday, February 28, 2011

Dining with Daffodils

Daffodils are out! At least at our local grocery store. There's nothing that makes the dining room brighter than a dozen are so smiling daffodils.

We spend a lot of time in our dining room. We enjoy our meals there of course. Since we expanded the table, we've also been using it for many other pursuits. The large flat workspace has proven great for sewing projects, wrapping gifts, sorting through piles of paper in preparing our taxes, and Mike even used it recently to assemble a poster for a work conference.

However, the most wonderful thing about the expanded table is that there is plenty of room for two bouncy chairs! This allows us to be able to sit down to meals - together - much more often. Although this has always been important to us, it became harder to do with two newborn sweetie pie babies. xo

The babies gaze up at the chandelier as if it were a large mobile. When their interest begins to wane, we adjust the dimmer which creates different sparkles and hues. With all that gazing, I've had to put 'dust and clean chandelier' on my to do list.

Happy daffodils (even the grocery store variety) to you!

Crochet Beads Necklace

My network is having an issue that started last night and I can't add new pictures to my computer... I thought OH NO! I can't write a post tonight!

Then, I realized I had more pictures I haven’t shared with you all and they were already transferred in to my computer. Whew... Thank goodness!

By the way, my sewing machine is safely (and in much better condition) home! I moped about not having my machine in my posts, but I have been busy with other things last weekend, and didn't have a chance to sew.

While my sewing machine was away, I made several jewelries and this post is about one of the necklaces I made.

I don't exactly know what to call these beads, but there is plastic part inside, and crochet around it. I really like the look of it and wanted to make a necklace for a while. Here is what I came up with:

I think the necklace has a whimsical charm to it because of the crochet beads. I wasn't sure if I wanted to tie the lace or not, so I am going to give it a try with lace for a while. What do you think? With? Without?

Creamy Whites

Hello everyone,

It is stormy here again tonight but we are toasty warm inside so we can't complain and it is getting milder with rain before morning.

So today I am sharing some creamy whites and when you get to the bottom I have some exciting news.

So, the exciting news is some of my photos are going to be featured in a new book from Norway coming out in April. The book is called Summer for all the Senses (pictured below) by Franciska Munck-Johansen.

I was doing some blog hopping one evening and found Franciskas lovely blog and saw that there was a competition to enter some summer pictures to possibly be selected for the book that was closing that day. I quickly sent some photos and found out yesterday that my pictures were among those chosen! Now, I can't wait to see the book. The book can be preordered and you can check out where by clicking here.

Thank you, Franciska for selecting some of my photos for your new book!

Just a little sample of the book-doesn't it look so pretty!

When I get my copy I will be sure to share it with you.

Thank you for visiting me,

Carolyn

Issue No. 2 is in the store and we are running out fast! Come in and get yours today! For those of you unable to stop in, Anthology is available to order from our online shop!

Here's a few peeks to show you that you really want one for your very own...

Weighing In On The Matter

(First a quick note...I see that I almost have 650 followers! When I reach 650, I will have a giveaway to thank all of you for taking time out of your busy day to visit me!)

So today was weigh in day. It was probably not the smartest of ideas to choose Monday as a weigh in day. After all, if we are going to cheat on our new healthy eating plan, we will probably do it on the weekend.

So, you can see from my sidebar, I didn't lose a single pound this week. And I know why. Remember on Friday, I told you I had guests coming for the weekend?

Well, when you eat French toast and maple syrup for breakfast, and have a Reuben sandwich when you go to Cedric's Tavern at Biltmore Estate with said guests, you probably are going to undo all the good you did during the week.

So, would you like to Weigh In on the matter? What would you do, if you were eating healthier and you had guests coming for the weekend? Would you feed them your diet menu? Or would you make a special dinner that you shouldn't be eating?

Would you serve them French toast for breakfast, or a container of yogurt and an orange?

I would love to hear you input, because I think I will be dealing with this issue a lot.

Welcome Home,

Penny

It is now time to draw a line under my birthday. I have milked it for all it's worth and it's now time to call it a day. ......but, not before I tell and show you all, some of the things that I have been getting up to over the last month..........

First, it was dinner at ' The Sun ', a local restaurant ..........

Then, it was off to Harrods in London..........

We went straight to the Food hall and to ..........

The Champagne and Oyster Bar. We made the most of that stop and then it was off to The Royal Albert Hall.

We had tickets for the Cirque du Soleil.

Opposite the Royal Albert Hall is the Albert Memorial, built by Queen Victoria, in memory of her beloved husband. One of Mr. Home's relatives had something to do with the design or building of if but, I'm not sure which part he was involved in !!

I also went to see 'Priscilla, Queen of the Desert'. It was brilliant..... funny, fantastic music, quite rude and a whole lot of fun.

Then, it was dinner at 'Brown's' ..... I won't bore you all with the finer details of all the meals that I have consumed over this past month.

Oh, another restaurant that I went to. This is Smiths of Smithfield. We went there with our children. It is one of John Torode's restaurants....he of Masterchef fame. It was lovely and had the most wonderful view of St. Paul's Cathedral and The City.

I then went to The Champagne Bar at King's Cross, St. Pancras. This was to start off a few days stay in London.

We stayed in an hotel very close to Buckingham Palace. It was just a short and lovely walk through Green Park to get to .....

...... The Ritz, for tea.

This was our waiter and the man sitting down to the right was there with his wife, for his 80th birthday !

They bring tea and sandwiches and the most delicious cakes you ever did see. The middle tier is empty and they bring warm scones, clotted cream and strawberry jam when you've finished your sandwiches. They are the most wonderful scones you have ever tasted in your life....and, I've tasted a few in my time !!

They then surprised me with a birthday cake and everyone sang Happy Birthday !!

Said cake is then put in a beautiful 'The Ritz' box for one to carry home. How lovely was that ?

As we were so close, we thought that we would just pop into Fortnum and Mason. I used to work in this area and always went into Fortnum and Mason to buy Christmas present's, especially for my Mum and Dad.

We finished that day off by seeing 'Wicked' at The Apollo.

Had to go and have a look at Anthropologie of course.

The wall's are a living wall of lush, green plants.....

.......... it is just worth going there for the displays alone.

Back at the hotel, it was time to get ready to go .....

Back past Buckingham Palace ( with a little wave to Her Majesty as we passed !!)

down a little Mayfair cul-de-sac to .....

* The Icebar * !!

Self explanatory, I think !!

Cocktail's in ice glasses ....

That's me in the cape that they give you to keep the chill off.....and gloves that are on elastic, just like you had when you were little, to hold your glass with. Not the most flattering of outfits but, nessessary ! It was great fun and we met lots of people from all over the world.

Then, down to the restaurant, 'Below Zero' to have dinner.