This Stop Willoughby

It's Sunday again, so you know what that means. That's right, the flea market! I got some great goodies today. Wanna see? Yes, it's another candle holder. Yes, I already have dozens and dozens of them, you don't have a problem with that, do you? I didn't think so! This guy caught my attention right away. He was at the second booth from the entrance along with a lot of other great stuff. He's rustic and rusty and I absolutely love him. I didn't even negotiate the price because he was only $3. Doesn't he make a fantastic guard for the hydrangea? I can't wait to put a candle in him tonight! If you're a reader, you know expensive hard cover books can be. The original price of this book was $28.95. I got it for $2 and it's in perfect condition. Score! My daughter got the cutest kids' baking set for $3. It has a cookie sheet, spatula, whisk, tart pans and some other stuff. The whole set was brand new and unused, still shrink wrapped inside th...

We celebrated my Dad's birthday tonight with dinner, drinks and dessert on the back porch. It was a beautiful evening to be outdoors. When it got dark, we lit all the candles and the lanterns on the porch. The light looked so pretty that I wanted to get some pictures. This is just a few of them. Candle lantern hanging from a porch post. Another candle lantern. This one is sitting on an antique chair. We have a pub table with a gas heater in the base. I love the colors of the flame. Happy Saturday, everyone!

We were going to have Mexican food for dinner tonight, so we decided to make margaritas. Our plans have since changed and we're having grilled chicken, instead. No need to make different drinks, though. These margaritas will be fantastic with any grilled food. They're a little sweet and a little sour, perfect for summertime get togethers! Alla vostra buona salute! Italian Margaritas 1 oz. amaretto 2 oz. sweet and sour mix 1/2 oz. tequila 1/2 oz. triple sec Mix all ingredients together and pour over ice into a salt rimmed glass. This recipe yields one drink. Our margarita glasses are quite large so we had to double the recipe for each glass. Enjoy responsibly, please. Happy Friday, everyone!

We had to cancel our ten day vacation to North Carolina at the last minute last year. It was disappointing for all of us because we love to travel. Truth is, we'll go just about anywhere at anytime if we can. Whether we travel by plane or by car, there's always an opportunity to create lasting memories. Some are warm and fuzzy, others you just can't help but laugh at. Here are a few of my favorites: ~My husband had to go Texas for a few weeks on business, so we made plans for my son and I to visit him there for a weekend. I knew we were in for an interesting trip when we got to the airport to find that they were having a power outage. They had emergency generators keeping the computer system going, but there was no air conditioning and it was a sweltering day. Our flight was delayed by an hour and a half, and once we boarded the plane, there was trouble getting clearance to enter the runway. We were seated next to a man who smelled terrible and got angry when he had to let ...

For the first two years we were married, Mr. Willoughby and I lived in an apartment in the city where I grew up. It was a nice place, but a little outdated. Our refrigerator was the kind with the tiny freezer that you have to defrost every few weeks and there was no dishwasher. It had a huge living room, though, and a decent sized bedroom. We were happy there except for the fact that we had no balcony and there was no common area outside where we could barbecue or enjoy sitting outdoors. We finally made the decision to move when our air conditioner (a wall unit) froze up and started pumping hot air into the living room on a 90+ degree evening. Our search for a new apartment didn't take long. We found a great place in Bloomfield Hills. If you're not familiar with Bloomfield Hills, it's a wealthy area with a mixture of high end homes and mansions, for the most part. We couldn't believe that we found an affordable apartment there, but we did. It was a little smaller than o...

It's not quite summer yet, but it sure feels like it. The weather is warm, the flowers are blooming, the birds are singing and the salesmen/women are back to knocking on doors. I don't care if I'm in the middle of cooking dinner or just sitting around doing nothing, it irritates me to go to the door to find a salesperson. We live in a small town where most of the homes are older, so home improvement companies are always in the area knocking on doors and handing out fliers. I can't tell you how many times we have been offered a free estimate on replacing our siding (which is old) or our windows (which are new). In 1996, a few months after we moved into our house, a pair of vacuum cleaner salespeople knocked on the door. They wanted to come in and give me a demonstration of their product. They also had a free gift for me to keep just for agreeing to the demo. The free gift was steak knives. Call me overly cautious, but the idea of letting strangers with sharp kniv...

Before we had kids, Mr. Willoughby and I used to love to take day trips. Not just in summer, but year round. We would get out a map and then one of us would close our eyes and point to a spot. As long as it was within a distance we could travel to and from in a day's time, that would be our destination. The less we knew about the city we picked, the more exciting it was because we never knew what we might find to see and do. We once drove to a small town on the Michigan/Ohio border to find that all the businesses had anti-gang signs on their doors. Who knew that small towns had gang problems? We didn't stay there long. One of our favorite places to visit was Iargo Springs in Oscoda, Michigan. It's a beautiful area on the edge of the Huron National Forest. There is a staircase of 294 wooden steps that take you down to where the underground springs come together to form coldwater streams. The Au Sable river, popular for canoeing and kayaking, is nearby as well. On our last vi...

We had babyback ribs last night, and my husband kept singing that jingle from the "Chili's" commercial. Do remember it? Is it stuck in your head now, too? It's stuck in mine! There are so many ways to make babyback ribs, and we've probably tried a few dozen of them. This is our favorite. It involves boiling them first and then cooking them in the oven, although you could put them on the grill instead (they are falling apart tender, you might want to use foil or a grill pan). It was threatening rain around here last night, so the oven was best for us. I used to think that boiling the ribs before cooking them would make them tough or tasteless, but neither is true. These cook up tender and delicious every time. And the sauce? It's really, really thick and sticks to the ribs making them absolutely gooey, you must try it. You can find the entire recipe here . It calls for spareribs, which I've made with great success, but we subbed babybacks last night because...

We went to Sam's Club today, and while we were there we picked up a bottle of Pomegranate Acai smoothie mix. It's supposed to be pretty healthy for you because it's full of antioxidants, so of course we thought, "Why not add rum?". We tried both light rum and lemon flavored rum. I like the lemon flavored the best. So that is how today's Pomegranate Acai daiquiri came to be! Pomegranate Acai Daiquiri 4 oz. Pomegranate Acai Smoothie Mix (or any other flavor) 4 oz. ice 1 oz. rum or lemon rum Add all ingredients to blender and blend until smooth. Pour into a serving glass. Enjoy responsibly, please. Happy Friday, everyone!

My son and I have been talking about the 70's a lot, lately. He's doing a project on that era in school, so I've been telling him about fashion, music, television, pop culture and everything else I personally remember from that time. For him it's research, for me, it's a chance to look back at all of the things I thought were cool when I was a kid, though not all of them were in the 70's. My teen years were in 80's and I've included some of them, too. Here's a few of the highlights: I thought corduroy pants were really cool when I was in kindergarten. On the days that I wore my favorite corduroy pants to school, I would enhance my coolness by drinking my chocolate milk with a straw and tipping my chair on the back two legs during snack time. I have no idea why I thought this was cool, I was only five years old. I wasn't really into current music when I was in elementary school. My brother had a band that practiced at our house, so I heard plenty ...

If you're a Sinatra aficionado , you know how the rest of that line goes. I mentioned the idea of living life without regret in a post a while back. It's something I'm pretty passionate about. I truly believe that you can't take one second of life for granted. That's not to say that I don't forget to do things that I want to do, or that I don't waste time engaged in pointless activities. It's more about letting the little things go and concentrating on what's really important in your life, like the people you care about. I was considering this today after reading an article in our local newspaper. It was about a little girl who died of cancer several years ago. Make A Wish Foundation had sent her to Disney World shortly before her death. After she died, her father started a non-profit foundation called Rebels For A Cause to raise funds for Make A Wish . I've been donating to Make A Wish Foundation since I was in high school. I had friend who w...

If you haven't noticed it, you will soon. It's happening all around you. What am I talking about? Getting less for your money, of course. I noticed it a while back when I was putting a new roll of toilet paper in the holder. I took the empty tube off and set it on the vanity next to the new roll. There was a height difference of about 1/4 inch between the two rolls. The new roll had come from a just-opened package, so some time between purchasing the two packages, the company started making the rolls shorter (or narrower, depending on your perspective) and charging the same amount. I always buy one specific brand of toilet paper, but I'd be willing to bet that all brands are making their rolls smaller. In fact, stop reading this right now and go look at the toilet paper in your bathroom. Even if you don't have an old roll to compare it to, you'll notice that there is more room to slide the roll back and forth on the holder than there used to be. Seriously,...

It was another lovely day for flea market browsing. Sadly, I didn't find any treasures (or candle holders) that caught my eye this morning. The produce however, was amazing. I couldn't resist picking up some strawberries. They're almost too pretty to eat. Almost, but not quite. We'll be enjoying them dipped in chocolate fondue for dessert tonight. Remember that recipe I promised to share with you? Actually, I have two recipes. One is easy, the other is incredibly easy. Before I give you both recipes, I want to give you a little bit of an explanation. We love fondue. Not only because it tastes great, but because it's versatile and fun. We've even served it in place of cake at birthday parties. That being said, I'm not a fan of the typical chocolate fondue recipe which consists of dark, semi-sweet or milk chocolate and heavy cream. Even if you follow the instructions carefully, you can end up with grainy, lumpy fondue. And even if it's perfectly smooth, it...

Sorry, I never got around to opening the bar last night. Instead, I'm opening it tonight. This is a great summer drink, it's very refreshing and would be great with grilled or spicy food. San Juan Tea 1 1/2 ounces Barcardi Limon 1/2 ounce light rum 3 ounces whiskey sour mix 8 ounces cola In a cocktail shaker, mix Bacardi Limon, light rum and whiskey sour mix. Divide evenly between two ice filled glasses and top each with 4 ounces cola. Please enjoy your San Juan Tea responsibly! Happy Saturday, everyone!

Yesterday I posted a recipe for one of our favorite Asian dishes; Sesame Chicken and Noodle Bowls. Today, I thought I would talk a little bit more about Asian cooking and share some of my personal tips. I'm not an expert, nor am I Asian myself, but we love all sorts of Asian foods and I've been making Asian recipes almost as long as I've been cooking. Take-out is great, but it's nice to be able to make your favorite dishes at home. Asian market - If you've got one nearby, stop by and take a look around. We don't have access to one now that we live in a rural area, but we did when we lived in the suburbs. I used to love going there and looking at all of the exotic ingredients. It was a great place to get high quality soy sauce and other Asian staples inexpensively. You may need some help, though, as many of the packages have no English writing on them. Wok - I had one for years, but I rarely used it and finally got rid of it because it was taking up too much spac...

I have a wonderful recipe to share today, but first I need to vent! I've had such a chaotic morning that I want to scream. Our morning routine is pretty tight around here, so I like it carried out with military-like precision and efficiency. I haven't built in any extra time for last minute mishaps and this morning was full of them. I got the ball rolling by thinking I could take an extra minute to sip my coffee and read a page or two of my book before I dried my hair. Big mistake! I got engrossed in my book and lost track of time. That put me behind schedule to begin with, and because it is very humid today, my hair took twice as long to dry. The kids got up on time, but my son couldn't find a shirt to wear and the jeans I thought I washed for my daughter were still in the dirty clothes basket along with her only hooded waterproof jacket (it was raining this morning). Lunch took longer to pack than usual and my daughter had a problem with her shoes when it was time to leav...

I had all kinds of ideas for my blog today, but I kept coming back to humor. Yesterday I posted a few humorous tabloid stories. Today, I want to share a few true stories. The first one appeared on our local news a few months ago. I don't have a link to the original story, but here it is in a nutshell: A man robbed a bank in Southfield , Michigan in March, 2009. The police were called and a high speed chase ensued. In his panic to escape capture, the man accidentally pulled into the parking lot of the Southfield police station. Quick thinker that he is, the man disguised himself hoping he could elude police. He did this by drawing a goatee on his face with a permanent Sharpie marker. Don't believe me? Here's a picture. This happened two months ago and I still laugh every time I think about it! Can you believe the police were still able to recognize him? ***************** The next item happened at my house. My son was looking for a part time job, so I was trying to help by s...

I thought I would start the week with some humor and share the most ridiculous story I read in a tabloid a few years ago. I don't often read tabloids, but it's a guilty pleasure I enjoy when we're on vacation. If we're in a store that carries them, I will look for the one with the most outrageous stories and buy it. It makes for fun reading on the beach. The problem is, I can't find the story on the internet. I can still tell you about it, of course, but without the accompanying photo, it won't be as funny. According to this tabloid (I think it may have been The Weekly World News ), childless couples were being duped by an adoption agency that was selling them shaved baby monkeys and passing them off as human infants. As I recall, the couples were paying around $60,000 per "baby" and were heartbroken months, or, sometimes years later, when they discovered that their son or daughter wasn't human. There was a photo of a man and his "son", w...

I hope you're enjoying Mothers Day (whether you're a mom or not) as much as I am. I got some wonderful gifts from the kids. My daughter made me some gifts at school, which are precious. My son and Purple Hoodie Chick got me a digital photo key chain, and put some great pictures on it. We also went to the flea market. There were some great things there today. Wanna see what we found this week? This opens up and holds a tea light candle. I'm planning to hang it out of the big maple tree in the back yard. This is a vintage cocktail shaker for the bar. The white spot is just the flash from my camera, the shaker is in perfect condition. I've seen these going for $20 and up, but we got it for $5. It's so retro, I love it! Do you know what this is? It's a straw dispenser like they used to have in diners and ice cream shops. When you pull up on the handle, the straws will fan out so you can choose one. As soon as it's washed, it will be filled with colorful straw...

Were you wondering why the bar didn't open last night? Actually, it did. We were having Mexican food for dinner so Mr. Willoughby made some margaritas. These were new recipes, one was a coconut margarita and the other was a cranberry/raspberry margarita. They were very pretty, see? So why didn't I post the recipes? Because they were awful!! The coconut margarita was way too heavy on the lime, it was all you could taste. The cranberry/raspberry margarita was weak and watery. We dumped them down the drain. Mr. Willoughby had a Mexican beer and I had a Coke (no recipes necessary). It was still a beautiful night, though. Look what we spotted in the sky, just over the trees: It was spectacular. Just above it was another rainbow, but it was too faint to capture in a picture. I was planning to post a bonus Saturday Night Drink to make up for last night, but I've been too busy working on a project to decide on a recipe. I'll share some pictures of the project in an upcoming...

Recently, my dad and I had a discussion about the TV show MASH. We both really like the show, but my dad doesn't think it very accurately represents what it was like to serve in the army during the Korean War. My dad served in Korea just after the war ended, so he speaks from personal experience. Of course, he isn't a doctor and wasn't assigned to a MASH unit, so you have to take that into account. I asked him what a typical day was like while he was in the army and he told me. In many ways, it was a lot like a normal work day for most people. Get up, eat, do your job, eat, go to bed. Okay, there was occasional artillery involved, but other than that......If they had based the show on those things it probably wouldn't have done very well in the ratings. How many people can say that their life is interesting enough (without fabrication) to be a movie or television show? Not many, I'd say. Everyone has some funny stories that would make for a good sitcom episode, or t...

One of the first things I do after I take the kids to school is sit down with my coffee and read my favorite blogs. This morning, I was inspired by the blog that Purple Flowers posted. It was about the importance of balancing serious and silly. I agree with her, balance is important. During the most difficult challenges in life, laughter can make all the difference. As most of you already know, my daughter was born severely premature at 23 weeks gestation. I'll save you the math, that means she came into this world 17 weeks before she was due. There was no reason for it, it just happened. She was 11 inches long and weighed 14 ounces. I can't tell you how scared we were for her survival. The hospital where she was born was not equipped to handle such a premature baby, so, hours after her birth, she was transported via ambulance to another hospital 30 miles away with a state of the art NICU. I was released the next day. Over the following six months, our lives revolved around ta...

Yesterday, my daughter asked me why people hate dandelions. I told her it was because they are weeds and very hard to get rid of. She said she doesn't care if they're weeds, they're still pretty to her. She feels bad for the dandelions because no one likes them. While I'm not likely to agree, I can't argue with her logic. She wanted to pick them all out of the yard before my husband cut the grass. I gave her a plastic pitcher and let her go to town on the back lawn. She spent about an hour picking as many as she could. When she finally realized she would never get all of them she gave up. And then she gave them to me. All three pitchers full! Anyone in need of some dandelions? My Addiction I got so many nice comments about my iron fish, yesterday, that I thought I would share a picture of my other fish candle holder . This one is made of resin, so he's quite a bit lighter and much smaller. When I went out back to take a picture of him, I suddenly realized that I...

Why am I so happy? Because my daughter and I just came back from shopping. We didn't go anywhere exciting, just the supermarket, but we had fun. Also, we got flowers! Wanna see? Here's one of the topiary gardenias. I bought two of these. The plastic pots they came in will soon be history because Mr. Willoughby and I will be making planter boxes for them this weekend (I'll be blogging each step of the process in case you want to make some, too). My plan is to have them flanking the back porch steps. It was a challenge driving home with these beauties. I drive an SUV and they were too tall to put in the back without laying them down. Instead I put them behind the driver's seat. They started to tip over onto my daughter (she couldn't reach far enough to hold them up with her seat belt on) so I had to drive all the way home from the store with one hand behind my back holding them upright. And I couldn't pass up this sweet deal. Ten tulips for $1.33! I bought a pink ...

From mid April through the end of October is flea market season around here. It's a Sunday morning tradition. The gates open around 6:00 am and stay open until the last vendor has closed up, usually about 1:00 pm. It's a big outdoor market spread over several acres and draws shoppers from all over our local area and the neighboring counties. You can find all the typical flea market merchandise there as well as garden plants, fresh produce and bakery items. Because we're in the middle of farm country, small livestock is pretty common, too. How cute is the old ride on horse?! And no, that's not what I meant by small livestock! I just didn't get any pictures of the live animals. The weather was perfect for lots of leisurely browsing. I'm sure you're wondering if we came home with any great finds. Yep, we did! Mr. Willougby spotted this one. It's a six bottle liquor dispenser for our bar. When the bottles are inserted, they are held in place upside down....