This Stop Willoughby

Gather 'round, friends, and, in the spirit of Halloween, I will share some ghostly encounters with you. I assure you, they are all true. If you are not inclined to believe that those who have passed on sometimes come back to visit, I will not try to convince you. I will only say that you've obviously never been to my house. A little background for those of you who may not know. The house my family and I live in was built around the time of the Civil War. We don't have any records that reflect the specific date it was built, but it was some time in the 1860's. It was moved to it's current location, but we don't know exactly when or from where it was moved. I suspect it wasn't moved very far as it's a two story house and I would think it would have been difficult and time consuming to move it even the shortest of distances. The portion of the house where the kitchen, laundry room and half bath are located was added on to the house in the 1920'...

Welcome to Willoughby's Blog Style Cocktail Party. I hope you will find some new blogs to follow and expand your circle of blog friends. I know you're all anxious to mingle, so I'll get right to it. I'd like to introduce Donna from My Tasty Treasures . I know you'll enjoy her blog as much as I do. Donna Welcome to my cozy little corner of cyberspace. I do SO enjoy cooking and baking. What you will find here is what I call Girl Next Door Kinda Cooking. Dishes and desserts that are tried and true, some old, some new. Hope you enjoy what you read and that you'll be back often. Oreo Brownies I am quite thankful to Willoughby for this opportunity to meet some new bloggers. Bit about me .. I'm 41, yikes, have 4 children 11 and under, and 4 every other weekend 12 and under. Yes that's 8 every other weekend. Pass me a cocktail now. I am an RN, and my hubby is a fireman! Hobbies include running, jazzercise, eBay, garage sales, gardening, and...

I've been busy today and haven't had time to post.  However, I wanted to share the most special apple that grew on our tree.  It appears to have a sort of "butt".  I couldn't convince anyone to take a bite of it.  I wonder why? Willoughby

Welcome to Willoughby's Blog Style Cocktail Party. I hope you will find some new blogs to follow and expand your circle of blog friends. I know you're all anxious to mingle, so I'll get right to it. I'd like to introduce Amy from The House Of Seven Tails .  I know you'll enjoy her blog as much as I do. About Me Amy Once upon a time I was a prosecutor, then a CPS lawyer. Now I'm a very happily married 40+ year old who really enjoys reading, struggles to write and loves baking goodies hubbie gobbles up. I am also a mom to too many adorable cats who me and hubbie spend as much time with as our furry kids will allow! Our cats always seem to be followed home by this feline friend or that feline friend each of whom has a furry friend or two of their own. We rescue homeless, hungry cats if they will let us, find them a home or a safe, warm place to stay or sometimes we take them in and keep them! If they want to stay put outside, we feed and take care of the...

I've done a good amount of hosting and attending parties, get togethers, and soirees. Because I love to share my vast knowledge of party etiquette with all of you, I have compiled the following list of suggestions that you may wish to consult before your next party. As host or hostess: It may not be advisable to use paper tablecloths for your outdoor party if it is a breezy day. This is especially true if you are using candles as centerpieces. It is also not advisable to assume your friends are joking when they yell "Fire!" at said party. If you will be serving dinner to 15 people, it is best to make more than 12 pieces of chicken. It is a good idea to count the pieces of chicken in each package instead of just assuming. No amount of side dishes will disguise this oversight. It is not a good idea to drink an entire glass of wine with each toast at the 50th anniversary party you are hosting for your parents. While you may be able to retain your balance and keep word slurri...

Welcome to Willoughby's Blog Style Cocktail Party. I hope you will find some new blogs to follow and expand your circle of blog friends. I know you're all anxious to mingle, so I'll get right to it. I'd like to introduce Chicago Mom from What's For Dinner?. I know you'll enjoy her blog as much as I do. Chicago Mom I have been happily married for over 8 years. We have a 6 year old daughter who is the light of our lives. I am a stay-at-home mom who keeps busy by cooking, reading, and gardening. We live on the north side of Chicago. I love the TV show Cook's Country which is part of America's Test Kitchen and can be found on the local PBS channels. Both shows are great because 1) you get to see the recipe made from start to finish, 2) because they try many, MANY versions of the recipe to bring it to perfection, and 3) then you can go to their website and get the recipes! Well, you can get the ATK recipes free, the CC ones will cost you. E...

Welcome to Willoughby's Blog Style Cocktail Party. I hope you will find some new blogs to follow and expand your circle of blog friends. I know you're all anxious to mingle, so I'll get right to it. I'd like to introduce Holly from 504 Main . I know you'll enjoy her blog as much as I do. About Me Mochas, makeup and "I love you Mama" get me through the day. I don't sleep enough (hence the mochas..nonfat of course!), but somehow I manage to be mom to Joe and Jules by day and a wedding planner, designer, and writer by night. I adore books, books and more books, fabric, paperie, cowboy boots (although I don't own a pair - note to self, "do something about that!"), and my "vintage" fringed-to-perfection DKNY wrap skirt. Professional speaking...I graduated from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles, and worked as a fashion designer before becoming a wedding planner. My work has been featured in ...

I hope you won't be disappointed, but I've postponed today's cocktail party post. We'll get back on schedule tomorrow. Today, though, I wanted to post my own material for one very special reason. This is my 200th post! For those of you that are new around here, you probably haven't seen many of my own posts because I've been hosting the cocktail party. Unless you've been paging through my archives (does anybody really do that?), you may not know what I blog about. In general, I like to talk about things I find amusing or thought provoking, share recipes and projects, and pose an occasional challenge. Whatever is on my mind on any given day is likely to show up in my blog. I've been blogging since December of 2008, and I honestly can't believe the time has gone by so quickly. When I started my blog, I wasn't sure anyone would be interested in anything I had to say. My first followers were the incredibly supportive friends that I met through th...

When I was in the third grade, my friend Lisa invited me to come over after school to play and stay for dinner. We went to the same school and were in the same class, but she lived in a different neighborhood than I did and I had never been to her house before. I was pretty excited. After school, we walked over to the first grade classrooms to pick up her younger brother and the three of us walked home together. When we got there, I was surprised to find that no one was home. She used her key to let us in. We were only 8 or 9 years old and her brother was 6 or 7. This was new, and a little scary to me. My parents would never have let me stay home without an adult at that age. Once we were inside, Lisa said we had to get dinner started. She opened a little box that was filled with recipe cards and sorted through them. She set one aside and put the rest back in the box. After consulting the recipe, she turned on the oven and we gathered the necessary ingredients. Even at that age, I like...

Welcome to Willoughby's Blog Style Cocktail Party. I hope you will find some new blogs to follow and expand your circle of blog friends. I know you're all anxious to mingle, so I'll get right to it. I'd like to introduce Raoulysgirl from Who Has The Thyme?. I know you'll enjoy her blog as much as I do. About Me Raoulysgirl I'm a mommy first...wife second. Besides that, I am opinionated. Mine is not always the "popular" opinion, either. You are welcome to engage me in debate, but will most likely NOT change my mind. Salutations! Wha??? Yeah...better just stick to my usual style, huh? Sorry. I was trying to be proper since I'm a guest on my dear friend Willoughby's blog. Comes across as being fake, does it? Hmm...well, I guess we'll just have to start over. (ahem) What do Obie-wannabe (that would be President Obama...for those who are new to my musings) and John Edwards have in common? They've both decided that the "pull-out" ...

Welcome to Willoughby's Blog Style Cocktail Party. I hope you will find some new blogs to follow and expand your circle of blog friends. I know you're all anxious to mingle, so I'll get right to it. I'd like to introduce Charisse and Holly from Life Laugh Latte . I know you'll enjoy their blog as much as I do. Make a hot cup of coffee, pull up a chair, and hang out with your two new girlfriends! Some things we've learned through many years of marriage and parenting, but most of what we share is just raw, uncensored life as we have experienced it. No psychology degrees, far from perfect, but all honest and vulnerable...and of course much of it is funny! Because if you can't laugh at life...it will probably make you cry. So why not choose to Laugh with us! We get together once a week and videotape our conversations. We also enjoy writing short articles about friendship, family, faith, things we love and things that make us laugh. Thanks for stopping by...there...

Welcome to Willoughby's Blog Style Cocktail Party. I hope you will find some new blogs to follow and expand your circle of blog friends. I know you're all anxious to mingle, so I'll get right to it. I'd like to introduce Speaking From The Crib . I know you'll enjoy her blog as much as I do. I am the author of the blog SPEAKING FROM THE CRIB. I have been blogging for a very short time, only since August, and I am loving it! I am 38 year old mother of two, married to an Aussie, and living in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio (GO CAVS!). I am an aspiring author and began blogging in the hopes of realizing my life long dream - to see my book sitting on the back of someone's toilet. I'm not proper, I'm not prissy, but I am definitely funny --- so come over to the crib and hang out for awhile --- if you don't take your life, yourself, and your causes too seriously, I may just be your cup of tea. And don't forget the SFTC promise - follow me and I will follow...

In the twenty years that we've been married, we've called four different places home. I made some really bad, trendy choices in decorating along the way. I'll admit that I liked them at the time, but looking back now, I have to wonder why. Our first place was a one bedroom apartment in the suburbs. Being that it was our first home together, we were anxious to bring in some of our own personal style (along with our hand me down furniture). This was 1989 and the trend in interior decorating, at that time, was country. Not just any country, but "cutesy" country. If you're too young to remember (or have blocked it out over the years), the look consisted mainly of dried flowers, tiny print fabrics, hearts and farm animals with bows around their necks. Geese were especially popular, and we had tons of them. We had a goose cookie jar, canister set, vegetable bin and kitchen towels, just to name a few. I still have my country geese measuring cup. I'm not sure if I...