A New Pine Farm Table

I've never had a new dining room set before, so after many years of searching for a dining room table and chairs that match my other furniture (Broyhill Fontana Honey Pine), I finally found a set almost identical to the one I've been searching for these past 20 years.  I was thrilled, to say the least!

The new table and chairs arrived this afternoon after a six week wait. After I got home from work, we had dinner on it for the first time--it's SO large compared to our old round table.

After dinner, I took out the table leaf, moved some occasional tables back into the dining room, and took some pictures of the room.  It looks completely different with a long table and formal chairs upholstered in a beige linen.

We'll be having some great holiday dinners and Slow Food gatherings with a table like this!

Antique Bird Prints

When my mother moved out of her condo two years ago, she gave me these lovely framed bird prints.  Two of the frames were broken, so I took them to my frame shop for re-construction and repair.  I just picked them up last weekend, and they are beautiful.  Here are two of the four prints, now adorning the living room.

It's so nice to have all of these lovely things from my family, and my mom can enjoy them each time she is over here, visiting and spending the holidays and weekends.

Orange Tulips

I searched all of Woodinville yesterday for these three lovely bunches of exotic poppy-like tulips.  They are in a Lenox vase on my French dining room table, and they are a lovely punctuation in my neutral-toned living and dining areas.

Sweet Home Certified Wood Stove

With winter temperatures hovering between 18 degrees and 28 degrees here in Maltby for the past two weeks, we've given our wood stove a good workout.  Our load of wood from last March has dried out and cured nicely in the solar woodshed these last 10 months, and the combination of alder and fir has burned hot and slow and keeps the frigid nights warm and toasty.

Over the years, we've used the stove for heat and cooking when the power goes out.  It's a great stove, and has become the center of our cozy home in these Maltby winters.

Winter Dog

Nala seems to be adjusting well to the very cold weather here this year.  Since she has a very light, thin coat (unlike Juno!), we have a nice snug coat for her to wear outside in the yard and for trips to the park.  Here she is after a nice walk, relaxing by the fire.

Three Day Weekend

I had a long three-day weekend for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. I spent it doing the things I like best--cooking, baking, walking the dog, antiquing and relaxing with a good book or two.  Also, these cold, dark days are a great time to catch up on movies and my favorite TV series.

Here's the White House Antique store at Country Village, where I did some shopping yesterday.  I always come away from there with some small treasure. See my great new pillow below for Nala.

Baking Bread

Today was a good wintry day to make pasta with home-made marinara sauce and Italian sausages.  Only homemade white bread would perfectly complement this dish, so I got out the bread machine and in three hours, I had a lovely large loaf of crusty white bread (still warm) to serve with dinner.

Look at that perfect texture (the secret is using soy milk instead of regular milk).  It was so good with the penne pasta and marinara made from my own Early Girl and Roma tomatoes from last fall.