Just~One~Donna

When is it the right time for a kitchen renovation?  We'd been thinking about a kitchen renovation for a long time.  The kitchen in my house was original to the home, built in 1981.  It was a beautiful kitchen when built, with custom cherry cabinets and well thought out use of space. We made some changes in the past by installing double ovens in a mysterious closet space, and an electric cooktop, with a cabinet with sliding drawers, where there once was a range. These updates made the kitchen very serviceable and a pleasant space for cooking and entertaining.  As my sons grew we made daily use of our kitchen table, especially enjoying the morning sunshine while eating breakfast. You can see in the picture above that I added a mobile kitchen cart to the end of my island as a way to test whether or not I would want the length of the island extended.  I found the additional 24" of length to be very useful, especially when taking hot dishes from ...

This tomato and corn quiche is a delicious summer dinner. Use Fresh Tomatoes in a Delicious Summer Quiche (This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. The compensation I receive when you shop using these links helps support the costs for this blog.)  Tomato Quiche  Today's quiche is inspired by my friend Lydia Walshin's recipe for tomato pie that you can find in her book, 25 Tomatoes: Easy year-round recipes using fresh, canned, roasted and sun-dried tomatoes from the Perfect Pantry kitchen .

This month my parents sold the home where they raised their family, my two brothers, my sister and me.  It all happened pretty quickly.  Less than a year ago Mom and Dad decided to move to sunny Florida. Once the decision was made it took less than eight months to purchase a new home more than a thousand miles away, purge sixty years of accumulated possessions, resettle in their new home and say good-bye to the house that once nurtured their family.  Whew!  This was no small accomplishment for two people in their 80s. On the morning of the closing for the house I took one final walk through ostensibly to make sure all was in order for the new owners, but in reality to say good-bye.  As I walked through the empty rooms I remembered... I remembered that winter, long ago, when it snowed and snowed and snowed.  It snowed so much we were able to build an igloo with blocks of snow.  There's never been a winter quite like it. ...

I decided a little over a month ago that it was time to refresh my three season porch.  You know what I mean.  All of a sudden the porch went from a place where I liked to spend my time to a place I never wanted to be.  It was time to fix that. My Porch Before All of the paint in the room needed to be refreshed.  I wanted to brighten the trim around the windows by painting it with Benjamin Moore's Atrium White (PM-13).  The previously white walls needed a little color.  I chose a light butter cream color called Palm Coast Pale (330) by Benjamin Moore.  I thought the sloped ceiling might benefit from a little color as well.  I chose Benjamin Moore's Spring Mint (2040-70). The Color Palette There was some water damage on the ceiling that had to be fixed.  I turned to YouTube for some how-to advice. Water Damage on the Ceiling I was careful and didn't rush the repair.  We also decided to add some trim work that helped...

Italian Cream Cake When Hubby had a birthday recently and I wanted to make him a special cake to commemorate his day.  I thought it would be fun to try a new cake rather than rely upon one of my tried and true cakes.  I've been saving cake recipes that look delicious on my Pinterest board, Let Me Eat Cake .  So off I went to see if there was a cake there that might fit the bill. There were two cakes on the board that I thought would tickle his taste buds.  The first was the Italian Cream Cake from lynn-southernwithatwist.blogspot.com and the second was a Coconut Cream Cake from life-as-a-lofthouse.blogspot.com.  I showed Hubby the pictures of the cakes and read the ingredients.  He chose the Italian Cream Cake. I had never heard of an Italian Cream Cake before.  Have you?   An online recipe search for Italian Cream Cake revealed recipe, after recipe, after recipe.  Where have I been all these years to have missed...