Tea Date with Jan

Today I drove to Auburn with my good friend, Jan, in tow.  About two months ago I'd made reservations for two to have high tea in Auburn at The Powers Mansion.  We made good time in my little VW Cabriolet, no traffic going or coming.  We left early enough in the morning that we had about ninety minutes or so to kill and did some antique shopping in Old Town Auburn.  Jan found a handheld antique dressing table mirror to add to her collection of mirrors hanging on the wall in her guest powder room.  I found a set of four cute little 70's cups for my new kitchen shelf.  Note:  The new kitchen shelf isn't made yet, it's my dream kitchen remodel we're going to be doing in the near near near future.  (I hope near.)  One other little treasure I found is an antique paint roller which I've never ever before seen the likes of.

When we arrived at the tea room, which by the way is also a bed and breakfast, it was very quiet.  The two owners/chefs were busy tinkering around in the kitchen preparing our things.

While they finished up in the kitchen we were free to roam around and take pictures and see what there was to see.  We had the whole place to ourselves and had some fun.

Our table was tucked in a private corner and decorated beautifully.

The table above was all set for the next guests to arrive.  A large party.

Pretty little things were for sale all over the place and I found two antique and hand painted dainty tea cups and saucers for collection.

Behind this door is where the magic happens.

I chose Creme Brûlée for my tea choice.

My pretty little tea pot.

Jan is having her tea poured.

After our tea was served we got carried away and started doing selfies.

Our first course consisted of a small salad, a cheese quiche and some fresh fruit.

Then came the three tiered tray.  Strawberry scones on the bottom, chicken salad and cucumber sandwiches in the middle and on top are three goodies, coconut cookies, a cupcake with sprinkles and pumpkin bread.  Everything is made from scratch and was delicious.

My scone with clotted cream and lemon curd.  Yummy!

Dena and Chris, (sorry, not sure who's who here) the two lovely ladies that make the magic happen.  Thank you for providing such a delicious tea and goodies for us.  We had such a fun time and will be back again!

Remodeling the Family Room

On March 28th Michael and I began demolishing our family room fireplace.  For many years I've been wanting to do this and finally Mike has agreed.  Now that it's finally starting to take shape, he's loving it.  Here's some pictures and videos of our progress so far.

This is the way it looked before.  The brick wall and hearth that extended into the room 22 inches and took up so much space.  I hated that part.  I love brick but not like this.  See the little gray fence looking thing to the left of the fireplace?  That was something Mike made just to cover the wood storage box.  It was one of those big boxes used to store wood for the burning in the fireplace.

First brick attack.

Tap tap tap.

Lookie what we discovered in the brick wall.

The old can opener type.

We covered the fireplace insert to not damage it.

Brick removed.  Part 1.  After we removed the brick we hired someone to come take out the insert so we can rebuild the brick around only the fireplace and create a much smaller hearth.

We gave our friend, Roger Bean, the floor for the house he's building on the coast in Irish Beach.  He's going to sand it down and use it in his art studio.  We bought three paintings from him.

After we were done taking out the flooring, poor Mike was sitting in this chair all pooped out.  He said to me, "Lisa, you finally wore my fat ass out."  I just had to capture this after he said that to me.

Our beautiful new paintings.

Jason is our bricklayer.  Rebuilding the fireplace brick surround.

The pictures here are Mike getting down his mantle design before the brick was whitewashed.

Then I did a nice whitewash on the brick.  I had to play with the white color and ended up using our buttermilk paint color which has slight yellow undertones.  I love it!

I chose a pretty yellow for the room.  I love yellow rooms, they're so cheerful.

Showing the fireplace rebuilt and whitewashed above.  We put in some new insulation and had an electrician come out to do some wiring for us.

First coat.

We're pretty pleased with how it's turning out.  Next up is going to be the new flooring.  We chose 48 x 6 inch tiles that resemble a wood floor.  Mike is also building a new t.v. stand in the corner.  I'll show some pictures of that soon.

This is going a little slower than we want only because we have to work on orders and try to get things shipped on time for our customers, so we work on this project when we can.  Even still, it's going fairly fast.  We are now awaiting on the tile to be delivered to the store in Sacramento so we can go pick it up.  Then we can begin the floor.

I'm going to paint the brass on the fireplace insert, too.  I've never liked the brass.  For those who love it, I apologize.  It's not my thing.  First I have to etch the brass by sanding it lightly and then I'm going to spray the whole thing with a heat proof black paint.  Once that is completed, we can call the guy up to come put the insert back into place.  We have a little cold draft coming into the house from the insert being gone.    

Saturday at the Beach

Yesterday we went to Bodega Bay with our children and grandchildren.  What a fun time we had just goofing off and being around each other.  I'm so thankful for my family.

We packed all the stuff down the hill and onto the beach to set up and Aiden said that he and his dad saw a sign that said 'No Fires on the Beach.'  That was news to us since we've always had bonfires on the beach here.  Poor Seth had dragged the dolly all the way down the hill to the beach, piled with heavy boxes of bonfire wood on it, and now he had to drag it back up the hill to put it back onto the truck.  He just wanted to get it over with so he could enjoy himself for the day.  Mike ended up driving down to the local store to purchase a small portable grill to cook the hot dogs on.

Angelina and Aiden want to play a word game but no one is cooperating.

 Angelina and Uncle Seth

Mike's lone little container of mayo that Shilah brought.  He's the only one that uses mayo on his  hot dogs and I asked Shilah to bring him a small container of it.  He laughed at the size of it.  It was the perfect amount for him.

Our spread.

 Uncle Amon, the cool dude.

 Beautiful Shilah

 Aiden with Uncle Seth

Okay, so the object of this game is to stuff a marshmallow into your mouth and say, Chubby Bunny without chewing or swallowing the marshmallows.  Keep stuffing a marshmallow into your mouth one at a time and say Chubby Bunny until you can't say it any longer.

Here's Angelina and Uncle Seth.

Me and Seth at Chubby Bunny

 Seth wins every time.

Chubby Bunny.

 Aiden, Seth, me

 Seth, Aiden, Angelina

 Michael and Shilah

 Aides

 Shilah and Amon

Time with Daddy.

The Stick.

The End.