Category Archives: Lifestyle

A Mighty Fortress

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Music Man and I have a favorite brass group that we “follow” whenever they are performing in the Chicagoland area. The King’s Brass is a seven-piece brass group with additional keyboard and percussion players. Founded 35 years ago by director Tim Zimmerman, the group plays about 120 concerts a year in churches and concert halls. The members of the group are all professional musicians with gigs at universities and symphonies, but they travel six months of the year with King’s Brass. Their concert tour schedule is here; if they are in your area and you like church music, I highly recommend that you try to attend a concert.

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Click into photo for source and more information about King’s Brass.

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Nippon Rose Vase Tablescape Inspiration

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It’s that time of the week again, when I start looking around my house for inspiration for this week’s tablescape. Although I only have a small hoard cache of items to choose from compared with some of the tablescaping queens, there’s still lots of things to share with you. I wish I had a storage room in my house like the one at Biltmore, where I could store all my pretties in one place.

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The Flower Room at Biltmore Estate, where the servants would create fresh floral arrangements for the house. Click into photo for source.

I’m just not in the mood to do a fake Fourth of July tablescape, so I’m waiting until next week when I’ll actually use the table setting to entertain friends. It’s still June, and summer has barely gotten rolling here in Chicagoland! Continue reading →

Inspiration: Gold, Green and White Tablescape

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I love to visit stores with beautiful tablescapes for inspiration. This spring, Macy’s sponsored a flower show at many of its locations and along with the amazing floral displays, there also were beautiful tablescapes. I was a bad girl and didn’t source out any of these items in the photos, but they speak for themselves. Gorgeous!

GotMyReservations Macys Tablescape 1 Continue reading →

The Sunday Review: Two Visions of Anne Boleyn

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9780547328188_p0_v1_s260x420On her web site, Susan Bordo says that her goal in writing The Creation of Anne Boleyn: A New Look at England’s Most Notorious Queen was to delve into the question of why Anne Boleyn and her story continue to fascinate new generations. What was so special about her that Henry VIII risked everything to have her? Continue reading →

Wonderful World of Disney Tablescape

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This week’s tablescape was inspired by my vintage Ferris wheel (I talked about its history here), and seemed the perfect week to showcase it in Cuisine Kathleen’s “summer whimsey” tablescape party.

GotMyReservations Chein Disney Ferris Wheel

J. Chein Disney Ferris Wheel

Growing up, we traveled in the summer since my father was a teacher. Every June, we packed up the trailer and headed off on a long car trip. The longest — and my brother says the most interminable — trip we ever took was from Ohio to California. It was on that vacation in about 1965 that I first went to Disneyland and was enchanted by Walt Disney’s vision. Continue reading →

Vintage Ferris Wheel Tablescape Inspiration

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When Cuisine Kathleen posted her “summer whimsey” challenge, I knew that the time had come to bring out my vintage Ferris wheel and feature it in a vacation tablescape.

GotMyReservations Chein Disney Ferris Wheel

J. Chein Disney Ferris Wheel

I grew up with this toy and played with it whenever we visited my great-grandmother’s house. I was named after her, and the toy was passed down to me eventually. I had it evaluated at one of those appraisal parties and they said at the time that it was worth about $100, but to me it’s priceless and will be one of the last items to pass on to family members when it’s my turn. The Ferris wheel brings back good memories of playing at Grandma Jennie’s house. Continue reading →

The Biggest Dish Room in the United States? — Biltmore Part 1

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The original photo of the two-story butler's pantry at Biltmore is courtesy of The Biltmore Estate.

The original photo of the two-story butler’s pantry at Biltmore is courtesy of The Biltmore Estate.

Dish rooms are my joy, my thrill, my raison d’être. Well, maybe not quite that much, but y’all know how much I love dishes.

When we began to plan our visit to the largest private home in the United States, I hoped to see lots and lots of dishes. Gobs of dishes.

Located in Asheville, North Carolina, Biltmore House and its surrounding estate was imagined and created between 1889 and 1895 by George W. Vanderbilt and his all-star team of Richard Morris Hunt and Frederick Law Olmsted. It is still held privately by descendants of George and Edith Vanderbilt and is open to the public. There is a general tour of the house with an available audio guide that takes about two hours. There are also auxiliary guided tours of areas that are not on the main tour. We spent two glorious days exploring this beautiful estate.

In addition to the regular tour of the house, we also signed up for the Butler’s Tour, which took us “downstairs” into kitchen and mechanicals areas not seen on the other tours. This two-story butler’s pantry just took my breath away.

I’ll share lots more about our trip to the glorious Biltmore Estate, but today I’m going to start with a visit to the gift shops on the grounds of the Estate. After all, it’s dishes that we are interested in — right? Continue reading →

Flower Stories: Iris and Peonies

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A while back, I told you the story of my neighbor’s beautiful Bridal Veil Spirea.

GotMyReservations Bridal Veil Spirea 1

That was then…

I’ve also told you about how Oksana’s beautiful garden has been plundered and pretty much ruined by the flippers who are renovating her house.

GotMyReservations Bridal Veil Spirea

This is now — a desecration of a beautiful shrub.

The good news is that like all shrubs, this one will come back next year if no one disturbs it. Let’s hope my new neighbors — if we ever have new neighbors — will understand something about pruning shrubs and let it be. Continue reading →

Easter Traditions

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Every family has its special holiday rituals and Easter is no exception.

Growing up, my mother always made us a lambie cake for Easter. My brother has her mold and continues the tradition. It HAS to have jelly beans for its eyes and nose and I love seeing that my brother makes the lamb cake to honor and remember her.

GotMyReservations Lambie Cake

Today I encountered another family tradition with another family.

GotMyReservations Black Sheep Cake

The black sheep — instead of the pure white lamb — sang a beautiful pascal song to me. Easter is a time of celebrating all humanity, not just the pure and obedient among us. Jesus’s resurrection brings us a new beginning and a washing clean of our prejudices and bad habits.

Happy Easter, and may you have a blessed and inclusive day.

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Travel Diary: Tips for Your Next Trip

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Linda Dini Jenkins from Travel the Write Way

Linda Dini Jenkins from Travel Italy the Write Way

 

This post contains affiliate links; see my Advertising Disclosure policy for details.

Tips From Traveling Friends

I have a blogging friend whom I have never met, yet our thinking trains seem to often run along the same rails — and it happened again this week. I had planned to write a post about some items I’m adding to my travel closet stash, and Linda also wrote a post about the things that are on her travel must-have list.

Linda Dini Jenkins is a travel writer who blogs at Travel the Write Way. She offers tips about tourist destinations, and plans tours in Italy for small group travel. Here’s what she says about this week’s post.

“It’s trip planning season again. At least that’s what all my travel blog colleagues are writing about in their columns lately. This is the time of year, they say, when people start to plan for their annual holiday, especially if that holiday involves crossing oceans. To help potential travelers in their search, all kinds of lists are appearing to promote the top 10 beach destinations, the best European bargain spots, “undiscovered” this or that, and what you should or shouldn’t pack on said trip.” Continue reading →

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