Seattle

It's been a just over a month since we've been home from Seattle.   We both had a good time on our trip.  The husband really enjoyed his conference and the networking opportunities it gave him and I enjoyed visiting a city I had never been and for an opportunity to meet up with some online friends.

Was able to capture a few cool shots out the airplane window

We got in on a rainy Sunday (which of course was the norm for the week) and got checked into our hotel.  They gave us a really nice corner room that had tons of light....which was a good thing since most of the days were dreary, dreary, dreary.

 

Once we got settled in our room, we were both hungry and wanted to take a walk, so we heading toward Pike's Place Market which was only about 6 blocks away, an easy walk.

We had SO much fun exploring the market and no way could we see everything with only one visit, so we did come back several times to both eat and shop.

One of the fish counters

 

My husband pointing to a ginormous lobster tail

 

Baked goods and pastries to die for.........

 

Fabulous looking fruits and vegetables

 

More fish and seafood........

Our first meal was at a restaurant tucked into one of the buildings of the market called Place Pigalle and I ordered the daily special which was Halibut over Yukon gold potatoes with crimini mushrooms and broccolini.  It was heavely!  my husband who likes fish but not as much as I do also loved it.

 

The husband ordered their crab cakes and when they arrived, he was surprised how large the cakes were and they also were wonderful.  Our food experience was off to a good start on this trip!

After lunch we walked all around Pike's Place Market and the general downtown area where our hotel was and where my husband's conference was going to held.   I was anxious to check out Nordstrom department store....their flagship store, but was going to have to wait until the next day.

 

An urban garden outside on one of the patios of Pike's Place Market.

This live sculpture was so cool to watch....she was really good!

Tuesday was our day of doing some sightseeing.  I had purchased tickets in advance for the Space Needle and Chihuly Garden and Glass so all we had to do was hop on the monorail system from the Westlake Center straight to the Seattle Center.  I had my reservations about going that high due to my fear of heights, but I'm proud to say I made it and it wasn't too bad once we were at the top.

As you can see, it was a grey, cloudy day but I'm glad I could at least see the city and water around me.

Those spiders are painted on the roof of one of the buildings below....an very unique trompe l'oeil.

 

My sweetie checking out one of the telescopes at the top.

 

Downtown Seattle

 

Chiluly Garden and Glass from above

 

I'm going to save our visit to Chiluly Garden and Glass for a blog post of it's own because it was so fabulous and deserves it's own post.  It was some of the most beautiful exhibits I've ever seen and it's been on my bucket list since I heard of it's existence.   My visit there alone made the trip worth it.

 

After visiting the Needle and Chiluly, we walked around to look at the Experience Music Project Museum.   I needed to find a rest room and their gift shop looked cool, so we went inside to look around and I got some awesome photos of some of the interior.  We didn't go inside the paid part of the museum because husband was going to be coming back to the museum for a social function associated with the conference he's attending.

We had the opportunity to eat at some really good restaurants while in town.  I was trying to stay focused on the fish and seafood but one night we has some really good Italian at il Fornaio at the Pacific Place.  We also had a good meals at both the Athenian Restaurant and Lowell's.

On Friday I had the opportunity to meet up with some long time online friends for lunch at Pike Place Chowder at the same Pacific Place.   It was so wonderful to finally meet them.  Kris and Michelle both live in Washington and came into the city to meet up with me.  We had a nice lunch and then walked around, got some coffee and ended up at Barnes & Noble (not surprising) and talked about books while checking out everything at the store.

Unfortunately our time together went very fast before Michelle had to leave for another commitment, so Kris and I said our goodbyes to her and then she and I decided to walk over to the Olympic Sculpture Park down by the water.  It was quite the walk, but it felt good because the sun finally decided to grace us with it's presence.   I love sculpture parks as my family can attest to as we have a good one in Des Moines and I'm always wanting to pay it a visit, so I was game to see what the Seattle park had to share.

My favorite symbol  :)

 

I could finally see Mount Rainier peeking through the clouds for a bit of a glimpse.

All in all, it was a great visit to a city that neither one of us have never been to and both of us were glad we had the opportunity.

Hope you enjoyed my little tour of Seattle.......later....

Update on our Freezer/Pantry Purge - A Month Later

It's almost been a month since I posted about our Great Freezer/Pantry Purge and you can read about that  .  I'm happy to report that our freezer in both the garage and in the bottom of our kitchen refrigerator have bottoms.....because I can see them now.  :)

The pantry is taking longer.  Canned goods have decreased and hoping that the upcoming holiday season helps me get through some of our baking supplies, but still have stuff in there that needs to be used.

One of the things that I did to help use freezer stuff up was to spend a day cooking up some of the meat that was older than some of our other freezer goods.  I had a few pounds of pounds of lean hamburger, Italian Sausage, a beef chuck roast, a whole chicken, a few packages of boneless chicken breasts and a ham roast that all needed to be cooked, although the ham roast was fully cooked, I wanted to get it gone.

Some of the hamburger I cooked and crumbled into one pound portions and put those in freezer baggies that we used up within a couple of weeks in tacos, chili and just yesterday I used the last of it in a homemade Taco Soup I made and served it with corn bread.

The rest of the hamburger I cooked into hamburger patties that can be easily microwaved later by the teen in the house and slapped in his favorite sandwich roll.

I did the same thing to the Italian Sausage we had.  Cooked up a couple of pounds crumbed and then cooked a few sausage patties.  We are graced with an Italian grocery store called Graziano Brothers that makes the BEST Italian sausage in the world.  I mean that.   When I didn't live here and I would come back and visit.....guess what would came home with me?  Pounds of Graziano sausage.  I grew up going to that market and buying their sausage and other goodies.......but I digress.  :)

We had some amazing sausage sandwiches one night using some focaccia buns I got at Palmer's Deli & Market and the rest was used as a topping on one of our homemade pizzas.

 

After cooking:

 

Pizza Tip:  If you want an amazing pizza spice that you sprinkle on before you cook your pizza, check out this Pizza Blend at Allspice, an amazing spice store we have in the East Village area of Des Moines. 

 

As you can see, we have quite a collection of spice blends from Allspice and we love our favorites!

The beef chuck roast was put in the crockpot with beef stock, onions, carrots and potatoes for one meal and the leftovers were turned into French Dip sandwiches a couple of nights later.

I roasted the whole chicken and the boneless breasts, pulled the meat off the bone from the whole chicken and made a fabulous chicken pot pie.

So easy, especially when you use pre-made pie crusts and Campbell's Healthy Request Cream of Chicken soup as a base for your chicken & vegetable mixture that's tucked inside....and yes, I'm sure there are the Cream soup haters out there...but guess what?  I don't care.....it works for me once in a while and it's really good in this dish.

Some of the chicken I had left over was made into chicken salad with celery, grapes, walnuts and both the husband and I had it for our lunches and the rest of the roasted chicken was portioned out to freezer bags.

In between the meals I mentioned, we also ate up some of our Trader Joe's groceries; Margarita pizzas, beef & broccoli and chicken lo mien. 

As I mentioned in my previous posts, I wondered if I was going to see a difference in our grocery bill and I did.....in fact, one week other than a gallon of milk and a few other things we were completely out of, I didn't even have to do any grocery shopping.....I was able to plan meals with the things we had on hand.

With this week being a short week before Thanksgiving....which WE ARE GOING OUT TO EAT (yes, I'm yelling...I've been wanting to do it for years) our menu looks like this:

Monday

Skillet Pork Chops with Apples (using up the last of our boneless lean pork loins)
Scalloped Potatoes
Salad

Tuesday

Trader Joe's Fish Nuggets with Dill Sauce
Wild Rice Pilaf
Steamed Vegetables

Wednesday

Trader Joe's Ham, Caramelized Onion & Gruyere Cheese Flatbread Tarte


Our freezer inventory looks much more manageable now and I'll update you towards the end of the year on how the pantry is faring.

I let you know how our Thanksgiving Dinner out goes.....I remember doing it one year when my mother was still alive.  We all went to one of the downtown hotels and the buffet was amazing and our leftovers were sent home with us in aluminum foil shaped like swans.....no kidding.

I haven't forgotten my blog , I promise!

In fact, I've missing writing it and sharing things, but I've been out of town and I'm winding up my Entrepreneur/Small Business Start-Up class at DMACC with a 35 page business plan that is kicking my butt, so my focus lately has been that.

I've leave you with a cute picture of Kirby and Coco from a year ago.  Now all she wants to do is bug the crap out of him.

Later......

Happy Halloween House Tour!

As far as holiday decorating goes, Halloween is my 2nd favorite holiday and if you saw the number of black & orange totes I have in my basement, you would definitely agree with me.

I actually did a huge purge a couple of years ago because I had inherited a bunch of my mother's decorations and I really need to downsize what I had.

I have both indoor and outdoor decor and some years I mixed it up differently than I did the year before.

This is my outdoor fairy garden.....earlier in the summer I found the cutest Halloween piece at our local farmer's market and I had to buy a few pieces for it.  I couldn't wait to add them to the garden.

I also was excited about turning our purple front door into Frankenstein.  I found the giant googly eyes at the Target Dollar Spot and the rest is made from cheap poster board.  I love the way it turned out and for a whole $3 dollars.

Inside, I like to decorate our den/library and the family room/kitchen area.  I have Halloweeen decorations that I've had for decades.......this is one of them and one of my favorites...

I don't really have set places for my decorations.  I'm constantly changing things up and using our stuff in different rooms and different places....it's whatever "trips my trigger" when I unpack things.

Another favorite piece -

Above is one of two IKEA Expedit bookcases that I've recently turned on their sides and put them against our far wall.  My reasoning is if I don't, I tend to push our furniture against that wall and I don't want it there anymore.  Those bookcases are important as they hold every scrapbook I've done over the last 19 years.  I  also like that they provided me with a whole lot of space that I can play with seasonally yet it's out of direct traffic but you can still see and enjoy the decor.

Below are are couple more of my favorite pieces....the ghost, pumpkin and cat piece in the back is one of the first things I bought after Fred and I were married ad the small front cat piece is by artist Jim Shore, who I adore.

I also decorate the ladder shelf I have on another wall in our family room with some of our other Halloween things that we've collected over the years.

On the bottom shelf is this ceramic piece I made 21 years ago.  Of course my love of all things cat was prevalent then also....I've had to replace the light bulb in it several things over the years, but it's still another favorite hand made piece.

Another Halloween cat decoration we have is a fiber optic cat & pumpkin that I have in our den/library.

 

We have a small bar in our eat-in area of the kitchen and I like to deck it out during the holidays also.

 

I have a fun Doodlebug house on the shelf that I did in Halloween paper and a few other ghost and haunted house things.  I also thought it was the perfect place for something new I bought this year.

It's also the perfect place to put the "Good Witch/Bad Witch" sign I have so that my husband can switch it out whenever he feels the need......  :)

Another new decoration I bought this year is this darling cloche covering a spider over a stack of books.  As soon as I saw the books, I knew I had to have it......

Thanks for joining me on a tour of our Halloween House.   Have fun trick or treating!

The Great Pantry/Chest Freezer Purge

We are fortunate to own a small chest freezer that we keep out in our garage.  It's the perfect size for the size of our family and great to have when things go on sale.   I've been known to buy butter, bread, creamer, cheese when prices are super low and freeze it all in our chest freezer.  I also keep our meat and larger items (such as tubs of ice cream....not mine.....it's the men I live with...lol).

The problem is without an inventory sheet, I would forget what I have in there, so I use a freezer inventory sheet I found on the internet.  Just google "Freezer Inventory Template" and you'll find a gazillion of them.   It's been a lifesaver in regards to knowing what you have in your freezer.

Lately I've been on a purging and organizing mission, starting with my pantry which you can read about HERE, so I've decided to dedicate the next month before the holiday season starts to USE WHAT WE HAVE in both our pantry, refrigerator freezer and chest freezer.  Unless the sale is really too good to pass up, I'm not buying meat or any pantry items until we make a big dent in what we already have.

This is also the week before we leave for Seattle.  It's a work trip for my husband and I'm tagging along because neither of us have been there.....so, even though our son will still be around, I think this is a perfect week to use up some of what we have.  When I did the grocery shopping on Friday morning, I only spent $40 and that was mostly for fresh produce and dairy.


Here's what our menu looks like this week to make the most of what we have and it's a little more convenient because of our schedules -

Sunday

Stuffed Peppers (Pepper bought on sale, ground beef from the freezer)
Garlic Bread (Bread from freezer)
Tossed Salad (Iceberg lettuce bought on sale for 99 cents a head, an English cucumber I picked up from Trader Joe's and tomatoes from our garden)

Monday

Grilled Ham & Cheese Sandwiches (using up the luncheon ham, cheese and garlic bread)
Oven Baked French Fries (Ore-Ida - what can I say?....my family loves them)

Tuesday

Pork Stir-fry (Using boneless pork chops in our freezer, broccoli, onions, cabbage and anything else I find in our crisper)
Brown Rice


Wednesday

(This has to be an easy night for my husband as I'm in class that night)
Turkey Cheddar Sausages
Jalapeno Cheddar Potatoes
French Style Green Beans with Dill

Thursday

Trader Joe's Fish Nuggets
Veggie Quinoa and Rice Dish (my husband may opt for a baked potato....we shall see...)


Friday

BBQ Ribs (from our freezer)
Potato Casserole
Salad (using up as much vegies in the crisper as I can)

Saturday

Saturday, I'm going to be at the Get Inspired 14 scrapbook crop at the Fairgrounds for most of the day and evening, so my family is on what we call a "Fend For Yourself Night" or "FFYN" as it's know around here.  I won't be able to stay at the crop as long as the rest of my friends because we have to be up at 4:00am the next morning to head to the airport, so I'll be heading out after dinner.

We'll be there a full week and once we are back home, I think we'll be eating out of our freezer and panty at least up until Thanksgiving and the money saved will help pay for holiday food.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

Den/Library Re-Do

When we found this house ten years ago, the first thing we said when we saw the front dining room space was "that will be our den/library".  We don't formally entertain so a formal dining room didn't suit our needs.  We have a big eat in area in our large kitchen and most of time when we do entertain family and/or friends, it's either buffet style, out on our deck or we are eating in front of the television while watching some sporting event....Go Hawkeyes!  :)

This was the first room that I painted and at the time I wanted it warm and cozy so I went with a Sherwin Williams paint in their Soft Suede line of paints in the color Chianti.  The finished walls look like suede and the application wasn't hard at all.  I had it done in a weekend.  It's had to be touched up over the years and I finally ran out of the paint and then Sherwin Williams discontinued the line, so I knew I was eventually going to have to re-paint it something else.

See that small slipper chair in the room?.....it serves as a cat scratching post.......

These picture were taken not long before I re-painted.  The suede paint was finally looking pretty tired and it was time for a change.  Since painting it with the suede paint, we had purchased the black bookcases and computer station,  re-carpeted and moved Connor's computer desk to his room.  I also refinished an antique dresser that I found on Craigslist to use as a printer stand/storage in the room.

This is what the room looks like now painted in "Beach House" by Sherwin Williams.....I think it brightened up the room quite a bit.   I also sprung for some new cellular shades for the bay window as the old ones had seen better days.

The room also is where we hang some of our art and where part of our permanent book collection resides.  There are P. Buckley Moss and Charles Wysocki on the walls and even a Terry Redlin that was my mother's that brings back memories every time I look at it.

Slipper chair/cat post is still there. :)

 

 

Thanks for stopping by and seeing how I spend some of my time.......

Stay tuned for more.

I'm a Boomer

The reason I changed up my blog to say "A Boomer's Guide to the Retirement Galaxy" is because I think there is an audience out there of younger retirees that are healthy, active and finally made the decision to leave the rat race behind.

I'm a baby boomer....that generation that's been alive since before the Kennedy assassination yet were post WWII and there is a WHOLE LOT of us coming up on our retirement years.

I was fortunate to have a job that afforded me after 27 years to leave a few years earlier than I thought I would.  I also have a husband who is an excellent provider with no desire to retire right now.  He's in a second career that he loves and wants to continue to do what he does and that's alright by me.   I really thinks he likes having me home because there is a whole bunch of house cleaning he no longer has to do.....lol

It does take some sacrifice.....but I'm also finding that with not working,  you need need as much money.  I'm only having to fill my car up every 10 days rather than every week, my grocery trips last longer and there isn't any need to buy clothes or expensive purses....I have plenty of those.  I also have to budget now.....I'm fortunate that money isn't tight, but I can't spend willy-nilly and I don't really want to, the trade-off is better and that's being able to do my own thing.

I'm hoping to find an audience for my retirement ramblings and promise to try and keep you entertained with what I post.

For those that don't know....I've been married to my spouse for 27 years, we have an almost 19 year old son who lives with us while attending our local community college and working part time at a local restaurant.  He's also an amateur film-maker and you can find his production company's You Tube channel HERE.

If you do know me, you'll know I'm extremely organized, bordering on OCD, creative, an idea gal and my passions are scrapbooking, crafts, home decorating, gardening, books and movies in no particular order.....most of which I will be sharing at one time or another with you.

I'm going into my fifth week of not working and it's going swimmingly.......my days go by fast.  I either have projects around the house, that may or may not include house cleaning, homework for the business class I'm taking at our local community college (yes, I'm going to the same school as our son, but not the same class and not at the same time.....he'd die), working out at the gym, getting together with friends for outings and right now, working on getting the yard ready for winter.

Here's a photo of me and two of my dearest friends.  I've known these ladies since I was 20 years old....that's 37 years of friendship and I'm so glad that we were able to get together for lunch at a favorite local restaurant when one of them was in town for a visit.

Last week my goal was to work in my craft room, but the only thing I got done was put together supplies for a crop I was going to Friday night....and now, that stuff is on the floor of the room ready to be put away....oy vey.......I

This week I have to get our family room ready for the new sofa and oversized chair and ottoman that is coming in a couple of weeks......so.....can't sit still Sally that I am....I started Sunday evening at 8:00pm....within an hour, I had ran my husband out of the room to our bedroom to watch his football game and I was deep into re-arranging.

I've been wanting to do something completely different with the two IKEA Expedit bookshelves I use in the room AND I'm tired of having the sofa pushed up against the wall, so I'm trying something different.  I've turned them on their long side an placed them next to each other on the wall that will be behind the sofa.

As you can see, I've done a lot of scrapbooks.

This brown sectional is leaving.....YAY!  We've had it four years and within six months I hated it, but we had just bought it so I had to live with it.  I knew it was time when we were having to put plywood boards under the cushions because sitting on it was hurting my back.  It will be perfect in my sister's finished basement for my niece and her friends to hang out on.  I had my son and one of his friends take the chaise lounge piece of the sectional out to the garage so that I could move the rest of the sectional forward so I would have enough room for the IKEA shelves.   THAT was a lot of work....and of course, since I was moving them, I got the cleaning supplies out and cleaned them too.....

One last thing to share......is this pillow stinking adorable or what?  It was a retirement gift from my Aunt who has such great taste in things.  It's needlepoint and I love it.

Have a great week!