Today's Spotlight On: Christmas 2009

Here's some great pictures of my Christmas trees and other holiday decor!

My Victorian Tree

Misc Decor:

Christmas Tree #2

Outside Decor:

Today's Spotlight On: Happy Birthday Wishes!

My birthday is actually tomorrow, October 21, but here's a shout out and a 'Happy Birthday' to anyone else celebrating a birthday this week, or even this month!!!!  October is a great month for birthdays, in my opinion!

Also celebrating a birthday lately is my niece, who turned 3 years old on October 16. Here is a picture of her doll cake that my mom made:

My mom took cake decorating classes with her own mother, for fun, when she was a young woman attending college and ever since then she was hooked. She made all of the birthday, christening , baby shower, wedding  shower, First Communion and baptism cakes for our family, as well as for some of my cousins and other relatives. For a while when I was young, she even made wedding cakes. My younger sisters and my step-sister have all caught the cake decorating "bug" from my mom and have experienced the delight of making cakes for their own children's parties. Cake decorating is one crafty thing that I do not do. I have made one or two decorated cakes in my life, but since I don't have children, there doesn't seem to ever be much need for me to make cakes like this.  My sister made the birthday cakes the last two years, but this year, my mom wanted her only grand-daughter to have a doll cake and she wanted to make it herself. She made a doll cake for all of us girls at least once!















Here's my niece and my nephew waiting for the cake to be cut!

Mmmm!

Today's Spotlight On: Great Gizmos

This pottery-looking jar is a garlic pot. It was a Christmas gift, so I don't know where it came from, but it's very handy, especially if you have a lot of garlic around, which I normally do. Not for vampires, mind....I just like garlic. I usually get home-grown garlic from my father, who grows it in his garden. It keeps very well for a long time, if you store it correctly. Garlic does not need to be refrigerated, but it does need to be kept in a dark, dry place with some air flow, which is exactly what this garlic pot does. There are air holes to let air in, but it's dry and dark inside with the lid on. I keep it on my countertop and it looks very pretty as well as functional! Brilliance!!!!

Meet Butter Girl.........I bought her last year at Bed, Bath & Beyond. At last, I thought, an easy way to dispense butter for corn on the cob without making a total mess!! So, here she is, with her smiling face and head attached. Pull off the top of her head, and lo and behold! Butter!

The butter is loaded from the bottom (1/2 a stick of butter fits inside) and as more butter is needed, just a small push of this plunger thingy makes more butter come out the top. Ingenious!

How did I ever survive without the miracle of Butter Girl? Surely she jests, you might think to yourself, but I assure you, I am not. Isn't she just darling? (There is, as a matter of fact, a Butter Boy also, for those more inclined to a masculine butter dispenser. He is blue, naturally.) How can you not like her? She's pink. She has bangs and a bow and an apron!!!

Today's Spotlight On: 29 Year Old Cold Case Solved!

To get the full background of this story, click here. The reason for my interest in this particular case is because it occurred in my hometown, less than a mile from my parent's home, in 1980 when I was ten years old.

The events of that late summer I have never forgotten and over the 29 years that has ensued, there were times when I thought about it from time to time. Something would remind me of it, and I would recall it vividly and would always wonder; who had done his crime? Where was this person now? And most of all, would any of us ever find out what happened to these two young people?

I cannot help but feel a great deal of sympathy to the families of the two young people who were murdered, because I can't imagine how painful it must be to not know, to wonder.....when even I, a complete stranger who didn't even personally know them, still remember it so much. How much more agonizing it must be to those who loved them.

Even at 10 years old, I could not escape the knowledge of what had happened then. It had occurred so close to my home, in a place that was so familiar to me, and very close to the elementary school where just two months earlier I had finished the fourth grade. There was no way that you could not know about it. It was everywhere; in the news, the TV, on the lips of everyone. The police cars all over the town and air searches by helicopters could not be ignored as they passed over our house. Some of the murdered girls' clothing was found along the highway that passed in front of our house. Nobody could talk about anything else.

Jefferson County then was very rural; and in a way it still is, although it is much more populated now and there are less dairy farms and more houses than there was in my youth. Concord was, and still is, an unincorporated little blurb in the road. It consisted of, in short; one street, a town hall, a bar, a church, and an elementary school. A few houses along Concord Center Road terminated at the Concord House and adjacent campgrounds, past which there was nothing else but woods and farm fields. The Concord House was a former slaughterhouse, turned into a large, rustic dance hall. My parents' home was only a mile from it. I attended many dances at the Concord House myself when I was older, and perhaps a half a dozen wedding receptions as well. What had happened there was never far from anyone's mind when we would go there. I never liked to go out into the vast, dark and mostly un-lighted parking lot by myself. I don't think most of us liked to do so, and parents were always sure to warn us about the dangers of it.

"Don't go out into the parking lot by yourselves and even if you are with someone, be careful. You all know what happened out there to those other kids." was what they would say to us in cautionary tones. At age 14, and attending one of the frequent Snowmobile Club dances, myself and a friend would warily venture outside occasionally so we could talk to boys un-observed by adults. We never strayed too far from the lighted area by the numerous doors both in front and on the sides of the large building. When I was there for wedding receptions even years later, if I had to run out to my car for any reason, I still loathed to go alone, even as an adult.

When the two young people were found to be missing, the largest manhunt in the county failed to find them. Everyone feared the worst, especially when weeks went by and nothing was found. It wasn't until almost 3 months later their remains were found, at the edge of some woods and a cornfield on Hustisford Road. I remembered feeling a nasty shock about that, and an eerie chill. I had started the fifth grade that September and rode a school bus to Watertown every day. Our school bus always took Hustisford Road and we passed by that cornfield and woods every day. I remember gazing out the bus windows at those same fields as we passed; never suspecting that the murdered teens were lying there, undiscovered, for another month. There are houses there now. I don't live in the area anymore and have little occasion to pass by Hustisford Road, but whenever I have, I always remember that's where they found them and I always wonder if the people who built their house there know about it. It seems a morbid thought, but one I cannot help but remember. Like I have said; it was something that I never forgot and I know I was not the only one either. In these small rural towns, you don't expect things like that to happen and when it does, I think it's such a shock to the system that it can never lose it's vividness for those who lived there, even 29 years later.

I recall that the TV show Unsolved Mysteries featured the case sometime in the late 80s, early 90s. I believe I was out of high school or almost out of high school, and I remember watching it on TV and that my boyfriend's mother taped the segment on her VCR. We all wondered if any new information that could solve the case would come of it, but apparently, if it did generate any leads, I never heard about them. Again, there was almost as much discussion of the murders in town after the TV airing as when it had happened. Most people had felt at the time, and still felt 9 years later, that the murderer was not a local, long-term resident and that he (it was always assumed it was a man, perhaps more than one man) had probably left the area soon after. Even though this was the thought, nobody could be sure, of course, which is why people always were on their guard at the Concord House, and other places like it, even though it was highly unlikely the perpretrator would strike again at the exact same place. "But", as we often remarked to each other, "you never know and it doesn't hurt to be careful".

Ironically, perhaps, I had just mentioned the case to E only a few weeks ago. An acquaintance had mentioned to E that he knew the current owners of a place called the Concord House in Jefferson County, and he thought that he might be able to set up a show there for E's band, even if it was quite some distance from the Milwaukee area and their usual gig locations. E said he was very familiar with the place and had heard of it, through me, of course. The Concord House still has wedding receptions, dances and bands play there, of course. When E mentioned this to me, I exclaimed in surprise. I asked him if I had ever told him about the murders there.

It had become the stuff of grotesque and dark urban legend in the last 29 years, even though we all knew it was a true legend. He said he had recalled me mentioning it once when we drove past it after a visit to my mother's house (she still lives in Concord), but apparently I had never given him the full account of it. After I had done so, I said aloud for the hundreth time, "I wonder if they will ever solve that case!"

Today's Spotlight On: 2009 Summer Solstice Garden Tour

At the end of June, E and I purchased some tickets to attend the Summer Solstice Garden Tour that was in our area. The sales of the tickets went to benefit the Waukesha Symphony Orchestra. There were about 9 houses on the Garden Tour. Here are a few pictures I took:

This was a cute walkway along the side of one house; both sides filled with hosta. I liked how they had urn planters with colorful impatiens set amongst the hosta plants for interest.

E was kind enough to pose in this picture at the end of the walkway. The building behind him

was a cute garden house in the back yard. Apparently, it's use was for storing lawn and garden implements and other storage, but it looked nice enough to be used as a cottage or guest house.

Another view of the garden house and also the pretty wrought iron arbor that led to the back yard. I wish I had taken more pictures of it, but the home owners were there and I wasn't sure if they would be ok with folks photographing their yard in a crazy fashion!

They had beautiful deck with gorgeous outdoor furniture, a koi pond, a frog pond and many fountains and arbors and decorative statues. I was very envious!!

Today's Spotlight On: Flowers, Again!

I just had to spotlight some of my flowers, since they are all growing insanely right now!
Above: Virginia Bluebells

Below: Old-fashioned beeding hearts
Below: This is my sun garden, which has tripled in size in just a couple of weeks! I can hardly believe this was a new garden last year. My bee balm is almost chest high on me! I've never seen bee balm so tall before. The lilies in front are about ready to bloom.

Above: Hosta

Below: an updated pic of one of my containers. This was taken only a week or so ago, but already the plants are even fuller now than in this picture.

Below:

Ghost Fern

Below: My peonies bloomed early

Below: Viburnum "Snowball", bloomed at end of May . One of my favorite plants.

An open peony!

Today's Spotlight On: More Flowers!

As promised, here is a closer picture of one of my containers I planted recently. Purple coleus, licorice plant "White Licorice", sweet potato vine "Lime", blue lobelia, and two kinds of violas. The white viola is called "White Babyface", which I think is a funny-cute name!

 I planted two of these containers also. In this one I have the yellow Sunbini, ivy (hedera helix), sweet potato vine "Lime", and yellow snapdragons "Lemon Chiffon".  

Tulips!

Today's Spotlight On: Flowers!

It seems like spring has finally arrived here in Wisconsin. Though it's been rainy and somewhat cool, I think we're in for some nicer weather in the near future. Here's some photos of some of my flower gardens.

I also took a couple of new pictures of the bouquet that E bought me for our anniversary on April 27, since 

the pink Stargazer lilies are opening up now and look beautiful! 

This was my new sun garden last year. This year it's doing wonderfully already. There's a random pink tulip and a white hyacinth in there, which I keep telling myself to mark 

where they are so in the fall I can dig them up and move them elsewhere, but I keep forgetting to do it! My bee balm (monarda) is already taking over!

This is my newest garden. We call it the corner garden. Last year this was just a big patch of weedy grass with an odd cement slab sitting in the middle of it. A friend of ours did some repairs to the porch and removed the cement slab for me and then dug out all the grass so I could make a nice garden here. In the fall I planted a double clematis called "Celtic Skies" and also some tulip and daffodil bulbs in the front. The clematis is doing great, but only some of the tulips came up and none of the daffodils!!! Very disappointing. I have some new perennials planted in here, which are very small yet. In the back is a tall verbascum, called "Southern Charm". I also have gaillardia, green envy coneflowers, white coneflowers, tall phlox in white and some dahlias. I will also be planting some double-decker purple coneflowers (not here yet) and in the front, a border of colorful annuals when the tulips are done.

Our backyard is dull and unexciting and since we don't have a patio yet (or the pergola we'd like to do), I don't do much with it right now. However, I did make a nice little seating area with my Adirondack chairs that my father made for me last year, and a couple of containers of flowers. In the big pot, I have ivy geranium in dark pink and purple, with two kinds of verbena. The small grey pot on the table has coleus, "Pink Chaos" and "Pineapple Surprise". The other pot looks a little raggedy, since it was one that I over-wintered and just brought out recently. It also has geranium ( red) and verbena (purple) in it.

One of my new containers I did last week. I made two of these. The container "recipe" includes yellow snapdragon 'Lemon Chiffon', sweet potato vine 'Lime', yellow Sunbini, and ivy (hedera helix).

There is the second 

container and then a small bowl-shaped pot that I also planted. 

I'll try to get more close-up pictures in the future. The bowl pot also has sweet potato vine 'Lime', a dark purple coleus whose name I've forgotten(sorry), blue lobelia, licorice plant 'white licorice' and two kinds of violas, in white and purple.

On the table on the porch I have a "Black Devil" pansy (viola cornuta 'Black Devil').

I like to get plants that have unusual names as well as how they look!

Today's Spotlight On: Happy Easter!

For those who celebrate, let me wish you all a blessed Easter!

Like many people, E and I spend Easter with our families. This year, like most, we went to his aunt's house for the Easter get-together. I was in charge of bringing a dessert, so I made one of my favorite desserts, a Trifle.  I make my own home-made pound cake and home-made sweet custard when I make a Trifle, because it always tastes better with home-made, in my humble opinion.  Here's a picture of my finished Trifle.

I also decided to make some cupcakes for those who might not be a fan of mixed berries, pound cake, sweet custard and whipped cream (although who wouldn't be a fan is incomprehensible!!!) I made strawberry cupcakes with strawberry meringue buttercream frosting. I used my Pampered Chef Easy Accent Decorator to make the frosting all pretty and fancy, and then made these fun little spring-like picks to put in the tops.

    

I used different colors of  card stock and a 1 1/4 inch circle punch and a flower shaped punch to punch out shapes in the card stock.Then I stamped images on each one using complimentary stamp ink colors with different images from some of my favorite stamp sets. I glued toothpicks to them and stuck them in the top of each cupcake. It turned out really cute and everyone thought I was incredibly clever! I even saved the picks so that I can re-use them again.

Today's Spotlight On: Happy Vernal Equinox!

I came across these delightful Easter decorations on Martha Stewart's website.

For directions on making these doily baskets, visit here.
Click on the Entertaining tab, then the Easter Party tab and view the gallery for Easter decorating tips.

This clover filled basket with a chocolate bunny in the middle would make a delectable and stunning table centerpiece.

Lovely!!!!