About Me

Hello! I am a wife and a mother of three nearly grown sons. I love to read, cook, and spend time on the computer reading blogs, participating in my email lists, designing T-shirts, and now, making squidoo lenses!

We love living in the beautiful Pacific Northwest.

Navy Nukes

Regardless of how I feel about the war in Iraq, I believe in supporting our troops. They have made a commitment to protect us and our country. I've had many family members in the Navy including my father-in-law, who was a Pearl Harbor survivor. My hu...

Making Vinegar from Honey

The information here is from a 1905 book called "The Production of Vinegar from Honey." There was a time when people were accustomed to the task of making vinegar for the household, but today it is a lost art. Vinegar was kept on hand as a food item...

Comfort Food from Mom's Kitchen

I love to read cook books and I love to try new recipes. My family sometimes wishes I would stay with the tried and true, but now and then I discover a dish that becomes a new family favorite. That's how we came to love King Ranch Chicken and Creamy...

Gourmet Bouquets

I made this gourmet bouquet for a New Year's Eve party. These are always a hit and they are not hard to make. This is a fairly basic one. If you learn some fancy garnishes you can put those in your bouquet too. You are limited only by your imaginatio...

T-shirts and Fairy Art

This lens is about t-shirts and art. I love the art work from the Golden Age of Illustration which lasted from the 1880s until WWII. New rendering techniques had become available and artists of the day produced rich, lush, wonderful creations. Maxfi...

Best Ever Halloween Trick or Treat Bags

Halloween has always been a fun time at our house. When the kids were small, my husband would take them around the neighborhood while I stayed home and handed out candy. In our old neighborhood it would not be unusual to have 100 trick or treaters co...

Liberty Enlightening the World

The statue of Liberty Enlightening the World is an icon, a cliche, a beloved landmark. She is a work of art. She is colossal statuary. She is recognizable worldwide. She is a beacon, a light in the darkness, and a symbol of freedom. She is inspiring...

Do You Remember Oscar's Drive-In?

In 1941 Foodmaker Co. opened a drive-in restaurant called Topsy's in San Diego. The drive-in restaurant concept with car hop service really caught on over the next several years. The San Diego climate with its many days of sunshine was the perfect pl...

Soup Glorious Soup!

Soup can be an elegant work of art or it can be a "refrigerator cleaner" made from leftovers. Either way, soups are nutritious and comforting fare. On a cold, rainy day there is nothing better than coming home to a steaming pot of soup. When you feel...

A Little Book for a Little Cook

I love this charming little recipe book from 1905. It is really an ad for Pillsbury Flour but it is very cute with delightful illustrations. Very much different from the advertising of today. If you read to the end you will see a poem describing the...

Eating Locally

Did you know that the ingredients in an average North American meal have traveled about 1500 miles to get to your table? In this day of extremely high oil prices maybe we need to think about how much gasoline could be saved if we made an effort to ea...

Food Storage Recipes

Doing some food storage makes sense don't you think? There are lots of reasons to have extra food on hand. Natural disaster, terrorist attack, loss of work due to injury or layoff, and steeply rising food prices. The high price of gas is a contributi...