Richard Scarry not scary!

 I love Richard Scarry!!! This well loved author/ illustrator was born right here in Boston.  He was a business school drop out who decided to do things his own way after the war. He was a veteran as well. He had a real love for details. He put so much detail into every little picture. His books entertained me for hours as a child.  There was always something I didn't notice before. He got his big break with Busy Town through another love of mine, Golden Books and the rest was history.  I swear, even today, if I flip through one of his books, I can't help but smile.

 Top picture is from his book on color. Red and yellow makes jack-o-lantern.

 Page about the changes in the seasons.

This one is a bit tattered but is all about the months. Love the rocket cat.

Above, I have posted another love of mine, the Junior Deluxe Editions. These books are still very much sought after today. They are from the late fifties and early sixties.  They were much like the Readers Digest Hard Cover Library, but for children. The illustrations are so whimsical. Lots of faeries, brownies and beautiful black and white prints of children in Victorian clothing. I will be hanging onto these classics.

This talk of books is making me hungry for a little comfort food. Nothing fancy. Take some cubed, turkey ham and a chopped onion and fry it with a little olive oil.

Mix in a four eggs and a quarter cup of milk that has been mixed. Stir it around until cooked, be careful to not let the eggs get too dry.

 Throw it all on a toasted roll with some sliced cheese. I like sliced, sandwich, Muenster cheese because the hot eggs melt it, so it is nice and gooey. I love gooey, not sticky or runny, just gooey. Yep, Western Sandwiches are the perfect, easy, brunchy comfort food. Sorry, the picture is blurry because I was too impatient to let the camera focus. I was really hungry. Have a good day!!!

Sort of out and about.

Hi there! I am really enjoying this beautiful New England Fall.  This weekend would have been a perfect time to pick apples. However, I was reminded about last years fiasco. I spent several hours at a local orchard with the kids.  There were long waits between the little train rides to take us to the designated picking areas. The available picking location we were dropped at, was basically picked clean of apples. There were plenty of cores on the ground, which attracted tons of bees. The kids were crying because they only had hard, sour granny smith type apples to choose from. The train did finally come around and brought us to the barn. There was no getting out of it, you had to walk through there to pay for the apples. I could see the baked goods as we entered and knew I was going to be in trouble. First, I ended up buying the Mackintosh apples. To me, they are the most versatile apple because you can eat them plain or cook with them. However, then the kids saw the cookies and candy.Five chocolate chip cookies cost eight dollars. Crazy, it was not like they were organic or even made at the farm.  I settled on buying some M&Ms. The whole thing cost about seventy bucks. I realized, in reality,I paid the farm, to force my children to do slave labor with dangerous bees in the hot sun.  This year, I will buy a big bag of M&Ms and go hang out a a park and look at the foliage. I will let you know how it goes.

 Being the hypocrite I am, I did stop at a farm stand because I needed to get some seasonal decorations. I came across cake pops. They  tasted as if they needed about ten more minutes in the oven. A little doughy. I am going to make my own with this mold set that I bought. If they come out pretty I will post them. I will let you in on a secret. I plan to use brownie batter with chocolate chips. Why play games with drippy cake batter? I even thought of baking the brownies in a pan and rolling them into balls without using the silly molds. Maybe I am missing the point.

Indian corn.......reminds me of being a little kid and having the squirrels eat it off the front door of our home.  I am wondering if I popped it in oil, could I eat it?  I think it is only ornamental. Something to look into.

My friend Heather always has the prettiest Fall displays for her home. This is just a little corner of her porch. I love the white pumpkin.

On a different note, I went to an English sports car show on Sunday. It was a nice day and I saw the crowds and decided to pop in.  Wow! The vintage English motor cars were adorable and cool. I didn't realize how much I needed one until I started snooping around.

This old beauty had a nice display in front. The cute English Teddy Bears having their tea and biscuits. Several of the cars had a special rack on the back for a picnic hamper.  I could imagine enjoying a romantic lunch on the English countryside with James Bond or better yet, Doctor Who.

This little white one would be perfect for a day at the beach.

 Sporty stuff. I kept looking under the hood with the other car enthusiasts. I wondered to myself if they knew what they were looking at. Maybe they saw the crowd and dropped in like I did.

 This car below reminded me of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.  The flying car from the classic Disney movie starring Dick Van Dyke. You can see some guys hand in the picture.  He is telling me something technical about the car...I wish I knew what he was talking about.

Scrapbookin'

These chilly, late nights are perfect for a little scrapbooking.  Who doesn't love these fun fall cut outs?  There are so many hundreds of different kinds of scrapbooking supplies.  One has to be careful.  They are very expensive.  My motto is, "Don't buy them if you don't already have a project in mind and a time set up to finish it." 

Love the little rake. I am confused by the puffy leave bags. It might be hard to close the album. I am sure they will flatten out.

 The sticker kind are the best because you don't have to worry about them shifting around.

 I found some old wedding pictures in a drawer and decided I would breath some new life into them with some scrapbooking magic. My albums are always out and ready to be looked at. The kids really enjoy looking at them or the funny comments I might write. With this digital age it is still nice to have a hands on photo album to flip through. I also feel like I can check out my fun sticker collection. Best of both worlds.

 There are so many fun things to do with the paper as well. The seasonal variety packs are awesome for crafts. I like to do simple, Victorian paper cone ornaments and fill with candy at Christmas, but you can do it for any occasion.

Below you see The Kit and Chick logo Tee Shirts. Are they cute or what. They are simple and to the point without being wordy. You can't go wrong with pink and black. Have a super Friday!!!!!!!!!!!

Sweater Weather

Happy, officially, Fall!!!!

 I love this time of the year! There is so much excitement in the air .Everything starts up again. New opportunities to make new friends and learn new things. My wedding anniversary is September 10th,  My hubby got me these gorgeous roses. They smell heavenly!
There was a first frost this morning, I am not sure if I am ready to say goodbye to summer. I did decided it was time to pull out some fashionable boots and put the flip flops away. I was also happy to pull out the comfy fall sweaters. They just make you feel all safe and cozy. However, the weather can still spike up to eighty degrees in the afternoon. That is a killer. Button up sweaters that are able to be opened or taken off are best for the Boston, September weather. I got pneumonia twice when I was a teen because of bad sweater decisions. Sweating and then getting chilled throws the body into a tizzy. So, it is best to wear sweaters with caution..........or it may cost you your health.

 Fall is also a good time to pull out the old crock pot.  During the Spring and Summer it sits on the counter and collects many assorted food items.  There was rice, ice tea packets, candy, that I was hiding from the kids and forgot where I put it, almonds, rice, some elastic bands and a shopping list.   I guess the crockpot was a receptacle to throw all the stuff that was on the counter, for a quick clean up. Anyway, she was cleaned out and I decided to make this seasons first chili. I used couple kinds of beans, a jar of salsa, hamburger, spices and half a box of whole wheat ziti to make it a little more hearty. It was also an incentive to get my little ones to eat it. They hate the bean aspect of chili.

Here is the final product. Of course, in reality, it was completely smothered with cheese. I found that is a great way to hide the beans from the whiny little guys. A big hunk of garlic bread tops it off for a hearty,  autumn meal. I posted this funny Spongebob sweater song because I agree with it's message. lol.

Mary's Salsa

 Thanks to Mary, a very talented lady who made salsa from her garden. She had a very successful tomato crop this year. Thanks so much for sharing.

                  Beautiful, so jealous!

I hope she sends me a jar!!!!!

Nice work! This would have taken me a week.  She said it took a couple of hours.  She is a pro.

Lunch Box Love

 Yesterday, was a scorcher...actually,  it was just sticky and muggy. We took a walk to the park but stopped into the little corner store to get slush. Such a simple recipe, ice and flavoring but it really does the trick on a hot day.  However, I prefer to eat it with a little wooden spoon rather than the the straw/spoon. Just thought I would give a shout out to Richie and his (so much cheaper than ice cream not to mention less fattening), Italian Ice.

 Fall is just around the corner and I decided to share some neat back to school items. My husband has a huge lunch box collection from the seventies and eighties. I picked out a couple that I thought were the best. Who didn't love the Partridge Family? Actually, I preferred the Brady Bunch. It was more entertaining for kids.

 Then of course we have KISS. They were amazing. The face make up was a stroke of genius. Just think of it, with the dubbing technology most performers use in concert these days, band members wouldn't need to show up. They could have body doubles. Really who would know. My hubby saw them a couple years ago and said they looked great.  One must admit, most folks gets a little bummed when they see their idols aging. It is a reminder that we are aging as well. Everyone should have the option to wear clown make up.

                                       I actually used this Bee Gees one in high school as a joke...sort of.  Made me want to throw an old banana in there and leave it in the car over night or longer. I can still smell that stale lunch box smell after neglecting to clean it out after a week of school vacation. Little kids(as well as teens) and perishable foods is a bad combo. I think this is the main reason you rarely find the thermos in vintage lunch boxes. I think they just became too moldy to salvage and it was easier to bring a dime for chocolate milk from the cafeteria.

 Awwwww, retro Candy Land. This one is so sweet. What a bummer it would be to find a squished tuna sandwich and an apple. It should be filled with jelly beans and candy canes.

This little green lunch box is a little fisher price toy, I believe from the late fifties. It was amazing to find it with the little thermos inside. Then finally, we have the classic plaid thermos. I wish we had the plaid lunch box that went with it.  People have really improved upon the school lunch concept. I imagine paper sacks sales are way down. They have so many creative solutions with insulated bags  to adorable Bento Boxes.  Hopefully, it will encourage American kids to develop better eating habits for the future.

Summer Fun

 I am pleased to say we have been very busy this summer, enjoying life and it's simple pleasures and everything summer has to offer. I am sorry I have been unable to focus on blogging but there is only so much beautiful weather before the long New England cold arrives. Above, you will see a really cool sand sculpture. It was on Onset Beach, Onset MA. I believe it might be left from the movie Steve Carell was filming there. The whole Onset Villiage was transformed into a really fun, tacky beach town with fake storefronts bearing inflatables for swimming. I wish it stayed that way but the movie sets disappeared as quickly as they arrived.

Here is a castle my boys made. The little bridge was created by weaving seaweed. So much integrity. The sea swallowed it up in a mater of minutes. The kids said seeing it destroyed was the best part.

 Here was a movie truck from the film being made. It was so exciting to see the stars in real life. The movie production part seemed long and tedious. I guess acting is hard work. Who knew?

 Here is a cute praying mantis, actually it was quite ferocious not to mention big. Wouldn't want to find that in my car while driving....eeek!.

 Here are a few of my cherubs frolicking at the beach in Marshfield, MA. We really lucked out with beautiful weather by day, crazy thunderstorms by night. The perfect combination of fun and excitement.

 Cute baby foot prints. My baby is almost two and totally loving the beach.

 Below we see one of the boys body surfing. They bought boards but the ended up not being used. The kids said they couldn't go as fast with them. It was a great sea weed free day.

 This was a visit into Boston to see the Tall Ships. They had so many cool and beautiful boats. We got to climb aboard one from Canada. It was so impressive, not to mention clean. It was a beautiful day for an activity like this. It was neat to see people from all over the world gathered here for the this event. Security was extremely tight though,. I guess that was encouraging, eliminating any chances for danger to occur.

 Here is a beautifully colorful picture of friends listening to the sailor tour guide.

                                                              Some sort of bomb holder.

 Here were the flags in the entrance to the port that leads to the cruise ships. I wish I was going somewhere exotic.

                                                                     Patriotic Blythe. Love her!!!

Here were some cute little candles filled with colored rice that the kids made. They were the perfect thing for the picnic table after a long day at the beach.