Is It Almost Fall?

Since some of you may not be able to watch early morning TV I will try to help you keep up to date on fashion news. I was able to catch a very interesting segment on one of the morning shows last week. The guest, from a well known fashion magazine, showed how to wear a flora sundress right into fall by adding a black wrap sweater, black opaque tights and black shoes. Also white jeans from summer paired with black boots and a jacket makes a nice fall outfit. Apparently even Bermuda shorts can be wore into the fall when paired with high heels and your boyfriend jacket. That same boyfriend jacket can also be worn with a white shirt and black slacks. (I must have missed the summer connection of this transition. It must have been the white shirt. Perhaps it was worn as a beach cover.) Even a ruffled sleeveless shirt can be paired with a beaded skirt and short sweater for evening.

(This fall fashion report should not be confused with my report from last September . Last September there was no mention of a boy friend jacket.)

However, if you live in the South you may want to add a black LINEN jacket or my favorite fall outfit, brown linen - slacks and shirt. I call it a "Southern Solution". Do not wear linen in December. Linen is just tacky on Christmas day. For Christmas just wear that white beach cover with the sleeved rolled up, your black slacks, black heels, and maybe a red necklace unless the air in turned down to sixty. Then you could add a red scarf. You may be able to add the boyfriend jacket in January.

Just trying to do my part!

Ice Cream Cone Cookies

In the kitchen at Still Waters pastry Chef Laurie has been testing this Kitchen Aid Mixer ...


................. a much loved ( and longed for) graduation gift.


These cute cookies were destined for the office.


For a friend's ( a student summer worker) last day at work.

Ice cream cone cookies. Too cute.


And good! They didn't all make it to the office.

Veggies and Pasta and Cake!..... Oh MY!

Still Waters currently has two pseudo chefs in residence.


(This is not them. This is the happy Inn keeper and a favorite guest.)


The kitchen staff had an opportunity yesterday to create a unique celebration for a very special birthday girl.


Our pasty chef (who has the very nice new Kitchen Aid Mixer) whipped up THE MOST WONDERFUL, light, moist birthday cake piled high with the creamiest butter cream frosting ever.


Our chef in training then added the final decorations.

Then added some more. ................................And then just a little more.


The candles were arranged just so.................

...........................................so the birthday girl would be able to blow them out with one breath.


The pastry chef checks out the final product and obviously approves of the efforts of this chef in training.

Since this Birthday celebrant requested pasta................................. our pseudo chefs decided to chop and slice and dice in the very best Natalie Dupree fashion............................ and create a Pasta Bar.


Each guest filled their pasta dish with the veggies of their choice............


.......which the pseudo chefs sauteed.................. cooked and added the protein of choice................


.............then the chosen sauce............ and the chosen pasta. And finally topped with a hand full of freshly grated Parmesan cheese.


The guest approved........................... the birthday girl said ummmmm.....TASTY!!!


Some guests tried several variations. Especially one guest who happened not to be pictured.
The winning combination may have been roasted red pepper sauce over bow tie pasta with mushrooms, caramelized onion,bacon, shrimp and scallops ................... or was it the chicken and bacon Alfredo fettuccine?


Next time maybe we'll have plenty of fresh herbs to add to the mix.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LESLIE!!! We all love you and are very happy you were born.

WHAT FUN !!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LESLIE!!!!!

TODAY IS YOUR BIRTHDAY.................................

WE'RE HAVING A PAR- TEE!!!!

Can't wait to see you and your bronzed family later today. Happy birthday! I Love you Les.

The Boys of Summer (2) ......The Series

Ice cream, bubbles, Popsicles, and playing in the rain.....that's summer.

The Boys of Summer......The Series

Spending a July afternoon on the screened porch with two ceiling fans and a new water table .... watching boys play..............priceless!

That Bear!

Hope he'll be potty trained soon.

Just call me a Shred Head

Another attempt in my never ending quest to take better care of myself. I need more ENDURANCE! I need to be STRONGER! I want to be able to keep up with the little people in my life.

So, when one of my blog "friends" decided to join a " friend" of hers, Vicki, who was doing the Thirty Day Shred I followed her link.... found a new "friend" and bought the Shred.

In case you haven't heard of The Shred, it is an exercise DVD by Jillian Michaels, the she-devil trainer on The Biggest Looser TV show. She regularly pushes grown men until they cry. She is tuff stuff. Each of the three levels is more difficult that the previous.

I was able to do "most" of level one. The first few mornings after starting level one I awoke with what I thought was a severe cramp in each of my limbs............... Apparently level one is all about arms and legs. I managed to push through and was able to forgot the pain after a week or so. I did a little more every day and suffered a little less each morning.

I followed my new "friend" Vicki's progress online as she told of losing inches and being so energized. So I kept going, losing nothing. But I could feel a difference in my energy level.

After encouragement from the on-liners I moved on to level two........ which was a killer for me. I was great on the warm ups. And the cool downs are always my favs. But all of the in between moves were too much. At first my body just refused to do the jumping jacks and the walking planks.......... I may have some kind of processing problem ....... while I was watching Jillian and thought I understood what she was asking me to do............. the information could not seem to translate into a movement. My heart was willing but my other parts would not move. We lay on the floor in an immovable mass thinking really bad thoughts about Jillian. Her outfit was not even cute and her hair.....PLEASE! She probably doesn't even have friends. But after several tries I managed to do a few moves and finally managed to get through most of the moves following the beginners' path.

After reading several comments that stated that level three was actually easier than level two, I limped on to level three and found that it was more "do-able" for me, but surely not easy. At first major muscle groups were sore but as time went on I developed rare diseases. First I hurt around my ribs and all around my back. I thought I must have shingles because I had heard how painful they were and I. Was. In. Pain. No shingle blisters appeared and soon I noticed different pains. My waist hurt. How can your waist hurt? I decided I must be allergic to the detergent I was using because my skin hurt. Or maybe I was allergic to my exercise mat. And whatever is just under my skin hurt. Then the most extreme pain moved to smaller muscles. While the glutenous maximust hurt the minimust glutenous hurt also. You know the smaller muscles under the glutes.

Some of my pains ended up being something else. A real illness that knocked me off my regiment for almost two weeks............... but now I am back on board doing jumping jacks AND planks. Jillian is back yelling at me " Do. Not. Stop!...If a four hundred pound man can do this so can you!"
As my friend Vicky said, I wanted to climb through my lap top and slap her silly.