Trip to Roanoke

Since Dan had class in Roanoke over the weekend Tim and I drove up to spend Saturday with Sarah. We left around 6:45 a.m. to cloudy skies but thank goodness the skies cleared and it was a pretty day to drive. Chilly and windy though.

We made it to Sarah's motel and waited on her to come down. I had searched the Internet for shops, restaurants, etc. ahead of time. Luckily I found an estate sale on Craigslist only 2.7 miles from the motel so we went to it first. We just don't have many sales around here so I was so happy to get to go to an estate sale and was so hoping it was a good one. We found it easily and from the outside the house looked great. We walked in through a gorgeous old front door. As soon as I walked in the living room I spotted a set of white dishes. Now, all the sets of dishes I have seen at estate sales around here have always been priced very high. I picked up a creamer first and turned it over. Sure enough it said Royal Staffordshire Heirloom Meakin Ironstone. Cha-ching! I picked up a saucer and it was the same thing so I looked for a price. I could not believe the price when I saw it. I literally asked the person if the price was for all of it. Eight plates, five dessert plates, eight saucers, seven cups, seven bowls, a platter, a serving bowl, creamer and sugar bowl for $15! I couldn't believe my luck! I also spotted a pretty side table but it was priced $75. The person working the estate sale said I could make an offer on it. So, we continued looking through the house. There really wasn't much left. We walked around to the garage and looked at a few more items. When we went back in the house they were almost finished wrapping up the dishes and Sarah asked if they would take $50 for the table and they accepted. Yeah! He told us the table was eighty five years old. I believed him because I am gullible. ;)

After we left with our treasures (my treasures) we went downtown Roanoke to the Habitat Restore. I had found it via a website too. It was in an old building near the railroad tracks. It was interesting to walk through the old building but there wasn't anything we were interested in. There were some interesting items that reminded me to shop at a thrift store for our $5 gifts Chinese Christmas gifts next year.

Even though it was only 11:30 a.m. at this point we were hungry so we went for lunch. It pays to do your research when looking for a place to eat because when I saw the Habitat Restore on the website it also listed nearby restaurants. Lets just say if I hadn't googled it and read a couple of links we would have entered a spot that folks living an "alternative" lifestyle hang out. Haha, that would have been a hoot.

So, to  Macado's we went. I picked Dan's favorite sandwich~the Babe Ruth. Sarah had the Betty Boop and Tim had a classic burger. All were delicious and we left stuffed.

We back tracked a bit and found the The Roanoke Antique Mall which I had found online also. Personally I could spend hours looking through places like this. We meandered through half of it and Sarah baled out to sit. She had a slight headache so she had a cup of coffee. Tim and I went through a couple more rows and then Tim went to sit with Sarah while I covered the rest. It had 120 vendors and I thought most of the prices were reasonable. There were a few things I liked but the only thing we bought was an old milk bottle that said VIRGINIA DAIRY The Home of Better Milk. It was in orange and reminded us of UVA. I also picked up a little white creamer. If we find ourselves in Roanoke again I will definitely go back.

Sarah didn't have to pick Dan up from class until 4:30 p.m. so we found a Barnes and Noble to hang out at for our remaining time in Roanoke. Since it was attached to the mall we went out, found a spot and just sat and talked. Then headed back to the motel for Sarah to pick up her car, said our goodbyes and we headed back home.

Seems like we are greeted with gorgeous sunsets so many of our trips back down I81. This evening was no different.

We listened to Virginia's game against North Carolina on our drive home. It was a great game but the Hoos just couldn't pull it out. They lost by three.

Yesterday I took a few photos of my estate sale finds. I also googled the mark to see what I could find. The best I could find was that the dishes were probably made between 1974-1977 in Stoke, Staffordshire, England. This came from an ebay listing. My creamer and sugar bowl.

Set of dishes awaiting washing. I plan to put them in my dining room hutch.

The 85 year old table. I wiped it down with an oil/vinegar mixture to refresh the wood. I am going to use it as a nightstand on Tim's side of the bed.

I google the milk bottle but couldn't come up with much. It was probably from a Richmond dairy.

Love the orange Virgina!!

Since Dan has over a year left with his MBA program he and Sarah will be traveling to Roanoke every other month so I am sure we'll be back up there to visit some time in the future. Hopefully, next time it will be warmer though.

When Tammy called yesterday morning to tell me the kids were getting ready to go out to play I bundled up, camera in hand and set out to walk to Granny's (Jen's) to watch the kids play. I love that I live just a short trek through the woods on a path. The dogs and I walk this path all the time. Today it was especially beautiful!

Is there anything prettier that white snow against crisp blue skies?

I met this obstacle right before entering Granny's back yard. Hmmm, what to do? I shook as much snow off the branches, hunkered down and went through.

The snow was already melting off the trees because the sun was so strong. It was so pretty falling.

My favorite view from the path...the Pine Mountain range in the distance.

Lucky greeted me at the rock pile.

I walked up on the hill where they were starting out on their sleighs. The views are so pretty up there. This is looking toward South Fork.

Elijah, Cayden and Ean were sleigh riding. It was good sleigh riding snow but they couldn't build a snowman.

Finally Bailee woke up and came out also. Ean and Bailee were more interested in swinging.

I attempted to get a good picture of all four of the kids but to no avail. The sun went behind a cloud but when it came back out they were "blinded" so I counted myself lucky to get this.

This is the third generation of children playing in Granny and Daddy Paul's back yard. I hope it is always this way and the home stays in the family forever.

After awhile the kids were getting tired and were ready to head home. I trekked back out the path. At this point there was so much snow falling from the trees I had to put the hood on from my coat and protect my camera from the falling snow.

My daffodils are just a few weeks away from blooming. Love this reminder that Spring is just around the corner. I am ready. :)

Winter Wonderland

After a relatively mild winter we finally had a significant snow storm yesterday. Luckily, we were able to go to church and it was just starting to change from rain to snow when we came home. Tim parked downtown because the forecast was for 2-6 inches. The first flakes were the huge wet kind. I wish my camera could have captured just how big they were.

In no time it was sticking.

Within thirty minutes the satellite was messed up from the snow sticking to it.

Not to worry though, Tim took care of it.

In just an hour or so everything was covered with a layer of fresh white snow.

It was beautiful but....we were concerned about the power going out. This is what the trees started looking like and we know with this kind of snow the likelihood of a power outage was high.

The snow continued all day getting lighter and tapering off by the time we went to bed. Thankfully our electricity stayed on but I know others' was out including Mom's. We probably had about six to seven inches by the time it stopped. Our power did go off during the night sometime because the clocks were flashing this morning and went off again around nine thirty this morning but came right back on.

Today was gorgeous! Bright blue skies and a beautiful coating of snow over everything. Tim left for work a little later and of course had to walk to the car but the roads were clear so had no problem driving to Pikeville.

Tammy called to tell me they were taking the kids out in Granny's back yard to sleigh ride so I got ready and walked out. Those pictures tomorrow. I had a devil of a time uploading these.

Ice Cream Cake

Last year at Tim's birthday I went to pick him up an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen. He had mentioned one a few weeks before. So, I picked it out and went to pay for it but their credit card machine wasn't working. They wouldn't take a check and of course I didn't have any cash~never do. So much for the surprise ice cream cake.

It's been a year and he still hadn't had ice cream cake so I decided to make one. Yes, make one. I went by this recipe. Friday I made chocolate fudge sauce. I got this recipe from a friend and it is the best recipe I had tried for fudge sauce.

Hot Fudge sauce

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup cocoa

1/4 tsp. salt

1 cup corn syrup

1/4 cup butter

1/2 cup evaporated milk

1 tsp. vanilla

Mix dry ingredients. Stir in wet ingredients. Add butter.

Bring to a boil on medium high heat. Boil for three minutes.

Remove pan from heat and stir in vanilla.

Saturday morning I baked homemade oreos cookies. I really wanted to make things myself. I didn't want to buy oreos and have to scape the middle out because I know myself and I would have eaten all the middles. ;) This recipe was super easy anyway. I used this one.

They were crisp like and oreo but the taste was better actually.

Instead of letting the ice cream set out to melt I just whipped it in my mixer to give it more of a custard texture and make it speadable. This makes ice cream so good. We do this sometimes in the summer when we want a custard.

I started out spreading the vanilla in the bottom of a springform pan followed by the cookie crumbs which I had mixed in some of the chocolate fudge. If I make it again I will definitely thin the fudge sauce first. Then I poured a layer of chocolate fudge. Then I whipped the chocolate ice cream.

This is what it looked like before I spread the chocolate ice cream on top. After spreading the chocolate I put it in the freezer because the bottom later of vanilla was melting quickly.

I let it stay in the freezer for about an hour before spreading another layer of vanilla. Then after a few hours I took it out of the pan and covered it with cool whip. No, I didn't whip my own cream. Maybe next time. I let it set in the freezer overnight.

We ate it the next day after lunch. It was so rich but so delicious!! I'm not sure if it was just like a Dairy Queen cake but it was good enough and was a lot less expensive. :) Plus it was fun to make. If I make another one I will definitely make a smaller one because this made a pretty big cake and it's just Tim and me. Seth did eat a piece yesterday and hopefully he'll come up again today and polish off some more.

We'll have some tonight for Tim's birthday too!

Weekend Full of Snow and Cooking

What a relaxing weekend! I dubbed it Tim's "birthday weekend" since his birthday is Valentine's day. It started out with snow on Friday night. The forecast on weather.com was for less than an inch of slushy snow. We awoke to a decent amount Saturday morning.

It snowed on and off all day. The sun would pop out intermittently. But it was cold and windy. Thank goodness we had planned to stay home all day.

I had already planned to make several things for the weekend so I got a head start by making chocolate fudge sauce and pizza crust Friday evening. Then I started Saturday morning making homemade oreo cookies. I used the fudge sauce and cookies in an ice cream cake for Tim's birthday.

I made pizza sauce and then baked a pizza. I also made some croutons for our salads. They are so easy and just as good, if not better than store bought.

We settled in with gas logs, our space heater and a warm fleece blanket on the couch. It felt so good not having to go anywhere and even though it was cold outside it was warm inside. It snowed a bit more overnight so we probably got around four inches total. Thankfully the sun was shing bright Sunday morning though so we knew it would melt by evening.

 

We didn't go to church. We watched Charles Stanley and Jonathan Falwell.

I made a roast with vegetables in my LeCreuset pot for lunch and since we didn't go to church I made some yeast rolls. They were just okay. But the ice cream cake was outstanding. It was so rich though. We couldn't eat a large piece. I have a good amout left so we'll be eating it for a couple of days.Might even put a candle on it tomorrow for Tim's birthday.

Fresh Coffee

I ran across a blog recently with a "coffee station" and pinned one on Pinterest so decided to set one up. I had a little black sign that said "Kindness Matters" so I spray painted over it and printed out fresh coffee to trace onto it.

I sketched out a little coffee mug from a picture on the Internet also.

When I traced the words and cup I thought it would make an indention to go by but I could barely see where I traced. It turned out okay. Seriously, I didn't have a very steady hand. Maybe I should have eaten lunch first.

I sanded it a bit. I don't think the paint was completely dry but I was okay with the way it came out.

I used this ironstone platter in my dining room hutch to corral everything. I bought this platter at an antique store in Manassas after buying Sarah's wedding dress. Coffee, coffee mate, and splenda in glass containers and spoons in a little pitcher.

I think it turned out cute. It does make it handier for everything to be in one place. I have a shelf on the wall above this and I hope to get a wider one and store my coffee cups there.

Gotta love the inspiration from blogs and Pinterest. Even for small little changes like this. :)