A Visit to the Apple Store

Last fall I switched all of my computers over to Apple products, and I've been adjusting to the new systems ever since.  As part of my purchase I was able to take advantage of Apple's One-To-One Program, which allows me (for a yearly fee) to access all sorts of training at an Apple store, including 1:1 sessions with knowledgeable Apple technicians.

Yesterday morning I spent over 2 hours with Norm, an Apple tech at the Short Hills, New Jersey Apple Store.  A group of about 4 people sat around a large table right in the middle of the store, each of us working on a Personal Project of our choice.  My choice was, of course, the management and organization of my photos - in my last post I had been kvetching about not having access to my photos and my overall feelings of being totally overwhelmed whenever I went into my photo files.

My main objective was to get all of my photos in one location (rather than in an external hard drive, desktop file from older Blackberry photos, and in iPhoto).

My brain seems to become easily tipped and on overload with respect to any computer language, but Norm was great.  As soon as I understood that he was starting with the big picture, and would then help me move into the small, more intricate steps, I was good.  

His suggestion was to begin moving everything over to iPhoto, so the two hours was spent moving photos, creating events, and organizing.  Not everyone I speak to agrees with saving photos in iPhoto, but without their level of knowledge and understanding I need to listen to the Apple techs for the time being.

I still have a lot to do but feel so much better.

And of course, any visit to the Mall at Short Hills is fantastic. I also get to stop by the Whole Foods store in Madison on my way home.

I'm including some of my favorite 'lost' photos for you all to see:

My grandniece Kiara picking strawberries last summer in our garden...

  FHFB posing for me in the city last November.  Katie actually bought him the hat...

Miss Olive taking a cat nap...

Our front cottage garden last summer...

So, for the next few days I'll be organizing the photos into events, then going back to the Apple store to begin working within iPhoto, learning how to better organize and have quicker access to specific photos.  

How things looked before the living room makeover....

and afterwards....


Ciao, bella!
xxoo

Pantry Design

We completed extensive renovations on our farmhouse about 3 years ago, redoing and expanding the second floor, adding on a wrap-around porch and pantry/workroom and connecting the basement with the crawlspace.  All of the rooms have been painted, furnished, decorated and filled with all sorts of things - this was easy to do because each of the spaces had a specific use - I knew what to do with them...except for the workroom off of the kitchen.  

This small room has become the main entrance into the house, as it is right off of the back porch and guests seem to take the porch steps into the house - they are wide, well lit and much safer than the front stone steps - which lead into the conservatory anyway since we don't use the original farmhouse door.  

(P.S. For the last 20 minutes I have been looking for photos of our front doors and porch but everything is so disorganized that I can't find a thing to post.  I will have to make another appointment with the Apple store to help me sort this our and organize my photos.) 

The photo in this post is the design for the workroom that I found on Pinterest and it's perfect!  This room needs to serve as a garden workroom, pantry, entertainment area to hold bar and buffet spreads and an entry mudroom for coats, boots, etc.  So, you can see why I have had so much trouble with the design.  I also didn't want the room to look like a kitchen - every designer I worked with ended up showing me a room that looked like a kitchen.  We will be adding a farm sink and an Sub-Zero glass-front refrigerator to the room.  

My contractor makes a second visit this evening, to begin planning and scheduling everything that needs to be done.  I am very excited and relieved to finally have a design and plan!  

Ciao, bella!

xxoo

http://pinterest.com/pin/83035186849560343/

Tulips

Although it's late February here in northwest New Jersey, the tulips, daffodils and other bulbs that are along the outside walls of our stone farmhouse have been peeking out from their winter naps. 

After the holidays I always love buying fresh tulips - they are so simple and elegant. 

I usually begin with white tulips just to tone down a bit from all of the Christmas decorations and lights, but as you can see, I am all about tulips with color right now!

These gorgeous tulips are placed in an old wooden milk bucket that we purchased up in Cape Cod many years ago.  A smaller, plastic container sits right inside the bucket to hold the flowers and water.  To me at least, tulips always look good in this very primitive container.

This photo was taken with Instagram - you know, I see all of these applications being used by friends and I always give them a try myself, but really don't have a great handle on any one of them. 

Just started a Pinterest account and found a fabulous design plan for my pantry/work room/buttery - a new room that is off of the kitchen and in the planning for the last several years. 

Be sure to check out my next post for the photo!

It's been awhile but I'm happy to be linking over to Seasonal Sundays #89 at the Tablescaper!

xxoo

Ciao, bella!

M-I-C-K-E-Y......

Our brave boy Connor!

My niece Jennifer, Connor's mom, posted this photo along with this message on Facebook.

A sweet woman we met in the radiology oncology waiting room made and sent this hat to Connor - she knew he loved Mickey! 

Oh the wonderful, caring people we've met through this journey!

They are indeed on a tremendously frightening and heart wrenching journey - how lucky they are to meet wonderful caring people all along the way.

xxoo

Ciao, bella!

Ahhhhhh!

This is a photo of a beach in the Dominican Republic.

Sunny skies and a bar that never runs out of margaritas!

xxoo

Ciao, bella!

Spring Cleaning in January

I've been on a mission here at Frog Hollow Farm - attacking closets, drawers, shelves, corners - anyplace that has been collecting 'stuff', the kind of 'stuff' that makes me feel a bit closed in.  Even though our winter has been very mild, that closed in feeling is starting to get to me.   

Some of the things I re-discovered during my cleaning, clearing and straightening were:

***My Communion dress ***

My daughter Katie wore this dress for her Communion as well.

It's looking pretty sad.

It's calling out for a good, gentle washing and may even be asking to hang safely somewhere to be admired -  it's a sweet little dress

close up of the lace and trim 

Another cute little handy thing that I rediscovered, although it was only misplaced for a few weeks, was a little book of recipe bookmarks that my daughter gave me for Christmas

I think she found it at Anthropologie.

You place the card on the page you want to save and it has a little cut out that clips onto the page.

It works just like a bookmark, I'm making it sound like it's a fantastic new invention.  It's not, but it's pretty, much prettier than the post-its that I was using to mark recipe pages.  

When you close the book the top of the recipe bookmark shows on the top of the book.

By the way, this Irish Pub cookbook was given to us by our wonderful foodie friends Stephanie and Forrest - I made so many recipes from it for our last year's St. Patrick's Day celebration - and it was all delicious and the recipes I made could be made ahead of time too.

Here's the link to last year's St. Patrick's Day post.
http://froghollowfarmgirl.blogspot.com/2011/03/st-patricks-day-menu-from-irish-pub.html

Today's weather calls for temperatures in the 50s this afternoon - I am still waiting for that big, big snow storm!!!
I think it's time to do my snow dance!!
Ciao, bella!
xxoo

I'm just not feeling winter this year - maybe for a few days when we had snow on the ground.  The way things look right now I'm expecting to see the forsythia begin to bloom.  The sun is shining but I need that cold, blustery weather to get into the winter mood.  I'm confused, should I be thinking about making comfort foods or begin making salads?  I'm buying tulips every time I go to the grocery store, but I tend to do that anyway.

So, I've been cleaning out lots of our closets and drawers, which always makes me feel good.  I feel better when the things I see on shelves and in closets are all things that we use - our old farmhouse doesn't have a ton of storage so we need to maximize the space that we have and fill it with things that are functional and of course pretty and meaningful.

Even though I love clearing closets and drawers, I actually have to stop myself from buying new things to fill the spaces I've just cleared!  

Tonight we are trying a new recipe at Frog Hollow Farm, from the February 2012  issue of La Cucina Italiana that I picked up at our Whole Foods last week.  I guess I'm going with comfort foods and not salads, at least for tonight.

The recipe is called Scalloppine di Maiale all'arancia - that's Pork Scaloppine with Orange and Lentils for all of the non Italian speaking bloggers out there :).

This is the photo from the La Cucina Italiana website.

Here's the link - http://lacucinaitalianamagazine.com/recipe/pork-scaloppine--with-orange-and-lentils

If you highlight the link you should be able to link right over to it.

I already had all of the ingredients and am even trying to clear out some of my pantry and freezer items, this seemed like a healthy way to go.

For last week's Giant's game I made a new appetizer recipe from skinnytaste.com called  

Bacon Wrapped Chicken Bites 

I ate them all....they had me at BACON.  

I'm reading and hearing a lot about people switching over from Blogger to Word Press - I'm not sure if it's something that I need to do but began reading about it today.  I've been wanting to develop my blog into a business of sorts and have some ideas - Word Press may be the more dependable source.  

What are your feelings on switching?

Ciao, bella!

Hello Everyone!

Hi everyone, I am so happy to finally be sitting down at my computer and sharing with all of my wonderful blogger friends!  We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas - Thanksgiving Day was celebrated here and Christmas was with Frog Hollow Farm Boy's family.  Both days were full of fun, family, food and our signature cocktails.

So, I'm just posting a few photos to get you up to date with some things.  

Our Thanksgiving Table

Some Christmas Decorations

Our cat Olive sitting on a warm woodstove!

One more photo from our July trip to Ireland, just needed to share that blue water with you all!

Wedding dress in window in Florence, Italy

This is a magnificent photo of our brave boy Connor.  

Connor is my niece Jennifer's little boy.  He was diagnosed with a form of leukemia in late October and is being treated vigorously with different chemotherapy medications - the treatment protocol involves two years of treatment.  

This photo was take by a photographer with a company called Flashes of Hope at the hospital right when Connor was diagnosed.  Since then Connor has lost his hair.  

His prognosis is very good - we pray for him every day.  

That's all for now friends.  I will be visiting as many of you as I can - that's the fun part of blogging!

Ciao, bella!

Getting Back to Blogging and Ready for Hurricane Irene

Wow, what a week here on the East Coast.  First an earthquake and now, Hurricane Irene.

We've been busy taking things inside and getting ready for this storm, worried most about the flooding that will occur throughout New Jersey after all of the rain we've had this summer. 

Hoping that everyone is taking the necessary precautions and that everyone will be safe.

Yesterday I cut as many sunflowers as I could before they were knocked down by the winds and rains tonight and tomorrow. 

Wishing you all lived close enough to stop by for your own sunny bouquet!

And if you do live close by, please do stop by - there are many sunflowers waiting for a safe home before the storm! ;)

May God give you...
For every storm, a rainbow,
For every tear, a smile,
For every care, a promise,
And a blessing in each trial.
For every problem life sends,
A faithful friend to share,
For every sigh, a sweet song,
And an answer for each prayer.

Ciao, bella!

xxoo

Day 4 - Westport and Connemara

The fourth day on our tour of Ireland began with another way-too-large Irish breakfast at the Mill Park Hotel in Donegal Town.  We drove along the scenic shores of Donegal Bay - so gorgeous...

Donegal Bay

...then into the county of Sligo and a quick visit to where W. B. Yeats is buried. 

Yeats was born and educated in Dublin but spent his childhood in County Sligo. 

Yeats is one of Ireland's most influential poets. 

W.B. Yeats 

A Cradle Song by William Butler Yeats

The angels are stooping
Above your bed;
They weary of trooping
With the whimpering dead.

God's laughing in Heaven
To see you so good;
The Sailing Seven
Are gay with His mood.

I sigh that kiss you,
For I must own
That I shall miss you
When you have grown.

Our next few hours brought us through the town of Connemara and the sweeping views of boglands and misty mountains.  All along these desolate roads and mountain passes lie monuments to the Irish people who died during the great Irish Famine.   Here is one of my most favorite photos.

 

Monument along the Famine Road.

We ended our day in Galway, at the Radisson Blu Hotel which was a little outside of the city.  To tell you the truth, I didn't have a great impression of Galway - we ate dinner at a large pub called the Au Pucan (not so great) in the middle of many other pubs and the streets were full, I mean full, of 21 year old kids drinking and partying. 

 I would need to return to Galway during the day to spend some time and really be able to learn more about it.

Our next day brought us to the fascinating Aran Islands.

More to come...

 

I'm linked over to Seasonal Sundays at The Tablescaper!!

Ciao, bella!

xxoo

Day 3 - Donegal Town

Donegal, with it's windswept hills where only sheep can thrive, is renowned for it's wool production.  After our day at Lough Derg, we drove to Donegal and had dinner in the Mill Park Hotel before heading into town to listen to some authenic Irish music and of course, drink more Guinness. 

Musicians at the little pub in Donegal Town. 

The young girl in the middle sang a ballad acappella and it was just breathtaking.  These musicians seemed like they were the main group at the pub, but different musicians came in through the night, played a few songs and then left for a different musician to join the group.  They would then go to another pub to play with a different group.  It was fabulous and if anything, this is what I would go back to Ireland for, to listen to more of these musicians play their traditional music. 

Killybegs Harbor

During our visit we stopped at the little town of Killybegs (love that name, don't you?) and then on to Teelin to view the Slieve League sea cliffs - just breathtaking.  The highest point reaches 1,972 feet, making them the highest in Europe.  The cliffs drop straight down to the wild Atlantic waves below and we saw such gorgeous views from our vantage point, which wasn't even the top! (More about that later.) 

We continued driving through the Glengesh Pass to the town of Ardara and visited a little woolen shop called Triona Design. 

 This is a family run whop where we saw some demonstrations of weaving their famous Donegal tweeds  - and they also served us Irish coffee (maybe so we'd get a little tipsy and buy more woolens, who knows, but I just couldn't drink an Irish coffee in the middle of the day and stay awake). 

I purchased a couple of beautiful woolen scarves at this store and I'm saving them for Christmas gifts. 

The star of our visit to Donegal however were the cliffs at Slieve League that I mentioned earlier in my post.

All I can do is show you - it's just so spectacular!

See that little beach tucked into the corner?

Here's a better picture of the beach at the bottom of the cliffs.  There are sheep that graze all over these hills - they don't need any water provided to them as the water that they get from eating the grasses is enough. 

This group seemed to be penned up for the day, but all the other sheep we saw were free to roam the cliffs freely.

More Slieve League...

Donegal County Photos

Sheep on the road!  Can you see the blue marks on their sides?  These are placed to help the farmers identify them. 

Thanks for joining me on Day 3 of my trip to Ireland. 

Day 4 will include visits to Connemara and Westport as we head towards Galway City.

Ciao, bella!

xxoo

Day Two - Ireland

Our second day in Ireland found us waking up in the beautiful Kilronan Castle Hotel.  Breakfast was an abundant Irish breakfast buffet - with delicious hot coffee and tea.  The service was impeccable!

Our tour director was an unbelievably charming man named Tommy O'Toole - yes, that is is real name.  He lives in County Tipperary with  his wife and has been a tour director with CIE Tours since the early 1980's. 

Tommy has a master's degree in Irish history and was so informative and interesting throughout our drives through this beautiful country that he loves so well. 

Now, I have to admit that the main site that we visited on our second day was kind of a wash-out, in two ways.  First of all it was raining, and we were taking a ferry boat ride over to St. Patrick's Purgatory in Lough Derg.  Pilgrims have been travelling to this sacred site for centuries on spiritual quests or a journeys seeking something deeper; getting closer to their authentic selves, continuing a ritualistic tradition of their ancestors. 

While Lough Derg has been renowned as a place of pilgrimage for thousands of years, and is more commonly associated with penance and purgatory, pilgrims are more conscious these days of the spiritual atmosphere of the Island. In today's noisy and hectic world, people appreciate a haven of peace.

This was not something that really interested FHFB or me, but we were willing to remain open to the experience.  Spirituality is something that's very personal to me, and although I certainly respect the personal practices of many others, public demonstrations of penance or meditation are just not something I'm interested in or comfortable with. 

The tradition of the historical three-day pilgrimage has been preserved but additional services have been offered in recent years. The introduction of these new services - One Day Retreats, Youth Retreats and Special Group Retreats - allow people the opportunity to experience this sacred place when age or disability might otherwise prevent them from participating in the traditional pilgrimage.

We weren't able to go onto the island because there was a pilgrimage in process. 

The picture above is one of the very small islands in the lake. 

After our tour of the lake and a cup of tea and delicious warm scones at the visitors center with a video that I could have definitely skipped ;) - we were on our way to Donegal Town, where we checked into the Mill Park Hotel for two nights.

More about that in my next post!

Ciao, bella!

xxoo

'O' is for an Outstanding Start to our Ireland Trip

Our recent tour of Ireland was designed by two women very familiar with Ireland and all it has to offer, Bridget and Maggie. These women have traveled to Ireland many times with their families, so this trip was intended to include all of the beautiful, out of the way, non-touristy parts of the country. The itinerary was phenomenal, developed with help from CIE Tours International located in Morristown, NJ,and included some of the places that FHFB and I definitely wanted to visit.

 

Our first day in Ireland brought us to the village of Ballbriggan for a full Irish breakfast at an original Dublin pub called the "Man o'War Public House'. 'Ball' or 'Bally' means 'town' in Gaelic. This pub has been recorded in deeds dating back to 1595 - it was just adorable.

The fireplace right across from our breakfast table at the Man O' War Public House.

In Gaelic, Man O' War means 'In the Middle of the Road'.

This is a traditional Irish breakfast, and I ate way too many of them.  

My thighs are still complaining!  LOL - back to the gym!

Irish bacon

Sausages

Broiled Tomatoes

Cheese

Hard Boiled Egg

Cucumbers are not normally included

After having a delicious meal and getting to know some of the people in our travel group, we headed to the bus to make the drive to Ballyfarnon to the Kilronan Castle Hotel for our first night's stay.  This hotel has a wonderful spa where my cousin Sinead works as an esthetician - and she was able to get me in for a massage - it was wonderful!

On our way out we stopped at this ancient grotto at the gates to the castle's entrance. 

The Kilronan Castle Hotel is about 10 away from where my mom grew up in

Kilmactranny, County Sligo.

My next post will be about our trek up to Donegal, days 2 and 3 of the tour. 

I hope you enjoyed reading about our 'Outstanding' beginning to our trip!

Ciao, bella!

xxoo

I'm linking over to Jenny Matlock's Alphabet Thursday!

Finding My Roots and Weekly Menu

This summer has certainly been a busy traveling season for us, with our last trip being a visit with family and friends to Ireland.  My mother Lilly was born in a small farmhouse in the tiny village of Knockmore, Ireland.   The first part of our vacation was dedicated to visiting with first cousins and exploring the farm and school where my mom grew up. 

Knockmore is a tiny portion of the Kilmactranny village in County Sligo, right on the border of County Roscommon and about 7 miles from the city of Boyle. 

FHFB and I met my cousin Gerald in the townsquare of Boyle - I didn't see him at first but he recognized me (probably because we stuck out like major tourists while we took pictures of the town!). 

After that, we drove a few miles to his home that he shares with his wife Tish and their two daughters, Sinead and Rebecca. They made us feel so very welcome, with a delicious Irish lunch
(which FHFB ate, even though we had just had lunch!)

  They live in a lovely home with horses and brand new black

and white kittens.

As an added wonderful surprise my cousin Angela and her daugher Sarah were also visiting for the weekend  - she reminds me so very much of my Aunt Nancy. 

When I told her this she laughed and said that I reminded her of our Aunt Nancy! 

Here's the Irish side of the family - without the Sicilian prince :)  FHFB - he took the photo. 

Our trip out to my mother's farmhouse was full of very mixed feelings.  Actually, I think I learned more about her throughout my travels through Ireland than I did from the visiting her home.  That may sound funny but what I realized throughout our trip is that I was hearing my mother's voice and expressions while listening to the Irish people speak, and I came to understand a little more of where she came from and why she approached the world in the way that she did.  Mom didn't talk about growing up in Ireland too much, I think it was a pretty hard life. 

This is the driveway that leads up to the farmhouse.  During the years that my mom was growing up, this cottage was covered with a thatched roof and did not have running water or electricity.
A small kitchen has been added to the back of the house.

This is the wonderful stone barn that stands to the left of the house.

Next to the barn is a lower attached building that was used to house the pigs and the piglets. 

The back building was used as a stall area for horses and cows. 

Can you see that beautiful view in the top left corner of the photo from the back of the larger barn?


This is just a small snapshot of our trip to Ireland, I will be sure to post more photos and let you all learn about and see the wonderful sights in this small island across the Atlantic. 

Something new that I discovered when I returned home is the new Blogger format.  I'm not sure if I like it better and I'm pretty confused about how to use it.  I needed to revert back to the original dashboard in order to edit this post and publish it - it seems that many people have received an error message like mine: bX-g04pxr and the recommendations in the Blogger chat room is to log in with the old dashboard.  Yikes, I'm not even sure what that means but I logged out and logged back in and there I was! 

I'm happy to be at home for the next month and will be busy cutting flowers from our gardens and entertaining on our back porch. 

Here's our menu for the next few days, using lots of vegetables from our garden of course.  If you want any of the recipes let me know and I'll send you the link.  It's a little hard to read due to the small size of the print but I'm not sure how to fix that - I just scanned this document so that I could include it in the post - is there a way to increase the size of the menu so that it's easier to read??

I'm linking in to Seasonal Sundays, On the Menu Monday at Stone Gable
and Menu Plan Monday! at I'm An Organizing Junkie!