Fondue Party

I like having people over for fondue. I do steak and cheese. I've also done chocolate but that seemed like over-kill. Fondue parties gave me an excuse to get this new 50s tablecloth and seven, yes seven fondue pots. After embracing the life-changing magic of tidying up I did get rid of two. I know, but it is a start.

A fondue party is perfect for a small group that you enjoy and want to chat with for hours.

John's very dear Aunt Jacquie lived in Switzerland. She gave me her fondue pot and all her cheese fondue recipes. I've made the recipe below four times. It is easy and has been perfect each time.

Enjoy!

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo

I am the Queen of Hidden Clutter. Every drawer, cupboard, closet are so full that I can't find anything.

I am only 50 pages into this book but I am a believer. She starts with having you discard anything that does not make you feel joy. She has a strategy that makes sense to me and will change how I view clutter forever. It is a new mind set. And I am enjoying and embracing it.

iPhone speakers, 1 bag of clothes, 1 heavy bag of books and 2 bags of yarn have already left our home. And there will be lots more.

dear rae, love dad siting!

I am never more delighted than when I see one of my fonts used really well. Here are Ellen and Lenny and Dear Rae, Love Dad!

Designed by Nancy Warnecke, who can be found at hello@moonlitink.com.

sweet, sweet mail...

I want to share this with you because it is so perfect.

And it hits the mark on so many levels. Some sweet words, nice lettering, the colors all work in a nice subtle way and the stamps.

Yes the stamps, not only do I like the stamps but I enjoy the positioning of them and that it was hand cancelled.

But the stamp. I admired it on the envelope and then went to the Van Gogh to Pollock exhibit a couple days later and...

Here was the exact Motherwell painting. I love it that I could text a picture of this to my friend who of course had chosen that stamp especially for me.

I know you are wondering what was in the envelope. Well it is a very old Carte Postale stamped 27 4 08. For some reason I have a real connection to the Sacre Coeur.

And then a couple days later I got another meaningful card in the mail. My ex-roomie Rhonda had bought this card for me over a year ago. The illustration is an actual piece of vintage, hand blocked, painted wallpaper. And because she knows me so well the message was dead on. And just the thing I needed to read that day. Thanks Rhonda!

I realize the bar is pretty high here but ignore that and send your Mom or Grandma a card. In a sea of bills and catalogs there is real power in real mail. I know this to be true.

heirloom tomato and onion quiche

This is a great way to use up some of this years bumper crop of tomatoes. It is quite tasty. And to cut prep time I use a frozen deep dish pie crust. Too bad I didn’t make 2.

And here is the recipe http://www.recipebridge.com/g/108/4763565/heirloom-tomato-and-onion-quiche

van gogh to pollock

at the Milwaukee Art Museum. Had an enjoyable time there last Saturday.

I love Andy Warhol and this iconic 100 Cans! I had to check if all the cans were beef noodle soup. I would have made one chicken noodle. Later I found out that John looked for the same thing.

Also a fan of Roy Lichtenstein. This one is Head--Red and Yellow. I really like the course halftone screens in his work.

And Marc Chagall, the Peasant Life. I have a small print of his that I bought years ago in college.

Love the color and shapes in this Wassily Kandinsky, Fragment 2 for Composition VII.

Then there is this Robert Motherwell, Elegy to the Spanish Republic XXXIV. There is a story that goes with this painting. And I will share in my next post.

And Frida Kahlo, Self-Portrait with Monkey. Love that monkey and those eyebrows.

And, of course Jackson Pollock's Convergence. This painting was huge and mesmerizing.

These photos do not do these paintings justice. If you live in the Madison-Milwaukee area I suggest you catch this show before it is gone. It ends September 20th. I don't think you will be disappointed.

delightful day in cambridge, wi

Where can you find vintage pearls, yarn, and a French dictionary all while nibbling on a warm-from-the-oven brownie? Cambridge, Wisconsin, that is where. This charming small town 30 minutes from where we live in Madison had it all this weekend. A Friends of the Library Book Sale, Maxwell Street Days, Garage Sales, a Pancake Breakfast and the Lions Club Brat Stand in the Park.

Arriving a bit early we headed to the Book Sale. We went for the $10 bag of books and I found this utterly amazing 1939 French dictionary. It is small, it is thick, and it is full of those old etchings that I so dearly love. This will be hours of endless fascination for me. Clearly the score of the day.

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Yarn for a hat and half mitts, nice vintage pearls with a rhinestone clasp, I have a real weakness for vintage pearls. And some yummy potato bread.

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John found a narrow hallway between 2 buildings to explore.

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We then drove around the nearby lake hitting tag sales. I scored 12 cedar cigar boxes. One box can hold my dip pens and nibs, one can hold ink, etc.

On the way out of town we stopped at the Matt Kenseth Museum... for those of you who don't know (and I didn't)  he is a NASCAR driver and from Cambridge.

Growing up in a town much smaller than Cambridge I am charmed by a nice small town event. Mark your calendar, this event is yearly and early in August.

what are you reading?

I have been reading a lot lately, on the deck after dinner. Here are my recent favs. I always enjoy Anna Quindlen.

Still Life with Bread Crumbs begins with an imagined gunshot and ends with a new tin roof. Between the two is a wry and knowing portrait of Rebecca Winter, a photographer whose work made her an unlikely heroine for many women. Her career is now descendent, her bank balance shaky, and she has fled the city for the middle of nowhere. There she discovers, in a tree stand with a roofer named Jim Bates, that what she sees through a camera lens is not all there is to life.

Brilliantly written, powerfully observed, Still Life with Bread Crumbs is a deeply moving and often very funny story of unexpected love, and a stunningly crafted journey into the life of a woman, her heart, her mind, her days, as she discovers that life is a story with many levels, a story that is longer and more exciting than she ever imagined.

Another favorite author is Joanne Harris. This is the 3rd book in Chocolat story. Unfortunately I thought it was the second one.

Vianne Rocher, her partner Roux and her daughters Anouk and Rosette have been living on a houseboat on the Seine. Eight years have passed since the events of Chocolat. Anouk is fifteen years old, Rosette eight, and Vianne believes that finally she has found a way to escape her wanderlust and to settle down and be happy. However, the arrival of a letter from Lansquenet-sous-Tannes, the fictional village in which Chocolat was set, brings a new challenge to Vianne. The letter is from Armande Voizin, an old friend from Lansquenet. Armande died eight years ago, but she left the letter in her will, to be opened and delivered by her grandson, Luc. In it, she predicts that Lansquenet will some day need Vianne again, and asks Vianne to visit, if only to put flowers on an old lady's grave. Vianne, intrigued goes back to Lansquenet, taking her daughters with her.

This is the second of a 4 book series. They can be read out of order which I have done. Here are the 3rd and 4th.

Death hangs heavy in the disturbed air of Ireland's lonely Loughnabrone peat bog, an ancient holy place, steeped in legend, drowned in sorrow, and long since abandoned by man. Pathologist Nora Gavin has been called to an archaeological site in the bleak midlands west of Dublin—a place known as the LAKE OF SORROWS—to assist at an excavation where a well-preserved Iron Age body has been found in a bog.

So.... what interesting things have you been reading?