59 Greenville Lane – House Plan by Our Town Plans!

On By Barbara StroudIn Daily Blog, HOME, House Plans4 Comments

This is the 59 Greenville Lane house plan by Our Town Plans. It’s a beauty isn’t it? This home is 3,466 square feet with 3 bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms (with an optional attic space that adds 1,098′ along with a bedroom, bathroom, bonus room, loft, mechanical room and storage!)

This home has wonderful deep porches, working shutters and so much charm – I love that steep roof!

What a fabulous plan! An open Living/Dining/Kitchen, along with a wonderful Laundry space and on the other side of the staircase a Study. Can you imagine how much time you would spend there? I can! Note the ceilings on the main floor are 12′. Pretty darn impressive! (Upstairs ceilings measure 11’3″ and the optional attic space is 9’6″) – Grand!

Just look at all these porches! Both screened and unscreened. There is a lot of time to be spent on these dreamy porches!

Click HERE for real life images of this plan – it helps to picture it!

A great upstairs configuration with a large master bedroom, a smaller bedroom, and then across the hall another large bedroom. Personally, I would use the master bedroom and make the smaller bedroom beside it a reading room. (Note that the “smaller” bedroom is still a good size!). There is also a nice office space.

There is also an optional attic configuration and it’s pretty incredible! Click HERE to see more…. Wow, the bonus space adds a bedroom, bathroom, bonus area and loft!

Catch you back here tomorrow!

All images via OurTownPlans.com, used with permission…

Images are not for construction or reproduction, they are property of the design firm.

Featured Artist: Layne Johnson!

On By Barbara StroudIn ART, Daily Blog, Featured ArtistLeave a comment
Moonrise Whispers by Layne Johnson 24×24″ Oil

Layne Johnson. An artist who paints in oil – I ran across his work on Instagram. His cloud paintings are stunning, but they are also sold out (the originals anyway, he does have prints at very affordable prices). Check out the prints of the clouds and you’ll see what I mean! Click HERE if you’re interested in Original Art (me!) – nothing wrong with prints – some people’s taste changes often and it also allows everyone to have some form of art!

Continue reading “Featured Artist: Layne Johnson!” →

goals & gratitude…

On By Barbara StroudIn Daily Blog, THOUGHTSLeave a comment

This post may look familiar to some of you who are on my mailing list. This is the one time I hope no one opened their email, ha ha. I write my posts ahead of time and schedule them to publish (appear online). Well, since this was scheduled for 01/02/18 – I had forgotten to change the year from 2017 to 2018 (this happened in December) – so it published it immediately. I heard *ding* and saw my email.

Ruh. Roh. So please forgive me, won’t be the last time this year I bet 🙄 – Happy Day to you  – barbara

Ahhh, it’s that time of year – to set goals – might as well get in on the fun, and join the masses that have goals to eat healthier, exercise more, learn to cook or maybe a new language, read more books the list goes on and on…

Some of my favorites:

👍Learn to say “No” sometimes – it’s OK. You can’t be everywhere at the same time and it’s hard when you’re stretched thin with work, home, life to try to fit in one more thing. Sometimes it’s barely possible. It’s OK to say no (thank you for teaching me this, Mom!).

Continue reading “goals & gratitude…” →

goals & gratitude

On By Barbara StroudIn Daily Blog, Lifestyle, Photograph, THOUGHTSLeave a comment

This post may look familiar to some of you who are on my mailing list. This is the one time I hope no one opened their email, ha ha. I write my posts ahead of time and schedule them to publish (appear online). Well, since this was scheduled for 01/02/18 – I had forgotten to change the year from 2017 to 2018 (this happened in December) – so it published it immediately. I heard *ding* and saw my email.

Ruh. Roh. So please forgive me, won’t be the last time this year I bet 🙄 – Happy Day to you  – barbara

Ahhh, it’s that time of year – to set goals – might as well get in on the fun, and join the masses that have goals to eat healthier, exercise more, learn to cook or maybe a new language, read more books the list goes on and on…

Some of my favorites:

👍Learn to say “No” sometimes – it’s OK. You can’t be everywhere at the same time and it’s hard when you’re stretched thin with work, home, life to try to fit in one more thing. Sometimes it’s barely possible. It’s OK to say no (thank you for teaching me this, Mom!).

Continue reading “goals & gratitude” →

December Sky – Michigan Sunrise

On By Barbara StroudIn Daily Blog, Michigan, Photograph3 Comments

I’m all about a dramatic sky. And… this is dramatic. What a gorgeous sunrise this was! This is a throwback photo – from the archives. One New Year’s resolution for me might be to clean up the way-too-many-photos that I cannot seem to delete.

I hope you will be enjoying a stunning sunrise (or sunset) soon!

📸 IMAGES ARE MY OWN UNLESS STATED OTHERWISE. PLEASE CONTACT ME IF INTERESTED…

Photos this week – Have a great day and I’ll catch you back here tomorrow!

Merry Christmas!

On By Barbara StroudIn Daily Blog, THOUGHTS5 Comments

A day of joy and exultation  – Be merry – Sing your favorite Christmas carols – Sip the egg nog – Enjoy the gift giving – Help make dinner – Enjoy the company – Remember it… Savor it. Make these memories last.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas! May the magic bring a smile to your face – and on this busy day, and if you see someone not celebrating because they have no family nearby or friends to call upon them, maybe spread a little Christmas cheer? Invite them for a meal or dessert, share a smile and a laugh. Even a short visit will change their Christmas from quiet, and sad to feeling loved and cared about.

Spread the love! Catch you back here tomorrow!

Christmas Cactus – always a good gift!

On By Barbara StroudIn Daily Blog, Photograph4 Comments

 

I have a Christmas Cactus that I’ve had for so many years now. It faithfully blooms every Thanksgiving – I love this plant. If you know someone who doesn’t have one, that’s always a nice little gift. They don’t take much work. I water mine once a week. Transplant it when it’s bulging out of the pot. I wipe the leaves down on occasion – they can get dusty. Maybe a few times a year.

This photo was from when it first started to bloom, which is always exciting to see! This plant will reward you with numerous beautiful blooms every single year!

Merry Christmas Eve, eve…

📸 IMAGES ARE MY OWN UNLESS STATED OTHERWISE. PLEASE CONTACT ME IF INTERESTED…

Photos this week – Have a great day and I’ll catch you back here tomorrow!

 

Overnight Oats – endless possibilities!

On By Barbara StroudIn Daily Blog, FOOD, RecipeLeave a comment

Overnight Oats – I bet you’ve heard of them, they’re all the rage right now. There are an infinite number of variations – this is just one. I used frozen (thawed) mixed berries from Whole Foods – and WOW! This was like a berries and cream dessert with a little texture from the oats. Loved it! How nice to have breakfast with minimal effort! This time of year with the temptations of unhealthy eating and snacks galore it’s nice to take time to eat healthy in between outings – this is a quick and easy way to do just that!

I read an article about how to make a better batch of overnight oats – a good article from Bon Appetit (a beautiful magazine with fabulous recipes!!

I basically used the Wholefully Classic Overnight Oats (click HERE to view, print or save to Pinterest).

Next time I will add more milk just to see the difference – it was delicious!! I used Chia seeds, regular 2% milk and a quick dash of honey (not much at all). It was perfection! Fred and I split this and it was plenty for us.

Classic Overnight Oats

(Wholefully.com) – 1 large or 2 small servings

1/3 cup plain Greek yogurt
1/2 heaping cup of rolled oats (I used Old Fashioned)
2/3 cup milk (regular milk, almond, soy, etc. whatever you like)
1 tablespoon of chia seeds (or ground flax meal)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
Less than 1 tablespoon honey
Whisk the above ingredients together in a medium mixing bowl. Spoon into a jar with a tight-fitting lid (open mouth jars are idea – I think I used a pickle jar and it worked).
Closed and refrigerate 4 hours, but preferably overnight.
When you go to eat the oats, I put them in a bowl and added a splash of milk and more berries.

Catch you back here tomorrow!