favorite things!

i received this lovely bouquet of flowers, on sunday... they were used as decorations at my uncle's 80th birthday. it was such a wonderful day...spent with the immediate family. those days are truly my favorite days of the year! just the whole unconditional love we all have for each other. many, many laughs, a catered lunch from panera bread, tango music and it was held in my cousin's mansion. well, anything over 1,000 square feet is a mansion to me!

today, i enjoyed making up a few bread mixes to have on hand. you know, on the shelf....ready to use....in a blink of an eye! and, best of all they are super economical to make.

i love hodgson mill flour. the best price i've found is at krogers. i'm especially glad to be using a 50/50 blend. it's like $2.50 a bag. not terrible.

i made four different kind of mixes... beer bread, strawberry bread,and two different focaccia's.... the recipes can be found here: mixes

one of my favorite pictures...oh, i have many i love...hanging around in here. which makes me think, i should take snaps and share some of them with you. this one above has been passed back and forth in my family...between my aunts, mom and now me. it's one of my true favorites...it is signed by the old-time silent movie actress, mary pickford. her signature is very clear and it's on the bottom right hand side of the picture. boy, would i ever like to take this to an appraiser.