Apparently Martha Stewart recently had an unusual bit of spare time on her hands so she quickly left New York city and headed out to her farm Cantitoe Corners in Bedford, NY to check on things and have a bit of “me time”!

Martha’s first stop, the stables where she keeps her horses.

Martha has 5 Friesian horses from Canada named Meindert, Martyn, Rinze, Rutger and Ramon. Nothing ordinary for our Martha, Friesian horses are solid black, tall and quite powerful. Popular in the film industry they have been used in films such as Eragon, The Mask of Zorro, Alexander and The Chronicles of Narnia.

Martha gives Rinze some luv!

Put on the kettle? Gimme a break! Martha says she stopped by the “stable kitchen” (what is that, where they cook for the horses?) and was happy to see all her copper that she bought in Paris (like where else?) was highly polished. Can you imagine the heads that would have rolled had there been a speck of patina? Ouch!!!

Oh….this explains the stable kitchen – so she can host her elaborate and fabulous dinner parties!
I’m just so bored of my dining room!

Below the apple espalier. An espalier is defined as a way of training and pruning a tree or shrub to grow flat against a wall or free standing trellis.

The Chicago Botanist.com tells us “Espalier has a great deal of ornamental value — few garden scenes are more stunning than a blooming apple tree growing against a brick wall — but it’s also an effective technique for producing an ample crop of fruit in a small space. You don’t need an orchard to grow apple trees. A sunny wall, a special pruning technique, and patience are all you need to espalier an apple tree”.

But don’t worry, seems Martha additionally has an orchard full of “ancient apple trees”…

And plenty of not so ancient raspberries

So, a day on the farm with horses, apples, raspberries and chickens.

If that doesn’t help you to forget the big city I don’t know what will! I’ll be sure to keep you updated on Cozy Cantitoe Corners as Fall is around the corner and I can’t wait to see what Martha will be up to then!
(I sure hope these two chickens aren’t talking behind Martha’s back, they outa know better!)

Here is a dream of mine that someone else is living out – for now…!
Gavin’s friend Jim, his wife and their deaf dog Sage bought a little weekend cottage retreat on Lummi Island.

Lummi is one of the San Juan’s – a little under a 2 hour drive from Seattle and about a 8 minute ferry ride.

When I heard Gavin was going to help Jim fix up the cottage this past Saturday/Sunday I begged him to take pictures and here are the beautiful results – thank you Gavin!!!! . After a “hard day’s work” (according to Gavin about 3 hours) it’s time for Gavin to have a glass of wine while Jim and Sage fish…

Of course I want to be on that beach manning the fire and grilling oysters or salmon or something- ANYTHING!!! This is why I moved to the Pacific Northwest afterall…

I love the ruggedness of the beach, you can just smell the salty ocean air…

Apparently Sage loves it too!
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Here’s a shot of the outside of the house – you can see the proximity to the beach

A view from the front

Inside, an irresistible fireplace….I can smell the driftwood burning! And love love love the wainscoting!

In the kitchen, some local produce for a simple and perfect dinner…..

In case you were wondering if lavender grew at the beach (I know I was!) – the house next door

Gavin promises more pics and updates to the house on Lummi Island and I cannot wait!

In the meantime, save me a sip, we’ll be there before you know it!

BTW, we’re having a little technical problem here at CL so if you want to comment on this post just click on the post title!

And thanks again for the pics Gavin, they are gorgeous and tres cozy!

As seen as Seattle’s Pike Place Market! I’m calling these carrots “transitional” meaning great for summer sharing a platter with the pencil asparagus ready to be dipped into a garlicky aioli or when the weather cools down sprinkled with fresh thyme and roasted along side some yummy chicken for an Autumn dinner. Beautiful either way!

This is the adorable and highly Cozy evite we received to a BBQ in West Seattle Saturday night. And a special occasion it was as Chris and Terry had a terrible fire at their house last year (electrical) and finally finally finally the house was repaired and good as new and they decided to celebrate with a summer BBQ!

What a cute house and what a delicious spread! Loved the vintage table clothes and mason jars full of neighbor’s garden dahlia’s (a fav flower of Seattle).

Lots of delicious foods and thank you whoever brought the filet mignon!
Here is the itinirary – how much fun does that sound like!
But wait a second, Cornholing???

And all this time I thought that was something else…shame on me! But I love me some good clean fun and being the sporty gal that I am was ready to give it a try! Did I dream of being crowned Cornhole Champion? Common now, lets not get carried away!!!

This is not a picture from the party, I just wanted to show someone in action! We in fact started playing right after the sun went down, in other words in the almost dark! Someone put lit votives in the cornhole “hole”.

Ok, so if I do manage to get my sack in the hole, won’t it then catch on fire? This game has more drama than I thought!

SOME IMPORTANT CORNHOLE TERMINOLOGY (according to Wikipedia)
Ace or cow pie: A bag lands on the board, which is worth one point.
Back door: A cornhole that goes over the top of a blocker and into the hole
A Cornfusion: When players or teams cannot agree on the scoring of a given inning.
Sally: A toss that is thrown too weakly and lands on the ground before reaching the board.
Shucker: When a player pitches a bag and it strikes an opposing players bag knocking it off the boardShucker
Slider: A cornhole that slides into the hole

I actually did accomplish a “swish” – “a bag that goes directly into the hole”. Call that beginner’s luck I guess!

And get this, Hollywood is already on this band wagon as – Cornhole: The Movie
premiered in theaters earlier this summer. Maybe we all need to rent it today (yeah, right…) or even better just go out a play a rousing round or two!

Anybody else having some Summertime fun? We’d love to hear about it!!!

Horses Cut Shop that is. And what the hell is a Cut shop you ask? Well Cut shop is another word for Chop shop as in motorcycles. Wait, lets start from the beginning
Lets just say you get a couple of really cool guys, all talented, smart and artistic who decide they want a place to hang and have their friends over. Amongst other things, they like motorcycles, cowboys, beer, whiskey and hotdogs. And they all like to live by their own rules. Boy, do they…….

So they find an old garage and totally renovate it in what appears to me to be a cross between Gunsmoke, Easy Rider and a healthy dash of Rob Zombie. If that doesn’t spell family fun I don’t know what does!

Seriously, this place is beyond genius and everywhere I looked was a photo opportunity. And I will have more great pics but I am currently having a little iphoto problem so right now it’s all about what the iPhone can deliver…Meanwhile, check out Miss Guess Jeans campaign above – could she possibly be any cuter?

We met a lot of really cool people along with a bunch of kids, dogs and even some chickens (they are the stars of Chicken Shit Bingo – yes, you heard me right but more about that next time!). Seriously, each kid was more adorable than the next and totally well behaved. What??? Yup, and even the chickens were on their best behavior and that is a new one on me!

Sunday’s band was called The Souvenirs and they were great – Gavin told me their music style was called Honky Tonk (think Dwight Yoakam and George Strait) but the band describes itself as “a brand new bike with playing cards in the spokes!”. Not sure I ever tapped my toe to that but these guys were great! No, I did not dare get out and dance as there were some really good dancers and I wasn’t gonna mess with that! Plus, I’d luckily only had one beer so I wasn’t wrongly inspired!

That’s Jeff, one of the founders, above in the plaid shirt. He is an incredibly talented industrial art welder and he created a lot of the awesome things in the shop including the bar itself.

This truck’s trunk is full of empty beer cans, a parked work of art!

And below, it’s not surprising that these guys think of everything – I guess with the whiskey shots they offer this is a mere necessity for the over enthusiastic!

Can’t wait to get back to Horses Cut Shop and it won’t be long as every first Sunday of the month they do a bacon and eggs and Bloody Mary brunch, all donation only and you can bet we will be donating!

I have no idea what Bullwinkle’s life was like before he wandered onto our property all beat up and weighing about 1/2 of what he does now but I do know that he is fascinated by electronics. The hair dryer, computers and now the washer.

Now if only he could learn to do the laundry………

We decided to get really creative in furnishing and decorating our new attic. I know this is gonna shock you but the decorating scheme is Cozy! And did I mention the budget is cozy too? In this case, that translates as cheap!!! But that’s ok because as I’ve already told you Seattle has some great Thrift Stores and garage sales and sometimes just stuff you find for free as is the case of what we are calling the Beast.

The Beast is a 9-drawer dresser someone parked on the sidewalk. Ugly wood but in good shape. Heavy as hell. We debated a lot and then gave in. Seemed meant to be. That’s where Gavin and Marc come in. Heave ho! Up those frickin attic stairs once again? Will it fit? Yes!!!

It’s now been sanded, has a new coat of pristine white, looks great and is ready to be accessorized with the above array of knobs. The knobs came from a fabulous salvage warehouse called Second Use. About 20 minutes outside Seattle it sits down a dusty road and since I’ve never been to one of these before I can’t really compare them but this one is very hip. And it has great stuff. If you know what you are looking for. But that’s always the case with buying anything second hand!

I like that they focus on the idea that their materials are reusable, sustainable and therefore a great green alternative!
It’s like the real recycling of a home!

lots and lots of stuff!

Windows, doors, flooring, furniture and yes, claw foot bathtubs. You name it, they have it. Including hardware which after fishing through several bins I realized that I could find a bunch of matching mis-matched knobs that was exactly what I wanted! And get this, they were priced between $1 and 50cents a piece – SCORE!!!

Love the old fashioned vibe!

So pics of the finished product soon. In the meanwhile, do something sustainable! Check out your local salvage place! Our next project – finding a cool old door to cover with a piece of glass to use as a desk top. We saw it done in an antique shop and loved it. Stay tuned!