I am not a breakfast person. The thought of any meal in the morning is almost hard for me to comprehend. So I struggle with what breakfast options are healthy, quick and not big in volume.

Collagen Peptides

Every morning starts with my delicious Nespresso coffee with foamed milk and two scoops of Vital Proteins Collagen Peptides.

Vital Proteins provides 18 grams of protein, which is just enough to sustain me through my morning workout. But there are days where I am more hungry, especially if I skipped dinner the night before. Sometimes grabbing a quick hardboiled egg (pre-made and in the fridge) does it, but other days, I need something with a bit more substance.

Breakfast Cookies

I started making breakfast cookies when I was the Food Mom for my son’s high school crew team. Often the boys would be up at the crack of dawn before a regatta wanting something light, but healthy to eat. Cookies, you say? For breakfast?

Blueberry Breakfast Cookies

Yesterday, I dusted off the recipe for Ambitious Kitchen’s Omega 3 Blueberry Breakfast Cookies and made a batch. Being challenged with too many apples, I found an additional recipe online from Kristine’s Kitchen for Apple Pie Breakfast cookies. Both recipes are chock-a-block full of fiber and goodness. So it is time to compare the two recipes.

The Blueberry Breakfast cookies are gluten-free and dairy free. Using almond meal, coconut sugar, flaxseed meal, rolled oats, chia seeds, banana, blueberries, walnuts and an optional add ~ dark chocolate, these large cookies are very flavorful and filling.

This recipe makes 8 large cookies. The most time consuming part of the recipe is gathering the ingredients! Using an ice cream scoop makes it easy to plop these down on a cookie sheet to bake. Prep time is 10 minutes with a cook time of 15.

Apple Pie Breakfast Cookies

The Apple Pie Breakfast cookies have similar ingredients~rolled oats, apples, oat flour, ground flaxseed, applesauce, maple syrup, egg, butter and spices. Refined sugar-free, this recipe makes 18 large cookies.

Similar to the first recipe, drop balls of dough on a cookie sheet and flatten with your hand.

These cookies are perfect if you have children or grandchildren that you need to feed quickly. They freezer beautifully and a few seconds in the microwave, you have a nutritious and delicious snack.

As food crew mom, at one point, I needed to feed 65 high school athletic boys. The Blueberry Breakfast cookie recipe is the one that they boys would shove in their mouths as they raced to their next regatta.

This morning, we sampled both recipes. My husband and I prefer the Blueberry ones, as we love the combination of blueberries, walnuts and dark chocolate. The Apple Pie ones were good, but I think I would make the apple pieces bigger as they got a bit lost in the cookie. Also, our apples from the orchard are Anna apples, which have a mild, sweet flavor. Using an apple with more tang will bump up the taste. But both are worthy recipes. Now they will be frozen for future use!

I hope if you are a non-breakfast eater like me, you will find these recipes to be a helpful addition to your morning routine.

Happy Wednesday! I am heading over to visit my elderly neighbor who lives alone and wants some company….of course, at a distance! Wishing you a day of wonder and love!

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The summers in Phoenix are so hot. Unlike most areas of the country, it is comparable to our version of winter. We stay inside where there is air-conditioning 24/7. Any outside activity takes place early in the morning or late in the evening. The streets are free of traffic as many people leave town for cooler temperatures.

I actually like the summers here. My theory is that the intense heat kills all the germs brought in during our tourist season. It is easier to get restaurant reservations and the rhythm of life slows down.

Summer is also the time I can catch up on movies, new television series and of course, light-hearted reading. Nothing like cozying up to entertainment when it is triple digits outside. So if you have any great recommendations, please share. To see a previous summer reading list, click here.

I must admit, I do love movies that have fabulous settings and positive story lines. Since the world is filled with such turmoil right now, I cannot stomach movies that have vulgar language, gross stereotypes or extreme violence.

It is my personal need to surround myself with beauty, hope and kindness. I need more Nancy Meyers movies! If you haven’t seen her movies, they are a must (i.e. The Holiday, It’s Complicated, Baby Boom, Something’s Gotta Give, Father of the Bride, The Intern). It may be a summer of watching these over again.

I also love a good mystery or movie with terrific acting. KNIVES OUT (Prime Video) is wonderful “whodunnit” with all the unusual cast of characters. You can’t go wrong with Daniel Craig, Don Johnson, Christopher Plummer, Chris Evans and Jamie Lee Curtis!

We just watched THE GOOD LIAR with Helen Mirren and Ian McKellen which was excellent. Anything with Helen Mirren is generally fabulous so next on my list is Catherine the Great , Woman in Gold, The Queen, The Leisure Seeker and the television series, Prime Suspect.

Since the Wizard of Oz is one of my favorite movies, we just watched JUDY, the story of Judy Garland. It is an amazing performance by Renée Zellweger and I wouldn’t be surprised if she is nominated for an Academy Award. However, Judy Garland’s life was a bit doomed from the beginning, but her talent was truly one of a kind.

Based on the best-selling novel by Garth Stein, THE ART OF RACING IN THE RAIN is a heartfelt tale narrated by a witty and philosophical dog named Enzo (voiced by Kevin Costner).  It has a solid cast of characters ~~Milo Ventimiglia, Amanda Seyfried, Kathy Baker and Gary Cole. Ratings weren’t great but I found it enjoyable.

Since it is not my nature to sit for long periods of time, I prefer to latch onto a good television series. New ones include:

THE STRANGER , a British television series (on Netflix) with 8 episodes released this year. It’s quite the mystery.

And Netflix’s DEAD TO ME, which just released Season 2. Lisa Cardellini is a walking disaster but oh so lovable.

Here is a list of Television series I would recommend.

BROADCHURCH – Netflix 2013-2017. British crime drama series. So disappointed this was cancelled.

CALL THE MIDWIFE-PBS, BBC One, Netflix. Midwifery and family life in 1950s in East London. Just released Season 9

SHETLAND- Prime Video, BBC One, 2013-2018 Murder mystery set in Scotland.

FATHER BROWN-Prime Video, BBC One. In its 8th season. Mystery set in the Cotswolds.

THE GOOD WIFE-Hulu, 2009-2016. Scandals and corruption with Julianna Margulies

THE ROOKIE-ABC, a 40 year old becomes a rookie on the LAPD. Two seasons so far and hoping they do a third.

So what are you watching? If you send in your suggestions/recommendations, I will compile a list to share.

Happy Tuesday! I hope to make some more apple related recipes this week as I have a refrigerator filled with ones from our tree.

Back in March we established the quarantine Honey Do list, which included deep cleaning the outdoor barbecue area. That led to the discussion, ” let’s tile the backsplash behind the grill”, which grew legs from there. To see more projects we are tackling, click here.

In search of tiles that aesthetically fit a 110 year old home, I discovered these Monteca Encaustic 9 3/4″ x 9 3/4″ tiles online at Home Depot. While waiting for the tiles to arrive and getting an appointment with my favorite tile man, we focused on the barbecue storage areas beneath the grill.

Using Rustoleum’s garage floor epoxy kit from Ace Hardware, my husband painted the floor of both storage areas. The two-part process involves spreading the epoxy on a clean, dust free surface and then sprinkling the decorative paint chips on top. This is a big improvement over the cobweb filled space and will protect the floor from any spills.

Here is the barbecue in March before we began working on it. Notice the bumpy plaster behind the grill and the plaster relief below the windows.

Rick, my tile man, determined it was best to cover the existing plaster with tile board.

We debated whether to keep the reliefs under the windows, but it would have been challenging to lay the tile in an orderly fashion over it.

Once the tiles were applied, I knew we had made the right decision.

So here is the finished product! The area looks so much bigger and will certainly be easier to clean. The Sahara beige grout was the right choice. Rick used Raggia slate for the new window sills and trim to match the existing countertop. It took 2 cases of tile to cover this area (around $214.00 in material).

Yesterday, I cleaned the slate countertop and sealed the stone. The grill is sparkling clean after degreasing all its parts. It feels good to pay attention to an area we had taken for granted and upgrade its look and use.

Are you marking things off your To Do list? There are a few more projects to tackle on the back terrace before I consider everything done, but I am so happy with the new barbecue area.

Have a happy Saturday and a wonderful weekend. Today, we are taking our son to the airport to go back to Washington, DC. His two week visit was really spectacular and of course, we are sad to see him go. My Dad used to cry every time I would visit him and leave. Now I completely understand why.

Teaming up with Tarah from Grandma’s House DIY, Kristin from White Arrows Home, Andrea from Design Morsels, & Chas from Chas Crazy Creations in our DIY Blog Hop this month with projects for our decks! Make sure and check out all of the deck projects below! 

This month Tarah is sharing a DIY inexpensive upgrade to her outdoor deck with cable rails.

Chas from ChasCrazyCreations is creating a solar chandelier.

Andrea from Design Morsels has great tips for easy porch planters.

Kristin from White Arrows Home has an easy DIY for an Outdoor Shower Curtain.

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Charming Homes & Gardens #11-hosted by Shiplap & Shells

When we renovated our home, we changed the upstairs floor plan and added square footage to accommodate a more modern master bedroom layout. The master suite now includes an office, sitting room, bedroom, bath and closet.

The sitting room was part of the original master bedroom. It has a sweet, small fireplace angled in one corner. The room is rather small, and the windows face east and south. Again, not the best light for painting but during the day it is bright and happy. To see before and after of this fireplace, click here.

I took the liberty of using this space and making it my art room. Quite honestly, it was necessary because my painting supplies were all over the house. I was like a roaming artist, trying to find the best light, a flat surface and some place where the cats would not walk through my paints.

The art resting on the fireplace mantel is a Steven Hofberger painting. During our restoration, we had the unpleasant surprise of having to replace 55 windows. The original rope and pulley windows with blurry original glass had to go. I loved those windows and the thought of them going to the dump was disturbing.

Thankfully, Steven was using old windows as his canvas and took all 55 of them. As a thank you gift to us, he gave us this painting on the window that actually came from this very room. It still has the original hardware too.

When I refreshed my son’s bedroom, I took his large desk setup and moved it to the sitting room. The base is made from 2 Ikea cabinets and the top is a generous countertop that is 26″ wide x 90″ long. Using plastic and paper table cloths, the surface of the desk and adjacent space is safe from paint spills. To see my son’s bedroom re-do, click here.

In order to protect the hardwood floor, I covered it with Ram Board. This heavy duty Kraft paper is leftover from the multiple commercials and photo shoots we have had at our home. The film crew doesn’t want it and I always offer to take it off their hands. To see a previous post on filming commercials, click here.

There is a large day bed in the room and I am debating whether to remove it or not. It is a nice place to land after several hours of focused work, especially with the television nearby.

The sitting room tends to be that room that harbors items that have no official home. My friend, Susan, found this lovely prayer bench for me. It is on my list of projects to complete as I want to make a new kneeling cushion and find a quiet space for it. Currently, it is a place to set some of my paintings.

Right now, I am going through all my artwork. I have kept nearly all of them since I started four years ago and it’s time to thin out the herd. Many I will paint over, especially those during my kindergarten stage. A few people are asking that I consider selling some, which I am contemplating.

The configuration of this room isn’t ideal yet. The wall paint color is 20 years old too. But it is low on my list of projects. Ultimately, I’d love to take everything out and really contemplate how I want this room to function as a viable art studio. Also, I did a live Instagram story on this room yesterday if you would like to see it firsthand.

Do you have a space in your home for your hobbies and interests? If you have an art space, please share your tips and techniques on design and style. I love learning from all of you and appreciate your comments and feedback.

Have a wonderful Wednesday. We are enjoying the most glorious weather here~~mid 60s in the morning and low 90s during the day. A far cry from our typical sweltering hot June weather. Praying it stays this way for a while.

Sticking my face into a hedge of lilacs is a fond childhood memory. Inhaling deeply, I recall this heady, sweet fragrance confirming that Spring is here. My lilac memories as an adult are a bit of a blur since life took me to multiple geographic locations, some with lilacs and some without.

These flowering, woody plants range in color from magenta to purple to white. The colors symbolize every thing from purity and innocence to love and passion.

I have a longing for lilacs every single year, because they do not grow in our hardiness zone in Phoenix. Buying them locally is a disappointment due to lack of smell. What is a lilac with fragrance?

One year when I was back east visiting my parents in Connecticut, I literally brought a huge bouquet on the plane which took up most of the overhead bin. I was the only one happy about that!

Another time, during a business trip to Lake Tahoe, the hotel’s flower shop had an abundance of beautiful, fragrant lilacs. I purchased all of them and requested they be sent to my room. I don’t remember much about that 4 day conference, but I do recall how wonderful my room smelled!

Since I am unable to enjoy lilacs in person, I am inspired to paint them. Recently, my friend, Barbara from Mantel & Table created a gorgeous arrangement with lilacs and wisteria (another thing we cannot grow here). To see her lovely post, click here.

I have never painted these flowers before, but I know that it is difficult to capture the color and detail. This weekend, I took a few hours and found an online class by Kelli Folsom on how to paint lilacs. She luckily can pick them from her yard and this is a photo of her still life inspiration.

What I love about art and painting is that everyone has their own interpretation. Here is Kelli’s finished version.

And here is mine~~again not completely finished yet as I need to noodle it a bit more.

Now that I see these paintings side by side, I have an idea on what I can do to improve mine.

Kelli Folsom recently posted more lilac paintings. Unfortunately they are not subjects of an online class, but the paintings are up for sale on her website. Wish I had some extra cash laying around!

Practice makes perfect so I will be painting many more lilacs! Do you have a flower(s) that you love? That evoke wonderful memories? If so, please share.

Wishing you a Tuesday where you smell lots of flowers!

Teaming up with Kristin from White Arrows Home, Andrea from Design Morsels, Tarah from Grandma’s House DIY and Chas from Chas’s Crazy Creations for our DIY Blog Hop this month with projects for our dining rooms! (Make sure and check out all of the dining room projects following this tutorial) 

Many of my friends are still hunkering down due to the virus, but I long to have them over for a meal. I dream about entertaining again and since it is June, it is peony season. Unfortunately we cannot grow these beauties in Phoenix~~way too hot. Getting peonies at the store is unpredictable due to lack of inventory or poor quality.

But I love this ruffly, delicate flower and I wish I could just go outside and cut them. Instead, I get to create the atmosphere of peony abundance in our dining room and thankfully there are items that can help.

Hester & Cook sells “Peonies in Bloom” placemats, wrapping paper and place cards. The placemats are in a pad of 24 and they are designed and printed in the USA. I love the size~~12 1/4″ x 18 1/4″ ~~large enough for a full place setting.

Their coordinating wrapping paper is perfect for small guest gifts or to use as a runner down the center of the table. The place cards come in a pack of 12.

I tend to over think the dishes I will use. Selecting a plain white plate (from Pottery Barn) with a simple gold edge doesn’t compete with the beautiful peony pattern.

Though the dishes are a bit whiter than the placemats, I like them better than a creamier pattern. After trying multiple combinations of different china, I stick with my first choice. To see how I organize my china, please click here.

Once the dishes are selected, the table is able to come together rather quickly.

Using artificial white and blush peonies, I make simple napkin rings by wrapping the stem in a circle. These silk peonies are from The Enchanted Home.

The pink stemware is a combination of new and old. The wine glass is a Pier 1 Imports purchase, while the water glass is a vintage shop find.

The flatware is from Horchow and I find it so versatile because of the combination of gold and silver. The bee motif complements the flower theme. It appears that Horchow is out of stock but you can get this flatware through Wayfair.

The peony place cards fold and stand by themselves.

The dining room table is set for 6. The floral arrangements are a combination of fresh and faux peonies, cut low enough for conversation.

I like the colorful placemats against the mahogany table. I may not be able to grow fresh peonies here in the Valley of the Sun, but this happy, colorful and floral setting is perfect for a June luncheon.

So now that I have the table all set, my family will get the chance to enjoy it this weekend. I hope everyone can enjoy some peace and quiet this weekend. Have a blessed weekend.

This is my first “link” party and here is some information about the other participants.

Andrea from Design Morsels has such an eye for great design. Check out her custom dining room bookcases!

Kristin from White Arrows Home has a fabulous lakeside log cabin in Wisconsin and I love her mountain style.

Chas from Chas’s Crazy Creations is so innovative! She can turn just about any thrift store item into something delightful!

Tarah from Grandma’s House DIY lives in a 1915 farmhouse in Minnesota and is constantly sharing her renovations and inspirations.

Now if you would like to share your dining room projects or ideas, please click on the link below.

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• Tablescape Thursday #611- hosted by Between Naps on the Porch