Our Household/Family binder is one of those tools that provides me with peace of mind. We’ve all asked ourselves, “if I had to leave my house suddenly, what would I take?” I would definitely grab this binder. With technology, you could put all this information on your computer. But I’m still not convinced our data is secured. Our Household/Family binder is packed with pertinent information organized into tabs. This is an active and working tool in our everyday lives.

Reason Behind Creating this Binder

In 2001, the great tragedy of 911 shocked our nation and the world. Suddenly, terrorism was at our doorstep and the way we proceeded with life changed drastically. At that time, I have a 9 month old, and two toddlers. My husband is traveling domestically and internationally. And we are attending large, heavily crowded events. The feeling of vulnerability forced me to think about all the “what ifs.”

In October 2001, we are scheduled to take an international trip and a trans-Atlantic cruise. This is our first trip ever without the children. Plus we would be completely out of touch for periods of time. A rotating set of trusted caregivers will be watching the children. How will they know about all the ins and outs of the house? And God forbid, what if something happened to us? Or one of the children?

It is very much my nature to focus during unsettling times and create working solutions as a way to feel a little more in control. This is when I developed this binder.

A Well-Used Binder

Fast forward to 2020 and the binder is somewhat laughable. In its current condition, the binder is falling apart. All updated information has been shoved inside. You can tell by the cover photo that it was last officially updated in 2009. It is covered in stains and spills too, but obviously well used!

What is currently happening in our country is disconcerting. For me, it is reminiscent of the fear and chaos of 2001. And in the last 19 years, our life stage has changed. Our children are older with two of our 3 children living independently. Some of the information is now obsolete and outdated. So it is time to refresh and clean up the binder.

Making the Binder/Tabs

Find a binder that you like with the proper size spine. Mine is an 1.5″ 3 ring binder with clear plastic cover. It is simple to make a spine label using Word. The tab inserts are made using Avery Label downloadable template.

Tabs in the Binder

Here is a list of the tabs I have in our binder. Obviously you can tailor this to fit your family and lifestyle.

• Emergency Information
• Children Information
• House Info/Contacts
• Auto Info
• Insurance (house, auto, life)
• Animal Information
• Security Procedures
• Paint Colors/Filter Sizes

What Goes in Each Tab

Since we do have house sitters to look after our animals and home, the emergency section includes pertinent information for someone who doesn’t live here on a regular basis. We also have a separate binder for house sitters with daily instructions on mail, garbage, how to work the television, when to feed the pets, etc.

Emergency Info

• Water Shut Off instructions
• What to Do in a Power Outage
• What to Do if a car is stolen
• Who to Contact if something were to happen to us (with their names, addresses, phone numbers, relationship, etc.)
• List of immediate neighbors and their contact information
• Police Emergency and Non-Emergency #s

Children Info

• Doctors contact information
• Each child’s DOB, SS#, Contact Info
• All vaccinations
• Copies of Passports, Credit Cards, Global Pass, Medical Insurance

Home Information/Contacts

• Our House Street Address and phone number
• List of all contractors/maintenance personnel and their contact information
• All Utility companies account #s and phone numbers

Auto Information

• Insurance Identification Cards
• Make, Model, VIN#, License Plate to each car
• Names and Addresses for Car Repair
• Auto Insurance Information
• Road Side Service Information
• Onstar Information
• Copies of Drivers Licenses, Recent Auto Repairs

Home/Auto/Life/Medical Insurance

• Summary of Residential and Auto Coverage
• All current insurance policies for home(s), car(s), life, umbrella, travel

Security Procedures

• Alarm Instructions
• Fire Alarm Instructions
• How to Operate Gates
• Legend for Alarm Codes
• Programming Guide

Animal Information

• List of animals, their breed, description, age
• Veterinarian/Groomer contact information
• Animal Control License #s
• Microchip Information
• Current pictures of each animal
• Vaccination Certificates
• Recent Medical information

Paint Colors and HVAC Filters

This section may seem a bit out of line with the others, but I cannot tell you how many times I reference our paint colors. Plus the filters are replaced every month and we have several vents. This is a great section to add items like this.

• Current paint colors for exterior and interior of all buildings
• List of sizes of filters for each area of the house

The House/Family information binder is a time saver too. If I need a copy of a passport or medical identification card, it is readily available, without me having to search. When the children were little, I would have current photos with their height, weight and descriptive information readily available. Who can remember all of that, especially in the middle of a crisis or emergency?

My theory is that if you plan and prepare for the worst, then the worst will never happen. Do you have a Household/Family Binder? With an active and busy life, it is comforting to know that there is a place where important information is kept and can be accessed easily.

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Turnabout Tuesday #65-My Wee Abode

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I can honestly say I felt a slight drop in temperature this weekend. Well, even though it remains hot here, it is a perfect time to think about styling for fall!

What a grueling summer we are having. For the next several weeks, fall weather will tease us. But every year, we get our Indian summer and the temperatures will go way up again. But a girl can dream about crisp, cooler mornings and wearing long sleeves again, right? It’s only a matter of time Fall will be here, so why not think about styling for fall now?

Despite the lingering summer heat, it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t get into the mood. Today’s blog post is pulling out the best of fall decorating from previous years.

It’s hard to believe it was two years ago that I made these life size autumn trees. To see this DIY, click here.

This year I am thinking about making several smaller fall trees, ones I can put on mantels or use as centerpieces.

Or maybe large branches with fall leaves on them? Each year we go to the mountains and I will cut branches from real trees that have autumn leaves. I feel a bit guilty doing this so it might be time to create faux ones that I can use year after year.

I am a big fan of Rosy Rings candles as each one looks like a work of art and smells heavenly. The candles are in investment, but they last from year to year. Plus they make terrific gifts. Click here for the link.

I cannot wait to pull this out again soon and fill the rooms with a seasonal fragrance. There’s a bit of a story around this Spicy Apple Candle. Click here for the post.

Each year I decorate one of my prized antiques, a Hepplewhite secretary, dating from 1790 to 1800. I bought this at a time when I had little disposable cash and every penny counted. But I am so glad I made the investment because it gives me such joy.

With 4 glass shelves, I get to do some creative fall magic with it. Too bad it is tucked into a corner of the living room, but I am always pleased to doll it up for this season. To see how I decorated it in the past, click here.

An easy, quick way to add seasonal decor is to switch up pieces of art. I don’t recall where I purchased the art above (I think an auction house), but it screams autumn. In addition, I have a few pieces I have personally painted, but now I am inspired to create a new one.

It doesn’t take much to add color and texture to your fall seasonal decor to your kitchen. A coffee cups, pumpkins, and hand towels are affordable ways to change things up a bit. Here are some cute towels on Amazon.

This spring I acquired a few great yard sale finds. This particular piece, especially with the artwork above, gives an autumn vibe in our family room. I cannot wait to play with the decor and see how I can change it up.

So are you ready for fall? Is it getting cooler where you live? If so, send some lower temperatures our way. Since we are without children, the fall decorating this year will be just for us. I have a new front door color that is more spring/summer-ish so that will be an interesting challenge to decorate. To see the new front door color, click here.

My fall focus is going to be on natural and already owned items. For the natural items I am dreaming about acorns, pinecones, branches, succulents and wood. My collection of baskets, scarves, throws, pottery and lots of velvet pumpkins will be incorporated.

Do you have any decorating plans for the fall? Please share your thoughts and ideas as you always inspire me! Have a terrific Tuesday. Happy September!

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Charming Homes and Gardens #64

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If you have ever owned a historical home, there is a sense of stewardship that comes with it. For me, it’s hard to imagine someone prior to 1910 dreaming about building this house we now enjoy. But many older homes are stripped of the original architecture and details, losing historical authenticity, for more modern design and function.

The Design-Architect Unknown

In 1910 Feng Shui wasn’t a well known concept here. But the architect knew how to design this structure with a flowing floor plan. How innovative to create ways to capture the light, protect itself from the harsh summer sun/heat and feel warm and engaging in the winter~all without air-conditioning.

Multiple fireplaces provide heat. The exterior walls are 18″ thick, built with bricks and designed to allow good air flow. Imagine that.

When I come downstairs in the morning, I always take the front staircase. The bottom step places me into the eastern morning sun pouring into the windows in the Spring and Winter months. During the summer, the large 3 foot wide exterior overhang blocks the bright, blistering sun and bathes the rooms in ambient light. It is quietly magical.

One of my favorite visual sites is standing in the dining room and looking through the foyer into the living room. It is as if the architect is trying to put the rooms in a frame, like a painting.

Adding the Mechanicals

The challenge with restoring a house that is rich in history is how do you preserve its authenticity, while making it livable in the 21st century. This is the state of the house after purchasing it in 1999. There is no central air conditioning. The existing coal chute is still in the basement. All the windows are rope and pulley with single paned glass. The electrical panel has a Frankenstein switch and bees are making hives in the walls. It is uninhabitable.

Adding all new mechanicals is a critical step and we take great care to hide as much as we could. HVAC chase vents are made to look like part of the wall and architecture. The above picture shows a corner of the dining room where the HVAC chase blends in with the original trim and cove ceiling.

The Details

Beautiful detailed brass vent covers are painted with pastel colors from a previous owner. Re-plated with brass, they are stunning reminders of a different time.

All the windows require replacing and are custom made to today’s standards. Thank you, Marvin Windows. Each and every detail of the original sash, head, grill, mullion, ogee, casing, sill, stool and apron is replicated. Most of the windows are 6 or 8 panes over 1. Windows created for new parts of the house are crafted to look like they have always been there with fine moldings and windowsills.

Walls, Doors and Floors

I don’t know about you but I can tell the difference in sound when I enter a room with plaster walls vs. drywall. It is difficult to find someone that does high quality plaster work in Phoenix. Maybe it’s easier back east or in historical communities, but our contractor wanted us to remove all the lathe and plaster(with its horse hair) and replace it with drywall. Cheaper, faster and easier was his reasoning.

Many of the walls are severely cracked, or in the case of my son’s room, saturated with honey from the bees. There are many problems in fixing the plaster but in retrospect, I’m glad I held my ground. It is the subliminal and solid quietness of plaster gives a sense of strength to these walls.

The same goes for real hardwood floors vs. engineered or laminate. I can tell the minute I step on a floor whether it is the real deal or not. The light Canadian beech planks are 2 1/8″ wide and an amazing 12′ long. You can’t find lengths like that today in real hardwood. Though we matched the flooring in the new areas, they lack the patina and history as the original.

In restoring the house, we found original pocket doors buried in the walls in the dining room. This 5 panel door style is the template for all the new doors we added in the house.

The House Today

These are just a few elements of design we used to achieve historical authenticity. Are we purists? No. The kitchen and bathrooms are 21st century. We now have air conditioning vs. sleeping porches.

But I believe that when you step foot into this lovely, unique historical home, you clearly get a sense of what life was like 108 years ago. Over time, the land was carved up into other parcels and we cherish the remaining 2 acres. With Phoenix being the fastest growing city in the U.S., we only hope this land stays whole. It certainly will as long as we are living here.

We feel blessed to call Bella Terra home. As we continue to add memories here, we hope to enrich this space even more with love, laughter, kindness, joy and hope.

Sending Wednesday hugs to all! If you want to see some of the original restoration stories and pictures, check out The Restoration Chronicles, Chapters 1-5. Have a wonderful day!

Here is a peek into our home office. I have not shown this room before, probably because it tends to get messy! The home office is located upstairs between my art room and the master bedroom. As much of our home interior is painted white and neutral colors, the office space is more masculine and dark, reminiscent of an old law office. My husband uses it primarily as his main work area.

The office is a highly functioning U-shaped space with French doors leading out to the wrap around outdoor terrace. This second story location provides expansive views to the east, south and west. To see more about this terrace, click here.

The custom-made cabinets are stained a cherry/ebony color with a high gloss finish. When designing the space, we needed lots of book shelves and filing space for important documents and records.

On one side of the short U, is the copier station. All the business supplies are stored below~file folders, binders, copy paper, ink and back up school supplies.

On the other end of the U, is a small secondary workstation. Even though I don’t do much of my work there, I do consider it my space.

Here is where I display a collection of watercolors of a previous home. When I lived in Alameda, California in an 1894 Victorian, a group of plein air painters asked if they could conduct an art class in front of the house. Four artists spent the day with their chairs and easels carefully studying the lines of the house.

Each painting expresses a different perspective. But since I couldn’t decide which one I liked the best, I purchased all four of them.

Located below the bookcases are numerous filing drawers which are perfect to keep all the required documents like taxes and titles.

The main workstation has access to the desk and computer station by way of a swivel chair. Sorry for the photo quality~lack of natural light.

An old pottery crock holds all the blueprints to the property. It is time to go in and clean out old tax records and documents again. I try and do that every 3 years or so, but it is an easy job to drop down to the bottom of the procrastination list.

I hope you enjoyed seeing our home office and forgive me for the less than high quality photos. To read more about the restoration of the 2nd story master bedroom, bath and office, click here.

Part of me is tempted to paint all the cabinets a high gloss blue, but again, there is a long list of other projects that require attention. This one would be a fun design change, but certainly not necessary. What do you think?

Wishing you a great Tuesday!

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The world needs more lavender to promote calmness and wellness, don’t you think? I love sachets, but the larger lavender pillows are getting my attention lately. However, is it me or do they seem expensive? $49.95 for a 7″ square lavender pillow? So what better way to get a lavender pillow than make them yourself.

Finding the Right Lavender

Naturally I am seeking a highly fragrant, good quality lavender. Though I have lavender growing around our property, it isn’t all that fragrant after I dry the buds. To see a previous post on lavender, click here.

On Etsy, I found lavender buds (Lavandula Augustifolia) that are bulk wholesale, mostly used for weddings from StressTamerSpa. The reviews are excellent, plus you have the option to order 1/4 lb. up to 10 lbs.

The minute I received the 2 lb. package in the mail I knew what is was because of the heavenly scent. Lavender doesn’t weigh all that much so two pounds is quite a good quantity.

Picking Fabric

Over the years I have collected lots of fabrics. But there are many things you could use~old vintage napkins or handkerchiefs. I even have a old embroidered tablecloth that has seen better days. Taking cuts of fabric from it might just be lovely.

For a 7″ square pillow, cut two pieces fabric 8″ x 8″ (allowing for 1/2″ seam on all four sides). You can mix or match patterns or keep both sides the same. Or you could just fold one piece of fabric 8 x 16″. To make this easy, I put blue tape on the counter as a measurement guide.

Put the same side fabric together and pin if necessary.

Once the fabric is cut, I machine-stitched the seam 1/2″ from the fabric edge, leaving a small un-stitched section. If you don’t have a sewing machine, these pillows are small enough to slip stitch the edge. If you decide to do that, just adjust the overall measurements without the 1/2″ seam.

I always like to clip the corners so they are crisp and not rounded. Turn the pillow where the front of the fabric is facing out.

Filling the Pillow

Well, I tried this two ways and the second attempt is the way to go. Using a large measuring cup, I put the pillow in the bottom with the hole at the top. This way, if I spill any lavender it will be collected vs. all over the kitchen.

At first I used an orange, rubber funnel with a relatively narrow spout. The lavender buds slowly went into the pillow. This took some time……too much time in my opinion. However, I filled the pillow with approximately 6 oz. of lavender buds.

I slip stitched the hole closed. Sorry I failed to take a photo as I was talking on the phone at the same time. The downsides to multi-tasking!

The next pillow, I made the hole bigger and rolled up a piece of copy paper to use as a funnel. This way I could pour a larger quantity of lavender in much faster. The paper allowed the buds to slip right in.

So here is how the first two came out! Honestly, being around this much lavender makes you a bit loopy and mellow! I felt like I needed fresh air as the scent is so strong! But aren’t they cute?

I am so lucky to have some friends in my life that have helped with recently, and I will give these lavender pillows as gifts.

The hope is that the two pound bag of lavender will fill 5-6 pillows. At $39.99 for the bag, that’s $6.67 to $8.00 per pillow. Sure beats spending $49.95 per pillow! I didn’t time how long it took me to make one, but it wasn’t that long. And inhaling all this lavender has made this afternoon so relaxing!

Happy Saturday to you! We had a huge monsoon storm the other night and finally a bit of rain. The yard is a mess with all the plant debris so this weekend will be filled with clean-up chores. Hope you have a fun weekend planned! See you next week.

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Lately I have been craving zucchini….go figure. I’ve been lightly sautéing it in butter with salt and pepper and just eating bowlfuls of it. However, I still have more in the refrigerator and decided to whip up an old favorite, zucchini lasagna. This low-carb dish is a repeat meal at our home and it freezes well too.

With the balance of the zucchini, I thought I would try Ambitious Kitchen’s recipe for Grain-Free Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter zucchini bread.

Making Zucchini Lasagna

I tend to stray from recipes based on what I have in the fridge. Sometimes I make it without meat and sometimes with either turkey or ground beef. Since we are cutting down on our red meat consumption, this recipe also works well with ground turkey or chicken.

Quite honestly, anything smothered in tomato sauce and cheese is very edible in my opinion. For this recipe I am using 1 lb. ground turkey.

First I slice the zucchini really thin….it helps if you have a mandolin where you can adjust the blades. Arrange the zucchini in a colander and sprinkle each layer with salt. Set the colander somewhere it can drain.

After sautéing the onions and garlic in olive oil, I add the turkey. Turkey tends to be bland so here is where you want to step up the seasoning.

I add onion powder, garlic powder, Worcestershire sauce, red wine, salt, and pepper.

For the tomato sauce, I used up all the leftover sauce in the refrigerator and also added some roasted tomatoes I made last week. This is another worthy “clean out the fridge” recipe. To see another recipe where you use whatever you have in the refrigerator, click here.

Since my container of ricotta was opened and not completely full, I added some leftover cottage cheese, slightly beaten egg, and some spinach.

In a greased casserole dish, layer the bottom with the half of the tomato/meat sauce.

The next layer is the zucchini but I blot it first with paper toweling as the salt makes the zucchini “sweat”.

Using the ricotta mixture, spread that on top of the zucchini slices.

Top with cheese. I didn’t have any mozzarella, but I did have Monterey Jack.

Now repeat the entire process again, starting with the tomato/meat sauce on top of the shredded cheese.

Top the final layer with the Parmesan cheese. Cover the casserole with foil and bake in a 325 degree oven for 45 minutes. Remove the foil, increase the temperature and bake another 15 minutes (or longer to get the top brown and bubbly).

Any leftovers freeze well. I am always delighted when I am starving and I find a serving in the freezer waiting for me.

Grain-Free Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Zucchini Bread

Since I already had all the ingredients this went together very quickly.

It feels a bit like cheating to have vegetables in your dessert, right? But zucchini provides a rich texture and moisture in this low-carb, nutritious recipe. Click here for the direct link to Ambitious Kitchen’s recipe for this.

Below I’ve included the recipe for the lasagna from All Recipes. However, again, I tend not to follow it completely but it does provide a guideline for quantities and ingredients. I believe you can add and subtract ingredients and it will still taste fabulous. A recipe that is flexible is my kind of recipe.

Happy Wednesday! Eat your veggies! And stay safe out there.

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