A Bit of Elegance and Simplicity

The other day I was trying to access a blog and it was taking forever to come up. Now, there is a website where you can find out how long it takes for your blog or website to come up. So I thought I'd test my blog and a few others to just see what the time is for several different types of blogs. Just a few examples for you:

Several blogs were 5.xx seconds range.
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One was 17 seconds.
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Another one was 11.5 seconds
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Another popular one with over 30,000 viewers was 31.2 seconds.
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Costco was 2.4 seconds
*Funny but Walmart wouldn't let me time it but it was instantaneous, which means they probably have a T-line and a fantastic IT person. :-)
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Amazon was 1.8 seconds.
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A news site was 4.1 seconds
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Etsy was 1.1 seconds, even with all the photos!
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My Photobucket was 3.2 seconds with almost 10,000 photos on it.
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The main Photobucket was 1.1 seconds.
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eBay was 2.29 seconds!
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One "celebrity" blogger, who has a LOT of stuff on her blog is 10.8 seconds.
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Another very popular blogger was 15.2 seconds
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Another "celebrity" blogger was 1.32 MINUTES.
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One blogger who I follow and like is 7.9 seconds
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One of my favorites is 7.3 seconds
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One popular blogger was 2.9 MINUTES to load! I'll never go back to that blog.
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Mine was 1.9 seconds, but I Photoshop all my photos to make them smaller in terms of jpg size. This shows that it definitely helps. Also, blogs with pngs are very, very slow.
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Apple's was 1.4, so they're one—along with etsy and Photobucket—who was faster than my blog. I find that incredible though.
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This is not scientific data, just fun.
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Haven't we all dreamed of having a little cottage shed in our backyard for either storage or just a place for ourselves? I have. I'll never have one but I daydream about it. Daydreams are alive and well in this home! I'm just too frugal and too old to get one.

This looks like a style that seems to be gathering steam as a new provocative style. Personally, I don't care for it but I'm sure a lot of Berkeley students are decorating as we speak. ;-)

Pink is all that needs to be said about this room.

I don't know where this is but from the architecture it looks like something on the East Coast rather than West Coast. I just wonder if those wood planks on the window open and close. It's a beautiful and extraordinary window.

For those of you who wish for spiral staircases. I don't think I'd want one simply because I don't like stairs at all, but this one is gorgeous.

Look how cute this pendant light made of canning jars looks. Perfect for a farmhouse look.

Well-worn and -used copper pots.

This is a restaurant in the Phillipines, where my daughter-in-law is from. Our son and his wife travel over there about every 5 years to visit her family. This is one of the cities they've visited. The water goes under the tables so you'd better be shoeless. I'm sure the kids love it!

I truly do love white with dark blue piping. I think I'd like it with pink piping much better though.

And yes, I'd love this chair also, exactly like it is with those stripes. Gorgeous!

Aren't the walls of this kitchen exquisite?

This is a shawl pin I saw on the internet. It actually keeps your knitted shawl or scarf together. Go visit Claudia and see her exquisite handmade scarves.

And this chair? This is the chair in my living room. It's the photo Thomasville sent me when the chair was made and ready for delivery. It's one of the most beautiful chairs I've ever seen and I just love having it in my home.*

I've always wanted to make a ding in the universe; I doubt I will, but I have no doubt I'll put a ding in a very minute portion of it.
Connie
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All photos courtesy of pinterest and tumblr.

Everyone Dreams of Cottages - Pink Saturday 3/17/12

Welcome to Beverly's blog for another Pink Saturday, the absolute best blog linky/party on the blogs. To view other participants, visit her.

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What exactly is a home? A cottage? A castle? A home is a place where one lives permanently. A cottage is described as a small simple house, typically one near a lake or beach, but I think it can be anywhere. A castle is a large building of group of buildings fortified against an attack with thick walls, battlements, towers and in many cases a moat. It can also be a magnificent and imposing mansion, especially one that is the home or former home of a member of the nobility and, dare I say, Hollywood people and rich owners of corporations. I have no problem with people having large, expensive homes. None at all.

My definition of home is a safe haven from the stress of the world. A place I can relax, feel safe, and have it warm and inviting. I don't need a big house or even a glamorous house; I just need a place that I know is mine, no matter what the storms in my life are. A house where it protects me from people I don't want to see. Or I can share with friends I feel safe with. A house I can sit in and watch the snow fall quietly while huddled in a warm comforter with a cup of very rich dark cocoa. A place hubby comes home to after a day of teaching a class or taking care of business while I take care of his home and make a delicious dinner for him, for which he is always grateful.

No, no mansion or big house for me. It just wouldn't suit us. We're really simple people. We enjoy each others company before anyone elses. We spend a great deal of time alone, just the two of us.
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I love the small angled solarium on this house, plus a private patio for eating. Privacy is a huge issue for me.

A sweet array of crafts hanging on a line makes a comfy statement in most homes.

I find this very quaint—the stone houses sitting by a stream with small outdoor eating areas and across from a woods. Romantic would be another word for this setting.

How in the world could anyone resist this setting? Lovely.

Your rose- and vine-covered cottage.

I can't remember ever seeing a 2 story cottage so square and small.

Beautiful, but it's too large for me to keep clean and I'm not fond of 2 story homes at my age.

Another rose- and vine-covered cottage. Oooh, squeeeeeal. I'd love this as a studio in my back yard. Hubs says if we did that he'd have to change the sprinkler system, so we know that ain't happenin', right?

While there would be privacy with its seclusion, any boater with binoculars could get a very good look! I'd pass on this one.

Vintage books and cards kept by a lover perhaps.

Cute, but I'd have to give it a coat of white paint. I'm not really into the raw, weathered look of wood much.

We've seen these huge tents around hunting season up in the mountains when we go camping late in the season. Personally, I'd love to have one of these instead of our pop-up camper. More space and more romantic.

For you lovers of cottages by the lake, this is one for you.

I think this is a downtown cottage if you understand what I mean. Most city dwellers don't get out to cottages in the woods. But this owner made her own little space seem like a cottage. I applaud her for her creativity. I think it's adorable.

While lovely, it's a bit dark for my taste.

This one certainly has my name on it! I think it would be perfect for me and hubs.

Or even this one would be acceptable. The roof lines and the colors entice me more than anything else.

I hope you've enjoyed viewing these little cottages. I think they are all exceptional.

Any idiot can face a crisis; it's day to day living that wears you out.
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All images courtesy of Pinterest

Beautiful Cakes and a Rant

What is the revolution, or could it be evolution, with themed parties for the last several years? Weddings, children's birthday parties, baby showers, bridal showers, grooms parties, or any ol' plain party for that matter. I think I've seen them all while searching for cakes.

I'm seeing the most elaborate cakes, decorations and themes I could never even have imagined. Some are just parties for no reason at all with what could only be several hundred dollars spent on the little cherub for whom the party is being given. I'm lucky I can even remember to get a cake for hubs' birthday, if even that! Caroline had a cake on her first birthday but no glittery decorations. Am I missing something here? Is this really for the kid or are the mommies competing to see who can throw the most elaborate Hollywood-type party for a kid who has absolutely no clue what is going on? I'm talking ELABORATE parties, the likes of which I've never seen or truly never even imagined—fantastic cake and cookies and candy and designer lemonades, candy beyond lollipops but handmade gorgeous candies, popcorn in designer holders, pretzels dipped and done up in gorgeous hangers, just beyond my imagination.

In doing a tiny bit of research on the cost of cakes, I found that they can be priced from $17 a slice to $200 a slice! Can you believe paying that much money for one cake? So if you're having 250 people, which I'm guessing is a close to average number for a middle class wedding, you'd maybe be paying $3,400 to $50,000 for a cake? Beyond insane in my book.

For Love Bunny and me, we've stopped going to most weddings and receptions as most of the couples have gotten a divorce within a few years. That's even in the Mormon community. What's up with that? We've gotten invitations to weddings that we've never even met the kids. I think they just scatter the invitations around for gifts. Well, I'm old enough now that I don't have to do anything I don't want to because I don't care what other people think. That's the advantage of obtaining senior status. ;-)

Rant over. Now, on with showing you some gorgeous cakes.

This one is French looking.

Is this chandelier divine or what?

This is actually a tiered cake that looks like it has tiered cakes. Very clever. However, it is not the prettiest of cakes; it looks more like a silo on a farm.

Cute decorated bottles in a very vintage container.

A ruffled cake which is one of my favorites.

Sweet decorations for a luncheon. I'm getting ideas for one I'm having soon.

Cute for a kid's party.

Neat storage idea for bathroom items.

This is a crêpe cake. One of my favorite desserts is crêpes stuffed with blueberries and whipped cream.

I would call this cake Nutcracker Suite Cake.

Oh, yeah, my idea of a great craft room!

I tried to see if a local bakery would make some like this but they said they would be cost prohibitive. I didn't care about price but they seemed reluctant to take on the job.

Can you even imagine having these in your garage to store items, much less somewhere in your home? Darling idea for a cottage.

Is this a sweet sweet shop or not? I'd love to visit it but I have no clue where it is; however, you can rest assured it isn't in Idaho!

My all-time favorite cake—coconut. Actually, my favorite dessert is coconut pie. Just love coconut!

And this actually is a cake. I don't know how they did it!


And this apple basket cake.

We all are lusting for this look in our cottages.
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In Hollywood a marriage is a success if it outlasts milk.

I'm thinking age is a very high price to pay for maturity now that I've got it. ;-)

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