Cafe's and Dog Walkers

Each corner it seems in Recoleta has a little bakery cafe, and we had one next door to our apartment.  Very nice!  Breakfast is not big in Buenoa Aries.  You have coffee and tostadas, which are little round pieces of toast and a spread that tastes like mayo.  Or coffee and croissants that are glazed with sugar.

 This is a VERY dog friendly city, it seems everyone has a dog and dog walkers are out with their charges early in the morning.  I took this pic from our balcony of an apartment building across the street and the walker picking up another dog, i think he had 11 dogs, but we saw up to 15 with some walkers!

(Note the fall leaves, they have opposite seasons to ours).

One of our favorite place's that we visited was the Recoleta Cemeter!

Visiting El Ombu de Areco!

Another favorite of our visit to Buenos Aires was a visit to an estancia (ranch)! Actually this was my favorite thing that we did, as you know if horses are involved I am going to love it!

 The town of San Antonio de Areco is a little over an hour from Buenos Aires and is reported to be the birthplace of the gaucho tradition.

 We took a bus early in the morning to the little town and a driver met us and drove us to the estancia and told us a little of the history of the area during the drive. When we arrived a young women met us along with several dogs and took us to the dining room where we were served delicious croissants, empanadas, juice and coffee.

 The rustic dining room.

Notice the lighting fixtures and beautiful french windows.  You can see the shutters peaking through.

This is the main house on the property a Late-Colonial style mansion which was built in 1880 by Lieutenant-general Pablo Riccheri.  It is now owned by the Boelcke family and has been since 1934.

  After our first ride we had Argentine wine and snacks here on the lovely wide veranda.

Isn't the tile beautiful?

We met our horses while the mist was still rising from the ground.

And our guide, a real Gaucho!  Note the sheep skin over the saddle, this made for a very cushy ride, I may have to carry a sheep skin with me every time I ride!

Lunch was served al fresco.  We were treated to Argentinean barbecue and local wines.  The weather was perfect and the meal was one of the best I had while we were in Argentina ( I say one of the best!)








After our meal we were serenaded by one of our gaucho's and then and a demonstration of horse training by this young man which was impressive.  

I wish we had planned a longer stay here,  maybe next time!

Below is the estancia's namesake the Ombu tree.

Recoleta Cemetery

As cemetary's go the Recoleta Cemetery is amazing and beautiful, so much so we went twice! The cemetery has been a burial place of notable and wealthy family's in Buenos Aires since the early 1800's. We saw tombs of past generals, presidents and of course Eva Peron. Something that was interesting to me is they had stairs going down into each tomb. Generations of family's coffins stacked with the latest person's coffin or urn on display upstairs. Sorry about the blur but you can kind of see the stairs going down in the above photo! I know, vampires right?! In spite of the spooky factor, it is beautiful and I have never seen anything like it. This little boy with the ivy growing over him was lovely to me, and the larger sculpture showing the mother and baby. Most of the tombs are well taken care, of but some look like they have not been attended to in many years. Maybe the family has died out, sad to think of.

If you ever get to Buenos Aires the Recoleta Cemetery is a must see!

Argentina!

We just got back from a wonderful trip to Argentina!  I thought I would share a little of our trip.  We stayed in an apartment in the Recoleta neighborhood which is known for its French architecture.  It is a wealthy neighborhood home to private family mansions, foreign embassies and luxury hotels.


The front door to our apartment.

Copperwood Tavern! Yum!

Last night I met with my book club friends for dinner and a movie.  I was a first for all of us to visit Copperwood Tavern in Arlington's Shirlington neighborhood.  I have to say it was delicious!  Copperwood is a farm to table restaurant.  We each go a "protein", I had pecan encrusted trout which was perfection.  I find sometimes trout is mushy even straight out of the stream but this had a wonderful texture.  For our sides, which are served family style we ordered truffled mac & cheese, grilled asparagus and beer-butter mushrooms.  I forgot to take pics of the food (talking to much) but I did snap a glance of the bar area while enjoying a little red wine.

The movie we saw was The Lunchbox it was a really sweet film set in Mumbai.  I recommend it!!

Thanks to my book club friends for another lovely evening!  

Yes, this is what I saw this morning!

What I should be enjoying this time of year is this!

I took these pics last year around this time.  This is Georgetown, with its beautiful historic homes and wonderful gardens.  

Instead this is what I am looking at this morning!

  I think this will be the last of the bad weather and it looks like spring is coming.  I do have daffodils blooming under this snow and my peony stalks are up about four inches.  I do love spring and fall and I can hardly wait to start digging in the dirt!

Snow, Snow and more Snow

This was our back yard on St. Patrick's Day 2014! No green to be seen!

Cabinet Molding process

The first step was to apply a brace behind the cabinet top to hold the MDF which would raise the hight of the cabinet.

Next the moulding was applied to the top of MDF

We put a little trim piece on the seam of cabinet and MDF to hide the small space. And behold! I love the way they turned out! We put rope lighting on the top of the cabinets for a little light and mood. Thank you Layla and Kevin at www.theletteredcottage.net for the wonderful idea!

Installing cabinet molding!

When we decided to get new appliances we got all excited and repainted our cabinets and walls. I didn't really like the space above the cabinets anymore. I had always tried to create vignettes and it looked cluttered to me. Then after our venting was installed we had to do something! I am a follower of The Lettered Cottage a wonderful blog by Layla and Kevin. They have fresh idea's and courage to really brighten a home. In one of Laya's DIY's she installed cabinet moulding to her builder grade cabinets, wow, what a difference, it made them look custom!  I convinced hubby that he could do this! We started out with a shaker style cabinet from Wellborn.

Burrr! It's cold outside!

Even though it's cold it is also sunny here, so I thought I would go thrifting! And look what I found!

I think these are old but I really don't know, they are ironstone no markings and say "Our Daily Bread". I am going to give the smaller one to my Daughter.

I love transfer ware, the plate is marked Upper Hanley pottery England, Florence Court. The covered servers are J & E Mayer, Doris. I understand this manufacture made a lot of tableware for hotels and trains. Anyway, it is always fun looking and I got it all for $20.00, not a bad price for a day of entertainment!

Happy New Year!

Wishing you all a happy and healthy New Year!