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The final stop on our virtual holiday tour takes us to the Christmas living room for 2020. This room seems to decorate itself. When joe requested that at least one room in our home have carpet I knew the living room needed plaid. The set up of our house is very seasonal. In the winters […]

It started with hauling out a faux Christmas tree back in November that was way too big for this room. Otto was begging to put up a Christmas tree but it was too early to get the real one that we put in our living room. We went to the pole barn and I tossed […]

Nobody puts baby in a corner. Especially if she’s dutch. I whipped up this gruyere and onion dutch baby last week Sunday for our stay at home brunch (again). It was an act of desperation I guess one could say. It was the end of the week and I hadn’t bought groceries yet so it […]

We are slowly making our way through the virtual holiday tour of my home this year. I’ve had so much fun getting out all of my collections with Otto this year. So far we’ve had only two ornament casualties and one was because he bolted into the living room and cuffed the aluminum tree with […]

This year in lieu of parties and guests and gatherings I thought I would focus on getting out all of my vintage Christmas collections. They needed a good cleaning, organizing and inventory as year after year I hurriedly tossed them in bins after the holidays. This year I got everything out and grouped my collections […]

Creating this guide, gifts for the gardener makes my heart ache a little. I miss the morning walks through the garden. Now they’re just covered in snow. I think though that this gift guide is the one I’m most passionate about because if you are buying for someone in your life who loves to garden […]

Otto is at the stage where he could play with tiny figurines and play sets for hours. This comes in really handy while we are all working from home and have conference calls throughout the day. He loves mixing everything together and it’s so fun to watch his imagination work when he plays. It’s hilarious […]

I needed a brain break last week. I wanted to be creative and I also wanted some pumpkin pie. I feel like pumpkin pie is similar to candy corn. You either love it or it’s garbage. I could eat candy corn by the fist full and I would argue that a good pumpkin pie might […]

Fall nights on the farm are a completely different kind of magic than summer nights on the farm. When I pull in the driveway at night coming home from work the sun is shining directly on the fall leaves illuminating all the colors. It’s bitter sweet because each day there is a larger and larger […]

Making marshmallows is a combination of art and science. It’s about time, speed, temperature and setting. I have been working on perfecting my marshmallows and these in the future I’m going to work on getting them a little more fluffier. Homemade marshmallows by nature are a little more dense (and sticky) but so so delicious […]

Every Wednesday Otto and I visit the farmers market before taking him to school and we load up on pumpkins for the front porch. I finally had a chance to arrange them a few days ago on the porch and Otto was very adamant that the porch needs to be spooky. It’s so fun having […]

My mom and grandma make the best bread pudding and one of them usually makes it every Thanksgiving and Christmas and while some would call it a dessert….we Hoppens call it a side dish. Saturday was a cool crisp fall morning and the first one of the season and we had every intention of venturing […]