SUNDAYS WITH CELIA VOL 90

Greetings! Welcome to Sundays With Celia Vol 90. I appreciate you being with me on what is a lovely Sunday here in beautiful Lake Arrowhead, California.

In Case You Missed It

Since last we met I gave you a tour of the cottage we rented during our family vacation in Maine. If you missed my post be sure to click here for a tour.

Progress On My Latest Renovation

It’s been a very busy week around here. We are moving full steam ahead on my latest renovation project in Big Bear Lake and the Master Bathroom took center stage this week. Here’s what the shower area looked like in the BEFORE photo below. It was a happy day when we demolished the dated glass block wall and removed that unsightly brown tile.

This is what the shower looks like today in process. My clients are a young couple with a moderate budget so we are keeping things basic but beautiful. The property will become a vacation rental as well, so we are not breaking the bank with our tile choices. The 3″ x 6″ White Ceramic Subway Field Tile is by Jeffrey Court from Home Depot and is only $1.29 sq. ft. We used Glossy Black Penny Round Tile by MSI for the shower and bathroom floors, also from Home Depot at $5.70 a sq. ft.  A cement gray grout was used on both. We retained the existing Oil-Rubbed-Bronze Plumbing Fixtures, which we felt we could live with and save some money.

Next week we will be installing a Frameless Fixed Shower Door by DreamLine. It’s called French Linea Toulon and runs $449.99 at Home Depot. I can’t wait to see it installed. Stay tuned and I’ll be sharing much more of the exciting progress on this renovation.

I Met Smokey Bear

Last week Smokey Bear turned 75 years old. In honor of his birthday the Lake Arrowhead Mountain History Museum invited the old bear to our mountain to greet residents.

Smokey Bear has played a huge role in spreading the message of wildfire prevention and forest conservation, something very important to residents of Lake Arrowhead. I wanted to meet Smokey Bear for 2 reasons: First, because I plan to decorate the kids’ bedroom in my Big Bear renovation in a forest theme, I wanted to get some Smokey Bear memorabilia for it. Smokey gave me this really special, hand-carved, wooden badge, which I plan to frame for that room.

The Second reason I wanted to go meet Smokey was for sentimental reasons. Growing up one of my best friend’s father was George Walsh, a popular radio and TV personality who was also the voice of Smokey Bear. You may recall the commercials where Smokey recited the familiar line, “Only you can prevent forest fires.” That was Mr. Walsh, a dear friend of the family who has since passed away, but still lives-on as we remember Smokey Bear.

Homemade Cherry Pie

Cherry season was late this year, at least here in Lake Arrowhead. I had a pretty good crop of cherries on my tree and managed to pick enough to prepare a couple of delicious homemade cherry pies before the birds got the rest.

I find that if I pick them just before they are completely ripe and still a bit sour they make a delicious pie, but the birds don’t like them yet. Except if you look closely at the photo below you can see where the wildlife beat me to their share of my hard won crop.

I’ve noticed that cherries are still in the grocery stores, so before they’re gone, get yourself some and cook up my yummy Recipe for Cherry Pie.

I call it “The Most Divine Cherry Pie Recipe” because it really is super delicious.

And it’s perfect for taking to a final summer picnic. Can you even believe summer is almost gone? I’ve noticed a few acorns beginning to fall from my oak trees, a sure sign fall is not far behind.

Cobb Salad For Dinner

We are one of those families that sits down to a home-cooked dinner almost every night. We always thought it was important to do so when our kids were growing up, and now that we have an empty nest Brad and I still eat dinner at home most nights. But the burden to dream up what to prepare for dinner every night can sometimes be difficult, especially when I’m busy and working away from home like I have been lately. I imagine many of you have the same dilemma on an ongoing basis. Well one night this week I came home and hadn’t a clue what to prepare. Then I remembered the trusty old Cobb Salad I hadn’t made in probably years, and knew I had most of the ingredients right in my fridge and freezer.

I grabbed a couple of boneless chicken breasts from the freezer, quickly thawed them out and grilled them up. I also had bacon in the freezer which I sliced while frozen and fried up until crispy. I toasted 2 slices of sourdough bread, buttered it and cut into cubes for delicious croutons. Next I hardboiled 3 eggs and chopped them up. I grated some sharp cheddar cheese, diced a couple of green onions and sliced up some cherry tomatoes. Finally I added a chopped avocado to the mix. All of these ingredients I then displayed on top of a bed of chopped iceberg lettuce.

A Cobb Salad is an easy one-dish meal that is delicious, attractive and filling. I like Ranch Dressing and always have the Original Ranch Dressing Mix on hand to make it fresh. All you do is add a cup of milk and a cup to mayonnaise to the powder and voila, you have fresh Ranch Dressing. Sometimes I blend it up in my Vitamix with a bunch of fresh cilantro and make delicious Cilantro Ranch Dressing. YUM!

Books I’ve Been Reading

One of the great pleasures in my life is belonging to a Book Club. We call ourselves the Well “RED” book club because we drink a lot of red (and white) wine when we get together once a month to discuss the books we’ve read. We meet for lunch on a Friday afternoon, usually at someone’s home, but during the summer we mix it up and go to the Lake Arrowhead Yacht Club, as we did this Friday, or to the Country Club, or we take field trips sometimes. This week not only did we meet for a Yacht Club lunch to talk about the book, Just Kids, by Pattie Smith, but we also went to the movies to see Where’d You Go, Bernadette. We had read the book way-back-when, when it first came out, and wanted to see the movie version of the book, which I loved and couldn’t put down. A couple of friends who joined us who hadn’t read the book agreed with the movie critics who said that the movie favors audiences familiar with the story and its anxious-genius main character. So, if you haven’t read the book, get it here and read it first. Then catch the movie. The acting by Cate Blanchett was simply superb, Oscar worthy in my humble opinion.

Well, I hope you are enjoying a lovely Sunday. Thanks ever-so-much for spending part of your day with me.

So there you have it: SUNDAYS WITH CELIA VOL 90

Thanks so much for dropping in!

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All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Unless otherwise noted, all photos are the original property of Celia Becker @ www.AfterOrangeCounty.com and may not be reproduced without specific permission. This post contains affiliate links. If you click on a link and make a purchase I may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you.  It’s what helps to make this blog possible. Thanks very much for your support.