Just you wait Henry Higgins!

This past Saturday:

still couldn't send e-mail from our new Mac {husband says we need to set up your account with Embarq} ohhhh!

A friend who was coming to the store stopped and got me a {cheeseburger w/ no onions, fries and a very big coke} ohhhhhhh! I haven't had a coke in a few weeks. What is it with trying to learn something new and eating, eating a lot, and cheeseburgers to boot?

We are still trying to learn our resizing program {no,not me after eating the Wendy's meal, although if I keep this up I might need a personal resizer} the Mac! ohhhhhhhhhhhhh!
{husband promptly showed me blogs etc. on the net about all this} Yes! The shop girls can get this!

Please still love us as we are trying to get our e-commerce up in the next few weeks. Our web developer is coming in on this Tuesday to have a pow-wow session with us. We need lots of hand holding through all this!
ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Meanwhile with that said most of the stock is in for our e-commerce, 95.9% of the pictures are taken. {I said that precise number to make all of you think, "wow she is really smart"!} Who am I kidding? I do not like numbers no way, just cute graphic numbers on this & that for display. We are really having a ball with this venture in a weird, nuts & bolts kinda of techie way. Can't wait to show you all the great graphics and the way we are going to have you shop...........ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, my!
"Just you wait Henry Higgins!"
The End
not yet, no way
yes, really----by for now!
k&d

E is for e-commerce {coming soon}

On Saturday we sat with our web developer and plugged away at learning a lot of things {which translates into trying to store it in our brains and remembering everything}!
We now know how to edit pictures & upload with our mac. Tomorrow will be busy retaking pics that didn't turn out ---- we hope it will be bright and sunny. We are glad we are taking everything in stride as with a website it's important to review completely--- fix this & that before launching. Everything must flow and be user friendly!
We do love how we are challenging ourselves with learning this new arena of e-commerce. We'll be in touch!
K&D

He is Risen!

Darcy, well Kip, made this cross {thank you} from the branches that fell from the last winter storm. I tried to get the whole cross in a picture but, the glass made it too complicated. Here is parts of it...Darcy finished decorating it this morning in the store. She tells me she was there at 7:00, as her hubby was heading down South to help rebuild houses from hurricane Katrina. Anyway she did a number on the store in those wee hours this Saturday morn. I on the other hand was snoozing in. I will post more on the venture that was going on today! Just wanted to post pics of our very large cross 5' tall and we are leaving it up awhile.
A glorious Easter to everyone. He is Risen, indeed!
K & D

"An apple a day"...........

Last Monday Darcy & I took off with our husbands to look at a mac computer. We headed to the apple store which was 1 1/2 hours from the "middle of nowhere". Voila, this computer now graces our store's back room. We now have the means to do anything creative with this machine, OK after the glazed look leaves our eyes and we figure out how to operate it! This means we now can upload our e-commerce pics with our web designer this Saturday. Yes, things are moving along, not as fast as we would like, but that's OK ........we want this venture to be done right. Many decisions to be made, it's like opening another store!

Meanwhile, many of you are getting ready for the Easter weekend. We posted pics of new things that arrived at the shop, some of which are vintage finds.

To everyone in the Midwest----stay dry!

Sailing O'er Life's Oceans

We were able to get a few details done today at the shop. Sara brought in gifts for us...... much needed tablets. Honestly there was no paper to write on, well I mean civilized tablets not printer paper! She also decoupaged our fun paper on clip boards---no excuses, we can be organized!
Thanks Sara for the treats.

Darcy was detailing the swans and we came up with "sailing o'er life's oceans"! We just received shipments this past week of fun things! Our shirts from France and PJ's, deck out with polka-dots, stripes....oh la la! We received lots of moss-y pots and little fun nests.
Come on in! We won't disappoint!

The Shop Girls Cook

We love to cook, main dishes that is but we actually made a fruit crisp as well. All this web-site building has made us well, pretty hungry. Also, we have never met a sauce we didn't like. We sell cookbooks every now & then at the store. We love' em!
I discovered this gal in our House Beautiful,
Susan Spicer a chef out of New Orleans. So we decided to tackle this main dish by her.
Enjoy!
*I added peach crisp recipe @ the end

Herb-Roasted Lamb Loin with Goat Cheese and Zinfandel Sauce
Serves 4 Prep time: about 45minutes

{*We subsituted a flat iron steak for the lamb loin.}

Goat Cheese Filling
3 oz fresh goat cheese, at room temperature

1/4 pound pancetta, diced and cooked until crisp

2 tablespoons diced marinated sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil

1 teaspoon herbes de Provence or fresh herbs of your choice i.e. rosemary, thyme or basil

1 garlic clove, minced

This filling can be made one day in advance. Using a fork, combine goat cheese, pancetta, tomatoes, herbs, and garlic in a small bowl. Chill the mixture for a few minutes to allow the flavors to meld. When ready to use it, let the cheese mixture soften slightly at room temp.

Zinfandel Sauce
1 cup Zinfandel or full-flavored red wine

1 medium shallot, finely minced

2 sprigs fresh thyme or rosemary, or a combo

2 cups lamb stock (or substitute chicken stock) I used canned

2 tablespoons butter, cut in four pieces
salt and pepper

Place the wine, shallot, and herb in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer until liquid is reduced by half. Add the stock, bring to a boil, then lower the heat and let it simmer until reduced to 1/2 cup of liquid. Remove the herb sprigs.
Whisk in the butter, 1 piece at a time. The sauce should be glossy and slightly syrupy (but not so thick that it sticks your lips together; add a tablespoon or two of hot water if it gets too thick). Taste and season with salt and pepper.

Lamb (or a flat iron steak in our case)
1 1/2 pounds boneless lamb loin,
cut into 4 ( 6-ounce) portions

Salt and pepper

1 tablespoon olive oil

Goat cheese filling

Zinfandel sauce

Season the lamb with salt and pepper. Heat the olive oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat until almost smoking. Sear the lamb on both sides for a minute or so, to brown, and then reduce the heat and cook each side 3-4 minutes longer. Transfer to a plate and rest. You may serve the loins whole or sliced, with equal portions of the goat cheese mixture crumbled along the top and Zinfandel sauce spooned over it.

Fresh Peach Crisp
Yield: 12 Servings
Crisp
5-6 cups peeled and sliced peaches (about 6 large) ok this is March in Ohio and there is no peaches around so I found in the canned section freestone peaches, now my mother goes ga-ga over these in the summer and when they come up from Georgia--she loves this variety of peaches. I thought this was a good pick & used two large cans of these.

1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup dry cooking oats
1 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 sticks margarine, melted

Vanilla Creme Fraiche
1 8oz. container sour creme or creme fraiche or sour cream
1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
4 1/2 teaspoons sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Place peach slices in an ungreased 9x13 inch baking pan. sprinkle w/ sugar
Combine flour, oats, brown sugar, and cinnamon in a mixing bowl. Add margarine and mix well. Spoon evenly over fruit.
Bake 40-50 minutes. Serve warm with Vanilla creme fraiche or icecream
To make Vanilla creme fraiche, place creme fraiche in a medium bowl. Add seeds from vanilla bean. Stir in sugar. Cover and refrigerate 1 hour, or up to 3 days. Serve w/ fresh fruit or fruit desserts.

Give us this day our daily bread

I just wanted to share this with friends. We are fast approaching Easter and want to focus on this time of year as it means a lot to us. I don't want to go on and on but I do believe as I stumbled on this I want to share it with you. Have a blessed day and let me know what your thoughts are. I just wanted to do better this morning with my walk with Jesus Christ. I hope this makes your day! (After you go to the link, you can print Nancy's message to really study these thoughts, believe me I need to!)

Love,
Kara

Lovely, Lovely---Blizzard Special Today

No, and we're not talking DQ here---it's the real deal. Anyway we are closed today. Most businesses are closed and we're not supposed to be on the roads. We posted this message on our answering machine thanks to "techie Darcy"as she did this all from her house. So, after my husband ventures out through the drifts to get my camera I can post pics of spring things in the store. I will not post any pics of the conditions outside as we are not going to dwell on this matter any more! I will get fun treats up shortly.
Chirp, Chirp
K&D

"Open, open -- pretty please!"

We feel like our web boutique's home page has butcher paper covering it. "What do you mean?" you ask. Well, you know when a brick -and- morter store gets ready to open and all you see is white butcher paper covering the windows. You really want a peek because the store has a darling sign posted
{coming soon......please excuse us whilst we prepare for our opening! }This is how we feel with our web boutique, you can't click on anything and not all the illustrations are on the screen, yet.
Also, no merchandise for you to peruse. All you want to do is implore "open, open pretty please"!
Well, oui, gals it's coming and for you guys who dislike wrapping your gifts--you know how we do it all up at Mc & Storm---it's coming soon.
We are obsessed with details, we want the best for our customers! So for now, the white butcher paper is still up and we are working hard to prepare for our special opening in a few weeks. Hang in there!
K&D

All in a day's work

{Because our store must always be true to our vision............new & fresh @ our "petite department store"}

Busy Bees

So much going on----our fingers can't keep up with what's going on in our heads.
Website is proceeding, which is very exciting to take our store and create our aesthetic on a flat screen. Challenging but we are coming along with that aspect!
Today lots of action at the store---working with displays!
Have a great weekend!