Giveaway! Food! and a Tour! Oh My!

I wish that I could say that I have been gone doing fun stuff. But.... I can't. I have taken over the duties of office manager/bookkeeper for my husband's business. The bitty one is going to be going to preschool in the fall, so I am gearing up to take over parttime then.

No fun...

Do you know what is fun?

Getting this awesome giveaway from Lori at Wildflowers! You have no idea how much fun I have with this headband. I have been catching up on the bookkeeping wearing them. It's fun to see if I can get them to bump against each other. Love this magazine! I think that I have read and reread it about 30 times already!

I also got this awesome bag, card and cupcake too. I still want to know where is my royalty check for using my pic on the card though!

She also tucked in some cute recipe cards and coasters. My husband says the way I shop a psychiatrist would be cheaper though! She also sent some yummy candles too. Thank you so much Lori! You are just too generous and too sweet!

MWAAAAAAAH!

Next up we got some vittles! I invented this all by my lonesome! It is so yummy! My kids love it if that isn't proof how good it is!

I took a small tub of ricotta cheese, a package of frozen spinach, an egg, 8 oz shredded mozzarella cheese, salt and pepper. Mix together in a small bowl.

Then I took out all my aggression on a package of boneless skinless chicken breasts and pounded them flat.

Put a layer, not too thick, of the spinach mix onto the underside of the chicken breast.

Rolled it all up in puff pastry sheets cut into thirds. Seal up the ends really good. Bake at 350 degrees for an hour or until golden brown.

Oops almost forgot! I also sprinkled shredded Asiago cheese on the top before baking.

Mmmm.... doesn't that look yummy? Probably has about 3000 calories in it....

I also have a couple of pics of Mr Simpson and his fans! He did a walk through of the halls for the last time while the kids all lined up to wish him well. This is before he was sporting my contact lens on his shoulder.

Here is me and the bitty one before the waterworks started and ruined a perfectly good makeup job.

So now here we are up to the exciting and thrilling tour of Hartland, MI! Don't blink cause you may miss something. If you have to pee or need a refill on your coffee you will want to exit the bus now and do so.

This was a walking tour. 3 days of walking and I didn't even lose one stinking pound! Day 1 was the east side of Hartland. Day 2 was the west side of Hartland. Day 3 was the cemetery. I spared you with day 3 since we have already been there.

It started from my oldest's school which is about a block or so from the four corners in Hartland. No stoplights, just stop signs.

This is one of my favorite houses. It's an original Victorian that they have converted to a tea house/souvenier shop. It even has a cute name "Thyme Well Spent". It sits at the four corners.

This building used to be the hardware store. You can tell from the shape of it.

Here is the antique store. This was a general mercantile kind of store. I didn't get a pic of the top of it but it still has the false facade on the roof to make the building appear taller.

Another old building. You can see the facade to make it taller in this pic. Anyone want to rent a store in downtown Hartland?

Here is another old original house on Main Street. The door on the far left that faces the porch is a coffin door. The coffin door was for funeral purposes to bring the coffin in and out of homes when the body was on display. I have this same kind of style of house so I am wanting to pull off the siding to see if we have one of these. My hubby won't let me though. Funsucker!

An old barn that is part of this house.

Over in that tree line is the cemetery. Isn't it strange my morbid fascination with the cemetery and coffin doors?

Here is the 51 building that is used for the school district now.

This is was the courthouse. Now it is a church.

This church is original also. It was built in the 1800's. I love the stained glass! One of the windows has the name of a man who was killed building the steeple.

That was the east side. We are back to the four corners. Now for the west side.

This building used to be the firehouse. The large double doors on the front were to bring the fire wagon in and out. The historical society has purchased this building and is turning it into a museum.

Here is the old town hall. Now they call it the music hall and have different performances here throughout the year.

Here is my absolute favorite house in Hartland! I love love love this house! I would love to copy the second story and porches on our house. I keep telling my husband that one day I am going to ask the people if I can look around on the inside. He just rolls his eyes at me!

This home is one of 4 in Hartland that used to be a hotel. That tall rock in front of the house is actually and old soapstone pillar that was used for hitching up horses. There are two and they still have the hitching rings on them.

An old barn across the street that used to shelter the horses for guests staying at the hotel.

This is a beautiful stone house. The only one in Hartland. The family was poor and couldn't afford building materials so they went to farmers fields and collected the rocks to build a house. Ironic isn't it that these houses are pricey now.

It's hard to get a good pic of this house. This is called the sawdust house. The house is actually insulated by sawdust from the sawmill across the street. It was originally used as the ice house and converted to a home. The sawdust kept the ice cold until it was sold.

Here is the old sawmill across the street. They have added quite a few additions onto it to make it a home. You can still see the original sawmill though. The right side is where the water wheel would have been to operate the mill. Through the basement of this house the creek runs through it.

And now we are back to the four corners. The west side I forgot to take my phone with me to take pics so I drove past everything to take pics. Aren't I good to you?

That concludes our tour of Hartland. Exciting huh?!

Ugh, I guess now I have to get back to building the website and doing accounting.

One more thing!

Don't forget the Inspiration Party on the 30th! Hopefully once things get settled and more into a routine I will post more. I've got little itty bitty veggies to show you, lots of projects I have in mind and changes around the farmhouse!

So much to do! I better get scooting!