A Hot Brown at The 16th, in Historic Downtown Hodgenville, Kentucky

 Oh my goodness.

I have wanted to eat at this restaurant for so long!

Many years ago my husband had heard from some co-workers about how wonderful the restaurant was, as well as the Kentucky Hot Brown. So of course, you know it went on my list. And yes, there is actually a list. Haha!

I believe The 16th opened right before the pandemic - and like many small businesses - I do believe it struggled a bit. I'm not completely sure, but I feel like I read online that they had switched to catering only for awhile.

Well - somehow, and for some reason I cannot remember how I found out - THEY ARE OPEN FOR DINING AGAIN!!

My husband and I planned a date night and headed to Hodgenville, Kentucky.

#willtravelforfood , remember?

The 16th is named for our sixteenth President, 'ol Abe himself. Hodgenville is the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln, and the town has done a wonderful job of celebrating that. So much so, that even the local radio station is ABE 93.7! (Oh, how I love a small town who still has its own radio station!!!)

Anyways, back to the restaurant. The inside was just as perfect a I was hoping it would be, with the pressed tin ceilings and gorgeous hardwood flooring.

Notice the copper pendant lighting over each table...

We placed our order for the Hot Brown and Mamaw's Fried Chicken for my husband. They brought us a basket of delicious looking biscuits and my carb conscious living went straight out the window! 

The restaurant was so lovely and cozy - and quiet - even with other customers. 

We were surprised how quickly our food arrived - and piping hot!

Mamaw's Fried Chicken for my husband - 

And last, but NEVER least, my Kentucky Hot Brown...

It was delicious and I definitely cleaned my plate!

Overall, I have to say that (so far) the Hot Brown at the 16th is currently in 3rd place in my rankings. It is interesting, because each restaurant does their own take on the mornay cheese sauce. This was a little different for me, with the shaved parmesan, but I loved it! 

I highly recommend The 16th, the food, atmosphere, the owners/staff, and location were all just great!

The 16th Restaurant is located at 110 N Lincoln Blvd in Hodgenville, Kentucky

#willtravelforfood

Thelma Lou is 6 months old!

 Our girl is six months old!

Time sure has been flying by with this sweet pup, and we cannot believe how much she has grown. The little baby we picked up in June weighed under 9lbs, and we are now around the 33lb mark! (Note to self: It's time to start lifting heavier weights at the gym!)

Life with Thelma Lou has definitely been an active one, which is exactly what we had hoped for. When planning for a new dog, we knew we wanted one that would challenge us and keep us moving as we age. She has done just that, and all three of us are better for it!

Her current favorite snacks are carrots, pumpkin, and banana. And she cannot live without her Woof pupcicle in birthday cake flavor! Talk about a pricey habit to get started on...yikes!

To celebrate her six month birthday, she went on her very first hike - we started her off with an easy and quick trail - Big Sink Trail at Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park. She loved it!

She did so well on her first trail, we have quite a few more in the works for the fall and winter months. We have been using the All Trails app and love it!

She also got to visit her first pumpkin patch - which was a little too exciting for her! She picked out a great first pumpkin for herself, and we have it sitting on her food mat by her water dish.

She finished up her pumpkin patch visit by "driving" the pumpkin wagon around the property! 

We are so happy with this girl, and we think she feels the same about us!

We love you Thelma Lou!! Happy Six Months! 

Quilty Updates

Hello!

I've been lucky enough to be able to spend some time with my sewing machine lately, and after my previous successful attempts with foundation paper, my confidence level has certainly grown!

First, I have printed out a lot of the Moda Blockheads instructions - that is, the ones that look beginner friendly. I attempted Blockhead 5 from 2023, as it seemed pretty easy. It's not perfect, but I am pleased with it! I definitely still need to work on matching my seams up.

Now onto foundation paper...

I had been playing around with my stitch length while working with the foundation papers, and it seems that the sweet spot on my machine is 1.2 - and since moving to that, I am much happier with my results, and of course, the removal of the paper.

I wrote a blog post about my first attempt at using foundation paper, and of course I started with the easiest block I had - the Economy block. I made a few more blocks, and I am really happy with them!

These Economy blocks certainly boosted my confidence, so I took a deep breath and decided to give my Log Cabin block a whirl - not expecting much at all, but much to my surprise...

I was very worried about this block, considering the instructions state that the first two cuttings for the middle blocks must be cut exact - and of course, like with all of this, I'm still practicing my cutting! But somehow, this all worked out, and I couldn't believe my eyes!

Am I crazy? It seems it would be difficult to mess up with foundation paper, but then, maybe it's just the way my mind works? Maybe I need to sew on the lines that foundation paper provides, just like coloring in a coloring book. I am definitely more confident with the paper than I am with written instructions and what feels like "free sewing". I know that confidence will build with patience and time.

Now, for my final blocks. I made these the other day, and am considering making an Economy block with coordinating fabric, piecing them together and making a small table runner for my coffee table for autumn. 

The woven star was another one that was very intimidating to me. I rewatched Kimberly Jolly's video demonstrating how to use it, and I am so glad I did. I actually had to break out my seam ripper as I had incorrectly pieced together parts of the star. In the end, it came together, quite nicely, I feel, for the trouble I had with it. Next attempt should be easier, and I did learn something from it! After I finished the woven star, I quickly put together this coordinating Log Cabin block. Like I mentioned, I may make a third block and piece them together for a runner. I will need to find a good backing fabric, as well as something eye catching for the binding. I am really drawn to striped binding, I really think it adds a fun detail. But, my binding certainly needs work and maybe stripes would show too many of the mistakes I'm bound to make!

Thanks so much for reading, and please, I need some wise sewing eyes to please kindly point out any mistakes I may be making!

Stay tuned for more updates! 

-Bunny

A Hot Brown at Mammy's Kitchen - Bardstown, Kentucky

 Last week my husband and I took a small weekday trip to Bardstown, Kentucky for a shopping and lunch date. I'm sure I've mentioned before - #willtravelforfood !!

We have dined at Mammy's Kitchen before - but it was many years ago. It truly is the cutest little restaurant. With all the current news and controversy surrounding Cracker Barrel's redesign, it was interesting to be back inside Mammy's Kitchen and paying a little closer attention to their decor. 

The entire restaurant is a decorated with local and family photos and memorabilia, much like Cracker Barrel, but these photos and the stories on the walls have direct meaning to the place.

Of course, I can't blog about this place and not include a picture of their adorable indoor "front porch"! 

I had completely forgotten about their menu being in newspaper format - so I was surprised when our waitress handed it to us. 

You know I ordered my hot brown. In fact, I ordered the "baby brown", the smaller version.

IT WAS AMAZING, and just as good as I remembered it!

My husband ordered the Bourbon Burger and was equally pleased, so much that he said he would order it again.

Once we finished, we popped into the gift shop, and I was blown away with how much they had and how cute everything was! The sold items from one of my favorite brands, Mud Pie. 

I saw this darling cast iron sign that I would have loved to have, but it was heavier than I expected! I wouldn't know where to hang it. Maybe I should have my husband investigate a place for it with his stud finder. I may just have to go back for it!

Overall, we had such a nice day, and it was wonderful getting out on a day trip on a weekday. That doesn't happen often for us!

If you're ever in Bardstown, Kentucky, 

Mammy's Kitchen

 is located at 

116 W Stephen Foster Ave

Thanks for reading!

-Bunny

#willtravelforfood

My Grandma's Hutch has arrived!

SHE'S HOME! 

I mentioned in a previous post that I was inheriting my Grandmother's hutch. My Mama has been keeping it in her very unused family room for many years - it was storing glassware and glass art she makes. It was also starting to collect cobwebs and dust, so she offered it to me!

I live about 3-ish hours south of the town I grew up in, so while realistically moving the piece and getting it to my house wasn't a really big deal, it was something we were dreading! Of course, illnesses in the family, a sick dog, a flooded basement - all these things would put off our truck rental to "next visit, hopefully"....

I made the promise to Mama (and myself) when we made the trip up to celebrate her birthday this year, that we would finally bring it home. I sure didn't realize that her birthday coincided with back to school dorm room move-in times! Rental truck prices were CRAZY! But we went ahead with our plans anyways.

The hutch has now been sitting in my dining room for 48 hours and honestly, it looks like it has always been here. Somehow it is a perfect size for my room, its not too tall, and will provide all the storage I need, and have needed for years. It's a really beautiful piece as it is, but I AM planning on painting it - and my Grandma did give her blessing on that long before she passed away.

The things I am noticing - 

The hardware - while beautiful, definitely not my style, so that will be replaced. I'm saying that now, but who knows, once the piece is painted, who knows?

The glass doors - THE GLARE!! Oh goodness, we have realized just how bad the glare is coming in from our glass sliding door with the sunlight and pool water reflecting on the glass. We will most likely be removing the glass.

We love the feet, as well as these decorative carvings. I had forgotten what the carvings looked like, and for some reason was picturing "wheat" - and was planning on having my husband fill it in. Thankfully, my memory was wrong, because we both really like it!

We have settled on a color - after painting our kitchen walls 'Olive Grove' by Magnolia, we decided that will also be the color of the hutch. The dining room is separate from the kitchen, but we wanted to pull that tone of green into the dining room since we like the color so much. Olive Grove also plays very well with our blue and white transferware. 

With all these shelves and drawers, I FINALLY have a place to store my holiday Spode collections. You always seem to forget what you already have when it's packed away for most of the year, so I am so looking forward to unpacking everything and taking inventory. 

I am so excited to have such a large family piece in my home, and so happy to finally have something on that wall in my dining room!

Stay tuned for her makeover!

XOXO, Bunny

My first attempt at using foundation paper

 Well hello!

Hope you are staying cool wherever you are!

I was able to get into my craft room and turn my sewing machine on! It's been so very busy here with our new best good gal Thelma Lou - lots of training, walks, and pool time! She's an absolute dream! But - sometimes you need to just yell "Tag! You're on puppy duty!" and run to your craft room!!

I wanted something easy - yet challenging, and since I am such a beginner in all things sewing and quilting, I figured a very easy foundation paper block would be quick (under an hour) for me, give me a bit of a challenge, but also wouldn't be too frustrating for me.

I decided to try my hand at the 6'' Economy block paper I recently purchased from Fat Quarter Shop. I went through my practice fabric stash and picked a sewing print, a polka dot, and a gingham print. EASY FABRIC MATCH! I was off to an excellent start.

This was so easy! And oh so very satisfying!

After some quick fabric cuts I was ready to start. Nothing about this seemed very intimidating, as I have watched Kimberly Jolly's videos using these papers about a dozen times! I really am pleased with how quickly this block went together, and how confident I was while using the foundation paper.

Here was my piece after I trimmed it down. This probably took me about 30-40 minutes. 

Here is the back of my piece - I feel like it looks pretty good, but definitely welcome y'all to point out any errors! My newbie eyes may not catch mistakes!

Here is my piece after I removed all the paper from the back and pressed it again. Next time I will "fussy cut" my middle piece a little better. Stay tuned for more practice with my Economy block pad - I'm not sure I'm ready to try the other pads I purchased just yet!

As always, thanks for reading, and your tips and suggestions are always welcome!

Pottering around in July

 How is it July already?

This is the first year my husband hung our Tommy Bahama bunting on the front porch. It has certainly turned some heads!

This has to be one of the fastest years I have experienced in a while. Maybe because it's been a busy (but also laid back) year for us so far. We have worked so hard to finish up some home projects that desperately needed to be done before Miss Thelma Lou joined our family (thankfully we succeeded!), that to be honest, a lot of our "usuals" got put on the back burner.

For once, we actually DID NOT garden this year! The only harvest we have for this year is our annual garlic we put out every Autumn. We were able to harvest that this past week and it is hanging on our covered porch to cure. It's one of our saddest garlic harvests yet! But, we are thankful for what we were able to salvage. After it cures, we will dehydrate it and grind it up for granulated garlic to cook with. We do have some volunteer tomato plants, as well as some zinnias, and our berry patches of course, but vegetable wise, nothing! We will see how those tomato plants do! Because of our lack of a garden, this will also be the first summer I won't be canning anything, which feels weird. 

Our usual garlic harvest is about 6-7 times this amount!

We definitely planned to take the summer off from gardening, of course, to get the main part of our deck finished (will stain it this fall!), and get the house ready for a puppy. We also knew we were going on our anniversary trip, so gardening just really wasn't a priority for us.

This fall, however, we do plan on relocating our garden. We will be having a massive (dying) tree cut down, which will open up the sun to a back part of our property. We will be purchasing new galvanized raised beds, and re-designing everything. I’m really looking forward to it, and I will keep y'all updated. My artist husband will be drawing up plans for bed layouts soon!

July so far has been slow for us. Lots of puppy kisses, and pool time, after a glorious 9-ish days of beautiful summer weather. It was a heatwave, and I will admit the word glorious would not be coming out of my mouth if I didn't have a pool! It was really nice after working so hard on our deck, to be able to enjoy grilling, eating outside, and lounging in the pool. It made all those late evenings so very worth it. Next up, we will tackle some small repairs on our connecting gazebo, then we will be skirting everything hopefully by the end of summer, and like I said, staining it all in the fall. 

This morning my husband and I went to the back of the property and picked some blackberries and mulberries. I'm thinking....blackberry ice cream? 

These are our first pickings - so many blackberries on our bushes this year, and the mulberry tree was well!

Also, over the holiday weekend, we dove head first into a very small project on the east side of our house. We have 3 hydrangea bushes over there, enjoying the morning sun. For years we have been fighting the weeds, and of course it was a losing battle. I decided I wanted to do something simple, with some small cottage stepping stones and pea gravel in a checkerboard pattern. I was very unsure how this would look, but decided to just go for it. We aren’t done with it yet, but I am so happy with it! 

Luckily the pea gravel is a good match to our concrete/gravel walkway.

My hydrangeas are doing much better this year, after some much needed TLC.

That's all that's going on around here these days, hope to have some fall gardening updates and a finished hydrangea area to share soon - and some sewing! Fingers crossed!

Thanks for reading!

-Bunny