Once a year, I clean the crystal chandelier in the dining room. It happens to coincide with my holiday decorating. For some reason, the rest of the year I overlook the dust on the crystals, probably because it is evenly dusty! But once the glitter village and snow globes go up, the dullness of the…
A year ago today, I sent my first blog post of Life at Bella Terra. It was an intimidating moment, because I thought “who would ever want to read this?” I don’t consider myself a very good writer and I’m really trying to improve upon that. But your words of encouragement have brought me back…
The lifeblood of our household revolves around the kitchen, especially the coffee/tea counter. In the mornings, this portion of the kitchen is crowded, with each family member making their favorite beverage. For my daughter, it is tea in all its forms-loose leaf, tea bags, compressed blocks that require specific water temperatures and steeping times. For…
Last week, I spent 3 days deep cleaning our little vacation rental cabin in the mountains. In January, my property manager/cleaning couple quit. For years, I had so heavily relied on them to manage the cabin’s maintenance issues as the geographical distance (a 3 1/2 hour drive) precluded me from doing it myself. And now…
At the Willetta restoration, we created a large closet off of the dining room by enclosing a portion of an old adjacent storage area. The purpose of this room is to become the silver, crystal, linen and china closet. I’ve always wanted a separate space to store my “stuff”- large trays, candlesticks, tablecloths, dishes, silverware…