Melissa’s Cozy Teacup

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Usually this phrase pertains to the homes of newly weds or a secluded place for an intimate tete-a-tete. Let’s reinvent the phrase to mean something else, shall we? Why not make your home a love nest for friends and family and persons who are ‘not yet friends’ n.y.f.? What would you need to do to turn your house/home into a love nest? Do you need additional chairs and tables? Try a thrift store. Table cloths hide a myriad of blemishes and can bring unity to a room quickly and inexpensively-if you shop at discount stores. Discount stores can also offer an array of inexpensive decorations such as glass containers for holding candles,(they sell the candles too), paper doilies, (which are great for dressing up a plate of appetizers), and seasonal decorations to help set a theme. You can pack such things away and use them the following year. Trust me, people are not making a record of your decorations and how often you use them and if you know of people who are, just don’t invite them over again. Keeping your menu simple can save money too. I have often used pre-seasoned pork tenderloin roasts for my home group meals. A larger roast can serve all six of us for about 2-3 dollars per person. Throw in a couple of .99 cent boxes of scalloped potatoes and a couple of cans of veggies and you’re good to go. You may also establish a menu schedule. My home group friends are such a blessing to me, not only for the wonderful friendships we’re developing, but also because they volunteer to bring dinner now and again. We have often asked them to bring a bag of ice to home group. I have an automatic iced tea maker and it uses quite a bit of ice to brew the tea. It’s not that the ice is expensive so I ask them, but if the week has gotten away from me and I haven’t had a chance to replenish the ice supply, our H.G. friends are happy to assist. Don’t feel like you have to carry the entire evening on your shoulders. I did at first and it became stressful, fast, and I started to not enjoy home group night. That all quickly changed when I started letting go of my preconceived ideas of how things should be.

If you feel your house is too messy or out of control to have people over, allow me to introduce you to the website that can help you out immensely. I don’t do everything she writes about, but I do follow the tips and ideas that work best for me and it has made a big difference in my home. Enough so to where I felt comfortable enough to start hostessing a weekly home group. Who knows, it just may do the same for you! Here it is:The Fly Lady .

Need some help with recipes? Recipe Zaar.

Have questions? You can always email me. I’m happy to help. Does this help you at all? Please let me know.

I love sci-fi. Not all of it, mind you, as it can get hokey if not done correctly, but I love, love LOVE! Stargate Atlantis. For me, it is THE BEST ever sci-fi show. I enjoy it even more than SG-1. I know that without SG-1, there may not have been an Atlantis, but I don’t care. I think Atlantis is funnier and better written than SG-1. I have lost more fingernails to Atlantis (nail biting-literally!) than I can count.

Here’s a LINK to the site.

My other confession? I am totally wrapped up in a Korean ’soap opera’ right now, titled; Dae Jang Geum. I have written about this one before on my blog. I don’t care that it’s in Korean and I have to read subtitles (for several days now, for hours on end, much to the dismay of my husband) the dvd set is a 14 day check out from my library and I finished it in three days. I would have been done sooner but I had to stop for home group. It is a three volume set with 54 episodes! Whew! Here’s the wiki LINK for that one. Why do I enjoy it so much? The ladies all look meticulous and wear lovely dresses in pretty colors. I have enjoyed allowing myself to be immersed in the lives of the characters. There are many, many fabulous scenes of palace cuisine being prepared. There is unrequited love, devotion, murder, betrayal, sacrifice, deep and loving friendships, and love. There are many scenes of people gathered around lavishly appointed tables of food and tea enjoying themselves and each other because food is not just something to keep your blood sugar up, oh no, it is an event!

This series emphasizes the effects food can have on your emotional and physical health. You even get to learn about how different foods and medicines can work together to heal or harm a person. If you haven’t already watched this show, run out and find it and make the time commitment to enjoy it. If you enjoy tea and cooking and great drama, you’ll love, Dae Jang Geum as much as I did.