oes it look normal around here to you? ummm, yes?–no? Wait a minute . . . .
OMG.
did I not tell (warn) you we would be doing this? Were you losing faith? I know it’s taken forever, but if you saw what’s holding this thing together (duct tape and kite string) you would understand why.
efore we go further, I want to thank everyone who worked so hard to make this blog happen, Kellee Raser, Gary Gatel and Judy Watkins, and who else — all you patient people with your emails of encouragement! Hello FOSB! Hi Diane, Gayle, Elaine, Sharon, Terrie, Sarah, Rachel, Siobhan, Elizabeth (I can do this now ’cause I have a blog!), Hi Dad, Shell, Lowely, Martha, Margot, Annie, Carol, Jaime. Hi Tweetettes! Hi all my friends and family. So 21st century! We have to keep meeting like this!
espite the fact that this is a blog now, nothing has really changed, there are new free screen savers, stationery, and bookmarks you can print out; they’re in the same place they’ve always been (in Shopping, under From Me to You with Love). You are safe here, click on everything and take a tour . . . it won’t blow up on you (I always think if I click wrong, the computer could explode) … and tell me what you think.
ou can visit Martha’s Vineyard and go across the pond to England; plus, there are all new recipes for Summer. And lots of fun menus (just click on the words in the menus, and you get the recipe). We even have FAQ’s. We’re very professional! Pretty soon there will be more pictures of the Peter Rabbit room; more short videos, Stories of Home, Kitchen ideas, and a lot more. So stay. Take off your shoes, I’ll go make tea!
Hi Laura, Gert, Pam, Sandy, Dawn, Nancy, Sherrie, Joann, Angie, Erika, Joan, Rosinda, Erin, Jan, Morwenna….
or a few days, there may be a glitches in the shopping part of the blog…we had to unhook all the shopping wires from the website and rehook them to the blog, and maybe we missed a few. Would love your help, if you go shopping, and something’s not right, please click on Comments and let me know.
hat’s the best part….now you can leave your Comments and I won’t be the only one who can read them! You will finally get to see how wonderful you all are, how much we have in common…from your letters, I already know we love all the same things — home, family, beauty, nature, creativity, tradition, inspiration, best friends, gardens, food, and fun. (Books, tea, quilts, and old movies. Autumn. Decorating. Travel. Just for starters.) We are multi-faceted women of the world. Yes, that is us.
o if you feel like testing out our Comments, please be my guest; you know I can’t wait. Tell me what you’d like to see most on this blog. You’ll still be getting your WILLARDS; there will still be art and quotes, recipes and photos, all the 
I can possibly stuff into one space.
promised my Twitter friends last week that I would put this recipe on our blog, so here it is, fresh from the oven; smelling so good, cooling on its’ serving platter. This recipe has so much going for it; easy to make; looks like a million bucks, sweetly old-fashioned, with the most amazing sauce; it tastes even better than it looks. Simple to do ….
rrange pineapple rings, dark brown sugar and walnut halves in a 9" straight-sided pan… 
hisk up the batter with pineapple juice, eggs, sugar, and vanilla….
ift your dry ingredients…I want my cakes light, so I sift . . .
sift with waxed paper, which is the way my mom taught me, and probably her mom taught her. But I bet people do it all different ways … 
ix the dry ingredients with the egg batter; pour it over the fruit, and pop it in the oven.
t comes out looking like this. Immediately turn it onto your serving platter and let it cool. (Hide it, protect it, there is huge temptation to pick out the walnuts or pull the sticky brown sugar from the sides.)
eanwhile you make the sauce with cream and sugar, and an inch-long piece of vanilla bean (slit it open, scrape the seeds into the cream, and throw away the rest) — chill the sauce well in a small pitcher.
nd here it is, with its pitcher of sauce, all ready to go where it went, which was to a Memorial Day Pot Luck with all our best friends. Serve the cake warm or at room temperature; each slice in a puddle of cold sauce.
ow, here’s the 
