A Visit To South Carolina

I traveled to South Carolina for Easter this Spring. One of my sons, his wife and two children live there and this trip was mainly an opportunity to spend "Mom time" with them. At this time of year, South Carolina is bursting with Spring greenery. Springtime arrives in S.C. about a month before it does where I live (on the southwest shore of Lake Ontario). Therefore, the trip was a taste of Springtime while it was still winter in the northeast.

I had a lovely visit with my children, got to make dinner for them one night. Made chicken French (a Rochester specialty) with asparagus risotto and a green salad. Had daughter-in-law's delightful Angel Lush with Pineapple for dessert. This cake is so refreshing and charmingly beautiful. She actually made it for Easter dinner and this was "leftovers" for our Monday night supper dessert. If you'd like to make this for your next event, it is super simple (no cooking or baking - just opening up containers and slicing store bought angel-food cake) and makes you look like "the hostess with the most-est". Here's the link for the directions.
http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/angel-lush-pineapple-74114.aspx


I also served it for dessert on Monday afternoon when I had the pleasure of having lunch with my South Carolina etsy friends, Teresa of:  https://www.etsy.com/shop/creationsbyjessi?ref=teams_post and Jessi of : https://www.etsy.com/shop/KraftieKidz?ref=search_shop_redirect      plus little sister, Heidi.

We packed lots of activities into that Easter weekend and one of the most delightful was a visit to the South Carolina Botanical Gardens at Clemson University. Because our planting zones are so different, I saw plants in bloom that are not winter hardy enough to survive our harsh winters here in the northeast. My favorite of these are the camellias. How I dearly wish I could have these in my northern garden. Enjoy the awesome colors..........

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Springtime Front Door

Do you change your curbside staging by the season? There's nothing I like better to do. Especially in Springtime. I wanted to show you the Springtime décor on our blue front door. I will also change up the two urns I keep on either side of the porch entry just as soon as I get the grapevine lit up trees from Christmas, out of the urns, I will fill them with yellow faux forsythia blooms. I do make changes for Summertime, Fall, Christmas, and Valentines Day. Spring is, by far, the one I most enjoy. Especially this year after the long hard winter we endured. It snowed 27 out the 28 days in February. We had frigid temps, slippery roads, buried mailboxes, mountains of snow piled up at the ends of our driveways - which is all melting down now. Spring is definitely approaching quickly. The birds know it - starting to set up housekeeping on my patio. The chipmunks know it - skittering across the bricks on the patio. I haven't seen any crocus popping their little heads up yet, because they're still buried in leftover melting snow.

I made a trip to Hobby Lobby last week for the specific purpose of bringing home materials to make a Springtime look for the front door. I brought along my 40% off coupon from Sunday's paper, which I applied to the yellow paper parasol which cost 6.99 (4.89 with my discount). I also bought 5 stems of these beautiful yellow flowers which were regularly 4.99 each but were on sale for 50% off. (12.50 with store discount). For $17.39 I have Springtime at my front door. 

Hobby Lobby carries these paper parasols in various colors. You'll find them in the birthday party décor aisle. I thought an umbrella would be the perfect vehicle to fill with Spring flowers. As you know the olde saying: "April showers bring May flowers".

Happy Springtime ♥

Happy Birthday To Me

I had a birthday last week. I think that's sufficient reason for celebration. My son and daughter in law took me out to lunch at one of my favorite restaurants. They presented me with this "oh, so long awaited Springtime" bouquet. I had a delicious lunch of tomato bisque soup, chicken cutlet on a bed of arugula, and a latte with a plate of Italian cookies.

On the following day, I celebrated with my BFF. I met her at the Street of Shops, which is an antique mall, cum vintage shops, cum furniture refinishers Paradise, cum flea market........plus a small café. There's approximately 200 vendors, each with their own booth/space which they decorate to the "nines". Some with stenciled walls, faux wall treatments, curtains, rugs, room settings. To me, it's nirvana.

This is my favorite "room" - all white - vintage furniture painted white



New vendor - mostly white again - her name is on the banner - she "reimagines"

 

Revamped White "big girl" tutu in TamiLyn's shop 

I always come home with something. Here's what came home with me this time.


If you knew me you would know how appropriate this little plaque is


 

Sparkle Plenty Lace Baseball Cap

Twinkley star garland - I took it right off the white chest of drawers (above)
 

We capped off our day of delight with a stop at an Italian café/gelateria to have dessert.
https://www.facebook.com/orienscafe

I'm not finished celebrating my birthday yet. A friend is taking me to lunch this week and I have a coupon for free birthday gifts from Sephora which I need to pick up in my birthday month (March).
How do ya'll celebrate your birthday?????????

Welcome to Crochet Zoo

This past Christmas, I crocheted a little hat for a baby on my Christmas list. I made him a doggie hat.

first ever animal hat

I enjoyed that process so much, I decided I would make lots of animal hats and add them to my etsy shop.

I enjoy the process of crocheting up a plain little hat then operating on it to make it into a recognizable animal to keep baby's wee head warm and cozy.

After you've made a couple of the same pattern, you tweak to get all the kinks out and make an item that is your own personal style. Now I use the same pattern for all the hats. I like the single crochet process because those close together stitches create an airtight fabric that prevents the entrance of cold winds and temperatures. Then I set about adding the elements that will let you know what kind of animal this is.


These are the animals that dwell in the animal zoo department in my etsy shop. You'll find them in the "kids knits" section.

Bunny

chick

Foxy

Panda

he isn't an animal - he's a minion



 

 

 

Button, Button, Who's Got The Button?

Today I went to the library and was surprised to see an exhibit of antique buttons. The display was sponsored by the local historic society. I am enchanted by buttons so I took some pictures with my phone, which doesn't take the best quality photos. Because the buttons were in a glass case, I also got reflections in the pictures. Mainly of lights but sometimes, I can see my red sweater reflected in the shot.

I collect vintage buttons and sometimes use them when I reimagine an item for my etsy shop. I especially love mother of pearl buttons which is actually abalone shell. Therefore, they are already reimagined when they come into my hand because once upon a time they were a sea shell and now it is a button. My favorites are the carved ones.

These are the pictures I took at the library...............................

 

 

 

 

 

There were lots more in the button exhibit but difficult for me to get photos of with two books, a cup of coffee and my purse in my hand in addition to the camera/phone. I saw so many buttons that I also have in my collection. Mainly celluloid. Here's a brief history of the celluloid button.

http://www.tedhake.com/viewuserdefinedpage.aspx?pn=buttonhistory


Enjoy a little peek of some of the buttons in my own personal button collection:

A great variety - carved metal turtle, cloisonné, a RailRoad conductor's button- jet glass among them

 

All on cards - love the graphics - and the prices - 10 cents and 25 cents

They are a very rare "find" today. I used to find "Mom's button tin" at estate sales years ago. The entire tin would be about $5.00. But not any longer. Now the sale manager removes the buttons from the tin and separates them all out into small plastic bags. The valuable and special ones are packaged and sold individually !!! I'm so glad I got my stash many, many moons ago.

 

Did I Ever Tell You How Much I Love My Toaster Oven?

I have been the chief cook and bottle washer in my home for most of my life. I must admit I had a little resistance to most new advances in kitchen technology. I didn't want a microwave or an ice maker, or a water filter or a 190 degree water faucet for making hot drinks or a slow cooker. Do you believe I didn't even want a dishwasher when they first came on the scene. Our first one was  not a "built-in". I'm really not sure why I resisted but I was just happy with the way things were and didn't see any reason to change or to spend $$$$ on an appliance when it would be better spent on a pair of shoes or a purse.

After I was seduced into adopting each one of these appliances, I came to a sudden realization "how could I have ever lived without this?" And, much as I hated to do it, had to tell DH - "you were right about..........."

Well, we always had a toaster. We received one as a wedding gift. It took me eons of years to jump from the toast dark ages to purchase a toaster oven. When we first began homemaking, I cooked for two, then three, then four and then five. We regressed the same way. From five, to four, to three............ I finally made the toaster oven switch when I started to cook for one.

here she is - Miss T.O.

 

In my new little toaster oven, I toast, bake, and reheat. Some things just beg to be reheated in a toaster oven rather than the microwave. The microwave makes pizza soft and mushy but the T.O. makes it taste brand new. Same with empanadas. There are some things you want to be soft and mushy, like spaghetti and meatballs or soup. But pizza and empanadas want to be hot, toasty and crisp. So does an apple crisp. I even baked these little apple crisps in the T.O. I put the extra ones in the fridge and when I want one for dessert, It warm it up in the T.O.

Apple Crisp

I toast a half bagel in the morning in T.O. I make pizza from an Indian Naan, slathered with my marinara sauce, mozzarella and basil in little T.O. I "fried" bacon in her the other morning. Just layed a few slices of bacon on the foil lined tiny tin that came with her and cranked her up to 450 and in just a few minutes I had nice crispy bacon. So much more economical that heating up my BIG oven to 450 for the bacon or making a mess of the stove top by splashing bacon fat all over it and the adjoining walls.

As you can plainly see, this advance in kitchen tech has made me very very happy.

How To Make a Brown Paper Lunch Bag Scrap Book

 

I just returned from a week long holiday and I wanted to gather my photos and mementoes all in one place. The best way for me to cherish this snippet of time was to make a paper bag scrap book.

With this type of scrapping, no need to run to the craft store and buy any supplies. Almost everyone has brown paper lunch bags in the house. One of the greatest advantages to these little memory savers is you get a few envelope type openings on the pages into which you can insert menus, tickets, notes and other little souvenirs of your holiday.

Gather the pictures you want to have in your book. Count them. The sum of the photos is how many pages you want in your book. Each paper bag - folded in half - will give you 4 pages. Therefore, if you want to include 12 photos in your book, you'll need 12 divided by 4 = 3. If you want a blank front and back cover for your book, you'll have to add one more bag. Of course you can embellish these covers any way you like.

Here's how it's done.

Supplies: brown paper lunch bags, glue, scrap embellishments, scrapbook paper, ribbon

Fold each bag in half separately

With a hole punch - punch a hole on center fold from top and bottom

Lay bags in opposite directions so you won't have too much bulk - line up the holes

I bound the book by threading raggedy ribbon through the 4 pages of punched holes

Here you can see I've used scrap embellishments and the pocket opening for notes

Book view of open ended pages where mementoes can be tucked



Front cover with title and scrap suitcase embellishment

I used a square of scrapbook paper glued on, to cover the inside of each page before placing a photo on the page. Sometimes I had room to journal right on the page. Sometimes I used a tiny ribboned tag to journal. I slipped those into the open ended pages. I also slipped in a menu from the restaurant where we had birthday dinner and a tiny note that my littlest granddaughter wrote to me.

 

This type of scrapbook makes a perfect remembrance of an occasion. Some occasions you might want to memorialize in this way would be a baby or wedding shower (making a gift of the book for the guest of honor), a birthday party, a holiday (like I did). This is not the type of scrapping where you record years and years of a persons life - but just short little snippets of memories you don't want to forget. I've even done these for a "girls day out" where we've gone to a museum then lunch and all the scenery in between. Such sweet memories. Savor them ♥