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Friday’s Favorites

Flickr Favorites (please click link to see the source of these beautiful images)

Sweet and easy way to customize a lingerie bag from Noodlehead
Wouldn't this be a perfect (and inexpensive!) way to decorate tables at a wedding reception. Or for a fancy dinner party for two? Sparkly vase
More sparkles – pretty backdrop for the food or drink table maybe?
Remember a while back when I said I wanted a Nissan Figaro? Well in the meantime I want one of these Fiats.
Fascinating story about bottle fermenting wine under the sea. Makes me want a bottle just to be able to tell the story.

Happy Friday everyone! I totally plan on relaxing and just enjoying one of the last weekends of the Summer. Hope you can do the same!

8.24.11

Our first tomato. Is it from the one gallon heirloom tomato variety it took me 45 minutes to pick out at the nursery? Of course not.

It is from a tomato seed pooped out by one of our intrepid, self-sustaining chickens. Of course her placement could have been a little bit better.

It's on a slope leading down to the chicken coop. On the other side of the coop we have a veritable garden of corn and other tomato plants popping up. We aren't cultivating those, however. This one Rick put a support around and we are watering it just to see what kind of tomatoes it produces.

In other gardening news we finally got the driveway circle planted. And by "we" you know I mean I picked out the plants and Rick did the actual digging and planting of said plants. All sixty of them.

The space has morning and late afternoon shade and direct sun mid-day. The hardest part was figuring out how to place the plants. We will have a crab apple tree as a focal point near the center and we wanted a variety of flowering shrubs and ground covers to provide interest throughout the year.

We still have some filler type plants we want to put in and everything needs to grow and fill in but it looks really pretty already (in my humble opinion). Please ignore the stack of firewood in the background. It will be removed in the next few weeks.

We'll have to wait until Spring to get our Crab Apple since the variety we want isn't available right now. For now we just have a stand in Crepe Myrtle to help with the placement of all the rest of the plants.

The only problem we have at the moment is keeping the chickens from digging up the smaller plants and for some reason Belle is totally smitten with the Scaevola Mauve Clusters and wants to lie on them.

8.22.11

A couple of months ago this Wilton mini donut pan showed up in the blogosphere. Ever dutiful blogger that I am I rushed out and bought one.

It has been languishing in my cupboard all these months because I didn't want to buy a quart of buttermilk for the 1/2 cup of it the recipe (that came with the pan) called for. Well I finally found powdered buttermilk so I had no excuse not to make them.

I will say there is a very fine line of how much to fill the pan and the point where – oops – too full. I only had two out of 36 actually have the hole go all the way through. The recipe makes 36, by the way, not the 24 is says it does – probably more if you filled them properly.

So I ended up with 34 little cups. I powder sugared them, planning to just ignore their defect when Rick walked in and said I should fill them with something.

Brilliant. So here are my mini filled donuts. I used a mixture of blackberry and strawberry jam. The recipe does not taste like donut to me. more like a light sponge cake. Tasty but not donuty.

Friday’s Favorites

Flickr Favorites (please click link to see the photographers of these beautiful images)

I just ordered this book: The Kitchen Linens Book (for $1.87!)
Speaking of old linens – isn't this a cute use for salvaging torn or stained pieces: Summer bunting (via Les Bonnes Idees)
Great idea for upcycling vintage rhinestone earrings. Except for the fact I have a stainless fridge and magnets don't stick to it. I think glueing them onto flat thumb tacks is another great idea.
I have no idea what this blog says (and translating it doesn't help) but what a fabulous idea for invitations. I especially love the second to last picture of all the stacked boxes tied with a pretty piece of lace.
File this under "why didn't I think of that?" Clever storage for cupcake wrappers

Ah – sadly today is the last official day of my vacation. It's back to work for me on Monday. I plan to make the most of it this weekend, enjoying houseguests and relaxing. I'm craving blueberry pancakes so they might figure prominently in my weekend too.

Have a fabulous weekend everyone!

8.18.11

I can't believe my two week, stay at home vacation is almost over. The theme for the two weeks ended up being sewing.

Our patio furniture cushions are in dire need of recovering. I would love to just replace them but the cushions (the seat cushions anyway) are an odd shape. It dents in on either side at the front to accomodate the armrests.

Finding replacement cushions is tricky – I suppose we could just get square ones and squish them in but the cheapest set I could find (and not even in a fabric I would consider) was about $50 or $60! I have eight chairs and two lounge chairs. That would add up.

So I decided to make a prototype chair cover. Took two separate tries (and many trips to the fabric store) but I think I found the fabric I want and have created a pattern that works.

Now I just have seven more sets to make. Plus the two lounge chairs.

I was thinking of taking them to a place that does machine embroidery and have a scripty monogram put on the back cushion but Rick looked at me skeptically when I mentioned the idea. Personally I think it would add a nice touch.

As you can see the deck is nearing completion. The deck guy thinks it will be done by next week.

In other parts of the yard….

Knock knock

Who's there?

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