Decor, cooking, organization, all the pretty things
Wait? It's Friday already? Where did the week go?
Happy Friday Everyone!!
Super catchy title, no?
How does one take a picture of something with a highly reflective surface and not have it all obscured by a reflection?
I went to visit my friend Kelly the other day – to visit the two new kittens she is fostering (good luck getting them back from her is all I'm saying….). As is her style she loaded me up with treasures from her garage and estate sale-ing. And is my style I just happily let her.
She gave me this wonderful botanical print in lovely, soft colors. I have a little corner in my dining room/office/studio that was in need of just such a print.
Kelly has a real talent for displaying things. She has little vingnettes around her home and each one makes you want to stop and really look at it. She layers things beautifully and yet nothing gets lost or overshadowed.
An example is a small beaded purse she has hanging over the light switch in her bedroom. Very simple but she took it to the next level by adorning the plain jane picture hook with a beautiful vintage button. You notice both the gorgeous bag and the beautiful button. I love the sweet, little details like that.
I keep urging her to start a blog. Maybe she will someday. Either that or I'm bringing a camera with me next time and I'll start blogging about her things (better than my pale interpretation).
Happy Monday everyone. I hope everyone had a lovely weekend. We had a lot of festivities going on with Father's Day on Sunday and throwing a bridal shower for my niece Lizz on Saturday.
I was more a supplier of linens than actual thrower of said shower. I love having a reason to pull out all the vintage tablecloths I have.
Turns out is it super easy to make chocolate dipped strawberries. I melted a package and a half of milk chocolate chips in a double boiler. The trick is to add a little bit of shortening (I added two tablespoons) while it is melting and even more important – take the chips off the heat when they are about 3/4 of the way melted. Just keep stirring. This way the chocolate doesn't seize up.
For the squiggles I just put some white chocolate chips in a ziplock back and melted them in the microwave (15 seconds at a time, massaging the bag before putting them in for another 15 seconds). Just snip a teeny corner off the bag and squiggle onto the dipped strawberries.
It was mostly a shower of eating wonderful little nibbly things and drinking champagne (the perfect meal in my opinion).
We only did one game and it was really funny. Bridal Bingo. There were 25 questions about Lizz and you had to guess the correct answer and when you have five across you had Bingo.
Her future groom supplied the answers to the question. Aren't you curious what question prompted the answer "her big ass travel case of makeup?"
(What one thing would Lizz take to a desert island?)
Ruby wanted to eat the Bingo markers. Luckily she was kind of mystified by the taste and spit out the one M&M she did manage to swipe.
not really the end – I just love the font :) 
There are a couple of new blogs in the neighborhood! Stop on by and say hello:
Happy Friday Everyone!!
Disclaimer for the FCC man – I never ever ever EVER take merchandise or pay for sharing out links nor will I ever advertise. I do it to showcase the amazing talent and entrepreneurial spirit of some very talented people. Just sharing the love.
I found this cute vintage cookie cutter on iOffer (kind of like eBay only smaller scale and you basically offer what you want to pay and the seller says yes or no). I had to have it.
I never find rolled cookies all that tasty. But they are fun to make. This recipe is decent. Easy to work with (I would recommend chilling the dough for an hour though).
I also hate royal icing. There is a raw taste to it that I just don't care for. I found this packaged stuff by Betty Crocker in the baking aisle and while the taste is just marginally better it is a breeze to work with.
A friend of ours came over the day I made these and he said that he was trying to decorate cookies with his godson and it was a frustrating experience for them both. I told him to bake the cookies and then ice them with the packaged icing. After they set up for an hour or so then they can decorate them ala Mari's painted cookies, using food coloring and paint brushes.
Another thing I have found is the rolled cookies freeze like a dream, even pre-iced. You can bake ahead and then just pull them out and paint them after they have thawed.
Happy Friday Everyone!!