Copycat One: Fern Bottles

I'm going to be a copycat this week.  I have so many projects on my Pinterest boards waiting to be copied (remember, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!).  I'm starting out with this simple and beautiful idea from Sherry at The Charm of Home -- Windowsill Ferns.

Here is my version

These are all jars and bottles I've collected from thrift stores as well as a few vintage ink wells.

Earlier in the day I used these as centerpieces when we had friends over for dinner.  Then I lined them up in my bay window.

 The tiny one on the left came from my daughter.  While digging up the garden in the college house they were living at, they found all kinds of tiny bottles and pottery. It's so pretty and textured on just three sides.

Thanks for a great idea Sherry!

Celebrating in Style!

This past weekend my husband surprised me by taking me to the Grand Geneva Resort in Lake Geneva, IL to celebrate our wedding anniversary.  Now if it had been ME planning this, I probably would have booked the local Holiday Inn Express BUT I'm so glad he didn't -- we really experienced two days of living how the 'other half' lives!

 I was trying to figure out who else was staying in this room with us!  There were more t.v.'s here than we have in our entire house including . . .

a t.v. in the mirror of the bathroom.  Does it get any better than HGTV while soaking in the tub??

 And have we ever thought of folding OUR toilet paper like this for our families?

 Champagne and truffles were waiting for us when we came back from dinner the first night.

 While doing some shopping in Lake Geneva on Saturday, we came upon these two ADORABLE little gals selling lemonade and cookies!  Their dad gave me permission to snap their photo and post on my blog (I hope they get a chance to see it!).  This just made me smile -- so refreshing to see little ones enjoying the simple joys of a lemonade stand in today's crazy world!

 We stumbled on a farm with U-Pick strawberries on our way home -- it was a scorching hot day but so much fun to gather these beautiful berries.

It was a beautiful weekend to celebrate 28 years of marriage -- thank you Honey!

I love this man!

Low Fat Lavender Tea Bread

I LOVE lavender and I just cut my first crop of the summer so I decided to make some lavender bread (recipe below).  I cut my lavender when it's just starting to bloom because for the most part I'll used the buds for tea and baking.  

 This bread has a wonderful glaze and the blooms serve as a lovely decoration sprinkled on top.

While the bread was in the oven, I decide to have a bit of fun with some of the lavender.

 I've modified this recipe to make it low fat and really, I can't tell the difference and I've had the 'regular' version many times.  I've given you the original and then the low fat substitution(s)
 in parentheses to the side. 

This bread freezes well -- with or without the glaze on it.  If you can, it looks prettier if you glaze after you thaw it but either way . . . it still tastes wonderful.

  Lavender Tea Bread (Low fat substitutions in parentheses)
3/4 c milk (1/2 c skim milk)
3 T finely chopped lavender
6 T butter, softened (3 T butter & 1/4 c plain, 
nonfat, plain yogurt)
1 c white sugar
2 eggs (1/2 c egg substitute)
2 c all-purpose flour
1 1/2 t baking powder
1/4 t salt


Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Spray loaf pan with non-stick spray.  Combine the milk and lavender in a microwave safe glass and heat for 1 min. on high.  Let sit to cool slightly.  Cream together butter (and yogurt if doing low-fat version) and sugar.  Beat in eggs (or egg substitute). Combine flour, baking powder and salt.  Stir flour mixture alternately with the lavender milk until just blended.  Pour into prepared pan.  Bake for 50 min. or until pick inserted in crown of loaf comes out clean.  Cool and invert onto serving plate.

Lavender Glaze:
Combine 1 T lavender buds with 1-2 T milk and heat.  Let sit until cooled.  Strain out the milk and discard lavender.  Add milk to 3/4 c powdered sugar.  (I like to tint my glaze a light purple using food coloring).  Drizzle over loaf and sprinkle with fresh lavender flowers.

Do you have a favorite recipe for using lavender?

Venus Date

My girls took me on a 'date' to watch the Transit of Venus, an event that will not occur again until December 2117.  What is the Transit of Venus?  When Venus passes directly between earth and the sun, we see the distant planet as a small dot gliding slowly across the face of the sun.  Historically, this rare alignment is how we measured the size of our solar system.  The view is like a front row seat to the transit method, by which we now find planets around distant stars.

Above is one of the many methods of viewing we used at a local college.  Venus is the little black dot at "8:00".

 There were about 6-7 different 'scopes' or contraptions for viewing so we made sure we used all of them.  Each one gave a different perspective . . . some showed a red sun, others orange but the BEST was the smallest scope . . .

 This one showed not only Venus passing over the sun but you could see the prominence (this very smart, young girl explained that those are the 'flames' shooting out from the sun and how/why that occurs and much more -- what a sweet girl she was!).

 An event we won't soon forget and we sure won't ever experience it again!

From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of the LORD is to be praised.

Psalm 113:3

 

GOOD Scales

In my opinion, there are GOOD scales and there are BAD scales.  The above scale would definitely fall into my 'bad' category.  A 'bad' scale CAN be a 'good' scale if it's used to weigh something other than me . . . like a puppy

 or a hamster

 but my FAVORITE scale is of the 'vintage' variety used solely for decorating purposes.  A few weeks ago I scored this one at a garage sale for $5.00!

 Right now I have it on the floor next to a large pot filled with dried reeds.  I love old books so I just grabbed a few I had and put them on top of the scale.

Like ladders, I think scales can be decorated in so many different, fun ways.  For example, Songbirdblog stacked some vintage doilies on hers . . .

The Blessed Nest has a slew of ideas for vintage scales including this one where she uses it for soaps and towels . . .

Vintagewithatwist.com used their scale as a centerpiece to hold a flower arrangement . . .

Americanhoneyhome created an entire vignette around her $10.00 vintage scale find!

Gracefully Vintage has a whole slew of ideas for a vintage-style wedding including using scales to hold favors

AND this cute idea using incorporating a vintage jell-o mold with flowers

I played around a little bit with my scale displaying different things like one of my vintage teapots

and this lovely two-handled teacup that my dear friend gave me a few weeks ago

The corsage was mine from my son's wedding last summer.

Do you have any vintage scales?  How do you use yours?