A Little Spring Update

 

Typical spring weather here means lots of cloudy, cool days, some rain, a few warm sunny days, and this week some lows in the 20's F.  My young peach trees are in bloom, so I hope they will be fine if I cover them.  A nice day means I'm gardening or working on a project, one of which was the beginnings of a stone garden path between the tool shed and the raised beds.  Next up is to lay stone in front of the shed entrance.  With lots of help, I also have a compost bin now, built out of a few free pallets.

One warm day we hiked at the wildlife refuge looking for some signs of spring--leaves are starting to unfurl and some wild flowers were in bloom. 

The hellebores were cut Easter morning and lasted a couple weeks in the vase.  Tulips and snow in summer are in bloom and leaves are starting to open on the trees...I can't wait until all is green again.  Hope you are enjoying Spring!

Deb

summer news

It is difficult to acknowledge that summer is beginning to wind down. Parts of the garden are looking a bit forlorn; it has been a great year for pests--bad for the plants.  I have been busy in the kitchen eating/cooking/preserving what is good -- tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, many eggplant, zucchini, peppers, basil, and raspberries.  Delicious red haven peaches found at the Amish store have been frozen and baked into pie.  I planted two Red Haven trees this spring and can't wait to be able to pick my own! 

This is our third summer at our new-built home, and we continue to work on finishing things inside as well as adding to the outside landscape.  The limelight hydrangea are thriving and perfect for indoor arrangements.  This year we added a snowball bush, rugosa roses, a Zephirine Drouhin climbing rose, oakleaf hydrangea, bleeding heart, white pine trees, clematis, and more...  Inside, the pantry was finished and wall planks & a range hood were added in the kitchen.  A hundred year old beam from a corncrib was used to trim out the hood...still need to add crown molding.


We were happy to get away to the woods one weekend with our camper--we haven't camped since selling our previous home.  It was very relaxing, except for the night a large black bear decided to visit!  I've also been enjoying time spent with my first grandchild, a boy born to my son & his wife, and looking forward to another grandbaby my daughter and son-in-law are expecting in January.  Life is so good!

Whenever I could, I have squeezed in some knitting and sewing.  A sweater started for grandbaby no.2 and a dishcloth is always on the needles.  I sewed 4 tops for myself and a pair of pants, all out linen I had on hand--I was actually happy with how all turned out and have loved the coolness and comfort of wearing linen this summer. And most recently, I finished up a few zipper pouches for the shop.

It feels so good to be back here on the blog--please let me know what is new with you!!

Deb

A work in progress...

It has been almost a year since we moved into our newly-built little house.  At that time, I was doing dishes in the bathroom sink...we still needed to install more flooring, several sinks, the Jotul stove, doors, and loads of trim, etc.  We are slowly getting there and making progress. For those who have asked, here are some pictures of where we are at today.

After entering the house through the mudroom, the walk-through pantry, closet, laundry area, and a powder room are through a doorway to the left.  The pantry space still needs a tile backsplash and shelving, and the closet door will hopefully be installed soon:

We're thinking of using this marble subway tile:

Just through the pocket door is the powder room:

{We haven't even started on any of the baseboard yet}:

I have some antique brackets and a shelf to be mounted over the laundry folding counter. Underneath I am able to store my laundry cart and drying rack.  The piece of marble was a Craigslist find:

Looking back through the pantry to the mudroom hall and into the kitchen.  Most all of the trim has been installed and painted in these two areas.  Mike added the plank walls using white oak planks leftover from the floors. The pocket door still needs its hardware:

The old flag belonged to my father-in-law and only has 48 stars, probably from his Navy days during WWII ?:

More to see next time--right now it's back to my paintbrush!

Deb

making a wedding

This past summer our daughter was married and, since someone asked me to share more about the wedding,

and, since some of you might have an interest in some of the details

as well,

I am sharing a bit about it here today.

All the beautiful photographs were taken by Lydia Maybee Photography.

Welcome sign hand-lettered and painted by the bride.

It was decided early on that this would be a very hands-on affair, as in the bride had a lot of ideas for decorating, etc. that we could make and do ourselves.

The setting was a beautiful old barn that is now a venue for weddings and receptions.  

Pom pom garlands were made with lots of help from the bridesmaids, friends, and family on both sides.  A good tutorial can be found here.

They made a lovely back-drop for the wedding ceremony.

The loft railing was decorated with a bunting I sewed using fabric scraps...

The bride and her attendants made all the bouquets and boutonnieres as well.

Flowers were sourced locally and many were ordered from Blooms By The Box.

I really loved watching all the girls as they carefully put together their bouquets the day before.

Some old sap buckets were painted, filled with roses and baby's breath, and placed at the end of the rows of chairs...

Of course this special Golden was part of the big day, bow-tie and all.

My large supply of canning jars came in handy for the table arrangements,

lace-wrapped and filled with flowers...

The father-of-the-bride cut log slices, which the bride numbered and glued together for the tables.

The Cake

Although I lost no small amount of sleep worrying about making this wedding cake, I am happy to say that I DID IT!!  

{Right after assembling the layers and receiving some much appreciated help with the decorating, I breathed a huge sigh of relief. Then I found out that, in my haste to get said cake layers to the venue, I had forgotten my bag packed with my dress and shoes to change into.  As guests were arriving, I was frantically driving home to change my clothes...}

At the bride's request, the bottom tier was chocolate and the top two tiers were vanilla--for the vanilla layers I used the Basic 3-Layer Yellow Cake recipe from Simple Bites; the chocolate cake recipe is from Alice Water's The Art of Simple Food.  Both these recipes are delicious, and I appreciated that they were simple to put together.  All the layers were filled with homemade chocolate ganache and raspberry filling.  Because the cake was to be under a tent on a sunny, 80-some-degrees day, I chose this Crusting No-Melt Vanilla Buttercream.  It uses a combination of butter and shortening--I never use shortening--but when I found some non-hydrogenated, organic all vegetable shortening at the store, I decided to give it a try.  I ended up very happy with this recipe, which held up perfectly.  

The world-traveling couple fittingly chose a globe for their guests to sign.

Succulent favors also served as table assignments for the guests.  I was able to order these on Etsy from SucculentPartyFavors.  Shipped all the way from California to the east coast, they arrived intact!  We wrapped them with kraft paper, tied with twine, and added flags that had each guest's name and table number typed on using my vintage typewriter.

The bride made a CARDS banner and used a decorated, vintage wicker hamper to hold wedding cards on the gift table...

I am so thankful to have been a small part of making their wedding day special.