One thing I love to do after fluffing the nest is to light a candle! The flickering light reflects off of those freshly cleaned surfaces and the scent adds a pleasing aroma around the home. Sometimes when I need motivation to clean, I may even go ahead and light the candle before I begin my work just to get me inspired and moving. I found this pretty acorn dish at Home Goods a couple of weeks ago. What actually caught my attention was the fact that it's a dish for baking a wheel of brie in and I enjoy serving baked brie during the holidays. I loved that it's an acorn with a matching lid to keep the cheese hot until time to serve and little handles on each side to carry it. It's just so ... Read more
Summer Garden Recap: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
As far as gardening goes, I've never had anything more than what I call a little "kitchen garden"--some herbs and a few veggies and melons, at most. So, I'm still very much a beginner. I haven't even had a garden for the last few years (other than herbs), and I was ready to get back to it, but I also remembered how my gardens usually play out. The season always seems to start out strong and lovely and makes me feel like I really have a green thumb, ha, and then it starts going downhill about mid-summer with the onset of heat, bugs, and disease. So, here it is-- the good, the bad, and the ugly of this year's summer garden! The Good! Late spring and the first half of summer were a ... Read more
The Secret to Getting It All Done
Good morning, friends! I have a little thought to share with you today but first, how cute is Miss Pumpercot! She is actually photo-bombing here. I was trying to take a picture of my desk and she hopped up right into the very middle of the frame. Cutie. Do you ever have those days when you feel completely defeated by your to-do list? I used to always feel like such a failure at the end of every day because I couldn't finish my list no matter how motivated I was at the beginning of the day. One evening while going over my list and seeing all the items that did not get marked off that day, I expressed my frustration to my husband. He took one look at it and said, "That's all for ONE day? ... Read more
Snapshot Saturday: Odds and Ends
Hello there! It's Saturday so I have some snapshots from the week, just odds and ends really. Summer evenings will be coming to an end in a few more weeks but the summer garden already came to an end last Saturday when I pulled up everything except my herb bed and tea bed. It was such a mess! Next week I'll post a summer garden recap. While I worked in the garden, the guys worked on a different project. Earlier in the summer, my son and his friends built a raft to ride down the widest and deepest part of the creek which only worked for about an hour, but they were so excited. The experience inspired the idea to build a small boat which the guys have been working on the last few ... Read more
Recipe Binders
As part of my summer organizing, I knew I had to get my recipes back under control. They were such a mess! I've had a great system for about 10 years, but it was time to clean it back up. I'm not talking so much about cookbooks today although I did straighten them and take out a couple to donate. Instead, I'll be talking about those loose recipes you tear out of a magazine, print off Pinterest, or have on a recipe card. When we moved to this house 11 years ago, I came with all my cookbooks and a big basket of those loose recipes. There were so many that anytime I wanted to use a particular one, I had to thumb through the entire stack. This hadn't been a problem when I first started the ... Read more
Prepping the Kitchen for Fall Cooking and Baking ’24
Summertime brings a huge cleanout for me each year. This summer, I reorganized a lot of areas of my house, but definitely spent the most time in the kitchen! My cabinets and drawers had really gotten bad. We do a LOT in there. It's more than just a kitchen, really. It's also our school, our science lab, art studio, gift wrap station, and much more. One of the benefits a of good kitchen cleanout is that everything I do in there now works a lot smoother than before and I'm already looking ahead and seeing how much more enjoyable it will be for fall cooking and baking. Last August '23 I posted 3 things I had done that month to prepare my kitchen for fall. You can read that post here. Today ... Read more
A Sweet Beginning to Wedded Bliss!
Back in April my daughter had the honor of being a bridesmaid for her sweet friend and I had the honor of making the bride's wedding cake and cupcakes! The mother of the bride is my good friend Missy, who can pull together an event better than anyone I know, and her daughter's wedding was certainly no exception! She has her own blog and I'm sure she will post about the wedding (I hope so!) therefore I don't want to share much here until she's had a chance to do so, so today I'm just going to share the cake. This was the same cream cake recipe I made for my own daughter's wedding two years ago and you can read about that wedding here and here. Ahh, sweet memories! The wedding venue was ... Read more
Summer Garden
I'm so happy to have a summer garden this year! I haven’t had a true garden (other than some herbs and flowers) for several years because I haven’t been able to get it planted early enough. We live in the Deep South, and it has to be started in very early spring so it will be well established before the heat of summer hits. My husband and son built me some new cedar boxes back in March and filled them with soil, ready for me to plant, grow, and harvest to my heart’s content. I planted everything (some seed, some plants) on April 1st and now I'm enjoying some homegrown veggies and herbs. My husband expanded the gated area on the side of our house to allow for more garden space while ... Read more
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