A Dear Friend

A very true quote:

Truly great friends are hard to find, difficult to leave and impossible to forgot!


Yesterday I lost a truly great friend. It was sudden and totally unexpected but knowing her that is the way she would have wanted it. No suffering or sad goodbyes for her. She was a follower of Jesus and steadfast in her faith until the end.

She was a great friend who I'll never forgot and who I will miss for a long time. I will always be very thankful to God for the friendship He allowed us to share. It was a blessing!

Decorating with Cookie Cutters

In an earlier blog, I talked about changing little things around to give a new look. This is something I did recently in our breakfast room. I have a small table with a lamp and a large candy jar on it. I was wanting to do something different to it so I pulled out some cook books and cookie cutters and this is what I came up with. I also have had the brass Martha Stewart cookie cutters on my kitchen cabinets for quite a while. The Martha Stewart cookie cutters is one of my great garage sale finds. Her cookie cutters back in the day were $25.00 a piece. I got the metal cookie cutter box (in one of the pictures) full of her cookie cutters for $5.00. When I used to watch her show and she would be selling them I had always wanted them, so I was very excited when I found them.

This is another little example of pulling out things that are hidden in your draws or cabinets and displaying them.

Mosaic Flower Pot

I found these huge concrete pots at a nursery that was going out of business about 10 years ago. I got them for $4.00 a piece, great bargain! I have wanted to do a mosaic pattern on these pots ever since I got them. I know, it's taken me quite a while to get this accomplished. I'm just working on one pot now and this one is for the flower garden on the north side of my house. The other pot will sit in the flower garden that is around my vegetable garden. My plan is to have a veggie theme on that pot instead of flowers.

I have collected old dishes from garage sales and old tile that people have discarded from bathroom makeovers for a long time, so I have a pretty good collection of colors. I wish I could say that there is an easy way to do this but if there is, I haven't found it yet. I used the tile nippers for so long the last time I worked on the pot that I have a huge blister in the palm of my hand. So next time, I will be wearing my garden gloves when using the nippers.

I drew a pattern of how I wanted the flowers to look on the pot. I will tell you that as I started to work with my dishes and tiles the look changed somewhat. I still think it is a good idea to draw an idea of what you would like and you can always change it as your working on your project.

I decided to show you my pot as I am working on it in stages instead of showing you the finished product. I am now in the process of making my main designs on the pot.
As you can see on the pot, I had a plate that had the word sweet on it and I used a tea cup saucer with a colored tile in the center for a flower instead of breaking it up. You can see where the saucer was broken, I sanded it a little to remove rough edges so it would be smooth.

I used a chisel and a hammer to break larger pieces and sometimes they went the direction I wanted them to go and other times they went the opposite direction. NO EASY WAY!!!! That's where the nippers came in and the BIG blister developed.

I hope I haven't discouraged you from tackling a mosaic. They are somewhat of a pain but I think they will be really unique and beautiful when they are complete. They can really be an eye catcher.

Until next time. :)

Busy Month

Well, it's been a busy month for me. Our oldest son moved out into an apartment, I have been spring cleaning our very dirty house, pampering my seedlings and working on various projects, my biggest one, the garden.

I do this only once a year but it's that time when I clean the inside and outside of my windows and oil down all the woodwork. Honestly, I have so many other things I would rather do than clean house. I love a clean house but I don't like cleaning it. I enjoy moving furniture and arranging everything the way I want it but cleaning is getting put further and further down on my to-do-list. Actually, I'm waiting to become a millionaire so I can hire someone to clean my house while I go and have my weekly massage. :) I'm not kidding!

This is my second year on starting seedlings and this is like taking care of a baby. Making sure they don't dry out, they have enough heat in the afternoons and evenings, and the fan blowing on them to strengthen their little stems. It's something all the time but it's worth it. Those tomatoes will be wonderful this summer. I left the heat on too long and too high and wiped out my basil. Oh well, I will have to buy that, I'm not starting over.

These picture are some little touches of spring in our home.

Spinach Salad with Pears

I ate this salad at The Wedge in OKC on North Western. I love it! It has fresh pears, sugared walnuts and Asiago cheese and a wonderful Balsamic vinegar dressing with a bit of a hot spicy bite. Pretty simple but great flavors mixed together. If you try this you have to make the perfect bite, some spinach, a piece of pear, some walnut and cheese and make sure there is some dressing on it. It's wonderful. I will say my dressing is not exactly like theirs but it's close.

Fresh spinach
1/2 cup Asiago cheese, grated
1 cup sugared walnuts
1 whole juicy pear, cut in half and sliced
2 tablespoons of brown sugar

Place walnuts in a baking dish and sprinkle with brown sugar. Place in oven until walnuts are golden and brown sugar starts to melt.
Assemble ingredients in individual salad bowls. Coarsely chop walnuts and sprinkle on top.

Dressing:
1/4 to 1/2 cup Balsamic syrup
1/4 cup Sweet Balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2-3 shots of hot sauce

Mix well. These are the ingredients for 2 salads.

Henry David Thoreau - Great Quote

IF YOU ADVANCE CONFIDENTLY IN THE DIRECTION OF YOUR OWN DREAMS AND ENDEAVOR TO LIVE THE LIFE WHICH YOU HAVE IMAGINED YOU WILL MEET WITH A SUCCESS UNEXPECTED IN COMMON HOURS.

HENRY DAVID THOREAU


Another Good Quote!

NOTHING HAPPENS TILL SOMETHING MOVES.
ALBERT EINSTEIN

Little Touches of Spring

Making little changes in your home can change your state of mind. If you've been saying to yourself, "I'm tired of looking at the same old thing" try rearranging your furniture or if you don't or can't rearrange the furniture; maybe you can move something small. Change your lamps around or flower arrangements. Create a whole new setting on your coffee table or dinning table. Do something new on your mantle.

Make or buy a new flower arrangement, buy some new kitchen towels and new rugs for the kitchen, new bathroom towels or rugs, new tablecloth, new throw pillows, buy some living plants instead of having all artificial. If you are real energetic you could paint one wall a special color or wall paper one wall. I'm not saying do all these things but you can do a couple of things and it makes a difference in your home and you will enjoy looking at it and so will your family. Everyone will like the change.

The pictures I posted are just some examples of little things you can do. The set of embroidered kitchen towels, I think look cute in a kitchen. That may not be your style. But the other kitchen towels I love too and you can find those and many other designs at the Wilshire Garden Market. They have wonderful candles, french soaps that smell wonderful, outdoor carpets and pillows. They are at N. May and Wilshire, one block east.

I put up all my winter decorations last week and so I'm thinking spring!!!! I was thinking that I would really like a new tablecloth for my breakfast table and I was wanting a vintage print and "wa la" I ran across one last weekend. The towel in our bathroom, I found packed away in a box of things I had forgotten about. It's something different and I really like crochet on towels.

I got a set of embroidered kitchen towels years ago for a wedding gift and loved them. I used them until they were so thin you could see through them. I had a set made for myself and each one of my daughters. The design for my daughters is different from the set on this post. I know someone who does excellent embroidery work if anyone is interested I would be glad to give you her name. You can't buy these embroidered kitchen towels anymore and I personally think they are great gifts.