How very Pinteresting

Anyone who has known me for more than five minutes has heard me start a sentence with "So, I saw this thing on Pinterest" I am an unashamed, unapologetic Pinterest addict. I know the argument, "you spend all your time pinning, do you actually do any of these projects?" my answer, yes, yes I do. Have I done all of the close to 3000 pins I have pinned? HA! I wish I had that kind of time! But, I do a lot of them. Not all are a huge success, but, a lot are, so I thought I would do a post about some of my recent Pin projects!

I love taking a few minutes for myself on the weekend, most often it is to enjoy a little lunch, it is usually soup like this Spicy Gazpacho with shrimp or a dessert. And you can be assured, I always use some pretty dishes. I wish I had gotten a shot of the pecan pie bars I made this past weekend. Another win, they were gone before I had a chance to snap a good picture.

Refrigerator pickles, Love to find new uses for my farmers market buys! This was a great recipe, the garlic cloves are so yummie!

 

Homemade ricotta and fresh herb cheese, oh...my....gosh...Ina Garten's recipe, yes, I have mentioned it before, that is because I love it and it is delicious! 

Cannoli in a sugar cone, total win, made with some of the homemade ricotta, this was delicious! And my daughter loved it! Will make this again!

Ok, one fail. Not my first, not my last. Sweet cherry freezer jam, my mom had fantastic luck with this recipe and she loved it, not me. It was way too sweet for my taste. I might try it again, cutting the sugar in half, but then again, I might not. We shall see.

I have had a lot of pin "fails" but they have yet to dampen my enthusiasm. I love all the ideas I have gotten win or lose and have learned a lot. I have a theory that people that do not like Pinterest, are not using it the right way. It is not lifestyle goal, it is an idea board, your not supposed to copy, your supposed to create and make something that works for you. It's supposed to help, not make your life more stressful. But most important, it should be fun. Go into it with that attitude, and you won't be disappointed.

I have been out snapping bee pictures again. It's funny, because I am not a big bug person, but I love bee's. I think they are beautiful, and I will still love them even when I finally get stung. Because it will happen, eventually I will catch a crabby bee that does not want to have his picture taken. The odds are in my favor, I really hope I do not find out I am allergic the hard way!

Boiling hot again this week, hope you are keeping cool!

Books and tea

It's going to be close to 100 degrees again today. It has been a very hot July to say the least. But, I do not want to imply by this post that I am ready for Summer to be over and for Fall to begin, I am not ready to give up my pool time yet.

Last month at the Nashville flea market I spotted some Fire King mugs that I have been looking for, four for nine bucks, I knew that they were coming home with me.

I could not help but think how well they complimented the books I picked up during my July 3rd Thrift market run.

Books, coffee mug and a chenille blanket. Can't help but think of how nice it is to be curled up on the couch, wind howling outside, me and Bruno under my favorite Chenille baby blanket, a cup of hot "Russian" tea or cocoa with a book in my hand and an old movie on the big screen.

Blissful.

These books were a score, not just because I really loved the jackets, but there are also something I would enjoy reading. 

Is it weird that I love the smell of old books? I do, I will crack an old book open and inhale deeply. Ya, maybe that is strange. Good thing that I am not bothered if people think I am weird.

I was out snapping pictures of my morning glory's again this morning and found that my chocolate heirloom also has white and colbalt blue flowers as well. I love these beautiful blooms.

look at that gorgeous baby!

Since it is going to be close to100 degrees again today, I am planning to spend the majority of this beautiful Sunday afternoon in the pool, with a pile of magazines and a big tall glass of fruit tea. Thoughts of cold winter winds, blankets and books will be the farthest from my mind for the rest of the weekend!

Hope your having a fantastic weekend!

Planting Sunshine

Planting sunflowers is almost like planting sunshine. 

They make me so happy to look at when they finally bloom! Of course I would be happier if more of the close to 200 seeds I planted grew. But...oh well. The ones that did grow and have finally bloomed are beautiful!

This teeny tiny heirloom sunflower, I love it.

Think this is one of the mixed bag I tossed in. It is beautiful!

 I find the patterns in their centers almost hypnotic.

Cannot get enough, they are both beautiful and interesting at the same time.

Sunshine that grows right up out of the ground.

 

I love how the morning glory climbs up the sunflowers and bloom, such a lovely combination! I hope I can get a picture of the morning glories blooming around the sunflower this week. Those lovely twisty vines are beautiful, but I would love to see the chocolaty pink of the morning glory next to this bright sunny yellow!

 

Still waiting for the darn feather morning glory to bloom...I am getting impatient.

I hope you are having a lovely sunny week!

Nashville Flea Market and a Thrift Shop run

I can't believe it took me almost a month to post these pictures, Nashville Flea market it next week again, and I am just now getting to posting my June finds, Where is this summer going?

Very aware of my thrifting dry spell, I went into the June Nashville Flea with a very open mind and my entire "wish list" not just the tip top items. And it worked for me. I found a few things on my wish list that I may have overlooked because I was so focused on my targeted top five.

Like this milk glass grease jar, missing the original lid, they replaced it with a 5 o'clock coffee lid.  I like the replacement, fits with my coffee theme and makes a perfect home for my current summer obsession Tazo tea. And the Aluminum tin, this was a Goodwill find and is a perfect container for my husbands coffee creamers.

And what do we have here? Yet another crock? Yup, 5.00 at the Flea market, I snapped it up knowing it was a good deal. I am up to five small crocks in one year. I think I better start watching for a new silverware box, the crocks are not going to cut it for much longer at the rate I am going.

And Cheese boxes! These have been on my list for years but have always been more than I wanted to pay. I found the small one at the Flea market, and my mom and kids found the big one at my favorite WI antique mall on their summer trip up North. Love them both!

Hard to see the graphics on the smaller one, but I still like it. Love them with my blue insulators. As I am posting this, I see I have a bit of a dairy theme going here. My next purchases were vintage milk, cream and cottage cheese glass. I love using them for cut flowers. My son immediately adopted the smaller cream bottle to drink his milk from. He is 16 and a football player, he drinks a lot of milk so I let him adopt it without comment.

This cottage cheese jar has a cool pinkish tint to it. I love the size and shape.

 

I love the cow on the cream bottle. Not sure if it is really all that old, but I paid so little for it I really am not concerned one way or another. 

The milk bottle is another WI find. Perfect for flowers!

I love how they all look loaded up with summer Zinnia's. So pretty!

And one more Goodwill find. A fluted hobnail milkglass vase that I just could not pass on. I came home with quite a few fun Goodwill finds on my July 3rd run. I picked up several books as well, something I look for on occasion, this time I found some cool ones I will show you next time along with one last Flea market find that I was pretty tickled with.

So next week is the the July Nashville flea market whether or not I go is a toss up. I am a pretty big wimp about the heat and people tend to think I am stroking out because I turn bright pink in the heat. I am constantly saying, no, I am fine, I just turn pink. Honestly, I would rather be in the pool when it gets flesh melting hot like it has been for the last week, and looks like it will continue to be for the next 10 days. This time of year a lot of vendors are doing the mile long garage sales  so there are not as many there. But it is such a large venue, there are still plenty to make it worth my while. So I will have to see what I feel like doing next week. It may be a thrift shop and indoor flea market kind of weekend!

Time for me to head for the pool! Have a great week and stay cool!

Chocolate

Chocolate Morning Glory That is.

Finally, My Chocolate Morning Glory has bloomed. This was the Baker Creek Heirloom that I ordered earlier this year and I can tell you I will order it again!

Bigger than the standard morning glory bloom, but smaller than a moon flower, they are really amazing. This picture does not do the color justice, I will try again this weekend. The light in this shot makes them appear to be a lighter pink, but they are more of a brownish pink, if that makes sense. They are really beautiful!

Still waiting on the fern morning glory to bloom. They are creeping up higher and higher and have pretty much reached the top of the sunflowers, so hopefully, I will start to see buds appear soon. I keep checking every night!

Hope your week is going well!

Saturday morning at the Farmers Market

Going to the Farmers Market this time of year is one of my favorite things to do on a Saturday morning. Nashville has a pretty large Farmers Market downtown and I insist on hitting it at least a couple time a year, and always for pumpkins! but usually, during the summer, I just drop into the my tiny home town Farmers Market.

when I say tiny, I am not exaggerating. There are literally six or seven vendors, that is it. They have all the basics, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, potatoes, corn a few preserves and whatever else local that happens to be in season.

It is a far cry from what I am used to. Although I have lived in Nashville for twenty years, I still miss the Farmers Market I grew up going to in Madison WI. It wraps all the way around the picturesque state Capital building, four long blocks square. And it is glorious. Flowers, cheese, pastry, bread, jams, jellies, salsa, meat, sausage, jerky,  fish, eggs and local fruit and vegetables both the exotic and the expected. Plus, soaps, handmade jewelry and of course being Madison, Tie dye and hemp everything. I always make sure to hit the market when I am back in WI. I just love strolling around the square for an hour or so, Ice cold fresh squeezed citrus bomb in hand, nibbling on farm fresh cheese curds and buying delicious vegetables before tucking a bouquet of beautiful wildflowers and a loaf of fresh bread in my basket before I left for home.

Now I run into Panera for my loaf of French bread and grab my flowers at Publix before stopping at the tiny Farmers Market at the park for 10 minutes to grab my tomatoes and cucumbers for the week. Not quite the same, but, oh well.

I got everything I needed.

This time of year, I can usually find blackberries. Mr. Mac, who also sells at the monthly Farmisan Market had these beautiful berries for sale. I bought some from him last week as well for a cobbler. But this week I decided to make blackberry freezer jam. There is nothing like homemade jam with toast on a cold morning in January.

I seem to have gotten the hang of making jam. This batch turned out perfectly.

I also decided to make a batch of refrigerator pickles. Making pickles is as much art as it is cooking. They are so pretty in their jar.

My husband brought our kids to Atlanta to visit family today, so I made my favorite summertime dinner for myself. French bread with homemade garlic and herb ricotta cheese and a slice of fresh tomato. I am so addicted to homemade ricotta right now. I use Ina Garten's recipe, unbelievably easy and so good.

I figured since I started my Saturday at the Farmers Market, I should end it with Farmers Market. Homemade blackberry jam on New York style cheesecake. Now that is a good way to end the day.

Hope you are having a great weekend!

How does your garden grow?

Mine is growing pretty well I think, especially since I have done very little that resembles actual "gardening", I am the epitome of a lazy gardener this year.

My nasturtiums are very happy planted in my herb barrel, they seem to be happier here then planted in the ground. I will make sure to remember to plant them in the herb barrel again next year.

My Basil is Jurassic size, I have been tossing it into homemade ricotta cheese along with chopped rosemary, chives and garlic. Smeared on good french bread with a slice of a tomato from the farmers market, one of my favorite summer meals. Homemade Ricotta, my current addiction. oh so good.

 

Even my dill is huge, ummm I did not actually plant this either, another self seeder, yea for the herb volunteers! Without them I would have......weeds.

Speaking of my garden volunteer's, Only a few more days and I should have my first black cherry tomatoes. They are so good in salad, but I just pop them in my mouth like candy and eat them whole! They are without a doubt my favorite cherry tomato. I am so glad they decided to come back on their own! I would have missed them this year.

But this is what I am really looking forward to. This is the heirloom variety feather morning glory from Baker Creek. It is not nearly as fast a grower as the standard morning glories, it has been slowly creeping its way up the heirloom sunflower stems, which I am also dying to see bloom. I am just thrilled by its delicate leaves, I think they are so beautiful and I cannot wait to see what the flowers will look like. My chocolate morning glory started blooming this week, But I have not been able to get a shot of one before I have to leave for work in the morning, I will make sure to get a shot of one this weekend, they are a big and a beautiful chocolaty red color, I am so happy with them! Totally worth the wait!

Ug, the week after a long holiday weekend is always rough,  and I am glad we are finally  half way through the. I hope yours is going well!

Irene Myers

I have no idea who Irene Myers is, but I think it is a pretty good bet to say she took a pottery class in 1960.

Today I had planned to post about my flea market finds from the Nashville flea market last week, but, then I found Irene's pottery class project and my plan changed.

Friday, my office was closed for the 4th of July holiday, so I decided to treat myself to a quiet morning of thrifting. I stopped into several local thrift shops and I found a few fun things, but Irene's pitcher is my favorite find. It was my first stop of the morning and as I was browsing along the pitcher caught my eye, it was an isle away and my first thought was, IRONSTONE!YES! But as I picked it up and examined it further I realized that it was not Ironstone, but someones pottery class project from 1960.

And of course I thought it was cool. Irene did a heck of a good job. I love her pitcher.

It is a great size, perfect for what I had in mind, Which was to fill it full of flowers of course!

Wherever Irene is now, I hope that she would be pleased that I like her pottery project so much and that it has a new life and will be used again. I cannot wait until my heirloom Zinnia's are in full bloom, I am getting a few blooms here and there, but I think this pitcher will look fantastic stuffed full of lemon balm and Zinnia's.

I will show you my other score's as well as my flea market finds later this week, but today I wanted Irene's pottery project to take center stage. I like to think she would get a kick out of that.

Hope you had a fun and safe 4th of July weekend!

The Bee Whisperer

I  have a lot of luck taking pictures of Bee's

Maybe I am a Bee Whisperer?

Or, maybe I just got lucky and caught a poor rain drenched Bee trying to take cover in the daylily's around my pool after a massive thunderstorm rolled through.

I kind of like the idea of being a Bee whisperer though, because I do love my Bee's!

It has been a busy week, but my office is closed on Friday so I am looking forward to a nice long holiday weekend, I plan to make a thrift shop run on Friday morning so maybe I will stumble upon a couple new treasures before I take to the pool for the rest of the weekend. I did find a few treasures at the Flea market this past weekend, still nothing on my wish list, but I had a good time treasuring hunting!

Hope your week is going well!