Rooster Tea

I have a new little tea pot I am showing off today for tea.  I have it set up on my newly remodel chest I am using as a sideboard.

This little tea pot is by Maxcera the pattern is King Rooster.  

Here, I turned the sugar around to the back side.  The front has the rooster on it and that is the same for the creamer.

The mugs are really large.  Inside the top rim is a little sunflower hanging down in your cup.

All of it sits on top of a rooster table runner.

As for the tiered dessert stand, one of these days I will make some food to go on it but today I just have faux fruit.

I will link to:

Tea Time Tuesday at Lady Katherine Tea Parlor

Tea Time Tuesday at Rose Chintz Cottage

Tea Cup Tuesday at Martha's Favorites

Tuesday Tea for Two at The Plumed Pen

Tea Pot and Tea Things Tuesday  at The Silken Purse

Tea Pot and Tea Things Tuesday at Breath of Fresh Air

Tea Cup Tuesday at Artful Affrimations

Please join all these lovely ladies for some tea.

CSN $45 Gift Certificate Winner is...

Here are your random numbers:

77

Timestamp: 2010-09-06 04:58:15 UTC

 Sarah at HYACINTHS FOR THE SOUL!  Congratulations Sarah!  Thanks to everyone who entered. 

Help save the Pink Silo!!

One of my favorite stores, On a Whim Antiques, located in Lucketts, VA needs our help.  They need us to sign a petition to the county so that they can keep the pink polk-a-dotted silo.  We stopped by yesterday and were sad to hear that Donna Troxler now has to fight to keep her silo pink:

{On a Whim Antiques:  owner, Donna, with my two little guys and the pink polk-a-dotted silo}

There have been complaints about the color of her silo on Rt 15, and although Donna has found no law dictating the color of a structure, she is being forced to repaint it.  Donna's pink silo is not only whimsical & fun, but it also serves to bring attention and income to her store.  Without the eye-catching silo, many people could drive by without even noticing On A Whim Antiques.   Not to mention:  just down the road are some other amazing stores - The Old Lucketts Store & the Beekeeper's Cottage- and both have their own beautiful whimsical details that I'd hate to see go anywhere.  They also have items out in the grass for sale and it's an awesome treasure trove.  Donna has already been forced to move the merchandise in her lawn to the inside of her store, so I'm sure it's only a matter of time before they go after the other stores.  :(   

I seriously admire Donna: she's a determined, hardworking woman who's turned her dreams into a reality.  Donna's been in business for over 5 years and has built On A Whim from the ground up.  Donna donates a percentage of all sales to the National Breast Cancer Foundation and has already been forced to remove all of her pink breast cancer ribbons from the outside of her store.  She's got a steel core & I know this won't keep her down, but she does need our help.  She's supported me from the beginning when I was just starting out & I can't thank her enough.   

If you have a minute, please sign the online petition: 
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/onawhimsavethepinksilo/

When you've signed your name, you will see a donation to the National Breast Cancer Foundation, and you do not have to donate in order to sign the petition.  (You can just "X" out the page once you see that pop up but of course you can donate if you'd like to)  Thank you so much.

DC Metro Mommy

Check out DC Metro Mommy for an interview I did with Claudine!   DC Mommy is a blog for DC- area moms so be sure to read it if you're in the area. 

Thanks so much to Claudine for the interview!!  You can read it here.  Enjoy your long weekend!!

   

Beef Burgundy

Boys being boys, they are always hungry.  Even in the summer, when I make a dish like this there are no leftovers.  Everyone complained of being hungry about 10 PM and I think this stew finished around 1:30 AM.  No one complained when they finally ate, they snacked on bacon till it was done, and I had to keep remaking bacon in the microwave. The source for this recipe was Dr. Atkin's New Diet Revolution.

Burgundy Beef Stew

Ingredients:

1/2 cup flour

3 lbs. beef chuck, stew meat, cut into 1" cubes

1/4 lb. sliced bacon

1 tbsp. olive oil

1 med. onion, chopped

1 carrot, chopped

1 celery stalk, chopped

2 garlic cloves, finely minced

2 cups of dry red wine

1 can (14 1/2 ounces)  reduced-sodium beef broth plus a can of water

1 bay leaf

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1 tbsp butter

1/2 lb. button mushrooms

1. Spread flour on a plate; lightly coat beef pieces, tap off excess.  In a large Dutch oven over medium heat, cook bacon until crisp.  Remove bacon, crumble and set aside.
2. Add oil to bacon fat in Dutch oven.  Brown beef in batches.  Transfer to a platter.  Add onion, carrot and celery to Dutch oven; cook 8 minutes, or until softened.  Add garlic and cook 1 minute more.  Pour in wine; increase heat to high.  Boil until wine is reduced to about 1 cup, about 5 minutes.
3. Return beef and accumulated juices to Dutch oven.  Pour in beef broth and water; add bay leaf and thyme.  Reduce heat to low; cover partially and simmer 1 1/2 hours, until beef is tender.
4.  Melt butter in large skillet over medium heat.  Saute' mushrooms until golden brown, about 5 minutes.  Add mushrooms to stew along with reserved bacon.  Remove bay leaf.  

Mine is served up on toasted sourdough bread for the boys.  Without the bread it is relatively low in carbs.  But any way you serve the stew, it is very tasty.  
6 Servings

Our white bedroom

We don't do well with white carpets.  When we moved into our house a little over a year ago, there was wall-to-wall creamy white carpet everywhere.  We almost immediately replaced it with hardwood in the living room and hallways, but we kept it in the bedrooms to save.  It hasn't fared well in our master bedroom.

{You can see in the pic that even when it was taken -after only a few months here- we'd done some damage...  It's really inexpensive carpet and so it's also held up terribly}

I want to keep our bedroom feeling light, airy and natural and I know that pulling our dark hardwood into the bedroom would make it much darker than I want.  We've been loving our indestructible wall-to-wall seagrass in the basement and decided to do it in here too.  Seagrass can be tough on barefeet but you do get used to it.  It's weird though... when I'm really tired (ie sometimes when I first wake up or really late at night) the seagrass is too much for my feet so I plan to layer the seagrass in our bedroom with a massive soft white hide rug:

I'll let you know how it goes!! 

And thanks so much to everyone for all of the comments & advice about childcare...  I really appreciated hearing how you all have done it and how things have worked out for you.  I guess I've realized that in the end, (which is what many of you pointed out) we have to go with what we feel works best for us & our family.  It might not be what others would do in our situation but we have to do what's right for us, and we know that best.    Have an awesome Labor Day weekend and enjoy wearing that WHITE!!!

 

Buzzing Bee Tablescape

A little table with some buzzing bee tableware I found at Goodwill. I am taking a French twist inspired by the tableware.

 

The centerpiece is a grouping of things that all carry the bee theme.

 

A little straw bee skep I recently found at a gift shop.

 

At the same little shop I found this tea towel hand embroidered with bees.

 

I found this little canister at TJ Maxx and I was waiting for the right table to put it on.  Never thought I would find these dishes.  Just grabbed some flowers from the garden and put a rubber band around them and popped them into the canister as if I just came from a French market. 

Here you can see the pattern better on the tableware.  It has a harlequin pattern in the background with all these little bees chasing lavender.

 

A little bee on the handle of the pitcher.

This platter came with the set too.  It is one of the prettiest pieces.

In keeping with the straw bee skep, I put a basket weave soup bowl with the plate.  Would serve some French peasant vegetable soup with this bread if I had more time.  

 

 And  here is the plate.  I used a natural linen as a table cloth.  The plates have chips but, it is all so cute it still has some more life in it. 

 In case you missed it, I had a virtual tea with the rest of the pieces I got with this set at Goodwill.  You could view that post here.  All of the bee tableware was $12.75.  It was made by Deb Mores and the pattern is Buzz Buzz. 

Thanks for viewing my tablescape I had fun with this bee themed set of dishes.

Don't forget I am having a CSN $45 gift certificate giveaway. Enter here.

 I will link to:

Centerpiece Wednesdays  at Style Sisters

Tablescape Thursday at Between Naps on the Porch  

Vignette Fridays at Color Outside the Lines