Showing posts with label blueberries. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blueberries. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Blueberries and Donuts



 

Last week we took Lillie blueberry picking for the first time (Lola was there too but slept through the whole picking part). One of the places we spend quite a bit of time while we are in New Hampshire each summer is at my uncle's farm. Shockingly as much time as we have spent there this is the first time we've ever picked blueberries. They were delicious!









Lola woke up as we were finishing picking the blueberries and just in time for a homemade chocolate covered donut - which turned into a chocolate covered Lola.




Lola and Lauren.

I had hoped to have some photos of the almost finished kitchen from the house my parents are building for a post today but thanks to quite a few factors I didn't have the pictures or post done. Hopefully I will in the next day or so.


I also wanted to introduce one of our new sponsors, Sylvie's Nest.


Sylvie's Nest is an online interior design resource for the NY tri state area and beyond offering design services that simplify the process while making it fun at the same time.

 Sylvie Bruschi is an Interior Designer in the NY tri-state area who specializes in but is not limited to residential design. She has a love of the traditional style where her roots are but can’t help melding different styles together to reflect our world as it is today.

 As a child spending summers in France and Germany was one of the greatest influences towards Sylvie’s artistic vision. Visiting relatives and spending many afternoons walking in the old villages and chateaux in the Loire Valley in particular, helped to create a love of architecture, art and antiques. You can read more about Sylvie here.

 Along with offering design consultations Sylvie also has a blog and sells items online as well.



I hope you all have a fabulous day!

Monday, July 2, 2012

Fourth of July Fruit Salad

I didn't have time to finish editing the picture of some of the other projects we did for 4th of July, but I thought I would at least show you some pictures of a little patriot themed snack we had this weekend. I recently saw a fun image on Pinterest and traced it back to Amanda of Wit and Whistle. It looked pretty easy so I thought we would give it a try yesterday. Well, I have to say it was even easier than I thought! (We also used the star cookie cutter on pancakes on Saturday morning and it sort of worked but not nearly as neatly as this did!) It seriously just made me want to start cutting watermelon into any shape imaginable!

All we did was slice a watermelon in half and then sliced it so we had several 1/2 to 1 inch thick circles. And then we used a star-shaped cookie cutter (we got ours at JoAnn's a couple of weeks ago) and just sliced out some stars. Then we sprinkled on some blueberries and that was it!





Lillie absolutely loved the star shapes and ate more pieces of watermelon than I have ever seen her eat before. The whole time I was trying to snap pictures she kept sneaking pieces. 

 Lola, on the other hand, does not seem to like watermelon at all but loves the blueberries.

 I hope you all have a fabulous Monday! I'll be back tomorrow with the Fourth of July decorating we did this weekend and a Fourth of July download.







P.S. We just restocked the 12 by 16 Je T'aime pillow covers!

Monday, May 7, 2012

Mothers Day Inspiration - DIY or Buy!

Iv'e been trying to find some lovely Mothers Day inspiration both "DIY or buy" and here are my favourite  finds:


Love this this cute cake bunting from Sweet Living Magazine. You'll find a link at the end of this post to print out the bunting. You can  then cut out the flags, fold and glue over a piece of string then affix to your cake with wooden skewers.  

 I'm excited to be giving away a gorgeous book from Penguin called "Cake Star" by Jade Lipton in a few weeks time. Jade was one of last years judges on "New Zealands Hottest Home Baker". Jade's book is full of wonderful  ideas and images for cake and cookie decorating.  You can have a sneek peek inside on my Facebook page. If your not the greatest cake decorator in the world, these little ideas I found below are easy for anyone to re-create. (Please note the images below are not from Jade's book  Cake Star).


Some little cake inspiration for Mothers Day...
Love this idea  above from "Best Cupcake Ideas" - You can buy a ready made flower or even place a real rosebud on top or if your artistic enough, make your own flower.


Easy Peasy! Individual Berry Sponge Cakes. I love simple ideas and after seeing some little rasperry sponges, I came up with this 5 minute idea which I tried out on my mum today and she loved them as they are so light. 

Image : Lee Caroline - A World of Inspiration

5 Minute Berry Sponge Cakes
Ingredients:
  • 1 store bought sponge cake 
  • fresh raspberries/blackberries or blueberries
  • 2 tablespoons of blackberry or other fruit jam
  • Fresh whipping cream or butter cream (I prefer fresh cream as its light and not as sweet)
  • 1 deep round Cookie or circular metal cake cutter
  • Icing sugar/powdered sugar for dusting
Method:
  • Cut your sponge into 2.5" diameter circles with a deep cookie cutter in the shape of a circle
  • slice the sponges in half, they should be around 3/4" deep for each slice
  • whip your cream and layer on top of half your circles
  • Mix your jam with your fruit and scoop a reasonable amount out to cover the top of the lower sponge
  • Place your second peice of sponge on top of this 
  • Finish with a dusting of icing/powdered sugar
Credit source: Lee Caroline - A World of Inspiration

You could buy these Lavender sea salts from Terrain for $24 or be creative and DIY and tie on a pretty tag (recipe below)


Basic Bath Salt Recipe
Ingredients:
  • 2 cups Epsom salts
  • 2 cups Coarse sea salt or Dead Sea Salts
  • 5 drops of high grade lavender oil
  • Lavender food colouring or mix (5 drops of blue and 4 drops of red colouring together)

Method:
  • Combine Epsom salts and sea salt together in a glass or glazed porcelain bowl.
  • mix the food colourings together in a small bowl to desired colour (I prefer pastel shades)
  • Mix the colouring into the salts mixture stirring thoroughly
  • Spread the salts onto a lined tray or cookie sheet and dry in an oven on warm temperature, this is to prevent clumping.
  • When dry place in your mason jar and tie on a pretty tag
Make sure when mixing the salts that you wear gloves as the lavender oil is quite potent and you don't want to get the oils on your skin or in your eyes.



Love these mothers day cards from Rifle Paper Company, only $4.50 each...


Lovely botanical Journal - $15 also from Rifle Paper Paper Company


Earl Grey Apothecary candle from Terrain $20.00 (Terrain are offering free shipping on Mothers Day gifts)

Earl Grey Apothecary Candle

Lavender organic soy candle from Terrain $24.00

Gorgeous Peony Archival Print from Cush and Nooks - $16.00


Linen and moleskin Rose cushion also from Cush & Nooks


Sweet apron from Vintage Roses Love $38.95





Link for Bunting download...
Download the Mothers Day Bunting  from Sweet Living Magazine
Hope you've found plenty of  Mothers Day inspiration from my finds
Lee oxo
&
Poppy
 

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