Here Comes the Sun....{sort of}

Our solar garden stakes have been replenished - available in white, gold & green, they cast a lovely glow at night....be sure to get one soon before they are gone!

Shadows That Bring A Smile!

Here's a motto, just your fit--Laugh a little bit.

When you think you're trouble hit,

Laugh a little bit.

Look misfortune in the face.

Brave the beldam's rude grimace;

Ten to one 'twill yield its place,

If you have the wit and grit

Just to laugh a little bit.
Keep your face with sunshine lit,

Laugh a little bit.

All the shadows off will flit,

If you have the grit and wit

Just to laugh a little bit.
Cherish this as sacred writ--Laugh a little bit.

Keep it with you, sample it,Laugh a little bit.

Little ills will sure betide you,

Fortune may not sit beside you,

Men may mock and fame deride you,

But you'll mind them not a whit

If you laugh a little bit.

~Edmund Vance Cooke

We have some good times at The Summer Kitchen, most of the times it is because of laughter! We saw this shadow our "laugh" sign was casting in the store & thought of something else that makes us smile.....Shadow Shot Sunday, with our friends all over the world!

Come on along with us and see all of the other shadows posted on Hey Harriet - and see why we look forward every week to our Shadow fix!

Wednesday Words

"Hitch your wagon to a star"

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Wednesday Words are brought to you by our Wall Enhancer vinyl lettering line.


Gosh mom..... did they have wagons back then too?? Just kiddin'! Love this picture of our mom & her brother Tom. Love it as much as we love our newest line to our Wall Enhancer's

Custom Alphabet Image line - pop on over and see how much fun it is typing a word out & picking out your own pictures of letters!

The Flowers of the Florist

Well...you'd never guess that she is a florist when you pull up to her house (ya...right!)

This weekend I was out to Karrie's house to take pictures of this container....you'll remember this great find here! It's blooming like crazy!


Karrie loves pots....any & all! These terracotta ones line her back steps (she has three sets of steps to decorate)

This side is by her patio and she always has her potted tomatoes & peppers here...of course along with lovely flowers!





On the other side of the patio is a wonderful shady spot for the best find of the year 2008....a wicker plant stand for $4.....



















Here is one of two cement planters that are just gorgeous!





There are more plants & flowers, but I had to snap this picture.

When our grandmother moved out of her house to go into a smaller home, we found this plant stand in her attic.

No one really wanted it at first, but we'd never let anything escape....we might regret it!!

Karrie had it for a while and a couple of years ago she painted it. It is a pretty neat, old plant stand....look at the detail of the woman on the bottom of it..

We were very glad that we kept it - now where would we find something like this in the stores?





A couple of years ago we got this pot and another like it at a flea market....we loved the design & the leaf stamping on it (not to mention the general chippy-ness of it!)

This licorice plant is such fun...we planted some in our planters at work. It loves the shade on Karrie's front porch!

The last picture I took was of this sweet crock filled with impatients.

So many ways to create color & texture outside during the summer....what do you like to plant your flowers in?

"Cute" Things Up With New Quilts!

New Quilts, Runners & Pillows have arrived for summer! Quilts, runners & pillows in the summer you say?



Why yes! What better things to decorate the porch with!



Put a quilt on a table as your table cloth - put a quilt on that swing to cuddle up on cool nights! Hang the quilt up behind your chairs or wicker sofa for a punch of color!



How about pillows - on the chairs, or sofas?



The runners are great on tables, and on the back of chairs - we just love this quilted stuff everywhere!!

Sea Shell Shadows

She may sell sea shells by the sea shore.....
but we sell them in the store!

Customers can come in and buy shells by the cup - they have so much fun finding all of the ones they want - reminds me of the "buy a bag of rocks" at some stores - you know - fill a little bag up with as many stones as you can (always love seeing people stuff them as full as they can!)

Our favorite thing is to let our little visitors pick one shell out while they are waiting for their moms to finish shopping - that keeps them busy!



Go on over to Hey Harriet's this weekend to SEA what kind of Shadows everyone else is showing!

Wednesday Words

"Kind words can be short and easy to speak,

but their echoes are truly endless."

~Mother Teresa

Wednesday Words are brought to you by our Wall Enhancer vinyl lettering. For more ideas and quotes, hop on over to our website to see what you can create!

We love the picture of this phone...it is from our dear friend Todd's store Beeker's General Store in Pemberville, OH. This is the phone that rings in his store, and that gets answered when you call.....we love that it is still there!

A Big Tent Rooster Revival

A couple of months ago, one of our sales reps was telling us how chickens and roosters were making a come back....and that it was all the rage in California again. {Really? We just got over chickens...we must be really behind!}


Hmmm.


Well, we didn't take a bite and, although we have a few things that have roosters on them, we were not bringing them back full force.


We did, however, have a good laugh with Tom and told him that IF we would bring in a lot of roosters, the only way we would bring them back would be to host a Big Tent Rooster Revival to get everyone all excited.

We still laugh about it......we know - weird sense of humor - but come on....it would have been funny!


Be sure to find humor everyday - it makes life more interesting!

We're Chipper for Chips!

Don't cry over those chipped plates of Great Aunt Louise...

In fact...rejoice! Another piece of art to put outside in the garden!

You'll have so much fun "planting your china" that you'll look forward to your next break!

Lavender Shadows

Today was our Lavender Tea & Talk ~ a perfect ending for Garden Party week!

As we sat listening to Catherine's Lavender knowledge, I noticed the shadow from the cake plate on the menu....along with some shadows from the lavender that was decorating the tables!

We served many treats today and thought we'd share the recipe for our lavender cookies with you....

Lavender Tea Cookies

1 tablespoon dried culinary lavender flowers
1 cup butter, room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt

Lavender Frosting (see recipe below)


In a mortar, grind lavender flowers with the pestle. In a medium bowl, cream together ground lavender flowers, butter, sugar, vanilla extract, and lemon extract. Add flour and salt; mix until combined (dough should be soft, but not sticky.) Refrigerate 1-2 hours or until dough is firm.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Remove dough from refrigerator.

On a lightly floured surface, roll dough approximately 1/4 -inch thick. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters and place onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 12-15 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned around the edges. Remove from oven and cool on wire racks. When cool, frost with Lavender Frosting.

Makes 2 dozen cookies.

Lavender Frosting
1 cup powdered (confectioners) sugar
2 tablespoons dried culinary lavender flowers
2 tablespoons milk
2 teaspoons light corn syrup


In a small plastic bag, combine powdered sugar and dried lavender flowers. Let stand at least 1 day before using. When ready to use, sift the mixture into a medium-sized bowl; discarding lavender flower .
Add milk and corn syrup, mixing well. Spread on cooled cookies.

Note: In a time pinch - we've made the frosting without the lavender flowers & waiting a day, and it is just as good!
Go see more delicious shadows over at Hey Harriet this weekend! Better yet - join us with your own take on shadow shots!!

Pesto Party

Great balls of fire! Catherine is at it again! Last night we had a lovely gathering for our pesto class! Not only did Catherine share & make two gorgeous recipes for fresh pesto from the garden....she proved that you can't mess up making pestos!





How so? Well, we ate up our chicken & corn fritters that she prepared for us (oh so delicious!), but everyone was still craving more pesto, so we went outside to our herb garden and grabbed more herbs to make some new recipes!





Using fresh ingredients makes such a delicious pesto - you have no idea how wonderful it smelled!


As promised....here is a pesto recipe for you to try!

CATE'S PESTO
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1-1/2 cups fresh baby spinach
3/4 cup fresh basil leaves (mix a variety of basil if you got 'em!)
1/2 cup walnuts or pine nuts
6 oz. Asiago cheese, grated
3 cloves garlic

Combine 2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil with the remaining ingredients in a food processor and combine until nearly smooth. Add the remaining oil until smooth.

We Interrupt this blog.....

to bring you an impromptu tea party!



Well...today was our niece's 9th birthday. We saw it fit to have a tea party to celebrate.

It was amazing that we found a time to have an outdoor gala....in between the 90% chance of rain that had been dousing us all day! As you can see by the flag on the store - it was a bit windy also!

As we prepared the table outdoors, we made sure that she had plenty of tea party attire to wear (thanks to grandma's big box of scarves, gloves & jewels!)


So....just how many sugar cubes are you allowed on your birthday??




Could you be a dear and pass the cream please?


*gasp* why isn't that cream in the proper container? Please don't tell the queen!!

Oh dear...this will never do!







Lucky us....Karrie saved the tea by getting that container in a vessel fit for our birthday guest!


So....what was on the menu today?



Why scones, of course! With grandma's homemade blueberry jelly and
Devonshire cream - dare we say it was delicious!










Don't forget the best birthday cake in the world from Ideal Bakery in Gibsonburg (yum!)







Even Nellie and Ruthie joined in the fun!













The wind whipped a bit too much, so we had to light the cake and sing inside the
garage - but we enjoyed our tasty treat back out on the patio!










Thanks for joining us!


(note....as soon as our soiree was over - the rain started again!)

Wednesday Words

"We interrupt this marriage

to bring you the baseball season "

Wednesday Words are brought to you by our Wall Enhancer vinyl lettering. Do you have a spot for some words for your wall? Check out our web page for some great ideas!

Ha! We thought that this quote was pretty funny...insert your husband's favorite sport in it.....basketball, football, fishing....it's great, isn't it?

We're pretty lucky...not too many times do we get pushed aside for a sport, and it just so happens, that we are itching to go see our Mud Hens! So - we are telling our husbands to "take us out to the ballgame!" That way the marriage goes on & on!

Wouldn't it Bee nice....

....to take this honey home?!!

New buckets of French honey are making their debut in the store this week!

Bee sure to stop by and try some out at our Garden Party this weekend....

GARDEN PARTY
June 11-13th

Refreshments, great ideas for bringing the indoors out and the outdoors in! Herbs will be for sale all weekend long! Check out our other classes:


Thursday, June 11th
Join us from 6pm-8pm as Catherine from Healthy Bakes by Catherine shows us how to make some lovely pestos out of fresh herbs. She will also prepare some herbed chicken and corn fritters as well. The class is $5 and reservations are required!

Saturday, June 13th
Join us from 11am-12pm as Catherine comes back to share her passion for lavender. Learn all things lavender, make a lavender sachet to take home, and enjoy an informal Garden Party Tea to conclude our weekend! The class is $5. Please call for reservations at 419-638-4205.

Not able to join us? Look for a delicious pesto recipe that we will share this weekend with you!

The Little Ladder That Could

This is the all - inspiring ladder...doesn't look like much, but guess what? It is making quite the impression on my bathroom.....

Do you have a room like this? You know....could really be spectacular...but needs, well....re-done?


That's the story here. We need a new floor, the walls need to be painted and wallpaper needs to come down.

Can't do the last two until the first dilemma gets fixed...so it's just sitting there....the ho-hum bath...until, that is....the ladder came!


I slid it between the sink & the wall....added a towel - and "Hey, how about that picture we bought at the antique store (ah-hum...four months ago!)."

Now we've got something going on!

Hurray for junk....it saved the day once again!

Slitheryn Shadows

Went on a field trip this week with my son's first grade class....we saw lots of shadows,

but this one was my favorite. Don't worry....there was a piece of glass

between us and this Emerald tree boa!

Anyway...it made us think of Harry Potter (snakes = Slitheryn) and it made me think of my daughter's teacher, Mrs. J.

Every year she inspires young minds by reading the first three books from the Harry Potter series to her fourth grade class. They also have a Harry Potter Week in May.

I don't know about you, but any teacher that can get children (especially mine) to go from only reading chapter books to wanting to tackle an 8" Harry Potter book is amazing!

(and...yes, of course everyone in her class is awaiting Harry Potter's sixth movie on July 15th....see the clip here)

So....since school is ending we'd like to dedicate our shadow shot

to Mrs. J, and all of those who spark the imagination, and creativity

in young (and old) people's minds!
Thank you teachers!


For more creative shadows...please go visit Hey Harriet, where we find more pictures that inspire....thanks to Tracy too, who has inspired us

to go out and find interesting shadows every week!