Fun with Silver

Sometimes you see the craziest things and you just have to share them!
Just look at this silver for instance....

Now, let us tell you just how much we were sad that this silver had been soldered together with all of these other pieces to make a little fountain.  Although the fountains were adorable...there were a few pieces that we would have loved to take home with us!  Even so, this was a creative way to use found objects (even thought it was silver...)

Then we spied these silver plates with *gasp* vintage pins!  Yet, it was pretty darn cute - don't you think??!!

Enjoy a wonderful, creative week!!

Smile...it's Shadow Shot Sunday

It's that time of the week where we smile....

and visit our friends all over the globe for Shadow Shot Sunday!

We found a very fun vintage camera display -  perfect for shadow snap shots!

Point your cursor and Click over to Hey Harriet for the best camera shots around!!

It's Friday! And we're in love...

With Catherine's pesto!

Last night Catherine once again mesmerized us all as she showed us how easy it is to make pesto while Charlie played some beautiful background music.

She also gave us ideas on how to use and keep pesto.

Everyones favorite part... getting to eat!  The first pesto she made was served with her famous home made bread.

The next pesto she made she added to some pasta, mixed it in and then added fresh tomatoes.  Mmmmm.....

It was a gorgeous evening... and everyone was in love with the cooler weather!

And as if the night couldn't get any better...

Out came the lemon thyme sugar cookies and the lemon sorbet!

Thanks to all who attended... you made it the perfect evening!

Wednesday Words

This past Sunday was our last family reunion of 2010.  This is the picture we used for the invitation that we sent.  These hard working guys are Harold, Clarence, Marv & Billy (our grandfather), and they look like they are the type that roll up their sleeves, don't they?

We love this picture of these boys - their ties have to be our favorite part!

Wednesday Words are brought to you by our Wall Enhancers and our Alphabet Images....

Got Words?  Put them on your wall!!

Reward for Missing Shoe [Fence]

While on vacation we took a bike ride around the Tybee Island and we came across this fence.

Look close....do you spot one of your missing shoes??

What a fun & ingenious way to do something with

lost shoes - we gave this islander 1st place for creativity!

(Now....what to do with that one sock that doesn't have it's match!!)

1 Tomato, 2 Tomato, 3 Tomato, MORE!

It's Shadow Shot Sunday...our favorite part of the week where we search out shadows in our neck of the woods!

This week the tomatoes are on!

(as well as the shadows!)

And...we are finding all sorts of recipes to use all of this delicious fruit up!

Yesterday at our Birthday Tea Party we used some Roma tomatoes to make this:

All you need for these yummy Pimento Cheese Stuffed Tomatoes is:

Pimento Cheese

4 cusp shredded sharp cheddar cheese

4oz. chopped pimentos

8oz. cream cheese, softened

A couple dashes of hot sauce

1/4 cup mayonnaise

1 onion, chopped

24 tomatoes

(washed, slice a little bit of the bottoms off of the tomato, so they can sit upright, then slice top off & scoop out seeds)

Mix it all together and stuff the tomatoes with the Pimento Cheese mixture

For more fantastic shadows ripe for the pickin'

Head on over to Hey Harriet!

It's Friday and We're in Love...

                      This week we are in love with tea parties...

                                     

and customers who love us so much they want to spend their birthdays in our store.
It's Friday....
What are you in love with today??

Wednesday Words

What a crew this is!  They look like they had a super summer of exploring, discovering & just plain old having fun - don't they?

Wednesday Words are back (thank goodness!!) and the computer is back (hopefully!)

So, we are very happy & thankful!

Wednesday Words are brought to you by our Wall Enhancer vinyl lettering and Alphabet Imaging.

Got Words?  Get them on your wall!!

Paris Inspiration

Three years ago when we were in Savannah we had so much fun shopping at two shops there. One was this one...The Paris Market.  We did a little searching and found an article about it on Country LivingThey were kind enough to let us take pictures while we were there...what a fun place to look & look &look!

This year we went back....and the store didn't disappoint in displays - we loved the books stacked in the niche - clever!  Of course the windows were fantastic at drawing you in.

A bit of inspiration to bring home to our own store (decorating inspiration is one of our favorite things to "shop" for!!) 

This week we are rearranging and bringing out the Halloween & Fall Decorations....we'll share the displays with you when we're done!

So do tell....what inspires you?

White Washed & Lovin' it!

Rachel Ashwell is back...

We received an email this week from GuildMaster furniture promoting her new line.

We're lovin' this cabinet...  just think of all the things we could display in it!

The table and chairs are fun too.....  they remind us a lot of the whitewashed pieces we carry in the store.  So, hooray for White Washed still being in style!

Do you have a favorite piece that you've white washed??

Would You Like Butter With That Shadow??

Last weekend we were at the Ohio State Fair.

You haven't seen the fair, until you go see the butter sculpture and drink a fabulous milkshake from the Dairy Barn!

 

Every year, there's a new scene to wow everyone.....complete with some shadows - and some fun facts about the sculpture:

~This years display was made with 2,000 lbs of butter!

~It took 392 hours to create the display for this year.

~After the fair, the butter from the sculpture is recycled by Mt. Vernon Nazarene University

For more shadows, head on over to Hey Harriet
(where you don't need to butter up to bloggers - we just take you & your shadows as they are!!)

It's Friday and we're in love...

and this week we are not only in love with our fabulous paisley bracelets...

but we also are in love with the fact that those paisley bracelets look great with our paisley ball fringed scarves.

What are you in love with today?

Picture This...

While checking out emails about the New York Gift Fair, we saw these vases by Los Angeles glass artist Jenny Gaynor.

She creates these custom Photo-transfer vases by transferring photographs onto a recycled glass vase.  The vases shown range in price from $425 - $525.  With 45-84 photos, these vases are perfect for a special occasion that you'd want to remember! 

OK....we know you are still in sticker shock with the price....well, try making your own vase.  How would a Summer Kitchen Girl make this vase?

She would copy a bunch of photos (most likely black & white!) and cut them in the design or size they would need to be for the vase.  We'd use a clear glass vase and some mod podge for sure!  We really like how Jenny has that space between the pictures we'd do that - that's a nice detail!  After the pictures were on and the mod podge had dried, we'd cover it in a clear acrylic paint like Krylon Crystal Clear Varnish Spray (we like this because it is a tough clear finish that won't yellow with age.) 

Need more ideas?  Kodak has a How To page to get you thinking here!

View Jenny's website for more vases.

She saw starfish shadows, but not by the sea shore...

We caught these shadow of starfish the other day.  They are displayed in one of our large glass hurricanes.  We love how the glass almost gives and illusion of water in this picture.

We promise, that if you join us for Shadow Shot Sunday,

you will SEA lots of shadows - from the sea, or from the land - indoors or out - join us for one of the most creative memes in blogland on Hey Harriet!

It's Friday...and we're in love...

Last night we had our Lavender Class.

Catherine came out and taught us all about this herb and it's gazillon uses.

She also taught us how to grow, prune and harvest this fabulous herb.

We also talked about the many foods and drinks you can make with Lavender.  We found out that you can even use the leaves to make things like Lavender lemonade... Who knew?

Then she brought along her collection of Lavender cleaners, room & linen sprays, herbal teas, sachets, and of course, the plant itself for us to shop from.

All this while we devoured Lavender cookies & Lavender tea bread while sipping on some of our Victorian Garden tea, which of course has Lavender in it!

One thing we wanted to make was this recipe for Lavender fudge, but we didn't have enough Lavender buds for it (then we found out that we could have used the leaves!)

So we thought we'd share it with you... then we all can make it!

Lavender Harvest Fudge

2cups(12oz.) good chocolate chips (for special occasions us Belgian chocolate!)

1tin(300ml) sweetened condensed milk

1 Tbsp. dried Lavender flowers (3Tbsp. fresh)

-measure, then grind finely, use a clean coffee grinder

Melt everything together in a double boiler.  Add 3 tbsp. butter.  Stir until smooth and melted. 

Pour into a pan lined with wax paper (approximately 9"x9").  Cover with Saran Wrap.  Chill overnight.

Cut into 1" squares.  Wrap like "sweets" in twists of wax paper. 

*Recipe can be doubled, use 9"x12" pan.  Stripe it using white chocolate for top layer and dark for the bottom.

**Optional:  Sprinkle fresh Lavender on to layer to decorate!

We are in love with Lavender this Friday... what are you in love with today??

Waiting...

Sorry for the lack of communication lately....
The computer is still in the shop... yes the computer... you know, the one with tons of pictures on it. It is also the same computer that has our template to change our header from July to August ( have you been a-wondering about that?!!! - no, we haven't gotten Alzheimers....yet, that we know of!!)

It also seems to be the only computer that we have any more with publisher on it, you know, that handy dandy little program we seem to use constantly to do such things as creating ads, Wednesday Words and postcards  (like the family reunion ones that would have been easy to create but we had to resort to literally cutting and pasting.....ahhhh just like the old days when we were doing the school newspaper in high school - which, do kids know how lucky they are these days with their computers????)

Perhaps that is why our hard drive went bad.... (hmmm...)
So, in the meantime, enjoy these pictures that we have....they are quite serene & spa like.....& make us forget that we have computer troubles....!