It's Thursday!

This week is my 3rd Tablescape Thursday by Susan at Between Naps on the Porch! This week I decided to go traditional since this is the last time I can use my long dinette table. I have decided it's just too long for the space. I think I would like a more intimate round 4 chair table, now that the kids don't eat with us every day.

Here is how my table used to look in the room it was purchased for.

Here is how it looks at the new house. It's too big...it's 8 feet long.

I'm not too sad about it because I have my dining room table to use on future Thursdays! I'll post my actual tablescape on Thursday!

Liz

Armoire

I have an armoire that is dark wood and I am thinking about painting and turning into my vintage linen closet. What about putting it in my white bedroom with the newly painted shabby daybed? How would that look?

Get a load of the mustard yellow paint my new house has on the walls of the living room. I can't wait to paint that too!!!

Here is a photo of my inspiration look:

Here is a white one with crystal knobs and embellished doors from one of my favorite web sites the Bella Cottage.

I love this photo because it even has the linens in there to show you how it would look. Unfortunately...this item is $1400...vs mine which I already have. YES...more savings!

I can't wait to see how to the room turns out. I am spending today getting my table together for Tablescape Thursday! I will post the photos later today!

Liz

Strawberry Time

I am working on my pantry today, but took a moment to eat some strawberries, great at this time of year.

Right now you can find them in the stores for $1 a pint...picked at perfection. Look how beautiful they are...I love eating them with sprinkled with sugar (Splenda)...or with cream in a beautiful bowl!

I'm a chocolate lover, so I have to have a few (Ok more than a few) dipped in Ghirardelli chocolate.

In an effort to make strawberry eating easier and quicker...I am considering buying this slicer from ebay. It's $6 plus shipping!

Vintage silver...vintage glass...vintage linen... and fresh berries on my patio. I couldn't ask for a better break!

Well..I'm back to the pantry organizing. Til next time...

Liz

White Shabby Chic Bedroom.

AAhhh! WHITE

Photo credit: Ashley-Home Decor

H & G Magazine

So cool, so calm! Many times over the years I have had a white room in my home, then I'm easily led by whatever is in the magazines or the decorating section at Target and I change it.

Photo credit: Rachel Ashwell Shabby Chic Bed

Eventually, I find myself craving the cool quite comfort of a white room again. Well I am back there again, craving a "shabby chic" white guest bedroom. Since, I am always trying to do everything on a budget after years of paying tuition, I'm thrift store bound! I really love the hunt of searching for a great deal!

Photo credit: Rachel Ashwell Shabby Chic Sofa

I have a beautiful daybed and I have painted it white, now I just have to find the right linens. Here is a picture of it when it was brown and I was into the color "aubergine" in my last home.

Now I am hunting for furniture pieces and can paint. Here are my inspiration pictures. Can't you just smell the ironed cotton. By the way...I love my ironing board, but that's another post.

Photo credit: Ashley-Home Decor

Let's see how the bedroom turns out. I am already planning my first guest menu just so I can serve it on a tray.

I'll publish the pictures and soon I start that room.

Liz

Snowing in Spring!

It's snowing in Albuquerque. This is a photo of my front yard during last year's heaviest snowfall. The Mountains are dusted with snow...and I was already planting seeds and visiting the garden center.

Mother Nature the "Home Arts Specialists" are ready...why are you keeping us waiting!

Liz

Tuscan Spring Table

It's Thursday again, and it's time for my favorite thing...Tablescape Thursday by Susan at Between Naps on the Porch! Each week over a hundred blogs participate, and every table setting is worth taking the time to look at. I highly recommend it!!!

I have decided to do a Casabella West Tuscan theme for Spring!

The yellow flowers are blooming in my backyard and begged to come inside. I have a matching set of salt & pepper shakers but I could not find them. They have not shown up since we moved.

These are my favorite blue tumblers and they came from Marshall's. Don't they have the cutest pattern on them. I have a lot of cobalt blue things in my kitchen! I'll have to show them to you in future posts!

The tableware came from Tuesday Morning...they are in the style of Italian Deruta pottery...lovely to look at but way too expensive to own the real thing. These plates are hand-painted but are from China...far from Italy. The linen napkins are vintage from the 50's.

The flatware is my everyday Oneida...I have been using it daily for years and it still looks new. The blue plates are from the French Glass Co. Luminarc and I have had them so long, and don't know which store they came from.

I tried to choose table linens that had the same swirl as the pottery! Bring on the pizza! I'm ready to eat!

It's has been so much fun doing this table. I am already planning next week's theme. I so many different sets of plates to choose from...I can't wait!

Thanks for coming to visit!

Liz

Thirft Store Hunting

Since I finally got a tax refund this year for the first time in years, I decided to head to my favorite thrift store and see what I might find. I love the hunt, and my first stop is the Goodwill. I found this beautiful pitcher for $8.



Isn't it pretty...I believe it's old cause the bottom has lots of scratch marks! It is going to be perfect for my Spring flowers! I can't wait to finish my pantry so I will have a place to put it.

I am still deciding what my new kitchen will look like. When I moved in, it was painted three different very odd colors. Here are my inspiration photos...maybe it will end up like one of these....

Rustic Italian


or Cottage White


I haven't decided.

Liz

Stressed spelled backwards is desserts!

I have been trying to be good and avoiding the surgery stuff!!! But if there has been a stressful time in our Nation, it has been now. I am stressed too, and "stressed spelled backwards is desserts" so I have an excuse.

I learned to cook, sew and iron in home-economics, like most of the readers out there. I had six (6) years of it and now I call upon what I learned almost daily. My teacher recommended we get a basic cookbook. The cookbook I chose is actually a series. They are a little beat up now, but "The Good Cook" is still the best set of cookbooks I have ever read! I purchased mine in 1980, but you can still get them on ebay!

I hope to share different recipes with you while I set up the cookbook shelf. Here is my favorite and most requested cookie recipe. There are million versions of the recipe, but I think this is the best one!

Jam Thumbprint Cookies

Ingredients
3/4 pound (3 sticks) room temp unsalted butter
1 cup Sugar
1 teas. Vanilla
3 1/2 cups All-purpose flour
1/4 teas. Kosher salt
1 egg Beaten with 1 tablespoon water, for egg wash
7 ounces (bag) sweetened coconut
Raspberry or apricot jam ( Any flavor works )

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Cream together the butter and sugar until they are just combined and then add the vanilla. Sift together the flour and salt. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture to the creamed butter and sugar. Mix until the dough starts to come together. Roll into disk, then wrap in plastic and chill for 30 minutes. This step is very important....and makes it the perfect cookie when you very busy. Roll dough into 1-inch balls and dip each into the egg wash and then roll it in coconut. Place the balls on an ungreased cookie sheet and press a light indentation into the top of each with your finger. Drop 1/4 teaspoon of jam into each indentation. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the coconut is a golden brown.

Try these! The're easy and everyone's favorite! I store mine in my Italian Biscotti Jar!



Arrivederci
Liz

My Fellow Bloggers!

Long before I started my blog, I read many of the ones out there to get ideas about decorating, collecting, etc. I have many favorites and as I am posting, I will share there links with you.


You should see some of the creative people out in the blog-o-sphere! They are creating, beautiful, amazing, creative things. When I am having a no-inspiration day, I visit one, and say to myself "I never thought of that." I lived on the state border between Georgia and South Carolina for 7 years while I went to school at the University of South Carolina. Because of that experience I just can't resist blogs from that area! They take me back now that I am a Western girl again!

I spent a couple of my grade school years in California, so blogs there have a special place in my heart and trigger all my old memories. Hopefully my blog about the High Desert...Rocky Mountain...High Altitude Albuquerque will trigger memories for readers about when they came here! I've already heard from a few of you!

Liz

☺Happy Easter 2009☺

Happy Easter Everyone! Now the fun really starts!

Liz