Happy Easter

From the movie Chocolat, my personal favorite Easter message:

"I think we can't go around...
measuring our goodness by what we don't do.
By what we deny ourselves...
what we resist and who we exclude.
I think we've got to measure goodness...
by what we embrace...
what we create...
and who we include."

Spring - Daffodils, Peepers and Tag Sales!

One sure sign of spring around  here is the return of tag sales.  The Captain and I have a Saturday morning ritual - coffee mugs filled and sometimes with a treat in hand, we head out to check out a few local tag sales.  We started this  season with a bang.

Check out this great dresser!  I'm going to redo DC son's former man-cave and think this dresser will be perfect.  Who knows - I may not even repaint it - although it is hard for me to resist!    The dresser has a great distressed blue finish and since I plan to turn the MC into a beachy- themed spare bedroom, the blue is perfect. I LOVE the mirror - the great arch shape with three sections and the swirls on top and bottom.  Not sure what's up with the casters - I like my furniture to be stationary, so they'll be coming off.

The shells on the lamp will work with the theme , but I may tone down the blue just a bit.   Not sure what to do about a shade yet.  Vladimir is checking out the tag sales finds, too!

No tag sale day can really be considered successful if it doesn't include some art supplies.  Here's the day's haul - some stickers, a brand-new embossing gun, glitter, and some fun stamps.  This bag of treats has two flamingo stamps- I was going to just buy them as The Captain has an unnatural fascination with flamingos.  Since the whole bag of goodies was only $3.00  seemed silly to leave the rest behind.  I love the man with the top hat holding the sign.  He's got the creepy, weird thing going.

The panini press obviously isn't an art supply although it is heavy enough to use as a book press ! 

Cookbook Rediscovered

I bought this book for the first time  just before my first child was born and taught myself how to make bread with  this little book.  It has everything from very basic bread, muffins and quick breads to more elaborate offerings.  I actually made the bagels from this book, and believe me, while they were yummy, making bagels is wayyyy to much work!

I used it so much the pages starting falling out and at one point put it down on a hot burner so it sported the swirly design of an electric stove unit singed onto the back cover.  Sometime over the decades I lost the book.

California Daughter was looking for my soda bread recipe for St. Patrick's Day.  It came from this book, so I went online to see if I could track one down.  The first one I found was pricey - $40.00!  If you look carefully, you can see that it cost all of $1.99 brandie-new back-in-the-day!  More careful searching and I located it for not much more than the original price and bought two - one for CD and a replacement for me.  I plan to make some yummy lemon bread this weekend, but no bagels!

Somewhat related - heard this on the news tonight.  Turns out the US spends the least amount of time cooking of all the countries in a recent study.  We also spend the least amount of time eating - probably because of all the eating in the car or wolfing down take-out in front of the TV.   ( I have done my share of  both).    Bet we could at least win the "who eats the most" category!  Here's to baking and enjoying leisurely meals.

Succulents on the Half- Shell

Spring is planting time and I've been searching for small succulents to plant in this shell planter I found at a great estate sale last fall.  I found some at Home Depot and finally got this project done.

I used some white spray paint to give the shell a brighter, cleaner look.  Because there are no drainage holes in the planter, I put a layer of charcoal in the bottom so it doesn't end  up smelling like a swamp!   Next, a layer of small pebbles for drainage and then filled it with cactus soil.   After plopping in my little plants, I sprinkled some aquarium gravel to finish it off.

 Once the weather gets warmer  the shell will head outside for some real sun.  I'm wondering how the no-drainage thing will work when we get some serious rain.