White Wednesday at Faded Charms

Have you ever had ‘bubble and squeak’? It’s a simple dish made by frying together some onions, diced potatoes, grated carrots and most importantly – cabbage. Add salt and pepper and you’re done! Any vegetable may be used but the main ingredients are cabbage and potato. I’ve been making ‘bubble and squeak’ for as long as I can remember but I don’t know where it came from . . . probably my mom.

. . . simple down-home food . . .

. . . bubble and squeak beginnings . . .

Iron Chef Mom: Battle Carrots at i should be mopping the floor

On the veranda

delightful stuff!

so cute!

in the rafters!

lunch is ready

thanks for coming!

I have mentioned this quaint little store which is approximately a 15 minute drive from my home. It offers, to quote: “a wide selection of country finery for indoors and out.  Our classic clothing and linens mingle with nostalgic accent pieces.  Teas, soaps, lotions and candles and the works of fine crafters, artists and authors fill our shelves.  Feel the history……take home a memory!”

I cannot seem to stay away and every time we have guests (such as our two daughters), we make a trip over and inevitably take home some little thing, and sometimes, not so little! This former General Store is a 91 year old building that has been lovingly restored to retain its vintage charm and heritage. It is now run by a mother/daughter team who dared to take the risk and they have been in business since 2003. Here’s hoping for continued success!

I just had to show off my nesting tables that I found there a couple of weeks ago (mentioned in an earlier post). What fun!

I shall never tire of the delights I find along my country roads. I am (surprised) and fortunate that I haven’t veered off into the ditch while scanning for new and exciting finds! Just yesterday as I was cruising down the highway at 100 km/hr I spied a wild Tiger Lily!! Now, how many people do that? Unfortunately, I couldn’t stop – there was nowhere to pull over. When I saw some red paint brushes that I wanted to photograph, luckily there was a side road and I was able to turn off the highway. Guess what I saw? a wild Tiger Lily hiding demurely in the grass! Serendipity! Isn’t she beautiful?

With summer in full swing, the lake, the garden, the family, and holidays are calling. So, for today, a simple post, just to say hi! I hope your summer has been fabulous so far!

This is one very delicious coffee cake! I kid you not! My friend Eleanor gave me this recipe, probably 20 years ago . . . hmmm, can that be?

It’s great for breakfast or as a dessert.

Strawberry Rhubarb Coffee Cake

4 cups chopped rhubarb with one package of strawberry jello mixed in

Blend together:
1 cup butter
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream

Sift and add to above mixture:
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda

Topping

1/2 cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp white sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup lightly toasted pecans, chopped

Spread 1/2 of the batter in an 8 x 13 inch pan. Layer rhubarb mixture over and sprinkle with 1/2 of the sugar/cinnamon mix. Layer the rest of the batter (it won’t cover perfectly but that’s how it is) and then the rest of the cinnamon.

Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.

Texture: Kim Klassen ‘life’s good’.

Black and White Wednesday at The Long Road to China

White Wednesday at Faded Charm

This week the theme for Texture Tuesdays at Kim Klassen Cafe is ‘three’. Here I’ve created a still life using three different elements. I’ve been dreaming of peonies since the first shoot appeared in May. Me trying to capture the essence of a peony! are you kidding? But this is how I feel about them. They are frilly and fragrant and are here for such a short time I am left to wonder later – was it a dream?

After adjusting exposure and adding some blur I applied one layer of Kim’s beautiful texture ‘subtly yours’ at 50% soft light – then using a layer mask, I played around until I had revealed a bit more of the flowers.

Calling all digital scrappers! A freebie from me to you! I’m on the Creative Team at E-Scape and Scrap and they are celebrating their 7th Birthday. In celebration, I’ve created a layout using their new kit ‘Lucky 7’. I then created a Quick Page of that layout and am making it available FREE to anyone that wants it! Just go here to get it! Please leave a comment in this post if you are having trouble downloading, or you don’t know how to use a Quick Page, and/or even if you just ‘like’ this! So go ahead, help yourself and enjoy!

My layout

The new kit

The freebie! get the high resolution version from the link at the top of this post

Also check out this way cool  *Digital Scrapbooking Blog Train*  (in the tabs section of my blog) for more freebies and fun!!

Busy weekend here for me! Canada Day, family visiting, going out on the lake, campfires! tons of fun! but even with all that, tomorrow I have a digital scrapping give-a-way for all you digital scrappers out there. Make sure to stop by and have a look! I’ll try to get around to visiting blogs when everyone here has settled into their beds tonight! Have a great Thursday!

While taking the back highway home I run across some very interesting stuff! This old beater has seen better days! and here are my flowers ‘By the wayside‘.

I used Kim Klassen’s ‘golden’ and ‘mayzee’

(Tom Krause

My lovely globe-flowers sitting in a vase on an antique table by my kitchen window seem to bring sunshine right into the room. Every time I look at them I feel delighted and inspired. It’s such an unassuming plant in my garden – it flops over and you can hardly see it. But when brought into the spotlight it reveals what a beauty it really is. I wanted to show you what it looks like in a vase but I just couldn’t do it justice (I’m still trying). This beauty is a  perennial plant of the family ‘Ranunculaceae’.

Textures – Kim Klassen (golden, silence, justcause).

Linking up to Flowers on Saturday at Blueberry Craft and Hobby Time

Kim Klassen has a little challenge and give-away going on tonight. The challenge was to take something that you don’t think is beautiful and make it beautiful. I went all over the place looking for ‘not beautiful’ things that had some character. I even went out to the garage. Well that did it. It’s so depressing out there (needs a good cleaning) that I came in and looked desperately around the house. Then I spied these peony buds. Now you might say, well, peony buds are beautiful. Well these ones are not beautiful to me. You see – yesterday I thought it was going to hail since we had a huge storm rolling in so I went and picked a bunch of my not ready peonies. And now I don’t think they are going to open, which makes me very, very sad. I wait all year for one or two bouquets of peonies. I wanted to bring them in all pink, and fragrant, and ruffly. I wanted to create a stunning arrangement so I could take photos. But these buds are rock hard and haven’t changed one bit since I cut them. Well then, I thought, I am going to make you beautiful, and dreamy, and PINK! I will have dreamy, PINK peony buds!

texture magic applied – I feel a bit better . . .

original, rock-hard buds . . .

Perhaps they will open. Perhaps not. Either way, I feel a bit better (after the rant). And after all that I flattened my image and lost my recipe. But I know I used ‘sweettart’ ‘sweettreat’ and ‘pourvous’.

Check out the great give-away challenge! at Kim Klassen Cafe and good luck!

I’m guessing this is a yellowjacket. A ‘Common Aerial Yellowjacket’. It’s truly amazing what is going on in the shrubs and trees around us. I was chasing a butterfly but spied this fella and he captured my imagination. Just look at his beautiful colouring and delicate wings. I knew not to get too close so I used my telephoto lens – I’m quite sure he didn’t want to be interrupted!

I made this salad for dinner tonight. Hubby was out and I happened to have all the necessary ingredients on hand. Yes, on occasion, when I am alone, I forgo the Cheezies and prepare myself a decent meal! First thing to note: there is no egg, second thing to note: use the freshest, finest Parmesan cheese possible.

Creamy Caesar Salad

1 peeled and crushed clove garlic
1/2 cup olive oil
2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/3 – 1/2 cup very finely grated fresh Parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp worcestershire sauce
dash tabasco
dash salt and pepper

Blend together using a blender, or as I do, a hand-held Braun mixer. Let dressing sit for 15 minutes or so and it will become thick and creamy. You know when something is so good you want to lick the plate? Well, I did. Toss with Romaine lettuce, torn into pieces and top with croutons.

Homemade croutons
Melt butter in large frying pan, cut a loaf of french bread into cubes, place in pan and toss and coat with butter. Toast slowly, stirring often until crispy, but not too brown

Have twizzlers for dessert.

Linking up to Full Plate Thursday at Miz Helen’s Country Cottage

Thank you Miz Helen for featuring my salad!!

Wordless Wednesday at Project Alicia

wow! this looks like a good place . . .

. . . no wait . . . what the . . .

. . . five females together?! . . .

. . . I’m outta here . . .

I think these are common goldeneye (females). We scoured our bird books and decided that they fit the description, plus they will nest in trees (please, someone correct me if they are not). The first photo was taken just a week ago but the other four were last year at about this same time. Anyway, what is remarkable is that on that day, five of these birds landed on this tree snag and I was able to photograph them! I was holding my camera by hand, zoomed in at 200mm and through glass (shaky, shaky, shaky)! Just one of those things, there was no time to grab my tripod (I was not prepared), and a blurry photo is better than no photo when it comes to capturing what is going on around you in nature!
(I submitted these to a contest that our county was holding and they featured my photos in their newsletter).

Now I’m linking up to World Bird Wednesday at the Pine River Review

A barn we travel past twice a week. It sits on an intersection of two secondary highways and I’ve taken hundreds of photos of it. Winter, Spring, Summer, and Autumn. I just can’t seem to get enough of this old baby. She’s a real beauty.

To create this I used a technique called Digital Watercolour Painting by Jan Walker at Digital Scrapper.

Linking up to Barn Charm at Bluff Area Daily

Murrieta 365

I’m not quite sure what this fascinating flower is, although I think it is some type of euphorbia. Can anyone help me out? It grows on quite a sturdy vine which causes the branch that it is growing on to bow down under the weight. Very strange.

Linking up to Flowers on Friday at Blueberry Craft and Hobby Time

Footnote*

Thanks a million to Jane for identifying this mysterious flower for me! It is indeed honeysuckle! (lonicera cilliosa) Orange Honeysuckle to be exact. This is what I found out:

The orange honeysuckle vine, which can reach a height of 23 feet, has a greyish colored bark and leaves that are a bright green with an elliptical shape. On the stem, the leaves grow opposite each other. At the end of the stalk, a leaf will form a bowl for the base of the flower cluster. Each cluster can have anywhere from a single flower to as many as 30 and when the flowers are done, red berries appear. The flowers are small and trumpet shaped. They face upward and have bright orange petals with a black center.

What could be more fun than swimming in a cold Canadian lake in June?

Linking up to Live Every Moment
where the theme today is ‘smiles’

Linking up to Project Alicia: Crazy Days of Summer
where the theme today is ‘water’

I just love love love being able to use flowers from my yard/garden to put on my table. In my books nothing beats this simple bouquet of wild cranberry flowers popped into a vase with clear marbles. All I did was go out into the bush surrounding our yard and clipped a few branches. I then used a vase and marbles that had been given to me on another occasion. What could be more charming?

I’ll be honest here – I had set my camera up to see if I could catch a Rosy Breasted Grosbeak (that furtive bird!) when suddenly this natty nuthatch appeared within my focus! and it seemed to freeze when it saw me. I very quickly took as many shots as I could (twenty-five maybe) and was so excited with my capture that I called it a night and went in. I applied a texture by Kim Klassen ‘subtly yours’ and a hue/saturation adjustment to calm down the background and then erased over the bird. Nuthatches have always reminded me of Grandpa from the ‘Munsters’ with their sleek peaked forehead and tuxedo-type markings. Apparently there are a lot of pet nicknames for nuthatches, but mine is Grandpa!

Linking up to World Bird Wednesday at ‘The Pine River Review‘

I went hunting in my favourite little junque store ‘One Man’s Treasure’ and I found these two tiny vases. They are bright green, a  pretty green – but kind of quite overpowering. So, Kim Klassen to the rescue! I used her texture ‘not too shabby’ on soft light and wow! what a difference. All of a sudden I had this dreamy vignette with my lily-of-the-valley.

On the second photo I applied a photo filter (cyan) to bring it closer to the same exposure as the first photo. Magical stuff don’t you think?

Tuesday Around The World at Mamahood, Among Other Things
White Wednesday at Faded Charm

Today is a beautiful, warm, sunny day in June and I am free to play. So I’m playing around in my garden and kitchen. I felt like shaking things up a bit so I swiped an antique table from my ‘office’ and put it beside my antique cabinet in the kitchen. But, it needed something. Some flowers. A trip to my garden yielded these two allium that have been returning year after year. I love them so much I don’t know why I haven’t planted a whole new crop (note to self, plant allium this autumn). Then I decided they would look perfect in my new (old) glass bottle that I found at my local antique/garage-sale store.

Linking up to Craft Catwalk at Embellishing Life