Saturday, July 28, 2012

A Little Vacation


We are taking a little vacation to the mountains
which means I will be taking a little blogging break for the next two weeks.
Happy Summer Everyone!


~Finding the amazing in the simple~
Thanks so much for stopping by
and I will be back soon!

Friday, July 27, 2012

Garden Tour Finale


This is the final garden on the garden tour.
If you missed the first two gardens you can see them here.
You can see the third garden here.
And the fourth garden here.


Actually, this garden wasn't part of the official garden tour
but I thought it definately should have been.
This garden belongs to my parents.


All of the flowers in the pots my dad grew himself in his greenhouse.


The chokecherry trees are full of berries
and I am dreaming of chokecherry syrup on my pancakes.
I can't wait until they are ripe!


I don't know the name of this plant
but it thrives in the hot sun and blooms forever.


The roses are beautiful.


The bachelor buttons are in full bloom.
Now I wonder why they are called bachelor buttons?


There is a whole row of these gorgeous pansies
along the north wall of the greenhouse.


These beautiful ruffled poppies grow along the end of their garden area.


They are absolutely stunning.


And you can't have a farm without a few kittens.
They posed so nicely for me!


~Finding the amazing in the simple~
Thanks so much for stopping by!

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Chocolate Eclair Squares


I found this recipe in a little publication
put out by Jell-O and Cool Whip
called `Summer Desserts`.
It is pretty quick and easy to make.


Ingredients
1-3/4 cups cold milk
1 package (4-serving size) vanilla instant pudding
1 tub cool whip whipped topping, thawed
22 graham crackers
3 Tbsp butter or margarine
2 squares semi-sweet chocolate
2 Tbsp cold milk
1 cup sifted icing sugar


Pour 1-3/4 cups milk into large bowl.  Add dry pudding mix.
Beat with wire whisk 2 minutes.  Gently stir in whipped topping.
Layer one-third of the grahams and half of the whipped topping
mixture in a 13x9-inch baking pan,
breaking grahams as necessary to fit; repeat layers.
Top with remaining grahams.


Place butter, chocolate and 2 Tbsp milk in small saucepan;
cook on low heat until chocolate is completely melted and mixture is blended.
Gradually add sugar, stirring until well blended.  Spread over grahams.


Refrigerate several hours or overnight.
Store any leftover dessert in refrigerator.


This is such a nice, light flavored dessert,
everyone enjoyed it!


~Finding the amazing in the simple~
Thanks so much for stopping by!

I am joining...
Rattlebridge Farms for Foodie Friday

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Christmas in July Table



Since Christmas in July seems to be a theme lately
I thought I would reshare a previous Christmas table.


The santa and train set was given to us as a gift a few years ago.


I thought it was kind of cute.


These are views of either side of the train.


The snowman is part of my salt and pepper set
and I added some tealights and a few wooden ornaments.


The little candle tress were in a box of goodies I picked up at a garage sale.


Finally comes the dishes - simple white and green with a dash of gold.


The napkin rings were also in that box of goodies from the garage sale.




Each place setting had their own wooden ornament
(I had a basket of them kicking around)
 and the little pinecones I picked up at Pier 1 Imports.


The table is set and ready to go!


~Finding the amazing in the simple~
Thanks so much for stopping by!


I am joining...
Cuisine Kathleen for Let's Dish

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Cutting Flower Basket


After our garden tour we had a presentation on
how to plan and grow a cutting garden.
This is something I had wanted to do for years
and this year I finally have my first one!


One of the recommendations was when going out
in the early morning or evening to collect your flowers
you should cut them and put them directly into cold water.


Now this makes perfect sense,
why didn't I think of it before?
So out I went with my ice cream bucket with some cold water in the bottom.
Unfortunatly, it just didn't work very well
as I had flowers with short stems and long stems.
I needed a better system.


So I went through my pantry and found this old basket.
It is sturdy with a good handle and a good size as well.
I then took three different sizes of canning jars.
The tall one for long stemmed flowers,
the medium for medium stemmed,
and the small for the short stemmed flowers.


There was also enough room for a pair of my gardening gloves
and a sharp knife, which was another recommendation.
She said, "no dull kitchen scissor." - lol.
I added an inch or two of water into each jar
and went to the garden to collect some flowers.


It worked amazingly well.
It was so easy to just put the flowers in the jars,
it looked pretty while you were collecting,
and it was so easy to carry around as I moved
from one section of flowers to the next.
I love it!!


I made three arrangements from this batch of flowers I collected
and when I was done I just set the basket in my back porch,
ready for the next day - and it looks cute sitting there as well :)
I am just so thrilled with this little basket!
It makes cutting and collecting flowers a breeze.


~Finding the amazing in the simple~
Thanks so much for stopping by!

I am joining...
Have a Daily Cup of Mrs. Olsen for Share Your Cup Thursday
52 Mantels for Thursdays Are Your Days
Something Swanky for Swanky Stuff Thursday
The Shabby Creek Cottage for Transformation Thursday