Nothing says LOVE like a Single Malt.................

Valentines isn't Valentines without a hint of PEATY MOSS and SEA AIR......................................

                                                                For HIM.........not ME!!

A Brother's Birthday

It is my eldest brother's birthday this week, and so I decided to prepare a celebration for him.  I wanted the theme of  the table to have a masculine feel, so I used these place mats in a hounds tooth gray and white which I find quite smart and manly.  I found some steel gray linen napkins for $1.25 each that looked wonderful with them.  I like any excuse to bring out the silver stag horn candlesticks...............

This vintage hotel ware plate tied in well with the theme....it is also dark gray and white...Salvation Army.

Then, I admit, any sense of masculinity went out the window because I couldn't resist using my new Tiffany Blue cake plate....I just couldn't.  A guy doesn't care about the plate anyway, as long there's a big chocolate cake underneath there.........

One the menu.....Beef tenderloin roasted with a dry mustard rub and Merlot and shallot gravy, garlic mash, oven roasted carrots, sweet corn and baby peas, followed with chocolate cake, raspberries and Chantilly cream.  We had my mama here to.....she does love a celebration with the table all done up.................

New White Coffee Table.

Just a quick reminder about my Dash and Albert giveaway.  Go HERE to check it out. 

Last weekend I found what I thought was the perfect coffee table for my friend Lorraine.  I have been giving her a hand with her house and she needed a coffee table.  I rushed her over to the shop (My Back Shed in Oakville) to show her my find.  She wasn't impressed.  We called her husband over.  He was even less impressed.  His response was "There really is nothing about it that I like.".......................So we left her there.

By Wednesday, I decided I needed to go and have another look.  I decided to buy it and store it for a future client or use it in our "Florida Home" (If that ever happens).  I did try her out in my own living room, and decided to keep it here.  My house has little natural light, so anything white works particularly well. I loaded on the books, plants, candles and Bits, and then called Lorraine around for coffee and her seal of approval.

My old, more contemporary table had a walk down the street and now is right at home in my Lorraine's family room.

Doesn't it have lovely feet?

I am linking to these lovley sites today.
House In Roses-Show off your cottage Mondays.
Between Naps on the Porch-Metamorphosis Monday
Faded charm cottage White Wednesday

Sarah 101-Episode 3

All photos above are from http://www.hgtv.ca/

Episode 3 of Sarah 101 showed the makeover of a kitchen using big box store components.  A few of the cabinets were spray painted green which gave it a nice custom look.  Some of the bits I liked here are the shelves above the sink, a great idea since an upper cabinet would be in your face, the slide in range....a small thing but a way to give a much more custom, higher end look than a range with the knob/shelf/controls thingy on the back.  Love the recycled vintage light fixture sprayed green.  Not so keen on the stripe across the ceiling, but then again, I am afraid of colour.  I really like the way she mixed up the cabinets.  Here's a link to the video of the show.  Some of you from outside North America are not able to open up the link, likely because of licensing HGTV seem to be blocking you. CLICK HERE to give it a try. Try using an anonymous browser.

Bonne Valentine Recipe and The Friday Photo Challenge for Next Week.

Since many of you will be celebrating Valentines Day over the weekend, I thought you may like this recipe for the most delicious chocolate cake.  I think I have posted this recipe before, but it was when I only had 3 followers, so some of you may have missed it, and it is such a fantastic recipe, I decided to post it again. With no icing, just fresh berries, it is not overly sweet and has a gooey dense centre.  This type of cake is known as a Fallen Souffle as it "falls" upon cooling creating a delightful fudgys  but still cake like centre.  I have certain recipes that are "go to" recipes for me.  Ones that always turn out, are relatively easy to make and are Restaurant Quality.  This cake is one of those.  I made one last Sunday and passed it on to neighbors who had family from the UK there.  They loved it and asked for the recipe.  Given that this is decorated with raspberries and a dusting of icing sugar, it also makes the perfect cake for Valentines as it looks very Festive.  I like to serve it with a dab of Chantilly Cream. (1 cup whipping cream.  Whip in 2 tablespoons icing sugar and a splash of vanilla or a scraping of vanilla bean.)  You can also make it up the day before as it keeps well for several day.  Recipe below.

Many of you have expressed an interest in continuing the Friday Photo Challenge, and I was really pleased that you all seem to enjoy it and still wish to participate.  So I will host it again starting next week on the 18th.  Since I personally find photographing Food challenging, our first challenge of 2011 will be FOOD.  Photograph any food item.  Food is tricky.  I am going to scour my cookbooks and try and get ideas on how the professional food stylists do it.  They make it look easy, but I know that there is a bit of foolery to the art of food styling. I will post a McLinky next Thursday evening in anticipation of all the great shots you all take. 

My Fiber Art.....and a Gift For a Friend

Today I am going to give away one of my fiber art pieces to a friend.  One of those friends who walks in to your house without knocking, or calls to say "put the the kettle on", or "I'm bringing wine"  She's been faffing around with her house for a long time, completely unsatisfied with almost every room.  I popped by a couple of weeks ago and started to order her family around, having them remove this or re-position that.  An old leather button tufted Chesterfield that she HATED, she now loves and we have worked her living room around it.  (will post on it soon).  What she needs now is art.   And in this case what she is getting is some amateur art, but better than nothing and I hope she like it.  She has a very ethnic, eclectic, vintagey vibe, so I thought she may like one of my wool pieces in very rich colours inspired by Persian rugs.

For some reason that I can't remember now, all of my wool collages in this series are named after men.  Baxter, Christian, and in this case Dylan.  This is a combination of collage, knit pieces, and felting. 

I think when you display art, it should interact with it's surroundings.  A piece nearby can relate to it in some way.  For instance in the photo above, you can see how the carving of the African woman looks so wonderful juxtaposed against the fiber piece and creates a vignette.

A super close up of the details.  I purchased a batch of amazing Italian yarns many years ago and used them in this piece.  Some of the yarns have slubs in them and I have snipped away part of it to expose them.

Because she desperately needs art in her home, I am popping over (unannounced) later for a cuppa and to gift her my DYLAN.  I hope she likes it.  One piece I gave as a gift ended up in a Thrift Shop after a messy divorce in the family.  The Thrift Shop owner Googled me and called me to see if I wanted it back.

Broccoli Soup

It is a great time of year here in Canada for soup.  When it is minus 15 Celsius outside, you really need a hearty soup to warm you up and pump you of veggies and vitamins.  I will make soup from just about anything I have laying around.  If I cook a roast and have potatoes and veg left over, I toss them into a soup the next day.  Since I am on a diet, I can't have bread with mine, but this soup in so thick and hearty, I won;t miss it....much.  I am lying to you...I LOVE bread.  This soup will make me feel cheated without it.

I started off with 2 bunches of broccoli, 1 onion, a few odd carrots lying around and 1 litre of chicken stock. 

Cut the onion and brown it in a little olive oil until translucent.  Throw in the chicken stock, 1 litre of water, the cut broccoli and carrots or whatever veg you have laying around.  I don't usually put carrot in my broccoli soup, but in this case I have a bunch sitting about.  Boil it all with a little salt and pepper until the veggies are all soft.  Blend it in a blender or with a hand held device. (not sure what those hand held blenders are called?)

Finish seasoning with a little salt and pepper and add 1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese.  Serve with grilled cheese croutons (make a grilled cheese sandwich and cut it up into squares).

Sarah 101

Top Picture...Banner from a photo of my bedroom drapery fabric.  I do love the block print design,
Middle and bottom.  www. HGTV.ca

I know how much you all love Sarah Richardson and Tommy Smythe and their design shows, but I also know that many of you cannot get her new show Sarah 101 in some parts of the USA, UK, Australia and other parts.  HGTV has links to the episodes on their site http://www.hgtv.ca/.  But to save you all the trouble, here is a link to the video's of the episodes.  A bit of an early valentine gift to you all. Click HERE to magically transported to all the recent episodes. From some countries you may need to use an anonymous browser which you will need to google.  Are you loving the pink chairs?  West Elm......!

Yeah for Pink

My tulips and Pink Peppermint candle, House Beautiful, favourite pink plate, pink from The Shop, roses and pink linens at the cottage, pink tulips in my bathroom, my clay tags with pink ribbons. 

I'm having a pink day today.....inspired by all the pink things around the house.  Pink dishes, flowery linens, tulips, luncheon plates, pink peppermint candles and the organza ribbons on my clay tags I have been making.  I pinked up the new House Beautiful yesterday.....They claim pink is warm and Sexy......the whole magazine is full of homes decorated with pink. Already a lover of all pinks, I have pink in small doses all over the house. After flipping through House Beautiful, I am noticing the touches of pink around my house.  For the rest of the week, I am going to explore Pink.  I am going to photograph pink when I see it, both around my house and when out and see what I find.

Hand Beaded Purses

A number of you were interested in the little beaded purses I had hanging on my wall.  I thought you may like a closer look.  My ex-sister in law made these years ago.  They are only about 1-1 /2" high, so you can appreciate how intricate the work is. I love how she tackled the fringe with the larger beads. I was hoping she would throw a couple more my way, but she tells me she longer does this kind of beading....you need to have young eyes and hands.

You can see here how tiny the beads are.  I would have to wear 10 x magnifyers to do this kind of work.

This one has slightly bigger beads.  She intended them as necklaces, but I felt like I should be wearing some kind of robes when I tried them on, so I prefer them hanging in my wall. It's art designing and creating these.



Art Wall

Since it was either watch the Super Bowl or Faff Around in the house this weekend, I spent a bit of time arranging some art in the bedroom.  I have put this white table here temporarily as a place holder, hoping to eventually find an appropriate dresser to go here.  In the meantime, it is the right height and has lots of space.  I hang anything on the wall.  Vintage purses, prayer beads, necklaces.....an antique tambourine.  And I like a grouping.  This wall in the newly renovated bedroom was lacking personality.  I began with a very battered plaster frame that someone had put a blackboard in.  My daughter had drawn a big heart with Mooch + Gracie in it (my now departed dogs) and a photo of them together sitting on a bench.  We can't erase the chalking.  It has become the art now, and is there to stay.

To the right of the frame, there are 2 hand beaded little purses made by a former sister in law.  Too small to stand on their own, they work well in a grouping and act as a good filler. The workmanship is so fine that it is a shame to hide them away.

Under theb lackboard are 2 frames containing some beaded wire words that I purchased from an Etsy seller.  They are french, and mean, mine, yours, ours, my.....something like that.  Very old and brittle, I mounted them on a piece of muslin and framed them with cheapies from Ikea.

The Crucifix was one of seven identical ones purchased when my brother-in-law died.  One was buried with him, and we all got one to keep in his memory.  Naturally it is very special to us.  It works really well in this grouping of odd bits.  I didn't realise that a bottle of Tylenol was behind that case of tulips...sorry.

Above the cross are 2 Sid Dickens tiles.  I have been collecting these for a whole now.  I think they are beautifully made and they add another dimension to a wall grouping.  Sid Dickens is from Vancouver.

When you create an art wall, whatever is below it on a surface becomes part of the display.  In this case the arrangement was created with the lamp in mind, as well as the stack of books ever present on the nightstand.

Flowers, candles and all other bits become part of it too.  The colours and shapes have to be considered before you put the nails in the wall.

Create further smaller display areas with trays.  I have to stash small bits on a tray because Hannah Cat likes to get up here and start flicking things off.  It keeps little bits like earrings safer.  I have a little Gideon Bible (yes, they are meant to be taken from the hotel rooms, that's why they put them there ) that I have to place on top of my water glass otherwise she drinks my water at night. I learned this after many weeks of not remembering drinking my water much at night, only to wake up and hear her drinking.  Yuk.