A Utensil Carrier

Recently, while I was looking for an urn for the patio, I came upon this utensil holder/carrier and was thrilled!  I've actually had my eye out for one for a long time (Downton Abbey influenced I'm sure!) but haven't found one that had three compartments, most only have two.

I had been looking for one to hold our extra utensils so that they would be more organized and easily accessible when we need them.  Also, it will be much easier to carry them out to the porch or barn for meals.  I love it when I stumble across something that I've been looking for and it's even better than I imagined!

The Daffodils

The daffodils have been blooming for about two weeks and while they are winding down, we still have some that are just opening.  I like to have enough that when I cut them to bring inside, I still have plenty going strong outside to enjoy too!  

The varieties are staggeringly beautiful to me.  While I was picking the other day, I kept running over to Bryce and exclaiming how it just couldn't be real.  The ruffles, the color combinations, the shapes are all just unbelievable.  So often, we just see the classic daffodil and I wonder if everyone knows the amazing breadth of daffodils that are available.

While on a walk in our woods a while back, Bryce and I came upon an old 7-Up bottle and I think it's so cute with the daffodils in it.

I've dotted little arrangements all around the house and am so excited that it's the season, once again, to have fresh flowers in the house!

Easter 2019

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter, we sure did.  The day dawned bright and beautiful, exactly what one hopes for on Easter Sunday!  I love Easter being so late this year as spring definitely feels like it's here to stay and everything is greening up and starting to bloom!

We started our day with Bunny Buns that turned out very cute!  I got the recipe from the book, Butter Celebrates! Delicious Recipes for Special Occasions by Rosie Daykin .  They were a perfect quick breakfast (made the night before) before church.

After church, we headed to my sister's house for brunch, which was delicious.  She has been collecting unique bunnies since we were children and so she has the ability to lay out the perfect bunny spread!

I contributed the flowers for the table and I will totally admit that I was rather proud of this arrangement because I was able to forage all the greens and greenery from the farm, as well as grow the flowers.

Our Newest Addition

Meet T.S. Ellliot, T.S. for short, our newest addition to the farm!  Grace has wanted a bunny for awhile, Al even built a bunny hutch last year for her, but until recently, we hadn't made it happen.  Frankly, I worry about getting more animals and not being able to travel, but we finally figured that we have to have someone come to care for the chickens anyway!

T.S. is so sweet and is also flat out adorable!  HIs fur (we actually have zero idea if T.S. is a boy or a girl) is incredibly soft and that face is irresistible.

Perhaps his biggest fan is Rosie who has begun camping out by the hutch.  T.S. and Rosie will often come nose to nose and T.S. seems totally fine with her.  

I'm already trying to come up with a way to give T.S. a little more freedom to roam and get some exercise.  Some sort of pen perhaps.  Any suggestions or advice is welcome.

Favorite Things #60

Our ladies are finally in a groove where we get four eggs a day, which means that we have about 28 eggs a week.  Even for us, that's a lot of eggs!  Therefore, we've been giving them away and, of course, we needed a cute carton to do so.  Bryce gave me this stamp for the top of the carton and I just love it.

I posted these pictures on my Flower Frog instagram and Karissa commented, "I love giving our extra eggs away, and this makes it even more of a gift than the "please, take these!  I'm drowning in eggs!" vibe that I usually give off."  I love that because it's so true.  

In Bloom

Last week and early this week, we had a couple of days of very warm weather and it spurred on many of the flowering trees and bulbs!  I love seeing the landscape dotted with flowering branches.  It provides a much needed shot of color after a very brown and bleary couple of months.

Unfortunately, our first spring here, we discovered that there were hardly any flowering trees at all.  We've been trying to rectify that, planting cherries, dogwoods, crabapples and redbuds.

peach tree blooms

The two flowering trees that were here, a magnolia and a tulip, are both in the front yard.  I love the Magnolia especially because for a week or two (if we are lucky) the blooms fill the view from our bathroom windows!

The bulbs that we planted are also all popping up! We have lots of different varieties of daffodils, the ruffly ones being some of my favorites.  And I just love the darling muscari!

What's blooming in your neck of the woods?

The Back Stair

When I ordered the new light for Grace's bathroom, I went ahead and ordered a new one for the tiny hall landing right outside of her bathroom/bedroom.  Along with the bare bulb in the bathroom, this stairwell also had a bare bulb and for one reason or another, we just hadn't gotten around to replacing it.  I've always liked, and used, schoolhouse lights so that was a natural choice, but this time I felt a little daring and added a fun, striped shade.

I felt like the colors of the stripes complimented all of our National Park prints that we picked up on our  cross country trip and other visits to the parks.  This back staircase, called a jersey winder, is steep, narrow and not very large but the prints are great here and add a little color to an otherwise boring spot!

Hopes and Dreams

It's April and there are definite signs that the farm is waking up!  Since moving here, this is the first year that I feel like we are a little prepared for the growing season and what's ahead.  If not prepared exactly, at least we aren't desperately behind!

Ever since buying the farm, I've felt like there was something to it that we were supposed to cultivate and grow.  I don't mean actual crops, though that is happening, but rather a story with our family with the farm at the center.  I've felt like we've spent the past 21/2 years spinning our wheels trying to figure out what that will look like, and at times,  I'v been so impatient (still am).  However, slowly but surely we are working on it and starting to make progress.  Here's a few of our hopes and dreams...

-grow flowers to sell at a roadside stand and elsewhere

-host workshops in the barn

-open an online boutique with a focus on flower products 

-produce The Work Shirt and sell in our boutique (currently in production!!!)

Of course, none of this might stick and I've had moments (many, many moments) where I thought it was all folly but ultimately, we won't know until we try, right?  Here's to new beginnings this spring!

April Fool's Dinner

Every year I try to do a little something for April Fool's day but this year I literally forgot about it until it was almost dinner time!  So while the children are certainly at a fun age for jokes to be played on them, all I did was serve a funny dinner.  Of course, they were in no way fooled by it, but it was still fun.

I told them we were having chili for dinner and cupcakes for dessert!  The chili was actually pots de creme with whipped cream (sour cream) and strips of orange peel (cheese).  The cupcake was turkey meatloaf with whipped potatoes on top.

I got both ideas from thekitchenmcabe

A Birthday and a Cheese Cake

 On Saturday night, we celebrated Gretchen's birthday and what a fun night it was!

Bryce and I hosted the group for cocktails and appetizers before dinner.  Since Gretchen loves cheese and crackers, and because we were having a big dinner, we kept it simple with cheese, crackers, honey, pistachios and rose jelly.  The centerpiece of the spread was the cheese cake that I topped with edible flowers.  It was so simple but was also a little special and fun.  It's just three rounds of cheese (I got goat, sheep and cow) stacked atop one another surrounded by fruit and flowers.

Bryce made Gretchen's favorite cocktail, the French75, and it was delicious!

As is typical, it seems that everyone always congregates in our kitchen and so I specifically put everything out in the library.  It was so nice to have that change of pace and scenery.  As a bonus, it was an unusually warm day and so the guys migrated onto the back patio!