Pink Saturday!

Welcome to Pink Saturday! My mother's Desert Rose pitchers are my contributions to Pink Saturday this week. Pink Saturday is hosted by Beverly at How Sweet the Sound.

Aren't these the sweetest little pitcher's? Mom usually used her Desert Rose dishes at Easter. I love the colors and they bring back the wonderful memories of her fabulous dinners.

Pink Saturday is hosted by Beverly at How Sweet the Sound. Please visit Beverly to see the list of the other Pink Saturday participants.

Enjoy!

Diane

Foodie Friday!

Welcome to our weekly Foodie Friday pot luck party, hosted by Michael at Designs by Gollum. Isn't this just the best way to end the work week?!?

My contribution this week is Tuna Egg Salad with Farfalle and butterfly biscuits.

Did you see the cute little butterfly biscuits? I used the little cookie cutters that I won in Gollum's giveaway last week.

The salad passed the hubby test. He went back for more!

Tuna Salad with Farfalle

1 (12-ounce) package Farfalle
2 (6-ounce) cans or pouches of tuna, drained
1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar or Swiss cheese
4 green onions with tops, chopped
1 cup cherry tomatoes, quartered
1/2 cup regular or low-fat mayonnaise
2 tablespoons dill pickle relish
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Cook Farfalle according to package directions. Drain, run under cold water, and drain well. Put into a large bowl. Stir in tuna, cheese, onions and tomatoes.

For dressing, stir together mayonnaise, pickle relish, lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. (Salad may be refrigerated for several hours. Add more dressing if too dry.)

Makes 4 - 6 servings.

Recipe developed by cookbook author Marlene Sorosky Gray.

Note: I tweaked the recipe somewhat to use food that I had on hand.

• One pouch of tuna and 2 boiled eggs.
• I'm a kalamata olive addict and poured the liquid into the dressing twice!
• Added a small can of chopped black olives.
• Used lime juice instead of lemon juice.
• Garlic salt.

I just love these little cookie cutters and had such a fun time cutting out biscuit shapes! Many thanks to Michael for her generous giveaway last week!






Enjoy!

Diane

Blue Monday!

It's Blue Monday and a collage of blue flowers are just the perfect thing to cheer us up on a blah Monday!

Can you tell that I am oh so ready to start planting flowers? So far, I have Violas waiting to be planted, and several hydrangeas to be moved from their pots. I pulled weeds out of one of the flower beds last week, then it started raining again. I'm going to the nursery when the weather clears up!

The collage is made up of some of my favorite blue flowers on Flickr.


Sally, thank you for hosting your weekly Blue Monday event. It's always a pleasure to visit the other participants to check out their blue posts. You can see the list of other participants by clicking on Smiling Sally.

Enjoy!

Diane

Pink Saturday

Welcome to Pink Saturday!

Pink Saturday is a wonderful event hosted by Beverly at How Sweet the Sound.

I'm dreaming of spring and thinking of new roses for the back yard. Flickr is a wonderful source of inspiration, just look at all the pink roses I found!

Aren't these the most gorgeous roses in a beautiful urn? I'd love to have big bushes of these roses to create arrangements from.

How about a collage of pink roses for inspiration? I see a visit to my local nursery in the very near future!

Please drop by Beverly's blog to see the list for the other Pink Saturday participants.

Enjoy!

Diane

Foodie Friday!

Welcome to the first Foodie Friday, hosted by our fabulous Gollum at Designs by Gollum. Foodie Friday is a weekly pot luck party and such a wonderful way to end the work week. My contribution this week is a quick meal prepared in under 25 minutes.

My hubby came home tired and hungry and asking, "What's for dinner?" I asked if asparagus was okay, and got a hearty, "Oh Yeah!" in reply.

Asparagus and chicken mango sausages served on a bed of white rice is a delicious favorite and takes under 25 minutes prepare.

I used a package of Aidell's chicken and mango sausages and cut into bite sized pieces, browned them, then removed to a plate. Cut fresh asparagus into thirds and added them to the pan used to cook the sausages to brown a bit. Added a splash of olive oil, a little pat of butter, some garlic salt and let them cook a few minutes before adding a little bit of water and covering the pan.

Our new bunny is overseeing dinner. It looks like he may approve of this one!


For more mouth watering dishes, visit Design's by Gollum for the list of Foodie Friday participants.

Enjoy!

Diane

Pink Saturday and Valentines

Happy Valentine's Day! I couldn't have chosen a more perfect day to celebrate Valentine's Day than on Pink Saturday. Pink Saturday is a wonderful event hosted by Beverly at How Sweet the Sound.

In honor of Valentine's Day, pink strawberry mini bundt cakes and fresh strawberries are my contribution to Pink Saturday this week. (I'm quite amazed by my contribution this week, because I don't bake very often, so enjoy this unusual event!)

I saw The Little Baker Fairy at a Hallmark store last year and looked for her whenever I was in the store. I finally decided that she really needed to come home with me a couple of weeks ago. She's part of the Fairies collection by Enesco. The cupcake pots are filled with lip gloss.

In honor of Valentine's Day, I baked little strawberry mini bundt cakes with strawberry frosting.

Oh yummm, they are so good! Murphy, my cocker spaniel, refused to leave the stove while the cakes were there. He "waaa-oooo'd" every so often to remind us that he was still sitting there waiting for some cake! (He wore me down, I gave him a strawberry but not the cake. ☺)

Sweet's for the Sweet!

Have you tried Pillsbury's whipped supreme frosting yet? It is so good, but I used one of Sandra Lee's Semi Homemade tips that made it even better. I put the frosting in a large bowl and added a couple of caps of raspberry flavoring, a cap of vanilla flavoring and some milk. I didn't want thick frosting. I mixed it up and frosted the cakes. It is unbelievably delicious and such a keeper!

I hope you have a wonderful Valentine Weekend!

Please drop by Beverly's blog to see the list for the other Pink Saturday participants.

Enjoy!
Diane

And the winner is.....

I'm working on my Valentine's Pink Saturday post and decided that I really needed to bake a strawberry cake. It had to be pink, right? Actually I used my little mini bundt pan so I have 6 little strawberry cakes and 1 slightly flat heart shaped cake because I had extra batter. I'm waiting to frost them, then have to take the pictures, you know the drill. So while I'm waiting for the cakes to do their thing, I found a random number generator website and had it pull a random number out of the 48 comments on my Blue Monday and a Giveaway post. I am so horrible about keeping secrets, and just couldn't wait till the Pink Saturday post is published to announce the winner of my giveaway!

Just to refresh your memory, the winner will receive this lovely Spode, The Blue Room Collection plate. The pattern is called May.


The winner will also receive this adorable Spode Rosemary spice jar. The pattern is Geranium. This is a picture of the back of the jar. (BTW, I thought this would make an adorable little vase for Tablescape Thursday.)


Okay, I've teased you long enough... The random number generator had 48 numbers to pick from and chose number 5!

#1 is Susan
#2 is Lynne
#3 is Cindy
#4 is Melissa
#5 And the winner is Debbie at Confessions of a Plate Addict or prof en retraite! Congratulations and a great big Whooo Hoooo Debbie! Please e-mail your address to me and I'll try to get them into mail Monday.

Diane

Tablescape Thursday!

Welcome to my first Tablescape Thursday! Susan, thank you for hosting this beautiful weekly event. I've learned so much from the wonderful people who participate.

Valentine's Day is almost here and romance is in the air. I experimented with a sweet cottage look on the kitchen table. I wasn't happy with any of my table clothes and turned to my fabric stash. The tablecloth is a fabric remnant that didn't have a purpose yet, but I think it may become a real tablecloth in the near future. After I had a foundation, I shopped the house for items to audition. The little baking fairy decorating a Valentine Heart shaped cake with I Love You was a winner as well as the cake pedestal, with a little Limoges heart placed at the base of the pedestal. The cupcakes surrounding her little heart cake are actually lip gloss containers. Aren't they too cute! Next came the candle on the Lenox china candle holder with the little hearts hanging around it, as well as the little red glass candle holder that Rachel sent with her Valentine swap gifts. I found the topiary in the living room and the flowers from a bedroom went into a Spode pot.


As you can see outside, it's been a gray, rainy day, but I'm not complaining. We need the water! (Just in case you're wondering why we have a post with nothing on it in the flower bed, there is supposed to be a big birdhouse on it. I can't attach it and the guys just never seem to have the time to do it.)

I used my favorite everyday red and white Spode transferware dishes. I prefer flowers, and they're all botanical patterns. The napkins were in an after Christmas clearance bin at Pier 1. I love the scalloped edges.

The following pictures are a peek at each plate.

I think this one is a luncheon plate and probably shouldn't have been included, but I love the shape of them, I have 4, and use them all the time, so into the mix they went!

My most treasured find this month! I've wanted chargers so badly, and was almost ready to order some from Horchow! While browsing in Home Goods a few weeks ago, I wandered by these dishes. At first I thought they were just plates, then I couldn't believe my eyes, it finally registered, they were chargers! I nearly had a heart attack and ran for a cart. They had 8 and I took them all! I get so tickled every time I look at them.


Well my friends, did I succeed in creating a romantic cottage tablescape?


Please visit Susan's link here to see the other Tablescape Thursday participants.

Enjoy!
Diane

Blue Monday and a Giveaway!

It's Blue Monday and this is my first Blue Monday post, but wait! This is also my 50th post and I wanted to celebrate this event by having a giveaway! How better to announce a giveaway for blue transferware than on Blue Monday!

First I'd like to thank Sally for hosting her weekly Blue Monday event. You can see the list of other participants by clicking on Smiling Sally.


I didn't really give a great deal of thought about actually writing a blog before I jumped into the world of blogging. I loved reading blogs and wanted to be able to share my thoughts, things I love and pictures with others. That seemed so easy and sometimes a post almost writes itself, but then other times, it's like pulling teeth to think of something to write about and actually writing it can be agonizing at times. That said, I'm amazed to have reached my 50th post!

My giveaway is for all of you Spode lovers of The Blue Room Collection out there! ♥

The plate is part of the Regency Series, and the pattern is May.

The sweet little Rosemary spice jar pattern is Geranium.

A picture of the back of the spice jar.

Please leave a comment so I can add your name to the bowl and I'll announce the winner on my PINK Saturday Valentine's Day post!

Don't forget to visit Sally's blog to see the other Blue Monday participants by clicking here.

Enjoy!

Diane
♥♥♥♥

My Valentine Swap gift has arrived!

Belle at Life of a Southern Belle organized a Valentine Swap a few weeks ago. She put all of the participants names in a basket and pulled pairs of names for swap partners. We also had a list to fill out to assist with gift purchases. My partner is Rachel at Livin and Loving, and just look at all the gifts she sent!

The box has the cutest little monkeys and hearts on it.

Wow, the box was filled with gifts! A new Country Living magazine, a magnetic memo pad, a little red glass heart shaped candle holder, wild current scented sachets. a sweet little canvas picture with a flower & enjoy on it, a package with 8 sheets of scrapbook paper and a mini scrapbook kit.

Another peek at all the treasures with a candle lit.

Thank you Rachel! You've been an awesome swap partner!

Enjoy!

Diane

Outdoor Wednesday at Pebble Beach

Welcome to Outdoor Wednesday, hosted by Susan at A Southern Daydreamer.

I'm sharing pictures of Pebble Beach at Spanish Bay today. The pictures were taken in December 2007.

A lone chair sitting in the grass with the beautiful ocean view beyond. The grass area is behind the Pebble Beach Golf Club.

The building off to the far distant left is the Beach Club.


Low tide and the beach below the Beach Club. My son and friends were tossing rocks into the surf.


It was such a beautiful day and fun to walk on the hard packed sand, but I kept checking for the incoming tide.


Thank you, Susan, for hosting Outdoor Wednesday! Please visit Susan's blog for links to the other Outdoor Wednesday participants.

Enjoy!

Diane