Under a blue moon

Donut muffins

Rick and I were watching an episode of The Best Thing I Ever Ate (favorite snackfood) and one of the chefs was talking about donut muffins.

I did a search online and found a version on Noble Pig's blog.  Hers called for jam in the middle but I left it out.  I also made mine mini-muffin size.

I swear I had to take that bite for food staging purposes.

I don't know that they tasted exactly like donuts but they were very good.  Light and cinnamony.  I think I would put in a smidge less nutmeg next time.  That's the flavor that was most predominate.  

Since mine were smaller the batch made 28 and I baked them for about 12 minutes.

But like hers I'm pretty sure there won't be any left for tomorrow's breakfast.

Can you believe that my Mother brought that antique jam dish all the way from England and gave it to my 7 year old son?!  He loved having high tea with her, especially the scones with clotted cream and jam.  

I'll give it back to him.  Eventually (he's 24 now).
 
 

Friday's Favorites

Flickr Favorites

 
 

• One of my favorite bloggers is back! The Winemaker's Wife
• I love this picture from the Satorialist (couldn't do a direct link the post)
• I went a little crazy ordering used books from Amazon.  I ordered Victoria Romantic Touches: Charming Handmade Projects for Every Room, Jessica McClintock's Simply Romantic Decorating, and Country Living A Bit of Velvet & a Dash of Lace ($14.90 for three hardcover decorating books.  Not bad.)
• I know I've posted this before but I still want it.  Rooster Egg Server (with a wee chick salt shaker)
• Love this take on an astrological sign pendant

Happy Friday Everyone!!

This and that

Chicken Palace is coming along.  We're hoping to move in this weekend. 

I attempted to make a plaque reminescent of a vintage French agricultural prize plaque.  Just a simple pine plaque, various shimmery grey paints and a little antiquing.  A steady hand would have helped but you have to work with the tools you have.

I bought brackets from Anthropologie for the screen door.  The screen door is turning out to be a challenge for Rick but I have faith he'll make it work.

And in keeping with the bird theme I found a cute birdhouse at Michael's when I was picking up the plaque and paint. I'm hoping that it will prove hospitable to the neighborhood wrens like the other I have on the deck.

 

 

Quickie post

Palace progress.  I think there might be more paint on me today, than on the coop.  I just have the primer coat on so far.  I still need to paint the inside of the coop and the back side.  I also have to crawl under the coop and paint that area. 

That ought to be fun. Not.

I will hopefully finish primering today and then I can get the finish coat on the run part so Rick can put the screen up. 

I'm thinking about growing a climbing rose up that front section.  Or some kind of climbing, flowering plant.  I'm partial to pink and may do Cecille Brunner.  It can scramble up the roof if it wants. 

With all the rain and mild temps we've been having the roses and pansies along the front of the house are doing fabulously.  As soon as the coop is done we can sit back and enjoy it.

 
 

Friday's Favorites

Flickr Favorites

 

• A couple of noteworthy links via Martha Stewart Living: Nostalgic looking striped paper straws.   Baker's twine in different colors (other than the ubiquitous red and white) Loving the aqua and white for giftwrapping or the orange and white for Halloween treats.
• Feel like a retro roadtrip? Check out the Retro Roadmap.
• My favorite warm weather beverage:  San Pellegrino's Aranciata.  Sparkly, not too sweet and very refreshing.
• Loving these earrings from Babette's World.  Very graceful, right down to the earwire.

Evan is home from the hospital and resting comfortably. Now to keep him quiet and still for the next eight weeks....

Happy Friday Everyone! 

 

How long was I gone anyway?

Long enough for mysterious things to happen to the potatoes...Whoops.

We had a lovely visit in Michigan.  I'll share more in the upcoming days but right now I wanted to show some pictures of a fabulous B&B we stayed at in Marine City, MI.  It's called the Heather House and it was just amazing.

It's located right on the St. Claire river so we had beautiful water views and watched a few ginormous freighters go by. 

We had the entire house to ourselves.  The owner's mother (the original Heather) met us there and gave us the keys and left us to our own devices.  Her daughter (the innkeeper) was recuperating from hip surgery so we didn't get the breakfast portion of the B&B (they did knock the price down because of that) but they had breakfast pastries and fresh fruit for us along with coffee makers ready to go. 

We had two rooms but the rest of the rooms were open (and no other guests were staying there) so we explored the whole house.   

It's one of those houses with staircases all over the place and rooms tucked into turrets and balconies off of most rooms.  A big wrap around porch (for freighter watching) and a lovely garden out back.

The house has a really interesting history.  When Heather came back the next morning to collect the keys from us she told us how the house was originally built by a shipping magnate named Sauber in the late 1800's.  He used to play cards with the town's Lutheran minister who had a tendency to cheat.  When Mr. Sauber found out he insisted that his daughter call off her engagement to the minister's son.  Either the son or the minister snuck down into the basement and set the house ablaze.   The damage was extensive but not fatal to the house.  They fixed it back up and added on the wrap around porch at the same time.

The minister cleaned out the church's coffers and disappeared and was never caught.

Here's an old picture they had showing the damage the fire caused.  You can see the broken window and parts of the roof burnt out.

I'll post some more pictures later on, once I've had a chance to down load them all. 

Evan's surgery is scheduled for this Wednesday.  I'm nervous and happy they are finally doing it (initially they scheduled it for June 9th.  Sheesh.). I'll try to post something before then but no guarantees.  

It was a lovely visit but it's nice to be back home.

Edited to add:  I got a very sweet email from Sherry and because I am a dolt with my iPhone I accidently deleted it before I could reply.  I just wanted to say thank you for keeping Evan in your thoughts (and for helping to allay some of my fears). 

 
 

Friday's Favorites

Flickr Favorites

 
 

• Pretty gift wrap from Felt & Wire
• Clever envelopes.  I used the idea to create a label for a package I mailed earlier this week.
• This is just an amazing story.  Look at pics here.
• Love these simple, elegant earrings.
• For the budding gardener in your life.

Happy Friday from lovely Michigan everyone!!

Sweetpeas

Sweetpeas courtesy of my sister Kate and her fabulous garden.  And a special thanks to Kate's husband Robert for not taking the weed-whacker to them this year.  Oops.  Should I not have brought that up?

I think my Cannon is starting to get jealous of all the pictures I take with my iPhone.  I found a fun app called ShakeIt Photo that turns your iPhone pictures into Poloroids.   I have been having a lot of fun with it.

I am getting ready for head out of town for a few days.  My dad, Nicki and I are heading to Michigan to attend my aunt's 81st birthday extravanganza.  Both are fabulous travel companions.  We took a cross country trip to visit our sister Mary in Wisconsin a few years ago and it was a lot of fun.  Well, except for the part where my Dad and Nicki tried to drive off without me at an Oregon gas station. 

Mary is going to meet us there and we'll spend the weekend visiting relatives and my Dad's old hometown.  I guess it's Mary and Nicki's hometown too.  We moved to California when I was six months old so I think of myself as a California girl.

We are making progress with the Palais de Poulet.  And before you start questioning the "we" I actually have helped.  I helped dig the trench for the foundation.  And helped hold the posts level while they were being nailed into place.   I'm also serving as the project photographer.

Since the job foreman job was already taken:

She's wondering where the cat door is going.

We got it all framed then had a few days of rain.  Construction will resume tomorrow.  I think the roof joists are going on.

In the mean time here's the front of it.  The coop will be on the far left side.  Smack in the middle is the opening for the screen door.   The rest of the area will their run.

The chalk lines in front indicate where the raised beds and paths will be for the fenced in garden area.  There will be four raised beds inside a picket fenced area.   The raised beds will be used for both vegetables and flowers.   The path will line up with the screen door to the coop. 

 

I'm thinking I need a sweetpea trellis in there somewhere.  I better go consult with the foreman.
 
 

Friday's Favorites

Flickr Favorites

 

• Did you see that episode of Project Runway where they made their own fabric?  Or maybe you are a budding quilt fabric designer...here's your chance to design your own fabric:  Spoonflower (via Inside a Black Apple)
• Sweet wall decals from Shanna Murray
• Okay I found my bike basket.  Too bad I have to take out a second mortgage to get it...
• Ha!  Bumper stickers for your shoes.  What will they think of next?
• Who is the cutest?  Now you know.

Have a fantabulous Friday everyone!!

 
 

Birdiepolooza

There is quite a bit of bird hustle and bustle going on around here.  We have tenants in the skinny birdhouse (which I hung solely for decoration).  I'm not sure what kind of birds they are but they look like finches with a jaunty tail that points almost straight up.

They spend the day running back and forth across the railing (you can see one about mid-way on the railing, right above the flower pot) then up to the birdhouse or the feeder.

They chase the squirrels away too. I saw one divebombing some poor, unsuspecting squirrel that wandered too near.  The poor guy was just crossing the deck and I don't think he had any nefarious activities in mind at all. 

I also bought a new hummingbird feeder.  It is quite pretty but it doesn't have very much red on it so I was afraid that the hummingbirds wouldn't even notice it.  So I stuck a red millinery flower on it. 

And it worked!

Excuse my spotty window.  We had quite the rainy weather last week.

We've noticed two different hummingbirds using it but they chase each other off.  I may get another one and hang it on a different part of the deck so they can each have their own.

And finally, the girls are getting bigger and bigger.  They are looking like pre-teens.  Not quite gawky yet, but almost.  The cochins are really looking big.  They are all getting used to perching and they are very curious.  I couldn't take many pictures with the cage door open because it looked like they wanted to come out and see what I was doing.

We marked the ground for the coop and vegetable garden area.  I think we are going to break ground this week!