Daisy Cottage

Nice Things

Whew! This has been a really busy week.. and I may not be able to get to those pots 'till Sunday, as I'll be gone tomorrow too, spending some much needed time with a few friends. I wanted to thank Kim for being SO nice and featuring my blog over at her NEW place, "Creative Blogs". If you get the chance, hop on over there and check out the other blogs that she has featured ~ what a talented bunch to visit! Thank you Kim for sharing these with us! Also, if you haven't visited Terry yet, please do so as she has a charming site and is another talented lady. She is currently working on her Hopeful Haven Project ... Bless you Terry ~ what a wonderful cause!

I hope you have a lovely weekend!  xo, Kim

Garden Tools

Don't you just love the weathered patina of these old garden tools?

I found them a couple of weeks ago at a shop downtown. I hope to actually USE my "new" tools this weekend, and give the empty pots that are stacked in the porch corner, their proper attention. They've been crying out for fresh flowers for some time now, and I just keep walking on by! Shame on me!

The little red table was a Goodwill find. It was originally one of those typical "French Provincial" nightstands that belonged to a popular bedroom set that you so often find in the thrift stores. I just painted it red, but not all the way, and then rubbed some of the paint off before it dried. So far its' shabby appearance is holding up quite nicely. Actually, everything on the porch is holding its' own and looking good, EXCEPT for those darn empty pots.    ;-) 

    

Grandma's Banana Bread

 

My grandmother was a wonderful baker. She traveled by train from Virginia to Miami to visit us when I was little, always arriving with a carefully wrapped baked good in her pretty tin can.  Banana bread was her specialty. My mother, sister, and I, love making this bread for our families. I like to bake the loaf, let it cool on the rack, and then wrap it very tightly to chill in the fridge before slicing. The secret is to use VERY ripe bananas, preferably when their skins are black. This bread is so delicious when it is enjoyed with a cup of hot coffee. I made some for my son the other day as it is his favorite. I thought I'd share Grandma's recipe with you this morning.....a morning when we ALL could use a hug after the horrible tragedy that happened yesterday to our precious youth at Virginia Tech. My heart goes out to those poor kids, the lost faculty members and all of their loved ones.

Grandma's Banana Bread

3 very ripe bananas

1/2 cup margarine

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

pinch of salt

Cream butter and sugar, add eggs and beat. Add flour, sifted with salt and soda. Add mashed bananas last. Bake in a greased loaf pan at 325 degrees for 1 hour.

Apples in the Punch Bowl

Happy Saturday! It's a hot one here in Florida, but cooler weather is on its' way...I've been cleaning and trying to make a dent in the pile of laundry, but that didn't stop me from grabbing my camera and taking these two pictures to share today. Like many of you, I'm sure, I have a large punch bowl that seems to only come out of hiding every once in a while,and in the meantime, just takes up precious storage space. Then I had the idea that it would make a WONDERFUL container for a centerpiece! I thought it would be fun to fill my bowl with apples and also to use it for fresh flowers... hmm... what else can we put in our punch bowls, besides punch, that would make a pretty centerpiece AND give them a fun reason to "step out of their box"?

As I was getting ready to throw away a crumbled plastic store bag, I found this forgotten beaded necklace that I had bought at Goodwill. It didn't make it back to my dresser to join the others, but instead I draped the necklace over this urn in the dining room. I think this adds a fun, dressy look and if punch bowls can hold apples, then urns and plates can wear beads, right?

   

Old Dictionary

I don't know why I love old dictionaries, but I do. Maybe it is because one summer, when I was a little girl, I decided that I was going to learn the definition of EACH word in my special, white dictionary, starting with the first "A" word, of course. I think that grand plan lasted a week... and then it got pushed aside for better things, like playing school in the side yard, where I held my sister and neighborhood friends hostage as my "students", or swinging on swings.

Yesterday, I stopped by the over-flowing book bin in my Goodwill ... notice I say "my" Goodwill  ;-).   After digging through the various abandoned paper backs and self-help books, I saw this 1942 dictionary waiting for me to rescue it, and I happily put it in my cart. This is such a beautiful book. Honestly, for $3, it is a treasure, even the illustrations are beautiful...

I love the index tabs..

I know that we don't "need" real dictionaries in our homes any more... I mean, the internet provides everything we need to know about a word with a simple click of our mouse. However, I am a nerd and still prefer to take down a dictionary from the shelf and thumb through the pages to get my answers. Even though we no longer have to rely on these sweet, old resources, they certainly deserve to be safe and sound on a table or a shelf, rather than buried at the bottom of a Goodwill bin.