Gift Preview

Hello, everyone,

It is hot and humid in Houston. After writing this the plan is to beat a retreat to  our bedroom and take advantage of air conditioning and a fan. It's that kind of day, when thinking about winter has great appeal.

One of my friends has a birthday in December. I think it's fun to give theme presents, so this is what I've come up with for her:

A new linen tea towel featuring the Beefeater Guards;

a mug from Queen Elizabeth's Silver Jubilee, along with a book,

and came up with this. The book is "England for All Seasons" by Susan Allen Toth. I especially like the tin it will go into, a jolly red bus full of riders.

Since 2013 is when J took her first visit to the UK, picking up a few reminders of her trip sounded like a fine idea. I hope she enjoys using these items and the memories they bring as much as I did putting it all together.

Do you keep your eyes alert for ideas all through the year, or keep a stash of goodies picked up along the way?

Have a good one,
Michele

Small switch

Hi, folks,

Our internet wouldn't  cooperate yesterday when this post was planned for. I made a small change in our bedroom. On Mr. B's side of the bed in the narrow space available he had been using a bookcase for a nightstand. It was really too tall, though. As an alternative, I switched it with the nesting tables he found at a yard sale recently:

Here they are in place:

I don't know. It still looks extremely out of balance with the table on my side. Maybe the answer is to BOLO for something matching that works with the scale of the space and  will hold all our junk.

Do you have to keep fiddling with rooms and some spaces for a long time before getting it right? I sure do. The thing that cracks me up every time I read it is the direction from design experts "Don't  put your furniture along the walls. Floating it will make the room seem bigger." Right. Clearly, none of these people have ever lived in old houses with quirky traffic patterns, oddly placed doors and windows or other issues to work around. If our furniture wasn't against the walls, except for the coffee table, it wouldn't be possible to get in or out of the living room! Do you have problems with received wisdom from professionals sometimes? Me too!

Have a good one!

Michele

An easy recipe

Hello, friends,

I hope the return to reality after the long weekend wasn't too much of a blow, as seems to be the case for Mr. B. As a consolation prize, since he also has to teach a class tonight, it seemed like making dessert would be a small distraction at least.

This is a simple version of tiramisu, based upon the recipe in a package of lady fingers.

The lady fingers were laid in a dish in a single layer.

They were then soaked in leftover coffee with a couple of tablespoons of Kahlua in it.

Next, I got out a package of cream cheese:

at which point the process breaks down. You will have to imagine me making French vanilla pudding and adding the cream cheese to it, because that picture didn't turn out.
Sorry. I made the filling, then layered it on the soaked lady fingers, put down a second layer of lady fingers and repeated everything. The last step was siftng this:

on top. And here is the result. There are a lot of different versions of this recipe, and many of those call for mascarpone cheese. I've made it a variety of ways, and really, it always tastes good, whether it's authentic or this more simple version.

Let's hope it cheers up Mr. B about the return of the work week! 

Till next time,

Michele

Too Sweet to Pitch

Hello, Peeps,

I hope you had a wonderful 4th of July. Ours was pretty quiet, but we were delighted to get rain shortly after it got dark.

When shopping for books to put on eBay it's very hard for me to resist many of the very old readers and other schoolbooks that turn up. They don't really sell all that well, which is a shame, because they're so cute. Like this one, Through the Day, from 1947:

Aren't the illustrations too cute for words?

Another really nice series was the Alice and Jerry books.

These are from The New Five-and-a-Half Club published in 1941. Again, there are illustrations throughout the text that are beautifully done and engaging to the reader.

Another Alice and Jerry is this, The New Round About:

Making Storybook Friends is from the mid-1950s:

The vehicles, people neatly dressed in ties and hats and examples of unsupervised outdoor play certainly catch the attention of a reader in 2013! Still, the beautiful illustrations and sweet stories make them well worthy of preservation.

Do you enjoy nostalgic trips down memory lane with old books? 

Till next time,

Michele

Old Glory

Hello, all,

Are you ready for the 4th of July? It seemed high time to show our spirit in the front, so we have:

a wreath with two kinds of curly wire, bells and stars.

A flag in a flowerpot.

Lots of little flags in a patriotic painted wagon. I used to have some pinwheels, but think the sun took them out in the summer of  2011.

I hope your holiday is fun and festive from start to finish!

Till next time,
Michele

Small is Beautiful

Hello, friends. I hope your Tuesday is terrific so far.

Today I actually managed to get out of the house with everything working and take some pictures, which  will be shared shortly. First, though, there is a question: do you know what a little free library is? If your response is "Huh?", here is some information:

http://www.littlefreelibrary.org/  It is a fascinating premise, especially since there are examples near us.

Here is the first one. A friend's daughter told me about it.

It's The Little Red Library. Closer to home, this is one discovered while out walking for exercise:

This one is The Empty Nest Library. I left the field guide to trees as a donation.

Have you seen this phenomenon where you live? Would you be interested in putting one up? We have issues because of being on such a busy street now, or else that would be a high priority project to task Mr. B with. Maybe it will be possible at a later day.

Looking up

Hi, friends,

Happy first day of July. Can you believe half of 2013 has gone by so quickly? Me either.

Today it occurred to me there is a more or less permanent vignette  set up in this front room that has never been shown on the blog. It doesn't get changed because it's too high and there really are no good places to move the things on it to switch things out.

The top is about eight feet so requires a ladder for short me to reach at all.  This is why the net with the bamboo handle isn't arranged more artistically, since I didn't want to find the ladder, drag it inside and climb it before taking the picture. Lazy, I know, but it's a lot more trouble than asking Mr. B to fix  it when he gets home, which is the plan. Right now it has on it a big picnic basket, a couple of globes, two old cameras, a pair of old binoculars, duck decoy, bug-catching net and a framed postcard of an old steamship. It's a bow to vintage travel and adventures.It all was chucked up there soon after we moved in and has more or less stayed put, with minimal tweaking. But I like the way it looks, so why not? 

Do you have some areas you adjust for seasons and holidays, while others just stay put?

Stay cool!

Michele