Happy Crayon Day!

A few weeks ago, I was reading about obscure "holidays" celebrated in March and I smiled when I noticed the one slated for the last day of this month. Today is National Crayon Day! I love seeing a new box of crayons with their perfectly pointed tips in rainbow rows. Even better, though, is the sight of children using them. As a retired first grade teacher, I have picked-up, sharpened, shared and used a bazillion of these colored wax sticks over the years.

Did you know that Crayola crayons were first sold in 1903? They were produced by Binney and Smith, who were actually cousins. Their company initially produced chalk and, in fact, they were awarded a medal for dustless white chalk at the 1904 World's Fair.

Everyone recognizes the company for their crayons, of course. In 1902, Edwin Binney and his wife, Alice, developed the first line of wax crayons. Alice, a retired teacher, coined the name of Crayola. It comes from craie (French for chalk) and ola (for "oily"). Crayolas were sold beginning the following year and children have been coloring their worlds ever since!

Aside from coloring, crayons are used for many purposes.There is an extensive line of Crayola merchandise. I have lapel pins, ornaments, knickknacks and  a ceiling fan with this brand name! A family even made my initial entirely out of crayons! It is nicely framed, but I took it apart just for this picture in an effort to avoid the glare.

By now, you have heard the big news that Crayola retired a color this morning. No longer will dandelion be included in our assortment.

It's a lovely shade, but we're still left with 7 other different yellows. Crayola makes 120 colors, so we have lots of options to make our world bright and happy!

May your weekend be bright and happy! 🖍

Crockpot Candy

While volunteering at church recently, a friend brought me a few crockpot chocolate candies she had made. They were a delicious little treat! You may have used this recipe before as it has been around for many years. My hairdresser actually gave me this recipe ten years ago and I have used it a few times for large, special events. I thought I'd share it with you as we begin heading toward the season of graduation parties, bridal showers and weddings.

Crockpot Chocolates

1 jar (16 ounces) unsalted peanuts

1 jar (16 ounces) salted peanuts

white almond bark (12 ounces)

chocolate almond bark (12 ounces)

1 (4 oz.) bar of German chocolate

1 bag milk chocolate chips

Layer ingredients, as listed, in your crockpot. Cook on low for 3 hours. Turn off and allow it to sit for 30 minutes without lifting lid until time has passed. Stir everything very well. Spoon out on wax paper spread on cookie sheets, making small clusters. Allow to completely cool.

*Since crockpot thermostats vary, look through your lid periodically to make sure the ingredients aren't burning around the edges. Avoid lifting the lid, though. I never have had an issue.

*The directions on my recipe state that it makes around 100 candies. I think I have always made a half-batch and that was plenty for the gatherings I attended.

*You can also tweak your ingredients to your liking. My friend, for example, used a blend of peanuts, chopped cashews, chopped walnuts, chopped pecans and sliced almonds in addition to raisins for a tasty result! She also substituted dark chocolate for the German.

*Surplus candies may be frozen for future use.

All you need is love, but a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt!

                                                     Charles Schulz

Greenery Accents

You may have read that the Pantone Color Institute declared 2017's color of the year to be Greenery. I'm attaching this link so you can see the exact shade. Isn't it pretty?  I became aware of the selection in  January, but forgot about it until recently. It all started coming back to me when I pulled out this old pillow. Hmmm...it looked bright and spring-like so I decided to make green an accent color  in the great room for this season.

Its presence in the room made this bunny (who was already in place on the mantel)  pop.

Since we're supposed to use odd numbers of items while decorating, I "shopped" the house for a third greenery -colored piece to use in the room.  This glass dish fit the bill!

Then I decided to tuck-in a few Easter decorations with bits of greenery on them. These two gems were in my Easter stash. This came from Dollar Tree a few years ago, but they still carry similar merchandise...

and this mercury-looking bunny has been around for years.

Five greenery knickknacks seemed  enough, so I was done! Best of all, I gathered everything from what I already had. I enjoy rotating decorations because by switching things around, I don't get tired of what I already have. Remember, this is a good way to spotlight family treasures, too!

Ironically, I painted our powder room a rather greenery-looking shade nearly three years ago and had been wondering if it was time to switch to something else.

I guess I should wait until 2018 before considering a new color as I certainly wouldn't want to abandon the color of the year! 😄

Tuesday's Tablescape

Yesterday I shared a pretty little dish which had belonged to my great grandmother. Today's tablescape features the set of china which belonged to her parents, which would be my great-great grandparents. I looked it up and they were married in 1868.

I know this picture laps over into the blog archive, but I needed it this size and can't adjust my columns! 🙂

I can't say that we've ever used these dishes. The chips and crazing prevent them from being food-safe, but I can say that they've proudly been on display as long as they've been in my possession. We even bought an antique cupboard for the specific purpose of housing all of the set.

I used the collection of the hostess pieces for the centerpiece. The bowl, tureen, celery dish and butter pat dishes had been packed away with the plates when I acquired the set from my aunt more than 20 years ago.

I like the design and colors of these vintage dishes which have over a century and a half worth of history.

Have a wonderful day!

Show and Tell

I recently put this vignette in the solarium.

You may remember when I made this cross a few weeks ago.

I've had this sweet little salt and pepper set for quite a few years.

Do you see the pretty little piece behind the rabbits? That's my "show and tell" and it belonged to my paternal great grandparents.

An interesting fact is that today happens to be the 115th wedding anniversary of those very people. I don't know that this celery/relish dish was a wedding gift, but it is possible. It could have been a present which was received on this date in 1902! I normally wouldn't be aware of a distant relative's anniversary without looking it up, but we have their Victorian-looking wedding certificate hanging in our house. Since I am interested in family history, I enjoy showcasing the document. During a recent dusting (which needs to be done again, I may add 😉) the March 27 date recorded on the paper jumped out at me. It wasn't uncommon to be married during the week and, in fact, they were united in holy matrimony on a Thursday all those years ago. Somewhere along the line, my grandmother received it from her parents. She, in turn, gave it to my parents. While growing up, this dish was used on our holiday tables. I recall, for example,  that it held cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving. When we built this house, my parents shared it with me since I have a special shelf in the dining room for such beauties and this normally sits in that place.  In my opinion, you should use what you have and so I often incorporate treasures in my seasonal décor. Tomorrow's tablescape has a connection to today's and also highlights family history.

Blessings!

Chicken Tortilla Soup

This crockpot recipe is compliments of my cousin who shared it with me. It couldn't be more simple and yields a lot of soup. Maybe you'd like to try it.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

2 cans black beans (14.5 ounce size)

2 cans stewed tomatoes, Mexican or chili style (14.5 ounce size)

1 can tomato juice (46 ounce size)

1 can green chiles (4.5 ounce size)

1 cup salsa

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (uncooked)

1 can corn

Put all ingredients in your crockpot (it will be full) and cook 6-8 hours on low. Lift out chicken breasts, shred and return to soup. Serve with tortilla chips,  sour cream and shredded cheese.

(I like lots of sour cream and cheese in mine! 🙂

Do you recognize the chips from Wednesday's post?)

Enjoy!

Refreshed Chinese Fish Bowl

My mother was given this Chinese fish bowl years ago as a birthday gift from her mother.

Isn't the pattern beautiful?

Look at the painted fish on the inside (birds-eye-view).

Originally, Chinese fish bowls were truly used as the name implies. A symbol of wealth in China, colorful carp were considered a showy "pet" which were kept in the fancy porcelain bowls.  Over the years, though, Chinese fish bowls were replaced by glass bowls and aquariums and now these pretty vessels are purely decorative.

My parents have always utilized Mother's fish bowl as a plant stand and recently decided to replace the faux plant that was in it with something else for a fresh, new look. She envisioned something lower, light and airy and we found just that at Michaels on sale.

I offered to bring home everything to work on it.

It's always nice to be able to give a treasured piece a new look!

Good Finds

I feel the best way to find out about a good product is word-of-mouth...or, in this case, word-of-blog. Perhaps you already know about the following tasty foods.

These are my new favorite find! They are very flavorful tortilla chips with a nutty hint from the sunflower seeds. Aldi carries them (Simply Nature brand) for $1.69 a bag. Made from whole grains, rice, flax and sunflower seeds, they are delicious! A bonus is that they're non GMO. By the way, you will see these chips used in a recipe I'm posting Friday.

Do you like gnocchi? We've discovered that we love it! Boil gnocchi in lightly salted water for just a few minutes (directions are on the package). I then tossed ours in a very small amount of lightly browned butter. You can top with parmesan cheese before serving.  Of course, there are many different ways to prepare these thick, soft dough dumplings. I think most groceries carry gnocchi, but I get ours at Dollar Tree.

I haven't had white cheddar popcorn in ages, but picked-up this bag at Dollar Tree. Brim's tastes the same as the popular brands purchased at the grocery stores. It's produced in the USA and is, of course, just a dollar.

Do you have any good food finds?

Tuesday's Tablescape

I decided to use my cheerful daisies for today's tablescape. I adore these dishes which a friend shared with me last year (click here to read the story).

During this past Christmas season, the same friend and I got together and she kindly shared the matching teapot from the ensemble. Isn't it darling?

Within the past year, she also gave me the gravy boat.

Thanks to her kind generosity, I have several pieces from the hostess set which are not pictured today.

Don't the daisies make you think spring?

I hope your day has been pleasant!

💮 Have a good evening. 💮

Happy Spring!

It's officially the first day of spring! Raise your hand if you're happy about that! ✋In honor of the day, I'm sharing a tulip wreath since it's perfect for springtime use. I made this a few years ago for my parents.

This honestly goes together very easily and uses just a few materials. You need a 16 inch grapevine wreath, eight bunches of tulips, thin wire and scissors. I purchased the bunches of flowers from Michaels when they were on sale for $2/each bush (in fact, I think they're on sale this week). No matter where you get them, you'll want the smaller size. The blossoms  on these are about 1.5 inches tall and the stems measure about 14 inches.  Don't get the life-sized tulip blossoms as they won't work on this project. You'll want about 20 flowers in each bunch or it will not create a full enough look to be satisfying.

Your color choices will depend upon the look you want. You could purchase all the same color, but I got four bunches of pink and four bunches of very light green.

Don't cut apart the flowers; leave them intact. Lay the first bunch on top of the wreath, bending the stems slightly to follow the contour of the wreath. Wire in place at the point where the leaves join the stem, wrapping around the entire wreath several times.

Stagger the next bundle of tulips on top of the previous, so that the flowers of the second bunch conceal the wire of the bundle beneath.

Continue all the way around the wreath, spacing carefully so that you come out evenly. When I reached the halfway point, I made sure I was on course.  

My parents' front porch is covered, so this wreath hasn't faded or weathered at all. I cannot vouch for the color fastness of the tulips on a door that's more directly hit by the elements.

May your first day of spring be filled with tulips and happiness!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Whether you're Irish, or whether you're not...

On St. Patrick's Day, you're loved a lot! ☘

Happy Day!

National Quilting Day

This Saturday is National Quilting Day. I have always been drawn to quilts! I love their color combinations and designs, but most of all I enjoy the stories quilts tell. In bygone days, of course, quilts were a necessity to keep warm. As time marched on, the lovely covers evolved from being useful to decorative. It's true that some people still have quilts on their beds, but usually not for practical reasons. Remember the copper quilt ladder I made? I enjoy showcasing a few quilts on it.

I have my dad's baby quilt, so it has a meaningful history.

Learning to quilt has been something I have been working on the past two years and this is one of my projects, made with the guidance of a friend who is still teaching me. It represents an accomplished goal when I was newly retired.

Several years ago, I had this quilt made from my childhood dresses (primarily from when I was in first grade). I only cut the squares and created the combinations. I paid someone to do all the actual work! This piece brings back many memories since I can point to any of the fabrics and fondly recall the outfits I wore to school, for Easter, for Christmas, etc.

While this is not an antique or handmade quilt, it still has a tale to tell. Randy gave it to me for Christmas the year we built this house for the purpose of displaying on the wall, so it's special to me!

This treasure is a dear family piece. My paternal grandmother began it in the 1930s. As if that doesn't make it special enough, I love that it's created from feed/flour sacks. The top was nearly completed when she gave it to my parents somewhere along the way. As happens to all of us, the busyness of life sometimes prevents us from accomplishing all that we desire to do. Thankfully, there was scrap fabric packed away with it so I was able to hire a woman to finish the edges and binding, in addition to quilting it. Isn't it gorgeous? By the way, my dad made the handsome quilt rack for me nearly 30 years ago.

Do you have quilts? If so, what stories do they tell?