I told my mother the other day...."I don't think I was quite finished with childhood. There was too much school.... with all those books, and dissecting frogs, and learning chemical charts..." I continued..." If I could have stayed home and learned to sew and draw and paint and garden and knit and needlepoint and bake....I would have been so much happier."
Turning 50, that number so many women dread, gave me a license to return to the things I loved so much as a child, without feeling the need to explain.
So when a dear sisterfriend, just last week, arrived at this landmark age, I decided we would have a tea party for two....
This is how we turn 50 at Grammy's House...
Fix up a pretty basket of goodies...filling with all those little things your friend loves...add lots of tissue paper and bows...
Pull out the paints and make pretty handmade cards...or anything else handmade, for to give a part of oneself is the only truly wonderful gift...
Take advantage of the occasion as motivation for cleaning and decorating...
Bring the outdoors in...an old watering can...in Peter Rabbit blue...holds lovely silk hydrangeas and roses (until the real ones bloom:)
Set a pretty table...
So I painted the little place cards with soft colors, as well. I thought the little leaf dish (which, for now, we'll call a cabbage/lettuce leaf since a rabbit is sitting atop:) was perfectly perfect ...and I only had two of them...even more perfect!
Enough playing around with the decor...it's time to get cooking...
Carrot Cupcakes (recipe by Susan Branch) are what we shall serve with tea...this isn't High Tea...and we are watching our calorie intake these days...so these yummy, delicious, packed-full-of-goodness cupcakes are just the thing...with, of course, the decadent cream cheese frosting, which we refuse to factor into the count...
She also offers the Peter Rabbit Cupcake Kit in her webstore...along with the Peter Rabbit napkins to match.
I commence with the gathering and combining of ingredients...and then onto the tedious part...grating the carrots...the old fashioned way (no room in this tiny cottage kitchen for a food processor, so I'm the food processor:)
As I'm measuring out the baking soda and baking powder with these precious heart-shaped measuring spoons...I think of my precious niece who gave them to me as a Christmas gift a while back. She is now on a long long road to recuperating from Gillian Barre ...it has been debilitating, but her will is strong and her faith is stronger. She is a dear young woman who needs our prayers.
At this point, Scout is at my feet, dodging my every move around the cozy space, so I finally set her on the rocking chair in the corner, where she can keep watch...and not be underfoot...
Not happy at first....
She eventually settles in and ends her pout. Silly girl!
Now to add the finely chopped walnuts....
I then add the fluffy, snowy white coconut...
This red pyrex bowl is the only original wedding gift my mother still has/had...for she has "loaned" it to me. It has seen a blue million yeast roll recipes...and that is why Mother agreed to let me "borrow" it. I promised that, along with her recipe...handwritten by her...I would learn to make those delicious homemade yeast rolls and carry on the tradition. We always had a honeybear and tub of butter that was passed around the table. With a scoop and a drizzle, whipped into a creamy concoction, on those hot from the oven rolls, we experienced absolute heaven!
After the golden raisins and crushed pineapple is added and stirred, the cupcake cups are filled two-thirds full....
While we're waiting for the yummies to bake, I'll tell you a little bit about my recipe box. On one of Susan's posts a couple of months ago...she was having a giveaway for an old wooden recipe box, filled with interesting old recipes along with some of her own...lyrics to a favored song, a sweet note card, and colorful hand painted recipes were included and had me mesmerized. I had saved scribbled recipes and thought that I should have recopied them to be much neater, but never got around to it. I had recipe cards that were so old and faded, the ink faded from drops of water...you get the idea...
But now, I realized I could embrace all of that, and decided to search out a large wooden recipe box, old and used, to be my little memory keeper.
My dear husband called to me from the computer, for he loves to do searches...."how about this one?"
Perfect!
It now holds quite a collection of memories...
When dear Miss Sue posts a recipe on her blog...and they are all delicious...I copy it down and then create a pretty, illustrated version to go in my box. It serves as continual practice with watercolors and new techniques I'm always trying out...
It also holds a handkersniff lavender sachet, so that I always remember how fragrant the kitchen was, the first time I combined the ingredients for the Victorian Lavender Cookies with Rose Water Icing...from my friend Laura at The Scented Cottage blog...
I painted a new set of 5 x 7 recipe cards since the box was too large for the other set I had made...leaving them dwarfed by the recipes...goodness...it is supposed to be the other way around...
I couldn't believe I still had a recipe I copied from a magazine in 1982, when I was a young bride with a brand new job as a medical assistant....I was a terrible cook, starting out, and was trying so hard to improve in my domestic skills. Again...if I hadn't had to go to school....sigh....
This is my all-time favorite...The crock pot recipe for Spaghetti Sauce from one of my dearest friends in the world. She gave it to me when I was expecting my first child, Matthew, and I would put it together early in the morning, before going to work...and have a wonderful meal in the evening. This of course, only after the morning, noon, and evening nausea stage had passed....
I even remember the old fountain pen and blue/black ink I used to write the recipe...The pen had been my mother's. After finding a trunk filled with all her old notebooks and journals, written in fountain pen blue/black ink...I wanted to be just like her and write everything with that same color ink, using an old pen. Things haven't changed a bit...still love my fountain pens...
So, will you look at your old recipe box a little differently now? It is your very own memory keeper...something you can pass down to your children...which I have now started doing. For now, I have just made color copies of recipes from their grandmothers, aunts, and family friends....someday, they'll get the originals...
Since the cupcakes are now filling the kitchen with the most wonderful aroma, and the timer shows only 8 more minutes...it's icing making time...
Look at all the prettiness in that bowl...no calories there...my goodness, no!
Add 3 teaspoons of this...using the pretty heart-shaped measuring spoon...
Whip it up and try hard not to lick it all right out of the bowl...for you'll need every little bit to spread on these...
Oh, this is when a "sniff" button would be so handy!
Here's how they look, sitting pretty on the 3 tiered server I came across at the Country Charm Antique Mall down the street...
After my sweet sisterfriend departed...and still on a tea party "high"...I took out the new package of lace trim for cabinets...and in the blink of an eye, peel and press, here are the results....
It makes everything in the old cupboard even prettier....
Turning 50, that number so many women dread, gave me a license to return to the things I loved so much as a child, without feeling the need to explain.
So when a dear sisterfriend, just last week, arrived at this landmark age, I decided we would have a tea party for two....
This is how we turn 50 at Grammy's House...
Fix up a pretty basket of goodies...filling with all those little things your friend loves...add lots of tissue paper and bows...
Pull out the paints and make pretty handmade cards...or anything else handmade, for to give a part of oneself is the only truly wonderful gift...
Take advantage of the occasion as motivation for cleaning and decorating...
Books by Tasha Tudor provide inspiration for vignettes...indoors...
and out...these are the eggs I acquired from Tasha Tudor and Family last spring. They are blown quail, goose, and duck eggs, decorated by Natalie and the girls there at the Rookery, with German gold Dresden trim, velvet ribbons, and pretty tassels...
They are only hanging from my little tree on the front porch on these mild sunny days.
Windy, rainy days..they will have to come inside.
Bring the outdoors in...an old watering can...in Peter Rabbit blue...holds lovely silk hydrangeas and roses (until the real ones bloom:)
Set a pretty table...
Susan Branch used books as a centerpiece for one of her dinner parties...I was moved...I had never thought of it. The sweet quilt give the table a cozy, inviting feel, and I love looking on the books about Beatrix Potter...the colors are so soft...
Enough playing around with the decor...it's time to get cooking...
Carrot Cupcakes (recipe by Susan Branch) are what we shall serve with tea...this isn't High Tea...and we are watching our calorie intake these days...so these yummy, delicious, packed-full-of-goodness cupcakes are just the thing...with, of course, the decadent cream cheese frosting, which we refuse to factor into the count...
She also offers the Peter Rabbit Cupcake Kit in her webstore...along with the Peter Rabbit napkins to match.
I commence with the gathering and combining of ingredients...and then onto the tedious part...grating the carrots...the old fashioned way (no room in this tiny cottage kitchen for a food processor, so I'm the food processor:)
As I'm measuring out the baking soda and baking powder with these precious heart-shaped measuring spoons...I think of my precious niece who gave them to me as a Christmas gift a while back. She is now on a long long road to recuperating from Gillian Barre ...it has been debilitating, but her will is strong and her faith is stronger. She is a dear young woman who needs our prayers.
At this point, Scout is at my feet, dodging my every move around the cozy space, so I finally set her on the rocking chair in the corner, where she can keep watch...and not be underfoot...
Not happy at first....
She eventually settles in and ends her pout. Silly girl!
Now to add the finely chopped walnuts....
I then add the fluffy, snowy white coconut...
This red pyrex bowl is the only original wedding gift my mother still has/had...for she has "loaned" it to me. It has seen a blue million yeast roll recipes...and that is why Mother agreed to let me "borrow" it. I promised that, along with her recipe...handwritten by her...I would learn to make those delicious homemade yeast rolls and carry on the tradition. We always had a honeybear and tub of butter that was passed around the table. With a scoop and a drizzle, whipped into a creamy concoction, on those hot from the oven rolls, we experienced absolute heaven!
After the golden raisins and crushed pineapple is added and stirred, the cupcake cups are filled two-thirds full....
While we're waiting for the yummies to bake, I'll tell you a little bit about my recipe box. On one of Susan's posts a couple of months ago...she was having a giveaway for an old wooden recipe box, filled with interesting old recipes along with some of her own...lyrics to a favored song, a sweet note card, and colorful hand painted recipes were included and had me mesmerized. I had saved scribbled recipes and thought that I should have recopied them to be much neater, but never got around to it. I had recipe cards that were so old and faded, the ink faded from drops of water...you get the idea...
But now, I realized I could embrace all of that, and decided to search out a large wooden recipe box, old and used, to be my little memory keeper.
My dear husband called to me from the computer, for he loves to do searches...."how about this one?"
Perfect!
It now holds quite a collection of memories...
When dear Miss Sue posts a recipe on her blog...and they are all delicious...I copy it down and then create a pretty, illustrated version to go in my box. It serves as continual practice with watercolors and new techniques I'm always trying out...
It also holds a handkersniff lavender sachet, so that I always remember how fragrant the kitchen was, the first time I combined the ingredients for the Victorian Lavender Cookies with Rose Water Icing...from my friend Laura at The Scented Cottage blog...
I couldn't believe I still had a recipe I copied from a magazine in 1982, when I was a young bride with a brand new job as a medical assistant....I was a terrible cook, starting out, and was trying so hard to improve in my domestic skills. Again...if I hadn't had to go to school....sigh....
This is my all-time favorite...The crock pot recipe for Spaghetti Sauce from one of my dearest friends in the world. She gave it to me when I was expecting my first child, Matthew, and I would put it together early in the morning, before going to work...and have a wonderful meal in the evening. This of course, only after the morning, noon, and evening nausea stage had passed....
So, will you look at your old recipe box a little differently now? It is your very own memory keeper...something you can pass down to your children...which I have now started doing. For now, I have just made color copies of recipes from their grandmothers, aunts, and family friends....someday, they'll get the originals...
Since the cupcakes are now filling the kitchen with the most wonderful aroma, and the timer shows only 8 more minutes...it's icing making time...
Look at all the prettiness in that bowl...no calories there...my goodness, no!
Add 3 teaspoons of this...using the pretty heart-shaped measuring spoon...
Whip it up and try hard not to lick it all right out of the bowl...for you'll need every little bit to spread on these...
Oh, this is when a "sniff" button would be so handy!
Here's how they look, sitting pretty on the 3 tiered server I came across at the Country Charm Antique Mall down the street...
Girlfriends, kindreds, sisterfriends...young and old...need a good tea party every now and then...whether it's to celebrate a milestone, a birthday, a birthday that's a milestone....take a day and play. No stress allowed...much twirling around puppies and kitties in the kitchen required...lots of smell good candles to mingle with the aromas flowing from the kitchen...and pretty music playing (songbirds on a CD serenaded us) No serious conversation permitted and only hugs and kisses when you part...
The bliss that follows a day like this, is worth every ounce of effort and relaxed planning...remember..no stress! Start thinking about someone who needs a special little celebration just for them. We just have to take care of each other...and we wind up with a blessing, as well.
It makes everything in the old cupboard even prettier....
I always loved seeing trim like this in china cupboards and shelves in farm and cottage kitchens, and now that I have this sweet kitchen, with glass cabinet doors...I had to search. On Amazon.com....I found this vinyl lace trim. It's durable and washable and gives just that extra little touch of hominess.
Well, I'm off now to water the growing things before the lawn mowers come this afternoon. Have a wonderful, blessed, spring day, dearest friends....
Christie