Back to blue and green, my first love.

Hi friends, I hope you are all having a great month!! I have been spending a lot of time taking down all the Christmas and then trying to reorganize and accessorize as I go.  It is a slow but enjoyable process and one that I am relishing these days.  It is very cold in Kansas right now and I don't have much desire to leave the house anyway.

For Christmas, I had a lot of my red and white transferware out to go along with everything.  What I have the most of is blue and white, and usually have most of it in the diningroom, but it is OVERFLOWING, I decided to use it in the kitchen too with my green.  I just love blue and green together, don't you?  Seems like green is really making a comeback also.  GREEN is my favorite color and is kind of an anchor color in my home.  It really serves as a great neutral in decorating and you can change it up with the addition of so many other color combinations.  And, I find it so peaceful.....

I am enjoying a new plate rack to the right of the stove that I got from Nell Hill's this last fall on a fun shopping trip to Atchison.  What a treat that store is!!

Someday I have beadboard wallpaper to put in the back of the the glass door cabinets.  I just need to make the time to get it done.  I keep realizing that is the key, is just deciding to go ahead and do it and cross it off my list, one of the things I hope to do better this year.

See the Moon and Stars green candy dish in the background..... it was my mother's and now it is mine to love.  We always had a batch of hard candy in it at Christmas, a special childhood memory.  We lost my mom this last summer, it still seems hard to believe.  I find myself thinking that  I need to call her just about every week.  

This area is totally different than it has been during the eight years we have lived here.  I did have a country possum belly hutch here, but is seemed to really crowd the space.   The fake mantel came from some very dear and precious friends of ours who found it in an old house they purchased and did not want it.  I gladly took it off there hands...;))) and have enjoyed it since the late 70's.  I added the shutter doors over the opening.  The empty frame above I have had forever also.  I think it is part of an old game table.  I just washed it with the off white paint.

Oh, and I have some cool fabric to make new window toppers, also on the list!!

This is how this area looked for Christmas:

What is missing in this picture is a wreath around the Santa head.  I never got that accomplished, oh well, there is always next year, right?  

I found the cache pot at a garage sale this fall and already had the pedestal, I think they look lovely together. For Christmas, I had paperwhites in it and it looked so pretty.

This little bookcase sits on a larger cabinet and is always fun to decorate for any holiday.  I had a few of my smaller Santas in it along with the dishes.


Now, it looks like this:

That is my blue and green story for the kitchen.

Next up, I am totally going through my art studio that has been absolutely neglected for the last two years!!  Hoping to be spending a lot more time in there creating in the coming months, but oh my it is really a process...but I'm getting there......

Thanks for visiting special friends!!  It feels good to have a little change of scene and things freshened up doesn't it?



Till next time,

I'll be singing His Praises,
Blessings, Linda

Linking to Jennifer's fabulously creative Friday

Something good in the oven

 Hi friends, since it was a dark and dreary morning, I
 decided to make a batch of scones to take to some friends who just lost their mother.  My friend also, Sylvia was British and such a wonderful  person.  I thought scones would be fitting.  I decided to double the recipe so we would have a few too.  These are super easy and one of the best scones I have ever tasted.  The recipe comes from the blogosphere, but I don't remember just where I got it a few years back and I am sorry  I can't give credit.  They were called Chocolate Chip Scones, but I make them with cinnamon chips instead and they are sooooo good!!  They freeze well also.

Here is the recipe:
I often double it.

Cinnamon Chip Scones

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
3 Tablespoons packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon backing powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 Tablespoons butter, very cold and cut into pieces
(I use my pastry cutter for this)
1 large egg
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup cinnamon chips


Preheat oven to 400 degrees -( I set my oven on 385 degrees as it seems to run hot.)

Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt together in a mixing bowl.

Add butter over flour mixture and using fingers or pastry cutter or fork, work the butter into the flour  until the flour mixture is very coarse.

 In a small bowl, ( I used my measuring cup), whisk sour cream, egg and vanilla till smooth.  Stir sour cream mixture into flour mixture until large dough clumps form.

Add the chips.

When dough starts to come together, turn out onto a clean surface and shape it into a 7 inch circle.  If you prefer, you can make two rectangles.  Slice the circle into 8 triangles or slice each rectangle into 4 triangles.  ( Since I doubled my recipe, I did this in two larger circles and wanted smaller scones, so I cut each triangle into 2 smaller triangles.

Arrange triangles a few inches apart on a cookie sheet.  Bake until golden, about 14 to 15 minutes. You just want them to barely start turning brown around the edges, so watch the first batch to know how long to bake them.  Cool for 5 minutes.  Then, glaze with a powdered sugar and milk mixture and serve while warm.  Enjoy!!

Hope you all enjoy these as much as our family does.  You could add dried cranberries, cherries, nuts, toffee bits, etc. also.  I just tend to do the cinnamon every time.  By the way, the cinnamon chips are almost impossible to find except during the holidays, but you can order them directly from Hershey.  I think I used Amazon.com.  But, be warned, if you order them in July, they pretty much come melted in the bag like this:

So, you have to chop them up.  I plan to order some more when my stash is gone BEFORE  it gets hot!! ha.

Well, girls, I made it through this post with the new format, but did have some troubles with the pics, managed to get it all figured out, finally!!  I am so technically challenged..... Now to see if it will post.........

Singing His Praises,
Linda

Linked with Fabulously Creative Friday Linky Party.http://www.jenniferrizzo.com/2013/01/fabulously-creative-friday.html

Testing.......Is anybody there????

 

 

Happy New Year to all my blogging friends.  Yes, it has been quite a long time since I posted!!  Life sometimes demands that we put other things on the backburner and that is what happened.  But, hopefully I can get back in the swing of blogging, as I have truly missed it.  Unfortunately, the Blogger format has changed since I last posted and I am relearning how to go about this, so wish me luck.  This is my second try this afternoon!!! I am scared to preview, as that is where I went wrong, so I may just hit publish and take my chances. ;))  Hope you are all well and looking forward to a wonderful 2013.  I sure am hoping to have more time or maybe I should say MAKE more time for creative endeavors.  I have decided that there is ALWAYS something I "should" do, and my usual habit is to choose that.... but alas that leaves me feeling kind of unfulfilled (if you know what I mean.)  Just hoping and praying to have more opportunities to create, as that is my heart's desire.  Wishing you the desires of your heart also my friends,

 

Blessings,

Linda

(here goes).............