Winner!

Since it is Father's Day, my DH had the honor of drawing the winner of the strawberry mat and a few other surprises and the winner is....

Charlotte of C.M. Designs!

Charlotte, please send me your address and I will get your package out promptly!

A very big thanks to all who participated and who drop by and comment from time to time. I enjoy getting to know all of you and meeting new bloggers!

Ladies Weekend

One of the highlights of my year is the weekend I spend with dear, long time friends. We all live in different states and don't get to see each other very often, but when we do get together we just pick up where we left off. Unfortunately, due to family obligations, it doesn't always work out that we can all get away at the same time (Donna, we missed you!) and our destinations might not be very exotic but girlfriend time is the best. 

Keys to a great weekend are...

a nice hotel, preferably with a hot tub

charming restaurants

shopping! Some like boutiques

others swoon over antiques

healthy snacks to keep us going, preferably not left in a hot car,

and the best friends ever!

I will be back later to post the winner of my strawberry mat giveaway. Time to take my DH to his well deserved Father's Day Brunch.

Garden Tour

June brings the opportunity to be inspired by touring local gardens. I love to incorporate found things and concrete pieces in the garden to give the eye a break so I'm always interested to see how others accomplish this. Here's some of my favorites from the six gardens we toured last weekend.

Old Seed Planter?

 

 

 

 

Watering Can is Actually a Fountain!

 

I Love this Natural Looking Fountain

How Cute is This Hobbit House

 

Ceramic Mushrooms Abound in This Yard

Early Work Mercantile Update

If you get a chance, please drop by Early Work Mercantile and see what my talented friends have to offer this month. I finished two projects.

Design by Lisa Bongean

My Design

I also have a WIP and I hope to find stitching time to finish this over the weekend.

Please check back later. I will be offering a giveaway for all of you who have stuck with me during my blogging slump. :-)

~ Happy Memorial Day ~

God Bless all the veterans and those currently serving in the military. We all owe them such a debt of thanks and I can't even imagine what it is like to be deployed in a war zone. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

It has been hard to find the time and inspiration to post. I am in awe of all of you who continue to do this regularly. I hope to get back on track because I miss my online friends! You all inspire and motivate me so much.

The rain is coming down here but hopefully we will see the sun again later today. We have been blessed with wonderful weather for the past few days and I spent a lot of it in the garden. We lost some plants to last year's drought and the yard is still recovering, so we welcome and appreciate rainy days like today!

Veronica "Royal Candles"

Coleus and Vinca among the fading tulips

Vegetable Beds All Planted!

Tropicals from Walmart--They have a great selection!

New Stepping Stone-From the Summer's Garden

Kiska is pretty much all grown up now. She doesn't look too pleased about being photographed but she is really a sweet and playful girl.

Hope you have a wonderful holiday!

Earlywork Mercantile Update

I am happy to finally have a new offering for Early Work Mercantile! We usually listen to a book on tape while we travel and I stitch while DH drives. For this trip I picked up the Steve Job's biography from the library.  I don't know how long the book is, but there are 20 CD's so I was able to do a lot of stitching. It was interesting learning about the history of Apple and Job's passion for designing great products, but sad to hear how poorly he treated people.

Maggie Bononomi Design

I would never think of mixing orange and purple, but God knows what he's doing. I love driving up and seeing these little guys blooming away in the front yard.

We made another whirlwind trip to Michigan for son's graduation.  

We'll miss Michigan and Grand Rapids. 

 

Happy Times

Last weekend we had the great joy of traveling to Michigan to hear our son's Senior Recital/Capstone Project. Since it was an evening recital we decided to serve cookies afterwards.  So Sunday afternoon, as my son made the final arrangements for his recital DH and I baked up several batches of cookies in his little apartment kitchen.

Pinterest to the rescue! We made several cookie recipes that I'd pinned, such as Salted Caramel Chocolate Chunk Pecan, from Blooming on Bainbridge, Peanut Butter Chocolate Swirl, Perfect Chocolate Chip,  

White Chocolate Chip Cranberry and Golden Oreo Cake Batter Blondies from one of my favorite dessert blogs, Sally's Baking Addiction, 

and Oatmeal Coconut Chocolate Chunk from our local foodie magazine, Tastebud.

 

Coconut Oatmeal Cookies with Chocolate Chunks

Adapted by Erin Brown of Dulce Baking Company from epicurious.com 

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened (I use half butter and half Crisco)

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp sea salt

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 1/4 cups old-fashioned oats

1 1/2 cups packaged finely shredded sweetened coconut    

12 oz bittersweet chocolate chunks (about 2 cups) (I used a mixture of dark and milk chocolate Dove chocolate)

3/4 cup slivered almonds (4 oz), toasted & cooled (I used walnuts)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Beat together butter and sugar in a bowl at medium high speed until fluffy.  Add eggs and beat just until blended, then beat in vanilla, baking soda and salt. Add flour and mix at low speed until just blended.

Gently add in oats, coconut, chocolate and nuts. Be careful not to over mix.

Arrange rounded tablespoons of cookie dough about 3 inches apart on 2 parchment covered baking sheets, then gently pat down each mound to about 1/2 inch thick (slightly flattening your cookie dough ensures even baking). Bake until golden, 12-14 minutes total. Cool on sheets until firm enough to transfer to cooling rack. 

 

It was a very fun evening and we were so proud to hear our son perform as well as hear other groups play several pieces he's composed.

 

Hard to believe this is his senior year already and in one more week he'll be graduating!