Created Reflections's blog

So Excited

I'm going to a little landscape workshop today.  I Can't Wait.

Here's to hoping for something lovely.  In the rain, but who can complain about moisture?  Maybe something will be produced that is sharable.

 

Carol

 

Saturday Breakfast

Saturday waffles.  Yum.

Although I thought I had some amaranth flour in my pantry, I did not.  So, I substituted Ten Grain Flour and it was fantastic.  This recipe is from Good To the Grain cookbook by Kim Boyce.  It is one of the best cookbooks I ever had. She uses different grains and pairs them with ingredients that enhance their qualities.  I have yet to try anything that hasn't been amazing.  Thank you to Sarah for buying the cookbook for Amanda and thank you to Amanda for baking from it while I was visiting Nancy in Houston.  Love our creative girls.

 

Doesn't that just say, "Relaxed Saturday Morning?"

 

Amos McGee

What to buy a three-year-old for her birthday?  And where to look for a gift for a three-year-old birthday?  How fortunate to live close to an actual bookstore that is well stocked.  And who is this "seller of dreams" (You've Got Mail), but Best of Books, Kickingbird Square, Edmond, OK.   If they don't have the book you are looking for, they will get in in for you.  I would always rather spend my money at a local business than spend it at a chain or the internet.  That is not always an option, but I try to take it when I can.

So, in my quest for a gift, I asked for a book that is well-illustrated and is a sweet story.  A Sick Day for Amos McGee was suggested and it is now on my list as one of my favorites.  Find a copy and read it!

Perfect.  Precious story.

Spend a minute and remember your favorite childhood books.

 

Carol

 

 

Begin Again

Lately I have been a little obsessed with white.  I've wanted to go to white walls for a couple of years, but, oh...the work.  Because I am my painter.  Hands down, I have desperately wanted to paint my kitchen cabinets white, but, oh, same complaint squared.

(image my own)

This is a picture of a charming little vignette in my sister's laundry room, although it is no longer sporting a fall twist.  I'm not sure what it is currently sporting.  My sister is good at everything.  She really is.  (Younger sister sighing.)  Her family recently relocated back to Edmond, OK (yea!) and after more paint samples of white than most of us would believe are out there, she found a great one.  And that was the impetus I needed.  That and the fact that she was going to call my friends and ask them to help.  Oh, No!

I had already painted my fireplace and mantle white and love it.

 my winter mantle

Good light coming in from the door to the right.

The kitchen cabinets are now finished and I am slowly making my way through drawers and doors.  And it is lovely.  Bright, cheerful, light bouncing all over the place.

A Fair Time

It's been a while since I have posted.  I am in (for me) a big house-projects-mode that means trading rooms and that, of course, means repainting walls, furniture, and sewing projects.  Ultimate fun and current mess.

So, although these images are not from the fair, they convey a part of what the fair is about. 

FOOD.  In the fried food group. 

 

I took this at the Edmond Jazz Festival and love that the name of the "restaurant" is "Buckboard Grill" and that they have a chalkboard menu.  Charming details.  Sadly, this makes me hungry and I would eat at the Buckboard Grill if it were parked outside my house.  At least they have assumed Visual Responsibility and covered the wheels and bottom of the restaurant.

 

This picture is from the Paseo Arts Festival.  Vendor not quite as Visually Responsible.  Love all the choices to be made.

Are you going to the Fair?

Tree Time

Trees too good not to share.

Please, let me know if he reminds you of something.  Something that rhymes with Puppet.  In Edmond, on Danforth, somewhere between our house and our milk pick-up.

 

And, outside the wonderful yarn shop, Serendipity, in Buena Vista, CO.  I think it's called "Yarn Bombing".  So cute.

 

 

 

 

 

Really dresses up a place, doesn't it?

A Real Vacation

After whining for too long about not going to Colorado, my dear friend Cathy suggested we take a quick trip.  So we did! 

 

Not a bad view every morning.  It was great to see Mom and Dad and they were, as always, most gracious about being invaded.

 

Dad has cleared out so much of the wild growth between the house and the river, but left the sweetest little path in between some wild rose bushes and willows.  This is looking out from the path.  Wouldn't you just love to play in there as a child?  It is the perfect place for fantasy.

 

Along the little path.

Friends and Birthdays

What does it mean when your friends cook for YOU on THEIR birthday?  It means a wonderful evening with people you love.

One of the great things about getting older, and on our part much older (not you, John), is that we now have friends with whom we have been friends for a LOT of years.  That is one of the blessings from God for which I am so thankful.  Our friends, John and Angela, always serve the most amazing menu on a beautiful table.  The food and the table are always beautiful.

This appetizer was so good.  Brie with either peach or blackberry jam baked inside a puff pastry crust.  Yum.

 

Then, John's fried chicken, which everyone should have the chance to experience, a Spring Potato Salad that even looked like spring and grilled corn off the cob.  Yum. Yum.

Then, how about a Country Pear Cake with Caramel Sauce and ice cream?  Yes, it was as good as it sounds.

 

I must really be getting into this blog.  I am taking pictures of food at my friends' house.  My future plan is to take pictures of the bedrooms of some of my friends some time and post them.  Beautiful rooms.

And here is my most sweet husband with my precious heart-friend, Angela.

 

She reluctantly allowed me to post the picture.  Steve is always game.

Vacations Past

This is not the year for us to take our traditional trip to Colorado.  Yes, sad news for us.  So, I am enjoying pictures from our last trip in '08.

Getting ready to fish.  One of James' first tasks is to see what Grandpa has in the fishing lures department.  Grandpa never fails.

The fish usually bite.

Fishing takes a certain tough kind of man as is obvious in the picture.  The river is really high.

Usually the day before we have to head home, we fry all the fish caught during the week.  This trip, James wanted to be the catcher and the cook.  He laid out everything just the way Grandpa does and went to town.  We set the table on the porch with lunch dishes, as we eat on the porch at every possible opportunity.  But we didn't know a visiting chef was in the neighborhood.  Yes, the picture was taken with us BEHIND the window

 

HE ATE OUR LUNCH!  We named him Caramel.

 

And then decided he needed a nap.  I think he was waiting for dinner, which we had in town.  Because we were really, really, hungry.

 

What vacation adventures are you having this summer?  Tell me in the comments section.

 

Just Outside

Not willing to be outdone by Winter and Spring, Summer seems to be doing its best to live up to the extreme.  Although we haven't had our 100 degree weather yet, we have humidity!  When my brother in law from Houston complains about the heat and humidity here, that is proof that we are surely suffering.

But, some of my plants are happy.

Outside my front door:

 

Stage right.

Stage left.

What is blooming at your house?