New Finds for The Kitchen

Hey there!  Hope everyone had a great weekend.  My hubby brought home some things the other day for me and this one particular thing, I just fell in love with.  And it's perfect for Valentine's Day.

How cute is this old coffee tin??  So cute!  I filled it with one of my favorites, tulips.  I just love that you can find fresh tulips in my local grocery store during late January and February.  So, I treat myself to some each week when I shop for groceries.  They are such a cheery addition to the house during the drab winter months.  

My other find is from Etsy.  I just love Etsy and always try to support handmade when I can.  There are some wonderful sellers there and I could spend hours looking in their shops.  Anyone who knows me knows that I love to cook.  It is one of my passions.  I have a couple of knives that I've had forever and they were always getting thrown into the drawer with my other kitchen gadgets, dulling the blades.  So my hubby had my knives professionally sharpened for me for a surprise.  

Well, now that they are perfectly sharp and slide through a tomato like butter, I didn't dare throw them back into that drawer, so I went looking for something to keep them in.  I've always loved those magnet wall knife holders and found the perfect one on Etsy.  And the best part is that it's made from sustainably harvested walnut, my favorite.  And did I mention, it's gorgeous!?

It goes perfectly with my walnut cutting board, also a gift from my hubby many years ago and such a cherished piece in my kitchen.

I'm in love.....

The walnut knife block can be purchased here.  There are also other selections using different woods if you prefer lighter colors.

So that's it, just a couple things I added to our kitchen that make me smile.

For those of you that don't follow us on Facebook, here is the latest photo update on our stair project.

 I still have to sand the top of each stair and figure out what my next step is going to be from there.  But I'm loving the carpet gone.  I'm curious, what would you do to the stairs??  Do share!!

Have a great Monday!

Bread Board Winner

Happy Friday everyone! First, I want to say thank you for all the sweet comments. I read every one of them and they all made me smile, so, thank you!

The random number generator selected number 36 as the winner of the giveaway.

christymanarJan 16, 2012 06:11 AM

Everytime I see another blogger getting ready to redo their stairs, I start staring at mine again. I so badly want to redo them!!! Hope to win the bread boards!!!

Congrats Christy!  Contact me via the contact page to give me your mailing info!  

Have a great weekend everyone!

Side-tracking from the season...

The garden at King John's Hunting Lodge Tea Rooms in Lacock

Peering into a private garden in Lacock.

 Images 3 and 4 from the cemetery in Corsham (The manor Corsham Court in the background behind the wall in image 4).

Dear readers,

I had hoped to offer you a bit of floral entertainment and interior playfulness this week, 

but the time monster seems to have gobbled up this week's ration... again!

So, above are some photos from October that I have played around with a little in Picnik (free editing program online). I just enhanced the colours a little, but even without any computer "tricks", these flowers could still hold their own, even at this late date in the season. Now, as we approach the end of January, I can't help but yearn for the delight of spring flowers, and even if Mother Nature is not quite ready, I think I might just sneak a few shop bought petals into the house, when I return from a couple of work trips in a few weeks...

***

Meanwhile, should you happen to find yourself in the lovely town of Bradford-on-Avon, just outside Bath, and your tummy starts rumbling, here is a place to change the rumbling into satisfied sighs:

Eating like a queen...

Well, I don't exactly know that the queen has ever set foot here, but the burgers at the restaurant the Castle  are certainly fit for royalty. The menu offers other slightly more sophisticated dishes as well, and lovely, characterful décor. I fell in love with the fish wall paper! But no, perhaps not something that would work in the Swenglish Home... (This is not a sponsored blog post, the Castle do not even know I am writing this.)

I wish you all a fabulous end of January and an equally stunning start to February, 

and I hope to see you all again in a few weeks time!

Love, 

Helena

Stairway Redo and a Giveaway

When we first moved into our home 5 years ago, I was so disappointed with the stairway.  I had always dreamed of having a beautiful staircase and ours was just boring.  We always wanted to redo it but could never find the time.  However, hubby came home with some huge old barn beams the other day that ignited my fire again.  I was having trouble figuring out what to do with them until I saw this pic on Pinterest.

Pinterest

Our home isn't quite this rustic, and I don't really want it to be, but I really want to incorporate those barn beams into our stairway somehow like in this inspiration pic.  Here's a look at how it looks now.

That half wall is coming down and I'm gonna try to build some type of railing 

incorporating a barn beam.  I've got some ideas and can't wait to see what I can come up with.  Of course, I might also be out of my mind by doing this. :)

The nasty carpet is also getting the boot.  Yay!  

I'm so excited to take this stairway area from boring to beautiful.  Hopefully there won't be too many surprises when I remove the carpet and wall.  And hopefully it won't turn into a giant fail.  But I guess I'll never know unless I try, right? 

And now for the giveaway!  To celebrate the milestone of 1000 members here and on Facebook and to say a big thank you for taking time out of your day to visit, I've decided to give away to one OVHL reader 1 set of my mini french bread board set and one large rustic walnut bread board, 

as shown below:

To enter, all you have to do is leave a comment in the comment section below.  That's it!  The giveaway ends on Thursday night, January 19, and the winner will be announced Friday morning, January 20.

Have a great day everyone!

Comments are now closed.

Runaway spring...?

(If you click on the images, they look much better against the black background.

Above is the gorgeous view that greets me when I come out of our little town and look across the valley towards Bath.)

For the past two weeks, I have woken up to the beautiful symphony of bird song from some feathery friends in our neighbour's cherry tree. They were clearly singing serenades of spring, and looking around, this has not been surprising...

Trees have been blossoming, rumours of daffodils in full bloom....

 But my spring delighted senses stumbled and tumbled on Friday... 

What was this strange white dust embracing the world outside...?

The most vain sheep I have ever met posed happily for me in her frosty wool coat (doesn't it look just like she has been sprinkled with icing sugar?!). She made poses any catwalk model would envy, and I snapped away...

Two weeks have passed since my New Year's blog post, and time has just flown by. No time for decorating, creating, crafting or blogging, but an increasing itch to do it all! Perhaps some of us simply need to hibernate a little in the winter!

A huge and humble THANK YOU to all of you who have sent me kind comments and emails in the past two weeks - I have read and appreciated every single word. And HELLO to my new followers, I see you and welcome you to my world.

With a big work trip on the horizon, I foresee some serious blog hibernation for a few weeks again, but I shall try to pop in at least once next week with some floral joy.

Until then, warm regards to you all, and stay warm!

Helena

Blueberry Pie

 There is nothing I love more in the dead of winter than pulling out some preserved summer blueberries from the freezer and making a pie for my family.  It will definitely cure the winter blahs.

And it gave me a good excuse to use my new vintage pie server that hubby brought home with a box of vintage flatware.  Anyone else think the pie photo above looks like a face??  My youngest, who's sitting here with me as I type, this just pointed that out.  And I think I'm gonna have to agree.

This pie is simple to make because I just use a store bought pie crust dough, which is just as good as the homemade kind, if you ask me.

Put 4 cups of fresh or frozen blueberries in a bowl with 3/4 cups sugar, 

1/2 tsp cinnamon and 1/2 cup flour.  Combine.

Place one roll of pastry dough in the bottom of a pie dish.

Next, pour blueberry mixture in, making sure to evenly distribute the sugar, flour, cinnamon mixture.

Next, unroll second piece of pastry dough and place on top of the pie, seal the edges and cut four slits in the top for steam to escape.

Whisk one egg to make an egg wash for the top and brush the top of the pie, then sprinkle with sugar.

Place pie on top of a cookie sheet to catch any spills and bake in a 400 degree oven for about 45 minutes or until top is golden brown.  

If the top of your pie browns too quickly, place a piece of foil over the top. 

Grab your favorite vanilla gelato or whip up some fresh cream to serve on top of the warm pie and sit back and remember your favorite summer memories. Enjoy and have a great weekend!

Vintage Wardrobe

My man has found himself in the middle of a vintage furniture smorgasboard getting ready to open our new shop.  The furniture and other items he has found are amazing 

and hard for me to let go of.  

This wardrobe is one of his finds.  I just love it and get to keep it. 

It definitely needs some love so I can't wait to see what I can do with it.  I don't want to use it as a wardrobe, but instead, add some shelves to the inside and use it for storage in our laundry room, which we desperately need.

And I'm also thinking of giving it a paint job, but haven't decided on a color.  I think I've narrowed it down to white or gray.  What do you think?

A Fresh Start

I love the renewed feeling our home has when we take the Christmas decor down and clean up after all the mess, get things back in order and start fresh for the New Year.

 And with a New Year comes second chances.  Another chance to forgive, to do better, give more, be more, love each other more.  For me, it's also another chance to stop worrying about what if and start embracing what could be.

To remember to open myself up to a great adventure, a great friendship, a wonderful opportunity, instead of closing myself off for fear of getting hurt.....or just plain ol' fear.

To remember to live in the moment....

To work hard and be optimistic about doing the things that I'm afraid of and realize that the courage to do them is inside me and has been all along.

To never give up on anyone......including myself.

As always, thank you for visiting today!  :)

The Little Things

Hey there!  I apologize for the lack of posts recently and the lack of commenting on your blogs, as well.  Holidays are tough and this one was a doozy.  But I'm looking forward to what's in store for the New Year.  And I'm looking forward to getting back to regular blogging.  With that said, I wanted to share one of my favorite sayings........ 

 

After posting pics of my newly renovated studio at our shop, I received a lot of emails asking what the difficult to read quote is on the chalkboard on the wall.  So I thought I'd share it. And for anyone wondering, that chalkboard is just a piece of plywood painted with chalkboard paint.  I suppose that I could've put a frame around it but hey, I was lazy. :)

"If the divine creator has taken pains to give us delicious and exquisite things to eat, the least we can do is prepare them well and serve them with ceremony."  Fernand Point.

I love this quote as well.  I found it in one of my favorite cookbooks from Charlie Trotter.  

What are your favorite sayings or quotes?  As always, I'd love for you to share!