Happy Easter weekend! I love this time of year and have such happy memories of this holiday. Dad would buy us corsages to pin on our new spring coats. Dressing up for church in hats and gloves and Mom’s homemade lamb cake after dinner. Signs of spring would be popping up in Connecticut and winter was in the rear view mirror. Thanks for joining me today for Saturday Meanderings where we chat about all good things that happen this week.

This picture cracks me up! That’s me in the foreground, with my older sister and brother and Mom. Not sure when this was taken, but it may have been before my other 2 siblings were born? I still look dorky in a hat!

And We Have Winners!

Thank you ALL so much for your comments to last Saturday’s post. Your feedback and comments are like gold to me. Instead of choosing just two winners for a free box of fresh citrus, I picked four out of a hat. The winners are: Debbie Fischer, Linda DeBono, Tanya Lochridge and Virginia Jordan. I hope you have all received your fruit!

I am Hooked!

Thank you, Valerie for the suggestion to watch the Cornell Lab Barred Owl live cam. I am completely addicted. For those of you unfamiliar with this, there is a live camera on a barred owl in a nest in Indiana. She is sitting on 2 eggs which should be hatching within the next week or two. What I find fascinating is her dedicated partner who brings a variety of food to her, while she incubates the eggs. From snakes to frogs to a woodpecker, this mama owl is eating well.

I literally keep the feed up on my laptop in the kitchen and catch glimpses of her throughout my day. And if you miss an important event like a feeding, there are short videos that capture the important moments. Isn’t Mother Nature amazing? Here is the link.

What is Wrong with my Hollyhocks?

Typically, I have very good luck with hollyhocks. They are like weeds here and grow everywhere. A particularly stunning show of hollyhocks is located near my vegetable garden. But this year, these hollyhock plants are deformed.

The leaves are tightly curled and the flowers are small and sparse. Does anyone know why? At first I thought it might be frost damage? However, in other parts of the yard, the hollyhocks look fine. I’m hoping it’s not a virus or something that spreads.

I think I may pull all the damaged plants out and replant, as I have lots of seeds. It’s a bit perplexing.

Did you Know?

If you are like me and not in-the-know, it appears that every 26-ounce canister of iodized Morton Table Salt has a built-in salt shaker. This is only revealed after removing the sticker from the metal spout. Under each sticker are two salt-shaker-sized holes that can be used to pour much smaller amounts of salt — without having to pour it into your hand first.

Someone posted this on TikTok and has over 13 million views. I certainly didn’t know this! Did you?

Also, please remember that iodine is an important nutrient that your thyroid needs to produce certain hormones. Not getting enough iodine in your diet can lead to problems such as an enlarged thyroid gland (goiter) and an abnormally low level of thyroid hormones (hypothyroidism).

Unexpected Project Completed

On the back of our well tower, is a small platform with a fireman’s pole (to slide down from the second level). Unknown to us, the platform has been rotting due to water damage, which we just discovered this week.

Fortunately our contractor John is able to come by and replace the damaged wood.

My husband repaints the security railing which is faded from the sun exposure.

Now the platform is completely stable and ready for our friends and family to use and slide down the pole safely.

There is always something to repair with these old houses!

The Cherry Blossom paper Wreath

Last Saturday, I shared the paper cherry blossom wreath by Janine from Happy Happy Nester. Well, this week I decide to make it (as I love cherry blossoms). This is the first time I have ever used paper flowers for anything.

Since I want the flowers to have some weight, I download the pictures of the cherry blossoms and print them on some old stationary paper stock.

Cutting the flowers is a bit tedious, however, after a while, I just relax and cut while watching my barred owl live camera! The whole process reminds me of cutting out paper dolls and clothing (am I dating myself?).

In Janine’s tutorial, she uses a 12′ wreath, while mine is a 15″ wreath, so I just keep cutting flowers. A previously used grapevine wreath with lots of old glue dots makes my placement strategy easy by just covering the spots up with flowers.

So what do you think? I’m actually surprised and delighted with it!

The number of flowers cut depends on the width of your wreath and the density of your flowers. For my 15″ wreath there are 70 flowers. Bending the petals gives the flowers a more life-like appearance. You could do less flowers, too.

Baking this Week

I keep trying to perfect two recipes~gruyere, garlic and rosemary sourdough bread and a sourdough panettone. This week, the panettone gives me the perfect rise out of its tall pan and finally I feel like I have a success.

Last week’s panettone:

This week’s panettone:

Trying to get my baking in before the hot summer hits.

Hurt Hummingbird

The downside to having clean windows is birds often fly right into them. This unfortunate incident occurred this week with a hummingbird. My husband found it and it was unclear whether the little fella would make it.

He put the injured bird into a makeshift bed and placed it in a tree. A few hours later, the hummingbird was gone! So we are hoping that he/she recovered from the shock of hitting the window. Makes me want to have dirty windows.

On the Internet

If you are longing for beautiful pictures of front porches, check out my friend, Stacy’s (from Bricks ‘n Blooms) post on 7 Small Porch Ideas on a Budget. I’m always looking for ways to charm up my front porch without spending a lot of money. Plus this post will lead you to 9 other bloggers’ front porch ideas! See it here.

If you garden or just love beautiful flower gardens, you cannot go wrong with reading Kim’s blog (from Shiplap and Shells). For those of us who are enjoying the daffodils, tulips, hyacinths and other flowering bulbs, pretty soon they will wither. After showing their best blooms, we are now left with rather ugly plants. Kim has a great post on When to Cut Back Spring Bulb Flowers and Their Foliage. I’m at that stage with some of our holiday bulbs (amaryllis, narcissus and now my tulips). Lots of good information here.

Whether you celebrate Easter or Passover or just Spring, have a blessed beautiful and blessed weekend. I am so excited that I will be hosting Easter brunch for 8 and will spend all of today cooking and baking. Ah, my happy place!

Happy April 1st! My husband is successful in playing an April Fool’s joke on me already so I need to pass the mischief on. It’s a glorious day here and though I’m a little late in posting, thanks for joining me for another edition of Saturday Meanderings. I typically write this post late Thursday or Friday but I’ve been so busy these past few days. So let’s start chatting about all the good things this week.

Who Loves Fresh Citrus? A Giveaway!

We are getting ready to glean all our citrus (oranges, ruby red and white grapefruit, tangerines)trees as the fragrant blossoms for next year’s crop are appearing. We will be giving away a box of freshly picked citrus to two recipients. All you need to do is leave a comment below and we will be drawing 2 names from that. The winners will be notified via email for their shipping addresses.

New Shows to Watch

Two very good shows to watch. The first, Vienna Blood is a British-Austrian psychological thriller television series set in Vienna, Austria in the 1900s. Based on the Liebermann novels by Frank Tallis, the series follows Max Liebermann (Matthew Beard), a doctor and student of Sigmund Freud as he assists Police Detective Oskar Rheinhardt (Juergen Maurer). With 3 seasons you can watch it on Prime Video, PBS, Vudu, or Apple TV.

The Night Agent is action packed with 10 episodes (Season 1) that you can see on Netflix. The plot: While monitoring an emergency line, an FBI agent answers a call that plunges him into a deadly conspiracy involving a mole at the White House. Hard not to binge watch!

Fabulous, Fun Invitation

My very innovative friend, Chloe from Celebrate and Decorate is having a wine event at her home. Check out this fun invitation we received in the mail this week. How clever is this? The invitation is detailed in a paper message inside the bottle. Secured around the invitation is a purple ribbon attached to a wax seal on the front of the bottle. I just love things like this!

Don’t Look Frumpy Over 40/Beware of these 5 Frump Factors

I just happened upon a YouTube video by Kay Harms, entitled Don’t Look Frumpy over 40/ Beware of these 5 Frump Factors. Being unfamiliar with Kay, I watched her video (I’m not someone who spends time on YouTube). Kay has a very pleasant and disarming nature and the video did have great advice. You can see it here.

Kay, 58, also writes a blog, Dressed for My Day.

But it got me thinking. What factors add to frumpy-ness? In reading the comments on her video, I found it all interesting and enlightening. What would be your answer to this? The more I think about this, the more I want to write a blog post about it.

Gardening this Week

Our weather seems to be all over the place, but the garden is giving us gifts this week. Lots of small tomatoes, one big artichoke, arugula, kale and fresh herbs.

Spring Cleaning

Do you spring clean? As a child in Connecticut, I have fond memories of Mom throwing open all the windows and sweeping out the winter dust.

Apartment Therapy is offering a program to help you with Spring cleaning. The Spring Cleaning Cure is a free 10-day program designed to help you achieve a clean and tidy home. Starting Wednesday, April 12, 2023, participants will receive a new assignment in their inbox every day — each one focused on a cleaning task that will bring you one step closer to the impeccably clean home. All you need to do is sign up to receive your emails.

Ultimate Spring Brunch Board

One of my favorite recipe-based bloggers, is Tieghan from Half Baked Harvest. This remarkable young gal develops interesting, delicious dishes, many of which can be done in a relatively short period of time. She’s my go-to person if I am stuck on what to make for dinner. Tieghan just posted a Spring Brunch Board, which is perfect if you have entertaining for Easter. You can see it here.

Getting White Sheets White again

My friend, Andrea from Design Morsels used to own and run a Bed and Breakfast. She knows everything about linens and I consider her my cliff notes on many topics. This week in washing a set of white sheets, I notice they are a bit yellow, especially in the middle from body oils.

I tried Andrea’s tip to soak them in hot water and Oxyclean (in the kitchen sink) and it worked! The sheets look brand new again. Hanging them to dry in the bright sun, also helps with whitening.

An article in Apartment Therapy covers the same topic of whitening sheets without using bleach. They use baking soda and vinegar. I may try that next, but Andrea’s solution worked for me!

Cherry Blossom Wreath

Does this look like a paper flower wreath to you? I think I am going to try and make this! Janine from the Happy Happy Nester provides the cherry blossom flower download and detailed instructions on how to make this. So pretty for spring. See it here.

Well, that’s a wrap! What are your plans for this weekend? We are doing a 5K tomorrow and have a black tie event tonight. It’s time to pay bills (not a fan) and do some chores around the house. Wishing you a terrific weekend!

On the internet:

Am I the only one that cannot believe that Easter is less than 2 weeks away? Last year it was on April 17th and this year it is so much earlier. With beautiful Spring weather well on its way and nature blooming all around us, I want to have a pretty Easter table to compliment the season. I love looking at different tablescapes and I hope some of these ideas from previous years will inspire you.

For the last two years, we have happily hosted my son and his numerous friends from around the country. But this year, they are all off doing their own thing. To date, it is unclear if any of our children will be here for Easter and until plans are finalized, I do not know if I am setting a big table or maybe my husband and I will go somewhere for brunch. But that doesn’t stop my brain from wanting to envision a beautiful holiday table.

Place Settings

For Easter we tend to go a bit more formal, since we eat casually more of the time the rest of the year. I love pulling out my best china and making the table feel a bit more special. These brushed gold chargers get a great deal of use at the table because they are so versatile (and so affordable!)

On multiple occasions you have seen my bee flatware. As much as we use this for both casual and more formal place settings, it still looks as good as the day I bought it.

I love blue and white dishes and I do not recall where I purchased these many years ago (I think from Horchow). See similar dishes here. However if you want to see more details of this table setting, click here for the original post.

Here is one of my favorite patterns: Royal Worcester Yellow Urn/Roses/Greek Key. I have the dinner plates and the cream soup and saucer set only. There are so many colors to work with in this one pattern. To see more about this place setting and tablescape, click here.

Adding a cute bunny salad plate to the Royal Doulton Romance Collection Juliette place setting works. The small plates are from Pottery Barn and no longer available, but check out these sweet plates from Macy’s.

Colors for the Table~the tablecloth

The colors of Spring are a must at our Easter table. I love pinks, blues, yellows, greens and anything that represents this time of year. Often, I choose my color scheme before I set the table, but it also helps to have a lot to choose from~I confess to many dishes and table linens.

In the above photo, this Indian-block printed table cloth from Just Darviny is an affordable, attractive and pretty option.

A simple white damask table cloth allows a blank slate to add all your colorful items.

Or you can eliminate a tablecloth like I did in 2020. The wood table serves as a perfect backdrop to the gold and yellow themed place setting.

Another option is using placemats too! Here simple white embroidered placemats look sharp against the mahogany table. Here are some pretty scalloped place mats from Ballard Designs.

Spring greens are appropriate for the Easter table too. Using a piece of abstract green fabric given to me by my neighbor, Anne, a fun look is created mixing old and new with the antique Fondeville Ambassador Ware. I just love the colors in this china, a gift from a dear friend.

Centerpieces

It is the perfect time of the year to find many spring flowers available for either cutting or purchase. We may be past daffodil season here in Phoenix, but in other parts of the country they are still affordable and available. Don’t they look lovely in my blue and white tulipieres from The Enchanted Home?

If you live in a part of the country that is still experiencing cold weather, here is a fun centerpiece where I combine both real flowers and faux flowers. Can you tell which ones are which?

Lilies are a traditional Easter flower and coupled with roses, make an elegant and affordable centerpiece.

Fresh cut flowers in a clear glass vase is another easy way to say Spring on a budget.

Place Cards and Table Decorations

Sometimes I use place cards, other times not. Get creative with this. These fun birds’ nests are easy to make (see tutorial here). An everyday egg can be used as a place card with a calligraphy letter. Once you make these, you can use them year to year in different applications. If using a real egg, remove the contents by placing a small hole on either end and then gently blowing the yolk and white out.

Ceramic bunnies and baby lamb napkin rings, make the table festive. Here is a bunny napkin ring from Amazon.

Bird shaped candles or decoupage eggs add to the Easter theme.

And don’t forget, Amazon has a great selection of these green moss flocked bunnies.

Last year, I picked up these wooden bunnies from Target. Not sure they have them again this year.

Need even more inspiration?

In 2021, I participated in a blog hop of Easter Tablescapes with 20 different bloggers! What a collection of talented individuals. Just click here and you will find all the links at the end of that blog post.

Happy Tuesday! For those that celebrate and hosting Easter, how will you be decorating your table?

With a mostly dreary, rainy and overcast week, we are so enjoying the blue skies, big white puffy clouds and gentle breezes these last few days. The grass looks greener and everything feels like Mother Nature gave it a good bath. What is it about Spring that just brings joy and happiness? Happy Saturday to you and I am hoping you are having beautiful weather too. It’s time to chat about all the good things this week. Thank you so much for joining me today.

My Heart is Full

I cannot tell you how much I appreciated all your wonderful condolences for Sox’s passing. Even though I try to answer each of your comments, it was hard to do so while sobbing. So please know that the fact that you took the time to share your stories and sympathies, really filled my heart. You are the best.

Great Response to the Fall Styling Workshop

We are so excited that we received so many positive responses to the pending Fall Styling Workshop. We will have room for 20, but if we exceed that number, we may add another day to the schedule. I am finalizing the agenda and cost and will publish the specifics soon.

Fun New App

My neighbor Karleen (and her friend from Wisconsin) recommend this app called Merlin. Developed by the Cornell Lab for Ornithology, it is a field guide in your pocket. The app is an interactive tool for you to identify birds. How it works is that you record the bird sounds nearby on your phone and Merlin will identify what bird is making what sound. Especially now in the Spring, there is so much bird chatter, it’s nice to know the names of the birds.

Merlin is complete with photos, sounds, and ID tips for more than 6,000 bird species and seasonal bar charts for any location at a glance. Now people across six continents are using Merlin to identify birds daily. Merlin is a free app and you can download it on your smartphone.

Spring Front Door

After several days of searching, I finally found my Spring tulip wreath for the front door. Seriously, it is so frustrating when you cannot find something when you put it in the same spot every year. Typically I put most of the wreaths inside the well tower hanging in plastic bags on the wall. Well, this wreath must have fallen off because it was on the floor squashed behind plastic stacking storage boxes. Mystery solved.

It appears I may need to rearrange the green leaves on it, but I am happy it is finally up for Spring. To see the DIY on making this wreath, click here.

My Baking Week

Not sure why I did so much baking this week, but I made scones, another batch of those addicting ooey gooey salted peanut butter oatmeal bars, sourdough panettone and sourdough crackers. I am trying to experiment with almond flour so the crackers, though tasty, didn’t get as crisp as I like. But I do want to share this scone recipe with you.

Not that I’m a scone snob, but some scones taste like baking powder to me. But these scones are SO delicious and I think they are rather easy to make…and no baking powder. The recipe comes from a former White House pastry chef, Roland Messier so you know it has to be good. The actual dough is so versatile and can be used to make cobblers, shortcakes or turnovers.

After baking, you dust them with confectioner’s sugar and pop them under the broiler for just a few seconds for the perfect finish. I promise you will not be disappointed. See recipe below.

Are You Reading Any Good Books?

I just finished The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren.

Christina Lauren is the combined pen name of long-time writing partners/best friends Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings. This is the first book I have read from this author(s). Although a bit predictable it is a fun read about identical twin sisters, a bad wedding experience and a series of comical circumstances. If you are looking for a bit of brain candy, I would recommend this. Not alot of heavy lifting here and every now and again, I know I need a book for pure entertainment. Amazon has it listed as Editors Pick for Best Romance. You can find it here.

Finally a Use for Italian Tiles

I bought a stack of tiles from Deruta on a 1998 trip to Italy. Not sure what I intended to do with them, but they have been sitting around for the last 25 years in a drawer.

Finally, I decide to add clear adhesive rubber pads to the bottom and now we are using them as coasters on the outdoor back terrace.

It feels so good to get little things like this done! And each time I use one, it reminds me of our trip to Italy.

Exciting Ideas from the Internet

Wendy from WM Design House comes up with the most clever ideas. Her blog post, Adult Easter Eggs; Four of the Easiest Ways to Decorate Eggs is full of new and different creative projects.

I cannot believe Easter is about 2 weeks away! Her blog post will get you motivated to do something different and fun with your eggs. See it here.

My talented and very creative friend, Rachel from The Ponds Farmhouse, shows how to make a Custom Tablecloth and Napkins. I’ve never done this. My only attempt to do cute napkins ended in complete failure (see that post here). But look how sweet this tablecloth is! You can see Rachel’s very detailed DIY here.

If you love lily-of-the-Valley, check out Chloe’s (from Celebrate and Decorate)post on her Spring Table Decor. Isn’t this just so elegant and delicate? So many great ideas for an Easter or Spring table.

Look at this delicious dessert grazing board Maureen from Red Cottage Chronicles creates. I love the combination of sweet and salty and this dessert board has it all~taste, textures, color and beauty. See it here.

That’s it for today’s Saturday Meanderings! Now I am off to finally think about Easter. Next week I hope to share some Easter/Spring inspiration. Wishing you a lovely, relaxing weekend!

Happy Saturday, friends! What a week it has been. Our large group of houseguests have left and all the laundry is done. We are still experiencing the most glorious weather and I’m not sure why this Spring seems so vibrant this year. Maybe it just everyone emerging from two oppressive years. Anyway, glad you are here today and let’s get started on all good things that happened this week.

Easter Wrap-up

One of our Easter traditions is the making of a lamb cake for dessert. Using a cast iron mold, I opted for a Trader Joe’s Meyer Lemon cake mix vs. making a cake from scratch. The cake, and the addition of freshly made Swiss buttercream, was a proven winner. To see a post on this Easter tradition, click here.

Since we did have a large group, I also made a chicken cake, also using the box cake mix and a mold from Martha Stewart. Fun barnyard desserts enjoyed by all!

Since we had 12 for dinner, the best place to sit is outside under the large, old date palm trees. Fortunately, I have a few of these Indian block tablecloths from Just Darviny and all the patterns worked for a pastel Easter theme.

A 400 egg egg hunt was a big hit with all the 20+year olds and in 6 minutes, all eggs were found and gathered.Many thanks for my daughter, Julianna for hiding ALL those eggs!

Growing up in a Polish family, we always had ham, a spicy Polish mustard and babka bread for Easter. This year I decide to make my own sourdough babka bread, which is a labor of love. It baked beautifully and tastes great with its cinnamon sugar filling, but it is a big effort. Recipe by The Perfect Loaf is here. If you are interested in bread recipes, Maurizio is a great teacher and his website is the place to go.

Hot cross buns are another recipe I love for this holiday. This is another recipe I only make once a year and wonder why I do not make them more frequently. Just delicious~recipe from Sally’s Baking Addiction.

All in all, a very busy, productive and abundant Easter. And both my husband and I are a bit pooped!

Garden Update

It is almost past time to glean all the citrus trees. Since we have so many trees, we put cartons of fruit out in front of the house with a Free Citrus sign. Generally, they are happily scooped up and gone within a few hours. We hope to get that done this week. If anyone lives nearby North Central Phoenix and wants grapefruits and oranges, please let me know. You can reach me at [email protected].

Don’t you just love the color of artichokes? Well my plant has 4-5 new artichokes growing right now. I think this is such a beautiful vegetable.

Often, I will let them go to flower, because the blooms are also so gorgeous too! Can’t wait to eat these.

Keeping the Flies away

Occasionally we will get flies that interrupt our outdoor dining. My husband found these fly fans that you can put on your table and they really help keep the flies at bay. Battery operated, the on/off switch is on the bottom and once on, the soft-touch blades rotate. There are holographmatic dots on the blades.The dots refract/bend sunshine. Bending light is not a part of the fly’s DNA. In their little minds, the bending colored sunshine is not normal in nature and it appears dangerous to them. They will always choose to go somewhere else.

And if you put your finger in the rotating blade they are flexible and soft, so no little fingers get hurt. Really quite ingenious and they do definitely work. You can find this set of two here on Amazon.

The Smells of Nature

I wish you could scratch and sniff this photo because the smells of Spring are so fragrant here. A hedge of jasmine sits in a front planting bed and it is intoxicating and heavenly. If you live in a climate that can handle jasmine, I can’t recommend it enough.

Everyone who comes to the front door exclaims how glorious it smells.

New Book Series

I am really enjoying this new book series. After completing the second book, I believe it is worthy of referral. Written by Richard Osman, The Thursday Murder Club is the first book in a series of 3. In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet weekly in the Jigsaw Room to discuss unsolved crimes; together they call themselves the Thursday Murder Club. It is witty, dearing and entertaining.

The next two books are The Man Who Died Twice and The Bullet that Missed (which will be released in September 2022)

Have you wanted to learn to make Sourdough?

My friend and neighbor, Kelly Liston is conducting a sourdough starter challenge, where she hand holds you through making your own sourdough. It certainly sounds interesting! She is on Instagram @kelly.liston and reach out to her here if you are interested.

Well that’s a wrap to Saturday Meanderings. It’s been a busy week of clean up, laundry, putting away lots of dishes and glasses and a very time consuming zoning case (which we won!). And with all this good food, it’s time to get back to the gym and work it off. Next week I hope to tackle those wicker chairs and get some painting done. I miss my time on canvas.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend! If you missed the pool house Before, During and After you can find those blog posts on my home page.