During these hot, summer months this garden project allows you to “get your hands in the dirt” without much exertion…and even if you don’t feel like you “have a green thumb” you’ll find making these succulent arrangements, easy and rewarding.
Continue reading “How to Make Succulent Arrangements…Summer Project in the Greenhouse”There’s something satisfying about getting your hands in the soil.”
~ E. A. Bucchianeri
The lake looked so cool and inviting; the waters kept “waving” at us, beckoning us to come out and enjoy… “Sittin’ on the dock of the bay.”
If you are like me, as soon as you read the title of this post, you began whistling Otis Redding’s famous song, “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay.” Friday was a beautiful, hot summer day and our daughter and granddaughter were over visiting. The lake looked so cool and inviting; the waters kept “waving” at us, beckoning us to come out and enjoy…”Sittin’ on the dock of the bay.”
Continue reading “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay…Dockside Tablescape and Picnic”
As I looked around the greenhouse, my idea began to grow; my warm, little hovel filled with plants, paintings, antique glassware, forgotten bird nests, flower frogs, and lichen covered bark, would be a delightful place for mixing potpourri…an apothecary of sorts.
During this time of the year, “all is calm, all is quiet” on the lake and it’s a lovely time of year for playing in the cottage greenhouse. Not only did my plants need watering, but I had come out to the greenhouse to check on the roses and statice I’d left hanging upside down from the greenhouse rafters to dry.
Continue reading “In the Cottage Greenhouse…Setting Up a Flower Apothecary”
Oh, I love summer nights! The deep blue of twilight makes the lake almost glow in the distance and the stars grow brighter and brighter as nightfall deepens. Great blue heron squawk farewells when they fly by going to roosts high up in the treetops, ducks murmur goodnight as they come gliding by, and the tree frogs sing a craggy lullaby.
Continue reading “Fish Camp Tablescape and Recipe for delicious “Cajun Beans””Oh, the summer night, has a smile of light, and she sits on a sapphire throne."Bryan Procter
Family vacation…swimming and lazy afternoons on the dock…watermelon and water guns…cookouts and ice cream…July 4th and fireworks…corn hole and fishing…it’s summertime at the lake!
“See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land.” Song of Solomon 2:11-12
Brilliant blue skies, birds in construction mode flying back and forth with building materials in their beaks, Mourning Doves cooing, Barn Swallows swooping, Mockingbird’s singing, beautiful wisteria, azaleas, and roses blooming in all shades of pretty…it’s Spring!
Continue reading “A Tablescape and Spring Buffet Plus, Decorating Tips for your Home”“Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
It was a delightful day to be working outside in the Cottage Greenhouse. In my cozy shelter, I was protected from the cool, north wind…surrounded by smells of earth and growing things, soothed with a background of birdsong, and the greenhouse door was opened to the lake beyond.
It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.”
Charles Dickens
It was a delightful day to be working outside in the Cottage Greenhouse. In my cozy shelter, I was protected from the cool north wind…surrounded by smells of earth and growing things, soothed with a background of birdsong, and the greenhouse door was opened to the lake beyond.
It was a balmy evening, the perfect evening for the last night of the year and the festivities we had planned…a wiener roast…another Family Corn Hole Tournament with red, white, and blue ribbons with York Peppermint Patties dangling as medals to be awarded and worn around the necks of the 1st and 2nd place winners…watching the fireworks on the lake…and sitting around the fire pit popping campfire popcorn, and making s’mores.
It’s that cozy time of year, again…time for stocking caps and mittens…time for steamy cups of cocoa…and time for sitting around the fire, toasting s’mores!
It was a wonderful, made in heaven, one-of-a-kind, perfect day, from the dawn’s early light to the twilight’s last gleaming.
Hail, hail, the gang's all here, Never mind the weather, here we are together; Hail, hail, the gang's all here, Sure we're glad that you're here, too!
Hello my sweet friends! So much has happened and so much time has passed since I last wrote you. Even though you didn’t know exactly what was going on, I can never thank you enough for the cards and notes you sent to me. ❤ Each time I read that you missed reading my posts…you hoped everything was all right…or that you were praying for me, meant so much to me and brightened my day. I’ll try to catch you up in this post of “what’s been going on”…then I have a darling “mock” tackle box to show you that is filled with gummy worms…Trolli frogs…Swedish Fish…and Sour Brite Crawlers. It’s a cute and whimsical favor to pass out after a summer day spent together with your family or friends.
Continue reading “Mini Tackle Box Favors – #2 of the Series “The Gang’s All Here””
Hail, hail, the gang's all here, Never mind the weather, here we are together; Hail, hail, the gang's all here, Sure we're glad that you're here, too!
If you’re not barefoot, then you’re overdressed.
Unknown
Labor Day is the last big fanfare of the summer here at the lake and I’ve been getting ready for our weekend with “the gang all here!” I thought you might like reading and seeing some of the tips, preps, how to’s, menu’s, and recipes we use for our family get together’s and what we do here at Cottage Green preparing “4theseasons” and for our family celebrations. P.S. For those of you that don’t know … my Twitter and Instagram account is 4theseasons. (;
I love how summer just wraps it’s arms around you like a warm blanket.
Kellie Elmore
Since we’ll have several different areas set up for food and drink, I always like to have multiple caddy’s ready that are easy to carry and set up and hold all our cutlery and napkins. I use this rugged twig caddy often, since it’s so handy. (See it in the picture above when we had watermelon on the dock while watching the gorgeous sunset and (click here to see the same twiggy caddy in a Woodland Christmas Tablescape) I always tuck cloth napkins into the basket to line and soften the edges of the twigs, and to match the cutlery we’ll be using. Our color theme for Labor Day is red, white, and blue and a basket of red anchor napkins on a blue and white striped background will be whimsical setting on the dock table and will fit in perfectly with our lake theme, in just the right colors.
Next … this cute and showy rowboat caddy will be for our Farewell BBQ dinner. No frail paper napkins will do when finger lickin’ ribs and homemade barbeque sauce are on the menu! Red cloth bandanna’s are folded up to secure cutlery, then are wrapped around the bundle and festooned with red, white and blue wired tinsel.
Red, white and blue plastic sandwich baskets are lined with festive red and white checked deli papers. The baskets are sturdy and easy for small hands to carry even when their baskets are filled with ribs, cool pasta salad, and a little bean pot filled with (Delicious BBQ Beans – click here for recipe.)
Pictures and Instructions … How to Assemble Cutlery and Napkin Packages
1.Fold napkin into quarters. Place folded edge to your left side and open selvage of your napkin to your right. Fold up the bottom edge of your napkin, about 5 inches, if you are using larger napkins like these bandanna’s. If the napkins you use are smaller, fold up less material, according to size, but so you still have ample material left to pull up, cover and secure your cutlery.
2.Place a knife, fork, and spoon with the tips of the cutlery just beneath the left hand corner of your napkin and fan out so bottom of utensils are in line with the right hand bottom corner. FYI: Placing the cutlery beneath the edge of the material makes a prettier presentation and helps keep the utensils from getting dirty.
3.Now fold the left side of the napkin over the top of the utensils and fold the bottom right hand corner of the napkin straight up, over the top of the first fold. This secures your cutlery and keeps it from falling out when it’s picked up. Remember those unfortunate times all your silverware has fallen out when you were picking up your silverware bundle at a restaurant or cafeteria??? This tuck keeps that from happening!
4.Holding the left side of folded napkin and keeping the cutlery in place in the center (the cutlery will slide somewhat as you keep rolling your napkin, you can flare it out, again, if you need to, after you have secured the napkin bundle with your tinsel wire or cording) Just keep rolling your bundle to the right until all the material of the napkin is entirely wrapped around the bundle inside. When your napkin is rolled around in a concise package, hold or place the cutlery bundle down on the surface you are working on so it doesn’t unroll while you are getting your wired tinsel to secure the package. In the picture below I wanted you to be able to see how your bundle should look before securing. TIP: I usually have my tinsel or cording already cut and ready before I start my bundles so I can tie each place setting immediately, after I’m through rolling my napkin bundle.
5.Finished rolled cutlery bundle before cording.
6.I am not too exact when I am using tinsel wiring since I don’t like to pull out all the bends, plus any excess tinsel always looks cuter when there’s more! Each strand of tinsel wire I cut is approximately 13 inches long. Don’t worry if you don’t have any tinsel wire, I have made these bundles using colored raffia (click here to see Easter bundles made with smaller paper napkins and tied with raffia) silk red and green plaid ribbon with pine cone ornaments attached, rugged jute with white lifesavers dangling to mimic life preservers, and thin white macrame cording with anchor buttons; whatever tinsel or cording I’ve used, these bundles are always darling.
7.Center your tinsel or cording around your bundle so there is an equal amount of wire or cording on each side of the napkin to twist or tie.
8.Wrap the 2 strands of your tinsel or cording around your bundle to meet in the middle and twist together, or tie in a simple knot if you or using cording . When I use tinsel wiring, after twisting the tinsel to hold in place,I twirl first one end and side of the wiring loosely around my index finger, then I slip my finger out, which leaves the tinsel in loose coils. Then I gently pull the coils out to the desired length I want … then I do the same thing to the opposite side of the tinsel.
One more caddy finished and one to go for our Sand Pail Ice Cream Finale (click here for pictures of our Fun Summer Tradition)
Gotta go, the Gang’s Almost Here! Hope you have a wonderful and safe Labor Day Weekend … AND I hope you liked this post. I’m planning on this being a new series of blogs I share with you whenever “our gang” is coming! ❤
From my cottage to yours ~ Trenda
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