Sunday, November 29, 2015

A cup of tea....


I recently went to a local tea shop and bought some African tea...


...it is a nice red color...


...and a bit spicy!


A relaxing way to plan the last of my Christmas decorating!

Monday, November 23, 2015

Hafner's Garden Center, North Syracuse, NY.....

Our local garden center is all set up for the holidays...and they expect NO HUMBUGGING!!


Here are a few lovely themed trees:















Lots of artificial trees for sale...


...and in the next room, the fresh trees were arriving:


TIS THE SEASON!!




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Saturday, November 21, 2015

Au Chocolat in Baldwinsville, NY 2015

This is the 4th year I have attend the Au Chocolate shopping event in Baldwinsville, a town outside of Syracuse.  18 local shops participated this year, all serving chocolate treats, while encouraging the shoppers to buy local!

 At the first shop Mom and I picked up a "passport".  If you visit every shop, you can turn it in to be entered in a drawing to win a prize - - we made it to all but 4 shops this year!


Our first stop was at Olives Eatery, Two Twisted Sisters, The Changing Room and A La Maison, all located in Cottage Designs:


A cute house, decorated in purples and greens...


...with a cute flower cart all dressed up...


and a buffet of chocolate treats....


...that were delicious!


There were shops upstairs...


...all decked out for the holidays!


A new stop this year was Anana's Trinkets and Teacups....


...all set up for a tea party...


...and lots of princess gowns for the little ladies.   I tasted "hot peppermint chocolate tea" - YUM!


Next door was Mirror, Mirror, a lovely bridal shop....


...with black and white treats displayed around a black and white tree:


The Savvy Chic is a co-op shop with lots of unique gifts:


New this year was WT brews, where we had wine tasting from The Stone Age Winery:


Our next stop was beyond the Attic Door, a second hand shop...


....and they had some scrumptious cake balls - I tried the almond paste cake balls - YUM!


A short walk away was the Nantucket Cat, where we were greeted by Santa, and the church bells across the street playing Carols!


There were a few other stops and then Mom and I went out to dinner!  
We joked about having dessert before dinner!

I bought one Christmas gift - my shopping is "slow going" this year and I have to pick up the pace pretty soon or I will be in a panic!!


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Tuesday, November 17, 2015

A Surprise Guest.....

Last Saturday I had a craft show at my home, selling items I have created and painted.  It was a huge success, but the highlight of my day was meeting a blog reader who lives about 90 miles west from me!

Peggy and I connected through my blog years ago and correspond every now and then through email.    I have an email list of clients, friends and interested people in my craft and she happens to be on that list, so when I sent out an email blast last week, she decided to surprise me so that we could finally meet in person!!  And what a delightful surprise that was for me!!

(Peggy and Patti)

Peggy even surprised me with a lovely gift:


And there is even more to the story: 

A few years ago I had a garage sale and a pretty young woman spotted a table and asked "Any chance you are Pandora's Box?"  (She lived about 60 mile east of me )  She recognized the table from a blog that her mother was reading regularly.  The young woman bought the table for her mother.  A few days later, I got an email from Peggy, telling me how much she loved the table!!  It was Peggy's daughter!!

It is such a small world and I love meeting my blog readers!  Blogging has created a circle of friends for me, some that unfortunately I might never get to meet in person.  It has just enriched my life with relationships and camaraderie that could not have been found anywhere else!!

So, to Peggy, and my readers, I hope our friendships continue to blossom!




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Sunday, November 15, 2015

National Bundt Cake Day

Everything has its "day" and today is National Bundt Cake Day
 I only know this because of Debbie at Mountains Breath - she makes great bundt cakes.

She is the Bundt Cake Queen in my eyes!


So, I pulled out my bundt pans - but I really should have just made one large cake with this recipe...another lesson learned!

If you have been following along, you know that I have had some bundt cake disasters (here) but for some reason, I just keep trying and trying (here)!  I even have a broken cake in the freezer in case I need to make a quick trifle!

So, when Debbie mentioned National Bundt Cake Day, I thought I would give it another shot, so today I made a
Peach Bundt Cake


I used a 15 oz can of peaches in this recipe...


...and honey bourbon vanilla - yum!


They came out of the pan quite easily - I haven't always had good luck with that!!


They can be dusted with sugar...


...but at the last minute I decided to drizzle some peach glaze over them.



Here is the recipe:

 Peach Bundt Cake
1/2 c butter
1 c sugar
2 eggs
1 t vanilla - I used honey bourbon vanilla
2 c flour
1 T and 1t baking powder
1 c milk
1 can chopped peaches, drained, liquid reserved (15 oz)
1 t cinnamon
1/4 c brown sugar

Oven to 350'
Butter and flour bundt pan
Cream butter and sugar, add eggs one at a time.  Add vanilla (I used bourbon honey vanilla).
In a separate bowl combine flour and baking powder.
Alternately add flour and milk to butter mixture.
In another bowl add drained peaches, cinnamon and brown sugar.  Toss to coat.
Fill bundt pan with 1/2 cake mix and then add peaches on top.  Finish by pouring rest of cake mix on top of peaches.
Bake for 45 min - cool for 10 min then turn cake upside down onto a plate.
When cool, dust with confectionary sugar.  (I used the reserved peach liquid and mixed it with confectionary sugar to make a glaze - that really enhanced the peach flavor of the cake!)

I am sure Debbie has a work of art posted on her blog, so hop on over and check it out!
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