holidays – French Ethereal

Share Your Style #299

April 14, 2021April 14, 2021 French Ethereal

Welcome, friends, to this week’s Share Your Style #299!!! Happy Wednesday to you all!

This link party is for home decor, DIY, crafts, recipes and the like, but you are more than welcome to share any of your family-friendly posts with us all. Please feel free to share this post too and join my small but loyal band of friends. I appreciate you!
As always, I am glad that you are here…

I realize as I write this, I put up the wrong photo as the lead photograph for SYS last week, but, oh well!!! Some days the brain just isn’t working straight, lol! 😉 Anyway, back at it this week and much less drained. Today shares another fun group of features ~ there are soooo many good posts to choose from, you guys!!

Well, it’s spring time, friends! And with spring cleaning, along comes all those DIY projects none of us felt like doing this winter because… We were all FREEZING!!! (LOL!) ;)’ This week’s theme just naturally turned into a DIY one with a few other fun features thrown in for good measure…

Enjoy! <3

I am Barbara Chapman and I’d love it if you’d follow me here on my blog and on any of my other social media sites, too. Thank you!💜

French Ethereal: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest

***Here’s what I shared this past week at* *French Ethereal…***

I have other posts in the works, but this past week I was slowly finishing things up in the new side garden (being careful to not lift more than 15 lbs./time, and digging lightly). I am also getting things done at home with a light and careful spring cleaning! Much needed after all the dirt that comes inside from myself, Mr. Ethereal and Yoda. 😉

And here are this week’s featured posts…

How To Brighten Up The Front Porch — **Rachelle of My Hubbard Home** shares some great tips on How to Brighten Up the Front Porch for Spring. Love it!!!

**Carol from Bluesky at Home** shares this tutorial ~ How to Transform a Vintage Dining Table with Paint. I actually think I might do this with my English tea cart… It has sooo many water rings and scratches now. Good to revamp once in a while, huh?!

seersucker, gingham, argyle, pastels, print mix, Easter outfit, cloche hat, fashion over 40, Shelbee on the Edge — Love this!!! **Shelbee on the Edge** brings us her awesome retro style in this Easter fashion post ~ Adventures in Thrifting, Part 8 (also Link Up on the Edge!). You go, Girl!!!

**Uwe and his wife (pictured here) from My DIY OL** share creating a new shelving for storage and display in their kitchen in this detailed post ~ Regal für die Kuche (Shelving for the Kitchen). Really like how it turned out! Great job, Uwe!!!

**Niky from The House on Silverado** shares how she and her husband built their deer-proof garden ~ We Built a Deer-Proof Raised Bed Garden. Really they built A LOT more than just this!!! Great post with tons of gardening ideas. 🙂

I had seen these sweet roosters from **Lisa of Fresh Vintage by Lisa** over on another site this past week, and I am sooo happy to share this fun and easy DIY with you this week! How to Make a File Folder Pocket Junk Journal. Super cute idea!!!

Completed Dollar Tree Cricut sign — **Niky from Life As a Leo Wife** brings us this Cricut tutorial (I need to study this!) to make this cute sign in her post ~ Dollar Tree Cricut Sign.

ladybug-wreath-graphic-ladybug — And last up for this week, **Debbee of Debbee’s Buzz** shares her sweet spring wreath DIY ~ Ladybug Wreath for New, Existing Homes Bridges Seasons.

A big Thank You to everyone who linked up this past week. A special thank you to y’all for always promoting Share Your Style on your blog and on your social media channels! I do see it when I stop by and I appreciate the love. 💜

Happy linking, everybody!

Barb 🙂

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Share Your Style #298

April 7, 2021April 7, 2021 French Ethereal

Welcome, friends, to this week’s Share Your Style #298!!! Happy Wednesday to you all!

Woowee! I am so sorry about last Wednesday… I should have called off the week before as I knew I was getting my second Covid-19 vaccine last Wednesday morning, but then thought I’d be back in time (and feel well enough to run SYS). Well, at 6:00p.m. I was still in Oklahoma and by 8:00p.m., the time I got home, I was beginning to “freeze.” I had the usual reaction (again) with fever and chills, body aches, head ache and just sleeping hours…

This week, I am good, except during the time between the first and second shots, I was tripped backwards by a student at school, so… I have a broken tailbone (looked like a spiral fracture, but I could be wrong). Now I am out on Worker’s Comp leave! Crazy year…

Anyway, I hope you all had a wonderful Easter!!! He is risen!!! I got no Easter posts out, really. I’ve been in the winter funk for a while and with so many changes at work (plus getting the virus in the fall, and now this injury…), I have been feeling overwhelmed. With this leave, I should have plenty of time to get myself back to “normal.” 😉

Enjoy this week’s features, friends! It’s good to be back… 🙂

I am Barbara Chapman and I’d love it if you’d follow me here on my blog and on any of my other social media sites, too. Thank you!💜

***Here’s what I shared this past week at* *French Ethereal…***

No posts this past week but I do want to share our Miss Kim lilac in bloom! Last year it bloomed in a lovely light purple, but I think I didn’t feed it enough so the blooms are a pretty white!

I will be sharing more from the garden soon! Lots to still plant from the Oklahoma trip last week, plus an update coming on the brick mow strip around the new planter beds…

And here are this week’s featured posts…

**Debra from Common Ground** shared her lovely Easter vignette in this post ~ Pretty Pastels and Forcing Tulip Tree Branches. Adorably cute! Love the velveteen rabbit…

5-stuffed-Easter-bunnies-mantel — **Debbee from Debbee’s Buzz** shared her adorable furry friends in this Easter time post ~ Darling Vintage Style Stuffed Easter Bunny Collection. So cute, don’t you think??! Debbee also shared this lovely post ~ Peter Rabbit and Friends Beatrix Potter Figurine Collection.

How to antique mirror6 — **MaryJo at Master”Pieces” of My Life** shared her trick for gilding in this DIY post ~
How to Antique a Gold Gilded Mirror ~ Love the results!!!

Roasted Asparagus Wrapped potsandpots.com — **Mary over at Pots and Planes** shared her delicious recipe for Roasted Asparagas Spears Wrapped in Prosciutto. Can you say YUM?!!

BEDROOM DECOR IN GREEN AND YELLOW — **Rachelle of My Hubbard Home** brings us a fresh spring post ~ Spring Decorating in the Bedroom (Simple Home Ideas). Love it!!!

And because I missed last week’s post completely and we didn’t get to see enough fun Easter ideas, here is another for springtime decorating idea and to make for next year… from **Lisa of Fresh Vintage by Lisa** ~ Recycled Jars for Spring.

Europe Cakes, Shelbee on the Edge, Radical Ralph — Looking for a cute birthday cake idea? Look no further than **Shelbee of Shelbee on the Edge**‘s post featuring her son Ralphie ~ In the Blink of an Eye. Time goes so fast, doesn’t it??

Please welcome newcomer **Renae of Peacock Ridge Farm** shared the making of this exquisite dining building in her post ~ Outdoor Dining Pavillion. Heavenly!!!…

**Penny of Penny’s Vintage Treasures** shared a completely fresh idea on updating our old Battenburg lace tablecloths in this post ~ Spring Battenburg Lace Table Runner. Totally in-love with this idea!!! Perfect for cloths with damaged bits.

And that’s it for this week, dear friends!

Happy linking, everyone!

Barb 🙂

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Let’s Go Mardi Gras! Belatedly Quick Mardi Gras Decorating Ideas for Your Home

February 19, 2021February 18, 2021 French Ethereal

Louisiana’s grand two week celebration held in New Orleans each year and known world-wide simply as Mardi Gras may not be city host to the grand parade, massive celebrations and frat house parties this year due to Covid-19 restrictions, but Mardi Gras is being celebrated BIG in other ways!

The Crescent City has come up with a fun alternative all its own called “Yardi Gras” where sororities, fraternities, businesses and other sponsoring “krewes” and homeowners are lending their front yards and inside their homes as backdrops to display all of the wonderful Mardi Gras floats, flowers and more!…

A large statue of a dinosaur wears a beaded necklace and top hat, standing in front of a decorated house. — *The Atlantic*

Here are a couple of photos I found out on The Atlantic website for the City of New Orleans. You just have to boogey on over to see more of the crazy magic that is Mardi Gras!…

A decorated two-story house appears to have tentacles emerging from its upper windows. — *The Atlantic*

I’ve learned since moving to Texas that New Orleans is only six hours away and just over the Texas-Louisiana border, not unlike the five hour drive from our former home in Murrieta, California to Las Vegas, Nevada!

Just a hop-skip-and-a-jump!!! So maybe next year I’ll get to visit Mardi Gras… ;)’

Can’t wait to try the food! YUM!

It’s wearing frightful color combination in public and rolling your eyes at the guy in your office who–like clockwork, year after year–denies that he got the baby in the king cake and now someone else has to pony up the ten bucks for the next one.
Chris Rose, as quoted in GoodReads

Two of my friends, Loretta and Karen June, who love to visit New Orleans during Mardi Gras season!

Here are my friends from our IOOF lodge here in Denton who found these Mardi Gras shirts last year at a Buc-Ees gas station (a big deal here in Texas!) on the way to Louisiana.

Another friend from Lodge, Torrance, shared her mantel with me and I get to happily share it here with y’all!

(Oh, and Torrance and her husband went by Terrell, Texas two weekends ago and picked up a shirt for her and me!! Woot!) Bummer we had all the crazy snows this week here in Texas as I was looking forward to wearing my Mardi Gras shirt to school… Since the City of Denton has very few “snow plows,” school was cancelled in shifts this week. Most of us haven’t had internet and many are without power all over Texas ~ which is WHY this post is getting out to you late. 😉

Love love love Torrance’s living room mantel decorated with French New Orleans masks and all the bright colors associated with Mardi Gras! She even put up a small Mardi Gras Christmas-type tree! Too cute… <3

Here is a fun link to a Mardi Gras celebration caught on film a few years ago…

Everywhere else, it’s just Tuesday…”
Yahoo search on Mardi Gras quotes

Here on our library table (vis-a-vis our tea table/end table) I had fun creating my own Mardi Gras vignette. I am so happy I found this French couple at the thriftshop last fall! They work perfectly into so many tableaux…

Picking up the bright and fanciful colors and creations This is Mardi Gras in a scaled-down version. I looked for anything I had that was trés French, sparkly and ethereal!

Well, friends, even though Louisiana didn’t get to have their “official” Mardi Gras again this year due to Covid-19 and not enough people having been innoculated, and then all the snowy weather with Snowpocolypse 2021, I hope you enjoyed a little celebrating in your own home!…

Big hugs,

Barb 🙂

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Share Your Style #287

January 7, 2021January 7, 2021 French Ethereal

Happy Wednesday, everyone! Welcome to this week’s Share Your Style #287!

I am Barbara Chapman and I’d love it if you’d follow me here on my blog and on any of my other sites! Thank you, sweet friends!!!

My sites: French Ethereal Instagram Facebook Pinterest YouTube

We had a very nice Christmas and ended up driving down to Austin over New Year’s to visit our daughter since she couldn’t come up our way afterall. Just a quick two-day getaway, but also very nice!

Adding French Fencing to the Sideyard Garden

A Christmas Visit with Judith and Botanic Bleu

I am picking up posts from our last Share Your Style (#286) two weeks ago. Thank you to you all for this time of relaxation! I didn’t take much time off when I was ill in October, so it was nice to follow the example of other blogger/design influencers and take these past two weeks off… Thank you! <3 Happy to be back, though!!!

*A Christmas Birthday Tea by the Tree ~ **Fabby of Fabby’s Living** shares this gorgeous holiday table for a family friend and caregiver for her mother. Just lovely!*

twas-the-night-before-Christmas-place-setting — **Debbee of Debbee’s Buzz** shared her table set for Santa’s arrival in this festive post ~ Twas the Night Before Christmas Eve Tabl e …

*Two lovely red and white transferware posts for you because we all love these pieces so much!!! Look for more of these lovely patterns around Valentine’s Day… <3

**Debra of Common Ground** shared this garden style Christmas post ~ French Country Christmas in the Dining Room.

10 minute Christmas Wreath — **Rachelle of My Hubbard Home** brings us this fun skating wreath in this post ~ Holiday Door Wreath (That Only Takes 10 Minutes).

**Michelle Churchman from My Bijou Life Online** brings us some fashion to take us into the new year in this post ~ A Leopard Print for Style Imitating Art. *Totally fun go-to dress!!!*

Style Imitating Art, Charles Bell, Gumball II, bright colors, fashion over 40, Shelbee on the Edge — **Shelbee of Shelbee’s On the Edge** shares her fun wintery style in this post, also part of Style Imitating Art, Gumball II by Charles Bell.

For anyone who follows **Amber of Follow the Yellow Brick Home** she and her hubby have finally finished their kitchen remodel and here is that post… Just in time for the holidays and bright and clean welcoming in the New Year! ~ Vintage Traditional Christmas Home Tour and A Festive New Kitchen.

Kerstboompjes van bakvormen Papier — **Inge and Else of ElseRBlog** bring us this adorable Christmas Tree with Cupcake Papers DIY (Kerstboomjes von Cupcake Bakformen Papier — DIY).

DIY-Gingerbread-Snowflake-Ornaments-The-Crowned-Goat-2-1 DIY Gingerbread Snowflake Ornaments Christmas Crafts Holidays — **Coco of The Crowned Goat** shares an easy tutorial perfect for leaving up all winter long in this post ~ DIY Gingerbread Snowflake Ornaments.

**Debbie of Debbie-Dabble Blog** brings us her sweet doll house decorated in holiday attire in this final post for this week ~ Christmas at Nelson Crest.

If you have been featured here at Share Your Style… Here is a button to copy to your site and to share...

If you’d like to follow my Share Your Style board on Pinterest I’d appreciate it, thank you! I do post all of the featured posts from each week’s SYS there.

Happy New Year, Y’all and welcome to 2021!

Barb

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Share Your Style #283

November 26, 2020December 3, 2020 French Ethereal

Happy Wednesday, y’all! Welcome to this week’s Share Your Style #283!

I am Barbara Chapman and I’d love it if you’d follow me here on my blog!

My sites: French Ethereal Instagram Facebook Pinterest YouTube

***Here’s what I shared this past week at* *French Ethereal…***

Put together a Fun Christmas Crate in 10 Minutes ~ Should have been part of this month’s Pinterest Challenge but I blew the deadline… Oh, well! 😉

Debra over at Common Ground shared her fall entryway table in this lovely Thanksgiving tableau ~ Transitioning a Fall Entry to Thanksgiving. Lovely!

And because I loved this post from Debra also ~ Using Vintage Frames for a Thanksgiving Mantel. Don’t you just love the layered frame look? Beautiful!!

How-to-Create-a-Holiday-Greenery-Spray-The-Crowned-Goat-1 Creating a Simple Holiday Spray Christmas Holidays

CoCo from The Crowned Goat shared an easy to make holiday spray used here on the door in this post ~ Creating a Simple Holiday Spray. I am all about simple this year!

Tiffany (Tee) of TeeDiddlyDee shares her beautiful fall hutch in this seasonally colored post ~ Fall Vintage Door Hutch. Totally love all the upcycled pieces of wood and turned pieces!!

Cindy from Cloches and Lavender shared this gorgeous wintertime wreath in this DIY post ~ Quick and Easy Winter Wreath. Simply stunning! Love the feathers… <3

If you have been featured here at Share Your Style… Here is a button to copy to your site and to share.

If you’d like to follow my Share Your Style board on Pinterest I’d appreciate it, thank you! I do post all of the featured posts from each week’s SYS there.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!!!

Barb

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Share Your Style #270

August 26, 2020 French Ethereal

Welcome to this week’s Share Your Style #270! This link party is for home decor, DIY, crafts, recipes and the like, but you are more than welcome to share your family-friendly posts with us all. Please feel free to share this post and join my small but loyal band of followers. I appreciate you! As always, I am glad that you are here… 💜

I am feeling a bit fall-ish and I bet you are, too! This happens every August as I tire of the heat of summer and especially on days when there is just a hint of autumn in the air… So, with that we will have a few fall ideas featured this week.

This month is also my blog-iversary for becoming a member of Share Your Style, almost 100 SYS’s ago (#173). I became the sole writing of SYS in January 2019 as the other contributors went onto other things. I enjoy getting to see all that you share each week and it is my honor to be your host!

My sites: French Ethereal Instagram Facebook Pinterest YouTube

I am Barbara Chapman and I’d love it if you’d follow me here on my blog and on any of my other social media sites, too. Thank you! 💜

Here’s what I shared this past week at

French Ethereal…

This month’s Pinterest Challenge is perfect for kicking off a bit of early fall decor ~ Pheasant Under Glass — A Fall Cloche Styling. I hope you will stop by and check out this fun monthly blog hop and see what everyone has created for you!

This week I shared a Magical Summer Evening Entertaining Out-of-Doors in the Garden, a post that was an off-shoot from our July Pinterest Challenge. I love setting a table in the garden and I hope to do many more as we move into fall and when the weather is good in winter.

And here are this week’s

featured posts…

Up first this week is Rita of Panoply with a fun roundup of all the Vintage and Antique Finds Rita and her sisters found while estate sale and thriftshopping throughout this year pre- and post-COVID-19 lockdown. Enjoy all the neat things they found!

Kristi over at French Creek Farmhouse shared this cool post on Hanging Antique Windows on a Wall. Don’t you just love old windows??! Love the chicken wire look!

MaryJo over at Master”Pieces” of My Life shared some of her lovely silver collection in this post titled Greenery in Silver. Love the gorgeous polished look with the green!!!

Debbee of Debbee’s Buzz shared this beary beary adorable

Back to School Table just in time for the 2020-2021 school year!

**I have to say, our first in-class day went well! Our teacher created back-up plans for when online parents and students couldn’t get online, just in case. 📚 Our district’s main program for teaching elementary students did crash but was fixed by 10:00 a.m. 💻

Debra over at Common Ground shared this fun fall set of apple canisters as part of Scenes from the Late Summer Baker’s Rack. Love vintage family pieces!!!

Trick and Treat shared this wonderful recipe for Fresh Strawberry Crostata, a type of free-form tart. Doesn’t it make your mouth water??! A wonderful treat for end-of-summer strawberries.

1930's vintage art decor chalkware lamp two ladies chalkware lamp twins chalkware lamp mid-century lamp

The title says it all… A Stunning Vintage Art Deco Chalkware Lamp is stunning in this vignette created and shared by Amber at Follow the Yellow Brick Home. Beautiful!!!

Do take some time as you link up today to visit a few other party-goers and enjoy their posts! Thank you, sweet friends! 💖

Thank you to everyone who linked up this past week. A special thank you to y’all for sharing Share Your Style on your blog and on your social media channels! I do see it when I stop by and I appreciate the love. 💜

If you have been featured here at Share Your Style…

Here is a button to copy to your site and to share…

If you’d like to follow my Share Your Style board on Pinterest I’d sure appreciate it, thank you! I do post the all of the featured posts from each week’s SYS there.

Enjoy the party, 😊

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Remembering on Memorial Day…

May 25, 2020 French Ethereal

Memorial Day… A time of reflection for those military members who have lost their lives during times of war. Poppies are placed on graves and given out by veterans at grocery stores to anyone who wishes one, a symbol of love and remembrance…

We watch our nation’s president lay a wreath every year at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and I love honoring our fallen this way! I miss that this year there are few if any parades with older veterans walking the streets of their communities and in downtown Washington, DC, being applauded for their service. Biker veterans did ride to our nation’s capitol and I am glad that they visited there this week with President Trump. I think our nation will come out in droves as we are allowed to host parades again!

Reddish-pink bougainvillea with a sky-blue Pacific Ocean in the background.

Often I feel that our countries’ citizens have forgotten to honor our president and the leaders over our country. They are constantly bashed on most media channels. Pray for your leaders and all who are in authority. They need our prayers and honor. It is a great and terrible responsibility to head a nation and, yes, they will blunder. They are human, after all. I do think we should show respect for the president, no matter if we like his or her politics.

Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.

Hebrews 13:17, Berean Study Bible

Red poppies and red roses…

We are celebrating Memorial Day over in the Mt. Rushmore area this weekend. Even with the pandemic still going on in small pockets here and there, we shouldn’t be afraid to live life…

I learned this long ago, on this very date, the day my first fiancé died when two farm workers turned their small pickup truck into his path as he rode his bicycle down a long hill on his way to work…

Keep celebrating LIFE friends. Our service men and women died trying to protect our lives, our freedoms. Celebrate their sacrifice and honor them with living…

People will continue getting sick throughout this pandemic, but 98-99% are recovering, and I read somewhere that a virus has to affect 50% of a population in order for it to then die off. The 50% “rule” (for lack of a better word) means that the virus then will keep coming into contact with people who already have or have had the virus thereby not finding new hosts, so it dies off.

I am happy to keep honoring our military members who fell in wartime and because of acts of war or terrorism. My friend Rob, was a very important friend (and coworker) while I was dealing with the loss of my first fiancé. We took a vacation over to Hawaii in the fall meeting up with friends who were competing in the Ironman Triathlon. While we were on Oahu visiting places I had lived in and had visited as a young girl, when my father and family were stationed there, we rode our bicycles up to Punch Bowl Cemetery and found Rob’s uncle’s gravesite.

His uncle died during the bombing at Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941. It was an honor to be there with Rob visiting for his whole family.

*The lead photograph of my father, then a captain with the United States Air Force, was taken in 1966 while my father was home between two tours in Vietnam. We moved Concord, Mass. after he returned and then to Hawaii in 1970.

A couple of years ago I helped lay a wreath for fallen military members at the courthouse in Denton, Texas, with my friends from the IOOF Rebekahs. This is a small vacation but also a time of remembrance.

Cooking at our Prairie Home.

So on this Memorial Day, Mr. Ethereal and I will celebrate watching memorial services on t.v. as we often do. We walked up last evening to two places: the second was to a fun place ~ Dinosaur Park in Rapid City, opened in 1936. It was quite a hike going up the pink sandstone steps but the 270 degree views of the city from west, north to east were beautiful! (As were the small mixed herd of dinos! 😉 )

We are also going up to see the Crazy Horse Memorial later on today and walked among Rapid City, South Dakota’s Presidents Walk last evening (the first thing we did after dinner)… Very few people are out and about, which made social distancing easy.

The Presidents Walk is a neat walking tour of bronze statues located on Downtown Rapid City’s street corners, donated by family and friends to the city. (I will do a post featuring many of these statues soon!)

Thanks for taking the time to read my post here today. If you enjoy Memorial Day posts you may enjoy these also…

📬

The Story Behind This Patriotic Mantel (2019)

Easy Patriotic Decorating Ideas ~ A Pinterest Challenge (2019)

Remembering Memorial Day (2018)

Happy Memorial Day ~ Remembering the Fallen (2017)

Happy Memorial Day! (2015)

Enjoy your Memorial Day, friends, and enjoy being with your family members! I am looking forward to reading your Memorial Day memories throughout this next week… 💝

Love and hugs,

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About France, A Little More Virtual Travel, and French Inspiration

April 24, 2020 French Ethereal

Welcome to a post I’ve longed to write… Today is the day to share a little of my travels when I was younger and a few posts from some blogging friends who write about their travels to France and decorating in our favorite French style…

The North Sea ~ Left to right: My German sister through the Bayer-AGFA exchange program, summer of 1981, Katja, myself and her brother Jan.

Missed opportunity

I long to visit France and when I was 19 years old I had the opportunity as an exchange student to go to France one weekend. I had studied one year of French in high school and had fallen in-love with everything French! Partly because my German exchange sister didn’t want to go, I stayed home. She had been before and it just wasn’t her thing. At the time I thought I should stay back with Katja, in Leverkusen… I thought it was the right thing to do, not abandon her.

I should have gone for the weekend with her sister Dagmar and friends to Paris… But that missed opportunity will make getting to France all the sweeter when I do get there!

The lead photo is of myself and the family up along the Rhein River (Rhine) visiting several castles with my German mother Ute and her daughter, Katja. Sometimes Ute and I would tour cities along the Rhein during the day while Katja was finishing her junior year of high school.

My host mother Ute.

Ute and I went to Koblenz, Köln (Cologne) and other medieval towns up and down the Rhein. Along the way Ute took me to a seconds shop so I could buy a few pieces of a beautiful set of china.

Dinner with my inlaws last summer and Mr. Yoda hoping for

a nibble or two (or three!). These plates have pretty yellow daisies

on them. Each type of plate, platter or dish has a different flower.

French tableware

The Gerlach family had a breakfast set of china which I fell in-love with ~ so beautiful with pinks and yellows, Wedgwood blue forget-me-nots, and bright white daisies with cheery yellow centers!!!

To me then, this tableware embodied everything European, everything which was tasteful and French style.

My first pieces of Villeroy & Boch’s tableware Botanica came from that store ~ a cream and sugar as well as a pair of candlesticks. Before coming back to the States, Ute gifted me with a mustard jar and a trivet.

The rest of the china pieces I found shortly after Mr. Ethereal and I moved to Southern California at an Ethan Allen store. Later my mother sent us a pound butter dish with snapdragons on it that she ordered through a catalog as well as the heavy Botanica tray (below).

Part of the Botanica china is used here to hold jam, Devonshire cream, and milk for tea sitting on a Botanica serving tray in the middle of the table. This was a tea I had for a friend from my first tea group, her granddaughter and our son.

We also visited Amsterdam and Alkmaar, Holland when the Gerlach family went on holiday in late June or early July 1981. We had the best time touring by glass boat on the waterways in Amsterdam and swimming in the Nord See (North Sea) during our trip.

A Visit to France

So with my trip from long ago as inspiration, let’s finish our vicarious visit to France today with a visit with others. Their travels bring a little French style home to our abodes and to our lives…

Jamie of So Much Better With Age shared a huge list of Places to visit when you go to Paris, France in this post. I know I appreciate everyone’s travel trips because we all know when we go somewhere new we want to see it all, but often we need to pick and choose since time is usually short. Great post!

Courtney of French Country Cottage went on a mini Grand Tour to Paris last summer and then onto London with her husband. A little work and a little holiday filled with incredible buildings, balconies, flower gardens and the Eiffel Tower she shared with all of her readers! She also hopped over to Italy and you can find more on her blog. 😉

Closer to home, Judith of Botanic Bleu shared a lovely post with her new French market basket filled with French lavender. She often shares tips on French styling and early last year she shared a trip to see her sister and the French garden and all her lavender plants at her California home. And then in winter her Spanish lavender decided to bloom!

Garden thoughts and ideas

Judith also shared a list of French vegetables she found available for sale for wintertime planting ~ a little long term thinking for sure with summer just getting here but good to plan for!

🙂

And our final French-European style visit today is to Lidy Baars who owns the wonderful business FrenchGardenHouse and is originally from the Netherlands. I met her at Vintage Bliss several years ago in San Diego. She has become a friend and this past summer she traveled to France on a buying trip. This post about making French Country Herb Butter is absolutely heavenly!

I do hope you have enjoyed this little virtual trip to The Continent and to France! Here’s to wonderful memories and future ones…

Bisous, mes amis!

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Share Your Style #251

April 8, 2020 French Ethereal

Welcome to Share Your Style #250! This link party is for home decor, DIY, crafts, recipes and the like, but you are more than welcome to share your family-friendly posts with us all. Please feel free to share this post and join my small but loyal band of followers. I appreciate you!

💝

Lots of beautiful Easter posts this past week with bunnies and chicks galore! As always, I am glad that you are here…

•Barbara: FrenchEthereal / Facebook / Twitter /Pinterest / Instagram

I am Barbara Chapman your host and I’d love it if you’d follow me here on my blog and on any of my other social media sites, too. I appreciate you! Thank you! 😉

Here’s what I shared this week at

French Ethereal…

An Easter Tea & Scone Recipe shares these cutie patootie bunnies plus our dining room table set for Easter supper.

The bunny centerpiece just a quick 5 Minute Easter Bunny Basket project you can put together using things from around the home. Easy and fun to create with your kids and grandkids!

Here are this week’s featured posts…

Rachelle of My Hubbard Home starts us off with a fun garden pot idea with her Spring Planting Pots! She includes an easy recipe for sealing your pots, too, for indoor or outdoor use. Love these!!!

Beatrix-Potter-Easter-tablescape-centerpiece

Debbee of Debbee’s Buzz has got Peter Rabbit and all his friends plus many of the other characters from this classic children’s tale ~ Beatrix Potter Easter Egg Hunt in Mr. McGregor’s Garden.

*Not sure why Carol’s pics always turn out greyed but they do. Just won’t capture correctly… Ugh! Still cute but you’ll want to head over to see her post to see the actual coloring.

Carol of Bluesky at Home brings us this adorable bunny wreath to make in this post ~ Bunnies Blooms & Bows DIY Easter Wreath. Too cute!!!

Debra at Common Ground is back blogging and shared her lovely baker’s rack all decorated for spring in this post ~ Change in Plans. Stop by to see how she is doing!

CoCo of The Crowned Goat shared her beautiful Simple Spring Dough Bowl Centerpiece and had this cute starter pic, so this is the one I grabbed! Love this beautiful vignette!! You’ll have to stop by CoCo’s and check out the actual centerpiece. 😉

And because Share Your Style includes wonderful clothing ideas, too, Shelbee of Shelbee on the Edge shared her fun fresh spring style (and another blog hop for you to join!) in this post ~ A Guide to Creating Your Personal Style & Link-Up.

Last up this week is this really cool DIY Shredded Paper Nest created by Paula of Virginia Sweet Pea. Very cool indeed!

Thank you to everyone who linked up this past week. A special thank-you to y’all for sharing Share Your Style on your blog and on your social media channels! I do see it when I stop by and appreciate the love.

If you’ve ever been featured here at Share Your Style…

Here is a button to copy to your site and your featured posts,

if you like!

If you’d like to follow my Share Your Style board on Pinterest I’d sure appreciate it, thank you! I do post the featured posts from each week there.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Happy Easter, sweet friends! 💝

Uncategorized

An Easter Tea and Scone Recipe

April 7, 2020 French Ethereal

Easter week is here and with it I have put together an easy Easter table setting for you. My hope is that it brings you joy and inspires you to create a beautiful tablescape in your own home. Celebrating Christ’s resurrection is a glorious reason to celebrate…

On our table are the sweet momma and baby bunnies from this post. There is a selection of teas both caffeinated and herbal for visiting bunnies to enjoy. Softened butter for warmed scones will also make our friends feel right at home.

Our table is set for a simple dinner tea. Colorful plastic eggs and a special bunny ornament grace the table. Candlesticks were added then subtracted as they detracted from the simplicity of this tablescape. Sometimes simple is better…

A new table runner found at HomeGoods during the winter graces our table and repeats our bunny theme.

I love its sweet rabbits and the French style it has!

Are you doing anything special for your family as you shelter indoors this Easter Sunday?

I learned a neat idea this morning on a Zoom call with friend April J. Harris as one of the other ladies on the call said she and her husband would be having Easter dinner via a Zoom-type call with their children so everyone could be together virtually and celebrate Easter!! A really wonderful idea…

A simple scone recipe

I think I have shared these baking powder biscuit-style scones before with you but it never hurts to share a good recipe again… :)’

Classic Cream Scones

Fine Cooking magazine, Winter 2004

published by freelance writer Carol Anderson

reviewed for a newspaper (unknown)

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour For the glaze:

1/3 cup granulated sugar 1 lg. egg, beaten with

1 Tbsp. baking powder 1 Tbsp. milk

½ tsp. salt sprinkle sugar on top

½ cup dried currants (or any dried fruit)

6 Tbsp. cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

¾ cup heavy cream

2 large egg yolks

Position oven rack in lower third of the oven; heat oven to 425 degrees. Line a heavy baking sheet with parchment paper sprinkled with flour.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add currants, tossing until evenly distributed and coated with flour (I put dried cranberries in my scones this time). Cut in butter with pastry blender until the largest pieces are about the size of peas.

In a small bowl, stir cream and egg yolks just to blend. Add this all at once to flour mixture. Stir with a fork to begin combining the wet and dry ingredients, then use your hands to gently knead mixture together until all dry ingredients are absorbed into dough and it can be gathered into a ball. Don’t overknead. **Tip: if you don’t have any cream on hand, replace with sour cream thinned and whisked with a little milk.

The dough is sticky at this point. Set the ball on floured parchment paper and pat it gently into a round that is 1” thick. Cut round into 8 wedges (*I used a heart-shaped cookie cutter). Separate wedges slightly. Brush scones with glaze; sprinkle a bit of sugar on them.

Bake until the scones are deep golden and a toothpick inserted into the center of a wedge comes out clean. This will take 13 to 15 minutes.

Slide the parchment onto a rack and let the scones cool for about 10 minutes before serving. Makes 8.

***Carol Anderson says in her article that “good scones follow three basic rules of biscuit making: plenty of cold butter and cream, a light hand when mixing, and a high oven temperature. **My tip: If you’d like to make your scones like those you’d have as a mid-afternoon tea, make a bigger round scone. The one I had in England was a bigger scone and was meant to eat almost like a meal.

*originally published in this post here.

Tea time!

Thank you for joining me for tea today and I hope you have a wonderful Easter with good food, lots of FaceTime and phone calls to family and friends!

Share Your Style will be up tomorrow but after that I am going to take a small break until next week. Thank you, dear friends!

Jesus is risen indeed!!!

💒

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.

1 Corinthians 15:3-4 NIV
Paul in his first letter to the people of Corinth, about 55 A.D.

Blessings to you this Easter,

Here’s what I shared this past week at French Ethereal…

Here’s what I shared this past week at French Ethereal…

Here’s what I shared this past week at French Ethereal…

Here’s what I shared this past week at

Missed opportunity

French tableware

A Visit to France

Garden thoughts and ideas

Here’s what I shared this week at

Are you doing anything special for your family as you shelter indoors this Easter Sunday?

A simple scone recipe

Jesus is risen indeed!!!

***Here’s what I shared this past week at* *French Ethereal…***

***Here’s what I shared this past week at* *French Ethereal…***

***Here’s what I shared this past week at* *French Ethereal…***