pinterest challenge – French Ethereal

It’s the fourth Tuesday of the month and it’s Pinterest Challenge time, my friends!! This month Cindy of County Road 407 has chosen a beautiful tablescape decor from a dear friend whom we lost a couple of years ago now, Michelle from The Painted Hinge. I am honoring her memory, too, as we also honor our fellow servicemen and women this month on Memorial Day…

If you are just coming over from Laura at Everyday Edits, welcome! I don’t really have an entryway as you are immediately into my family and living rooms upon entering our home, so…

I chose to focus on the sideboard idea with my tablescape for this month’s challenge.

I love this photograph of Michelle’s antique sideboard decorated with a garden theme. All the ceramic pots with fresh basil, cilantro and a bunch planted with violas and pansies! Adorable!!

Some pots are also filled just with sphagnum moss. So love the card file creating little planting pockets!

I also love the neutral color palette.

Here is another closer look at her tablescape ~ so many things to catch your eye!!!

***

What I pulled for my decor interpretation

Well, let’s look at what I don’t have: no vintage scale, no wire strawberry baskets, nor a card catalog file (though it’d be a great addition, especially now that I work in a school library!).

I do have books and little things for risers. I chose some wood rounds and a small concrete pilaster for my tableau.

I also chose the one little drawer that I do have as a holder for seed packets. This drawer was accidentally left out of a small desk we sold and which used to be in my daughter’s bedroom. It fit perfectly between the two trundle beds she had in her room at the first house we owned in California.

We replaced that vintage desk with a larger more contemporary one as she grew into a teenager.

For my table, I began with a large tobacco basket, then began layering with all the things I’d see out in my garden.

I love a neutral color pallet, tooThe teacups are what I’d take out to the garden, lol! 😉

My passion, my style

On the left side of this tablescape, I’ve set up my maiden statuette with a little French mask and those two teacups. She wears pearls because pearls are something I enjoy wearing.

Adding wood elements like the inspiration piece

When we were first married and lived aboard Camp Pendleton, California, I found this long coffee table at the base thriftshop where I worked. I sanded it all down and had new legs put on it turning it into a sofa table. It is a Danish maple piece from the 1940’s which had a horrible finish on it before, but now that it has this light stain on it and has been waxed much over the last 30+ years, it is a favorite piece of furniture of mine!

It’s so nice having this large wood piece already as it brings a lot to the table (forgive the pun!). 😉

Having the small wood drawer plus the painted wood tobacco basket also add their own rustic wooden touches.

I planted up two pink begonias in the glazed pot so this becomes my greenery.

The tiny bits of blue in the flowers of the chintzware teacup add the final nod to the upcoming patriotic holiday. 🙂

***Please forgive the mess in the background. I am still working on creating a slipcover for that green plaid wingchair. I changed my mind mid-project which is why it isn’t finished. An upcoming post! 😉

And that is my small tablescape, friends! Simple, elegant, me… Thank you so much for visiting today and I hope you will consider subscribing. I don’t pitch myself very often but I guess I should do that a little more. 😉

Summer is almost here, friends!! Let’s take a look at the table Carol from Bluesky at Home has created for you! I know it’s going to be good. <3

Everyone’s links are below for you to come back to as needed.

Big hugs from North Texas!!!

Enjoy!

Barb 🙂

A Spring Basket for Our Shed Door

April 25, 2023April 25, 2023 French Ethereal

Happy Pinterest Challenge Tuesday, friends! I missed the cutoff for this month’s official Pinterest Challenge with Cindy of County Road 407 and friends, but I thought I’d share my post with you as if I were with the main group anyway…

The challenge this month was to create a spring door basket and I immediately thought of creating one for our shed’s entry door. I love its nine lights ~ so similar to the window panes here from the post Simple Front Door Decorating Ideas by Karen from Sanctuary Home Decor.

The basket Karen created here has blush peonies combined with deeper pink tulips, dusty miller and what looks to be fresh eucalyptus leaves ~ really beautiful!

Realistic faux blooms

For this basket arrangement, I chose four soft pink rose buds in place of the inspiration photo’s tulips. For the peonies, I used several shades of faux pink rose blooms plus dried baby’s breath and eucalyptus sprays.

These realistic blooms came from Ralph’s, a local grocery store near where we lived in Murrieta, California. These blossoms even have realistic thorns which are poky just like the real thing along their stems! They were the perfect choice to take the place of peonies, plus, they fit in with my style.

Adding a sweet sign was the cherry on the top. 🙂

Just planted ~ one Proven Winners Supertunia Vista Bubblegum! Eventually, it will more than take over this pot.

That’s my version of this month’s challenge!

I wish we hadn’t been so busy with car troubles, two IOOF meetings last week, a dog who wakes up every night (seven times last night… 2 1/2 hours I was awake) making me a groggy human during the day… I would have remembered to shoot these photos a lot sooner and make the cut-off! Oh, well! Next time. 😉

Enjoy the big tour, friends. I’ll link over to Cindy’s blog for everyone on the tour. <3

Big spring hugs to you,

Barb 🙂

Gardening, Holidays, Home Decor, Pinterest Challenge

Two Spring Chair Ideas to Inspire!

March 28, 2023March 28, 2023 French Ethereal

Welcome, dear friends!! This month’s Pinterest Challenge has us creating a fun Easter-time Spring Chair. Yes, a chair ~ totally fun and unexpected! Our host and friend Cindy from County Road 407 has found a really fun idea from Jamie at Anderson + Grant!

Our inspiration ~ what I see

Welcome to everyone coming over from Michelle at Thistle Key Lane for the first time! Isn’t this beautiful antique chair so pretty with this gorgeous woven harvest basket filled with tulips, a sweet rabbit scouting the scene, and a soft white afghan cascading out of the basket and over the chair Lovely!

I loved it so much that I thought It’d be fun to create a couple of spring chair ideas to inspire you in your springtime decorating.

Love Cindy’s springtime Pinterest Challenge graphic!

I shot these photos with my cell phone so they are a bit fuzzy and I apologize for that. Since then, I’ve shot only with my Canon. 🙂

My first Spring Chair & Basket

I began this sweet vignette with a Longaberger cake-carrying basket set onto a chair I bought from my longtime friend Kathy. I recovered it with fabric from a dress I wore back in the late 1980’s to one of my brother’s weddings. I filled this basket with a small glass cake plate used as a riser for Momma & Baby rabbit.

Nestled in with our rabbits, I’ve scattered some soft green shredded paper used as Easter grass, glossy bright plastic Easter eggs, and a spring bouquet of mums and other flowers my husband just bought me! He’s a keeper… 🙂

The last thing I added was a lace curtain I hang up in our bedroom every year for summertime. I love its softness plus it added dappled light. Here this curtain adds its softness and texture to the scene!

Now let’s check out our second Spring Chair out in the Garden!

Our garden

Over the past four seasons, I have worked really hard creating small planting beds around one of our backyard oak trees, under the primary bedroom window and out here along the edging of the western and southern fencing.

This spot is against our new garden shed/greenhouse (how I am using it) and faces south.

Let’s check out Chair #2!!

Since my roses aren’t in bloom yet, I brought out some dried roses and set them inside our flower girl’s basket.

This outdoor spring basket vignette has lots of texture

This chair came as a set with a small end table we picked up at last summer’s end-of-summer sales. I call it my Titanic chair…

All of the dried florals add their own special fluffiness and refinement…

The sun was rapidly going down when I came out to film after school last week. It had rained the day before so everything was fresh and clean! And here is our second chair.

One of our cement rabbits came out to play, too. A little nod to Jamie’s sweet cement rabbit! In the background, one of our David Austin climbing roses is being trained upwards on jute twine. Fingers crossed it grows more canes on the other side!

The vintage tablecloth takes the place of the white afghan in the inspiration photograph. Sorry the whites are blown out. I had some trouble getting the light balance correct while photographing.

And those are my two second chairs for today’s challenge. 🙂 I hope you’ve enjoyed both of these chair stylings! If you like what you see, please consider subscribing to my blog and following French Ethereal on my other platforms. Thank you for stopping by! <3

Up next is Niky from The House on Silverado and her green vintage chair looks absolutely adorable with its floral bouquet and sweet rabbit! Please see below for links to visit everyone on today’s tour.

Happy spring, friends!

Barb 🙂

Gardening, Home Decor, Pinterest Challenge, Tablescapes

A Spring Garden Lantern + A Little Story…

February 28, 2023February 28, 2023 French Ethereal

Hoppy 4th Tuesday, dear friends! Our friend Cindy of County Road 407 has challenged us to create a Spring Lantern for this month’s Pinterest Challenge, and boy do we have cuteness inspiration ideas on overload for you…

Welcome, everyone! If you are coming over from Carol at Bluesky at Home for the first time, an extra big welcome!! For anyone who has never been to one of our Pinterest Challenges, Cindy finds a photograph for us to recreate in our own way, and we run with the idea.

Ann from On Sutton Place has created our inspiration tablescape this time. She has used a couple of white lanterns filled with coconut fiber bunnies, some easter grass, and a sweet pitcher of pussywillows. I personally love all the white!

How did I begin my Spring Lantern?

I began by sorting through my box of spring decor, of course! I looked at everything and pulled some things out and put others back.

I went to Hobby Lobby looking for an new lantern but they weren’t on sale, and I just didn’t want to spend a lot. So, I pulled out the lantern I used in a previous Pinterest Challenge to use again. 🙂

I didn’t come home with a new lantern from the store; however, I DID come home with these cute flower-strewn Easter eggs, some fun paper carrots, and a new vintage-looking sign!

Love ’em!!!

So, I set down this grey tobacco basket and began tucking in shredded green grass, then I added a tree cut as a base for my lantern, and picked a bunny and the whole lot of Easter Eggs to put inside the lantern…

That’s when a story popped into my head:

The Story ~ BunBun’s Jam

BunBun, our sweet little girl, busied herself bringing in Easter eggs to fill her glass lantern garden greenhouse. She worked diligently and swiftly prepping for the year’s early morning Easter delivery of eggs to good little girls and boys of the town.

She was so busy bringing in all of these freshly painted eggs, tucking them here and there inside that lantern greenhouse, she didn’t think about how she was going to get herself back out the door again once those eggs were all indoors…

All of a sudden, BunBun realized that she was stuck! Poor little bunny…

What was she going to do? She’d really gotten herself in a pickle this time.

Meanwhile, her friends were busy outside…

Ducky and Princess Chicky-Poo were busy with spring gardening. They were planting more carrot seeds, seeing that the fall-planted ones had grown so well (and they were still picking those delicious carrots to eat!).

The rabbits were busy setting out spinach starts, a few chive seeds, as well as some daisy and Texas bluebonnet seeds for future picking! The rabbits especially love purple flowers for their dining table bouquets!!!

Looking up and hearing BunBun’s muffled voice and seeing her tap-tapping on the glass, they quickly realized her predicament. The group thought swiftly and hatched a plan. They would lift one corner of the glass lantern so their friend could slip underneath without disturbing the carefully placed eggs.

“Okay, on three!” shouted Ducky to the others. “One, two, three!!!” Everyone grunted a bit while paws and palmate feet slowly lifted the lantern side skyward.

As the glass house was tilted up, BunBun slid down and underneath. She was free! Cheers arose from this gaggle of friends! Everyone hugged BunBun, and she hugged and thanked each friend in turn.

They celebrated BunBun’s release with a cream tea and, of course,…

a slice of carrot cake. :)’

*****

Thanks for stopping by, friends! If you haven’t subscribed to FE, I’d love it if you do. We swing back up to Cindy at County Road 407 next and I know you will love her lantern idea!! And please stop by all of our friends and check out what everyone has created for you.

Big spring hugs from North Texas,

Barb 🙂

Holidays, Pinterest Challenge, Recipes

A Rosy Valentine’s Cake to Bake

January 24, 2023January 24, 2023 French Ethereal

Happy Almost Valentine’s Day, dear friends! If you are coming over for the first time from Carol’s place ~ Bluesky at Home, welcome to my blog, French Ethereal! Our host Cindy from County Road 407 has graciously allowed me to jump in last minute. I had Covid over the past couple of weeks and so happily I feel great now (those vaccines DO work!). I was excited when Cindy gave us our assignment this month to create a simple Valentine’s Day recipe.

Here is mine…

Yes, I used one box cake recipe and it turned out moist, chocolatey and delicious!!

I do make a lot of scratch cakes but this time it was all about making it easy! When we get so busy with life, a simple box cake is the easy way out, my friends.

Just like the box cakes my mother used to bake during my childhood, and I’d sometimes make for my own family, these are basically NO FAIL Betty Crocker and others are tried and true.

Easy peasy, as Cindy herself likes to say!

This baking center is inside our kitchen island. Ever since our first house, I’ve loved putting all of our baking things in one area! So convenient. How about you? Where do you store your baking goodies? What do you put in your kitchen island?

Which cake pan to use?

I have 8″ heart-shaped pans, which I have used in the past, and I have smaller heart-shaped tart tins, too. However, I thought it would be beautiful and fun to our rose bundt pan.

All of the years I was in the Victorian Tea Society in Riverside County, California, I had a couple of friends who had rose pans and their cakes looked so chic when dessert was served.

I was soooo excited when I found one a couple of years ago! It really turns out a stunning cake.

Just spray baking spray all over the inside, add some flour inside and tap it all around and into the grooves of the pan. Dump the excess flour out, bake at the prescribed temperature, and after 42 minutes baking in the oven, this cake was done!

And that’s all there is to this Rosy Valentine’s Cake! If you are starting here with me, we circle back up to Cindy at County Road 407. I know you will love Cindy’s Valentine’s Day extremely cute cherry pastry envelopes recipe idea! Adorable!!! <3

Don’t forget to follow the trail of posts below to see all the great recipes from today’s participants. Lots of fun ideas to create!!

More fun Valentine’s posts to enjoy…

If you’d like to check out some of my past Valentine’s ideas, here are a few to enjoy…

Happy touring, dear friends!

Barb 🙂

Holidays, Home Decor, Pinterest Challenge, Tablescapes

Pumpkins, Pinecones & Cranberries ~ A Fall Centerpiece

October 25, 2022October 24, 2022 French Ethereal

Happy Tuesday, dear friends! It’s the fourth Tuesday of the month and you know it’s all about our monthly Pinterest Challenge. If you are coming over from Carol at Bluesky at Home, welcome! This month Cindy of County Road 407 has picked cranberries as our theme. I thought about making something yummy, but then I thought maybe I’d make a beautiful fall centerpiece…

Our inspiration piece comes just from a beautiful photograph Cindy has chosen and we were given free rein to do anything we were inspired to create, bake or decorate!!! I love themes like this as we can go with whatever feels natural to us.

I hadn’t shared many fall posts this season, between work and meetings, I’ve been very busy with IOOF events (fundraisers) and spending time with my mother-in-law. It is nice to create something beautiful for fall and have it be an inspiration starting point for you! 🙂

Transitional Fall Centerpiece Basket

I’ve chosen to make a fall centerpiece using pinecones, pumpkins and cranberries. As I was heading to bed one evening, that phrase popped into my head and I got up to write it down (so I wouldn’t forget). I am really excited to share it with you!

I think this centerpiece basket makes the perfect transition between early fall’s pumpkin-y oranges to Thanksgiving time and beyond.

Here’s what I pulled from around the house and purchased to make this basket:

a rattan basket from my collection
three mini pumpkins from outside our front door
pinecones in various shapes and sizes
a wood round as a lift
a fall candle
wire cutting pliers
a cranberry spray from Hobby Lobby (cranberries have little “stars” on their tops when they are picked fresh from the fields)

Beginning the arrangement. Wing chair re-covering project in the background.

I began by putting in pinecones in the traditional Christmas tree shape (the usual ones) and some of the elongated ones I saved from visiting Georgia several years ago when I went to High Point Market.

I found the elongated ones at Biltmore Estate, actually.

Next, I added in the little pumpkins I pulled in from out front ~ you’ve seen these guys already in last month’s Fall Front Porch challenge ~ and layered them around the candle.

I bought three sprays of large cranberries but only needed one. I used a pair of wire cutters to cut off pieces with a length of stem to tuck in between the pinecones.

This was fun because you can put as much or as little as you like! Since I used (1) candle, (3) pumpkins, it seemed logical to use (5) small sprays of cranberries. Odd numbers always work well in decorating, don’t you think?

Let the decorating fun begin!

Then it was time to decorate the table. I brought in some books with fall colored covers, dark pink mums in their nursery pot from outside, and a small capital with two ceramic figurines who are also dressed for autumn.

And that’s how I chose to use cranberries in my transitional fall centerpiece. I hope you like it!

Next, we swing back up to Cindy from County Road 407. I know you will enjoy the festive autumn garland Cindy has created with cranberries! You’ll find everyone’s posts linked below to come back to visit.

Happy fall decorating, friends,

Barb 🙂

Home Decor, Pinterest Challenge

Front Porch Fall Fix-Up ~ Two Ways!

September 27, 2022September 28, 2022 French Ethereal

Welcome to this month’s Pinterest Challenge, friends! Our host Cindy of County Road 407 has picked a wonderful porch for us to use as our inspiration. Our photograph comes from Rachel and Kevin Quenzer at Sugar Maple Farmhouse…

Fall Front Porch Decor Inspiration

If you are just coming over from Laura’s at Everyday Edits, isn’t her porch pretty with all of its pumpkins?? Love it!! I personally have been sooo looking forward to this one (PC) as even though our front porch is small, it’s big on heart! And with the end-of-season sales, Mr. Ethereal and I picked up a new set of all-weather wicker including two chairs with back pillows and cushions in a soft teal, matching ottomans, plus a small table to set in between.

But first let’s talk about today’s challenge, shall we?

Taking a good look at our inspiration photo, Rachel and Kevin have several pieces of:

warm wood-toned furniture
throw rugs and pillows with stripes and nubby textures
shocks of corn stalks and potted fall flowers
and, of course, a massive amount of cream and orange pumpkins!

2019 ~ 3 Easy Steps to Decorate a Front Porch for Fall

Here is how our front porch looked the first fall after we had moved in. I’ve been feeling pumpkin stacks for a couple of years now, but this year I think we will change things up a bit!

Look #1 – Our Fall Front Porch

I’ve made a big change to our front porch wrought iron chair since last fall by painting it! So this is Look #1, with just a simple pumpkin displayed on this chair. Striking all on its own!

Here in North Texas, pumpkins are just becoming available, so I used only a sprinkling of Baby Boo pumpkins and the one big Connecticut Field pumpkin on our front porch. Mr. Ethereal picked this big guy up at Costco for me. He’s a keeper! <3

Here’s our first look in full! The basket of little Baby Boos wasn’t in place yet but you will see them in just a couple of photos… 🙂

These urns are planted with yellow lantana (2 plants this side, 3 in the other), blue lobelia (1 each planter) and three pink pentas in each. Loving this color combination!

The flowers I’ve used are both real and faux. From a YouTube gardener I follow, I learned a basic rule of thumb when gardening is to plant flowers, perennials and shrubs which bloom in blues, pinks, yellows and orange. I think I’ve ticked all the boxes here colorwise!

When I arrived home from work last Friday evening, a small Carpenter bee was hovering by my front door. Guess he liked this color combination, too!!

Look #2 – Our Fall Front Porch now

Just by changing out the chair, we have a whole new feel to the front porch! The teal of the pillow and cushion on the new all-weather wicker chairs brings out the blues in the two lobelias, making them much more visible now in the planters. We found this set of two wicker chairs (my Titanic chairs!), two matching ottomans and a small round table combination as a great end-of-season buy at Lowe’s! 🙂

Simply changing out the chair really gives a whole new look to our front porch. Adding a soft throw brings a little more of a fall look as well as a bit of the soft carpet look from our inspiration photo. That’s my fall front porch two ways, friends!!

Now let’s check out Carol’s from Bluesky at Home. I know you are going to love how her porch turned out! Thank you for visiting today and I hope you will visit everyone on today’s tour. <3

Happy fall, y’all,

Barb 🙂

Home Decor, Pinterest Challenge

Let’s Decorate Pretty Fall Baskets with Pumpkins and Roses

August 23, 2022August 23, 2022 French Ethereal

Welcome, friends, to this month’s Pinterest Challenge! For an early fall decorating idea, we are creating beautiful autumn baskets with you in mind using all the bounty of the season…

Processed with VSCO with m5 preset — Janelle Trinette.com

As always, I want to thank Cindy from County Road 407 for leading our team of happy basket enthusiasts! If you are just coming over from Laura at Everyday Edits and/or this is your first time here, welcome!!

Isn’t Laura’s basket styling just beautiful?!! She is a navy girl all the way! No, not the military way (though her father-in-law is a retired colonel), but in that she LOVES navy as her favorite color. Check out her beautiful home!!!

Today’s inspiration comes from a post written by Janelle Trinette. Janelle’s style features lots of neutrals and woods with loads of nubby textures, which really stands out in her decor. She uses a lot of sisal and bark which gives her decorating scheme a real outdoorsy look. Recently I read a post she wrote about hiking Bryce Canyon in Utah (it was good!) ~ on my bucket list of fun places to go see and hike!

Interestingly, we shared Janelle’s photograph of a stacked pumpkin in one of last year’s Pinterest Challenges when we decorated our mantels and you can see that photograph here.

My recreation can be found here: An Early Fall Mantel Refresh.

I love that in this year’s inspiration photo so much texture was used with wood cuts, the nubby basket, the cat tails and wheat, and, of course, the sweet faux pumpkins!

Of course, I also went nuts over the ultra cool door…

Totally adorable and as soon as I saw it, I thought…

“I have a door!”

My son Peter and I picked up this grey-green door during the Great Recession of 2008. We were just heading home after a Scouting event, and someone was changing out their front door after buying a bank-repo house near a friends’ home. So, we hauled this door home in our Sequoia.

It was always meant to become the front door of a future she shed… 😉 Hubby has moved it around as needed through our moves and it has been perfect for protecting things on shelving inside our current garage ~ until I needed it (now!).

This challenge inspired me to work on the door a couple of weekends ago adding new hardware and door knobs which I have had forever! Just so it could be a backdrop… 😀

My next thought was…

“I have a large basket!” which I picked up on sale at Target a year or so ago. I love using it in winter to store firewood in it near our fireplace. Recently, it was used as a laundry hamper for my mother-in-law when she stayed with us through the winter.

I had a lot of fun pulling together things to create my basket scene!

Here I’ve layered in bamboo poles inside a Texas star-hung plastic basket behind the nubby willow basket. This takes the place of the grasses and reeds in Janelle’s photo.

It was over 100 degrees when I was putting all of this together, but pulling all of my favorite decorated white and light colored pumpkins out of the attic gave me a burst of joy and energy!

Fall is coming, friends!!! And this past weekend’s rainy weather is a small taste of fall weather… 🙂

Next, I added our bridesmaid’s basket on top of this bistro table to hold dried roses and a small bouquet of lavender. Paired with one of my “mistake” pumpkins made back around 2014.

I love the nubby “string of pearls” look of the Cinderella pumpkin (made by dripping Gorilla Glue on it and adding sparkle glitter) next to the roses and natural grass basket.

And I have a nice big garden shed!!

(Couldn’t get our shed builder to go for my door idea, though. Oh, well!) Our shed really is used for all things garden and it is the perfect spot for us to decorate for today’s Pinterest Challenge.

It just required me to move a few things around (Mr. Ethereal’s storage and some tools in black and yellow plastic storage tubs from my inlaws’ former home in California). Tools he needs to go through and decided what to keep and what can go.

Which is why it was a challenge to get a similar photograph to our inspiration piece!

I couldn’t back up too far… (haha) Too much stuff behind me, lol!! 😉

I was also inspired to rehang this little chandelier we used in our Prairie Home RV! It is hung off of a little wrought iron bird hanger found years ago at Walmart.

Happy fall decorating, everyone!

I hope this post has inspired you to take stock of what you have laying around the house, and to pick out pieces to bring your fall decor together in a fresh new way…. Everything you see here was something I already had, so $0.00 were spent on this challenge! Always a win!!

Thanks, y’all, for stopping by! Up next is Niky from The House on Silverado with her fall basket rendition; her basket vignette looks so nice, don’t you agree?!!

Enjoy the rest of the tour!

And here’s to cooler weather,

Barb 🙂

Uncategorized

A Quick & Easy Summer Peach Cobbler in Tupperware’s Vintage Stack Cooker

July 26, 2022July 25, 2022 French Ethereal

Bonjour, mes amies! Je técris de Paris… Welcome to this month’s scrumptious Pinterest Challenge where we are making our favorite peach recipes for you!

How do we say “peach” in French?

Les pêches…

If you are just coming over from Lynne at My Family Time for the first time, welcome! Lynne’s recipe looks totally delicious, doesn’t it?!! These challenges are so much fun and we have a great line up of goodies for your gastronomic pleasure.

The summer dessert I’ve chosen to make is super easy, takes just a few ingredients, and my version is mostly sugar free ~ perfect for anyone watching their sugars. It is a Peach Cobbler, similar to Lynne’s, but of course, mine is made in the microwave. Every recipe, even if similar, is always a different treat!

Health benefits of peach fruit include relief from hypokalemia, cancer, obesity, cholesterol, blood stasis and neurodegenerative diseases. It helps in maintaining healthy vision, skin care, nervous system, healthy bones, and teeth. It has anti-aging properties and also helps in detoxification, as well as improving digestion and cellular health. It has a wealth of essential nutrients and antioxidants which are valuable during pregnancy and it helps in strengthening the immune system. — OrganicFacts.net

Cindy from County Road 407 has found the perfect photo for us to use as our inspiration. It comes from Organic Facts.net where Author Meenakshi Nagdeve in her article Health Benefits and Nutrition of Peach touts a ton of facts about why peaches are so good for us.

I won’t bore you with all those facts but a couple of important ones are that peaches provide us with anti-oxidants and beta-carotene for good eye health. As soon as I saw our inspiration photo, I knew right away that I would make this super easy Peach Cobbler Recipe using my now-vintage Tupperware Stack Cooker.

For this recipe I used only the top cover and middle sections of the stacker. It’s nice as this Tupperware set can be used in several different ways plus you can bake microwave cakes in it, too!

It is a simple summertime favorite ~ Peach Cobbler baked in the microwave! What could be easier AND not heat up the house?

As I begin writing this post, it was 107 degrees outside yesterday (7/18/22 and it is supposed to 100 F today (7/19/22). Way too hot to be turning on an oven indoors!

***North Texas has been up over 100 degrees since mid-June. Even here in Paris, France (where I currently am), this past week they had sweltering days of 106 F/41.1 C degrees on the day I was flying out from DFW. Europe is experiencing some of the worst heat they have ever had, and in countries where only a very few homes have air conditioning, but I digress… 😉

Here are the ingredients (my notes)

3 peaches cut up, the hard inside pith area cut off, and then cut into chunks

Substitute Monks Fruit sugar for the brown sugar; it is non-glycemic.

Add the rest like it says.

I added a little more oats and it helped absorb some of the water from the cooked peaches.

Btw, the scent from the peaches was heavenly!

And here is the recipe

Super easy to just cut up the peaches (I left my skins on as they were soft)
toss on the honey and water mixture, blend to coat.
dot with small pats of butter
cook 5 – 7 min. on High in microwave. I cooked mine for only 5 minutes and it was perfect (using two soft and one hard peach).

In a separate bowl, add oats, Monks Fruit sugar substitute (1:1 ratio), and All-spice
Soften remaining butter in microwave (if hard like mine was from frig.; can’t leave on counter in summer… ants!) and add to dry ingredients. Smoosh in with the back of a fork (yep, smoosh! It’s a Southern thing. ;))
Stir in chopped nuts (pecans!!!)
Spoon over 2/3 of the oat mixture on top of the peaches

Dish the peach mixture into pretty serving bowls and top with the rest of the oat and nut crumble ~ dig in!!!

I totally wish I had grabbed more peaches as I took the leftovers to our Rebekah’s meeting later that evening after I made the cobbler. There was really only enough for everyone to just have a taste ~ 1/4 to 1/2 cup each. This included a friend who is in his 70’s with Type 1 diabetes.

Well, friends, that’s it! I hope you will pin my photos and/or this Pinterest pin to your boards, thank you!! And thank you to Cindy, as always, for hosting!!

Next up is Laura from Everyday Edits whose recipe I am sure is going to add to your subliminal desire to just run right out to the store for these delicious fruits!

Enjoy visiting everyone on this month’s peach recipe tour!!

Bon appétit,

Barb 🙂

Home Decor, Pinterest Challenge

Having Fun Decorating with Patriotic Colors

May 24, 2022May 24, 2022 French Ethereal

Welcome to this month’s Pinterest Challenge, friends! Cindy of Country Road 407 has gathered us all together once again to celebrate the arrival of summer with a challenge using Patriotic Colors! (Don’t you just love our national flag’s red, white and blue?!!) If you are just coming over from My Family Thyme with Lynne, welcome!

OMGosh, I can’t wait to get to know Lynne!! Her style is wonderfully warm and welcoming, plus she paints gorgeous watercolors… Lynne hails from Connecticut (Go UConn!), where my parents last lived, and my youngest brother and his family still live right next door to my mother and father’s former home in Woodbury.

Jumping into our post, our Cindy found this month’s inspiration from another blogging friend Cindy from Edith & Evelyn Vintage…

**Cindy of Edith & Evelyn Vintage** found this on the internet and used in her post Patriotic Decor Ideas.

There were a ton of great photographs to choose from with lots of inspiration in Cindy’s post and I just loved this faded Old Glory she shared; it really spoke to me…

Cindy also had this incredible chair in the same inspiring post:

Patriotic Decor | Edith & Evelyn | www.edithandevelynvintage.com

I loooove this chair and it is really a stunner with the Americana theme boldly proclaimed in its fabric choices! Plus it’s a French chair! (What’s not to love?) So I guess I could have gone soft or bold in my color choices this time. 😉

But my personal penchant is to use the softer versions of these colors this year.

Like what’s-blooming-in-my-garden-right-now-colors…

I haven’t been writing much lately because I have been working hard in the garden. I do have an upcoming post with what’s happened since the last time I shared the garden. I’ve been planting and digging a lot on the weekends, plus visiting with my mother-in-law at her new home. She is really enjoying her new garden. We will take a trip over there this summer so you can see it, too!

Back to our patriotic basket

The past couple of years I went with our country’s bold colors in my Pinterest Challenge posts, like this outdoor patio patriotic decor post.

And this one where I created fun placemats using old jeans as the base for the placemats and pretty pockets became holders for silverware..

A Star-Spangled Blue Jean Recycle Placemat Project

I do tend to hop back and forth between soft patriotic colors then bold, then right back! Here in this post, I gathered a number of patriotic ideas together, if you’d like to check them out:

10 Inexpensive Red, White and Blue Summer Decor Ideas

Which leads me back to today’s project ~ making a softly colored Patriotic Basket to hang on your front door, set on a table as part of a tabletop display, or to hang on your garden shed like I’ve done here. 🙂

For this mont’s Pinterest Challenge, we have the freedom to create anything patriotic we want, so I thought about bringing out my French style basket and filling it with faux flowers!

Making this basket is simple:

Add spagnum sheet moss to the bottom and sides of the wire basket.
Place a piece of floral foam inside (or bunched up chicken wire) to support floral stems.
Poke in soft pink faux hydrangea blossoms, along with daisy stems and lavender and cornflower-blue larkspur wands.
Tuck in more moss, like this spring green reindeer moss, to fill up the empty spaces after you’ve added your flowers and foam.

Hang up and enjoy!

And that’s all there is to creating this basket. 🙂

I spent $0.00 on this project… right up until I needed more moss… The reindeer moss I found at our local Calloway’s Garden Center this past weekend and it cost $16.99 for a large box, which is still quite full. I will get a lot of use out of it for the price!

To make this basket more patriotic, just tuck in some little American flags! When the holiday is over, just pull the flags back out for a casual summertime door basket display.

Thanks for stopping by on the tour today! Next we swing back up to Cindy from County Road 407 and I know you will love all of her patriotic decorating ideas!! Do stop by and check out all the wonderful decor pieces our friends have put together for you.

Happy almost summertime!

Barb 🙂

Tag: pinterest challenge

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