Pinterest Party!

My friend Kristen approached me with an idea to have a Pinterest Party with the church girls where everyone could make a recipe they have pinned.  It sounded like it would be a really fun get-together - and it was!  She hosted it at her house; I made the decorations and favors and a couple of activities.  Mostly, of course, we chatted and ate ;)

My passion for creating memorable gatherings is so enjoyable to me - I love to see all the details come together.  I could easily spend way over budget as the ideas start to flow.  One thing that I have learned over the years is that each and every party can be unique, but I can remain a good steward by using what I have collected over time and reuse color themes to save money.  

In light of that philosophy, I decided to use a red and turquoise color scheme for both my son's end of year party (an old-fashioned ice cream parlour) and the Pinterest party - the colors fit perfectly for both themes and I was able to reuse many of the elements.

Here's a couple of pics from the old-fashioned ice cream parlour theme:

And here are some of the elements of the Pinterest Party:

What we did:

 Our Pinterest party was a very informal gathering to give us some girl time and relax, so therefore, the idea of coming up with a craft list and long set of instructions didn't fit the bill for us this time.  Instead, we focused on the recipes and everyone brought something to munch on.  We had some yummy food!

Spinach Dip, Egg Casserole, and Crock Pot Chicken Tortilla Soup

Southwestern & Caprese Salad

Peanut Butter Ball, Lemon Cake, Banana/Peanut Butter/Oat Squares 

Flavored waters - strawberry/cucumber, lemon/lime, strawberry/kiwi

 

So yummy punch - Lime Sherbert & Lemonade

Since everyone was suppose to bring their recipes to share, I did a quick recipe book cover and binder rings to put them all together - even had them laminated:

Because all but Cristy were slackers, our recipe books only contained the punch recipes - so I think it's only fair to declare Cristy's punches the winners for best recipe!

We took a break from munching to have a little contest.  We put enough dinnerware out to set two formal place settings.  Elizabeth and Cathy volunteered before I told them what the game was - then we watched while they did their best to set a formal place setting without help (well, our peanut gallery may have given some hints).  We used a chart I found on Pinterest to judge who came closest to being correct.  They both did great and it was a fun way to use a "pin".

Before leaving, everyone picked up a favor - kind of a "pinnin' it old school" homage I came up with just for fun.

Great food, great company - fun time!  Do you pin?

My Beginner Raised Garden Bed

For the last few years I have grown tomato plants, bell peppers, and herbs in containers with enough success to desire to go a little further.  Now, for my "serious" gardener friends, this doesn't get more beginner.  However, for us, we are quite excited about it!

So here is what my tomato and pepper plants looked like in the containers.  These pics were taken well into summer when they were producing well.

Here is a picture of an example of my "crop" from last year - red pepper, tomatoes, and basil (the basil was grown on my deck, not in the containers shown above).

This year we decided to step it up slightly and move forward in our gardening by doing a raised garden bed.  I decided to continue growing herbs on my deck in containers because it has always worked well and proves to be very convenient when preparing food to step out on my deck with kitchen sheers and snip away!

Choosing a Spot for the Raised Bed

Well, the flattest and sunniest spot we have is our front yard and I'm pretty sure that tilling it up for a garden as big as I would like would be frowned upon.  The upside to our backyard is that certain spots gets the coveted morning sun.  The downside is that only some areas gets the sun and it has a steady slope - we are not committed at this point enough to pull out the bobcat, so we decided on a strip of the yard closest to our deck.  It gets morning sun and doesn't interfere with the kids ability to play in the yard.  

Building the Raised Bed

My very capable hubby built the raised bed 3'w x 8'l x 2'h.  The corner posts go up an extra foot in case we need to add chicken wire.  I do not want to do that though because it will be harder for the kids to garden with me. We lined it with landscape fabric before filling it.

Choosing our plants

I chose my plants based on 3 criteria.  

1.  What we enjoy eating that can now be clean, organic and locally grown (did I catch all the buzz words? ;))

2.  What we spend a lot of money on in the grocery store.

3.  What is viable for us to grow as beginners and in limited space. 

So what did we decide on?  2 tomato plants, green pepper, red pepper, cucumber, zucchini, yellow squash,  beans my son got from church as a teaching visual (seriously, he planted them and we have bean stalks), and romaine & bibb lettuce.  The lettuce I bought in early spring and planned on planting in a pot, but never got to it.  It's actually done quite well, though i know as the temps rise, it will wain.  Here's a picture from April 25th once everything was planted:

                                            

 Here is the bed on May 15:

I'm so excited! The tomato plants are in the back with the cages and have a few small tomatoes, the beanstalks are in front of the tomatoes with the green stakes, and the HUGE plants in front are my squash and zucchini plants.  Here's where my serious gardener friends can insert a sarcastic "amateur" comment about planting squash and zucchini in such a small space!

In my containers on my deck I grow lemon thyme, butter lettuce, sage, peppermint, basil, rosemary, and green onions.

 Why I love my garden:
The biggest reason I love my garden is because I LOVE the way my kids and I have spent time together on it.  Everything from choosing the plants, planting them, being amazed at the growth (thank you God for the good rain you have provided), and cutting the herbs and lettuce for salads has been a serene way to bond with my sweet ones.


So, think about a small garden if you don't have one.  For those who do, I would love to hear any tips/advice you may have!

 

Charleston!

Charleston is one of my favorite towns to spend time in.  I love the food, the shopping, and mostly the architecture and design of the homes.  There was a time when my family spent quite a bit of time in Charleston, so any opportunity to return is welcomed.  Some visits have brought lots of shoportunities, some have brought lots of culinary opportunities, but this one was a quick visit with the kids that gave them a taste of Charleston.

The kids' favorite part of the visit was definitely Fort Sumter.  This brief description is taken directly from the website  http://www.nps.gov/fosu/index.htm:

Where the American Civil War Began

Decades of growing strife between North and South erupted in civil war on April 12, 1861, when Confederate artillery opened fire on this Federal fort in Charleston Harbor. Fort Sumter surrendered 34 hours later. Union forces would try for nearly four years to take it back.

Right from the beginning, they were excited to board this:

A nice bonus to visiting Fort Sumter is the ferry tour of Charleston Harbor that you get in the process, giving views such as these:

 

 Once at Fort Sumter, you can listen to the history from one of the guides, or go about touring the fort yourself.  If you visit, don't skip the museum located at the fort, it is filled with history and artifacts.  The biggest hit for our kids were the many cannons.

On to my favorite culinary experience of the trip.  Now, there are soooo many wonderful restaurants in Charleston.  You can find amazing food at super expensive restaurants and you can find amazing food at places Guy Fieri would visit.  My favorite of this trip was the Hominy Grill.  So so so yummy.  I had the shrimp and grits, the hubby had the - get this - the big nasty :), and we tried their fried green tomatoes (oh my) and their she-crab soup (a Charleston classic).  Wow, just wow!

 As you can see these are the shared dishes, and apparently we were so excited when our entrees came out that I didn't get a picture of them!

One staple of Charleston is the City Market.  It's been part of Charleston's history for 200 or so years.  It's a strange mix of being overly touristy, but at the same time being such a part of Charleston history and therefore visit-worthy.  I do not visit the City Market each time I go to Charleston, but I read that it had recently underwent major renovations and wanted to see what had been done.  I have to say that I liked the renovations and thought it stayed within the Charleston style. Here are a couple of pics:

Charleston City Market

This shows the renovations to the ceiling of the market and the overhead entrance sign to the Historic Foundation that now has a location at the City Market

Thanks for touring the low-country with me!


 

More Low-Country

Leaving Beaufort, SC on our spring break trip, we made several stops on our way to Charleston, SC. The low-country is truly beautiful! Our first stop once we left Beaufort was the Old Sheldon Ruins. To get to the ruins, you drive along a two-lane road through marsh and then a canopy of live oaks lining the road before pulling off to the side and walking through the gate. I love it. The ruins were breath-taking! A little history:  the original church was built in the 1740s-50s and burned in the Revolutionary War. Then, it was rebuilt in 1826 from the remaining walls only to be destroyed again during the Civil War. We got some wonderful family pictures here!

 Our next stop was the Charleston Tea Plantation on Wadmalaw Island. Did you know that this is the only place that tea is grown and produced in America? We did a factory tour and tasted their tea; a trolley tour was available and looked good, but we passed to continue on to Charleston. It was a charming tea garden.

After the Tea Plantation, we almost missed our next stop because it looked farther away on my map.  We actually happened upon it when I wanted to pull over and take a picture of this church:

We turned too early trying to get in the parking lot and turned on a dirt road and I happened to see a sign to the side that said Angel Oak - oh wait - that's where we are trying to go!  It is one of the oldest known live oaks in the country, believed to be 500-1500 years old.  It is spectacular in it's size and beauty.  The picture cannot properly convey it's sheer impressiveness.  Now protected, cables help the branches (as big as most tree trunks) from snapping under the weight.

Here's the road that leads to Angel Oak

So because by now, the kids are threatening mutiny because of lack of nourishment, we go to Freshfields Village to get some lunch.  The village is at the crossroads of Kiawah, Seabrook, and John's Islands and is basically shopping and dining.  We chose to eat at Vincent's Drug Store & Soda Fountain because it was so stinkin' cute! I loved the mint and white checkered floor, the soda fountain, and all of the vintage touches.

Whew!  We avoided mutiny with lunch and a ice cream treat - on to Charleston!  Join me next time for pictures of Charleston!

My First Post - Southern Charm

My husband and I were discussing the possibility of getting away for spring break this year.  I have been obsessed with visiting Beaufort, SC for years after seeing it featured in Southern Living.  It is located near Charleston, SC which is one of our favorite places, so we decided that we would love to take the boys somewhere so special to us.  For me, if the directions are to drive until you see the moss in the trees, I'm a happy camper.  So I came up with an itinerary and off we went.  I thought I would share what we saw on our trip to the low-country.

Beaufort, SC
Beaufort, SC is the quintessential southern charm town.  We enjoyed our time there so much and did a variety of activities.  The town sits on the Intracoastal Waterway and surrounded by beauty.  The historic downtown is so inviting with restaurants and shops intermingled with historic homes and of course, spanish moss hanging from the trees.  Yes, please!


Here are a few of the pictures I captured of the town and historic sites

While the hubs was at the Parris Island Marine Museum with the boys, I had a chance to shop downtown and grab lunch from a place called The Tooting Egret, which combines a little lunch with a little boutique shopping complete with a florist upstairs!  I had a wonderful brussel sprout sandwich with granny smith apple, crushed peanuts and a ginger carrot dressing along with their awesome potato salad.  

 

Before I move on from the historic district, I must post one more photo.  In the historic district, many of the most AMAZING homes are located in an area called The Point.  Thanks to a little googling, I found the address for one home I absolutely had to see...The Big Chill house.  I could not have made this trip without seeing it.  It was so beautiful and sits right on the water with plenty of live oaks and spanish moss.  It was everything I had hoped it would be minus the pesky locked gate, large vegetation growing in the way of my view, and signs that I was being monitored electronically :)  Anyway, I soon found that I really needed a paparazzi camera to capture it well, but it was fun to see it!

While in Beaufort, we saw The Lorax at Highway 21 drive-in.  We had concessions from their concession building and they had a playground  - like in Grease! So fun!

We decided to drive out to Fripp Island and visit the Hunting Island Lighthouse.  It's the only historic lighthouse in South Carolina that you can climb - and we are glad we did.  It was a beautiful view.  We had a picnic lunch after our climb on one of their many, and I mean many, picnic tables just beyond the lighthouse.  We finished our outing by playing on the beach for the rest of the afternoon.

Thanks for letting me share with you - stay tuned for more of the low-country on the way to Charleston!