SALAD DRESSING PRIMER and GIVEAWAY

Cool, fresh and colorful is the way we want to eat when the temperature begins to soar! And there is an abundance of garden and farm stand veggies to make spectacular salads... just what we crave in the summer!

Why make a salad with all of that just-picked flavor and put a bottled salad dressing on it? Enhance your salad's in-season taste with a dressing as fresh as your salad!

Here are some of my favorite salad dressing recipes and  handy formulas for making your own...

TUTORIALS TIPS AND TIDBITS #1 AND GIVEAWAY

Welcome to the very first

TUTORIALS TIPS AND TIDBITS

I am so thrilled that you joined me!!!!

Giveaway and Linky are at the end of the post...

WHITE CURTAINS

These tailored white curtains are a Pottery Barn find. I purchased them (on a major sale) over 6 months ago and they have been packed away in their box until yesterday. 

What are they waiting for?  A bedroom to be painted! But, I just couldn't let them sit any longer... 

COFFEE BAR

We are BIG coffee drinkers here at StoneGable!  Mornings start with a mug of S-T-R-0-N-G coffee!

When we have a house full, I like to set up a coffee bar to have all things coffee on hand for our family and guests...

ON THE MENU MONDAY~ WEEK OF JUNE 18, 2012

Happy Father's Day to all Dads! 

Please indulge me...

A big lovey shout-out to my husband Bobby... you are a wonderful Dad! Thank you for all the years of coaching football and baseball, paying for and sitting through years and years of dance lessons and ballet recitals (and even being in one!), for years of being our children's biggest cheerleader. Thank you for being our daughter's first love, or son's first hero and my rock! Thank you for teaching and healing and disciplining, and training and loving and sacrificing!  Thank you for saying yes way more than no, for being such a fun guy, and for striving to be a godly man and one we can look up to and be proud of.  We love and respect you...You are the best!

This week is a big week, here at StoneGable. It is the first

TUTORIAL TIPS AND TIDBITS linky party.

Come and share your tutorial DYI's, posts with tips or great tidbits you want to show-off and show us! If you have made something, cooked something, arranged something, decorated something, painted sonmething, discovered something, want to share something... you get the picture... join us here!  Linky goes live on Wednesday evening at 8:00!

Please come out and join in!

I am celebrating with a TUTORIALS TIPS AND TIDBITS  GIVEAWAY...

SUNDAY SCRIPTURE~ June 17, 2012

Galatians 4: 8-9 ~ The Message

HAPPY FATHERS DAY, HEAVENLY FATHER... With love,  Your child

IRONSTONE LOVE

It's more of an obsession, really! I have embraced the the ironstone trend and come full circle.

My first set of dishware as a college student was ironstone. I loved ironstone then as much as I do now.

For me, collecting is not a frenzied, rushed hunt. It has been slow and enjoyable and deliberate. Choosing some pieces and passing up others. Delighting in each piece as if finding a small treasure. 

Here are a few recent creamy. dreamy finds...

STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE IN A JAR

I always say, "Putting any food in a Mason jar, just makes it taste better"! It must be the cuteness factor! And cute must taste awfully good!

This Strawberry Shortcake is like packing summer into a jar! Fresh, creamy and so delicious, this is what I call a WOW FACTOR dessert. To be a WOW FACTOR dessert a sweet treat must taste luscious, look over-the-top and be insanely easy to whip up. This dessert fills every requirement...

THE FAMILY DINNER

When my family gathers together, it is often around the table! Keeping it simple is my plan! I want to  spend as much time with my gang as possible! But simple does not mean thrown together. I want to set a warm and comfortable table to say "welcome home". This is a table I set a couple weeks ago for a FAMILY DINNER...

A NEW LINKY PARTY AT STONEGABLE AND GIVEAWAY

I love Tutorials... Learning how to make something step-by-step! Oohiing and aahing over creative and inspiring ideas! Saying, "Hey, maybe I could do that!" 

 DYI's makes my heart pitter pat! I bet they do the same thing for you too!

I also LOVE LOVE LOVE to post tutorials on StoneGable... they are my most popular posts!

I am thrilled to announce... beginning next week, StoneGable will host a brand new linky party....

TUTORIALS TIPS AND TIDBITS

ON THE MENU MONDAY~ Week of June 11, 2012

I am always amazed at our small orchard! One peach... one apple (was two)... and one sour cherry. The harvest vastly varies from year to year! Some years our trees are stingy, yielding little fruit. Other years our trees make a note worthy attempt at growing fruit but get picked clean by the birds and insects, especially when we do not spray.  And other years it is as thought our tiny orchard is sound asleep and the trees are too lazy to spend the energy on fruit production!

But this is almost a magical year...

SUNDAY SCRIPTURE~ JUNE 10, 2012

Wall and Old City, Jerusalem

RHUBARB COBBLER~ EARLY SUMMER DELIGHT!

If sass was a dessert, it would be Rhubarb Cobbler! It is sweet and tart and flavorful and pink! It has attitude! It's made from rhubarb, for heaven's sakes!

I have to tell you a funny and true story about this rhubarb cobbler...

KITCHEN CATCH-ALL

The antique tool box on my kitchen island is my catch-all. Not as in clutter magnet or a place to put all things without a home... but a catch-all as in a place for important things I need during meal time. And it has taken on a lighter summery look...

Bridal Veil Tablescape

I am reprising Bridal Veil Tablescape as a part of this month's BY INVITATION ONLY linky at Splenderosa's.

This months theme is WEDDINGS. If you love weddings, you are in for such a treat! Thanks Marsha, you are the perfect hostess!

 BRIDAL VEIL TABLESCAPE

It is a perfect early afternoon on the porch. A small table is set for lunch. A mother and her precious daughter sit and share a couple of priceless hours together. It is a very exciting and happy time. The daughter has just had the first fitting of her bridal gown...

ON THE MENU~ WEEK OF JUNE 4, 2012

Can you hear the faint whisper of Spring bidding you it's soft goodbye?  Summer wants her turn!

And with the change of season comes a change in menu as well.

I want to eat fresher... lighter!  And I have an urge to stick almost any food on the grill! Smoke does wonders for a piece of meat! 

The menu this week at StoneGable is beginning to reflect Summer's appearance... and the fresh produce in the garden...

SUNDAY SCRIPTURE~ JUNE 3, 2012

THE NAME OF THE LORD IS A STRONG TOWER, 

THE RIGHTEOUS RUN INTO IT AND ARE SAFE.

THE LORD IS MY ROCK, MY FORTRESS AND MY SAVIOR; MY GOD IS MY ROCK, IN WHOM I FIND PROTECTION. 

HE IS MY SHIELD, THE POWER THAT SAVES ME, AND MY PLACE OF SAFETY. 

Psalm 18:1-2

In The Garden

My favorite time in the vegetable garden at StoneGable is evening... just an hour before dusk. The colors seem so vibrant with the long rays of the setting sun streaming low over the garden.  

My camera is my constant companion, so I captured how my garden is growing...

ALL-AMERICAN MINI PIES

Summer is all about scrumptious fresh, just-picked flavors! What better place to put all those bright fruit flavors than in a pie... a cute little mini pie!

I have been a pie making machine lately. Me... the non-baker! Me... who LOVES the IDEA of baking... but  when it comes to actually making pies... not so much!  Me... who took nine years to learn how to make a descent pie crust!

My woeful pie making days are now over! Making these darling little mini pies was easy and so much F-U-N, FUN!...

BLUE WILLOW AND PINK PEONIES TABLESCAPE

The peonies are blooming here at StoneGable! Their big fragrant moppy pink heads bob in the breeze. They are my most favorite bloom... by far!

What a joy to go out to the garden and pick a big armful to use in a tablescape!

I have been planning this tablescape in my head for months and months, anticipating the arrival of these ballet pink beauties...

THE POTTING TABLE

It is nice to have a little spot in the shade to plant, pot and play! My potting bench is a place of constant creation, commotion and lots of good old dirty work...

WEEKLY MENU

Happy Memorial Day Weekend everyone! I hope you are having a fun "unofficial" first weekend of Summer 2012!

StoneGable is full of family and friends and we are eating ourselves silly! 

Tomorrow you will find us at the corner of the Creamery in Strasburg, waving our flags as we watch the Strasburg Memorial Day Parade! This is one of my favorite local activities of the whole year!!! A real slice of Americana!

SUNDAY SCRIPTURE~ MEMORIAL DAY 2012

God Bless our brave men and women in the military!

Memorial Day 2012

THE FIND

On a recent trip to the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay I found this beautiful big blue and white bowl in a local antique shop!  I knew it belonged in my kitchen... specifically, on my kitchen table! It was love at first sight.

But, to bring it home... the beautiful bowl had to not only have a love relationship with me... but the price had to be right!  Oh, I wanted this bowl to be "THE FIND"! 

 I turned the bowl over to see the price tag and...

APRON STRINGS

If you come to visit me at StoneGable, I will greet you at the door in an apron. It is just part of my "uniform"!

I started wearing aprons as a young wife to save my clothes from getting dirty. As the years passed I continued to wear them... to gather up veggies in the garden, wipe salty little tears, dry off dishes and messy  hands, and to hold all sorts of sundry things that end up in their big deep pockets

. Aprons also decorate my kitchen. They hang on very unique wall hooks...

IDEAS FOR MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND

If you are like me, you are having a busy week getting ready to celebrate Memorial Day with friends and family. Memorial Day is also the unofficial beginning of SUMMER! We are raising our flags, opening our pools, filling our picnic baskets, firing up the grill and heading out to local parades or beaches... don't forget the sun screen and flip flops... and a little flag to wave!!!

A big part of this fun All-American holiday is food... especially barbecue and picnic food!

I have put together a few ideas to help make your Memorial Day extra special and yummy...