Old Crocks and Silverware

Antique silverware in our kitchen is a simple pleasure I never tire of.  Displayed or in use, I find it beautiful.  Like anything old, I often wonder where it has been and in what homes it once belonged. 

I've shown you our set of matching antique silver plate flatware we use on a daily basis (here) but I also have a couple sets of mismatched antique silverware.  

 I keep both sets in small vintage crocks.  This set of silverware is unfortunately only for display and you may have noticed it before displayed on my kitchen cupboard.  I purchased this crock at an old hardware store (which also has some antiques for sale).  It was a little pricier than what I normally would pay, but I instantly fell in love with the original label still displayed and knew I would regret leaving it behind.

 The pieces inside are stunningly beautiful... I had actually forgotten about some of the intricate patterns and enjoyed taking them out again for these photos.  The majority have lovely floral patterns but sadly they are chipped in places. 

 Of course I knew this piece would come home with me when I saw the monogrammed "A" (smile). 

 My second crock I keep on our kitchen countertop and I might quickly grab a spoon when I make a cup of tea in the morning or need a fork for a snack.  This crock I purchased at a local antique store for less than ten dollars.  I knew the blue stripe would be just perfect for our kitchen.

 It's always nice to have extra serving spoons and forks and these get used often.  I never mind that they might not match my other serving utensils.  (Looking at these now, I suppose I probably should have polished them before taking photos!) 

 But my favorite pieces in this collection are two small spoons and two small forks.  I'm not sure why they are so much smaller than what you would normally see, but they are just the perfect size for a toddler that is learning how to use utensils. 

As you can imagine, these pieces I simply refer to as Rosetta's (smile).

Warm weather is in our forecast for the weekend and I am hoping the rain will stay away long enough for us to spend the majority of our Saturday outdoors, particularly as we finally beat the flu bug out of our house!

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Sharing at Savvy Southern Style

Living Room Shelves

Hi there!  I hope you had a nice weekend... it's hard to believe it's almost over.  

We have a large wall in our living room that I've never known exactly what to do with.  With our recent living room updates, I've been trying to do a little "freshening" in the room.  Recently it dawned on me that some shelves might provide a nice contrast and also be an inexpensive way to add some interest. 

 After suggesting the idea to my husband, he so sweetly agreed (let me tell you, I am thankful to have such a handy husband that doesn't mind all my crazy ideas) and a trip to Lowe's we made.  We picked up four of these wooden shelf support brackets (two for each shelf).

 And we also bought two 48" pine stair treads to use for the actual shelves.  Once we brought them home, I primed them and then painted two coats of Titanium by Benjamin Moore, which is my all time favorite gray. Then Justus screwed them into the wall studs.  Once he finished, I filled in and painted the screw holes.  It was such a simple project.  Overall, for two shelves, the cost was about $50 (not including the paint and primer, but I already had both on hand). 

 I love how they turned out and how they look on the bare wall but I did struggle for over a week with what to display on the shelves!  I wanted a neutral look but the vignette also needed to stand out from the wall.  In the end, this is what I came up with, although I make no promises that it will not change in the future (smile).  

   This weekend Justus finished all the trim work in the living room, so now I just need to paint it ... and dare I say... we will be finished!  (Please tell me that you too have projects that end up taking you 4 months to complete!)  

Do you see the stained corner trim in the above picture?  The previous owners had painted the corner trim white.  Once we raised the ceiling, the trim needed to be replaced anyway, so we opted to stain the new trim to match the walls.  It's a change somebody else probably would not notice, but we love how it creates a more cohesive look.  (Soon I'll tell you about the stain we used... it was amazing!) 

 The natural wood bead board walls in our living room are original and when I first walked into this room, my first thought was paint... but since then, I've not only came to respect the history of the walls, but love them.  Somehow over the span of eighty years, they were never painted and still remain in superb condition. So even though decorating has been a struggle for me in this room and wood in its natural state may not be popular, I just can't bear to change their originality.  I've grown to love how the sun gives the wood a golden hue when it goes down in the evening and how the smell of wood becomes strong when it rains.  

I guess you could say it just feels like home. 

P.S.  Look what Justus found in the garden today!

Homemade Granola

 Yesterday evening I was craving a sweet snack, so I made a quick batch of granola.  With the cool weather here (not to mention an awful flu bug), we've been cooped up inside... which means I do quite a bit of baking as time in the kitchen is always a welcome way to pass the time while dreaming of warm summer days.

 I found a really wonderful recipe for granola that uses natural sweeteners.  I've been trying to cut down on the use of refined sugars in our diet (although by no means have I been completely successful).  This recipe uses pure maple syrup and honey to sweeten and tastes so delicious you won't even notice the difference. 

 You can find the recipe here.  I followed her instructions as written, but did eliminate the seeds (simply because I didn't have the majority of them in my pantry) and used an equal amount of melted unsalted butter instead of the coconut oil (again, because that is what I had). 

 The end result is crunchy, flavorful and practically guilt free.  (Not to mention cheaper.) 

 I love eating granola with milk, yogurt or even grabbing a handful plain to snack on.

Growing up, my mom frequently had a container of fresh homemade granola.  When I make it, it brings back memories of the smell of oats baking in the kitchen.  Do scents in the kitchen ever bring back memories for you?

Our breakfast this morning (smile). 

On the recipe site, it suggests using the granola as a hostess gift.  What a perfect idea!  That prompted me to think of cute (yet easy) packaging.  I love these round kraft paper labels that Avery makes.  You can even design your label online... they have all kinds of templates, or you can create something yourself, like I did here.  (I've used them for tags too in the past.) 

The labels fit perfectly on a mason jar lid.  Fill your jar with granola, tie a piece of twine around it, and you're done!

 The labels also work on the jars of your pantry goods, which is ultimately where my label ended up.  

I hope you enjoy the recipe as much as I have!

P.S.  As usual, I had an assistant at my "photo shoot"...(smile)

Sources:

Bowl is from the Mikasa Antique White collection

Cloth napkin and milk pitcher are from Anthropologie (a few years ago)

Glass canister, mason jar, labels and jute twine all purchased from Wal-Mart
Red baker's twine ordered from Amazon