Special Time with Friends...

On Saturday my girlfriend and her hubby came to the cottage and stayed overnight for the weekend. She and I have "hung" out and shared so much together since we were 15. We went to the same school, double dated....switched dates...*lol*...she and her hubby are godparents to Geoff, my eldest son and I am the godmother of her oldest daughter. We stood up for each other when we were married.

Marc and I served up our Breakfast Link casserole for them when they first arrived for brunch in our brand new Paula Deen casserole dish...

we set the table overlooking a perfect sunny day....





After breakfast we took them for a drive around the area stopping here and there which included a couple of wonderful markets where we picked up fruits and veggies for our dinner and dessert.


As an appetizer before dinner we had a plate of prociutto, tomatoes, slices of soft mozarella cheese, and basil from the garden. Over it we sprinkled some herb infused olive oil that Marc made last weekend. It was sooo delicious.

Marc is telling me something funny about the olive oil container he's holding up I think.....

Isn't it wonderful to have such special friends....Judi xoxo

BLUE MONDAY Grapevine Wreath at Rush's

EXTRA..I came back because today is the 30th and its my 300TH POST. Time for a little Giveaway! Come back on Wednesday to find out more!!

Happy BLUE Monday to Sally at SmilingSally for hosting our Blue Monday. Be sure to click on her name to visit all the other BLUE Monday participants.

Recently we were at Rush's outdoor fruit market buying veggies and cantaloupe and everything was grown in their garden. Even the pretty flowers they cut and sell in mason jars filled with water. We love going there throughout the summer as the produce ripens.

They had made these pretty grapevine wreaths and attached BLUE and white ribbon to them and placed them along the old wooden fence. Don't the BLUE morning glory flowers look lovely behind the wreath? It didn't need a bit more decorating. I love those sweet morning glories. I know just the spot at the cottage to put one of those....next year... :o)

Have a lovely BLUE Monday....Judi xoxo

**I also wanted to tell you that the Silly Dilly Beans Marc and I made were delicious. We sampled them on Friday night and ate almost the whole small jar with our friends. Really good! YUM! and....not even too hot for me. :o) **

PINK Saturday.... Pink Lady New Location

Happy PINK Saturday to Beverly at HowSweetTheSound our gracious host, to you and to all the other PINK Participants. Be sure to click and visit all the other lovely PINKnesses..

I'm showing you again my PINK Lady picture. I posted about the Blue Boy and PINK Lady here before if you missed it.

This beautifully embroidered pair was made by my mom's closest friend years ago and left to me. Originally they were over my sofa.....while Abby liked them there I really didn't.

Now they grace the walls in a little corner of my livingroom. I'm enjoying them much better here. It makes a pretty vignette I think....this very special couple.

My bestest girlfriend Kirsti and her hubby Peter are coming over to the cottage this morning from Oakville, from my side, in Canada for the day and staying overnight. I know we'll have fun.

I hope your weekend will be fun too... have a lovely PINK Saturday...Judi xoxo

Silly Dilly Beans

Two weeks ago on Saturday with the humidity down at the cottage Marc and I were in the mood for cooking up something. We set out in the morning to Rush's Fruit and Veggie Market and picked up the fresh green beans, garlic and dill that were on our list....

We washed and boiled canning jars...blanched GREEN beans....


made a vinegar solution...peeled garlic...mixed up spices, added garlic cloves and sprigs of dill.


and VOILA we have Dilly Beans... "Marc and Judi's Silly Dilly Beans" silly coming from the way you do things the FIRST time compared to the way you would plan to do them once you got the hang of it. We did have fun though. Now this Saturday our 2 weeks is up and we're ready to try them and see whether Marc DID in fact put in too much cayenne pepper for me...hmmmmmmm...

Do you enjoy canning? Have a great weekend!...Judi xoxo

The Kindest Word ~

I'm sharing a pretty picture to give you smiles....

and a pretty thought to take through the miles........ "The kindest word in all the world is the unkind word, unsaid" ~Author Unknown

Some days are better observed than spoken ~ Judi xoxo

Gone With The Wind Hanging Lamp Priceless!

My dear friend Shelia at Notesongs posted about her "new" Gone With the Wind lamp. I believe she has 2 of them now and they are lovely.

Well I was so excited when I found this one. Its a Gone With the Wind hanging lamp. mmhmmmm I found it where people in our building put things to give away

when they can't bear to throw them out! I took it out of the box....

took it apart and cleaned it up....

and put it all back together again..doesn't it have a nice vintage look and colour...

I put it gently back into the box for now....

until I find the perfect place to hang it up...and I'll show you when I do. It will likely go

into my bedroom. I have always admired them and was so happy to get one of my own..

.....for a great price too...priceless!

Have a lovely day and if you too are thrifting...hope you find a good deal... Judi xoxo

BLUE MONDAY - Flying High

I'm joining Sally at SmilingSally and all the other BLUE Monday participants. Be sure to visit Sally's blog and see who's there!

On this BLUE Monday enjoy with me the BLUEness of people flying up high I took recently.
I was enjoying the roof top BLUE pool and beautiful BLUE skies of the hotel we stayed at in South Beach.

As I sat there smiling at what a glorious day it was....I sure was happy I was where I was and not wayyyy up there parasailing. I zoomed my camera in as close as I could. How gracefully it appeared to be sailing way above the hotels and other buildings......

pretty BLUEs.....

Recently while we were at the cottage and indoors we heard a strange whirring engine sound flying by. We ran out and I was just able to grab this picture before "it" was out of sight behind the trees. Its not a car flying by but it sure looked like it. I wish I had had a chance to zoom right in on whatever that was.... wouldn't it have looked fabulous flying in front of a full moon? Beautiful BLUE appearing free as a bird....

Have a lovely BLUE Monday... Judi xoxo

In Bob's Garden - Hibiscus

We have some pretty pink flowers here at the cottage to look at....

They are such a fragile PINK shade they take my breath away....

I'm loving these beautiful PINK hibiscus flowers. I hope you aren't tired of looking at my flowers because its so easy to share them in the summer...its so fun to snap pictures of them because they are so beautiful.



These PINK beauties are in Bob's garden next door...he does have the bestest pink flowers on our beach... It is a huge plant but apparently I was only taking closeups on this day. Are they not heavenly?.....

Have a beautiful PINK Saturday...... Judi xoxo

Homemade Fresh Strawberry Ice Cream

First....I am just days away from my 300th POST and a giveaway!!......my

how words pass quickly...*s*...

Marc and I enjoy baking and cooking and grilling together. A couple of years ago we bought an ice cream maker. We finally used it last weekend. We used a recipe that came with our ice cream maker.

Here is the mixture once it has been cooked and then cooled in the fridge for 2 hours being poured into the ice cream maker.

..after being whipped in there for 30 minutes (the puried strawberries added during the last 5 minutes)....it looked like ice cream to us... :o)

Then into the freezer for another 30 minutes.

We scooped the ice cream into dainty crystal dishes on depression glass

plates given to him by his mother.

A fresh strawberry on the top and it looks ready to be enjoyed....

It truly was easy and so very delicious....mmmmmm... Have you made ice cream?

It was certainly worthy of being shared.... Judi xoxo

Chocolate Zucchini Cake - yum!

A neighbour at the cottage gave us a zucchini because she has so many of them. She has them planted in our other neighbour Georgia and Bob's veggie garden. I love zucchini cooked and baked and diced into a fresh salad! Don't they look yummy??

My first thought was to bake a zucchini loaf. When Marc told me of the delicious chocolate zucchini cake he'd had once I changed my mind and surprised him with it when he came home from work one day while I was on vacation. Thats what you are supposed to do I think when you feel guilty at being on vacation when your sweetie has to go to work...right? mmhmmmmm...

Here is the recipe if you have some zucchini on hand and are longing for chocolate as well.

http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/chocolate_zucchini_cake/

When it came time to grease the pan I realized we didn't have a bundt cake pan at the cottage so Georgia (next door) lent me hers. This is the cake out of the oven isn't it a nice pan? She bought if from an Amish store in town.

Here it is glazed....

and this is the thank you we gave Georgia and Bob in return served on a nice paper plate too eh?

It was a yummy cake ...and its a great way to use up excess zucchini. The glaze over it was a really good too.

What is your favourite way to eat zucchini?

Enjoy ...Judi xoxo

Guess Who I Met at South Beach??

We were in this strip of Restaurants enjoying dinner outdoors in South Beach last week Monday night.... now stay with the story...no cheating...

We were quite warm here already....my hair was flat and had lost control...

Dinner was very lovely and as we ate and talked we watched people passing by on the sidewalk. It was quite entertaining.....

look at this guy and the pet he wore around his neck....people were not getting too close to him as he walked by...

Then Marc said "isn't that - that Michael guy?"...."from American Idol". Sure enough it was Michael Lynche from this past season's American Idol carrying his daughter, (she was born while he was auditioning) and his wife was with him and another couple.

I don't know what made me do it but...I jumped up...dashed across..fled the couple of stairs and raced in the Miami heat down 1/2 a block until I reached them. I don't what made me say it either but I said "show me that sweet little daughter of yours" (or I think it was something like that)...and he turned around, smiled and proudly showed her to me. She was so pretty.

I told him I'm an American Idol fan and enjoyed his singing (touched his arm)...said hi and gave a little wave to his wife like she should have known me....and although I had my camera in my hand I didn't ask for a picture. Somehow he looked like he wanted some time for himself and he wasn't THAT smiley...so...I left it at that..

I borrowed the above picture from here but I can vouch this is exactly how he would have looked if I'd taken his pic (although he was dressed casual in jeans).

How Marc ever spotted him considering he isn't even THAT much an American Idol fan I'll never know...but I'm glad he did.

Have you had a similar experience? It was fun... Judi xoxo

BLUE Monday - Blue Art Deco and Plates in Miami

I'm joining in BLUE Monday with Sally at SmilingSally. Be sure to click, visit and enjoy all the other BLUE Monday participants for today.

On the drive to Miami's South Beach from the airport we saw huge beautiful homes beside the BLUE ocean where the residents' parked their "boats"in front of their homes....more like small ships. Can you imagine going for a little "boat" ride after dinner?.....

lovely BLUE waters to look at all day from these enormous homes...and BLUE skies...
Isn't this a nice cruise ship with lovely floral painting at the front? I was ready...

We did lots of walking and admired all the art deco hotels and restaurants that South Beach is known for. Lots of BLUE....

BLUE skies....circles...lines and words...

more BLUEness and don't you love that car parked in front of that hotel? We saw lots of very expensive cars in the area.

more BLUES...

This was one of 2 plates of these appetizers we all shared. Priscutto, soft mozarella cheese, basil and lovely tomatoes all on a lovely BLUE fish plate.

This was a delicious shrimp dinner Mike ordered on a BLUE plate.

Tomorrow I'll tell you who I met while we were out to dinner ......

In the meantime have a wonderful BLUE Monday....Judi xoxo