Don’t you just love help in the garden?

What a beautiful weekend here in Central New York! Big sky. Gentle breeze. Great haying weather. Thankfully. Farmboy cut the field behind the house Thursday evening as the sun was setting. Once its cut… you’re committed.

Ryder reading with Toonces on the deck.

Friday was nice but Saturday was amazing. Farmboy brought over the older tractors to spin out and rake the hay. Ryder drove the tractor that Farmboy learned to drive as a boy. It was monumental and sweet. Having not been raised on a farm, I am fearfully afraid of spinny things and children being around heavy equipment.

Farmboy is a good, patient teacher. : )

La-La got a ride in with her dad.

Oliver is my right-hand man while documenting events.

Farmer Russ (grandpa) and I got the fancy tractor to bale in… complete with an air-conditioner and stereo. For the record, I did not run into anything large and metal. Although I did accidently back over a bale with the baler as I was practicing my backing up (who knew one fell out?). If you have seen me trying to back up my trailer at a show you will understand why I need to practice whenever possible. Parallel parking… no problem. Backing a trailer/implement… shoot me now.

The horses will be happy this winter… a little taste of summer.

Oh, what fun! Shop now and save 25% on your favorite blank notecards and greeting card designs! Click here to order and receive discount. Orders must be taken through Stationery Department to receive 25% off.

My sweet friend Mary Carlic of The Wren’s Den is opening a retail store… tomorrow… right here in Central New York! The store has a lovely eclectic mix of goodies with lots of beautiful topiaries!!! Just in time for Mother’s Day… just sayin!

“It won’t be a gift shop, really, nor an art gallery, either. It’s just something different. And it will be different every time you visit.”

The Wren’s Den annual spring open house is actually a Grand Opening this year. If you are in the area you must stop in Sat. April 28th, 11 – 6pm! Mary’s shop is in the retail store located at Hillside Gardens- 2756 West Seneca Turnpike. I’m so happy to have my cards, sachets and prints available there!

Enjoy a sneak peak!!

I love these shoes! Clogs + Espadrilles = funky, happy shoes. They are so comfortable and fun to wear. Farmboy bought them for me because he knew I had a crush on them.

Today I saw that they were part of the 20% off sale at Sahalie in case you needed to get some for your little sweet feet. The discount code is 15034 thru 4/15!

Happy Fabulous Find Friday!

How was your weekend? Did the Easter Bunny come to visit? This little guy had to find someone else to pull his wagon I’m pretty sure.

We had the opportunity to host the family dinner at our house- it was alot of fun as you will see. I have SO enjoyed Pintrest lately and seeing all of the beautiful Easter/Springtime decorations inspired me to do some projects with the kids.

This is what I was aiming for…

This is how it turned out including gummie worms, peeps, twizzlers and jelly beans. : ) The containers will be turned into terrariums later this week!

The kids and their cousin made some sweet tissue paper poufs to hang from the light fixtures for our family dinner. The children’s table looked very happy and inviting we thought.

After an early morning spent searching for Easter baskets, eating chocolate, breakfast and more chocolate we attended a beautiful service at Grace Chapel and came home to hunt Easter eggs. The dogs only ate 2, we think, although 2 others are still missing…

I love cooking for a crowd! Everything about it, coming up with the menu, the table settings, the smells, the noise and laughter of a house full of people and the memories that it creates for my kids. Farmboy made the most amazing Snickers Cheesecake Saturday night AFTER working all day at the farm. He is such a Renaissance man. The recipe for the cheesecake came from a recent dinner club featuring a “Seinfeld Theme”. Who knew there were so many food references on Seinfeld!? I’ll try to post it soon!

Here is the Easter Dinner menu for this year.

Appetizers

Banana Pepper Dip
Fresh Veggies and Dip
Deviled Eggs

Main Course

Whiskey and Cola Basted Ham
Herb Roasted Turkey Breast

Sides

Blanched Fresh Asparagus w/Lemon
Pennies From Heaven Carrots
Cheese Souffle
German Potato Salad
Red Quinoa and Avocado Salad

Desserts

Snickers Cheesecake with Oreo Crust
Strawberry & Raspberry Trifle
Strawberry Pie

 At the end of a long, glorious day I looked at beautiful family pics on Facebook that friends had posted from their weekend and something that my high-school English teacher (Don’t you love that about Facebook!?) put up made the most sense for me to share at Easter… because I KNOW grace, forgiveness and mercy and the beauty of those actions make a profound difference in this world and in the lives of other people.  : )

“”I serve a risen Savior-he’s in the world today-I know that He is living, no matter what men may say”. It’s simple, your wrongs are forgiven. Today, in honor of His sacrifice, forgive someone.”

It is the essence of Easter.

Lately the days are full.  Too full of work, abundance, tediousness, and the beauty of everyday life. The to-do desires that are left till the end of the day overflow into the next and so it goes. So please pardon my absence and try to keep up with the barrage of posts that are about to come. : ) That seems to be how I work best.

My seventh year at the Flower Show was wonderful, renewing and affirming. It was great fun to see our friends in Kennett Square, PA. Our family of 4  bombards their family of 8 for a couple of nights as I set up for the show. A needed time for our families to reconnect. Once the show is in full swing I head into Philly to the Hilton Garden Inn (love that place), Junebug (my mom) flies in to help and Farmboy and the kiddos head for home- back to school, work and the animals.

Junebug is my right hand during the show. She is on top of it all. Isn’t she beautiful? If I had a nickel for everytime during the week that I hear “you two must be sisters”… I’d be rich.  We discuss what books we are bringing to read a month in advance. (I was reading Sacred Hearts and Ellen Foster. Momma was reading One Thousand White Women.) Sitting in the hotel after the show with a book and a glass of wine is quite a luxury for me. Throughout the week we take turns checking out the displays and discussing what we think would work in our own gardens.

My new booth space was great. I’m amazed at the number of people that came in and asked if it was my first year- that they had never seen my work before! How can that be after 7 years? There is just so much to see.

I saw many familiar faces and had the opportunity to catch up on friends from the previous year. The new show layout was a challenge. I am used to having a corner and (ahem) spreading, just a bit. It was wonderful getting to know my new neighbors! Let me introduce you: Toni and Dave from Beekman’s C.O.P.A. Soaps. A great story/business- wish I had had more time to get to know them. I’m enjoying my cold press natural soap called Forest- lots of rosemary. I love it.

On my other side was Trenny and Bob of High Beams in Vermont. Love their work. I’ve admired it for years.  Trenny and I got to discuss vegetable gardening. It was fun to tell her about winter sowing. I started some containers the week I got back!

Other friends with great businesses that I look forward to seeing every year are: Colby from Colby Smith Doorknockers, Mary from La Contessa Jewerly and Carrie from pucciManuli.

My readers know how I love ceramics and Liz Kinder of Liz Kinder Ceramic’s work was gorgeous! One of her large lovely bowls was my “take home” piece this year. Drool. Drool.

Jerry Fritz from Linden Hill Gardens signed his book for me. His booth was full of beautiful terrariums, hellebores and numerous perennials. Gotta plant some hellebores soon.

Sandstone Gardens from MO. never fails to disappoint. I’ve purchased 2 fountains from them over the years as well as other smaller pieces. We’ve had to limit Junebug’s statuary purchases due to Farmboy’s back and space in the trailer! I wish that they would ship.

The last couple of years I’ve purchased fresh flowers from Kremp Florist. A family owned florist outside of Philadelphia in Bucks Co. They have numerous booths throughout the Flower Show. This year they added videos showing tips for refreshing your cut flowers. I learned so much!  The roses I purchased lasted for weeks. All of the family received a dozen for helping with the kiddos while I was away. : )

Oh my goodness… what a treat it was to meet Ellen Parlipiano from Mompreneursonline.com. We have been communicating online since I was pregnant with Ryder formally known as “the bean” (ten years ago)! I screamed and hugged her when I saw her. She was delightful and we have a date for the NYBG soon I hope.

Once again I was captivated by terrariums and miniature gardens, not to mention I have committed myself to a hypertufa day here at the farm. I’m a little behind the curve on that one but better late than never, right? Twig Terrariums from Brooklyn had a lovely booth with very charming pieces for sale. Check them out- great, creative work.

So, terrariums are on the schedule with the kids for Spring Break. I’ve found a nice supply of moss down by the woods, collected lots of rocks and purchased some inexpensive apothcrathy jars for the kids to use. I’ll post our projects!!

The theme of the show was Hawaii and although I’ve never been, I do hope to go one day! It was a bit hard for me to relate to so many tropicals in regards to my own garden. That being said I did buy three huge Caladium bulbs to put in pots on my deck when I got home. All of the foliage was beautiful and lush.

Shown below are some photos from the show. Come along for a little tour, won’t you?

Next year put it on your calender! The theme is Brilliant! All about Great Britain… can’t wait. Perennials, formal gardens, Cottage Gardens… count me in!!!!

Our marble coasters tiles are back and better than ever! The detail is amazing (although the photo above is slightly out of focus). A recent investment in a new printing process has brought beautiful results. We will have a limited selection of our most popular designs at the Flower Show.

The tiles (each signed by the artist and padded with cork bumpers) will be available at michellemasters.com in mid-March. Until then give us a ring to order what you would like! Each coaster is $12 or a set of 4 for $40.

Which design would you like to see on the coasters? Let us know!