Every summer I look forward to the bounty of fresh fruits and vegetables locally grown or shipped from nearby cities. The kids love them and it becomes a regular item on the dinner table to enjoy.
I wanted to capture the beauty of the last bit of summer harvest before they disappear and a new season begins.
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Pears picked from our neighbor’s pear tree to be made into poached pears, simply delicious. We’ll be sharing the recipe in a future post.
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Simply Beautiful!
This large bowl of fresh picked plums from Lynn Morris’s garden was the inspiration for this post.
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An abundance of tomatoes from my vegetable garden.
This is our blog, White Gunpowder’s 1st birthday … Yay!
We filled this post with too many things but I hope it will be fun, insightful and encouraging. First, dive right in and enter the giveaway for your choice of ONE, $100 gift card to one lucky winner.
Easy to enter, pick one or all the options in the entry below and that’s it. The more you enter the better your chances of winning will be. Come back everyday and enter in the giveaway until it ends at 12:00AM on August 2nd 2013.
Contact us if you have any questions.
Bill and I also answered a few questions that we’ve been asked and thought others might want to know or are curious about too.
Little more about us, chickens, dog, blogging and White Gunpowder.
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Q: How did you came up with the name “White Gunpowder”?
The name came together while on vacation in Wyoming (amazing view at 13,000 feet above sea level) and Montana last year. We wanted the website to be a reflection of the two of us, our personality and interests. I came up with the first word “White” and Bill likes the word “Gunpowder”. White in general for me describes clean, fresh, new and things like crisp white shirts, kitchen cabinets, plates, serving pieces, linens and towels. For Bill, Gunpowder represents the great outdoors, hunting, fishing and hiking.
Q:What breed of chickens do you have?
A: We started with 12 chickens and 11 different breeds. Last year we lost 4 due injuries and unknown sicknesses and gave one rooster away to a friend. Currently we have 7 breeds: Speckled Sussex, Americana, Delaware, Dominique, Barred Rock, Golden Sex Links, and Austra White chickens. They are very much a part of our family and we enjoy their fresh eggs everyday.
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Q: Why did you decide to put together the website and what will it be all about?
{reason one} For many years I’ve tried to compile my recipes into a cookbook-like manner to someday give my children but with very little success. They have said to me often “I want this recipe or that recipe or can you write this recipe down for me…” The website brought discipline and structure for me and it has been helpful so far to record {with pictures too} these recipes that have been stacking up on shelves, bookmarked, and filed in my notebooks.
{reason two} The curiosity of what is blogging and wanting to know more about it. This is a fairly new concept for me even though it has been around for awhile. Other than using it as an archive for my recipes Bill and I didn’t have any particular reasons or ideas of what will be the focus of the website. The answer to the question was often, “I’m not sure yet.” It’s been a year now and we should have a pretty good idea. Right? We might not have narrowed it down to a category but we know it will be what interests us and we hope you will enjoy it too.
Q: Did you know how to put together a website when you decided to do this?
The Answer is a big NO!
We knew the basic computer stuff, but not the inner workings of the computer, software, or how to take something from point A to make it work at point B. We had doubts, but in the end our decision was to “Jump In” with a lot of help from Ryan and Emily at Jones Design Company. I have been following her blog and enjoyed reading it and be inspired by what she was posting. In June 2012, Emily featured on her blog “ your blog is waiting“, perfect timing. I knew she would give the step by step instructions without all the “Techi” confusing terminologies. In addition to the The Blog Class, Ryan and Emily also provided a support group for the Members where we can continue to help each other and to keep up with the news and updates. The step-by-step instructions and the support have been great!
We hope our little story inspired you to take a leap and try something new or start what you’ve been thinking about but were a little unsure. We can’t say that it will be a smooth ride, but if you are doing what you love the obstacles will become a little easier with each step you take. Through the many challenges of putting the website together, I{Kay} feel it was worth it. I’m still amazed at all the things I learned and ‘Can Do’ now. I’m enjoying it.
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Would like to see more pictures of your dog, Glory.
⟵ Glory as a puppy at the beach.
Glory {French Brittany} turned 2 years old in May, she’s a happy dog, great with the family and always wants to please.
After two years she is NOT out of her “puppy chewing stage” yet!
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⟵ Glory, naturally on a hunt for a bird and loves the water.
After researching and narrowing down the different breeds of bird hunting dogs our decision took us to Arizona to Sun Country Breton. Don and Linda Rice were great to work with and they kept us up to date about how the puppies were doing and had lots of photos to share. The next litter of puppies will be available early 2014.
I think that’s it for us on this 1st Birthday of White Gunpowder!
It’s always wonderful to hear from friends and new friends, contact us or make a comment on one {or more} of our blog posts.
Gathered a few favorites things for entertaining and gardening this summer. It’s nice to add a twist to the basics that’s unexpected like the “Cape Cod birdhouse” painted in a pale mint color and soft blue hose that should be on display. I am eyeing the citronella candle in the square container. What about you?
A wonderful time to enjoy the garden and the beauty that can only can be observed early in the morning. It was about 6:30am when I decided to take a stroll through the garden as the sun started to peak through the cool, misty air. I came back around the second time with my camera and took these pictures with the dew still clinging to the leaves and flowers.
Spring is here and my herb garden is coming back to life. With this extra sunshine we’ve been having, they’ve perked up and grew a little taller and fuller. Here I have put together a little sampling of herbs displayed on a cake stand and wrapped a few in parchment paper attached with custom tags {found here} using double sided tape. It’s always wonderful to share with others what you grow in the garden.
Fresh herbs in cooking is by far the best choice {see Compound Butter recipe below}. My four favorite herb plants I use again and again from my garden are Italian parsley, basil, lavender and mint {not shown in the picture}. Another reason for growing herbs is for decorating. Instead of fresh flowers, add a pretty green bouquet of parsley next to the kitchen sink, mint in the bathroom or silver sage displayed in simple containers down the center of the table. Herbs are hardy plants and easy to care for. Give it a try if you have never grown them.
8 Tbs. (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 Tbs. chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 Tbs. chopped fresh chives
2 tsp. fresh lemon juice
1 tsp. lemon zest
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Directions
Combine the first 5 ingredients in a bowl. Add salt and ground black pepper to taste. Scoop it all onto the plastic wrap or divide the mixture in half {about 4 Tablespoons each}. Roll the plastic wrap around it to form a cylinder then twist the ends closed. Then wrap it in parchment paper, twist the two ends and tie the ends with twine. Refrigerate until the butter is firm {about 2 hours} or put in the freezer to be used at a later date.
* Butter mixed with other ingredients {herb & spices, vanilla, honey, nuts, garlic, olives, sundried tomatoes, etc…} is known as compound butter. It adds flavor to seafood, meat, bread and vegetables.
When it comes to designing and decorating, most of us would love to have more space to work with. Now that I’m given that opportunity with the new addition to our house above the garage and the mud room, I’m feeling a little overwhelmed because I want to be sure that the space will be efficient and well designed. These beautiful airy interior spaces are well designed and gave me inspirations and ideas {see tips below}. Our new addition is not anything like these Grand rooms, the only similarity is the two words, “Vaulted Ceilings”.
This home is located in Alabama at The Ridge on Lake Martin. Designed by Tracery Interiors, with Sumblin Schnell as the principal designer and assistant Anna Kay Porch. The home combined rustic, white and a little French influence. Continue to Atlanta Homes and Lifestyles to see more images of this home. Photographer, Eric George Dines
This party barn space was designed by Napa Valley interior designer Erin Martin to be a place to entertain.
Wine Country Farmhouse located in Northern California on a hilltop overlooking Bennett Valley in Sonoma County. Designed by John Malick & Associates / Photographer, Jeannie O Connor.
This barn is on a ranch located in Hidden Valley, California. The interior was designed by the owners, Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi along with Jay Holman and Cliff Fong. To see more pictures, Continue to Elle Decor… photography by William Abranowicz
1. Have goals {i.e. purpose of the space, the look to achieve, color palettes…} 2. Repeat materials and colors for a unified look 3. Create individual spaces and they should all flow and work together 4. Resist the temptation to push all of your furniture against the walls 5. Do not clutter the room with too many things, instead try grouping collection of similar items 6. Define the spaces with area rugs, room dividers… 7. Utilize various types of lighting throughout the space, one overhead light will not illuminate the space 8. Choose large furniture pieces & accessories {avoid overstuffing the room} 9. Add texture to create visual interest {i.e. draperies, wall accents… } 10. The end result … Do you like it?
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