i love the versatility of pancakes. start with an basic, yet amazing pancake recipe.

and let your creative mind do the rest. the finish product will speak for itself!

some of my personal favorite include:

blueberry and banana (add mashed ripe banana to the batter. then add blueberries when the pancake is on the griddle)

oatmeal and almond (just add old fashioned oats and a little almond extract to your batter)

crushed pineapple and vanilla (cut up fresh pineapple into tiny pieces, mix into the batter with good vanilla. make it extra special by serving them with fresh strawberries sprinkle with vanilla sugar.)

peanut butter chips (move over chocolate chips! these taste divine! just add the desired amount of chips (a lot in my case) to the pancake when it’s on the griddle.)

remember back in january when i planted some glass orbs with succulents?  well over the past couple months i managed to break two of them (knots in fishing line are not sturdy). and the one that’s left … it’s thriving! see..

i don’t think i took a close up of this particular one before, but doesn’t it look great? i just love it. the plant has various names, but i know it as ‘string of pearls’. i found this plant on etsy,  but recently saw a much larger version at lowes.

back in january i also found these glass beaker tubes for a steal on ebay. i was slightly discouraged after breaking two of my other attempts, but with a renewed spirit and a couple extra succulents i decided to try again. as they say, ‘if at first you don’t succeed…

…try, try, try again.’

so i put a couple stones at the bottom of each beaker, filled them with catus soil and planted my succulents.

i hung them in my dining room in front of the window. i think i need one more tube. and yes, i realize they are a bit weird/different/interesting but that’s why i love them. it makes my guests intrigued… it makes them ask questions. it’s fun. and i love to watch them grow.

i’m not sure how the light is going to be here, but i’m thinking it could be perfect. not direct, but plenty of it. we shall see. and again, i’ll keep you posted.

oh, and i was beyond thrilled this past weekend when a guest commented on how much they loved that my flowers matched my door and outdoor cushions. success!

so, even though i’d love to have a big beautiful vegetable garden, i don’t have the space. once you’ve had a fresh garden tomato or squash or anything you’ll never want to buy another vegetable in the store.

before i purchased the bed and breakfast (oh, and i’m celebrating my two year anniversary tomorrow … it’s hard to believe it’s been two years since i signed about a thousand papers and bought my own business. but, i’d do it again in a heartbeat.) … anyway, as i was saying, before i purchased the b&b, i live in philadelphia and tried to plant tomato plants in pots and i was highly unsuccessful. it was just bad.

what i recently learned is that you can go tomatoes in a container, but you’re not suppose to use terra cotta pots (which i did) because they dry out too quickly. i was determined to try again, because i love, LOVE cherry tomatoes. i have an excess of terra cotta pots and didn’t need/want to buy something else. so…

before filling with dirt, i lined my pots (i’m only trying two tomato plants this year) with garbage bags, poked a hole in the bottom, then filled with dirt! so now i have the look of terra cotta without it drying out. hopefully this works and i have plenty of delicious cherry tomatoes. time will tell.

if not i can just swoon over this amazing garden or this one.

i bought four climbing don juan rose bushes this spring and planted them around my little inn with hopes of eventually creating a canopy of roses overhead.

and to my suprise, i already have a rose coming!

don’t the petals look like a heart? now i wish my cold would go away so i could smell these beauties!

so, i took some more pictures. i would LOVE to know which one(S) are your favorites! don’t forget to include the ones from my post ealier today.

last summer i purchased a louisa weeping crab apple tree. when i purchase it i was told it would have pink flowers in the spring. so, , i’m excited that it survived the winter. and second, aren’t the flowers beautiful?

as i mentioned before i am not a professional photographer and i just use a basic, basic digital camera. so i may not win any awards, but i am thrilled with how they look. do they look ok?

over the past two days i’ve probably taken 200 pictures or more of these little flower. thank goodness for digital cameras! about 180 of those 200 are deleted. these are some of my favorites so far (yes, i’m going to take some more pictures). what i want to do is get 9 or 12 pictures i really, really love. print them out (maybe 8×10), frame them and hang then along a wall or above a bed. who knows?

i just think they need to be seen, rather than sitting lost in my computer. right?

last year i did a similar project in my dining room with pictures that carried the color scheme of my dining room. remember?

i just think art that you create is so much more unique and special. and original! no one else will have something quite like it. that’s cool.

AND…

i love, love this scribble art i saw the other day over at young house love.

looks amazing. right? and so professional. add it to my increasingly long to-do list. you can see the full tutorial here.

i know it’s really basic and simple, but i just think it’s brilliant. i do.

remember last week i showed you the progress on my little mini garden project?

well on tuesday i got some daylilys from my mom’s house, broke them up and planted them.

see?

they are quite small at the moment, but should fill in quite nicely. here’s hoping they root well and survive!

i think the ‘green’ was much needed. next i want to get some large rocks in the woods behind my dad’s house. i would just go do it, but it’s probably going to take 3 or 4 people to lift one rock. thank goodness for older brothers. right?

remember when i said i wanted to create this look in my ‘backyard’?

well, i did! almost… i started the process… anyway, i started with this….

not so nice right? minus the trees in the pots it was a muddy area that collected water and leaves and eventually grew the biggest, scariest weeds i have ever seen. it was a mess people. and the fence made of railroad ties… HAD TO GO.

after removing the fence, moving some dirt, planting the trees (which are river birch – the same as featured in my inspiration photo above [mine are just a bit smaller at the moment]), putting down landscaping plastic (to prevent weeds from growing – take that weeds!) laying a brick boarder and finally putting down lots, and lots of mulch….

here’s what i came up with!

better right? i’m told these trees grow pretty quick. these were the largest i could find and i enjoy seeing things grow and trimming them to my desired shape/style.

now it’s time to accessorize! i’m planning on getting a new bench (the one i have is a pretty old hand-me-down). i’d like to find a red one to match my door (which i still need to show you – please remind me). if not maybe i can paint this one? i think i may have some extra paint.

i think it needs a little green, so i may do a row of daylilys behind the trees, or some ground cover. i haven’t decided.

and in case you were wondering, i would have planting the trees further back, but my property line stops right where the edge of the brick is, so i don’t think my neighbor would like if i planted trees in his yard. i think he’ll appreciate the mulch, but i need to know my boundaries.

i think a bird bath is also neccessary and maybe a couple of really big stones. who knows. i’ll be sure to let you know what i come up with.

oh! and remember i was telling/showing you my espalier? well… there are some leaves coming and hopefully some new rows of banches.

looks cool right? i love it, i really do.

ahh, i’m back. still not fully rested i suppose, but ideas are starting to turn again. does your brain ever just stop working? agh. i hate when it happens!

anyway. this is one of my absolute favorite quiche recipes to make. spinach, bacon & swiss. doesn’t it look delicious?

typically i’m not a big paula deen fan, but this recipe is from her and amazingly its not loaded with butter and sugar. not that a quiche should be. and it’s pretty simple! even if you are not a big fan of spinach or swiss, give it a try. its yummy.

and … do you remeber natalie merchant? (i loved love her first cd. in fact, i still break it out every once in a while) well, she’ back! don’t you love when really great artists, that have disappeared, come back better than ever? me too!

her new cd, leave your sleep, came out today!

i didn’t realize there are two version (which i hate -fyi. why the need for two versions?) anyway, i download the smaller one with just some of the songs. weird… i know. i’ve had it playing all day in the gift shoppe and while i really have LISTENED to it, i’m loving it already.

you can check it out here. so grab your ingredients for quiche, set your CD player to repeat and get ready for a magical experience!

my new little apple tree looks like it’s hooked up to some torture chamber. poor thing!

but don’t worry, this little tree isn’t being tortured, it’s being trained. the true term is espalier. according to wikipedia here’s the best definition/explanation (because if i tried to explain it in my own words, you be probably be lost…)

“Espalier is the horticultural technique of training trees through pruning and grafting in order to create formal “two-dimensional” or single plane patterns by the branches of the tree. The technique was popular in the Middle Ages in Europe to produce fruit inside the walls of a typical castle courtyard without interfering with the open space, and to decorate solid walls by such trees planted near them.”

i know it sounds much more complicated than in really is… they are basically just trees trained to grow flat and pruned in a pattern. see..

image

neat looking, right?

image

and you can even grow them into a fence!! wow! how cool is that!?

image

supposedly is mostly done with fruit trees, but i guess it could work with others. anything is worth a shot right?

and here is mine!

pathetic right now. i know. this one i planted last year. i believe its a dwarf apple tree of sorts. maybe pear? i forget. it’s budding (see photos above), so i’m happy to see it survived the winter. (as you can see it planted in a hole i chipped out of the blacktop…not easy) the actual tree only cost me $20! great right!? if you buy a trees that’s already espaliered, they can run close to $200! yikes. plus… it takes away all the fun.

when choosing the tree, i did take the time to look for one that had two branches sort of coming out of the trunk at the same level. (sorry i didn’t take a picture of the tree when i first got it.) then i trimmed off the excess and tied things up. as you can see above i have three rows. one row is right where the siding meets the cement block (kinda hard to see). i’m going to create as many rows as i can on this tree. it’s in front of a shed of sorts. so i’d like it to extend to the top and all the way across. we’ll see!

then this tree i just bought a week or so ago. it’s a bing cherry. this one’s not quite as tall, but it was super straight and had four very good arms!

the goal for this one is to get it too look like this. neat right?

i got a bird feeder for christmas. this one.

and although bird feeders seem to create nothing but a mess (seeds everywhere and little birdie ‘presents’ around), i still love having one. it’s nice watching the birds come and go. and hearing their sweet summer song.

i originally had it hung on that hook in the middle of the porch on that white beam, can you see it? anyway, that created a big mess. lots of cracked seeds all over the porch. so i decide to move it to this brick piller. i liked it so much that i bought another feeder. looks good right? there is a climbing hydrenda vine below (you can sort of see it climbing up). i’m hoping the vine will cover the brick pillar some day. another element of green!

anyway, i had tons of little birds when i just had my one feeder, but now, with two… a birdie buffet if you will… all the birds have gone. weird right? hopefully they come back.

oh, and my rain barrel arrived yesterday afternoon! yay! i hooked it up this morning and it’s already filling up at the dusting of snow (yeah… it snowed) melts off the roof. it looks amazing. i really, really love it. i’ll post pictures soon. tgif people. tgif.