HOMES AND CHURCHES IN AUXVASSE AND MEXICO, MISSOURI

Last week we made a little trip northeast to Auxvasse, Missouri to order living room furniture.  This is a very small rural town that takes you back in time.  The "Mother" furniture company (Baumgartners) was in Auxvasse and please don't ask me how to say it.  Gina Broadus told me but now I have no idea!  

This home is in Auxvasse, Missouri and it is 

 a sleepy little town but look

 at this darling Victorian house we saw:

Their gazebo is so cute:

And three very old churches right near the tiny downtown:

As we were leaving we noticed how close this town was to another one a little north called Mexico, Missouri where Gina Broadus is from - so we decided to check it out.  It is also a small town.

Here were some of the lovely old homes of Mexico:

There were several antique shops in the downtown Mexico square area and I found several goodies at this one.  I was told he shops the famous Brimfield Antique and Flea Market in Massachusetts.

Sharing at:
The Charm of Home

A NICOTINE FREE SMOKING CABINET for BTTCG Blog Party

I have been looking for a small table or something for a vase to go on my front entrance porch.  How about a smoking cabinet for a non smoker?  I remember these from back in the 50's-60's.  They were mass manufactured.  The little door opens for tobacco storage, pipes, etc.  I gave it a spray of paint and put it on the entrance porch.

I saw lots of these recently while on a day trip to Greenwood, Missouri and snagged one very reasonably.  It works really well and since my husband has allergies -

 the bouquet can be on the porch.

I hope you can join me today for my Bernideen's Tea Time, Cottage and Garden Blog Party!
I am also sharing at:
The Art of Homemaking Mondays
No Place Like Home
Let's Talk Vintage
Share Your Cup Thursday
Vintage Charm
The Charm of Home

An InLinkz Link-up

FLOWER FAIRY TEA TIME BEFORE THE RAIN for "Tea In The Garden"

Last night we had some rain and now the garden is happy!  I barely got the pictures taken which is why you can see the woods in the back are very dark:

We will have a cup of tea before we sing "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" as it is starting to sprinkle now!  The purple bush you see is Spirea and it is blooming now.  You may remember that we dug it up from over by the pond where it totally blocked the view.  It seems quite happy out in the back yard now.

 I recall that Cicely Barker was the originator of Flower Fairies and I do so love her books.  I will always remember these as one of my favorite things I sold at my shop and how people loved them.

Cicely's fairies had no ethereal powers but were just for fun.

My garden is beginning to get "set in".  By that I mean new root growth which is so important before the temperature starts to soar here.  By June it will be getting very hot.

 One of our goals here in Missouri is to take a lot of "day trips" around the state.  We did so one day last week and came upon a small town called "Greenwood" where there were 4-5 antique shops.  I found this quilt at one of them for a reasonable price:

And watch out for the butterflies too:

UNDERNEATH THE LACE UMBRELLA AGAIN for "Tea In The Garden"

 We have some lovely flowers blooming and they loved the Thursday warmer weather.

 And as I am backing up a little more and I see I didn't get the lace bedcover on straight!  Some of you remember when I found this table and umbrella frame last year in Colorado.

Monday and Tuesday we found out that it can still get cold here in Missouri and it rained both days. The heat came back on inside our home. Finally, the sun came back out on Wednesday which was wonderful.   We just love that sunshine don't we?  

It looks like I forgot to use that new green vintage vase -
 maybe next time!

As I set up a little tea time outside I remembered that our yard slopes down so I had to do a little straightening of my photos.  In about a month we will be having some landscape work done here.

This week we met with a nice man named Josiah who will be cleaning out our Koi Pond.  As far as we know, it has never been cleaned and we see it needs a filtering system to keep it cleaner so he will be taking on the job. 

We were reading on line and realized we need some water flowing to keep the algae from growing (putting more oxygen in the water).

This is the creek at the back of the yard

 where the birds bathe everyday!

And some of the flowers blooming:

Please do pour yourself a cup of tea! 

Stay a while and relax.

THERE'S STRAWBERRY SUPREME PIE OUT IN THE KITCHEN

Let's go out in the kitchen and have some Strawberry Supreme Pie!

I made 2 of these pies this week.  We took the first one over to our

 son's house and then had one for us too!

If you would like to make one,

here is how it works:

#1
For the pie crust you will need 1 cup sifted flour, 1/3 cup + 1 Tb of crisco and 2-3 Tb. ice water.  Mix all and form dough - roll out and place in regular sized pie pan crimping edges.  I brushed my edge with some egg yolk. Sit shell aside but do not bake yet.
  Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

#2 
For the cream cheese base of pie:  
1 - 8 oz cream cheese softened, 1/3 cup 
of sugar, 1 egg and 1/2 tsp vanilla

Mix these ingredients together in a small bowl and pour over the pie pastry spreading to the edges. 

#3
Now the pie filling:

Wash, cap and cut into 2 cups of strawberries and place them in a small pan.  Add 1 cup of sugar.  In a small bowl mix 1/4 cup of water with 3 Tb cornstarch and whisk well.  Add to saucepan over medium heat and bring to a boil to thicken.  When thick pour into a bowl to cool.  Take out about 2/3 cup of this mix and spread it over the cream cheese base in the pie.  Place the pie in the oven at 450 degrees for 8 minutes.  Drop the temperature to 350 degrees for another 10 minutes.  Cool the shell.

#4

Clean and cap about 2 more cups of strawberries.  When the pie is cool pour 1/2 of the remaining cooked and cooled strawberry mixture into the pie shell.  Arrange the strawberries on top neatly in rows from the center out.  Pour all the rest of the cooled strawberry mixture over the fresh ones.