TIME TO GET OUT OF TOWN

Yesterday some new friends and we

 went to visit the Greenwood Tea Room

 in the little town of Greenwood, Missouri.

 We drove west about 1 1/2 hours to Greenwood. After a nice lunch we headed across the street to the

 antique/repurpose shops there.  Many of

the tea rooms here are like old fashioned

cafe's and serve tea with quiche, soups and sandwiches.

I thought that this was the best photo because 
I was absent!  Ha!  Janice to the left, blogs at 
"Curtains In My Tree" and Gina on the 
right blogs at "Victorian Wanna Be":

The tea room is located in the Greenwood Antique mall.

A photo with me:

We had great fun and all found

 some treasure

to take home!

TEA AT THE CART

After realizing that summer would be much hotter in
 Missouri I decided to make a clear effort
 to enjoy this summer anyway.  Yesterday I

helped my husband as he painted our front door.
We wanted to change the color to match our shutters.
 I was the "helper".  We have attended quite a
few of our grandson's soccer games in the
 last week which
has really been fun to get to do!

Late in the day I went out and took my little tea cart to set up "tea in the garden".  The mosquitoes were coming out
 so believe me I moved pretty fast.  This week I got
another old bird feeder painted and mounted on a 4 x 4 post.  My
hubby did the drill part of attaching it after I painted it.

We will be enjoying some rain tonight for which we are very glad!

I recently shared that the Japanese and June 
beetles have left
 town for
which I am very happy!

I am so sorry we had to "gulp" our tea
 so quickly
 but the mosquitoes
are getting aggressive tonight.

A PEACHY TEA for "Tea In The Garden"

I do hope your summer is going along splendidly.

Yesterday I made some Peach Tarts

 (instead of a pie)

for my "Tea In The Garden" so I hope you

are hungry.

We had a very hot day yesterday and in fact, they are saying this summer has been hotter - our first summer here too!

Please take a seat and pour yourself some tea:

I was so excited Monday morning when I noticed there were no more June Beetles or Japanese Beatles on the roses.  Maybe now I will actually get some to come to full bloom.

The bunnies are having a feast

 with the peach peelings:

I love this old teapot!

I love little drip catchers like these:

I used my Peach Pie recipe but instead of a pie, I cut out 3" rounds of the pastry dough rolled out and pressed them into a standard size muffin tin.

  See the recipe here!

ESTATE SALE GARDEN STATUARY

I recently went to an estate sale on the 1/2 price day.  
I got several vintage garden statuary
 pieces for just $25.00 each.

I think the statue above is called "Summer".  

This one below is on the side of
our house on the way to the back yard. 
The teapot birdhouse was a sweet
gift from a friend:

The third one was this little boy who
we put in the back yard:

Do you know about estate sales?  You can see
what's happening where you live at:(USA)

https://www.estatesales.net/

I am sharing this post at:
Let's Talk Vintage

AN ENGLISH BOLSTER

A few years back I was inspired by a UK

 Face Book site.  A UK couple 

resell items in several antique mall booths
and on UK Etsy.  

Of course they call them "stalls" in England
which sounds way more fun.

The wife sews wonderful pillows out of

old vintage fabrics and so after seeing

her "Bolsters",  I decided to make

one for our master bed.  For my

base fabric, I used a piece from an 

old Ralph Lauren sheet.

  The needlepoint

center panel was one someone did in the

journey of life which I found in an

antique mall.  The lace came off

a runner that was flawed.

I made my pillow 48" across by about 18" tall and 

stuffed it very firm with the polyfill from 3 bed pillows

plus a little more.  Those old bed pillows are a great

source for polyfill because someone in

the family is always

buying a new one and we seem to collect

them in our closets.

If you are on Face Book - you can visit the site
 I spoke about here:

Nicholas and Steele Vintage

SUNDAY CELEBRATION

EDITH HOLDEN'S BOOKS for "Tea Not In The Garden"

I usually do my "Tea In The Garden" post 

on Thursday but yesterday with

 temperatures in the 90's and doing 

other projects - it just didn't happen. 

 So this morning I thought we'd just

 stay inside where we can be cool and  comfortable.  I apologize

for arriving a little late.

I promised my husband I would keep the teapot displays out of the "living room". 

 I am happy to have this spot in my

 Victorian parlor near the kitchen for

 my armoire and what
not shelves:

I think I am a little slow about finding out

 how you can get great books on Amazon

 and used ones work great for me too. 

 Several of the books I ordered have come

 and I have been enjoying them. (very inexpensively) I already had a copy of

 Edith Holden's "Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady".  This week two

other books that I ordered arrived:

 "The Nature Notes of An Edwardian

Lady" and "The Edward Lady" - 

The story of Edith

Holden compiled by Ina Taylor.

With my tea chest nearby you can pick
from the many types inside:

Edith Holden grew up in the Edwardian

 era and was an artist who loved birds, flowers and nature.  She kept a diary

 where she drew the  birds and flowers she
had seen each day on her walks in the nearby woods.

I am just getting a chance to look at these

 new to me books and since this is August

 let's see what she

 drew for this month.

And please help yourself to tea and one

 of these Buttermilk Brownies I baked

 last night.   Really, they are more like a cake than a brownie.  I had baked a Quiche last night and since the oven was already hot it seemed like a good idea

to just keep it going! 

Here is the recipe for the

 Buttermilk Brownies:

Ingredients: 1 stick butter, 4 Tb cocoa, 

1/2 cup vegetable oil, 1 cup water, 

2 cups flour, 2 cups sugar, 1/2 cup 

buttermilk, 2 eggs, 1 Tsp vanilla, 1 Tsp 

baking soda, 1/2 tsp salt

Melt the butter, add the cocoa, oil and water.  Boil for several minutes.  Pour this mix over the flour and sugar, mix well, add buttermilk, eggs, vanilla, soda and salt and mix again.
Bake in greased and floured 13 x 9" pan 25 minutes at 350 degrees.
I also added 1 cup chopped walnuts to this batter.

Frosting:
1 stick butter, 4 Tb cocoa, 6 Tb buttermilk, 3 3/4 cups confectioner's sugar, 1 cup chopped walnuts, 1 tsp vanilla

Melt the butter and mix in the cocoa and buttermilk in mixing bowl.  Add this mix to the sugar and vanilla - mix well pour over the brownies while they are slightly warm. 
 Sprinkle the nuts evenly on top.

I feel like we have had a wonderful summer.  Yes, it has been hot as expected.  We are supposed to enjoy some temps in the 80's

 here soon so if that happens - I won't complain. 

We have spent our summer working on the long list of projects and repairs here on our house.  My husband is currently staining the deck.