Color and dishes

Remember yesterday when I mentioned my mismatched colorful clearance isle dishes?

Here they are! (Well three of them-the rest are tucked into the cabinets).

I love the color that a few patterned dishes add to space. Like flowers after winter it’s so exciting and stimulating.  

Aren’t kids wonderful?! I get to be with mine all day-and a lot of the times I am up with them at night too. Somehow the moments of shear exhaustion at 2 am become the most precious memories.

Its those memories that standout in my mind like colored dishes in a (mostly) white kitchen.

(I know, I know,  I wrapped those two topics together pretty smoothly didn’t I?)

Happy Wednesday world.

Eat in Diner

I have always thought that phrase would be funny to hang in a kitchen. So I finally made a sign for myself. I just painted over a different sign I already had.

I painted the whole sign and then traced out letter by letter the phrase and filled it in with paint.

I used frog tape to help with the border I did around the edge.

When I was about finished I decided to free hand a few details to the border for fun.

Let the paint dry completely.

Sand gently and apply the stain taking off  as much as you can. You could also use a dark wax for this part.

Once the sign has dried it is ready to hang.

Did I ever talk about my dining area? I really like to collect colorful dishes even as I have my off white obsession. . My dishes are off white except my mismatched collection. I have a rule with colorful printed salad plates, I never by matching salad plates; it’s kind of a game I have. In the end they all coordinate because I choose pattern and solid colors. I usually only buy one at a time- the game is really about finding one salad plate I like in the Clarence section.  There is something about the mis-matched-ness of all the plates that says to me-yep I am fun and colorful! 

Ham Gravy for Easter, and a Bunny

We celebrated our Easter dinner with a simple but sweet table set up. Some candles and striped napkins were the stars. The Ham gravy was amazing (as was the ham) and I hope we can all agree that there is nothing so savory as fluffy mashed potatoes with ham gravy on them.

The simplest of Ham Gravy’s:

The drippings of a baked ham –get the drippings before you put the sweet sugar, mustard or honey glaze on the ham. That way it is just a pure ham taste.

Cornstarch mixed with cold water.

Bring dripping’s to a boil.

While stirring constantly, drizzle the cornstarch and COLD water mixture into the boiling drippings until the gravy is the desired consistency.

Enjoy with mashed potatoes-although we all know it’s good enough to eat  plain.

*Taste the drippings to make sure they are not too salty (it is highly unlikely that you will ever need to add salt to ham drippings)

The bunny who you can see in this picture (deepest apology's for the poor lighting) is named Peter and is our official family bunny. I had a  bunny who looked just like him when I was a girl, and he was named peter, because of the peter rabbit story's don't-ya- know. I am pretty sure we ate him when he grew up.

We wont eat this peter rabbit- because he is made plastic-I mean the kids might try to eat him, but I don't think they will have much luck. He is pretty sturdy for a little guy. 

The end.

I hope you are all pulling out your old copies of "The Velveteen Rabbit" and the "Tale of Peter Rabbit" and just to be thorough "The tale of Benjamin Bunny" because I know I have to when I get that itch or the book worm part of my brain pokes me for a few days out of revenge for being ignored. I start to worry that someday no one will remember those books, and that would be tragic. Lets face it classics are classics.

Have an Awesome Monday everyone.