Creating a Centerpiece with Ordinary Things

It is very easy to get into the habit of doing the same thing over and over again-especially when something is tried and true. At the holidays, I attempt to switch things up a bit and create new ideas out of common things. As Susan and I were getting more treasures out of the barn, we came across several pieces of milk glass and decided to create a simple holiday arrangement/centerpiece.

We started with a tray. This wooden tray was in the mud room, filled with papers that I hadn’t gone through in quite some time. After wiping off the dust, we were had our base piece. Any tray that you have laying around will do.

Next we chose this dish towel as it is a nice holiday red color. I like the texture and pattern, but again, any towel, napkin or piece of fabric of your choosing will do. Placing it at an angle creates interest. Probably should have ironed it, but once it is covered, who will know?

Next we added a combination of artificial greens and some fresh clippings from the yard. Getting different textures and shades of green was the objective.

We also added some ornaments. We found these large glass orbs on one of our shopping trips and I love the vibrant color. Any ornament will do. Next we took a few pieces of the milk glass and filled them with white roses and red berries. Using different container shapes adds multiple heights. The all-white color theme gives it consistency. You could use coffee cups, glasses, any container ready to hold water and flowers. Also, the rule of thumb is to have an odd number of pieces-not sure who’s rule it is, but it seems to work!

Lastly, we added a taper candle in a milk glass holder for height and dimension. This was a simple, easy and yet festive arrangement that would look great on any table. The milk glass containers will be available soon on our online store. Please let me know what everyday items you use for centerpieces! Happy creating!

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Tale of 2 Connecticut Yankees

Have you ever walked into an antique store and spotted a stunning piece of furniture or treasure, only to look at the price and go into sticker shock? We all love beautiful things, but don’t necessarily have the means or the desire to pay and arm and a leg. So my dear friend Susan and I thought we would combine our love of travel, our affinity for unique treasures, and the excitement of a bargain. Why not create a home business to promote the lost art of “gracious living” at a reasonable price?

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Five years ago, we started 2 Connecticut Yankees, to be “thrifty purveyors of antiques and fine objects”. Susan is a fellow Yankee also born and raised in Connecticut. For those of you unfamiliar with the term “Yankee” we are known for our thriftiness and flinty character. We save, reuse, recycle and make do or do without. While many people come to this lifestyle on their own, Yankees are born that way and can do little to overcome these traits.

We wanted to make our shopping from 2 Connecticut Yankees different. It was important for it to be an enjoyable experience for our guests so we treated our events like a party, welcoming people into our home. The goal was to just have fun, provide lovely things for a fair price and be joyful in finding a forever treasure. There was no pressure to buy. Our knowledgeable friend, Leslie, helped us get started.

We also saw this as an opportunity to showcase other women in small business to give them exposure and display their wares. We included florists, a beekeeper/honey-maker, pastry chef, seamstress and other artisans.

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Our plan was to host 2 to 4 events per year out of the barn at Bella Terra. That would allow us time to replenish inventory and still be able manage the rest of our lives. Susan and I had fun searching for that unique item and staging the barn for our sales.

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We had quite a few successful events and most importantly, we enjoyed the gathering of our friends and the help of our families. And then life, as it tends to, got in the way. Between raising children, caring for our parents and working, we found less and less time to travel, seek bargains and host on our barn events. So 2 Connecticut Yankees was put on hold, for all the right reasons.

The good news, is that there is a barn full of wonderful treasures that we are slowly putting on the Bella Terra website. It’s been a fun learning curve (well, mostly) and with time, we hope to get all the items posted and available for purchase.

Please bear with us as selling online is new to us and we imagine there will be some glitches.

The Store will be officially sometime next week. Have a wonderful Sunday!

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Bring in the holidays!

I am in awe of the people who are able to have their holiday cards arrive the day after Thanksgiving. Seriously. This weekend, we tried to take our family photo for our card since all the children were home. Even though I set up the tripod and the day was overcast, you would think that ONE photo would have come out perfectly….but nooooooooooo. My youngest daughter, Elisabeth kept flying in front of the camera so I have lots of these shots (which I secretly love 🙂 And the dogs would come and go so I have numerous pictures of half a tail, part of a head…

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You would think that trying to get 5 people to look at the camera, not move, have good posture, keep eyes open, not use the “V” sign over someone’s head, without belly laughing, would be easy….I have a new respect for professional photographers. Also, why do I look so much older in these photos than I feel??? Arggggg.

Since I haven’t even LOOKED at card styles yet, I am truly impressed with those organized souls that pop their cards in the mail the day before Thanksgiving. My hat’s off to you!

Speaking of Thanksgiving, I believe it was the first year that all the food came out of the oven at the same time and arrived at the table hot and delicious. Here is our turkey before it went into the oven.

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Now it’s off to Christmas holiday decorating. I know there are many ways to celebrate the season. It is a magical time, but it can also be hectic and stressful. So whatever you celebrate, or even if you don’t celebrate, please make extra time to enjoy your fellow man. If we were all a little kinder to each other, our world would be a better place. Don’t you agree?

So, I started the Christmas decorating. It’s fun to pull out items that you haven’t seen for a year and for some reason I am always surprised at what I find. My collection of holiday pillows create an instant seasonal look to the family room, as well as the wreaths that are hung on the interior of each of the windows. My husband placed a grommet in the ribbon and put small cup hooks on each window frame, so hanging the wreaths is a breeze.

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Since the family room is also home to the pets (2 dogs and 2 cats), the holiday decorating is a bit limited-nothing breakable. So with wreaths on all the windows, numerous holiday pillows on the sofa (purchased from Pottery Barn), and a few pieces of Christmas art, I consider this room decorated.

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The vintage picture below was a gift from my dear friend, Janie. She is the expert at giving unique and thoughtful gifts. Actually, this is the “Janie corner” because in the background hanging on the wall, are two rooster oil paintings, also done by her….How lucky am I to have such a talented friend!

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One room down and many more to go. It takes a good week to decorate Bella Terra, some years I do more than others. If I am organized, I hope to have a holiday home tour for you before too long.

Here’s my very first winter painting! I donated it to a charitable event back in Connecticut. Fortunately, someone liked it and bought it.

I’m off to find holiday cards and at least one decent photo of our brood! Happy Monday!

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Happy Thanksgiving!

The kitchen at Bella Terra is a mess–a happy mess- but still a mess! But the pies are made and the table is set. pumpkinpies

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Wishing you and yours a happy, safe and blessed Thanksgiving.

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Cherishing November

November is the still and quiet month. This month is often overlooked and gets the short end of the stick. It’s stuck between spooky Halloween and sparkly Christmas and doesn’t get the attention it deserves. November is the resting month before the frantic pace of the holidays. It’s the calm before the storm and a month I cherish.

This month temperatures cool in Phoenix and our leaves start changing colors. It is also the month where we celebrate Thanksgiving, a holiday without presents or fanfare. November and Thanksgiving….is truly a time when we can focus on the most important things: family, friends and food (and of course, football).

Originally the rhythms of the season are celebrated by giving thanks for the blessing of the harvest. Too bad it is overshadowed by the retail push of the December holidays.

Am I the only one that dodges all things Christmas now? Shielding my eyes from the seasonal aisles at the stores, I quickly skim over the holiday channels both on the radio and the television. Currently, I am saving Christmas-focused blog posts from my favorite bloggers for after Thanksgiving. My inner soul says, “Noooooooooooo Christmas yet…..we haven’t had Thanksgiving!!!!” What ever happened to the official start of the Christmas holiday when Santa made his appearance at Macy’s after the Thanksgiving Day parade??

I remain steadfast in our commitment that nothing Christmas-y appears at Bella Terra until the day after Thanksgiving. We have our autumn decorations up and they will stay up until November 25th.

So here’s to November and all its forgotten glory! Enjoy the supermoon-we won’t see another for 18 years!

Resources: faux bois vases from Painted Fox

Thankful Pillow from Etsy

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Apples and My Favorite Recipe

After being raised on a wide variety of Connecticut apples, it’s hard not to be an apple snob. But we do have a few varietals that grow well here in Arizona, depending on your Hardiness Zone. At Bella Terra, we grow Anna apples that I harvest in June, which seems completely counter-intuitive to me. I try to cold store them in the refrigerator, but unless I use them quickly, they tend to shrivel and get soft.

In the White Mountains, we grow Golden Delicious and they harvest on a more typical fall schedule. Golden Delicious are a good for eating and making applesauce. Not the best apple for making pies, because they are less firm and much sweeter, but beggars cannot be choosers.

Recently, Kari Anne at Thistlewood Farms did a fabulous post on apples. I was so inspired after reading her blog, that I made an apple pie, not just any apple pie, but what I call Troop 184 Apple Pie.

When my daughter, Elisabeth was in 4th grade, I was a Girl Scout troop leader. I thought it would be a great idea to teach 36 nine-year olds how to make a pie from scratch. Our meetings were 1.5 hours long, not long enough to bake a pie, but long enough to make the dough and peel the apples, etc. I envisioned each girl bringing home a freshly made 9″ pie to bake at home. What the heck was I thinking? First of all, trying to get 36 nine-year old girls to pay attention was a feat in itself. But with rolling pins, sugar and flour?

One hundred pounds of apples, 50 lbs of flour, and 15 lbs of sugar later….well, you get the picture. Fortunately, I “pre-made” most of the dough and “pre-cut” most of the apples. We broke into 6 teams of 6 girls, and with lots of parent helpers, each girl left the meeting, covered in flour but with a full size pie to take home. I was exhausted and no one died of food poisoning. All in all, it was a successful meeting.

I wouldn’t have survived cutting all those apples without one of these:

It’s an apple peeler and corer. I don’t know what genius invented it but I marvel every time I use it. I purchased mine several years ago from William Sonoma. They can also be found on Amazon. This gadget seems to get a great deal of use at our house, especially when I need to peel larger quantities of apples (can be used for potatoes, too.)

It peels the apple, cores it and then slices it just by the turn of the handle. Works for all apples sizes-just brilliant!

I experimented with several pie dough recipes before I selected this one for my girl scout troop pie making extravaganza. I swear this is my go-to pie crust recipe…Another lifesaver when making large quantities of pie dough, is my Cuisinart. It is SO easy and simple to make a pie crust this way.

Just add all the ingredients and pulse away, adding more ice water as you go to get the proper consistency of dough.

What makes this dough so flaky is the combination of both vegetable shortening and butter. Leaving large chunks of it in the dough makes for pockets of flakiness. Though making this dough from scratch is VERY easy, when in a pinch, I love Trader Joe’s pie crust as a substitute. It’s a bit sweeter tasting too. You just have to plan ahead to defrost it properly or it’s difficult to lay open.

In this recipe, I used our mountain apples, Golden Delicious. Since they are naturally sweet, I just added less sugar. I prefer a tart and firmer apple for pies. But, being a good Yankee, I use what I have. Lately I’ve seen so many artistic pie crusts on Pinterest so I tried to be fancy by adding a maple leaf dough cut-out for the border.

You cannot beat the smell of an apple pie baking~~seems so appropriate for this time of year. I hope this inspires you to bake a pie from scratch!

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