Sweet Local Farm

Join me for tea at the farmhouse.

I bought myself a beautiful primrose at our local greenhouse this morning. I always buy myself one every time they hit the stores in late winter. It is just the cheery boost I need to make it through till Spring. It inspired me to set a pretty Spring themed tea time tablescape.

First I started with an antique lace tablecloth:

I added this Princess House Vintage Garden teapot that was a gift from my mother. She picked this teapot out because I had blue hydrangeas as my wedding flowers last September.

For something unexpected I added this adorable cat sugar and creamer set. They are vintage and either from a tag sale or a thrift shop, I can’t remember!

I set the table with my ivory Fiesta ware salad plates and these beautiful hand embroidered antique napkins that belonged to my husband’s grandmother. They are from Sicily and were a gift to me from my mother in law.

Blue tea cup and saucer from a thrift shop:

So have a seat and relax!

To see more tablescapes, visit:

Happy Groundhog’s Day! Phil saw his shadow so we will have 6 more weeks of winter…

The Forsythia is now in full bloom:

What a hopeful sign of spring just around the corner:

How cute were our little chickens!

So fluffy!

A week and a half ago I picked some Forythia branches to bring indoors for early blooms. The branches awoke and are now covered with little yellow buds that will bloom any day now. If you have Forsythia shrubs in your yard, go pick a few branches. You will not be disappointed.

On Sunday we had guests over for brunch. We drank sparkling Mimosas and spicy Bloody Mary cocktails. Our hens continue to lay throughout the winter, so we had plenty of eggs for some delicious omelettes.

I made my own vegetarian Bloody Mary mix:

The table set with ivory Fiesta ware:

A fresh fruit salad in a cabbage bowl with rhubarb serving utensils:

I love the old fashioned Fiesta disc pitchers:

Omelette bar all ready to go:

The hen tablecloth is from Portugal and is perfect for a farm house kitchen:

Enjoy other tablescapes here:

Cooking in our Lodge cast iron skillet is fun! It is great for stovetop to oven recipes, stir fries, eggs, and more. Tonight we had a craving for cookies so Luke baked one giant chocolate chip cookie in the skillet.

Here is the cookie before we popped it in the oven:

Here is the recipe: Skillet-Baked Chocolate Chip Cookie

And here is our delicious cookie all baked:

I’ve said this before, but homeownership, or should I say farm ownership, is hard work. If something breaks, you have to fix it. If something needs maintenance, it is up to you to care for it. With this in mind I’ve come up with a list of tasks I’d like to do this summer to the house, barn, and workshop.

1. The gutters on the barn. The back gutters on the barn are wooden and completely rotted away. The watershed of the barn’s roof runs right into the barnyard where the goats and chickens live. This makes for a sloppy, muddy mess. It is also slowly deteriorating the walls of the barn by wearing away the paint and staying moist all the time. In order to fix this we will need a long length of gutter and some really tall ladders.

2. The roof on the corncrib. The corncrib is a two story shed attached to the back of the barn. When the previous owners put a new roof on the barn they did not do the corncrib. It will be a nice “small” roofing project that I’ve enlisted my Mom to come help me do. I’ve seen her up on the roofs of various houses my whole life. She also works at Home Depot and knows a lot about home repair.

3. The broken window. We have a broken window in the barn. My mom fixed our last broken window and now we need to learn how to do it for ourselves.

4. Stain the porch. I stained the front steps this past fall and was very happy with the result. I want to stain the rest of the porch to match.

5. Paint the porch. The white paint on the railings of the porch is flaking and needs to be repainted. I figure I can do the project in a short time without any major equipment. We got a power washer for Christmas so this will be the perfect time to use it!

6. Remove moss from the workshop roof. There is green mossy growth on the north side of the workshop roof. It will eventually eat the shingles and ruin the roof. To save it, we need to spray the roof with a special solution.

7. Paint the barn! For anyone who has seen the barn in person, you know it is a massive structure. It will take a lot of scraping, power washing, repairs, supplies, and time to paint. My goal is to paint one side per year for the next few years. By breaking it down into a manageable task I feel like it is less overwhelming.

Our barn:

And now that I’m feeling thoroughly overwhelmed I thought I’d post some pretty barns I found on Flickr. Did you know our barn was originally painted light blue and had hand hewn wooden shingles? We plan to stick to red, but here are some colorful barns others have posted:

blue barn
yellow barn
red barn
orange barn
white barn
green barn
black barn
grey barn

Check out the Wicked Good Scene zine for an interview with my husband about the return of his band, Piebald.

My mother said today is the most depressing day of the year. I’m not quite sure of her reasoning on that claim, but I agree. It is cold and dark and its been slushy for the past few days. I’m getting anxious for the days when I can have coffee on the porch and get up early with the sun. So Mom says be depressed today, but be happy tomorrow because the most depressing day of the year has already passed.

I did get a set of eight charming vintage martini glasses today at my favorite thrift shop. Maybe it’s time for a dirty martini…

Cheers!