Saturday with Jane

Hello All!
The last few days have been so nice and definitely Spring-ish! Flowers are blooming and the birdies are out eating and chirping away in the yard. Some have even started making their nests in our bird houses too! Luckily I've been off so I could enjoy it all.
I've checked things off my to-do list and done some fun things too! Jane and I had a lovely luncheon at Sugarcakes, went antiquing, and then took a stroll about the square.


Mushroom and Brie soup and Feta salad. Yum!




Jane loves desserts!




Flowers in bloom

 "Who is Jane?" you ask: This is Jane Austen. She goes on adventures with me and we take fun pictures. I even took her to England a few years ago and she visited all of her former homes as well as many a hot spot. I hope you enjoy seeing where we've been and if you have any suggestions on fun things to do please do share.

Have a lovely day!
B Girl

Fresh & Fruity Trifle

The weather has been so sunny and nice lately after months of bitter cold and snow days I decided to make a fresh fruit trifle for dessert. There is nothing more summery and fresh than fresh strawberries and cream. I made vanilla cream last week for my strawberries and cream macarons but had so much left I had to come up with a use for the rest of the delicious vanilla custard cream.
Here is the recipe for the vanilla custard:
3 egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 cup milk
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, diced
1/2 cup heavy cream

Put the egg yolks, sugar, and cornstarch in a small heatproof bowl and wisk together until combined.

Heat the milk, along with the vanilla bean, in a small saucepan until it just starts to boil. Remove the vanilla bean and pour the hot milk over the egg mixture, whisking constantly until smooth.  Pour the mixture back into the pan and cook gently over low heat, stirring constantly until the custard comes to a boil and thickens. Pour into a clean bowl, add butter, and stir until butter melts and is incorporated..  Cover with cling wrap and let cool before refrigerating.

I bought store bought sour cream angel food cake, tore it into smaller pieces and made a layer of cake, then a layer of freshly sliced strawberries and blueberries, pour half of the vanilla cream, then add fresh whipped cream (just buy a container in the dairy section and whip in a mixer). I repeated this one more time and refrigerated overnight. I just tasted this dessert and I can vouch that it is quite yummy.

Something as simple as this can help boost your mood during some chilly weather.

Enjoy!
B Girl

Finally!

My vintage china finally came this weekend from England! I have a large dinner plate hanging on my wall of this beautiful birds of paradise pattern and recently found a few more pieces online. I love the raspberry color and the design is lovely. It's been hard to find but I'm just starting to collect it.

Tea anyone?

Happy Valentine's Day!

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Vday! My Parisian macarons turned out very well. I made mint chocolate ganache and strawberrries and cream. Yummo!

Have a lovely week and I will write again soon!
B Girl

Think Pink

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope everyone has something fun to do this weekend! And if not yet there is still time to make plans to see a movie, go shopping, have friends over for homemade pizza and chick flicks, which I did the other night and it was fun and delicious!

I love decorating and wanted to share our Valentine dinner table!









This pink and green tablescape is fun and makes me long for spring. It snowed again last night so any hint of spring is welcome! Birds and butterflies abound! A mossy centerpiece is blooming in love in the form of hand cut paper hearts in pretty pink and green papers. I found these pretty pink butterflies at the craft store and decorated the napkin rings for a fun surprise. Dessert will be pink and green Parisian macarons, which I started making the other day and will post about later. I added pastel Jelly Beans and old fashioned pink and green lollipops in this lovely pink glass container, which match the glasses on the table.

This tablescape was not expensive at all, I essentially just had to buy the butterflies, bird, and candy. Everything else I already had. I even got the twigs and moss from my own backyard. All you need is a little inspiration, time, and creativity...and voila!

Hopefully this inspires you to start decorating for springtime and maybe even do something fun with your sweetie this weekend.

Valentine Macarons

I'm planning on making homemade Parisian macarons tomorrow. Some new recipes to try out, can't wait to see how they turn out.
Here are the Valentine's macaroons, pre-baked, I made last year. They were pretty and yummy with chocolate ganache filling! :)

I had a helper bee ready to taste test. He didn't get any but was very interested in whatever was coming out of that oven.

I will post pictures and a recipe once I've tried it out!

Stay Tuned:)

Hello World!

Hello and welcome to my blog! I have decided that 2011 is going to be a great and exciting year and part of that is creating this space where I can share things I enjoy and hopefully learn new things as well.
A bit of an introduction. I am a recent college graduate working in the specialty retail field. Over the past 6 years I have studied and traveled abroad many times and enjoy learning and experiencing new things. I love all things historical, anything period themed, high tea, antiques, planning adventures, books, decorating, fashion, crafting, animals, and so much more. I hope to share some fun things on here and hopefully inspire you to do and see some of the same things and vice versa.
Here we go!

I've started decorating for Valentine's Day! I love themed decorating and parties. We are having a little get together next week so I started decorating so that I could share with you. My mother started collecting vintage Valentine cards from her childhood which we pull out every year. The graphics are so adorable and sweet who wouldn't love getting one from their grade school sweetheart?!

Here is a cute and simple tablescape for a dinner with your own Valentine:) Red polka dot plates, vintage eyelet placemats and vintage red gingham napkins tied simply with grosgrain. A bit of bubbly and dessert sounds delightful does it not?

Well that's all for now. Next time I will share a pink tablescape for Valentine's Day and just maybe you can meet Jane too!
Signing off,
B Girl