May 2007 - A Storybook Life

Delicious Summer Pasta – and new visitors to the cottage garden

October 27, 2011May 31, 2007 by Pearl Sanborn

This is a quick, easy, cheap, come back for seconds family dish!

Pasta salad is the perfect side dish for any summer meal! You can also change the recipe very easily by tossing in any of your favorite ingredients right from the cottage garden!

Cook your favorite kind of pasta while you’re making the sauce to save time! (we like using small pasta such as angel hair or bow-ties)

* Feel free to double the recipe – or add your own favorite ingredients 😉

While your pasta is cooking, mix together the following ingredients & let sit until pasta is done.

4 cups chopped tomatoes
1/2 cup chopped basil leaves
2-3 cloves pressed garlic
1 can sliced olives (I prefer mushrooms)
2 T. balsamic vinegar
2 T. olive oil
Add salt & pepper to taste

Top your pasta with this delicious sauce & be prepared for seconds 😉

Some ideas for extra favorite things to add:

– Cheese bits (or freshly grated parmesan cheese)
– Diced green, yellow, red, or hot peppers
– Broccoli
– Beans
– Sugar snap peas
– Celery
– Onions
– Chicken
– Pepperoni
– Bacon

I know your family will enjoy this one!

I also wanted to share some of the newest guests to our bird feeder with you!

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I call this little guy Fred 😉
I thought he had a piece of string tied to his tail! It took several days of seeing him at the feeder to realize that his little leg was broken. He gets around very nicely – even though he is “disabled” 🙂

My bird feeder gets lots of traffic! This wild turkey is our latest guest 🙂 Don’t forget… although we have several acres of land surrounding our cottage in the woods, we do live in a little Victorian village! Nice to see such a variety of “guests” come out even in the village 🙂

Humming Bird Feeder – Vintage Glass Look

October 27, 2011May 24, 2007 by Pearl Sanborn

I wanted to show you this great new humming bird feeder that I picked up at my local Walmart for $9.95!

The reason it caught my eye (besides the fact that it was deep red – my favorite color… for now ;), was because I thought that it was a thick red wine bottle that had been made into a humming bird feeder. It reminded me of some of the other thick bubble glass that some of my other garden features are made out of.

Upon closer inspection, I realized that it was actually plastic!

It has the look of a vintage wine bottle with a cork. At first, you might think about how hard it would be to keep the feeder filled after you take out the cork, but you actually unscrew the bottom of the feeder, turn it upside down, fill it, then turn it right side up – (after you put the bottom back on of course :).

Both the hanger & the bottom of the feeder are made out of metal, both of which help add to that vintage feel.

I purchased this feeder a week or so ago, but while I was working in the office today, I saw a little humming bird come up to the window. He was trying to get to the beautiful begonia flowers that a friend had given me (he must have been spying on me through the window :). So… I figured it was finally time to share the pretty red “vintage looking” feeder with him – and not just keep it all to myself 😉

If you get a chance, go check out the garden center at your local Walmart… maybe you can find one for your cottage garden!

Pink Roses That You Can Make

October 27, 2011May 10, 2007 by Pearl Sanborn

Pink & red roses are in high demand this time of year, and as well they should be! After all, we are honoring the most important women in our lives – our moms!

With Mother’s Day being just around the corner, I thought I would remind you of a very simple way to decorate those pretty packages!

Pink tissue paper roses!

They are so easy – very inexpensive – and so beautiful!

I remember making this kind of rose when I was a child, except they were as big as a dinner plate! I loved them then, but for some reason, I haven’t thought about them again until today.

This morning I was wrapping my mom’s Mother’s Day gift so I could put it in the mail, when I remembered the paper roses I used to make as a child.

I decided to wrap part of the package like you would a piece of candy – with twists at each end. But instead of folding the ends & taping them as I usually do, I decided to make them into pink roses instead.

Here’s how to make the roses when you are wrapping a gift.

Wrap your gift using 2-3 sheets of tissue paper (I kind of roll the gift so there are several layers of paper at each end – this makes a nice full rose). Tightly tie a ribbon around each end. Be sure to leave several inches on each end, so that when you gather it tight, you will have enough paper left to “pull” into a rose. Then, gently pull each layer of the paper apart, and shape into your rose.

Here’s what mine looks like from the top.

You can also make paper roses without wrapping a gift first.

– Decide how big you want your roses to be, then add a few inches extra for gathering
– Cut 2-3 strips of tissue paper that length
– Roll the paper into a loose roll (you can wrap it tight to begin with to make the center of the bud if you wish)
– Gather at one end & secure with a piece of wire, or a twist tie
– Pull the layers of the paper apart to make your desired rose shape

Think about all the beautiful colors & patterns that tissue paper comes in these days! You could add a few different colors (or patterns) together for a great effect! And tissue paper is so inexpensive, that you could make a room full for a few dollars! You say your a shabby chic, country cottage, or Victorian kind of girl? Hey – why not use these little beauties to decorate your space!

Oh – the possibilities!

The Bird Feeder – A Hot Spot in Our Garden!

September 24, 2013May 7, 2007 by Pearl Sanborn

There’s nothing better than being able to sit at my desk, while enjoying all of the noise & traffic that goes by my window each day! Traffic you ask? Yes! The best kind of traffic… wildlife roaming through the yard, enjoying a little treat as they go about their day 🙂

I’m talking, of course, about our bird feeders!

With this being our first year living at the cottage in the woods, we are just starting to get a taste of the joys of living with nature 😉

I thought I’d share a few pictures of the recent guests to the cottage feeder.

The first up (one pictured above) are the wonderful finches! They come in so many colors & sizes – but most of all – they have the most beautiful songs!

Then there are the little guys like this little chipmunk! So cute & tiny – we love to watch them stuff their cheeks full of goods then run back under the trees!

And last of all… the bigger guys like this sneaky raccoon! I do love wildlife… but I hope this is as big as the visitors get! After all… there were a few bear sightings in our area last year – yikes!

* Did you know that raccoons have “thumbs” which is why they are able to open trash can lids, and get into lots of other trouble around your property?!

* Do you know what a baby raccoon is called? Answer: A kit