Beach therapy

After the rough week we've had I decided I needed some beach therapy. Since I wasn't able to hit the actual beach other than our lake I went into the crafts room where I keep my ocean treasures. I reorganized my shells and the crushed sand from my beloved Florida beaches.

As I transfered the sand to another container I noticed some little shark's teeth that I must have overlooked the first time. Always looking for an excuse to play with the sand, I brought everything outside and went through the batch handful by handful. Wouldn't you know it, I found some tiny treasures that I have overlooked before.

It was like going to the beach all over again. To me this is a therapeutic activity because I focus on the task at hand and forget about my surroundings. When I'm done, I feel refreshed.

I adore the pinkish color of those little shells. I hope everyone is having a good weekend so far and some sunshine.

Life on the edge in Sweet Home AL

Hello my dear readers, as you may know by now a deadly Tornado outbreak has hit central Alabama last night. Entire towns have been wiped out, millions are without power, and the National Guard has been activated to help look for bodies in the debris. We were blessed to not have been hit, we only had high winds and pouring rain and thunder. This past March and April has been one of the most active Tornado seasons in history. A lot of people live in trailors and shacks down here, so they have little chance of survival if a strong tornado hits. Let's keep those affected in our thoughts. To read more about it visit here.

Pratt City near Birmingham, AL after the tornado hit. As you can see live in AL is dangerous at times.

This isn't the only threat right now-it is also the time of year when snakes become active. We only have about 10 different poisenous species here. We have had numerous encounters lately on our favorite trail Grubb Run.

The dogs really enjoy this trail - they get to run off leash and it leads down to a stream where they can cool off. Twice now we've seen snakes on the trail and they blend in, so you don't see them until you are almost on top of them.

We decided not to walk this trail anymore, especially since a jogger reported a huge Watermoxin under a log on the fitness trail. It's getting warm enough where the dogs can go back to the lake and swim in the mornings.

I'll be back later with a more cheerful post for the weekend. Take care my friends,

Guest blogger Creativity, Life, and Me

Today my German friend Bianca is sharing a traditional German recipe with us. Here she is:

My name is Bianca and I am guest blogging from Creativity, Life and ME - a bilingual (German/English) blog about everyday's family life.

I live in a beautiful German region called Rheingau situated in the Rhine River Valley which is famous for its old castles and the RIESLING wine - maybe you have heard about it...
Today we have a yearly event starting called "Rheingau Gourmet-Weeks".
Almost every winery in this region opens their doors during these 10 days. They have wine tastings and offer many delicious dishes.
One of these dishes is called "Spundekaes und Laugengebaeck" - Paprika Cream Cheese with Soft Pretzels.

This is something that's very easy to prepare and I would like to share my recipe here with you.

I really hope you like it!

You need:

• 4 cups flour
• 1 package yeast
• 1 cup warm water
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 tablespoons coarse salt
• 8 cups water
• 6 tablespoons bakin soda

• 1 cup cream cheese
• 1 cup curd cheese (if you don't get this, you can substitute the curd with sour cream)
• 1/8 cup soft unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon paprika hot
• 2 teaspoons paprika noble sweet
• salt for tasting
• optional: a dash of garlic powder and/or onion powder

For the pretzel dough put the flour in a large bowl, add yeast, salt and sugar and then slowly mix in the warm water. First with a spoon and once it gets too hard use your hands until you have a smooth dough. Cover with a damp towel and let the dough rise for about 30 minutes.



In the meantime mix all the ingredients for the paprika cream cheese with an electric mixer. There are many ways to prepare this dish. The most common ingredients are listed above. Just try out what you like best! I like it with both of the paprikas and the onion powder.


Preheat oven to 350° F.
Once the dough has risen form little rolls or sticks - if you are creative you can also form real pretzels! I tried - and failed...
Cut the rolls/sticks crosswise on top with a very sharp knife.
Bring the 8 cups of water to a boil, add the baking soda and cook the rolls/sticks for about 1 minute. Take them out with a ladle and put them on a baking sheet. Sprinkle with coarse salt and bake for about 10-15 minutes.



Tadaa! Easy, isn't it?


Have fun preparing something real German and enjoy!

Bianca

Thank you Bianca-this looks delicious!

A few announcements

I'm back online after my homenetwork crashed on Friday. The laptop crashed and wouldn't boot up, and then the notpad couldn't find my router to go online. I had to reinstall Everything on the laptop, and it got a new hard drive. I will make a long story short and will just tell you I spend 12 hours on the phone with online support for the past two days. I kid you not. I had to call everyone from my ISP to the router company to the computer company and I almost called Microsoft. I was ready to through out both computers. Thankfully I finally found some competent help and it is all set up and running.

On another note, my DH made arrangements for us to go on summer vacation to the beach. We were going to head back to the Venice beach, FL area, but we couldn't find the perfect vacation house and we didn't take the humidity in August and hurrican season into account.

So we are going here instead:

Same place we have been to last year. You can't beat the oceanfront location with the fenced in yard for the dogs.

You can read about our last year's vacation in St. Augustine, FL here. For all the other beach rats you  can still enter my giveaway of thishere.

And for another adventure we had over Easter stop back by later this week. Cheers,

{Decorating} Coastal wreath

I have been wanting to make sea shell wreaths for a while now. I just couldn't decide what style to do first. Then I saw a beautiful wreath on Maya's blog, and decided to make a similar one. I like the rustic-coastal feel this wreath has. Here is the inspiration-click picture to see the full post: 
I went out and collected some pinecones, which is what the flowers on the wreath are made of. We have monster pinecones down here in the south, so I had a hard time cutting them without breaking them. I abondened that part of the project and just went with coastal accents and the grapevine wreath.

I used a starfish, a sea urchin, a sand dollar, and different shaped shells to place on the wreath. I secured them with fabri tac. Yes, fabri tac. I love it because it dries almost immediately. I used a vintage ribbon to hang the wreath. And here it is on my front (nautical) door.

I had all the supplies on hand, and the shells I have collected myself, so this was a $0 project for me. I'm happy it got done in time for summer! I'm linking to these meme's.  Like it-follow me. You can still sign up for my beachy giveaway at the DIY club here.

Easter tablescape&Frohe Ostern

Happy Easter my friends! I hope everyone is enjoying a nice meal among family and friends. I finally have my table set, inspired by ideas I showed you here and here.
We are having honey glazed ham, mashed potatoes, mac & cheese, and collard greens. Everything is homemade. I'm pretty proud of myself - my first time making ham and collard greens from scratch. I like to learn a local recipe for every place I live at.  I made a German cherry streusel cake for dessert. Doesn't it look yummy?

I placed Easter grass along the middle of the table and added my Easter bunnies, my prayer cube, some robins eggs, and the vintage eggs I made here.

Another view of the vintage eggs. The tablecloth is vintage linen.

My theme for the table was wildflowers. I picked the boquet for the vase from the local fields and placed some pink clovers on the napkins and secured everything with some grapevine string.

The dishes are German onion pattern. The white coffee cup plates are from a vintage set. I made the burlap utensil holder. I think it adds a nice touch. I will post a tutorial soon.

I'm linking to these meme's here. You can still enter my giveaway here. Frohe Ostern,

{German Holiday Traditions} Easter

Today I'm sharing German Easter Traditions with you. In Germany Easter is the highest Holiday of the year. I will briefly introduce several traditions to you. The week before Easter is called 'Karwoche' and starts on Palm Sunday. The following Thursday is 'Gruendonnerstag' (Green Thursday). In church the holy supper is celebrated that evening. After this mass the church bells are quiet. It is said the bells are going to Rome to be baptized and are coming back on Sunday. On 'Karfreitag' (Good Friday) fish is on the menu and instead of the church bells 'Ratschen' are calling to mass. Ratschen are wooden instruments that make terrible noise when swung around. All stores are closed.  Easter Saturday is a day of quietness. The Easter celebration begins in the 'Osternacht' from Saturday to Sunday. Easter Sunday is a celebration with family get together and Easter egg hunts. On Easter Monday the stores are closed again. Many towns have their 'Georgi ritt' that day. It is a procession of horse riders, carriage, music bands, and historical groups. The processions start at the town square and go to the church, where a priest blesses the animals and participants.



The event is a mixture of tradition, historical play, and christian beliefs. Afterwards on the market square sword dancers perform to celebrate the arrival of spring.



To read more about the Georgiritt visit here. Another tradition is the Oberammergau Passion Play, held every 10 years. It is set in the beautiful Bavarian Alps in a quaint town called Oberammergau.

Yet another Easter tradition on Green Thursday is the decorating of the Easter fountain. The towns people go out and decorate the towns fountain with beautiful decorated greenery and Easter eggs. The first picture on this post is the fountain in my hometown.

This fountain is the largest of its kind and has the most eggs. The tradition behind this is the celebration of water. The towns women used to have to schlepp the water from the well to the home, and water wasn't readily available as it is today. So this source of water was treasured and celebrated. Nowadays it is a tradition kept alive and in some towns it has become a tourist attraction.

I hope you have enjoyed this glimpse into my heritage and don't miss tomorrows post on my Easter tablescape. To see German Easter recipes visit here. Click here for Easter decor and tablescapes. Enter my giveaway here. Cheers,

{German Holiday Traditions} Easter bread

A German Easter Tradition is to bake Easter bread called Osterkranz (Easter wreath) or Osterzopf (Easter bread). The dough is a yeast dough (Hefeteig). You can use the same recipe for both forms, it is up to you to form a wreath or bread loaf. You can also vary the ingredients to make a sweet bread or a more rustic bread. Tradition calls for raisins, but nowadays people use apricots, nuts, herbs and lot's more.

You eat this either for Easter breakfast or for Easter coffee that afternoon. I love it best when I can dunk it in coffee or hot chocolate. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients

150 g mixed dried fruit (raisins, apricots)

500g flour

1 pack yeast

200ml milk

80g soft butter

60g sugar

pinch of salt

2 eggs

1 egg yolk

powdered sugar for dusting (optional)

To make

Soften butter, add yeast to milk and disolve. Add Flour, sugar and salt to a bowl, mix, then add butter, yeast milk and dried fruit. Mix with an electric mixer until dough is smooth. Put flour on your workspace and half the dough. Form two strings from the dough and braid together. Form a wreath on the baking sheet. Take egg yolk and add a bit milk, swirl, and brush on top of wreath. Bake on middle wrack for about 30 to 40 minutes at 350F. Let cool. Dust with powdered sugar if desired and add Easter eggs in the middle for decoration. Enjoy.
I'm linking to these meme's here. You can still enter my beachy giveaway at the DIY club here.

{Holiday Decorations} Easter decor ideas

I thought I would share some Easter decor eye candy today to get everyone in the Easter spirit.

I love the springy colors and how fresh this looks. The uses for glass containers never end.

This looks beachy to me-my favorite colors, too. With a little imagination you can see beach balls in those eggs.

I like the natural elements in this setting, and how it goes with the pastel colors. So simple!

Aren't these just darling? See how I did my eggs with doilys here.

This is awesome-I love everything about it. I love the white and blue and how the orange gives it a pop. I might have to use some of these elements in my table setting. So, are you in the Easter spirit yet? All photos via deco&style. You can still enter my beachy giveaway at the DIY club here.

Giveaway Beach House Living Book

Exiting news my friends! The DIY club is celebrating their one year anniversary this month and is hosting four themed parties, and a giveaway each day. Today's giveaway is a Beach House Living Book by Coastal Living Magazine and is sponsored by us!

To enter visit here and leave a comment, be sure to either follow me or the DIY club. The giveaway is open until midnight April 28, after which you will have one week to claim your prize. While there, visit the parties and sign up for more giveaways!

Cheers!