Belle and Beau Go Live!

Blockboards by Belle & Beau

New town means new adventures and Christine isn't wasting anytime preparing for the handmade scene in Tennessee. Belle & Beau is a newly formed, joint project with husband David, for a refreshing update to her original solo project Belle Adore Boutique. To start, Christine and David hope to join the handmade and indie scene happening in the Nashville and Cookeville areas of middle Tennessee. They have set their focus on children's items, particularly inspiring imagination, creativity, and problem solving skills. You can expect to see Belle Adore's classic reversible crowns as well as new items hand crafted by David, such as the miniature blockboards pictured above.

Crowns - Reversible Washable Adjustable
by Belle & Beau

Something special

Handmade blanket from Dad's fleece robe

This is our first Christmas without my dad. We lost him suddenly and too soon, at the young age of 54. It was a shock to us all and we continue to adjust. Christmas has been no exception. My two beautiful children are the only reasons why we pulled the decorations down from the attic and carried on with our usual traditions this year. We were pleasantly surprised with new ornaments, handmade by sister and brother-in-law, commemorating my dad's life. It was a real treat to watch the kids hang them on our tree. Even though we live several states away from each other, it's no surprise that my sister and I were both making special gifts that centered around my dad. I secretly worked on a blanket for our mom. I knew she wanted to turn my dad's robe into a blanket, so I took it to Florida with me, and that's what I did. I carefully cut it into useable pieces (my gosh that first cut was hard!), and found a fleece pattern with a feminine touch to add to it. I made it so the two side plaid panels still have the pockets. When wrapped around my mom, she can actually use the pockets. I really love the way it came out and now that it has arrived home, I can share it here. My mom loves it and I know it will get a lot of use.
           When grieving a loved one, there are many ways to honor that person and keep their spirit alive. I personally like having some of their things around my house. There are several kitchen items I use that were my grandmothers. Whenever I use these items (a Boston bean pot, a banged up metal colander, an apron too big for me) I go through a slew of memories with my grandmother. This is how I keep her spirit alive in my home. I have similar items from my dad, and even though the loss is still painful, it does help a little, having some of his things with me. Now....I'll have to think about what to do with those robe scraps!

Be a drop in the water pot!

Now that Odd Duck Bazaar 2014 has passed, my co-producer Shelley Mitchell and I are focusing on local charity work. Shelley and I got involved as participants in an annual Spin-A-Thon with Marine Industry Cares Foundation in 2010. The foundation contributes to local charities helping children and families in need. The organization and people involved are top-notch and I've personally seen the positive impact these foundations make on children and their futures. I have set the bar higher than suggested and I'm trying to raise $500 on my own. This year marks the 6th year and takes place at Esplanade Park in Fort Lauderdale, FL on April 25th starting at 1pm. I encourage you to join in support in whatever way you can! If you'd like to help either one of us meet our goals, please click on the links below to contribute today. We'll do the hard work!

 "Drop by drop the water pot is filled" ~Buddha

Make a donation to Christine's goal: https://www.marineindustrycares.org/participant-home-page/?tsr_id=1080

Make a donation to Shelley's goal: https://www.marineindustrycares.org/participant-home-page/?tsr_id=1076

Thank you to our sponsor Connell Communications for allowing our team to participate this year! http://www.connellcommunications.com/

Boston butt, baked beans, and creamy slaw

My crockpot has probably been THE best kitchen purchase I've ever made, aside from the basics of course. I'm always looking for recipes that call for fresh ingredients and require few steps in preparation. I recently came up with this pork Boston butt recipe by browsing the Internet, listening to family and friends, and tweaking for our tastes. I've served it with homemade Boston baked vegetarian beans, and homemade cabbage coleslaw. Here are the recipes and ingredients I used:

Pork Boston Butt BBQ Crockpot

About 3 to 4 lbs Boston butt

Dry rub, lysanders BBQ

4 cloves of garlic

1 onion

Bottle of BBQ sauce

Trim excess fat off of the roast. Use scissors to slice deep holes in the meat, then stuff with garlic cloves. Chop onion and place in the bottom of the pot. Put the meat on top then sprinkle the dry rub generously over all sides. Cook on highest for about 5 hours. Drain fat once or twice before finishing. Put on warm and mix about a half bottle of BBQ sauce in the meat after shredding with a fork.

Creamy Coleslaw

Shred half a head of cabbage

Use one small bag of shredded carrots

Finely sliver and chop white onion (optional)

Mix sauce ingredients and pour over vegetables, then stir:

3/4 cup mayo

2 tbs sugar

2 tbs apple cider vinegar

1/4 tsp salt

2 tbs olive oil

Boston Baked Vegetarian Beans

1 package of dry pinto or dry white beans, 1lb

4 cloves of garlic minced

1 medium onion chopped

5 tbsp brown sugar

2 tbsp dry mustard

5 tbsp molasses

2 tsp sea salt

Soak beans in water overnight, keep covered with water. Drain while preparing the bean pot. In a bean pot, place onion, garlic, sugar,mustard, and salt. Pour beans over the mixture then top with molasses. Cover all of it with water until about an inch higher than mixture. Bake for 6 hours on 300 degrees in the oven. Check after the first hour to make sure it hasn't dried up. After that, leave it alone. No need to stir at all!

I love other people's garbage!

Yes, you read that right...I love other people's garbage. I probably inherited this from my grandfather or at the least learned young....treasures WILL be found in the garbage! Lucky for me, I don't have to dumpster dive or paw through heaps of stinky bags at the landfill to find such treasures. Our neighborhood has one day designated each month for curbside pickup which means all the good stuff is saved for then to be discarded. I have found countless treasures, but the most recent tops them all! Check out this chair pair. I found them without the cushions, looking a little dirty, with the cushion supports falling apart. What I saw though were very easy fixes and potential for two reclaimed chairs in my living room....giving us some much needed extra seating!

First I cleaned them up. Then I replaced the supports with strips of feed sack, making that fix totally free! I measured the bottom seat and found replacement cushions, in a neutral color, online and made the back pillows with removable covers so I can change the look whenever I want. The fix ups cost a lot less than what two brand new chairs would cost and now I have stopped the fighting over the one chair we had before.

Leftover Mexican Medley

Leftover Mexican Medley

Tacos, burritos, quesadillas and the such are a common staple in our house. I can mix up the ingredients easily and everyone always walks away with bellies full & happy. Last week when I made soft tacos, I purposely doubled my rice and meat mixture so I could squeeze another meal out of one night of prep and cooking. Lets just say, it was a total success!

I took the leftovers, mixed them up in a bowl, added 1 cup of frozen corn, 1 can of black beans, and about 1 cup of shredded Mexican cheese.

I pressed this firmly into a deep pie dish (you can use any casserole pan or cake pan), then spread the leftover refried beans on top, and sprinkled more cheese across the top. Bake for about 30 minutes on 350 or until the cheese is starting to brown on top. Serve with scallions on top and a side of sour cream. This was a big hit with the whole family and works great being prepped ahead of time too! Enjoy!

The Ladies

Six ladies have settled in nicely at our home in the city. This family addition has put us further into urban farming than we've ever been before. Until now, we've been slowly changing our ways around the house, trying to teach our children what it means to be self-sufficient and eco-friendly. While it does seem to be the trend these days, we've been adjusting our lifestyle for as long as I can remember. My husband and I are absolutely creatures of habit and comfort. We don't mind new routines, but we certainly like our old ones. So, we do tend to take our time making big changes. Well, "the ladies" (otherwise known as six hens) sort of put us on warp speed for progress in the yard.

Two ameraucanas, two rhode island reds, two barred plymouth rocks

We had been discussing when and how we'd eventually obtain some laying hens so we could stop spending what seemed like a small fortune on organic eggs. When a sudden opportunity arose for us to adopt six laying hens, which were already laying eggs daily, we simply couldn't resist. My dear husband got to work immediately (despite the repeated days of rain) and built our ladies one of the prettiest little coops I've ever seen. We gathered tips and suggestions from experienced hen keepers, researched different coop styles, and eventually came up with this design. The coop provides the girls with two indoor nesting boxes and open air perching all constructed like a fortress to keep out those pesky predators and egg snatchers! In fact, it was built so well, when we accidentally closed it up with a rat inside - it could NOT find a way out until we opened the door in the morning. We learned our lesson and thoroughly check every night before lockup now.

The hen house inside their private free-range yard, which connects to the end of the house

Neither one of us have ever taken care of farm animals on a regular basis before. This has been a tremendous learning curve but luckily we live in an information age and I can find answers to my questions at a pace faster than ever. We've had the ladies for more than a month now and I look forward to interacting with them every morning. My children wake up early on their own, just so they can be ready for school early enough to go help with the morning chicken duties. We've also noticed the children want to spend more time outside in the evenings and they argue about who will do which chicken jobs because they want to do them all (except clean the poop).

Nothing tastes better than farm-fresh eggs

Overall, inviting these ladies to our home is turning out to be the best decision ever. Yes they are work. Yes they tie us to the house more. Yes they are loud. Yes the poop stinks. But we LOVE them anyway and those fresh, never refrigerated organic eggs are simply delicious.

Barred Plymouth Rock kicking up dust

Rhode Island Red looking for grubs