LoveFeast Table

Recently when I sat on the blogger panel at Great Grapes Wine, Arts and Music Festival, a question came up that had me address finding inspiration for content creation.

We find inspiration all around us!  That is one of the reasons we have Fancy Fridays here at LoveFeast Table.  There are colors, or lack thereof, dishes, food, people, murals, flowers and even purses that inspire us!

Chris Ann and I also like to explore new places!  We will travel high and low for inspiration.  We’ve found it at skate-parks and in Italy or at museums and flea markets.  Recently we headed to Charm City Craft Mafia’s Craft Show.  It was in an old church in Baltimore.  There were t-shirt artists and letter press printers.  There were jewelers and luminary makers!

Every booth, each person we met, was  like putting an extra paint brush in our tool box!  We got new ideas for business cards…for swag bags and even for custom jewelry!

Just wanted to encourage you today, if you’re hitting an artistic or writer’s roadblock and you need new inspiration, head out to a local craft show or even your farmer’s market!! There are new ideas to be found everywhere!

OK my friends its time for a little “what’s going on behind the scenes” chat!!  Kristin & I are doing our “SuperMom” routines trying to get ourselves out the door for our New York City blog conference, BlogHer 10.  We’ve had meetings, soccer tryouts, laundry to do, swimming lessons, kids to bathe and schlep around, meals to make, and….on top of that, business cards to create, bios to write, orthodontist appointments to make, posts to keep up with, parties to plan (BlogLove!), suitcases to pack (BlogHer 10)….AND…did I mention we are both potty training our puppies?  Yep, that is more than a heap of stuff to do.

On top of all that we’ve been virtually shopping via are mobile phones with wardrobe updates for earrings and shoes for our NYC BlogHer conference.  So, in honor of all the right “heels” we’ve looked for this week.  We’ve decided that this Fancy Friday gets to be all about shoes!  Any bloggers who want to play along in our blog party…post your shoes for BlogHer 10 or your shoes~just because…and tell us your story!  Are you going to take some pain for fashion or are you going to relax back in your flip flops!!  Just grab our badge here and join the fun!

Also, we are working behind the scenes to bring a great BlogLove gathering to Minnesota!  We are so very excited to have Aveda sending a team for hand massages to our event at Camille en Rouge.  There is going to be awesome shopping, an Aveda perfume bar to choose a signature scent from and of course many Minnesota bloggers we are waiting excitedly to meet or see again!!  We love to throw a party…and a party won’t be complete with out some party favors!  Just wait until you see our custom designed swag bags filled with beautiful things from places like Aveda, Houndstooth Boutique and The Vintage Pearl!!  Kristin is going to make another special road trip from Maryland…just to be there!

So that’s that’s the scoop!  If you would like to follow along on our up-to-the-minute adventures follow the tweet bar on our home page to read and link to what’s happening this week while we are at BlogHer 10 or follow us @lovefeast!

And when all is said and done we’re going to be ready for one of these!!

Something Kristin and I started a while back was something we like to call Fancy Friday.  It’s a chance to share at our table things that inspires us, things that are beautiful, colorful, soulful, and artistic…things that we like to call “fancy”.  You can click on some of of our Fancy Friday’s here.

Fancy Friday is also a “Blog Party”, which means if you are a blogger you can link up your “fancy” post with a linky button.   Fancy Friday gives our readers a chance to find some other blogs to love.
There’s lot of cool blogs out there and we’d like to invite them to join us at the table this Friday!  This coming Friday, June 25th, our Fancy Friday has a theme called BlogLove!

If you’re a blogger all you have to do is write a post about your favorite blog or blogs and tell us why you like them, why they inspire you and why they keep you coming back for more!!  Then, link your post on Friday.  You can read how to do that here.

If you’re a reader or didn’t write a post… you can still share your favorite blog or blogs by leaving a comment after the post this Friday.

Everyone can come back on Friday and get a chance discover a lot of really neat, blogger and reader recommended “fancy” blogs!!

So, think about it and come back next Friday and share your BlogLove™!!

My suitcase is packed and I’m ready to go!  Kristin and I are looking forward to 5 days of fun together.  We have a bunch of things to work on for our blog and of course we’ll share some time around the table… whether it’s Maryland crabs, pizza on the grill, fine dining or a favorite local restaurant.   We haven’t been together since October, when we created Fancy Friday and challenged Ryan of This Is Reverb, to a LoveFeast TakeOn!   We know we are looking forward to meeting up with some other east coast bloggers during my visit as well.  And, we’ll be toasting off the summer with our new pink cocktail, thanks to Greg, at Sippity Sup. If you want to know what we’re up to moment by moment read our “LoveFeast Tweets” on the right side of our blog or follow us on Twitter: @lovefeast

Happy Mother’s Day to all you mothers out there!  Believe us when we say, we know that your days are full of endless loads of laundry, piles of dirty dishes, driving bus loads of loud children, shopping for and preparing meals for the umpteenth time, wiping snotty noses on your T-shirt, managing EVERYONE’s hectic schedule…only to redo the same thing day after day.  But, we also know why we’re happy to do it!  Here are our reasons!

Kristin’s…

Teapot

Little Man

Zap

Drama Boy and Little Man

Teapot

Zap

Drummer

Drama Boy

Teapot and Little Man

Drummer

Drama Boy

Little Man, Drummer, Zap

Teapot and Little Man

Chris Ann’s…

My oldest

Big Sis

Little Bro

Fancy Little Sis

Big Sis

The Gang

Middle bro again

Sister love

Beach Baby

Birthday Boy

Rock Star

Fancy Girl & Fancy Roxy

The Teen

Bon Qui Qui & Cat Girl

Snow boy

Little Sis

Big Sis

The Eldest

The End!

We’re glad you stopped by!  Guess where we are today?  We’re visiting our friend, Susan, at She’s Becoming Doughmesstic.  We’re serving up Banana Chip Cake with Whipped Mocha Ganache.  It’s going to be a great visit!  Susan has a great sense of humor and a load of talent.  She’s also a baker extraordinaire!!  So pop on over there and join us at the table!  We’re swapping stories and having a slice of cake to go with it!

And, don’t forget to join us this Friday for Fancy Friday Cakes!  Add your post about cakes onto our blog party for a click-able and delicious cake walk!  Directions here for Fancy Friday.

Here’s the scoop on what the week hold for LoveFeast Table!  Tonight Kristin is attending a Pioneer Woman book signing in Virginia similar to the one I attended in Minnesota.  Later in the week you can catch our story on that as well as a Pioneer Woman Cookbook GiftAway!!  Then tomorrow for a change of pace we will be guest posting over at She’s Becoming Doughmesstic!  It’s going to be a little time to relax and chat in cyber/blogging world!  Friday is Fancy Friday here at LoveFeast Table.  This weeks theme is all about cake!!  We hope you get your cake story ready for it and link in on Friday.  The directions for Fancy Friday are here!

Finally, we leave you with this post we did for last Mother’s Day~Lemon Souffle for Mother’s Day. (Which we highly recommend as a Mother’s Day dessert!)   We posted it April 29th, 2009.  You can tell that we are just getting our sea legs on the blogging boat.  We were still whining about technology and feeling a little overwhelmed!!  Also, we added one more link about the small china dishes that we recently wrote about..see if you can find it and read why Kristin’s dishes hold so many memories for us!

So here’s a “blast from the past”.  We hope you enjoy a little LoveFeast history!

So, I just spent the morning reading about the adventures of Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman, her blog and her twitters, and also, I must add:  that of her bloggy friends, like Smitten Kitchen.  And, let me tell you!  These people are going to spontaneously combust with creativity and energy!  I don’t think they’re normal!  And, I say this with MUCH admiration, as well as awe.  My reasoning?  They are waking up at the crack of dawn, 5 a.m. to cook!  And, they turn out more cooking and baking in a couple days than I could hope for in a month!  PLLLEase!  I have been twittering about pie baking for at least a couple days.  And yet, still no pie!  Come on people!!  Show us some slack!!  You are raising the bar way too high for us newbie bloggers!!  I mean we are still trying to figure out our technology let alone some of us, our kitchens!!  I was up until two o’clock in the morning trying to get pictures formatted and dealing with the blog eatting monster at WordPress!  Don’t you just need to put your swollen feet up and read a magazine? (To let us catch up.) OK, whew!  Got that off my chest.  How’s a girl to blog with all that up in her head?  Anyhow, back to MY post.  It’s all about these sweet little lemon souffles!  Let me tell you the back story on these little lemons.  The first time I had this dessert was at Kristin’s, for our friend, Magy’s wedding shower.  Magy, was born and raised in Switzerland.  She can fold clothes tighter than anything you’ve ever seen.  Seriously.  It’s like magic.  Of course, there were many amazing treats to be had that afternoon…but, there was a fuss in the kitchen…excitement was building…something special was coming! Suddenly, small china plates were presented here, there and everywhere, with stout little lemons puffed with souffle!  We all dug our silver teaspoons into the lemony warm bliss.  Wonderful!  I remember feeling very unladylike after that, wondering if one more, “Oh, my goodness, that was the best dessert I have ever had!!” would get me seconds.  With obnoxious hopefulness, I eyed around for leftovers.  No such luck!  For years they remained a memory of a very special dessert.  And, quite frankly, after hearing about how tedious the scooping out of all those lemons were, I pretty much had settled with the fact that I wouldn’t be having this dessert again, anytime soon. After so long,  recently, I decided to make them for my family:  my husband, four kids, Grandma and Grandpa, and Nana.  I decided really, on a whim.  I wanted to make something special and unexpected, theatrical, and just…fun.  And, I had a bag of lemons.  And, it was the middle of winter in Minnesota (about a month ago).  And, I have a habit of wanting to pretend we are some place warmer in the winter, thus the tropical fruit desserts. So, if you want to put down something that makes you look and feel like Martha…and it should, because it’s her recipe, from The Martha Stewart Cookbook.  Here’s the secret:  they’re easy!  All you really need is time (cleaning out the lemons takes some time) and tough strong hands (we’re dealing with acid here, people).  And, of course, an audience, to appreciate your amazingly beautiful dessert.  Each lemon affords about six scoops of souffle.  It’s all about the “presentation wow factor”, because scoop-scoop, and it’s gone.  They are light and sour.  They were too sour for my daughter. Next time, I might concede to add a little more sugar, maybe two or more tablespoons, even.  Will that throw the souffle?  It’s my first souffle, so if you know, you’ll have to tell me!  Wouldn’t these be superb for Mother’s Day?  I highly recommend them, very lady like.  And, Nana liked them, too! So, here’s the scoop:  in the next week or so, I will be producing a pie.  There, I said it…I’m “intending” it, even.  So, out into the universe go! you happy pie producing vibes and bring me back some energy!  I’m telling you, if I was cloned, I’d be getting a lot more done!

Spring is here!  And, I know that I am enjoying it inside and out.  A while ago I was the lucky winner of this beautiful oil painting in a giveaway from Sandy, who writes the blog The Reluctant Entertainer.  Her blog has lots of wonderful tips and stories on hospitality and sharing a meal together with people at your table.  I got an opportunity to meet Sandy at the Blissdom Conference and after visiting her blog knew from the start we had a lot in common including the love and inspiration of art!  This oil painting that Sandy sent me is done by the artist, Kelly Anderson.  Check out her website here and see if there is something you might like to make your kitchen fancy!!  And, thank you very much Sandy and Kelly for something beautiful to look at every day!

And, speaking about Fancy!  How fancy are you?  Let us know!!  We’re hosting a blog party here at LoveFeast Table to celebrate all the things that inspire us and boost our creative spirits!  Our first two Fancy Friday link ups were simply slow to build!   You don’t want us to have to get UNFancy do you?  We could come up with theme’s like “Fancy Friday Gray” or “Fancy Friday Leftovers” and that simply won’t do!

Not sure how to do Fancy Friday?  Get some ideas here. Our first and bravest friend to link up is Tiffany, of Stop Doing That.  She linked in here.

Come on now!  Get your Fancy on!!  This upcoming Friday the 16th, the theme is “Fancy Friday Lemon Zest”.  You can read the details of how to participate in Fancy Friday here!

Dishes.  Most tell a story.  Mine do.  Dishes are something Kristin and I have always liked.  Our back closets and hutches are filled with mismatched stacks and candles and such.  Years ago we would roam flea markets and yard sales looking for the perfect vintage pattern with sticky toddlers in tow, babies hung ’round our necks and pushing strollers with twisted wheels.  We would find an odd piece here and there, a stapled together repaired old teapot (yes, metal staples!), a single cup and saucer – mixed in with the perfect lamp base (missing a shade) or a pastel loop of rickrack from a grandmother’s sewing bag.

We always believed in using our dishes, the good ones too.  Our dishes have served each other a tuna fish sandwich or an “empty-out-the-fridge-of-leftovers-salad” (rice works, we’ve tried it!)  Our dishes have served more than one birthday cake!   We’ve used our dishes for parties, for showers and for evening morsels!  Chances are that if you’re in our homes, you won’t be getting your food on a paper plate most of the time.  We’d rather you enjoy being our guest ~ and if that means hand washing a stack of vintage plates after you’ve gone, we’ll do it happily knowing we went a little out of the way to make you feel special.  Because it’s not really about the dishes after all.  It’s about sharing a moment, a meal, a memory.  And, that memory lasts for us… even as the last soap bubble splashes down the drain.

So, you can imagine the emotion when Kristin brought over a milk crate of her dishes to my home right before we all moved that one summer almost seven years ago.  I was in the kitchen and here she came, choking back tears, “I want you to have them”.  It wasn’t just them.  It was the act that they held.  The memories. The meaning. The moments we had enjoyed.  She was passing the torch.  At that moment, Kristin’s family was letting go and taking a journey down a path into the unknown.  They were uprooting.  They couldn’t bring much along.  And, breakable china was not coming with.  My eyes got blurry.  “I don’t want to take your dishes!!”  Meaning:  “I don’t want you to go.  And, I don’t want to leave either.”  She answered:  “You have to.”

And, then, they sat, stacked and toppled on my newly replaced bleached wood kitchen floor, a memorial to the life and meals our families had shared.

*****

We hope you share your memories and dishes with us at LoveFeast Table tomorrow on Fancy Friday Dishes!

There are many things that inspire me…colors, textures, sounds, art, and yes, even scents.  I try and bring the outdoors in as much as possible.  But, it’s too early for the scents from my garden of roses, Walker’s Low cat-mint, lilacs, herbs, and irises here in Minnesota.

You see the grass is just beginning to turn green.

But, I can smell the earth and the damp mud of spring coming through my newly opened windows.

While I wait for the garden a beautiful orchid in my dining room teases me with the scent of summer.

And, daily I spray myself over with this garden of my favorite French perfume!

But, alas one can’t just spray and play and linger in the garden all day.  Not if they have the laundry of a family of six!  Everyday around here is laundry day!  Who can resist the scent of fresh towels?

Scents in your home most definitely bring a mood of possibility, inspiration and beauty. However, the most delicious scent in my home to me is the smell just under the chin of one of my family.  That’s what makes me happy.

The inspiration for this post came from Sandy over at the The Reluctant Entertainer!