LINK PARTY AT THE INSPIRATION CAFE

The link party at the Inspiration Cafe is going on right now for our Bloomin' Marvelous Series.  If you've got a garden inspired post, old or new, head on over and link it up!  It can be anything garden related...a recipe, flowers, craft project, DIY,  sewing, etc.  If it's garden related...we'd love to see it!
Just click on the button below and join the fun!

Come share your project and inspire others!  The link party will be open through Saturday and we will be sharing our favorites next Monday.

JUST A REMINDER.....

Our Bloomin Marvelous Series at the Inspiration Cafe has come to a close and it's almost time to link up your own marvelous garden inspired projects...whether it's a recipe using garden produce, a garden-art  project or a post about your own flower or vegetable  garden, come link it up at the Inspiration Cafe's Bloomin' Marvelous link party starting tomorrow!    

See you over at the Inspiration Cafe tomorrow!

BLOOMIN' MARVELOUS - Melly, Melly! How Does your Garden Grow?

Mel from Mellywood's Mansion is at the Cafe to sharing how they turned their average back yard into a food bowl, able to feed a family of seven right through the year.

Click on the image below to head over to the Cafe...

A THRONE TRANSFORMATION

Want to see this chair make it's way from sad to fab???

It's a great transformation done by Jean at Backyard Bungalow!  Wanna see it??  It's over at the Inspiration Cafe today.  Just click on the picture below...

INSPIRATION CAFE - BLOOMIN MARVELOUS - GARDEN ENVY

Mary from Sweet Little Bluebird is showing some garden envy for our Bloomin' Marvelous series.  Head over to the Cafe to check out her sister-in-law's awesome suburban vegetable garden! 

Click on the image below to head over to the Cafe...

SNOW JAR CHRISTMAS TREE - CHRISTMAS IN JULY

Since it's Christmas in July in the blog world, I'm sharing this project that I did for my friend Natalie at NorthShore Days.
Natalie was my first blog friend and her encouragement, emails and kind comments kept me going in those first scary days of puttin myself out there in the blog world.  She has a heart as big as Christmas itself!  If you are lucky enough to have Natalie as a friend, you really don't need anything else for Christmas!  If you have a friend like Natalie though, you might want to make them something like this for Christmas.......

 Every time I see the beachy blue colors (and I'm seeing them a lot this holiday season) I'm reminded of my good friend Natalie and her love of the beach in her home of New Zealand.  
This project started out way back last summer when I bought an old outdoor brass porch light at Habitat for Humanity's Re-Store.  Those things are awesome and have a ton of cool parts.  For this project, I used the top cover and spray painted it silver.

 Then I gathered a few supplies and went to work.

 What you'll need:
Glass jar with a lid, bottle brush tree, wire cutters, artificial snow, beads, some kind of base (I used the lamp part mentioned above) and glue. (I forgot to get the glue in the picture....oops.)
The first thing I did, was trim my little tree to fit inside the bottle.  I had to use some wire cutters to cut the stem down and then some scissors to trim and shape the branches at the bottom.

Using a toothpick and some glue, I put the beads on the tree.

When it was dry, I stood it up and glued the base to the inside of the jar lid.

I put a little artificial snow in the jar.  (It doesn't take much!) 

 Then I carefully slid the tree into the jar, screwed the lid on and tapped it until most of the snow fell to the bottom.  I decided to tie a little blue ribbon on it and then just set it on the base that I had spray painted.  

If you don't have a lamp base that you just happened to have spray painted last summer laying around, it looks pretty cute without one too!

 Whatever holiday you celebrate this time of year, I wish you the best!  I also want to remind you to reach out in the blog world and make some friends.  If you're lucky like I was...you may find someone who becomes a life-long friend who is dear to you even outside of blogland.  I love ya Nat!
Linking up to:

    

Linking up:

VINTAGE BLACK AND WHITE FRAMED CHRISTMAS PHOTO

It's Christmas in July and although it's hard to think about Christmas this time of year, I'm doing it!   

 I'm delighted to share this cute, easy and inexpensive framed vintage photo project with you.

 The whole project came in at less than $2.00!  Gotta love that, right?
Here's how I did it.  The supplies are.........

Hinged double photo frame (Dollar Tree...guess how much? Yep $1!)  Photo mat (Dollar Tree....4/$1.00....that makes it 25 cents!)  Black and white photo from a Christmas card (free).  You can find a lot of very cool vintage Christmas photos for free at The Graphics Fairy though.
You can ignore the little package of gems, because in the end, I felt like I didn't need to use them.
Let me give you a close up of that Christmas card print because it's absolutely adorable, which is why I saved it for several years!

Seriously, do you not want to just hug that little girl??!!!  

I put the oval mat over the photo and slipped it into the large half of the frame.  

I wanted to put some cute saying or something in the small frame.  I made this on PicMonkey.  (I love PicMonkey!)  

It just seemed appropriate for the picture.  I printed it out, trimmed it to fit and put it in the small side of the frame.  It was at this point I decided not to add the little gems.  It somehow took away from the vintage feel of it.  

   It may be my favorite Christmas project this year.  Easy and inexpensive, yet simple and precious.  Come to think of it....that's just how I like my Christmas to be!  I hope yours is the way you want it to be as well!

Linking up to:

 

PEACH GRANITA

I love granitas.  Perfect cold treat on a hot summer day.  I've made blueberry, watermelon and coffee granitas.  Today, I tried my hand at making peach.

 On my way home from our family reunion in Nashville, I stopped in the little town of Campbell, in what is called the Bootheel portion of Missouri. (That would be the Southeastern most portion of the state.)  Campbells claim to fame is "The Peach Capitol of Missouri".  So.....I bought 2 boxes of peaches.  Really pretty peaches.

Two boxes is a lot of peaches and it took me all day to get them processed and into my freezer.  I planned to make a pie, but by the time I was done dealing with both boxes, I was out of time, so I made peach granita instead.  (Pie is still in the plan though!)
So easy and so yummy.  You can pretty much do this with any kind of fruit as far as I know.  Here's the story morning glory......

PEACH GRANITA

4-5 C. fresh peaches, peeled, pits removed and coarsely chopped
1/2 C. water
1/4-1/2 C. sugar...depends on the sweetness of your fruit
1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1/4 tsp. coarse salt
Spice, herb, extract of your choice....the possibilities are endless with peaches.  Think ginger, cinnamon, almond or vanilla extract, fresh basil or spearmint.  (I went with ground allspice because my friend Lorraine @ Miss Flibbertigibbet mentioned spiced peaches and then I wanted some.)

Puree peaches, salt, sugar, lemon juice and water in a food processor or blender.  (Here is where you add more sugar if necessary.)  Add spice, extract or herb and give it one more spin.  Pour into an 8" square baking dish.  Freeze for 3 hours, scraping with a fork every hour.  (Your going for sort of a snowcone texture with your puree.  It gets there after the second scraping.)
Spoon it into the dish of your choice and garnish with whatever.  I used a cinnamon stick and some mint.

I just happen to know that this is also good if you spoon it in a wine glass and add a little white wine or Riesling and a straw.   Kind of a big girl snowcone...why not?  I  happen to love Fetzer Riesling, just so ya know.
Of course, it's fine just as it is, without the alcohol, and kids love it....sneaky way to get some fruit in them.

   Enjoy and experiment with different combinations of flavors!

Linking to:

INSPIRATION CAFE SERIES - BASIL, BASIL, BASIL!

I've been on vacation, so I'm a day behind...but it's Heather from The Beating Hearth's turn to share something for our new, Bloomin' Marvelous Series.  It's summer time and basil's the star of the show.

Click on the image below for some tips on how to grow basil to its highest potential as well as a recipe for one of the great summer salads...

Fake Distressed Wood Candles from NORTHSHORE DAYS

It's no secret that Natalie from NorthShore Days is one of my oldest and dearest blogging friends.  She lives in New Zealand and even though we are a million miles apart, she senses things.  No matter how cool I was trying to be, she knew I was stressed getting ready to go on a trip, working and blogging.  She just sent me a guest post and told me to use it whenever.  Is it any wonder that she is so dear to me??

Hey Silo Hill Farm readers, 

I'm Natalie from NorthShore Days and I'm so happy to be visiting the Farm, while Danni is away this week.

Today I'm going to show you a neat little trick to dress up those cheap dollar store candles, without spending a lot of money.

My project calls for fake wood cardstock, but really you could use pattern you like.

It's as easy as 1 2 3....

Measure the card and cut to size, then stick it to the candle with double sided tape.

I embellished mine, very simply, with twine.

Wouldn't these make the cutest gifts? Or center pieces?

 But to be extra careful, remove the card if you plan to burn the candles.

I like my candles to be part of my decor so they are very rarely if ever, lit.

So easy, no mess, minimal cost and a great decor "pick me up".

Thanks for having me Danni..

Take care

 

 xxx

 

 

Aren't those candles just awesome?  I thought they were real wood and paint when I first saw them!  Now Natalie didn't mention it, but I will....she makes the most fabulous jewelry and sells it in her Etsy Shop which you can find HERE.  I'm not kidding you...check it out!  I wear a lot of Nat's jewelry and I get compliments on it all them time!  I gave several pieces of it as Christmas gifts last year and they were very well received.  Here prices are almost too reasonable and I was surprised by the low shipping costs as well. 
Thank you for the great guest post Natalie AND for being such a great friend!!  I love ya girl! 

A KILLER INTERVIEW....SERIOUSLY

Maybe you don't know this, but you should.  So I'm going to tell you.  My friend Kirby at Kirb Appeal has been doing a fun series called Women Who Blog.  She interviews, well,....women who blog and she asks some fun questions. (Not boring ones...fun ones.)  This week, she has a very special guest and I'm willing to bet most of you know who she is.  I'll give you a hint....she's a very well known New York Times best selling author.

If you don't already know Kirby, go check her out.  If you don't already follow her....you might want to because she has some great interviews on the horizon, not to mention some great projects on her blog.  Kirby always makes me laugh and who doesn't need a good laugh?
Please, do me a favor and go check it out.  Then do yourself a favor and follow her.  I promise, you won't be sorry!  You never know...she might even interview you someday, because if you are reading this...you are a woman who blogs and that means you meet the qualifications.
Click HERE to see the "mystery woman" she's interviewing.  (Oooh...that was another hint.)

What Are the Odds???

So what are the odds that two blog friends would ask me to guest post in the same month and then both of them choose today to post them?  I don't actually know, but it sure happened to me!  Today, I'm also a guest posting for my good friend Stephanie at The Enchanting Rose, while she is taking a little break.  
I'm sharing this litte summer flower frame that was fast, easy and inexpensive.  You can check it out by clicking this link...The Enchanting Rose.

A GUEST POST FOR A GOOD FRIEND

Today, I'm guest posting for a good friend.  Loy was the first blogger I'd ever met and I was honored when she ask me to guest post for her today. I did a cute, simple project for my kitchen wall and you can read about it by clicking this link...From Grandma Loy's Kitchen. 

I'm Up at the Inspiration Cafe's Bloomin' Marvelous Series!

It's my turn to share something for our new Bloomin' Marvelous Series, but what the heck is it?????

Looks like something from the......

 

Better click on the image below to find out what it is.....

......if you dare....