Make time to pamper yourself today . . .

Tomorrow is Easter Sunday. Make time today for a little pampering to ensure that you'll be beautiful.

Images

Beatrix Potter Easter Eggs + Video . . .

"It's never too late to have a happy childhood."

Enjoy this wonderful video even though it's about mice and not bunnies.

Hedgehog pincushion + Beatrix Potter | Perfect Day + Peter Rabbit BBC Videos

I know, I know, I wrote about this fantastic hedgehog pincushion yesterday. I think this is a better picture so that you can appreciate his real beauty. I found a wonderful video on YouTube that shows him in real life in a few shots. I don't know how I could possibly have missed this television series.

It was produced by the BBC and was called: The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends. One of my readers told me about it in a comment on one of my previous posts about Beatrix Potter. No, this is not a blog about Miss Potter...she just keeps coming up lately for some reason.

Anyway...this video is in two parts. Let me know if you like it.

The show's theme song 'Perfect Day' is also on YouTube. It is hauntingly beautiful and I recommend it highly. Here's hoping today is your perfect day!

You will enjoy the DVD boxed set The Beatrix Potter Collection based on the BBC Series


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Porte-cochère ~ Architectural Word of the Day . . .

Even though a professional photographer was hired for this 19th century historic home listing, my photograph was chosen for the brochure.

Porte-cochère: (French) "porte," door + "cochère," carriage ~ A porch large enough for a carriage to pass through.

Porte"-co`chère" noun [ French: See Port (a gate), and Coach.]

(Architecture) A large doorway allowing vehicles to drive into or through a building. It is common to have the entrance door open upon the passage of the porte-cochère. Also, a porch over a driveway before an entrance door.

More spellings and definitions here.

Life's Little Instruction Book, pages 64 + 65 . . .

...To be continued...

Take time to play with the people you love . . .

I love this photo of the cat and the little girl having an outdoor tea party! It appears that there's a conversation going on too.

A screensaver for your desktop until April 15th tax deadline . . .

"Paying the Tax" or "The Tax Collector"
(Click photo to enlarge)

Pieter Brueghel the Younger (1564 or 1565–1636), Flemish painter. Oil on panel circa 1620. USC Fisher Museum of Art, The Armand Hammer Collection.

I thought you might want to use this as a screensaver for your desktop to remind you that April 15th is just around the corner and you should start figuring your taxes.

Some things never change, do they? There are papers everywhere and nobody looks happy. I wonder what that woman is digging out of that basket? Certainly not credit card receipts!

"It's not easy being green." Kermit the Frog quote . . .

This huge antique cast iron frog fountain is one of my favorite things. He's not hooked up to a recirculating pump so he doesn't spout water from his mouth. Maybe one day...

Timely 17th century quote on taxation by Jean-Baptiste Colbert . . .

"The art of taxation consists of so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest amount of feathers while promoting the smallest amount of hissing."

A very timely quote by Jean-Baptiste Colbert, French Economist and Minister of Finance under King Louis XIV of France 1619-1683.

Some things never change, do they? I appreciate the humor of this man in tights!

Image from one of my antiquarian prints.

Life's Little Instruction Book, pages 62 + 63 . . .

...To be continued...

Old original Hershey's Fudge Recipe . . .

Yesterday I made fudge and it turned out exactly like the stuff I used to make when I was 12. My car is in the shop and I needed a recipe using ingredients in my pantry. After a lot of internet hunting I located the original recipe that used to be printed on the Hershey's cocoa box. It is great because it uses 1/3 less sugar than any other fudge recipe on the web. Here goes:

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (Hershey's)
2 cups white sugar (next time I will use even less)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon light corn syrup (I used Maple Syrup)
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons butter

Directions:
In a medium saucepan, stir together the cocoa powder, sugar and salt.
Mix in corn syrup and milk until well blended.
Add butter, and heat to between 234 and 240 degrees F (112 to 116 degrees C) on candy thermometer, or until a small amount of syrup dropped into cold water forms a soft ball that flattens when removed from the water and placed on a flat surface. Stir occasionally.
Remove from heat and beat with a wooden spoon until the mixture is thick and loses its gloss. Stir in vanilla, and pour into a buttered 9x9 inch baking dish. Let cool until set. Cut into small squares to serve.

I beat it too long and it ended up in a mound but it was still delicious. Next time I am going to decrease the sugar to 1-3/4 cups or maybe even 1-1/2 cups. I didn't have any light corn syrup so I used real Maple syrup. Worked fine. I didn't even have any milk so I used powdered milk to make 1 cup. Worked fine. Next time I will use condensed milk. Next time I might add a glob of peanut butter at the end too. Yum!

Willa Cather quote about land ownership . . .

Willa Cather, American Novelist 1873-1947