Yellow may be color blocking the best of spring at the moment, but without a little pollen the vibrant and pastel colors accenting spring’s palette wouldn’t be.
New spring blooms provide a pretty in pink landscape throughout the neighborhood.
Fresh flowers, delightful fragrances, visually stunning table settings, and the scent and sight of spring’s calling card in the late afternoon or evening gorgeously set the scene, mood, and table for spring entertaining.
Recently I rewatched the episode of “Sex and the City” I Love a Charade – my idea of a spring on the beauty garden party and the essentials for success.
Early spring into Easter color awakenings through spring color palette choices are upon us.
Colors of the season shake off the last of winter’s remnants with the help of warm mid-afternoon breezes, hints of pastel petals, the yellow dusting of pollen (you want pretty flowers, don’t you?), the hum of lawnmowers, and seasonal treats featuring fresh strawberries.
Easy and affordable ways to incorporate the best of the season into your home and garden is to update and refresh through accents and accessories.
Accents and accessories in fresh, lively, and warm colors of spring renews our interiors and exteriors, elevates our moods, and brushes away the heaviness of winter.
“Only those who love color are admitted to its beauty
and immanent presence. It affords utility to all,
but unveils its deeper mysteries only to its devotees.”
Nature’s timing doesn’t always cooperate with early spring into Easter plans for fresh stems and bouquets, so to that I say pick a few faux fabulous stand-ins and let the spring preview begin!
To look upon beautiful Easter decor as a work of art is no over eggaggeration of the term. Selecting items for show and tell comes with thought.
Sure, a rabbit here and a bunny there is called for, but mostly my choices play to pastels, themes and dishes appropriate for the entire spring into summer season.
Faux picks and bushes in ever lovely shades of pink were recently purchased with the Easter decor centerpiece in mind.
On the Saturday afternoon before Easter Sunday I’ll stroll around the yard gathering assorted fresh greenery stems to fill in the spring bouquet.
Easter company will love this fresh with full on color and nibbles spring vegetable board from My Moonstone Kitchen.
Click on the link below the photo for recipe information.
Country Living – Photography by John Kernick
Roast Pork Loin with Herb Stuffing
Ingredients
1⁄3 cup kosher salt
1⁄3 cup sugar
2 teaspoon juniper berries
2 teaspoon cardamom pods
2 teaspoon whole peppercorns
1 teaspoon allspice berries
2 bay leaves, lightly crushed
1 (3 ¾ to 4 pound) pork loin roast, trimmed, butterflied, and tied
3 tbsp. butter
3 stalks celery, finely diced
1 small onion, finely diced
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 cups panko breadcrumbs
1 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 tbsp. chopped fresh sage
2 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
¼ cup chicken stock
Directions
In a medium pot, bring 2 cups water, salt, sugar, juniper, cardamom, peppercorns, allspice, and bay leaves to a boil. Stir to dissolve sugar and salt. Remove from heat and stir in 4 cups cold water. Set brining liquid aside and let cool to room temperature, 20 to 30 minutes.
Place pork loin in a 2-gallon resealable plastic bag and carefully pour in cooled brining liquid. Seal and refrigerate, 8 to 12 hours.
Meanwhile, in a large skillet over medium heat, melt butter until sizzling. Add celery, onion, and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. Add breadcrumbs, parsley, sage, and thyme, stirring to combine, and cook 1 minute more. Add chicken stock and toss until breadcrumbs have absorbed all of the liquid.
Remove stuffing from heat and let cool to room temperature, 30 minutes. (Stuffing can be made up to 1 day ahead and refrigerated. Bring to room temperature before using.)
Preheat oven to 500°F. Remove pork loin from bag and discard brine; pat meat dry with a paper towel. On a work surface, untie pork loin so that it lies flat, fat side down. Spread stuffing mixture atop meat in an even layer. Starting from one of the long sides, roll the pork loin into a tight spiral. Tie at 1 ½-inch intervals with 12-inch lengths of kitchen twine.
In a roasting pan fitted with a rack, place pork loin fat side up. Roast 15 minutes, then reduce oven temperature to 250°F. Continue to cook for about 1 hour and 35 minutes, until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the pork loin reaches 145°F.
Transfer pork loin to a wire rack to rest for 15 minutes before serving.
In a coffee grinder or using a mortar and pestle, grind green, white, black, and pink peppercorns until crushed.
Using a medium bowl, beat butter with a mixer at medium-high speed until smooth. Add peppercorns, chives, shallot, garlic, and oregano. Beat at medium speed until combined.
Transfer from mixer to parchment paper. Form butter into a log. Press radish flowers, garlic flowers, and oyster leaf flowers onto log. Roll in parchment, and twist at both ends. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
Knock out roses coming into spring view serve vase and creations.
Be it from the supermarket bakery or cake mix box, decorating the top of a spring or Easter dessert cake with flowers or candies is an easy way to take desserts to visually pleasing heights.
In the style of vintage is my go-to choice of serveware, and this house favorite cake stand in Jadeite fits beautifully with your Easter decor and spring motif.
Buttercream frosting tinted to a soft yellow topped with edible flowers delivers a simply elegant result.
Pansies offer loads of color, plant and prosper rather easily, and make a fantastic visual and flavorful splash when added to salads and spring desserts.
When decorating dishes and desserts and garnishing beverages with edible flowers you’ll want to pick the flowers early in the morning.
Gently rinse off your gathered flowers with cool water allowing to dry on a paper towel. Add garnish immediately before serving.
If using flowers at a later time you can place them in the refrigerator where they will keep for 2-3 days.
Tomatoes rate high as a spring into summer delicacy at Places In The Home.
Give your tomato plants a good grow by feeding the soil with a small amount of fertilizer and compost at planting time.
Tomato tips:
Tomatoes at room temperature release more flavor compounds when cut up compared to the taste of tomatoes that have been refrigerated.
That deliciously explains why garden ripe tomatoes from the vine gathered, washed, cut up or sliced, and served bypassing the fridge altogether tastes so good.
Consulting those sources in the gardening know for the answers to the gardening what, when, where, and how questions gardeners have gets it growing.
Planting and potting in the soil gets your hands dirty which is believed to increase serotonin levels. Research shows when our hands have contact with soil and a specific soil bacteria, Mycobacterium vaccae, the release of serotonin in the brain is triggered.
Serotonin is not only a natural antidepressant but it strengthens the immune system.
“In spring, at the end of the day,
you should smell like dirt.”
Vegetable and flower gardens grow well together, companion gardening if you will.
Flowers growing in a vegetable bed will attract bees and beneficial insects. Lending their natural way spreads pollen around encouraging vegetable plants to thrive in growth and the production of food.
Deterring rabbits from feasting upon the harvest hints from The Old Farmer’s Almanac include the following:
Rabbits do not like the pungent smell of onions therefore these may serve as a the scent of discouragement.
Try dusting around the garden and targeted plants with powdered red pepper.
Forsythia, zinnias, daffodils, lavender, and snapdragons seem to work as rabbits do not find these flowers appetizing. Planting these flowers strictly to deter is not a guaranteed solution to a bunny issue, but it is a colorful suggestion.
On trend for garden gorgeous this 2023 spring season, antique containers make a striking choice of planter complementing the beauty of spring flowers.
Estate and garage sales are garden supplies treasure troves for finding pots, planters, tools, and decorative garden statues in good and stylish curb appeal condition.
Vintage recipe boxes come in handy as a storage organizer for seed packets.
Garden Answer is one of my most favorite Facebook pages to follow. Here Laura plants a stunning container display pairing yellow ranunculus with yellow violas, and voilà- it’s spring.
Safe bet vegetables to plant in March and April (early spring) include corn, cucumber, summer squash, tomatoes, radish, lima beans, mustard and collard greens, eggplant, cushaw, okra, snap beans and watermelon.
Establishing what veggies to plant is easy, gardenistas!
Plant what you love to eat.
Crisp, colorful with the taste of home grown goodness, vegetables fresh from the garden are ripe for the spring into summer grilling, roasting, stir-frying, sauteing and steaming season.
Successful vegetable garden growth is dependent upon well-drained soil.
Raised or planter box gardens tackle the excess water issue well allowing water to properly drain out of the bed.
Essential to the harvest, sunlight aids maximum growth in plants and flowers.
Factor this key component of garden growth success into the placement of your garden.
Good soil garners a good garden.
All-purpose garden soil establishes a good soil structure while aiding with drainage.
For raised bed or garden box gardens, potting soil is a good fit as it enhances soil and encourages moisture.
Be careful in the amount you use so the garden will not hold too much water.
Spring garden goals include a producing vegetable garden complete with flowers planted within for dimension and floral arrangement beauty.
Companion garden flowers perfect for planting in your vegetable garden include nasturtium, marigolds, zinnias, lavender, and catnip.
Carefully collect the flowers, placing spaced apart in a box or on a tray. Refrigerate flowers until ready to use.
When ready to use, gently wash off your gathered flowers including any garden variety debris. Next, remove the reproductive parts of the blooms which house pollen.
Decorate your selected salad, dish or dessert and enjoy!
Pansies offer loads of color, plant and prosper rather easily, and make a fantastic visual and flavorful splash when added to salads and spring desserts.
Color plays a vital role in everything from the palette to plate to potting bench.
Benjamin Moore supplies garden green colors inspiration.
Spring season 2022 accents and accessories are creating quite the buzz.
March arrives and just like that busy bees and designing decoristas thoughts turn to seasonal updating their abode with touches of the corresponding season.
Count me in as one of the new season, new look loyal ready to let the sunshine in and the spring color, texture, and pattern seasonal updating begin.
Today’s post is a first of the season show and tell tailor-made to excite those of us ready to refresh, renew and pretty up around the house for a new season.
Late winter camellias floating in a vintage tureen serves up a preview of garden party blooms soon to come.
Mother Nature has been giving us a preview of warm afternoons to come, and the talk among local meteorologists is we are now in a pattern of after 6:00 p.m. sunsets.
Things are looking positively sunny, friends!
Speaking of positive outlooks…
My mother took a tumble last week which resulted in her breaking her hip. She will be convalescing at Places In The Home, and we’ve got all kinds of fun activities planned to make the best out of a less than wonderful situation.
Discovering new playlists, popcorn and movie viewing classic favorites compliments of TCM 31 Days of Oscars, new recipe development and taste testing (the best part of the process), and perusing retail and vintage sites for what’s new spring 2022 finds.
I spy with my decorating eye a preview of spring 2022 décor finds that have my decorating interest piqued, present colors that typify the season, and prove to be show and tell worthy.
As the fictional character Bob Ryan asks, “is that something you might be interested in?”
If so, you’ve come to the right places in the home.
Cement Buddies 8 in. Rust Cement Rabbit Planter is wonderful in its intended use as well as a charming addition to a spring themed tablescape or home bar as a flatware or garnish holder.
Linens of crisp comfortable cotton in pastel palettes and enchanting patterns remind me of springtime visits to Minden, Louisiana to spend a week with Dave the Builder’s aunt.
Spring may not be here yet, but I’m ready for it in all its splendor to arrive.
Until it officially makes it presence known, I’ll enjoy sourcing and sharing spring forward finds sitting pretty at the ready to update your home for the season.
Flowers infuse color into our homes with all of the beauty and scents of the spring season.
Muscari
“Anything is possible with sunshine and a little pink”
– Lilly Pulitzer
Ranunculus
Harsh late winter storms combined with multiple days and nights of arctic freezing temperatures zapped the life out of many of my plants, buds and blooms- most notably the hydrangeas I’ve babied for the last three seasons.
Much to my surprise and joy I’ve proven to myself no formal florist skills are needed to create a seasonal floral arrangement.
Blooms and greens from my lawn and garden or the clearance buckets perched in a local grocery store floral department display become the stars of the window seal or tabletop spring flower show.
Keeping it simple is the key to DIY flower arranging.
It might be a dollar store glass container, vintage Mason jar, ironstone creamer pitcher, the antique rose bowl Dave the Builder gifted me with years ago, or these eye catching-soon to be in my buy now pickup later cart- pretty in pink vases that becomes the vessel of choice.
Point is whatever you’ve got and whatever suits your floral arrangement fancy is perfect.
Fill vase with tepid water, add one teaspoon of vodka and one teaspoon granulated sugar.
Tepid water allows for quicker water absorption, and the vodka and sugar combination delays wilting.
Drop a copper penny in to the vase to help deter the growth of fungus or bacteria.
Although the decorative post courier mailbox wall accent is not new to the home decor accent market, its popularity is ongoing.
Give it the wall pocket effect and fill it to the brim with your favorite spring floral and greenery stems.
You know it’s spring finds time by the scents and sights of spring in full bloom.
Spring break is not canceled on the beaches of Places In The Home. Reality of late is some serious stuff, which brings us to the necessity of taking a spring break to calm these choppy seas.
At home and on demand music stations and smooth jazz concerts inspire the inner DJ in all of us to create live in-house concerts and dance parties to beat the band.