Winner, Recipe & Jill Answer's Questions!

I can hardly believe how fast these summer days are flying by!
I know, I know...not near enough posting lately,

but the green beans, cucumbers & tomatoes need picking,
the front door needs painting,

the new trees need to be planted
and oh I need to cook & clean & do laundry!
You just wouldn't BELIEVE how many green beans we have..
Doug and I have already picked four HUGE baskets full.

I don't have a pressure canner, so I have been freezing them.
One night I was still doing beans at 10 p.m.

I have to share with you my zucchini bread recipe.
This is so incredibly delicious, it has made me gain some pounds!

Hickory Hollow's
Yummy Delicious Zucchini Bread
2 eggs
1 cup cooking oil
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 cups grated zucchini
2 Tbs. vanilla
3 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
3 tsp. cinnamon
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup raisins or craisins
Beat eggs. Add oil, sugars, zucchini and vanilla and mix lightly.
Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon. Add slowly to batter and mix lightly. Fold in walnuts and raisins/craisins.
Pour batter into 2 medium greased and floured loaf pans.
Bake at 350 degrees for one hour or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
Makes 2 yummylicious loaves!

Celebrating Summer with Hickory Hollow Giveaway!
comment #20
Random numbers generated Jul 29 2009 at 8:36:25 by http://www.psychicscience.org/.
~*~
Crystal Rose Cottage!
Patti has a beautiful blog, it is so reminds me of an English Country garden.
She loves to collect beautiful rose patterned dishes
and her dining room wall paper is to die for!
Congratulations, Patti and thanks so much for entering my drawing.
~*~
Questions & Answers
I have had a lot of nice ladies ask me some questions,
and sometimes I forget to answer them.

~* Sally asked, "Do you plan on teaching this Fall, or will you have a chance to slow down?"
I am planning on substitute teaching again this year. I really love working with the children, lots of hugs! I hoping that maybe next year a classroom position will be available. I have already started decorating my classroom in my head! Slow down...gosh I wish...this garden is wearing me out!

~* Smiling Sal... Thanks for the delicious recipe! I haven't tried it yet, but I am going too soon!

~* Colleen...Apple (zucchini) Pie, now that sounds fun! I will skip on over to your house and check out your recipe. Thanks for sharing!

~* Stacey told me, " I just wanted to say that I saw The New French Decor on your wishlist. I have this book and would say, don't spend the money. It's odd!" Thanks for the heads up. Sometimes the best picture in an entire book is the cover. From your description, it doesn't sound much like my decorating style!

~* Penny & Bluebell asked, "How do you dry your herbs?"
I try different things. What I found works best is to harvest a few stems in the morning, gently wash off any dirt and then let them dry on a paper towel. I then pull the leaves off and place them in a little bowl on the kitchen counter. Every now and then I will gently toss them. Most herbs will dry in a week. Basil is real hard to deal with, because it turns black. I have had good luck drying just a handful at time. If I do a bigger batch, I put them on paper towel on a cookie sheet and then place another paper towel on top and put it on top of the refrigerator. It really is easy. Another great fun way to play with herbs is to make herbal vinegar. It is fun to use in salads and marinades!

~* Bella1198 ...Thank you for sharing that wonderful recipe, that sounds gourmet to me! I will be anxious to try it out!

~* Nikki... oh what a cute apron, yeah you can get for me for my birthday if you want!

~* Melinda... I am so glad you liked the pickles! Aren't they easy! I tell you, it isn't summer at our house without those pickles at every meal!

~* Laura... Sweet Laura, I am so not a fancy camera girl, I use my Kodak EasyShare DX7440. It is about on it's last leg. I have used my mom's camera recently, but I don't remember what it was. What I do remember is that is was pricey. Now I will share a secret with you...I always work on my pictures in Microsoft Picture It before I add them to my blog. My hands shake and my pictures are fuzzy sometimes so I just use the sharpen option. Works like a charm! Since my Microsoft Picture It went kurplunk, I have been learning how to use Gimp, it is a free photo editing and paint program.

~*Solomi558...Thanks so much for sharing a friendship award with me. I have to admit though, that I am terrible about posting these on my blog, I usually forget or don't pass them along because I forgot! But I VERY much appreciate you thinking of me!

~*Debbie asked, "Would you mind sharing the gorgeous wall colors in your home?
Sure I will Debbie...

Foyer, Great Room, Kitchen, Hallways - Camel Back, Sherwin Williams

Master bedroom - Dusty Trail 414-4, Olympic Paint

Master bedroom trey ceiling dark portion - Stony Creek 414-5, Olympic Paint
Dining Room -Georgian Brick, Benjamin Moore color HC50

~*~
Hope everyone is enjoying these summer days!
Guess what I am doing on Friday?
Goin' garage saleing with my guy.
Guess what?
It was his idea!
~Jill~

Country Gardening and a Giveaway!

For years I dreamed about having a HUGE veggie garden.
Being a true country girl, I wanted to garden
and preserve my harvest for the long winter and
now here I am havesting...
zucchini, summer squash, tomatoes, green onions, cucumbers,
and lots of herbs!

Not really having a good plan on what to do with zucchini & squash, I began a recipe hunt.
I discovered the most awesome (if I do say so myself) zucchini bread recipe ever invented!
It is soooo wonderful I will share the recipe soon with you!
~*~
I have also harvested armfuls of summer squash. Hmm what do besides stir fry.
I found a delicious recipe for a summer squash casserole that is warm and filling and oh so yummy! I am going to share that one with you too!


The canteloupe and watermelon are plumping up nicely.
It has been fun to see how much they grow each day.

We have found that baby watermelons are just adorable,
quite like baby chickens!

Lots and Lots of tomatoes on the vine.
We have been able to have about a dozen nice ones to slice up for dinner.
We have 4 cherry tomato plants that are going wild!
So wild I can hardly get between the rows.
Totally out of control and I LOVE it!

My heirlooms are not quite ready,
I am growing Brandywine and another that is going to be PURPLE!
It is a Russian heirloom variety. Now that will be fun!

Later this week we will get to pick the green beans.
It has been so long, since I have had real, homegrown green beans.
Think I will whip up an old fashioned meatloaf to go along with them.

The cucumbers are coming along nicely,
(that sounds like something out of a 1940's garden journal doesn't it)
and I have been making refrigerator cucumber pickles.
We eat them as fast I can make them.

~REFRIGERATOR PICKLES~
3 nice size cucumbers peeled & sliced
1 Cup Sugar
1/2 Cup Vinegar
1 Cup Water

*Mix and put in the fridge, try not to eat for a couple of hours*

We were late getting the corn planted,
but it too is coming along nicely.
The locals have told us
that the deer and racoons will eat it all of it the night
before we decide to pick it.
Those craft devils...
we spotted deer tracks in the garden yesterday,

I guess the word is out that the corn is lookin' good!

My Basil is beautiful and I have started drying many herbs to use this winter.
So far I have dried tarragon, basil, and oregano to use in my homemade spaghetti sauce.
I have also dried rosemary which I put in an awesome Rosemary Rum Cake.

~*~

Speaking of summer and gardening!
I found a wonderful treasure to pass along to you!
It is the Summer Book by Susan Branch
So let us
Celebrate the Seasons with Hickory Hollow

To play along all you have to do is leave a little comment on this post!
Simple, isn't it!
In one week I will pick a name
and this little summer book will be all yours!

Now for a Maggie update!

Maggie has a new home...
It is a wonderful Victorian cottage home complete
with a white picket fence and rose covered arbor
and filled with all the very best things...
love, warmth and doggy treats!

One of my very best friends, Cheryl (Hi, Cheryl)
fell in love with Maggie and wanted to take her home.
Her and her husband, David, came and picked Maggie up last night.

The minute they stepped through the door,
Maggie went up to David and gave him doggy kisses,
and then turned to Cheryl and gave her lots of kisses!
I am so thankful she has found a good home with a fence in yard.

Cheryl's home is absolutely they CUTEST place you have ever seen.
Red toile wallpaper in the dining room, does that tell you anything?
Well, I asked Cheryl several months ago if I could take pictures of it for my blog, and she agreed. We were just waiting for the cottage garden to bloom.
So coming soon will be a tour of Miss Maggie's new home!

~*~
Lots going on here at Hickory Hollow
and lots to look forward to,
so make sure you come back to visit!
Remember to leave a comment
for the giveaway!
~Jill~

Thrift Store Roosters

Howdy do everyone, or should I say,
"Cockadoodle Do, Everyone!"
I have had smashing lucky lately finding rooster/chicken goodies.
I wanted to share these finds with you earlier,
but my photo editing software went kaput on me.
I downloaded Picasa 3, free from Google and I am back in business...

I was really doing a happy dance when I spotted this goodie at the thrift store.
This Fitz and Floyd pitcher was only $3.
Fellow shoppers were admiring it in my cart!
~*~
I think I need to explain about my favorite thrift store,
it is VERY tiny and on an Air Force Base.
It certainly isn't anything like a BIG CITY thrift store.
So many of you make comments that you wish you had a thrift store like mine, well you probably do! You just really have to go consistently, some weeks you will find a cart full of treasures, and then weeks will go by without so much as a book to bring home!
For me the fun is the thought there just might me a treasure waiting for me.

Who would have thought that I would find a pair of rooster prints?
They were $5 for the pair.
At first I was going to paint the frames black.
I've changed my mind since they go so well with my kitchen cabinet color.
I am going to by those 3M adhesive hooks and hanging them under the cabinets.

This I bought as a set, with a pitcher and two mugs.
It was $7 at an antique mall.
When my mom comes over to visit,
we love to treat ourselves to a cup of freshly brewed raspberry gourmet coffee!

I know it isn't an old set,
but it sure goes well with my red transferware collection.

My latest treasure is this apple picture.
I LOVE this!
I had a very hard time deciding where to put it.

I think it looks so cute here in the mud/laundry room.
The little basket is what I grab when I head out to the garden or out to gather eggs.

and this is Maggie...
Maggie is a stray dog that as rumor has it, been kicked out of her house.
She had been hanging out at the ball diamonds for about 4 weeks before coming home one night with us.
I couldn't take those sad eyes any longer...she was getting thinner and thinner and covered head to toe with ticks and fleas.
I gave her a good bath, took her to a wonderful vet here. He charges very little for his services, so that people can help rescue these orphans.
She has lived with us for 3 weeks, has put on a little bit of weight, and currenly sleeps with Lindsey. She is a doll and a really sweetie!
That being said...
we are trying to find her a home because she needs a fenced in yard. She has trouble doing her business while attached to a leash, and if we take her off the leash...she takes off. On one 100 degree day, we had to run through 2 fields to try to catch her before she ran out on our main road, speed limit 55 miles per hour. We only live a few feet from the road
So say a little prayer for Miss Maggie that we can find her a good and safe home where she can run and run...in a fenced in yard!
~*~
Thanks everyone for leaving a comment,
it is so wonderful to hear from you,
Thank you for choosing to follow me I have had great fun learning about you!
~Jill~

The Victorian Chicken House

There are some new residents at Hickory Hollow.

11 in all...
10 chickens
and one stray dog
(more about Maggie later)
for now let's talk CHICKENS!!!
Are you ready to see the Victorian chicken house?
She is now ready for the tour!

Doug and Tyler made 10 nesting boxes for the ladies.
I painted them with some left over paint from my bedroom.
That $4 a roll Waverly wallpaper sure is cute!


Remember these little bird needle point pictures?
They look right at home in the cozy hen house above a little wicker shelf.
I am going to keep my eye out for some cute chicken knick knacks.


You couldn't very well have a chicken house without a place to roost could ya?
Doug made this cute little roost out of the handles of broken rakes.


Cute little Mason Jar vintage feeder.


These are our young ladies...believed to be Rhode Island Reds.
The couple that gave them to us, said they may be Bantams, they were free!
These chicks were hatched at our little preschool. They aren't laying quite yet.

They are the sweetest things, they love to be around us.
Probably because they were handled a lot as chicks.
~*~
We do have some hens that are laying,
but they just simply refused to have their picture taken.
They have a slight problem...
called feather loss.
We bought them from the local farmer, where everyone gets their hens from. I called late one evening and they told us to drive on out and get them, it was about 9:30. He plopped them in the pet taxies and sent us on our way. When we got home and got them out, we were stunned! They are they shabbiest, most pitiful lookin' chickens you have ever laid eyes on. Maybe they are molting, I don't know. What I do know is they have already given us 5 beautiful brown eggs.
Hopefully, they will get some new feathers!

See the little egg basket in the corner?
It was Grandma B.'s.

So was this little white enamel chamber pot.


It is now filled with lemon balm and begonias

My little temporary herb garden, garlic chives, oregano, French tarragon, and sage

I purchased this little door knocker years ago!
I had been waiting for the perfect place to put it.
~*~
So what do you think?
So many of you have been anxiously awaiting this transformation from run down play house to Victorian hen house. It really was a lot of fun. I have been teased relentlessly by the locals for wallpapering my hen house, they think I have way too much time on my hands.
You know what I told them...
it is all about priorities!
Ha Ha!!!
~*~
Next time...
Maggies story!
~Jill~

Thrift Store Decor I Adore!

Some days are good days at the local thrift store, some days not so much.
For the past couple of weeks I have had my eye on a couple of items, would put them in my cart, and then take them back out again. Over the weekend, after my visit to Nell Hill's I kicked myself for not buying these things I had found.
~*~
Today the thrift store was open and I was on my way.
I burst through the door,
fingers crossed that my goodies would still be there.
They were still there, thank goodness
and then I found even more treasures...

This antique mirror has been in and out of my cart a half a dozen times in the last month. It was only $1, but it is VERY aged. So over the weekend, I began thinking about this mirror, and how neat it was that it was aged and cracked. It is stamped on the back with a date, June 1919. I adore this mirror!

The next item on my list was a little side chair, spotted last week.
It was $10. I was in a bit of a panic to get back and get this chair.

It wasn't where it was the week before and I thought it had sold,
and then I saw that they had moved it.
I had also had this throw bolster pillow in the cart numerous times and put it back, it was a whopping $1 also.

Some new goodies I found today was this Chinese"ish" dish with lid. I think the colors work so well with my house! It reminds me of Nell Hill style! it was $3.50

How about this gorgeous stone pillar candle holder.
Love it...it was $3!

Boy that sure was fun! Like I said, sometimes you find goodies, sometimes you don't. I was really lucky too, that the things I had found earlier hadn't sold!
~*~
Coming soon...
The chicken house is finished!
But I am not sure if I want to turn it over to the chickens!
I am now thinking I want it to be a potting shed or an English Garden Folly.
I also have some great pictures of Nell Hill's the Store to share!
~Jill~

Nell Hill's Open House ~ Part One

Can you guess where I went on Friday? Can you guess who I met?
Oh my Heavens above, it is me and Mary Carol Garrity author, decorator most fantastic and owner of Nell Hill's!
~*~
It was a summer open house at Nell Hill's and her private home this Friday. Mom, Lindsey and I drove 2 1/2 hours to go visit.

We stopped in at the store first, and then boarded a huge air conditioned tour bus that drove us to her home.
Let me tell you, I was so excited
when I spotted her standing at the top of the stairs to welcome us in.
~*~
Mary Carol, is one super sweet gracious gal.
So warm and welcoming, an absolute doll!
Would you like to see a little bit of what I saw?
~*~
~ Part One ~
A Tour of Mary Carol Garrity's home

Isn't this just beautiful.
I love the columns and the urns full of ferns.


Her beautiful front door.
Do you remember this from her books?
I love the topiaries in the black urns.
(I'm going to paint mine black, too!)
The wire birdcage that decorates the door was for sale in her shops!

To the left of the front door was this beautiful outdoor seating area.
The wicker was painted a dark turquoise and the iron chairs and table were black.
The urn has ivy planted in it and white taper candles.
See the stone riser, they were everywhere, and were for sale in the store for only $14.
Of course, I had to have one of those!

How exquisite are these windows?
You can never have too many moldings can you!

In the foyer, to the left was this little seating nook.
She has used shutters instead of blinds on most of her windows.
Look where she placed this mirror, it is in between two windows!

This is the pretty scene you see when you first walk in the front door.
If you have her books, then you have definitely seen this before.
She has prints everywhere!

This is the living room, and you will probably recognize those butterflies and bookshelves.
She tucks little tables almost anywhere.

The dining room.
The topiaries are in little french pots that were for sale in the store.
Lots of layers and lots of green moss and silver. She elevates everything on pedestals.

The screened in back porch.
You have seen this beautiful painted piece of furniture many times in her books.
See the topiary in the white vase, I bought one just like it!

Another corner of the back porch. Isn't it lovely?

Outdoor refreshment area.
What a beautiful way to ice your beverages.
Gorgeous hanging baskets of ivy and candle chandeliers.

Stepping down from the back porch was the hidden dining room area.
Most of these items were for sale in the shop. Doesn't this just make you want to have a garden party?

An outdoor seating area.
Love the balustrade with the ivy and clematis clambering over it.
An urn with ivy on a little black table.

Walking down the garden path, back to the front of the house.

Getting ready to walk past the garden gate.
I think we all need one of these in the garden.

This was the first stepping stone as you would enter the garden from the front.
How whimsical!
~*~
Hope you enjoyed these pictures.
I sure had fun taking them to share with you.
I have even more to share next week of the store.
Now I am off to wallpaper the chicken coop.
How's that for a tempting ending so you will return for a visit!
~Jill~