{521 ENERGY STAR CEILING FANS AT WAYFAIR + GIVEAWAY}

Here we are, just one week past EARTH DAY... But hope in the mind of many, that didn't really end the philosophy of keeping the Planet GREEN!

• Today we will check into Energy Star products.
• One key issue for saving on energy is to make sure that within our homes we do have the light WHERE it is needed instead of running our bills up, for letting way too much light on, all-the-time, in the entire room. So please do check it out and think about your evenings, what you do and where, and adjust it with the proper lighting. 
• Well, today I want to put one of my loyal readers in THE SPOTLIGHT with a free giveaway at a value of $ 40.00 which includes shipping.
• WAYFAIR has been so gracious to provide this for you! Towards the end of my blog you will find the details about this giveaway.

• So now that you LIVE IN THE SPOTLIGHT while crafting, cooking/baking, reading, making or enjoying music, being active on your PC... let's start thinking about the heat of summer that is about to come around.

• Have you ever considered looking into the 521 Energy Star Ceiling Fans at WAYFAIR? I urge you to do so and to make it a commitment to think about Going GREEN. While you start surfing WAYFAIR, check one of their 200+ stores; they are HUGE!

• We can make quite a number of improvements in our homes, with Kichler Xenon Under Counter lights  even for the daily tasks in our kitchen we can add something new. How about some ? 

• Just want to show you mine here:

• Above, you see the Xenon light set on the low setting, which gives a romantic diffuse lighting for let's say when you're done cooking and just want to have some more ambiance while eating your dinner. 

• On the other hand if you need more light for detailed work such as making dessert and garnishes, you have just that at the tip of your fingers.

• You can certainly SEE that difference! And those great Xenon lights are invisible, even when seated down at the table they don't show!

This is taken with the low light setting on and they're flush with the underside of the cabinet as they are very slim in design. 

• Here it is; very slim and neat and thus also a breeze for cleaning. They are very easy to mount underneath. So if you're not yet going bananas over it... well certainly my giveaway will accomplish that! 

• What I want to know from you is the following:

1. Tell me how many different degree pitch blades you encountered on this website of WAYFAIR and how many those degrees are. 
2. Which BRAND is producing the highest number of Energy Star Ceiling Fans?
3. Which STYLE is produced mostly?
4. My last photo how many Kichler Xenon White Lights does it show?
5. Follow my blog and let me know so by placing a comment with the answer to the above question. So I can verify that you are a follower. 
6. The DEAD LINE will be Wednesday May 5th by 8:00PM PDT. 
7. Only for residents of the USA and Canada... SORRY!

• For that reason I will only release those comments after the deadline and a winner will be selected from those with correct answers at random. 

GOOD LUCK TO ALL OF YOU AND PASS IT ON!

THANKS FOR PARTICIPATING AND DON'T FORGET:

• LET US KEEP THE PLANET GREEN BY ACTING MORE ENVIRONMENT CONSCIOUS!

OFTEN ALL IT TAKES IS SOME SELF-EDUCATION 

{INTRODUCING 5 EARLY BLOOMING SPECIAL ROSES TO YOU}

For sure most of my readers know by now that I do LOVE roses. Especially the highly fragrant and rare antique varieties. Okay, let's show you some more beauties that are living on our estate right now. Of course we did bring some of them inside to add a touch of romance to our home. Let me first introduce a fine climber that is on an old trellis in our wood garden.

This one is called 'Dublin Bay' and we got ours from White Flower Farm.

There are more roses developing in our garden and one of them is climbing on the fence next to the road. That is called Rosa eglanteria by its official name and also is called Sweet brier and Shakespeare's rose!

On the same fence is another antique rose budding out and still showing the old rose-hips from last year. This is Félicité Parmentier one of the Alba roses from 1834.

 In the garden itself is a strong grower, Gertrude Jekyll a David Austin English rose from 1986.

Gertrude shows lush leaves that are very healthy and glossy. She must be happy out there!
♥ 

Now let's go inside to see what we did with one of the highly fragrant roses; Jardin de Bagatelle.

Let me show you what I did look for in order to place this one single rose. It is rare that you do harvest an entire nosegay of roses, especially not in the early season. But a Baccarat perfume bottle serves well for such an orphan. Baccarat is the French crystal, that has been made for ages and is very high quality.

This is a nice French grouping with an antique Lampe Berger in rose motive from France... They look pretty together. 

Highly fragrant Jardin de Bagatelle rose.

Here they are on the solid French oak furniture, with a Wedgwood Wedgwood Cream Color on Cream Color round footed 3 7/8 inch compôte. (Replacements Ltd does have 4 available right now... so try your luck!).

The fragrant wax candle I got from Neiman Marcus. 

For those of you interested in antique roses you can try here at Heirloom Roses

If you like the antique Lampe Berger from France, I do have some for sale at: Spectrenoir.

{INTRODUCING GUNNAR LLOYD; DAPHNA & RAYMOND'S LOVE-CHILD}

What a surprise to receive today an email with the message that Gunnar Lloyd is born in The Netherlands, with accompanying movie of him (click above pink link). It is such a perfect baby on this futuristic movie and no wonder as he's already born on April 7! Never have seen anything like this, quite a space-age movie; what an art work done by his Daddy Raymond who is after all a software architect. Gunnar of course is a Swedish name, we know that they went to Sweden for a vacation and they must have fallen in love with that country and even more with themselves... then or at a later moment. At least a very special name for such a deep and true love.

Now the rest of the story... a very special one to share with my readers. On June 5 of 2006 we got a phone call from our friend/Judge Helen Harper. She said to me: "Guess what I did this afternoon?" I had no idea... So she told me that she'd married a Dutch couple who were staying at the romantic Page House B & B in town after having been to Savannah. Helen said, oh I realized too late that you were Dutch too. That's alright I said, now they felt at least more at ease without any countrymen around.

Of course I did call, to congratulate them in Dutch and invited them over for next day, to have dessert with us. They were quite surprised for finding two Dutch born Americans here in town! For their wedding day dinner they did go to the best Lady Chef in the region, to Ristorante da Maria. Quite fittingly for the occasion!  Spending the night after dinner at Dublin Farm, Come Home to the Country, so they would not have to do any more traveling to find a romantic place to sleep.

I did bake a very special dessert for them: Phyllo dough shells with Strawberry-Rose-Whipped-Cream... and pastry hearts on the side. Got my Royal Albert Princess Anne china out and quite fittingly; the Bridal Rose by Alvin silverware, all from Replacements Ltd.

Made special flower arrangements from fresh, highly fragrant gardenias in a Cream Color on Cream Color by Wedgwood footed compote white Lathyrus odoratus (fragrant sweet pea) and white gladiolus flowers. 

Alvin Bridal Rose silver spoons

Romantic home baked hearts from Wonton Wraps with Strawberry & Rose Petal whipped cream

 We were ready now to welcome the newly weds  Daphna and Raymond into our home!

We did enjoy it as much as they did. It was very special and for me it was just labor of love to make the dessert with edible, red rose petals from our own garden, with strawberries and whipped cream. So romantic with only a few drops of rose water added. 

Like on the movie where Daphna and Raymond welcome Gunnar Lloyd into the world, so did we welcome Daphna van Zoeren and Raymond Roelands into our home and one can see that things started out very rosy but more important is it did last. 

We wish you lots more years in good health and happiness together as a young family.

If you ever find the time to visit Dublin again, to see Judge Helen who married you and to see the Page House again and our home; more than WELCOME!

P.S. One interesting point that Raymond made that afternoon when we moved out into the gazebo for a bite and a glass of wine. "My Mom has the very same Gero Zilmeta 528 Menuet flatware as you have!"

He must have felt right at home...