Oil Lamps - Summer Lighting for your Summer Entertaining

Hot Summer Collectible
You can easily find oil lamps at the flea market, antique shops and thrift stories in dozens of sizes and shapes. They will run anywhere from $10.00 to 15.00 although some highly collectible or unusual oil lamps can cost a lot more. Clustered together on a table they will enhance your summer gatherings at a great price.
Oil for lamps and chimney tops are widely available at all hardware stores. Clean away oil stains or rings with bleach

Styled by Karin Lidbeck for Country Living Magazine, Photos by Michael Partenio

Flowers for MOM

Grab this Idea for your Mothers Day Table
Outdoor Rooms Magazine asked me to create 6 Ways to Set the Scene and create pretty looks for tables for their Summer issue. Photo by Andre Baronowski

Straight from the garden (or try a super market bouguet). March flowers down the center of the table using a funky assortment of mismatched glassware. Display single stems or mulitples in each glass. Toss some fruit casually on the tablecloth for picking. Add to the festive array of color using different patterned placemats to play off the hues of the blooms.
May garden - think lilacs, azaleas, tulips, nepeta, pansies, lupine, chives, iris or mix it with a 6.99 store bought bouquet

White table cloth, white fabric by the yard, or fold a white sheet.

I've got Lilac Fever

It's May 5 and my lilacs have been in bloom full force for a week, strangely early!

But its time to cut some lilacs and bring them inside for a profusion of fragrance. I threw together this lilac arrangement on a shoot with photographer Jim Westphalen at the Shelburne Museum in Vt.

The antique buckets adds a lot to its charm. Wood or metal pails make perfect containers for armfuls of lilacs.

Lilac tip:
Cut them early in the morning, split the woody ends so they will absorb the water faster

Artful Asparagus

A favorite project I created for Country Gardens, photo by Jim Westphalen.

Asparagus is the vegetable of the season right now and it looks beautiful combined with flowers from your spring garden.

Wrap a runner band around a coffee size can . Cut asparagus stalk to 1" to 2" taller than the can. Place the stalks side by side standing staight up inside the rubber band. Tie with a ribbon to hide the rubber band. Add flowers.

Voila ... that was easy,... healthy fresh asparagus will last a week or longer. ( or when the flowers pass you can cook em up)