Blue, white and yellow always capture my eye.
I found this dome at a garage sale in Colorado
It was one of three that were part of a table base.
Go figure.
I found these wonderful French looking napkins
at a store in Durango, CO.
Dietz Market
The napkins remind me of Piere Deux fabric.
These little dishes for baking apples were my moms.
You just cut off the ends of the apples fill them with
brown sugar, or syrup, cinnamon and a little butter
and stick them in the oven to bake. Delicious.
I love these dishes that my daughters found for me
at Target in St. George, UT. They gave me a set of four and I loved
them so much I had my daughter-in-law look in California
to see if she could find more......long story short, between
my daughters and daughter-in-law I now have 24!
My daughter, The Style Sisters, gave me these plates "Cafe du Soleil"
and I adore them. They are so summery and I am so ready
for summer. It is freezing here in Utah.
Where has all the Sunshine gone?
I thought this would be a great setting for a little
brunch of
baked apples,
Swedish pancakes and eggs.
Each place setting has their own pitcher of syrup
and I think the other pitchers would be great for
powdered sugar, and other flavors of syrup.
One of our
granddaughters gave us these cute
rooster salt and pepper
shakers.
I found these
glasses at a thrift shop for .50 ea.
And under the
dome sits my wee little pot of tiny
lemons on top of a gorgeous blue bowl my daughter gave me.
Lemon juice is also great on those Swedish pancakes.
NOW .....On to Brazil
One morning, or should I say
early afternoon, after my husband left to work with the
Brazilians I decided that I would like very much to have
breakfast brought to my room. I called down to the front desk and ordered what I thought was croissants, fruit and one of their silver pots of
hot chocolate. To my dismay that is not what I got. Since it has been
eons ago I can't really remember exactly what I received but it was not what I had
envisioned. I called them again and carefully told them my
desire. Again, it was not what I had ordered. By the third time I was not sure that they would even consider sending me anything let alone what my
taste buds were
relishing. So, I just got myself together and went down to
dine alone with all the
scrumptious goodies. It was lovely but I truly had wanted to lounge in my own room reveling in my
delicious breakfast.
We did meet some
lovely people, several who showed us where to buy
semi-precious stones, a number of great places to dine and some of the
local shops that were similar to our outdoor art shows. One evening while dining I thought I would like to try their national dish,
Feijoada. One gentleman came to my rescue by informing me that the dish would make me
quite ill. When I questioned him about it he said they put everything into this recipe, the
pigs snout, his feet (that part didn't bother me because as a child I loved pickled pigs feet...now I would tell you yuck!)
hair, entrails, the entire creature. It's good to be watched over. He did tell me however, that he would make it for me and it would be made with only the finest of meat and whatever else goes into it. Never did get to try his dish.
We were there in their
spring time and when the trees blossomed it was
magnificent! One thing that really impressed me was the upkeep of their cars. Even if their cars were old they were clean and well cared for.
Amazing feat because they did not stop at intersections they just
honked and went on through. They had lovely shops in large malls and their prices were very reasonable, I might even say cheap. The area that we were to live in was gated and their were armed men, armed? they carried bazookas. They provided a wee bit of concern on my part.
We would have had the luxury of a
maid and chauffeur, but
BAZOOKAS?
NO! NO!When we finally determined that
Brazil was not the place for us, for a myriad of reasons, we returned to the states, kissed the ground and I began my quest for a new and
exciting business.
I was inspired to investigate the
chocolate industry. I spent one entire year researching the hotel chains and their needs. If you ever endeavor to start a business I would
highly recommend this approach. You really need to know what your customer bank needs or wants. Some of us, just go out into the world of alligators
thinking we know what everyone is seeking and assume they all need what we have to offer. Get it straight from the
horses mouth, best to know first hand what is needed.
Those that I called on were delighted to tell me their concerns, wants and needs. Now saying that, you need to know that some of them took off on other roads that had nothing to do with what I was selling. I do believe that at one point I was more of a councilor than a saleswoman.
But all in all it gave me a
wider spectrum of products and services that I should
consider. I had a
business consultant that told me once, "Joan you need to take someone that is highly successful in their
business, buy them a very expensive dinner and pick their brain." I didn't have to do that though because he was a "
quasi" friend and he was free and did not expect me to wine and dine him and besides his wife was my dearest friend in the world. That was a
stroke of luck.After one year of
researching I was ready to hit the street
selling. But what would I sell?
I went to the offices of the
European Consulates in Los Angeles hoping to find a
great company that wanted to
export their chocolates. I found an exceptional one in Belgium.
The
French Consulate also gave me several companies in France to contact.
All of a sudden I had samples arriving daily. They were all very
generous and I ate
every little or large sample they sent. I think perhaps that could be why I gained 45 pounds.
Fortunately I have lost most of my
chocolate fat.It is now time to place this chapter on my blog.P.S. Don't forget to enter our give-away. You have two more days to enter.I am participating in Tablescape Thursday
You just can't imagine how delicious these 
So we offered fresh pears and yogurt
But of course I always have to provide a little chocolate from
Check every now and then at our website 
These 
