The perfect Cinnamon Scone, right in my own kitchen!

The hunt for the perfect recipe was brought on because of a bakery called COBS, which makes the ridiculously delicious cinnamon scones. Of course, in my weakest moments I have had to run over there and buy 4 (you get a deal for bulk purchases), and since I am of the thrifty nature, I thought what better tan to figure them out to make for myself.
Now the key ingredient is cinnamon, which to me is one if not THE most amazing of all spices!

So I decided to use a basic recipe for scones, I found one on the Taste web site, which looked easy enough, though instead if greasing the cookie sheet I would have used parchment paper. Then I came across this web site, Scones.Org.uk, which made me jump for joy!

• 2 cups self-rising flour
• 30g butter at room temperature
• ½ cup milk
• ⅓ cup water

Simple ingredients, simple instructions, minor alterations. 

I wanted the little burst of cinnamon the Cobs scones had, but I didn't want to mail order the cinnamon flv-r-bites, I wanted them now. So I created my own by blending 3 tablespoons of cinnamon with 2/3 cup sugar and some water. I used the same technique used to make sugar roses (or sugar shapes for tea parties), except I didn't mold them, I just spread the sugar out on a plate to dry over night.

The result was perfect, except for the middle bit which I had to scrape off with a spatula because it sort of adhered to the plate quite nicely.

• Preheat your oven to 210 degrees Celsius and prepare a baking sheet by greasing with butter or oil.
• Sift flour into a mixing bowl.(At this point add sugar/cinn mixture and stir well)
• Chop butter into small pieces and add to flour.
• Make a small depression in the middle of the flour and butter mixture.
• In a small bowl, combine milk and water.
• Slowly pour liquid into the depression made in the flour.
• Mix all ingredients with a flat knife until a soft dough forms.
• Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead briefly until smooth.
• Roll out the dough to form a 2cm thick round.
• Cut the dough into individual scones approximately 5cm in diameter.
• Place scones on baking sheet and glaze with milk.
• Bake 10-12 minutes or until scones are golden brown.

I added the sugar crumbles to the flour and mixed it well before adding the wet ingredients.
It looked wonderful, and baked perfectly !

I didn't separate the individual scones though, I didn't want them to dry out at all.

I also decided to add a little glaze made of icing sugar, cinnamon and milk  and I drizzled it over the still warm scones.

They were the perfect accompaniment to my coffee, and my son thought they were awesome with soy milk.
So now, although I can always run out to the store to get my cinnamon scone fix, I don't have to...specially if the craving strikes at 9 pm!

If you try, let me know how they turn out.
Cheers,
Viviana

I GOT MINE- Funny Postcard for PFF!!

Goodness, this one gave me a good laugh...notice the handwritten sentiment? "He had white britches on", wonder what this lady was up to!?




"?? Connolly and I caught on last night." I'm left wondering what they caught on to? I think it's a pretty risque card considering this was 1912 (and postcards could be read by whoever hands they passed through), however, hanky panky has gone on since the dawn of time! Sounds like a good time was had by all.....I'm sure Miss Mary ??? was very happy for her friend Helen.



Anyhow, have a happy Friday, hope everyone has a great weekend!

Cheers,
Viviana

Lovely Bunch for PFF

For a Mrs. Stella Bardwell, 1910, from her Aunt Anna, a very sweet and kind letter. What I do love most is the time people took back then to write each other, because not everyone had a phone, there was no internet and this really was text messaging....I wish we were as civilized!!



Have a lovely PFF day! BTW, you have to excuse the Thursday post for a PFF, I will be away from the computer tomorrow, so I have to do it earlier. Thanks for looking!!!

Brag Monday Button Jars

Brag Monday at Graphics Fairy!!! I found these wonderful jars at the thrift store, $1.50 each was good...now I had seen Cathe Holden's wonderful button jar tutorial (from Just Something I made), and I just love the label so here it is. My view is, why mess with a good thing, so I didn't change anything really, except I have so much peach ribbon that matched the labels perfectly, what do you think?

Some Valentine Freebies

Isn't he a dream?? Oh that picture sure made me laugh out loud, so much so that my son came upstairs to see what was so funny....



These all came from Heidi at Shabby Chic Papirskatter Looking through her archives makes me happy!!

I just remembered you haven't seen this yet!!

Our Christmas cards we sent out this year, isn't he lovely. That is my first attempt at a collage card, I haven't really done many, but I love browsing through blogs such as Last Door Down The Hall, Cemerony Share, Sugar Lump Studios and Aletered Geisha's Crafty Musings to name a few.
I was going to use a vintage picture because there is so many cute ones out there, but instead I used a picture we took early this winter, that's my son out in our front yard. I printed it out in sepia, onto coverstock, and printed out wings, heat embossed crowns. I used a reduced printout of vintage sheet music from Graphics Fairy. With a little rinbbon and a quick stamp, Voila!!
Now, because he is only 5, he let me do this, because I am sure any older and he'd probably think I was nuts putting angel wings and a crown on him, for now he thought it was so cute, and didn't mind the world looking at it.
I did keep one and framed it, so every year from here on we can bring it out during the winter!!

BTW- Hello to all the new followers, wow 5 overnight last night, you all rock!
Have a great week everyone!

Cheers,
Viviana

It's Never Too Early For Love

Just thought I'd share, can't remember where I got these from, they've been in my collection for a long time now, so enjoy!

Cheers,
Viviana

Roses, my favourite flower

For a long time, I used to say sunflowers or violets were my favourite flower, maybe for fear of sounding too cliche, but after so many years of admiration, I decided that a rose is my flower of choice, it always had been. I got my first bouquet of roses from my good friend Renay many years ago, she thought it fitting for my birthday, which happens to be on Valentines day. Since then, it's not been often I've received a rose, but I love them, and actually, feel so sad once they start to wilt, that I am happy to not any at all rather than suffer the pain of watching my beloved rose die and dry up. With all the amazing vintage images and postcards out there for me to find, they fulfill my needs when it comes to the beautiful rose.

I came across this great website, called Vintage Holliday Crafts, She has a very sweet collection of images, and I loved some of the roses, which I will share with you here today.




Please read her terms of use too, for if you are grabbing them to use for your crafts. Remember to click on the image so that it shows you the actual full size, before right clicking to save it.



THE HISTORY OF ROSES"
(I came across this bit of history, it is quite concise in illustrating how the rose came about to be so loved)

Roses have a long and colorful history. They have been symbols of love, beauty, war, and politics. The rose is, according to fossil evidence, 35 million years old. In nature, the genus Rosa has some 150 species spread throughout the Northern Hemisphere, from Alaska to Mexico and including northern Africa. Garden cultivation of roses began some 5,000 years ago, probably in China. During the Roman period, roses were grown extensively in the Middle East. They were used as confetti at celebrations, for medicinal purposes, and as a source of perfume. Roman nobility established large public rose gardens in the south of Rome. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the popularity of roses seemed to rise and fall depending on gardening trends of the time.
White Rose of York

During the fifteenth century, the rose was used as a symbol for the factions fighting to control England. The white rose symbolized York, and the red rose symbolized Lancaster, as a result, the conflict became known as the "War of the Roses."

Roses were in such high demand during the seventeenth century that royalty considered roses or rose water as legal tender, and they were often used as barter and for payments. Napoleon's wife Josephine established an extensive collection of roses at Chateau de Malmaison, an estate seven miles west of Paris in the 1800s. This garden became the setting for Pierre Joseph Redoute's work as a botanical illustrator. In 1824, he completed his watercolor collection "Les Rose," which is still considered one of the finest records of botanical illustration.

It wasn't until the late eighteenth century that cultivated roses were introduced into Europe from China. Most modern-day roses can be traced back to this ancestry. These introductions were repeat bloomers, making them unusual and of great interest to hybridizers, setting the stage for breeding work with native roses to select for hardiness and a long bloom season. Many of these early efforts by plant breeders are of great interest to today's gardeners.



Enjoy,
Viviana

Sharing Images from "The Last Door Down The Hall"

The Last Door Down the Hall is one of my favourite places to go when I have time. This blog is not just full of inpiration, she has so many wonderful vintage images, photos and postcards, I just can't get enough. I'm sharing some of the images she has shared with us from a couple years ago, but like with any vintage piece, they are as beautiful today as they were 2 years ago when she first posted them. So if you are looking for a blog filled with inspiration, ideas, creativity, recipes and more....this blog is the place to go.





Aren't they great? I sure hope she keeps on sharing for many years to come!

Cheers,
Viviana