Life Happens Outside

I love entertaining outside and was absolutely thrilled to be asked by Lloyd Flanders to participate in their spring marketing campaign 

"Life Happens Outside." 

The Lloyd Flanders invitation inspired me to pull together my ideas for a chic evening on my new terrace. My hydrangeas should be in full bloom in just a few weeks and I look forward to sharing a brisk spring evening entertaining friends using some of these ideas.

I hope you will stop by the Lloyd Flanders idea book on Houzz! 

When entertaining on the patio, I like to put a bar at the top of the stairs, so that it is the first thing guests see as they arrive, a non-verbal invitation to relax and help oneself. 

My essentials for a well-stocked bar include not only an assortment of beers, red and white wine, water, and nibbles but also flowers and a candle. The flowers are lilacs from my garden. 

When styling the bar, I like to bring together organic elements and textures found in nature.

I love the simplicity of the fresh cut flowers, lilacs from my own garden, with the texture of the wicker. 

 At the bar, I like to feature small decadent treats - something sweet and something salty. Tonight, I am offering Dark Chocolate Almonds with Sea Salt and Turbinado Sugar with Asiago Breadsticks.

I found the carved granite bowl during my recent shopping trip to the Antiques and Design Center at the High Point Furniture Market. The antique dealer I bought it from explained that it was from China and was formerly used at the base of the bamboo downspouts. I also think it would be beautiful planted with an assortment of succulents. It should have come with a warning - I am heavy!

One of the things I enjoy most about entertaining is creating the tablescape. 

It is something I do at least a week in advance of the evening. I like to play with textures and organic materials and love the juxtaposition between something very fine and elegant with something rustic. I am a big fan of white dishes and linen napkins.

There is something so amazingly magical about Al fresco dining. 

I love watching the shadows from the surrounding gardens and the way the light changes as the sun goes down. As the sun fades away, dinner by candlelight is so romantic.

The breeze and the sounds and scents in nature set the tone for a relaxing evening.

I always think it is a nice touch to include place cards in your table setting. 

Living in the South, there is always a magnolia tree close by. I thought using a magnolia leaf as the place card was the perfect way to tie together the outdoor setting with the fine china and crystal.

The flowers are arranged in my favorite container, a concrete faux bois stump. 

When planning my flower arrangements, I look first to see what is blooming in my garden. This arrangement is primarily greenery from my garden ~  Elaeagnus, Camellia, White Quince, Popcorn, Viburnum and a little boxwood. I added white Hydrangea, white tulips and some beautiful yellow Ranunculus I found at Trader Joe's.

I buy interesting containers when I see them so that I always have something on hand when I am planning to entertain. My good friend, Susan,  also owns two of these faux bois stumps. We enjoy borrowing from each other when we need more than two.

One of the small things that I like to do when I entertain is serve one course in a individual baking dish. There is just something about it that is unexpected and makes my guests feel special. 

Tonight, I have chosen to serve one of my signature dishes, my very own recipe for homemade macaroni and cheese, in individually baked ramekins.

In honor of Lloyd Flanders, I am sharing my secret recipe:

Gruyere Mac and Cheese with Toasted Pecans

Macaroni and cheese is Southern comfort food at its best! 

Always a crowd pleaser, my mac and cheese celebrates everything you love about the classic dish with a few twists that make it especially rich and decadent!

For the sauce:

4 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons flour

2 cups whole milk

1/2 cup heavy cream

4 ounces about 1 cup grated extra sharp cheddar cheese

4 ounces/ 1 package about 2 cups grated Gruyere cheese

1/2 teaspoon dry mustard

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg (important!)

Salt and Pepper to taste

1 pound Penne Pasta

For the topping:

4 tablespoons butter

1 cup Panko bread crumbs

1/4 cup Gruyere (reserved) cheese

1/4 cup (reserved) cheddar cheese

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

1/2 cup toasted pecans pieces

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

For the sauce: Melt the butter in a large saucepan and slowly add the flour to make a roux. Gradually whisk in the milk and bring to a boil while constantly whisking the sauce. Reduce to a simmer and continue to stir as the sauce thickens for approximately three minutes. Add the cheeses, dry mustard, and nutmeg. Salt and Pepper to taste. Remove from the heat.

For the pasta: Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the Penne pasta and cook until al dente. Drain the pasta while reserving 1 cup of pasta water. Stir together the pasta, cheese sauce and reserved pasta water. Transfer to a buttered baking dish or individual ramekins. 

Toast the pecans and set aside; Melt the butter in a saucepan and remove from the heat; Stir together the Panko bread crumbs, cheese and pecans and spread over the mac and cheese.

Bake, uncovered, in a 350 degree oven until golden brown and bubbling - about 20 minutes.

This decadent Mac and Cheese is equally at home with fresh grilled burgers, roasted chicken or beef tenderloin. Just add your favorite salad for the perfect summer meal!

Special thanks to Lloyd Flanders 

for inviting me to participate in their spring campaign! 

They will be sending me a gorgeous all weather wicker Nantucket rocker for participating! I love it so much that I have pinned it onto my Terraces, porches and outdoor rooms board on Pinterest here!

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My New Garden

{My new boxwood garden in progress last spring}

As you may remember, last year, we started on a little home renovation project with the main purpose to add a new garage. With the new garage came the opportunity to add a new garden where we used to park behind our house. I have always wanted a vegetable garden but didn't want it to sit barren in Winter or look disheveled next to our terrace.

As I look forward to getting out in the garden again, I thought I would take this opportunity to share with you the before and after pictures. Keep in mind that I really don't want to ever get to the after stage as I like the process of planting and recreating, adding and updating.

Here are some before pictures as the construction for the new garage is underway. I have a small butler's pantry off of my kitchen that used to have a desk under the window. We removed the desk and made a doorway where the window used to be. I REALLY miss having my desk just off of my kitchen!

This is where a new garage now resides. 

And here is a different point of view, standing in the backyard and looking towards the street. Our garage now fills this space and my new garden was built just to the right of the bulldozer. 

The elevation of our lot drops off significantly from the front of the driveway to the backyard so we had to bring in huge loads of top soil to bring this area up.

The image below is one of my favorite inspirational pictures from the gardens at the shop Merci in Paris. I know my garden looks significantly different but this is the image I shared with our landscape designer to get the design process started.

I worked with a very talented landscape designer, Amy Priode, from Piedmont Carolina Landscaping. She worked closely with my husband and I to put our vision into a workable plan. We had two main structural issues we had to solve before moving onto the decorative (and fun) phase of design. We had to plan for the sea of water that runs down this path and into our backyard every time we have a downpour and we had to bring the level of the garden up by about two feet, no small task.

Here are a few of the drawings Amy presented to us offering different graphic patterns for the boxwood parterre garden. The site for the garden dictated the shape of the garden. It was a hard decision.

In the end, we actually combined a couple of the plans to create our garden. 

Here is the final working drawing (below).

And here are the photos of the garden just after it was installed.

I wish I had taken pictures when they were lining up the boxwood and making sure they were perfectly aligned, a very meticulous task. I bought the little expandable willow hurtles so that I could grow tomatoes in the middle and climbers such as squash, zucchini and cucumbers on the sides.

My long term plan is to plant an espalier fruit tree at the end of the path against the garage wall.

Sadie is starring at me because I am standing in the middle of the hydrangea. 

Here is the view looking down the path and into our backyard. We continued the path on the other side of the terrace.

You can see here to the right boxwood lining the path, an area that we created to let the water stream through when we have a big rain. We created several "catch basins" to take care of all the water.

Amy suggested we add Knock-out Roses and Limelight hydrangea on the other side of the path from the garden for color. They bloom all summer long and into the fall.

Sadie is never very far away when I am planting. Here I am planting yellow squash and cucumbers.

An iPhone picture from later in the summer.

I actually wanted to create this vegetable garden so that my daughter could experience the joy of growing her own vegetables something that i remember fondly from growing up.

My daughter Madison loaded up with her fresh picks.

One of my favorite Instagram photos from this summer...gotta' love the blue fingernails!

I hope you enjoyed my garden tour. Today is a beautiful Spring day and I have been working in the garden adding some Winter blooming plants.

Have a joyful Easter!

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Hydrangeas In Bloom

I love it when the hydrangeas in my garden are in full bloom, and I can put little arrangements in every room in the house - the powder room, the kitchen table, the front window, the entrance hall, the mantle.... No need to feel guilty about cutting the blooms. This year, it seems that the hydrangeas in my yard are more vibrant in color than in past years. They are absolutely covered with blooms ranging from a deep rich periwinkle blue to a really flirty shade of pink. 

This pair of lace cap hydrangeas were once the centerpiece for my Thanksgiving table. I couldn't bare to toss them out after the holiday so I planted them next to the driveway, not expecting them to live. When we excavated for the new garage last Spring, we moved them, not once but three times. I can't believe how resilient and beautiful they are now.

The ease of growing Hydrangeas is one of those things that I adore about living in the South.

I am not sure of the specific variety of my lace cap hydrangeas but they were pure white when I bought them and now they have these gorgeous periwinkle blue centers.

This is an Oak Leaf Hydrangea that lives under the shade of our weeping cherry tree. We originally planted three of these and only one has survived, most likely because it is beyond the reach of my hose.

This wall of hydrangeas was here when we bought the house twelve years ago.

Over the weekend, I planted a blue and white garden beside our new garden path- Delphinium grandiflorum 'Summer Nights', Delphinium 'Dasante Blue', Blue Star 'Amsonia Blue Ice', and White and Blue Garden Phlox. Wisteria climbs up the trellis to the deck above. 

Another view of the wall of Hydrangea that we inherited. 

Just out of the frame you can see a little of our new garage. In lieu of downspouts, we opted for copper rain chains.

Years ago when we first renovated our house, we painted the brick with primer to give it that aged washed look. We recently planted a climbing hydrangea that will climb up the chimney and give the new side entry a cottage vibe. I can't wait until it blooms. The blooms will look like a lace cap hydrangea.

Sadie follows me around all day and loves being outside with me while I am working in the garden or watering. Tonight, she found a new resting spot, my new teak bench from Homegoods.

On either side of the new stone walkway, we planted a pair of tree form limelight hydrangeas. They just started to bloom today.

If you look closely, you can see our weathervane on the new cupola. It's a Labrador. I had picked out a really simple design that looked like some of the old french weathervanes I had seen at flea markets and at the last minute, I decided to have a little fun and ordered the Labrador. Now, it's my one of my favorite details from the whole project.

I hope you have enjoyed my little garden tour.

Goodnight!

Sweet dreams....

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