I just love the Sunrise Service on Mt Tom in Woodstock, VT.  It is just so beautiful and so inspirational.  Early in the morning like that you can’t see the village of Woodstock below as it feels like you are above the clouds.  It’s quite a hike to get to the top of Mt Tom, but so worth it.

A nice breakfast of Eggs Benedict is perfect for Easter morning.  Add some freshly baked Cinnamon rolls with hot coffee and it makes a nice little tradition.

An Easter Parfait is always cute with a Lorna Doon cookie and a little Peeps.

A fancy coffee and a Croissant is always fun, also.

I like chalkboards and it’s fun to see the ideas people have to decorate for the seasons.

An easter Lily is a must to have for Easter.  The sweet aroma and the beautiful blossoms are just part of Easter.

A simple table with Tulips is just easy to do and so pretty.  I love a Chocolate Easter Bunny to enjoy for the day.

A nice Spiral Baked Ham is very traditional for Easter Dinner.

I saw a really neat idea for a Layered Spring Salad.  They used a thick and creamy Buttermilk Ranch Dressing on the top layer and then bacon and shredded Cheddar over that.

They used American Cheese Slices with cookie cutters for decorating the Spring Salad.  Cheddar cheese was too hard and wouldn’t work.  The cookie cutters were only $3.00 from Walmart but they also have the same type of cookie cutters at King Arthur Flour that make a pattern on the cheese.

Scalloped potatoes and asparagus are always traditional.

A nice Easter Limoncello is always nice.  I saw the above with raspberries and it looks so refreshing and Spring like.

I saw the above whole wheat bunny rolls and I thought that they were so cute for Easter.  I put the link for the recipe on my Pinterest Easter ideas.

I saw a cute idea where they made Peter Rabbit’s Carrot Zucchini Muffins that had shredded carrots, shredded zucchini and shredded apple added in them.  They found the above cute little Peter Rabbit muffin holder on Amazon but it’s out of stock now.  There is a similar Peter Rabbit muffin wrappers on Williams Sonoma website.  I pinned the recipe for the muffins on my Easter Ideas on my Pinterest.

 

Barefoot Contessa’s Coconut Cake is always a neat idea for Easter dessert.  Yum!

The above Easter cookies are so cute and it makes you want to make some.  But they were bought at Big Lots.  They were marked at $1.00 each but at the register came up as ten cents each according to a blogger.  I would never be lucky enough to find anything like that at Big Lots.  So expensive looking.  I just like them for an inspiration on how to decorate Easter cookies.  It’s just royal icing that makes them look so nice.  And then a star tool for the lamb.

The above little Chics are an adorable decorating idea for Nutter Butter cookies that you can get at the grocery store.

My son is doing an Easter Egg hunt for his little ones and the above kit would be so cute to use.  I’m sure my daughter in law thought up something cute to use for the Easter Egg hunt.

I love the above wreath for Spring.  It was on QVC and just perfect for Spring.

And that is my Easter Inspirations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love Tulips and the pink and white together is beautiful for Easter.

 

 

Northeaster snowstorms is all we have been getting here lately.  They are coming up the coast from the south.

It’s a good day for Shepherds Pie.  It’s good comfort food.  I pinned several recipes for Shepherds Pie on my Casseroles board on my Pinterest.

To cheer up the awful weather, I bought a new ivy to go with an African Violet that I have.

And I bought some green Carnations because St Patrick’s Day is this week.

Today is Pi(e) Day.  My Dad used to say kiddingly “Pie are not squared, pie are round.”  I love the way they decorated the Key Lime Pie with the whipped cream dollops using a decorating tool.  Then the lime zest on the whipped cream.

That Key Lime Pie is from Poor House Pies and in the winter they use the above self service.  When they have pies they put “Yup” on the door.

In Manchester they have a neat breakfast restaurant.  I love their sign that they use.

And their breakfasts look really good.

I saw the above Poncho on QVC home shopper and I decided to buy it.  It came today and it actually is one size fits all and it fit.  I just love it.  I saw an episode on the Food Network where Barefoot Contessa was in Paris.  She wore a style similar to the above one and it made her look slim and also very stylish.  I was going to wear it to the Flower Show in Boston on Friday.  But my sister was going with me and she has gotten sick this week with what may be the Flu.  She thinks that she will be OK by Friday, but I don’t know.  We have bus tickets and tickets for the flower show that are non refundable.  Besides that, it’s going to snow Friday as this storm is just continuing and the Poncho will not be suitable anyways.  We were so looking forward to going to that Flower show.  I’m worried about my sister as she sounded awful when I talked to her on the phone.  The heck with the Flower Show.  I just pray that she doesn’t have the flu and gets better soon.

I saw the above Hydranga cupcakes and I think they look really neat.  They would be beautiful for like a Spring tea.  It looks like they just went round and round using the leaf tip decorating tool and combined purple and light blue frosting in the piping bag and put it on a chocolate cupcake.

Well, it’s getting late and I have to get off the computer.  Hope the weather is better soon.

 

 

 

This is the time of year that the sap flows from Maple trees and can be boiled down into Maple Syrup.  When the days are warm and the nights are cold is when they can tap the Maple trees.

It takes a lot of Maple sap to make maple syrup.  A lot of sugar houses have a place to watch how they make the pure maple syrup.

And some Sugar Houses serve pancakes with their maple syrup.

My youngest son and I have a tradition where we go to Stuart and John’s Sugar house in Westmoreland, NH this time of year.  It’s really fun and we order a maple frosted donut with our coffee while we wait for our blueberry pancakes with maple syrup that they make right there.

 

The above is Stuart and Johns.

There is a really neat entrance and it’s usually crowded and you have to wait for a table.

 

It’s kind of fun to go there and there is a glassed in place where you can watch them making maple syrup.

I like to buy some of their maple syrup so I can make French Toast at home.

I just buy a very small container of the syrup as it is wicked expensive.

Even a small container like the above is costly.

There is a place in Arlington, VT called Sugar Shack that sounds really fun.  They have what they call a “Cider Sammich”.  It’s maple soft serve ice cream (maple creemee) sammiched between a warm cider donut cut in half.  Yum!

They also have “sugar on snow” there which is where they boil the syrup down a little more and when you pour it over snow it makes like a maple candy.  They usually serve it with a donut and a pickle.  So fun!

They also have a Norman Rockwell exhibit which is kind of neat.

In my opinion Vermont has 4 seasons and there is always fun stuff to do in each of the seasons.  Spring is only 2 weeks away and we got a surprise northeaster this week that dropped over a foot of snow.  But we are used to it.  If you turn around the weather changes.  But I love the beauty of each of the seasons which is why I called my blog “yearinvermont”.

 

Colcannon Chowder has Russet potatoes that are quartered and boiled, shredded cabbage, onions, carrots and smoked turkey sausage that are browned in a skillet and then 1/4 of the potatoes blended with milk in an electric blender to thicken the chowder.  I pinned the recipe on my soup board on my Pinterest.

 

A nice Irish Soda Bread that has buttermilk in it to go with the Chowder.  Perfect for this time of year.  I pinned the link to this recipe on my Irish Recipes board on my Pinterest.

Barefoot Contessa’s Lemon Yogurt cake sounds really good to have.  I pinned the link to that recipe on my Barefoot Contessa recipe board on my Pinterest.

Winter days are back.  It’s snowing right now and no letup in sight.  If the weather is like this next week when we are going to the Boston Flower show, we are not going to be happy.  Hopefully it will be Spring weather again.

I bought a couple of bunches of Daffodils at the grocery store the other day and they were just buds.  Overnight they just bloomed into a beautiful bouquet.  I love them.  They cheer up snow days. ❤

I love the idea of a peg board where you can hang all kinds of little shelves and craft tools.  It just dresses up and organizes a sewing or craft room.

I like Anna Griffin style and I ordered the above boxes from HSN.  I like the color print on them and think that they would be perfect to store photograph and scrapbooks in.  They just look elegant on a white shelf.

The above is my dream craft room with Anna Griffin furniture.

I would add shelves like the above that I would decorate much different then the photo.  This was a DIY project someone made from an old entertainment center.  Love the idea.

I like the chandelier and the “Smile” and “Dream” little signs in fancy scroll ideas.

I like Anna Griffin’s Cuddlebug machine where you can emboss cardstock with it.

It’s so neat how she shows how to make elegant cards with her ideas.

She just has all kinds of kits and ideas that are just plain fun to create with where she keeps adding on and on.  The above is just the start.  I like her big cabbage roses and framed sentiments that she adds.

I like to see ideas for entryways.  The above wreath on the door and that neat wall planter is a neat idea.  Then the pink and white plant in the corner is a nice touch.

I like the pink and white tulips in a Mason Jar idea.

I also like the yellow and white tulips in a mason jar and the lemons in a jar idea.

I like Spring print dishes mixed with the Jadeite.

I like the above little miniature herb garden in a box idea and it only takes one hour to make it.

They made a little topiary in the middle out of Lemon Thyme by taking the leaves off the lower Thyme branches and then tieing them together and fluffing out the top Thyme.  Then they had Basil, Rosemary, Oregano, Purple Sage, Grey Lavender, Golden Sage and Mini Blue Lavender in the little garden.  I love how they made a diamond shape path out of little stones.  Makes a nice little indoor herb garden.

I went to the Home Depot the other day and picked up some pamphlets in the kitchen section for ideas.   I love the above idea for the kitchen aid mixer.  The mixer swings up and out when you need it and stores safely when you don’t need it.

My sister and I have bus tickets that include the admission tickets to the Boston Flower Show next week.  It’s going to be so fun and I’m going to take lots of photos for ideas.

I love the idea of a bay window over the kitchen sink to display all kinds of plants.

There are a lot of blackberries in the grocery store produce section now and I like the above idea for a salad using power greens.  They just added roasted pecans, pear and feta cheese.  Then an apple cider vinaigrette and then mixed it all up.

I also saw a neat recipe for no bake energy bites.   They just put raw cashews, dried pineapple, unsweetened coconut and chia seeds in a food processor.  Then rolled that mixture into balls and rolled in coconut.  I pinned the recipe in my healthy recipes board on my Pinterest.  I like that combination and it makes a nice snack.

I like the above Poncho and ordered it on QVC home shopper.  It’s the Barefoot Dreams line and it’s perfect for travel.  Cozy, but not too heavy.  I’m thinking it would be perfect to wear to the Flower Show in Boston next week.  I’ll wear a long sleeve black cowel neck sweater under it or a turtle neck jersey depending on the weather.  The bus delivers you right up to the door of the flower show and it will be just right for the trip down and for wearing inside the huge building of the flower show.  Dressing in layers is always a good idea for New England weather.  You turn around and the weather changes.

And that is my ideas and inspirations for today.   Have a wonderful day!